Right Sounding Wrongs

Colossians 2:4-23

April 3, 2022

Hopewell Baptist Church

Opening Illustration – Pinocchio, his “friend” Lampwick, and Pleasure Island. Convinced to take a vacation to Pleasure Island where there is no adult supervision, Pinocchio (to the dismay of Jiminy Cricket), Lampwick, and the other boys, all fall into sin and debauchery. Smoking Cigars, vandalism, gambling, and drunkenness. The ultimate end to this, much to Pinocchio’s and Jiminy’s horror, are the boys being turned into donkeys and sold into slavery.

Transition - Pleasure Island was sold as a vision of fun and excitement, getting to do what they wanted without being told what to do. In reality, these “good looking” and “good sounding” things were truly, in reality, bad. They are, in fact, sin.

Big Idea – Not everything that sounds right, or even looks right, is right.

Colossians 2:4–23 (ESV)

4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?

23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

This is the Word of the Lord our God. Let’s Pray.

Right Sounding Wrongs

I. Don’t Be Deluded, Be Rooted – Colossians 2:4-8

a. Right Sounding Wrongs – v.4 – “plausible arguments”

i. False Teachings almost always sound good, but good in the world’s eyes

ii. False Teachers often do teach a lot of Truth…mixed with lies.

b. Don’t Be Deluded, Be Rooted in Christ – v.5-7

i. Be Rooted, like a tree

1. Cedars of Lebanon

2. As they grow, the roots spread deep and wide

a. As we mature as believers, our roots grow deep and wide in Christ

ii. Be Built Up – your foundation

1. As you mature, your foundation gets stronger

c. If You’re Rooted, then you won’t be Deluded! (v.8)

i. If you have a strong root in Christ, in the Word became flesh (John 1:14), then you would know if someone tried to “delude” you into believing a watered-down or false gospel.

II. Alive In Christ Alone – Colossians 2:9-15

a. We are alive in Christ – v.9-13

i. God has changed our hearts (v.11) – Ezekiel 36:24-27

ii. He has raised us with Christ (v.12)

iii. And has made us alive in Christ (v.13)

b. Because of the Work of Christ – v.13-15 (read the verses!)

i. The defeat of sin and death

ii. The payment made for our sin

iii. The forgiveness of our sins

iv. Walking in obedience (baptism, etc.) to Jesus

III. Right Sounding Wrongs – Colossians 2:16-23

a. “Therefore” – Because we are alive in Christ, avoid the right sounding wrongs

i. False Teachings – Right sounding wrongs

ii. False Teachers – Right sounding wrongs

iii. Asceticism

1. Just because something seems spiritual does not make it actually spiritual

iv. When taught something that sounds off biblically, question it. Look it up in your Bible. Pastors and Bible teachers are not infallible. Many false teachers are purposefully fallible. – Acts 17:11

v. When you hear someone, a fellow Christian, promote something unbiblical, or act in such a way that profanes the name of the Lord (3CV), don’t be afraid to correct them! – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

b. Do not submit to extrabiblical teachings and standards.

i. Remember, Jesus has done the Work, there is no work for us to do. Obedience, etc. are natural results of salvation, not what earns it.

ii. Submit yourselves to Christ, the True Christ, as revealed in Scripture.

1. By obedience, in faith, through His saving grace.

c. Let no one, especially not yourself, think/say that you are less of a Christian because you don’t do or hold yourself to extrabiblical standards – v.16-18

i. When people add things to the saving Grace of God, grace is then no longer grace but works. (and the work is already done!)

ii. Be humble, remember, the only thing we bring to salvation is the sin that made it necessary.

iii. And when we realize that it is our own sin that separates us from God, when one realizes this, it is then…

1. It is then that they realize they need a savior

2. It is then that they realize they need Jesus

3. It is then that they realize that In Christ Alone their hope is found.

a. (move into response time)

Right Sounding Wrongs

IV. Response

a. Belief

i. Repent

ii. Believe

b. Obedience

i. Baptism

ii. Membership

c. Surrender

i. Vocation

ii. Volunteer