“Connected to Christ”

Coach Johnny Kerr tried to get his Chicago Bulls to practice. As Kerr tells it:

We had lost seven in a row, and I decided to give a psychological pep talk before the game with the Celtics. I told Bob Boozer to go out and pretend he was the best scorer in basketball. I told Jerry Sloan to pretend he was the best defensive guard. I told Guy Rodgers to pretend he could run an offense better than any other guard, and I told Eric Mueller to pretend he was the best rebounding, shot-blocking, scoring center in the game. We lost the game by 17. I was pacing around the locker room afterward trying to figure out what to say when Mueller walked up, put his arm around me and said, “Don’t worry about it, coach. Just pretend we won.”

The platters sang it, I’m the great pretender. Are we pretending that we are alright? Are we pretending that there is nothing to worry about? Are we pretending that nothing is coming? Are we being deceived by those who are deceived and are trying to deceive us? It is a deception to believe that there is any life and hope apart from Christ in any way. But more and more pulpits in America are slowly getting away from sermons on Christ and going to more and more sermons on good advice, instead of good news. If the sermon is good advice it is not a gospel based sermon. I wonder as we progress if we can tell the difference between a sermon that is gospel based and one that is gospel seasoned. One of the big cues is that a gospel seasoned sermon will find its motivation in what it is that we do. A gospel sermon will show a motivation in what Christ has done and what He will do. A sermon not gospel centered will focus on what we need to do. A gospel sermon is centered on what Christ has done. If you walk out of here today thinking that you will have a better life if you can just do these things… I missed it. If you walk out of here today thinking that you will have a better life because of what Christ has already done and what He is going to do, then you know the gospel was received.

The pretending is that we think that we have the power, the ability, the potential to be able to bring Godly progression by our own strength and ability. By our own wit and ingenuity. By our own passions and desires. Mankind is able to do so much. And many who try to deceive put on their sheep suit and appear as an angle of light displaying false characteristics, displaying false worship, and false experiences. And we fall for it. We absolutely fall for it. Oh no? Time magazines influential evangelicals… 5 are clear heretics and 5 are clear false teachers. Most of the worship music that many of our evangelical churches sing are written and published by heretical and apostate ministries. We don’t notice or maybe we just don’t care.

The reality of all of this… false teachers today like they always have, may disqualify you. All their pretending could indeed deprive you of your reward, your prize, and your future glory. They are dangerous and they are everywhere. They are menacing and they are everywhere. They are perilous and they are everywhere. They are unstable and they are everywhere. They are pervasive and all over the map. Family… I am being serious. But Shane how do we identify them? If they are dangerous, I want nothing from them. The scriptures show us a thing or two about this. Let’s take a look.

Colossians 2:18–19 NLT

Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it.

The grass withers, the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

The False Characteristics

Connected to Christ

The first thing we will look at today is the different characteristics that we see Paul and Timothy describing the false teachers in Colossae which gives us a framework to describe the work and character of false teachers. Second, we will look at some of the wonderful realities of those who are connected to the body of Christ.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to come under the deception of false teachers, it is the power of the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, and the fruit of being connected to Christ that will cause us to see that our source of life and true fulfillment is in Christ and in Christ alone.

I. The False Characteristics

- Not only what they do, but who they are.

A. Remember Paul and Timothy are addressing the problem of false teachers who came into the church and were bringing teaching that were undermining the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ and Christ alone. This is a big issue today… most of the false teaching today does under-mind these two very important attributes… especially the sufficiency of Christ. This is why I like to say Christ and Christ alone.

B. The great pretenders came and they were doing their thing… and because they were, the Colossians were in danger of being deprived of their prize. Don’t let anyone deprive you of the prize is kind of the more literal. There is dispute as to whether this is a disqualification of their standards of acceptance or God’s standard. Do not let them disqualify you or do not let them get you disqualified by God. But not that important to know specifically… either way... you do not want any part of these characters in your life at all.

C. What they delight in… false humility. Now these characteristics were not necessarily what they were trying to get the Colossians to do, but more Paul trying to give their characteristics. Let me tell you what they like… false humility is the first one. John Blanchard in Table Talk writes...

“If we try to give the impression of humility, we may be deceiving others, but we are certainly not deceiving God. Oswald Chambers was right to call conscious humility “the most satanic type of pride.” False humility invites attention to itself; true humility is unconscious.”

D. The false teacher boast of a humility that they do not really feel. They advertise humility but their hearts are full of huge conceit. Humility sells. Humility brings trust. Humility brings interest and vulnerability. Nobody gonna listen to someone who is conceited and full of themselves … normally.

- Don’t you see that I am the most humble person in the world. Look at me look at how amazingly humble I am. I am so humble that God will judge you harshly if you do not think I am humble. False teacher who picked girls out from the crowd.

E. Not only is there false humility but false worship. The false teachers were so caught up with angelology and angel speculation so much more than their study of God, that they are in a serious way worshipping them more than they are worshipping God. They look to see how angles have provided, how angels have helped, how angels have rescued… the false teachers look to the angels more than they would look to God. In reality, this is false worship.

F. Many of the false teachers today spend so much time discussing the exploits of men who have done the extraordinary. Many times in sermons you will hear more about the methods and exploits of other men and women, more than we would hear about the person and work of Christ. We hear more about Smith Wiggelsworth and John G Lake than we do about Christ. A reporter even had evidence of people from Bethel and the pastors wife laying on the grave of Smith Wigglesworth trying to get an anointing. If you really need a healing, better to go to a benny Hinn crusade then to ask Christ.

G. At many of the services, it may not be the false worship of worshipping the wrong God. There is the worship of the right God the wrong way. This is the false worship of the evangelical church today. As long as we are worshipping Jesus, it does not matter how we do it. WRONG!!! You wanna worship Christ but mix in BMX biking and circus performers. Mix in music and lyrics that illicit an emotional response. Using the congregation as test subjects. Pump out gold glitter from the air vents and call it the glory of God. People trancing and having seizures. Singing songs written and published by apostate ministries. Christian tarot cards, christian spirit boards, horoscopes, zodiac signs.

Exodus 20:4 NLT

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

Leviticus 10:1 NLT

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.

H. And here’s a biggy… False revelations. They go on and on about what they have seen in visions. The sense is that they go on and on about what they have experienced from God. Visions, dreams, God told me stuff. This is a huge validator. I mean think about it. A special bible study night, where I share from the scriptures the description of heaven. Or a special night where a person who went to heaven tells us what he saw? Let me share from the Bible what I read this morning or let me tell you about the time I fell into a trance and the big vision that God showed me. If God is speaking to you personally, then you and your ministry is validated. The false teachers in Paul’s day loved to do this.

I. Many times false teachers will use this as a trump card. But you can’t say that, because it goes against what the Bible says. But God told me. Why because for many a false teacher thinks that what God tells them is more important than the scriptures. God showed me a dream or showed me a vision so therefore it trumps anything you would say.

Dr. Doug Moo writes, On this view, the false teachers are “hung up on” the visions that they have been receiving, relating them endlessly to anyone who would listen and perhaps bragging about them as well.

J. Their minds are sinful and with all of this they have become the opposite of what they purport to be. They became proud. They became puffed up.

Dr. Doug Moo writes, “It is possible that these false teachers—as false teachers often do—were taking on intellectual airs, priding themselves on their superior “minds.” Paul’s characterization would then be directly polemical: they have minds, alright, but minds that are thoroughly oriented to this world rather than to the next.”

K. This is the reality of false teachers and their deception runs deep.

- Like the ancient dog of fable who, while carrying his bone, paused at seeing its own reflection in the water, and grabbing at the mirrored prize lost the one he had, there are multitudes who have lost all to deception.

L. How many of us are losing so much because of this? This is a warning passage. Paul and Timothy inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote this so that we can see the reality of those who will rise up from within our ranks and bring a great deception. The Lord wants us to be aware and the Lord wants us to be sure. It is clear that there are negative effects of false teaching and so much so that they could bring disqualification for the prize disqualification for the reward and a disqualification from future glory. How horrible is that? We must be aware they are everywhere.

M. And they are disconnected… they are disconnected from Christ. They are disconnected from the head of the body. They are not a part of the body of Christ. They are not a part of us. But they are around us. It is gonna happen with people who are claiming to be a part of the body of Christ. They believe that they are Christians, but the apostle is making it clear, they are not connected or united with Christ.

2 Peter 2:1 NLT

But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

N. Colin Smith writes, First, Peter’s plain statement reminds us that the church needs to be protected. Among the many wonderful people who come to through the doors of the church each year, some would do more harm than good. They may seem the nicest of people, but they do not believe in the authority of the Bible or the exclusivity of salvation in Christ.

II. Connected to Christ

- The miracle of union with Christ.

A. But what the false teachers do not have is what Paul makes clear in his condemnation. Those of us in the body of Christ are indeed connected to Christ. And to be connected to Christ is to be a part of the body of Christ. And we will see that those who are connected to Christ will be held together by Christ as God the Father causes us all to grow.

B. We don’t need what the false teachers are peddling. We don’t need to pretend. We don’t need it because we have more than enough in Christ. We can only grow if we are in Christ. But how can we be in Christ when we have fallen so far from deserving any of this?

C. The sinful minds are not just those of the false teachers. We all have sinful minds. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. The Lord looked upon the earth and saw that the hearts of men was only evil continually. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. And the wages of sin is death.

D. So why are we not all condemned by the Lord? Why are we not all condemned to face the wrath of God for all eternity? Why not? Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!

E. Salvation is here my family. There is hope for us. There is life for us when we are connected to Christ. This can happen because of what Christ has done. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance...

F. The promises continue … if you confess with your mouth...

G. The Lord is gracious with compassion… slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all he has compassion on all creation.

H. Connected to Christ… He will cause us to grow. He who began a good work in us will be faithful to bring it to completion at the day of the Lord. Watch out for the false teachers in our land today, but always rejoice that we are connected to Christ and that our names are written in the lambs book of life.