Christ Preeminent (Part Sixteen): Fraudulent Faith

Transcript

JRNT 38
10/29/2023
Christ Preeminent (Part Sixteen): Fraudulent Faith
Colossians 2:18-19
Jesse Randolph

G.K. Chesterton once noted, many years ago, that: “There are no new lies, no new heresies; Man is simply not that creative.” Al Mohler, more recently at a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said something similar. He said: “There are no new heresies, only heresies dressed up and repackaged for a new generation.” Both men are right. The heretics of today are mere copycats. They’re recycling the refuse of yesterday. They’re diving deep into the dumpsters of church history. Pulling up these smelly crumpled-up scraps of theological garbage and presenting those scraps to unwitting modern-day Christians, and seeker alike. As being sort of a “new way to think about faith.” Or an innovative way now to approach Christianity. Or an enlightened way to reflect upon Jesus. Think about it. We have groups, modern-day cult groups like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Who openly deny the deity of Jesus Christ. All they’ve done is simply resurrected and repackaged the ancient heresy of Arianism. A heresy that plagued the early Christian church, especially in the fourth century . . . leading to the calling of the infamous Council of Nicaea. Then there are the theological liberals and the so-called “carnal” Christians of our day. That would be those who deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Who would say that so long as you intellectually affirm that Jesus is the Savior. So long as you “name and claim” His saving benefits. You don’t need to acknowledge Him as your Lord. In other words, you can walk that isle. And you can pray that prayer. And you can ask Jesus into your heart. And you can do the whole church camp thing, where you etch the date of your commitment on a tree trunk. Or you throw a pinecone in the fire. Or you verbally profess, as a sleep-deprived and sugared-up teenager, just how much you love Jesus. But then go on living how you lived before. Falling back into those same old patterns of sin. Going back to the same old sources of sin; proving that there was never a true divorce from that old lifestyle of sin. That one’s not new either. That form of so-called “Christianity,” where you acknowledge Jesus with your mind but don’t truly surrender your heart and your will to Him. Is really just an ancient form of Gnosticism. All re-bundled and repackaged for modern times. That heresy, Gnosticism, was this old-school heresy that taught that man’s soul, and his body were separate. Totally divorced and living in separate spheres. That the soul was considered good, while the body, the flesh was considered evil. What that led to was this teaching that so long as the soul was saved, meaning, one intellectually affirmed with their mind Jesus as Lord. They could go on living in the body of flesh, just however they wanted. Because the flesh is the flesh. It’s sinful, what are you going to do about it? That really describes a large swath of the modern-day evangelicalism, does it not? “I’ve got my fire insurance policy.” “My soul is safe.” “So, it’s now going back to living life as usual.” “I can go on indulging the flesh as I please.” Or what about this one, this modern-day “unhitch” the Old Testament from the New Testament crowd? It’s been popularized of late by Andy Stanley. With his large platform and his increasingly shocking public statements. Is proving himself over and over, to be the wolf we feared him to be. This idea too, of ditching or “unhitching” the Old Testament from the New” is also nothing new. It’s simply recycling the ancient heresy of Marcionism. Which taught that the God of the Old Testament is this mean and nasty and grouchy old God. But that the Jesus of the New Testament is someone entirely different. Unlike the God of the Old Testament, Jesus was all about love and puppies and butterflies and doing whatever you want. But because we naturally like that Jesus . . . “buddy Jesus” . . . rather than the grumpy old God of the Old Testament. All we want to do now, is say that the two Testaments must testify to two different Gods, and wouldn’t you know it? The God of the Old Testament has to go. He’s over the hull of the ship, like Jonah. Don’t need Him anymore. All we need is the New Testament. Not even the entirety of the New Testament, mind you. But only those parts of the New Testament we like. You know, those that don’t mention hell and judgment and that sort of thing. Then swing the pendulum the opposite side of the “unhitch” crowd . . . would be this modern-day Hebrew roots movement. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will, certainly in the future. This is a modern-day movement. It is gaining some steam in different circles; and this is really nothing more than the old Judaizers of the apostolic era, now resurrected and come back to life. As they teach that Law-keeping and Torah-keeping. The very subjects that we covered in last week’s sermon. That you have to keep regulations and rules pertaining to . . . food and drink and festivals and New Moons and Sabbath’s and such; are essentials to true Christian faith.

Chesterton was right, when he said: “There are no new lies, no new heresies. Man is simply not that creative.” Al Mohler is right, “There are no new heresies, only heresies dressed up and repackaged for a new generation.” Even more on target was King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 1:9, where he infamously said: “. . . there is nothing new under the sun.” The point is . . . the devil has been working from the same playbook for thousands of years now. Billions of people, over the course of the centuries, have had the wool pulled over their eyes. While they proceed on this blind death march into the flames of a real hell.

This morning, as we continue on in our study of the book of Colossians, we’re going to see another category of false teachings, which were being pushed by the promoters of what we now know as the “Colossian heresy.” As we work through our text today. We’re going to see that these false teachings were not only real and threatening and dangerous in first-century Colossae. But rather, like these other false teachings I just mentioned, they live on today. Through various reused and recycled heresies that are now promoted in the twenty-first century. And are just as threatening to us here and now. We’d be wise to heed what the Apostle Paul, in Colossians, as he’s moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote in our text for today. Not only so that we could be good students of first century Colossian religion, but so that we can be wise and discerning followers of Jesus Christ, right here and now.

Our text for today is Colossians 2, and we’re going to be in two verses this morning. Verses 18 and 19.
Colossians 2:18-19. God’s word reads:
“Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
Just as we have here in our English bibles, in the original Greek text; verses 18 and 19 here, though two verses, are really just one long sentence. The sentence you see there starts with a command. “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” Paul then from there, strings out these five participles. These five connected subsidiary thoughts, in which he lays out five marks of fraudulent faith. That is, five ways in which these new believers here at Colossae were at risk of being defrauded in their newfound faith. Five ways in which these false teachers in this city had fraudulent faith. Fake faith, no faith at all. Those five marks of fraudulent faith are sort of sprinkled throughout verses 18 and 19. We see them there. “Self-abasement.” “Worship of the angels” “Visions” being “inflated without cause”, that’s number four and “not holding fast to the head”, would be number five.

So, as we always do, we’ll go through each of these words, line-by-line and letter-by-letter. But before we do so, we really need to anchor in on this command that Paul gives, at the beginning here, at verse 18. That’s the hub of this passage for today. That’s the engine that drives the rest of what he’s about to say. When he says, at the beginning of verse 18: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.”

Now, right out of the gate, we notice some similarities between where we’re starting this morning and where we were last time, in verse 16, as we kicked things off. You’ll recall that last week, you can look up the page a bit in verses 16-17. Paul was writing against some of the more Judaistic aspects of the Colossian heresy. He began with the words there in verse 16: “Therefore no one is to act as your judge.” Then he lists out all the regulations there. We also saw last week though, that verse 16 actually resumes the thought that Paul began back in Colossians 2:8, where he says: “See to it that no one takes you captive.” So, there’s another command. You have these three commands, one after the other. Verse 8, verse 16, and now, in our text, verse 18. “See to it that no one takes you captive”, verse 8. “Therefore no one is to act as your judge”, verse 16. And then our text, verse 18: “see to it that no one takes you captive.” Each one of those, by the way, is what I illuded to last week, as a third-party imperative. Where Paul is not so much commanding the Colossians directly. Rather, his imperative is directed at the false teachers themselves. The effect of which would be to shape how the Colossians responded to the false teachers. And the first one that we deal with here in verse 18 is, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” What does that mean? To say, as Paul says here, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize”? Well, the phrase here in Greek, can be translated a number of different ways. In fact, has been translated a number of different ways, in various English translations. For instance, the ESV has it as: “Let no one disqualify you.” The NKJV has it as “Let no one cheat you of your reward.” Older translations, have it as: “Let no man beguile you [there’s a word that needs to come back] of your reward.” Or “Let no one defraud you as an umpire.” Or “Let no man declare you disqualified.” Those are some of the more ancient translations.

Now, whatever translation you use, is this a reference to salvation? When he says here, “Let no one defraud you of your prize.” Is Paul here somehow saying that the false teachers there at Colossae had the ability, through their deceit.
through their deception. And through their lies and through their false teaching, to rob true believers in Jesus Christ of the faith and the salvation they already had? Most certainly not. We can rule that one out. Because we know the scripture testifies repeatedly, over and over to the eternal security of the true believer in Jesus Christ. You can jot down just a few of these, just for reference. John 10:27-28, the words of our Lord Himself, where He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” Or we think of the words of Paul at the end of Romans 8:38-39, familiar words, I’m sure, where he says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Or Ephesians 4:30, Paul there says we’ve been “sealed for the day of redemption” by the Holy Spirit of God. I Peter 1:5, we “are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” One more, Jude 24 says that God Himself “is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” In other words, bringing it back here to Colossians, verse 18 of chapter 2. Those words . . . “Keep defrauding you of your prize” . . . cannot be a reference to the false teachers somehow stealing away the Colossians’ salvation. No. Their salvation had already been foreordained by God the Father. It had been purchased by God the Son. It was sealed by the God the Spirit. No heretic. No matter how creative or uncreative he was, he could rob them of that salvation.

What does this mean here in verse 18? Where he says: “Let no one keep defrauding you?” If it’s not a reference to salvation, what is he talking about? Well, Paul is, with this language, charging the Colossians there to persevere. To run the race faithfully. To keep putting one foot in front of the other. As he does so, so often in his scriptural writings, Paul brings in an illustration from the athletic competitions and the games of his day. To paint this picture of perseverance. In fact, go over with me one book to your left, to the book of Philippians. Like Colossians, Philippians, the epistle of joy, is prison epistle, written by Paul, as he was wearing chains. We know from Philippians 3, that he gives at the very beginning of that chapter, sort of his CD, his resume of who he once was. Hebrew of Hebrews, for instance. But then we get into this text on perseverance. I’ll start at verse 7 here of chapter 3, to give us a bit of a running start.
He says in Philippians 3:7 – “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derive from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Here’s the meat of it - “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Those words there . . . “I press on” . . . are all about perseverance, perseverance toward the prize. Or we think of Paul’s words, and you don’t have to turn there now, but I Corinthians 9. He says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 – “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we imperishable.” That’s the prize, the crown of righteousness, the imperishable wreath. Or over in II Timothy 2:5, in some of the final words that he would ever write. Paul says to Timothy, his child in the faith. After telling him to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, he says: “if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.” So, the one who competes by the rules. The one who presses on in faith. The one who perseveres. Wins the prize. And bringing it now back to Colossians. Paul here is saying, with that same mindset, to these believers: “Don’t let these false teachers slow you down.” “Don’t let them trip you up.” “Don’t let them get you off the track.” “Don’t let them defraud you of your prize.” “Instead, you are to persevere.” “And remain firm in your faith.” “Remain on course.” “Run your race.” “Claim your prize.”

What the promoters of this Colossian heresy were doing. Was they were really threatening to take these believer’s eyes off that prize. That eternal prize. In Colossians 1:22, it says they had already been reconciled to God. They’d been reconciled in Christ’s fleshly body, through death. It had been done and paid for. If they were to fall for these heretical teachings, it wasn’t that their salvation was now in jeopardy. We’ve already seen that. But their testimony certainly could be sullied. They could, as we know from II Corinthians 5, lose out on certain eternal rewards.

That’s why Paul here says: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” He didn’t want to see them sully the name of Christ. He didn’t want to see them lose out on eternal rewards. That’s what happens when, as we saw last week, you elevate shadows over substance. That’s what happens, as we’re going to see this week, when you fall prey to these various marks of fraudulent faith. These believers here had already been “qualified” by God the Father.
Colossians 1:12-13 – “To share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”
They had, as far as we can tell, up to this point, already been running faithfully the race as believers. Paul here simply wanted to see them continue to run. To believe the things that “qualified” people believe. To live in a way that “qualified” people live. To not be “defraud[ed]” by these false teachers who were seeking to persuade them that their faith, their simply faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, was not enough. In fact, we see a picture of what Paul is driving at here, if you go over to the little book of II John. Turn to the end of your bibles, if you would. You’ve got the book of Revelation. One book to the left is Jude. Two more books to the left would be the little letter of II John. The same spirit that John writes these words, is what Paul is getting at in our text, Colossians 2.
Look at II John 6 where John says: “And this is love that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. Then look what it says here, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus [Christ]as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” Then he says, “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.” That’s what Paul wanted for the Colossians. He wanted them to receive their full reward.

Going back to Colossians in verse 18, the command here which sits at the beginning of the sentence and drives everything that follows. Are these words: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize.” Then there’s that little word: “by.” Which is sort of the hinge now, into the rest of the passage. Next come these five examples. These five marks of “fraudulent faith.” These will take up the rest of our time this morning. Again, these are: “Self-abasement.” “Worship of angels.” “Visions.” Being “inflated without cause.” And “not holding fast to the head.”

Let’s start with the first one there, “self-abasement.” As our first mark of fraudulent faith. It says: “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement.” Now, our first thought, as we read this. Might be to ask: “How would the Colossians be deprived of any prize, simply by the fact that someone else – here, namely the false teachers – were ‘delighting’ in something?” In this case, self-abasement. Put another way . . . how would what someone else delights in, have anything to do with the Colossians’ faith? I mean, faith is personal. So, whatever someone else might delight in, should have no bearing on our faith, or the Colossians’ faith. It’s a fair critique and observation and question to ask. The answer to how to address that question, is found in the fact that, those words “delighting in”, I believe are better translated, as the ESV has it, as “insisting on.” “Insisting on.” In other words, the sense here is not so much that the false teachers in Colossae were simply finding joy in their deviant doctrines. Rather, they were insisting that others, and specifically, the Colossian believers here, do the same. They were evangelists, in other words, for their own form of fraudulent faith. Not themselves content with being contaminated with their own spiritual sickness, they wanted to spread it to everybody else. They not only “delight[ed]” in what’s described here as being “self-abasement.” They insisted that others, namely the Christians here at Colossae, do the same. The implication is that if the Colossians, the Colossian Christians didn’t buy into what these teachers were teaching, if they didn’t get with the program . . . and themselves start engaging in “self-abasement.” They would be considered in a lower religious caste. They would be considered lesser than people of faith. To which Paul here says: “that’s nonsense.” “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize” by insisting on this very thing, “self-abasement.”

Now, we have to get into what is “self-abasement.” What’s Paul talking about there, when he’s speaking of “self-abasement?” Well, that word “self-abasement”, if you looked in most lexicons you would see the very first definition of that word, is “humility.” Now, we hear that word, humility, and we think, well, humility, great. That’s a good thing. Humility is a Christlike trait that we all ought to have, and we all ought to pursue. Indeed, it is. Humility is, no doubt, a virtue that any Christian ought to possess to some degree; and every Christian ought to be striving to embody even more. We think of passages, of course like:
Philippians 2:3 – “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”
Or I Peter 5:5 – “. . . clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Or just look down the page at Colossians 3:12, we’ll be there in a few years, where it says, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

If humility is a godly Christian characteristic and a desired Christian virtue. Why is Paul calling out the false teachers here, for insisting that the true believers there, themselves pursue humility? Doesn’t the fact that the false teachers, who I’m calling the false teachers, were stressing humility, show that they weren’t false teachers at all? But actually, good teachers of good doctrine? No. It doesn’t mean that at all. See, the false teachers here are rightly thought of as false teachers. Because the “self-abasement.” Or the “humility.” That they were putting on and promoting here at Colossae. Was actually a form of false humility. That term, “false humility” . . . I’m sure we’re familiar with, right? It covers a whole range of behaviors and conduct today. It’s something that masks itself and disguises itself as humility and being Christlike. But it’s actually steeped in pride, and reeks of pride.

Examples of false humility, and some of these may relate to you in different ways, are people pleasing. Which is a violation of Galatians 1:10. Constantly making negative comments about yourself. “Oh, I’m just a vile wretch and sinner.” Fishing for compliments. Refusing to receive deserved praise. Humble bragging. Ever seen that? Especially in our social media world? “So blessed to have four perfect children, all of whom have 4.0 GPAs. All of whom went to Ivy league schools. Who married doctors. Jesus is good. Praise the Lord.” That’s called humble bragging. Self-deprecating humor, another form of false humility. These are just some of the ways that we display false humility in our day.

Some of you might be familiar with Charles Dickens’ old work, David Copperfield. In that work, there’s this character named Uriah Heep. Who’s the assistant of David Copperfield. He is just over-the-top in the ways that he tries to show himself to be “humble.” Always seeking to please Copperfield. Always going out of his way to serve Copperfield well. Service with a smile, and the whole time he’s cheating him. Showing great respect and reverence and honor on the outside . . . but on the inside, was a totally pride-sick liar. That’s us too. When we put on shows of false humility. A feigned form of humility that we actually don’t’ have or feel. It’s poisonous. It’s toxic. We have to be willing to at least examine ourselves to make sure that we aren’t putting on a show of humility like Uriah Heep. When in fact, we have hearts full of pride.

Now, bringing it back to our Colossian context. Paul here had a very specific form of “false humility” in view when he writes these words. We get some hints as to what it was, he was referring to, in two different places.
First of all, just a few verses down, there in verse 23. We see that whatever form of false humility these false teachers were projecting in Colossae. It had something to do with their bodies. It had something to do with how they treated their bodies. How they deprived themselves in their bodies.
Look at Colossians 2:23, it says, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement . . .” There’s our word . . . and he goes on and says, “. . . and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
So, this “self-abasement”, in other words, or “false humility”, that was being practiced and pushed here in Colossae. Had something to do with “severe treatment of the body.” So, there’s clue number one.
Clue number two is this. And it comes from the Septuagint. The Greek translation of the Old Testament. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, we see this same word for “self-abasement.” Used to describe the practice of fasting, in various Old Testament passages.
So, we put those two ideas together, “self-abasement” being about deprival of the body; and “self-abasement” having to do with fasting, as we see it in the Old Testament. The conclusion I come to is that these false teachers were engaged in, was some form of bodily deprivation. Like fasting, in which they were intentionally seeking to draw attention to themselves. All as an act of false humility. Like the Pharisees who would come before them, these false teachers were making a parade of their piety. Self-deprecation, in other words, had become a matter of now of self-exaltation. Far from being humbled by the fact that they were in fact still very much pride sick. They actually demonstrated pride in their so-called humility. And the specific form of false humility they practiced, was totally antithetical to the way of Christ and to the very teachings of Christ. Turn with me, over to Matthew chapter 6. Sort of midway through the sermon on the Mount. We’re going to encounter the words of our Lord, on this very topic of false humility. Specifically in the area of fasting. Here, of course, He’s addressing the Pharisees of His day. Look what He says in Matthew 6. We’ll pick it up in verse 16. Jesus here says, “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Back to Colossians. Far from fasting “in secret.” The false teachers here were making fasting a public spectacle. Not only that, and to make matters worse, they’re trying to influence these early believers here in this city to follow their example. and to do as they did. Again, Paul’s whole point here is to tell this early gathering of believers, don’t do it. Don’t take the bait. Don’t fall for it. Don’t be “defraud[ed] of your “prize” by those who “delight in self-abasement.” Through their “severe treatment of the body.” Through their fasting.

30.380Instead, he’s going to emphasize, as we eventually get to Colossians 3, those very characteristics we’ve already seen in Colossians 3:12 – “. . . as those who have been chosen of God. Holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
I agree with Jonathan Edwards. On this point, who once said: that “nothing sets a Christian so much out of the devil’s reach than humility.”
Indeed. There is no virtue more Christlike than humility. There’s no virtue that keeps one further from the clutches of Satan than humility. There’s no surer way to remain on the path of faithfulness than humility. As you look forward to one day receiving your prize. Your eternal reward. You do so with humility. You follow the example of Christ who in His ministry here on earth. Matthew 11:29 says: was “gentle and humble in heart.”

We need to move on to our second mark of fraudulent faith. The false teachers there were not only threatening to defraud the Colossians of their prize, by their insistence on “self abasement” . . . “false humility” . . . through their public, attention-seeking displays of fasting. They were also insisting on, as we see here in verse 18, “. . . the worship of angels.”
“Let no one defraud you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels.”

Now, the first knot that we need to unravel here. Is whether Paul here is referring to an insistence on worshiping with the angles, the living God. In other words, worshiping God as the angels do? Or instead, is he referring to worship of angels themselves? The traditional interpretation is the latter. That he’s referring to worship of angels themselves. I find that interpretation to be the most persuasive. Paul here is calling out the false teachers for their worship of the angelic host. Now, we know from other places in scripture that certain classes of angels, they’re being described as worshiping God. As they ought. Angels are created beings. They are creatures. The reasonable response of any creature is to worship the Creator. We see that in the heavenly throne room scene of Isaiah 6, where the Seraphim are crying out “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord [God] of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” We see that again in Revelation 4 and 5 in John’s vision of the heavenly throne room. We see that around Christmas time, when we go to Luke 2:13, and it talks about the “heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth among men with whom He is pleased.” So, in passages like those, angels are actually modeling for us, as humans, what worship of the living God ought to look like.

But we have to remember, in context here, here in Colossians, Paul is condemning false teaching. The false teaching was making headway in this early church. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be condemning false teachers for worshiping God the way angels were rightly worshiping God. Rather, what makes more sense here, is that what Paul is condemning here, is worship of the angels as a practice. Which would of course have been a violation of the first commandment. Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before Me.” What did this angel worship look like here in Colossae? Well, apparently, as far as we can tell, what was being taught by these false teachers, was that man is too unworthy to approach God directly, through Christ. Man is still so unworthy and still so vile and still so wicked, that he needs more mediators than just Christ to approach God. Hence the worship of angels as so-called mediators between God and man. Angels were now, mediators between God and man in Colossae. That strike anybody as being wrong? Yeah, how many mediators are there between God and man? One. I Timothy 2:5, there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Well, the false teachers here in Colossae, in their promotion of angel worship, were totally disregarding that truth. That there is one mediator between God and men. They were completely ignoring and disregarding the fact that a Christian can, as Hebrews 4:16 puts it: “. . . draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” . . and in doing so “. . . receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
They were completely disregarding and ignoring the fact, as Hebrews 10:10 says that “. . . we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” They were disregarding the fact that Jesus, in his own words, said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” They were disregarding the fact, as Romans 5:1 puts it, that “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not angels, not other mediators, through Jesus Christ.
They were disregarding the fact, if you look back at Colossians 1:16, that Jesus Christ Himself had created the very angels that they were now approaching in worship. Colossians 1:16 – “For by Him [meaning Christ] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.” So, there’s this built in sense here in Colossians 2, of exasperation on Paul’s part. There’s this inherent rebuke of the false teachers and this sense of exasperation for these early believers there. The sense behind Paul’s words here is: “Why would you worship angles?” “As this supposed mediator between you and God?” “When you already have access to God, through the very One – the One mediator, Christ – who actually created those angels?” See, God has made salvation possible through Jesus Christ. He sanctified sinners through Jesus Christ. He’s made it possible for us to come directly to God through Jesus Christ. There are no other roads to God. There are no other pathways to God. There are no other mediators between God and man.

Now, lest we think that this idea of elevating and worshipping one other mediator, to a place where they can mediate between God and man, as though this was only a problem in first-century Colossae . . . like we don’t do that today. I’ve got some news for you. That’s simply not the case. See, we have, and this is just one example, something along the line of 1.4 billion professed Roman Catholics living on this planet right now. Do you know what the Roman Catholic Church teaches them? The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary is a co-mediator along with Christ. In other words, it is a piece of Catholic dogma, that it is not exclusively through Christ that a person has access to God, but it’s through Mary. That’s not just me being loose lipped with my thoughts up here. That comes straight from their Catechism. Page 969, to be exact. It says: “Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, [and get this] and Mediatrix.” The bible teaches, I Timothy 2:5, there’s how many mediators between God and man? One. The Roman Catholic Catechism says, well there’s at least two. One of whom is Mary. The Roman Catholic Church, in other words, clearly disregards the teachings of scripture. Also, the scripture’s teaching about the singularity of there being one mediator between God and men. Now, sadly, if I may just for a few seconds, that’s not the only place where the Catholic Church’s false teachings about Mary, encroach upon what the bible teaches exclusively about the Lord Jesus Christ.

For instance . . . Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that it was not only Jesus who was immaculately conceived, but Mary herself? Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that it was not only Jesus who lived a sinless life, but Mary herself? And did you know that the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that yes, Jesus ascended into heaven, but Mary was assumed into heaven, just like Enoch or Elijah in the Old Testament? And did you know that the Roman Catholic Church will teach that, ok, Jesus is Lord of the earth, but Mary, guess what, she’s the Queen of Heaven? Mary herself, who in Luke 1:47, infamously said that her “spirit [had] rejoiced in God [her]Savior” . . . would be mortified at what the modern-day Catholic Church has done with her. Including the Church’s claim that she is a Co-Mediator, or a Co-Mediatrix, with the One Mediator, Jesus Christ. Mary, like us, was a sinner. Mary, like us, needed salvation from her sin. Salvation for her sin was offered in the same way it’s offered for any of us, through the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is no other mediator. Not Mary today, and not the angels that were being worshipped in Colossae, back in Paul’s day. Which is why he’s urging them here in verse 18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize . . . [through] the worship of the angels.”

Let’s move on. One more mark of fraudulent faith. We need to keep going. We have “self-abasement”. We have “the worship of the angels.” Here’s our third one. I’m sure this will stir up no controversy.

“. . . taking his stand on visions he has seen . . .”
This one, honestly ought to strike an especially resonant chord in our day. We do live in days, just over the past couple of decades, you could have driven to Mardel or Hobby Lobby or now a days, go on Amazon; and pick up a variety of books that fall under that category of “heaven tourism.” Right? Those fanciful stories, which have titles like 90 Minutes in Heaven, Heaven is for Real, Proof of Heaven, and To Heaven and Back. In these books, these authors make these claims. Usually through a near-death experience. That they visited heaven. Hence, the “heaven tourism” title. On these visits, these authors claim they experienced something of Jesus, something of angels and something of God. And something, of course, of heaven. But then they came back to earth and of course, their initial inclination was to write a book, to cash in and to get a hundred thousand dollars. Maybe even a million dollars.

Now, there are those who read those books. I understand that that’s a part of the population today. But there are just a few cautions I want to give. Not just to “heaven tourism” books, but to all manners of “vision theology.”

First, going back to just the heaven books for now. They completely undermine the testimony of scripture. Number one, Hebrews 9:27. It is appointed for man to die how many times? “Once.” “And then comes the judgment.” Well, if these “heaven tourism” books are to be believed. Well, that means then scripture is to be disbelieved. Because the people who wrote those books, unlike the rest of us, will apparently die twice.

Second, about these types of “visions of heaven” books, and other types of “vision theology” that’s out there. They undermine the sufficiency of scripture. So, it’s not just undermining the veracity of scripture, or the testimony of scripture. They undermine the sufficiency of scripture. See, when people say, “I went to heaven.” Or “had a vision of an apparition, or an angel or a ghost or deceased Aunt Linda.” A vision of whatever. The minute you start measuring any experience that you have on this earth, by your two deteriorating and imperfect and flawed eyeballs, against the perfect revelation of God, in His word. You start heading down a very slippery slope. In which your subjective experiences are now the arbiter over God’s objective truth. This is captured by Peter in II Peter chapter 2. Peter, himself saw Jesus at the transfiguration. In his transfigured state in Matthew 17. In II Peter 2, Peter says “my eyes saw all that.” But they still, my eyes were still not as clear and compelling a witness, as to what scripture has testified too, about that very Jesus. That’s why he says, we “. . . have the prophetic word [II Peter 1:19] made surer.” Made surer than what? Then our eyes have shown us. I just have to throw this one in there too. If, back to “heavenly visions”, if those individuals have actually experienced a vision of heaven, they write their books, they do their interviews and they do their podcasts. How cruel was it of God, seriously, to send them back here? I mean, seriously, how awful would it be, to go from that experience, the Isaiah 6 experience, the Revelation 4 and 5 experience, to Sacramento? Or Akron? Or Pittsburg?

All this to say, what we’re experiencing in our broader evangelical world. With all this focus and this emphasis on receiving visions and fresh revelation. Not only visions of heaven. But about anything. It’s not something new. It was happening here in Colossae. As these false teachers were “taking [their] stand” . . . as it says here in verse 18 . . . “on visions [they had] seen.” Now, those words “taking their stand”, that’s not referring necessarily to like taking a stand on a moral issue. Or taking a stand about an ethical cause. No, this “taking his stand” which pictures a person placing himself in a perch. Or on a platform. Showcasing their higher level of religious experience and sophistication.

Third, the Colossian heresy, as you’ve heard me say up here before. Had these traces of early Gnosticism. What Gnosticism was all about, at its core. The core meaning of Gnosis is knowledge. It was pursuing or having some form of secret knowledge. Having some sort of access to these deep, unrevealed, secret mysteries. That you got through these unprovable and irreproducible experiences. Such as receiving “visions.” Getting back to our context here, Paul was communicating to these early believers here, that even though they were being pressured to say, “I’ve received a vision.” Just like the teachers here. He’s saying they needed to reject any teaching arising there. That had any trace or any element of saying that a “vision” was the mark of true religion. Or that a “vision” was a mark of foundational faith. That’s because, as we’ve seen already in our study of Colossians. All the fulness of divine knowledge of God, is not found in visions and it’s not found in dreams. It’s not found in experiences. It’s found in Christ Himself.
Colossians 2:10 – “. . . in Him you have been made complete.”

We move onto our fourth mark of fraudulent faith. We see these at the end of verse 18. Where he says, “. . . inflated without cause by his fleshly mind . . .”
These false teachers were inflated without cause by their fleshly mind. So enraptured were they. With all that they were experiencing. This unique way they were worshipping. All these visions they were claiming to be seeing. In other words, so enraptured were they with themselves . . . so proud were they of their elite status and their inside knowledge, their Gnosis. That it says here, they had become “inflated without cause.” Or as some of the older translations have it: They became “vainly puffed up.” They had become “conceited without reason.”
Their “knowledge” . . . I Corinthians 8:1, had made them “arrogant.” They had, through their external, outward appearances, shown themselves, or they looked from the outside, like they were humble and religious. They were fasting. They were seeing visions. These were the spiritual illuminati. But in reality, and internally, they were not acting in subjection to Christ. They were the types of people that Paul warned about in II Timothy 3:5. Where on the outside, they hold “to a form of godliness” . . . but on the inside, “they . . . denied its power.” They were puffed up with pride. They were arrogant. They expressed their arrogance, by arrogating to themselves, the right and the responsibility to stand in judgment over other believers.

The root cause of their pride, in this puffed-up perspective. As we see here at the end of verse 18, was their “fleshly mind.” The promoters of the false teachings here had unspiritual minds. Minds of flesh. Fleshly minds. Romans 8:6 says, that the “mind set on the flesh is death.” That’s exactly, by the way, how Paul would refer to the unregenerate person’s mind, in Ephesians 4. In fact, flip over with me, back to Ephesians. Where Paul comments on the mind of the unregenerate person, in Ephesians 4:17.
Ephesians 4:17 he says, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus.” I’ll stop it there. Bringing it back to Colossians 2:8, “the fleshly mind”, as Paul describes it here. The unregenerate mind in Ephesians 4, those two things go together. The fleshly mind is the mark of a mind that has not been renewed. It remains in its old, darkened, unregenerate state. Meaning, that the false teachers here, though surely intelligent, surely learned, surely persuasive and surely compelling. Paul’s saying here, you still don’t follow them. Because they had corrupt minds. They had unregenerate minds, and that unregenerate mind was a reflection of their unregenerate hearts.

We’ve been through one verse. We’ve got one to go. Verse 19. Here’s our fifth mark of fraudulent faith. He says, “. . . and not holding fast to the head, [that’s the fifth mark, not holding fast to the head. Then we get the explanation here] from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
So, the main idea here, sitting at the head of this verse, is that the false teachers in Colossae. As we’ve seen actually expressed in various ways throughout this entire book. Were not holding fast to the head. Which is just a different way of saying, they were not holding fast to Christ. They claimed to have all the answers. They claimed to be religious. They claimed to have experienced all sorts of mystical experiences. They claimed that their syncretistic way of melding together all these religious ideas, with true faith in Christ. That that was the real way. They claimed to have attained some “higher” plane of spiritual reality. But the only problem was. The form of religion that they were promoting lacked the most essential ingredient of all. Which is Christ Himself.

Christ, of course, is the head of that collection of redeemed individuals. Going back from the day of Pentecost. To the one-day day of the Rapture. Known as the church. Colossians 1:18, we’ve already seen – “He is also head of the body, the church.” Ephesians 5:23 says the same thing – “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.” And as the Head goes. So goes the body. That’s what we see in the rest of verse 19. So, after saying, “and not holding fast to the head”, the subsidiary thought here is, “From whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” The parallel passage, by the way there, is Ephesians 4:15-16 where it says, “. . . speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” The point of both passages, Colossians 2:19, Ephesians 4:15-16 is this . . . No Christ, meaning no Head. . . no life . . . no vitality. The joints and the ligaments begin to disintegrate, to deteriorate. The “growth which is from God”, as he says here at the end of verse 19, eventually evaporates.

Such was the case with the false teachers here at Colossae. Because of what they were doing and what they were teaching. What they were stressing and what they were emphasizing. What they were pushing and what they were proclaiming. Because none of it was in connection with the Head. None of it was in connection with Christ. They ultimately had zero chance of having any lasting success in this region. Whatever inroads they had made there in Colossae, would never reach their ultimate goal or their destination. They were not ultimately going to succeed in their efforts to sway these Colossian believers to follow their false teaching. All of that had to do with the fact that their beliefs and their teachings here were devoid of Christ. They lacked the essential ingredient, Christ.

What we’ve seen here in our text this morning. Is that the false teachers, once again, are heaping judgment and judgment upon these new believers in this area. Because they refuse, meaning the believers there refuse to put on these man-made practices that they were imposing on them. Here now, what we see is Paul, directed by the Spirit, is now heaping judgment on those false teachers. Not only for misleading and deceiving these early converts. But for themselves not holding fast to Christ, the head of the church. The Creator and Sustainer of all. For themselves failing to cling to Christ. Whom we see in Colossians 2:3 as “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [they’re all] are hidden in Him.” For failing to recognize what really is the theme of this entire letter, which is the preeminence of Christ. The false teachers here were not glorying in Jesus Christ. They were glorying in themselves. Their abilities, their knowledge and their experiences. Which is why Paul here has been saying, to the Colossians, and he’s saying through the Colossians, to all of us today. “Don’t worry about any external shows of superior humility demonstrated by other.” “Don’t trouble yourselves with any grandstanding parade of so-called piety demonstrated by other.” “Ignore any claim of others, that they’ve been elevated to some super-spiritual plane of experience.” Like having visions, for instance. “Because if they aren’t holding fast to Christ, ultimately, they’ve got nothing.” “You and I, on the other hand, if you’ve trusted in Christ.” “And you’re abiding in Christ.” “And you’re daily putting on Christ.” “And you’re pursuing Christ.” “You have everything.” Because He is the true head and fount of life. And “in Him” . . . Colossians 2:10, once again, “. . . you have been made complete.”

Let’s pray.
God, I thank You for this rich section of Your word, that we’ve been privileged to study this morning. I thank You for the timelessness of Your word, and the truth of Your word. Thank You that we can study a text like this, one that clearly has a unique context in this distinct part of the world. A distinct segment of history. But it has such an application for us today, as we think about the various forms of false teaching that are out there. How important it is to be discerning. To have eyes wide open to false teaching that will come our way. But at the same time, to remember that we are made whole in Christ. We have all that we need in Christ. We are complete in Christ. How important it is to hold fast to the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we take the negative example of the false teachers here and learn from them. May we be like the Colossian believers, those who were unwilling to be swayed and unwilling to follow false teaching. Instead, find our hope and our anchor and our source of daily joy and strength in Christ Himself. God, we thank You for this time. We pray that Christ would be honored in our lives, this day and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen