Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

It has been a very eventful week around here but this moment - here with all of you as we prepare to dig into God’s inerrant, inspired Word is certainly one of the highlights of my week.

Why? Why? Why?

Colossians 2:20-22; Colossians 2:8; Romans 6:6; Romans 6:16-18; Colossians 1:2; John 17:16; 1Peter 2:9; Hebrews 11:13; Psalm 119:19; Colossians 2:14; Genesis 3:2-3; Mark 7:6-9

For all of his posturing and humble speech of being a fool or being timid in his speech, Paul really was a master at developing, supporting and closing an argument.

For this entire chapter he has been delivering a polemic against the false teachings that were beginning to creep into the worship of the Colossian church, skillfully weaving his argument as he would a tent in the marketplace.

Paul returns to the two contrasting themes that he has highlighted throughout this chapter - the believer’s identification and participation in the death of Christ and the elements of the world which would seek to distract the believer from the reality that they should now live in.

Paul begins by posing the question “If you died with Christ to the elements of the world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?”

You will recognize of course that we don’t expect much of dead people.

No one expects the dead to pay taxes or to participate in the continued activities of the life that they have left behind.

If we have died spiritually to our fleshly nature and the elements of the world then we should no longer submit or participate in the requirements of that nature.

Paul does this through the use of this rhetorical question - a tactic that he uses frequently and effectively to bring back wayward believers and to remind them of the truths that they have been taught.

He has already made the case that they have been crucified with Christ and warned them against falling victim to the false philosophies being taught by these teachers - some of which were grounded in the “elements of the world”.

Here Paul uses this question to remind the Colossians of several points with respect to their Christian life.

First is that in dying with Christ they are in fact no longer beholden to the elements of the world.

In Romans 6 Paul makes this point

and then later in that same chapter

While there is great truth in the beginning of this question - it is the truth that he introduces now that is the most beautiful for the Colossians and for us today.

“Why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?”

Paul is reminding the Colossians of the truths of their new nature.

Those who have been crucified with Christ no longer belong in this world.

Instead we are strangers in a strange land.

Paul is reiterating the truth that he had given the Colossian believers at the very beginning of the letter.

Paul calls the Colossian believers saints - set apart ones specifically set apart for God’s purposes.

There are several reminders for us in Scripture that we share the same new nature as the Colossians and that we too are in fact saints.

In His high priestly prayer, Christ prayed

And in his letter 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter writes

and the writer of Hebrews writes

Those who were pronounced to be saints from the Old Testament could look to the testimony of David in Psalm 119

Saints, beloved family, we share the same spiritual DNA.

If we have died along with Christ we also do not have to submit to the fleshly nature but instead should be waring against that nature recognizing that it is no longer, and never was, by laws and regulations that we can achieve salvation but solely through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul challenges the Colossians “why do you submit to regulations?”

The word for submit here is the same Greek verb (dogmatizo) that Paul used in Colossians 2:14

In effect what Paul is saying is that by submitting to these regulations - the legalism, mysticism and asceticism - being forced upon them by the false teachers they are attempting to cancel Christ’s payment of their debt and to pay it themselves.

Paul lists three commands that are probably not specifically what is being said to the Colossians but instead are hyperbolic sarcasm.

The prohibition against tasting does point back to their leaglistic concerns regarding food and drink and the Mosaic Law.

The admonitions not to handle or to touch are interesting in that they are repeated but really the two Greek verbs really only mean to touch.

So the question could be asked why Paul repeats them here.

There is a sense that anytime that false teachers go beyond what Christ has already given us that it leads to sin and failure.

This makes me think of another time where the concepts of eating and touching something were put together in a situation beyond the commands of God.

It was in the Garden when the serpent approached Eve.

He poses the question as to whether God had said that they could not eat from any tree in the Garden - but it is Eve who takes it the further step.

Sometimes the most dangerous false teachers we face are those we meet in the mirror every morning.

She replies

Eve goes beyond what God had actually commanded and the Fall results.

Any time we go beyond what God has commanded sin is the inevitable result.

The other danger that this has is that it focuses our eyes on the here and now instead of the future that God has promised all of those who believe in His Son.

Paul goes on to say that all of these refer to things destined to perish with use and are in accordance with the teachings of men.

This was a sin that Paul was very familiar with.

Raised as a Pharisee he was well acquainted with the traditions of men and the requirements that they placed on people.

Paul is quoting both Christ and Isaiah here.

Christ in Mark 7 quotes Isaiah as well

Abandoning the command of God you set up your own tradition, because the all mighty self is the greatest danger to our faith in Christ.

False teachers will always focus your eyes off of eternity, off of God and on to yourself.

False teachers - the Osteens, and Meyers, the Jakes and Johnsons - they will always focus your eyes off of eternity, off of God and on to yourself.

What can I do now.

How can life be better now.

Sometimes the most dangerous false teacher we face is the one you carry around inside of you.

The All-mighty Self

Colossians 2:23;

Paul lists three dangers that all stem from the same source - the all mighty self.

Paul even acknowledges that to the human mind this seems to be a legitimate ideal to have.

He says that these matters have the appearance of wisdom.

The NASB translates the verse this way

These are matters which have, to be sure - of course this makes sense to the depraved mind because at the root of all sin is one of two emotions which are two sides of the same coin.

Pride and selfishness.

He says these take the appearance of wisdom.

Wisdom is much sought after - I think of the popular culture idea of the wise man who has withdrawn and lives in a cave on the top of a mountain that people seek out for his wise pronouncements.

They also seem wise because they appeal to our vanity, our pride and our desire to achieve something on our own.

And so Paul gives these three examples for us to be wary of.

The first is the danger of self-made religion.

Paul has already alluded to the folly of angel worship.

But there is also the worship of self.

This false religious system is rampant in our day.

It is the system that promotes the good of the individual over the good of society, the truth of the individual over the truth of any other system and the desires of the individual over those of any outside source but especially God.

It is characterized by the personality trait we call narcissism - or the excessive interest or admiration of self.

It has even been identified as a personality disorder according to the DSM-V.

Some of the symptoms include

A grandiose sense of self-importance

Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love 

Belief that one is special and can only be understood by or associate with special people or institutions

A need for excessive admirationA sense of entitlement (to special treatment)

Exploitation of others

A lack of empathy

Envy of others or the belief that one is the object of envy

Arrogant, haughty behavior or attitudes

What the world characterizes as a disorder the Bible demonstrates as natural human depravity as a result of sin.

But this is the mindset of much of the world today - not only millenials but across all generations and societal spectrums.

It is this love and worship of self that leads us to be dissatisfied at work when someone else gets a promotion we wanted.

It is this love and worship of self that leads us to kill unborn babies.

It is this love and worship of self that tells us that our truth is what’s important and valid and that we can define anything according to that truth rather than the objective standards that have always governed truth.

It is this love and worship of self that all too often leads us to any form of dissatisfaction with our lives or situation because we deserve more from God than what He’s given us.

It places us on the throne and has God be subject to our whims and desires.

And it is the most natural state for all humans - every single one of us struggles against this self religious state - as a result of Adam’s sin.

And it happens at every age - we see this in the infant that cries and throws a fit when he or she doesn’t get his way.

But this religion is deadly and false.

Speaking on this religious tendency Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “ I would say that the greatest sinners in the world are the self-satisfied, self-contained, good moral people, who believe that, as they are, they are fit to stand in the presence of God.

Moreover, they are in reality telling God that He need never have sent His Son into the world as far as they are concerned, and that the Son need never have died upon the Cross.

There is no greater insult to God than that; but it is precisely what they are guilty of.