Rules, Regulations and Spirit Guides
Colossians Series #9
Rules, Regulations And Spirit Guides (Col. 2:16-19)
By Bill Denton
Introduction
A. Illustration (Lest you think the scriptures are out-dated and out-of-touch with modern times)
Carlos Santana won eight Grammy awards for his album Supernatural, which has sold more than 10 million copies. A Rolling Stone profile describes Santana's spirituality:
His meditation spot is in front of the fireplace.… A card with the word Metatron is spelled out in intricately painted picture letters lies on the floor next to the fireplace. Metatron is an angel. Santana has been in regular contact with him since 1994. Carlos will sit here facing the wall, the candles lit. He has a yellow legal pad at one side, ready for the communications that will come. "It's kind of like a fax machine," he says.…
There are few conversations with [Santana] that don't lead to discussion of angels, or of the spiritual radio through which music comes. Santana has been increasingly engaged by angels since the day in 1988 when he picked up a book on the subject at the Milwaukee airport. "It's an enormous peace, the few times I have felt the presence in the room," he says.…
"My reality is that God speaks to you every day. There's an inner voice, and when you hear it, you get a little tingle in your medulla oblongata at the back of your neck, a little shiver, and at two o'clock in the morning, everything's really quiet and you meditate and you got the candles, you got the incense and you've been chanting, and all of a sudden you hear this voice: Write this down. It is just an inner voice, and you trust it. That voice will never take you to the desert."…
Santana credits Metatron with alerting him to the recent changes in his life.
Chris Heath, "The Epic Life of Carlos Santana,"Rolling Stone (4-16-00), p.41
1. I think a lot of people would wonder where's the problem - here's a man making an
an attempt to be "spiritual"
a. he's obviously interested in God
b. he's got an angel who brings spiritual messages
c. he's exercising a faith that ought to be commendable
2. The problem: whatever positive you'd like to say about Carlos Santana's spirituality
it's the very thing the Bible warns us about
B. There are lots of other problematic behavior and practices
1. Many of those include rigorous rules and regulations that enforce spiritual discipline
2. If you don't think religious rule-keeping is powerful, take a long look at Islam, at the
various forms of Christian orthodoxy, or perhaps in our own brotherhood
C. In Colossians we've been looking at the total, complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ
1. This is one of those issues that demands constant awareness and thought
2. It's too easy to substitute something for Jesus and lose sight, not only of salvation, but
of all that puts us right with God and keeps us right with God
3. Today, let's think together from our text and be reassured about Jesus
I. Remember The Larger Discussion
A. Our text today is part of a larger discussion in which Paul warned the Colossians not to
become a prisoner of worthless ideas
1. Colossians 2:8
8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. NASB95
a. there are all sorts of captivating philosophies, religious and spiritual teachings
that sound awfully good, tap into our needs and interests, and offer great things
b. but these things are based on the created order - a fallen and sin-damaged
order
c. however good these things sound, they are essentially empty, deceiving us
into thinking we've found the answers to life's mysteries and problems
2. Colossians 2:9-10
9For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10and in Him you have been made complete. . . .
a. this is Paul's point in a nutshell
1) all the fullness of Deity dwells in Jesus Christ - there is nothing or
no one who is more divine, more authoritative, more powerful, more
all sufficient than Jesus
2) we are made complete in Him - and if you are complete, you lack
nothing
3) we're like the old advertisement for enlisting in the Army - be all that
you can be - only with Jesus, this is no empty promise
B. The problem is that we are so easily persuaded that we're somehow missing something
1. Just about every heresy is rooted in somebody's idea that we need something more,
something different, something better, something stronger
2. Ancient gnosticism is a good example of this - it suggested (bless their hearts) that
some Christians just didn't have all they could have - they needed special knowledge
3. You'll hear this kind of thing even today
a. even among Christians, you'll hear about one gimmic or another that will
guarantee a special walk with the Lord that others don't have
b. it might be some doctrine; some emotional emphasis; some methodology;
it may appear in different forms, but it always suggests itself as a way to
God that is better than through Jesus alone
II. Since Jesus Has Made You Complete
A. Colossians 2:16-19
16Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let 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, 19and 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. NASB95
1. There are two basic fallacies addressed in this passage
a. one has to do with religious rules and regulations
b. the other has to do with spiritualism, including worship of angels and self-
induced visions
2. These can become powerfully persuasive to those who engage in them, but they are
still empty and worthless
3. If you are complete in Christ, such things are a step backward, not forward
B. Rule keeping
1. Paul's reference to food, drink, festivals, new moons, Sabbath days, etc., are about
various forms of rule keeping - observe these things and you will do the things that
make you right with God
2. But rule keeping is a flawed idea
a. first, nobody keeps the rules perfectly
1) Israel under the old covenant certainly had its share of rules and
regulations to keep, but they failed at it
2) that was actually one of the reasons God had for giving them all those
rules, to get them to see the impossibility of rule-keeping
b. second, rule-keeping tends to focus attention on the rules, not on God
1) this was demonstrated time and again by Pharisees, scribes and others
2) rule-keeping produces a shell of a religion that has lost its heart
c. third, rule-keeping leads people to believe they can be right with God by
keeping the rules
1) but this ignores the fact that nobody keeps the rules perfectly
2) a person starts thinking he's right with God because of his own deeds
3. The main problem with rule-keeping is that it eventually draws the focus away from
Jesus and onto the person keeping the rules
a. I think our own brotherhood struggles with this one
1) For years, we've thought all we had to do was boil down the gospel to
a handful of observable items
2) We tell people God's plan of salvation is in a formula - hear, believe,
repent, confess and be baptized
3) As long as people observe the formula we're satisfied
4) But we've long short-changed people on Jesus, on the fact that only
his blood sacrifice takes away sin, and that it's really faith in Jesus, not
just a blind keeping of the rules that saves people
b. Never forget who makes us complete - you're not right with God because you
got all the rules right - you're right with God because of Jesus Christ
C. Spiritualism, worship of angels, visions, etc.
1. It's always fruitless to deny that a person has seen a vision or to deny that they have
had a visit by some spirit being
a. it's fruitless because visions and spirit beings exist
b. it's fruitless because a person's own experience is always the ultimate proof
c. illustration
My mother once had surgery in Memphis. While in her hospital room, recovering from anesthesia, she told me that she woke up and saw of picture of Jesus hanging on the wall. She said Jesus climbed down out of that picture, walked across the room and stood by her bed for a while, then went back and climbed back into the picture. She said, "I've got sense enough to know that didn't happen, but I saw it."
2. There are all sorts of examples of people who see things or hear things, and suddenly
they've got an inside track to God that nobody else has
a. a lot of people today are into angels, with a lot more experiences than the
Bible ever tells us about - and if you were to take away their angel, they would
somehow feel deprived of a closeness to God
b. New Age religion has encouraged people to seek out their "spirit guide," some
ethereal being who guides them into truth and insight not available to others
c. why would anybody already complete in Christ, already right with God, and
who has access to wisdom and power of God need anything more
Conclusion
A. 2 Peter 1:1-4 (Peter agreed with Paul, and put it this way)
1Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. NASB95
B. Let's put the focus and emphasis back on Jesus
1. Let's have no more worthless rule-keeping based on worldly ideas
2. Let's beware of the magical pull of fanciful visions of angels or other spirit beings
that would try to convince us we need special help
3. Paul wanted us to know that in Jesus Christ, you are complete
a. you're as saved as you can be
b. you're in as good a relationship with God as you can have
c. you've been given all the knowledge and insight to life and godliness that
is needed
d. nothing can give you more, make you closer, etc.
C. Colossians 2:19
19 . . . (hold) fast to the head (Jesus), from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. NASB95
D. Invitation