Hope Church LV Sermons
Colossians 2 :: A Counterfeit Gospel
Have you ever been in the checkout line at Walmart or Target or Sam's Club or Old Navy or some department store and you're ready to pay for your merchandise? You've got everything laid up there on the counter and they've rung it all up and giving you your amount and you reach into your wallet and you pull out a $20 bill or $100 bill depending on the amount of merchandise you have laying on the table and you hand it to the cash year and for whatever reason they don't always do this but for whatever reason the cash year takes your $20 bill or your $100 bill and they hold it up to the light and they look at it real close and sometimes they'll even grab a pen and they'll, I don't know what those pens do but they'll draw a line across that piece of currency and all the while you're thinking do I look that untrustworthy? I mean is it, do they do this to everybody? Was it something I was wearing? Was it the way I handed them the money? Did it, did something feel wrong about this transaction? Everybody in line is watching and you're holding your breath thinking what if that's not real? What am I going to do, right? The next question is where did you get that from and I don't know where it came from, right? They're looking to see if it's counterfeit, the word counterfeit in Webster's dictionary is defined this way, made an imitation of something else with the intent to deceive. In the United States government the agency that has given the responsibility of policing the issue of counterfeit money is maybe not the agency that you would think, it's not the treasury department in the United States government, it's actually the United States secret service that has been given the task of policing the issue of counterfeit currency in our country. If you go into the website I did this week of the United States Secret Service they have a section entitled how to detect counterfeit money. On that website there is a paragraph that I want to put up on the screen and read to you. Listen what it says, compare a suspect note with a genuine note of the same denomination and series, paying attention to the quality of printing and paper characteristics and the last phrase jumped off the page at me, listen what it says, look for differences not similarities, say that last phrase out loud with me, look for differences not similarities. You see it doesn't matter how close the counterfeit may be to the original, the number of similarities that may be enormous, it may look like, feel like, smell like the original, but any differences at all make it completely worthless in value and potentially dangerous if used. Look for differences, as a family of faith we're studying together through the New Testament letter of Colossians, if you have your Bible this morning I want to invite you to open it to the book of Colossians, we are currently in the second chapter, we're going to pick up this morning in the eighth verse, if you've been visiting or if you've been attending with us and walking through this study you know that as we've walked through this study that one of the main reasons Paul is writing this letter to this group of Christians is because there are those who are false teachers who had come into the church at Colossae, they'd come into this particular town and they'd begun to preach a, if you will, counterfeit gospel, it used a lot of the same terms, they used a lot of the same words, they said many things in the same way and they even said many things correctly. The similarities far outweighed the differences but the differences made the gospel that they were preaching worthless. Pick it up in verse 8 and I want to read to you as Paul again addresses this issue, look at verse 8, look at what he says, see 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. He opens this paragraph of Scripture that we're going to look at this morning with that little phrase, see to it, now it doesn't jump off the page when you read it in English but literally it's an imperative, it means that Paul wasn't just offering us a kind suggestion, Paul was giving us a command, he's literally saying be on the lookout, if we were writing this today we'd put some exclamation points behind the tweet as we put it out, he's saying man you need to pay attention. You and I need to be careful, we need to be watching out for counterfeit gospels in our day, 2000 and 13, there are those who would use the same terms, they would say many of the same things, they would embrace much of what we believe but the differences are dangerous and the differences make the gospel that they are preaching completely worthless, just like in money, there are many who are peddling a counterfeit gospel and Paul warns us to be careful, he uses an interesting word here, he says see to it that no one takes you captive, the word captive here is a word that could be translated kidnap you, no one takes you off and holds you for ransom, they lead you off as pray, here's what he's describing, the idea that this false gospel, anything other than the genuine article, the gospel of Jesus Christ will rob us of the freedom and the riches and the blessings that we enjoy in Christ, you see a false gospel steals away the riches, steals and robs away the freedom of what we know to be true in Christ. Paul then identifies in the next couple of verses what I'm simply calling two core truths, if you remember on the United States Secret Service website they said there are two things primarily you need to look for, you look at the paper and you look at the printing, well what Paul's doing in the letter of Colossians, Paul is boiling down the gospel to these two core truths that really are the major areas where other gospels differ from the true gospel. And in verses 9 and 10 you get what is the whole heart of the whole book of Colossians, look at verse 9, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, verse 10, and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority. And those two little verses, Paul lays down and we're not going to spend too much time on these this morning. I want to spend a few minutes because up until this point in our study we have walked extensively through chapter 1 in the first half of chapter 2 and Paul has been addressing this principle and now he's kind of stating it, here's a summary of what he's been saying, but he lays down these two core truths and I want to give him to you again, here's core truth number 1, core truth number 1 is who Jesus is. And he specifically here speaking about the deity of Jesus Christ. He says here for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And let me just remind you that this phrase in Colossians chapter 2 is loaded with theological significance. This phrase is loaded, it's pregnant with truth about the person of Jesus Christ. Here Paul lays out very specifically and very succinctly that Jesus is God in the flesh. He uses several different words here to drive this point home. First of all he says that it's the fullness of deity. The word fullness is a word that means full measure or completeness. The word deity means the personhood of God. And what he's saying here is that in Christ is the complete personhood of God, all that God is. And then if that's not enough he precedes that little statement with that little word all. He said in him all the fullness, it's like he's just piling it on so that he's making a point that we understand in the person of Jesus Christ everything that God is. Jesus is with skin all. And then he says in him all the totality of all that God is in his person dwells in him. Paul's there is in the present active tense. Here's what I've told you that means before it. It describes an ongoing continuous action, meaning that the deity didn't just rest in him for a few years in his ministry, no, he always has been and he always will be God. Jesus is 100% God in the flesh. John MacArthur summarized it this way. And what John MacArthur said, Colossians chapter two in verse nine is perhaps the most definitive statement of Christ deity in the epistles. It is the rock upon which all attempts to disprove Christ deity are shattered. Jesus is God. I want you to say that out loud with me, Jesus is God. And here's what Paul is saying, anybody. You can call it whatever you want to call it, anybody who preaches a gospel other than a gospel rooted in the reality that Jesus Christ is 100% God in the flesh. Paul says that as a counterfeit gospel, it is worthless and it is dangerous and it will rob you, it will deceive you, and it will steal away the great blessing of the riches that we enjoy in the person of Christ. Jesus is God. It's interesting. It's interesting that as you study world religions of which I'm sure this group here on the front, these missionaries have studied many of them to understand their culture and their context. They study world religions, all religions pretty much have in common, all of them give Jesus a place of prominence. Some would say he's a great prophet. Some would say he's a great teacher. Some would say he is a great moral example if you will follow his teachings and principles in life, your life will be better. Some would even say that he's a son of God. Some would say that he's a man who came from God and ultimately became God like God. So the gamut is far and wide of the kind of prominence that other religions will give the person of Jesus, but listen to me, all of those though they may sound similar, they are grossly false. Jesus is not just a teacher, he's not just a prophet, he's not a son of God, he's not a man who became God. Paul said in him, all the totality of the person of God has always been and always will be in him. Jesus is God and listen to me, the gospel is rooted in who Jesus is. If you get wrong on that point, what you have is worthless and dangerous. Second court truth, well let me say this before I move on. That's so important, at last fall we took seven weeks here at Hope and we unpacked Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 through 23, seven weeks on what we call the incomparable Christ where what I've just laid out for you in a few moments, over seven weekends we unpacked the deity and the personhood of Jesus Christ. It's all on our website, it's completely free. If you were not here last fall, if you're new, let me encourage you, go on our website and deepen your understanding of who Jesus is. So when you hear, when somebody hands you bad money, you can compare it to the genuine article and note the differences that are dangerous. Let me give you the second court truth, not only who Jesus is, but who I am because of who He is. That's a good place to shout, I'm just telling you. And you know what, sad, that's where most Christians, most Christians get court truth number one, if I were to ask any of you today, you would have been able to articulate, maybe not with all the words and phrases, but you would have been able to articulate that Jesus is God. Let me tell you where most Christians don't get it, who you are because of who He is. You see, the first one was talking about the deity of Jesus, this one is talking about our identity now because of who He is, it's changed who I am. And when you begin to understand who you are because of who He is, oh listen, when you start getting that, that's when you experience freedom. That's why Paul said for in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, but then he said, and in him, you have been made complete. Wow, there's so much here, and we have so little time, I'm going to give you some things real quick about that phrase. Most of all that have been in the Greek, Texas, the state of being verb, meaning you could literally translate it this way, in him, you be complete. Now that may not be good English, but it's good theology. You be done in him. Do you see yourself that way? That phrase complete, it's interesting, it comes from the same root word that the word fullness in verse nine comes from. Paul is using a play on words here, in him, all the fullness, same root word of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him, you have been made complete the whole fullness idea. The word fullness means to make full, and here's the, it's in the perfect tense, and that is so important because the perfect tense means action that is completed in the past, but it's not just past action, it's action completed in the past that has ongoing continuous results. Here's what that means, in Christ, I have been made complete, it's done, it's settled, it's finished, but it's an action that continues to affect me throughout eternity. Everything is ever going to change that, in Christ, I have been made complete. The truth of the gospel, listen to this, is that you and I are now whole, before God. Here's what that means, God sees you, and God sees me as complete as Jesus himself. Listen, not because I've deserved that, not because I've earned that, not because I've merited that, no, why? Because I'm in Christ, you see, it's who I am because of who He is. Listen, I know, I know, I know that in a crowd like this, there's some of you who struggle with your identity in Christ, and many of you can trace it right back to your own personal relationship with your earthly father. You have deep identity issues because you had a father on this earth that you could never please, and you struggle to this day in your relationships, you struggle to this day in your work life, you struggle to this day in your own family, because you are rooted in insecurity that's born out of an identity, because you could never please your father. Listen to me, listen to me, in the eyes of your heavenly father, you are whole, you are pleasing to Him. And listen, it's not because of what you did, it's because of who Jesus is. And any gospel, any gospel that teaches that my identity is rooted in anything, I don't care what you call it, I don't even care if you call it Baptist. If it teaches that my identity is rooted in anything other than the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and who He is, it is a false gospel. And it will rob you of the freedom and the riches that you can enjoy in Christ. I've been meeting for the last four weekends every Wednesday morning. We started this thing we call in foundations. I decided to set us out eight weeks and meet with some men to just pour into them. And didn't know, we thought we'd originally cap it at 50. We had a hundred men every week at 6 a.m. here going through this stuff together. And for the last two weeks, I've unpacked this key truth. I must begin to see me the way He sees me. You may tell you the greatest thing that could happen to some of you today. The greatest thing that could happen to some of you today is that you would begin to see yourself through the truth of what the Bible says about you. You know what this book says about you? Before God, your whole. God satisfied with you. How would you let that sink in? You didn't have to come to church today for God to be happy with you. Whole Pastor Vance, if you tell people that, they're not going to come to church. Listen, if you're coming to church to make God happy with you, you coming for the wrong reason anyway. Now listen, when you get who you are in Christ, you want to be here because you want to come celebrate all that God has done in your life. The rest of the letter as we unpack it. From chapter two, verse 10, all the way to the end of the letter. Let me wait and let me tell you what Paul's done. Up until this point, chapter one, to this point in chapter two, Paul has been unpacking who Jesus is. Let me tell you what he does in the rest of the book, he unpacks who we are because of who he is. Now you see how the whole letter hangs on verses 9 and 10? The first half of the letter, he's telling us who he is. The last half of the letter, he's going to tell us who we are because of who he is. You with me? If you're with me, say amen. All right. So here's what I want to do in the time I got left this morning. I want to read to you verses 11 through 15 and go ahead and give you the first three statements about who we are because of who he is. All right. And you're going to have to listen fast. Y'all good with that? All right. Verse 11, "In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him." Say amen. Whew. There's a lot in that. Let me give you a statement because of Jesus. I am dead to sin and alive to God. Now that didn't used to be true of me. You see, before Jesus, I was dead to God and alive to sin. But now because of Jesus, I'm dead to sin and I'm alive to God. He uses two illustrations in verse 11 and verse 12. He uses the illustration of circumcision and the illustration of baptism, circumcision, a removing of the flesh, baptism, a bearing of the body. What are these illustrations? Both of them portray the spiritual reality that in Christ, the old me died. And I have been made alive in Christ. Let me show you a quote. Miles Stanford said it this way. This is the distinctive mark of the Christian, the experience of the cross, not merely that Christ died for us. Read the last part with me, but that we died with him. That's good stuff. Hey, it's not just that Christ died for me. I died with him. Paul wrote about this in greater detail in Romans 6. I want to read it to you. Romans 6 verses 6 and 7, listen what he says, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. Let me ask you a question. Is that present tense or past tense, was crucified, past tense, right? So that means done, right? Completed action. Seeing this, our old self was crucified with him. Why? In order that our body of sin might be done away with. So that we would no longer be what slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin. Dead people don't sin. Right? Why? They're dead. What Paul is describing is our new position. You see, because of who Jesus is, because of what Jesus did. Guess what? I'm dead. The problem is, the jail door has been flung open and many of us are still sitting in the jail sale. We've not begun to live in the reality of who we now are in crime. We're still dragging around the old dead guy. What Paul is describing here is the biblical reality that through Jesus I have been freed from the power of sin before Christ sin enslaved me. Before Christ I had no power over sin. Before Christ I was defeated by my sin. I was dead to the things of God. I was alive to sin. But now I died with him and I've been raised now free from sin's power to live a holy life before God. Paul says now I must begin to live by faith in what the Bible says to be true about me to experience that freedom. That's why Paul goes on in Romans 6 and says this, look at it in Romans 6 verse 11. He says even so consider yourself. He said a minute ago you have been crucified, it's done. Now he says even so grab a hold of that, consider yourselves. It's a term that describes a transaction in the mind where I'm reckoning, I'm laying hold of a biblical truth by faith and appropriating it to my life. Paul says even so consider yourselves to be what, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your moral body. You know what Paul said here, well that's not who you are anymore. That's why when we choose to sin, what do we find out as Christians? That's not what we want anymore. It doesn't satisfy. We still think it does, we still think that's what we want and we'll go grab a hold of it and whatever that shiny thing is that entices our heart, we'll try to grab it. But as soon as we do we realize that's not who I am anymore why because I'm dead to that. Listen what Paul goes on to say, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you may obey its lesson, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God. You know what he's saying here? Here's what he's describing, a daily exercise, God today by faith. I know that I died with you, in order to day by faith I want to live so God today I give you my hands, God I give you my feet, Lord I give you my heart, God I give you my mind, Lord I give you my attitudes and my actions and my reactions, my thoughts, my motives. God I give you every member of my body and I present it to you no longer as an instrument of unrighteousness to be dominated by sin but God I present it to you as an instrument to be used for your righteousness. That's why I said in Romans 6, "But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." That's why Paul said it this way in Galatians 2, Galatians 2 verse 20, what did he say? He said, "I have been," right past ends, "I have been crucified with who Christ and it is no longer I who live." It's not me anymore but Christ who lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, "Hey I live by faith daily, moment by moment believing what he says about me to be true. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." Because of Jesus I'm dead to sin, alive to God. So number two, because of Jesus I am forgiven. Look at it, Galatians 2 verse 13, "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh he made you alive together with him, having forgiven," past tense, present tense, "having forgiven." You're forgiven. Listen, verse 14, "Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us and he's taken it out of the way, having mailed it to the cross." What in the world is that talking about? Oh I can't wait to tell you, it's so exciting. I'm telling you, I've been about to pop just to get to this point in a message. I want you to know this so bad, let me tell you what the certificate of debt is. The certificate of debt from the time of Jesus, some people call it the handwriting of the ordinances, the writings of our debt, here's what it was. When somebody was convicted of a crime, the magistrate or the judge would write down all the things that they were guilty of, it was called their certificate of debt. It was the law that they had broken and if they were put into prison, that certificate of debt was placed above the prison so that anybody who walked by knew why they were serving their time. If they were crucified, that certificate of debt was nailed to the top of the cross. That's why when Jesus died, they had nailed to the top of his cross King of the Jews because the charge levied against him was that he claimed to be the King of the Jews and so that was what they wrote about him, King of the Jews and they placed it on his cross. When somebody completed their sentence, they would go back before the judge unless they were executed on a cross. They were executed on a cross, this document would be given to their family. They would go back before the judge with their certificate of debt and the judge would inquire as to the payment of their debt against society and when their debt was decreed to have been fulfilled, the judge would either do one of two things. He would wipe clean that document or he would stamp across it a Greek word to Telestai which means paid in full so that any time anybody ever came and asked them, "Wait a minute. Aren't you that person that robbed that store and aren't you guilty in it?" They could say, "Oh yes I was but let me go get my certificate of debt." They would bring out the certificate of debt and it would say paid in full. Here's what the book says. The book says all of us had a certificate of debt. He broke the law of God, we stood guilty before God, condemned to an eternity separated from God because of our sin. We had a certificate of debt, but here's what verse 14 says, "Jesus took my certificate of debt and he nailed it to his cross." And when Jesus died, do you remember what he cried out in the last thing he said? He said, "It is what." Let me tell you what Greek word that is, "Tetelestai." It means paid in full. Here's what that means. When the enemy comes and says, "Hey Vance, you don't deserve to be preaching the gospel, you don't deserve to call yourself a Christian. I've seen the thoughts, I know what you've done, I've seen your past, I know how guilty you are. I say yes, that may be who I was, but I can go get my certificate of debt and I can bring it out and say I'm paid in full." Because that's who I am now, listen, that's not who I hope to be, that's who I am in Christ. There's so much good stuff in this phrase. This verse 14, he says, "Having taken it out of the way." That phrase, "taken it out of the way" is another verb in this paragraph that's in the perfect tense. It means it happened, but it has ongoing continuous results, meaning it's forever been taken away. Here's what that means. How many of your sins, when Jesus died on the cross, were still in the future? You know what that means? He's not only already forgiven me for every sin I've ever committed, he's already forgiven me for every sin I'll ever commit. You say, "Oh preacher, you tell people that, they'll go live however they want to live." Let's what? You're right, but when people get that, it'll change the way they want to live. You see, I don't have to obey to please God, I please Him because of Jesus. I get to obey Him now out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship with Him, where by faith Christ is manifesting His very life through me. Let me tell you what that is, "Frieda, Frieda." Let me give you the last one, and I'll close. Because of Jesus, I'm victorious. Look at verse 15, "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." Let me tell you what this is a picture of. In Roman times, when they would defeat an enemy, an enemy city or an enemy army, the Roman general would come and march through the streets of Rome, celebrating his victory, and dragging behind them would be all the captives from the armies that had been defeated. Those people that used to cause fear in the eyes of the Roman citizen, that army or that city or that country that used to birth fear and anxiety into the hearts of Roman citizens, now they are being led through the streets as a public spectacle, a defeated foe that can no longer bring any harm to Rome. Here's what the Bible says, "When Jesus died and rose again, He defeated Satan. He defeated death. He defeated hell. He defeated the grave. He defeated sin. And He drugged them through those streets." Let me tell you what's going to happen one day. One day Jesus Christ is going to come again. He is going to come with the host of heaven rising behind Him. He's coming riding on a white horse to declare one sin for all that the victory is ours. But here's what Paul says, "You don't have to wait till then. They've already been defeated." You don't have to live in fear of this world or in fear of the... I hear Christians, man, they watch stuff on the news. They hear about all these wars and rumors of wars and they see all this stuff for the enemy and they see what's morally happening. "Oh, what's going to happen?" They're defeated. The enemy has been defeated. Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. No wonder Paul concluded 1 Corinthians 15 by saying, "Oh, death, oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of sin is death and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Listen, the whole gospel rests on who He is and who I am because of who He is. But here's what I want you to do this morning. I want you to take the gospel that you hold. And I want you to hold it up to the light. I want you to examine it. Because the gospel you believe, a gospel that says Jesus is God, the gospel that you believe a gospel that says because of who He is, I'm dead to sin and alive to God. Because of who He is, I am forgiven once and for all. Because of who He is, I'm victorious. That is the true gospel. And Jesus said, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." [ Silence ]