Don't Get Caught
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We do not have to live very long to know that it is easy to fool people, and that it is very easy to be fooled ourselves. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, the great preacher and writer, used to illustrate this by telling of a practical joke which he and his teenaged friends played on some unsuspecting passersby in a large city. His group stood on a busy street corner and stared intently into the air. One of them pointed, while another said (loudly enough to be overheard), “It is not.” A third friend argued, “It is so!” At this, one or two people stopped and began to look up in the same direction as Barnhouse and his friends. As the argument grew more heated, others stopped to gaze fixedly at the point his group discussed. Then, one by one, Barnhouse and his friends quietly slipped out of the crowd and gathered a few yards away to watch the results. By this time, some fifteen people were looking into the air. The crowd changed as new passersby came along and joined the group and those who had been staring longest left. Twenty minutes later several people were still looking upward. Several others had gone off to the side and were leaning against a building, looking up for something that was not there and never had been. About his childhood trick, Barnhouse observed:
That little incident is a good illustration of all the earth-born religions. People talk about having faith; they tell you to look in a direction where there is absolutely nothing. Some people are so desperately in need of seeing something that they will look till they are almost blind, yet they never catch a glimpse of anything real.
Sometimes we can be so desperate for our sin, that we will look everywhere and anywhere to find justification for it. We will look to where there is nothing hoping to find something. And we will believe what we know to be a lie just because they are saying what we wanna hear. We believe what anyone will say as long as it is plausible and gives us a lie that we can believe. Remember what Mr. Miagi said to the Karate kid… “lie becomes truth only if someone wants to believe it.”
I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine about a certain prosperity gospel teacher we were going over a certain point and I said to him, you know that it is not true. Its deceptive. He said I know, I just like believing that it is true even though I know it is not. I helps me get up in the morning. But the bad thing about this… the empty philosophies that promise hope when there is no hope at all, is actually like being locked in a cage. When you find that you want to get out you can’t … there is is reason for this. Let’s find out why...
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Human Tradition
The Elementals
Not of Christ
The Slavery
Spirit of Liberty
The first thing we will look at today is the empty philosophy that comes from human tradition. Second, the empty philosophy that comes from elemental spirits. Third, we we will see how the empty philosophy is not at all form Christ. Fourth, we will see how getting caught is a slavery and it is hard to get out of. Finally, we will see that for Christians today we can rejoice because whom the son has set free is free indeed.
Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the false teachers of this world cause us to be caught and enslaved to its philosophy, it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Spirit of liberty that will set us free in Christ to live and move and have our being rejoicing in Christ and Christ alone.
I. Human Tradition
- What comes from the mind of men.
A. Remember that Paul and Timothy are writing to the Colossians to encourage them to hold on to the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ and to no be deceived by the false teachers to depart from what they have been taught. And there is a threat. And we need to see this today. There is a threat to Christo-centric living. And it is called false teaching.
B. It is the false teaching of the false teachers out there that will rip you from true Christo-centric living or being “in Christ.” If we are gonna continue to live in Christ, we need to hold onto the authentic teaching about Christ and his Lordship that we had already received from the scriptures.
C. What you are hearing in this world is called philosophies and empty deceit. The first thing Paul makes is that it is deceit. It is not true but there is a high sounding convincing aspect to it. The NLT calls it high sounding nonsense. It sounds great. Really great. You will hear things from those who have a large platform. Those who have the highest of degrees. Those who have much deep and profound brain things inside of their heads. And what Paul and Timothy are saying is that these things, as high and smart as they may sound, are actually nonsense. Did you ever watch the show on how the universe came to be, by Stephen Hawking?
D. It is nonsense. It is meant to be deceiving. And these philosophies and deceptions are followed by three prepositions… using the same preposition kata … The empty deceit comes from the mind of man. This clearly carries the accusation that Jesus instilled on the Pharisees that they did not rely on the word of God but on their own traditions. The thing that is being seen as high and lofty being handed down from one person to another is actually human in origin. What you have been taught about Christ comes from God and everything else is from the mind of man.
Dr. Douglas Moo writes, What is clear is that the description is pejorative: the “philosophy” is the product of mere human speculation and does not put its adherents in touch with divine truth.
E. This is why it is important to make sure what we are taking in and learning is truly from the scriptures and the rightly divided scriptures. Because it is the very word of God and don’t we want to believe what God says and not what man is telling us?
F. Mankind is very good at figuring out human motivation especially when it comes to desire. Remember I have a minor in psychology. I learned that retail companies hire psychologists to help them train their sales people. If companies can learn more about human behavior and what motivates us, we can better tap into that to urge them to buy our product, vote for me, or even come to my church or give money to my ministry.
G. Mankind is very good at getting us to believe what it teaches. The world will even use religion as a means to make money. But of course we don’t think that they are wrong because we are deceived. That is the problem. But if you think thats it… no way.
II. The Elementals
- The elemental spirits or demons.
A. It seems to be compounded of the general evolution of the greek stoicheia which essentially began as referring to the basic elements of the world… earth wind fire and water. Evolving to the spirits over these elements. The earth god, the wind god, the fire god and the water god. And even in hellenistic jewish circles we see the application to spiritual powers. Either way, all together, it seems that Paul is talking about philosophies and empty deceit that come from the mind of men and here basically demons.
B. In other words, the philosophy was demon controlled. They were wanting to bring the Colossians back to the bondage that they were in before Christ.
Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?
C. Many of the false teachers of today will accuse those who opposed their teaching as being influenced by demons. But here we see the apostle Paul accusing those who do not teach the truth about Christ, who depreciate his supremacy, and who downgrade His sufficiency, as those who teach what is controlled by demons. The elemental spirits. But here is the deepest cutting part of the verse today.
III. Not of Christ
- The most demeaning thing about what they teach.
A. They are teaching doctrines and philosophies that do not depend on Christ. This is the big picture accusation of what it means to teach that there is anything at all remotely helpful to life and godliness that do not depend on Christ. They are teaching that Christ and His Gospel is not enough and if that is the case then they are teaching what is opposite of what Christ has taught.
B. Everything in Christianity depends on Christ. This is why we are soooo adamant about making sure that Christ is preached every single Sunday. Christ is exalted every single Sunday.
Dr. Douglas Moo writes, “Christ is the one in whom God exclusively is to be found, the one through whom the world was created and through whom it is redeemed, and the one who has decisively defeated all the hostile powers. Any teaching that in any way detracts from Christ’s exclusive role is by definition both wrong and ineffective. The teachers themselves are probably not denying that Christ was central to God’s saving purposes. They seem rather to be arguing that certain practices must be added on in order to achieve true spiritual fulfillment.”
And here is the huge part of what he is saying...
“But, for Paul, in this case, addition means subtraction: one cannot “add” to Christ without, in effect, subtracting from his exclusive place in creation and in salvation history.”
C. In reality, all we needed was for Paul and Timothy inspired by the Spirit to write this and this alone should have been enough for the Colossians and for us to turn away from any teaching that diminishes the supremacy and authority of Christ. Any teaching that teaches that Christ is not all that you need for the fullness of Christian life. It is teaching that is not in accordance to Christ. His Word is not from man, His word is not from demons, and teaches what depends on Christ and Christ alone. It like Christ is enough.
IV. The Slavery
- We are the plunder of the false teachers.
A. The final thing I hope we see in our passage today brings us back to the beginning of the verse. “Don’t let anyone capture you ...” Sylagoeo. Means being captured by your enemy after a war. Plunder. Taken captive by those who have beaten you. They won you over and now they are taking you away to be enslaved by them.
Dr. Kent Hugues writes, [False] teaching asserts a death-like grip on its followers, and few come out of it. Paul is saying, stay away from false teaching if you value your life.
B. I got really good friends who I knew growing up in the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement who are still there. I have been talking with them for years. I have more than proven my point showing them clear scriptures and still no avail. So many who are stuck in the prosperity gospel and self-fulfilment movements and no matter what I give or show they will not walk away from it. It is like captivity and like slavery.
C. You can show clearly that what is being preached is another gospel and therefore accursed that they still believe it. You can clearly show that their good works and their self-betterment will not make them worthy of God’s favor. Yet they still try everyday to do it. You show them they they will be the people in Matthew 7 who say Lord Lord did I not do this in your name, did I not do that in your name and Christ will say to you depart from me I never knew you. I yet they still seek out life coaches and self-help instruction. You show them what happened to the church in Smyrna… what happened to those who were pleasing to God and how God rewarded them. And they still believe the prosperity gospel is true.
D. I have a family member who is finally out of the false teaching crazy teaching and it took 15 plus years to get her out of it. And she is still dealing with all the residual effects. Still having to unlearn. Still having to get rid of all the damage done. Still struggling to stay away from it all cause it is everywhere. We have a mutual friend who you all know who took 20 years to get out of it. It was a struggle, it was frustrating, but I thank God he got out. But family it is not easy. It is captivity, it is slavery. It is a terrible terrible bondage. Ever experience
E. But let me tell you… I tried and tried with so many, but the ones that actually did come out of it. Let me tell you, it was definitely the Hand of God that brought them out of it. The power of the Spirit can overcome bondage. The Lord had mercy upon them, the Lord will have mercy on us.
V. Spirit of Liberty
- Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
A. Because all of our teaching all that we have and all that we need is a life that depends solely on Christ. How do we get out of bondage. By the power of Christ and Christ alone. He is our salvation. He is our life. He is our justification and he is our sanctification. Remember in Pauls letter to the Galatians...
How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
B. If you are hearing teaching like this you gotta run. Remember Paul is saying that false teaching will ruin your life and it will put you in a bondage that few come out of. It makes the teacher rich and famous and it destroys you. Freedon comes from Christ and Christ alone. Christ is the only one that can make you truly free.
So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
C. There is true freedom and true salvation in Christ and only in Christ. Because it was the sacrifice of the Son of God that was needed for salvation. And we know this was given.
D. The word declares that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
E. The beautiful promises continue. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
F. And all Christians have the Spirit. The Spirit applies the salvation and sanctification of God onto His people. He will make us like Christ. He will be the one to cause love joy peace patience kindness gentleness faithfulness and self control to flow from us. He is the one to make us more like Christ.
G. He is the Spirit of Liberty. Do not be deceived, trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.