Challengers to the King

1. Read: Colossians 2:16-23

2. About the Text:

1) The letter to the church at Colossae was written to teach that Christ was supreme.

2) There are, however, many challengers to Christ the King.

3) We see three of those challengers in our text.

4) These challengers are still with us today.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).

1) One of the early problems that threatened the church was a group who wanted to impose the Law of Moses on the church.

2) “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).

3) Some wanted to judge others based on their observance of the Law.

4) “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

2. Food and Drink

1) Dietary requirements of the Law of Moses.

2) These are found in Leviticus 11.

3. Festival or New Moon

1) This referred to the various feasts of the Law of Moses.

a. Passover (Leviticus 23:5).

b. Pentecost (Numbers 28:26)

c. Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34)

d. Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27-28)

2) It also referred to the monthly observance of the New Moon.

4. Sabbaths

1) The word Sabbath means rest.

2) The seventh day of the week (Exodus 20:8).

3) The seventh-year rests for the land (Leviticus 25:1-7).

4) Year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-17).

5. These were shadows, not the substance.

1) “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things…” (Hebrews 8:5).

2) “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…” (Hebrew 10:1).

1. “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God” (Colossians 2:18-19).

1) Here is another problem the early church faced, religious imagination.

2) This is the problem of people inventing things that have a veneer of spirituality.

3) Luke 1:51 talks about God scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

2. False Humility or Voluntary Humility

1) This is a show of humility in reference to self-imposed rules.

2) Example: Going last in line.

3) Trekking on your knees to some “holy” site.

4) 1 Kings 18:28 – prophets of Baal cut themselves.

5) “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23).

3. Worship of Angels

1) Another area where men think they are holy but are not – elevating angels.

2) “Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God’” (Revelation 22:8-9).

4. “Intruding into those things which he has not seen.”

1) This is what many do today with the Bible.

2) They read one verse out of context and make up many false beliefs based on their misunderstanding.

3) “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).

4) They do not handle correctly the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

5. “Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” – Pride!

1) The source of all of man’s inventions/imaginations in religion is his pride.

2) The fleshly mind wants carnal things, not true spiritual things.

3) It desires to fill up the senses with experiences of one kind or another.

4) Why we have so-called worship assemblies today that are more like rock concerts.

5) That’s not worship; it is just the fulfillment of the desires of the flesh.

6) “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself” (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

6. “And not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God” (Colossians 2:)

1) This is the root of the problem.

2) They are not holding fast to the head, Christ, the true King!

3) They have made themselves king in place of Christ the King.

4) We can only grow as God wants us to grow when stay attached to the Head, Christ.

1. “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—“Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:20-23).

2. We have died with Christ from the basic principles of the world.

1) Think about the death of Christ and what Christ sacrificed.

2) Do we become Christians to return to what put Him on the cross?

3) Do not love the world (1 John 2:15).

3. Why subject yourself to regulations?

1) What is Paul discussing? The regulations of the law of Moses as interpreted through rabbinical pharisaism.

2) These are religious systems that people use to control other people.

3) Today we have Catholicism, Denominationalism, Cults, Islam, and many others.

4) They all substitute their own system for Christ.

4. According to the doctrines and commandments of men.

1) This is the real test.

2) Does it come from man or Christ?

3) Matthew 15:1-9

5. The appearance of wisdom…

1) Self-imposed religion.

2) False Humility

3) Neglect of the Body

6. No value against the indulgence of the flesh.

1) The flesh is never satisfied.

2) Just pursuing a checklist of dos and don’ts will never address the fundamental issue.

3) The need is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

4) We cannot replace Christ with a system of our own design.

5) “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

1. “Let no one cheat you of your reward.”

1) These false teachings cheat us of our reward.

2) First, they cheat us of joy, peace, and love in Christ.

3) Second, they cheat us out of salvation by worshipping something other than Christ.

2. The Challengers to Christ here are . . .

1) The Law of Moses

2) Religious Imagination

3) Doctrines of Men

3. Invitation