Human Regulations - Colossians 2:20-23

0:58For me, that's one of my favorite things about going to the doctor, is that the doctor, not that I enjoy needing to go to the doctor, but the doctor, you know, I can have a symptom and I can look online on the internet and try and figure out what it is, and I usually narrow it down to about 100 different things. 95 of which mean I'm soon going to die. But then when you go to the doctor, And they're able to just confident and calmly tell you, oh, no, it's this. And they just penetrate right to the heart of the issue and clear away the fog. We're blessed when people are that wise. Well, in the letter to the Colossians, Paul does this.

1:49Paul does this. False teachers have come in, they have confused Christianity, but Paul is able to see clearly. These false teachers, they've tried to add on extra things, extra rituals, angel worship, even. And probably what I think is going on is that most of the Colossians, they haven't bought into these things. They haven't bought into the need for angel worship. They haven't bought into the need for all these extra rules and regulations because we know that Paul commends them for their faith at the beginning of the letter. But what I think probably happened is when these false teachers came in, all of a sudden things got a lot more confusing for the Christians in Colossi. I think there would have been this fog and this mist that comes up as these false teachers are telling them. And these false teachers sound really smart. They sound like they know the scriptures. And they're telling them that they need all these other things besides Christ. I think they would have been confused. And so it's such a blessing that Paul writes in this letter and he kind of pierces through that confusion. He's like that. Wise person that's able to remove all the mists, remove all the muddy waters, and just get to the issue, make things clear. And that's what he's doing in this letter. He sees this ruse for what it is from the false teachers. He sees it as a deception, and he can see it clearly. And not only that, he's able to boil everything down to one main failure for the false teachers. And that is that they have forgotten that they are in Christ. They have forgotten that Christians are in Christ and they have everything they need in Christ. And so throughout the letter, Paul's reminding them of this. Listen to the beginning of chapter 2. This is Colossians 2. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face. So Paul is toiling, he's struggling, and it's a great struggle for the believers in Colossi and Laodicea. Verse 2, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full understanding, of full assurance of understanding, and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So these false teachers have come in and said, you need more special wisdom. You need more special knowledge. And Paul is saying, no. In Christ, we have everything we need, not only for salvation, but in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so, Paul's strategy in this letter is to toil and to struggle to get them to understand these things so that their hearts would be encouraged and knit together. Well, today, in our text, Paul is going to ask a question that gets to the root of the issue. Look at Colossians 2:20. Colossians 2:20.

5:04If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. So, if you have died with Christ, if you have already been separated from all these things, why are you acting like you haven't? That's the root of the issue. We already saw earlier in chapter 2 that in Christ they have died and they have been buried and they have been raised again. So, Paul is now taking that foundational idea that in Christ we died from this world. He says, away from this world. We died away from this world. We are separated from this world and its earthly things.

5:57So, why would we go back to earthly things if we? We want to worship Christ. In verse 20, when he says, If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, we saw that phrase earlier, too. Remember, it was kind of a weird phrase, the elemental spirits. It really just means the elements, the earthly elements. Like, you know, today we would have the periodic table, but maybe back then they would have earth and fire or something like that. The earthly components, the earthly elements. But for the Colossians, remember that it had taken on more than just saying those earthly things. This was part of their angel worship. And so that's why, in most of our translation, it says, you have died to the elemental spirits of the world. This had taken on a spiritual aspect. There were angels associated with these elements, and this is who they were worshiping. This is who they needed these rituals for. So Paul is saying that if you're dead to earthly things when you became a believer, if you have died in your sinful flesh when you became a believer, then you have no business messing around in this earthly stuff, earthly forms of worship.

7:10You're not alive to this world any longer, so we can't live as if we were. So what are these regulations? Look at verse 21. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Do not handle, do not taste, do touch. Not touch. So Paul isn't describing exactly what these false teachers are prohibiting. Instead, he says that any rule of this kind is condemned. We don't need any of these kinds of regulations. The taste one, do not taste, that's probably a food regulation, maybe based off of the Old Testament, maybe based off of the issue we see elsewhere in the New Testament of food offered to idols, something like that. So there's rules about food. Do not handle might be, they think, intimacy with your spouse. Maybe the false teachers were saying you need to stay away from that if you're going to be a real believer or something like that. Do not touch different objects that are unclean, maybe. Whatever the case, whatever these rules are, Paul is saying all of them are condemned. We don't need any of those rules. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. We don't need any of those to worship Christ. That's not part of what it means to be a Christian.

8:32Now, just like we said last time, Paul is not saying that we can't have any rules about our own conduct. We know as believers it can be wise to make rules for ourselves, but believers should never seek to cause those rules to be something that's imposed on other believers. And you certainly shouldn't think that that is. Helping you have true worship. Paul is saying that there are no ritualistic rules and regulations for true worship. In Christ, we have spiritually left all those things behind. We died in Christ. And so we don't need to return to earthly forms of worship. Do not taste, do not touch, do not handle. You know, there are many Christian denominations that have returned to those things.

9:28Maybe you've been part of one. There are denominations that have all kinds of rules and regulations. They've made this whole system of what it looks like to be a Christian. And most of it can be boiled down to these things: do not taste, do not touch, do not handle. And a lot of it is based off of the Old Testament rules about the temple. They have kind of analogous rules that they've made up. Maybe they have certain places that only a priest can go. They have certain things that only a priest can touch.

10:03They have fasting. They have certain acts of humiliation and abasement before you can worship God. All of these things. They can be based off of wisdom principles. Maybe some church leader centuries ago thought this is how it makes it easier for me to have a clear mind when I'm worshiping God or something like that. But they have transformed into these rules that have been imposed upon believers. And I think a lot of it can just be boiled down to what Paul says here. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.

10:39But we already have all the treasures we need in Christ. That's Paul's point in this letter. We don't need any of those extra rules to add on top of the fact that we've been saved in Christ. Just like we sang over and over this morning, it's the cross that makes it so that we can be forgiven, not these regulations. Just like we read in the scripture reading this morning, it is Christ who can forgive sins. We don't need old rules and customs. It's Christ who forgives sins. When you visit another country, you don't keep following our traffic rules when you go to that country, right? That would be a disaster. So if you went to Britain and you said, I'm going to drive like an American, that would be a terrible idea, right? You're going to get in a wreck. You're going to drive on the wrong side of the road. It would just be a bad idea. And that goes for any law. When you visit another country, you have to follow their laws, not our laws. And so it would be silly to go to another country and say that I'm just committed to following my old country's laws. And in the same way, if we've died to this world, if we've really been separated, like we spoke about a few weeks ago, if we've really been separated from worldly things, then we shouldn't keep living as if we haven't.

12:00It doesn't fit. It doesn't work. That's what these false teachers don't understand. The Colossians are completely new, and so they can't go back to their old pagan ways. As we study the rest of this passage, I want you to see that Paul is pointing out that these false teachers are silly. They're ridiculous. This message in your bulletin is titled Human Regulations, but it could be titled, Are You Crazy? It could be titled, What in the World Are You Thinking? He has this main question of why in the world, if you have truly died in Christ, if you've been separated from these things, why would you return? That's the main question that governs this whole text. But then he's going to give three more reasons why this is just ridiculous, why it's foolish, why as Christians, we should never feel tempted to go back to these things. So, in our text today, we're going to study three reasons why regulations are foolish. They're short-sighted, they're man-made, and they're useless. They're short-sighted, they're man-made, and they're useless. Look at verse 20, and we'll read the whole text. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you are still alive in this world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Verse 22, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Let's pray. Father, as we keep studying this text, I pray that you would help us see how ridiculous these rules are, see how ridiculous these rituals are. It's so easy for us to be taken captive by the thought that we have to follow certain rituals in order to be complete in Christ. But I pray, Lord, that you would guard us from that thought and that you would make us grateful that we already are complete in Christ, that we already can come to you in prayer, that we already can worship you even today.

14:29I pray, Lord, that you would help us understand the ins and outs of this passage and apply it to our life. In Jesus' name, amen. So, the first reason why these regulations are foolish is that they are short-sighted. Look at verse 21: do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used. So, all of these things that the rules are based off of, they all perish as they are used. They're used. That's the first reason why these regulations are foolish. It certainly makes sense for the food, right? When you eat food, it's gone. It's not going to turn back into food that someone else can eat. So as you eat it, it perishes. So, how can you say that it is vitally important for our worship that we need to eat certain foods? Don't you see that that is temporary? It's passing, it's short-sighted. Jesus said, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles, this defiles a person. That was Matthew 15:11. So, food perishes as you eat it, it's gone. So, we can't get caught up in regulations about what we can eat. That doesn't defile us. So, we don't need to have times of fasting or times of only eating a certain kind of food before we can come and worship. Paul is saying that the same thing is true for anything we handle or touch.

16:06Things get worn out, right? As we use them, things break down and they pass away. Everything that these rules would be based off of are things that are passing away. They're going to go away. How can we base our spiritual worship off something so earthly and temporary? When Jesus spoke to the Woman at the well. If you remember, she asked him about the right location to worship. She said, Is it the Jewish place to worship, or is it the place that we say as a Samaritans, which place is the right place to worship? And Jesus doesn't just say the Jews have it right, and you're wrong. He does imply that. But he goes on to say this: But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. That was John 4:23.

17:10This is the kind of worshiper that the Father is seeking, people who worship Him in spirit and truth. And Jesus is talking about location. He's saying that soon, believers, people who believe in Jesus, they're not going to have to go to the Jewish temple every time they want to worship God. Instead, they're able to worship Him in spirit everywhere. But Paul is making a similar point that we don't have to do any of those physical things. That's not what matters to the Father if we're going to worship Him.

17:43We don't have to abstain from foods. We don't have to avoid intimacy with our spouse. We don't have to only touch certain objects. Those are not ways that we truly worship. Now, before we move on, it's important for us to be able to do this. us to not make a mistake. So Paul is saying that these things are all temporary. That's why we shouldn't base our worship off of them. But he's not saying that nothing in this earth matters. He's not saying that just because everything is passing away in this life, that it doesn't matter. He's not trying to separate between the spiritual world and say only those things matter and the physical world doesn't matter. That's not what he's doing. We know that from other passages. Instead, what he's doing is saying you shouldn't make the center of your worship all of these earthly temporal things.

18:41If we make our religion revolve around earthly things, if that's what our religion consists of, then we've missed the point. We're centered on things that are passing away. How can that be what God wants? That's what Paul is saying. Regulations that deal with these things are short-sighted. The second reason why these regulations are foolish or ridiculous is that they're man-made. They're man-made. Look at the rest of verse 22, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. According to human precepts and teachings. Do you see why that is ridiculous? Do you see why that's foolish? It's according to man's teaching.

19:31So, these things that the false teachers are requiring, they made them up. Or the generation before them made them up and they're just passing them on. But still, God did not command them. They are man-made. And they have assumed, if you think about it, they have assumed that this is something that God wants. They've made something up and then just assumed that this is something God wants. Or maybe you could picture in generations previous, they have had men who thought this was a very spiritual thing and they made it up and then they passed it on to the next generation. And each generation is adding on to these traditions about angel worship. And as it goes on, and more and more people are having mystical visions and they're going through these religious experiences as they're fasting and abasing themselves, it becomes more and more convincing. And so it really seems like this is what you need to do to please God. But God never said it. God never said, this is what I want you to do to please me. All of this is based off of stuff that men made up. You see how foolish that is?

20:50In the human mind, there's some idea that God must love mystical rituals. At least I know in my mind that pops up all the time. God must love it when we enforce strict regulations on ourselves or when we eat only certain things for his sake. But at the end of the day, God never commanded any of these things. Men made them up. It would be like if you were a husband and you, maybe it was your anniversary coming up, and so you wanted to really spoil your wife. And so you hear from a buddy of this really amazing Mexican restaurant, and you're going to take her there. It's like super upscale, really expensive. And your buddy said he took his wife there. She loved it. It was one of the most important things in her life. All of that kind of stuff. Okay? So you are really excited. You're going to take your wife there. But for the last 10 years that you've been married, your wife has told you over and over, I don't like Mexican food. Right? And so now all of a sudden, you've just assumed that she's going to like something because someone else liked it. That's foolishness. That's what these false teachers are doing. Or maybe even worse, your friend is an Aggie, and you think he's going to love this gift. You got him a jersey, but it's a UT jersey. Okay? And you go on and on about how much everyone likes it. It's signed by the quarterback, all this stuff. But you've made the mistake of assuming that you're Friend, like something that someone else would like. That's what these false teachers are doing. They have assumed that God is pleased by these things. You know, after all, that's what the pagan gods are pleased with. That's what all the other religions around them that they see, that's what their gods are pleased with. They like their adherents to fast and abase themselves and have visions and worship angels and all these things. But God has never said that he wanted the Colossian Christians to do this. So for them, it is foolishness.

23:10We can do the same kind of thing. I know that most of us don't form our own rituals and regulations like that. We're not saying that before church every Sunday. We need to make sure we only eat fish and we don't touch video games or, you know, something like that. We don't make rules and regulations about that, but I think that we can make the mistake of assuming God would be pleased with something that we would be pleased with. And if we're not careful to know God's word, then we can make that mistake a lot easier. Maybe the rule or the regulation for you is just popping into church every Sunday. And with that one act every week, you assume that you are pleasing God with your actions.

24:00With this regulation that you've made up, with this rule that you've made up. But what God is interested in is your heart. And so, if you're doing that every Sunday and you think that that's what it looks like to worship God, there's a good chance you just made that up if you're not loving the Lord with your heart and your soul and your mind and the strength. So, don't just make up rules and assume that you're pleasing God. Instead, do the hard work of figuring out in his word what he actually wants us to do. And then do that.

24:37The third reason why these regulations are foolish is that they are useless. So, they're short-sighted, they're temporary, they're man-made instead of given to us by God, and they're useless. This is the biggest and most humiliating reason of all for the false teachers. They are completely useless. Look at verse 23: These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So, first Paul says, these have the appearance of wisdom, and I think we could agree. I think that in our hearts and in our minds, when we look at other religions and we see monks that have cloisters. themselves away on mountains. I think we can look at that and say, wow, those must be such wise men. You know, they're thin because they have made so many rules about their food.

25:43They have given up riches and interaction with the world. And I think that when we look at men like that, it has the appearance of great wisdom. We think, wow, these men must be so wise and so knowledgeable. But in reality, they've missed the point. They've made a futile search, futile search. Because this is a self-made religion. So even though on the outside it looks to the world like they are so spiritual and so wise and so that's it, spiritual and wise. There's a spiritual and wise. In the end, Paul is saying, but they made that up. And so, yeah, for show, it looks spiritual and wise, but they made it up. How can that please God if he didn't say to do those things? Look again at verse 23. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion in asceticism and severity to the body. And so as Americans, when we look at those other religions, it's hard for us to condemn them. But Paul is seeing things clearly. Like we said earlier, it's hard for us to see clearly about those things as Americans because we kind of want to be universalists in our hearts. We want to look at all those things and say, wow, that is so wise. How can we condemn those practices? But Paul is seeing things clearly. He sees clearly that it's foolish to make up our own rules and regulations and just assume that that pleases God.

27:27Even if it has the appearance of great wisdom with asceticism and severity to their body, so they're being very strict, they've got all these rules, it's still foolish because it doesn't have Christ. And look at the end of verse 23. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. And so on the outside, it looks like real change is happening to these people who are making up all these rules, who are living a strict life. It looks like, wow, they are really changing their life. They look different. But Paul is saying that the flesh is still reigning. Their sinful hearts have just found another way to sin. And yes, they've cut themselves off from certain sins. Yes, they've made regulations to not sin in this area, but their flesh is still king and they're just sinning in other areas. Maybe they've made a victory over sin, but now they're. Got pride about it. Or maybe they have conquered one sin, but they're still struggling with the heart issue. Sin is still reigning in their lives.

28:42These regulations are useless. They're of no value. There may have been no one who knew this better than Martin Luther. You guys remember Martin Luther? The monk, the strict, strict monk who changed from that and ignited the Reformation. You may have heard this famous quote from Martin Luther, one of my favorite quotes. If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I. So he's saying, I did so much. Martin Luther was like the perfect monk. He did everything right. He was so strict on himself. He followed so many rules.

29:28But at the end of the day, it wasn't taking care of his sin. He still had a sinful heart. Later, he would say this, Christ was given not for petty and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins. Not for one or two, but for all. Not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained. And so he's saying, if I want Christ to actually deal with those sins, those mountainous, ingrained life sins, Sins, it's not going to be with rules and regulations. I can't, by my monkery or by my regulations or anything like that, I can't take care of the true issue in my heart that I have mountainous lifelong sins and I'm always sinning.

30:20He's seeing the issue clearly. We also have those stubbornly ingrained sins that he talks about, and we can't do enough by way of regulation or by way of religious ritual to get rid of them. That's why those things are useless. It's like in the cartoons when a character is standing in front of a dam that is breaking, and you've all seen a cartoon like this, and he's like maybe trying to use bubblegum or something to stop the break in the dam, but it's obviously not helping. And maybe one, you know, squirt of water comes out and he stops that one with bubblegum, but eventually the dam's going to break. That's what these regulations are like. They might seem like things that are actually helping, but really they're just like these tiny little pieces of bubblegum that make us feel good for a second. In reality, they're useless, they have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. That's what Paul says.

31:25I think that when we look at this verse, one of the main applications is. Gratitude. I think we should be grateful to Christ, that in Christ we actually can stop the indulgence of the flesh by being in Christ, that he has actually made a way. Since these regulations are useless, we can be grateful that Christ died in our place. And being in Christ means that we can have real success in stopping the indulgence of our flesh. We can be grateful. But hand in hand with that, I think that another application, besides being grateful for being in Christ, another application is to make sure we're actually fighting sin in a way that's not useless. I think that when we sin over and over and over, our knee-jerk reaction is to make rules for ourselves. And that's a good reaction, right? It's a good way to help us avoid sin, but it's not the rules that actually stop the sin in our hearts. We need to come to Christ for that.

32:35We can't assume that making rules for ourselves makes up for the fact that we have sinned. And so we need to be careful that we're also fighting sin in the way that God wants us to, that we're crying out for help to Christ, our sympathetic high priest, that we are soaking ourselves in his word and renewing our mind. That's how we fight sin, that's how we change our hearts. Not with regulations, but with God's word. The world might look at those things, prayer and dependence on God and reading His Word, they might look at those things and think that they are useless. That's what the world might think. The world thinks that we need regulations, but we know the truth: that we can't have true victory over sin unless we're in Christ, unless we're depending on him, and unless we're renewing our minds with the scriptures. And so, we shouldn't be foolish and rely on useless things to try and fight sin.

33:40Well, as we close, let's be careful as we summarize what Paul is saying. So, first, he started with that question: how in the world could you think this way? Why, if you have died in Christ to earthly things, why would you return to those earthly things and think that that's how you worship God? And then he gives three more reasons why this is foolish. First, he says it's short-sighted, and he's not saying that all physical things in this world are not important. He's not saying that all physical things are wicked or they don't matter, but instead, he's saying that religion that centers on these physical things, these temporary things, is foolish. We need to remember that we. Are in Christ, and we please God because we're in Christ. And so we don't need any of these short-sighted regulations. The second thing he said is that these are man-made. And he's not saying, we need to be careful again, he's not saying that all man-made rules are evil. Just because a regulation is man-made doesn't make it evil. You know, kids, you can't go to your parents this afternoon and say that they are wrong to impose human precepts upon you. Right? You can't do that. Not every rule is wrong. Christians, if you're struggling with sin or lust or addiction, you can't go to wise believers who had counseled you in your life and say that they were wrong to tell you you need to restrict yourselves in these areas. That's not what Paul is saying. He's not saying all rules are bad. Rules can be full of wisdom. Instead, what he's saying is that we can't just make up the way that we worship God.

35:33We can't just make up the way that we worship God. Man-made precepts and teachings about worship that pleases God is foolish. If we want to truly worship God, then we need to understand how he wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth. We need to read his word and not make it up ourselves. And the last thing he said is that these regulations are useless. And he's not saying. That we should never deny things to our flesh. He's not saying that that's always useless. Instead, he's saying that when it actually comes to stopping the indulgence of our flesh in a permanent way, these regulations are of no help. Instead, if we want to actually conquer our sinful flesh, the only thing that makes that possible is being in Christ. And as Paul goes on in chapter 3, what he'll say is, we need to live according to that reality. Since we are in Christ, since we've died to this world, we need to put off the things of this world and put on the new things of Christ. We need to fix our minds on Christ. He'll say at the end of chapter 3 that we need to let God's Word dwell in us richly. These are the ways that Paul is telling us to actually fight these sins, not with regulations, but letting God's Word dwell in us. So you have died in Christ. When you became in Christ, when you became a believer, you were separated from this world with its earthly forms of worship. And so we should never try to return to short-sighted and man-made and useless regulations to worship God. That's not how Christians worship God. Instead, we should remember who we are, fix our minds on Christ and let His Word dwell in us richly. Let's pray.

37:32Father, we have studied a text from a faraway culture, from a faraway time. And it seems, Lord, like sometimes these passages can't apply to ourselves. That when was the last time we made a ritual or regulation to worship you? But I just pray, Lord, that you'd help us see that they do. I pray, Lord, that you would help us be grateful that we have everything we need in Christ, that we don't need to add on extra things. I pray that you would help us pay attention to how we're fighting sin, that it's not through rules and regulations only, but that it's being in Christ, that it's remembering who we are, that it's letting your word dwell in us richly.

38:22And so I pray, Lord, that you'd give us confidence to worship you, confidence to pray to you, knowing that we're complete in Christ and we don't need to add any rules on top of that. And I pray that you would protect us from false teachers, from wolves that want to come in and trick us into thinking that we need something more. Father, I thank you for this passage. I thank you for this church. I pray that you would help us obey you and trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.