Don't Be Deceived Pt 3

able to would you stand father we thank you for this opportunity lord again to come and worship you in song to to just pour our hearts out celebrate your worthiness lord your please bless our time this morning as we worship in song and as we study your work giving us what we don't deserve your mercy not giving us what we need your truth that which is give us a sensitivity to the things of you lord and if there are those things there is maybe unconfessed sin in our heart trust you just agree with you on anything we need to agree with you on and just sing on as unto you we give you prayer pastor ryan as he brings fill us all afresh this morning cause us to just yield to you or just to look let's have some fellowship grab a

bulletin welcome to cowrie chapel i'm glad that you have joined us this morning a handful of things to take note of in your bulletin first of all over on the left hand side are the things that are going on throughout the week the only change this week is that there will be no thursday women's bible study for the fourth of july over the middle section some things to take note of a reminder that today is promotion sunday for the kiddos and then we have a special guest speaker coming on july the 15th so take note of that and come join us also mark your calendar i know this is a little ways out but august the 11th we will be having a baptism if you've never been baptized before uh please come visit with me about that but as usual this will not just be a

baptism we'll do a picnic and a swim night and all that kind of stuff too i'll have a few more details about that in the uh in the next few weeks but uh just uh might want to take note of that so those are the things that are going on if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning we are going to be in psalm 30 psalm 30 as always looking at the new amendment psalm 30 psalm 30 psalm 30 psalm 30 psalm 30 psalm 30 psalm 30 standard at least for this part so that we all sound the same if you need a copy should be one in a row around you and as you are turning to psalm 30 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word you're good man series of short psalms takes a lot of page

turning i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 30 a psalm a song at the dedication of the house a psalm of david i will extol you oh lord for you have lifted me up and have not let my enemies rejoice over me oh lord my god i cried to you for help and you healed me oh lord you have brought up my soul from sheol you have kept me alive that i would not go down to the pit sing praises to the lord you his godly ones and give thanks to his holy name for his anger is but for a moment his favor is for a lifetime weeping may last for the night but weeping may last for the night but it is for a lifetime weeping may last for a lifetime

a shout of joy comes in the morning now as for me i said in my prosperity i will never be moved oh lord by your favor you have made my mountain to stand strong you hid your face i was dismayed to you oh lord i called and to the lord i made supplication what profit is there in my blood if i go down to the pit will the dust praise you will it declare your faithfulness here oh lord and be gracious to me oh lord be my helper you have turned for me my morning into dancing you have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness that my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent oh lord my god i will give thanks to you forever and father we do want to praise you for the for your ability

to pull us out of whatever pit it is that we find ourselves in father you are our joy our strength and our peace and so father i pray that you may be with us in this moment and that you may be with us in this moment and that you may be with us in this moment and that you may be with us in this moment and that as we spend time in your word this morning that you administer to us by the power of your holy spirit father that you would give us open ears as well as open hearts to whatever you want to do in us today and so father move through this time in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the book of colossians chapter 2 colossians chapter 2

our series that we've looked at in this second chapter of colossians which we will finish up today has been entitled don't be deceived now the very first portion of the series was paul's conflict for the people that he had a great struggle for for the colossian people because he saw that they were be being pulled away from the truth he saw that they were being pulled away from the simplicity of the gospel of jesus christ so he had this great conflict for them last week what we saw is the philosophy that he warned them about the gospel of jesus christ and he warned them about the philosophy that was a philosophy of man that was man-centered and not centered on the things of

christ the philosophy that would ultimately rob them of their reward ultimately lead them astray as captives instead of the freedom that they would have in christ and he spent a great deal of time last week talking about the freedom that we have in christ and the blessing of what it is to be uh healed and restored by the gospel that we were dead in our trust and we were dead in our trespasses and sins but we have been made alive in christ and because we are alive in christ the uh the list of of uh man i just lost my train of thought there for a second the list of um requirements against us because of the law was done away with that all of those things were done

away with and as a result of that we now come to the third part which is the practice not only are we not to be deceived by the philosophy but the philosophy always leads to a and so we come to verse 16 of chapter 2 and this is what it says therefore 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 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come but the substance belongs to christ let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by

joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from god if you have died with christ to the elementary principles of the world why as if you were living in the world do you submit yourself to decrees such as you have died with christ to the elementary principles of the world do not handle do not taste and do not touch which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men these are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence he's going to tell us three things that are the

of these false uh teachers this false doctrine that was going around that they needed to be aware of and not be deceived by and he has couched them all in a negative statement of don't be so there's three statements he's going to make the first one is don't let anyone judge you don't let anyone judge you starts off with the word therefore which leads us back to what he had said prior to this he says when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh he made you alive together with christ having forgiven us all of our transgression having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us by the way that's the word i couldn't think of

which was hostile to us and has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross and disarmed rulers and authorities you're not bound by those things any longer therefore let no one judge you now literally he tells them to stop something that is currently taking place that's tense of the greek that's given to us there stop letting anyone act as your judge stop letting anyone act like they can judge you for these things that you are doing the first thing that he deals with is what we call legalism legalism in other words the idea that one can be made closer to god by keeping a set of rules and if you're not keeping that set of rules then i'm going to sit in judgment over you legalism is referred to throughout scripture as a yoke of bondage as a

that's what peter calls legalism in acts chapter 15 when they are discussing what to do with these gentile christians and should we make them keep the law and paul said or peter said we were unable to stand up under the yoke of bondage therefore why would we put it upon the gentiles paul refers to it as a very similar thing in the book of galatians when he talks about not being held down in bondage again by the law and so what he tells them is stop letting anyone judge you and he gives a handful of things that they are not to be judged about the first thing that he gives us is food and drink now the mosaic system was full of a great deal of what we call dietary laws as a matter of fact if you want an incredibly fascinating

read he said with sarcasm in his voice you should go back to the book of leviticus and read the dietary laws and read the things that they were and were not allowed to eat now those dietary laws were for two purposes they were first of all given for health purposes because they didn't have some of the ways of preparing things especially in the wilderness that they needed to be able to prepare some of these meats and things properly so they were given these restrictions not only that but there are still some with there's still some wisdom and not partaking in some of the things that it tells you not to eat in the book of leviticus as a matter of fact sometimes when i

read that through that uh list of things that you're not supposed to eat i'm like no i'm not that's just a good rule to live by right like like i just have never thought about eating that but i think today is a day i will not start because that just seems like a bad idea so it's for health purposes but the second reason that it was given was for spiritual purposes because many of the things that they were told not to eat were used in pagan sacrifices or were eaten by the pagans around them and so there was to be a separation from between the nation of israel and the rest of the inhabitants of the land so those were the two purposes that they were given but as

new covenant came they were no longer bound by these dietary rules as a matter of fact jesus told them what goes into your mouth does not defile you and if you look at the little parenthetical statement in the gospel account it says thus declaring all foods to be clean it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles you it's what comes out of the heart that defiles you and then of course in the book of acts god declared all things were clean when he gave peter that vision right before he went to go see cornelius now some people think that they should continue to maintain these dietary laws that's up to you i am not going to judge you if you think that there are certain things that you should not

eat because for health purposes they're not as good for you to eat i'm not going to judge you about that but you can't judge me because i have decided that the mosaic law as far as foods were concerned was not something i need to worry about any longer don't let anyone keep judging you about these things this being said i've rarely come across this as a case in the church second thing he tells us not to judge anyone about is new moons now for those of us as gentile christians living in the western culture we go huh well the idea of new moons means festival days or feast days now if you know anything about the nation of israel you know that their calendar was based

upon based around the religious festivals in particular the feast of passover the feast of and the feast of tabernacles those were major things and a lot of their feasts and there were more than just those but those are the main three there were more than just those but most of their feasts were based upon a new moon a lunar calendar and that's when they were kind of positioned around and so they started saying no you have to keep the religious calendar and paul's saying don't let anyone judge you about a religious calendar now let's bring this into today because into in today there are two main things that there can be a debate about right the first thing that there is debate about a little bit is there are some denominations that

follow what's called the liturgical calendar have you ever heard that um the the uh um oh what do you call it liturgical is all i can think of there's another term for it besides that basically it's a religious calendar where you keep up with all of the different church uh feasts and festivals and they say well that's what you need to do and you have to keep up with all of these things and that's fine if you want to follow the the liturgical calendar there's no issue with that but it doesn't mean everybody has to it doesn't mean that everybody has to follow those kinds of things but the biggest thing that i see an issue about in the church today is that if you

look at where we celebrate holidays today they are oftentimes coupled with former pagan holidays for instance did you know that christmas being celebrated on december the 25th is probably not actually accurate jesus was probably not born on december the 25th and do you know that the use of the christmas tree is actually somewhat accurate pagan in nature because the christmas tree actually represents everlasting life and so there's a pagan aspect to the way that we celebrate christmas and some people will say i refuse to celebrate christmas on december the 25th and i refuse to have a christmas tree because you are living in sin following a pagan day and a pagan holiday really because i consider all days

the same and that tree looks awful pretty in my living room i have no issue with it i have no qualms about it because i realize that these are are issues of conscience not issues of law and so some people abstain from practicing holidays on those particular days do you are you aware of that like this actually takes place in the world today and they judge everybody else around them for for doing it i know because i've had people judge me and say i matter of fact my my wife does all the decorating here not right now but um because vbs just happened but my wife does all of the decorating here and i will never forget somebody showing up to church and saying i cannot believe you have a christmas tree up there and i said really because i think it looks

pretty nice and they were pretty upset that we had a christmas tree up there because they said don't you understand the pagan roots of a christmas tree i said yeah i do i know the pagan roots of a christmas tree i still think it looks awful pretty sitting over there over there right and so we can't judge people because they don't have a qualm about it just like i can't look at someone who won't celebrate that holiday and say you're in sin and i'm not going to judge you because you're not going to sin because if that's the problem that they have i can't sit over them in judgment over that but i also can't be judged by somebody who says no you can't practice that holiday listen if you're bound with legalism that says i can't celebrate a holiday because

maybe there's some sort of pagan roots that are tied in with our culture and the way that we observe it i would ask you do you really understand the holiday because every sunday i celebrate the fact that jesus is alive every day of the week i celebrate the fact that jesus is alive and if on one day of the year they want to throw some easter bunnies and some sweet sweet cadbury eggs in there i have no problem with that and i'm not going to judge anybody else for that right i celebrate the fact that jesus was born as a man every single day but if one day out of the year the entire world says you know what would be fun to do today give each other gifts and as we give each other gifts we will celebrate the fact

that jesus is alive and i'm not going to judge anybody else for that right i celebrate the fact that jesus is alive and you know what on this particular day the entire world is going to shut down for one purpose and one purpose only and it has nothing to do with a man in a red coat and a sweet beard and a flowing belly it has everything to do with the baby that was born who was god incarnate we're not going to judge each other over those things amen and then there's a third thing that's brought up now this thing i didn't even know was an issue when i was growing up and even when i was in bible college i remember going over passages like this and i remember going over passages

like this about the sabbath day they had no idea that this was an issue and then i worked with a guy who thought he was a jew he was not able to trace his lineage to anything else in the world he wasn't able to trace it back to anything other than the fact that there's a lot of lost tribes and he might be part of the tribe of dan and i was like probably not i don't think that's true but but he talked to me a lot about the sabbath day and how we should really be worshiping on the sabbath day and so the other thing he tells us not to judge them over is not only food and drink and new moons but over sabbaths now we need to understand something about the sabbath day the sabbath day in its covenantal commandment was given to the jewish people

now this fellow that i worked with if he really was a part of the tribe of dan he wasn't if he really was a part of the tribe of dan maybe he should be keeping this sabbath day although i don't necessarily think that was necessary for him either but we have to understand something about the sabbath day it was a covenant between god and the jewish people if you don't believe me just go back and read every place in the old testament where it talks about the sabbath day god said it is a covenant forever between me and my people the jews that's that's the covenant of the sabbath day and as a matter of fact if you really want to follow the sabbath day it should start on sundown at friday and go to sundown saturday and there's also a

bunch of other things that you need to make sure that you follow if you're doing that and so if you want to follow the sabbath day great but just understand you're probably not doing it properly unless you go back and really study some jewish history and do it the way that it's supposed to be done now that being said there are some who say oh no we need to keep the sabbath day i would tell you two things about the sabbath day maybe three number one nowhere in the new testament are we commanded to keep the sabbath day nowhere as the church we are not commanded to do so why because christ is the fulfillment of the sabbath do you realize that is the only one of the ten

commandments that's not carried over and reiterated in the new testament you know why because christ fulfilled our sabbath rest that was why when jesus showed up he had more to say about the sabbath day than a whole lot of other subjects because they had taken something that was supposed to point to the rest that he was going to give them and he had turned and they had turned it into a place of works therefore we are not bound to the sabbath day we are not bound to the sabbath day we are not bound by the sabbath day as a matter of fact ultimately we should rest in christ every day now is there a physical importance of taking at least a day off a week absolutely i i wholeheartedly

believe i'm not good at doing this um but i wholeheartedly believe that if that you should take at least one day off and just kick back and relax i always know when i haven't taken a day off which happened to me here recently when i end up sleeping in the other morning um my wife said hey it's seven o'clock or whenever i was supposed to get up and i said okay and i rolled back over and went to sleep and i woke up at 8 45 and i was like whoa that's the latest i've slept in like two years i think like i don't even know what's going on right now but but it's like the lord just said to me but you didn't take a day off and this is you making up for the fact that

you never took a day off don't do that anymore because it's important for our bodies for physical rest so why do we go to church on sunday why do we gather today well that's a great question i'm really glad that you asked me that question i'm really glad that you asked me that question i'm Sunday is not the church's sabbath day we need to know that it's not the new sabbath sunday is the lord's day we're actually told that in the new testament at least in the book of revelation i think there's other places where it's mentioned too so why do we meet together on sunday we meet together on sunday because that was when the early church met jesus rose from the dead on sunday

that's why it's called the lord's day and so from that point on disciples started gathering every sunday morning in order to celebrate the fact that jesus was alive as a matter of fact if you move into the book of acts you find that the early church was gathering on the first day of the week which is not monday by the way it's sunday they gathered on the first day of the week on the lord's day when you go into the book of first corinthians chapter 16 when paul is talking about giving he says when you come together on the first day of the week because that was when they gathered together and so we can't judge each other based upon sabbath now if somebody says no i have to worship the lord on saturday i say that's great do it

but don't judge me because i worship on sunday because we all hopefully are viewing it the exact same way but now he comes to the real problem because the problem with legalism is that it misses the reality notice what he says verse 16 therefore 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 listen things which are a shadow of what is to come but the substance belongs to christ what's the real problem when we judge someone based upon these things is we completely miss the point we miss the reality all of the old covenant stuff all of the old law stuff were all a shadow it was all a picture painted for us of jesus

that is to come all of the dietary laws spoke of purity well when jesus christ came what does he make me he makes me pure and now i live set apart unto him amen and so that was a shadow of the reality that was to come jesus fulfilled every single feast as a matter of fact he said not one of the smallest markings of the hebrew alphabet in the law will go away until i have fulfilled them all and so he fulfills all of those feasts all of those festivals now when we look at passover we realize that jesus was the ultimate passover lamb now when we look at pentecost we realize that jesus is the one who gave us the holy spirit that brand new life now when we look at the feast

of tabernacles we see jesus and all of these things right because he was the fulfillment of all of the feasts and so we don't need to look just at the shadow because christ is the substance that word substance is fantastic it literally means reality or body in other words the law was a shadow jesus is the body now i i don't know about you but sometimes i see my shadow when i'm running i always try to catch up with my shadow you ever try to catch up with your shadow one of my favorite uh stories about when my youngest daughter played or my oldest daughter played soccer she didn't play soccer for very long and perhaps you've seen your daughter play soccer and

her kids do this when when they play some sort of a sport is that she would start running while she was supposed to be kicking the ball and she would look over and she would see her shadow and she would just watch her shadow while she ran but the shadow is just that it's it's a shadow it's not it's not the body right can you imagine if you will i don't know if anybody in here has ever had to be in any kind of a long distance relationship where your loved ones had to be gone for a really long time and so you hold on to a picture right oh there they are i can't wait to see them it's going to be great when i get to see them and can you imagine if they showed up and they're standing right there next to you and you're like

but i just can't let go of this picture it's like yep but they're standing right there i know but but this picture it's like that would be the dumbest thing in the world it doesn't even make sense and yet that's what happens with people who are so legalistically clinging to the old covenant in old ways and laws is that they're staring at the picture when the reality is right next to them he said the real problem is that you're not paying attention to christ because he is the reality and in each of these three things we're going to find that the greatest issue that they have is they have missed the reality of christ and so he says number one don't let anyone judge you number two he says don't let anyone defraud you don't let anyone defraud you

notice what it says in verse 18 let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from god once again he starts off with a little bit of a warning don't let anyone defraud you that word defraud means to declare unworthy to declare you unworthy he says don't let anyone declare you unworthy of the prize what what's the prize well i can only think of only one prize and that is my eternal life with christ let no one defraud you declare you unworthy of the

prize and how do they defraud you from god once again he starts off with a little bit of a warning they do that they do that through self-abasement through worship of angels taking their stand on vision and in being full and being inflated without cause by their fleshly minds that the next thing he deals with is called mysticism we get that from the idea of the worship of angels mysticism again sometimes we call this the new age there was an aspect of this in the emergent church but it all has to do with the worship of angels and the worship of angels and the worship of angels with some higher spiritual reality that people are able to accomplish in and of themselves and

it always starts the same way i love the way he puts it here by delighting in self-abasement by delighting in self-abasement uh the amplified bible calls this false humility okay just in in general mysticism aside we've all been around those people right those people who who have that false humility about them and they're not going to be able to do that they're not going to be able to and they spend so much time telling you how unworthy that they are that at some point in time you start to think that they don't really believe that and they actually just want everybody to look at them like it's a it's a hey look at me it's just i'm not worthy oh it's only it's only because

of god i'm just not not really all that worthy you know and there's this self-abasement there's this this false humility that sort of drips look at me all over it right and so he says first of all they are full of this uh self-abasement and they delight in it and they delight in it and they delight in it but that self-abasement carries them into number two which is the worship of angels the worship of angels or as i would put it a false spirituality because there's kind of two ends of this first of all is that kind of false spirituality aspect of things where they think that there's a higher spiritual plane that can be achieved and that higher spiritual plane leads them to the worship of angels but there's something even deeper that goes into this

aspect of the worship of angels that i think that we should pay attention to you see the gnostics viewed angels as spiritual intermediaries between man and god and this is how the two tie together there's a false humility that says oh i'm not good enough to go to god myself i will go through the intermediate agency of this angel i will pray to this angel and this angel will intercede for me on behalf of me before god because i'm not worthy to go to god myself now i don't know if you're starting to click on any cylinders here with what that kind of sounds like but what that sounds like to me is maybe i'm not good enough to go to god myself perhaps i should pray to the patron saint of you name it right perhaps i should pray to this saint and this

saint will intercede for me because maybe i'm not good enough to go to god myself you see this is sort of what the idea of catholicism where some of that comes from or or maybe i'm not good enough to go to god myself so i will go to god myself and i will go to god myself and i will go to god myself seek mary and maybe she will intercede on behalf of me and this is a problem because there's a first of all a false humility that goes into it but second of all any sort of worship of angels or any other saint besides jesus christ is called idolatry and this is the real problem that you get to here is this mysticism this false worship is called idolatry which becomes a real problem and something that we should check ourselves on

because the bible is really clear about something because of the blood of jesus christ you and i can go boldly to the throne of grace you and i can go directly to god there is no need for an intermediate to go between us and god we don't need a priest we don't need a saint we don't need mary because i can go directly to god myself how through jesus christ because he says i'm going to go directly to god myself and i'm going to go directly to god myself i am the way i am the truth and i am the life no one comes to the father except through me and then of course we are told that there is one mediator between god and man and that's jesus christ so don't let anyone tell you no you need to go through some other way you need to you need

to find a buffer between you and god because you don't need god's representative on earth you can go directly to him for yourself because his representative is already sitting at the right hand and he already made intercession for us and he already made a way for us and he did it through the cross he says don't let anyone defraud you through false humility through the worship of angels or by taking a stand on visions now i know that if you're reading the old king james or the king james that translates that almost the exact opposite uh it's something along the lines of uh visions he's never seen or something along those lines it translates it really weird but they both

kind of carry the same idea and the idea is standing on a some sort of mystical vision that you have is it amazing how many false religions start because somebody had a vision right maybe it even takes 3d glasses sorry shots fired i didn't mean to on that one maybe it's because you named the thing but they have some kind of a vision right i can't help it my wife and i find some of these crazy things crazy documentaries on like netflix and amazon and have you ever noticed that every cult leader starts with the fact that he saw a vision and he is the only one who can truly interpret what god has to say because he saw the vision i'm trying to think of the most recent one that we watched

it has to do with like some sort of a tiktok cult or something like that can you believe that there's a tiktok cult that's a it is a cult anyway um this guy basically gathered these dancers together and he became their agent guess who makes all of the money by the way the guy does i'm trying to think of what his name is robert shin that's his name um and and he started uh this agency but it's actually a cult because he is the pastor he's the only one that can hear from god and they have to tithe oh wait i'm gonna get my numbers wrong here sorry it's been a few weeks since we watched this okay so they have this cult and they have to tithe 10 to the man of god that's him they have to tithe 10 to the church then they have to tithe

20 to something else at some point in time you're like whoa that's an incredible amount of money first of all 20 bt dubs is not a tithe right because you know the word tithe means 10th right and so at some point in time you're like this is the craziest thing i've ever seen in my life and my wife and i are watching this and i'm going who falls for this who who falls for this people who i had a vision and no one else can interpret god's word but me you see this is where you we have to beware don't let anyone defraud you and you know what the saddest thing was in this documentary that we watched some of these people were really seeking god and now they don't want anything to do with church they don't want anything to do with god they don't want anything

to do with anyone that loves god because they're not going to be able to do anything with god view of god was completely completely tainted because a man took a stand on a vision and we have to beware of these things because people fall for stuff all the time he took his they take their stands on visions and then notice the last thing and they are inflated without cause by their fleshly minds inflated without cause by their fleshly minds i appreciate that he put those two words right in the middle of the video there without cause like he could have just said they're inflated by their fleshly minds but he knows they've got no reason to have a big head they've got no reason to be filled with all of

this high-minded ideas of themselves but this is what mysticism does to us is it says i have a greater spiritual understanding it's greater than yours look at me and so he says and the real problem is this they are not holding fast to the head notice what it says and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied held together by joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from god in other words they stopped holding on to the reality of christ because who is the head of the body christ and as christ is the head of the body if we hold on to him he supplies everything else that we need he gives us what we need we don't find it through the intermediate agency of angels we don't find it through some man that

had a vision we don't find it from someone who is so full of themselves that they can't see past the end of their nose we find it from the head which is jesus christ and like i said he keeps taking us back to the same reality that the reality is in christ so number one don't let anyone judge you number two don't let anyone defraud you number three don't let anyone enslave you verse 20 if you have died with christ to the elementary principles of the world why as if you were living in the world do you submit to decrees such as do not handle do not taste do not touch which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men these are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom and

self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body but are of no value against fleshly indulgence don't let anyone enslave you he deals now with an issue that you and i have probably never used the term for very much but it is something that not only took place in the early centuries but i think still can take place today and that's called asceticism asceticism did i haven't put that word up there i did not that's too bad um asceticism is extreme self-denial or severe treatment of the body extreme self-denial or severe treatment of the body extreme self-denial or severe treatment of the body extreme self-denial or severe treatment of the body as you think about this i want you to think

about some of the things that were done in past centuries for instance if you've ever read anything about the life of martin luther martin luther lived a life of asceticism before he came to christ before he realized that the just shall live by faith he crawled up a set of stairs on his knees hoping to find some sort of redemption for his sins by by demeaning himself and his his body he would whip himself he would starve himself all these kinds of things because he was dealing with guilt over sin and so the way that he thought he could deal with the guilt over his sin was by severely treating his body and then he finally came to the truth of christ and said you

know what the just shall live by faith jesus has paid it all and so paul as he's dealing with this issue starts off with a statement if you have died with christ to the elemental things of the world that word if is more the idea of sense if since as is the case you have died with christ to the elemental things of the world the world the word elemental is one that we covered last week it means rudimentary or basic the abcs if you will since you have died with christ you were united with him in death not only did you die to sin but you died to the elemental things of the world we now as believers in christ are to live on a different plane we are to live on a spiritual plane not just bound by all of

the things of this earth he says since you have died to the elemental things of the world why as if you were living in the world do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle do not taste do not touch again as he presents this he talks about some of these decrees that people would take in order to make themselves more holy perhaps a vow that they might take a vow of poverty a vow of chastity a vow of silence you name it they would take these vows in order to make themselves more holy do not handle do not touch do not taste it was a an extreme denial of self and he said the real problem with these things like do not handle do not uh touch and do not taste is that they miss the point they are

ascetic in nature i found a couple of great quotes by warren weirsby and he says an ascetic hopes to sanctify the soul by his discipline of the body an ascetic finds his life wrapped up in a system of rules i have a friend right now who's posting an incredible amount of philosophy on his different stories and walls and stuff and and all of the philosophies and stories on their merits if you just read them they sound really great until you start really getting into them and what he's posting is a lot of stoic philosophies and if you know very much about stoicism stoicism is very ascetic in nature it's all about the denial of self for the greater good denial of pleasure for the greater good

eventually to where you have no emotions because you're not moved by the things of this world because you have denied yourself of the things of this world and all i could think every time i see those is like that's a great idea self-control is really good but self-control is not a god self-control is not in and of itself god the holy spirit produces that in us we don't have to produce that in ourselves we don't have to set up a system of rules for our lives but you know why we like to set up a system of rules and you know what's really really attractive about asceticism is i can check off all the boxes and i can tell you how good i am i can check off all the boxes and i can make myself

feel better i can say i've done this and i've done this and i've done this i've denied myself of this i've denied myself of this i've denied myself of this i must be a pretty good christian he goes on to say he goes on to say all of these things verse 22 are destined to perish with use in other words these are things of the world that that really have no eternal value to them but this is the thing i want you to really pay attention to is that these rules these ascetic rules are in accordance with the commandments and the teachings of men in accordance with the commandments and the teachings of men here we come back to the exact same place that we came last week with the

traditions of man only this time it's the teachings of man and so we have to hold everything up against god's word what does god's word have to say about that are these the teachings of men or are these the teachings of god let me give you an example from way back in the beginning in the very beginning in the book of genesis do you remember god gave adam and eve that first command you can eat from any tree in the garden except for one tree you may not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the day that you eat of it you will surely die do you remember what eve said to satan when satan was tempting her with it because she created an ascetic rule did you notice it satan said did god say you can't eat of any of these trees

and she said oh no we can eat from all of them except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we can't eat it nor can we do you remember what she said nor can we touch it or else we'll surely die it was the beginning of asceticism she had made an extra rule for herself now if i truly want to be close to god i'm not going to sit as close to the tree as i possibly can and try not to touch it i'm going to go as far away from the tree as i possibly can right but the rule says eat it she added the rule of don't touch it but where did she find herself always right next to the tree why because the law brought her right next to the sin and that's what happens to us

right we'll deal with that in just a moment but it was her own teaching that created the rule that said nor can you touch it and that's the issue that we run into with somebody who deals with this is they create their own rules or somebody else has created their rules for them and i'm here brothers and sisters right now in the world today just like there has been for a long time there are denominations out there there are teachings out there there are books that you can read out there that create all of the rules for you and they say don't handle don't taste don't touch and if you'll just follow these 10 simple rules you will live the life that god wants you to live the problem is it is asceticism at work

because it's all about the rules not about the god who's supposed to produce it inside of us and so they find themselves with the life wrapped up in a system of rules and all of those rules are in accordance with the teachings of man that's why i think one of the best things that we can do is just keep testing everything that we believe against what god's word has to say that's why you have to be in it every day that's why you need to be in it every day what god's word says you need to read it take it in meditate on it that's why psalm 1 says blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law he meditates

day and night and he the one who's constantly meditating on the word will become like a tree that's planted by the rivers of water that yields all kinds of fruit and will never wither right because the delights in the law of the lord the delight is in what god's word has to say and as you delight in what god's word has to say you will find that when those things start to come up you go man that just seems like extra rules for the sake of rules you ever heard somebody talk about their life with christ and you're like boy that seems a lot harder than it should be you ever heard that i've been around people like that and i watch them and i'm going boy it just seems

like you make it way harder than it needs to be pretty pretty sure it's a lot more simple than that and so we find he warns us about this he says these things are in accordance with the commandments and the teachings of man and now we get to the real problem verse 23 these are matters which which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body now the problem is these have an appearance of wisdom right because i assume if you've ever read any of stoic philosophy as a believer in jesus christ you kind of go and that's a pretty good idea that sure sure sounds like the right thing or you hear somebody talk about their 10 rules that they

live life by the things that they keep themselves from in order to be more holy and you kind of go sure sounds wise sure sounds like the right thing to do it sure seems like they've got a pretty good walk with jesus and they've got a pretty good walk with jesus and they've got a pretty good walk with seems like they're pretty solid and if you don't pay attention you can go that has a lot of wisdom in it the problem is it's self-made wisdom and it's nothing but self-abasement and the real problem is what it says at the end of verse 23 they are of no value against fleshly indulgence they're of no value against fleshly indulgence why is it of no value against fleshly indulgence they're of no value against fleshly indulgence two reasons number one

because the more that you think about rules the more that you think about breaking the rules have you ever heard that statement rules are made to be broken right why do we have the statement rules are made to be broken because when you create rules that say don't do this what do you think about doing that you ever been up up really high in something and what's the first thing somebody tells you don't look down and what's the first thing that you do when you're in a situation do? You look down. Why? You didn't even think about it until they gave you the rule, right? I've climbed

up really high things and I'm standing there and I'm going, and they say, don't look down. And you're like, right? I was not going to look down until you said, don't look down. And then I thought, I wonder what it does look like, right? When you create all of these rules, you start thinking about it and it's all you can think about. Again, why did Eve find herself right next to the tree? Because all

she could think about was the rule, don't eat and don't touch. And if you tell somebody that, what do they sit there and think? I wonder what it would be like. I wonder why. It's kind of like when you've got a little kid and you tell them, don't touch the stove. It's really hot. And they're going, like my favorite thing about telling little kids this is they come and they keep their hands behind

their back at first, right? They're like, okay. I'm not going to do it because my hands are behind my back. I'm not going to touch the stove. That's super hot. Mom said not to. And then they go, right? And they cry. Why? Because they couldn't take it. They're standing right next to the stove. And you said, don't touch the stove. And they, they just couldn't take it. They, all they could think about was why did they say not to do it?

And that's what happens when we create rules for ourselves. When we create rules, it means all we can think about is don't do this. We have to change the mentality. The second reason why it won't work, not only does it constantly excite our fleshly indulgence because it's all that we can think about, puts all the focus on the flesh, but number two, rules don't change the heart.

Rules don't change your heart. And that's just all that there is to it. I think if there's a big lesson that the Lord's teaching me personally right now, it's this one. It's that, it's that rules don't change your heart. It's that rules don't change your heart. It's that rules don't change your rules. Rules can't change hearts. Rules are law and the law has its place, but the law's place

is to bring us to Jesus. And once it's brought us to Jesus, you don't need rules anymore because your heart is changed. I'll go back to the story I told a couple of weeks ago. When God really got a hold of my heart at the age of 17 years old, I showed up to church the next day and the next day, nobody had to do it. I showed up to church the next day and the next day, nobody had to do it.

Nobody had to tell me to bring my Bible. The next day I took the bulletin and I opened up to the flap where there was some space to take notes. And I started taking notes, not because my mom and dad said, Hey, you should write down the high points here, but because I wanted to learn as much as I could about Jesus. Why? Because my heart had been changed. They could have made a rule at one point

in time and said, you have to take notes. And I would have begrudgingly sat there and taken notes and taken just enough to make sure that they were satisfied. But when I started walking with Jesus, it didn't matter. I took enough for me to be satisfied because my heart had changed. We can make all the rules in the world that we want to. You can make all the rules for your life that you want to. You can say, I'm not going to do this

and I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. But what you really need to do is ask for God to change your heart. Ask for God to give you a true change of heart. That's why when people come to Jesus, they usually start off by saying, I don't know if I can come to Jesus. I don't know if I can get saved because I'm going to have to give up X, Y, and Z, right? We've all been there. We've all been

at that place going, I know what I'm going to have to give up to follow Jesus. And then God gets a hold of your heart and you didn't even think about it. You just gave it all up. Why? Because you had a true change of heart. And so you didn't need a rule to tell you that. Jesus told you that. And it was what you wanted to do. And it's no different now with the things

that you're struggling with in your life. Listen, I don't know what kind of struggles people have going on here this morning, but you can make as many rules as you want to, right? There's a Psalm where David basically says, I made a covenant. I wasn't even going to speak anything because nothing good was coming out of my mouth. And I started to burn up on the inside. And then I went

into the house of the Lord. You can make the rule all you want to. You have a foul mouth. You could start saying, you know what? I am not going to say bad words anymore, but it won't work because every time something happens, that's what will be in your mind. The only way to change a foul mouth is to fill it with God's word. If you fill your mind with what God's word has to say, then what's going to come out of you?

What God's word has to say, right? Because that's just natural. If you have a pornography problem, you can't just make a rule for yourself and say, I'm not going to watch it anymore. What do you have to do? You have to exchange it for something. You have to start saying, I'm going to fill my heart with as much of God's word as possible and start cleansing my mind with

God's word. If you have hate in your heart all the time, you can't just tell yourself, I'm just not going to hate anymore. No. What do you need to do? You need to fill it with, first of all, the love of praying for that person that you hate, and then start seeing God's love that he has for you through his word and let him change your heart. If you have a gossiping tongue,

say, I'm just not going to gossip anymore. No, you have to start praying every time you want to gossip and let God change your heart. Rules won't change anything. God does because God takes our heart and turns it into what he wants it to be. Because in all of these things, the legalism, the mysticism, and the asceticism, he brought us back to the same thing every time. Did you notice

it? Those things are a shadow. Christ is the substance. Those things are false. God is the head and supplies everything that you need. That has no power over you. Only Jesus can change your heart. It all comes back to the same thing, and it all comes back to Jesus Christ. Because my friends, that's the most important thing in our life, and that's what will ultimately bring about the change inside of us. Amen?

Don't be deceived. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you, and I just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. And Lord, I just ask that you would move in our hearts as you see fit. Father, that you would continue to change the fabric of who we are. Lord, that you would continue to change our hearts. And Father, that you would help each

one of us to turn our eyes on Jesus, to look full in his wonderful face, and to allow the things of this earth to grow strange. And Lord, I just ask that you would move in our hearts as you see fit. The light of his glory and grace. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Sometimes, give us a blessed day and a blessed week,

meditating on you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen? Lord, bless y'all.