All right.
Well, good morning again.
It's good to have you with us.
We are continuing in our sermon series in the book of Colossians.
And as we have seen along the way, the Apostle Paul has written this letter to a church that
he did not plant and probably has never visited, but he's heard about God's work in them and
he wants to encourage them.
He wants them to have greater confidence in Christ, which is sort of the overwhelming
message.
But in it, you see laced at points, there are these warnings.
There's a concern that he expresses.
The concern is that you don't lose, that they would not lose their way in seeing that Christ
is all that they really need.
Paul's concern that this fledgling church as it's growing might turn aside from the right
path.
And like a toddler grabbing onto a pant leg that looks really familiar but ends up being
the wrong mother in the crowded mall, that they would grab onto the wrong thing and be
led astray from true worship of Christ and true confidence in what he has done.
They might do this out of immature zeal or willful rebellion or weakness of understanding, but
they might be led astray.
And if you've read any commentaries on Colossian or even have been here, even if you were here
last week as Pastor Greg punted on this completely from verse 8 in chapter 2 when he said, don't
be deceived by these philosophies, he just said, and Pastor Matt's going to preach on that next
week.
This is where we're at.
We're figuring out what is it that Paul's really concerned about?
What are the dangers that he sees?
And how is it that he expresses themselves?
How is it that he sees them expressing themselves as potential false paths for the Colossians to
fall down?
And there has been a lot of ink spilled on what the quote-unquote Colossian heresy is.
And as we start, I want to say a few things.
One is that it's fascinating how creative people can be in trying to figure out what the Bible
is talking about when they aren't really sure.
And it's fascinating to see them look into historical context to say, oh, maybe it connects
with this or maybe it connects with this.
And what I do want to say with confidence, though, is that the book of Colossians is not
like the book of Galatians, where there's a very clear false teaching that is being addressed
very clearly and opposed very strongly.
It's not even like the book of 1 Corinthians, where there are false teachers coming in and
and whatever they're doing, Paul goes after them with a polemical force.
And Paul doesn't take that tone here in Colossians.
And I think we need to be careful not to overstate how we approach this.
But it seems that Paul is laying down concerns about, hey, this is the world that you live
in.
This is the water that you drink and the air that you breathe.
These false paths are all around you.
And I want you to be aware of what they might be.
I want you to see their dangers.
And I want you to see Christ as sufficient in the midst of them.
And that's where we're going to do this morning.
We're going to dive into what those things actually look like and what some of those dynamics
are.
And as much as we can unpack what those problems might be, and hopefully that we will see and
have benefit for ourselves as we look at these things and think, oh, I need to be aware of
that danger in my own life, in our own world, in my own heart.
So that's what we're going to do this morning.
Let me read.
We're going to look at Colossians chapter 2, starting in verse 16.
We're going to read 16 to 23.
And I completely forgot.
Anyone want to give me a page number?
9?
84?
9.84, I'm being told.
There you go.
9.84, we'll get you there.
And so let's read God's word together.
Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you.
In questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon,
or Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about
visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head, from
whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
If 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.
Let's pray together.
Father, Lord, we ask for your help this morning as we look at this passage.
We ask that you would make it clear to us, Lord, what you are saying, and Lord, that you would apply
these truths to our hearts.
Lord, I ask by your Holy Spirit, Lord, you would show us where we are prone to wander,
where we are prone to fall into the dangers that Paul is concerned about in this passage,
that we would see how easily we do stray from true and complete confidence in Christ.
Lord, we ask that by your Spirit you would work in us, Lord, to deepen our confidence in you this morning.
And Lord, I ask for your help.
You would help me to speak clearly and that my words would be, Lord, in your hands,
useful to proclaim the truth of the gospel.
And we pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Don't let yourself be confused about what the gospel is really about.
That's the summary of what this is about.
He has three warnings, and I'm going to state them as warnings to you as we read through.
So we're going to look at three warnings.
The first one is in verses 16 and 17, where Paul is telling us,
don't let people judge you by replacing Christ with things meant to point to Christ.
What does that mean?
Well, let's look at it.
Paul says in verse 16,
Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival
or a new moon or a Sabbath.
Now, for those of us, we sort of think, huh?
This is a very odd set of categories that we don't normally think about.
But for a first century Christian, this would be a very common category because all of this
flows from the Old Testament.
All of this flows from the Jewish context out of which Christianity grew.
And it seems that in the air there was a message going around of, if you really want to follow
Christ, recognize that He is grounded in the Old Testament.
And in the Old Testament, you had to keep these laws.
You had to keep laws of eating and drinking these things and not these things to set yourself
apart as being pure and faithful.
You had to follow these patterns and rituals of a yearly calendar of festivals and sacrifices
and offerings because this is how you worship God in the Old Testament.
And it seemed that there was not only a strong exhortation, hey, this is really valuable to do,
but even a condemnation.
If you don't do these, you're not really a Christian.
Now, look, we need to understand this carefully.
The Old Testament law was good in that it meant it was there to display the dynamics of God's kingdom
to show us the fabric of His character.
And it teaches about the ways of His salvation.
It established a righteousness and gave us standards for God's kingdom,
but it was powerless to change us.
And we see this so clearly in other places.
The law could not save us.
And that's why Christ came.
In fact, the law was given to point to that helplessness
and to point to the need for a Savior who is greater than us,
one who could actually keep the law that we could never keep.
One who could actually be righteous in ways that we never could.
But as in verse 17, we see clearly,
those things, the Old Testament laws, were shadows.
And by shadows, that doesn't mean murky or mysterious.
It means these things are signposts.
These were forerunners pointing ahead to a truth.
Again, in Galatians, we see the law was a tutor, a teacher to instruct us on our need for a Savior.
And this is what this is pointing to.
And so we don't need to, as believers in Christ,
submit to the laws of the Old Testament anymore
for our salvation, for our standing with God.
We need to look to them to know the character of God and the ways of His kingdom,
but we don't need to submit to it as for the means of our salvation.
And it seems that there were those in the Colossian context
who would be promoting this idea.
Real Christians are not only those who believe in Jesus,
but who keep the law too.
You've got to do it both.
And you've got to especially do these ritual parts.
You've got to keep the ceremonial law.
You've got to follow the patterns.
Now, I doubt that there are many of us here today who struggle with this
and think, oh, man, I had pork on Sunday or on Saturday.
Maybe I shouldn't have done that because I believe in Jesus.
You don't have to worry about pork.
Thank God.
That's a good thing.
But what I do want to recognize is that the same impulse
that I think was in a first century Jew to want to gravitate towards that
can be a heart impulse for us as well.
We love to have a standard of external conformity
that we can try to meet to look good and to please God.
We love to create rules and laws.
We love to, and even when we're explicitly not doing it,
we implicitly often do it over and over again.
You're only a real Christian if you do this or don't do that.
We love it because it creates an insider and an outsider dynamic.
We're the ones who do it right.
And you poor people out there, well, do you see?
That's what he's concerned about, that you're not just doing it,
but you're passing judgment on people about what they're doing.
And these external things are easier for us to do.
I know that I can do these things, and then I can say,
I'm doing it right, aren't I?
And isn't that good?
Rather than the incredibly humbling call of the gospel,
which is to be transformed by the power of God.
We are to grow in righteousness.
We are to honor God with everything we do.
We are to schedule our whole life around worshiping him.
But as we'll see in chapter 3,
the heart of that is not about laws and rituals,
but it's about character transformation.
Putting on Christ and living as a Christian,
as a follower of Christ,
is not about keeping these external laws
as much as it is being transformed
so that with humility and kindness and gentleness
and patience and self-control
and forgiveness and love,
spurring one another on in our hearts.
This is what the true signs of following Christ are.
And that in Christ,
we actually find the power to live them out.
I don't know if you've ever been hiking
and lost the trail.
It's kind of bewildering when it happens.
You're halfway up a mountain.
You know you want to get up there,
or at least that's where you think.
But suddenly you don't know
what the next 50 yards looks like.
And it could go that way.
It could go that way.
And I've done this.
You fan out.
Where's the next blaze?
Where's the next trail?
But friends, if you found the blaze,
would you then stop and say,
woo, we found the blaze.
Now we know where we're going.
All right, we're done.
Let's party.
We're going to camp out here and celebrate
because we have found the blaze.
Friends, this is what the problem that Paul has
with those who would want to impose the law.
They found the blazes,
but never got to the point.
They didn't get to the destination
that the blazes were leading to,
which was Christ.
And somehow they're making the signposts
the point rather than the end.
And we need to be aware that we too might do the same thing.
We are free to follow Christ.
Free from obeying the law for the basis of our justification
and acceptance with God.
Free from those patterns.
Now look, I need to say this well
because you could hear this and think,
great, so I don't have to worry about those things at all.
I don't have to do anything.
Well, no, let me say two things.
One is that we need to recognize
that this freedom does have some limits to it.
The limit is that we do make Christ the center of our lives.
There are boundary markers for the people of God,
but the boundary markers for the people of God
are not the external performance of certain things,
but it is actually the believing faith in Christ
for our salvation.
It is looking back at chapter 2, 11 through 15
and believing that in Christ the fullness of God dwelt
and in Christ God has done everything we need.
That the condemnation that is ours
has been nailed to the cross.
That by the resurrection from the dead
the power of sin and death has been broken.
And by his being seated at the right hand of God
we now know there's no power in heaven
that can control us.
And we have to believe in that
and trust in that as the central point
and as the focal point
and as the foundation
and as the goal of our lives.
This is the boundary marker for true Christianity.
And we need to recognize that the gospel
and trusting in the gospel is that.
The second thing we need to say
is that there's a lot of wisdom out there
about how we cling to Christ
and how we pursue that.
Scripture has given us patterns
maybe even New Testament commands.
We need to be in God's word.
We need to be praying.
We need to be in fellowship with one another.
We need to be giving and serving
in God's kingdom and in God's church
for the glory of God.
We need to be gathering with other believers.
I don't need to tell you that
because you're here.
But we need to be gathering
with other believers.
These are all normal parts
of those who follow Christ.
These are means of grace
that are so clear in the New Testament.
They are not laws.
But they are patterns
that is wisdom given to us
on how we are meant to do that.
So we need to hold them
not as basis of judgments
but as gifts from God
to recognize how it is
that we actually pursue
a knowledge of God in Christ.
And look, there's a whole other level
of things too.
You may have been super helped
by Dave Ramsey
on how to manage your finances
to the glory of God.
You may have found
that a certain time management program
has been your salvation
and how to organize
your chaotic life
so that you can actually
serve God the way you want to.
There are all sorts of things
but you know what we do?
We then become the apostles
for time management
or Dave Ramsey
or whatever else it is.
The things that we have found
particularly helpful
in the application level
of pursuing Christ.
We then glorify
and raise to a level
of law,
of expectation.
then we judge other people
when they don't do that.
Oh, you watch Netflix.
Well, okay.
Good for you.
I'll pray for you.
You know,
or whatever it is, right?
I mean,
I could go on it.
We are so prone to do that
and I don't want to go on and on
because all of us
are prone to do it
and we need to be careful
not to judge one another
in these things
even as we ought to be free
to seek
and to share wisdom
with one another.
Hey, this is what's been helpful
for me.
This has been,
but these things are only helpful
in as much as they point to Christ
and help us to Christ
and when we cling to them
and think,
well, if you have this,
this is really going to like
jumpstart your spiritual life.
No,
Christ will jumpstart
your spiritual life.
The Holy Spirit
will jumpstart
your spiritual life
and maybe he might use
something like that
along the way
and if so,
praise God
and be thankful for it
and don't condemn it
and don't get up,
but also don't deify it
and make it everything.
So the passage warns us
of a danger
of judging,
judging others
by replacing Christ
with things that point to Christ
in our lives.
The passage goes on
in verse 18 and 19
points to a second danger
and that is
don't let others exclude you
on the demand
of a deeper spiritual life
apart from Christ
rather than a deeper spiritual life
in Christ.
Did you get all that?
It's a little complicated.
Let me read that again.
Don't let others exclude you
on the demand
of a deeper spiritual life
apart from Christ
rather than a deeper
spiritual life
in Christ.
Look with me again
in verse 18
so we see the language.
Let no one disqualify you.
It's a strong word,
disqualification.
If you're a world football
aficionado,
I mean a soccer fan,
then you know what it means
to be disqualified, right?
You get a red card
in a game
when you have been,
when you have transgressed
the boundaries,
the laws,
when you have,
you've become disqualified
from continuing in the game
and you are removed
from the field
and you're removed
from the stadium.
You're removed from your team
because of that
and that's the picture here.
Some of the language behind it
is like an umpire
or like an Olympic referee
who disqualifies a runner
for leaving the starting blocks
too early
or for interfering
with another runner.
It's a very strong word.
It's a very categorical word.
You're being separated out
and divided from
and excluded from something.
On what basis
is Paul concerned
that that exclusion
could happen?
Because as we've seen earlier,
there is an exclusion.
If you are not in Christ,
you are separate
from the people of Christ.
But that's not the problem
he's dealing with.
He's dealing with the problem
within a church community,
within a body
that people are excluding others
on a basis of
some kind of demand
for what I'm calling
a deeper spiritual life.
Look with me again
in verse 18.
See how he describes it.
Insisting on asceticism
and worship of angels,
going on in details
about visions,
puffed up
and without reason
by his sensuous mind.
Now, this is where
all the ink has been spilled
in commentaries
about what in the world
is he really referring to.
If the first part
was pretty clear
that it was coming
from some kind of impulse
towards a return to Judaism
or submitting to the Jewish law,
the Old Testament law,
here we have
a broad number of terms
that people have
really wrestled with.
And I don't think
anyone has succeeded
in convincingly identifying
particular strands
of first century religious
or mystical practices
that ought to be
pegged as
this is what it was talking about.
But I do think
that actually
as you read this,
the patterns are pretty clear.
Right?
On what basis
is this disqualification
happening?
Well, one,
the basis all seems
to be in some form
of experiential religion.
All right?
On one end,
you have asceticism.
I'm going to deny
my body.
I'm going to deny
the goodness
of the physical world
that I live in.
I see that it's dangerous,
that it could lead me
away from pure
spiritual worship.
And I'm going to do that.
This is the kind of thing
that led monks
to, in the fourth century,
live their lives
literally on the tops
of pillars in the desert
to separate themselves
from the world
to try to subdue
their body.
This is the kind of impulse
that leads us
at times
to self-destructive patterns
of bodily control.
we treat the world
as a,
this impulse
is to treat the world
as a,
the physical world
as something
that wasn't good
and created by God.
And call that spiritual.
We set them up
in contrast
to one another.
there are lots of ways
this could live itself
out today.
But I think that
recognizing that
it's,
it's an experience.
If I can pursue
this hard enough,
I,
I'm going to show
that I'm really serious
and that I'm really gonna,
I'm really devoted
and that I'm really
committed
to sacrificing
for Christ.
but it's more
about our own
experience
of devotion
than it is about
truly submitting
all things
to God.
Let me go on.
The second thing,
spiritualism.
The worship
of angels
and going on
insisting on visions.
Well,
yeah,
this is the one
that people really
don't understand
exactly what he's
talking about
or even remotely
what he's talking
about at one level.
Some people even
think that it's
talking about
being joined
with the angels
in their worship
of God.
Other people think
that it's more
worshiping angels
as the object
of their devotion
but whatever it is,
it's a spiritual practice
that has an experiential
component
that includes
visions
and dreams
and some kind
of ecstatic
experience
that doesn't seem
to have Christ
in it
at the end
of the day.
But the focal point
is how it's relating
to angels.
And it seems
that some
were suggesting
that real
Christianity
looks like
having those
experiences.
Then the third
part of this,
he says,
puffed up without
reason by his
sensuous mind.
The core
of these,
this pursuit
of experiential
religion
is that it's
actually
deeply,
deeply
self-centered.
It is about
me.
I am pursuing
these kinds
of experiences.
I am pursuing
this kind
of discipline.
I am pursuing
these kinds
of things
in a way
that puffs
me up
and that
tickles
the fancy
of my own
fallen heart.
When it talks
about a sensuous
mind,
the word
there is
actually
fleshly.
And in Paul,
the fleshly
mind is the
mind that
rather than
submitting to
God and
receiving from
God,
sets itself
up against
God in
some kind
of proud
rebellion
or resistance.
sense.
So whatever
this is,
this pursuit
of experience
of God
in certain
ways,
it ultimately
is a very
self-centered
spirituality.
I had an
experience with
this quite a
while ago.
Some friends
who I worked
with got really
excited about
visions and
how God was
going to work
in a particular
way,
in a particular
face,
in a particular
space,
in a particular
time.
And the further
along it went,
it got more
and more
particular and
there's this
invitation,
come in and
be a part of
this.
But at its
core,
what I saw
was exactly
what Paul
was warning
about here.
That it
didn't bless
and invite
and express
the glory of
God in the
face of Christ
with a gracious
winsomeness,
but it
excluded.
Why weren't
you at the
prayer meeting?
Don't you
really want
to seek
God to
work here?
Well,
I know you
haven't had
this vision,
but I have,
so why don't
you believe me
and get on
board with
this particular
plan?
Oh,
you're not
fasting with
us again
today?
maybe you're
not really
committed to
us.
This is the
kind of
disqualification
that happened
in the
circumstance
that I saw
it happening
in.
It's one of
those times
where we
see when
excessive
zeal for
the glory of
God gets
warped.
These are
some of the
ways we can
see the
cracks show.
When it
becomes a
self-centered
zeal,
this kind
of
disqualification
and separation
and judgmental
spirit is
exactly what
we can look
for as a
fruit of
not true
growth in
Christ,
but some
kind of
self-centered
counterfeit.
We become
the church
of mean
girls,
spiritually,
when we
do that.
Right?
I've got it
together.
What's wrong
with you?
This is where
God is leading
us.
If you're not
with us,
you're against
us.
Oh,
you don't
have that?
I feel
sorry for
you.
There's so
many different
ways that we
can express
it.
Paul says,
don't let
this happen
God.
Because in
fact, what
these people
are pursuing,
maybe with
honest hearts
and misguided
direction,
maybe with
much more
nefarious
hearts,
what they're
pursuing is
a real
knowledge of
God and
a true
deep
spirituality.
And what
verse 19
reminds us is
that we know
where we find
that.
We've already
seen it.
Christ is the
head of the
body.
He is the
kingpin.
He is the
control center
for the
church.
And in the
church, as we
live under
Christ's headship,
he is the
one who
causes the
growth.
And do you
notice that one
of the things
that Paul says
in verse 19,
but from
whom the
whole body
nourished and
knit together
through its
joints and
ligaments,
it's this
picture of
the totality.
Nobody is
excluded from
a being under
the head.
If you're in
Christ, you're a
part of the
body.
And if you're
a part of the
body, then
you are in.
And Christ
is able to
make the
growth that
God wants to
do in your
life.
In Christ, we
are not
disqualified.
But as we
saw in
chapter 1,
verse,
where is it?
Verse,
I should
have wrote
this down.
Verse 12,
giving thanks
to the
Father who
has qualified
you to
share in
the inheritance
of the saints
in light.
He has
delivered us
from the
domain of
darkness and
transferred us
to the
kingdom of
his beloved
son in
whom we
have redemption,
the forgiveness
of sins.
Christ has
qualified us
to be God's
people and
to be in
him to
experience the
salvation that
delivers us from
sin and death
and the kingdom
of darkness and
brings us into
God's kingdom
and God's
people.
Paul is
saying to
the Colossian
church,
don't think
there's something
more.
The lure of
a higher life,
of a higher
vision of
Christianity
is somehow
separate from
the grace that
brought you in.
It's not true.
It's an illusion.
It's a false
path.
Because the
true path
continues in the
path that you
started in,
which is in the
path of Christ.
It is the
gospel of Jesus
Christ, the
grace of God
meeting us in
our fallenness
and our
inability to
turn to
him.
He says,
we have a
head and
that's where
you're going
to find all
the spirituality
that you
want.
You want
more?
You want a
deeper walk
with God?
Don't go
somewhere else.
Go more
into Christ.
And yes,
you may have
visions.
as you
pursue Christ.
And yes,
you may
practice
self-discipline
of your
schedule or
of your
eating or
of your
physical,
of all sorts
of things.
You may do
those things.
But they're
all in service
to pursuing
Christ and
knowing him.
He is the
one in whom
we have the
deepest
spiritual
life.
Friends,
Paul is
then leading
to his
third and
final warning
in chapter
two,
which builds
and expands
on what he's
already said.
In verses
20 through
23,
he says,
don't be
deceived by
the empty
promises of
man-made
religion when
Christ is all
you really
need.
Look with
me again
at this.
You may
have,
if with
Christ you
died to
the elemental
spirits of
the world,
why is if
you were
still alive
in the
world?
Do you
submit to
the regulations,
do not
handle,
do not
touch,
taste,
do not
touch,
referring to
things that
all perish as
they are used
according to
human precepts
and teaching?
These have
indeed
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.
Paul paints
out a picture.
Before you
were in
Christ,
you lived in
a world and
you were under
the influence of
these elemental
spirits,
and these elemental
spirits,
maybe they're more
personal,
spiritual,
like demonic
forces,
maybe they're
more cultural
or just human
dynamics in a
fallen world.
world.
I don't think we
need to determine
or say which
one.
I think we're
influenced by
both.
He says,
you lived in a
world whereby
people sought
means of
justifying
themselves,
of belonging
to a people,
of changing
themselves,
of being
accepted in
the world
by external
things.
Do not
taste.
Right?
Sorry,
let's say it
right.
Do not
handle,
do not
taste,
do not
touch.
One
commentator
made it funny
that this is
actually ironic
and he's sort
of saying how
ridiculous these
rules can get.
It's kind of
like saying,
son,
I don't want
you to go on
a date with
that girl.
As a matter
of fact,
I don't even
want you to
look at that
girl.
As a matter
of fact,
you can't
even think
about that
girl.
And he's
sort of saying
this is the
extremity of
the ways that
these kind of
regulations can
go as we're
trying to
pursue
some kind
of acceptance
or belonging
or justifying
ourselves and
our lives in
this world.
It's
characterized
by rules
and it
reflects the
building of a
religious system
that is man
made.
We know
that we are
made for God
but apart
from Christ,
we don't know
how to get
there.
and we
fill that
gap in
all sorts
of ways.
We create
our own
religions
whether they
be more
spiritual or
not.
We create
our own
ways of
getting to
be acceptable
by God.
And Paul
says,
you know what
it was like
to be under
that?
That's slavery.
There's no
freedom there.
There's no
hope there.
It's an
ongoing
hamster wheel
of performance
that grinds
you till
you die.
It's a
standard of
unmeetable
expectations
that causes
you to
despair and
give up
hope
or to
succeed,
which is
even worse
because then
as a puffed
up person
you walk
around pitying
all the others
who can't do
it as well
as you can.
This is the
human heart.
Verse 23,
it says,
they have
the appearance
of wisdom
but they
have no
power.
Friends,
has it ever
occurred to
you that
we live in
an age where
we think
that humanity
ought to be
getting better?
We ought to
be improving.
We ought to
be showing
that we can
actually grow
and become a
better society
and a
better world.
As a
history major,
it's just
not true.
There are
some ways
in which
by God's
grace
things have
improved.
Wonderfully so.
There are
ways in which
God's gracious
common,
that His
common grace
is blessing
this world
in wonderful
ways.
And there are
ways in which
humanity has
progressed that
is glorious
and beautiful.
But friends,
we're not
better.
That has
come alongside
with an
ongoing
persistent
show that
in fact,
people are
sinful and
the world
has fallen
and we
can't fix
it.
And we
can't make
it better.
We can't
do it on a
societal and
a global
level and
we can't
even do it
on a personal
level.
It's what
sin of
Adam and
Eve in the
garden was
about.
God, I'd
rather create
my own
way rather
than follow
yours.
Thank you
very much.
I'll do it
myself.
And we
create our
own religions.
And Paul
says, why
would you go
back to that?
Why would you
go back to
these rules and
laws that
create these
ins and outs?
when you
have something
so much
better?
Verse 23
ends with
the fact that
these things
have no value
in stopping
the indulgence
of the flesh.
That is,
they have no
true ability
to transform
us so that
we no longer
are enslaved
to our
darkest
desires
and most
destructive
impulses.
He goes
on in
chapter 3
and this
is what
we're going
to see.
In Christ
we really
do have
all that
we need.
He looks
back,
what we
talked about
earlier in
chapter 2
verses 9
through 15.
Christ has
saved us
completely,
fully,
all that
we need.
Chapter 3
then is going
to say,
not only has
He saved
us,
but if you
want to
pursue Christ,
if you want
to know God,
if you think
that there's
more,
there is.
And it's
in Christ.
And it's
only in
Christ.
And we're
going to
see that
in Christ
there is
a power
to change
and be
transformed.
There is
a power
to put
off
patterns
of sin
and godlessness
in our
lives,
to put
off the
evil things
that continue
to destroy
our
relationships.
We have
the ability
to put
off these
things that
dishonor God
and ruin
our lives.
We can
put them
off because
of Christ
and because
we have
been transformed
and made
new in
Christ.
There is
now this
new life
that is
in Christ
for us
where He
will give
us a
character
that we
don't have
on our
own.
We're
in humility
and patience
and kindness
and gentleness
and forgiveness
and grace
and truth
and worship.
We are
able to
follow
and know
God.
and the
fullness
is there.
It's not
in these
other things.
It's not
in these
practices
of self-made
religion
of various
ways,
but it's
in Christ
that we
find these
things.
So in
closing,
if you
have found
yourself
put off
by the
empty
powerlessness
of
churchianity,
I just
made that
up.
Maybe I
didn't.
Somebody's
probably
thought about
it for
me,
but churchianity.
That's my
word for
the self-made
religion that
looks a lot
like
Christianity,
but it's
really about
ourselves and
not about
Christ.
If you
have found
yourself put
off by the
powerlessness
of it,
know that
yeah,
there's a lot
of counterfeit
out there,
but the
substance is
in Christ.
If you
have felt
yourself
excluded from
the people
of God
because they
have held
ungodly
standards,
because they
have created
these in
and out
groups that
are not
based on
scripture,
but are
based in
human religion,
know that
that's not
the gospel,
and that's
not Christ,
and that
Christ welcomes
you.
if you
are tempted
because the
long,
hard road
of fits
and starts
of pursuing
Christ can
sometimes get
really hard,
and you
think,
can't I
just skip
to the
end?
If you're
tempted to
want to
do that
by adding
on to
Christ,
heed Paul's
warnings.
Don't add
on,
but go
deeper,
go deeper
into Christ.
Come for
the next
three weeks
so you
will see
how it
is that
Paul wants
to lay
out what
there is
for us
in Christ
and see
its glory
and its
power
and be
renewed
in hope
that this
fumbling,
stumbling
walk of
faith in
Christ really
is headed
in the
right
direction
and that
Christ will
carry you
and Christ
will take
you to
the places
that you
want to
go
and that
in Christ
you will
find all
that you
need.
He really
is enough.
Let's pray.
Lord,
thank you
for this
word and
thank you
for the
pastoral
heart of
the apostle
for us
Lord,
that we
would not
miss the
glorious riches
of Christ
in whom
are hidden
all the
treasures
of wisdom
and knowledge.
Lord,
that we
would not
miss out
on that
or allow
that to
be replaced
by
counterfeit
self-made
religion.
Lord,
search our
hearts to
see us
that we
might see
ourselves
and see
how we
may be
tempted
in these
ways.
Lord,
help us
as a
church
to fight
against
cultural
developments
in our
body that
might
communicate
or build
up these
kinds of
self-made
standards.
words.
Lord,
help us
to be
faithful
and true
to the
message of
Christ
and Him
crucified,
Christ
and Him
raised
from the
dead,
Christ
the fullness
of God
and all
that we
need.
We pray
this in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.
Well,
friends,
we will
close
with a
song of
worship,
so let me
invite you
to stand
as we
do so.
what
to tend
to we
do so?
love you
and
that
know
how
you
love you
love me
love you