We're gonna be turning our way through to the book of Colossians again this evening, book of Colossians. We're gonna be turning through to chapter two. Chapter two, so this morning, for those who weren't tuning in with us, we looked at chapter two, verse eight, through to 15. Tonight, we're gonna be looking at the rest of the chapter, picking up from where we left off at verse 16, and going through to verse 23 at the end of the chapter. This is God's holy, perfect, and infallible word for you tonight. 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 a 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, 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. Amen. And may God bless the reading of his word to us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for another opportunity to open up your Word again today. We thank you for the great assurance we have that when your Word is preached and when your Word is read, you speak. And so tonight, Lord, as we turn to your Word again, we pray. that, Lord, we might see wondrous things in your word, that, Lord, we might behold unfathomable mysteries, that as Christ, the hope of glory, that we might see the infinite worth of the Godhead, that we might find the source of truth, the source of joy, our every hope, our every need fulfilled in him. Lord, would you give us eyes to see and hearts to believe what the Spirit is saying to the churches and particularly to this one. Help me, Lord, your servant, to speak to human ears in a way that you would be glorified, Lord, that my name and my words and my face might be forgotten, but upon the lips and the heart of every one of us might be Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. I wonder if you can remember, or your parents probably can, if you can remember those little books, they used to have those little books, well, they probably still make them, those little books called Mr. Men and Little Miss, the books, you know, and you had Mr. Happy and Mr. Grumpy and all the different books. And children, you can probably remember reading them growing up as well. I used to just absolutely love them. They were so good. And they had such a, even as an adult reading them still, they've got such a good wittiness about them. Well, we're thinking about not Mr. Men or a Little Miss tonight, but we're thinking about Mr. No One. Talking about Mr. No One. Not Mr. Nobody. We know every house has a Mr. Nobody. It's amazing how many different things a Mr. Nobody does in a household. Every day he seems to show up in our family and do something, probably yours as well. But no, no, we're thinking about Mr. No One. So who's Mr. No One? Well, there are many Mr. No Ones. There are many Mr. No Ones in churches. There are many Mr. No Ones in the world. There are many Mr. No Ones and all of them are deadly dangerous. and all of them are seeking to make an absolute shipwreck of your salvation. Jesus spoke of them in Matthew 7 verse 15 when he said, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Of course, he didn't say Mr. No Ones, he said false prophets. But that's what a Mr. No One is, it's a false prophet. And Paul has been speaking about Mr. No Ones all the way through chapter two. So if you have a look at me, verse four, Paul says, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. Then in verse eight, he says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy. Then in verse 16, he says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you. In 18, he says, let no one disqualify you. And then in verse 20, he says, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? And he goes on to speak about the no one who promotes those things. And interestingly, in the way it's written in the Greek, you get the impression he has a specific person in mind. As though Paul has the exact person in his mind. Now he's either thinking of one particular group of people, but it's more likely he's thinking of one particular false teacher who has snuck in. who has snuck in, you see this in the verse 18 at the end of it, he says, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. There is a particular no one in Colossi and it is causing havoc. He is causing havoc. And brothers and sisters, there are plenty of no ones in our world. and they can sneak into our churches while we are unaware and seek like ravenous wolves to pounce upon the sheep and have them for dinner. So who is this Mr. No One? Well, Mr. No One, he goes by Mr. Judge. Have a look at verse 16. 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 a Sabbath. His alter ego is Mr. Judge because he critiques everything you do. He is very interested with whether you celebrate particular feasts in a particular way. He's very interested to know whether you eat particular types of food or not, whether you eat meat, whether you drink alcohol, whether you are in favor of bacon or not. He's particularly interested in how you dress, in how you celebrate New Moons. He's particularly interested in how you live your life. And he does that because he wants to come along and look at how you live your life and say, you're wrong. You're condemned in how you live your life. That is not how a real Christian lives. He is like He is like those annoying people who stand at rainbow's end. You know, the really annoying people who stand at rainbow's end at all the good rides and they have the height barrier and it's that much taller than you. And you're a kid and you really, really wanted to go on that ride and you walk up and the whole time you're in the line, which is like 50 minutes long. You like sitting there like, Oh, I'm going to get there. I'm going to do it. I'm sure I'm going to be tall enough this time. I'm sure I'm going to be taught. And you get up and you go. And they go, nope, I'm the judge, you're out, you're not coming in because you do not meet up to my standard. Mr. No one is a Mr. Judge and he condemns your freedom. There is a lot of freedom being condemned in our world right now on every side. I have had phone calls from people on every side of every debate that is raging in our world right now, saddened because someone has condemned them, judged them for their choice. And this is exactly what Mr. Judge does. But Mr. No One has a second alter ego, so he is Mr. Judge, but he's also Mr. Umpire. Have a look with me at verse 18. 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. I call him Mr. Umpire because that word for disqualifying is like a sports word, the exact same thing that an umpire does. You just imagine at the Olympics and all the runners are lined up, ready to race, and one of them starts early. What happens? Instant disqualification. Or, as I can remember being a kid playing rugby, and at the start of every game, you would have to get down upon your knees, not because you prayed, but you got down upon your knees, and you'd have to have your boots backwards, and they'd come along and check all of the sprigs to make sure there was no problems. Or watching my daughter play netball, and they'd go along and check all the girls' nails. And they will disqualify someone, well, tell them to cut their nails, obviously, they will disqualify someone if something's not up to the standard. And this is what Mr. Umpire does. He's not so much concerned with what you do, but he is very concerned with what you don't do. He's very concerned with what you don't do. So it says in verse 18, insisting on asceticism. It's interesting because the word for asceticism is basically humility. And I think, wait a second. but it's a wrong type of humility. It's not biblically godly humility, but it's humility driven to an extreme. So children, if you don't know what asceticism is, It's when you deny yourself joys. It's when you deny yourself what is good for you, like food and drink. It's when you deny yourself the good gifts of God in order to turn yourself into something. So in the, in the olden days, there were monks and they were ascetics and they would do things, crazy things. Like they would live in a cave by themselves. with almost no clothes on, they would starve themselves, they would beat themselves in an attempt to get rid of sin. It's a wrong type of humility, a self-deprecating, degrading humility, not a God-glorifying humility. And so what these umpires do is they come along and they spy on you. And then they look at the freedom in which you're living in. And they look at you and they think just, oh. You eat ice cream? Oh, no, there's too much goodness in that. That's too enjoyable. Wait, you have fun? You listen to music? I've heard of a young Christian. He's not a young Christian, he's actually an old Christian now, but he's a minister. And when he was converted, Derek Thomas tells the story of when he got converted, a Christian came up to him and said, oh, Christians can't listen to non-Christian music. And he had an enormous collection of classical music. And this person came up to him and said, no, no, you can't listen to that, because that's not Christian. And so he got rid of the whole thing. And to this day, he regrets that that happened because a Mr. Umpire came along and said, oh, I'm calling foul. I'm calling foul. According to my standards, you can't do that. You've got to do this. Let me show you the way. For example, the worship of angels. And you might think, well, the worship of angels isn't really a problem. Have you ever been in a Christian bookstore? I'm not talking about the like really cool reformed ones where they just have a hundred percent books and it's like my dream. I'm talking about the ones where there's like a million trinkets and seven books, and they're probably all by someone that you don't want to buy. And you go in there and you look around and what do you see? There's angels and there's pictures of angels and there's little trinkets. And, and, you know, if you get this, if you hang an angel in your car, you're going to feel closer to God. You know, and if you have a Christian tattoo, that's going to make you somehow holier. And there's all these little things that you've got to do in order to proceed in the Christian faith. And if you don't, he's going to blow his whistle and he's going to call the red card and send you off the pitch. but Mr. No One has a third, and possibly more deadly alter ego, and it's Mr. Tyrant. So Mr. No One is Mr. Judge, Mr. Umpire, and he is Mr. Tyrant. Have a look at verse 20. Why, halfway through, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to the things that all perish as they're used, according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom, in promoting self-made religion or worship, and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh, Why do you submit to regulations? He's Mr. Tyrant. He's a slave master. He comes along with his set of rules, his set of worldly regulations, his set of elementary principles or spirits, the things that bind you, the things that once held you, he brings them back and wants to lay them upon you again. They're not biblical standards of godliness, But what are they? They are man-made regulations. It's interesting, isn't it? He says man promoting self-made religion or man-made worship. You see, the Church of Jesus Christ only has one way to worship God. and it's in accordance with his scriptures. We have no way of knowing how to worship God outside of the word of God. God commands how we worship him. But what Mr. Tyrant does is he comes along and he says, I know a better way. I know a better way that will give you richer religious experience. And if you don't think this is a problem in the world, Have a look at some of the exceedingly large churches where they say things like, by the way, when you get baptized, you will speak in tongues when you come up out of the water. And literally have heard of this, when the person didn't, they re-baptized them until he did. Fortunately, it only took three dunks. What is that? It's a man-made worship, a man-made regulation according to non-biblical standards. Mr. No One always seeks to destroy your freedom that Christ has won you. He always seeks to enslave you to external outward things. to things you can put on or things you can put off, to things you can put in or things you cannot put in. He will judge you for what you drink. He will umpire you for what you don't drink. And he will enslave you to the rules of this world. He offers you Christian richness, spiritual fullness, and yet if He sneaks into your home and takes you unawares, He will leave you spiritually bankrupt and famished. We must, Jesus said, beware of false prophets. They don't come in looking like ravenous wolves, do they? They come in looking and sounding just like the rest of us. Oh, how many times there have been men who are so-called preachers of the gospel, who have shown themselves to be nothing but frauds, seeking to make an impact. You see, Paul understands the reality of what he wrote in Galatians. Turn to Galatians 2 with me. Paul has dealt with this before. Chapter 2, verse 3. but even Titus, who was with me, who was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek, yet, because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that it might bring us into slavery. To them, we did not yield and submission even for a moment. so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. Do you see that? Do you hear that? The way they snuck in, they're sly. They slowly creep in and they sound so close to legitimate. And they will sneak into our churches and we must be on guard. You know, right now, I'm getting contacted by two to five people every week. people who are longing for a spiritual home where they will not be denied access to the means of grace. Praise God that we can provide these people a home, but we must be on guard. Lest someone sneak in to spy out our freedom in order to bring us back into slavery. You see, we still face the same issue. We have people telling us, you can't drink alcohol. You can't listen to X music. You need to get on the Daniel diet. We all remember that one. You need to do Jabez's prayer. You must adhere to a particular view on the government. You need to adhere to a particular view on the vaccine. And if you don't do these things, you're not as spiritual as me. It's a deadly attitude that must be rejected completely. See, the problem of Mr. No One is that he focuses on externals and internals rather than focusing on someone. You see, in this text, we have Mr. No One How do we deal with Mr. No One? How do we slay Mr. No One? Not physically. Please don't slay anyone physically, but I don't condone that behavior. But how do we slay Mr. No One? Well, we don't. Someone else does. And so we're confronted with Mr. No One. However, Paul gives us the glorious antidote, which is a Mr. Someone. Mr. Someone. Have a look at him. Here he is in verse 17. These, Mr. Judge, with the things he judges you, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. What's he saying? All of these things that the judge, Mr. Judge, comes along and uses against you, Paul says, look, all of those things, are nothing but a vapor, a shadow and mist. Christ and his cross casts a shadow upon everything else. It is only Christ that can provide you salvation. It is only Christ that can provide you fullness of spiritual joy and gladness and delight and freedom. You will not find freedom by observing Old Testament feasts and celebrations. The amount of times I've had people say to me, you need to go and do a Messianic Passover, then you'll really know what it's like to celebrate Lord's Supper. Nonsense! Christ is the celebration of Lord's Supper, not bread and wine. We don't need other things because we have Christ. We have the real thing. See, the judge is toying around with shadows and we have Christ. But notice also, verse 19, the growth. So they're puffed up without reason by a 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. So while Mr. Umpire says to you, You need to worship angels. You need to pray the prayer of Jabez. You need to get on the Daniel diet. You need to get baptized seven times and speak in tongues to have spiritual fullness. Paul goes, don't you get it, Colossians? Spiritual fullness only comes from Christ. You see, when you hold fast to the head that is Jesus, all of his spiritual fullness is coming down into the believer and filling him up like the glass we saw this morning. If you missed it, it's on YouTube. Like the glass we saw this morning, overflowing because of the fullness of Christ in us. Christ, as he says back in chapter one, in us, the hope of glory. But then notice also, Mr. Someone is he who died to set us free. Have a look at verse 20 again. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to its regulations? If you've died with Christ, why do you allow Mr. Tyrant to enslave you again? Makes no sense. You see, you were in bondage. You were dead in your sins. You were under a slave master called death and sin and the devil. But now you are alive in Christ. So you have been transferred, Paul says in chapter one, from darkness into the domain of his blessed son. You are no longer under Mr. Slave Master, you're under Mr. Someone, Christ himself. Why would you enslave yourself again, O church at Colossae? And brothers and sisters, why would we enslave ourselves again? You see, Mr. Someone is the one who was proclaimed in the Garden of Eden, the seed promised to Eve. He was the one whose name was cried out in the blood of Abel. It was him who was sacrificed on the altar for Isaac. It was him who was sacrificed in the bulls in the temple. It was Him who was sacrificed in the lambs in the tabernacle. It was His blood that was painted upon doorframes. It was He who brought freedom to Noah and his people from the flood. It was He who led His people through the great waters outside of Egypt. It was He who cast down the walls of Jericho. It was He who led His people out of exile. It was He who ascended a hill and died so that you and I would be set free from Mr. No One. It's Christ Jesus, our Lord. We don't need anything else. We have everything that we could ever need. You see, Christ himself is the great antidote to the filthy poison of Mr. No One. Mr. No One offers us a shadow, but Mr. Someone offers us substance. Mr. No One offers us puffery. and self-worship, but Mr. Someone offers us growth from God, Mr. No One offers us valueless and baseless severity of the body, and Mr. Someone offers us death to sin and life in Him. This is the glory of our Savior, brothers and sisters. You see, at the end of the day, Mr. No One has been slayed by someone. And we saw it this morning in verse 13 to 15. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. Mr. No One seeks to seduce you away from Christ. But if you have eyes upon Mr. Someone, he will never succeed. You see, people can only lead you astray if you're not looking at the light. I often liken it to when I was driving tractors for my father and he was teaching me how to power harrow. And so I'm in the tractor and dad's telling me what to do. First time I've power harrowed a paddock before. And my father says to me, Logan, you go this way, this way, and you do all that. But one thing is really, really important. Whenever you're driving, find a point on the other end of the paddock and stare at it. Because if you do that, you'll never go offline and never look behind. He said, the temptation is always to look behind you and check the line behind you to see if you're clipping it properly. He said, but if you do that, you will always go astray. But if you look to the spot in the horizon that you're aiming for, you will hit the right place. And I can still vividly remember the very first time I drove it. Of course, dad just left straight away, leaving me in perfect condition, ready to go with perfect instructions. Logan being the perfect submissive worker and son knew exactly what to do. So I got 30 seconds down the first line and you know what I do? And you know where the tractor goes, eh? Straight off track. And all of a sudden I see the line growing as I'm looking backwards. I'm like, uh-oh. I've made a boo-boo. But that's what we can be like. You see, when we take our eyes off of Jesus Christ, we will easily be led astray. But while we have our eyes firmly fixed upon Him, people can offer us anything. And we're gonna be like, are you insane? I've got Jesus. You see, Christ sets us free from the obligations of Mr. Judge. Christ sets us free from the expectations of Mr. Empire. And Christ sets us free from the regulations of Mr. Tyrant. And we must learn from Israel. My kids and I were sitting outside this afternoon, or maybe it was yesterday afternoon, everything's a blur. At some point we were sitting outside and we were talking about the reality of learning from mistakes. You know, parents say you do this, you talk to your kids and you're like, I was really retarded when I was a teenager. And I don't want you to make those same mistakes. So let me talk to you and help you that you might not make the same mistakes. You know, spiritually, we can be like that as children. We don't learn from the failures of the past. Let me point you to a passage in Jeremiah. Turn to Jeremiah with me, where Jeremiah shows us how Israel failed so horribly at this. Having been given everything, they took their eyes off of it. We'll start in verse one, chapter two of Jeremiah. The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord. The first fruits of his harvest, all who ate of it incurred guilt. Disaster came upon them, declares the Lord. It's a great start, isn't it? A bride, love, devotion, following. Verse four, hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the clans of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, what wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells? And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that were not prophet. Therefore, I still contend with you, declares the Lord. And with your children's children, I will contend. Hear this. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Caedar and examine with care, see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods? Even though they're not gods, but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this. Be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils, the most shocking two evils, according to the heavens. They have forsaken me. the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. We must learn from Israel. They had been given everything. They had been started in devotion and love as a bride. And yet as generation and generation went by, they turned from a bubbling over fountain brook of life, and they turned to a broken cistern. where the dust has fallen and the water drains out, so you have to drink it quickly, but all it is is mixed with the dirt and mud. Isn't that a horrible picture? But is that not what we are tempted to do? We're offered Christ, and then we think about Jabez's prayer. We're offered Christ and we think maybe I need to learn how to speak tongues. Then I'll experience spirituality. We must learn from Israel's bad example that we, like the early church, might listen to John 1 John 4, 1, where he says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world, and it is no different. How do you test the spirits? You take the book, which gives you Jesus Christ, and you compare everything to him. You see, Christ sets us free. Christ is the living fountain. And that world out there will seek to make you its slave. Don't buy it. Look to Christ and never look anywhere else. Let's pray. Father in heaven, there are many false voices. There are many Mr. No Ones in this world. And we all acknowledge we are tempted to buy it sometimes. We all acknowledge that sometimes we have. We pray that you would forgive us. We pray that you would help us to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we would look to your word and compare everything to what we find there. that we might remain steadfast and loyal, that, Lord, we might not be like Israel, forsaking the living waters for a dirty, broken cistern. We thank you, Jesus, that you're enough, infinitely enough. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.