Well, when King Xerxes of Persia conquered Athens in the Greek-Persian War, all of Greece lay before him to be conquered. All he had to do was basically regather his troops and then, through a war of attrition, take over Greece. But there was a Greek politician named Themistocles who was very shrewd. And he sent a message to Xerxes, king of Persia, and he said, hey, I'm willing to change sides. I'm willing to betray my people, and here's what I think you should do. The Greeks, the warriors that were left, have gone off to sea. You should send your army in ships and ships and try to defeat them now, wipe them out while they're deflated, and then the war will be over. So Xerxes listened to this message by Themistocles and sent out his army in droves in different ships. But what Xerxes didn't know was that the Greeks who went out to sea had these long skinny boats that could easily outmaneuver larger ships and were pointed at the end that they could ram the hull of larger ships and sink them. And that's exactly what happened. The Persians sent out a huge portion of their army and the Greeks outmaneuvered them, they rammed their ships, and they sank them so much so that one Greek poet said that the sea could no longer be seen because of the floating debris and bodies of the Persian army. They were raised inland. They weren't strong swimmers. But Themistocles wasn't done. He sent a survivor, a Persian survivor, to Xerxes with a fabricated message. He gave this soldier who survived the impression that the Greeks' next move was to go and destroy these pontoon bridges that they had constructed over what is now the Dardanelles Strait. And they thought they were going to destroy that so that the Persians would be trapped in Greece. And so Xerxes again listened and they retreated, took his whole army, retreated out to get back over the Pontian bridges. So Persia defeated Athens, had all of Greece in the palm of his hand, and then had his army annihilated and retreated in shame all because he listened to a false message from Themistocles, from his enemy. Well, in this passage, Paul warns the Colossians and their church against being deceived in a similar way. In Christ, they had already had the victory. They had salvation. They have eternal life. But some have crept in among them, and they've come with deceptive messages and false teachings And if the Colossians listen to it, they will be needlessly guilty, and they might even destroy their faith and themselves in the process. And we also face that same danger, the same danger that the Colossians faced thousands of years ago. Not only do we have to resist our sin, which threatens our faith, but we are also presented with many philosophies. Many alternative worldviews and other religions that threaten to misalign us, causing us to abandon the gospel altogether if we listen to them. So we need this warning. We need this warning that Paul gives the Colossians. Here's the main point, this sermon. False teachers can't condemn us, but if we follow them, we condemn ourselves. False teachers can't condemn us, but if we follow them, we condemn ourselves. Here's the two points that we're going to look at. Number one, don't let others judge you wrongly. And number two, don't be judged by God rightly. Paul first tells them that they shouldn't let people judge them and exclude them from the people of God based on erroneous extra-biblical laws and regulations. But then he turns around and says, but don't exclude yourself. Don't cut yourself off from God by following their practices and teachings. In other words, he's saying they can't condemn you, but if you follow them, you'll be rightly condemned by God. You'll cut yourself off from the gospel and from salvation. So let's look at our first point. Don't let others judge you wrongly. Paul begins this passage in verse 16 by saying, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Apparently, there were people among the Colossians that were teaching that if the Colossians were true Christians, then they would be observing certain rules about food and drink, and festivals, and the Sabbath. And this teaching clearly had a Jewish flavor to it. You can tell that clearly by the mention of the Sabbath, but also food, especially food, dietary laws in the Old Testament. This teaching shows up in other places like Galatians, even Romans. These people were condemning the Colossians because they weren't obeying these Old Testament dietary laws or keeping all the festivals and observing the Sabbath. But Paul says, don't let them judge you in regard to these things. And the word Paul uses here for judge is krineto. It means to harshly criticize or condemn. So Paul is saying, you actually have freedom in these areas. But if these people deceive you and you listen to them, then they're going to heap guilt on you, needless guilt, that you don't have to bear. But what's interesting about these matters is that they were required for Old Testament believers to obey. So the question for us is, why aren't they not required for us to obey? This brings us to a big topic, which is the application of the Old Testament law to us as Christians today. How do we know what to and what to not obey in the Old Testament? Probably us as Christians, we've maybe glazed over that. We haven't thought about it. There are certain things in the Old Testament that we don't obey, we don't see as relevant for us, and probably rightly so in most cases. But how would you rationalize that? How would you justify that biblically? Well, theologian John Frame, I think is helpful, and he explains that all of Scripture is generally normative. It is generally authoritative for Christians. But not all, the Old Testament especially, is currently and literally normative or applicable to Christians. And that's for three reasons. Either God has changed redemptive history, God has changed that law or God has fulfilled that law. God has changed redemptive history. We're in a different redemptive time now. God has changed that law or God has fulfilled that law. So, One example of a way where God has changed redemptive history is in Exodus 22 verse 1, where he says, if a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for one ox and four sheep for one sheep. Okay, this is generally normative for us. It's generally authoritative. We should glean from this that we should make restitution for wrongs, that stealing is wrong, which is why God made it the eighth commandment to not steal. But this command isn't so much currently and literally normative for us. We are no longer living in an agrarian society, where rules like this and laws like this would be especially relevant. And what's more, we are no longer living in what's called a theocracy. We no longer have a king like the Israelites had, and we are no longer a self-governing body of people. In the Old Testament, God gave his people laws, and they were a self-governing people. They had a king, they had judges, and they went about enacting justice, carrying out laws. That's no longer the case for us. The theocracy, the throne of Israel, the earthly national throne has been removed, and God in Romans 13 has clearly established civil authorities, government leaders to enact justice, and hopefully they do that rightly. And so these case laws, like I just read in Exodus 22, were outworkings of the Ten Commandments so that leaders of Israel would know how to enact justice. And these are still generally normative for us, right? They reveal God's justice, they reveal His character, but they're no longer currently and literally normative because we are no longer carrying out laws like this. We're no longer in a theocracy. We're living in a different time in redemptive history. So God has changed redemptive history, which is why some laws in the Old Testament don't apply to us. But then there's some laws that are changed by God. And one example of that is actually in this passage. He talks about food and drink. We know in the Old Testament certain foods were prohibited. There were certain dietary laws. And we know in Acts 10, God appeared to Peter and gave him a vision And he went and spoke to the Roman centurion Cornelius, and God declared all foods clean. He said, do not call unclean what I have called clean. And so that's one example of how God has changed the law. We have done away with the dietary laws and restrictions. But these teachers are actually going beyond just food. They're going beyond the Old Testament law. They're talking about drinks. The Old Testament law talked about food, but it didn't talk about beverages. What clearly I think is happening here, and there's actually record of this, is that certain Jews were not only upholding the Old Testament dietary laws, they were actually refraining from drinks, especially wine, because it was associated with pagan rituals. And so they were going to other Christians saying, hey, you not only need to fulfill these dietary commands, you better refrain from wine and other drinks because you'll associate with pagan rituals if you do. And you're not really a Christian if you're not doing this. Well, in Romans 14, in 1 Corinthians, Paul lays out clearly that certain people were refraining from foods for the same reason, because they were associated with certain pagan rituals, meat offered to idols. And Paul tells them in Romans 14 that they actually have freedom to eat and drink. He says the kingdom is not of eating and drinking. And so he says these things shouldn't hamper us as Christians. And yet Paul did say they can and should refrain from perhaps drinking wine or eating meat that was offered to idols for the sake of a fellow Christian whose conscience was convicted in that role. So we should be gracious, we should be flexible and give up our rights as Christians, but we shouldn't be hampered. We shouldn't have needless guilt heaped on us like these teachers were trying to do the Colossians. So sometimes laws don't apply to us because God has changed redemptive history, Some laws don't apply to us because God has changed them in the New Testament, like food and dietary laws, but then sometimes there are laws that have actually been fulfilled in Christ. Perhaps the most clear example of this would be the sacrificial laws in the Old Testament. In Hebrews 10, verses 11 and 12, we read this, and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but When Christ had offered for all time, all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. He abolished the Old Testament sacrificial system. And Hebrews later says, what is obsolete is now passing away, it's fading away. Christ fulfilled it. But Christ also fulfilled commands about festivals and new moons and the Sabbath. Because we read here in verse 17 that Paul says, These things are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. They're a shadow, but the substance belongs to Christ. God's people were commanded to rest from work and to focus on God during certain festivals or feast days like Passover or the Feast of Booths or other feasts and festivals. And yet the reason God gave them those festivals was to remind them that he had, in a sense, atoned for them, redeemed them by the blood of a lamb, especially in the festival of Passover. so they should do that again and again to remind them God has taken us out of the land of slavery. He's redeemed us by the blood of the lamb. Well now God has redeemed them by the blood of Christ and he's actually given us a new festival, a new feast that he calls the Lord's Supper, which Jesus said do this in remembrance of me." And so Christ fulfills the festivals, the feasts of the Old Testament. But Christ also fulfills new moons and the Sabbath. Now, the new moon just refers to a time when sacrifices were to be made by priests, because in 1 Chronicles 23, 31, among other places in the Old Testament, it says that the priests were commanded to stand praising and thanking the Lord whenever sacrifices were brought on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days. So the new moon was basically another time like the Sabbath for the Old Testament people of God, where God's people were commanded to rest and to make sacrifices. But Christ, Paul says in this passage, fulfilled the new moon's day of rest and the Sabbath. Now, this is somewhat controversial because there are very godly brothers and sisters in Christ that still hold to a Sabbatarian view, which is that we need, as Christians, to observe the Sabbath, that we need to rest entirely, just like the Old Testament people of God. It is the fourth commandment, after all, and they jokingly refer to people who don't believe that as believing in all nine of the commandments, right? And so we have to think carefully about this. But I think that verses like this and others make a strong case for the fact that Christ actually fulfilled the Sabbath rest. As Paul says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but Christ is the substance. Additionally, in Galatians 4, verses 10 and 11, Paul says, you observe days and months and seasons and years. And then he says, I am afraid I have labored over you in vain. In other words, he's saying they are continuing to obey Old Testament laws that were clearly fulfilled in Christ, and he's worried, have I labored in vain? Do they not realize that this was actually fulfilled in Jesus? Are they not looking to Jesus for their salvation as they should? But Hebrews 4 is, I think, perhaps the clearest on this topic. Hebrews 4 explains that we should strive to enter God's rest, and if we have believed in Jesus, then we have entered that rest. The author of Hebrews is basically explaining that the Israelites missed out on God's rest because they neglected the Sabbath. Basically, they didn't obey the fourth commandment as they were commanded to, and because of that, they missed out on God's rest. So now what? Can they no longer enter God's rest? Is there no opportunity for them to enter God's rest? Well, the author of Hebrews is clear. He says that if they've believed, then they have entered his rest. Hebrews 4 verse 3 says, we who have believed in Christ enter that rest. Christ is our rest. And that is such a comfort. Jesus said in Matthew 11, I am gentle and lowly of heart. Come to me and you will find rest for your souls. Rest for your souls in Christ. He's our rest. Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor who wrote about his experience in the book Night. And he was 15 when he arrived at the concentration camp Auschwitz. And after a year there, the Allies liberated the camp, which caused the SS troops to force every prisoner in the camp into what he called a death march. They were forced to run miles and miles in the snow without a break. This is what Elie Wiesel wrote about this death march. A few more yards, I thought, a few more yards, and that will be the end. I shall fall, a spurt of red flame, a gunshot. Death wrapped itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt that I could touch it. The idea of death began to fascinate me, not to feel the horrible pains in my foot, not to feel anything, neither weariness nor cold, I was simply walking in my sleep. I managed to close my eyes and to run like that while asleep. Now and then someone would push me violently from behind and I would wake up. The others would shout, run faster. An endless road, letting oneself be pushed by the mob. When the SS soldiers became tired, they were changed, but no one changed us. Our limbs numb with cold despite the running. Our throats parched, famished, breathless. On we went. The commander announced that we had already covered 42 miles since we left. It was a long time since we had passed beyond the limits of fatigue. Finally, the order was given to rest. And Eli and his father found a shed to sit down and collapsed in utter exhaustion. And Ellie couldn't rest. He was nervous. He was frantic in his mind about what was happening. But Ellie's father said to him, don't be afraid, son. Sleep. You can sleep now. I'll watch over you myself. And Ellie laid down in his father's arms and he rested. If you aren't a Christian, Aren't you tired of running? Aren't you tired of feeling you always have to measure up or feeling guilt and shame for past sins? Aren't you stressed and run down from life? Don't you long for rest, true rest? Come to Jesus. Come to Christ. He is your rest. He is gentle and lowly in heart. And in Him, and in Him alone, will you find rest. Come lay down and experience deep, refreshing, restorative spiritual sleep. God says He gives sleep to His beloved. So trust in Christ, in His finished work on the cross for your sins, in His resurrection from the dead. Trust in Christ and feel Him. Take that heavy burden off of your back. Let Him wash and soothe the sores on your feet from years and years of running and trying and striving to be perfect, which you cannot be. Rest in Christ. And for my brothers and sisters in Christ, stop trying to earn your salvation. Stop trying to pay God back. You can't. Having begun by the Spirit and by grace, don't resort back to the death march of your works. It's futile. Maybe even in prayer, you feel you have to pray long enough or good enough, say the right words. Maybe if I'm emotional enough, maybe if I mourn for my sin, then God will love me more. Or maybe he'll love me at all. Rest in Christ. Come to Jesus. As one hymn writer put it, not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not my love, O Lord, to thee, can rid me of this dark unrest and set my spirit free. Food and drink and festivals and the Sabbath are a shadow. But Christ is the substance. Come to Him, rest in Him. He is our Sabbath rest. But this doesn't mean we neglect Sundays, right? Just because Christ is our Sabbath rest, we're still commanded in Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 to let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, right? So we need to prioritize the body and being here in person for worship. But if you got some studying to do on a Sunday night or you want to play a game with some friends in between church and home fellowship, let no one judge you for that. That's what Paul is saying here, I think. Paul has just been talking about how Christ triumphed over sin and Satan and death for us. And now he says, don't let other people judge you about trivial matters. God doesn't condemn you. Satan can't touch you. Why would you let other people judge you? Why would you care about that? Romans 8 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised? Who indeed is at the right hand of the Father who is interceding for us? Why on earth do we spend our time eating the bread of anxious toil over something so foolish as what other people think of us or how they will judge us when God himself has freely pardoned us? The only judgment, the only condemnation from others that we should fear is the kind of judgment and criticism that actually points out that we are in disobedience to God. Not the kind of judgment that is trivial. It's like, okay, well, that's your conscience and that isn't really grounded in Scripture. But if someone points out to us, no, actually, brother or sister, you actually, I think, are sinning, we should greatly solicit that kind of feedback. You see this throughout Scripture. Psalm 141.5, David says, let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. Let my head not refuse it. Or Proverbs 27 6, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So we can receive correction and feedback from people openly because we know ultimately that God doesn't condemn us. It's a great book by Ed Welch called When People Are Big and God is Small. Oftentimes we fear feedback or criticism from others precisely because people are so big, bigger than God. When people are small, compared to God in our life, then we won't fear that kind of criticism. We'll say, hey, I can be better at my job. I can be a better dad or husband. Yeah, share that with me. Oh, I'm actually not walking in accordance with Scripture. Please share that with me. We actually won't fear criticism because we'll know that we're loved and accepted by grace in Christ. So we can then receive criticism and give it graciously. Now give it graciously. This is not an excuse to just say, hey, David said, let a righteous man strike you. So get ready. It's coming. No, we should be gracious. I've written on this in lightofscripture.com. It's a blog post called Confronting Others About Their Sin. Just walks through biblically how we should think about approaching someone if we want to confront them about their sin or something that's wrong with them. Just trying to walk through different steps that we should filter through before we have a conversation like that. So we should do it graciously, wisely, biblically, but we should solicit this kind of feedback. But not all rebukes are equally valuable, and that is what Paul explains here. Let no one judge you or condemn you on things that we have freedom on. And if we allow them to do that, then we'll become overly rigid and hinder our faith and our rest in Christ. And this idea of Christian liberty, when it comes to our conscience, is a really important topic, especially as we consider things like schooling, and alcohol, or politics, or race, or other non-essential doctrines like the Sabbath. There's a great book called Conscience by Andy Nacelli and Jim Crowley, maybe, I think is the other co-author. Phenomenal resource on that. Highly recommend it. So let no one judge you. That's the first pitfall we must avoid as Christians. But there's another more dangerous pitfall that we have to avoid in our journey with Christ. And that's our second point. Don't be judged by God rightly. Verse 18, Paul says, let no one disqualify you. So first he said, let no one judge you or condemn you. And now he takes it up a notch. He says, let no one disqualify you. So the first word for judge that we learned meant to criticize harshly or condemn. This word for it, disqualify, actually means to rob someone of a prize. It's one thing to get harshly criticized. It's a completely different thing to get robbed. Especially when you consider what they were being robbed of. It was the gospel. It was their very salvation. Look at what Jesus says, or what Paul says. He says this teaching would cause them to stop holding fast to Christ. Christ is the head of the body, the church. And so what is this teaching that Paul is warning them about? Well, these people were insisting on asceticism. That word, this word literally means humility or self-denial, which is why some translations, maybe some of your translations actually use humility instead of asceticism. But it's a false kind of humility. And given the context in the previous verse, he's likely referring to extreme self-denial like asceticism. This would be constant fasting, elaborate fasting, refraining from different activities, all to climb this spiritual ladder to reach higher echelons of the knowledge of God. They're insisting even on the worship of angels, Paul says. This is just blatant idolatry. Throughout the book of Colossians, Paul is actually continually warning against trusting in angels and in spirits. If Galatians struggled with Christ plus my works equals salvation, then the Colossians would definitely struggle with Christ plus angels equals salvation. They had a high, high view of angels and what they needed to receive from them. Some people were actually teaching that they needed to appeal to angels for spiritual protection or to ward off evil. But we can see why this directly opposes the gospel. We have direct access to God through faith in Christ. We don't need angels. We have one mediator, and we only need that mediator. Jesus said in John 14, 14, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. In my name. That's why when we end prayers, we end them with in Jesus's name. Amen. Or in Christ's name. Amen. It's because we are being reminded, and we're praying the way God taught us to, and we're being reminded that it's only because of Christ that we have direct access to God the Father. Today we hear, I think, a lot about the spiritual realm, right? It's movies about paranormal activity or shows, a lot of talk about guardian angels. Maybe if you've gone through a hard time, you've gotten a text from a friend or family member, guardian angels watching over you, angel emoji. Look, angels are real, and they do watch over us from time to time. But they do so by command of God. Angels only do God's bidding. They don't act independently of God. And so it's not angels that we should be comforted by. It's the one who commands angels to watch over us. We can go directly to Him. But perhaps the most glaring version or maybe parallel of worshiping angels today, I think would be the Catholic teaching of praying to the saints and Mary. If we shouldn't worship and invoke the help of angels, angelic beings, to ward off evil, how much less should we invoke the help of former sinners who have been redeemed just like us? But not only are these people insisting on asceticism and angel worship, but they're going on and on in detail about visions, Paul says. These false teachers clearly advocated for a brand of mysticism. They thought that if you deprive yourself physically through asceticism and fasting and self-denial, and you appeal to angels, then you'll have these special spiritual visions. you'll see crazy things that is going to take you to the next level as a believer, to the next level as a Christian. They taught a kind of spiritual elitism. If you want to be in the inner circle, that's great if you're a Christian, like you're a professional Christian, great. But if you like really want to be a Christian, then you need to get down with this extra stuff. These people like this are all over YouTube, right? If you want to go to the next place with your health, if you want to go to the next place with your fitness or whatever it is, you can find millions of these influencers where it's like, just buy this supplement or whatever or be a part of my program. It'll take you to the next level. That's what these people were basically doing, but to a blasphemous degree spiritually. They're saying, do this, and then you'll have these special visions. And the interesting thing is, as a result of these visions, they got puffed up in verse 18. They're puffed up without reason by their sensuous mind. It's so ironic, but not surprising, that their insistence on self-denial or humility results in them being puffed up in pride. When we insist that our spiritual knowledge or our theology, or our spiritual practices, or angelic favor is the source of our spiritual health or success, the result can only be pride. We can only look down on other people and think, well, they're not quite as good as me. We will pride ourselves in what we've done and what we've seen. And that's why it's so essential to keep God's grace front and center in our lives. Paul saw spiritual visions. He actually says so in 2 Corinthians 12. I was called up to the third heaven. I saw things that man was not permitted to tell. But he also, more importantly, saw a clear vision of God's mercy. Because just after that, in 2 Corinthians 12, he says, and because of these surpassingly great revelations, I was given a thorn to torment me. And Paul pleads with God three times, take this thorn away, take this thorn away, take this thorn away. But what does God say to him? My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. And I think there's two things that we should learn from that. One, thank God for the thorns in your life. He's using them to produce character in you. He's using them to remind you of his grace, of your need for grace. But he's also using them to keep you humble. to keep you from getting puffed up from perhaps the great blessings you've received in Jesus. Or maybe because of the ways that he's used you for his kingdom. But two, don't rejoice that you've seen heavenly visions. Don't rejoice that you've had this spiritual mountaintop experience or that God has used you in some marvelous way. Rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. by his grace and by his mercy. Martin Lloyd-Jones was arguably the greatest preacher of the 20th century. He was at Westminster Chapel in London. But toward the end of his life, when he could no longer preach anymore because of his health, he had a friend come visit him. And this well-meaning friend said to him, man, you know, Pastor Lloyd-Jones, it must be so hard for you now that you can't preach anymore. And Lloyd-Jones looked at him without hesitation and said, not at all. And then he said, I never lived for preaching. It was something I did, but not who I was. Don't let anything, not ministry, not work, not the amount of money you make or the amount of money that you can give to missions or the church, don't let any of it lead you to think that that's what it's all about. These people had great spiritual visions. Very impressive outwardly, spiritually. But look at this devastating statement in verse 19 that Paul says about them. They're puffed up about their visions and not holding fast to the head. The head is Christ. In chapter 1, Paul makes that clear. Christ is the head of the body, the church. They're so eager to practice these spiritual disciplines and receive visions that they've let go of Christ. These false teachers were so enamored with these spiritual practices and the like, but in the process they let go of Jesus. They killed the faith that all these practices were meant to point to. It's like when Jesus says to the Pharisees in John, you diligently study the scriptures because you think by them you have eternal life. It's them that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. So how do we avoid that? How do we avoid going about spiritual busyness and yet letting go of Jesus? Well, by holding fast to Christ. If we hold fast to Christ, we will grow properly. Because look at what Paul says in verse 19, connected to the joints and ligaments, built up with a growth that comes from God. We're all growing. The question is, what are we growing to be? And how? Only if we are holding fast to Christ will we grow healthy. nourished and knit together through our joints and ligaments with a growth that is from God. And that's why I think in Hebrews 12, one through three, we read, therefore, since we are surrounded by so a greater cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus. the author and perfecter of our faith. As we run in our spiritual journey, as we perform these spiritual disciplines of grace, the means of grace, we look to Jesus. Maybe when you started driving, you remember a driving instructor or maybe a parent saying, you know, when you're in your lane, look 30 to 40 yards ahead in the middle of the lane. That's what's going to keep you in the middle. Not looking at the big tractor trailer next to you. You might be scared of that, but if you're looking at that the whole time, you're going to drift into it or you're going to drift away from it into trouble in the next lane. By looking directly ahead, you'll actually avoid the tractor trailer. You'll avoid the other trouble around you. You'll stay in your lane. And that is our experience spiritually. We need to be aware of false teachings. We need to be aware of things that will hinder our faith. But more than anything, we should fix our eyes on Jesus. We can't just glance at him. We can't keep him in our peripheral vision. We have to keep him dead center in our eyesight because it's so vital. If we don't, then we will abandon Christ. We won't hold fast to him like these false teachers did not. But finally, Paul shows them why they are not bound to obey these regulations and false teachings. He says in verse 20 that they've died with Christ to the elemental spirits of this world. Back in chapter two, verse eight, Paul wrote, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Paul told them not to give in to this false teaching that ultimately had its origin in demonic powers, in the elemental spirits of this world. He explains that through their faith in Christ they've died with Christ to these false teachings that they were once in bondage to. So why do they keep doing it? Paul says something similar to the Galatians when he says in chapter 5 verse 1, for freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm then and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. You've died to those false self-made workspace religious practices. You've been set free in Christ. Why would you go back to that? That's what Paul is telling the Colossians. And then Paul basically mocks their philosophy. He says, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. And this alliteration was basically a way of mocking this extreme denial that only had to do with the mere physical things that are passing away. As Paul says in verse 22, but we live eternally with Christ. And so we should set our minds on the things that are imperishable, not on the physical things that are passing away, Our view of godliness and growing in godliness should not just deal with the physical, the things here on earth. We have to become a new creation. We actually have to be reminded that we've died in Christ and now we live through faith in him. Galatians 2.20 says that exactly. But Paul admits in verse 23 that these practices have an appearance of wisdom and of godliness, yet they have no power in restraining the indulgence of the flesh. But they had an appearance of wisdom and godliness. How sad when Christians would rather appear wise and religious than actually put sin to death out of true love for God. I remember hearing a story D.A. Carson told about a very prominent man in his church. This man was well respected by others. He was a successful doctor. and he participated in medical missions, he gave generously, but seemingly out of nowhere, he walked away from the faith and actually left his wife. And D.A. Carson was shocked by this and he went to talk to his pastor about it, but the pastor was not surprised. D.A. Carson said, well, what do you mean you're not surprised? This man was so well respected. He seemed to be such a godly man. And the pastor said, well, this man had never gone through trials before. He never had to suffer for the gospel. See, this man thought, oh, Christianity, how nice. Look at how I'm just growing in wisdom. Look at how well respected I am by my peers, these other people in this community. Look at how warm it makes me feel inside that these other people regard me as such a moral and good and godly person. But the minute he had to choose between his sinful desires and Christ, his true self was revealed. Never let the desire for respect and religious appearance take hold in your heart. Didn't Jesus have no majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him? Why would we have godly, upright appearance? Why should we be celebrated and have a parade when Jesus was born into an obscure no-name town named Nazareth that apparently no good thing could come from? Wasn't Jesus mocked in life and in death? Didn't Paul refer to himself and all Christians as the refuse of the world? Don't love status and appearance in the world or in the church. Don't love religiosity. Don't love being thought highly of by others. Don't love knowing all the answers in Bible study. Love Christ. Hold fast to Christ. We are most happy in this life when we are most satisfied in Christ. But these false teachings are also worthless for growing in godliness. So they have an appearance of wisdom, but he says they have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Paul is not interested with pruning the tree of sinfulness. He wants to take an act to the root of the tree by saying, look, you've died to Christ. We have to throw out man-made religion. We have to throw out anything that distracts us from Christ. And what's more, we can't just be content with restraining the physical. We have to actually die to this old creation. And that's exactly what Paul says in Galatians 2.20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And in the next passage in Colossians 3, Paul is actually going to tease this out. Our death with Christ and our resurrection for him, the importance of that for our sanctification. Because if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. He's saying this method of just restraining the flesh has no real value. You have to realize that you're a new creation altogether. You have been raised with Jesus. How can you think about these things? How can you desire them? How can you think you can justify yourself anymore? We've died in Christ. And so Paul is not interested in pruning this tree. He says, you've died. You're a new creation. And Paul says, all of these things are a sham. These teachers appear righteous and holy and pious, but they aren't. They're falsely humble, and even worse, their teaching will actually lead us to abandon Christ altogether, rather than hold fast to Him. And it will not prevent the indulgence of the flesh. It won't lead to true godliness. So we can imagine these teachers, these false teachers, coming to Paul and saying, okay, Paul, what do you suggest? What do you say? What do you think will truly cause us to growing godliness. What do you think will cause us to stand before God's judgment throne with confidence that we'll be cleared, that we'll be forgiven? Well, I think Paul would say to them, well, I've been telling you all along in this book and in this passage. First, he said Christ is the substance. Then he said Christ is the one we hold fast to. And lastly, he said Christ is the one we've died with. Only by dying with Christ in faith and holding fast to him in faith, can we avoid being disqualified and can we grow in true godliness? But how do we hold fast to Christ? Where do we get the strength when there's so many false teachings, when there's so many sins within us, so many influences of the world pulling us away from Christ? How do we do it? By remembering that he's holding fast to us and that he held fast to us when it was most difficult for him to do so. Hebrews 13 says that the bodies of the animals that were given as sacrifice for sin were burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify his people through his own blood. Jesus suffered outside the camp. It says sanctify his people. Interesting, not only does Christ's atoning work justify us, forgive us, as a one-time event, His atoning work is also making us holy, sanctifying us. How? Because when we remember Christ, when we remember his atoning and loving sacrifice for us, the more our hearts are warmed by it so that we're enabled to embrace him more and more instead of sin. Jesus suffered outside the camp for us. On Golgotha, the city dump, Jesus, the Son of God, was raised up on a cross to draw all men to himself. At the time when we all would have abandoned us, Christ held fast to us in love. He held fast to us in love until the last hammer and nail was hammered through his hands. He held fast to us in love until the last whip tore away his flesh. He held fast to us in love until the last drop of wrath for our sin was poured out. And then mustering all his strength, he cried out with every ounce of energy he had left, it is finished. It is finished. Our condemnation, our guilt, death itself, it is finished. Christ doesn't condemn us. Don't let others. That's Paul's message in this passage. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hold fast to Jesus because He held fast to you on the cross and He's holding fast to you now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you. Embrace Him. Run to Him. and never let go of him so that one day you can stand before God's throne and hear him say, pardoned by the blood of the lamb, enter into my rest and into the joy of your master. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you do not condemn us, that you died and that you were raised for us. I pray God that you would warm our hearts with the gospel. We can so often be like buckets of cold water that freeze over because of our sin, because we forget your incredible love for us. Melt our hearts by remembering how you held fast to us in love on the cross and that you are even interceding for us now. that we might embrace you and forsake sin more and more, that we would truly grow in godliness. And I pray that you would help us never to let ourselves be judged and help us to not disqualify ourselves by letting go of Christ who has never let go of us. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.