Some of you who have heard me speak before know that it's my testimony that during the first 20 years of my Christian life, I struggled terribly with trying to make sense of how to be a Christian. I loved the Lord, what I knew of Him, but I didn't know how to be a Christian. I didn't know how to live the life, and it seemed almost anathema for me to ask my pastor and others to explain to me how to live the Christian life. What does it mean to be a Christian? They were certainly willing to give me answers like, well, anywhere from you just receive Jesus into your heart and you start coming to church. Oh, and by the way, you should tithe too." All the way to the part where I finally went to a liturgical tradition and tried to find my answers there, except the answers I got were, well, you need to come to the liturgy and you need to partake in the sacraments. And so there was really no answers, no teaching about how to be a Christian. Gordon Fee once commented that a Christian is someone who wants to be one. And I think that's true. One of the things that we deal with is this longing, this hunger, and this thirst for righteousness within the context of knowing that we have poverty of spirit and the mourning that that brings, not realizing that Jesus himself said in Matthew 5 that that is a blessed state. So now we are into the Lenten season. And I'm concerned about the millions of people, the untold millions, perhaps billions, who are laboring under some form of worldly religion masking itself as Christianity. And telling them to do certain things, to be filled with self-deprivations, don't eat this, don't touch that, give up this and do this, come on Wednesdays and have bread and soup after having fasted all day. And there's this form of religion happening. that I don't know that people realize that that's just worldly religion. It's just self-made worldly religion, and it will take you nowhere. It is useless. Now, that's just a simple fact. Now, what I want to talk with you today then about is how to move away from worldly religion and embrace the authentic Christian faith, a faith that actually not only saves but also transforms as inherent within that salvation. In other words, much of American Christianity gives you lots of information, but it doesn't provide the teaching and the ministry of the Spirit necessary to bring transformation. And so there is a natural default back into our own ways of thinking, our own views of self-made religion. that look good, but they doesn't produce any genuine change in your life. And it's certainly of no use when it comes to trying to restrain the fleshly indulgences. You can walk on glass, you can crawl up steps, you can sit before a crucifix for the next 20 years and meditate, but you're not going to find any substantive power. It's just a form of godliness that actually repudiates the power. And that's what Paul was dealing with in the letter to the Colossians. And so, I want to give you a contrast today between what he was dealing with there in Colossae, and their beginning to adopt religious practices that were more in keeping with the pagan religions around them, than with the truth of the gospel, that they had received, but again, they had no idea how to live it out. So Paul, in his apostolic duties, is instructing them now how to live it out. We know that you want change. We know that you want to know how to live the Christian life on a daily basis. And so Paul's going to give them instruction how to do so. But before he does, he warns them what not to do. And in this Lenten season, I want to again address these practices. that actually end up, as we learned last time, alienating you from Christ, and can ultimately end up being a form of falling away from grace. Far from achieving grace, it's a falling away from grace. Okay, let's start then with Let's start with chapter 2 of Colossians, beginning with verse 16. I'm going to point out to you first the characteristics of worldly religion that are very active right now during this Lenten season throughout the world. It's being passed off as Christianity and perhaps you know someone or yourself are indulging in these things and I'm more this is the first part of this chat is a warning then. So beginning with verse 16 of chapter 2 he says, therefore do not let anyone judge you. by which you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility in the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen. They are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Let's pause there now. So what Paul has done is he's warned them to not start adopting the pious practices of the pagans around them, and in trying to integrate those practices into their new Christian faith. He knows that they will want to learn how to be Christians, how to walk the Christian life, and in the absence of teaching, they will be under pressure to conform back to a lot of pagan spirituality, which he just described here. Verse 20, Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, of this world? Why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules?" So, see, it's rule-based spirituality. It's not relational. It's not transformative. It's rule-based spirituality designed to make you feel better about yourself and holds even the promise of evoking some kind of favor from God. but it has nothing to do with Christianity. And then he says that it has everything to do with false humility, wisdom in appearances, self-imposed worship, harsh treatment of the body, but it's absolutely useless, it lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence. And so what you end up getting with this form of worldly religion is a lot of people walking around putting on good appearances, they're putting on airs, they look pious, they sound pious, they may dress pious, but underneath it all they're full of fleshly indulgence and activities and scandal even later once it comes out. So what's the answer? What's the real solution? And if you want to couch it in terms of the Lenten season, how do you really observe Lent? Which I would suggest is a 24-7, 365-day process. Because now that you are in Christ, God is at work in you to work out your salvation. He's given you his Holy Spirit and a promise in accord with the new covenant. He's written his laws on your heart and mind. And he's working out in you the character of his very own Son, Jesus. He's conforming you to Christ as Christ is formed in you. So let's see what that sounds like now. Chapter 3. Since then, you have been raised with Christ, Set your hearts in the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. You have no business indulging in worldly religion because you're not even part of this world anymore. Your citizenship is in heaven. Your position of standing before God is where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Okay, verse two. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. And he just said, didn't he, that worldly religion is useless in restraining these things. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices, including the idolatry of pagan piety, Verse 10, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed or even renovated, is another translation, renovated in knowledge in the same, in the image of its creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. because of what God has done in his Son. He now, he continues in these imperatives. And remember, the Christian imperatives. the Christian imperatives to holiness in all conduct in life, are always preceded by the indicative of what God has already done, the prior work of God. Therefore, he's positioned you with his Son, he united you with his Son, and therefore you are able to do these things by the work of the Spirit in you. So he's only commanding us to do those things that we are now empowered to do. So verse 12, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace, and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and psalms from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." And then he goes on to talk about how this is the play out in the family. If your spirituality is not playing out in your marriage, in your relationship with your children, then it's a false spirituality. Relationships become the acid test, the quality of your relationships. becomes the acid test for whether your spirituality is genuine Christian spirituality or just some kind of rebranded, re-warmed up pagan spirituality that has no value in producing this kind of genuine change. So take note of what I've said to you today. Most of what is practiced as Lent throughout the world during this season is what Paul first described in verses 16 through verses 23. And it's useless religion. It's useless piety. People are imposing all kinds of deprivations upon themselves, thinking they're doing something spiritual. And they're not. All it's doing is increasing their hypocrisy. But to find genuine transformation, We have to embrace, first of all, what God has accomplished on our behalf in His Son. And understand that that is an accomplished salvation. That God has moved upon your heart and mind while you are yet sinners. and drew you to his Son, and given you the gift of faith, so that you can see Jesus for who he is, embrace him, receive him, be united with him, and then have, by the Spirit of God within you, begin to work out his character, just as Paul has said here. So there is a putting to death these other things, the sexual immorality, the impurity, the lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. This is a violence. This is a holy violence. Put to death sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Get rid of them. Be done with them. And instead, as God's chosen people, his elect people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." In other words, work out the character of Christ in your life. So if you're looking for genuine spirituality, you're looking for meaningful change in your life, that's only found in union with Christ. And that comes to us only by grace, through faith, in his finished work on our behalf. It's not something we can earn. It's not something we can generate on our own resources. It is the work of God. And thanks be to God for that. Amen.