Our text for tonight is Colossians 2, 16 to 23, Colossians 2, starting in verse 16. Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. You may be seated. We tend to be impressed by the wrong things. I think it's true in many areas of our life, but it's also true when we're thinking about godliness and maybe looking at the people that are around us. Sometimes I think maybe we see someone who is following a really strict set of rules and we think, oh now there's a godly person. Or we see someone who talks about how real and personal their interaction with God is, how He speaks to them and directly guides them, and we think, wow, that is a godly person. And then I think what happens to us, we tend to think, well, if I'm going to be godly, what I need for myself is more rules. Or maybe what I need if I'm going to really take that step towards being the man that I've always hoped I could be, the man of God, what I need is some kind of great spiritual experience that's going to kick me up to that level of godliness that I'm striving for. But Paul is going to throw cold water on all of that today. The person with the strictest and most difficult set of rules for themselves is not necessarily the godliest person. The person who has the most amazing personal experiences with God is not necessarily the one who's closest to God. Paul says all of that stuff is outward. That's not the heart of our faith. Paul says don't seek to punish your body as much as possible. Don't seek mystical experiences. Seek Christ because it's only in vital connection with Him that we're going to grow. The only path to godliness is Christ. It's in relationship with Him. And so Paul warns these people. He says don't be bullied into thinking that the way to grow is these other things. that the false teachers are talking about. Now, I want us to get a feel for the book. We read our passage here out of the middle of Colossians, and I know it takes us a long time to get to where we're going. So, if we think back over Colossians, if we were to read the whole thing up to where we are, it is almost a hymn of praise to Christ, until you get really close to here. Paul is just exalting Christ, which is awesome, in the first chapter saying that he is the head, he's the one who's created all things, he's the one who's going to reconcile all things to himself. And the reason that he's emphasizing this so much is because he knows of a problem in the church. The problem is there's these false teachers who have arisen and they're teaching the people some other way. of godliness and so then you come to Colossians 2 verse 8 which is just before our passage look there with me Colossians 2 8 he says see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete this is what he's saying we we don't need Something else we're not missing something if we have Christ and we believed in him. We've received him that is We are already complete. We're not missing some kind of great rule following or some great mystical experience that's going to finally get us there. But that's kind of what these false teachers seem to have been saying to the church in Colossae. And then, after he said this, he kind of gave that warning in verses 8 to 10, and then verses 11 to 15, he went back and he said, well, it's Christ, it's in connection with Him that we're made complete. And so he says, we've died with Christ, we've been buried, we've been raised again with Christ, we're connected with Him, this is where the power is. And now we come to our text, Colossians 2.16, and this is the place in the book where Paul trains his guns on the false teachers, so to speak, where he's going to address directly what they're saying that's wrong. Now, to Paul and to the Colossian believers, all of this would have made perfect sense because they knew the people and they knew the whole teaching. Paul just kind of refers to it here and so it's a little bit harder for us to piece together what exactly are they saying is wrong. But I think we can get the principle and of course God gave us what he meant for us to have. So everything that we need to know to get the point is in there. So that's what Paul does here and it's fascinating to look at. Basically there's three warnings as we're going to break it down. Three warnings to heed so that And we want to heed these warnings so that we stay connected to Christ. Because it's only in Christ that we're going to grow. And if we follow the kind of thinking that these false teachers were promoting in Colossae, we're not going to grow. Because these things are going to pull us away from Christ instead of moving us toward Him. This focus on rules is going to pull us away from Christ. This focus on mystical experiences is going to pull us away from Christ. And Paul says, don't go that way. We need Him. We need to be connected to Him. if we're going to grow, which is what we want. And I think, you know, we're here on Sunday night. Maybe some of us, our parents made us come, but most of us are here. I shouldn't say that, because there's only a few kids, and now I've made them look bad. Sorry, Sluders and Holinsky boy. Most of us are here because we want to be here. We're here because we want to grow. We know that God's word is powerful. We want to live it out. We really want to bring honor to God in our lives. And so, I think that was the heart of these Colossian believers, too. And so, there's these warnings. There's ways out there that it's going to seem like if I follow this way, that's the way to spirituality, but it's the wrong road. And we don't want to go that way. We don't want to go off down those paths. Okay, so Colossians 2.16, the first warning that he gives this is don't believe that spiritual maturity comes from rules. Don't believe that spiritual maturity comes from following rules. Look at that again with me in verses 16 and 17. He says, therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. No one is to act as your judge. Apparently, these false teachers were kind of snooty. They were looking at the regular believers, kind of like, well, yeah, okay, you believed in Jesus, good for you, you know, but if you were like us, well, there's rules that we follow. And so they were kind of judging them. And Paul says, Don't let them do that. Don't let them judge you because they're following these rules and they're saying you're not following my rules and so therefore you're not as godly as I am. Paul says well that's not the case. Now if you look at these rules in verses 16 and 17 particularly 16 there's where he's talking where he gives the rules that they were supposed to follow. It seems like it's coming from the Old Testament. Look at verse 16. No one is to act as your judge. And then, in what ways, what are these things that the false teachers were saying, you've got to do this if you're going to be godly. Like, to take it up to the next level, you should be following these rules. Well, it has to do with food and drink. The first thing, there were rules about food. Now, we know, if you go to the Old Testament and read it, there are lots of rules about food in the Old Testament, aren't there? I mean, there's just, there's dozens of specific things that they were to eat, and not to eat, and they were supposed to eat it this way and not this way, and there were lots of rules in there. And that is probably where some of this is coming from. These teachers were saying, well, look, even in the Old Testament, they followed stricter rules than you do about what you eat, and God gave the rules, and so these must be important for us to grow. You've got to follow these rules. Rules about what to eat. Eating and drinking, he mentions. No one is actually your judge in regard to food or drink. It's interesting, there's no command in the law, in the Old Testament law, about what you're not supposed to eat, drink. There's lots of things about eating, but not specifically about drinking. But you do have some examples in the Old Testament where people avoided alcohol for godly reasons. You've got Daniel. He and his friends decided that they weren't going to drink the king's drink or eat his food. They weren't going to defile themselves with it. So apparently, these false teachers were coming and they're saying, look, these Old Testament standards of what you're supposed to eat and drink, we should still do that now. We're believers, we're forgiven in Christ, but we should follow those things. Not only that, but there were holy days. See that? He talks about there's rules you have to regard with food or drink, but also in respect to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath day. All of these things, festival, new moon, Sabbath day, it's Jewish holy days that were set aside. They were supposed to celebrate various things and it comes out of the law. And you could look those up or you could just talk to Cecil and he would be able to explain them to you. But it's some of the festivals that they celebrated. And so these teachers were coming into the church and they were saying, hey, you've got to follow these rules. You should still be doing this. Or at least if you're really going to be godly, you know, if you're really going to be godly, you're going to follow these rules. And they're probably pulling most of them, if not all of their rules, out of the Old Testament. But what's Paul saying here? Basically, he's saying, well, disregard their criticisms. Don't listen to them. They're not right. Don't get hung up on all of those rules. And why is it? Why should we as believers, these Colossian believers, not take into account these criticisms from people like this that would say, here's these rules that you're not following. Why should they not listen to them? Well, he explains that in verse 17. He says, these things, the food and drink regulations and the holy days, these things are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. rules that were given in the Old Testament, they're the shadow. And a shadow is, just by definition, it's not very defined, is it? I mean, it depends on what kind of day it is, depends on the light, it kinda... You get a picture of the real thing that's casting the shadow, by looking at the shadow, you kinda get some idea, okay, this is what they look like, but, you know, on a day where the sun's really low, I might look, you know, more like my nephew. I look a little tall instead of only however tall I am. You know, you don't really get a very accurate grasp of the thing by looking at the shadow. And Paul says these rules in the Old Testament that God gave to us, it's those things are the shadow. And the Old Testament people, that's all they had. And so they were to focus on those things and they're supposed to follow the rules. But now, he says, we don't have to look at the shadow because we have the real thing. What's the real thing that's casting the shadow that we have now? Do you see it in verse 17? The substance, yeah, the substance belongs to Christ. He is the real thing and we know him. This makes you appreciate what we have now as New Testament believers. We know Christ. And so Paul says, Don't go back to focusing on the shadow again. I mean, I don't need to study the shadow now. I have Christ. And these rules of the Old Testament, those things we're prefiguring now. It says, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come. That doesn't mean they're a shadow of something still coming, but from an Old Testament perspective, they were shadowing what was to come, Jesus. We now have him. Paul doesn't go into great detail here, but this is one of the passages we can come to in the New Testament that shows us that we don't have to live by the Old Testament rules. There's a different era now and we have a different way of living out the Christian life, so a lot of those standards that we can still study and learn from in the Old Testament, we don't live by them. We don't have to follow anymore. But I think that as we look at it, applying this, and as we go through the text, he's gonna come back to this idea again later on in the text that there's these rules. The false teachers were really oriented on here's the things you've got to do if you're gonna be godly. And they had all these standards. And I think a general principle we can pull out of here to apply to ourselves is that abiding by a stricter set of rules does not necessarily equal being more godly. It's important for us to grasp that if we're going to grow because maybe it's tempting for us to do. You know, I'm still sinful and I'm still sinning and I don't want to and so maybe a tendency that I would have, okay I'm going to fix this problem that I have that I keep sinning and so I'm going to make these rules for myself. I'm not going to do this ever again, and I'm not going to do this, and I'm not going to do this, and this is something I'm going to avoid, and this, and I can build up all these rules for myself, but that's not how spiritual growth comes. It's not by saying, okay, the more rules you have, the more godly you are. That's not what it's about, is it? I mean, you read the New Testament, you read Jesus' teachings, they're not saying there aren't rules, right? Because Jesus has lots of things that he commands us to do. But here I think we're looking at rules that would be of our own making, things that would be in addition to what Scripture says. And I think it's important for us to know where the distinction is. Like, what is it exactly that the Bible says about something And then how do I put it into practice? Because we have a lot of rules that we follow, and I think a lot of them are wise, and I live by them, but maybe they're not, the Bible doesn't actually say that. Can you think of one? I'm gonna get myself into trouble here, so I'm gonna just leave it on you, since it's a small group and we're just sharing, right? Can you think of a rule that maybe we follow, but it isn't specifically said in scripture that you have to do it that way? Do we have standards that we've set up that seem wise but maybe it's different or higher than what Scripture itself says this is what it has to be? No one's going to do this now because I said I'm going to get myself in trouble and you don't want to get yourself into trouble. Can you think of one? Yes. Yeah, there you go. Drinking. That's one of the ones I had. So if anyone gets in trouble, it should be me. It's on my sheet there. Right? Because the Bible doesn't say you can't ever drink, does it? I mean, it says, be filled with the Spirit, don't be drunk. So we should have the Spirit in control of us and not alcohol. And many of us, and I'm one of these people, have just decided I'm just not going to drink. I don't see a whole lot of advantages to it to me and I see a lot of dangers and my parents that are here told me not to drink and I still think that they're smart people and so I haven't ever drank alcohol and I'm happy that that's the case and I don't know why I'd want to change my opinion on it and there's principles from scripture that we can pull out some things from Proverbs in various places that give warnings about alcohol and what it can do to our lives but I can't start making that my standard of how I judge someone's spirituality, can I? I mean, if I see another believer somewhere who does drink and I start saying, well, you drink and you call yourself a Christian, well, I don't drink, you know? And we got these standards that we kind of, this becomes what I gauge my spirituality on, but that's not really the, the heart of being a godly person isn't what you drink or not drink, is it? I mean, is the spirit in control of you or not? And you could not ever drink and not have the spirit ever in control of you, right? Other things, and you can come up with any kind of list that you wanted to. One thing that's common now amongst teenagers, and I encourage this, is, okay, people are making the commitment to never kiss until marriage. You know? And if my daughter came to me, Becca came up to me and said, Dad, I've made the commitment that until my wedding day, I'm not even gonna give my boyfriend a peck on the cheek. I'm not gonna do it, because I'm just gonna stay pure. I would be like, super, Becca, and I'd give her a big hug, and I'd kiss her on the cheek, and I'd be happy with that whole arrangement, right? But, you know, is that the standard? Does scripture say you can't even give a peck on the cheek? You know? We can make it all about rules, and we can set all these standards for ourselves, but that isn't really the way that Scripture emphasizes that we should grow. It isn't like, okay, I'm going to be godly, so I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do this, I'm going to do this. We set all these things up, and that's just not the way of growth. We even do it positively. We don't have holy days, but we have Sometimes we gauge our spirituality and other people's spirituality based on their quiet times, right? Have you ever had a time where maybe you set your alarm for six in the morning, but really you set it for 6 p.m., and so then 6 a.m. comes and the alarm doesn't go off for some reason, and you get up late and it's like, oh, I missed my devotions today, but I don't have time, so I'm running through your day, and you kind of feel like, boy, God's not going to bless me today. I didn't do my devotions this morning." Like it's some kind of, I have to do that if I'm going to be godly. Now, I encourage devotions, if you were ever in my youth group, I'm going to talk about that all the time, and I encourage it for you, and it's been one of the most formative things in my life to have a daily time in His Word. You know, but you don't want to get... so that we've got these standards like it has to be 45 minutes. 25 minutes of that is prayer and 25... the other 25 minutes is... my math is bad, right? Okay, so... Being godly, it's not about rules. It's important for us to see that, because that's what these false teachers were coming and they're saying, hey, you, they're kind of looking down on them because I've got these rules and you're not following them. If you want to be a complete Christian, you've got to live by my rules. And we can be those people and looking down our noses at other Christians sometimes because of our rules that we set up. You know, we've got to make sure that we're focusing on the heart of it, on what Scripture focuses on. And some of those things are wise things that we can put into place. We should know where the distinction is. Okay. Warnings to heed. Don't believe that spiritual maturity comes from following rules. We'll talk about that more, actually. He's going to talk about that more as he goes through the text. Number two, though. Don't believe that spiritual maturity comes through supernatural, mystical experiences. Look at verses 18 and 19 with me. This is the next thing that these false teachers were looking down on the run-of-the-mill Christians because they didn't have this. Verse 18. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking a stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize, he says at the beginning of verse 18. It's basically the same thing he was saying in verse 16. There's these false teachers and they're judging the people, but now they're not judging them because they're not following their rules, they're judging them because they haven't had the experience. They're missing out on this higher level of Christian living that's based on this experience that they've had. It talks about things that they delighted in. You see it there in verse 18. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize. They're judging them. He said, don't let them judge you. Here's the things that they delight in. There's three things he says, and they're in verse 18. You see them? They delight in, it's like, these are the things that cause spiritual excitement to them. When they think about what's cool about God, they think these things. These are the things that thrill their souls. And there's three of them that he says. They delight in self-abasement. It seems like these teachers emphasized that if you are going to be a godly person, it's going to take sacrifice. And by sacrifice, I mean you should be giving up physical pleasures. We talked about food and drink earlier. Maybe there were other things. Fasting is sometimes connected to this word. They're saying, okay, here's the next level of godliness. We fast. But then it seems like they're fasting for a purpose, not just fasting to earnestly pray, as scripture talks about, but fasting kind of as a way to get real low and submitted to God so that I open myself up for him to come and to give me truth. kind of like I'm fasting, I'm beating myself up, and then something supernatural is going to happen. It's kind of almost a preparatory, you'll see. Okay, the first thing is self-abasement. They're sacrificing physical pleasure for something. And then the next thing that he says that they do, they delight in this, the worship of the angels. This is kind of weird to read what's going on here in this church. There's no one watching over their theology. It doesn't even seem like they should be able to do that and still call themselves Christians, but it seems that that's what's going on. And really, if you go back and you read some of the early church writers, and certainly some of the Jewish groups that were around at the time, there was an undue reverence for the angels, bordered on worship. sometimes, and worshiping angels was common in the ancient world, their world that they lived in, especially the idea that if there's all these evil forces out there, and I don't want to have evil influencing my life, and so the way to keep away the evil is I worship these angels. It's almost animistic. I worship these angels, and the angels will protect me. Or maybe if I don't worship them, I pray to them. And maybe that's what the guys were doing. Paul may just be calling it worship. They may have just been saying, hey, look, you need something extra. Did you know that we can ask the angels to help us? These false teachers were saying. The angels will come to our aid. And they memorized names of angels, some that were even extra biblical names of angels, and had this all organized. Seemed like they were really worshiping these angels. Another part of this false worship. And then the third thing that he says that they delighted in was self-abasement, the worship of angels, and then taking his stand on visions he has seen. False teachers love to go on and on about the visions they had seen. God, they said, came and spoke to them. God gave them this great vision, this truth that is for everyone. And they said, So listen to me, because God gave me a vision, you know? Well, that'd be kind of intimidating, you know? Like, well, if God spoke to you, I guess I better listen, you know? And they were kind of judging the believers, the other ones who weren't in on this, and teaching them this is the way. If you really want, if you really want to be in on the meat of being a Christian, the real power, here's how you do it. starts with fasting and kind of abusing your body, and you call out to the angels, and then God will come and give you visions. And well, that's kind of exciting. Paul isn't real approving of the way that he speaks of it, though, as we'll see that he says next. And you might say, well, boy, I'm glad that the modern church is more discerning than the church was in those days, because we would never buy into this kind of junk, you know, worshipping angels, come on. We'd kick Fred out if he told us to do that, and hopefully we would, but he wouldn't ever do that. But I don't know that we're necessarily more discerning, you know? Because you can go into any old Christian bookstore and pick up a book about a pastor who spent 90 minutes in heaven and came back to tell you about it. Or another man who went and spent 23 minutes in hell and came back to tell us what hell was like. And I haven't seen a big uprising of people saying, what is this book doing in the Christian bookstore? This isn't Christian. Well, it's kind of similar. They're taking their stand on visions they have seen. So, we have to be careful. Be careful that our truth is coming from the right place. we could buy into this too. And there's something that's kind of enticing about the idea that maybe God is going to come and speak to me directly, you know, because His Word, I've got to study that. Everyone has Word, but no, not everyone has visions, you know. It's kind of a shortcut to godliness. But Paul says this isn't how godliness is gained. It's not in this way. And look then how he describes them. What's wrong with these teachers? And it doesn't take long to get to it. The second half of verse 18, right after taking his stand on visions he has seen, he says, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. These false teachers, Paul said, they're proud. They're inflated without cause. They're ballooned up in terms of how they view their own importance. But it's for no good reason, Paul says. And that in itself, the fact that their pride is there, that they're proud, shows the source of their information, right? Because they're inflated without cause by their fleshly minds. The mind of Christ, the Spirit if He's leading us, is going to lead us to humility, not to pride. Pride is an outpouring of what's coming from me. And that's what Paul is saying, look these guys that are saying to you, you've got to listen to me because I've had this wonderful spiritual experiences beyond what you've ever known. Paul says, well, don't let them judge you. Don't let them look down on you because of their great spiritual experiences. They're just puffed up in pride because they're focusing on self. The next thing that he says is wrong with him. And this is maybe even more cutting and key to Paul's argument here. And he says, not only are they proud, but they're not holding fast to the head. Okay, what's he talking about? What's the head? Yeah, it's Christ. And that is easily proven. Just look back in Colossians. Paul's talked about Christ as being the head of the body. That's clearly who he's talking about. They're not holding fast to Christ. They've got all these rules for godliness. They have these great spiritual experiences that you should go through if you want to really be godly. But he says, in all of that, That's what they're excited about and they've lost sight of Christ. And Christ is the way we grow. And so then he says at the end of verse 19, well here's how growth is supposed to happen. And he spells it out for us. They're not holding fast to the head. From whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from God. So here's kind of in brief. God's plan for growth. And Paul talks about this more in other places. Here's almost this kind of an aside. They're not growing the right way. The way that God wants us to grow is we're connected to Christ and we're part of the body. And then look at this. It's kind of cool how God... We're involved in this. Christ is the head. And the way that we grow, we're connected to Him, and then the nourishment comes from Christ through other believers to us. See that? He talks about the joints and the ligaments. It's like the nourishment is coming from the head of the body. It's going through other members of the body to us. And this is how God causes growth. It's by being involved in His church. It's by being connected to Him. that we have the growth. And notice he says at the end of verse 19, the growth which is from God. which is in contrast to the kind of growth the false teachers have. They're growing, but that's just a growth in pride, an empty inflation. He says if you want to really grow spiritually, here's how you do it. You connect to Christ and be part of the body. And through that process, and it's not going to be a shortcut, it's not going to be easy, but in that process, that's how God means for us to grow. Which is cool. And Paul's just encouraging these people because they're feeling beat down. These people are saying, you're not really godly. You're not really growing. You're missing all the most important things. You're not following the rules. You don't have these experiences. And Paul says, throw it all out. The way to grow is connect to Christ. Be involved in His body. And in that, He will cause your growth. It doesn't have to be flashy. Okay. The third thing he's going to say, and I'm not going to spend a long time on this in case you're nervous, three warnings to heed so we can stay connected to Christ. Basically, he said, the first thing is, well, don't buy into thinking that it's about rules. So the way to be godly is to have more rules for myself. That's not how we grow. Second thing he says, well, don't buy into thinking that it's about these wonderful spiritual experiences that people claim, because that's not where it's about. The third warning that he gives is this. Don't go back to the flawed thinking of the world around you. Don't go back to the flawed thinking of the world around you. Look at verse 20. Paul says, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of this world, Why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrease? Okay, elementary principles of this world. There are some basic elementary things that people tend to believe about how the world works. Basic elementary things that people tend to believe about how a person becomes right with God. that other religions buy into. Mankind kind of has some basic ideas about, look, if I want to please God, here's some things that I would do. But we're not holding on to these elementary principles anymore, are we? Ski says in verse 20, we've died with Christ to these principles. And so Paul says, hey, the things that these false teachers are teaching you, well, that's just the kind of stuff that you used to believe in before you got saved. You follow rules and that's how to get to heaven. You've got some kind of experience and that's going to impress God. Paul says, hey, we've died to that kind of thinking. We know it's about Christ. He gives us salvation. It's a gift. And that's the way we grow, too. If you've died with these things, why? He says, why, as if you were living in the world, as if you were still an unbeliever, are you like, ooh, I'm impressed by that rule. Or, ooh, maybe it is about that experience. He says, don't go back to that. You'd be putting yourself back into slavery. We're free from that now. Okay, and then he's going to say a couple of things under this. Letter A, don't put your hope, in terms of your growth, don't put your hope in rules about food. And really this makes sense, you know? It seems like the theme song of many religions in the world is this, deprive your body and save your soul. And so it pops up here, even in the church in Colossae. Deprive your body and save your soul. And so you see, we're going back to it again. Look at verse 21 and here's Paul kind of saying, here's the kinds of things that these teachers are saying to you. They're saying, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. No touchy-touchy. as we would say in this group. But that's a good rule. That is a good rule. And these things in verse 21, it seems like if you look at it, if you look at the Greek, he's referring back to the food rules that he referred to earlier. Okay, these teachers are saying, don't eat that, don't drink that, don't taste that, don't enjoy that. And this is the way to be godly. And Paul says, well, wait a minute. Is godliness going to come through food? I mean, is food really the way that I'm going to impress God? And so, then look at what he says about this. Verse 22, he says, these rules about food, they all refer to things destined to perish with use. Okay, what is the purpose of food? What does food exist for? Yes, you guys are smarter than I am, so your answer's a little deeper than what I was expecting. It, yeah, it's there to nourish us. It's basically, it exists so we can destroy it, right? I mean, we, there's an apple there and it's there for me to take and to eat. I like what Jesus says about this in Mark 7. You can write this in your notes, we won't turn there. Mark 7, this is kind of a literal translation of what he says about food. He says, Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him? Right? If he eats it, it can't defile him. Because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then goes out into the latrine. I didn't quite realize that that's how that ended. Our translations make it a little bit nicer for us. But basically the idea is, what's food going to do for you? You eat it, you destroy it, and then, you know, what do you do with it from there? That's not gonna save your soul. The food, it's not about rules about food, Paul says, and Jesus says. And that's what he's saying, verse 22, these things, it's destined. The whole purpose of the food is for you to eat it, and then it's dead, it's gone. That's all there is to it. That's not the way to eternal life. That's not the way to grow spiritually. Letter B, he says, don't put your hope in the reportedly wise rules and regulations of men." Look at the end of verse 22, after he has this insightful commentary on what food is for, then he says, these rules are in accordance with the commandments and teaching of men. They're in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men. Okay, but if my goal is to please God, Then, why am I listening to men? It's kind of the contrast that he's making. All of this, these rules and these experiences, it's just people said that that's what you ought to do. But what's a man know? I don't want to go to a man to find out how to please God. I want to go to God. This stuff, it's from men. Now, then he says, it does have a reputation of wisdom. These rules and things. Among men, these rules made up by men have a great reputation for wisdom. But, what's that? Look at the next verse. It kind of expands on that. It's just the teachings of men. Verse 23. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance, or the reputation, of wisdom. Okay. Now, there's a couple of things that a person might say. If they're a religious person, about how to please God. One kind of statement they might make is this, God's gonna be impressed with me, I'm growing because I'm choosing the more difficult path for myself. I'm choosing the hard way, I'm taking the high road here, and God's gonna be impressed with me. But is that the way that scripture teaches us to think and to reason? Well, look here at what he says in verse 23. He's saying, here are these things that have an appearance of wisdom. They have a reputation for wisdom. The first thing he says, it's in self-made religion. It's self-chosen religion. And people kind of take pride in that. Well, look at me. I choose to go to church twice every Sunday. You know, kind of like, that's impressive. But God isn't impressed by that. It seems wise, it seems like, oh yeah, that's really going to impress God, to men, but to God that's nothing. Another thing they might say, and we've referred to this before, well, I'm humbling my body for the sake of my soul. Look at me, I'm, boy, I'm really... beating up my body and it's making me godly. And we can think of all kinds of religious practices where that's what that's about. And Paul refers to it there by these phrases. These things have the appearance of wisdom, self-weighted religion, and then he says self-abasement and severe treatment of the body. And we think God's going to be impressed with that, but he's not. God's impressed with Christ and his perfect righteousness, not with our deeds. Okay, now here at the end of verse 23, Paul kind of sums this up. And I think this phrase refers not just to what he just said about the food, but kind of referring to this whole, all the teachings of these false teachers. They're saying, this is the way to be godly, this is the way to grow. If you're going to be complete in Christ, you need these rules and these experiences. Paul kind of says, okay, well here's the problem with that. Here's why this is worth nothing. He says all these ideas are powerless to change the human heart. Look at the end of verse 23. Well, we'll read the whole thing. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom, and self-made religion, and self-abasement, and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. And that is where we need the help, because I still have sin in my heart that I'm trying to overcome. I want to become more godly. But Paul says, hey, you can make rules all day, you can have these great spiritual experiences, but That doesn't have the power to change your heart. Who has the power to change your heart? Christ does. And you know Christ, Paul says. You're complete in Him. You've received Him. So, focus on Christ. Don't focus on the rules. Don't focus on these experiences that someone's saying they have that gives them close to God. It's Christ that you need if you want to grow. These things... My rules can only change my outward behavior, but it can't change my heart, and that's where God is focused, and that's where I need to grow if I'm going to really be more godly. So Paul says, look out for empty religion. And then the very next thing that he does in chapter 3 is he expands on what does this mean. So okay, so it comes from Christ. If I'm going to grow, I need to be in Him. I need to focus on Christ. Well, how do I do that? What's that mean? What's that look like in my life? That is where he goes. Chapter 3, he's going to say, therefore, since their teaching is wrong, let me show you the way. Here's the way of Christ. If you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, and He's going to continue on from there. But the warning here is just don't go down an empty trail that's going to lead to frustration and failure. of just setting up rules, of looking for some great experience that's gonna kick you over the top. The way to grow is Christ, not the empty trails of false religion. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for helping us with this, because we can be impressed by the wrong things. These things have a reputation for wisdom, and people around us influence us, and our hearts are easily deceived, and it seems like, boy, This is where it's at. I need more rules. I need some great experience. But that's, you say, that's not the heart of it. We want to come, Lord. We want you to make us into your image. We want, as a church, to be growing. We want, as individuals, for you to be pleased with us, to say, well done, good and faithful servant. So help us to come to you. Help us to know what that means in our daily lives and to put it into practice. We want to be connected to the head, to Jesus Christ. glorify yourself in us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.