Something that you might not know about me is that I'm very tempted by new health fads. Particularly any fad but particularly health fads. In the mid 2010s when veganism was on the rise, I became a vegan. In the 2020s when elimination diets were all the craze and the most rigorous of them being the carnivore diet, eating only meat and animal byproducts, I jumped on the bandwagon and I did it for a whole year. In many ways it was gross but I loved the praise when it came to my physique, my health and most importantly when people would say, wow you're really sticking to that diet, the rigor was part of the appeal. I was doing the hard thing and I was getting the results and in God's providence though I met my wife who has made me more of a moderate in many ways including my diet and in that I began to see that rigor doesn't always mean good. And though the rigor led to some results they weren't lasting. You should think on this. Extremes are usually short-lived and most often they come with a form of dementing. It leads to a whole persona of judgment, of superiority and a false sense of wisdom and this is particularly true when it comes to religious rigor. It might sound good and godly and even goal oriented but it is not what God has required. We don't need legalism, we do not need mysticism and we do not need asceticism, we need Christ and Paul makes this clear that these are practices that are of religious rigor and that they lead to no results. There is no growth or godliness found in these practices and if those words that I just said sounded foreign to you we will explore them as we walk through this passage. Paul makes clear to the Church of Colossae and to us today that religious rigor does not lead to results and he explains this in three truths. He says that the law cannot exonerate you, experiences cannot qualify you and that asceticism cannot sanctify you. So let's look at our first point, look at me at verses 16 and 17. The law cannot exonerate you. Paul yet again begins this section with a therefore meaning he is connecting what he has written here to what he wrote before. Last week we saw how Christ is the one who saves us and sanctifies us that is not capable of anyone or anything else. We simplified that to say that growth is based on what is true and not new. In that sermon we learned that we should pursue, we learned how we should pursue growth in the Christian life and in this passage we are told how we should not. Telling us that these practices that Paul outlines here do not lead to growth and godliness. Paul makes clear that religious rigor does not lead to results. Telling us first that the law does not exonerate us, it cannot. Paul seems to be dealing with a group of Jewish legalists in Colossae who are teaching the church that to be a good growing godly Christian you should follow the ceremonial law. That you must eat and drink things that are clean not unclean. Imposing the kosher laws that are found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. In addition to these, these legalists imposed that Christians should follow the Jewish calendar found in Numbers 28. That they should follow these instructions for sacrifices and festivals. To the legalists they believe that the law somehow saved them and they were judging people on this scale and it was either pass or fail based on their adherence to the ceremonial law. In using the word judge Paul leads us to the courtroom with his language. Painting a picture that there are these false teachers condemning or exonerating people based on their adherence to the law. Exonerated means to be acquitted, to be absolved, to be seen as innocent. And to the legalists in Colossae, innocence was based on what people ate, drank and celebrated. Imagine if you if your faith or my faith was being put into question because whether we celebrated Yom Kippur or not. Even as I say that Jewish word many of you might not even know a Yom Kippur it is the day of atonement. And because we didn't we didn't celebrate it we are somehow under God's judgment. Or we are under the God judgment of these legalists. Or the inverse could be true. That somehow we are exonerated because we did celebrate it. That somehow we know God's judgment by following these laws. If you've been a Christian for any measure of time you know that this is not how God counts righteousness. It is not by one's observance of the law that we are saved from judgment. We are saved from God's judgment or we are exonerated not by our works but by the works of another. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ truly God truly man lived a sinless life died on the cross for our sin and was raised to new life so that we can be reconciled to God living our lives with God now and forever. Not based on our works that any of us may boast but based on the merit of Christ that we boast in him. Knowing that Christ fulfills the law that he has obeyed the law completely and embodied the law truly. That idea of embodying the law is what Paul speaks to in verse 17. This is what Paul means by that about the shadows and substance. In this he is saying that these ceremonial laws were a shadow cast by the true substance Jesus Christ. Paul is telling us look at the one casting the shadow to look to Jesus. A shadow is temporary but Jesus is eternal. To put this a little bit more simply the same way that it would be tragic if somebody had a photo of a loved one and was hugging it instead of the individual is how we can think about this idea of shadow and substance. That these people were so caught up with the photo that they were missing that the individual was there. And so these laws are to point to Jesus and we are to be caught up with Jesus. Our salvation or sanctification does not come from works, doesn't come from these sacrifices, doesn't come from these celebrations, it comes from Jesus and Jesus alone. And in Paul saying this he's not doing away with the law. In these verses he is dealing with what I've been saying the ceremonial law. And in the Reformed tradition we believe that there are three divisions to the law. There are the civil laws, there are ceremonial laws and there is a moral law. The civil and ceremonial law are what made Israel distinct and acceptable to God. And in the coming of Christ those particular laws the civil and ceremonial law do not apply to us in the same way. They serve to point us towards the work of Christ as a shadow does and they point out to us particular principles of righteousness. In the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 19.3 it tells us that the ceremonial law was done away with in the New Testament. In point four the Westminster Divines helpfully say that the civil law was done away with and does not hold to us. It only held to Israel but we hold to their general equity. Meaning that the civil law, the things that we read in the Old Testament like your house should have a railing on your precipice. That's a good general principle that somebody doesn't fall off your roof. We can believe the general equity of that but we're not going to say you have sinned if you didn't put a railing up. Hopefully these are helpful to you. If you want to read more of it again I extend to you read the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Divines were wise and helpful in instructing us. And in this division of the law we read in this verse this idea of Sabbath festivals. In Paul saying this he's not doing away with the Sabbath. The Sabbath is included in the Ten Commandments which we say is a moral law. The Sabbath still stands today. God cares for our rest. We even prayed today that God would forgive us for the ways in which we've abused that, not a lived by that. He cares for our worship. He cares for how we live to him. He cares about his law. Even the ones do not apply to us today and simply point us to Jesus. But God does not exonerate us based on our obedience to law. He counts us innocent based on Christ and Christ alone. Religious rigor does not lead to results. Legalism cannot save you and I. It cannot absolve us. It cannot sanctify us and it does not make us more acceptable to God. It is Christ and Christ alone. So even if people cast judgment towards us based on what we eat or drink or what we do or do not celebrate, we must know that this is not where righteousness is found. It is found in Christ the substance of our faith. To bring this to bear on our lives today, think about your faith and when it was seen as either illegitimate or legitimate by somebody else based on the things that you consumed, the things that you celebrated, or the things that you believed. Bringing into question maybe the the use of alcohol or the smoking of tobacco or the eating of meat or the celebrating of Christmas or Easter, which the Bible teaches, or which Bible teachers you like or do not like, or which political party you affiliate with. As I say that, I know that I felt that. People sizing me up based on my answers and I know I've also been on the other side of that, being the judgmental one. Even imposing like the legalists of Colossae, telling people that they should be like me. Either validating or condemning or coercing others based on our views and our practices. The sad reality of Colossae is that this is a universal problem. It's just that the Church of Colossae is just an example of a universal problem that we all face and that we all struggle to escape. And if this is where you are today as being the judgmental legalists, I invite you to repent. Or if you are the one that's under the weight of judgment, I invite you and describe to you the way of liberation. Jesus Christ. I think based on this passage the principle is freedom. When it comes to ceremonialism, it is not something that we should go to with legalism or judgmentalism. One is not exonerated or condemned based on their observances. Religious rigor on either sides of do's and don'ts will not make or break our faith. So may we not make a new law? Where there is no law. Paul here reminds the church and says your faith is not validated by the ceremonial law, by the Jewish calendar or the Christian calendar. It is validated by Christ, the substance of our faith. So trust in Him. His work, his fulfillment, not a new laws or old laws, trust in Jesus. Jesus passed under judgment for us that we do not need to be judged or to be exonerated by anyone else, but by Him and Him alone. In Him is where righteousness is found. So we've seen that religious rigor leads to no results, that the law cannot exonerate us, but neither can experiences qualify us, which is what Paul says in verses 18 and 19. Paul and Colossae is not only dealing with legalism, but he's also dealing with mysticism. If legalism is the religious rigor that teaches that the law can somehow save you or validate you or exonerate you, mysticism is the teaching that secret knowledge or experiences somehow qualify you, somehow elevate you, somehow make you more mature. And Paul says let us not be disqualified by asceticism or the lack of mystical experiences. Hold on to that that word asceticism. We will look at that in our third point as I believe Paul makes it more clear what asceticism is and its practices in verses 20 and 23. But here in verses 18 and 19 we see that there are some in Colossae either devaluing or elevating people based on the fact that they had visions or not. Particularly, it seems that those who are worshipping angels or having visions are the ones being the qualifiers. The evaluation of maturity in the church was being manipulated based on a person's extra-biblical supernatural experiences. Telling people this is where growth is found. And as I say that many of you might be thinking of particular cults or other denominations that have somehow codified this as doctrine and made it the standard of hierarchy. In Paul's description here there seems to be what I would call or what theologians would call syncretism. There are people who now believe that they are Christians and instead of denying their old faith and accepting Christ they are trying to incorporate their pagan practices into Christianity. Trying to synchronize their beliefs together. And this is where I think we get find ideas of like guardian angels, the veneration of saints and the list can go on. Practices that are not spoken about in the Bible but have become a part of quote-unquote worship in some of these sects. And what Paul says is that these practices they do not connect to Christ the head. They go somewhere else. They cannot give growth in the Christian life. This is a kind of mysticism that does not lead to results. It does not lead to growth. And the same is true for charismatic experiences that Paul speaks about here. There are some that are having visions and they're getting puffed up likely leading to what I call God told me theology. Beliefs that are birthed out of a place that will puff up, that will elevate the man or women and not Christ. And this is the case for false teachers like Ellen White or Joseph Smith. In the 1830s in North America, if you don't know who those names are they will come. In the 1830s in North America this is the time that is known as the Second Great Awakening. It is the second time in American history where Christianity was on this dramatic rise. Evangelists like D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday were attracting great crowds and people were believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though this time in history was that it brought about some good, people coming to faith, greater humanitarian action, it was also the seedbed of false religion. It is the same era of Ellen White and Joseph Smith. Ellen White is the founder of Seventh-day Adventism and Joseph Smith is the founder of Mormonism. Both were individuals who led people astray by using their visions as the founding for their theology, saying, God told me so. They created movements that somehow outlived them, causing people to believe in legalism, false ideas about the atonement, false ideas about the Trinity, and for Joseph Smith even whitewashing the sin of polygamy. I believe this is where Paul says, giving up to their sensuous mind. The sad fact is, is this kind of false teaching still exists today. Not just in these cults, but in other parts of quote-unquote Christianity. I don't have a list of teachers for you to avoid in their theology, but if their mouths or their beliefs start with, God told me so, please run. YouTube and social media are filled with these influencers who spout off all kinds of teaching and standards, telling people that only if you speak in tongues or if you have visions that you're going to be a growing and godly Christian. The scriptures do not teach that. Our qualification does not come from experiences, it comes from Christ who lives in us, who changes us, and leads us to himself, that we may be nourished and grow. So if you've been tempted or even taught to believe in supernatural experiences to somehow make you more mature, would you see today from this passage that that is not true? For those of us who do not think that way, may we be cautioned to not be led astray, neither qualifying or disqualifying others based on this mystical standards. Religious rigor will always make it Jesus plus something gets results. But the truth is that it's Jesus plus nothing. It's just Jesus. To get growth, to be qualified, it is in Christ and Christ alone. It is growth that comes from God, as Paul says at the end of that verse. No angel, no man, no vision, only Christ. So we've seen that the law cannot exonerate us. We've seen that experiences cannot qualify us. Lastly, we'll see that asceticism cannot sanctify us. Please look at me at verses 20 and 23. Paul now concludes his argument against religious rigor not leading to results by telling us that to, by telling us that religious rigor cannot curb our selfish indulgence. It cannot stop the flesh. That's where he ends in verse 23. He reminds us, if you have died with Christ to the old system of life, why do you submit yourself to its rules? Do not touch, do not handle, do not eat. This is the teaching of asceticism. Though in verse 18 we see this word, well Paul actually says in verse 18 is the Greek word for humility. I think that ESV helpfully translates it as asceticism because Paul is not taking issue with virtue. He is taking issue with corruption, the teaching of asceticism. Asceticism promotes quote-unquote humility by poverty or abstinence, which means self-denial. That somehow by your self-denial you will be made holy. That if you don't enjoy or you don't take pleasure then you will somehow be united to God. That we deny our desires because somehow all desire is bad. What we see in this belief, this idea of self-denial, is the same doctrines of Buddhism which teaches that nirvana is the place beyond desire where you have nothing to want anymore. Asceticism promotes no food, no wealth, no pleasure as a means to find holiness. This is where, in this belief, where sanctification is found, the process of being made holy. What Paul says here is that that's not possible. Abstaining from desire is not going to make you holy. And what we must see is that beneath this worldview is that all the physical world is somehow bad. And what is good is inside of you. So retreat inward and you will be made holy. That is not true. Well Paul says here echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 15. In Matthew 15 verse 11, Jesus says this, it is not what goes into your mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that this defiles a person. In verse 18 he says, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and defiles a person. From out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, false witness, and slander. What Jesus and Paul want us to understand is that holiness is not inside of us. There is no way that somehow by preserving or by self-denying that we are going to find holiness. Holiness comes from outside of us. It is found in Christ in our union with him that by him we live upright lives. We cannot somehow clean ourselves up to be more like Christ. It's like having a dirty car and that you went through the car wash and you come out and you say well my car's clean, but in reality the inside of your car is just as filthy as it was before. Or for your house or your apartment it's dirty on the inside but you wash the doors and clean the windows. It might look good on the outside but it's still filthy on the inside. This cleaning from the inside out for our souls is not done by external cleaning and the job of asceticism. It might look good. It might even sound like wisdom but it is not good or wise. To stop the indulgence of the flesh for real sanctification to take place in our lives we need Jesus to clean us from the inside out. To renovate our hearts and our minds. It is not just a cosmetic job of asceticism that's going to help us. We need true transformation. So if you want to pursue righteousness stop turning to religious rigor and turn to Christ the one who can truly sanctify us. So if you've yet to believe in Jesus Christ and you want this cleansing from the inside out you say Jim I don't want to be turning to my desires but I somehow always do. If you want to stop living by the system of this world that somehow instructs you that true holiness is found somewhere else or in some other teacher I pray that you'd see for the first time the religious rigor will not lead to results. Instead you'd see that true godliness true growth true goodness is found in Christ and Christ alone and that you trust in Him. And for us who have believed in Lord Jesus in many ways I pray the same because just like the Church of Colossae we can fall to the lies of false religion and false growth models of religious rigor. So may we see afresh our Savior and our sanctifier Jesus Christ. Let's pray.