Deadly Counterfeits

Colossians chapter two this evening. Colossians chapter two. My understanding that when the FBI and other law enforcement agencies train their agents or officers to spot counterfeit money, they don't pull out a bunch of counterfeit and teach them the tricks of the counterfeiters. What they do is they train them thoroughly to recognize the genuine bills and once they understand the genuine bill so thoroughly that anything else looks out of place they can easily spot a counterfeit. That is exactly what Paul has done in the book of Colossians up to the point where we are tonight chapter two verse 16. He has described who Christ is what Christ does for us. We have looked at this book from the perspective of the Lordship of Christ, the Lordship of Christ first of all in creation and in the church in chapter one and the Lordship of Christ in doctrine in chapter two. And as we have entered chapter two we have seen that this book really is a warning against false teaching. But up to this point we haven't seen much of the false teaching described in the book. What Paul has been doing is he's been describing who Christ is. And when people recognize the genuine Christ then they recognize counterfeits more easily. So Jesus is the Lord in creation and the church. He's the Lord in doctrine up to the point we are at in chapter two. We have seen that Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is God in human flesh. And therefore we are complete in Him. So having seen who Jesus is what Jesus does for us we're in a better position now to examine the counterfeits. And that's what Paul does in verses 16 through 23. He talks about some deadly counterfeits, some deadly errors that at first glance and their titles may look irrelevant to us today. We may at first glance at this outline tonight think well these things are not really problems for us today are they but they really are. These things are not irrelevant. These same errors these same counterfeits have appeared over and over and over again different disguises. They're dressed up a little differently. They're worded a little differently but throughout church history these things have popped up over and over and over again. The religious hucksters not only of today but all through church history the religious hucksters are very skillful at making these things seem attractive or reasonable or even spiritual. So we're going to look tonight at three deadly counterfeits that are often seen even today in cults, in the charismatic movement sometimes in established religions and in all kinds of literature and TV programs and the newspaper. You'll find these things all over the place. We need to be able to recognize them and avoid them. Three deadly counterfeits this evening. The first of which is legalism in verses 16 and 17. Let's read those verses. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what 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. Now when Paul begins verse 16 with the word therefore I was taught in Bible college that whenever you see a therefore you go back to see what it's therefore. It always ties what you're looking at to something previous to it. So it's a very important word in tying context together. So when Paul says therefore he's going back to verses 11 through 15 where he has described for instance in verse 14 the written code with its regulations that was against us. Christ took it away nailing it to the cross. So he's talking about this written code of regulations and we saw that it was the mosaic law and its condemnation of us, all of those standards and laws in the mosaic law which condemned us. That was nailed to the cross, was taken out of the way, it was opposed to us and by virtue of that it was removed. It is no longer in effect. So Paul is going to tell us no one should be allowed to judge you verse 16. Don't let anyone judge you by these different mosaic law standards. So don't let that be the standard by which you live your life. Now people will try to judge you by the standards of the mosaic law but what Paul is saying is that's illegitimate, that's not proper, realize that has no biblical warrant and don't give into that. Now what is legalism? Let's look first of all at the meaning of legalism because it's kind of a hard thing to get a handle on sometimes. It's kind of hard to get a grasp on. Certainly by legalism we are not talking about obedience to any rules or standards because the Bible does teach that we should be obedient as children of God, we should be obedient to the commands of God, we should be obedient to authorities over us. So by legalism we're not saying we are free, we have complete freedom to do anything we want, we don't have to be obedient to any laws, we don't have to be obedient to any commands of God, we're not saying that because legalism is not that. There is a legitimate obedience even on the part of New Testament church age believers to the Word of God. So what is legalism? Let me define it in these two ways. I believe it is composed of two things. Number one it is the forcing of human standards on others as a means of making them more acceptable to God. The forcing of human standards on others as a means of making them more acceptable to God. Now sometimes legalists put human standards on people in order for them to be saved. That was one of the problems in the Galatians churches that Paul addressed in the official of the Galatians. And they say you got to keep this and do this and come under this particular command and law and whatever in order to be saved but even in the Christian life it is possible sometimes to be placed under human standards in order to make one more acceptable to God, more spiritual. In other words someone else's personal convictions are imposed on you or me or whoever with the point that if you do what I tell you to do or what I say you should do then you'll be more spiritual, you'll be more acceptable to God. That's legalism. We're going to see that nothing but God's Word is to be our standard for conduct and sometimes people take Old Testament regulations or their own personal convictions and put them on everybody else and say now if you really want to be spiritual you've got to do this, you can't do that and all these lists of things start to happen. Now if those lists of things are biblical like Colossians 3 put away lying, put away falsehood, put away immoral living, put away, if it's a biblical list then yes we keep that list and we're to be obedient to that list but nobody's personal list of personal convictions is your standard or I standard that's just not biblical it's legalism. Now the second kind of legalism is imposing the legal ceremonies and standards given to Israel in the mosaic law on us today. In other words taking the law of Moses or the particular standards or commandments given through the mosaic law that were designed to be for Israel's life alone and imposing them on today. Now I want to make a distinction here and this is why legalism is sometimes so difficult to get a grasp on. There are parts of the mosaic law that go across dispensations and by dispensations I'm talking about like the Old Testament time where God was dealing with Israel, New Testament time where God is dealing with the church and even in the future the millennium when God will deal a whole different way with people on planet earth. But there are some some commands in the Old Testament law that are applicable to us today. For instance the 10 commands God's moral law, the 10 commandments with the exception of one which has never repeated in the New Testament and that's the Sabbath laws or the Sabbath command keeping the Sabbath but the other nine are all repeated in the New Testament. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not cover, thou shalt not bear false witness, have no other gods before me. Obviously those are based in God's moral character and that goes beyond the Old Testament beyond Israel. That's applicable to us today. But a lot of people take other things in the mosaic law that were intended for Israel's use only to dictate the way they were to live and try to apply it to people today. That is legalism. You say okay I'm still a little fuzzy on this. Well Paul gives us some examples so that'll help us out. So let's look at the examples of legalism that he gives us in verses 16 and 17. He says therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink. He's probably thinking there of the Jewish dietary regulations. You know in the Old Testament the Jews had certain dietary laws. There were unclean foods that they could not eat. There were clean foods that they could eat. Now many through the years have tried to show how there was a basis in health and so forth and there may be some truth to some of that but no one has conclusively proved that all of that is based on what's healthy for you and what's not healthy for you. I mean Jews couldn't eat pork. I know pork's healthy for you, right? It's good for you, right? Maybe or maybe not. But at any rate there were lots of things that Jews could or couldn't eat and some of that was just simply a standard that God laid down of dietary regulations. Now there are people today that still try to apply those dietary regulations that were designed for Israel and Israel's national life and still try to apply that today. Or they come up with their own list of what's right or not right for you to eat or drink in regard to being more spiritual. I remember one of my early eye-opening experiences along this line. In my first church we had a missionary come and I won't mention his name because some of you may know him. We do not support him here at Johnson Chapel but it was a missionary who came and we supported him there at that church that I was pastoring and came, we kept him in our home and fed them for the weekend and so forth. And I don't remember now what we had. I think maybe it was some kind of meatloaf and cabbage dish with the little cheese on top or something that Genie fixed and he absolutely would not eat it. And so we were thinking, okay, you know, it would be glad to fix you something else if there's a dietary problem here. And he quoted a verse from the Old Testament, thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk. And I thought, boy, I didn't realize we did that. But what he was getting across was you're not supposed to mix beef and cheese. That's against the Old Testament law and he simply would not eat it on a conviction basis. And he made me feel about that tall. You're supposed to know the Bible, you should know these things. You should, you know, you shouldn't, you're more spiritual if you follow, and I'm sitting there thinking this is pure legalism. And it was, still believe it was. Those kinds of things still happen sometimes today. So regulations and rules about what you eat or drink that go along with Jewish dietary regulations, you're more spiritual if you follow those, you're less spiritual if you don't, that's legalism. It's an example of legalism. Second example he gives, notice in verse 16, or with regard to a religious festival. Now there were three great religious festivals in Israel's calendar, in Israel's religious calendar. The festival of Passover, festival of Tabernacles, and the festival of tents. Those were three week-long religious festivals that Jews were supposed to drop everything and attend and be a part of to remember certain important things in their history. Actually, Festival of Tabernacles is Festival of Tents. Festival of Pentecost was the third one. Those three festivals were supposed to be observed by every Jew. Now what Paul was saying was there were still some people, even in the early stages of the church, who felt like they still needed to keep the religious calendar of Israel. Paul said, we're not under that anymore. We're in the church age. We're not under Israel's religious calendar anymore, but you know some of that came, some same kind of thing happens today with certain stipulations about what you're to do certain times of year, even religious calendars. There are certain denominations and religions that very strictly follow a particular calendar and you're made to feel less spiritual if you don't do every Sunday of Advent in December or whatever. Well, I've just been kind of a, you know, I don't know, a rebel maybe is not a good word, but I've just never felt like the Holy Spirit was tied to a calendar and that we needed to follow exact calendar type things, but that kind of legalism still happens today. Then notice Paul gives another example. He says in verse 16, with regard to religious festival, a new moon celebration. Now whereas a religious festival was three times a year, new moon was once a month. Whenever there was a new moon, that was a Jewish celebration. It was a way to kind of mark the passing of time in the month and so forth. But then notice the next one. The next one was a weekly calendar issue. He says, don't let anyone judge you what you eat or drink, regard to a religious festival, new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. Now the Sabbath was a weekly celebration on the part of the Jews. It was a particular day set aside in the Jewish regulations in the Mosaic law for Jews to set aside all work and there were very specific commands about what they could not do, even how far they could and could not travel on the Sabbath. You couldn't travel more than an eighth of a mile from your home. You couldn't even cook any food on the Sabbath day. I had prepared the day before. The Sabbath started on Friday at sunset and went till Saturday at sunset. Well there were many in the New Testament church who still felt like they needed to keep the Sabbath and Paul said, don't let anyone judge you in regard to the Sabbath as we're going to see in a moment, all that has been put away. We are no longer under Sabbath laws. The Sabbath rules, given to Israel, do not apply to the church and to Christians today. And by the way, Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. I know it's often referred to that way. Sundays often call the Sabbath. The Sabbath was the seventh day. It's what the word means. The word means seventh day. It was Saturday or in the Jewish calendar, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. So Sunday is not a Christian substitution for the Sabbath. The Sabbath laws are never mentioned in the New Testament. After the Gospels of course, which you're still before the cross, but after Christ died on the cross, the Sabbath laws were put away. And yet there are still people who put all kinds of regulations on the Sunday treating it as though it were the Jewish Sabbath. I mean, I've made a list of things through the years that people have said you cannot do on Sunday. You're not supposed to watch television on Sunday according to some people. We had a guy in Indiana that absolutely forbade any of his family to play sports or watch sports on Sunday because it was a Sabbath. It was supposed to be a day of rest. Well, I believe in getting some rest, but putting legalistic observances on Sunday is the same as calling it a Christian Sabbath. And it's not. That's just not biblical. It's legalism. All kinds of other regulations are put on Sunday. If that's a person's personal conviction, that's fine. But to put that on other people and say, you're not a spiritual. If you don't follow these regulations for Sunday, that's pure legalism. That's the very thing Paul's warning against here. Don't let anyone judge you in regard to Sabbath type things. Why? He tells us in verse 17, these are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. There's a difference between shadow and reality. I look down the center of this aisle here, and I see shadows of the end of every pew. I could kick that shadow and not hurt myself a bit. But if I kick the end of the pew, I'm kicking reality. And it's going to hurt. There's a difference between a shadow which simply points to something that's real and the reality itself. Paul says in verse 17 that all of these Old Testament legalistic regulations, which were for Israel and their calendar, all of those things symbolically pointed toward the reality. And the reality was Christ. You see, all of the Old Testament ceremonies were designed to foreshadow Christ, to look forward to Christ. They have no validity apart from Christ. And now that Christ has come and died on the cross, they serve no purpose because they are a part of the ordinances that he says in verse 15, 14, have been nailed to the cross and put away. They're no longer valid. So to bring them back up for the church age is basically to say that spirituality is determined by Old Testament regulations not by our relationship to Christ. That's not New Testament Christianity. New Testament Christianity is our spirituality is determined by our relationship to Christ. And our dedication to him, our submission to him and to his word. Not someone else's code of conduct. So Paul is warning us about a deadly counterfeit to true spirituality and that is legalism. Now remember, legalism is either putting someone's personal convictions on you to make you feel like you're less spiritual if you don't do all the things they do or not do all the things they do or putting Old Testament Jewish regulations that were designed for the nation of Israel on you to make you feel more spiritual if you do those things. Either one of those things are legalism. Paul is dealing specifically with the one here having to do with Old Testament Jewish regulations. But notice if you will, the second kind of deadly counterfeit that Paul warns against in this passage. There's legalism in verses 16 and 17 and then there's false mysticism in verses 18 and 19. Now before we describe it or what the passage describes as false mysticism, let me explain what I mean by mysticism. Mysticism is the view that the Christian enters into direct communion with God. Nobody in between, nothing you can directly communicate with God. Now mysticism can be good because there is a good form of direct communication with God. I mean we all want a close relationship with God. We all understand that we can directly communicate to Him in prayer. We can directly receive from Him, from His Word. So there's a good kind of mysticism which just deals with a personal close relationship between you and the Lord. But there is also a false kind of mysticism. Now by false mysticism what I mean is a supposed closeness to the Lord that kind of doesn't end around around the Word of God. In other words it does not take the Word of God seriously. It claims direct revelation from God. In other words God spoke to me and told me this and that means everybody else needs to do this too. God spoke to me and said this or that or that and that kind of direct revelation from God is placed on an equal par with Scripture. That's false mysticism because God doesn't tell us anything today that is in addition to or contrary to His Word. The way God speaks to us today is to help us understand His Word. Help us to know how to apply His Word in daily living. But anything that claims to be against the Scripture or some kind of special experience of some life with God that puts me on a higher plane than you're on, that's false mysticism. It's not the kind of mysticism, not the kind of personal walk, sensitivity to God that the Bible talks about. Now Paul gives four characteristics of false mysticism and I think you'll see even a little better what we're talking about here. Number one it's characterized by a false humility. Look at verse 18. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Now false humility, delighting in false humility that Paul's talking about, is acting humble in order to appear humble. Okay that's a false humility. Any humility that is forced, any humility that is put on to try to impress people with how humble you are is a false humility. It's not genuine. It's just a subtle form of pride. Now false humility in contrast to genuine humility is always projected and put on and forced. Genuine humility, genuine humility simply is a right estimation of yourself. Means you don't think of yourself more highly than you ought but you also evaluate yourself in the right way. Romans 12-3 says that's what we're supposed to do. We're not supposed to think of ourselves more highly than we ought but we are to judge by the gifts that God has given us. That's genuine humility. Genuine humility esteems others better than yourself. Philippians 2-3. What that means is you're not always going around saying oh everybody is so much better than me oh I'm nothing I can't know that can be a false kind of humility. But genuine humility is always looking for that in others that you can learn from. And that's what it means to esteem others better than yourself. It means that you're not going to be critical and condemning of others but you're going to look for something you can learn from in someone else's life regardless of who it is. So you're not comparing yourself to them. You're always looking to grow and benefit from what others you can learn from them. You see that's genuine humility. Genuine humility just quietly, submissively follows God and just doesn't push itself forward. A false humility is always trying to impress others with how humble we are. That's false humility. And notice he says these people in verse 18 delight in false humility and along with that he says the worship of angels. Now at first glance it may not appear how those two things fit together but when you think about false humility it becomes clear how they do fit together. False humility says God is so holy, so high, so much higher than us. Poor worthless creature like me could not ever stand in the presence of God and worship God. So I'll just settle for worshiping a lower being. I'll just worship angels. And by the way that was part of this cult that was going around in Colossi. Now it sounded real spiritual. You know it's oh God is too holy for me. I'm just not worthy to be in His presence and so I'll just kind of worship angels. It sounded real spiritual but that's a false humility because it's not biblical. So the false humility leading to a worship of angels basically Paul said that's going to rob you of reward. You're going to spend a lot of time trying to cultivate that image and just rather than serving God and living faithfully and honestly for him you're going to lose reward he says in verse 18 or disqualify you for the prize. So false mysticism is characterized by false humility. Secondly it's characterized by special revelation, special revelation. Oh I got this special word from God, this special dream, vision, whatever special revelation from God. Listen to how Paul describes it in middle of verse 18. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. Goes into great detail about what he has seen. I got this special vision, this special revelation from God and so what they do is they elevate extra biblical content, things that supposedly God showed them that he's not shown anybody else and it's not in his word but I have this special inside track to God. Be careful of that, that's a false mysticism. That is not true mysticism which simply means I want to walk close to the Lord, want to have a close relationship with him, be sensitive to his working in my life, it's totally different. False mysticism really is a very prideful thing that feels like you're above others because you've received these special revelations from God. Do you remember what happened to Paul when God actually did something like that to him? When God actually transported him to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12 and Paul said I saw things that are not lawful for anybody to utter, I can't even talk about them. Paul didn't come back from that experience saying I'm going to talk about this and you know I'm going to tell everybody about my great experience. He said no no, it's hands off, I can't talk about that. So you see a false mysticism is boastful of special revelations you get from God. Third mark of false mysticism is inflated conceit and this goes along with what we just talked about. They're at the end of verse 18. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He thinks he's really something because he's seen these special revelations from God or he's gotten this special inside track to God or he has special knowledge that nobody else has that's false mysticism. It's not genuine, it's not true. It's not it's not of the Lord. True mysticism is always in line with what God has revealed in Scripture. The fourth characteristic of false mysticism is a neglect of Christ and the collective Christ. Verse 19, he has lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God calls us to grow. Now the most important part of the body is the head. You can do without a lot of things. You can do without an arm, you can do without a leg, you can do without a lot of body parts, you cannot do without your head. Try it sometime, you'll find out. Take your head off, you can't function. See the most important part of the body is the head. Now in the body of Christ the controlling part of the body is the head and it's quite clear from chapter 1, the head of the body, the head of the church is Christ. So when he's talking about this person is lost connection with the head and it's the head that dictates how the whole body will be supported and held together and grow that's talking about Christ. Now here's what happens with false mysticism. Everything begins to center around the one who's had the experience, the mystic. Everyone begins to center around what I have to say and what I've experienced, my experience, all of that and the Bible says, wait a second, our focus is not to be on us, it's to be on Christ and once we begin talking about us and what we've done and seen and experienced and all of that then we get out of connection with the head. Not talking about losing salvation or anything like that, it's talking about losing focus on the head of the body who is Christ. So we're always to be exalting him. So those characteristics of false mysticism help us to understand what to stay away from. This was all a part of this cult that was causing problems in Colossi. Legalism, false mysticism and then the third one is asceticism. You got that on your notes, it's not a word we use every day but it's difficult to find another word to describe what this is talking about. Let me first of all talk about the meaning of asceticism then we'll see the examples of it or the problems of it here in verses 20 to 23. Let me give you the meaning of asceticism first though. asceticism is basically depriving the body of normal desires in order to achieve greater holiness. You deprive the body of normal desires in order to achieve greater holiness and so sometimes this goes to great extremes, great extremes in fasting or celibacy or isolation from society or doing away with all ones possessions or even torturing the body, even self-torture in order to make yourself more spiritual. And sometimes this denying yourself, the idea of denying yourself which Jesus talked about is taken to an extreme of actually torturing yourself in order to make yourself more spiritual. And the idea is the body is bad, anything that has any desire of the body is bad and so I've got to do away with all that so that I can really be spiritual, really focused on God and that can very easily get into what we call asceticism. Let me give you some extreme examples from church history. This was very common by the way in the early centuries of church history. Along about the three, four hundred, five hundred and even on up after that there were many people who got into this thinking that this would make them more spiritual. Let me give you some examples. A man by the name of Askepsimus. Now it's enough self-torture to have a name like that. In Askepsimus this guy and they call him Saint Askespinus, he's been canonized. He wore so many chains that he had to crawl around on his hands and knees. This was to make him deny himself and torture himself so that he would focus more on spiritual things. Give you some other examples. A certain monk by the name of Biserion would not even give into his body's desire for restful sleep. For forty years he would not lie down while sleeping. A man to that too. He would not lie down while sleeping. For forty years wouldn't lie down. Another guy, McAreous, the younger, now this is really extreme. McAreous, the younger sat naked in a swamp for six months until mosquito bites made him look like a victim of leprosy. And that was all under the guise of trying to become more spiritual by denying your body. Saint Meron lived eleven years in a hollowed out tree trunk. Others lived in caves, dens of beasts, dry wells, even tombs to suffer the discomfort of filth, stench, worms, and maggots was considered to be spiritually beneficial and a sign of victory over the body. Well, I tell you what, they can have that. I'm not interested in that. But there are many people through church history who have gotten so far to an extreme in this asceticism and trying to deny the body to become more spiritual that they've gone to those kinds of extremes. Maybe the most extreme of all was a man by the name of Simeon to styleite. Simeon who spent thirty-seven years on different pillars. He would have someone build a pillar and he would get up on top of it and stay there. They would lift him up some food every once in a while. He would sleep up there, very uncomfortable, just on the top of a pillar. For thirty-seven years, each time that he built one, the pillar was higher and narrower than before to make him suffer just a little bit more. Thirty-seven years, the last pillar was 66 feet high. Now, if I'm not mistaken, that's taller than the floor to the middle of the ceiling in here, isn't it? I believe it is. Where's West? I believe it is. That's a tall pillar to be stuck on the top of thinking that somehow in that kind of denial of yourself, you will become more spiritual and closer to God. Now, I know those are very extreme examples, but asceticism is still alive and well today in many cults and other religions and even sometimes among Christians with extreme self-discipline in order to be more spiritual. Now, there is a place for proper self-discipline and some of us could probably use a little more of that, but self-discipline becomes wrong when it is viewed as more holy or defeating the body in order to become more holy and when it's forced on others. Certainly, it becomes a form of legalism. Well, let's look at the problems of asceticism very quickly here in these last few verses. The problems of this kind of asceticism, this kind of teaching are five. Number one, it ignores our death with Christ. Notice verse 20, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? You see, a lot of this type of extreme self-discipline and asceticism is a desire to put to death the flesh, crucify the flesh, now we do not have to crucify the sinful nature. We do not have to crucify our flesh. That's already been taken care of. Jesus did that on the cross and when the Bible talks about crucifying the old man or putting the old man to death, it's talking about what we were in Adam as unsaved people. It's not talking about the physical body. So some people have gotten those mixed up and gotten into this kind of false teaching. So one of the problems with asceticism is it ignores our death with Christ that we have already died with him. The old person we were in Adam is dead, it's gone. There's nothing we need to do to try to put it to death or to deny ourselves in order to become more spiritual in that way. The second problem with asceticism is that it arises from a worldly system of self-righteousness by works. It arises from a worldly system of self-righteousness by works. He says there in verse 20, why as though you still belong to it, this basic principles of the world do you submit to its rules? Now these basic principles of the world are once again legalistic rules. He's mentioned the back in chapter 2, verse 8, and if you can remember back it's been a while since we looked at that. When we were in chapter 2, verse 8, we went back to Galatians 4 and we saw a cross reference there that talks about the principles of the world being legalistic man-made rules as to how you're to live. Again, he gives some examples of these kinds of rules that apply to asceticism in verse 21. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Do not handle, probably, referred to asceticism. Literally that you are not supposed to be married. You're not supposed to be involved with someone of the opposite sex. Then do not taste had to probably do with diet, had probably to do with food laws and what you're not to eat or to eat. Do not touch, probably had to do with being isolated from anything of benefit to the body whatsoever. Do not even touch it, do not even be near it, do not even be around it. Those are all man-made rules that feed this asceticism. Paul says, that's just a worldly system of self-righteousness by works. The third problem with asceticism is it originates with man. See the end of verse 22. These are all destined to perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. You don't find that in the Bible. You find that in man's traditions, man's teachings, man's laws about what you should or should not do to be spiritual. So that's another problem with asceticism. The fourth problem, it's hypocritical, verse 23. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body. See these kinds of practices give people a reputation for being real spiritual. You know there are a lot of people in this world that think of the monk as being real spiritual. A guy who's kind of pulled away from society and closed himself and denies himself of all the things of this life in order to become more, a lot of people think, oh man, that's really a holy person. Or the Eastern Mystic, the Oriental Holy Man, the Dalai Lama kind of type, you know, that they just deny themselves all of these things of this world. Those are really holy people. No, they're not. The Bible says they're hypocritical people. The Bible says that's a false humility, it's a self-imposed type thing, this harsh treatment of the body to become more spiritual is just a, it's false, it's not real. And then the last problem with asceticism is it is inadequate to quench the sinful nature. It just doesn't work. He says at the end of verse 23, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. To try to punish your body to make it more spiritual does not touch your sinful nature. And you know what? A lot of those guys who went out in the caves and sat on top of the pillars and sat in the swamps to try to, you know, deny themselves and punish themselves so that they could focus more on spiritual things. And, you know what they found out? And some of them even admitted in their writings. They found out that they carried their sinful nature into those caves with them, top of those pillars with them. They still had trouble with sinful thoughts, they still had trouble with sinful ambition because none of that stuff touches the sinful nature. It just punishes the body. And so Paul said it's not effective, it lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence. The only way to take care of that, that's a hard issue. The only way to take care of that is to deal with things spiritually before God in getting your heart right with Him. It doesn't take going off and living in a cave somewhere. It takes getting your heart right with God and filling your mind with Scripture and becoming more like Jesus Christ. That's what it takes. That's what touches the sinful nature. So Paul's warning us, he's warning us about these counterfeits, legalism, false mysticism, the seticism. They're not right for salvation and they are not right for the Christian life. Everything we need is found in Jesus Christ and in the Word of God. Everything we need to be pleasing to God is found in our relationship with Christ and in our knowledge and application of this book. So don't listen, don't listen to all these people that come along with the latest thing that you need to do in order to be more spiritual. Just stick to the basics. The Word of God, your relationship with Jesus Christ, cultivating that and you will become more like Him. You will become more spiritual. That's bad together in prayer. Father, we thank You that You've given us all that we need for life and God in the divine promises that You've given us as You told Peter. We thank You that we are complete in Christ and have all that we need. He is sufficient for us as You told Paul. Help us Lord not to be deceived and distracted by these claims to spirituality that somebody writes in a book and they go beyond what anybody else has ever known. Help us not Lord to be deceived by those kinds of things. By the new spiritual fads that come down the pike. Help us to stick with the basics of Your Word, our relationship with You. Protect us from harm, spiritually, from counterfeits which would rob us of our spiritual vitality. Keep us strong, individual. I pray for each one here tonight that You would help us all to follow close to You. We ask in Jesus' name.