I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 2, we're going to be looking at verses 16 through 23 of Colossians chapter 2, 16 on down to the end of the chapter. Colossians 2, beginning at verse 16. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. if with christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations do not handle do not taste do not touch referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh here ends the reading of god's word well this past week i got a message from one of my nephews who let me know that he was taking three philosophy classes if you know i i studied philosophy in my undergrad and so we would talked a little bit about it and one of the classes that he was taking is a philosophy of religion class. Now if you've ever taken a religion class or a philosophy of religion class then you probably know the typical kind of teaching that you would get in a class like that. A religion class will begin by surveying the various world religions boiling them all down to their various do's and don'ts and then coming to the conclusion that all religions are essentially the same. They're doing the same thing. There are different ways of trying to make men and women better additions of themselves. And so whether it's the Ten Commandments from Moses or the five pillars of islam and with muhammad or hinduism and the quran or hinduism and karma or they may say if it was jesus and the golden rule all world religions are doing the same thing people are trying to make themselves better now there's some truth to that some truth to that claim that all world religions are trying to do the same thing and making people better with one exception christianity christianity cannot be reduced to the golden rule christianity cannot be reduced to any rule commandment or law because christianity is not primarily about rules commandments or laws christianity is a gospel religion it's a gospel religion and the thing is with christianity if you get the gospel wrong then it doesn't matter what rules you follow you get all of christianity wrong christianity is not a religion of making man better christianity is not a religion about men and women doing what they can do Christianity is about good news a message a word of what Jesus Christ has done for sinners and that's what we mean when we say that Christianity is a gospel religion it's a religion that speaks of what God has done through Jesus christ for sinners and so as i said religion 101 should teach that there are really two kinds of religions there are man-made religion and there are gospel religion man-made religion and gospel religion and man-made religion is all about man for man it's all about commandments and rules and making himself better herself better where again gospel religion is about the message of Jesus Christ and what he has done and that's the major difference of what is really operating in our text here before us tonight the false teachers who had inserted themselves in the church at Colossae were all about and teaching man-made religion sure they may have incorporated some old testament ideas they may have referenced jesus christ but the heart of their perspective or philosophy as paul has called it earlier or what he calls here in verse 23 self-made religion the heart of their perspective was man this is all about man it's all about them making themselves better editions of themselves and in teaching this to Christians at Colossae they were corrupting the Christian faith of many there and so Paul tells us three things here about man-made religion he tells us three contrasting things about man-made religion versus gospel religion man-made religion is rule-based it's rule-based man-made religion is man-based it's all about man and man-made religion is powerless it's powerless and those three points serve as our points tonight and what we're going to see is really the contrast the difference between world worldly man-made religion and gospel religion. Paul begins his exposition here in verse 16 with the word therefore. He says, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink or with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath. And as you've often heard and been told, when you come across the word therefore in the Bible, you should ask the question, what is therefore therefore? And oftentimes, therefore, is a linking phrase, right? It links what was said previously with what the author is about to say. Well, here Paul is saying, in light of what I just said to you in the previous section, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. Well, what was it that Paul said in the previous section? Do you recall? It's been about a month since we looked at that section. Well, if you recall, in verses 8 through 15, Paul covers much of what God has done through Jesus Christ for these Christians. And in that section, Paul doesn't once tell Christians what to do. He doesn't tell them anything to do. He simply proclaims to them the wonderful things that God has done for them in Jesus Christ. those are gospel verses they're not law verses they're not verses of commands or rules they're gospel and remember that's the major difference between man-made religion and gospel religion man-made religion is primarily about rules gospel religion is primarily about christ and what he has done and so look briefly with me again back at verses 8 through 15 and if you remember paul used this little phrase over and over in those verses, the little phrase, in Christ. And he used that phrase to tell these Christians, again, all that they have in Christ, all that has been done for them, all that has been accomplished for them in Christ. And never once does he say that what has been done is based on what they have done or will do. It's not contingent upon what they will do or what they can do look down with me at verse 9 for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him verse 9 and 10 don't tell us again what to do it tells us what has been done we've been filled in jesus christ and then paul goes on to continue in verses 11 through 13 in him there's that little phrase again you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands having been buried with him in baptism in which you were raised with him through the faith through faith and the powerful working of god you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh god made alive together with christ having forgiven all of our trespasses put this all together and paul is saying here we've been truly circumcised truly baptized we've experienced a real death and separation from our old selves we've we now have a new nature been made alive spiritually renewed and we've had our sins forgiven and then paul speaks of one last thing in verse 15 he says he this christ has disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them so christ has filled us with the fullness of god Christ has freed us from the power of sin. He's freed us from the consequences of sin. And He has freed us from the power of the spiritual spirits of this age. All of this has been done for these Christians. All of this has been done. All of this has been done for anyone who trusts by faith in Jesus Christ. These things, these benefits of Christ, if you are united to Christ by faith, you have them. They are yours. You are right now in possession of them. They've been given to you, granted to you graciously by faith in Jesus Christ. And so, having seen and heard all that Paul says here, can you see why now Paul says, therefore therefore don't let anyone judge you according to food don't let anyone judge you according to celebrations rituals sabbath patterns this is what you have in christ this is yours given to you let me ask you in as those who are in possession of the benefits of christ what do you have to do to obtain them nothing right nothing at all so it makes no sense for a christian to ever put themselves under the judgment of anyone who would question them along these lines let me put it to you this way let's say that you had a distant relative who just recently passed away and left you with an inheritance a large estate this estate was given to you free of charge you received the keys the title and deed was signed over to you, and then you begin to move in to this estate. And while you're moving in, a neighbor comes by not only to introduce themselves, but to tell you, I know you have the keys, and I've heard the deed is in your name, the title, but you know, this is really not your estate. And you say, what do you mean? Whose estate is it? Well, it's not your estate until you pay for it. You see, nothing is free in this life. You've got to do something to earn this. You have to pay for this estate. How would you respond to somebody like that? They'd probably kind of roll your eyes and probably never talk to them again, maybe. Right? That's absurd. This estate has been given to you. It's yours. You're in possession of it. Well, man-made religion is a lot like that neighbor who comes to us as Christians and says, I'm sure you believe that you have all the benefits of Jesus Christ. But they're not really yours. They're not really yours yet. You have to earn them. You have to play your part. You have to follow certain commandments, rules, regulations. That's what was going on in Colossae. That's what these Christians were being told by these false teachers. They were telling them they needed to abstain from certain foods. They needed to participate in certain religious festivals. And this was a serious matter because it was robbing these Christians of their assurance. It was robbing these Christians of their confidence in Christ. And many of these Christians were submitting to these teachings. They were placing themselves under these teachers' judgments. Notice what Paul says in verse 20. He asks, why then are some of them submitting to such rules and regulations? Now you can imagine how this happens. It still happens today in various ways in various churches. I recall being a young Christian and attending a number of churches looking for a faithful Christian church. I remember going into some churches and I appreciated the preaching. I agreed with the doctrine as far as I knew. It was biblical teaching. And yet there was these expectations that the church placed upon each other that was extra biblical and those expectations gave the church a kind of ethos or a spirit of being judgy and judgmental some of these churches required you to read only one translation of the bible and if you didn't read that translation then you were made to feel like an outsider and like you didn't really understand some of these churches expected you to dress a certain way to speak a certain way to have a kind of attitude about yourself it was really peculiar to be honest with you and yet if you didn't live up to these expectations you were let known and you would feel uncomfortable you see christianity does have rules it does have laws paul's going to get to those commandments in the next section in chapter three in fact pastor gordon read that section to us this morning as a portion of our law reading but you see those are moral issues that paul is calling us to there issues such as food and drink festivals new moons sabbath uh um uh festivals those aren't moral issues those aren't the issues that anyone should ever claim to be moral look what notice what paul calls these issues he calls them shadows of the things to come these are types shadows paul is saying here that these types and shadows have been fulfilled in christ right the substance is christ christ is the substance we all know that shadows are not the things in and of themselves i was walking out here on the patio this past friday and uh it was a hot day as it was today. But then I noticed that I was standing under a dark shadow. And I looked up and there was this great big dark cloud over me. Some of you probably know that it rained Friday. Briefly, it sprinkled a little bit. And yet I would not have noticed that shadow or that cloud if it wasn't for that shadow that I noticed I was under. The shadow directed me to the cloud in the same way these types and shadows were to direct the people in the old covenant to the promises that will be fulfilled in jesus christ christ is the substance and in christ we have the reality of what those types and shadows pointed the people to that's Paul's focus here. So while man-made religion can't get past rules and regulations, gospel religion grants to us the substance, Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that really brings us to the next major difference between man-made religion and gospel religion, which is that man-made religion is all about man it's all about man while gospel religion is all about christ it's all about christ notice uh what paul says here he says let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism i'm in verse 18 and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from god as i said man-made religion is about man now man-made religion is always about rules but these two things go together when you think about it man-made religion is about rules because it's ultimately about man listen to how this works you see there's no good news in man-made religion what could possibly be the good news in man-made religion the closest thing to good news in man-made religion is the claim that if, if you live up to the rules, regulations, expectations, then you will be a better addition of yourself. But how do you know? How do you know that you've lived up to those expectations? How do you know you've lived up to those commandments? How do you know that you are a better addition of yourself? Well, man-made religion is about you. So you are the one who gets to decide. And when we get to decide whether or how much we live up to the expectations that we place upon ourselves, let's be honest, we know we always look better in our own eyes, don't we? We always look wiser in our own eyes. And so really what man-made religion leads to is a kind of arrogance and being puffed up with pride. And that's what Paul tells us here. He says in verse 18, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. Some of these teachers, these false teachers were being puffed up. That term puffed up, another way of translating that is to be self-inflated, to be over-inflated with oneself, to have pride and arrogance. In what? Well, in these so-called regulations that these people were claiming to follow and practice. Asceticism, worship of angels, going on in detail about visions. Imagine these people. These men who claim to have visions basing their sanctification and holiness on such gifts. Such things still happen today, don't they? In churches that practice these kinds of gifts, people still look down their nose spiritually upon others who don't practice such gifts so man-made religion is really revealed for what it is it's about man it's about being puffed up with pride and arrogance listen to the way the niv puts this all together this this how it translates this verse it says do not let anyone who delights in false humility that's a asceticism false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you such as a person also goes into great detail but what about what they have seen they are puffed up with idle notions of their unspiritual minds so again man-made religion is shown for what it is masquerading as something that it's not not i noticed this in israel when i spent three weeks in israel in my early 20s jerusalem is a very very religious place you've got the roman catholic church you got the eastern orthodox church you obviously have jews there practicing jews and what i found was that these three groups would try to outdo each other in terms of their religious garb, in terms of how they dressed. And sadly, each of them that I met were some of the most arrogant people that I've ever met. They were full of themselves, religious people. Paul says here that such religion, religion of man is not holding fast to the head paul has said over and over in this book if there's one thing you should get from this book it's that everything is about christ remember the text the preeminence of christ true religion is all about christ because everything is all about christ everything was made by him everything was made for him he is before all things all things hold together in him he's the head of the body the church the first born the beginning so that in everything he might be preeminent gospel religion is all about the glory of jesus christ his preeminence it's not about us it's not about our false humility or inflated views of ourselves true religion is about christ jesus the lord the savior the redeemer the servant the king everything is about him and so we have no place to boast we have no reason for quote-unquote false humility we cannot claim any spiritual achievement we humbly receive Jesus acknowledging to him that apart from him and his works we have nothing and are nothing and there really lies the crux of the difference between man-made religion and gospel religion gospel religion is about christ he gets all the glory we respond in humble thankfulness for all that he has done for us and that's why the gospel is so difficult for people to accept it requires them to acknowledge their inability to save themselves and that rubs against the very fabric of sinful humanity we can accept rules we can accept man-made commandments we can accept self-imposed rules and regulations that lead to us thinking more highly of ourselves but call us to humbly acknowledge that we can't do anything to save ourselves no thank you is what we say we don't want to have anything to do with that kind of religion we think we can save ourselves we think we're better than what we really are and that's why jesus came to the earth saying he didn't come for those who are well he came for the sick he didn't come for the righteous he came for sinners and to sinners jesus says come to me come to me all of you who are broken over your sin come to me come to me those of you who are humbled by your sin and your inability to save yourself come to me find rest in me find rest from man-made religion find rest from these rules and regulations that you have to live by. Find your peace in Christ. Find your righteousness in Him. Gospel religion is all about Him. His work, His salvation, His glory. We simply acknowledge our need and trust in Him. Now, I think there's another lesson here for us to learn as a church. The fact is, we too can become proud people, can't we? We too can become proud with how well we have developed or how well we follow Christ. But here's the thing. When Christians become proud of their spirituality, they're actually oxymorons. See, the basis of Christianity is humility, is us bowing and acknowledging everything we have is from Christ. How could we ever be a people who get puffed up with pride over the knowledge that we have, over the works that we have done? All glory should be to Christ. And so this text here reminds us to continue in humble faith. Continue in humble faith. Don't give in to the temptation to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Again, it's all about Christ. Everything. His preeminence. Now, because gospel religion is all about Christ, gospel religion is powerful to save. And this brings us to our last and final distinction tonight. Man-made religion is powerless. Gospel religion is powerful. Paul says in verse 20, of the flesh well as we just saw man-made religion make does not make a man a better person does not make them a better addition of themselves in fact just the opposite it's powerless to make us better makes us more proud and arrogant well the gospel saves the gospel is powerful you see behind every man-made religion paul tells us here is the elemental spirits of the age man-made religion in and of itself is satanic it directs man away from christ it directs man away from the gospel it directs man away from the truth man-made religion directs man to himself and that's exactly what happened to satan isn't it and this isn't just what paul says jesus says this too and john 9 jesus while speaking to the jews says to them you do not do the works of your father abraham you do the works of your father satan and then in matthew 23 while speaking to the pharisees and scribes jesus says you travel across distant lands and seas to make a single convert and when you do you make them twice the son of hell of yourself these would seem to be harsh words to very religious people but man-made religion is powerless it's only the gospel that saves it's the good news of the grace of god to sinners through jesus christ that empowers and changes a person that's why paul says in romans 1 that he's not ashamed of the gospel it's the power of god and to salvation that's why paul when writing to titus and titus 2 says that the grace of god trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age what trains us to renounce ungodliness and to walk godly the grace of god the gospel the good news empowers us and that's the essence of gospel religion the grace of god to us in jesus christ what has been done for us so notice how paul says the christian grows in this passage in verse 19 he says it's through holding fast to christ holding fast to christ holding fast to the head christ from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from god contrary to man-made religion with its regulations don't handle don't touch don't taste real growth comes from christ it comes from christ to us as we hold fast to him now what does that mean what's it mean to hold fast well we've heard paul say something of this before in verse 6 he says as you receive Jesus Christ the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith Paul here also says be rooted in Christ built up in him as you hold fast in him as we all know Jesus and John 15 says abide in me abide in me remain in me as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me so how do we hold fast to christ how do we abide in him how do we uh stay rooted and built up in him well we do so really in various ways we do so as we are immersed in god's word where god's word God challenges and strengthens our faith. Remember, the Word of God is active and living. It's powerful. Remember, the Word of God is God's exhaled breath and it's useful, able to teach and train and correct and convict. We also do as we gather together for worship, as we exercise our faith together collectively, as we sing out songs and praise and thanksgiving as we sit under His Word and we are convicted of sin and we're led and drawn back to Christ and we hear the wonderful gospel news of what He has done for us and our souls are lifted up. That's how we abide in Christ. That's how we hold fast to Him. We do so as we see the sacraments applied. As a baby receives baptism and we're all reminded of the promises that God has sealed unto us as we take the cup and bread and our faith is nourished we're abiding in Christ holding fast to him now let me gently encourage you if that is the case if what we are doing here tonight is an expression of that is in part holding fast to christ why would we not gather at least twice every lord's day this is so necessary for us this is so good for us we need this each and every lord's day how else do we abide and hold fast to christ well we do so as we actively participate within the body of christ in a local church as we become members as we encourage each other as we challenge each other as we spur each other on to faith and good deeds as we exercise our our faith by doing the various or practicing the various gifts that god has given to us we're abiding in christ we're holding fast to Him. We do so as we regularly and constantly pray and commune with Jesus Christ. And we do so as we humbly submit to Him daily, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, following Him, living in light of the wonderful things that He has done for us. All of these practices are not dead rules and regulations of men and man-made religion. these are the means by which we as christians remain in christ holding fast to him where we grow in our relationship with him where we grow in communion with him where we find our desires are changed into his very desires and his will for our lives becomes the will that we want and desire his plans his purposes become our plans our purposes remember gospel religion is all about christ it's all about what he has done it's all about his glory and it's powerful so we've seen tonight the fundamental distinction between gospel religion and man-made religion man-made religion is all about rules rules to live by rules to make yourself better it's all about man being puffed up self-inflated pride and arrogance and it's powerless to accomplish anything that it promises and yet gospel religion is about christ about the good news of what he has done for us about him and his glory all glory be to christ we merely acknowledge our inability and trust by faith in him but it's powerful powerful enough to change our lives christians we have everything we need in jesus christ we have a wonderful wonderful savior let's pray lord we thank you for your word to us tonight these encouraging words to us lord we thank you for the good news of jesus christ we thank you for the power of the gospel lord we thank you that you saved us in and through christ and you have so graciously given to us all the benefits that He has accomplished, Lord. We acknowledge, Father, we have nothing to offer, nothing to add, nothing to contribute. It's to the cross that we as sinful people cling, acknowledging our inability to save ourselves. We thank You for Jesus our Lord. We pray this all in His name. Amen.