Free in Christ - Colossians 2:20 23

Free in Christ and the Danger of Man-Made Religion

Glad to see the regulars, but we see we have some visitors, and so we want to welcome you to Faith Bible Church. Hopefully it's a blessed time for you today. And we look forward to a blessing from the Lord as we have a baptismal today.

The baptismal is under the floor up here. And we had a few men after the men's Bible study yesterday help raise the lid which is quite heavy. And so we want to thank those men for giving a hand. And we started a men's Bible study.

It has started officially yesterday, but it has been going on for three weeks before that. And pastors going through the book of Hebrews in the men's Bible study. And that's the next one is September the 18th at 3 .30 on Saturday.

So, those of you men who would like to join that is a real blessed time. Also, we want to remind you that we are having Sunday School now starting at 9 .30 to 10 .30. And pastors have been going through the book of Psalms.

Next Sunday is chapter 7. So, be here and enjoy that time. So, join with me in prayer as we ask the Lord to bless us today. Our Heavenly Father and our God we come before You today. We thank You that You still give us the opportunity here in this country to worship freely before You.

We thank You for the many blessings that You give to us. We thank You first of all for the fact that You paid for our salvation by Your death. And we just thank You Heavenly Father for the great gift of salvation that You have given to us.

We would pray for each individual that's here today that You might bless each one. We pray that they might leave here saying it was a privilege and a blessing to be here in the house of the Lord. Be with pastor as He brings Your Word.

Give Him liberty to speak to each of our heart from Your Word. And we would thank You for that. Pray for the music in this time of praise Lord. We pray that You would be in that in our praise to You. And we will thank You and pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Good morning. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. And let's stand and sing. Joyful, joyful we adore Thee. And my hope is in the Lord.

Colossians 2:20-23 and the Call to Christian Freedom

Please turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter 2 verses 20 through 23. The book of Colossians chapter 2. Verses 20 to 23,. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations?

Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

This is the Word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are so thankful that You are our God and we can call You our Father only on the merit of Jesus dying for us on the cross for our sin and that He's risen.

And God, we pray that everything we hear today that is from You, that You would pierce our hearts so that we would live as Your sons and daughters. Father, we also pray for this country as we have commemorated the 20th anniversary of 9 -11.

We ask that You would be with the family members who have lost their loved ones and it still hurts even 20 years later. God, we pray that You would be the one who comforts them and that Jesus would be their only hope.

In Jesus' name, amen. John Wesley, he was an English theologian and evangelist in the 18th century. And he is known for his far reaching ministry and many of the lasting hymns that some of which we sing to this day.

When the young John Wesley was sent to Savannah, Georgia, he was a missionary in 1735. However, he was not saved at this point. He believed he was saved, but he would later find out that he started trusting in Christ alone for salvation in 1738.

As an unbelieving minister, John Wesley placed himself under physical regulations beyond what the Bible commanded. For example, John fell in love with a young lady named Sophia Hopke. He discipled her, and I think she came to faith through John Wesley.

However, because John believed in clerical celibacy, which means he didn't believe that clergy should get married, or that it was not good for clergy as in pastors or priests to get married, something that the Roman Catholic Church practices to this day.

Because of that, John did not ask Sophia to marry him. Wesley placed himself under a physical regulation that the Bible does not talk about. And he believed it to be good for ministry. However, this story does not end here.

Sophia eventually married another man. I'm sure this broke John's heart. He became bitter. And one day he decided to rebuke her in the Church publicly. One day, this goes on, John Wesley refused Sophia for communion.

A believing woman was refused communion by an unbelieving priest. Soon after, John was kicked out, and he had to leave Savannah, Georgia to go back to England. Now, he did end up marrying, but it was a very unhappy marriage for both parties.

And one may wonder, if John did not submit himself to this man-made tradition of pastors and priests not marrying in Georgia, we wonder what would have happened to his ministry and marriage. It would have been completely different.

Wesley's story shows the short-term tragic result of following a man-made regulation. By the grace of God, John became a Christian a few years after, and God still used him mightily. However, Wesley's early ministry illustrates not only the uselessness, but the danger of man-made rituals used in ministry.

He believed staying single for ministry would be beneficial for his ministry, but it backfired horrendously. He almost never returned to ministry. This leads us to the main point today, which is because we are united to Christ, we do not resubmit to the powerless regulations.

Because we are united to Christ, we do not resubmit to the powerless regulations. While last week's commands were based upon Christ's supremacy over the principalities, the fallen angels, Christ is better.

Christ is the substance, while the other principalities and their regulations, they're just shadows. Christ is the head that joins the Church together, not the physical rituals of, don't eat, don't do that, don't touch, this week's exhortation, encouragement is based upon our unity with Christ.

As believers, we are united to Christ, which leads to my first point, because we're united with Christ, we are dead to the basic principles of the world. Because we're united with Christ, we are dead to the basic principles of the world.

Today's text returns to the idea of the Church's unity with Christ, believers' unity with Christ. Recall in verse 11 -12, Paul illustrated how Christians are dead and buried with Christ. This week, Paul shows the application.

What does that mean for the Church? How does that play out of the fact that we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection? Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations?

This is a rhetorical question. Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. Paul starts out with a conditional statement, that if statement. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world.

This means if you trust that Jesus took away all of your sins on the cross, and all the records of sins, and He faced the wrath of God that you deserved for your sake, then you're united with Christ in His death.

You're dead to sin. You're dead to any record of your previous sin. But not only dead, you are dead to the basic principles of the world. The basic principles of the world are the principalities and cosmic powers, these angelic beings, the fallen angels who required various physical rituals, like dietary restrictions, and celebration of certain days, in order to have any spiritual experience.

They were like the strict masters who required fasting from certain foods, strict observance on specific days. However, when Christ came, He took on everything that these cosmic powers had against us, and He nailed the record of our sin on the cross.

And it's expunged. The record of sin is clear. Jesus dying on the cross, not only freed us from these cosmic powers, but it was a decisive loss for these cosmic powers. They were publicly humiliated. I mean, ironically, at the humiliation of Jesus.

They became the biggest losers of this universe. And that is why Paul rhetorically asks those who are united with Christ in His death, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations?

Do not touch. Do not taste. Do not handle. Remember, that's what the old pagan gods asked their followers to do. Don't eat that. Don't touch that. Don't eat this. Don't drink that. Celebrate these days.

If you're dead to sin, and the former paganistic lifestyle to please these beings who have lost, why are you enslaving yourselves again? If you're united with Christ in His death, why submit to your old defeated masters again?

Imagine you're from North Korea, or any of the countries that truly oppressed their people. The government tried to kill you and your family. So, you fled to the United States. The country welcomed you, provided you with housing and a job.

It granted you a new citizenship. You're no longer a North Korean. Now, when you get your first paycheck, would you pay taxes to the North Korean government? The state that you fled from, no longer associate with?

No. Should you even fear that the North Korean government will kill your family who has been protected by the United States government? No way. You are under the strongest country in the world. Similarly, those who are united to Christ belong to Christ, the strongest being in the universe.

As people of Christ, who are in Christ, we're not bound to these human rituals to please lesser gods. Our business is to live as verse 21 says. Our business is to live as though we are united to Christ, and not as what verse 21 says.

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are meaningless to us. They're just faint echoes of the past. This is an important reminder for the church today, because there is a tendency to adopt the world's way.

Just look at the world and how they treat their people. It's judgmental based upon physical practices. In certain restaurants, unless you order a meat-free, plant-based burger, you may be viewed as a climate terrorist.

Sounds very much like do not taste, written 2 ,000 years ago from today. Sure, this may not seem like it has a spiritual component, but you'll notice that the world has made it a religion in itself. They don't claim one God, but they claim all these gods, multiple truths.

They might say, you can't drive this car, but you have to drive this car, which costs twice as much. And there is no regard for those who cannot afford it. You can have this food, but not this food because the world can't sustain it.

And anytime there are wildfires in this state, it automatically goes to climate change. Without any data or plausible connections, it could have been done by some lunatic. And sometimes it has. And while they ignore the previous decades of poor forest management, where the dead vegetation is accumulated, it collected over time and provides fuel for the fire, they'll attribute it to a nebulous term of climate change.

In fact, yesterday, I overheard a video that my wife was watching, and they attributed the rising food prices to climate change. Nothing about the trillions of dollars that were printed out of thin air, nothing about the factories that shut down during the lockdown, government imposed, but climate change.

Again, you can have that, but you can't have that. You can order this, but you dare not touch that, or the world will end. I don't know when the world will come to an end, but I can guarantee you it will not be through climate change.

How it will end is already written down. And the end only comes through Jesus, not from the greenhouse effect. And I'm not saying Christians ought to ignore the environment, right? Because we have the best reason to take care of our environment, because God told us to.

However, when we start judging people for their lifestyle and attributing guilt to them, to normal life practices as eating, it becomes another religion rather than a scientific discussion. In fact, there is no discussion about this.

The world seeks to submit its people to the changing physical regulations. The next up and coming physical standard for the world is proclaimed by the World Economic Forum, a non-governmental organization that seeks to improve the world.

Their new agenda is this, for 2030, you will own nothing, and you will be happy. You will own nothing, and you will be happy. The world wants to control not just what you own, or the lack thereof, but your emotional response to it.

You'll own nothing, and you will be happy. This is the type of regulations Paul is speaking out against that must not be seen in the church. Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. They may not directly relate to worshiping the elemental spirits, the angelic beings of the world, but it deprives liberty from anyone who participates in it.

These regulations, in effect, enslave their followers. For Christians, this is extremely troubling because our freedom from physical regulations was purchased by Jesus Himself. We do not sin just because we fail to obey some physical rituals that the world holds on to.

We do not submit to these rituals anymore because we serve an even greater master. We serve a God who holds the world's climate in His hand. We serve a God who is the only source of joy and happiness.

Why must we serve the lesser beings who overpromise and are completely unable to deliver? Therefore, this type of behavior and mindset must not occur in the church. We do not pass any judgment on believers regarding what they eat, and what they drink, what they handle.

Because we're united with Christ in His death and resurrection. The world can pass judgment on its own people based upon its physical regulations, or with their changing standards. But, the church has to live in their new identity.

We are dead to these regulations, these paganistic standards. And, we're risen in Christ. We're permanently cut off from these rituals because God is pleased with us, not by what rituals we perform, but Christ's atoning sacrifice for our sins.

How can those who have died to these legalistic standards go run back under it? How can we live under those restrictions when we are dead to them? Christians, we do not judge others based upon what we eat or drink, what we own or not own, what we choose to do in Christian freedom.

How can we condemn those who have been freed by Christ, who died for our sin and our records of sin? Christians, we're no longer under these legalistic regulations of the world, because we are dead to them in Christ.

To crawl back to them would be to ignore Christ's atoning death for us, by which He took your place and faced the wrath that you deserved, so that you would be found righteous and free in Christ. We are citizens of the victorious King.

Don't bow down to the conquered rulers. Now, how effective are these regulations? This leads to my second point. The physical regulations are worthless. They're powerless. In the following two verses, Paul describes what these regulations are.

Verse 22, which all concern things which perish with the using. According to the commandments and doctrines of men, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

First, Paul describes the results of these regulations which all concern things which perish with the using. These regulations in the end deal with things that do not last. Restricting foods and drinks and products that you own, in the end, is restricting things that go bad or disappear with use.

Things that consumed and no longer exist in the next moment. Physical regulations completely lack the eternal perspective. It's temporary. In contrast, Christianity values what is eternal. God, the Word of God, and people's eternal state.

Second, Paul describes the source of these regulations. According to the commandments and doctrines of men, this means these regulations are not from God. The source of these regulations come from fallible, changeable, and sinful men.

Jesus, in fact, rebuked the Pharisees for exactly the same reason when they tried to judge Jesus' disciples for impurity, for not washing their hands before eating. This is Jesus' chilling criticism toward the religious leader who tried to submit God's people to these regulations.

Mark 7, 8. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. You can't go both ways. You submit to one and leave the other.

Make sure you submit to the right one. Third, Paul describes the manner of these regulations. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

At a first glance, these regulations seem wise. They seem to make sense. They seem like a good idea on the surface. For example, these ancient practitioners were fasting for multiple days and imposing it on other people.

Well, the Bible speaks well of fasting, right? Jesus fasted for 40 days. Moses fasted for 40 days. So, people thought it seemed wise to force it upon everyone. However, those who failed to fast were judged as spiritually inadequate.

And those who succeeded, it only fueled their pride. They felt proud, self-centered. Next, false humility is when someone intentionally lowers himself in order to draw attention. And one can imagine how fasting could do that successfully.

Oh, I haven't eaten for five days. And everyone would be like, oh, why not? People would fast multiple days just to boast about it. One year I was, one summer I was volunteering at a hospital. And it coincided with Ramadan, a long period of time in which Muslims do not eat while the sun is up.

So, for weeks I would actually hear from my co-volunteer who would complain about how hungry he was and how early he had to wake up in order to have his first meal, right? Because you have to have food before the sun rises.

And remember, it was over the summer, which means the sun rises quite early. At one point in my immature frustration, I believe I told him, you know, you don't have to do it. But what is the end result of submitting to these physical regulations, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh?

In the end, submitting to these legalistic restrictions do not amount to any spiritual fullness at all, which they falsely promised. There is absolutely no value against the indulgence of the flesh. You may avoid certain foods or drinks.

You may avoid food in general for a certain number of days. You may make your body go through hell. And these false teachers promised a higher spiritual experience, a fuller spiritual life. But Paul tells us these have no value.

These practices are worthless against the biggest problem for humanity. Our flesh, our sinful self, our rebellious nature against God. In the end, no matter how much you punish yourself by depriving yourself of good things, whether food or activities, it will not even do a deadly squat to improve your sinful nature.

Even our best solutions against sin only makes us self-centered. We're worse off by practicing these physical rituals. Before the holy and just God, none of us could stand complete and innocent, even with these physical regulations, even the best practitioners, because we all deserved the full wrath of God, the eternal condemnation.

Then what hope do we have? That is precisely the point. We have no hope in ourselves. We cannot have any hope in what we do. But God, in his great mercy and grace, saves us from our tragic case, our hopeless case.

How many times have we tried to stop lying and failed? How many times have we told ourselves, I will not do that again, only to do it again? Or told ourselves, I won't hurt you again, last time. Yet we hurt them again.

We may have joined even support groups to turn away from sin, but it didn't work. It's because sin is in our nature. We cannot escape what we're born with. Although it is impossible to deal with our sinful nature ourselves, God is perfectly capable because he is God.

How does God deal with our sin? He sent Jesus, his only son to take on our sin and to die in our place, so that we could take his place in his righteousness. Because Jesus faced the full wrath of God, the full punishment that we deserved, and on the third day he resurrected, we're not only dead to sin with him, but we're risen with Christ.

We're made a new creation. Sin is not part of our nature. We actually have a fighting chance against sin by the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart. Therefore, in Christ, we are able to resist sin by the power of the Spirit, with the help of Scripture.

All you have to do is to trust that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross for your sin, and he is risen. And you take his place because you're united with him in the death and resurrection. We lay down any attempt at doing good works, any physical rituals, any swearing of oaths, next time I'll be better.

None of that. But only hold on to Christ's perfect work on the cross. Quit relying on your performances, but wholly trust in Christ's complete atoning work on the cross. No rituals or physical regulations achieve any of that.

All you have to do is turn from your sinful ways and believe in Christ. It is not up to our efforts. We don't get good effort stickers in the end, but we are rewarded Christ's righteousness when God declares us righteous, when we're found in Christ.

And I end with the third verse of a famous hymn that makes it abundantly clear what that looks like. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him more. Let us pray. Father, we turn away from any of our attempts, our foolish attempts to purchase our forgiveness, to earn goodness aside from Christ.

God, we are thankful that Christ is the complete atoning sacrifice for our sin. Animals can't achieve this. We can't achieve this. Our good works do not work out well. But God, we pray that we would trust in Jesus because we are united with him in his death and resurrection.

God, please forgive us for even thinking that we could have a chance in our own righteousness with this, which is as filthy as filthy rags. In Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand for our closing song. Okay.

Baptism as a Sign of Union with Christ

So, baptism is not a means of salvation. Baptism does not save you. The baptism is a physical representation of what it means to be saved. And Romans six makes it clear that baptism is a physical illustration of what it means to be die, to be dead and to be buried in Christ and to be lifted up.

Because when Hezekiah gets baptized, he will go down under as it symbolizes death and burial as the water closes over him. That's when the tomb closes, but he will rise because he is resurrected with Christ.

That's, this is a physical illustration of his spiritual reality because he has placed his faith in Jesus for complete salvation, not by physical regulations, not by obedience to the law, but obedience to Christ, to full trust in Christ alone.

So, I'm going to ask Hezekiah a few questions to make sure that he is united with Christ in life and death, right? Do you renounce, deny Satan and sin? Yes. And second, do you trust Jesus completely as your Lord and Savior?

Yes. All right. Then I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.