I'm going to, we're going to be in Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 through 23. I have a, I have the second part of Free Indeed, but I'm going to save that for the next time. I'm going to interrupt, I said I would do that the next time, but I'm going to interrupt this and we're going to talk this morning about asceticism. This is from a I took, I did a bunch of, years ago I did a bunch of, a bunch of online stuff that, and this is directly out of, this is directly out of that. So, probably 20 years ago I suppose. So Colossians chapter two, verses 16. You know what, I'm gonna back up here a little bit. I'm gonna go ahead and read from, because this ties into the legalism that I was talking about the last time that I had the opportunity to be up here. So we'll go to Colossians two, verse 11. It's funny, you can just keep backing up. Well, maybe we should go to the beginning of two. No, maybe we should go to, anyway, we'll start at verse 11. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, which also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward. taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 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 the using, according to the commandments and the 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." Again, this is where I'm going to kind of insert this in between the two parts of legalism. I think this will help to maybe emphasize some of the points that I'm going to make the next time if we have an understanding of this passage here. There is plenty of philosophy of men. Plenty of philosophy that exists that men has taught. Some of it has been taught and some of it has just been done and then become something. So it's not necessarily that someone is taught, but it's that they just do it. They naturally are inclined to do it. And much of it is empty deception. Deception deception speaking of the inaccuracy of being led astray, the error that we're speaking about, the error of the world opposed to the truth of God in His Word. So we're going to be talking about defrauding. Now this is This is said in a way that is, in both, it's said of somebody to defraud you and then some you defrauding yourself. And let no one, let no one keep defrauding you is what Colossians chapter 2 verse 18 says. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility. Defrauding speaks of the infliction that occurs from people who would lead us astray or who do lead us astray. When people lead us astray, it doesn't just bring error to us. It actually hurts us. It damages us. It inflicts difficulty into our lives. And we need to be careful. We need to be on guard and resist being defrauded. Defrauding is like when you're swindled. Like when you, that's an old word, swindled. Nobody hardly ever uses that word anymore, but it's, you're swindled. You have something taken away from us. And deception, this type of deception, it takes away so much of what Jesus Christ has done for us as our Savior. And it makes him less than what he is, what he did for us, and makes us more than what we are. We're gonna look at the way this happens. It happens through legalism, it happens through mysticism, and it happens through asceticism. So we've talked about legalism already, but we're gonna go over it some here. Verses 16 and 17. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regard a festival or new moon or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. This describes the problem of legalism. We see legalism So here we see legalism. Let no one act as judge in regards to things that people may present as an obligation. A moral obligation that you must follow, but indeed there is freedom to choose in this. That is what legalism is. Let no one act as your judge. That is the command, the exhortation that you're to follow. Let no one act as your judge. Don't follow this. Don't let people judge you in this. When you ask the average person what legalism is, because it is a word that gets thrown around, what do they think it means? So the average person probably just thinks it's a strict adherence to a set of rules. But with that kind of an understanding, you're a legalist, I'm a legalist, Jesus was a legalist, everyone was a legalist. Because everyone has some set of rules that they're holding to, that they're holding strict to, even if they've created the rules themselves, even if it's as simple as, you know, don't talk to me, don't look at me, any of those things, they're gonna hold to that strictly. Whatever your rules are, and you've got them, everyone has a set of rules they're adhering to, they are strictly adhering to, hopefully your rules are closely aligning with the Lord's rules, so therefore you won't be a legalist. You're not trying to insert those as your sanctification, certainly not as your justification, but as your sanctification either. So here is what legalism is in theologically speaking. When we speak of legalism, this is exactly what we're talking about. Legalism is when people exalt their opinions to the place of God's Word. Opinions is the same as what I said a minute ago. Everybody has them. You have opinions. I have opinions. You think your opinions are right. I think my opinions are right. I mean, if you didn't, you wouldn't hold them. They wouldn't be yours. And there are people, and this is where you get cults that come in that don't have any opinions. They just look to somebody else to see what they have to say, and then they say, that's what I think. Where we run into danger is when you think your opinions are so right that, again, they are equivalent, they are equal to what God says. And when you're willing to judge people because you're so convinced of this, we need to be careful when we think when we think something's right we need to recognize that we could be wrong. You know it's like the like the what was the what was the saying you know I thought one time I thought I was wrong but I found out I was mistaken. You know you you you very likely very very possibly and likely many times are mistaken. We might be wrong And we should defer those opinions to the Word of God, using God's Word as the standard, and comparing them to God's Word. And then we need to realize that our opinions are just that, our opinions, they're our way of viewing things. When God's word says something that's different, God defines truth. That's why it's so important to get a handle on it. What's the problem of legalism? Legalism is wrong for two basic reasons. We've talked about some of these, but these are going to summarize some of what we talked about a couple weeks ago. The first one is very clear. It should be more clear than the second. Legalism results in wrongly condemning people for something that God allows. So if you have a rule, a standard, in your mind that you've made up, it's not explicitly taught in scripture, and you use that on someone else, then that is condemning them. If God gives freedom, we should restrict ourselves from condemning, even if our opinion is that doesn't seem like the best way of going about it, or the best way to do something. That's why legalism is wrong. And the converse is true as well. We shouldn't allow people to do something that God condemns and say that's fine and then encourage it. So either way, if we don't get a clear understanding of what God says and we can be able to accurately represent what he thinks is wrong and what he thinks is right, we run into danger. So we have to be careful with opinions and we don't exalt them into the place of God's Word and judge other people by opinions as if it were God's Word. Now clearly, if you can take somebody to the Scriptures and it says, do not do this, do not steal, then obviously no form of stealing whatsoever is appropriate. Anything that we have a clear word from God on, but that's not what we're talking about. We cannot control what people think, but we can prevent their condemnation from causing us to feel guilty. We cannot control what people think. Hasn't everybody tried that at some point? This phrase, Let no one act as your judge is something that other people are doing. It doesn't just say don't judge other people. This doesn't say let someone act as your judge, or don't let someone act as your judge. So while we can't control what other people think, and we definitely can't control what other people think, we can hardly control what we think. oftentimes. We can, however, prevent their false condemnation from causing us to feel guilty. You know, it's like when somebody says, I was guilted into this. I was guilted into this. We should resist from being made to feel guilty by someone else's set of rules, and that they are demanding that we follow. There's no need for that. We should see what it is. It's a form of legalism, and to not have our heart then condemned in that. But there's another way that legalism is wrong and hurtful, and this one is not quite so obvious, but is directly stated in verse 17. In verse 17, things to come, there shall things to come but the substances of Christ. This is the second point and it guides people away from the substance of Christ. Legalism guides people away from Christ and into something else. When you look at verses 16 and 17 What are these things that are a mere shadow of what is to come? These things that are a mere shadow of what is to come is the Old Testament, the laws, the food, the drink, the dietary laws, the festivals, the new moons, our Sabbath, things, all these things, all these days, things and days were set apart. They were set apart to consecrate. So this is an argument from the greater than to the lesser. If the things that God established for the nation of Israel is told to us, Don't let people judge you in these things. How much more true should you not be judged by something that man made up? Man created some rule that you should do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that, and they're now judging everyone based on their rules, not God's word. If we shouldn't be judging people, Even what God gave to the nation of Israel, we shouldn't be judging other people based on man's creations either. In Matthew, you want to turn to Matthew 15, 11. Turn to Matthew 15, 11. Again, here is Jesus' exchange with the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew 15, 11. We'll start in verse 10. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, Hear and understand. Not what goes in the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles man. That is what Jesus said, right? About food and drink. He said, it's not what enters in, it's what comes out. It's not what goes in the man's mouth, it's what comes out. He said, that's what defiles. And then Mark 2, in verse 27, Mark 2 and verse 27, and he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the son of man is also the Lord of the Sabbath. Verse 27, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. What we think is holy, what we see as set apart as holy in regards to the Sabbath day, here's what Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God gave these things to serve man not so that man can serve these things. Now the Sabbath is interesting. How can Paul give the freedom or say don't let people act as your judge in regards to the Sabbath day? Isn't that one of the Ten Commandments? He even said in Romans 14 5, One man holds one day above another and regards every day alike. Let each become fully convinced in their own mind. How can he give this freedom? How he can give this freedom to hold the Sabbath or not hold the Sabbath, one to commit 10 commandments, on what basis? The reason is, let no one act as your judge, is that we have been released then from the law of Romans 7, 6. The law was given as a guide to the nation of Israel according to God's will. for them to represent him to the world. Now with the coming of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit, God is now working through the churches and there are guidelines. There are principles that are governing in God's church. There's a lot that overlap, but many are different. And the Sabbath is one of those is different. The Sabbath, according to Exodus 31, was given as a sign of the covenant. The promise that God made with Israel What's the promise that we have? The sign of the promised new covenant, what is it? It is the Lord's Supper according to 1 Corinthians 11. The sign of the new covenant is the Lord's Supper, not the Sabbath. It's on that basis that we can come together on Sundays and hold Sundays apart as opposed to Saturday. Mondays or Tuesdays, or none of the days, hold them all equal. In fact, Romans 14 gives an implication that someone who holds every day alike, sets apart every day for God, sees them all as something that is not special, but are all equal to serve the Lord in, is more mature. So let no one act as your judge. Resist because of this. There's another thing about legalism, just a quick little sub-third point, I guess you'd call it. Legalism absolutely destroys the faith because it focuses on a bunch of rules. It sets our minds on things to do and things not to do rather than just living by faith. It's the difference between loving someone with a real love, with an honest love, versus wanting something from someone. In other words, you're using them to get something. Legalism destroys the faith because it sets focus on a bunch of rules and it sets our minds on things to do, what things to do, what things not to do, rather than living by the faith. If you live in gratitude and love and thankfulness, it's much easier to use what you know from God's word to consider how you're going to react, how you're going to behave, how you're going to approach someone, how you're going to help someone, rather than just a rule with no personality behind it. There's a reason why We're all different and we all have different characteristics and different traits that give us all opportunities that are different from other people's opportunities. Some people, if you've ever had this happen, I've had people that I just could not make a connection with. I just had no connection with them. It was almost like everything that I said to them, they heard it in some other way. And after a while, you realize it's not that they're being aggressive or trying to be a contrary. It's just that you just don't have it. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. Each of us are different. Everybody's different. We all have personality. and we need to love the Lord, and we need to recognize, when we say love the Lord, we say it so fast, we need to recognize what all He's done. If we realize what all He has done for us, there's no one on earth that could ever get in His place, ever. And then there's no way that we could make up something that would bring Him down. Everything we would think of would be high. It's what we should work towards. Man likes to be told what to do, You just give him a list of rules, and he'll do that, and say, I'm fine. Anytime you've witnessed anybody, anytime you've preached the gospel to somebody, to an unbeliever, this is what they always go to. They talk about what they've done. It's the same exact thing. Man likes to be told what to do. Just give him a set of rules, and he'll like to do that, and say, I'm fine. It's much more challenging living by faith, trusting what God says, rather than someone's list of things to do and not to do. All right, back to our text in Colossians. Colossians 2, verses 18 and 19. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding in those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. The problem of mysticism. Mysticism, these visions that are seen, these worship of angels, this is something that's not true. This is something that is understood not to be real truth from God. These are visions that people think they have or somehow manipulated or somehow been manipulated into their minds. Don't hold to those. This is mysticism is a way of defrauding. And that is what is spoken of specifically here. Let no one keep defrauding you as presenting these things as something valid and then moving you away because it moves you away from Christ, the richness of Christ, into something else that is not true. It says here, let no one keep defrauding you. Mysticism is when people, they exalt their experiences to the place of the word of God. God told me. God told me this. How many times have you heard people say, God said this. I felt God telling me this. Or, I saw this and I knew that was a sign from God. Right? It's different than knowing God's Word and applying it to everyday things. This is outside of that. Anybody could have this. God could tell anybody. You wouldn't need His Word. You don't need God's Word to know. Just like our reasoning, our experiences can be flawed. We see these things, and we sense things, and we experience things, we might get confused. Even these things can be manipulated and contrived around us, and we can be moved to have experiences by others. We need to be careful to submit our experiences to God's Word and see those things in light of God's Word. And when people don't, and they take their stand on visions, on what they've seen, and then they delight in some kind of self-abasement, the worship of angels, or God's talking to them, telling them something that no one else has heard, that no one else, We used to call that the God card. Somebody said, well, God told me this. Well, what are you going to say to that? Well, God was wrong. Well, no, you're wrong. It's all very dangerous. Why is it so wrong? It's wrong beyond just what is not true. They claim to see visions that they don't see. They claim to hear things that they don't hear. Here's why it's wrong. The first one is wrong, it's because it's supposed humility. In this supposed humility, it's actually prideful. This was one of the things that I found, one of the things that I found is a great turn off to the, what's the, dispensationalism. And when the left behind series stuff came out, and all that left behind junk, And people would talk about a rapture and like how, I'm gonna be raptured up and everybody else is gonna be left behind. It was in a prideful, it was like this prideful thing. Like they did something better than what these people that are gonna be left behind did. I remember thinking how, I remember how that was striking to me. In a supposed humility, it's actually prideful. They delight in self-abasement. Self-abasement is humility, but it's false humility. It's a sense of pride that comes from having God work so grandly in your life that you have visions and that you see what other people don't get to see, and you get to experience things that other people don't get to experience that come directly from God. Now, these things happen not just on TV, you see them, It's not just in Pentecostal churches either. I mean, personally, I've heard more out of Baptist churches than I've ever heard out of the Pentecostal churches, but I spent more time there, so. But it's not just in Pentecostal churches. It's not just in the charismatic movements. When people will say in church that God is telling me this, this is for you, and these people, this is what God says, these prophecies. It happens in all types of churches. It happens in churches. that are supposedly founded in God's word, where people will sense that God is guiding me to this, telling me this, leading me this way. This is beyond God's word. Now God does speak to us through His Word and through the Holy Spirit illuminating God's Word to see the application in our life, but that is completely different than when God says to do this or do that, meaning like it's a new prophecy just for you. I do think that is a common, I think it's a common experience maybe for a lot of young Christians. And they have some kind of experience that they feel is emotionally charged or something, and they think that's where that comes from. but you have to weigh everything out in light of God's word. The second point of why mysticism is wrong is in its supposed spiritual, in supposed spirituality, it's fleshly. It's a fleshly thing. This all feeds off the flesh and this desire to have God working in some special way in your life that is unique to you. It's something that only can be known by you. It just feeds on the flesh. Third, in supposed union with Christ, it has actually departed from Christ. So this is using this mysticism, which is presented in a way that's in union with Christ, it's actually departing from Christ. Verse 19, not holding fast to the head, the head being Christ, Christ being the head of the church according to Colossians 1. He is the head of the church and we embrace visions that are false and are removed. and are moved away from Christ, we depart from him. We have moved on to other things. In supposed union with Christ, it has departed. It's not in union with Christ. It presents itself as such, but it's not because it is not true to God's word. Fourth, in supposed unity with the church, it's actually divisive. This is divisive. If we can't sit down together as a church, and examine God's Word, and hold up whatever the subject matter is, and examine it in light of God's Word, if someone says, if they pulled out, as I called a minute ago, the God card, and God told me, well, the discussion needs to be around, did God tell you? Did God tell you? If we go over here to God's Word, it doesn't hold up to God's Word. If you're convinced someone told you, you need to be concerned about how did you think that was God? How could you be deceived in that? What was that? It's divisive. Why is it divisive? Well, in not being true and exalting these experiences, it puts people like me, people like you, in a difficult position. Supposedly united, it presents a facade of unity. You know, let's bring everyone together, let's get everyone together doing such and such thing, and then people like me are going to be struggling to join with this error or much worse. Yet now I can just say to participate into this, to participate into this, if you participate in this in any way. So how do you handle that? I think everybody's heard that. God told me this, or God said this, or I felt God leading me to this. you need to not rush into, maybe not even rush into a response. Let the excitement of the moment maybe pass, and then come back, maybe it's later that day, maybe it's the next day, maybe it's a week later. If somebody don't talk to you on a regular basis, maybe it's a week later. Say, hey, you know, I was thinking about what you said, and here's what God's word says about this. You know, oftentimes people, they get that, it's experiential. They want experiential stuff. Once the experience wears off of them, they're not nearly as adamant about it. Mysticism divides God's flock. It's a danger to the church, and we need to resist it. It is a major problem, and it is oftentimes threaded through things, and you don't even really often times pick up on it. Then verses 20 through 23. Therefore, if you have died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, According to the commandments and the 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." The problem with asceticism. Many people who deal with this passage just pull out the severe treatment of the body part and then reference people who cause themselves to bleed or beat themselves up in order to somehow serve the Lord in pursuing holiness. You remember that? Remember that time when, who brought that? Was it, showing those people that crawl on their hands and knees up the false idol, whatever it was? Remember that? They get all bloody and everything and they're doing some kind of paying some kind of something to God. Or they look at some monk who sat on a pedestal for supposedly 36 years in self-denial. That's certainly asceticism. But this is much more relevant than just these things that are mentioned there. There's much more relevant today just as they were relevant 2,000 years ago. So asceticism, what is asceticism? Asceticism is when people exalt their restrictions to the place of the word of God. And he says, why do you submit yourself to these things? Why submit to these things? Why do this? They have restrictions, and they exalt their restrictions to the place of God's Word. Everybody has restrictions, as we talked about. You have restrictions. You may not even realize some of the places you have restrictions. You may be so used to them, you don't even realize it anymore. There may be places you don't go. You just don't go. Things you just don't do, you don't even consider doing. It's a restriction you have to put on yourself. And often those are good. But when we raise them, we raise our restrictions to the place of God's word, and we see that those restrictions are accomplishing what God's word actually should be accomplishing. We put those in place of God's word. We create an artificial thing, and that's asceticism. These restrictions are that, are only that restrictions. Like I said, it's not trying to get you to throw away any restrictions. That'd be ridiculous. This passage says that whatever your restrictions are, they are of no value against fleshly indulgence. You may think they are, but they're not, because that's what the Word of God says. They are no value against fleshly indulgence. You need to, there's things you need to avoid. You need to avoid them because you love the Lord. There are things that I have wanted to do. I knew if I did them, it would destroy my witness. And I did not want to destroy my witness because I did not want to drag my Savior's name through the mud. Now obviously if we did that perfectly, we would never sin. I'm not talking about something passing. I'm talking about something that's major. This is like a second cousin then to legalism. You can have some appreciation in some sense for people that are seeking to establish restrictions. We obviously put restrictions on children, right? Before they know, before they understand. And we'll talk about this again in the following, next time that I get to speak. But you let children out a little bit from you, and then you let them out a little bit further, and a little bit further, and a little bit further, and a little bit further. So you do those things as they're learning, as they're teaching things to protect them, physically protect them. But that's not what we're talking about here. You can have some appreciation for in some sense for people that are seeking to establish restrictions. At least they are trying to seek something. They're not saying they're trying to seek something. They're not saying, who cares? I'm going to whatever I want to do. They're just going about it the wrong way. As far as the second cousin legalism, at least they don't go so far as to judge other people by saying, you need to do this too. Although often, they wind up do going to that. That's where that comes from. But even if you don't judge other people by your restrictions, you still have to see your restrictions in the right sense and not misunderstand what they can do and what they cannot do. Because they are no value against fleshly indulgence. So why is asceticism wrong? First is we have died with Christ. Why is it wrong? And it's in verse 20. If you have died with Christ, if you've died with Christ is a simple concept, but it is a critical concept. It has to be understood. This is such a critical concept that it's developed in the following chapter even more in Colossians 3. It is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us and the life which we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gave himself up for us. If we have died with Christ and is no longer who live It is no longer we who live. That is the means by which holiness is achieved. That is how God desires to bring holiness into our lives through His life within us. Not by a list of restrictions that we are not prevented from doing because we are trying to protect ourselves. We have died with Christ and that realization brings holiness. That is a critical and simple concept, but not one that is easily, fully appreciated. Second of why asceticism is wrong is it is the world's way. If you will listen to a person, a worldly person trying to proclaim their own goodness, that's what you're gonna find. You'll find asceticism there. Verse 20, if you have died with Christ, the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourselves to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? The world can recognize the problem of sin. They say this is sin. They may not call it sin, they may call it something else. They may say this produces something bad, and we shouldn't suffer this by this bad thing, so we would try to help people not to do this bad thing that hurts them. And they will construct ways to protect people from doing these bad things. And it all sounds like, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These worldly ways of going about it actually do, in many cases, work. People can actually stop doing a certain behavior. They can, but people do it. And so this is why The church can embrace all this stuff and they can say, we'll start doing it that way because it gets people to stop certain things. It appears to work. You'll see it going down the road. If you see this, you see these signs out, they say CR, around churches they'll say, have a big C and a big R on them. That's the Celebrate Recovery groups. That was all the ones that came out of Warren's Purpose Driven Junk. And they have recovery groups for everybody. There's every kind of recovery group you can imagine. And they, their intent is to bring in everybody that they can, doesn't matter if they're members of the church, doesn't matter if they're Christians, doesn't matter, just bring them in and get them to do these things. And what they do is they try to have this covert way of trying to slip in like some of God's principles, you know, and then, And then they may even have some kind of a way in there that they, anyway, I've looked at all the materials, I've looked at, not all of them, I haven't looked at them in years, but years ago I looked at their materials. And I went all through one of their, they had like this workbook thing, I guess you'd call it, and I went through the whole thing and there was no clear, There was absolutely no clear gospel, Bible gospel presentation. There was principles given in there and that sort of thing. This goes to moralizing a society. This was something that was happening. What was that? The Christian Coalition. Was that the one? Was that the one that was all against Bill Clinton when they were, the big thing about Bill Clinton and all that back then. Falwell, was that him? Something like that. That was one of the problems was they were trying to moralize people. They need to preach the gospel. That's why I appreciated, we talked about it here many times, I've mentioned it many times, I appreciated whenever John MacArthur would go on Larry King Live and listen to all the stupidity that other people on there would have and MacArthur would answer the question and give the gospel. And then, you know, that was the right way. They would have him on there talking about whatever the subject was, and he would always bring the gospel. He used that. I used that. I thought it was actually masterful. So it's the world's way. I'm gonna go speed things up here a minute. It emphasizes, the third thing is it emphasizes things that are temporary. Those things are temporary. The way you behave, when you behave a certain way because you've been moralized, it doesn't work. That is temporary. When you behave a certain way because you have died and have now been made alive with Christ, it's something completely different. It's not the same thing. It's not temporary. Fourth, it only appears wise and godly. And fifth, it is a false humility. And maybe the most important thing is the sixth point, and it is, It is of no value whatsoever in the pursuit of holiness. In fact, it's actually against being holy. It actually works against being holy. Think about all the people. We had a guy at our former church, and he was there for a little bit, and he would talk about, when we would talk to him about the gospel, the only thing he had to say was, He thought the gospel was he quit doing drugs at one time. That's what he thought the gospel was. And it's because of these things we've been talking about this morning. Asceticism develops the flesh. it develops the flesh. The point being asceticism is of no value against fleshly indulgence. It actually develops the flesh. When you do this form of self-abasement in front of people trying to make yourself look humble, it does exactly the opposite because you want these people to look at you and, oh, look at him and he's so much better and that just feeds into the flesh and it makes it worse and worse. It gives a sense that I have accomplished something It gives a sense that my rules and my adherence to them rules have brought ho in us. And it is a lie. And it is a lie that I am afraid has sent many, many church members into hell. All right, let's close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time to be gathered together. I pray for the Brother David as he comes and pray for the service, pray for the things to follow. Lord, help us to be ever mindful to have an open loop where we are constantly analyzing ourselves, looking for ways that we are trying to follow some man-made device versus loving our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask all this in His name, for His sake, amen.