Counterfeit Spirituality | Christian Saldana | Colossians 2:18-23 — Christian Saldana

Look at with me at verse number 18 as we move through the text and finish out this chapter. Paul says this, again, after making this grand argument. We've talked all about it the last few weeks that I've been able to preach. Paul says this in verse 18, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vain," excuse me, "vainly puffed up by his fleshy mind." Here's the first thing I want you to understand from verse 18, that counterfeit spirituality looks humble but always leads to pride Counterfeit spirituality looks humble, but always leads to pride. Paul warned of men who attempt to beguile them of their reward. That's a term that we, don't often use in our day and age. But the word beguile just means this: to defraud or to cheat.

And what's interesting is that when you look at the etymology of the word in the Greek, it's actually specifically in reference to an athlete who is cheated out of their reward, their prize, by an umpire. That is the technical definition. Now, I love sports, but a few things ruin the enjoyment of a sport faster than a judge who shows partiality. Do, can't you agree? I mean, I mean, every time I watch the Chiefs play, it's like they paid off the refs. No, I'm just kidding. If you're a Chiefs fan, I love you. I love you tonight. but you know what I'm talking about. It's not just football, it's all kinds of sports. Nothing's more frustrating than a bad judge, somebody who is clearly partial in one direction or the other. And perhaps one of the most infamous examples of this partiality happened at the 1988 Olympics that was hosted in South Korea during the light middleweight gold medal boxing match. You see, Roy Jones Jr.

was pitted up against South Korea's, Park Si-Hun for the gold medal, and it's very clear that the spectators that were watching there in the, stadium and those that were watching live as well, it was so clear that Roy Jones Jr. won that bout. It was absolutely undeniable. Jones dominated the fight, and everybody knew it. However, to the shock of the world, when the fight was finished, three of the five judges inexplicably awarded the decision to Park three to two. And literally, the South Korean fighter is literally quoted as saying, "I fought so terribly. I fought so terribly." if you were there, you would've known that Jones was the clear winner, but he lost his reward. We could say it this way, he was beguiled of his reward. This is the picture that Paul paints for us in this text, because these believers had been given the victory not through their might, not through their good works, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a total and complete victory. There was no contest. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he won the victory. It was undeniable. But then these false teachers came in and began to disqualify or attempt to disqualify the believers and say, "Oh, you have Jesus, but it's not enough." And so these false teachers tried to disqualify the Colossian church through two specific acts of what would be described as false humility. False humility. Here's the first thing. You notice in the text, verse 18, there's that, a couple words that says, "Voluntary humility." Well, what does that mean? Well, it seems like this is Paul's reference to, a false doctrine that had entered the Colossian church, that we would describe in our modern vernacular as asceticism. that was the false teaching.

Now, to define terms again tonight, it's the practice or practicing severe self-denial or harsh treatment of the body in an attempt to become more spiritual or more holy. And you might think to yourself, "Well, isn't that kind of part of what Christ teaches us? Isn't that what Jesus calls us to, that idea of self-denial?" And in the biblical sense, you would be right. remember Luke 9:23, he says, "And he said to them all, he said to them all, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'" Now, notice this. The self-denial that Jesus calls us to says, "I will say no to myself when my desires compete with obedience to Christ." However, the ascetics, those in the false teachers, they said, "I will say no to myself or even harm myself to attain a greater level of spirituality, to earn a specific favor with God." You realize that the difference lies in the motive.

One desires to please Jesus Christ, and it's in obedience to Jesus Christ, and it's following what maybe Jesus has allowed you to go through. It's self-denial for the purpose of following Jesus. The other one is just self-denial for the purpose of trying to earn favor with God, trying to earn maybe some kind of love or care from the Father. This is what the false teachers were teaching. Which leads me to the first point of application, that self-imposed suffering dishonors Christ because it trusts in our sacrifice instead of resting in His. And we heard a fantastic message this morning. Again, maybe not so, you know, exactly on the, on the text of, or the idea of of not sacrifice, but, suffering. However, that's not the type of suffering I'm talking about. The Job, the suffering that Job went through was suffering that God allowed him to go through and he submitted to. This is self-imposed.

It's specifically bodily harm for the purpose of becoming more holy. Now, here's how it shows up. There might be Christians in, even in this building, who feel guilty for enjoying anything good because they label comfort a sin. They don't take vacations because they feel like their time could be used elsewhere. They don't responsibly purchase things because they feel like they should be using their money in some other way. And here's the reality. Maybe God is calling you to give up a vacation and to participate and proclaim. Maybe God is calling you to give up of some temporary comfort so that you could give more to missions. But what I'm saying is, it's a mindset that says this, "If I do this, then God will be happy with me." Amen. It's trying to earn God's love, his favor. Because making comfort an idol is a sin, but not enjoying the gifts that God has given you or blessed you with That's not a sin. Maybe it shows up like this.

There are Christians who refuse to rest because they believe working with no days off makes them more spiritual. And I must admit, as somebody who works for a church, that sometimes feels the case. I can tell you about countless days off that I felt like I couldn't enjoy because I maybe kept thinking of what I wasn't doing. And it doesn't just go for people in ministry, it goes for everybody. I remember hearing this quote, I don't remember where, but it stuck with me. It says this: "When work becomes an idol, rests feels like sin." When work becomes an idol, rest feels like sin. You know, there might also be Christians who punish themselves for sinning instead of repenting, believing that their pain will please God. They verbally abuse themselves, they berate themselves, they try to make themselves as miserable as possible, as if it's going to solve the problem.

Some even commit bodily harm or refrain from eating food or even physically hurting themselves, again, as if God is pleased. Now again, it's not wrong to be intentionally uncomfortable. It's not wrong to work hard. It's not wrong to feel the weight and the sting of our sin. But what is wrong is believing that self-inflicted suffering makes you more acceptable to God or more deserving of His favor. Because self-imposed suffering is meaningless because Christ has already suffered in our place. Amen. And that's what Paul is trying to get them to see. He's like, "Why would you go and hurt yourself? Why would you go and harm yourself? Christ literally allowed himself to be abused for your sake. Repent and believe the gospel." Instead, we need to trust in the finished work of Jesus, again, repenting of our sin, not continuing in those things which God has not commanded, and live in light of that victory. Amen.

Certainly Christians will encounter suffering. That is a guarantee. But it should be in accordance with our desire to be obedient to Jesus Christ, not to earn His favor or to His love. Now at first, what follows in that particular verse 18, might seem unrelated to the false doctrine of asceticism. But on closer inspection, it is actually rooted in the same sin of false humility. You see it there, worshiping of angels. It kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere, but again, this was a issue that was happening within the Colossian church. And just to define it in that cultural context, this false teaching was founded in the idea that Christians, or humans in general, were unworthy to approach God themselves. And so as an act of false humility, these false teachers preached and taught others to worship angels instead. Actually, to pray to angels, because they said, "Oh, I'm not worthy to come before God."

Now, on the front end, that is true. All humans without Jesus Christ are unworthy to approach the throne of grace. But thanks be to God, those of us who are Christians have an advocate with the Father. Yeah. And we can boldly approach that throne, but this was a misconstrued idea in their minds, and they projected this false humility, which I would define tonight as mysticism. It was a mystic idea. Now, what is mysticism? Well, mysticism may be defined as the pursuit of a deeper or higher, key word here, subjective religious experience. A subjective religious experience. Now, the biggest problem with mysticism is that it receives its authority from an individual's experience, and therefore, by nature, cannot be verified. Meaning, if you're a mystic, you just begin to say, "Well, this is what I feel should happen. This is how I feel. This is how I feel how things should be."

And the problem with that is you can't reason with a mystic because their reality is subjective. And the way that Paul describes that at the end of the verse, he doesn't even entertain it. He says, "Intruding into those things which he hath not seen." Here's a more common way to say that. They don't know what they're talking about They act like they know what they're talking about. They have discourses, and YouTube videos, and books about mystic theology. But in reality, they have no idea what they're talking about because they don't have the Holy Spirit or Revelation given to them by the Holy Spirit. Their theology was based on whatever they felt like creating rather than truth. That's right. So the second point of application tonight we have is that mysticism dishonors Christ because it emphasizes personal experience over God's Word. Personal experience over God's Word.

You see, all modern-day cults are rooted in some form of mysticism. Amen. I think of Mormonism. I grew up in Temecula. And Temecula, I don't know, this was several, you know, almost a decade ago, but the statistic was that Temecula had the highest concentration of Mormons in California. And so I went to high school with lots of Mormons. And on the surface, I mean, you know, they'll say, "Oh, we love Jesus, we love God," and all this stuff. But then you dive into it and you're like, "This is like … This is closer to Star Wars than it is the Bible." And if you know their doctrine, I'm not trying to be unkind, it is. they talk about how the fact that Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. Yes. And how God the Father was once a human that ascended, and there's God the Mother, and we're all their children. It's strange when you get into it.

And I can even say this with authority because my mom at one point in her life converted to Mormonism, and she said, "They got me on the surface with the Jesus stuff, and then they get you into the real Mormon stuff." And, she left at the time. But Mormonism is just rooted in mysticism. It's not based in the Word of God. That's right. Amen. Jehovah's Witness, we could go into their doctrines. Even other churches that claim to be Christian. Bethel Church. We don't sing their songs here for a reason. We can get into a discussion later about that, but there's a lot of mysticism surrounding their belief system. Amen. Even Catholicism has mysticism. The doctrine of transubstantiation, the praying to saints. It's all rooted in this false teaching of mysticism. But it's easy to identify mysticism when it's Joseph Smith saying an angel gave him revelation. It's much harder to recognize in our own hearts. That's right.

Now, let me just be your friend tonight and try to help you. Because there are ways that mysticism can even enter into good Baptist churches, good Christians like I see here tonight. That's right. Maybe using the phrase, "God told me," too liberally. Again, I understand what you're saying, because I've said that before. Maybe you read your Bible in the morning and God impressed something upon your heart. For example, maybe you read Matthew 28 and you felt impressed. God told you to witness to your coworker. That is taking the word of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you, and then acting that on obedience. This is not what I'm talking about, okay? God does speak through his word. What I'm talking about is using that as a blanket statement to basically do whatever you want. That's right. God told me to do it. I had an old professor in college who used to tell young preachers this.

He says, "Woe unto you who says God hath said, when God hath not said." Here's the idea. Be very careful about that phrase, because you better be sure that that's what God told you to do. If you're gonna say, "God told me to do this," you better be sure it is the voice of God that is speaking to you, not your heart, not some other spiritual influence. Beware of assuming the voice in your head is God speaking to you. Now, here's how we verify. We verify through the Scriptures. Amen. Is it in alignment with the Scriptures? Is it in alignment with the teachings in the New Testament and the Old Testament principles? Is it in alignment with the Scriptures? And secondly, get trusted biblical counsel from pastors. God has placed that authority in your life for a reason, and if those are conflicting, that is a red light to stop and at least consider what God is doing.

if you have an opinion and you say, "Well, I feel like God's leading me this way," and your pastor says, "I don't think he's leading you that way." Again, I'm not saying, you know, I'm not giving you biblical counsel from the pulpit here. I'm just saying that is, that you should stop and really consider and debate what you're gonna do. And I would even say personally, listen to your pastor. People use that phrase too liberally, "God told me." Judging the excuse me. Here's another phrase, using the phrase, "I have peace about it," as sufficient evidence to base major life decisions upon. Amen. Like, again, it's just like the, just slap it on there. "I got peace about it." Again, I'm not saying you can't have peace, but to base a move to another city, or to base a big financial purchase, or leaving a job, or moving to another job on the fact that you have peace about it is very dangerous ground.

Base it on the Word of God and spiritual counsel. That's right. Here's another way that mysticism enters the heart of some Christians. Judging the effectiveness of a church based on having a spiritual experience rather than hearing sound doctrine. Amen. Right. So much of our world is interested in this experience. They'd rather have chills than Christ crucified. We ought to be careful about that. Not searching. It's a rebuke to myself as well. What makes a good service? Well, a good service is where the gospel is proclaimed, we've worshiped God in spirit and in truth. I mean, that's a good service. Do we all have to just, you know, feel a certain thing? No. We have to be rooted in the Word of God. Amen. Yeah. Here's another way mysticism shows up.

Chasing spiritual highs instead of pursuing a steady, faithful relationship with Jesus Even the Apostle Peter, who experienced amazing things, specifically the transfiguration of Jesus Christ where he was glorified before them on this earth, pointed believers to the word in 2 Peter 1:19. He says, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." The Word of God is what should guide us. Christians must root themselves in the truth of God's Word, not in experiences or mysticism. And although the false teachers professed their desire to be more spiritual, they corrupted themselves through their pride. He finishes out that verse, he says, "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." But here's the reality.

What masqueraded as humility was actually blatant outright pride, because attempting to gain spirituality apart from Christ always produces pride It always produces pride. Because you begin to look down on others who are not maybe suffering like you do. You begin to look down on others because they don't have the same spiritual knowledge that you do. So here, as we've already laid out the problem, what is the solution? Well, Paul makes that clear in verse number 19. Look at verse number 19. He says, "And not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands have having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God." Here's the second thing we need to understand tonight. True spirituality, as opposed to counterfeit spirituality, comes from our union with Christ and His church. Comes from his union with Christ and His church.

Paul points the Colossians away from the fabricated spirituality of these false teachers and toward the head, which is Jesus Christ. Now, earlier in this epistle, Paul actually uses this same title to describe Jesus Christ. Look at, you can just read it on the screen there. Colossians 1:18 says this, "And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence." Again, this is a callback to that reality that we serve the head of the church, which is Jesus Christ. He is sufficient for our needs. And in fact, he describes it this way, "He is our nourishment." Look at verse number 19. He says, "From the head," or, "The head from which all the body," that's us, "by joints and bands having nourishment ministered." We receive that nourishment from Christ. We grow through Christ.

Now, Jesus said Himself in John chapter 15, "I am the vine, and ye are the branches. And he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." And notice this, "For without me, ye can do nothing." Now, I asked some guys to help me here, but trying to grow without Jesus is like asking a fallen branch to produce fruit But I think a couple weeks ago, when I was preaching, I think I told you. If you weren't there, that's okay. But I told you that at some point in my life, my wife and I, during 2020, had started a plant business. And, most of the time we were able to keep plants alive, but like with anything, sometimes you kill a plant. And that's okay. It happens to the best of us. Now, what I have before me here today is actually not a plant. I was up with my parents yesterday with my wife. I just went to see my parents for the, for the weekend.

And so, I asked them, I knew they had done some trimming, and I asked them to save me a dead branch. They had trimmed some trees, and this had been in a pile for a while. And so we meticulously took the time to try and plant this branch into this soil here. Now, if I was to pull it out, which I'm not going to 'cause this is the Lord's house and I don't wanna make a mess. if I was to pull it out, you would see no roots. You would see that it's completely dry. We could say it this way. It's completely dead. Totally and completely dead. Let me ask you a question. I've done my diligence. I've done all of the things I've been taught to do is how you grow something. Let me ask you this question. How much fruit is this going to produce next year? I've planted it. I've done everything I needed to do. It's got great soil medium. It's in a, what is this called? A bucket. I don't know.

it's, the word has left me, but it's in this plastic thing It's got everything it needs. It has good drainage. It's potted upright. Let's say I took this outside and made sure it had the optimum light. Let's make sure, or say that I, that I watered it exactly how it was supposed to be watered. What if I care for it? What if I, what if I, what if I play Mozart to it? What if I do all the things that I try my best to try and make some fruit grow? I think we all understand where I'm going. It doesn't matter how much effort I give to try making this branch grow, it's been cut off from the source It's been cut off from the tree that allowed it to produce leaves and fruit. And here's what that verse means. In John chapter 15, Jesus is really telling us, illustrating for us, that without Jesus Christ, no matter how much effort you produce, you, or you, how much effort you try to exert, you cannot grow without being rooted in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Because being connected to Christ individually and connected to a church corporately is how we grow spiritually. Amen. You need these two things. I'm just gonna move this to the side for a second just so I can see this side of the auditorium. You need both. Now, here's the reality. There's only one way to be connected to Jesus. And it's not by just attending church, and it's not by just reading your Bible. It's not by saying the spiritual things, or putting on a new look, or turning over a new leaf. There's only one way to be connected with Jesus Christ, and that's by putting your faith and trust in Him to save you. Amen. No amount of work, no amount of self-inflicted suffering or mystic practices will ever connect you with Jesus Christ.

So if you're in here tonight and you've never done that, you've never, placed your faith in Jesus Christ, maybe you even call yourself a Christian, but there was never a moment in time when you submitted to Jesus Christ and you made Him your Savior, can I tell you this? That can happen really easily tonight. First, you must realize that you're a sinner unable to save yourself. You realize you are this branch, that without Jesus Christ you can produce no good fruit. But then you must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose again on the third day, again, winning that complete victory over sin and death. And finally, you must accept Him as your one and only Savior, trusting in Him alone to save you. And you, if you do that, He promises to save you. He promises to give you new life, to resurrect you, and to give you the ability to produce fruit. But many of us in here are saved, so here's the truth.

True spiritual growth is found in union with Christ and His Church. So maybe you've done that first thing. You've accepted Him as your Savior. But maybe you need to do the next thing. Here's what that looks like. Before I get into that, I gotta, I gotta go where I felt like God was leading me to go. I'm so burdened for the college students that I often connect with on campus because many of them, especially if they claim to be Christians, I mean, they're professing Christians, but many of them don't understand the importance of a local church. Many of them just attend whatever service feels right for the time. "Oh, this service meets my schedule," or, "I like this teacher." But they don't have an understanding, a true understanding of what it means to be a part of a local church. Amen. They listen to podcasts and they listen to sermons. They even attend young adult specific services, but they don't truly belong to a local church.

Because when you belong to Christ, you must also belong to a local church where you can truly be known, where you can be corrected, where you can be encouraged and serve one another. Amen. The truth is, truth is we cannot grow into the proper likeness of Jesus Christ while consistently separating ourselves from the body of Christ. The idea is there in verse number 19, where it talks about from which all the body of joints by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together, knit together increaseth with the increase of God. Meaning we grow together. As we're connected to one another, we grow together, and that means we need to be others focused. So here's what that looks like. Gathering with the body, especially on days that feel the most difficult, or you don't have maybe the motivation. Amen. Because we need each other. Open yourself up to accountability through pursuing membership and Godly Amen … and teachers here.

And we don't like that one. I heard it put this way: Who has the ability to correct you? Does anybody have the liberty in your life that you say, "Hey, if you see something in my life, I want you to tell me." Who has that liberty in your life? Most of us are like, "I don't like that." Well, we need that. Amen. We need to be shown where we need correction Come early or leave late to get to know people on a deeper level. Have you opened your home maybe, avoiding the trap of going to church and not being the church corporately? I still remember one of the first services that Sarah and I were a part of Canyon Ridge. It was a Wednesday night, and Jimmy De La Vega stayed after a meeting just to get to know me. And I'll never forget it, and if you know Jimmy, you know this has happened probably to you, that as we were kind of winding down our conversation, he said this, "Can I pray for you?"

And I remember thinking this as a sinful sinner as I am, like, I, at first I was like, "Well, I didn't, I didn't say that I needed prayer." And then I realized how selfish of me to think that I don't need this brother's prayer in my life. how selfish of me to think that I just come to church to, you know, as somebody on staff, to minister and not be ministered to. Amen. And so many of us, because maybe our past, we struggle to open up to people, but let me tell you this, we need to, we need to get that out of here. Amen. We need to be the church and ask people for prayer, because sometimes maybe they're insecure and maybe they don't wanna say it and… But maybe it just takes you saying that, "Hey, can I pray for you?" Or maybe the opposite. maybe you need prayer. You need to ask somebody to have them pray for you So here's some questions. When's the last time you wept with somebody in the church?

Some sin, some fear that they had, something about the unknown. When's the last time you had a deep spiritual conversation with somebody? When's the last question you didn't just give the classic answer when somebody asked you, "How are you doing?" You actually opened up, you say, "You know what? Things are not good. I need your help. I need your prayer." Because we need to give up false humility and knit ourselves to the body of Christ. But Paul is not done here. Although he has pointed us to the solution for genuine growth, which is, again, to be connected to Christ and His church, there was another trap that the Colossian believers had fallen into. And here's the third trap tonight, and final trap. Because counterfeit spirituality appears wise, but cannot transform the heart. It appears wi-wise, but it cannot transform the heart.

Paul makes his final plea in the chapter, "Don't give up your freedom in Christ for the bondage of man-made religion." Let's read it here beginning in verse number 20. He says, "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." So we'll break that down briefly. He uses the phrase early there, "rudiments of the world," which is something he used in verse number eight, which just means this, base or elemental things. That's how Paul described these man-made rules. They were elementary. They were basic.

And he says, he also uses the term there, "subject to ordinances," which is a term alluding to subjection or being conquered by a force and then being compelled to follow a decree of an authoritative government. And so in the same way, man-made rules and practices cannot make you holy. In fact, when he's talking about here specifically the false religion or false teachers, man, it's like putting yourself once again under subjection when you've been freed from the bondage of man-made religion. Then he says there, "Touch not, taste not, handle not." You'll see the repetition that he uses. He pleaded with believers to not return to the restrictions of the Jewish ceremonial law that had been done away with in Christ. These things were perishable. They had no lasting impact on a person's life. And in fact, James, the earthly brother of Jesus, defines what pure religion looks like.

Paul is not advocating for them throwing out any kind of morals or throwing out any kind of commandments or the Ten Commandments. He's not saying, "Go live your life however you want." He says, "No. Now be submitted to the commandments of Jesus Christ." And James defines it this way, chapter number 1, verse 27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." You'll notice that James teaches us that true religion, meaning the following of Jesus Christ, submitting yourself as a disciple of Jesus Christ, is not just about what you can't do, but what you can do for others. Amen. How you can serve others and show love for others. Genuine faith produces love for others, and it produces true holiness. Again, not rooted in self-righteousness, but rooted in a love for Jesus Christ.

Paul admitted that certain religious acts, he says there in the last verse 23, have an appearance of wisdom. They have an appearance of wisdom, but he understood that they were powerless to restrain the flesh. That's what that term means there, "not in any honor of satisfying the flesh." Here's what he's saying. They don't have any effectiveness in bridling the indulgences, the impulses of the flesh. He's saying these false teachers are trying to put their flesh under subjection by showing an outward show of holiness, but it's not doing anything for them inwardly. That's right. 'Cause here's the truth, false religion dishonors Christ because it is powerless to produce true spiritual change. True spiritual change. Now, I do have one extra part of this illustration here. shout out to the daycare. Gloria, I'm sorry we didn't ask you, but, we'll get this back to you This is a fake fruit.

I threw it earlier and somebody almost got me in trouble 'cause they thought I was throwing fruit in the church. But, yeah, amen is right. But I've got this fruit, it's not real, and I've got this branch, it's dead. But what if I did this? If I can … See, now this is embarrassing, 'cause I'm like, do I even know how to tear this? What if I did this? I'm very meticulous Perfect my tree has produced fruit You know that's how some Christians try to produce fruit? They're not rooted in Christ, and then here's what they do. Or maybe they are rooted in Christ, but they're like, "You know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna manufacture my fruit. I'm gonna, I'm gonna fix the outside, but I'm not gonna let Christ transform the inside. I'm gonna make a list of things that make me look like a Christian, but I'm not going to submit to Christ ultimately in my heart." I thought about doing this. What if I asked ChatGPT to show me what a Christian looks like?

What would it do? Probably show somebody who's clean-cut, probably somebody holding a Bible. If you went to my Bible college, they would be wearing a suit and a tie. They look good on the outside. Their facial hair is trimmed. I'm talking about a man here. Thank you They've got a haircut that's high and tight. They walk into the church, and you look at them, you say, "That person's a Christian." But you know that person could be selfish. They could berate their wife on the way home. They could be looking at pornography. They could be cussing at work, doing all vile manner of things, but on the outside they look good. This is what Paul rebukes in the life of these false teachers, that they would have an outward show of religion, but not an inward transformation produced by Jesus Christ Outward conformity does not automatically make you spiritual.

Just because you know the Christian lingo at church but live how you want to at school or on the weekends doesn't make you spiritual. It's not like God overlooks that and says, "Well, they were on church on Sunday." No, he wants you to grow, to have a genuine relationship, to not be fake, to not be counterfeit Perhaps This is you today. And you're looking at your life and you think, "Man, nobody really knows me. They don't know my struggles, they don't know that I'm in sin." Here's the reality. You can make that right tonight. Amen. You can repent. You don't have to live with the mask on anymore. You can be who God called you to be tonight. Tonight you can repent. True transformation comes from submission to Christ. And a great verse that helps us understand this is Romans 12:1-2.

It says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your…" What's the word? Mind. Mind. Not by the renewing of your, I don't know, name anything on the outside that doesn't connect to the inside. "Renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is good, that is good and acceptable and perfect will of God." If you've understood anything from chapter two of Colossians, here's the truth. You don't need more than Jesus, you need more of Jesus. Amen. You don't need more than Jesus. You need more of Jesus. Maybe the most dangerous counterfeit isn't the religion that is obviously false. Maybe it's a form of Christianity that looks right on the outside while slowly replacing Jesus on the inside.

So my encouragement to you, don't settle for the counterfeit. You don't need more than Jesus, you need more of Jesus.