Good evening, everyone. It's
good to be here tonight. Colossians 2 is where we'll be. Tonight we'll be looking at,
Lord willing, tonight we'll look at two verses. I'd like to start
at verse 13, and then we'll read to verse 17. The name of the
message tonight is Shadows and Substance. Shadows and Substance. Colossians 2, 13-17. And you, this is the Colossian
believers, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of
your flesh." So this is the Colossian believers' state before they're
regenerated, before they're born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
"...hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you
all trespasses." Now this is a fact, a stated fact, that Christ
has forgiven. If you're one of His sheep, you
have all your trespasses forgiven. It's not a movie. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. This He did,
beloved, for His people. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. That's the verse we looked at last week. Let no
man therefore..." Here's tonight's verse 16 and 17. "...let no man
therefore..." So because of 13, 14, and 15, because of what Christ
has done for His people upon the cross. "...let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day,
or of a new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come, but the body is of Christ." So last week we looked at verse
15. And we saw how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has vanquished
our enemies at the cross. He's vanquished our enemies.
Satan is defeated. Sin is defeated. The law of God
is fulfilled. The wrath and justice of God
is turned away from His people because Christ bore that wrath
and bore that justice in the place of His people. And we saw
also the week before that the ordinances that were against
us, the debt that demanded to be paid, the soul that sinned
that must die, Christ dies in the room and place of His people.
He is the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. He who knew no sin was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. What a great God we have. What
a great Savior we have. Our sins are imputed upon Him,
and His righteousness is imputed to us. My, oh my, what a Savior. And we saw that we were dead
in trespasses and sins, and that our understanding was darkened,
and the Holy Spirit has quickened us. He's regenerated the believer
in Christ. And we're born again, regenerated
by His mighty work, by His mighty power. This is a work of God,
not a work of man. This is a work of God. And He's
given us an understanding. He's given us an understanding
of who He is, who God is, who Christ is. And He's given us
an understanding of what we are. What we are? Sinners. See, a
lot of folks think that sin is something to do. Sin is something
we are. It's in nature. And then we realize that and
we flee to Christ after He's revealed to His people. And we
flee to Christ. And the reason we flee is because
we're born again. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit. Salvation is of the Lord. From beginning to end. So let us remember this also,
that because Jesus Christ, who is our conquering Captain and
our great King and our Redeemer, because He has defeated our enemies,
He can say to Satan, the strong man, remember we looked at that,
He's the strong man in Scripture, who holds us by His power, Christ
can say to him, loose him and let him go. And Satan must release
his hold upon us. He must. He must. The prince
of darkness must flee when God commands the light to shine in
our hearts. He must. He must release us. God has delivered us from the
power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, Colossians 1.13. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Translated. from the power of darkness into
the kingdom of His dear Son, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so let us also consider this,
because Jesus Christ has perfectly honored God's holy law for us
and fulfilled all the law's demands in our place. And by laying down
His life for us, Christ has set us free from the bondage of the
law. We're set free. We have such liberty and such
freedom. I don't think we can really grasp
it. But he has set us free from the bondage of the law. He set
us free from the curse of the law, from the dead letter of
the law. And let us consider this before
we look into our text. Turn, if you would, to John 8.
John 8. And let us consider this before
we look into our text tonight. In John 8, 31 and 32, our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ proclaims this. The Master says this. Look
at John 8, 31 and 32. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on Him, if you continue in My Word, then are
you My disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth. John
8, 31 and 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free. The sovereign power of our Lord
Jesus Christ is what sets us free. And God the Holy Spirit,
by His power, He enlightens our minds through His Word. As we read His Word, as we hear
His Word preached, He teaches us. And we know the truth because
we're taught of God. And the truth makes us free.
It makes us free. He regenerates us and grants
us faith to believe the Gospel, to believe on Christ. And then
when these truths are preached, we grow in the grace and knowledge
and truth of our wonderful Savior. And we learn more and more just
what He's freed us from. My, what darkness we were in. We were held captive by the power
of darkness. And He's translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. He's turned our hearts and minds
away from religious lies. Those of us who came out of religion.
He's turned our hearts and minds from religious lies to Christ. To Christ. So let's look at our text with
that in mind, that ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free. Now as I said, we have to look
at 16 and 17 with it keeping in mind that 13, 14, and 15,
because it says, let no man therefore, so we need to look back. There's
a therefore, we need to look back. And so what Paul's doing,
he says in verse 10, you're complete in Christ. In here he says in
verse 13, you've been quickened together and all your sins are
forgiven. And the handwriting of ordinances, verse 14, that
was against us is blotted out. And Christ has won the victory
over principalities and powers. So let no man therefore judge
you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of
a new moon, or of the Sabbath days. So tonight we will look
at the shadows In the substance. Now the shadows. A shadow is
defined as unsubstantial. And it vanishes. Think of this. The shadow vanishes when that
which is the substance, that which is real and solid, or that
which is perfect comes before us. Either in scripture or in
real life. The sun goes down and the shadow
vanishes, but the substance, the real person is still there. And a lot of times, if the sun's
hitting a certain way, and you're waiting for somebody and there's
something blocking, sometimes you see their shadow before you
see their substance. And think of that as we look
at this scripture tonight. we see that the substance in
v. 17 and the shadows in v. 16. So let's look at v. 16 first. It says, "...let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day,
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." And again, it
says, "...let no man..." Notice it says, "...let no man therefore
judge you." So, think of this. If we know Beloved of God, if
we know that we're complete in Christ, if we know that we're
complete in Christ, verse 10, if we know that He's quickened
us together with Him, if we're born again, if we know that all
our sins are forgiven, which we see in verse 13, if we know
that He's blotted out the handwriting of ordinances against us, that
He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, which we see
in verse 14, If we know that Christ has defeated
all our enemies, and we are not to let man judge
us in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of
a new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come. Shadow. The false teachers here
before us in the book of Colossians were trying to bring Christ's
blood-bought saints back into bondage under the law. And they were trying to yoke
them about with ceremonies and with days to observe and to abstain
from certain meat or certain drinks. They were yoking. These false
teachers were yoking the Colossian believers or trying to, trying
to yoke them back under the law. And think of this, most of them
had never been under the law. They were Gentile believers.
So you have these Judaizers, and Hendrickson says this, Hendrickson
says this, I thought this was a really good point. He said,
here before us, the Jewish aspect of the Colossian heresy stands
out real clear right here in this verse. because it says,
let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect
of a holy day or of a new moon or of the Sabbath days. So we
see the Jewish aspect of the Colossian heresy right here before
us. Some commentators said the false
teachers even seem to have taken it further than what the Jews
did. Further than what the law says. Because they're passing
judgment upon the Colossian church with respect not only to eating
and drinking, but holy days. And they've imposed restrictions
upon certain days, upon certain festivals, the Passover, Pentecost,
the Feast of the Tabernacles. They're trying to yoke them again
back under the law. In Hendrickson comments here,
there is evidence that this was a distinctly ascetic tendency. The main purpose of placing such
stress on all the regulations was to convince the Colossians
that strict observance was absolutely indispensable to salvation. Or,
if not to salvation, at least to fullness. So what Hendrickson
is saying here is that the false teachers were saying, some of
them were saying, you had to do this to be saved. Or they
were saying you had to do this to have a full, to be full in
Christ, to be complete in Christ. Do you notice how the attack
Paul did with verse 10? You're complete in Christ. So
now we start to see Paul using again the all-sufficiency of
Christ as a counter-attack to these heresies. And he does it
all through, you read his epistles, he does it all through his epistles,
beloved. He constantly is doing this.
Putting forth Christ all the time. All the time. Matt and
I were talking about the message I preached, I think was one of
the first times I was out here, about the musical tuning fork.
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And we know that Corinthians
is a book where Paul's writing to correct some errors that are
going on there. But if you get home, read that chapter if you
can. Because in that first chapter, you just see Christ Paul mentioning
Christ. So before he even writes about
any kind of error, before he writes to correct anything, ting,
ting, he's just chiming Christ to get their minds focused upon
him before he does any kind of correction. You see, this is
something Paul does all the time through his writings. We saw
him do it in chapter 1 too. Gets their minds right on Christ.
Right on Him. Because that's where we're going
to get refocused. That's where our eyes should
be. Like I always say, when I get in trouble personally is when
I get my mind off Christ. I get my eye on a circumstance
or something. Oh Lord, I need to keep my eyes
on You, Lord. Like we were talking, Brother Neal, even last night.
You didn't know what was going on, but well, I know who's in
charge. I know who's the one who... The Lord's... It'll come
out however He disposes of it. However He decides to have it
come out. And it will. And it did. And it did. And whether
one candidate or another had been elected, it would have been
God's doing. And we were resting and trusting
in that. Now I mentioned the word, what Hendrickson said,
this was a distinctly ascetic tendency. This Jewish aspect
of the Colossian heresy. Now Hendrickson commented, the
false teacher's error in regard to this verse was of an ascetic
tendency. And when I give you the definition,
you recognize what it's all about. You recognize right away. I had
to look the word up. The definition of aesthetic is
this, it's characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe
self-discipline and to abstain from all forms of indulgence,
typically for religious reasons. So, do you see the parallels
here? Catholic Church says to their
priests, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that.
To the monks, the monks beat themselves. Luther used to whip
himself and do all kinds of stuff to try to gain merit and favor
with God. It's that same kind of thing. It's that same kind. See, there's nothing new under
the sun, beloved. Solomon wrote that, didn't he? There's nothing
new under the sun. Nothing. Nothing. It's the same
error going around and around and around. So the false teachers
were similar to the monks, which we had of old, and even today
there are some people who still live lives where they're abstaining
from certain things because they're getting closer to whoever they
worship, which we know is a false god. They're making themselves two-fold
the child of hell. But see, there's nothing new
under the sun. So these false teachers were living a life of
severe discipline and abstaining from all forms of indulgence.
And thinking all along, thinking, oh, I have a deeper walk with
God, or I have a deeper walk with whoever they're worshiping. They don't know the God of the
Scriptures. These specific false teachers
claim to know Christ. They claim to know Him, but they
weren't knowing of Him. They're part of the ones who
He says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never
knew you. The Catholic Church is a good
example of this kind. They have all kinds of things
that you can do and can't do. The priests and their monks. They have all kinds of things.
The Charismatics sometimes say there's certain sects of Charismatic
groups. Vicki ran into a few of them
way, way back before years and years ago. Probably about 20
years ago. And some guy told her you had
to speak in tongues to be saved. They don't know the Lord. They don't know Christ. Anyone
who says you have to add something to Christ, they have no idea
who Christ is. Some Baptist churches put all
kinds of rules and regulations upon people, yoking them under
bondage. But we who are in Christ, beloved,
are free. We're free. Now the Holy Spirit
will convict us. And we know there's certain things
we can do and certain things we can't do. We know that. We
get convicted of our own sin. And when we preach the liberty
that we have in Christ, some folks say, well, man, if I believed
like that, I'd do whatever I want. No, you wouldn't, not if you're
a believer. Not if you're a believer. I've
never heard a grace preacher say that you can sin all you
want. But they lay that claim upon us. I ain't never heard
one grace preacher yet. Never heard it. Never. Never heard one grace preacher
say you can live however you want. I've heard a lot of them
say, and I say it too, that we're free in Christ. And we are. The love of Christ constrains
us, beloved. The love of Christ constrains
us. Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 5. We see here Paul writing
what he's written in other epistles about the yoke and the believers
under the law. So keep this in mind, the verse
that we're looking at tonight, which says, "...let no man therefore
judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect, or in holy day,
or of a new moon, or of sabbath days." So look at Galatians 5
in light of this verse. Galatians 5, verses 1-6. Stand fast. The believer is to
stand fast. What do we mean by stand fast?
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free. Remember he said in John that
we'll know the truth and the truth will set us free. Christ
is the truth. He's the truth. Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. See, these false
teachers were trying to yoke the Colossian believers. Trying
to yoke them under the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
So again, Paul's dealing with Judaizers here in Galatians. For I testify to every man that
is circumcised that he is debted to do the whole law. My, we know
from James, if you don't keep the whole law, if you offend
in one point, you're guilty of it all. Christ has become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you is justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availed anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love." So let's go back to our verse
16 in light of what we've just read there. The freedom that
we have in Christ. And Paul says to the cautioned
believers, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink
or in respect of a holy day or of a new moon or of the Sabbath
days. So the false teachers who were
unbelieving Jews during the apostolic age were trying to bring God's
blood-bought enlightened saints, those who had been made free,
from the bondage of the law, from the dead letter of the law,
they were trying to bring him back under the law of Moses. And not only would that have
put them into spiritual bondage, and into the spiritual bondage
that they'd been delivered from, but it would have put them into
a state of misery. It's awful to be under the law.
It's awful. as they would have been entangled
by the yoke of bondage, as Galatians 5.1 says. So if they had went
back under that, they'd be entangled. That's why Paul was writing this.
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty. Stand fast in the liberty.
We're with Christ. It's Christ that made us free.
And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now we have
the same kind of false teachers among us today. They're all over. There are some that practice
checklist Christianity. And if you don't follow their
checklist, they proclaim you either lost or a heretic. And
it's all according to their own work views. They become a law
unto themselves. And we have others who try to
yoke people under the law, under the Ten Commandments. They make
statements like this. They make statements like this. Without
the Ten Commandments, you have nothing to guide you in respect
to your moral life. You must think you can live without
any rules and regulations from God. We need His commandments
or we will live in constant rebellion against Him. They make statements
like that. So let us consider this. Like
I say, it's the love of Christ that constrains us. I can't keep
the Ten Commandments. Can you? But praise God, the
Lord kept them for me. Now, this is a question too.
Norm Wells and I have been talking about this. We both don't believe
the Holy Spirit will ever lead you contrary to that. None of
us want to break them. Brother Neal, do you sin more
than you want to? You do, eh? Me too. I don't want to sin. I need a Savior. I need a Savior. Praise God, the Lord Jesus Christ
has forgiven me for all my sins. You too, brother. All of them.
They're all paid for by the precious blood of Christ. And one day
we won't sin anymore. What a glorious day that'll be. So here Paul is. He's contrasting
the truth He proclaimed in verses 10 and 15 with the false teachers
who are saying you can only drink certain things or eat certain
things and you must observe certain things, certain days, certain
ceremonies. And then they determine that
you're saved or not. Well, I'm saved in Christ. Paul is here in this epistle
continuously putting before the colossal believers and before
us as we study 2,000 plus years later. Have you noticed how he's
constantly putting before us the all-sufficiency of Christ?
Constantly. There's a constant contrast going
on. The false teachers are saying,
you need to do this. And Paul's saying, no. You're
complete in Christ. My, my. And like I said, keep that in
mind when you're reading other epistles, because you'll see
Paul doing that. He's constantly attacking works-based religion
in the epistles. So these false teachers, These
false teachers who say that you must observe certain things and
that they determine you to be saved, or they have to teach
you something for you to be complete in Christ. Look at verse 10. What a verdict against their
teachings. Look at verse 10 in chapter 2. "...And ye..." I can say, Wayne, Wayne, you're
complete in Him. which is the head of all principality
and power. I'm complete in Christ. And ye, me, a saved sinner, we
who believe, that's speaking to us. So that's why Paul's bringing
that before them, saying, look, you're complete in Christ, before
he deals with the error. And saying to them, don't let
any man, don't let any man yoke you under bondage. Don't let
him do that. The believer is complete in Christ,
who is the all-sufficient one. Who is the all-sufficient one.
Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of
a holy day or of a new moon or the Sabbath days. Beloved, we're
under the new covenant of grace. Not the old covenant of works.
God has put His law into our minds. Turn, if you would, to
Hebrews 8. God's put His law into our minds. He's written
them on our hearts, beloved. He's written them on our hearts.
See, religion and false teachers, they want to yoke you so bad.
They'll yoke you and then they get power over you. But we're free in Christ, beloved.
How do you know if a man's preaching truth? Is he preaching salvations
in Christ and Him alone? Period. Plus nothing at all.
Nothing. Nothing, not a thing you do.
Salvations of the Lord. I had some guy say, yeah, but
we make a decision. I said, I'd never make a decision
unless the Lord made me willing. I'd never come to Christ unless
the Lord made me willing. And praise God he did, or else
I never would have saw him. Now, did I run to him? Absolutely.
Because he made me willing in the day of his power. By his
Holy Spirit regenerate. And look at Hebrews 8, verses
10-13. Look at this. For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord. I will put My laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness. And we know this is speaking
of the church. Look at this. And their sins and iniquities.
Well, I remember. No more. No more. No more. In that He
saith a new covenant. There it is. A new covenant.
He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxes
old is ready to vanish away. So don't let any self-righteous
religionist yoke you back under the law. Tell them that the Lord
Jesus Christ is my Great Shepherd. And He's redeemed my soul with
His own precious blood. And He paid fully for my soul. And He fulfilled the law in my
place. He's my Shepherd. He's my Savior. He's my Redeemer. And it's by
His Holy Spirit which is given to us. And He leads us in the
path of righteousness for His sake. For His sake. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost, Romans 14, 17. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. In light of this verse before
us, let us consider the words of the Master who said, Look
at our verse again. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of a new moon
or of the Sabbath days, right? And then listen to the Master
in Matthew 15, 11. Not that which goeth into the mouth defile the
man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defiles the
man. Not that which goeth into the
mouth, not meat or drink. but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defiled the man." 1 Timothy says this, "...there
are false teachers who will command us to abstain from meats which
God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which
believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer." Brother Tim and I were talking
about this on the weekend. We must be careful. We must be careful
not to offend a weaker brother with our liberty. With our liberty. If a weaker brother stumbles
over something, do not do it in their presence. Do not. Do not. Our text is very clear
on this, too. Look at this. We're not to let
men judge us, though, in meat or drink. Look at this. Let no
man, therefore, judge you in meat or drink. And we know from
Scripture that moderation, moderation, moderation. But we're not to let man judge
us in meat or in drink. Our text continues, let no man
therefore judge you in respect of a holy day or of a new moon
or the Sabbath days. A holy day or a feast such as
the feast of the Passover, the feast of the tabernacles, the
feast of Pentecost, Three annual feast days, which were considered
holy, and every Jewish male was required to attend those holy
days. The new moon occurred monthly,
which the Jews were obligated to attend. Religious exercises
were performed, which included the offering of certain animal
sacrifices plus food and drink offerings. And this is all found,
if you want to study it later on, it's found in Numbers 28,
11 to 15. for further study. The Sabbath
days included the weekly Sabbath, Saturday, the Sabbath of the
land, which was one year and seven, and the Jubilee Sabbath,
which was one year and 50. But beloved of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. He's our Sabbath. Not a day. Christ is our Sabbath. We're in Him every day of the
week. And He's the Sabbath of the land
of the righteous. He's our Jubilee Sabbath. He's
fulfilled them all. Our Lord has set the captives
free. He's taken care of all our debts on Calvary's cross.
His blood was shed to pay for our sins. He's the perfect spotless
lamb of God. We've heard the joyful sound
of the jubilee trumpet, Christ himself speaking to us under
the preaching of his gospel. And he calls his sheep by name.
By God's grace and by His power working in us, we've ceased from
our own works. We realize, don't we, the Lord's
showing us we can't be saved by our labors. We can't be saved
by our efforts. There's nothing we can do to
gain merit and favor with God. Our rest is in Christ and Him
alone. He's our salvation. He's our
everything. So therefore, let no man judge
you in respect of unholy day or of a new moon or of the sabbath
days. Look at verse 17 in light of
verse 16. Which are a shadow of things
to come. But the body is of Christ. I'll
read both verses again. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of a new moon
or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is of Christ. A shadow, according to Vines,
a shadow is an image or an outline cast by an object. an image or
an outline cast by an object. And these Old Testament shadows
were an outline, an image of things to come. These holy days and the new moon
and the Sabbath days were all pointing to Christ. All the sacrifices,
they were shadows, types. The body. Look at our scripture
again in verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come, but
the body is of Christ. The body, the substance. Remember, the shadow's just an
outline. The substance, beloved. The substance of all those shadows
and all those types is Christ. But the body is of Christ. All those types, all those Old
Testament types and shadows prefigured Him, prefigured Christ. Let's look at some of the types
and shadows and then the substance which is in Christ. The one foreshadowed
by Israel's manna, the one foreshadowed by Israel's manna, right, the
bread, is offering Himself as the bread
of life. The Passover. How can the Passover,
the observance of the Passover be considered a means unto spiritual
perfection? How can that be? Those teachers
were teaching that you had to observe those days. How can that
be when Christ is our Passover? He's our Passover and He's been
sacrificed for us. What justification could there
be for imposing the Jewish Sabbath upon believers in Christ who
here before us in our text are converts from the Gentile world? What justification would there
be in yoking them under the Jewish Sabbath when the One who brings
us rest, the One who is our Sabbath, is Christ? Turn, if you would,
to Matthew 11. And think of this. The One who is our Sabbath is
urging sinners to come to Him. And to come to Him for rest. Look at this, Matthew 11, 28
and 29. Christ who is our Sabbath. Look what he says in Matthew
11, verses 28 and 29. Remember, He's the Sabbath. He's
our Sabbath. He's our rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor.
Oh, are ye heavy with the burdens of works, and are heavy laden? And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, For I am meek and lowly in heart. Oh, the condescension
of Christ. And ye shall find rest unto your
souls. So we find rest from our labors.
In verse 28, look at that. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. There's rest from
works based religion. There's rest from your works
trying to self-justify yourself. And then look, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. There's rest for your soul. And
it's only in Christ who's our Sabbath. It's only in Him. So
we see how Paul says, "...let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of a new moon,
or of the Sabbath days." Because those are just shadows. Those
are just shadows. Oh, beloved, the Old Testament
ceremonies and circumcision and feast days and sacrifice, they
had a purpose. but they're just shadows and
symbols of Christ in His redemptive work. They were only in effect
until He came. They were only in effect until
He came, until He died upon that cross. The Lord Jesus Christ, oh, He's the truth. He's the
body. He's the substance of all those
types and shadows in the Old Testament. And to think of this,
think of this, to continue in them, like those false teachers
were saying, like in Galatia too, where the Judaizers were
saying you had to be circumcised. To continue in those ceremonies,
to continue in those shadows is to say that Christ, who is
the fulfillment of them, to say that he's not all-sufficient. And these false teachers were
denying the all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ by trying
to yoke believers who were blood-bought saints. Trying to yoke them back
under ceremonies and laws. You can do this and you can't
do that. And like I said, remember this, they're always the ones
who's telling you what you can't do. My, the gospel preacher says,
look to Christ. He's our rest. He's our rest. Our only hope's in Him. Our only
hope's in Him. When I lived in Canada, Vicki
and I exchanged pictures of each other. Back then, the internet
was in its infant stages, and there was no texting, and the
cell phones were highly expensive. Only people who were wealthy
had cell phones back then and everything. So we sent pictures
through snail mail, they call it now, which was just the mail.
So we sent pictures to each other through the mail. And though
we were thousands of miles apart, sometimes during my days at work,
I'd take out a picture of Vicki. And I'd look at her picture and
think that, oh, one day we'll be together. We were engaged
then, and I was living up in Canada. And I knew that we were
going to get married, but it's still the waiting. And there's
all that distance separating us. So I'd take out the picture,
like I said, and I'd look, and I was in love with her, so still
am, so it's, you know, you're anticipating being with the person.
And when I came down here to live, and we were married, the
picture that I looked at, each day, I put in my wallet. Because I didn't need to look
at that every day anymore. The picture was like a shadow. Now that I was with her, I didn't
need the picture anymore. Because I was with the one who
the picture portrayed. I was with the substance, not
the shadow. And I'm sure Brother John, when
he was on the boat, during the Gulf War, he had a picture of
all of you. I'm sure he did. And when he came home, he put
it away. Oh, my beloved. Which are a shadow
of things to come. So all those Old Testament types
in shadows. pointed to Christ who is the
substance. Beloved, Jesus Christ has come.
He is the body. He's the substance of all those
Old Testament types and shadows. We have Him. We have Him. And if we have Christ, we have
all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Jesus Christ
is our meat. He's our meat. He's our heavenly
manna. He's the bread of life. We feast
upon Him, don't we? We feast upon Him when we read
His Word. We feast upon Him when we hear the Gospel preached. It's food. It's sheep food. The
Gospel's sheep food. We love the clover of the Gospel. That's why we can't hear anything
else. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our drink. He's a living water. Once you
drink from that well, you don't want to drink from any other
well. And He's the water of life that quenches our spiritual thirst,
beloved. And we hunger and thirst after
righteousness, don't we? And Jesus Christ is our eternal
holy day. He's our eternal Sabbath. He's
our eternal rest. So let no man therefore judge
you in respect to those things which are only a shadow of things
to come. We have the substance of those
things, beloved. Jesus Christ our Lord. We have
Christ. We don't need types and shadows
anymore. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of a new moon,
or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come,
but the body is of Christ. Let me close with this. We've
seen all through our study, I was thinking about this today, as
we've went through this study, we've seen the all-sufficiency
of Christ all through it. all through it. But we've also
seen another thing through this whole epistle so far that I believe
we've seen. We've seen that Christ must have
the preeminence. And we even see Paul bringing
it forth here. Those types and shadows don't get the preeminence.
The substance gets the preeminence. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
first in all things, isn't He, beloved? He must have the preeminence. Think of this. He has all authority
in heaven and all authority in earth and all authority over
all we see and all we don't see. He has all authority in heaven
and earth. And think of this. He has all
the glory before time and in time and after time. He's going
to receive all the glory in eternity. Remember we saw on the weekend,
He won't share His glory with anyone. No one. He gets the preeminence. Think of this. We're going to
rise from the grave because He rose from the grave. Christ ascended to glory and
we're going to go to glory because He's in glory. Christ is first loved. We're
chosen in Him. And His people are loved in Him.
The only reason we're saved is we're redeemed in Him. The only reason God's wrath and
justice is turned from us is because He bore it. The only
reason the law doesn't have a demand upon us is because He fulfilled
it for us. He must have all the preeminence
He must. He's the first and the last.
He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. The Lord Jesus Christ must have all the preeminence. He must. He's the substance,
not the shadow. You see, people get yoked up
in the shadows. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels' prostate fall. Bring
forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. The Old Testament sacrifices
were shadows, just shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
and He is the substance. And beloved, He must have all
the preeminence. Oh, let's just praise His name.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before Thy throne. We saw
tonight how the false teachers were trying to yoke Your people
under the bondage of the law. But oh, what liberty and freedom
we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is our rest, our Sabbath.
And all the Old Testament types and shadows are fulfilled in
you, Lord Jesus. May we just stand in awe this
week. May we meditate upon what we've
heard tonight. May we just think upon it daily
in our lives, that you are the substance of all those types
and shadows. and you must have all the preeminence.
And we seek to give you that, Lord. We praise you and thank
you in Jesus' name. Amen.