Our Father, bless us during this
study of your book. We pray that we will see the
Christ in it before we realize that that's what the book is
about. We ask for clarity of thought, for softness of heart,
for a believing mind. In Christ's name we pray it,
amen. Now most of these lessons I don't have a title. We're just
going over a particular portion. But this one we can give a title,
Shadow and Substance. In verse 17, we get the central
theme of this portion of scripture. We're gonna be looking at verses
16 through 23. But 17 said, these are a shadow
of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found
in Christ. So shadow and substance, or shadow
and reality. Now it's human nature to be more
taken up with shadows than substance when it comes to spiritual things.
And that's been true ever since man fell. The primary reason
for this The primary reason they prefer the shadow over the substance
is that they are unable to perceive the substance. The substance
is spiritual and it cannot be understood or entered into by
natural means at all. It's beyond the capacity of a
human being to perceive and understand spiritual things. It says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14, that, in fact, we can just turn over there. I want to make
sure and quote it right. 1 Corinthians 2. It says here, the man without
the spirit, strictly in the Greek language it says the natural
man, does not accept the things that come from the spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand
them because they are spiritually discerned. Now we often refer
to this scripture, but that's because it is the definitive
verse on this subject. There's plenty of other places
in the scripture where you can find the same principle addressed. But this is just about as succinct
a way as you can put it. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, unless
a man is born again, he cannot see, that is, he cannot perceive
the kingdom of God. does not say that he simply does
not perceive it or will not perceive it. It says he cannot perceive
the kingdom of God. And that's the same thing that
Paul was saying. These are beyond the reach of
natural investigation. Now, another reason that natural
man prefers the shadow over the substance is that there is an
opportunity for pride in shadowy things. You look at verse 16. I'm sorry, verse 18, Colossians 2, verse
18. Do not let anyone who delights
in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for
the prize. Verse 16, let's go back to there. Therefore, do not let anyone
judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to religious
festival, a new moon celebration or the Sabbath. Now, shadows
allow a person to be proud because shadowy things are things a person
can do. And one of the things it enables
them to do in their pride is to judge others. Those who are
taken up with shadows, you will find that they are the most judgmental. Those who are taken up with the
substance, the reality, which is in Christ, they have the spiritual
fruit of humility, and while they recognize, they understand
truth from error and right from wrong, and while they'll say
that that's wrong, this is right, that's error, this is truth,
they judge that sort of thing, but they don't judge people.
That is, they do not say of someone else that, well, I am better
than they are. I am more worthy to receive the
good things from God. And with shadows, they can present
false virtues. We read there in verse 18, do
not let anyone who delights in false humility. Now, of all the
false virtues, that a person can express. False humility is
probably the most irritating. And you can usually recognize
it fairly quickly for what it is. You see, people tend to think
that humility means to look poorly upon yourself. But humble people
do not make any kind of show of humility. They do not constantly
put themselves down. Why? They're simply not occupied
with thinking about themselves in the first place. So humility
is not a matter of saying, I am bad. I am less than others. Humility
is simply not to be occupied with thoughts about yourself. The humble man doesn't judge
himself, therefore he doesn't judge others either. And so these
people, with their judgmental ways, they put on a false humility. And even as they judge others
for their perceived faults, they themselves, they'll say of themselves,
oh, I am such a sinner. And you can tell within the context
of the rest of their lives, they don't really believe that. I
think the best thing to do if someone ever says something like,
oh, I'm just such an unworthy sinner, just agree with them.
Say, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. You're an unworthy
sinner. And see how they react to that. If they're humble, they
won't react. But if you agree with a person
expressing false humility, the phoniness of their humility will
show itself up. Shadows allow them to boast in
fictitious experiences. Verse 18 says, do not let anyone
who delights in false humility and the worship of angels. Now
these people that were troubling the church in Colossae, and actually
they were going, this was one of the early heresies in the
church, Gnosticism, and it was, spreading among more of the churches,
but some of the Gnostics claimed that they worshipped angels and
they could enter into some kind of personal relationship with
them. I find it, well, you kind of
chuckle at it, but then it's not all that funny, but people's
preoccupation with angels. You can get angel statues everywhere.
People talk about, you know, if someone they love dies, well,
heaven got another angel. You know, and all this kind of
stuff. And they appeal to angels. And yet we're never told to call
upon angels. We're never told to rely upon
them. We know this in the book of Hebrews,
it says, they are ministering spirits sent to minister to them
who shall be the heirs of salvation. They are agents of God's will,
but they aren't agents of our will. They are sent to do some
things that need to be done within the spiritual realm, but we don't
see them. We don't see what's going on.
People say, do you believe in guardian angels? I don't just
believe in them, I rely on them. In this sense, I know that God
uses them for my protection, but I don't see it happening,
and I don't pray to a guardian angel. Now, having said that,
who knows what I'd do if I ever saw an angel. John, the beloved
disciple, saw an angel in his vision. of the book of Revelation. And he fell down and began to
worship that angel. And the angel said, see that
you do it not. Angels are, when they appear,
they generally appear in some glorious form that might make
us feel compelled to worship them, but we don't. But they
delight in fictitious experiences, things they can claim happen,
but there's no way to prove them right or wrong. And then they
go on and he says, such persons, such person goes into great detail
about what he has seen. They have visions. If anybody
comes to you with a vision, ignore the vision, period. God's not giving visions anymore. Why? They're unnecessary to us.
We have everything we need. right here in the scriptures.
There was a time when God spoke in visions and dreams. That was
a way to reveal important information that we needed. But once the
apostles, their generation passed away, so did all of that kind
of revelation. Why? Because all that was necessary
for our worship for being made wise into salvation, it's all
been written down in this book. If anybody gets a vision from
God, if anybody did, it would only be a vision concerning things
already in the book. So why would God send a vision? And then such shadowy things
Such shadow religion allows people to rule over others. Look at
verse 21. Do not handle, do not taste,
do not touch. Now right there is the prime
expression of shadow-based religion. It's made of prohibitions. Prohibitions
about what? Verse 22, these are all destined
to perish with use because they are based on human commands and
teachings. That is, the things concerning
which these rules are made. They're rules about things that
are destined to perish. And why? Why do they make rules
about things that are destined to perish anyway? Because all
they have is human understanding of things. And so, since they
have no access to spiritual material, all they can do is come up with
some fleshly things, some fleshly rules. And so they identify certain
foods and certain drinks that you shouldn't eat, certain things
you shouldn't touch, certain things you shouldn't do. And all these rules apply to
things that sooner or later are gonna perish anyway. Now in our day, we have our own
shadow worshipers. We have those who rely on shadows
rather than the substance, because there are those, for example,
who rely on their baptism. Now baptism is a shadow. It's
a symbol. And it's been commanded us to
do, but we do it understanding there's nothing real about it.
It accomplishes nothing real. It is merely a symbol of something
that's already happened. But there are those who look
at baptism and see baptism as the reality rather than the shadow. Some of them sprinkle infants. and think that actually by that
sprinkling of infants, original sin is put away. Or they think that a person is
born again, regenerated by that activity. Some say, well, it
puts them in the church and establishes them in a covenant relationship
with God. It does no such thing. And then
there are those, this is more prevalent back where I come from,
But they believe, you know, that baptism's for believers, but
they'll say, but you're not saved until you're baptized. And therefore, they have taken
the symbol and made it at least a part of the substance. We have
people who, instead of the reality of faith, have come up with the
shadow of decisions. Now we know that we are justified
by faith. We know that by grace we are
saved through faith. We realize that. But what they've
done, because they do not understand what faith is, and they cannot
produce faith in themselves or anyone else, they've traded faith
for decisions. And once again, this harks back
to the religion I was brought up in, because they preach a
message and then they bring you to a point of decision. And they'll
even say things like, well, I decided for Jesus tonight. Decided? Is that what, does the scripture
say, for by grace are you saved through your decision? People
can make decisions contrary to what they love, contrary to what
they want to do, contrary to what they believe. They can make
decisions like that. They take shadowy ritual rather
than real spiritual worship. And you know, that can take two
forms. That can take like high church ritual with all the robes
and candles and processions incense and all that kind of stuff. And
you know, all of that can be perceived by and understood by
and appreciated by the flesh. And they do. And they think that's
worship. They go into a cathedral and
the architecture impresses them. They say, oh, it feels so worshipful
in here. Really now? Or that you can go
to the contemporary forms of ritualism. with the worship bands,
and the smoke machines, and the light displays, and people raising
their hands, you know, in various ways that they do it. Now, is
there anything wrong with somebody raising their hands during worship?
No, but you realize it becomes a fad, and people, that's how
they turn on their worship, you know? They do that, and what
they're doing, they're working up an emotional thing, they're
working up something in the flesh, and they are, accepting what
is simply a shadow for what is reality. They take happiness
instead of joy, charity, works of charity, rather than true
and honest love. Why? Well, you know, real love
often is not seen. Real love often does something
that's unpleasant. If a parent loves his children,
he'll discipline them. But children don't perceive that
as love, at least not until they're older. Love is often seen as hate. In our day, much of what is said
in love, in trying to tell people the truth, has now been called
hate speech. But works of charity, write a
check. The Hollywood people, and I'm
glad they give money, but you know, it says, well, I've given
a million. Yeah, but you left yourself 500 million. Big deal,
you gave a million dollars to something. But that's something
that can be seen and it's just a substance rather than the reality
of the spiritual fruit of love. Now this shadowism is so successful
because it has the appearance of wisdom. Look at verse 23. Such regulations indeed have
an appearance of wisdom. And let's face it, they do. We're
still flesh too. And that's why Paul had to write
this in here, to make sure we didn't get caught up in it. I've
gone to churches where things are very orderly. And this is
generally at a funeral, because I don't go to churches that aren't
like ours, unless it's some kind of special thing. But I remember
going to one, and they did all a cappella singing, which I enjoy
anyway. And they were fairly good at
it as a congregation. And everything was neat and orderly.
And everyone smiled at the right time. Everybody was polite. It just seemed like a nice place
to be. Of course, I heard what they preached. I've never heard
a more obvious sermon of works than what I heard. But it all
looked very good. And it has this appearance of
wisdom, and it's just the wisdom of the world. Look at 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1, beginning at verse
18. For the message of the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the
intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where
is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this
age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? Now in our country right now, we're going through a cycle of
of judgment. I have no problem calling it
judgment from God. It's the kind of judgment where
God gives men over to what they've been asking for all along. It's
as though God says to individuals and to nations or, you know,
groups, okay, have it your way. And such utter nonsense is being
propagated as wisdom and truth. Why is it that now they're recognizing,
I think it's the last time I heard, 61 genders. When I was born, there was two
in that time. Actually, within about the last
five years, they've come up with another 59 genders. And I think
to myself, I understand there's fringe in the world all the time
that might come up with this stuff, but this is becoming mainstream. But that's just in things pertaining
to the natural world. What foolishness in spiritual
things is being promoted and followed and clamored for? How
can anyone look at the big name preachers on television and in
print and see what they're promoting and say, yeah, that's from God? Why? Being given over to foolishness. God made foolish the wisdom of
men. But such religions are of the
world, and they're operating according to the basic principles
of worldly wisdom. What is it like? Well, this worldly
wisdom, shadowy religion, looking at verse 21, it is self-imposed
worship. It says, in verse 23, excuse
me, such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with
their self-imposed worship. Now, I think King James just
says will worship, but the word means self-willed, and it has
the connotation of religion in it. So what does it mean? It
means religion that man made up and that man imposes on himself.
That's what he's talking about. And that's what people do. I'll
give you an example. What in the world are monasteries
for? What good do they do? Men go to a monastery and they
sit and read all day, supposedly. They meditate, contemplate. In medieval times, they would
beat themselves. They would do all kinds of things that were
miserable, you know, like kneel on a rock floor and pray for
five hours or what, you know. Did things like, for instance,
harsh treatment of the body it mentions down here. All of this
stuff. What good does it do? Of what
value is it? James said this is true religion
that pleases God. to take care of those in need. That's useful. But they just
come up with these rules that don't affect anything, that are
not about good things or bad things, that are not about helping
others or producing anything good. It's just stuff that, it
makes it look like, oh man, he's really dedicated to the Lord.
Look how much he's suffering. Look how he denies himself enjoyable
food. Self-imposed worship, false humility,
harsh treatment of the body, and lastly, about shadowism,
it's a failure. Verse 23, such regulations indeed
have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship,
their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body,
but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. You cannot
write rules that will keep people from sinning. It just drives
it underground, that's all. And that's why you will see,
in the most legalistic churches, the greatest amount of corruption
underneath. And we've seen it, you know,
Protestants like to point at the Catholic Church and talk
about all the abuse at the hands of the priests. Wait a minute,
it goes on in the non-Catholic churches as well. Anytime an
organization gets a sufficient size, and they're trying to grow
and they bring on people that, you know, they have to have people
to work, as they bring on these people People aren't being vetted
properly, they haven't proven themselves, and they put them
in positions where they have opportunity to express their
most vile desires. All the rules in these churches
couldn't stop these people from doing what was natural to them. Well, let's take a minute to
look at the realist then. We talked about shadow over substance
or shadow over reality. What's the realist? Well, the
realist, the spiritual realist, is the one who sees all things
in Christ. Verse 17, these are a shadow
of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found
in Christ. Now, in particular, you can see
how this would apply to the Jews as they were coming out of the
old covenant into the new. When God would give them spiritual
rebirth, they would say, hey, okay, the temple, the sacrifice,
they were all commanded and they were all right, but they were
just shadows. The reality has been found in Christ. He is our
priest. He is our sacrifice. He is our
temple. He is our God. He's our savior.
He's everything. that the old covenant economy
was talking about. He's up here in verse 16 when
it talks about, don't let anyone judge you by what you eat or
drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration
or a Sabbath day. Why are we not to be judged by
those things anymore? Because they were simply shadow
things, now the substance is here. And when the substance
arrives, you forget the shadow. Now, shadows do serve a purpose.
If you're standing there and the sun's behind you, well, you're
casting a shadow in front of you, and all at once you see
a shadow of another person. It's moving towards you. Well,
it warns you there's a person coming. But you're not afraid
of the shadow, are you? You don't think that the shadow
can do anything good or bad for you. So, but once the person
arrives, you don't pay any more attention to the shadow. If they're
a person, you know, bent on your harm, you react in fear. If it's
someone you know and love, you react in, you know, maybe surprise,
oh, so nice to see you. But you didn't say that to the
shadow. And having seen the person, you don't say, find shadow you
got there. No. Once the reality arrives,
the shadow is gone. These people have died with Christ. They have died to the elementary
principles of the world. And therefore, those principles
have no binding on them. Now they're given two warnings. First of all, let no man judge
you according to this. That doesn't mean that you go
up to people and say, you can't judge me about that. They're
going to do it. You can't stop them from judging. What he means
is, don't let their judgment have any effect on you. I remember a fellow that my mother
would babysit after school. He'd stay at our house until
his mom got home from work. And one day, for some reason,
he was kind of mad at me. And I was in the sixth or seventh
grade, something like that. And if you've ever seen pictures
of me, well, in the sixth grade, I weighed 65 pounds. And he looked
at me and says, fatty. I thought, what? I mean, there might have been
some things you could have made fun of me that would have worked.
That was not going to touch me. Well, in the same way, when these
people say things like, well, you ought to observe the Sabbath. You all aren't Sabbath keepers.
No, we're not, because we don't believe that the Sabbath is in
force, or any of these things. So let no man judge you, and
let no one disqualify you. That comes after the judgment
part. Why? If you let them judge you,
that is, if you submit to their judgments, you will likely begin
to submit to their rules, to submit to their way of thinking,
and in so doing, you disqualify yourself from the prize. Paul calls it a prize. He said,
I press on to the prize, meaning the full apprehension of salvation. We know that all who are chosen
of God and redeemed and all that, the Spirit will keep them. Nonetheless,
we're given warnings as though While we make a profession of
faith and seem to be doing good for a while, if we get turned
back to the old way, we're lost. We realize we were
always lost, but we didn't know that until then. And so he says,
don't let anyone disqualify you for the prize of free grace by
submitting to their judgments and beginning to follow their
pattern. of pleasing God by keeping rules. All right, you're dismissed.