We looked at last Sunday how
verse 14, he said how the Lord had blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances against us. They were contrary to us. He
took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Go to Hebrews
chapter 10. Jewish laws were very strict. Our Lord's law for the Jews. And it still is. And the law
is a declaration of God's holy character and the principles
of holiness, perfect holiness, purity, mercy, principles of
mercy in the law, truth. Paul said this about the law,
he says, the commandment is holy, just, and good. Nothing wrong
with God's law. Everything right. But Romans,
Paul through the book of Romans, he's the one that wrote Colossians.
God had him right. But Romans tells us, especially,
that the law was given because of sin. Show us, Paul said, the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. The holiness, justice, goodness
of God, but our sin against Him. to reveal sin. The law was never
given to save, not meant for a person to try to keep it to
be saved. Paul said, by the deeds of the
law, no flesh will be justified. It's evident because we can't.
And Paul said the law is spiritual, meaning it requires perfection
in thought, in word, as well as deed, but in motive, a pure
heart, a perfect motive. And we're sinners. The law, Paul
says, is a schoolmaster. Schoolmaster, teach us something.
Point is to cry. That's what Paul said. We're
all lawbreakers. God's people don't want to be,
but we are. And we're guilty. And so the
law tells us, go to Christ. Go to Christ. He's your righteousness. And we're accepted in him. Meaning, God accepted everything
he did for us. In Hebrews 10 verse 9 it says,
this was written of Christ in the psalm, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. That's what Christ came. And
he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. You see, we're not under the
law. Thank God. We're under grace. Grace. So someone says, so we
can break the law. No. No. No. But we do. We do. And it grieves us. The Jews today are under, have
600, somebody knows what they're talking about, 613 laws they're
supposed to keep that they get from The Old Testament,
613 laws, 7 feast days and 4 holidays. Holiday means holy day. There's no holy day. Feast days, we don't observe
those anymore. We feast every Lord's Day on
the body of Christ. You can't believe some of the
restrictions they have. Kosher, you've heard of kosher.
You bought any pickles lately? Are they kosher? What does that
mean? Here's just a few. You cannot
eat meat and dairy together. And they got that from the scripture
that says, do not see the kid in his mother's milk. The Lord
didn't say you can't eat dairy and meat at the same time. It
was a law for humane purposes. It was cruel. kill a dam and
the mother at the same time and seethe her in mother's milk.
The Lord's merciful. He takes care of animals. We're
not to be like wild beasts, you know. Laws for eating blood means
don't eat raw meat. Don't be bloody people like dogs,
you know, hairy flesh. You've got to wait six hours
between eating meat or dairy. If you eat dairy, you've got
to wait six hours. Where do they get that? These are kosher laws. You can't eat meat and fish on
the same plate. They have a different plate. You've got to wash. You can't
eat meat with the same utensils you ate dairy with, no matter
what. You know, to wash everything. Wash, wash, wash, wash. You remember
that in Mark 7? The Lord said they just wash,
wash, wash, wash, wash, wash. Well, our Lord in great wisdom
and mercy gave many laws to His people that had practical reasons
for hygiene, cleanliness. I lived in a day where, you know,
where meat could go bad real fast. And he gave some laws for
that reason, but it wasn't meant to give life, to make you holy
with God and pat you on the back. There's still some principles
that are good, absolutely, it's all good, but it's never were
given for us to try to be righteous or more holy or save our souls,
not even a rule of life. It's not even our rule of life,
because you can't pick and choose. You know the Jews pick and choose
like the German Baptist do, like the Amish do, whatever is convenient,
whatever they like. I like that, we can do that,
we can cut our hair a certain way, we can do that. Thank God we're not under the
law. And all laws somehow are pictures
and types to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. What he did,
everything he did, he lived according to love. But I'll tell you right
now, nothing wrong with love. He lived perfectly according
to love. He obeyed every jot and tittle. So I dare not ever say anything
against God's love. Christ lived according to it. But not to show us how, Well,
yeah, it did require perfection, but no, he did it for us. We can't do it. Gentiles, when
they sent letters, the church sent letters to the Gentiles.
All they told them was don't eat meat with blood and trust the Lord and have a good
day. Farewell. Again, there was a practical
reason for that. All right, go back to Colossians 2. So we take
it the way that all these things were against us, contrary to
us. They nailed it all to the cross,
kept, paid, kept perfectly, and all the broken law paid in full.
That's what the ark picture did, Brother John. Inside the ark
was the law, perfect, complete, not the broken one that Moses
dashed down and said, you people have just broken the law. Cast
it on the ground. God said, right, do more. Put
it in that ark. And put the lid on it. Don't
keep it intact. That's Christ. In Christ we've
kept the law. There's also a mercy seat with
it. Covered with blood. He paid for every law we broke.
That's Christ. Our mercy seat. Been wanting
to preach on the mercy seat lately. Maybe we will. Alright, so now,
verse And didn't you love that how he spoiled principalities,
made a triumph over them? Verse 16, now let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or
the new moon or the Sabbath day. There's a shadow of things to
come, but the body is crowned. Let no man judge you. What you
eat, drink, we're not under those laws anymore. Go to Romans 14, Romans chapter
14. And remember our Lord said mainly
to the Jews who took such great pride and were so full of self-righteousness
because they did not eat certain things. Remember He said, it's
not what goes in your mouth that devours you. No meat is going
to devour your soul. No drink is going to damn you.
That's what He said. And it shocked me. They offended
them. You mean all these years we've
gone without pork and it didn't avail us of anything? Nothing.
Might have kept you from getting sick over spoiled meat, but it
didn't keep your soul from going to hell. He said, it just goes out in
a draft. He said, what's on the inside already is what defiles
you. And you can't do anything about
that. Who can? Only one person. Got to give
you a new heart. Romans 14, Paul dealt with this. Look at verse 14. He said, verse
11, as I live, look at verse 14, I know and am persuaded by
the Lord Jesus there is nothing unclean of itself. Nothing. Nothing. Whatever it is, nothing. It's man that abuses that. You're
not going to throw away ropes because people hang themselves. Back before modern medicine,
before modern painkillers, there was one thing that they had to
relieve the pain. What? White lightning or something. A man about to get his arm cut
off at the Civil War. Thank God for whiskey. But just
because people abuse it and get drunk on it, I'll throw it away.
God allowed it. It's people that abuse that. There's no sin in a bottle or
a box. If it was, that means we could just do without it and
be without sin. It's in here. My dad used to say, It's not
a drunk because he drinks. He drinks because he's a drunk.
The bottle didn't make him do that. He willingly, with his
fleshly desire, abused it. You see, there's nothing unclean
of it. See that? That's what he said.
But now, hold on a minute. Verse 15. If your brother be
grieved with thy meat, Don't do it. This is the principle, too. It
says in verse 21, well, verse 20, for meat, destroy not the
work of God, that is, the kingdom of God, and not meat and drink
anyway. Righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit. He
said, all things indeed are pure, but it's evil for that man who
eats it with offense. I have liberty, I don't care
what you think. Don't do that. Verse 21, it's
good neither to eat flesh, drink wine, or anything whereby thy
brother stumbled, or offended, or is made weak. If you have
faith, verse 22, have it thyself before God. Happy is he that
condemneth not himself in that thing which ye allow. So you have liberty, have it to
yourselves. But not to abuse it. Don't have liberty to abuse
it. So go back to our text. And Paul's the one that wrote
that. And, you know, Paul said, I would,
you were like me, unmarried. Paul was unmarried. He never
got married. So some people in 2 Timothy,
1 Timothy 4, it says that they'll forbid to marry in the latter
day. This is Roman Catholicism, celibacy,
nuns and monks. and abstaining from certain meats
and all that. He said, no, no, no. These things
would be taken, given thanks for. Marriage is holy, Paul.
The bed's undefiled. Simon Peter was married with
her. But Paul said, I would, because he that is married careth
for how he may please his wife. He that is not married, for how
he may please the Lord. So he said, I would, you were
like me. But if you're not, if God didn't give you that strength,
Mary, it's good, it's fine, it's Lord created. So, and people
make religions out there, make holiness out there, and they're
self-righteous. Look at me, I've forsaken everything. If righteousness come, here's
how serious it is, if righteousness come by the law, That's doing
or not doing anything. Christ died in vain. That's how serious it is. Paul
said, that's what I thought. He said, I was blameless. I was
so pleased with myself. I didn't know God was not pleased
with me. And I found out, and the law
came and killed me, showed me what it required. It just slew
me, and it slew my heart and my conscience, thinking what
I'd done. And now, Paul said, I'm so glad
the Lord's pleased with his righteousness. He said, I'm so glad. If he'd
given me what I earned, the wages I've earned, what I'd worked,
God would have sent me to hell. In religion, abstinence, celibacy,
it goes straight to hell. Because it shall be perfect to
be accepted. You see how Christ came and nailed
it to the cross? Perfect. So he said, let no man
judge you. Look at verse 16, Sabbath, Sabbath
days. Oh now, hold on preacher. Sunday
is our Sabbath. No, it is not. There's no day,
certain day, that's a holy day. Every day really is a day the
Lord made. We worship the Lord every day.
We call this the Lord's Day because, well listen, our Lord was in
the grave on Saturday. On purpose. He was dead on the
Sabbath day. Why? Showing us we're dead to
the law. And He arose the first day of
the week. Alive. And so then He told us after
that the New Testament. New covenant, not the law. A
new law of the Christ, a loyal law, he said. Now on the first
day of the week, like I rose and I've given you new life,
on the first day of the week, meet together and worship me
who rose. And he was quickened together
with him on the first day. But don't make a holy day out
of it. Don't make a law out of it. He
never said, now, don't you work a day on, don't you You cut your
grass on Sunday, don't you dare. He never said that. In fact,
Christ said, I'm your Sabbath. I'm the Lord. The Sabbath was
a day of rest. No day. Your soul can't rest
on a day. Christ is our Sabbath. Hebrews 4 is very plain about
that. He that hath ceased from his own works, As Christ ceased
from his as God ceased from his works and everything complete
and finished We've ceased from our works, and we look to Christ
our Sabbath I read That's what they mean all right verse 17
these things are a shadow you see things to come the body is
cried Christ our Sabbath came Verse 18 so let no man beguile
you This clearly tells us that false prophets and apostles and
false doctrines and false religion, it had already begun back then.
It had already started way back then. Roman Catholicism came
from the church at Rome. Paul wrote that letter to the
church at Rome. What happened? Shortly after,
Paul said, he said to the Ephesians, the Spirit of God has told me
that as soon as I'm gone, False brethren don't creep in. John
said, even now there are many anti-Christ. Our Lord said it,
many false prophets have gone out in the world. And now more
than ever. So let no man beguile you, trick
you, judge you. Verse 18, I love this, in a voluntary
humility. Humility is not voluntary. I'll be humble. And I know the scripture says
humble yourself, and we're told to do that, but a person is made
humble by God, by the grace of God, by the mercy of God, by
the gospel of God, by the power of God. You can't make yourself
humble. Humbling ourselves means take
your rightful place. Put yourself down, but it's like
that man, that self-righteous man came home to his wife and
he said, behold, woman, I've overcome my pride. That's a voluntary humility.
I've decided to be humble. And that's what people do when
they dress certain ways and all that. It's a show. It's all a
show. That's what the Pharisees did.
They liked to be seen with the wrong robes and fasting. Oh, you must be fasting, you
look sad. It's a show. Worshipping of angels. Boy, if
all this is not Roman Catholicism, what is? Worshipping of angels,
dead saints. One time John in Revelation fell
down at the feet of the angel to worship him. And he said,
don't do that, get up. He said, whoever it was, it was
one of his brethren. It might have been James. It
might have been his very brother. Stand up John, I'm just like
you. Don't worship me, worship God. Worshipping of angels, and true
to any of those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed
up by his fleshly You see, the minding of the flesh, if I can
just do this, if I can just do that, if I can just not do this
and not do that, I'll be holy. That's minding the flesh. That's thinking. That's carnal. That's carnal minding. It's enmity
against God. Why is that? Because Christ came. That's why Christ came, to condemn
sin in His flesh. In your flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In my flesh. Don't let any man tell you. I
don't worry about that for you people. I really don't. You've
heard the gospel enough. I really don't. But we can be impressed. I remember going to preach in
a meeting for years in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. And
these fellows said they were not reformed, but they sure gave
every appearance of it. And one man, every time before
he preached, he would drop down on his knees behind the pulpit. It's a show. And I remember thinking,
oh, I'm not that pious. I always seem so broken. It's a show. He said, don't do
it. Fasting. Let's take fasting for
instance. He said, do without that. He said, when do you fast? Don't be like the Pharisee. They want to be seen. They want
everybody to know what they're doing. Lent. What have you given up? Shaving. Oh, what a sacrifice. What makes me want to cuss? Oh,
a sacrifice. Christ hung on the cross. That's a sacrifice. Blasphemy, that sort of thing.
People are ignorant, I know, ignorant. I'd rather, actually
rather Catholic come here than a Southern Baptist. Go figure that out. But anyway,
puffed up, vainly puffed up, not, verse 19, not holding the
head. What's, who's the head? See,
you right now take everything that your body does come from
your head, right? Everything you do, your head
controls it. Your head is your glory per se,
not the body. Without the head, the body's
dead, right? And all of us are pretty much
clothed except our head. We don't cover it up. Why? That's Christ. We're here to
hold up the head. The body has one purpose. To
hold up the head. To exalt the head. Because from
the head we get everything. Everything comes from the head.
Our hands act, are made willing by the head. That's Christ. And,
alright, religion, Roman Catholicism, they worship the church. Don't they? members, dead saints. We don't worship church members.
We worship the head. We hold up the head, not the
body. We don't worship the body. We worship the head. See, verse
19, all the body by joints and bands have nourishment, minister,
knit together, increase it with the increase of God. The head,
the head, everything comes from the head. From which, you see
that, from which all the body. And Paul went in detail about
members of the body, all have their purpose, but we don't glorify
one over another. We glorify the head. And every member has its purpose,
but no member can glory. The mouth can't say, look at
me, look at me, little toe. No. It's a head. Worship the head. So now verse
20, look at this. If you be dead with Christ, we're
going to look at that in chapter 3. I can't wait. You're dead.
Your life is hid. Woo! Isn't that good news? With
Christ in God. If you be dead with Christ, up
in verse 11 through 13, it talks about crucified with Christ,
buried with Him. Verse 13, you being dead in your
sins, quicken together. But we were crucified with Christ
from the rudiments, elements of the world. He said, now why
then, as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish
with the using. Why are we subject to the commandments
and doctrines of men? Christ didn't tell us any of
that. But the law, but he took it away. He fulfilled it. He nailed it
to the cross. He said, you're not under it. He said, now you
take your commandments, Christ said, you take your commandments
from me. Whatever I tell you, do. But
not to be saved. out of love to me, admiration
of me. And so these things are going
to perish, all these things. And in verse 23, I close. He
said, these things have indeed a show of wisdom and will-worship,
humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the
satisfying of the flesh. Paul at one time did say, I keep
my body under subjection. And the reason he said things
like this was to tell us that it's good to mortify your members.
You ought to. You need to. You remember the
scriptures, Solomon said, if your appetite's... Put a knife
to your throat if your appetite's too heavy. Don't do it. And on
and on. Our Lord said, take heed yourself
now that you're not drunkenness and surfatine and all of that.
Our Lord told us these things. These things come on the whole
world and people are absolutely consumed with it. Don't be consumed.
Don't be consumed with that. It'd be a good thing not to do.
Our Lord didn't eat much. He didn't sleep much. He was
very moderate. His moderation was known. He
was not overcome by anything. He didn't live for food and drink. He said, let your moderation
be known, your temperance and all these things, but not for
show. And he says, some people, you
know, there's wisdom and neglect in the body, but not for show. No, no, no, no, no. That's showing
people you're worshiping your own will. I have willpower, you
don't. I've overcome this, you haven't. So he's saying, don't do anything
for show. Humility is good. We shouldn't live to satisfy
our flesh. Lust the flesh, lust you out.
That's between you and God. Don't walk around and act like,
look at me. Oh no. Look to Christ. That's where we look. We don't
want people looking at us. We're going to fail. If we do
that, we're going to fail right before their eyes. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. This sums it up. Christ is to
end the law for righteousness to everyone that what? Believeth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Period. You know what comes after
that? Period. Okay.