All right, the subject again,
the question of Christian holidays now. And in Colossians chapter
2, let's look at verse 13 through verse 17. The end of the reading
is where our text is. Colossians 2, 13 through 17. And you, being dead in your sin
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, as he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a triumph of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. 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, which are a shadow of things to come
but the body is Christ. Now in Galatians chapter 4 let's
read verse 8 through verse 11. How be it then when you knew
not God you did service unto them which were by which by nature
are no gods But now, after that you have known God, or rather
are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements whereunto ye desire to be again in bondage? Watch 10 and 11. You observe
days, and months and times and years I'm afraid of you lest
I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." Now this is something
that has been interesting to me for a long time, particularly
in the light of Christianity and some of the common practices
and what we regard nowadays as Christian holiday. Now of course
we ought to justify every action every practice, every custom
that we develop in our churches, we are bound to justify every
practice and every doctrine by an appeal to, thus saith the
word of the Lord. By some scripture authority,
or by the same scripture authority, are exclusions also to be made. That is, we are bound to exclude
from our worship all things which, number one, are not very clearly
and openly taught in the Scripture, if there is no clear teaching
on such a practice. And then secondly, all that is
forbidden by the Scripture ought to be forbidden to be brought
into our form of worship. Now one thing that the church
is from the very first ever, ever. had to be on their guard
about and against is tradition. Tradition and the doctrines of
men and the teaching of men, something that men drew up or
thought up that might be a good idea or that might increase the
crowd or might increase the offering. So we're on the guard against
practices that might enter into the church not because they are
found in the scripture but are introduced by someone or some
preacher based simply and only upon carnal reasoning. And as we know from observing
history, not only history, but looking around us at the practices
that are prevalent today, we know that once something has
entered in and has gotten a foothold, once it has been taught and has
been practiced by, say, a generation or so, It then becomes as a fixed
rule in the church or in the assembly, especially when one
generation receives it from the generation prior unto them. And we see it as the heritage
of our fathers, the thing that our churches have always done. Not only so, But in the time,
the traditions of men are sometimes made equal with Scripture. As time passes by, those traditions
become equal practices with the Scripture. Sometimes the Bible
is laid aside, then men repose to their tradition, sometimes
even to their creeds, and their confessions of faith rather than
the scripture. The scriptures are transgressed,
our Lord said, for the sake of the tradition of men. Remember
that very powerful passage from the Lord found in Matthew chapter
15 and 1 through 9. Now the problem with traditions
and the commandments and the opinions of men is that when
we have seen a thing taught or practiced for a hundred years
and much has been written upon it and the fathers have done
it It then becomes like the law of the meads and the purrs in
Daniel chapter 6 and verse 8. That is, you assume that it is
according to scripture or at least is not a violation of the
scripture because it has always, in your lifetime, than the practice
of your church, then the tendency is not to question it, not to
weigh it and check it out in the light of the scripture. Let
me give you an example, and it may give you a shock. It may
seem radical and may seem far-fetched at first. but I speak of the
origin and the practice of Sunday School in the churches over the
years. It probably did not originate
until the 18th century with the Methodists as I have understood
and learned in Great Britain. It was first started to provide
a basic education for the poor children and the unchurched family
and started in order that it might teach people how to read. But now after A hundred years
or so, it has been ingrained in lead and has become a standard
practice of almost every Protestant church that we might find in
America. Now, you might ask me the question,
What fault can you possibly find with Sunday School? It is the
teaching of the Bible, the teaching of the Word of God. Well, I'm
not so much challenging it, my challenge would be, find it in
the scripture, justify it from the Word of God. And what's more,
will you admit or deny that Sunday school was one way in which the
camel got his nose into the tent with regard to women preachers. We wouldn't let them stand in
the pulpit for a long time, but we'd give them a Sunday school
class back in the back of the building. Now, with that aside,
let's come to consider the matter of Christian holiday. And it
seems that we are constrained by the subject and by the broadness
of it to consider it from two aspects and those two aspects
are as follows. Number one, to consider it first
of all from the standpoint of the Jew and the converted Gentile
in that first century or first Christian era and yet the Jews
insisted on the Christianization of the old holidays celebrated
in Judaism. They held to the same as did
their father. The ones that the fathers were
commanded to keep under the old economy and the Mosaic law. And Paul refers to them, notice
in the text we read, as holy days, new moon, Sabbath. That's some that he mentions
in Colossians 2 and verse 16. And in Galatians chapter 4 and
verse 10, he mentions days and months and times and years. Secondly then, to consider the
question from the standpoint of the Gentiles when they were
called into Christianity. When the Gentile were converted
away from their idol. When the days are different now
than they were then, but nevertheless certain days are always brought
in their place. Now we have some days today,
I'll just mention some in following, pulling it back onto the other.
For example, a good bit is made in our day of Good Friday. Good Friday is a day that's celebrated
by a lot in our time. And Easter is one of the biggest
days of the year. Now, these have been, again,
Christianized, and they have become the holy days, or the
Christian holiday, if you want to call them that. And as we
shall see, there are several others that we also might mention. One more distinction, perhaps,
is why for us to make before we go along and that is to distinguish
those days that are simply and only secular from those that
are regarded as holy or as Christian holiday. We separate the secular
from the religion. Secular such as anniversaries
and birthdays, and the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, New Year's,
Mother's Day, Father's Day, and such like. These are mostly secular,
or private, or cultural. We have no quarrel with them.
They're not on our radar today. And besides, most of them were
invented for the sake of commercial profit anyway, as we know. But now on the other hand, there
are the Christian holidays or there are the religions which
have been Christianized and celebrated and kept as if they were the
holiest of days in Christianity. Now, these are not limited to
Good Friday or to Easter or to Resurrection Day or to Christmas. but are among various sections
of Christendom, we find these kind of days that are kept and
celebrated and they're very meaningful and holy unto them. Reformation
Day, Palm Sunday, Ascension Day, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday. All of these have some religious
significance about them. Then on top of that you'll hear
in some circles of St. Stephen's Day, the 27th Sunday
after Trinity, Pentecost Sunday, Trinity Sunday, and of course
there are many more depending on the section of Christendom
that one might be in. Now these are not a reviving
per se of any of the old Jewish days. but have become a collection
of so-called Christian days that are to be celebrated. That's
why we distinguish the two and handle them separately. So first
of all, the Jewish Holy Days. Let's look at them. We have selected
two texts. Both of them speak of the Holy
Days, and in both of them, did you notice, that Paul is rebuking
them for the observance of these. In Galatians 4, 9 through 11,
he calls the observance of such days weak and beggarly elements
that tend toward bondage. In Colossians 2, 16 and 17, he
exhorts them Not to be judged, that is, not
to be condemned, not to let somebody else take them to task or bind
them under such things or let others sit in judgment on them
in regard to these things as well as to eat and to drink. Or Romans 14, 17, the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink. And yet there are still those
who try to bind the dietary laws of the ceremonial law upon themselves
and even upon others today, or in respect of the holy day, Paul
said, or a new moon or the Sabbath. Now we understand that all of
these were tenets of Judaism. All of these were part and parcel
of the worship of Judaism, of the mosaic are of the ceremonial
law. And in the period before Christ
came and died upon the cross, they were observed, yes, by the
command and the ordinance of God as part of Judaism. For example, they celebrated
the new moon when they feasted and they blew trumpets. Psalm 81 and verse 3. The times a year, all three times
a year, I meant to say, all Jewish males were required to appear
before God in the Temple, Exodus 23 and verse 17. See also Deuteronomy
chapter 16 and verse 16, a yearly atonement, not one now and then. but a set yearly atonement upon
a fixed month and day was to be kept. Every Sabbath day, every
weekly Sabbath, they were to cease from all of their earthly
works and labor except those that were necessary and were
acts of mercy. Every 50th year in Israel was
a year of jubilee when all slaves went free and all land went back
to the original inheritor. Then there were the feast day,
the feast of tabernacle, the feast of the first fruit, and
the Feast of the Passover were celebrated in succession. Leviticus 23 has the record of
those days and when they were to be celebrated. And yet Paul tells both the Galatians
and the Colossians that such days are no part of Christianity. They have served their purpose
and they have lost their significance. I'll say it again. They have
served their purpose for they were temporary and they have
lost their significance for the substance of them is in Jesus
Christ. And for a Gentile to be required
to embrace such observation of days is, quote, another form
of bondage like that that they were in in heathendom, Paul says
in Galatians 4 verse 8 and 9. You ought to see the comparison
he makes between the Jews under the ceremonial and the Gentiles
under the idolatry. So let's focus for a time being
on the text there in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16 and verse
17. And the first thing we notice
in this text is the connection with that that immediately proceeds
in verse 13 through verse 15. Now the connection is made by
the word therefore in verse 16. For it refers to the reason or
the ground or the cause why they should not be allowing themselves
to be judged according to the ceremonial law. Paul's exhortation
then is based upon what he says Christ has done. Upon what Christ
has done and what Christ is unto us. So if we might read again. beginning in verse 13 through
verse 15. And being dead in your sins and
the uncircumcision of your flesh, having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotted out the handwritten ordinances that were against you, nailing
it unto His cross. Now the means of forgiving them
was blotting out erasing, wiping, cancelling as it might be, cancelling
the bond, the handwriting that was of all contained in ordinances
or a better word might be decreed. that was contained in decree. Paul says, looky there, it was
hostile to us and it was contrary unto us, which was against us
and contrary. This Christ did by nailing it
to his cross, taking these things with him when he was put upon
the cross. That Christ in his death both
perpetuated the sins of the elect against the law and vanquish
Satan out of his power. Now at any rate, the exhortation
in verse 16 is based upon the death and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is the focal point. This
is the great changing point. The focal point is the coming,
the death and the work of Christ. because he did this and when
he did this in dying upon the cross, the ceremonial law that
was in force for centuries is abolished. The Mosaic law is
abrogated. No longer are the people of God
to observe such days and seasons and years and months and new
moons and Sabbaths and all of that. Such days, these seasons
are not a part of Christianity. They were not brought over as
a part of Christianity. John Eady of Scotch-Calvin has
said in his book, On Colossian, And I'm quoting, it, that is
Christianity, inculcated no such periodical holidays, unquote. These things were a part of a
system that had waxed old and vanished at the death of Christ. They were not only no longer
necessary or needed, but actually were a hindrance to the glory
of the gospel. They were to be set aside completely. They belong to Judaism, but they
died with Christ and are not to be made a part of Christian
or gospel worship, for they distract from the spirit and the purity
of the gospel and from the spirit of the Christian life when our
life is focused upon days rather than upon Christ. And to further
reflect upon the sufficiency of the sacrifice of our Lord,
and of our Christ, that they appear in antagonism to the grace
of God and to the gospel worship. So the question, why were the
Jewish special days to be denied a place in Christianity beside,
alongside of the gospel of Christ? Why must they be ceased to be
observed by those who had all their life known them? Why does
Paul rebuke them for the celebration of them, those days and those
seasons that were an integral part of their worship and of
their relation to God for years? And the answer is in Colossians
2 and 17. Because they were but a shadow
of things to come. Let's get that. They were but
a shadow of things to come. They were a shadow of new and
better things that were coming. They served well in their time
as a shadow of things that were future at that particular time. Watch the contrast in verse 17,
shadow body. They were a shadow, but the body
is Christ. These things were a shadow, but
the substance, the full body, the reality, the essence of it
belongs in and through Jesus Christ. Note the opening words
then also of verse 17. Which things? Things that he
names here. They are meats, drinks, different
periods of time. Holy Days, New Moons. the Sabbath,
days, months, time, and years. Such things, which things, he
said, these things were shadows. By God's design, they portrayed
something that was future that was coming and helped to keep
up the hope and the expectation in those that observed them by
God's command of that better coming thing. Eadie again, reading
from Eadie, called them, quote, a dim outline, unquote. Think about it in that light.
A rudimentary sketch, he called them again. That it was typical
system, even the time, the days, and the seasons were typical
of something that was to come and to be brought in by Christ. For example, let's look at them
and see the significance of their typology. The day of atonement,
the feast day, even the Sabbath day were typical of Christ. But they were not themselves
the reality of Christ. Hebrews 10 and 1, remember? the
law having a good shadow of things to come but not the very image
or substance of the thing. When the image, that is when
the very images come then the shadow vanishes away and it comes
not dimly but in full and clear light. Let me give you an example
or an illustration. I thought a long time how can
I illustrate this so that it's so easy for us to understand. So imagine in your mind or suppose
in your mind a woman or a wife or a lady friend and her beloved
is away. separated both by time and by
distance. It will be a while, and quite
a distance. Now, she has his picture there
on the drawer, the bureau. She has letters that have come
from his hand, her absent beloved. She rereads the letter, she gazes
at that picture of him, often perhaps even touching, or in
cases, kissing the picture. Then, at the appointed time,
Her beloved returns in person and in body. He appears in the
flesh. Now my question is this, will
she continue to gaze upon the picture and read from the letter? Will she stand and hold and touch
and caress the picture and the letter? which she will espouse
or will she espouse the person himself who has returned and
come in her very present. Even so, why would a Christian
try to find peace assurance, comfort, help in a day or in
a period of time when that which the day or the time represent
has come in reality and that is Christ and He has brought
in the new covenant. In fact, I'll go further. It
is a slight, it is an insult unto our Lord and our Christ
for us to hold to the shadows and neglect the substance, just
as in the earlier example it would be a slight and an insult
to the returning beloved to prefer the picture and the letters or
cold inanimate thing to the one that has come in person. And remember that days are just
days and they become special only by God's special ordination. And such days only receive their
special character as they stood by God's ordinance in relation
to the coming of Christ. And I submit to you that no Jew
could realize the true significance of the special day unless he
saw their relationship unto Christ, the Messiah, the one that was
promised to come. Now the days were not to end
in themselves. The days were not the end in
themselves. They were not to rest in the
observation of the day, nor were they to be retained after the
substance or the reality appeared in the person of Christ Jesus. Or they were, or they had served
as shadows and types. They had been pictures and emblems
of things that were to come when the reality appeared. Now if
you would, consider verse 17 with me again. Which things? That is, such things as one,
distinctions about food, number two, the observance of days and
times and season. In other words, the whole mosaic
or the ceremonial law. The whole system of ordinances
that God gave to the people through Moses. Meet, drink, holy days,
new moon, Sabbath were a shadow of things that were to come. J.B. Lightfoot gives some examples
of these things. Lightfoot generally recognized
as a scholar of the Greek. Lightfoot gives some examples.
He said, the Passover typified what? The atoning sacrifice of
Jesus Christ. And when they made or observed
that Passover, it was typical of Christ. And Paul said, Christ,
our Passover, is sacrificed for us. The unleavened bread that
they were to be so diligent about in their celebration, Paul makes
it to be relative to purity and sincerity. The Pentecostal feast,
the gathering of first fruits, the Sabbath, the rest of God's
people, all of these things were something that were to be realized
in Jesus Christ. We could add others, but the
day of atonement is the great sacrifice of Christ. The jubilee
year foreshadowed the return of all things to their original
state by and through the death of our Lord and Savior, including
liberty, estates, and families all gathered together again after
the year of Jubilee. Of course, the Sabbath foreshadowed
the rest of soul in Christ as well as the eternal Sabbath when
they shall rest from their labor. Now the observance of such days
and seasons and time was a vital part of the Mosaic Law, foreshadowed
the gospel dispensation when Christ would come and bring in
the new covenant. But with the death of Christ,
all such things All such times became useless to be observed. Like, put it this way, quote,
they have ceased to have any value except as a means unto
an end, unquote. And when that end has been reached
or realized, then they have lost their value. They only received
any significance by the ordination of God and only had substance
in what they were typical of, that is, what they foreshadowed
to come. As far as the Jews are concerned,
The worshiping of days and times and seasons and such like is
an evidence that such worship is yet imperfect because it has
not been perfected in Christ. It dwells only in types and in
shadow and is superseded by the fullness that is in our blessed
Lord. So with the death of Christ,
the sacred days became holy and immediately obsolete. Why do you think? The veil in
the temple was rent from top to bottom when our Savior died
at Calvary upon the cross. And we see the rebukes that Paul
gives the people, those insisting on the observances of days, of
seasons and time, and even in the case of the Gentile, insisting
upon physical circumcision. Let no man judge you in such
things as were abolished with Christ dead. In other words,
let no man bind you with a bondage under those things that were
abolished when Christ died. Let not this be the criteria,
what you eat and what you drink. I know a few folks who have bound
the Old Testament dietary law on themselves and would like
to bind it upon others. The truth is we can eat rattlesnake
if we want to under the gospel dispensation. These things are
not to be made a basis of judgment or a ground of judgment. They're
not a proper criteria for judging the extent or the quality of
the Christian profession of another. None are to be condemned for
ignoring and refusing to celebrate or to keep seasons and new moons
and days and Sabbaths. These died with Christ upon the
cross because they were typical of something that he brought
to us in great reality. To offer animal sacrifices, for
example, Neither the other typical things, such as diet and day,
are to be restored and bound upon the Christian, such things
as sacrifice. The priesthood, for example,
was completely abolished, the Levitical priesthood, in the
death of our Lord and Savior. So Paul says to them, Let no
man judge you. Why do you observe times, months,
days, and seasons and such like? Now that takes care of it in
regard to the first century and the Gentiles that were converted,
called, and brought in. Whether we'll go further or not,
give me time to think on it and to pray over it, please. But
that's our message for today.