Turn back in your Bibles this
morning for this hour to Colossians chapter
2 again. Colossians chapter 2. is, "'Tis the season to be judged." I want to say a few things to
preface this message, one of which is that I truly
do believe in the birth of Jesus Christ. I do believe in His humanity. I do believe all those things
that the Scriptures tell us about His birth, where, to whom, and
all these other things. And not only that, I wanted to
say that I'm thankful to God's providence for any time in which
people have off time, in which they have time to rest a bit,
time to be with their families. And I also have nothing against
good food, as you can obviously see. I have nothing against family
gatherings. I'm all for them. And I have
nothing against people for a time being maybe a little nicer to
each other, a little more pleasant. And I have nothing against giving
gifts and receiving gifts. Though our giving as believers
is to be a kindness that we show year round, not just in a season. But this time of year, true believers
have a lot of pressure put on them. Pressure from family, Pressure
from friends, pressure from co-workers. And the reason is because we
do not participate in Christmas as a religious holiday. We know that it has no spiritual,
biblical significance. It is not taught in the Bible. It is certainly not commanded
in Scripture. And the time and the date most
definitely is not the birth of Christ. We don't know when that
was exactly, but we can be fairly sure that it was not in December
25th. And we are not those who participate
in any way, as a matter of fact, no true Christian participates
in any way in any kind of a Christ mass. That simply is born out
of Catholicism. And we know that this is simply
a pagan holiday that false Christianity has adopted. Just check your
history and your calendar and all those kinds of things. And I know that central to true
Christianity is the death of Christ. All you have to do is
read Paul's epistles and see what the emphasis is with regard
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the emphasis is on His death,
burial, and resurrection. And we celebrate that every time
we gather together. All our worship centers around
Christ and Him crucified. All our gathering is again and
again to view all that God has blessed us with through the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, if you don't participate,
In this idolatry, in this religious aspect that is associated with
this holiday, so-called, you're viewed as a fanatic. You're thought of as being a
very hard and calloused person. and in truth not viewed as really
a Christian in the eyes of those who profess to be so. But it is just like the Pharisees
as they were toward the disciples. Matthew says, "...then came to
Jesus scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why
do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?" For
they wash not their hands when they eat bread." This wasn't
just an ordinary hand washing. This is some ceremonial type
hand washing. But our Lord said something to
them. He said, He answered and said
unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God? by your
tradition." Why do you transgress the commandment that is the Word
of God by your tradition? You see, this pressure that believers
feel in this hour is a pressure that they feel oftentimes, usually
daily, regarding something throughout the whole year. They hear a lot of this business
of people asking them, what does your church do for such and such? What are you planning? What have
you got scheduled for this particularly highlighted religious time of
the year? But the Spirit of God leads this
Apostle, the Apostle Paul, to give a command to true believers
Two times in two of these verses here in chapter 2 of Colossians. Verse 16, he says, let no man. Then in verse 18, he begins with,
let no man. Now whatever he's going to say
here, it is in light of what he's already said, because he
uses that word, therefore. Let no man therefore. That is, in light of what has
already just been said. Look back to verse 6. Paul says, "...as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him, and
established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving." Everything's in Christ. Everything's for Christ. Everything's for His glory. We're to add nothing to it, we're
to take nothing away from it. As a matter of fact, in the last
chapter of the Bible, we receive this instruction that anybody
who adds any things to this book, He said, the plagues of this
book shall be added to them. So he goes on in verse 8, he
says, beware. That's something we ought to
pay attention to. Beware. Beware lest any man spoil
you. That means take your goods. Take your treasures. Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." Now listen to this next statement, "...and
you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power." You can't add anything to completion. And no believer
in Christ is short of anything. It doesn't matter what they are
charged with. It doesn't matter what kind of
pressure is put on them to make them feel like that they're less
in some way to others. He said, it's impossible because
they are every one complete in Christ. And they are complete
in this one who is the head of all principality and power."
Then he goes on. He says, "...in whom also ye
are, or you were, circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands." This is something that is not fleshly, but spiritual. in putting off the body of the
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, this having to do
with His death and His resurrection, He says, buried with Him in baptism
wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the
operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead. being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened
or made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." You died in Christ? You were
buried in Christ, in such union with Him, and raised with Christ,
so that now in Him you have been forgiven all your sins. 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." Everything
that is against us. The law, whatever it is, everything
that is against us, He took it out of the way, nailing it to
His cross. He did it through His death.
And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly. all powers and principalities,
everything that is against God, everything that is against His
Word, everything that's against His purpose and His grace. He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it. Our victory is in Christ who
has already triumphed over everything and everyone that is against
us. And so it's in light of those
repeated, wonderful, glorious facts about what Christ has done
for us, how He has dealt with our sins in His cross, how He
has triumphed over all things and all people and all devils. He says, let no man therefore. That is, do not allow, now listen,
do not allow or permit or submit to any person in this, let no
man, meaning no woman, no man, no one, Let no one, no preacher,
no Bible scholar, no writer, no friend, no family member,
no religious person, let no man. You see, the fear of man brings
a snare. brings a snare in a lot of ways. He says in verse 16, let no man
judge you. That means condemn you. It means damn you. Trouble you. Pass judgment on
you. Declare that you're wrong. Say that you're lost. Or that
you're in some way less of a Christian. Let no man judge you. Or, he says in verse 18, beguile
you. That means defraud you. That
means, through deception, take from you, or rob you of your
prize, take from you of that which Christ died for you to
have and enjoy. Don't let anybody beguile you. Not that any man can rob God's
people of their salvation. But they seek over and over again
to take from them the full enjoyment of it. They seek to take from
them the full peace of it, the full rest of it, the full joy
of it, the full liberty of it. If any man be in Christ, he's
in a new creation. And if the Son sets us free,
we are free indeed. If you remember, the Lord spoke
to Eve there in that garden place and said to her, what is this
that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent
beguiled me. He deceived me. He tricked me. And I did eat." And here we have a warning against
that very thing. As a matter of fact, Paul, writing
to the Corinthians, he says this. He says, "...but I fear, lest
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety."
Oh, he's a cunning devil. He's a trickster. He's a counterfeiter. And if he cannot damn the people
of God, if he cannot in some way bring them to that same end
eternally that he himself faces, then it is his desire and delight
to steal from them, or rob them of that joy that comes from resting
only in Christ. Resting and worshipping only
the Lord Jesus Christ. How does he warn that they might
do this? He said, I fear, lest by a lot
of different means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity or the singularity
that is in Christ." What do you need added to Christ? What are we to worship but Christ? How is He to be worshipped except
in that way that He has prescribed and told clearly in His Word? But look back at verse 16, "...let
no man therefore judge you," don't allow it, "...judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new
moon, or of the Sabbath days." Now, if you and I knew all that
involved, it was not simply in Paul's day, But every day since
then, and it includes everything that men and women in religion,
false religion, they hinge everything on, that they emphasize in everything,
that they do, rather than simply worshiping and trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's Christ plus. is Christ and
something that God has not commanded. It's added this and that and
the other. It's details. All these things
make up a description of everything that is external. It's traditions. It's rules. It's things that
the flesh is so easily enamored with. Look at what he says. He said,
let no man judge you in eating or drinking. Do you realize,
as we have lunch today, do you realize that there are many people
in this world who would go by the very table that these ladies
have prepared, they would look at this and look at that and
say, you ought not to eat this, you ought not to eat that, you
ought only to eat this other. You say, well, that's foolish.
No, that's real. That's absolutely the truth.
As if there is some difference, and they would take you back
maybe to the Old Testament dietary laws, and they would make us
to do things or abstain from doing this, because they say
this is what God commands, when in the New Testament it's plainly
that Christ and His disciples did just exactly that. You see, Christ, as well as His
apostles, they taught plainly that all is to be received in
moderation. Boy, we go wrong with that. He says all things are to be
received in moderation and with thanksgiving. God gave it. He provided. And Christ did it. And I think about this a lot,
because it seems like more and more this gets emphasized. You
don't eat meat, you eat only vegetables. People are vegans,
they're this and that and the other. And I'm not saying what's
good for you or what's not good for you. But I'm saying this
to make it a standard by which it has some spiritual bearing
on your soul or your life. That's just as phony and false
as it can be. Somebody said, well, we don't
eat pork, or we don't eat beef, or we don't eat meat. Why? Because I don't want to eat something
that dies. Let me tell you this, I don't
know if it's dawned on you or not, but in order for you and
every person on this earth, in order for you to live, something's
got to die. It may not be a pig or a cow. But
it may be some living green thing, some fruit, something like that. It's got to die for you to live.
Why? Because God has put in this creation
a picture and a witness that this is the only way of life
through death, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul says, when they come
like this, they require this and they require that, just like
these Pharisees did. Turn over to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew chapter 15, and listen
here in Matthew 15 beginning in verse 9. Our Lord says this,
of those who practice these things, the most religious of His day
when He was here on this earth, the scribes and the Pharisees,
it says in verse 9, He says, but in vain do they worship Me. Somebody says, well, you know,
It's alright whatever they do as long as they worship in God.
Do you see what that says? It says, "...in vain or for nothing
they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men. And He called the multitude and
said unto them, Hear and understand." You listen and understand. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of his mouth,
this defileth a man." Really. Then came His disciples and said,
now listen to this, "...knowest thou that the Pharisees were
offended after they heard this saying?" Now, I believe, if any of you
really know me, you know that I do not take any delight in
offending people. I just have hated it all my life,
just for no reason, just offending someone. But here in this book, We find
the perfect man, the only perfect man that's ever lived on this
earth, perfect in himself, Christ himself, when he's told this
by his disciples, do you know that what you just said offended
the Pharisees? But he answered and said, Every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up." What's he saying there? He said they do that because
they're not of God. They're offended. My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. They believe not, Christ said,
because they are not of My sheep." He says, let them alone, they
be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. They've got blind leaders, they're
blind, the blind lead the blind, and they both fall in the ditch. Christ didn't say, you ought
to run apologize to them for me. Tell them that I didn't mean
it like it sounded. No. You see, false religion always
deals in externals. Because it always appeals to
the notion that's in us as sinners, that there's something that we
can do in this flesh, in this body, or not do, and gain or at least improve God's
favor toward us. It appeals to the flesh. It appeals
to our thinking, and not to the truth. He said,
when they start doing this kind of stuff, you look around you.
He said, let no man judge you in eating or drinking. Some will
fuss and fight over whether or not you ought to drink wine or
not. Now, I know what the Bible says,
it says if your brother, if what you're doing is offending, if
eating something offends him, whatever you do, Paul said, I'll
eat no meat as long as the world stands, if it offends a true
brother, a weak brother. Somebody says, well, you know,
that fellow, I've seen him drink a glass of wine, or I saw him
in the grocery store buy a bottle of wine. He's a drunkard and
a soft. Our Lord drunk wine. As a matter of fact, The very
first miracle that he performed in his earthly ministry, if you
remember, was at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, where he
had them to bring, when they had run out of wine, he had them
to bring these six stone pots filled with water. He turned it into wine. And all
those folks at the feast, they said, well, this is some host
that saved the best wine for the last. People usually give
the best wine at the first, and then when they well drunk, then
they bring the other stuff out. No. You see, man just takes all these
things, and he takes it like a man would take a good knife
that you could carve up a steak or something like that, takes
that knife and cuts his own throat with it. Holy days. Let no man judge you
in holy days. You know what a holiday is? A holiday is simply a modern
version or a modern way of saying a holy day. Let no man judge you in holidays
or holy days, Passover, Feast of the Tabernacles, and many,
many more that religion has tried to bring over in the name of
New Testament Christianity, and more that they have added ad
nauseum. They had Good Friday. That was
not enough. They had to add, what is it,
Monday, Thursday, or something like that. They had no command for it. But
they started celebrating Easter, which is simply nothing but another
pagan holiday, which was the worship of Astartes, the Queen
of Heaven. Christ's Mass. all these various
things, and they're going to judge whether or not these observances
show whether a person is a true Christian or not. And they're
so important to them, but they're not to God. You know what's important
to God? His Son. His Word. And we're told by that true prophet
in the Old Testament, he said, if any man speak not according
to this law, to this word, it's because there is no light in
them. No light. He said, let no man judge you,
beguile you with regard to Sabbaths. Special rest days, or the Sabbath. One way would be to call Sunday
after Saturday, the seventh day of the week, was always, from
the very beginning, the Sabbath. To take Sunday now, and without
any command for it in Scripture, to call it the Christian Sabbath. You say, we don't have a Christian
Sabbath? Yes, we do, but it's not a day,
it's a person. That word Sabbath means rest.
And that Sabbath was always a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that rest He gives us in Himself through His life and death. Some want to make an issue of
whether or not what we sing is to be Psalms or not. They say, you're not really worshiping
God if you're not singing Psalms. Is that right? If we sang the
Psalms just as they are in the book of Psalms, do you realize
we never even mentioned the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? We have the psalm Himself. We
sing songs about Him. Our songs are to be true to His
Word. They are to be glorifying and
honoring to Him. But we are not bound to some
exclusive psalmody. Then they add, whether you observe
various rituals, And whether or not we're under the law, whether
or not you subscribe to various confessions of faith and such
as that, Paul said, don't allow them to do that to you. Let no
man judge you in these things. As a matter of fact, the real
judgment of all believers has already taken place, it took
place in the cross. You're going to put me in heaven
or hell based on whether or not I do this or that or some other
thing? You're going to steal away the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of His grace, by making
whether or not I'm a true Christian and whether or not I observe
this day or that day or another? nor by requiring that the law
that was given to the Jews through Moses is now a rule of life for
those in Christ? Where do you find that at? Well,
the old Puritan said that. Where did they find it at? They didn't find it in this book. That's not to say that the law
is not good, holy, and just. But the truth is, what it showed
was all that it can do is condemn us. The law will never save a man
and the law will never make a man holy. You see, Christ is the prophet.
He is our priest. He is our king. And we are to
bow and submit to His Word, not the judgments of men. I forget who it was, an old preacher
said one time, he said, I don't mind being called an antinomian,
but I don't want to be one. What does that mean? It means
that men call you a lawless one. But the only person who is not
a lawless one, is that one who trusts Christ alone and is motivated
to do what He commands out of a principle of love and thanksgiving
to Him. We are to hear Him. We are to
believe Him. We look to Christ who honored
the law. Thank goodness, Paul says in
Romans 10, that he's the end of the law for all that believe. He writes to Timothy and he says,
knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers
of mothers, for manslavers. We have the Gospel. And Christ is everything. Turn
over to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4, and look
down at verse 7. Paul says, Wherefore thou art
no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye knew not
God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and beggarly elements? Where unto you desire again to
be in bondage, you observe days and months and times and years. I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid
for you." That's what he's saying. lest I have bestowed upon you
labor and in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as
I am, for I am as ye are, ye have not injured me at all. Yet
know how, through infirmity of the flesh, I preach the gospel
unto you at the first." He said, I'm as weak as you are,
but what I preach to you is true. What I preach to you, you can
rest your eternal hoping. You can lay down at night, no
matter what kind of pressure somebody puts on you through
the day, no matter what they act as if you're not really a
true believer because you don't observe this or that or the other,
do this or that or the other, you can lay down and rest. Rest. He says in verse 18 of Colossians
2, "...let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which
he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Don't let anybody draw your eyes
off the prize God has set before you in Christ. The end of His
high calling so that you see men rather than Him, hear men
rather than Him, believe men rather than Christ. Let them
not censor you so that because of it, the joy and peace of what
Christ accomplished for you in His life and cross death is diminished. I can usually talk to somebody
about 15 minutes and find out what their gospel is. I can find out. You say, how can you find out?
Because they'll be talking about everything, every issue, every
point of difference, rather than Christ. It'll be about eschatology, the
end times things. Or it'll be about the church.
Or it'll be about some moral issue. It won't be about Christ. Betty and I drove over when we
were living in Kentucky. I was like an hour and a half
riding around an area. And I passed by a church sign
that said Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. And man, you talk about
locking the brakes up, making a quick U-turn. Because there
were some people standing around outside. And I walked right up
to the pastor, began to talk to him. He wanted to know who I was associated
with. I'm not real big on association.
Who do you follow? And the whole time, I could not
turn him and his talking and his thinking toward Christ and
what he believed about Christ. So I just left. Paul said, I pressed toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And these people appear, he says,
in a false humility and seek to bring others to worship their
rules or their messengers or their doctrines rather than God. And they teach that which they
know nothing about, and they're really proud, not humble, puffed
up in their natural mind, not having this lowliness of mind
or the mind of Christ, he talks about. I've heard preachers talk about
things that they know are true, but they can't explain them. Now, I may not be able to explain
every detail about it, but if I believe it, I believe it based
on a plain statement of God's Word. Don't fly me away on some
mystical trip somewhere and tell me about something that you know
is true, but you just can't explain it or you just can't really point
out a verse or a chapter or where Paul or somebody dealt with it. What you believe is that fairytale
about the emperor's new clothes. You don't have anything except
what God says in this book. You don't do anything except
what He says in this book. You do what He says in this book. You believe what He says in this
book. The chief of which is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They grasp these things, these
externals, these days, holidays, holy days, rituals and ceremonies,
and they never embrace Christ the Head. They never come to love Him who
is the One from whom all the true body of the church gets
everything. He says in verse 19, "...and
not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands,
have nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increaseth
with the increase of God." And he says in verse 20, "...wherefore,
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, Why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances?
Why then? What it says is, for as much
as you did die, You died to all these rudiments,
all these elements, principles, carnal, outward, worldly, legal
ordinances. So don't ever let anybody bring
you to be under bondage and subject to them ever again. Paul said, for I through the
law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. These ordinances he describes
in verse 21. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Now think about that. It all
has to do with the senses. Touch it not, taste it not, handle
it not. And that's just simply a way
of describing all the man-made added externals of religion. Don't you touch this. Don't you
taste this. Don't you handle this. Do you know that our natures
are such, and it's displayed early in our
lives, that when somebody tells us not to do something, we're going to do it. That's
words he uses to describe all works, faults, religion. But look at that verse 22, "...which all are to perish with
the using." after the commandments and doctrines of men." Our Lord said they'll stand at
that day of judgment, Matthew 7, and they'll say, Lord, Lord,
have we not done many wonderful things in Your name, preached
in Your name? A man told me this week, That he'd
been so busy hauling hay for the church, he hadn't had time
to do anything else. Hay for the church? Oh, for the
nativity scene. Living nativity scene. I can
assure you one thing, there's nothing living about it. It's death. And I don't say that to mock
anybody. I say that out of concern primarily
for your souls. Let no man. They're going to
put the pressure on you. Because if they can get you to
participate or somehow condone it, it justifies them into doing
it in their minds. Well, what does such kinds of
religion reveal? He says in verse 23, which things
have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility
and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. It just shows that men and women
will not submit to the righteousness of God in Christ, but they go
about to establish their own righteousness. They are willing to worship a
God their way, but not the God in Christ who is the way alone. They appear to humble themselves. in any way, but not to the point
of being saved only by one outside of themselves, which is our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, Christ and Him crucified
is not enough. Not enough. I'm going to close, but I want
to read you one verse. One verse that our Lord spoke
to a woman who knew a little bit about religion, her religion. She said, we know that we worship
in this mountain, and you Jews, you worship in another mountain. Christ said, you worship you
know not what. Then He said this, God is Spirit,
and them that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in
truth. In Spirit and in truth. It is the season to be judged. It is the season to be beguiled. But let no man judge you. Let
no man beguile you. Let no man take and imagine and
try to make you think that they have more than you have if you
have Christ. who, he says, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Father, we ask this day that
you would receive our thanks for all that you are pleased
to give to us and do for us in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank
you for spiritual blessings. For that which You've given us
in Him which will last be ours for eternity. And we pray that
all glory be to You, that You would by Your Spirit cause us
to be led and taught and governed all by what thus saith the Lord. We thank You and we pray In Christ's
name, we thank you for this food. We thank you for everything you
give us. We know you're the giver, and
we're but the receivers. We know what you do for us, you
do for Christ's sake. We pray in His name. Amen.