Legalism is Shadow, Christ is Substance

Transcript

GR 981
8/17/1997
Legalism is Shadow, Christ is Substance
Colossians 2:16-17
Gil Rugh


The book of Colossians and the second chapter in your Bibles. Colossians chapter 2.

There is an interesting phenomenon taking place in the Evangelical church today in which we see a surprising number of people who claim to be Evangelical Christians, making a move to become members of Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. A recent article in "Christianity Today,” I believe it was January 6, l997, had an article entitled "Why I am not Orthodox,” meaning why I am not a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The individual has had quite a bit of contact and involvement in that realm.

In that article he said, "Not a few Evangelicals in the last decade have forsaken Protestantism to join an Eastern Orthodox church." The conversion of 2,000 Evangelicals in l7 congregations from Alaska to Atlanta in l987, recounted in Peter Gilquist's "Becoming Orthodox,” is only a small window into a larger phenomenon. As former Campus Crusade staff member, Gilquist put it, "Why have so many Bible believing, blood bought, gospel preaching, Christ centered, lifelong Evangelical Protestants come to embrace this Orthodox faith so enthusiastically?" Part of the reason, and I believe perhaps the major part of the reason we see evangelical Christians making such a move, is related to the fact that the Evangelical Church has seriously departed from a serious consideration of the word of God. No longer is the worship of our churches taken up with serious and in-depth study of the Word of God and grappling with what God has said, with a desire that God, through the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, will take hold of our hearts and minds and nourish us and strengthen us. The longer we find professing Christians to be as Peter said in 1 Peter 2:2, like new born babes who long for the pure milk of the word, that we might grow with respect to our salvation. As the church has become more shallow, more superficial, more casual, more entertainment oriented, many find themselves adrift, they have a sense that they are not anchored in anything unchanging and permanent. And then there is the appeal of a group like the Eastern Orthodox Church that has traditions and practices that go back centuries and centuries in time, and even though they have serious doctrinal error in a variety of matters, they offer stability. The ritual will be the same next week, next month, next year, in l0 years, in 50 years, in l00 years, and in a subtle but very real way the unchanging truth of the word of God and the power of the spirit of God is replaced by external form, and we find comfort in the belonging to something that will stay the same. We are looking for what is biblical but we are finding it in unbiblical answers or places.

As fellow beings we have a bent toward external form, ritualistic conduct. All you have to do is look at the church more broadly than the Evangelical church and you find it primarily gets taken up with form and ritual and people have identified worship of God with going through certain physical procedures, carrying out certain rituals, coming to mean we have worshiped, going to a certain place, doing a certain thing that becomes worship.

In John Chapter 4, if you would turn there for a moment, Jesus confronted the woman of Samaria. We know her as the woman at the well or the woman of Samaria. There Jesus spoke with her about her true spiritual need and her true spiritual condition. In John Chapter 4:10 he has used the matter of the well in his asking for a drink to initiate the conversation. He says in verse l0, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Verse l3 he said to her "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." She is speaking to the one who Himself is the water of life, who will bestow the spirit of God upon those who believe in Him, who will become in them a spring of water gushing forth. She says "Oh, give me that water then I won't have to make the trip to the well anymore." Jesus now turns the conversation from just the reality of her spiritual condition and the need for the spiritual life and refreshing He can bring to her sinful condition. He says "Go get your husband.” She says, "Well, I don't have a husband." He says, "Well you spoke truly there, you have had five." "Oh, he knows the condition of my life. You must be a prophet,” and on the conversation goes. You know where she wants to change this subject though first? Well, if you are a prophet, boy you know, the Samaritans say we ought to worship at this place, the Jews say we ought to worship at this place, where should you worship? See where her mind immediately goes? To physical things, to the ritual she has associated with worship. What does Jesus say? You know, it really is not the issue of the physical place of worship, and he says be clear, salvation is of the Jews.

But the issue is not worshiping at this place vs. worshiping at this place. Then note verse 23, "But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the
Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. God is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and truth." Somehow we have gotten the misconception that God is looking for a crowd who will come together under a ban or loosely associated with some kind of religious activity, and He should be pleased when we give it our best shot to get as big a crowd as we can.

God is seeking a certain kind of people, people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. So genuine worship is not associated with physical activity. It takes place in the realm of the spirit. It takes place in the context of God's truth, revealed truth.

Turn over now to Colossians Chapter 2. This is where we are in Colossians. In Colossians 2, verse 8, Paul warned the Colossians believers, "See to it that no one take you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

You will be following men's ideas rather than God's truth. Now that is a warning to believers. See to it that no one takes you captive by worldly wisdom and ideas that
come from men not from God.

Now what He is going to do, picking up with verse l6 through the end of the chapter, verse 23 , is unfold the details of some of the false teaching that was confronting the Colossians, give them a warning of the general state. These kind of things come from men, not God. Let's look at some of the details, so that they may be forewarned, forearmed and prepared. And in verses 16 to 23 it is really going to cover three areas that are intertwined so the line is not a firm separation that blends into one another yet there are three distinct emphases. The first will be on legalism, the necessity of keeping the law and Jewish ideas for a right relationship with God. The second area will deal with mysticism and emotionalism. The third area will deal with asceticism, which is admired by people but is not a way to God or living the Christian life. We will focus on the first of these areas, legalism, in our study of, verses 16 and 17 together in our time.

Verses 16 and 17 deal with what we call legalism. The idea that by observing certain rules and laws, we can either be saved or if we are saved, our sanctification is more effectively accomplished. We become more what God wants us to be and do when we keep the law or parts of the law. We note verse sixteen begins with the word therefore. However, you mark your Bibles you ought to underline that or highlight it. Because it is a connecting word, it tells you now, in light of what I have explained to you regarding the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, in His person as God as well as man. In light of your identification with Him in His death, burial and resurrection, let me say this to you. So we have the doctrine as presented as the foundation, now let’s expose the heresy and the error. "Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day--things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." Let no one act as your judge. Those who believe that keeping the law or parts of the law are necessary for a godly life would like to sit in judgement on those who don't keep the law. What Paul is saying is don't be intimidated by those kind of people. Don't let them exercise authority over you because you are right and they are wrong, and these kind of people can be very intimidating. They don't come and say "You know, you don't have enough in Christ, you know the Bible is not enough.” No, they come saying "You're not being faithful." The unchanging God has given us the entire Bible. He gave the law for His people to live lives that honor Him, and if you don't keep the law you cannot honor Him. You are pushed back and on the defensive. You are not willing to be as godly as God wants you to be, you are antinomian--anti against nomian law, Mosaic law. You're against law, you are a lawless person, you just think people can live anyway they want and do whatever they want. We say, No I don't think that’s what I mean. Is that what my church teaches? I do not believe the Mosaic law is enforced for God's people today. I do not believe that God's people are lawless, but we are not under the Mosaic law. We do have the law of Christ which is not the same as the Mosaic law. Let's look at some of the details of what he says and we will cover what is the issue here.

Let no one act as your judge in regard to. It really covers by name five things. They relate to one another as we'll see. Food and drink: The law contained extensive regulations regarding what you could eat and not eat, clean and unclean foods, foods that were allowed to be eaten and foods that were not allowed to be eaten. We won't go back to the Old Testament, but Leviticus Chapter 11, Deuteronomy Chapter l4 are two chapters that give you extensive regulations regarding food, so if you're not real familiar with the Mosaic Law you might go back and read Leviticus Chapter 11 and Deuteronomy Chapter 14 as two chapters that cover much of the law. What these legalists were saying is "You're obligated to observe these dietary regulations if you really want to be a person who walks with God. Don't you think God had a purpose when He gave them?"

In my reading this week, I was reminded of a book that I read years ago. The purpose of the book is that God's dietary regulations in the Old Testament were given for health reasons, and if you follow the dietary regulations of the Mosaic Law, you solve a lot of the health problems you might have. Some people believe that makes sense! I do have a problem with that. Under grace, for example, God is going to tell Peter, "Eat everything."

I don't like to think, that under the Mosaic Law, God wanted His people to have clean arteries and under grace He wants them to clog them. So I'll be careful my interpretation of scripture doesn't become foolish, because there are people who think that at least some of the dietary regulations of the Old Testament are obligatory upon God's people today, and really are necessary, if you are to have a truly godly life. And the person goes through cycles, and there are times, especially in a day like ours where health is in, you know, lean and mean and all of this? We would like to tie some of that to the scripture because then we can show people well we were ahead of today. God knew about health before you did and really we end up misusing the scripture, trying to fit the pattern of the world rather than interpreting the scripture to the world.

Look back in Mark, Chapter 7. Jesus is dealing with this matter of traditions of keeping the law of a true heart relationship with God, which is really the issue. God is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth, so it must take place in the realm of your inner person, in your spirit. Verse l5 of Mark Seven, there is nothing outside the man, which going into him can defile him. Now, you have that marked in your Bible. I still have people, in conversation, that I hear saying, "They shouldn't eat like that, they are defiling their body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit." Now wait a minute, wait a minute. Jesus said "Nothing outside the man,” greasy potato chips, "going into him can defile him." So, you may say it is not healthy for you to eat like that, but don’t tell me it spiritually defiles me. When you see me patterning my life after Charles Spurgeon, whom I refer to often, by propping up after my sermon and smoking a big, fat cigar, you may say "No, no,” but you can't say "You shouldn't smoke, that defiles the temple.” When I was a young person that's what they told me. You know, I shouldn't smoke as a Christian because it will defile the temple, do you want to fill up your temple with smoke? Well, by the grace of God I didn't smoke, but you know, that's not a biblical reason, because nothing going into the mouth defiles the person. The things which proceed out of the mouth are what defile the man. What comes from in your inner person, in your heart and mind, and if you wonder what He is talking about, down in verse 20 to 23, he gives you some specifics. Those are what are defiling. So, please no more "Christian" health books that try to relate your body is the temple, so you have to keep it as good a condition--that's not what God is concerned about. Whether you have rippling muscles or flabby muscles. That's not the issue in your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord. I looked in the mirror this week. You know, all I could think of was Old Testament Ichabod, and I'm sure in my mind I remember more glory than there ever really was.

Look at the end of verse nineteen. "Thus, He declared all foods clean." That takes care of the issue of foods, doesn't it? So, anybody that wants to come to me and say that there is a spiritual issue, in you eating this food or not eating this food, say forget it, I don’t have anything to talk to you about. That's heresy. Jesus has declared all foods clean. That doesn't mean He has declared all foods healthy. It's a different issue. I'm not saying that if you eat potato chips that's just as healthy as eating carrots. But, there's not a spiritual issue associated with potato chips verses carrots, or anything else. I'm just grabbing for two different things. Besides I like to use potato chips. I haven't had any for a while. I don't want to mention anything I've eaten. He has declared all foods clean.

All right, go to Acts Chapter 10. This is the account that I mentioned with Peter. Peter is being prepared to go to the house of Cornelius. It's getting near lunch time. He goes up on the roof to wait for lunch to be prepared. While he's up there, he falls into a trance and God communicates to him in that trance. Verse 11 of Acts 10, he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet comes down, lowered to the earth, in the sheet are all kinds, verse 12, of four-footed animals, crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him and said, "Peters, arise, kill and eat." Peter said, "By no means, Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." Get it straight, Peter, God is the standard, not you. God has declared all foods. If you are a vegetarian, fine. God's not. Now, He's not a “meatetarian” either, or whatever the word is. It's not an issue in your relationship with Him. If you chose not to eat meat, that's your business. If you chose not to drink coffee, that's your business. But in the sheet, there were all kinds of four-footed beasts. I don't know if there is any coffee in there, but all kinds of four-footed beasts. There is no issue of clean or unclean. So, what you eat is not a spiritual issue, as far as this is acceptable, this is not.

I am belaboring the point, but do we have it fixed in our mind? The world shapes so much of our thinking, even as the church, and when it gets on a certain craze or kick like a health kick, and I'm not against being healthy. I eat sort of funny myself. We begin to try to fit the scripture into it, so we can have Jazzercise and everything else that is Christian.

Come back to Colossians Chapter 2. Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink. It's a non-issue. Or, in respect to a festival, a new moon, a Sabbath day. These are related to Israel. A festival would have been one of the great annual feasts of Israel, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles. You can jot down Leviticus 23 if you want to read some of the great annual festivals or feasts of Israel. A new moon, that would refer to the celebrations and sacrifices done at the beginning of each month, mentioned in places like Numbers 10:10, Numbers 28:11. Or a Sabbath day, or as we have it in the Greek text here Sabbath Days, plural. There is more discussion that probably comes out of this one than any of them. Sabbath Day or Sabbath Days. First of all let me say that the plural here, there is good evidence that it can be taken as a singular, Josephus, First Century, New Testament period of time, historian, Jewish historian, uses the plural to refer to the Sabbath day. There are other evidences as well.

There are many Christians who believe we are obligated to the Sabbath day. We get into part of this trap by we are obligated to the Mosaic Law or at least part of it, don't you think people ought to keep the Ten Commandments? And doesn't one of the Ten Commandments say "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?” Therefore, you must keep the Sabbath day. We have a couple of branches on this. We have groups that are identified as Seventh Day people. They could be a Seventh-Day Baptist, a Seventh-Day Adventist or whatever. They believe you have to keep Saturday as the Sabbath. If not, you break the law and you are guilty before God. There are others who say well, we have the Christian Sabbath. Sunday has become the Christian Sabbath. So now the first day of the week is really the seventh day of the week because the Sabbath is the seventh. But the seventh is the first because we are Christians. So remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy as the first day, because we now don't keep the seventh day, we keep the first, and that helps a lot. And if you have ever tried to use that argument on someone like a Seventh-Day Adventist, you know you are dead in the water, because the scripture is totally on their side in regards to the fact the Sabbath day is Saturday, not Sunday. Many of the old time preachers will refer to the Christian Sabbath or Sabbath school referring to what goes on, on Sunday. The Sabbath day and keeping the Sabbath day holy was a sign given to the nation Israel to mark their unique identification as the people of God.

We'll have to go to the Old Testament, look at Exodus Chapter 31, verse twelve, here matters related to the law, Exodus 31, twelve. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying.” Now, note who He's talking to, the sons of Israel. "You shall surely observe my Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you." For Israel. Down in verse 17, "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever". Now some people get into a problem because they don't recognize the distinction between Israel and the church in the scripture. They say, well, Israel is the people of God, the church is the people of God, so all these things apply to the people of God. But then we have to arbitrarily pick and choose what we take here. Verse fourteen, "You are to observe the Sabbath, it is holy to you.” Well, do you read the next line? "Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death." Oh, no, no, no we don't do that. We observe the Sabbath to keep it holy. Then we disobey God on the last part of that. What did Israel do with a man caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath? I have not talked to anyone in my day, in my life time who was arguing to keep the Sabbath who had ever been part of the stoning. So we need to be careful that we don't play fast and loose with the word of God. These people who say, "Oh, we're the ones who really keep the law, we're the ones who really honor God, we're the ones who have lives of obedience, we keep the Sabbath,” at least part of what He said about the Sabbath. But, all you have to do is read, the Sabbath is given as a sign of God’s relationship with Israel. He connects it to creation. They want to take you back to creation and say "Well, God created the world in six days and He rested on the seventh.” But, there is no indication that there was a special observance on the Sabbath day up until this time when God gave it to Israel. He did that pattern, he established the pattern of our week, but the unique observance of the Sabbath was to mark off God’s relationship with Israel.

Look over in Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 20, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Go a little past the middle of your Bibles, you will hit Ezekiel, one of those larger prophetic books which helps us find it. Ezekiel, Chapter 20, centuries have gone by since God gave that command to Israel through Moses. Israel has not been faithful and they are chastised for it. We're told in Ezekiel, Chapter 20, Verse 12, "And I also gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes, and they rejected My ordinances, My Sabbaths they greatly profaned.” You see, it all goes together as a package. They were disobedient to the laws and commandments that God had given to Moses which included observing the Sabbath. That was a sign of God’s relationship with Israel. Verse Twenty, "Sanctify My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, but the children rebelled against Me." We need to understand that the Sabbath was given to mark God's unique relationship with Israel as a nation. Similar, as circumcision was given as a physical sign of His unique relationship in covenant with Israel. In our last study, bad theology always catches up to you. So, you are in error in recognizing a distinction between Israel and the church. You don't understand, Israel is not the church, the church is not Israel. You try to blend them, pretty soon you're trying to sort your way through the Mosaic law, I'll take this piece out, we are obligated to do it, keep the Sabbath, I reject this, execute the one who doesn't keep the Sabbath, I'll pick this out but I won't take this, I'll observe this but I won't observe this, and it's a pick and choose. We are going to talk about that later on in our study, so we'll come back to that.

Days are not an issue in the church. In the book of Acts, Chapter 20, Verse 7 the church met together on the first day of the week for breaking of bread. In 1 Corinthians, Chapter 16, Verse 2, they gathered a collection on the first day of the week. Therefore, to honor God we must meet on the first day of the week. Wrong. A couple of passages indicate that the early church did, but we decided we’re not meeting on Sunday any more. We'll be meeting on Thursday, because that works out better for everybody. Now, everybody has to work on Sunday, but Thursday is the day off. We have Christians who would go to the stake because they would think they were defending God's word in saying no, it has to be Sunday. Look over in Romans, Chapter 14.
Paul had to deal with this issue of observing days and watching out for food repeatedly. Romans 14, the whole chapter deals with the subject of what you eat, the days you observe. A good chapter to read to refresh your mind, but we'll just pick up beginning with verse one. "Now, accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgement on his opinions." Remember, don't let people judge you in these regards, food, drink, days. So, remember you are not to judge others in this regard, don't let them judge you, you don't judge them. "One man has faith that he may eat all things, another who is weak eats vegetables only.” He is weak because he doesn't think he is allowed to eat pork sandwiches. You're weak when you have less knowledge of scripture, so the vegetarian is the weak brother. "Let not him who eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another?" Now, keep in mind the contents of that, you don't judge another. It doesn't say if he is sleeping with his father's wife he shouldn't judge him, as 1 Corinthians Five deals with. Yes, you do. But, you don't judge in this area where God says it’s not an issue. Verse five, one man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. The end of Verse 23 says whatever is not from faith is sin. God has no commandment to give you on what you eat or don't eat, what day you observe and don't observe. You say, Oh, you mean I don't have to come here on Sunday? Well, you can't forsake the assembling of yourself together. So, we as a church and the leaders that God has provided in this place says meeting at l0:00 a.m. on Sunday morning is a time that fits the schedule, the pattern that has been established in our society and culture, fine. But, you understand something to change on that, this day is not a holy day.

Early in our Christianity, my family was members of a group that believed that Sunday was the Christian Sabbath, for example I wasn't allowed to ride my bike on Sunday, and you don't do that on Sunday, this is the day we keep holy. I always scratched my head and wondered is riding a bike unholy? I mean, will you defile the Sabbath? Well, you know, we get into all kind of confusion on this. I'm not saying, there is not profit in having a day where we have decided as a family we set this day aside for the Lord. You know, it's good for us to have our mind focused on Him and who He is and build our day around this day. And, really, in the way we are set up in our culture and society this is about the only day we can do that. You know, for most, any other day of the week with the possible exception of Saturday, since we are on a weekend schedule, it would be hard to meet together in the morning and again in the evening, most men would be working in the morning. We have other duties, kids would be in school, so we follow the pattern. But, we don't want to get this connection, oh boy, if we couldn't have church on Sunday morning we couldn't worship. We could do it on Thursday night, we could do it on Friday morning. You understand, the day is not the issue. Now anything we do over time becomes locked in for us. You know, this site becomes holy.

Interesting, it goes back a few years, but someone observed someone having a cigarette in the building. I would have thought they would have more respect for a church, for those bricks, that drywall. Well, you know, this is a sanctified place. At least not in the auditorium. Now, it's one thing if you don't like the smell of smoke or whatever, but, I mean, as far as defiling the building? Not likely. So, we understand, we do develop a set what we want to move to the external, we want to move to the external. We are traditional at Indian Hills. Anytime we have any change in the way we do things, some peoples' hearts start to get out of control. We have ruined worship. They put the offering earlier in the service. We don't close with a hymn. How can you have a worship service if you don't close with a hymn? And now we close with a hymn. Well, for a while we had to go through why we're closing with a hymn. You know, any changes you constantly have the turmoil. You know, you come here from a church background where, what, they recited the Lord's prayer. Now, we don't recite the Lord's prayer. You know, I don't feel like I worshiped. I have had, I don't know how many people say to me, you know, I just don't feel like I've worshiped when we haven't recited the Lord's prayer. I'm not saying there's anything wrong if you want to recite the Lord's prayer, but I'm saying these physical things we do, we have to worship God in spirit and truth. The focus of our worship is Him and what He has said in His word. Some day you come in and the carpet is green and the walls are pink, say Praise the Lord for green carpet and pink walls, I'm glad we worship Him in spirit and truth. And call Don for your complaints!

Galatians, Chapter 4, we have to move on. Galatians 4:9. “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things," things of the law, that's what elemental things are, "you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear I have labored over you in vain." You don't understand grace at all. Maybe you were never even saved. That's the struggle. Come back to Colossians Two. All these things, and incidentally, festival, new moon, Sabbath day are used in the Old Testament. For example, 1 Chronicles 23, 31, that's the only verse I'll give you, there are a number of them. 1 Chronicles 23, 31, festival, new moon, Sabbath are used as a way to lump together all the special days that might be observed under the Mosaic law. They just use those three expressions, a festival, new moon, Sabbath days and that encompasses all the special day observances in Israel, including the weekly Sabbath, annual feasts and on we go. These things, Colossians 2:17 are a shadow of what is to come, the substance belongs to Christ. Hebrews Chapter 10, Verse 1 says the things of the law were a shadow of what was to come. But the sacrifices could never cleanse a person's heart. They just anticipated the coming of the one who could cleanse hearts by His death.

Galatians 3, 24 and 25 gives the same picture under a different analogy. The law was a tutor, a school master to bring us to Christ, but now that Christ has come we don't need a tutor any longer, saying the same thing, the law was the shadow, Christ is the substance. The two key words here, in verse 17 of Colossians 2, shadow-substance. So underline it or circle it. Shadow-substance or substance is the word body. The tangible reality is Christ. These things just anticipated Him. It's like as if someone is standing around the corner, there is a light behind him, you see their shadow. You know that they are there. You anticipate their coming because you saw their shadow fall across the doorway. The substance belongs to the person. So it is with Christ. Why do you want to go back to the shadow? You have Christ now.

You know, it's like, in a little different way, the one you are in love with. You're gone, you look at their picture fondly, you know, during war and so on, those things. All you have is the picture. The person comes back, you just keep going back to the picture, you say, something is wrong here. Quit kissing the picture, kiss me. I'd rather kiss the picture. It’s understandable! I mean, you have Christ and now people want to go back to the shadow. Something is wrong.

Now, let me say something about the attempts, and this is a battle at Indian Hills. We have recently had families that have left Indian Hills because they do not believe that we were faithfully incorporating the law into the ministry. It is a serious issue. I spend hours with these people. There have been times, oh yea, I understand these issues. Be sure you understand them. When the teaching comes, it always comes and they're hitting you and says, well, there seems like something here that’s true. I mean God did give the law. And let's face it, we are not to keep the ceremonial parts of the law, I agree. You know, we're not bound to the ceremonial things, food and drink, certain days. We don't keep the civil things because we don't have an earthly government, but we do have to keep the moral aspects of the Mosaic law. Now what we do, is divide the Mosaic law into the ceremonial, the civil and the moral. We don't have to keep the ceremonial, we don't have to keep the civil, but we have to keep the moral, and don't you think you have to keep the moral, you think it's all right to commit? You think it's all right to steal? Well, no. Well then you believe we should keep the Mosaic law, the moral aspect, don't you? No, I don't. That's where they get into trouble as well. They say we keep the ten commandments. Well, we have to work the Sabbath into that because the Sabbath is one of them. I keep certain things that were true in the law, but nine of those ten commandments are repeated as God's will and command for the church today. They're also repeated without the penalty that goes with them under the Mosaic law.

Understand that the Mosaic law is a unity. It is a one. It cannot be broken up or parceled out. James Chapter 2, Verse 10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." The Jews broke up the law into 613 commandments. Incidentally, that break down of the law as ceremonial, civil and moral, occurred centuries after the New Testament. As far as we can tell, the Jews never recognized such a threefold distinction within their law. I know they don't observe it today. They certainly didn’t in New Testament times. That was a later division that men made, non-Jewish men. I believe it goes back to Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas, who was the first to make that distinction, but don't hold me to that.

So, this idea, the Jews recognize their law is a law. James says you break one commandment of the law, pick the commandment, no matter if you say it's in the ceremonial parts or the civil parts or the moral parts. If you break one of them, you have broken them all. You cannot say I am going to now just dismantle the law. Paul put it this way in Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 3, "I testify to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law.” Because if you’re saying you have to put yourself under part of the law, the part he talks about in Galatians Five is circumcision, then you must live under the whole law. The law is a unit. It's one entity. Galatians 6:14 says "You are not under law as believers today, but under grace, for you are not under law but under grace."

We get this idea that we can just arbitrarily go back and say, Oh, yes we have to keep the moral aspect of the law. Now, some have seen the inconsistency of that. The Reconstructionist as they are sometimes called, are arguing that we really need to implement the Mosaic law in its entirety, our civil laws. Our government ought to be an implementation of the Mosaic law. They are promoting, and I was reading one man on this, was saying it may take five thousand years, but we will. And, there is something in us that responds to that. Why, that would sure clean up our society, wouldn't it? Enforce capital punishment on sins as the Mosaic law did and so on. The problem is it fails to recognize that kind of teaching. The distinction God has placed between Israel and the church. They blend it all together and Christians jump on it because, what do we like? We like the idea that at least somebody is standing for morality today. Somebody believes something is right or wrong and at least we can be glad about that. All of a sudden we have lost our way. Paul is not telling the Colossians, be glad somebody is at least standing for something today. No, no, no. God is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. He is not just looking for people who will stand for something today. He is looking for a particular people who stand for a particular thing. How quickly and easily we lose our way as believers when we're not anchored in the word. That's why the devil works and we see this in our next section of study that what he does is move us away from Christ, away from God's plan for godliness. With good things, well it can't hurt. I still have allegiance to Christ and I'm just incorporating part of the Mosaic law in my life. I am not saying we don't learn something from the Mosaic law. I'm not saying, there are not things that are applicable to us in the Mosaic law. I learned from the sacrificial system, even though I'm not under the sacrificial system.

The idea that God gave commands so we have to obey them because God's commands are unchanging and He's the unchanging God, is stupid. That's a good theological word. Paul uses the Greek word, “moron” in 1 Corinthians, so you can use that one if you want. God commanded Noah to build an ark. Therefore, God is the unchanging God and Noah was the most righteous man on the face of the earth. In fact, his family were the only righteous people on the face of earth and God commanded them to build an ark. Therefore, all righteous people build arks. Get home and start. You say that's dumb. Well, why then because God gave commandments to Moses for Jews as an earthly nation? Do I get taken in by people who say, well, you know, you're antinomian because you don't want to enforce the Mosaic law? The Mosaic law served the purpose like the command to Noah to build the ark served a purpose, like the command to Abraham to leave his country and go to a strange country he had never been to. Therefore, all people who want to be obedient to God should leave the land to which they were born and raised and go to a place they'd never lived. What? Well, I did. I left Philadelphia and came to Nebraska, it's a foreign land. There is no end to the foolishness.

Donald Gray Barnhouse, some of you have benefitted from some of his writings, went home to be with the Lord in the early sixties, pastored a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. He wrote something years ago that’s very much to the point. "It was a tragic hour when the reformation churches wrote the Ten Commandments into their creeds and catechisms and sought to bring Gentile believers into bondage to Jewish law, which was never intended, either for the Gentile nations or for the church.". That's true. You know, nowhere in the Old Testament is there any word that the Gentile nations ought to observe the Sabbath for example, or keep the law period. It was for the nation Israel.

So, all these laws, subtle ways people come presenting supposed truth that will help us be more godly and live more honoring to God and will stem the tide of the decadence around us, are subtle forms to corrupt the sufficiency of Christ. The work accomplished in our lives in an ongoing way as a result of His finished work and our identification with Him. A person cannot be saved by keeping the law, by keeping the Ten Commandments. Romans 3, 20, "By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight." Not one single person will be declared righteous before God by keeping the Ten Commandments or any other part of the law for that matter. Nor, now get this Christians, is sanctification in the lives of the redeemed accomplished by keeping the law. Galatians Two and Three "This is the only thing I want to find out from you, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?" Well, when you believed in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit came and in dwelled you, you didn't get the Holy Spirit by keeping the law. "Are you so foolish?" Stupid? "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected by the flesh?" God's pattern hasn't changed. I have to pray for myself,
Lord, keep me from being stupid. I easily begin to veer from the path with good intentions, influenced by people with good intentions. Lord, may I be anchored in your word and hold it tightly. In Christ, we have full sufficiency for salvation and for sanctification, praise God. We keep this before us it will spare you much heartache and confusion, and spare your pastor much grief as well. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for your graciousness, the grace provided for us in Jesus Christ, the all sufficient Savior and in Him we have everything necessary for life and godliness. Lord, spare us from good intentioned people and teachers. May everything be brought under the light of your word, that we might walk the path that you have set before us, that we might be a people who are testimonies to the power of your grace in producing the wonder of your character in your people. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.