Shadow of Things to Come

[Music] we're good afternoon to all of you it's always good to be here and it's always good to be in the festival season we definitely are are in the season my wife and I will be leaving Monday we have 6:00 a.m. flight and traveling to Hong Kong to visit several people there and then down to the Philippines for atonement and New Zealand and Australia for the feast as well as visit the office down there in Adelaide so we're looking forward to being there we definitely are not looking forward to the actual flights this is that is not fun under the best of circumstances but I know that many of you will be traveling a lot of you are traveling out of the country this year some over to Spain some to France some to Thailand as well as the United Kingdom and I'm sure a few other places around the world please do remember all of our brethren as was mentioned in the announcements the situation in Puerto Rico is is quite serious I heard on the news the other morning Geraldo Rivera was talking he has family there I guess he's from there originally but the country is really devastated and they're not expecting electricity to be restored for months literally because of the the infrastructure that is there was pretty poor to start with and they're essentially going to have to rebuild from the ground up and so that could be a very difficult situation for our brethren there I know that just before services talking somebody who has family there and I imagine there are several people here who have a family in that part of the world mr. Rago was in Mexico City during the earthquake but he has family apparently in Puerto Rico as well so there are people the human beings who are suffering I can only imagine what it must be like to be under rubble for several days and having aftershock and being trapped underground like that that's got to be one of the worst nightmares that anybody could ever imagine I would imagine that for years they would have nightmares if they if they do survive it so whether their church members or not it's a terrible thing and I hope our heart certainly go out to them God is allowing these things remember what it says in Matthew the 24th chapter speaks of Wars rumors of wars of course false Christianity various plagues and earthquakes and it says these are the beginning of Sorrows just the beginning of Sorrows and whether what we're seeing now with this cluster of disasters is really the beginning of something or if it's simply coincidence and we'll have a period of respite for a while we don't know yet but this is kind of what we expect at some point in time but let's let's wait and see just exactly where we are in prophecy not jump to conclusions the biblical festivals are celebrated by Jews some Jews as well as some professing Christians there are more and more professing Christians that are observing the Feast of Tabernacles and the various festivals I'm not sure that they understand what they're doing in fact I'm pretty sure they don't but they keep them not as obligations but more as a curiosity sort of thing neither Jews nor professing Christians really understand the meaning of these days yet there's one passage of Scripture that gives us the overview one passage that gives us the clue as to the meaning of these days of all of them in a broad general sense that passage because it is in the New Testament is not on the radar screen for Jews and that pass he just totally misunderstood by professing Christianity and pretty much turned upside down to mean just the opposite of what it is saying by professing Christianity so today I'm going to expand and the portion of scripture that gives us the key to understanding the festivals and the holy days and that passage is a familiar one for us it is Colossians the second chapter verses 16 and 17 this turn over there and read that passage to start out with and we're going to spend an awful lot of time in the book of Colossians today Colossians 2 and I'd like to read first of all verse 8 it says beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ and down then down in verse 16 in other words verse 8 says that there is a problem that Paul was addressing and so Paul says concerning these problems he says so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ this of course is the New King James translation that I've just read now I'd like to go to some outside sources here for a very specific purpose and that is to show that there are a number of commentaries that recognize the fact that what is spoken of and verse 16 and verse 17 are not related to or not specifically talking about the Old Testament there are references they recognize but they're not talking about the Old Testament laws of the Sabbath or of the laws of clean and unclean meats and it might surprise you that there are a number of commentaries that recognize that fact although I will say this if you read the whole commentary on this subject they all mess it up eventually and essentially are saying that we don't have to keep the Sabbath we don't have to keep the holy the the new well newman's we don't but the the laws have cleaned unclean meats they all get back to that sooner or later but they recognize that what is being spoken of here is more than Old Testament laws for example in the first one that I'll read here first commentary and I hope you'll bear with me as I read a few of these the interpreters Bible on page 138 of volume 11 it says the teaching was described by his proponents as a philosophy so we're dealing with a philosophy that is the problem here in Colossians Paul suggests that it would be better styled vain deceit as we read there in verse 8 or he says beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty or vain deceit they may appeal in some sense to tradition probably claiming for their system the support of a secret tradition handed down from remote antiquity giving it the glamour of an immemorial wisdom stemming from some ancient seer the system itself seems to have rested upon a doctrine of angelic beings and we'll see that as we go through the sermon today called quote the elemental spirits of the universe that's in verse 8 now in verse 8 there are several different or two different approaches when it says the basic principles of the world a number of sources believe that it is referring to the elemental spirits of the universe or of the world mowers to angelic beings there are others that think that it's referring to the ABCs of religion the the basic foundations or the very first things that you learn like a child learning these ABCs of religion but there is obviously some reference to angels in the whole passage because in verse 18 it says let no one cheat you of your reward taking delight and false you and worship of angels so there's something to that and I think that the translation elemental spirits of the world or of the universe certainly has great merit says these spirits were held to be organized in a celestial hierarchy with titles to denote their several ranks and then the commentary refers to chapter 1 and verse 16 where it speaks of of Thrones dominions principalities and authorities of a hierarchical structure now notice this statement they are taken to have important functions as mediators between man and the highest divinity which is as it were unfolded in them in their totality they constitute the plural or play Roma which is the word for fullness and we'll look at that a little bit more as we go through the full complement of divine activities and attributes these offer men Redemption a sort of salvation by works approach they offer men Redemption but in some sense not compatible with the Christian gospel neither consisting and forgiveness of sin nor mediated through Christ in his passion and resurrection now I know there's a lot of words there and it's easy to get lost in them but there are certain points that I want to emphasize as we go through here that's from the interpreters Bible page 138 on volume 11 then also in a commentary on the Pauline epistles page 1 or 399 a commentary on Pauline epistles page 399 it says the following what were these false teachings threatening Colossae and that's the question that we might have Zahn thinks it is an extreme judaistic heresy similar to that earlier threatening the Galatians lightfoot thinks it might be acini ism or the essence so do some German scholars but we the individuals who were involved with the commentary on the Pauline epistles but we with most modern scholars think it was Gnosticism this gnostic theory of actions as intermediaries between God and man was a serious threat that of the doctrine of Christ as the only intermediary between God and man as Christ is the only intermediary but in the Gnostic religion it was Gnostic means gnosis or no knowledge you had to have the knowledge of who these various angels were my name and you could then pray to them to get up to the floor only play Roma meaning God that God is up here and man's down here and you have a number of intermediaries to go through and that Christ was simply the last of the intermediaries it says the Gnostic theory of Em's as intermediaries between God and man was a serious threat to the doctrine of Christ as the only mediator intermediary between God and man the fact that Paul emphasizes the person and work of Christ in this letter as nowhere else in his writings is strong evidence that Gnosticism is the heresy to be combated there now the new Bible Commentary revised also looked to Gnosticism as being the problem for the Colossians and on page eleven thirty nine of the new Bible Commentary revised it says the other problem relates to the supposed allusions on the Epistle to the Gnostic ideas of the second century now remember this was written in the first century Gnosticism really developed more fully in the second century but it makes this statement it should here be noted that a distinction needs to be drawn between incipient or early development Gnosticism and fully developed narcissism there are no doubt points of contrast with the form but not with the latter in other words Gnosticism didn't come from nowhere it didn't just rise up in the second century it had earlier roots like most movements it starts slowly and builds and eventually becomes more full-blown and so the new Bible Commentary revised is saying that that there were early tendencies toward Gnostic ideas even in the first century and they believe that that is the problem here in Klaw see on page 1140 it says in view of the great stress that Paul places on Christology that is the person or the work of Christ in this epistle it is reasonable to suppose that the false teaching was defective in this respect Gnosticism in the second century supplied a parallel in which Christ had become so far deteriorated that he had become no more than the last of a long series of intermediaries connecting man with God and then a little earlier page 11:30 in the same source new Bible commentary revised it says it is clear from this brief survey that some kind of synchronicity was on foot and was threatening to affect the Colossians a syncretism is just simply a word that means that there is a blending of ideas the sense is blending of various Jewish ideas as they would see it or biblical ideas with various pagan ideas and we'll see that explained here a little bit it says there are features which show parallels in Gnosticism and it may be surmised therefore that this was a kind of pre Gnostic nazhde sizing tendency an example the confluence of Jewish and Hellenistic or Greek culture ideas more contemporary with the Apostolic period is to be seen in the Qumran community whose library contained manuscripts of Gentile origin the community itself how ever remained essentially Jewish now they're getting to the the Qumran community that gets back to the Essenes which were a very very strict sect of Jews extremely strict much more than than Pharisees or others I think that one thing that we we need to understand is that the Bible does not explain exactly in terms of naming a group that it was this group of people there are both Gentile and Jewish elements to this and I think that we have to take what the Bible says and accept that and not to get so focused on coming up with a name of exactly who was at fault but there were certainly Gnostic ideas involved there were Jewish ideas involved there were aesthetic ideas meaning you know very very strict not having anything to do with the enjoyment of of anything physical now let's go through the book of Colossians the first couple chapters and let's try to pick up what is actually saying here and what we might learn from it it begins by saying that the author is Paul it was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God God was one that appointed Paul he wasn't appointed by man but by god and timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who were in Colossae now we take certain things for granted but I remember a question came up since I've been here in Charlotte somebody had written the question I don't think was a member here I believe it was somebody out in the field someplace not even sure if as a member just you know a subscriber but either way some new people don't understand these things that when you grow up in a Catholic background or some other Protestant groups that are closer to Catholicism you think of saints as being someone very special well All Saints are special but you are the saints of God in fact in the Old Testament it refers to the Saints and more of the sense of physical Israel but here we're speaking in the New Testament of the Saints meaning the members of of the Church of God we are all saints and that's how it's used here it says to the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in class a grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that's a typical introduction by the Apostle Paul indicating that God the Father and Jesus Christ are there but it never mentions the Holy Spirit as a person that's one of the proofs that the Holy Spirit is not a person it's just when you look at all of Paul's epistles all but one or two use this this introduction and it's always grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ we give thanks to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints I hope that we remember to pray for all the saints for all of God's people wherever they may be now because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven the hope that is laid up there not that we go to heaven but is laid up or stored there of which you heard before the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you as it is also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God and truth now it's mentioning that the grace of God and it's it will see here as we go through that it it begins to exalt the office of Jesus Christ he says you as you also learn from Epirus our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf apparently Paul had not been to colossi it makes that clear a little bit later on but emphasis was probably the individual who brought the gospel to these people who also declared to us your love in the spirit he brought back word to us verse nine for this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding now this is beginning to bring out certain concepts the Apostle Paul brings certain words out for example knowledge we will see that word over and over again of thought knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful in every good work and increasing and the knowledge of God there it is again strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy verse 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in the light there again the Saints he has delivered us from the power of darkness the power of darkness known as he mentions power here of darkness not the power of God but of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love now this was a passage of Scripture that was used by worldwide to say that the kingdom of God is here that the kingdom is in US and yet when you compare that with other passages for example you could hold your place here and turn back a page or so to Philippians 3 and verse 20 it says our citizenship is in heaven so we are citizens of the kingdom our citizenship is stored in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ were waiting for him to come back from heaven not that we're going to heaven although I don't want to get into that subject but certainly I do believe as mr. Aames has brought out that we are going to stand on the sea of glass and I think that sometimes we have people who just refuse except that because I think and years gone by we said the rewards not to go to heaven well we're still saying that the rewards not to go to heaven but does that mean that we are spirit beings that we cannot visit the Father in heaven again I don't want to get into that too much but I I just want everybody know that I certainly agree with the Church's doctrine on that subject and I find all the rationalizations around it you have to ask why why is there such hostility to that idea portable Thrones here and there and all kinds of things we can see in television I've heard all kinds of crazy things that have come up because people simply don't want to accept what God seems to have shown his leadership concerning that so our citizenship is in heaven it's reserved there from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ now I have citizenship I have dual citizenship my citizenship is reserved in Washington and in Ottawa not everybody who is a a citizen of the United States you know lives in Washington we that's where our citizenship is reserved that's where the paperwork you might say is that's where we know that we are citizens of or for example I'm a citizen of Canada but I'm not in Canada right now so when it says our citizenship is in heaven it does not mean that that's where we are and second Corinthians 5 and verse 20 second Corinthians 5 and verse 20 as it says here therefore I'm sorry verse 20 now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us we implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God so we are ambassadors for Christ and an ambassador for a particular nation usually is living in another nation our ambassador to Russia our ambassador to China our ambassador to wherever it might be to Japan so when we go through this in Colossians it's saying that we have been delivered he's delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love and to Christ Kingdom it doesn't necessarily mean that we are spirit beings as yet or that the kingdom of God is amongst us in the sense of dwelling in our hearts as some missed translate that passage in one of the Gospels it says in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins now this is beginning to show that the power of Christ the greatness of Christ that it is in him that we have redemption through his blood which is the forgiveness of sins this is how our sins are forgiven through his blood is the shedding of his blood he is the image verse 15 of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created through him and for him could that be said of of anyone else is there any angel that could be set up when you read the book of Hebrews the first chapter it makes it very clear that that none of the Angels fulfilled the office of Jesus Christ that he is far above any angel and here Paul is explaining in verse 16 that he is over all Thrones dominions principalities and powers because he was the one that made them that created them and he is before all things and in him all things consist verse 18 and he is the head of the body the church the word body there is from soma is the head of the body the church in other words the church is the body of Christ he is the head of the church which he worked through a physical body when he was on this earth he is working through a spiritual body made up of physical human beings here right now he is working through us but he is the head of the body the head of the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he may have the preeminence so we see the exaltation of Christ in these words that are given here verse 19 for it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell now the word fullness there comes from the Greek play Roma and it means the fullness in in in translation here but in Gnostic thought the idea was that the word play Roma was a reference to God to the the great all-powerful one whatever they thought that was and so it is interesting that the word is used a couple times here by the Apostle Paul it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself by him whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace through the blood of his cross so it is Jesus Christ that reconciles us to God and he is fully capable of doing so and when you think of that in context of the worship of angels and principalities and powers and so forth that that he's eventually going to get into here you begin to see why the Apostle Paul is laying the groundwork the framework for what he is going to say later on verse 21 it says in you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now he has reconciled so he has reconciled us this is not something that we have to keep going through a lot of intermediaries to be there but he has reconciled us to the Father and the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight our sins have been forgiven he died for us once and for all and our sins were wiped out at baptism and Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father and he is interceding on our behalf continually it says in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight if indeed you continue in the faith so we must continue in the faith grounded in steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard so if you get caught up in these heresies which he's going to present here in a few minutes here as we'll get to it he says you know if you get caught up in that then that's a different matter but if indeed you continue in the faith grounded in steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel there is the hope of the gospel the resurrection the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection to eternal life which you heard which was preached to every creature on the heaven of which I Paul became a minister verse 24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the fliction of Christ for the sake of his body which is the church lowered body again as soma and we see that his body is the church and we saw earlier that he is the head of the body of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God the mystery verse 26 and that's important here because the idea of of the Gnostics I had to do it was a mystery religion as there were other mystery religions there was some mystical knowledge that you had to have and without that you would not be able to to reach the highest power they play Roma or God of which I became a minister according to the stewardship and the verse 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to his Saints so the mystery he's talking about her is the mystery of God's purpose for mankind but it's kind of slamming you might say the idea of the the Gnostics or whoever these people were that had special knowledge or thought they did verse 27 to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles which is christ in you the hope of glory so this part of the mystery that he's talking about is Christ living his life in us that's a mystery that the world doesn't really fully comprehend they may use those words they may talk about that but would Christ live a sinful way of life in us of course not he's going to live a righteous life within us and so Christ living his life in us by the power of the Holy Spirit dr. Mary's favorite scripture Galatians 2:20 Christ is living in us and that is a mystery or was a mystery of the Gentiles and it's a mystery to the world in general today it says him Christ we preach warning every man and teaching every man and all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus so through Christ Jesus every man can be made perfect before God to this end I also labor striving according to his working which works in me mightily chapter 2 verse 1 for I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh in other words he had not been there Emma Frost was the one who apparently took the word to the cautions and they may not have seen him in the flesh but they knew of him they'd heard of him obviously he was the apostle to the Gentiles and so he's writing to them and to those in Laodicea where apparently some of these same things had God had started but he says I have great conflict for you I'm concerned about you that verse to that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge there's that word again of the mystery of God both of the Father and of Christ so there are words that are used over and over here knowledge wisdom mystery fullness so forth understanding in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge so in in Christ Jesus and in God the Father that's where the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge will be found there's again that word in verse 3 knowledge verse 4 now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words so now he's beginning to focus more on what the heresies are he's kind of defined them already without saying these are heresies he's contradicting the heresies but now he's beginning to focus on the fact that you are having the you meaning Colossians are having a problem with heretics now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words so oftentimes heresy comes with persuasive words it sounds good on the surface I've always amazed when someone decides to leave the church and it happens from time to time not every day or every week or every month but from time to time somebody will leave the church and they never take time to talk to the ministry in advance I say never that's not exactly right some some do but most of time they don't they read something online they get a paper from someone they read it they get all hung up in it they get so convinced that it's true that they leave the church and explain why and by that time we have no opportunity to point out where they are wrong I'll give you an example the we had a minister one time who got hung up on the the young earth Theory thought that everything is 6,000 years of age and the reason he thought that was was bee cause and Exodus the 20th chapter and Deuteronomy 5 he says for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all thing that is in them and use that expression but he did not realize he was not ambassador trained minister or living University trained minister although this before the the church here nevertheless he before living University he got hung up on the fact that the word made did not realize that there's a difference between the word made and create bara and ASA two different words and one has to do even with the new Bible not a new Bible but the theological word book of the Old Testament shows that the one create has the sense of ex nihilo in other words out of nothing that there was an original creation and the word made means to shape out of pre-existing material and so it was a very simple thing that if he had come to us early on before he got so locked into this position we could have explained where he had gone astray but so often people don't do that they they they get something in their mind and then there's not much you can do to help them and it's like one fella one place came up with such a strange idea that he admitted there is no Church of God on the face of the earth it believes what he believes yet he believes that he's right he's out there all by himself it's amazing how how I put it the way it is arrogant human nature can be and I say human nature because we're all afflicted with human nature and we can become arrogant as well that's me that's you we can all have our shortcomings in that way but Paul wanted them not to be deceived he says now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words there are very persuasive words for or arguments that people have I'm reminded I hate to even bring it up because don't want to don't want to send somebody out there trying to prove these things in the wrong way but from time to time we have to deal with the argument of calendar issues and one of our ministers many years ago mr. mr. Beiersdorf er told me that he'd heard all these arguments on calendars and he said I read a paper and he said it really made sense and then I read another paper he said and it really made sense but it didn't agree with the first paper and I read the third paper and it really made sense but it didn't agree with the other two and he realized that you can make a persuasive argument but doesn't mean that it is a correct argument and he realized that it is the gospel is not about a calendar which is the right calendar but the gospel and and the work of the church is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to all the world to warn the world of what is to come what is happening in our world today the Ezekiel warning message we have a job to do and that job is not to convince everybody which calendars right and mr. Armstrong settled that a long long time ago and recognized that if you try to construct a calendar out of the Bible alone and I know that people say you can I've got questions they cannot answer they have to make assumptions and when you make one assumption if that assumption is wrong then the whole thing falls apart about the only thing that these calendar people agree on is that whatever we teach is wrong they don't agree with each other but they all agree that we're wrong even though I disagree with each other as well now there are persuasive arguments that can be made and the Apostle Paul says that he says this I say verse 4 lest anyone should DC view and a deceived person doesn't know that he's deceived lest someone anyone should deceive you with persuasive words for though I am absent in the flesh yet I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ the you're staying steadfast in your faith in Christ verse 6 as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught abounding in it with Thanksgiving as you have been taught I hope all of us have proved where God is working I love it the way that one of our ministers put it he said when you have the truth why go looking on the internet for better truth either you have the truth or you don't if we have the truth that we don't need to go looking for it it's going to be here and the church is the the foundation of the truth what is that let me just I could go over there as the second Timothy always get mixed up whether it's 1st or 2nd Timothy it's 1st Timothy 3 yes verses 14 and 15 these things I write to you 1st Timothy 3:14 though I hope to come to you shortly but if I am delayed I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and the ground or as mr. Meredith used to always say the the bulwark of the truth that which holds up and encompasses the truth the Church of God is the pillar in the ground of truth that is Scripture that's what the scripture says now getting back to Colossians he says here and seven rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught so if we know that this is where God is working then unless we go totally off the rail which worldwide dead of course but unless something like that happens then we need to recognize that this is where God is going to be working as you have been taught abounding in it with Thanksgiving now he gets right to it in verse 8 he says beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ this is a very important passage of Scripture and without going to the commentaries yet I'm going to in a moment but let's just stop there and look at it because our our proof is not commentaries they may point out as I've shown here that even the commentaries recognized that the issue is not the Old Testament the issue is some kind of a heresy a syncretism between pagan ideas or philosophical ideas of Greek philosophy and of the truth of the Bible that they're they're mixing some things there are some problems there so that's the reason I'm bringing some of those things out but the truth is going to be found right here in the scriptures and so let's take apart verse 8 beware less anyone cheat you through philosophy now the religion of professing Christianity is based in Greek philosophy it just is and I think I've read some of those sources to you if I haven't here I'm sure I will at some point in time but people like Origen and Tertullian and Justin Martyr and various other ones they borrowed from Greek philosophy a Philo in he was born latter part of the 1st century BC and about 80 BC and there to about 50 something ad or BCE before the Common not BCE but whatever it is in other words ad I'll go back to the original that I was taught when I was young but he lived in the first part of the first century so that he was a contemporary of Christ and he blended Greek philosophy and religion and so much of this went on and so it speaks here in verse eight of philosophy cheat you through philosophy philosophy is not the answer it is not the source that we would go to and philosophy is not the Old Testament let's make that one point very clear whatever is talking about here is philosophy and empty deceit now would anybody say that the Sabbath and the holy days and cleaned unclean meats our philosophy and empty deceit even if they were a quote done away with would we say that that's the source of the philosophy or will we say that it came from God let's go on it says according to the tradition of men are the laws of clean unclean meats the tradition of men says according to the basic principles of the world now whether is speaking of basic principles meaning the ABCs going back to kindergarten or whether it's talking about elemental spirits they are of the world or of the universe as some translations have it and that does not fit with the Old Testament in other words the laws have cleaned unclean meats the laws of the Sabbath and the holy days are not of the world but were given by God when you go back to leviticus 23 says these are the feasts of the lord and when you read about the laws of cleaned unclean meats they go way before the jews that goes all the way back very clearly the first reference is what the 7th chapter of of Genesis where Noah was to take aboard the ark to each of the unclean and pairs of seven or seven pairs of the clean animals some say seven animals some say pairs I think pairs seems to be the case of the clean animals no doubt they may have ate eaten some on the ark and certainly afterward they sacrificed one and they had to have animals that they would be able to eat after that so the laws of cleaned unclean meats came from God not from men they're not of the world they're not according to philosophy they're not the tradition of men so it says according to basic principles of the world and not according to Christ so it's contrasting Christ and all this other stuff traditions philosophy etc now let me read a couple commentaries since we've covered that that verse from our perspective well we know verse nine maybe that in verse 10 before I go to the commentaries but it says for in him that is in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily so the aroma which was the Gnostic idea of God being the fullness there it's saying here that all the fullness of God is in Christ Jesus and so that word fullness again comes up and again indicates that perhaps some kind of Gnostic ideas were blended in here whether it came from Jews or Gentiles or whoever it came from some of those ideas that eventually became full-blown Gnosticism were a part of the the problem that was here for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him you don't have to go through all these intermediaries as we shall see but you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power Christ is the head of all these angels and all principalities all powers whether they be righteous angels whether they be demonic spirits he is the one that actually created them from the beginning three of them as angels to serve God and then of course some did go astray and became demons but he was one that created them as we read in verse fifteen sixteen seventeen they're the first chapter all these things were created by him now let's take a look at these verses verses eight to ten from first of all the the interpreters Bible and page 190 on volume 11 it says the phrase empty deceit in verse eight need not imply in sincerity and charlatanism in the cautions teachers caution teachers in other words they may have been very sincere they were more probably trying to harmonize Christianity with the prevailing religious outlook of the pagan culture which had molded their own thinking before the gospel came to them so they were taking their background and trying to blend that together at least that's what this commentary is saying that they they were perhaps this was what was going on not saying absolutely but he says they were more probably trying to harmonize Christianity with the prevailing religious outlook of the pagan culture which had molded their own thinking before the gospel came to them and so they were blending this was a syncretism in other words these sources are showing us that this isn't just about cleaned unclean meats it's not just about the Sabbath or the holy days there is something else that is going on here and they recognize that says they may well have been unaware that their attempted synthesis of Christian and pagan ideas was destroying the unique and liberating power of the new faith in Christ now I find that rather remarkable because these sources eventually try to do away with the Sabbath and the holy days but they recognize that we're dealing with something here that is not just Old Testament notice from the new Bible Commentary revised it says it was believed that the Roma play Roma the fullness was so transcendent in others beyond normal or physical human experience that it was necessary for a long succession of intermediaries to connect man with God of which the last in the succession was Christ so there's a whole lot that the Apostle Paul is is no doubt referring to and we have to infer it from what he said he didn't say this is a quote Gnostic heresy this is a heresy of the essence this is a heresy of total paganism or this is a heresy of various Jewish groups he didn't say that we have to infer what the problem was from what he is describing here which the cautions knew they knew exactly what he was talking about but we're looking in from the outside and we're trying to figure it out and so some people take verses 16 and 17 totally out of context and try to say don't let anybody tell you to keep the Sabbath or holy days or whatever or tell you that their meats that you shouldn't eat they take that totally out of the context of what the Apostle is saying and what even individuals at writing commentaries who do not accept the truth who do not know the truth who do not keep the Sabbath in at least most cases that I'm aware of it's even they recognize there's more to this this continued verse 11 it says in him that is in Christ so it's it's all talking about what Christ has done for us and him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of so the heresy probably involved circumcision and he's saying here that that you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands it wasn't a physical circumcision but a circumcision of the heart now the term circumsized of heart you can go back to the Old Testament there are numerous references in the Old Testament price a numerous probably five or six references I had a chain reference at one time but I don't remember where I start the chain reference but but in one place after another whereas talking about circumsized of heart in the Old Testament not just the New Testament but he is showing here that in him in Christ we were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in Baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working God who raised him from the dead one of the commentaries uses this and compares it with verse 12 and saying that baptism isn't necessary and yet when you look at the totality of the New Testament baptism certainly is necessary but the point being here is that baptism must be of the heart as well baptism is something that you can't just go through a ritual and say well I'm there I've arrived I've gone through the initiation kind of like an a frat fraternity where you go through an initiation ceremony thankfully God gives us something that's a whole lot easier than what sometimes people go through in these fraternities but it cannot be an initiation that way it must be a putting off of the sins of the flesh and it must be of the mind we must be buried we must put to death the old man and that's something that in the latest Living Church news I have two articles there the first two articles there I'm talking about that not nodding those terms but the point being that we must continue to grow and we can't sit back and say I'm baptized so now therefore everything that comes out of my my mind or comes into my mind or comes out of my mouth is right and it's interesting because as was brought out the sermon had you look for four themes and I was a bit shocked when I read mr. Nathan's article on Jonah not because it was heresy but because he was talking about some of the same things when you when you look at I asked my wife she brought it with her she didn't because I would have brought it up here and shown you that that he's saying the same things among I mean he's saying a lot of other things but but there's a certain portion of that article that focuses on the same thing that we have to to grow we have to we have to learn more of God's Way we have to think as God thinks as dr. Meredith used to say we need to - never can't say it the way he did but but think what God thinks do what God does and they're about three or four things but in other words what God thinks and wants us to do that's what we need to do and that's a process as mr. Nathan brought out there were 40 days for Nineveh to repent it's a process it doesn't happen all at once and that's why we have to be patient with one another because some people have grown over a longer period of time and you have new people that may not understand everything but we have to be patient with one another and recognize that there it is a growth process but at the same time it must be a process of growth we cannot be here for 30 or 40 years and say well I've learned everything I don't think very many of us think that but sometimes the biggest problems are staring us right in the face they're right there in the mirror but they're the things that we've hung on to for the longest period of time we want to change something else God show me what's wrong with me but don't show me what's what I like let me hang on to those things but show me something that's easy to overcome it's interesting how we we judge ourselves and how we judge others if somebody else I've used this example in the past if a woman is a very meticulous housekeeper and has children she will rationalize that some other woman I don't mean to pick on ladies because men do the same things in different ways but she's going to look at some other woman who's a terrible housekeeper and yet that woman says well I mean I'll be the best housekeeper but I sure show my children time I give my children the attention and so one is giving all this time and attention to the children although maybe both are doing the same who knows but she's thinking I'm more righteous because I am a good mother but the fact that I'm a lousy housekeeper well that's unimportant but the the good housekeeper thinks this is really I give my kids a clean house I may not have time to read them a bed night story or bedtime stories but I give them a clean house and what we do is the things that we naturally enjoy or the things that we naturally find easy we esteem those things and the things that are more difficult we kind of shrug off is not that important and this is our nature this is our human nature we have to look at the things that sometimes we don't want to do and we have to analyze ourselves we have to consider how we're thinking and begin to savor the things of God let's get back to the passage here in verse 11 in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made with hands that is the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ and baptism is the beginning baptism is something that we go through but it has to be from the heart that's the point that I'm trying to and it has to be a continuous process of mortifying the deeds of the flesh mortifying put putting to death those parts of our character that we love and we want to hang on to verse 13 and you being dead and trespass yours trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh so very clearly at least a large portion of the congregation if not entirely but a large portion of it was uncircumcised they were Gentiles he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us and he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross now I'd like to read again just from another source or in this case a new Bible commentary revised to show what it's talking about because there are those who say that this is nailing the law to the cross I read that in 1 commentary on this subject actually stated that that the the the law of God is nailed to the cross not our sins but the law and yet new Bible commentary viced as one of several commentaries that will explain this that he Paul uses the metaphor of a bond chiral graph on which boule describes as an IOU a statement of indebtedness which had to be signed by the debtor as an acknowledgment of his debt the debt was impossible to pay well the debt and of course it brings death moreover it was backed by legal demands since every trespass is a violation of the law of God the only hope was for someone to cancel the debt Paul imagines God taking the statement of debts and nailing it to the cross of Christ the debt of our sins it's nailing our sins to the cross of Christ the stake of Christ a vivid way of saying that the death of Christ is the basis of God's forgiveness of man's sins this is the foundation or the base of forgiveness not as these individuals who are promoting the heresy to class a of some asceticism and all the things that they were doing and going through various angels having disarmed principalities and powers verse 15 he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them over them in it so let no one judge you in food and drink or regarding a festival or new moon or Sabbath's which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ so this is the part that people take out of context but as we've already seen even the commentaries recognize that it's not simply talking about clean unclean meats in fact let's just note that here I'll read several of them here the interpreters Bible says on the practical side this transcend a transcendental doctrine issued an artificial issued in an artificial asceticism asceticism that that's self-discipline and a strictly self disciplined and avoiding any sensuous pleasure or luxuries that's a simple definition of it so it issued in a an artificial asceticism coupled with the bondage of a fair saying legalism not that it was the Pharisees but a fare sake type legalism here we meet with traces of Jewish influence the leaders of the new cult judged men in respect of eating and drinking and in the manner of festival new moon and Sabbath now if you didn't hear the rest of that statement let this sink in it imposed dietary obligations which went beyond the requirements of the Jewish code now there were Jewish code is is a reference to Old Testament laws yes the Jews observe certain things but these are the laws of God not the Jews it says since they applied not only to food but to drink and it prescribed ritual observances of the sacred seasons of the Jewish calendar further ahead codified some of its legal requirements and a set of taboos do not handle do not taste do not touch again which again notice this which again go far beyond any of the prohibitions of the Jewish law it seems likely also that it required its adherence to be circumcised this is employed by the language in 211 that was from the interpreters Bible let me read that was page 138 I'll read page 200 or a portion of it the questions of food and drink are probably requirements to abstain from eating flesh and drinking wine so in other words vegetarianism and drinking wine festival New Moon Sabbath denote yearly monthly and weekly cultic rites respectively there are clear indications here of a strain of Jewish influence in the Colossians syncretism but these prohibitions and ritual observances are not harnessed to a fair shake legalism or even to the worship of the one God but to the propitiation of the elemental spirits this is what is behind it all the elemental spirits as they interpret that expression the rudiments of the world are elements of the world the prohibitions go beyond anything in the Jewish law and touching drink as well as food and note this it is probable that these requirements were not based upon any distinction of clean and unclean foods but on principles of asceticism no such principles enter into the Jewish food laws so here is an outside source that is saying that it has nothing to have clean none clean it has to do with other things asceticism of do not touch taste handle and so forth which the Bible describes there little bit the New International commentary F F Reus the Jewish food laws did not extend to beverages but here the reference is to more stringent regulations of an aesthetic nature perhaps involving the renunciation of animal flesh and of wine and strong drink so there's a second source that says the same thing the critical and experimental commentary of Jameson the volume 6 page 448 refers the word Sabbath and it says it is not the Sabbath but it says Sabbath's and what this source says of the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles end with the Jewish services to which they belong in other words what this source is saying I'll just paraphrase it it is saying that the the weekly Sabbath is permanent well actually it says that the weekly Sabbath is permanent but it's saying it's doing way with the holy days now you might say well ok the Jewish Sabbath is permanent but then you read on and this source believes that it's been changed to what they call the Lord's Day or Sunday so this source misses it all together but actually upholds the Sabbath in this which many other sources do not notice as we read through here again let's read verses 16 and 17 again it says so let no one judge you now the way this is always presented is that ok you're a believer in the Sabbath and the holy days and so forth stop judging me but isn't it those individuals who are judging us in most cases he says let no one judge you he speaking to the Colossians err he says don't let any man judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath or of Sabbath or sabes verse 17 which are a shadow of things to come a shadow of things to come the way that this is spoken in Protestantism is that well these are just mere shadows unimportant they're just mere shadows but the substance is of Christ the problem with it is that the word substance even in my margin says literally body but the body of Christ door it is and the old King James is in italics recognizing that something's missing there but the body of Christ so if you read it in this way from verse 16 so let no one judge you but the body of Christ in other words the church is to instruct us how we observe these days what we are to do what we're not to do that's where the instruction is coming from he says though and let some man come along anyone come along you and judge you regarding what you eat or what you drink regarding a festival or new moon or sabbath their shadows of things to come but the body of christ let the body of christ determine these things now let's continue read verse 18 let no one so let no one as it said in verse 16 he it continues that theme let no one cheat you of your reward taking delight and false humility and worship of angels intruding into those things which he is not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head what is the head of the body that's Christ not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and net together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God so therefore it says verse 20 if you died with Christ from the basic principles or the elemental spirits of the world why is the living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations not the laws of God but to these regulations that were brought in there do not touch do not taste do not handle which all concern things which perish with using according to the commandments notice the commandments and the doctrines of men not according to the Old Testament law that were given by God but here it's talking about things that are according to the commandments and the doctrines of men this is why it can't be talking about the laws of God it's the laws of God may be involved there as they are corrupted by these individuals but the corruption comes from the commandments and doctrines of men these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion false humility and neglect of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh so how are the Sabbath and the festivals a shadow of things to come now this is the title of the sermon is shadow of things to come how are the Sabbath and the festivals a shadow of things to come well we know that the Sabbath looks back to creation but it also looks for doesn't it to the thousand-year reign of Christ on this earth the 7,000 year plan what about the holy days and the festivals the Passover is a huge example of foreshadowing a future event the coming of Christ the sacrifice of Christ 1st Corinthians 5 verse 7 even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us unleavened bread is a type as we know it foreshadows our coming out of sin putting sin out of our lives 1st corinthians 5 verse 8 we were to get rid of the unleavened bread of malice and wickedness and replace it with thee I'm sorry we're gonna get rid of the leavened bread of malice and wickedness and replace it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth we see that on the last day of unleavened bread when they walked through the Red Sea that was a type of baptism 1st Corinthians 10 verses 1 to 4 we see the Pentecost was the time when God poured out his Holy Spirit to write his law in our hearts and our minds so we see that being foreshadow now what's interesting is that the remainder of the holy days beginning the day before yesterday the Feast of Trumpets have yet to be fulfilled they these law these holy days and festivals foreshadow for us future events three of the events you might say have already gone by us Passover unleavened bread and Pentecost and all the lessons that we can learn from of which there are a multitude of lessons from those days but now we're looking forward into the future and so why would it make sense that people recognize that Christ was crucified on the Passover that he is our Passover lamb they recognize that being foreshadowed they don't really recognize unleavened bread that much but Pentecost they realized that that was the coming of the Holy Spirit but then before the festivals are even halfway through they throw the rest out and say that well they're just mere shadows they're unimportant well they're important enough that if you don't keep these days you don't understand them that was brought home to me some years ago when a very dear friend who had gone some other direction and went to a independent group didn't want to explain the holidays way we do had to come up some new truths about the Feast of Tabernacles now each day symbolize this and such and get to the last great day and I don't remember what it symbolized but it wasn't what we understand and this individual then started explaining you can only hear the same old sermons so many times and then began to explain how a relative who is a very fine individual you know we were so self-righteous we didn't think that these people would be saved and just because somebody has the wrong day doesn't mean that they wouldn't be saved and I had to explain that it isn't just the wrong day it is all the wrong days that they're keeping all you know Christmas Easter Sunday and they're rejecting the days that God has given and they believe in the immortality of the soul and going to heaven and hell and all the rest of it it's it's a whole package that they've accepted but when you stop keeping the holy days or you start going into some sort of an independent group that thinks they have to come up with some new truth you lose the understanding these are shadows of things to come we know what the Feast of Trumpets is all about we just had that the day of atonement we look forward to the time when Satan is removed the Feast of Tabernacles and the last great day and we see that these days are going to be observed during the Millennium Zechariah 14 will be read no doubt at least once if not several times during the feast showing that after Christ returns that he's going to have people keeping that time and the reason it mentions the Feast of Tabernacles is because that is the time that they're entering into he didn't say I'm gonna have them come up to keep the Passover which they of course will they'll have to keep Passover but the feasts of Tabernacles is at the beginning of that time in Zechariah 14 and so it is the beginning of lynnium and he's showing what it is that with the festival that portrays that time the very key to understanding the festivals and the holy days of God is found in Colossians 2:16 and 17 that these days are shadows of things to come they foreshadow they point to different things that are yet to come that is a key and if we look at that as well they're just mere shadows and unimportant then we're not going to understand these days but if we understand the intent of the passage we recognize how important these days are but when we think about it Satan hates these days he hates what they mean and so it's no wonder but he's taking taken the very key to our understanding of the meaning of all of them and deceive mankind regarding it so let's try to understand this in the right way I hope all of you can see that there's more to this than what the world says I think if you didn't you wouldn't be here but let's understand that we stand on very firm ground not just from us what we say we start with what we teach but even commentaries written by human men recognize that this passage has a lot more to do with syncretism to bringing in of false ideas than it has to do with doing away with old testament laws [Music] you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Keywords: prophecy, biblical, future, christian, kingdom, god

Id: Tao1SVil184

Length: 78min 43sec (4723 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2018