Study the Word

Guest (Male): With the cautioning word on seeking to impose views about non-essential issues, here's Pastor Tom Keller.

Guest (Male): The little you're going to gain from doing that little thing that you find intriguing or of interest is going to be more than offset by the damage you're going to do in judging others for them not living up to your code, the damage you're going to do to them and to the body of Christ by having that spirit that if you don't do this, you're just not a Christian, you're not as much a Christian as I am. You've no doubt heard the saying the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. The need for this is greater than ever for the tendency to make secondary issues essential ones is running rampant.

Well, today's study the word with Pastor Tom Keller will provide some practical help to meet the challenge. And Colossians chapter 2 verse 16 will be our guide. But we'll start in John chapter 5 with insight from Jesus on the Sabbath.

Pastor Thom Keller: Concerning Sabbaths, after Jesus healed the man who was lame for 38 years, which Jesus did on the Sabbath, which was highly illegal, Jesus said this in John chapter 5. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rule, Sabbath law. Jesus replied, my father is always working, and so am I. So we see that Jesus is teaching here concerning both food and Sabbath keeping dovetail with Paul's words. And then in verse 16, Paul mentions three specific events, Sabbaths, new moon ceremonies, and holy days. Now the word here used for holy days properly means feast or festival.

And it replies to the seven major Jewish festivals or feasts that they celebrate each year, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, Rosh Hashanah, New Year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits. Those are the feasts. The second thing he mentions are is the new moon. Now each new moon was and is the beginning of the month on the Hebrew calendar. On that day, in addition to the two daily sacrificial lambs, every day of the month, two lambs were sacrificed in the morning and the evening. But on the new moon, additionally, two bulls were sacrificed, one ram and seven sheep were given in addition to that.

And then he speaks of the Sabbaths. You might find this interesting, but the correct Hebrew pronunciation for Sabbath is sabbaton, sabbaton. It's also of interest that the word Sabbath in the Old Testament includes more days than just the 52 Saturdays in each year. The Sabbath or Sabbath rest was also applied to all the days of rest that were observed by the Jews, and in particular those days of rest commanded by Moses at the beginning and close of each of those seven festivals. Those were days of rest as well. And no matter what day of the week they fell on, they were still called Sabbath rest.

So about so about these 52 plus Sabbaths each year and the holy days and the food and drink, Paul says this, verse 16. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. So a question, is it okay to eat what the Old Testament law said I'm not to eat? Is it okay not to celebrate the Sabbaths? Is it okay not to celebrate the Sundays? You say, but I thought Jesus said this in Matthew 5. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not in iota, not a dot will pass from the law until it is all accomplished.

But Jesus said, you can eat of this food. Jesus said, it's okay for him to work on the Sabbath. I thought he said he wasn't going to do away with the law. How do you reconcile this? Well, the Jews and we as Christians classify the Old Testament Mosaic law into three categories. And folks, this is this is really important. You want to lock this one away because there are going to be times this is going to be the only way you're going to be able to explain to someone a certain situation. Moral law, ceremonial law, and judicial or civil law.

Moral law, ceremonial law, judicial or civil. Now the ceremonial laws were given to regulate the religious practices and ceremonies of the Israelites. These ceremonial laws ended with Jesus. And Jesus clearly taught and modeled that man is no longer bound to ceremonial laws, what to eat, what to drink, or the Sabbath. As far as working on the Sabbath, Jesus said this in John chapter 7. Jesus replied to the Pharisees, I did one miracle on the Sabbath and you were amazed. But you work on the Sabbath too when you obey Moses's law of circumcision. Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs long before the law of Moses.

For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing man on the Sabbath? So Jesus made that point that he was Lord even of the Sabbath. And as far as eating and drinking and the Old Testament dietary law, Jesus did the same. He disbanded it in Mark chapter 7 verse 17. Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd. And his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he just used.

Don't you understand either? Jesus asked. Can't you see that the food you put in your body cannot defile you? Food doesn't go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. By saying this, he declared Listen, by saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God's eyes. And the same was true in Book of Acts where saw the sheet come down from heaven filled with unclean animals. And three times he heard a voice saying, eat any of them, eat any of them, eat any of them.

God, I've never eaten any unclean thing in all my life. What God says can be eaten, you can eat. What God says is holy is holy. So we see clearly that Jesus ended mandatory compliance to the ceremonial law. But what about the judicial or civil law? These laws were given by Moses to prescribe the penalty or punishments for breaking certain laws. And as proof that Jesus also ended mandatory compliance to the judicial or civil law, to these penalties established by Moses, consider Jesus's response to the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery in John chapter 8.

Do you know what the punishment was in the Old Testament for committing adultery? Leviticus 20:10. It says, if a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both a man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death. Anything not clear about that? You got that? It's pretty clear. But what did Jesus say about this woman caught in adultery? In John 8 it says as he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who'd been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the staring crowd.

Where's the man, huh? Where's the man? Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. Listen, the law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? Well, concerning the penalty of stoning, did these Pharisees have their chapter and verse correctly applied to the situation? Yeah, they did. By the law, she was to be stoned to death. But what did Jesus say about this? Those men were standing with stones in their hands. And what did Jesus say? You who are without sin cast the first stone. And then in John 8 verse 10, then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers?

Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, the penalty for adultery is stoning. Now I'm going to stone you. No, that didn't happen, did it? Jesus said, didn't one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, neither do I. Go and sin no more. And so again, we see here that Jesus ended compliance to the civil or judicial law as well. But what about the moral law? Uh ha ha. Whole different story. The moral law is different in that it deals with moral issues, standards which God established for man, which are timeless and will never be abolished or suspended.

North is always north. Stealing will always be wrong. Rape will always be wrong. Kidnapping will always be wrong. Adultery will always be wrong. And in practice, during Jesus's three years on the earth, he never never disregarded or granted any exemptions concerning moral law. In fact, just the opposite. Jesus took the moral law up about 10 notches to the extreme way above the Old Testament law. Listen, Matthew 5 verse 21. You've heard it said that our ancestors were told, you must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. When Jesus said this of the religious leaders would have been that's right, that's right, absolutely right.

He says, but I tell you, if you're even angry with someone, you are subject to the judgment. If you call someone an idiot, you're in danger of being brought before the court. If you curse someone, you're in danger of the fires of hell. He ramped it up. Matthew 5 verse 27, same chapter. You've heard the commandment that says, you must not commit adultery. But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart. He took it from the external to the internal, ramped it up way beyond where the religious leaders were.

Same place later in that same chapter, verse 43. You've heard the law say, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Man's laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. Man's laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. I want to make a comment on that. There are a lot of people today and you'll find these on the internet, you'll find them on billboards, you'll find them in different places where they'll mock God by saying that they're promoting some kind of license to do something immoral.

And they'll say, the Bible says don't eat shrimp. The Bible says don't eat pork. And then they'll make the point that that we're just as archaic in expecting people to keep the moral law because the Bible says that. But their error is in their ignorance of the fact that the ceremonial law is done, is gone. They're making a point that to a Christian is moot. We're no longer bound by that law, but we are bound by the moral law. So don't let anyone pull you into that. Well, the Bible also says you're supposed to you're supposed to kill homosexuals.

The Bible also says you're not supposed to eat shrimp. So do we do all that? That's when you walk them through this. We're done with the ceremonial law. We're done with the penalties prescribed by the Old Testament. They no longer apply. But the moral law has gone nowhere. That is fixed and firm and will never change. Man's laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. And in the end, why did Jesus ratchet up the requirements under the moral law? Why did he lift them so high? He did so to make it even clearer for the old for the purpose of the Old Testament law.

If anyone asks, what's the reason for the Old Testament law, you want Romans 5:20, Romans 3:20. Romans 5:20 says, God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. The law is given to point out to us our sinfulness and that we need a savior. So we don't get this attitude like I'm that good a person that God wouldn't have a problem with me. The law removes any question about that and says in Romans 3:20, for no one can ever be made made right with God by doing what the law commands.

Listen, here's a per primary purpose of the law. The law simply shows how sinful we are and parenthetically and why we need a savior. So how does today's lesson apply to me? Verse 16 and 17. So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. These rules are only shadows of the reality to come and Christ himself is that reality. Number one, please don't ever allow anyone to make you feel condemned or inferior because you don't follow after their personal convictions within the bounds of Christian liberty.

And likewise, please don't ever try to impose your personal convictions concerning matters of Christian liberty upon others. In the Book of Acts, Paul dealt with this. Paul had to contend with the Judaizers who were coming into his churches and demanding that the Gentiles, before they could be saved, would have to first be circumcised and then agree to maintain and to keep all the Old Testament Jewish law. Paul was always fighting with these guys and so he got tired of it. And he went back to Jerusalem and he met with the apostles and he explained what he had been doing and the great work that God was doing through him and then explained what these Judaizers were demanding.

And so the apostles met and discussed this. And in the end, this was a message they sent back to Paul's churches. They sent Paul back with this writing in his hand to explain to the Gentiles. The apostles speaking through Paul, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements. You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, one. From consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, two. And from sexual immorality, three. If you do this, you will do well fair well. It says, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay no greater burden on you than these three things.

People will say, but why would he include a moral code about sexual immorality? I thought the moral code was implicit, was just understood it was. The problem was in Paul's day, in the heathen world like it is becoming here, we're not as far God as they were. We're getting close. But people didn't even think there was anything wrong with sexual morality. So we had to mention that one specifically. And so if you are one who finds the second application, if you are one who finds something in the Old Testament law that you choose to follow is an example, if you choose not to eat pork or you decide to celebrate Passover or you decide to celebrate other Jewish festivals or you decide not to mow your lawn on a Sunday, that's okay, that's okay.

But folks, listen closely. It's only okay if you can hold yourself back to trying to impose your choice your choice upon others. And if you can hold yourself back from judging others if they don't keep your code of conduct, then you are much better off to give that up and walk away from it because the little you're going to gain from doing that little thing that you find intriguing or of interest is going to be more than offset by the damage you're going to do in judging others for them not living up to your code.

The damage you're going to do to them and to the body of Christ by having that spirit that if you don't do this, you're just not a Christian, you're not as much a Christian as I am. If you can't control yourself, walk away from it. You know, I'll give an example and I'm going to step in some feet here. Uh I'm going to step in more feet this afternoon, I think. But I'm going to step in some feet. You know, there are people that will come to me kind of new in their faith a lot of times and they'll say, Tom, guess what?

I discovered the Jewish festivals. Did you know about those? Did you know there are seven of them? Man, I've been reading everything I can get. I've been listening to teachings. This is so exciting to celebrate the festivals. And I go, oh yeah, good, good. Cuz I know what's coming. They say, you know, we ought to do we ought to start doing them here at church. Let's get people in. Let's do the all the seven festivals. You know, let's have them let let's make this a normal part of our church life. I go, yeah, good. Well, let's talk about that.

Let's talk about that. Because see now they have ramped up and they're saying, this is how a Christian really lives. And listen, that's cool. If you want to celebrate the feast, that's fine. But if you can't hold yourself back from judging others if they don't follow you in there, then walk away from it. I'm telling you. I talked to Dan and the other service. We've been through this multiple times on Jewish festivals and Jewish observance of the law. People come up to me all excited about something they discovered in the Old Testament. And that's cool.

Just don't try to push it on somebody else. Number three, the overall lesson from Colossians 2 is this. Remember, you are to discern judge. You are not to condemn judge. And remember, the Bible only has one English word for it. So you need to be very careful when you read those verses that you're applying the right word to that. Look it up. But don't think that it's one blanket that covers that whole topic. It does not. You are not the crino judge. You are to ana crino to discern. Harry Ironside, the great preacher of old, told this true story about a famous preacher that he knew.

He said he was sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After seeing his roommate, he went to the purser's desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship's safe. He explained that ordinarily he never did that, but he had just been to the cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other bed. And judging by his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person.

The purser accepted the valuables from the preacher and remarked, it's all right, Bishop. I'll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man was just here and left his valuables with me for the same reason. Reminds me of a little poem that I stuck in my Bible well over 30 years. It's tucked in there between pages, so I find it from time to time. I dreamt death came the other night and heaven's gate swung wide. An angel with halo bright ushered me inside. And there to my astonishment stood folks that I had judged and labeled as quite unfit, of little worth, and spiritually disabled.

Indignant words rose to my lips, but never were set free. For every face showed stunned surprise, not one expected me.

Guest (Male): No doubt there will be a lot of surprises in heaven. But to assure you're there, if you've yet to do so, call out on the Lord now. He promises to give eternal life to the one who believes in him. You're listening to Study the Word and our teacher Pastor Tom Keller will be right back. Stay with us. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon and you can watch our services live or on demand.

That includes this series in Colossians. For those interested in a CD copy, call 717 273 5633. Once again, that's 717 273 5633. Study the Word is listener supported. With your help, we're able to reach thousands of people all over the world. Please consider sending in a gift today and you can give online at ccleb.com or call 717 273 5633. Or if you prefer to write, jot down this address. Study the Word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. And we also want to invite you to join us for a Sunday service either in person or online.

For more information or to watch the live stream, visit ccleb.com or again go to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Now to conclude our time with a preview of what's ahead of us next time, here's Pastor Tom once again.

Pastor Thom Keller: Do you know that science is just beginning to catch up with Paul on this? London physicist David Bohm, who is recognized to be one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century, said this. Listen closely. He says, this is what science has proved proved. Tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion. It's like a hologram image which underlines the deeper order of the existence, a vast and more primary level of reality outside of our purview that gives birth to all of the objects and appearances which we see and observe in the physical realm.

In much the same way that a piece of hologram film gives birth to a hologram. I read that Albert Einstein, when he got into this, was so spun by it. And the obvious conclusion that there has to be a God that he walked away from looking into it further cuz he didn't want to accept that. Paul Davis, a noted particle physicist, says, quote, listen, particle physicist, after research and testing, he said it says if the entire universe is nothing more than a thought in the mind of God. It's like the entire universe is nothing more than a thought in the mind of God.

Listen once again to physicist David Bohm's words. The tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion. It's a hologram image which underlines the deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality outside of our purview that gives birth to all of the objects and appearances which we see and observe in the physical world. Quantum physicist Freeman Dyson said this, quote, I think it's safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics, although it is unquestionably correct. And the reason is because science has proven it is verifiable over and over and over.

It reacts the same way every time. That's what science looks for. So although they don't understand it, they've proven it to be true. He says, I think although it's safe to say no one understands quantum mechanics, although it is unquestionably correct, listen, it reflects a reality beyond space and time, the real reality.

Guest (Male): Fascinating. Next time we'll hear more on how science is catching up with the Bible on the identity of a greater reality. Join us, won't you? You're on Study the Word, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania.