Morning. If you would, let's sing together from the Spiral Hymnal, hymn number 27, and we'll stand to sing this one. ♪ Free from the law's great curse ♪ ♪ In Jesus we are free ♪ ♪ For Christ became a curse for us ♪ ♪ And died upon the tree ♪ ♪ The rituals of the law ♪ and all the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord, established by His hands. No covenant with the law can now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath. no more constrained by fear we worship and we serve our God with gratitude and cheer in Jesus we are free In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all guilt, we live in liberty. We'll join the happy song with all the blood-bought throng and sing the praises of the Lamb whose grace makes us His own. Be seated, please. Adam, did you pick that hymn? Adam's filling in for Tom at the last minute. Cindy's mother had a stroke up in New York and they flew up yesterday. And I wasn't sure how in the Lord's good providence that hymn was chosen, but there could not have been a more appropriate hymn for us to sing in light of the passage of scripture we're about to look at. And Lord just confirmed to my heart as we were singing that, how hopeful I am that God has a word for us this morning from his word. So if you'd like to open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter two, Colossians chapter two. free from the law's great curse. Scripture says, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. The Lord Jesus Christ received the full curse of God's wrath when as our substitute, he bore all the sins of all of his people in his body upon that tree and put them away by the sacrifice of himself once and for all, free. Liberty. Stand fast, my brethren, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's exactly what this passage of scripture is about this morning. Let's ask the Lord's blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the liberty that you have given to your people in thy dear Son. We thank you, Lord, that where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty, and oh, how hopeful we are that you would be pleased this morning to send your Holy Spirit in power, that you would enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that you would give faith to our hearts and souls and enable us to Hang all the hopes of our salvation and rest all of our immortal soul on thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for being pleased to bruise him for our offenses. Lord, we thank you for your word. Make it effectual. powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Speak, Lord, to our hearts. Father, we pray for Cindy and Tom and ask, Lord, that you'd give them grace in this time of need and, Lord, give them safe travels and, Lord, encourage them in Christ. For it's in his name we pray, amen. Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. We'll begin reading in verse 13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses? What more comforting truth is there for a sinner than to have God say, and this is God's word, to have God say to you, being dead with Christ, being crucified with Christ, being risen with Christ, for Christ's sake, you are forgiven, forgiven all your trespasses, all of them. Everything you've ever done, everything you are, everything you ever will do, what you fail to do, forgiven, put away. Oh, if God be for me, who can be against me? What a sinner wants and needs more than anything else is to have God say, your sins are forgiven you. God cannot forgive without satisfying his justice. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. God is not some sort of doting grandfather in heaven that pats us on the head and says, you know, all is well because I love you. God is a holy God and God has a justice that must be satisfied. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did when he went to Calvary's cross. He bore the full wrath of God's justice. And God saw the travail of his soul. And God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. And faith is satisfied with Christ. Forgiveness. Oh, that's our hope. That is our hope. Look at verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them, and the marginal reading for in it is in himself. So he did this in himself. Verse 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of new moon or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore, If you be dead with Christ, if when Christ died, I died, if I was in Him, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines," take notice of that word, doctrines of men, which things are indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor. And that word satisfying is the word restrain. So all of these things, have a show of righteousness, but they in no way restrain the flesh. They don't restrain the flesh. All these things that religious men do, do not satisfy the honoring of restraining the flesh. Now, we see this message in many of the epistles that the Lord gives us through the hand of the Apostle Paul. What was happening was that Paul would be sent of God to a place to preach the gospel of God's free grace and the finished work of Christ. And then after he left, men which we refer to as Judaizers, would come in behind him and they would present this message. Now these were, these were men who grew up under Judaism. As a Jew, they would have begun memorizing scripture from the time they could have began to speak. They would have attended the ceremonies of Judaism before they had any memory of them. So all their lives these Jews were practicing Old Testament Judaism. And they would come in behind the Apostle Paul and they would say this, the Jesus of Nazareth that Paul presented to you is in fact the Messiah. We believe that. We believe that he is the Christ. And we believe that there can be no salvation apart from him. He is necessary for your salvation, but he's not sufficient. He's not sufficient. In addition to what he accomplished, You have to go back and you have to keep the dietary laws of the Old Testament. That's why he talks about whether you don't let no man judge you about meat or drink, what you eat or drink. So these Jews were insisting that you keep the dietary laws. They were insisting that you go back and practice Old Testament circumcision. They were insisting that in order to be a Christian, not only you had to believe in Jesus, but you had to be obedient to all the Sabbath laws and rules and regulations. These men who knew the Bible, and I remind you that at this time there was no New Testament. So the only scriptures that the church had was the Old Testament scriptures. And these Jews, you can see how they would come in to a Gentile congregation and intimidate the Gentile congregation because these Jews knew the Bible and the Gentiles grew up pagan and they didn't have any idea what God had said in his word. And so the Gentiles now were conflicted. They were confused. Is salvation by grace? Alone? By Christ alone? Or is there something else that we must do in order to be saved? These Judaizers were in fact not trusting in Christ for their salvation. For if you add anything to what the Lord Jesus Christ has already accomplished, then that's what you're trusting in. So why would they want to persuade the Gentiles to follow the Old Testament laws, rules and regulations, ordinances, which the Bible calls shadows of those things which are to come. to bolster their own assurance. You see, if I can get you to believe what I believe, and if I can get you to practice what I'm practicing, then that gives me a better assurance of my own salvation. Now, we don't have a problem with Judaizers today. Not in the gospel church, do we? Would we tolerate for a moment someone who would come into this assembly and say, the Christ that Greg has been preaching to you is true, but there's more to it than that. You have to go back and be circumcised and keep these dietary laws and the Sabbath laws. You wouldn't tolerate that for a minute, would you? You wouldn't submit to that. You wouldn't be subject to their intimidation. We could apply this to all forms of modern-day, false, free-will, man-made, works religion. And it does. It applies to the Christianity of today. Christianity of today has no different. They would say that Jesus is necessary for salvation, that he died, and that he rose again from the dead, and that he ascended into glory, and that he's coming again, and he is the son of God, and he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily, but something you got to do. There's a prayer you got to pray. There's work you got to perform. There's some things you need to abstain from in order to, in order to prove, in order to accomplish the salvation. That is the message that confuses the truth of the gospel to so many today. And we could give all of our attention to that false gospel and leave here this morning saying with that Pharisee, God, I thank thee that I'm not like other men. Or, or we could see that this Judaizer lives within each of us. It is our old man. I've titled this message, The Judaizer Within. We're much more concerned about the Pharisee in here than the one out there. What is it that causes you, child of God, to find so much hope and comfort and encouragement when you hear the gospel of God's free grace? Is it not because there's something in you that all week has been causing you to try to find your comfort and your hope and your salvation somewhere outside of Christ? Is that not so? And that old man is like those Old Testament Jews. He's been practicing sin from before he can remember. He is a sinner by nature. I mentioned this Wednesday night, I'll say it again this morning. This is how we come into this world. Sinners. We commit acts of sin because we are by nature sinners. We don't become sinners because we commit acts of sin. And the only real difference in the manifestation of sin between one man and another is not the nature of the man. It is the restraint of God. Think about that. Why did God put you in a position where you had certain influences and certain restraints in your life that other men didn't have? Why? You see, You see, the sinful nature in you and in me is just as capable of the most wicked act as anybody would be had it not been for the restraining grace of God. And the only thing that makes one sinner differ from another is God's restraining grace, not the nature of man. Boy, is there anything that gives to our Lord more glory than that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that if the Lord had not restrained you and put you in certain situations and guarded you from certain things, that you're capable of the most wicked act that anyone has ever done? Somebody said, well, that's not me. I'm not, that's not. Well, and you don't understand what a sinner is. The sinner is what we are. And we give to Him all the glory for, and this continues. The only thing that's going to keep me in the future from committing great acts of sin and shaming the Lord's glory is God's restraining grace. Lord, you've got to keep me. You've got to restrain me. You've got to, isn't that what the Lord said when he said, when you pray, pray like this. Lord, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and keep us from the evil one. That's the literal interpretation of that prayer. Keep us from the evil one. Lord, put a hedge around us. Is there nothing that I'm, not capable of apart from your restraining grace. So this old man that you and I live with, this man of sin, the one we were born with, is still denying the sufficiency of Christ. He's still looking to something that we do and something that we don't do and some law-keeping as the hope of our salvation. There is a self-righteous, pharisaical lawmonger in every one of us. Always wanting to add something to the finished work of Christ. Always trying to find his hope and his comfort and his peace outside of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Always calling us away from the glory of Christ. This is why, child of God, you are relieved and you are comforted to hear the gospel. because once again, you are reminded that salvation is of the Lord completely, completely. For the child of God, this is a lifelong struggle. We carry this body of sin with us until the grave. For the unbeliever, It's not a struggle. You see, this is the accuser of the brethren. That's the devil. What does he use to accuse us with? Does he not use the law of God? Does he not use the scripture? Does he not say, this is what God's law says. And if you didn't think that way and act that way and do those things, you know, maybe you could be saved. So he's taking us back to the law. The unbeliever is held captive by Satan and is continually trying to earn his favor with God and his approval before God and the hope of his salvation by his law keeping. That's what the unbeliever does, those who don't know Christ. So if this is a problem that the unbeliever has as well as the believer, then the gospel is the same message for both. Is it not? You see, we don't preach one message for the believer and another message for the unbeliever. It's the same message. It's the same message. Christ is all. He's in all. And it's the message that the believer needs. It's the message that the unbeliever needs. Look at verse 14. blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. The law is always contrary to us. It stands in judgment of us. The law cannot encourage us. The law cannot save us. The law cannot help us. The law condemns us as guilty. It demands exact punishment. It is uncompromising. It has no loopholes. It has no appeals. It has no exceptions. The law is against us. The law must be satisfied. The law must be kept. You have never, ever for one moment been able to keep one part of God's law. And so if we have to stand before God, being judged by His law, the law is going to have one word, guilty. Guilty. The law is contrary to us. Verse 15. Well, he took it out of the way. He nailed it to the cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers. Now, who are these principalities and powers? These are the principalities and powers of the devil. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, spiritual powers in high places. This is a spiritual battle that every believer experiences. As they struggle with their own sin, as they struggle with the accusations of the devil, as they struggle with their need for salvation. It's a spiritual battle. He spoiled them. He destroyed them. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 12 says the Lord will give him the spoils of his battle. And that's exactly what he did. The spoils of his battle was the accomplishment of a law, the putting away of sin, the destruction of Satan. The prince of this world has been judged. He's been judged. And he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in himself. He triumphed over the devil in himself. Look at verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you. Let not your old man judge you. Let not the Judaizer judge you that is without and the one that is within. Let not the man of sin, Satan himself, judge you. You're free. Don't be put under the law. Let no man therefore judge you and meet or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or a new moon, or Sabbath days. You see how these Judaizers are saying, you know, these are the Old Testament laws, you have to keep them. Which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. Now a shadow has no substance. A shadow only gives the form of what it is casting a shadow from. If we put a spotlight on a chair and cast a shadow from that chair here on the platform, no one would be able to sit on that shadow. The shadow is but a form of the substance of the chair. And so it is with these Old Testament ordinances. They were a shadow pointing to the substance. The substance is Christ. The body is Christ. Christ is my salvation. His obedience. His glorious person. His substitution. He stands in my stead. You know, and I would say To you who may not have a lot of understanding of the history or stories of the Bible, it would be shameful to me to do to you what the Judaizers were doing, to somehow intimidate you into thinking that before you can be saved, you've got to have a a better understanding of the Bible. These Gentiles had no clue. They came out of a completely pagan world. The Word of God had never gone outside of Israel. The Bible's got one message. The Bible's not a series of stories, or the Bible's not a series of theology, or of doctrine, or of History, Bible has one message. The Lord Jesus Christ said in the volume of the book, it is written of me. It's written of me. And beginning with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those things concerning himself. It is a book of Christ. It's all about Him. He's the substance. He's the substance. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Having a... Having a understanding and a knowledge of the Bible is not salvation. Having a knowledge of Christ is. who He is and what He's done. And then, you see, we understand the Bible from Christ. We don't somehow get to Christ through our understanding. We grow in knowledge of Christ. grow into salvation because we've achieved some sort of knowledge of the Bible. You get that, right? You see that. There's no substance in the shadow. The body, the body is Christ. Who he is and what he accomplished. I love what, what was it, was it, I don't know if it was Bunyan or one of the old hymn writers towards the end of his death. He said, I'm an old man. He said, I used to know a lot of things. He said, but I've forgotten most things that I ever knew. He said, but two things I know for sure. Two things I know for sure. I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great savior. Now, my friend and my brother, that's the only two things you need to know. I am a great sinner. And Christ is a great savior. He is the body. Everything else is but a shadow. And if we try to be saved by holding on to the shadow, it'd be just like trying to sit in the shadow of a chair. It won't hold you. It won't hold you. And how many people go through their religious life trying to accumulate a whole storehouse of shadows and don't have the substance, they don't have the body. That's what the Lord is saying to these ignorant, scripturally, biblically ignorant Gentiles. He's saying, don't be intimidated by those Judaizers. Child of God, don't be intimidated by that Pharisee within you. Don't be intimidated by the accuser of the brethren. Don't be intimidated by that Judaizer who says to you, you need to know more and you need to do more in order to be saved. Don't do that. They're just, all they're doing is piling up a bunch of shadows. You have the body, the substance is Christ. Verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels. Oh, how, how pious religious people can be, and how pious we can be when we begin to start to pretend that somehow our salvation is determined by, you know, by our law keeping. Oh, how pious and self-righteous we can be. True humility gives all glory to Christ. It doesn't parade itself as a humble person. True humility is aware of one thing. If you're a humble person, you know what you're aware of mostly about yourself? How proud you are. That's it. You heard about the guy that won the badge for being the most humble person in the church that had to take it away because he wore it. You know, I mean, isn't that the way people are? Isn't that the way we can be? You know, I just want everybody to know how humble I am. If you're humble, you're aware of one thing about yourself, how self-righteous and proud you are. Let no men beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility in worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds. Is this not the Judaizer in you? that would vainly puff you up in a fleshly mind, pretending to intrude into things that you've never seen before. Instead of just being satisfied with the simplicity of Christ. The simplicity of who He is. The Son of God. The sovereign, successful Savior of sinners. and not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increased with the increase of God." You cut the head off a body, is one hand going to be boasting in its ability over another? Or, no, that hand, every part of that body becomes useless as soon as you decapitate it. Isn't that true? And so it is with the Body of Christ. We have an essential union with Him. Without Him we're nothing. Nothing. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why is though through living and though living in the world, you're making yourself subject to ordinances? Why would you be subject to these things? Why would you be subjected to these things? Why would you have your hope taken away from you? And why would you, and yet we do, we do. The Judaizer within us would rob us of our hope and our comfort and our peace by By pointing us back to the law. Touch not, taste not, handle not. Which are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Now I mentioned when I read this the first time to take notice of the word doctrines. The word doctrine means teaching. And it is a good word in the Bible. The doctrine of Christ. Let me show you the clearest place. 2 John, if you'll turn with me to that little epistle in the back of your New Testament, 2 John. Look at verse 9 in 2 John. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine, singular, of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, the teaching of Christ, who is the head, who is the body, who is the substance of all those shadows. If there come any unto you and bring not the doctrine, this doctrine, this doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed." So, doctrine is a good thing. Scripture speaks often of sound doctrine, and that all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and for the instruction of righteousness to the man of God that he may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So doctrine's a good thing. Unless you've hung the hopes of your salvation on a doctrine rather than on a person. You see, you can articulate the doctrine of total depravity and not have been made totally depraved. You can articulate the doctrine of election and not have any hope in salvation or in Christ. And men do that, don't they? We're all, this is what the Judaizer in us would do. It's what he would do in me, it's what he would do in you. Well, I got a handle on that doctrine, so that must be, I mean, I know something other people don't know, so that must be I'm saved. No. The doctrine of Christ always points to Christ. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in our text, it says doctrines. And every time in the Bible, the word doctrine is made plural, it is not the doctrine of Christ. Okay? Matthew chapter 15, the Lord warns us, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. The Lord says, be careful, these Pharisees, this Judaizer within you is going to teach as a commandment of God, the doctrines of men. In first Timothy chapter four, the Lord tells us giving heed to seducing spirits. And you see these spirits are very seducing, aren't they? They would get us to be proud and comfortable and pious and very seducing. And the Lord says, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 9 the Lord warns warns us of being carried away with divers and which word it is different different and strange doctrines so when the word doctrine is used in the Bible in a plural sense it's either the doctrines of devils or strange doctrines or doctrines of men It's not the doctrine of Christ. Verse 22 in our text, which are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Perhaps you can look back at a time where you took comfort in the doctrines of grace. You Had the tulip down, you knew what total depravity and irresistible grace and limited atonement and unconditional election and perseverance of the saints was all about. And you were Calvinist and you have the doctrines of grace. Oh, how deceptful, how deceiving that can be. You can have the doctrines of grace and not have the doctrine of grace. You see, there's only one doctrine. We don't refer to these precious truths and they are precious. Total depravity, irresistible grace, unconditional election, limited atonement. I got those backwards. Perseverance of the saints. I mean, those are precious truths to us. But they all stand or fall together. Yeah, I hear people say, well, you know, I, I believe all the doctrines of grace, except for, and they'll pick one out. And the one they don't believe is the first one. Total depravity. God ever makes you to be a sinner, the rest of it just, it just all fits together, doesn't it? All fits together. There's one doctrine. One doctrine is the doctrine of Christ. And it stands or falls together. We don't say, well, you know, we've got these doctrines and they've got those doctrines and our doctrine's a little different than their doctrine. No. We have one doctrine. He is the head of the body. He is the substance. He is the purpose of all of these things. And He is our hope. He is our hope. We've rested. our immortal soul on Him as the Son of God and as the successful Savior of sinners. And we dare not add to or take away from Him anything. Child of God, you struggle with that Judaizer. You do, don't you? That's why the gospel is such a comfort to you. And you have to rewind it again and again and again. And Christ is all. And then you're able to take a breath and sit, not in the shadow, but in the substance. Unbeliever, stranger to God's grace, Don't look to your law-keeping. Don't look to anything you've done. Don't look to a decision you've made, or work that you've performed, or some law you think you've kept as the hope of your salvation. It is a shadow. A shadow. Amen. All right. That's as true as it is. This is the truth.