The Laws of Man
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Pray for grace through this sermon, as there will be a lot of Scripture.
This is a simple truth, that can be hard to navigate in applying correctly in our lives.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
This is a continuation of the previous passage arguing against the judiazers.
There is no judgement about keeping these jewish requirements any longer.
Shadow of things to come but the substance belongs to Christ.
Tradition Cannot Save You
Tradition Cannot Save You
This is a continuation of the previous passage arguing against the judiazers.
There is no judgement about keeping these jewish requirements any longer.
Shadow of things to come but the substance belongs to Christ.
The law was fulfilled by Christ, we are not subject to it any longer. We are subject to the law of Christ.
The Christian and the Law.
Have you ever heard arguments like:
You don’t follow the Bible, you eat pork, and wear mixed fabrics, and etc…
Perhaps you have wondered why this was the case.
We are not under the law but under grace. Galatians goes in depth on this topic.
Paul is discussing this same issue, in much greater detail. When
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Weight Vest analogy.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
We are free from the bondage of sin and the restrictions of the law, not to indulge our flesh, but to pursue holiness in freedom.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
I think one of the best explanations of this is how Paul explains what he does when he preaches the Gospel.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
To those under the law - under the law (though he is not)
To those not under the law - not under the law (though he is not outside the law of Christ)
Our Commitment is to God, not to keeping the Law.
The law was given as a means of salvation that no one other than Christ has kept, and now through Christ, we have been given an unshakable means of salvation.
Because of this, we are not obligated to the Law, but we are obligated to God. To follow him. Here is what that looks like:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
If you think, “This sounds like following the law” You have missed it!
It is not that the Law was bad, but it was never a means by which you could be saved.
The Old Testament has tremendous value. The Moral commands there are still valuable for training in righteousness. Many of them are restated in the New Testament as we will see in the book of Colossians.
But for people, the Law condemns because they cannot keep it.
Christ has fulfilled the law, and has made a way of salvation for those who cannot keep it.
So now our salvation has been secured! We have no part in earning our salvation or keeping our salvation.
But we do have an obligation to live as obedient sons and daughters of the God who loved us enough to save us.
In this passage it appears that there were people who were not just appealing to the law for salvation, but to man made rules.
Man-Made Rules Cannot Save You
Man-Made Rules Cannot Save You
Asceticism and worship of Angels.
Asceticism
This is the utter humiliation of oneself.
I.E. Martin Luther.
Worship of Angels
People were having visions and explaining new rules and restrictions that ought to be followed.
These things are not from God, but are prideful instructions that glorify the person and not God.
We see a similar thing in Chumra in Judaism.
Hedges around the law
“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.
These things might be useful for some people, but as a rule taught to others, they fall short of being useful and cause issues.
How do these things apply to us today?
We must seek biblical faithfulness.
We must guard against good ideas being taught as commands of God.
Alcohol.
Day of Worship.
Ways to worship.
Order of Service.
Consider the ways this could be distorted but is not:
Gluttony
Don’t eat anything sweet. Don’t eat out.
Gossip.
Don’t use facebook. Don’t use the internet.
Falling to temptation.
Remove yourself from the world and only associate with Christians.
We must bear with one another.
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.
But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Explain
We must have grace with one another.
We are going to make mistakes. Other people are going to get it wrong. We are going to get it wrong.
Praise be to God we don’t have to get it right! If we did we would have already been condemned!
Example: “58 Year Old Atheist Turns Christian After Trying To Prove Religion Is A Conspiracy”
“What do you think Jesus’ role was? Who do you think he was?”
He was literally the Son of God.
What this man understood is the truth that we need to hold on to today.
Only Jesus Can Save You
Only Jesus Can Save You
If you haven’t listened to anything I have said, listen to this.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We are all slaves to sin, in need of a savior.
The law reveals to us in our lives the sin that we need to be freed from.
We are in bondage to it, and we cannot break free.
God love us so much that He gave His Son, so that we could be set free.
Freedom means that we are no longer slaves, we have been forgiven, and can live eternally with Him.
Our freedom was bought with the blood of Christ, and this freedom is available to anyone who believes.