Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com as we conclude our study in Colossians 2, 16 and 17 of Meats, Drinks, and Holy Days. This is part two of two. This was a major event allowing for a release from the handwriting of ordinances that Jesus had nailed to his cross. They'd already been nailed to his cross, but if you don't put it into practice, it just doesn't accomplish much, does it? Now, before we move on to the next thing is what about the Daniel Diet? How many of you heard the Daniel Diet? Remember Daniel and the Hebrew children, they only ate pulse and water? And so people are selling books saying, see if you want to be healthy and live to be 300 years old, then this is how you eat. The reason for the Daniel diet were the Hebrews would not eat Babylon meat and wine because it wasn't kosher. God never said they couldn't eat meat or wine, but he had rules about the meat and wine they could eat. That was under Mosaic law. And so they had wine, they had meat, but they couldn't eat Babylon meat and wine because it wasn't kosher. One of the main reasons is obviously they offered their meat to idols and gods. and they didn't handle it correctly in what we've come to know as kosher. I want to tell you right now that's one of the reasons I just, we're getting pickier and pickier about the meat we eat as we get aware of what's going on and the older we get. And you got the, well, it's a different thing, but it's the same. It's GMOs and all the garbage they put in the meats and the way they slaughter them and don't take care of the meat. And that's why, how many of you have seen all the salmonella and all that outbreaks? That's all comes from where they don't clean their meat and they have, you're actually eating feces. Then that's another thing, but you're eating feces is what's giving you salmonella and what is it, Ebola? E. coli. Then you add on top of it, you're eating all kinds of steroids and hormones and I almost said hemorrhoids. You don't eat those. So, yeah, I shouldn't have said that. Some people do eat hemorrhoids. Chitlins. Yeah, that's good stuff. So the next thing he says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink. Well, back then they didn't have all the choices we had. They're pretty limited. They didn't have Coca-Cola products and they didn't have, you know, all the Mountain Dew. Sorry, Johnny. They had water, wine, or juice. Is anyone aware of any other drinks they had back then? Water, wine, or juice? Oh yeah, you're right. I should have had that milk. That would kind of be like the juice. Huh? Yeah, they had other, wine is all encompassing. That's wine kind of, when I refer to wine I'm talking about alcoholic beverages. and juice would be? You know the question about tea is I wonder if that's not what the tree of life is. It says the leaves. Here's what the Bible says about you drunkards. I'm joking, I am not insinuating that. I don't think there's any drunkards in here as a joke. Ephesians 5.18, and be not drunk with what? Wine. Wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, we had conversations, and I want to say this right off the bat. Just like with meat, the Bible never says you have to eat meat. You better eat something, and it better be good for you. Because a lot of the vegans and vegetarians, their problem is they don't get all their nutrients and things. There was a guy screaming in camera, and I'd play it, but it was so profanity-laced. And as he's screaming at all the meat eaters and cussing at them, his tooth falls out. Why? Because your body needs nutrients. And if you're going to be a vegetarian or vegan, you better be careful about what you eat so that you get all those nutrients. That's meat eaters, don't worry about it, we're just eating healthy, amen? Healthy. And the same thing when it comes to be not drunk with wine. We've had a couple people leave here because I won't get up here and condemn anybody who has a glass of wine or has a beer. Now that'll get me in trouble with a lot of fundamentalists and I don't care. I've looked from start to finish. Do you realize even in the Old Testament they weren't told not to drink? They were told days where they weren't supposed to drink. If you were a priest and you were serving in the temple in the Holy of Holies, you were told not to drink. But as far as this teetotalism, that's fine because I think you're better off. But I'm not going to stand up here and preach it if I can't find it in my Bible. And when I have people open a Bible and try to show me, it's embarrassing because of the way they treat the Bible. Stop doing that, it's not necessary. God's not stupid, he didn't forget something. You don't have to invent it. You know what, if everybody who ever touched alcohol never got drunk, we wouldn't even have this conversation. Paul said be not drunk with wine because that's the problem. For example, if you know that you won't stop with one, then you ought to be a teetotaler. And I'm not telling anybody to drink, by the way. I'm not saying to go out and have a beer. What I'm saying is, when it comes to other people judging what other Christians do, if we'd stick to the book, we wouldn't have church splits over it. There have been churches split because the preacher, they say, he's promoting social drinking. And I know one guy in particular, he said exactly what I said. I am not promoting social drinking. I'm not telling anybody here to drink. I'm telling you what the Bible says. I'm telling you what the Bible says to judge. What do you judge? If you ever see me drunk, then you ought to confront me and I have no business up here preaching the word if I'm a drunk. But, I had somebody get mad at me because they saw me out drinking a beer one day. You know what's stupid about it? It was an IBC root beer. But when you're running around judging by appearance, and that thing looks like a beer bottle, that's what you end up with. Here's another response to the abstain from all appearance of evil. Now that used to be real hardcore in fundamentalist circles. You couldn't even go to a grocery store if they sold beer. If they saw you walking in there, you'd be on the rumor mill. So everybody else could sin, talking about your sin. Restaurants! I'm not knocking anybody in my family, my upbringing. I'm just saying that this is a historic fact. I can remember the first time I ate in a restaurant that served alcohol. It was part of being a church. They come up with this thing called the Church Covenant. What chapter or verse is that in, Brother John? Doug, do you know where that's at in the Bible, the Church Covenant? I thought he was going to say the Book of First Opinions. And they got a list in this church covenant of things you won't do, and if you do, they kick you out of the church. They said things like amusements. You couldn't even go to Kings Island. Yeah, I'm serious. You couldn't go anywhere where they sold alcohol establishment or anything like that. And it's just, if it's not Bible, don't do it. I'd put it like this. First of all, a couple of things I want to say before I move on. I'm trying to not linger this too much, but a couple of things. Abstain from all appearance of evil. Listen, some of you people listen to music that is just wicked. How do I know that? I don't. I'm just saying that that's how it appears. Why? Because you're in your car and it's like... And you don't have a joyful look on your face. That's how people judge. And that was my illustration. I went to a church where a guy stopped listening to southern gospel music in his car. Because somebody heard him listening to a southern gospel group. It wasn't them, but it was one like them. Like the Inspirations or the Cathedrals or some of our favorite groups here, amen? And because there was a booming noise from the car, he had it cranked up. It was like boom, boom, boom, boom. It sounded like something like that. Somebody in his church, I'll just say, confronted him. Well, as far as I knew, you used to listen to rock and roll. And instead of saying, you know, that's really childish. Stop judging people on that kind of basis. Jesus said not to judge by appearance. You know what he did instead of that? Stopped listening to Southern Gospel music in his car. So what'd he do? There's no good Southern Gospel radio station, so he probably put on country music singing about getting drunk and cheating. Real low. I don't know what he did. But he stopped listening to southern gospel music because he's afraid he's going to offend somebody. Listen, some of you people, the music you listen to, I may not like. You know who you need to worry about? Not Greg. You need to worry about what God thinks. Now some of you may need to change your music, but you know who needs to tell you that? God. The Spirit of God convicting you. I am not the Holy Spirit. I am the pastor. You know another example? TV shows. You know another example? Movies. It doesn't matter, it can be any of a number of things, that if you are watching or listening to certain things, other people see you and hear what you're listening to, if they are ignoring what we're talking about this morning, they will judge you and condemn you. You see the cure to this whole thing is? The only time you should ever care to judge somebody is not according to what it may look like, but if you really see them doing something that is wicked and wrong. If you hear somebody using God's name in vain or the F word or something, I don't have any problem. You walk and say, you know, you really shouldn't use that language, especially in the church building. But there are a lot of things that are just a matter of your opinion. And we don't have time to run all the references, but a lot of people need to really spend some time in Romans 14. Romans 14 deals with all this. And our final point, because we're going to pick up where we're leaving off here in our next study, but our final one we're going to look at today is he says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a what? Holy day. Now, I'll come back to this. If you say holiday, it's the same. Holidays, though, are optional. Did you know that? If you don't want to celebrate Thanksgiving, you don't have to. Don't get mad at me for celebrating it. Don't judge me for celebrating it. But I'm not going to stand up here and tell you, well, you're just a godless, unthankful... Well, wait a minute. If you're thankful 365 days out of the year, then the fact you don't celebrate the holiday doesn't mean anything. Now I want to say, a lot of people will say this only refers to the Feast of Israel. And so the question is, does this refer to the Feast of Israel? Well yes, but not just the feasts. The text says, and holy day. It doesn't say the feasts. And it doesn't use a definite article, the. It doesn't say the holy days. It just says, let no man judge you in respect to an holy day. Which holy day? It ain't. It says an holiday, not the holidays or holy days. It is what it is. Do you believe every word in that book? Then don't make a definite article the, where it says an. Reality check, Old Testament believers celebrated holidays that were not instituted by God. There are people who say, well, the Bible never says to celebrate the birth of Christ. The Bible never says to have a Thanksgiving day. The Bible never says to have... It doesn't say when to have a holiday either way, one way or the other. It doesn't say not to. It doesn't say when to. And Purim and Hanukkah are two examples. You ever looked at that? God never instituted those holidays as far as we have any record, none in Scripture. Look at that. Don't read all this, but go to Esther. Esther, right before Job, chapter 9, verses 20 through 32. I'm going to start reading while you turn there. Verse 20 says, And Mordecai wrote these things. You see that? Context, context, context. It says, And Mordecai, that's Esther's uncle who was raising her, wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in the provinces of the king Ahasuerus both nigh and far, verse 21, to establish this among them. Who's establishing it? Mordecai. To establish this among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same yearly. Who established that? Mordecai established Purim. Verse 22, as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. That's practically like Christmas. Look at that. It's exactly the same thing we do at Christmas. God never established Christmas or the birth of Christ as a holiday. He also never established Purim, but they still did it. You see that? Is there anything wrong with it? You'll never see this condemned in the Bible, people celebrating Purim. There's never a word against it. And you'll also never see where God said to do it. Not once. You can read the rest of the chapter on your own time, you'll see that. Now, what about Hanukkah? We'll turn over to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. John 10, 22. And this is about Jesus. Verse 22, I'm going to have you read it, then we'll wait until everybody gets here. I'll give you a minute, just a second to turn there. John 10, 22 and 23. Alright, read that with me. And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. There is Jesus. at the Feast of Dedication which was the feast that is found in the apocryphal books of the Maccabees. after the decimation of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes and offering a pig or whatever. And they go in and they cleared the temple, cleansed it, and had a seven, it was a seven-day feast. And they only had enough oil for one day, they believed. I believe this is how it goes. And it lasted the entire week. And that's why during Hanukkah, the Jewish observers will put a menorah, and each day they light a candle, and some actually have oil lamps, and it commemorates that. If you want to celebrate Hanukkah, you go right ahead. The Bible never says not to. And what do we think about the temple? The temple is a wonderful thing. It actually is a picture of Jesus Christ. I've never actually observed Hanukkah, but I wouldn't have a problem if any of you want to. Because God doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Because there He is, God manifests in the flesh, and He's there. He's at that feast. And he's not up there haranguing people saying, you bunch of pagans celebrating these pagan holidays. God never established this. You're wicked. Which is what a lot of people will do to Christians. They call themselves Christians and they'll attack you for observing Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and all that. Some people who don't observe those holidays are a little more subtle about it. We're thankful for that. But there are a lot of what I call holiday hunters. They're always looking for somebody to condemn for celebrating holidays. So there's your two, Hanukkah and Purim right there in the Bible. God says if you take part in something like that, don't let any man judge you. And even though neither were instituted or commanded by the Lord, Jews were never told not to partake or take part in Purim or Hanukkah. And the same goes for any holiday, even Halloween. Halloween, there's some guys that go way overboard on that and they become legalistic about that. I personally think there shouldn't be any glorification of death. gore or anything like that. I don't like any of that. But churches have had alternative gatherings for the kids. They do that trunk or treat, I think some churches call it. We've sat out and given out tracks and snacks, or what are they called? Tracks and treats. We didn't do much this year because the weather was terrible and there weren't any kids out there. But on other, especially when it's not a church night, we're able to do that. And dressing up, we had Ronald McDonald here, we had Batman, we had a, somebody wasn't sure if it was a bunny or a rat. And you know, it's a lot of fun. But you know what? Those who wanted to dress up, dressed up. Those who didn't, didn't. And I didn't get up here and harangue anybody about it, did I? Why? Because it's none of my business. Yeah, I did preach to Ronald and Batman. He got preached to too. But it was the gospel. It wasn't about dressing up as Batman or Ronald. Not this year. You'll do that next year, huh? So the bottom line, it's between you and God. Can you say that? It's between you and God, amen? That's the bottom line. It says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day, and a holy day is a holiday. Believe it or not, there are people out there who try to strive over words, and they'll claim that the holiday word is not the same as holy day. It is, it's just a difference between a Y and an I in the middle. Anybody who says that holiday, that there's a difference between holy days or holidays, this is the theological term for it. It is B-O-L-O-G-N-A. That's how baloney ought to be spelled. So enjoy the holidays. Experience the joy of salvation. You know the only reason you should be robbed of the joy of your salvation? Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood and paid for the sins of the whole world. The only reason that you should be robbed of the joy of your salvation is because you're in rebellion. That's the only reason. Nothing else should take that joy from you. If you're rebelling against Him, then no, you shouldn't enjoy life. If you're in rebellion against Him, you ought to be miserable. But if you're saved, and you pray, you ought to pray daily. And I have to get on myself about this as much as anybody. We should pray every day, two, three times a day, just about our own filthiness. And making things right with the Lord. Lord, forgive me for those thoughts. Forgive me for what I said there. Forgive me for this, forgive me for that. Confess your sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. But listen, listen to me. I want everybody to listen to me. If you won't do that, you're going to be miserable. God knows it. What do you think, you're hiding it from Him? When you're doing something you ought not be doing, God sees it. So just confess it and do what you need to do to get rid of it. It brings up, you know, some of these people don't have TVs. There's nothing, you don't have to have a TV. Now, I tell people, If you get rid of your TV because you think you have to, and that's why you got rid of it, that's wrong. But I know some guys got rid of the TV because it was just junking up their lives. And they were constantly putting garbage on there they shouldn't have on there. And I've known, I did way back years back, I mean, I had trouble with that, so I unplugged it, put it away. Didn't get it back out until I didn't really even want it. Now, put it back out there so that we could watch the weather or the news or whatever once in a while and a football game or whatever. Ever since then, I've just not really been attached to that thing. And internet. Some people shouldn't have internet, at least for a while, till they can let go of it and it not rule their hearts and their minds. I mean, you think about it, they say pornography is the number one thing on the internet, and they know a lot of professing Christians are part of that. Every one of those Christians, if you're here this morning and the internet draws you into porn, get rid of the internet until you know you can handle it. See how that works? Nothing wrong with the internet. The problem is you. Nothing wrong with the TV. The problem is you. And if you don't have the joy of your salvation, the problem is you. You need to get along with God and say, God, show me what it is. Show me what it is that's keeping me from enjoying my salvation. I mean, of course, make sure you're saved. Some people need to take care of that, but I think most everyone here, at least, I'm sure of it. You've made a solid profession. You've been Christian, you've been saved for a long time. You ought to be enjoying your salvation. If you're not, get along with God and say, what is it? And He'll show you. But that's who has to do it. It's God, not me, not anybody else. Unless it's something black and white, like I said, that we can see in Scripture. So, as we enjoy this Thanksgiving holiday, and we gather together with loved ones, let's sing about that gathering of the family of God, page 510. Shall we gather at the river? Shall we gather at the river Where bright angel feet have trod With its crystal tide forever Blowing by the throne of God Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river, gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God. On the bosom of the river, where the Savior King we own, We shall meet in sorrow never, deep the glory of the throne. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river, gather with the saints at the river that boasts the throne of God. If we reach the shining river, lay we every burden down, Grace our spirits will deliver and provide a row back. Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river, gather with the saints at the river that goes by the throne of God. On the last Soon we'll reach the shining river. Soon our pilgrimage will cease. Soon our happy hearts will quiver with the melody of peace. Yes, we'll gather at the river The beautiful, the beautiful river Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God Father, we thank you for this time in your Word. We thank you for the wonderful time of fellowship, singing, prayer. Lord, I just pray that this message will take root in the hearts of all believers. We fight the good fight of faith, but not quibble over the things that are really none of our concern. And allow the Holy Spirit to do work in others for us not to interfere by pretending to be holy or to be the Holy Spirit in others' lives. Lord, may we love each other and lift each other up in prayer. If we're concerned about one another on some area of our lives, may we pray for one another. And Lord, we ask that you bless our time this week and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, if any of our folks are traveling, that you would give them traveling mercy and that we would have a good time with our families. that segment of our population that seems to be just vile and just completely unhinged about politics, Lord, that You'd just shut their mouth for a couple of days. And we could get together with family and just enjoy our time together and talk more about what we are thankful for and count our blessings and to really just enjoy our salvation. Knowing we're saved and you can come at any moment, take us home. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. at bbfohioradio.com