Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Our Lord.
One guilty and undone.
Thou grateful.
We brought 5 people.
As we.
Record.
We praise the fire.
But no brought near.
Through the dead of Christ.
Our Lord.
Fresh grateful.
Thy spirit.
When?
Thou shall come.
We we shall say, I know how great.
The good night.
For.
Your own hearts, our song swearing.
Our God and Father.
The children.
While waiting for our world.
Chapter 2. We don't want to make assumptions on that without.
Leaving it open if others have different thoughts.
Well, that's my feeling too. I think it would be nice to spend at least one more reading on it if the brethren are happy with that.
Colossians, chapter 2.
Verse 10.
Perhaps verse 9.
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened, together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, lauding out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us.
I'm having foils and fatalities and powers and made a show of them openly.
00:05:02
Let no man therefore judge you elite or entering or in respect of the holy day.
Days which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
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, increases with the increase of God.
Wherefore 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 all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom and will, worship and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
It's a marvelous statement. There in verse nine. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We often use that, and most correctly, to bring out the preciousness of the person of Christ, perfect God and perfect man in one person, and we enjoy that. But it's written here, I suggest, in this chapter for another reason too.
And that is as it goes on to say in the next verse, And ye are complete in him. In the first chapter we were told concerning Him, and this is quoting from the Darby rendering of it. In Him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. But here it says, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
As we mentioned yesterday, the tendency among us as men.
If we get away from the things of Christ, if we get away from the divine revelation that he has given us, If we get away from what we have in Him.
The tendency is to set men before us, and to have those exalted personages whose intellect is greater than ours, because we're not sufficient to ourselves. But how wonderful that God sets one before us who is a man, one before us who, if we can put it this way, has been where we are, yet without sin, as we get in Hebrews, and God sets that one before us as one who became a man.
Who remains a man for all eternity, but one in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. What human leader, what human personage can compare with that? And so God directs us first of all to that Blessed One. Then he warns us, of course, and we'll get to that later on in the chapter about the dangers of not holding the head, the dangers of legalism and ritualism that so easily can come in. But before he does that.
He tells us where we are and lays before us that blessed person of his beloved Son, and says, And you are complete in him. I guess I have asked myself a number of times, does that precious truth really get a grip on my soul? Do I really understand where I am that I and you and every true believer in the Lord Jesus is complete in him? Because there's the answer to every difficulty, every problem. It does not say ye are complete in the truth.
No, it says, ye are complete in Him, that one who is the truth. And what a blessed thing it is for that, to get a grip on our souls and to realize that we need nothing in the moral and spiritual realm apart from Him.
The four in the first of the verse reflects back on the eighth verse, and I think it's good to kind of keep it in that context.
00:10:06
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
So that it's not in man's reasoning mind. The answer we have reasoning minds, and the mind of man is a really intricate, interesting thing, but we need to be careful not to let our mind go beyond scripture.
And even when we're talking about the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How can we understand a verse like this, brethren?
In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily a man.
Of flesh and blood walked down here in this world. He was God in every sense of the word.
And to think of it, brethren.
Finally, men.
Could put their hands on him. And what did they do to him? They nailed him to a cross. What a story of man's wisdom, of man's power, of man's intellect.
Is that where we are? Naturally speaking? That's where we are. How that should make us wary of man's philosophy, man's spots, Simply to accept the revelation that we have in our hands here of Scripture, not depend on our own minds about it. Let's submit ourselves to what God has to say in His precious Word.
Our minds will never be sufficient to grasp properly what this means. All the fullness of the Godhead, our God, brethren, our God that is greater than the whole universe.
There are.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in that human body.
When they finally took the Lord Jesus and rejected him and took him outside the walls of Jerusalem and crucified him, it's interesting to notice where it was. It was at the place of a skull. And I thought about that because what is a skull? It's an empty head. And this was the height of man's intellect. This is what man's reasoning and man's intellect finally did to the Lord Jesus. They thought, as it were, They got rid of Him. They sit away with him, crucify Him.
And it was there at the place of the skull. But, you know, it's interesting that this chapter really sets the stage for the next chapter. I just want to jump ahead a moment and notice verse two of chapter 3.
Set your if you notice your margin, and this is the way Mr. Darby translates it, set your mind on things above. It seems that it's more noble to say. Set your affections, and even in these meetings we've had some expressions in connection.
With how we need to take in the truth in the heart and how the heart needs to be affected in connection with divine things. And that's certainly true. It's when the truth gets into the heart that it has a moral practical effect on our walk. Because where the heart is, then the feet will follow. But I believe it should be correctly translated here. Set your mind, because in this chapter that we're taking up, it's, as we've been saying, the mind of man.
The reasoning of man that brings in that which is not according to the truth, it was the reasoning of man.
Here, and brethren, I believe it's very, very important that our minds be governed by the Word of God, that we not deviate in any way from God's Word. God has set these things out, and when the mind of man comes in and begins to add or take away from the Scripture, then we're on very, very dangerous ground because the intellect, if I can put it this way, it seems to work overtime when it comes.
To philosophy and all this kind of thing. And so it's a warning to us. What are we to do?
00:15:00
We're not. We're never to empty our minds. Now we're to fill our minds with the Word of God.
To bring every thought into captivity under the obedience of Christ. If you allow me just to digress from our chapter just for a moment, but I want to reiterate something that I know some have heard me say recently, but it really burdens me. I have young people that go to school and in the school system today, at least where I come from, they are teaching our young people to empty their minds. And it seems very good on the surface because they do it.
Under the banner of relaxation or meditation. But it's a very, very dangerous thing to empty our minds. Because if we seek to empty our minds, then the enemy.
To come in and fill the vacuum and what the enemy is going to fill the bathroom with is not the truth of God. It's not the truth of concerning Christ. And some of us have been to countries where this is taught under heat, under heathendom. And you see it in its stark reality where people are taught to sit and empty their minds and meditate. And you see very quickly the evil and the wickedness that is connected with it.
And so I just say this, brethren, we need to be on our guard. Sometimes in so-called Christian lands like this, things are done under a pious banner, under a banner that doesn't seem so bad in itself, but underneath it's just the same old tricks and lies of the devil.
Little contrast between what we have here and what we have in Ephesians, because it says here and ye are complete in him. In Ephesians we have what the church is to Christ, and she's the fullness of him that filleth All in all. I don't want to sound crude, but I've sometimes put it this way. In Ephesians what you find is that a body without a head is an incomplete unit.
Or, I'm sorry, ahead without a body. And Christ, if I can put it this way, he's incomplete without his body, the body with his body, which is the Church. And so the body of Christ is the fullness of him that filleth All in all. But in Colossians it's what Christ is to the church. He's the head of the church. And in Colossians it's a body without a head, being an incomplete unit. We need Christ as the head.
We need to look to Him in everything. That's why we said yesterday that the Assembly is not a democracy. It's where we look to the head for direction. The problem arises in the Assembly. We don't decide amongst ourselves or take a vote or popular opinion or what we think we should do to correct this problem, not only in problems but in every function amongst the people of God. We don't decide ourselves. We don't have a board meeting.
And decide these things. No, we look to the head for direction because as I say in Colossians, it's what what Christ is to the church. And a body without a head is an incomplete unit. And so we need our head and we need to hold the head. We need to look to him for every function and direction.
It is interesting in the new translation that in verse 10.
You are complete. Is really.
Filled full. Mr. Harvey has a note on that. It really relates to the word fullness in verse 9.
Verse nine. It's all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.
And then in verse 10.
Ye are filled full in Him. You know, brethren, we're living in days of weakness and.
Failure.
In the outward testimony, and sometimes we have problems that are hard problems. Everywhere I travel there's problems.
But I sometimes wonder if the Lord doesn't allow that to happen to test us. If we're really looking to Him, the tendency is maybe to call up some brother that has a lot of understanding.
00:20:06
And it's nice to have brethren that have understanding and we need to listen to them.
But remember, at the same time, spiritual maturity is not looking to some brother, it is looking to the head. So what that brother says to me, I take it. I consider it in the presence of the Lord, I weigh it.
But I have to make my decisions based on what I get from the head. That's holding the head. And that's so important. In the day we live in, is the Lord not sufficient, brethren, in our weakness, is He not sufficient? You go back into the Old Testament. We have so many beautiful examples, Gideon day of tremendous weakness in Israel.
They were at the mercy of the Midianites.
And there he was.
Feeling his weakness.
Threshing out some weed and the Lord appears to him and Gideon says why has all this happened to us?
He's really feeling it. What does the Lord say? Go in this thy might, might, get in that might. Brethren. It's feeling our weakness, but looking to Him that is our strength. Oh, how we need to learn these lessons.
And I really believe, brethren, that we have had the tendency to look to certain brethren that are gifts, no doubt gifts to the Church or to assemblies that are helpful assemblies.
God is jealous of the glory of his own beloved Son, and He wants us looking to Christ. That's maturity. That's spiritual maturity. It's in Ephesians 2. Ephesians as well. Let's look at the 4th chapter because.
Comes out there in the same way, I believe.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15 but speaking the truth in love.
May grow up.
Into him in all things.
The purpose of the working of the gifts. Thank God for the gifts that He has given. May the Lord use them. But the purpose of the use of these gifts is not that we be looking at the gifts.
But that we may be looking, that we may grow up.
We need to grow up, brethren. What's growing up?
Into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The Lord deliver us then, brethren, when we come together in special meetings, or even in our home local assemblies, from being looking.
Brethren, we need to be consciously looking to the Lord as Head. He is not limited, for as much as we may have failed in our weakness.
He is not limited.
Often think when the Lord was going to feed the 5000. We mentioned this many times.
He says first to the disciples, give ye them to you. They were the lost to know what to do.
Those that were closest to him were the lost.
But Andrew said there is a lad here that has five loaves and two fishes.
But what are they?
That wasn't much, but put into the Lord's hand it was multiplied till all were filled, and there were 12 baskets leftover. Oh, brethren, we have a God in whom dwells. We have a Savior ahead in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I'm amazed when I go to South America, brethren, and.
00:25:00
They have a lot more conferences in Bolivia than we do up here in the United States. They have two or three conferences a month down there, brethren, sometimes 3 conferences and one holiday weekend in different parts of the country. When I look around and see brethren that have very little, some absolutely no education, I say how's, how are they going to do? And I sit there brother, and then marvel at what God is able to bring out.
Through the gifts that He is given and the times of blessing in the soul as we sit there under the direction of the Spirit of God. My desire is, brethren, that we be encouraged to give the Spirit of God liberty.
Sometimes when we say that, I hope I'm not being misunderstood by thinking that everybody has liberty to say something. That's not what I'm saying.
And we speak of the liberty of the Spirit of God. Sometimes I like to put it this way, nobody has liberty to say anything, that there's one person present here, the Spirit of God. He is a real person, brethren.
And I, as a person, as a member of the body of Christ, need to give him liberty to use me.
If he wants to.
If I sit down and say I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not giving him liberty that quenches the Spirit of God. Let's not be guilty of that.
I must say that sometimes maybe we speak too much.
I probably am guilty of that side of things a little bit more and that also quenches the Spirit of God.
So sometimes we kind of stumble over each other.
Glad to see that it hasn't happened too much this time. Maybe some.
But we need to realize that through the Spirit of God, there is a sufficiency in the Lord Jesus. Like that hymn that Dave gave out in the address yesterday.
A fullness resides in Jesus our head. A fullness abides to answer all need. O brethren, is this a reality? I think we can prove it to be a reality.
Right today, in our days, when there's so much to discourage.
The Lord hasn't changed.
We have changed, we have failed, but he hasn't. Can we count on him? I believe we can. I really believe we can.
Paul said when I am waiting and am I strong? But I want to raise the question here, Bobby, connection with what you said because you mentioned idiot and how the Lord appears to him and how he gave him direction and told him to go and this thy might. But we know today that God doesn't appear the way he did to Gideon or the way he did to a number in the Old Testament, even the way he did to the Apostle Paul in the early days of the church. He stood by him and encouraged him when Paul felt his failure and his weakness.
And we talk about holding the head, we talk about looking to our head for direction.
But perhaps we might wonder, as we go back to our local assemblies, and as we seek in our personal lives to own the Lordship of Christ, how do we then receive direction from the head? We're members of the body. We know in a physical way all the members of our body take their direction from the head, from the brain. We don't lift a hand, but it doesn't take its direction from the brain. But let's just have some practical comments. We go back to our local assemblies. As we've heard, there are problems.
Real problems I have no doubt There are brethren here whose hearts are burdened as they think of going back.
Next week, if the Lord leaves us here to local problems and situations, maybe in the assembly, maybe in connection with a decision at work, maybe in the family circle or whatever sphere of life it may be, how are we going to practically look to the Lord as our head for that direction? Maybe we can have some comments in that regard. Go ahead.
Well, I'd like to hear what others have to say, but we have two great resources, don't we? As members of the body, we have prayer and we have the Word of God. I'd like to just notice 2 verses in this connection. First of all, in Revelation chapter 3.
00:30:03
In connection with the Epistle to Philadelphia.
In Revelation chapter 3, I might just say, I realize, brethren, that there ought to be no thought even in corners of our hearts to being Philadelphia, but we do see it Philadelphia, that which met with the Lord's approval. And isn't that what we really covet, the Lord's approval? And just notice verse three or verse eight of chapter 3. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. And I want you to notice this expression.
For thou hast little strength, and hast kept my word, and has not denied my name.
And then just go over to the, I think it's the 138th Psalm.
Yes, Psalm 138, and I'll just read the last expression of verse 2. For thou hast magnified thy word above all Thy name. Well, as I say, in the Epistle to the Church at Philadelphia, we see that which met with the Lord's approval. There was weakness there. They had little strength. Rather, the Lord cannot tolerate indifferent, but He does bear with weakness when there's exercise.
And maybe there seems to be no strength or even direction to deal with some problem in the assembly. If we become indifferent to it, that's one thing. But if we are in exercise, then God recognizes that the Lord honors that exercise. And so they had a little strength. But isn't it remarkable that in His strength He set before them an open door, and no man could shut it? You say, how do you justify the two statements?
On the one hand, there's an open door that no man can shut, and the next expression, they had a little strength. Well, they recognized their weakness, their strength, their little strength, but they realized that there was strength in the One who is Almighty, the one who could say, all power is given to me in heaven and on earth. But what I wanted to notice particularly is that they kept His word and not denied His name. Now perhaps if I had been writing this, I would have reversed the orders.
That they didn't deny his name and they kept his word. But no, first of all, they kept his word.
And brethren, when problems and difficulties arise and we look to the Lord for direction in any sphere of our lives, or even not just in a problem or difficulty, but for whatever direction we need, we need to first of all keep His word because this book is sufficient to guide us and direct us. Even in 2005. This book is sufficient to answer every question and difficulty.
That rises even at this light late date in our history. And what burdens me is sometimes we tend to do things in the name of the Lord Jesus.
But we don't have the authority of His word for what we do. You know, we are never justified in acting as members of His body in the name of the Lord Jesus unless we have the authority of the Word of God. Sometimes we might say, well, we need to straighten out this problem.
Rather than if we don't have direction from the Word of God, all we can do is, with prayerful exercise, commit the matter to the One.
Then in his own time and way, he's going to give us direction so that when the problem, the action is taken, when we take the step, we can go to the Word of God and say this is the authority for what we do.
This is why we're asking in the name of the Lord. If you go out with the gospel, sometimes people say the only thing that matters is that souls be saved. But if.
It must be a way that conforms to the word of God, and that's why in this Psalm we read, it says, Thou hast magnified thy word above thy name. We're never justified in acting in the name, putting the name above the word. We must always have the authority of the Word of God.
For what we do. And so this is how today we're not, we don't have the Lord appearing like he appeared to Gideon or many others, but He has given us His word and we need to collectively search his word and individually. Why is it problems arise?
00:35:12
And there doesn't seem to be light. We haven't perhaps been into the Word. If we're going to have direction, it's from the Word. Why isn't there the power? Well, brethren, perhaps there isn't the power because there isn't the prayer that's coupled with the Word of God, the light and instruction. The authority is the Word. But what about the power? Why is there so little power? Sometimes, rather than, you know, sometimes I go to the assembly prayer meeting and I find it's the most poorly attended.
Good crowd out on a Monday night to hear an address, but then when it comes Wednesday night or Thursday night for prayer meeting, back to the same few. Why? Good crowd out on Lordsteam morning to remember the Lord. I'm thankful. But what about the assembly prayer meeting? What about prayer in our personal lives and in the family circle? Do we lack power? We say we don't know. We just don't have the power to act as members of the body of Christ. We don't seem to have the power to take care of this problem.
Perhaps it's because we haven't availed ourselves of the powerhouse. And so I believe this is in a very practical way and we've got away from our portion, but in a very practical way. To look to the head, to seek His direction is to get this book out and read it. The instruction, the direction is here. And then to get down on our knees, brethren, and to pray and to look to Him to give us that power to deal with the difficulties, to go on and ask for His glory.
Even in the day of ruined brethren, this is what's going to preserve us individually and collectively, as gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
That verse in Psalm 138, the portion that you read, For thou hast magnified thy word above thy name. Then the next verse says, In that day when I cried, thou answers me, and strengthens me with strength in my soul. So there you have them right together.
The the Word of God.
That is where the direction is written down.
What a mercy it is that we have the Word of God so easily available, and we also have the ability to.
Bow our heads and our hearts and ask God to make the Word clear to us and give us power.
In in carrying out the word.
We have the answer in seeking the Lord in the word of God in prayer. What tremendous resources, but I'd like to add this in connection with prayer and that is humbling ourselves and recognition of his hand upon us. If I go with a spirit that I'm all right, I did everything right and why doesn't why don't people understand me and then go to the Lord for the answers it's likely I'm not going to get.
A very solid answer. In fact, the problem may get worse. I'd like to turn to the book of Daniel.
To see one man that had what is called in scripture in excellence spirit, and this is to be coveted brethren in seeking the Lord's face.
Humbling ourselves before him. Chapter 9 of Daniel.
Daniel.
Somebody else has said in this chapter is not Daniel the prophet prophet, He is Daniel the student of prophecy and he studies Jeremiah the prophet and he finds out that God had promised that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years and those years were about up and he realized that God.
Would be doing something according to his word. But notice verse three. There you have the word in its place. Now he seeks the Lord. I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sacklot and ashes. I think there's some real lessons.
00:40:06
In this, brethren, to get the Lord's mind in things.
Prayer supplication is more intense than simply prayer. Do we know what that means? It's easy in our prayers. Go over.
It means intense pleadings to God. It's not just something general. Do we know what it means to supplicate?
Then it says with fasting.
You know what fasting is. It's generally interpreted to not eating when you normally would.
But really the thought in fasting is denying ourselves. It may be food, it may be other things too that I enjoy, but for the Lords sake I deny myself.
Brethren, in a land where we have been.
Shall I say blessed? It's really not blessed, but we've been given so many mercies, so many temporal mercies.
We don't see any need to fast. Why deny yourself? Everything is available.
You know it impresses me when the Lord came off the Mount of Transfiguration.
And he met the disciples below, and they couldn't cast out the demon out of that boy.
That the Father had brought to them, and they asked the Lord afterward and said.
Why could not we cast him out? And the Lord says, this kind goeth forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
Do we know what that means to deny ourselves for the Lord's sake? I'm afraid I know very little about it. We like to interject a little E in front of the A. In fasting we do more feasting.
But do we know what it means to fast? And I really believe there's nothing wrong with eating, nothing wrong with it. I enjoy my part in it, but it takes away our spiritual strength. I really believe sometimes when we give too much place to that, when there's need amongst God's people, is it proper that we should feast?
Or fast. Well, here Daniel is a lone individual. Don't even know where his three friends are. Evidently he's an older man here, so maybe they weren't around anymore. But he's a lone individual, you might say. Well, nobody else feels this like I do.
Be encouraged with Daniel's example, fasting and sack life. Sack life wasn't a very comfortable thing to wear. We like our comforts, don't we brethren?
Are you willing to give up your comforts?
And ashes. Ashes is what remains when the fire has done its work. Everything is under judgment as far as God is concerned.
To take our place properly before God.
In view of all the failure that there's been, brethren.
And we don't have time to go over this whole chapter, but it's so instructive to see. And I'd just like to mention, first of all, he justifies God in having allowed what took a reason that he has allowed it. I really believe there has been.
We need to justify God. Another thing that I think is so tremendous with Daniel is that he identified with the people of God in their failure. He did not isolate himself and say that he was the only one faithful.
Oh, what a lesson this is.
You know, in the law definitive.
There was the sin offering, and it was not accepted except the priest. Eat that sacrifice in the holy place.
What does that mean? When you eat something, you make it part of yourself.
00:45:04
And that person that brought the sacrifice was not the one that ate it, it was the priest that ate it in a holy place.
And then it was accepted. Oh, what a lesson that is for us.
Daniel of all people was exemplary in his life. He could have well said, I've tried to maintain myself for thy glory, Lord, but he doesn't do that. He identifies himself with the people of God in their failure and talks about my sin and the sin of my people, Israel.
Is there that with us, brethren? Or we do try to isolate ourselves and say we're doing it all right over here? I don't know what happened over there.
Lord help us, brethren, if we want to seek His face. These are principles that we need to consider.
And at the end of the chapter, God opens to Daniel when he takes that place in humiliation.
And prayer before the Lord. He opens to him the prophecy of the 70 weeks.
Probably one of the most useful keys in understanding the prophetic picture of the future of God's earthly people that there is in Scripture.
He got that because he took his place in humiliation before his God put lessons. These are for us Ready.
In getting direction from the head, the head is there. He's a very real person. The Holy Spirit is here. He's a very real person as well.
Why is it we seek him sometimes and don't get an answer? Seemingly we don't get an answer.
Forgot some dust but involved in being.
First of the 20th Psalm that says the meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way. I just like to add 1 further comment before we pass on and that is we've spoken at great length about the word of God being our guide. And the psalmist in the 73rd Psalm said thou wilt guide me with thy counsel and that counsel is found in the word of God. But there's another scripture in the 32nd Psalm where David says he he will guide me with no guide me with thine eyes.
Just like to make a comment on that because I believe, brethren, there are many steps and decisions in our Christian pathway.
That are only going to be discerned in nearness to the Lord Jesus. Yes, there are infallible guidelines in the Word of God to guide us and direct us step by step by word. Is a lamp under my feet and a light unto my path. But I sometimes illustrate it this way. If I when my children were small and they were with me in meeting, sometimes they were at the other end of the row and one of them was doing something that I didn't want them to do.
And so if I could catch their eye, I could speak to them without saying a word. They knew by the expression and the way I looked at them that I was communicating something to them and exactly what that was. But two things. They had to be close enough to me, and they had to be looking at me. Those two things were important if I was going to speak to them with my eye. And we have to be close to the Lord.
And looking to him, looking at him by faith, if we're going to be directed by his eyes. And so I just say that that again, I enjoyed.
What I heard from another about a difficulty that had arisen amongst the people of God many years ago and after a very lengthy brothers meeting and great discussion and many scriptures brought forth, a young brother turned to an older brother at the end of the meeting. And he said to this older brother, and what step will you be taking?
In this matter and the older brother looked at him and very wisely said to him.
When the time comes to take a step, I hope that I am walking close enough to the Lord Jesus the Head that I know what step to be taken. I thought that was very good advice.
There is an answer to that question as we go on in our chapter here.
00:50:00
Because in verses 9.
The head of all principality and power.
But then what happens?
Reminds me of a story of what happened in a conference way back in the 1800s where some brethren got together and someone suggested that they take out Ephesians.
And a well taught brother who was there after the meeting commented. He said, well, I wondered about that suggestion, whether we were up to taking Ephesians in the meetings. He said, I thought maybe it would have been better if we had taken up Romans. But he said actually it didn't matter because no matter where we go in the epistles, we always end up back in Romans anyway.
And here we have brought before us very basic truth, and may I suggest that sometimes that is the answer to the problem.
I don't want to tell stories out of school, but this happened so long ago and everyone involved pretty much is with the Lord. But I remember well there was an assembly that I knew about and this is well over 40 years ago.
And we didn't know what to do with it caused a lot of problems and a split right down the middle of that assembly and it went on and on.
And finally, they very wisely asked a couple of neighboring assemblies to come in and help them.
And I got this from one of the brothers from one of the neighboring assemblies who told it to me years and years later because I knew nothing about it.
He said when we went in and looked at the situation.
He said. We told them we cannot solve your problem for you, but we will tell you what the real problem is.
We told those dear brethren, you have had strife and envying and personal grudges and bad feeling in this assembly for 20 years.
And there is a reason why the Spirit of God cannot make you of one mind. And when you deal with those issues, you will find that the problem will not be a problem. And he told me that it took time, but that's what happened. And so may I suggest here that what we get in these next two verses perhaps is ultimately the answer to some of those difficulties because it is possible.
To have the problem, I agree with prayer and the word of God most 100%.
But we read in Psalm 66, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Again quoting another dear brother who talked about the word of God and the principles of it. And he said principles.
Applied without the guidance of the Spirit of God in the Lord's presence.
Are like a sword in the hands of a drunken man or a little child, you better take it away from him until he is able to use it correctly. And so we know how that the word of God can be misapplied. We know how we can go to the Lord in prayer and find that we cannot get the guidance that we want. But may I suggest sometimes there's a deeper problem and we need to remember what we get in verses 11 and 12 here. That flesh is to be cut off.
Maybe there's something in my personal life. Maybe there's something.
That the Lord is seeking to draw to my attention. Maybe I don't realize that I am buried with Him by baptism and as it says here, risen with him through the faith of the operation of God. These are basic things we say. We know that, we've heard that, we understand that. But it needs to be a daily, constant exercise in our hearts, doesn't it?
Corinthians.
The Corinthians Chapter 11 he said, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
I have as follows, you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted.
From the simplicity that is in Christ.
The beauty, what are the beauties of being here? Thus far for myself has been to drive around this area and see the simple wheat fields. And we know that wheat from wheat we get bread which seats people and it seems so simple and so peers. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our head, He is the bread of life.
00:55:20
The Lord Jesus and whom were complete is the bread of life. They need us feed our souls.
These are all sufficiencies.
You agree with that application, brother, correct in looking at these verses in that light.
Head that is Christ, the head of the body. But this verse is not talking about the head of the body. It's talking about Him in his headship over all principalities and power and being The head of the body is in chapter one verse 18 and also in chapter 2 verse 19.
Christ has a number of head chips, doesn't he? And I think the point here is that he's saying that there are these dangers of of philosophy and so on, the enemy using to take us away from what we have in Christ. And he reminds us that.
We have everything we need in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him, and we're complete in Him. Therefore, we have everything that we need for understanding divine things and for going on in this world. We don't need to look outside of what we have in Christ. And then, as you've mentioned, verses 11 and 12 link us with Romans.
Which is the end of the first order of men, The old man under judgment because.
Figures are used now in verse 11 and 12 for the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and how that we're identified with Him.
In His circumcision, when it says circumcision, verse 11 is talking about his death here. And so Christ's death is brought in to show us the end of man in the flesh entirely. And he's showing us that there's no need to look to these philosophies and so on, because they really emanate from the flesh. And the end of that is all in the death of Christ. What we have is something so much better than what the mystery unfolds.
Is that what you were thinking?
For the last 15 or 20 minutes is perhaps an application of these scriptures, which I think is very, very good because we have, sad to say, experience the effect of not dealing with things in the right way. But here it is really bringing the force, the end of the first man. We're dead and risen with Christ. And now.
If man has his thoughts, his philosophies, and they can creep in among believers, that's why this is here. It is not simply false religions and the outside world that is guilty of these things. He did not warn the Colossians of these things.
Shall we say because there was no need to. There was a need. There is a need among us to recognize that. And the ultimate problem in all of this is man's mind getting ahead.
Of divine revelation, getting ahead of our completeness in Christ, getting apart from what we have in Him.
With angelic beings and that higher order in creation. And that's why he brings up here how that Christ is the head of all that and we are in Him. So we are above that order of things and there's no need for us to need to look into those kinds of things because what we have in Christ is superior.
And when he speaks of the body of the sins of the flesh, I understand those 3 words of the sins.
Are not to be in the text. He's really Speaking of the body of the flesh. And when he uses that word body here, he's not really Speaking of the human body. He's using the word body in the sense of the totality of something as we might speak of the the body of scientific knowledge or the body of medical knowledge. And he's speaking here of the flesh in his totality the whole thing.
Has been cut off in the death of Christ. It's been judged the good.
And the bad altogether, you know, there's some things about the flesh that look pleasing outwardly, but it's still the flesh. It's, you know, there's in the Old Testament, there's an enemy of the children of Israel typifies the flesh. And you know which one I'm going to say it's the Amalekite. But you know, there was a test put for Saul to cut off not just the Amalekites, but the king of the Malachites, Agag himself. And that's what he failed in doing. And.
01:00:20
It might speak to us of the best of the flesh, but still it's the flesh. And So what we see here in the totality of everything that the flesh is, is cut off in the death of Christ. And so we need to see the end of the first order of man in Christ's death.
There's four phases here, isn't there? Circumcision verse 11, buried verse 12, Risen verse 12, and quickened together with him verse 13.
Because Saul didn't extirpate the Amalekites, it was an Amalekite that did away with him then at the end. That's right.
We should make one. I'm sorry, we should make one comment here just so that we aren't misunderstood, and that is that none of these verses should be construed as being against the use of the human mind in the proper channels that God has given us. We're not arguing against things like computer science or medical knowledge or technology or.
Anything that God has given our minds the ability to do these verses in no way would predicate against education if we feel before the Lord led to go down that road. It's rather the moral and spiritual realm that is in view here, isn't it? And so in the moral and spiritual realm.
Divine revelation is the final authority when it comes to things that man has been able to discover in this world and things that modern technology has been able to do.
That is not really what we are talking about here. And so it's not right to use these scriptures to argue against an education. I think we need to be on guard against it because we know that in many cases education brings us closer to these things. And I think I can say I know where I'm coming from because I had the privilege of going to university and sometimes I encountered things there which were not according to the Word of God.
And I believe we should be very careful to have the mind of the Lord and seek His guidance before we undertake something like that.
But at the same time, we need to realize that these verses are not speaking about that, but rather against the mind of man seeking to exalt itself against God in the moral and spiritual realm. And then of course, as we see in this chapter, outside of Christ, man's mind becomes, as we've often heard, the placing of the devil. And there's no, no end to the extravagances that it will go to. And that's why you will see perhaps extremely educated men in this world who are, as it says in Romans chapter one, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools.
Sorry, Bob, go ahead.
I was just going to say that I think it is good too, to see that in these verses 1112 and 13. It's not exactly. It's not exhortation.
As to how we should act, it's talking about our position in Christ.
We are dead, verse 13 says you being dead.
Verse 12. We are buried with him. These are facts, brethren. It's not something that we are exhorted about, but we are instructed that this is the truth of God. We are looked at as dead.
Buried.
I would like to ask.
Some discussion perhaps on the difference between circumcision and baptism. Circumcision is something that was practiced in the Old Testament. Baptism is what is practiced in the new. Maybe somebody could speak about those two things.
01:05:04
Together.
I have enjoyed the next year with them.
We know that every site in the Old Testament falls short of what we get in the reality in the new.
But it seems that if we take our instruction and guidance from the New Testament.
We can then go back to the old and see the perhaps.
Illustration of it there. And I have enjoyed the thought here that we are buried with Him by baptism, as it says in verse 11 or verse 12, wherein ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. That is, baptism, as we well know, speaks of our death and resurrection with Christ. And in First Corinthians 10 we find that it is connected with the children of Israel's going through the Red Sea.
What was their position then? Formerly they were under Pharaoh's domination.
Now in going through the Red Sea, they see all their enemies dead. But now what? Do they have a new leader? They're in a new position. They don't have to be responsible to Pharaoh anymore, and in that sense they are free. Well, that's the wonderful position that the believer is brought into. And I would suggest that circumcision is linked with it here, although not a complete parallel, because that brings before us, figuratively, the cutting off of the flesh.
The putting away of that which is contrary to God and which cannot be in any way reformed. That's the difficulty. Man tries to take that sinful flesh and say, well, it's not so bad and I can use it. It's good in some ways. And so he seeks to use that mind that he has apart from God. But where is the natural mind? It's at enmity with God. And it's not that we cut the mind off, but the flesh that governs that mind.
It can never be reformed. It's not to be controlled, it's not to be somehow used in a right channel so that it's useful. There's only one thing that's good for it and that is it has to be cut off and it's painful. It is a painful thing and we shouldn't be surprised if it is painful, but nevertheless it's something that must be done and I suggest in a simple way that that is the connection I've enjoyed that is brought here.
254.
Jesus died. We died with him buried in his grave. Relay one with him in resurrection now in him in heaven's bright day 254.
Entirely behind us.
Grace and glory are before.
01:10:32
And bright day.