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Please, oh God, invite us. We look under the calendar.
Dial 0123200 and 32,000 and 12.
Thyrimightlersay.
Oh my heart.
Behavior.
My God.
What, What, what came? When's the squares you have? You can't.
Suggestion as to what we might take up, subject to the thoughts of others.
00:05:02
We have had the glory of Christ before us in those hymns that were given out at the prayer meeting.
The first two lines of the hymn we have just sung said by thee, O God invited, we look under the sun.
Would the Brethren consider taking up Colossians Chapter 2?
The reason I suggest that is that, as most of us perhaps know already, in Colossians we do get the highest truth, I believe, as to the person of Christ in the word of God.
And.
Perhaps in the first chapter it's more the emphasis on the glory of Christ as to what he is in Himself, although you can't separate it from his people. But then perhaps in the second chapter it's more the glories of Christ as head.
With respect to you and to me, and in these last days, in the distress and the difficulty that seems to be increasing in every part of the world.
I would suggest that.
More than ever, we need to recognize that everything that the believer needs down here is to be found in him.
What would my brethren feel about that?
Amen.
Colossians, chapter 2.
Or I would that He knew what great conflict I have for you and for them. At least see us, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, Let their hearts might be comforted being hit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
To the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the Spirit, joy, and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
As he hath therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord.
Soul walk ye in him, rooted and build up in him, and established in the Faith as he had been taught, abounding therein with Thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.
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.
And ye 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, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Buried with him in baptism.
Where it also ye are risen with him.
Through the faith, through the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him.
Having forgiven you all trespasses, 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 his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in it.
But no man therefore judge you in me, or in drinks, or in respect of an holy days.
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Or the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ, that no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and the worshipping of angels.
Intruding into those things which she has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly minds, and not holding the head.
From which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministers, and knit together, increase us with the increase of God. Wherefore if he be dead with Christ from the runnemons of the world, Why, as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?
Touch not case not handle not which all are perished 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.
Well, just a further comment on this chapter.
As.
Kind of a starting point and that is that.
I know this is going over familiar ground, but.
In Colossians, perhaps the emphasis, or not perhaps, but the emphasis is on Christ and what he is for the church. In Ephesians, it's the emphasis of what the church is to Christ. And so there we get much of our blessings and the enjoyment of our blessings and what Christ is to the church or what the church is to Christ, I should say. And that's very, very beautiful.
And we need that, and it's only right that we be brought into the full enjoyment of all that we have in Christ.
But here in Colossians, the emphasis takes a little different turn. It's what Christ is to the Church.
And in the practical side, I believe we need that more than ever in these last days because on the one hand, we are seeing man in his.
Supposed wisdom and he is making tremendous technological advances at all kinds of inventions and things that.
He is very pleased with, but in the spiritual side there is really nothing.
That can do anything for the believer outside of Christ. And so here in this chapter, the emphasis is on the fullness of Christ in every way for the believer. And that in the understanding and realization of that mystery, that secret that God has now revealed to us concerning His purposes in Christ and concerning Christ in the church as we get in the end of verse three there.
Or end of verse two. And then in verse three, in the realization of all of that are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That of course doesn't mean that we don't need education. It doesn't mean that man's wisdom and natural things as far as technology and building and business and so on is concerned. It doesn't mean that that knowledge is not valuable.
But in any moral and spiritual subject in that realm of things.
There is nothing that we need outside of Christ.
And I suggest that that is something that perhaps needs more to be emphasized today, perhaps more than it ever did, and to have our eyes directed to that Blessed One who first of all is the object of all of God's counsels, and then the One who is everything to us.
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Take some additional introductory remarks to the context or the subject that we have in chapter 2, If you go back to chapter one and verse 20, Speaking of the Lord Jesus having made peace.
Through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things, unto himself by Him I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He, or yet reconciled in the body of His flesh through death.
Man.
In the flesh.
Is in a state of rebellion against God and His authority.
And man, when it says he's at enmity, it means he has a fixed dislike in him for the authority of God. And consequently it's a conflict between man and God. Man in his sinful condition wants his own way and he says I'm going to have it. And so he lives a self-centered, selfish, self oriented.
Life and when God speaks, it goes in contrast or in conflict with himself, because God says I have the authority. I am the ultimate head of right and wrong and righteousness. And so man lives out his life in a state of empathy with God.
But the Lord Jesus being sent here into this world and dying.
On the Cross resolves that conflict between man and God. For those who accept the work of the Lord Jesus, He makes peace. He makes a peace that man may have now with God. Instead of being at enmity, He can have peace with God on a righteous ground.
But it only takes place in each individual if the Christ is accepted.
And the death of Christ is accepted in what it means for us, and then we have peace with God. But having peace with God, we're brought into a new relationship with him through the Lord Jesus Christ, in which God has placed his Son as heaven.
Of having supreme authority over us, and uniting us together under that one common authority of himself as head. And in Christian life, in the measure in which we accept that and walk in that, we have the enjoyment of fellowship with God and one another. But very often if that character of the old life.
Is allowed to act in us. Then there's conflict and strife not only between our souls and the Lord, but between each other, because we go back to the old way of life, which is empathy with God. And so in the second chapter we have the apostle laboring with the Saints in colossi to bring them into the practical reality of the recognition of their new position.
As alive from the debt, and as in a new place in which Christ is supreme and head.
So in that sense, Paul is seeking to bring these dear Colossians.
Whom, he says here in verse, one had not seen his face in the flesh, as well as those in Laodicea, into the full knowledge of that.
Excuse me into the full knowledge of that position into which they had been brought, and.
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It's beautiful to see that it is not merely the understanding that is in view, but, he says.
Being knit together in love. And that's that ties in dawn with what you were saying. Because if you and I as believers acknowledge the head, which is brought out later on in this chapter as the danger that we may not do if we do acknowledge the head. And each one recognizes that head takes his or her direction from the head and seeks to walk in fellowship with the head.
It naturally follows that we walk in fellowship with one another, doesn't it?
Knit together in love, the love of God, not only enjoyed in your heart and mine, but enjoyed in fellowship together and then.
There are the riches of the full assurance of understanding.
And we might make a correction here because I feel it's rather necessary.
It says in our King James to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.
But if you look at the Darby translation, it nearly ends the verse with the mystery of God.
We don't get such a thing as a mystery of the Father in Scripture and the mystery of Christ. Perhaps not to be technical, but that's more the subject of Ephesians. That's a little different aspect of the mystery, although it's the same secret. But it should read to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, not in whom, although that's true, but in which.
Are hid all the treasures of wisdom?
Knowledge. And so God has in this dispensation of His grace, made known to you and me that secret of His will that was not revealed in past ages, in order that you and I through knowledge and understanding of that mystery.
United to a risen head in heaven.
Enjoying that love that has now been shed abroad in our hearts.
We have access to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. What a privilege, what a place we're brought into, and what.
God has placed before us is absolutely unlimited in all that Christ is, and in all God's purposes in Him.
With a reference point is the mystery of God, isn't it? It's in that that are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and how important it is to understand that mystery that was hid from generations past has now made known.
Uh, to the holy process and prophets in the Spirit.
That, uh, the calling of the church. Jews and Gentiles both united to Christ in heaven. But as you say, they'll hear the most more book. It is on the person of the Lord Jesus in his preeminence.
That's what comes out. So chapter one.
I'd like to make a comment here too. It's interesting to notice in the new translation, in the last verse of the last chapter, Paul says Where unto I also labor.
Striving according to the working which worketh in the mightily.
And that word in the new translation is combating. And then in the first verse of the second chapter, he says, For I would have you to know what combat I have for you.
To understand these things.
There is spiritual warfare going on to keep us from the enjoyment of it.
And then to connect it with one further verse in the 4th chapter of Colossians in reference to Epoch, who was a labor in prayer.
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He says I'm reading from the new translation says epiprax is one of you, the bond and the Christ Jesus salutes you, always combating earnestly for you in prayers. So that's the same word again.
There's combat involved with.
Bringing the Lord's people into the enjoyment of this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is helpful to see.
Part of the mystery which is made known to us.
Is found in the first chapter in the 26th verse.
27 verse.
So he says even the mystery which have been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his Saints, to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? What is it?
Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And other scripture we have particularly brought before us that in Christ we have a wonderful new relationship with God. And what we are in Christ before God is developed in other Scriptures. But here it turns it around and it's Christ in you.
Well, what is Christ in US?
As we have in Colossians 3.
Our life is Christ.
And so that new divine life which has been imparted to us, which we call eternal life, is Christ in us. That is our life. And what is that life? Well, in connection with the second verse and the exhortations in this second chapter, one of them is.
It says net to gather in love.
What knits us together in love? It's the activity of the life of Christ in his love acting in us that does that knitting. And so in the measure in which the life of Christ is working this morning, and each one of us, it's knitting us together in that love, which of which Christ is the source of that love. That love is not find its source in ourselves naturally.
In fact, if the flesh and the character of love that's found in the first man is active in US.
It's going to have the character of what have you done for me, brother, lately? Have you been loving me like you should? That's the character of the flesh. That's the character of the old man at work in us when we become occupied with how our brethren are treating us or how they're loving us, and so on. The contrast in it is the life of Christ, when it's active in US, is occupied as Christ was occupied.
In the free flowing forth of the love of God being manifested with its desire to see the good and blessing of another soul.
To just add, to make it practical, brethren, or practical to our conscience, we've many of us heard many times the comment, the measure of divine love active in the soul is the love that you bear toward the most.
Cantankerous and crossing grain, brother within the sphere of your acquaintance, let me simplify that a little bit and say the measure of divine love at work in each one of us this morning is the measure of love we bear towards the brother or sister in this room that is the most difficult for us to love.
That brings it down to a more practical, perhaps sense. What is my feeling this morning? What is the character of my heart this morning toward a brother or sister in this room? Or will enlarge it a little bit and say back home where we live, that that's where if Christ is active in our hearts, then we'll love that brother, that sister as God loves that brother or that sister.
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And the consequence is that Christ were knit together in love.
I find that often we don't understand in our present culture what divine love really is. We look at somebody and we see something that we appreciate in that person and we love that person and that's something real and but that's what really is.
Uh, spoken of in Scripture as brotherly love, and that's proper in its place, but.
Divine love is love that loves because God is love. There is no other reason for it and it is not natural. And sometimes we connect love with an emotion. We feel an emotion of love, and it does involve the emotions love does. But just remember brethren, why did God love us? Was there something lovable in us that He loved us?
No, why did he love us then? He loved us because God is love. And isn't that wonderful to realize that in all our failure, in all our needs, God looked at us and he loved us. Now that's the love that we are to be knit together with. And if that were operating in a what a difference it really would make.
Maybe there's a need for a warning and?
If I could pick on you, Don, you were talking last night a little bit about the dangers of so-called covenant or reformed theology. And would it be in order to make a comment or two relative to the understanding of the mystery and what it means? Not to sit here and seek to be critical of others, but a warning is sometimes necessary because that line of thinking among believers is.
Really gaining ground.
Not only in North America, but in other parts of the world too.
Uh, you have a comment on that, Don, you were, I'll just go back and comment on the verse in the previous chapter. I don't think we want to go down that road too far, but, uh, in the 27th verse of the previous chapter again, it's what is the price? What is the mystery in this particular passage? Christ in you.
The hope of glory.
Why do I hope to be in the glory of God in heaven?
What light do you or I have to expect down coming ahead in our future is to be?
In glory, in the presence of God, in the Father's house. Why do I hope that Christ is in me? And if Christ is in me, then his place?
In Glory is going to be my place.
I can't be separated from himself as to the purpose of God.
If Christ is in me, and so I'm brought into that relationship with God in Christ before God, Christ in me, and therefore if his place is at the right hand of God, so that's my destiny. It isn't something to do with for me. There are people whose destiny is earth.
But not mine, not yours. Christ in US is the foundation of our hope.
Of glory, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so I'm assured.
In John's epistle in first John chapter, not sure whether it's two or three, it says we know that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Where are we going to see him as he is?
In glory in the Father's house.
And so when we look forward, as John presents it to us, we look forward to being like him where he is. We shall see him there as he is. And when we're there, we will be in a condition that perfect condition of, of our eternal life with our glorified bodies will be in that condition in which we are morally perfectly like him as we see him as he is.
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And so any.
Present distortion of truth, which is becoming far more common, unfortunately, in Christian profession, is that which robs the Lord Jesus Christ and God of His purposes, His mystery of having Christ written upon our hearts in His presence in the glory.
And that is in contrast with the Saints of the Old Testament, would you say, Sean?
They have a destiny too, but it's not the same as ours.
Our position the, the believer is the, uh, that this generation or this dispensation is the only one whom God says, you are united to my son in this very special and unique way. You are related to him in Ephesians chapter one. He has to go back to the glory, enter into his place in the glory, and then the church is formed and then it's united to him.
Where he is because that's his character and that's his destiny.
The church isn't formed until it had is glorified in the right hand of God because that's the character that the church has in relationship to himself. And again, I say very unfortunately, there's a strong current.
That comes at the present time in in Christianity that is contrary to that truth, and robs Christ of His rightful place as that.
And the church's destined place as his body.
And as you said, Don, we don't want to go down that road too far. But just to point out a comment relative to what our brother Bob was saying, the reason it is so popular today or one of the reasons is that it takes the combat out of the spiritual realm and brings it down to the natural realm.
That's not our Co, that's not Our Calling, is it? We're combating in spiritual, uh, Bibles in heavenly places, not combating down here to try and set the world right that appealed to the natural man. And ultimately it is an effort of Satan to drag the believer down to the level of this world to make Christianity a worldly religion.
And to make it a force for the betterment of this world. Yes, Christianity ought to be a force in this world, but not in that way.
We are far more effective aside from.
Shall we say what Scripture gives us? But we are far more effective acting in the character of ambassadors as God has placed us here.
Than jumping into the arena seeking to try and establish a Kingdom that God says will only be established by judgments.
No, he is speaking here to see two assemblies. Yeah. Lyle is there. Ankles to the Saint there.
There must have been problems there.
Which had to do with their heart, that their hearts might be complicated being together in love.
Now from that I take that they were not.
Improper.
Standing with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because we all know that the Lord Jesus is full of love and be love every one of his own. So if they would have and that includes us.
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Proper relationship Personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ from day-to-day.
Yeah, alright.
Should be prompted and being made together, and that in the love of Christ. That's where it starts.
I would love to reach other.
Could be shown too, and that is therefore each other.
But it has to start with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts.
Then we wouldn't have.
Sometimes we hear that well, we don't feel love in the assembly.
Well, what is our love for the Lord Jesus?
That do we bring love into the assembly?
So what we enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ now if people enjoy what we did.
Have to say about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We wouldn't want to.
And where they go, they won't find that.
That then we should make it through.
Red color is. What's wrong with this?
Because a lot is fairly, as the Lord says, by the course of your roof, borne out, get you out of my mouth. Umm, if we are lukewarm towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we cannot expect.
That we can grow, but we can enhance together last.
Some of us, uh, who well, remember a brother saying, uh, among us many years ago, it's not what you know that controls your life, but what you enjoy. And, uh, it seems to me that this chapter.
Uh, has that thought in it quite a bit because it speaks, uh, we've been speaking about verse three and whom are in all the treasures.
Our wisdom and knowledge, you know, there's a lot of folks that are back there in the display.
And, uh, it's too much to take in.
And those books won't give answers about every situation that you run into in your life. And I run into it mine.
But it says in whom all are hidden, umm, in whom are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So when we run into things in connection with our own personal life, family life, assembly life, the answer is to be sought by turning to the Lord. And it seems to me that what the apostle Paul was very concerned about.
In the assembly there at Colossi was and we find in verse eight he where lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.
And philosophy.
Means, I believe, the love of wisdom.
Of, uh, the danger is for Saints of God to, as chapter McIntosh said in his writings, intellectually trafficking in the truth.
And so the apostle Paul, he wants us to live close to the Lord, it seems to me, in such a way that we come to him as simple children seeking answers to all of these various things in our lives. So that's what I get out of the first number of verses.
Well, I think that's very good, Dave. And as we said earlier, Christ is sufficient for everything, isn't he?
Uh, first of all, there's the acknowledgement of the mystery and the understanding of it, and then there's Christ himself, as it says in verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And so our whole outlook ought to be predicated on that man invents philosophy which.
00:45:27
Perhaps when it was first.
I don't know how to say it. Word is say. The word devised or invented was perhaps not intended to be wrong in the beginning, because it was intended to help man realize how that his own experience fitted into the larger hole. But.
Man's vision is limited.
He can't see beyond himself unless he has reference to his creator. Man's horizon is this world. His thoughts are bounded by time. His thoughts are bounded by his own experience. And even if man seeks to try and fit his own experience into the larger experience.
It can never go beyond man's experience in himself. But when you and I find ourselves.
Associated with a risen Christ in glory. What a difference it makes when you and I find ourselves brought into the understanding of the full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God. And to the acknowledgement of that, we find that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are opened unto us.
And as you say, brother Dave, ultimately the solution to every problem is found in Christ. It's not a matter simply of going to some book of ministry and saying, well, what did brother so and so say about this? Or I turn to this book in chapter 2, subsection 3, part BI, find the answer to my question. No, the answer is found in Christ and in reading his precious word.
But at the same time, the Vista of truth, the place that God is bringing us into, is the understanding of that mystery that lifts us up to see all of God's purposes now, from a past eternity to a coming eternity. Does that show us how our experience fits into the larger whole? Far more than that, it shows us how the God in Christ has his purposes.
In Christ and He is bringing us into the good of all that he has purposed. What a difference that makes. Then we don't find man pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, which he has been trying to do for thousands of years. We find ourselves being connected to a risen Christ in glory and all the treasures that are connected with that person and God's purposes in him.
And all the wisdom that is connected with that position and with Christ is all made available to us.
So if you want to live in harmony with God as a preacher of God.
It's well to know what God's thoughts are and what He plans and what's important to Him.
And that's where the conflict is. God has certain purposes. God has certain things that are important to him.
But man, that enmity with God, at least like Cain, he went out from the presence of the Lord, and then he lived life with himself as the center of his life, and everything revolved around himself, his pleasure, his prosperity, his honor, his glory. And so man has developed under Satan's subtle control.
A whole world system of things where each man can be the center.
And each one can say my happiness, my glory, my honor, my success, etcetera.
But it's in conflict with God.
God's mystery, if you will, is I have chosen my son to be the center of everything.
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I have chosen my son to be the head over all my creative things in heaven and in earth.
And I have chosen him to be the focus, the object of man's interest and desire. I I appreciate the way a brother in a prison in Colorado said it to a fellow prisoner, he said. Willie, it's not about us, it's about him.
And to go into harmony with the thoughts of God.
Is to change the focus of the attitude of light, which can only be done in new creation and new life. Is to live the life of Christ, which puts the focus on what God focuses it on, and that is the exaltation and honor of his Son. And so it's the desire of God to write Christ upon our hearts, each one of us. And that's the purpose he's working out today in these meetings.
Is to write Christ on our hearts so that He is the center of attention and the center of life to each one of us.
It's himself.
And in Christ with life, we're constrained by that love, and we find our satisfaction in it. But the moment the flesh in us is allowed to work, no, I don't want that, because the flesh is.
Not constrained by the love of Christ.
I would like to mention, if I may, this little incident, sometimes little, uh, incidents like this help us to understand a verse. And this really did something that was said by our brother Armstead Barry many, many years ago in a Bible reading in connection with verse 3.
In whom are hid all the pictures of wisdom and knowledge.
I'm told of this incident where he was in Washington, DC and a brother, I believe it was there, a brother took him to the library. The American folk sales name of it, uh, that apparently is supposed to have a copy of every book that was ever made. And so, uh, this is the game way back before computers were around so much and apparently you could go and look up a certain title.
And then you could push that various number and then down a chute in a few minutes would come that book.
Well, they looked up one of Mr. Darby's books.
And sure enough, down the chute came that hook in the dark.
And Armstead very said he thought of this verse in Colossians 2, verse three, in whom are his all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the source that we have beloved to turn to for everything is wonderful. It's hidden in heaven, and that is where we get our answers.
Immerse life, he says.
Although I'd be absent in the flesh yet, and I with you in the spirit.
Drawing and fulfilling your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
Now, how do we proactively feel the steadfastness of faith in Christ?
We have people that grow up in the meeting, young people all over.
And.
00:55:00
When they go away and which we see so much today.
Into one of those big.
But they call churches, I guess.
And where is the steadfastness in Christ then?
MTA excuse is always wealthy of saying.
I'm sure they're safe and they're not going to be lost. That's all that counts. Is that all that counts?
It is all that counts for eternity.
Yes, that they don't go to hell, but what? What is that fastness?
In Christ, that's more than that too. Live.
According to his word.
And if there is some problem within anybody as older or young.
What? Why are we not capable of finding out what allergies or says about our desires and our wants?
And then share it if we don't know.
It's beautiful in verse five, the spirit of the apostle Paul for.
The squash and although I'd be absent in the flesh and, and I'm with you in the spirit alcohol. It was not possible for him to be present amongst all that he had labored among, amongst those that he had umm, uh, nurtured as a father would his children. And yet, though he was not present with him, embodied.
They never left.
His heart They never left the affections of the Apostle Paul, and though he wasn't able to labor over them in body, he continued to labor in spirit.
And as we.
Seek the blessing of others. If it's truly in the power of the Spirit of God, it will stir our affection and we won't leave our brethren behind when they when they're rooted in our affection in our hearts. And so it's it's beautiful. I've I've enjoyed so much as I've as as I've seen the apostles affections for each.
Assembly that he rose to or he labored.
Uh, four. They never left this infection. They were fresh.
In his Spirit. And you know, sometimes we have to leave those brethren that we love, and we have to leave those brethren that we feel have a need of growth and establishment in the faith, but we never have to leave them in the Spirit.
We can be fresh.
In the in the Spirit seeking their blood in prayer.
The next verse said, As we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
We ought to be able to explain what it means to walk in him in the location society, walk in him.
Chapter one and verse three, the first thing the apostle when he thinks of the Saints in philosophy that he mentions that he gives thanks for them.
Because he says in verse four, is we heard of your faith?
In Christ Jesus and then in our chapter in verse five, he he rejoices in the steadfast of your faith in Christ and then verse six he says as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, they had received him and the only way that it's proper to receive him is in the simplicity of faith and there's a danger after we have accepted Christ and.
01:00:03
Have that simplicity of faith that we allow the workings of the human mind to come into it and to add to it reasoning ways about how to live. But he's drawing them back to the manner in which they have received Christ. And it was with the simplicity of faith. And it's a wonderful thing to see a believer go on.
And have unspoiled in them that simplicity of trust between their soul and the Lord. But there's always the working of Satan to introduce again a fresh in some way in our lives, some element of unbelief. And when unbelief is allowed in some aspect or some matter in our life to come in, then we seek some other human answer to the need that results from it.
So the armor of God, one of the important characters of it was to have that faith and the apostle was thankful that as he writes to the Saints here, he's he's encouraging them to not get away from the simplicity of that faith in which they had accepted the Lord Jesus. And as you have received him. Why? And so it is with us, brother, and there's a continual need to.
Go on in that same simple.
True hearted trust in the Lord Jesus.
I think there's a, uh, thought here about, umm, progress in Christian life. Uh, this is, uh, I, I set the example, for instance, of a, you're in a dark room and uh, the light is on at the hall door closed, but some lightly extend under the door and around the edges. And so we are in light in, uh, in a, in dark surroundings a lot at the time.
But we get some light being a light coming to us. And as we look into the scriptures, then act upon it. That's the instruction of the scriptures to walk in what we see and learn of the Lord Jesus and glory and beauty. And then we'll get more. And so the, sometimes we, our young people get a bit discouraged when they hear us, uh, some of us around this, uh, center of the room.
Talking about the some of these things that are considered quite lofty in our experiences and we kind of say as young as young people, we might say, well, they've got it all and I'm so far away from that and how can I ever measure up? But it's little by little. It's a program, it's incremental to step at a time and it's it's all connected into following and as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord.
So walky in there.
When we first were brought to Christ, and every one of us who are saved would bear witness to this, we had to be brought right to the end of ourselves, didn't we? We had to realize that we could do nothing to save ourselves, but any efforts that we thought we could make were utterly unavailing, and we were dependent only on the grace of God and on the finished work of Christ.
Well, I would suggest that in that God is as it were paving the way for the Christian pathway too, because as we've had brought before us, it's so easy for Satan to get his wedge in. He did it to the Galatians. They were saying, yes, we have to be saved by faith. That's no problem. We have no question about that. But then there were those that were saying, but you need the rule of law by which to live. And I know that isn't Colossians line of truth, but it's the same principle that.
Satan, if he's allowed a chance, will seek to introduce human thoughts and human wisdom into the Christian pathway, which always, always drags us down, doesn't it? And so the thrust of this chapter is that it wasn't so much bad doctrine in colossi that was the problem. But are not holding the head turning aside, or at least the danger of turning aside.
Commands wisdom and seeking to walk the Christian pathway in human wisdom and perhaps not rejecting God's wisdom, but saying, well we need man's wisdom added to it. We need something mixed with it.
01:05:10
I can remember years ago reading in a magazine where somebody who was a believer went down the street and they asked about 10 people. They said, do you believe there is a God? And most of them said yes. Well, then the next question was, and in those days, this was quite a few years ago, they said, well, do you think God understands radar? Do you think he understands radar?
Oh no, no, no. I don't think God understands that, most of them say.
Well, we laugh at that, but as believers, Satan can, if we're not careful, get us to thinking, well, the world is getting so complicated today and life is getting so difficult, and the world is getting so much more involved than it ever was before.
That we do need something of man's wisdom added to the wisdom of God for our pathway.
No, that is not so, is it?
Can him dwell of all the fullness of the Godhead bodily?
And in the acknowledgment of that mystery, I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so is our brother Dave Hayhoe was bringing out. We can go to the Lord in every situation. God isn't surprised by the developments in the world today. God hasn't been, as it were, thrown off balance by what is going on in the world today. No, and everything that you and I need, even in this present age, is all found in Christ.
Send him #267.
4300003.
So all right.
I still doubt the.
Nothing. Hurdle waters. OK, Nuggets here.
When he saw him, the Lord's everywhere was a nightmare on everything he saw.
Her and everything in life.
And when we are anything, I am crying.
We brought him from the nation where we are in twice.
Where he'll work and turn on the grass and films what else was gone. And I was on the floor and I'd like to live in and.
For everything I know so that I can swallow my pictures say and don't want to come out of the trigger.
Let's sing once more.
In life, it's not raining here in you, all right.