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.
Or I didn't hear our corn flows.
And my right hand on my.
Embrace, which is time to change from day-to-day.
Children's come on this year.
There's boutique on the garden where it makes me feel happy.
All that to your heart and then you cry. Never listen.
Every eye shall.
Behave.
All right, Glory.
I.
Be.
The last Nestor it's a little dying who died upon.
Stop.
For those that weren't here this morning, we were reading in Colossians chapter 2.
Would verse six be alright to begin with? Is that about right?
All right, Mr. Chapter 2 and version 6.
As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walking in him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith as He been taught, abounding therein with Thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
00:05:01
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, 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 has raised him from the dead.
And you being dead in your sins, and the uncertain statement of your flesh has been quickened, together with Him having forgiven you all trespasses, rotting 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.
Let no man therefore judge you in me, or in drain, or in respect on the holy day, or the new moon, or the salad days, which are shadows things to come, but the body is of Christ.
Let no man beguile you of your reward and a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he has 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 yet together increase us with the increase of God.
Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world?
Why is those living in the world are you subject to ordinances?
Touch not, teach 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.
We ended the meeting this morning more or less on the basis of.
What we have been brought to in Christ.
God brings us to the end of ourselves when we come to Christ to get saved. But then sometimes we have to learn through experience that the whole of the Christian pathway is one of being totally dependent on the Lord, of exercising faith in Him for every step of the way, and not depending on human wisdom whatsoever. And so here.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord.
So walked he and him. That is the whole of the Christian walk involved.
Drawing on all the fullness of Christ, all of the wisdom that is in Him, all of the resources that are in Him, and not seeking anything that comes from the natural man.
And so on the one hand, we're rooted in him. On the other hand, there's the need continually to be built up in him. On the one hand, there's the need to be established in the faith. On the other hand, there's the need to be abounding there in with Thanksgiving. So it all brings before us the.
Fact of a proper standing in Christ.
And then our living and walking in the good of it. And as we get later on in the chapter, the danger is not holding the head, not realizing that everything has to come from the head. That head is a risen Christ in glory. And it's so easy to think that somehow, some way, we can get something from down here. But it all has to come from him up there, doesn't it?
00:10:22
Comment 2IN verse 6.
Ye have received who Christ Jesus the Lord.
The expression here the Lord is quite significant and important.
That's part of coming to him.
Is the acknowledgement that he is Lord is also confessed with thy mouth Jesus as Lord?
When Peter was saved the day of his true conversion, he had known the Lord Jesus as a master, that is a teacher. But when he comes and is truly saved, he says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord.
When the Apostle Paul is converted.
The question is, his first words out of his mouth are Who art thou Lord, followed by What wilt thou have me to do?
And Justice, by way of the same thought, go back to John 13 that was read in the last meeting, and see something of the order that was given there that shows how we sometimes receive him.
Umm, or have to learn to receive him?
In John 13.
Jesus says to them in verse 13.
You call me master.
And.
Lord, Master, meaning Teacher, ye call me teacher and Lord.
And you say, well, or so am I, But notice verse 14 when he speaks about it, the Lord speaks about it. He says in verse 14, If I then be your Lord.
And Teacher, he reverses the order of the two terms, the two expressions. And very often when we come to the Lord, it's easy to come to Him as Teacher, and we would accept Him as Lord as well. But the preeminence in walking with Him is first Lord, and then Teacher. And the Lord reverses it to give us the right order, in which, as He have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.
We need to walk with Him with the very first and prominent sense in our soul. He is Lord, He is supreme in His authority over me, the individual, and then I can learn from Him and walk in the enjoyment of what He teaches.
Can I ask a question regarding a, a doctrine that's somewhat puzzling today, and that is Lordship salvation, umm, I I believe that that's a doctrine which umm.
Indicates that unless there is a.
Continual owning the lordship. There may not be salvation. Umm, can someone give us a thought that that there's a balance?
Our salvation doesn't necessarily depend upon our ability.
The obedience after you're saved does it.
Our salvation depends.
100% on the work that was done on a cross.
Our acceptance of that work and recognition of that work and faith would bring us into the position in which we recognize that He is Lord.
The truth of our salvation and the enjoyment of it, and whether we walk properly in it. Every one of us has to learn, and so no one perfect.
Perfectly walked in under his lordship in every activity of their life. Even the apostle Paul failed in that Peter failed in that record is given, but the moment we start to make ourselves the dependent point of our salvation.
00:15:19
We'll never have any peace with God.
Peace with God comes from looking away from self to say God has done a work.
To make me righteous in his sight. And my response is to be thank you Lord.
But it is characteristic of a true believer to own his lordship.
And so perhaps that's the balance that we need.
Notice in verse 7 rooted.
And build up, it's interesting Rooted is going down.
Build up is going up. There's growth in both areas. It's interesting the root system of a tree is not visible.
Generally speaking.
But it is extremely important and often.
When?
That, uh, tree is amongst a lot of other trees. They don't develop as much root system as they do as when they're standing alone and get.
The winds are blowing from One Direction to another. That's when they develop good root system.
And sometimes we might feel like we're alone and the Lord puts us through.
Real difficulties.
But it's because he wants us to be rooted.
And it's interesting it repeats the same.
Yet different but in Ephesians chapter 3.
It states in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love there is not doesn't fill up, but it's rooted and grounded. It's important to be have convictions about things. Being grounded means that you're not moved from one place to another easily.
So it's important to be rooted.
And I appreciate the word, uh, about getting into the word fill the water pots with water.
Read the good ministry about it. Oh how important that is. There are lots of winds of doctrines blowing around. If a person is not rooted and grounded, they get blown all over the place.
You need to have conviction about things, and conviction is based on the word of God.
Important those two things are rooted and.
Then build up as well that's going on.
And I would suggest that when it says built up, that perhaps has more the thought of.
Having a full knowledge of the truth of God, as you say, Bob, reading the word of God. And if the Lord has provided good ministry for us, and he has, I believe it's a mistake for us to neglect it. On the one hand, we have the Spirit of God. We have the word of God.
But if God has provided ministry from those who were especially gifted to give it to us.
Then it's a good thing to avail ourselves of it and so there is the need to be built up and that keeps us, as you say, rooted.
But Christianity is not just the body of head knowledge, it says abounding therein with Thanksgiving. What does that mean? There is joy in the things of God because the Spirit of God gives us that joy in Christ. Now you don't get the Spirit of God mentioned much in Colossians. In fact, I stand corrected on this. But I think it is mentioned only once in the whole book, and that's in the first chapter.
00:20:02
Where Paul talks about the Colossians love in the Spirit. Why is that? Because the Spirit of God is as if we're putting the focus, putting the spotlight on Christ. Go back to Ephesians where our enjoyment of these things is much more prominent. And there you find the Spirit mentioned much, but not here in Colossians because it is Christ that is brought before us. And so the Spirit of God and I think it was good what Don mentioned.
Takes us right out of ourselves and puts our thoughts toward an object.
Our late brother Clarence Lundeen made a remark once that I never forgot and said the man, the woman also that is occupied with himself, is never happy. Why? Because man is not sufficient unto himself. And yet it's the effort of Satan to get man occupied with himself, to get his thoughts turned in on himself, to get man's wisdom into the picture. That's the danger warned against in this chapter.
But true Christianity takes me out of myself and gives me an object outside of myself. And so there is the abounding therein with Thanksgiving. There is that joy in the believers life. I don't do it to get joy. But if Christ is really before me and I am rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, and will be abounding therein with Thanksgiving, it will come as a natural thing.
Because the Spirit of God will have that liberty to give me the enjoyment of the things of Christ.
I think it's really important, Bill, to realize that Christianity primarily is objective.
Some object outside of ourselves to which we are to look, somebody has said it and I like the illustration too, he said. The anchor doesn't do any good to the boat. As long as it's in the boat, it needs to be thrown out and then there is stability.
So we have something outside of ourselves rather than I can look away from the what I see in myself and it gets kind of discouraging to you looking at yourself all the time. Scripture does show some subjective things and we need to realize that there is necessary.
The reflection on Am I walking in the truth of God? In fact, that is not the primary.
Thing in Christianity it is an object outside and oh, to get that firm into the soul that we are called to occupation with a man in the glory of God, and that man is completely perfect. I start examining my life here. I get all this scurries, but when I look up into the glory of God and say there's my life.
It's complete perfection the more you are occupied with that object.
The more it's going to have a transforming effect on your life as well.
There is only one foundation to be rooted on.
And that's Christ himself. And as the foundation, there's just one, and it never changes. Once we're rooted there, we're rooted. Uh, we don't seek another foundation. There is no other. It's upon himself.
And, uh, I like to think of it as a little bit in this way. Many of us, one of the earliest songs we sing is Jesus loves me. This I know.
It's part of the foundation, and many a soul gets to die with the same song on their their heart, their lips. Uh, Jesus loves me. This, I know, is often a very favorite for a soul at the very end of life as well as at the very beginning.
And so in that way, there's a foundation and it it's stable, it's himself. But he wants us to grow in the enjoyment and knowledge of himself. Umm, some here are.
Fairly newly married and you have a relationship of husband and wife. But if the Lord leaves us here, which I hope he doesn't, but just for the sake of the illustration, for 50 years.
00:25:04
I'd be disappointed if you don't know each other better than you know each other now. And if we have come to know the Lord Jesus every year of our life, every day, His desire is that we get to know Him better and we get built up in himself. Did the apostle Paul finally arrived and could say, well, I've got it all now? No, just to look at the illustration of his own life in Philippians 3.
His desire to grow is shown in Philippians 3, where he's presented to us as the object that Bob has been talking about. And so he says of himself.
In Philippians 3, eight Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And uh, he says in verse 10 that I might know him.
And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and so on. He wanted practically in the experiences of his life to get to know him better. In fact, he says in this sequence of verses, you know.
If knowing him better.
By shared experience, then it's all right, I'll die. Because if I die, he went through death. And if I go through death.
Then it's an experience that we will both have shared and by that common experience, I trust I'll know him better. And so his heart in wanting to grow was to say he's everything to me. And whatever way through the experience of life, through the word, through fellowship with himself, I want to know him better. I want to be built up. And in doing so, what could be the in other. The only possible result of that when it's practical is increased Thanksgiving.
Hmm. There has to be an increased Thanksgiving as there is, uh, an increased appreciation of the wonder of this person.
But in verse 8, the moment you introduce man's thoughts, you start to spoil it.
So he says beware.
Lest any man spoil you, because the minute I seek to find some other solution or key or secret to life in anything else than the one that God has given, which is His Son to be the heart object.
It starts to spoil.
The result that God is working toward in US.
Philosophy is neither subjective nor objective.
It's rain this evening.
Man's teaching by man for man.
With outdoor.
We see a desk here all over the place in the libraries.
Pictures.
Wherever you look, Fiction. Fiction.
That is man's story, written for man for entertainment.
That's all that is.
Well, I'm absolutely worthless.
And in terms of the books you're causing the romance, the royal movement, that's true. Of course it's a made-up storage, usually love stories, so.
Anything made-up by men for men's entertainment.
Has nothing to do with God, although they may mention God in it, but not as a living person, but somebody who.
Andrews implement.
To their association with religion.
All the thoughts of man are limited by what man is, and man in himself cannot look beyond this life.
You can't see into death and what's beyond death, so all the thoughts of man are limited by philosophies and ideas that connect him with his present existence, this life. He may imagine, he may talk about something beyond life, but he has no knowledge of it in himself, he's never been there, and so on, and so he can't reason, or he can't speak about things from the perspective.
00:30:33
Of what's beyond.
And as a consequence he takes everything and adapts it, even so-called Christian things to the present life in some way that in its root will leave out the issue of death. But for us everything begins properly on the other side of death. Christ died for us. And in this chapter and the one that follows, he says to us, if he be dead with Christ, if he be risen with Christ.
And so on. And it's the fact that I am dead with Christ.
And my life in Christ begins on the other side of the cross, in his resurrection. Then I am taken into, if you will, a whole new realm of existence and relationship with God which the philosophies of men know nothing about. And consequently, if I allow myself to start listening to man's ideas, I'm going to be spoiled.
I'm going to be corrupted because it's going to take me back into the realm of things of this life. And man, anything he can say beyond it is his imagination. And as a consequence it he says to us, no, don't go there, don't listen to it. Don't entertain man's way of looking at life.
Come to the Lord Jesus Christ and let God teach us what life really is.
Just to make it clear so that there's no misunderstanding, it does not mean that some of the philosophies of men do not make valid observations as far as they go. Some of the well known names in the philosophical world such as.
Kierkegaard and even people like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and various others like that, all of their observations that they made were not wrong. What was the difficulty? Well, as Dawn said, man's mind can never rise above himself. And worse than that, man is a fallen creature. And when man seeks to.
Intrude.
Into divine things with a human mind. He always goes into error because his mind, as someone has said, becomes the placing of the devil. I can well remember, if you'll permit a personal incident. I can remember when I was in university quite a few years ago now. I did not study philosophy, but some others who were in my class did, and I well remember their coming one day from a lecture.
And saying, well, Bill, what do you think of this one? The prop said today, if there is a God, what kind of a universe did he create where everything had to die?
Mm-hmm.
Well, that opened the discussion to a good many things, as you may well imagine, because the Word of God gives us the answer to that question. But that professor couldn't go any further than that. All he could think of, what kind of a universe is this? If God created it, where everything eventually has to die, and he couldn't get his mind around that, To him, that showed that whatever kind of a God it was, he didn't want to believe in him. Well, that's only one example.
He made an observation. It was plain before him that everything died, but his whole view of it was skewed because he wouldn't accept divine revelation. And so you and I have been brought into such a better position. Again, I say, it's not that everything that man observes in the natural realm is wrong, but it's all bounded by man's mind, and not only by man's mind, but by man's sinful mind.
00:35:06
Which, as we had this morning, is that enmity with God. It's the enemy of God. And so whenever the things of God are in question, man's natural mind will always go in the wrong direction, never in the right one. Well, you and I have been brought into association with a risen Christ in glory, and human philosophy can only lead us astray and drag us down.
I had a friend years ago, perhaps with the Lord now. His last name was Von Rose.
A German name.
The family tree that uh.
The Family Shield, I guess you call it.
Coat of Arms Coat of arms was an upside down tree with the roots in heaven.
And the I couldn't help but think here of a of a bond size. You know, we get these tiny little miniature trees. I can't remember not the word fun thigh means shallow dish or something. Anyway, they're they don't allow the roofs to get very they don't go much place. You take it out, you prune the rich continually pruning the road to make this beautiful shaped little tree. Some of this.
Form of art is hundreds of years old. Hand it down to one generation of the next.
But was that what God intended with evidence See, you know the the fact is you and I, we're rooted and built up in him in him verse 9 gone with all the fullness of his God had bothered you. We have infinite source.
In the person of our Lord Jesus, by which we can grow. It's infinite. You know, It's not like a bonsai continually blooms. You throw in these other things, you get the roots cut to form something man can contain within his own thoughts.
In a certain way, that's what philosophy is trying to explain, the truth of God. And with human rights, and necessarily, necessarily, we are extremely limited in our understanding. The best is extremely limited, and those that know more truly know more.
Realize how limited they really are.
So are we going to give attention to that which is very limited, or are we going to be drawn after Christ the man, a real man that we should know that in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily? It's a statement that just boggles our minds. How can we explain it in a human body, the Lord Jesus Christ?
Dwell the fullness of the Godhead thoughtfully.
It's something that I accept by faith, but human philosophy can never explain it properly.
The mind of man would never have dreamed.
Never would enter in to man and all his Phil philosophy the way that God chose to work.
God in all the greatness of his being.
In the comparison to us, his creature, who are so small and so little.
In capacity compared to himself, they were not even measurably comparable. He is so infinite and we are so limited.
And yeah, is that God unable to make himself known to us?
Because of the greatness of the difference between us, now God says come to you.
As a man and the person of this country.
In the fullness, not a limitation of it, but the fullness of all that God is dwells in a man in.
His sons. And in that way God has come down to us and into the condition of our existence to make himself known to us and to bring us into a relationship with himself that goes far beyond the imagination of anything that man would ever, would ever dream of. And he says, I'll come right down among you the fullest of all that I am. And so the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us.
00:40:23
And so God in all his fullness has come down to where we are. But then he reverses it in the 10th verse and he says you're complete in him. That is, all that we need to be with respect to God is in the same person. All that God is to us is made known in the person of the sun. All that we need to be to have an eternal close relationship with God, to even be to calling him our Father.
Is to be found in the same person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as he says to us, you're complete in him. He's everything you have to be to have this relationship with God. And as we enjoy that it takes us totally out of the realm of philosophy and into the realm of God's revelation of himself and our hearts are taken up with it and we say I wouldn't want the paltry ideas that man has.
They're so infinitely inferior to that which God has made known and and brought us into the enjoyment of.
They couldn't understand the Lord when He came down and showed that fullness here on earth, and they stumbled over Him and who He was, where He came from.
But he's he's gone. He's gone farther now. First he came Incarnate as a man. Now he's gone through death and as a man in resurrection ascended up much less. Can philosophy figure that out?
How could God bring good out of death? This is the way He's done it. Without death, there's no resurrection. Without resurrection, there's no life and glory.
In heaven with him. And so we are livingly linked with a resurrected man.
This is this adds meaning to going through those experiences. Even death itself has meaning for a believer that understands where it takes us.
Do you think that these?
I'm thinking of, uh, first date. Sometimes these expressions are a little bit difficult for me at least to understand and think. So philosophy, uh, I have written in my Bible was, well, wisdom and it speaks about the tradition of men.
Is this is umm, the introduction of, uh, of?
Human eloquence, that sort of thing into into Christianity that the Apostle Paul is warning against.
Well, I would suggest that anything that has to do with man's wisdom can never improve on what God has given in Christ. And that's the danger. I believe ultimately not to get complicated about it, but the real problem here was an age-old.
Difficulty that persists down to this day.
We might call it Gnosticism, which simply is man seeking to know something in himself about moral and spiritual matters that are ultimately beyond him. And on the one hand, it makes man realize that he is a moral creature, that he is a moral being, but on the other hand, he thinks that somehow he can.
Figure things out for himself.
And so it ends up being the traditions of men.
00:45:04
Some someone once asked a well known philosopher who was no Christian, you'll recognize the name Bertrand Russell, they said. Mr. Russell, uh, how do you distinguish between right and wrong?
Well, he said, by feeling.
Same thing I do. I have a pair of eyes and I can distinguish between blue and yellow with my eyes and I distinguish between right and wrong by feeling well. Is that going to work?
That's no basis for right and wrong, is it? You could offer some very good suggestions of right and wrong, which would be an opposite directions, and both might be on the basis of feeling. And that's where man's natural mind takes him in the realm of moral things.
And so the traditions of men, I believe are.
Uh, ultimately, what man has developed to try and get around the effect of the fall, Now it's more than that, but it's one thing that man has developed. It's all of those things that man has brought in to try and get around the awful effect of the fall. Someone said something once and it may be going a bit too far, but it has a grain of truth in it, he said.
Culture is merely a good embalming fluid to keep the corpse of sinful man from becoming too objectionable. Well, the truth in that because man is a sinful fallen being, his moral sensibilities are totally corrupted and as we said earlier, he cannot get beyond himself. The man develops traditions, man develops ideas, man develops things which govern his relationships with others and govern society.
And as we say again, it may not be all wrong in itself, although it often is, because it takes man away from God generally. But it can never lift man above himself, never answer the question of sin, never answer questions, never made anyone happy. All it does is puzzle your mind. And as someone has said, that gets into a big debate that never has any good answers to it.
Is that is that right?
I noticed brother Dave that the word tradition in.
New translation is the teaching of men and I think that's what those insane and then after the rudiments of the elements of the world so that man can't get above himself in his own thinking and and expression of his thoughts. So you don't get beyond that, but how far beyond we have now the revelation we have in Christ.
We are told not to go.
In that direction of the philosophies, the teachings of men, the elements of the world.
But we're to go after Christ.
God in all His fullness came down among men, and the person of the sun, the fullness of the Godhead, dwelt in Him bodily. He's presented to mankind. What's the result?
He crucified.
And crucified that was man's answer to the fullness of God coming among men was be crucified him.
What does that say about man's thoughts? What does that have to say about the best that man can come up with as to the understanding of himself and his universe and all the rest of it? Here he has presented to him?
The fullness of the Godhead in a man and his his response to it is we will not have this man crucify him. And so Peter, when he's preaching in the beginning of the Acts, he says he crucified him. What was God's answer to it?
But God raised him from the nest, but God raised him from the dead man, crucifies him. He takes the fullness of all the God is and he puts him to death as far as his life here on earth is concerned. God's response to that is he raised him from the dead and he raises him all the way to his right hand and says to him, I'm going to put.
00:50:11
All the created creation.
Heaven, earth, everything that has been brought into existence by creation under you.
And so, as it says here, umm, he has made him head of all principality and power, and that is his plan for us to be brought into a relationship with him as head. We have in the next verse what in the verses which follow, what's essential?
We too have to be identified with that death.
We cannot be brought into relationship with himself on the ground. On what man is the man that re that rejects him and puts them to death? Man puts him to death. So then our place with him is.
You're crucified as well with Christ, Romans 6. Here you're buried with him in the baptism connected with death. And what is then our result of that in verse 12?
Well, then you're also risen with them.
So where do we stand now in respect to the elements of the world and the philosophies of men? We stand in a totally new and different position that has nothing to do with it. We stand as those who, when the world says we crucify them. We too, by faith in Christ, go through that same position, and we're buried with Him in the baptism of death. And as it says for us now in verse 12, you're risen with him.
And we stand on his side of death, the resurrection side of death, and as he has been raised to the right hand of God, according to the mystery of God and the purpose of God, he says, and I'm going to have you right there with me as my bride. That aspect of it isn't developed so much here, but the position is ours as at.
Does he stand? He sits at God's right hand and he said, you're going to be with me at my side as my bride. And that's our place. And so we need to practically apply the truth of the fact of our death and resurrection with him to our everyday life. And he develops how we do that in the verses of this chapter and the one that comes.
Maybe it's good to remind ourselves here in connection with the title that was over the cross of the Lord, just in Jesus the King of the Jews that was written.
In Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
Hebrew Speaking of a religious world, Greek of the educational world and lack of political world.
When is this year? You are complete in here.
Now the Lord Jesus.
Boss without saying.
So again, I put my lead in here.
We have our sins forgiven.
Which is the head of all principalities.
This is what the world doesn't want to acknowledge, that he is the head of our principality. That means all the governments.
And all the power that exists.
In the end.
And he will come forward.
As the one who has all the power in his hand, and he will prove.
But in the meantime.
We have to set forward his position.
And who he is and what he is.
Usually when we say we.
We do not plan and we cannot, we actually cannot stand behind him. This is usually not received by people.
00:55:06
It is, but the scripture says.
The reverse John.
Is that rules righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous?
First John 3.
One of the things you mentioned this morning, the bill about the difference between covenant theology and dispensational teaching.
Is the difference between Israel and the church and the church and the church was is a heavenly people, whereas Israel is an earthly people and covenant theology does not distinguish between.
If that is the case, and I think it is.
Good for us to realize that many believers sit under that kind of teaching. Then it naturally follows that there is no distinction between the Church and Israel. Then it would be proper for.
Uh, believers today to involve themselves in politics?
Wasn't Daniel high in the Kingdom of Babylon?
With Joseph I in Egypt and influenced things for God and why shouldn't we? And if that was the case, you could understand why there was that kind of thing. The point is, is that we are now in a completely different position. We are called for heaven and here it says he we are completed and which is the head of all principality and power.
And I sometimes say how?
What is the best way you can have influence government?
By getting involved in political processes.
And doing what you can amongst people down here. Or perhaps another way would be to go straight to the head and speak to him about things. Which would be more effective, brethren?
If we get down on our knees and pray as we're told to, to pray for those in authority, we will have far more effect than involving ourselves in some political agenda.
Far more effective, the Lord give us to understand and enjoy the position that we have in relation to the Lord Jesus.
Head of all principality and power.
It's also brought out in another sense of it, as it says here.
Umm, very first 12 with him in baptism.
It's pretty hard to part, uh, participate in a government that after you die.
It's difficult to be part of the political process in depth.
But we who are identified with for Jesus or Jesus doesn't presently participate in the political process as a man on earth because he's dying.
We aren't left in the state of death. We have been raised with Christ and we belong to a Kingdom. The Kingdom is described in the first chapter, but it's a Kingdom which is not of this world.
So our associations and our loyalties are connected with.
A Kingdom which is not of this world.
The Lord Jesus, when he was faced with death, as to this world, he said to Pilate, if my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
But it's not, and so he died to it. And now we do belong to a realm where there's authority and power and so on as it gives us in chapter one. Go back to it, he says, verse 13.
Our verse 12, giving thanks to the Father, which is made of me to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. That's what the Kingdom of this world are, the power of darkness, and it translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. We belong to that Kingdom. That's a Kingdom which is connected with a world that is the other side of death, and that's the Kingdom we live in. It's also here on earth.
01:00:23
The Kingdom of God is here on earth, and we live on earth with our fellow man, but we participate in and we are connected with a separate Kingdom that is not connected with this world and its politics and its activities. We are to live in the Kingdom to which we belong and, uh, we are to seek to reach souls, to take them out of the system of darkness through death, through life in Christ.
That they too might participate with us in the Kingdom of God.
And that's our place with respect to this world and its activities. We do live here, we do participate in the Kingdom, but it's totally different than the Kingdom of this world. And our ministry, our activity for our fellow man is not to straighten out his Kingdom.
It has written on it this the when the Lord Jesus died, God said about that now is the judgment of this world.
I have judged all this world systems and all its activities. What did it do? It crucified my son. It hasn't carried out that judgment yet, but the judgment has been pronounced upon it. And if I go participate in it, what am I doing? I participating in something that God has said. I have judged that because of the crucifixion of my son.
And so he says to us, I have something for you to participate in. And it's my Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Son of his love, which is connects it with heaven, but it's also as the Kingdom of God here on earth. And we live in it, we're part of it and we're to be care occupied with its interests.
So as you said a moment ago, Don, there is.
There is a necessity of being dead and risen with Christ to be identified with and isn't there? Here we find the circumcision that says made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. That is that everything that has to do with that old sinful self, and that includes the philosophy and vain deceit, that includes all of those things by which we can be enticed away from Christ.
As well as those gross sins that anyone would recognize as being wrong. It includes all of that. We put all that off because we are, as it says in verse 12, buried with Him in baptism.
Well, we've had baptism brought before us previous to this in the Word of God. It's brought before us perhaps most vividly in the book of Romans. And there we find the truth of baptism clearly presented in chapter 6 of Romans. Know you not that you which are baptized were baptized unto his death, and so on. Reckon yourselves therefore to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. But.
In one sense, if we could say that this is.
Could we say a little deeper thought here, and to illustrate it we might use the journeys of the children of Israel in the Old Testament.
When they came out of Egypt, they went through the Red Sea, and it tells us in First Corinthians 10 that all our fathers were baptized there unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
But were they really free from Egypt? In one sense, yes. The domination of Pharaoh was no longer there. Their enemies were all dead in the Red Sea or on the seashore, and they were in that sense, free.
But if we could use the expression, they were in a position, a position to go into the land, but not in the condition to go into the land. And so there had to be the wilderness experience. And then at the end of that experience there was the Jordan. And what happened more than once in the wilderness, there was the desire to go back to Egypt.
01:05:11
Somebody has summarized it and I appreciated the thought. In English, both the words begin with C There was the calf and there was the captain.
The calf was the religious corruption that began immediately in making the golden calf. The captain is what they wanted to do. After the spies brought back ten of the spies brought back the bad report about the land. They said let us make us a captain and return unto Egypt. And many times in addition to that, they complained about the food and the lack of water and so on. Let's go back to Egypt where we ate bread to the full and so on.
But here in Colossians it really in tight brings before us what happened at the Jordan and if the Red Sea is Christ's death for me.
We might say that Jordan is my death with Christ. It's the realization that there is nothing good in that old sinful self, and it took the wilderness experience to bring them to that point.
And again, we don't want to make it complicated, but it helps to understand it by God's illustrations of all that in the Old Testament and.
So here, in order to avoid all that we have been warned about in this chapter, in the earlier part of it, in order really to be identified with that risen Christ in glory, he has gone into death and risen again. Morally, you might say we have to do the same thing. There has to be the recognition that that old sinful self didn't have any good in it. It didn't do me any good, except as we were saying a few minutes ago.
It was that old sinful self in man that rejected the Lord Jesus and crucified him. That's what the old man did. That's what man in the flesh would do and still would do. And so you and I have to recognize the truth of all this in order that we might be truly identified with a risen Christ in glory.
Another has commented along the very same thoughts that when the children of Israel went into the wilderness.
It took them physically out of Egypt.
But it didn't take Egypt out of their heart. And so they went through the wilderness and they still hankered for Egypt. They still had desires of their heart that connected them with Egypt. And so when we recognized Lord Jesus as our Passover, we're sheltered from judgment and we know that we're going to heaven someday, and we're thankful for it and appreciate it. But to make progress in the Christian life, we all go through the wilderness experience.
And when we're in the wilderness, we will often find that our hearts yearn for the things of Egypt that we left behind. But when practically we enter in our souls to the truth of the Jordan River, which is our death, that Bill just described his death and our death with him. And we come up on the other side when we realize we have no connection with the world that crucified him, but we are on the other side of it.
It uses the expression when they were circumcised at Gilgal, which is actually in tight verse 11. It's at that point at which the reproach of Egypt rolled away from them and they're rolling away of the reproach of Egypt in its practical application is it's necessary and that that which will in practice deliver us from the world in our heart.
And give us to the enjoy heavenly things in our Canaan, our our heavenly occupation, without constantly yearning to go back to Egypt.
At least a a thought for to chew on if you will if it's new to some.
I remember our thought that our brother brought forth an UMM Aberdeen, Idaho two years ago at the conference, and his remark bears out what brother Bill had done, he said rather than it was much harder.
So it was easier to get the Children of Israel out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the Children of Israel. Mm-hmm. And we're like that, too.
01:10:03
Could we sing the last verse of #149?
Unto thy death baptized. We own the sea, we die with thee. Our lives were risen, and shall be glorified from sin. The world and Satan were ransomed by thy blood, and here would walk as strangers alive with these gods. 149 The last verse.