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Verse 13. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath 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.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink.
Or in respect of an holy day, or of the new mood, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ.
Let no man beguile you have a reward, and a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding 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.
Increase it with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye 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 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.
Stop.
Well, we were speaking yesterday concerning versus 11 or rather 1011 and 12 That.
It is necessary to recognize our position as being dead and risen with Christ. There is such a thing as Christ's death and resurrection for us, but we need to recognize that that is our place with Him and thus in what we have in verse 13.
It brings us to realize that what were we before we were saved in? Both Colossians and Ephesians were seen as being dead.
Enrollments. It looks at us in a different way because there we are, if we might say it this way, alive in our sins, and we have the responsibility for what we have done. Well, that is very true. But in both Ephesians and Colossians we are seen as being dead. And what does a dead man need? There's only one thing that he needs new life.
And so we're quickened together here.
But it's beautiful again, same truth as we get in Ephesians where it quickened together with Christ. So it is not merely that God has given us new life in Christ, but its resurrection life. As Dawn mentioned in the address this afternoon, if you and I were dead and needed new life, the one who was life in himself.
And who did not need to die voluntarily went into death and came out of it again, in order that you and I might have not merely knew life, but new life in Him. And again, not to get complicated about it, but that's what distinguishes our wonderful position in Christ from that which the Old Testament Saints had. They had life, and there is no question about it.
They were born again, but they didn't have what Scripture calls eternal life. In that same way, they didn't have new life in Christ. And you and I are brought into that blessed position of having resurrection life in Christ. So if we are going to.
00:05:00
Take the place that we have in verses 11 and 12. God has already brought us into that positionally.
But now, you might say, he wants us to take it practically and to live in the enjoyment of it.
The thought crosses my mind of the first Lord today, when the disciples were still so unbelieving and yet this great work had been done. They had died with Him, they were risen with Him, and now this blessing was totally done through his work, not with any cooperation of our own. And that I think that's the first thing to do in enjoying this place is, is to rest on the morning done and know that it is complete, even though in this lifetime we're ever.
Going to be failing to appreciate it as it would. This is a complete thing for the weakest believer that as the hymn was sung this morning, uh, breaking the bread. We're near, so very near. We could not be near. We could not be near to the heart of God.
The weakest believer could not be standing in a better place of favor than he has. And again, it's not through the slightest bit of work of our own. It's through his finished work. But that, that just, that's just the positional part that as we see now, uh, we're to live it out and enjoy it, but the first thing to do is to rest it.
I think it was mentioned before that light is quickening life that we receive takes on the character of the source from where it comes, and I would like to, just to illustrate this, compare the resurrection of Lazarus with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
When the Lord Jesus was here on earth and before the grave of Lazarus.
He stood there, a perfect man here on earth, a man that had not yet died, but had the power of of resurrection and life in himself.
And he could say to Lazarus, Lazarus come forth, and he came forth in a life like the source that he spoke the word. He was a life to live here on earth.
A little longer.
And that's the character of the life that Lazarus had. But when the apostle, when the Lord spoke to the apostle Paul from heaven, he was in, in heaven, in the resurrection life, and he could quicken a dead soul, Saul of Tarsus, and he would impart life to him. That's the character of the life that we have.
In Christ we're connected with a risen man in glory. I just mentioned as an illustration. They're both resurrection life, but there there's a difference in the character of them.
You can speak about resurrection, unless there's been death to begin.
Resurrection always takes place after there's been death.
And so there in our position in Christ, the life that we have is the life that's after that. It's a life that death can no longer touch.
Our bodies are still connected with the first creation where death ends everything.
But the light that we have in Christ is the light that death cannot touch. So it says, and it's interesting here. It's not exhortation here in these verses. We're thinking about in verse 13 and 12.
Good. Simply stating the fact of what is verse 13. We need death in your sins and circumcision of your flesh.
We're dead, I think.
You feel bad, not a matter of feelings, rather it's a matter of fact. This is regard to these now and then in verse 12, we're we're buried.
That's the way God sees it. It's completely gone out of sight.
But then comes the next part, you're risen with him through the face of the operation of God who raised him from the dead. So that the delight that we have now in Christ is the life and resurrection, wonderful, precious, true, done like you say, by the margin. If you don't understand that this is the case, how can you live in it? This is the case. And so many people, they don't realize this is my position right now before God.
00:10:11
If you don't realize that, how can you live in it? So it's important that we understand that this is our position.
Hmm.
I remember Brother Glen Buchanan at a reading meeting saying the Christian life is to be what you are, to act like your position. I remember Brother Clem saying that.
Yeah. And as we had before us a little bit yesterday.
Sometimes we have to go through some difficult and perhaps very painful experiences in order for that truth to be brought home to our souls. In the Old Testament, Israel was positionally ready to go into the land as soon as they had gotten on the other side of the Red Sea. And there was great joy and there was singing, and there was a great deal of, shall we say, relief at the victory that God had won for them.
But then what happened? Ah, there had to be the wilderness. And to some extent, no matter who we are, the wilderness experience is part of our Christian lives. Yes, it's true that some have been taken home to be with the Lord very, very quickly after they have been saved and have had very little wilderness experience. Others have been left for a long time. But one way or another, it seems that all of us need some kind of wilderness experience.
In order to have it brought home to our souls that there is absolutely nothing good in that old dead flesh that we were born with.
It's well known, but I repeat it because it was a help to me many, many years ago now of an older brother was asked by a younger brother if you have any good advice for a young man starting out on the Christian pathway, what would you say? And some will recognize the source of this, but his answer was brother learn Well, 4 words and they're from John's Gospel chapter 6.
The flesh profiteth nothing, but it sometimes takes a very long wilderness experience, at least for some of us to learn that. And so Israel, as we said yesterday, had to go through the wilderness. And there were experiences they faced there which made them realize what they were in their own hearts, but thankfully they also learned what God was and then.
As we said yesterday, in type we have in Colossians.
The crossing of the Jordan, the recognition of my death with Christ, the being brought in to the land, but in association, as it were, with that risen man. And it's recognizing that in crossing that Jordan, I have really got a barrier between myself and the world. And so as Bob was bringing out what we have here in the 13th and 14th verses is what Christ.
Has already done in the 15th verse as well. It's the victory He's won for us. And by faith, you and I have the privilege of appropriating it. Not by trying to be something that we aren't, not by trying to do something that has already been done, but simply by faith saying, yes, that work has been complete and I am complete in Him.
Yesterday.
And we have considered by the word of God.
What Ross said about his beloved son. His word.
A person.
And I'm working day for.
And in verse 10 and we are complete in him which is ahead of the principality, all principality and power. And verse 13 he goes on to say, speaking to us.
And that's here I gather that this was the juice and the Gentiles. And he says a new being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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Of course the Jews were circumcised, but the nation's law that he puts them all under in one category, he says.
Uncircumcision of your flesh. He put them all in the same condition. But he says then has he quickened. That means he has raised the mark. He has faith and forget about it.
And all have the same.
Thing given now forgiven you all trespasses. Later on he speaks more about the truth, but here he is just a bit dangerous. He thought that used hairdressers, Jews and Gentiles here.
I'm having the difficulty understanding the two umm these two expressions that have been used, eternal life and resurrection life.
Umm. And uh, I go back to.
John three first year. We all know well where it says about each.
Employee and have everlasting life, eternal life, and there it tells us about being born again.
And eternal place, as I would take it. From those verses comes the result of being born again. Correct me if I'm wrong and I hear those words that are.
When Umm Nicodemus says to the Lord.
Our, uh, our sentence to the Lord, how can these things be? And the Lord says, art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things? Maybe he wouldn't do it for a minute.
Because it seems to me that in those words what the Lord is saying that being born a king was something the only way that a person could ever be saved from Adam on them.
Our cell. And don't you know, Nicodemus, that this is the way it is always mean. Jane, I need help on these things. So I'm just expressing my own what I see from, uh, from scripture, uh, show eternal life.
Is something that was obtained as a result of faith of any in the Old Testament.
Uh, am I right in that? And now, uh, from that we have, we've been talking about resurrection.
So in the Old Testament Saints and not have resurrection.
I don't believe so, Dave, at least not in the way that we have it presented. I just suggest that in John three the Lord speaks about being born again to Nicodemus, because here was a man who, being a master in Israel and who had, at least in an outward way, probably lived an upright life.
It seems that Nicodemus wanted the secret that somehow the Lord had, because deep down inside Nicodemus doubtless realized that in spite of his outward good life, everything was not right between him and God. And the Lord takes him up on the ground of the Old Testament Scriptures to the fact that as we get in more than one scripture, one is in Ezekiel 36 where it is very clear.
That God would have to give them a new heart before they could honor him and serve him. And so he takes Nicodemus up on that ground, pointing out that right from the beginning it was necessary for a man to be born again. And as you say, Dave, all of us need to be born and you are born again. But those, I believe what what he says to Nicodemus in the beginning of the chapter.
Are the earthly things that he mentions in verse 12 of John 3.
He says, if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, that is the fact that man needed to be born again at anytime in man's history. The Lord says, how shall he believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And then He begins to outline heavenly things, not expounding them in detail, but for the first time in the chapter using the term eternal life. And I would suggest that eternal life is light.
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That is associated with a risen Christ in glory, and it is like that is lived out in the power of the Spirit of God.
And neither of those were true in the Old Testament. Now again, the Lord was anticipating, but if we come to the 20th chapter of John, we find the Lord Jesus as it were breathing into his disciples that resurrection life, as he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Well, we know that the Holy Ghost and actual fact didn't come down and indwell them until the day of Pentecost.
But he was communicating to them a new, a new kind of light that would characterize a new dispensation, a new way in which God was going to deal with man connected, I say, with the risen Christ in glory. No Old Testament, say, knew anything about that. And the indwelling of the Spirit of God, if we could say it on an ongoing permanent basis, no Old Testament sent you anything about that either. And so in that sense.
You never get the term eternal life applied to Old Testament Saints, but rather being born again needing a new heart. Very definitely. But it doesn't mean that you and I are not born again. We are because it's all a work of God that He begins by his Spirit and.
Implants that new life gives us the faith to believe and then.
When we appropriate it to ourselves, then Scripture uses the term that we are truly saved.
Is that right, Bob? Would you agree with that? Yes.
I find it helpful too to.
Realize that one expression is from John's writings, the other is from Paul's writings. And if you go to the first chapter, uh, I'm thinking about those that have received him.
It says in verse 13.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So that.
It's in contrast with natural light, and like Bill said, I could even have natural light because one of the people of Israel, the chosen race, but if he was going to be a relationship with God, he had to be born.
Again. But when you come to Paul's writings, he shows us as our natural condition, as death. Now what does the dead person need but life? And he needs to be.
Umm, raised from the death that's resurrection light is.
So that's what you have in both the Ephesians and Colossians, that we're dead, we're seen as dead, and then in Christ we are risen.
It's interesting the way it puts it in Ephesians chapter 2, just to look at it, it's quite connected with what we have here, but there is somewhat of a difference. Ephesians chapter 2.
And verse one it says you have to be quickened to were dead in trespasses and sins.
Verse 5 War. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, worthy love, death, even when we were dead in sins, had quickened us together with Christ like Mr. Estate, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together and come to places in Christ. So it's not only quickened, but it's raised up.
Not only given life.
When we were in depth, but it is completely taken out of that position of death.
Uh, Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, he didn't continue to live in the cemetery because that's not the place for a living people when God there you give us new life, you know, only quicken us. He raised this completely out of that position of death. So here in Colossians 2 we have.
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Those two things again mentioned. It's interesting and, uh.
There's uh.
12 varied within in baptism.
Uh, where in also your risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who had raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of your question.
He quickened together with him as they get those two expressions again.
Quicken and raised up.
Then in those fourteen, he goes around the same blocking out the handwriting of ordinances.
That was given us, which was contrary to us.
So that would mean the handwritten Law of Moses.
This is against us because it couldn't be kept.
So that way.
Was contrary to us and is contrary to us. We are not used. We never knew it anyway properly.
If he may have learned it.
And he takes it out of the way.
And the Lord Jesus by dying on the cross.
Took it away through the.
Giving his blood.
I have, uh, encountered another interpretation on that handwriting of ordinances. And there's a note of the Darby translation that seems to back that up. He, he has a note that says handwriting obligations, which a man is subject, uh, by his signature. And I have read that the expression handwriting of ordinances in the Greco-roman world meant a debt or like an IOU. And it's, that's one view. And I don't want to get into controversy, but.
What would some of the other brethren say is to as to that and it's referring to the law of Moses? Or is it just referring to Dex as the principle?
Well, I believe it is a reference back to the Law of Moses and.
At the end of verse 13, it says having forgiven you all trespasses. Well, you might say, how can a dead man even commit a trespass? In one sense he can, and we're looked at as being dead in trespasses and sins. But on the other hand, a trespass is.
Something that is done contrary to a Nolan law, isn't it? Sin is one thing, and sin was imputed before there was a law because there was God's moral law and God required it of man. But it trespasses something that is done contrary to a known law. And when God gave the law, as you say, Martin, God as it were, put his, put his signature on it.
Israel said all that the Lord has spoken we will do, and so man, we say man. But in Israel they were a sampling of man. They, as it were, said, Lord, just tell us what we need to do and we'll do it. Well, what happened? We all know the terrible mess into which man got himself as a result of trying to keep God's law, failing so completely that not merely did he fail to keep the law, but turned his back on the Lord himself.
And so here, I believe we find that all of that stood against man. Here was a man in the whole of the Old Testament under responsibility toward God, God, as it were, seeing if there was any good in the natural man and finding him totally and completely a failure. Well, now what's going to happen? How's it going to turn out? Man deserve judgment, both by nature and by practice.
But God blots out that handwriting. It's gone. He blots out. He acknowledged, as it were, all of that. By what? By death. He nails it, as it were, to the cross. Here on that cross is a Savior that is dying. And you and I are beyond that law. God doesn't abrogate His law. He doesn't take it away. But you and I are not.
00:30:18
A debtor to the law anymore?
Because we are so associated with Christ that the one who died on Calvary's cross, that law was nailed to his cross and we are associated with him. If he is dead and risen, so are we, if we could say it reverently. If the law no longer has anything to say to the Lord Jesus, neither does it have anything to say to us. Not that the law ever, ever had anything to say to him. In one sense, because He kept it perfectly.
But now.
He is beyond that law. As Don mentioned this afternoon, he was a good Jew and he kept that law perfectly. But now no longer is he subject to it, and we, as in him, are no longer subject to it either. We are beyond it, aren't we?
Those ordinances were directed to man in the flesh or the natural man here on earth and.
A man that's died and risen again, it has no words to speak to out there. He's already dead to it and alive in a new in a new life. And so it has it has no application. The Lord Jesus suffered there on the cross. It's interesting. It was that the teachers of the law describes and so on that nailed him to the cross. Hmm.
Lord Jesus.
Separate on the cross, you know that when he suffered very much, but at the same time he was triumphing over them in it because the those who had were exercising with the power.
And we are posing as the principalities of the Jewish nation there. They had faith.
So the Lord leads us by dying on the cross. He triumphed.
Over them he put them to shape. He made a show of them openly.
The people that saw him die there.
They didn't actually realize what was happening.
They might have started that now he was put out of the way that he actually triumphed over.
That what happened all the way.
It's interesting how when the book of Acts after the Lord's resurrection and they were left here on earth to be a witness to the Lord's death and resurrection, there were a lot of opposition against the early disciples there. They were commanded not to speak and teach in the name of Jesus and so on, but the Spirit of God delivered them and they put them in prison, and then the Spirit of God let them out again and told them to go back and preach.
It, it was an evident witness to the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and his power and sending the Spirit of God down and, and, and having authority now to deliver people from ******* of sin through the preaching of the gospel. And So what a what a victory it really was, the Lord Jesus triumphing over sin and death and hell.
Satan's power has been broken.
And could we suggest too, that if we read this verse, perhaps with the, uh, shall we say the subject of the sentence says God, then it's God working through Christ to do all these things. What had happened when man fell? Satan and I believe that ultimately his fallen angels are those principalities and powers in view here.
Yes, as our brother has remarked, the Jewish leaders were energized by Satan, and in that sense they could be seen to be part of it. But those principalities and powers were Satan's emissaries. And when man fell, Satan had a hold on man. Satan had something that he could point to. And when man puts himself under law, Satan can say, see, now you didn't keep it, see what you did, see where you're at, and so on.
00:35:15
And there is the constant accusation of Satan.
There's the constant using of man's lust in a wrong way. Uh, well, using a man's lusts against him. And all of these were against man all the way down to the cross. So what does God do? Well, as we've already already had, it looked as if Satan had won the day.
The Lord Jesus is God's Son, comes into this world, and man nails him to the cross. It looked as if Satan had won, but what was God doing? He was really spoiling those principalities and powers, annulling their power.
Triumph triumphing over them, you could say in it, but it could also read in him that is in Christ. God triumphed over all of that in Christ. How?
By death and resurrection. And so is the law still there? Yes, it is. Are Satan's host still out there? Yes, they are. But they don't have a hold on those who lay hold of where they are in Christ. And the fact that they have a life that is connected with a risen Christ in glory, then all of that that has to do with the law, that has to do with the light down here.
That has to do when man was under testing. But you and I are beyond all of that now. Satan didn't win. God won the day in Christ.
That's why now he's going on in verse 16.
To tell man how to look at that.
Let no man, therefore.
Therefore, he says the chronological.
Judge you in me or I drink, or in respect of an holiday or afternoon or after Saturday.
He mentioned that what what was very important to the Jews, the seven, they stayed with them. That was the principal holiday that they were keeping.
And the Lord Jesus even said, had said to them that he was greater than the Father. Now that's being brought out again here, that all these things, therefore they could not be used to judge anymore.
These have been done away all these ordinances and the reduce made excellence, as the Lord Jesus pointed out when he was still among them, but and they were accusing him of not holding these things.
These were now completely, therefore completely done away.
They had become shadows of things to come.
That the body is of Christ.
So those ordinances do not apply to a dead man.
I'd say that those who notice, they can condemn to die in the prison.
Tomorrow morning at 8:00 he's going to be taken out and executed.
The guards go in tomorrow morning at 7:30 to lead into the place of execution.
And they find when they open his cell that he's died during the night. What are they going to do now? They're going to take him out and execute him.
The law does not apply to a dead man.
And that's our position in Christ. Like you say, Bill, the law is still in the back.
Satan and socialists are still there, but the truth is that we have changed in our positions at all and to start to apply rules and regulations again.
00:40:06
To control the flesh in us is a complete denial of the position that we now occupy. Interest.
It is moving back to staying over still fleshly people. You gotta control that flesh.
No, brethren, that is not our Christian position.
And it's so important. That's what religion in the flesh is built on, is controlling the flesh.
That's not where we are, Brevin, and it's so important that we understand.
But our position is completely changed.
Here now, I don't think I'll read that very, but the reason with him you're supposed to.
316 primarily.
Speaking of, uh, Jewish, uh, laws and ordinances, holy days and so on.
I believe it was at that time, because those were the things, if we could use the expression that.
Were commonly known about in the cities in which the gospel was preached. Among the Gentiles, they would have generally been some kind of Jewish synagogue, and people in a general way were aware of what the Jews stood for.
And there were certain gentiles that became proselytes of the Jews because.
They got, we might say, disillusioned and fed up with the idolatry that characterized, at that time, the Roman Empire.
But.
I believe they're mentioned here.
Because.
This is the trap. This is the.
Problem that has.
Uh, beset Christianity right from the very beginning.
Well, man couldn't keep the law. The natural man likes that kind of a line to toe. And if you put a natural man under some kind of law, the closer he can get to keeping it, the prouder he feels. And that's why it says later on in the chapter that one in that condition may profess a voluntary humility and appear on the surface to be taking a very humble place.
But what is the ultimate result of it? In the last verse of the chapter, it says to the satisfying of the flesh. It's to the satisfying of the flesh and your natural heart, and my natural heart loves to go back under a rule of law. And so it started very early on. We mentioned it yesterday. There were those in the Galatian assemblies who were teaching them that, yes, you had to be saved by faith.
Excuse me, but then, well, you can't live like that.
And it's still here today.
I can remember well quite a few years ago now, I was in a foreign country and I was talking to a dear man of God.
Who had been in prison for Christ, and I scarcely felt worthy to sit at his feet. But he couldn't see this at all, couldn't see it at all, couldn't see even eternal security in Christ. And we went over Scripture after Scripture together. And he finally just shook his head. And I'll never forget his comment. He said, well, that may work. That doctrine may work in North America, but it won't work over here where I live.
You have no idea what kind of lives people would lead if they thought that all their sins were forgiven, never to be brought up again, and if they thought they could never again be under the judgment of God, never had anything to fear, he said. You have no idea that kind of sin and wickedness that would be introduced into Christian lives. We, we, we have to keep people a little on the scared side. Well.
We try to speak about what grace really means and the effect it has on the soul, but the natural man likes that line to toe, likes to think that, well, I can do something to improve the old sinful self. And that's exactly what it is. It's really taking that old sinful self and saying I can control it with human energy. No, it will not work.
00:45:21
And I'll only become very, very disillusioned.
If I try it, But man still wants to do it. And that's why so many trappings of Judaism have found their way into Christianity all down through the centuries. And of course, here Paul refers to actual Judaizing things that were brought in. But it can be anything that brings man back under Old Testament law and it.
Please it says here are in respect of them.
Holiday on.
Now we don't have any holidays except the day of the Lord today. That's our holy day.
And that's the only one we have. And we saw the Lord Jesus on the cross.
The Jews today are evening don't understand that once in a while I get a letter from a Jewish rabbi.
To contribute money but that he mentions also that.
He had.
Jews who confess the Lord Jesus Christ, they still.
Do voluntarily keep their holy days, which is Hanukkah and.
Uh, celebrate and whatever gain us, they have Passover. The one. Yeah, that's one of them. And other others.
I don't know them because I've never learned them that I'm scared of them.
But the day is especially those who call themselves Juice for Jesus. They emphasize that you still have to celebrate those Jewish holidays to keep you happy.
And that is to use. They understand that the Gentiles cannot do it and don't have to do it. But they still try to keep a hold on the that we had fewer people just by these certain holidays, which they think will make them happy.
But the problem is that the Gentiles have copied those, those things, adopted them from the Jewish system of, of, uh, religion. These, these holy days and new moons and so on were things that God gave to help the natural man fulfill what God required. But that whole trial is over now. And now they, they are to be seen as just figures.
Of how Christ was going to do be the fulfillment of them. And now that we have the Lord Jesus and the new life in him, we're way past that. We don't go back to those things that are figures of what he was going to be. And it makes no, no point for us to observe those things. And yet sad to say, as it's been mentioned.
Even though this was originally written more for the Jews, God saw that the Gentiles were going to need it too. Because we have gone back and that is we in the Christian testimony in a general way, have gone back and adopted those things in many Christian circles. And that's it's a, it's a ensnaring thing because.
It it basically says that there's.
Still a possibility that the natural man can be helped by these things, when really that trial has already been proven to be false.
Hmm.
There's one question I have in verse 17 which are a shadow of things to come thus.
Does that mean that they are gonna do that again someday?
Well, they will take up those things in the coming day because as we said earlier, the life that you and I have is life in Christ, in a risen Christ. It's life lived out in the power of the Spirit of God. And in that sense, even the millennial Saints, I don't believe will have that same privilege.
00:50:24
They won't be indwelt in a permanent basis by the Spirit of God. They will not have, as it were, resurrection life in Christ. I don't believe. And so in that way I believe there will be a partial return to that kind of thing. But there will be a big difference, won't there? There'll be commemorative rather than anticipatory. And so there will be sacrifices in the Millennium. That's very, very clear from the latter chapters in Ezekiel.
And they definitely will have them as a memory of what Christ has done for them. But they won't have the place of nearness that you and I have. There will still be a temple there. There will still be a priesthood. There will still be those who, as it were, come between God and man as a mediator. And so in that way, they won't have the nearness that we have. But I believe this 17th verse shows us that what God did give.
As Doug was saying in the Old Testament.
Holy days Rituals.
Various celebrations and so on, they were a shadow of things to come. But the body, the reality is in Christ, no one here would look at a shadow of someone if they could look at the individual, him or herself. We'd say, well, what would you look at a shadow for? You would look at the individual himself or herself. And so now you and I have the substance of what God gave only in shadow.
In the Old Testament, and yet we say how sad it is that there seems to be the continual tendency to turn back to it. Why is that? Why is it that man has such a tendency? Why would he go back to the shadows when he can have the substance? I suggest that once again, to live in this world but connected to a risen Christ in glory has all the forces of Satan against us.
It has all that power of Satan in the heavenlies against us, and it requires real spiritual energy and real combat and warfare in order to be able to live in the enjoyment of those things. And man says that combat is too much, that combat is more than I can handle, that combat is too difficult. I would rather have a combat that brings me down to the level of this world.
Even if it means going back to the rule of law. Even if it means going back to.
Rituals and things that God had done with at the cross. Man still has that tendency. Well, it does take energy, it does take combat, it does take effort in order to enjoy these things in a right way. I'm wondering if relations four or seven might be applicable to what we're talking about in the area of non.
What we suggest back on, but the relations 4/7.
Call Scotland to them, and he was worth more. Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God for Christ. How did it then? Or how can this be, when he knew not God? He did service unto them, which by nature are to God. But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, I'll turn thee again.
To the weak and beggarly elements learning to ye desire a hand to begin ******* he observed days and months and times and years. He says, I am afraid of you, lest I have the soul upon you with labor and vain.
Umm, with that being that fit into what we're talking about here, because we know prison done and even the Jewish, Christian Jews and there are supposed out there, they don't quite let the goal of Jewish tradition.
It's normal, it's going to hang on to there and he decisions in the camp. Wonderful sweet people and we love them, but they still continue on with rituals and holidays and.
00:55:14
They've been delivered from all them, just like we did.
I hope that was helpful. I think that's the same thing in the bill. I believe so, yes.
There were those in the Galatian assemblies that were saying that have to live out the Christian life by the rule of law. And Paul says you, that is you gentiles, you were worshipping those that are no gods, that is, they were worshipping idols. But while they weren't in that sense part of Judaism yet at the same time I think it's fair to say that every false religion without any exception whatsoever.
On the one hand provides for a means by which man can indulge his lusts under a religious covering, but on the other hand it seeks to curb the activity of the flesh by some kind of rule and regulation. So even under idolatry the same principle was enforced. Is that right?
And in Judaism it was a recognition of man in the flesh. That's what the military's religion was built upon. And and that's what he's showing here, that we are now in a completely new position. A little further in the chapter here, it says in verse 20, wherefore if he be dead with Christ from the Ritimans in the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances?
Touch not. Taste not. Handle not.
If you have to control the flesh by rules and regulations, you are denying our positioning price, which is debt. There's a dead man laying on the floor out there. Maybe he was a drunk in his life. Let's give him a few rules. That dead man don't drink any longer. Don't get drunk. They're going to have any effect, absolutely no effect.
Wasted my time.
That's the way God sees us now. We are in a position that is completely beyond and to in state rules.
Then is a denial of the position we now occupy. I said my son had sometimes had people say to me, well if you say that boy, then you can do anything you want and get away with anything.
I say tell me, have you ever seen a dead man that gets away with anything he wants?
That's the answer.
And that's the way we are to think, brethren. We are dead with Him, and now our light is hid with Christ and God as we go on to the next chapter. That's our life up there in the glory.
And so we're not to give places to the flesh in any way. We're to recognize that it is dead. It's very what you do is something that's dead and bury people. Dig it up and see how it's doing once in a while.
Don't you leave it there.
And that's exactly what we are. Leave it there. Don't go in stating new rules and regulations to control it. That's a denial of where we are in Christ. So important that we enjoy that in our souls, brethren, because it's in the enjoyment of it that it has a practical effect on our lives as well. I was thinking of a John 10 where it talks about the the block of of the the fold, the shaping in a fold, which is an enclosure.
And the shepherd, uh, in the doorway to protect the sheep from intruders. And then the contrast is the flock, uh, following the shepherd's voice and, uh, being guided by him. And there's a great difference. There's no fence around the flock when they're on their way to, uh, pasture.
Let the the uh.
Well, there is a tendency amongst even amongst those God, the Lord's name is a tendency.
To want to build up a fence around an enclosure around what we believe to defend it, whereas we are following the shepherd of the Lord Jesus. And, uh, do we doubt that, that he is in charge and that he has control over the whole operation? He shouldn't have that one minute. Perhaps it might be helpful. I thought too of Paul from, uh, first Timothy chapter one. Uh, he.
01:00:27
Chapter verses 8:00 and 9:00 he says, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. So when you start to get on the principle of law, you are departing from the whole position you have as being free from condemnation. You're no longer enjoying your place as a son. You're a servant. And it's just as if the prodigal son coming back home. You remember how he said, uh, he had his speech ready to say, father, I sin against heaven and uh, in a nice sight, I'm no more worthy to be your son making is one of my servants. And then when he was embraced by his father.
He started to give this speech and the father cut him off. The part about making is one of thy servants. He doesn't let him say it, but it's almost as if, you know, when you put yourself under law as Gentile Christians and we try to keep laws, we weren't men didn't didn't have to keep it as if the product says, no, dad, I insist I've got to become a servant. You, you're destroying your whole Christian basis. And uh, it's a little bit like the brother Bob was saying yesterday about Christians denying their position when they get into politics and which came first.
You know, is do we get into the political sphere because we don't realize our heavenly position, or by dabbling in politics, do we deny and as it were, quench the Spirit so we can no longer really enjoy our place in Christ? Anything we do to minister to the flesh, whether to enjoy sinful pleasures or to try to improve the flesh, either way we're catering to the first man. We're denying it today and we're denying our real position in Christ. We can't enjoy it anymore.
Well, several things happen when.
Man goes down that road and we see some of them in verse 18.
Satan is out there using those who want to.
Beguile us, deprive us of what God has given us.
They want to deprive us of that wonderful place, practically, excuse me, into which God has brought us.
And so often it involves man getting his mind into something.
That God has not revealed.
It involves, as it says here, the worshipping of angels, and the intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
Sad to say that is common in the world, but it has happened even among true believers, where the mind gets active in the things of God, goes beyond divine revelation, delves into things that have not been revealed to us, and seeks to speculate on them and to have something to say about them.
All of that is the activity of the old sinful self. And what's the remedy for it? What is the answer?
Holding the head, I think the Darby Reeds, if I remember rightly, holding fast to the head. If we were to ask a believer whether he held the head and believed that he had a head in heaven, probably many would say so. But do I practically hold fast the head if I hold him fast?
Then it says in the previous verses of this chapter that we are complete in Him, and in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Can I have more than that? And if there are things that God has chosen not to reveal to me, if there are things that are beyond my understanding, I don't need to delve into them. I don't need to start worshipping angels. There are those today who make a great to do about praying to the Holy Spirit and praising and worshiping the Holy Spirit and so on. It's all in the same category, isn't it?
It's doing that which we don't find in the Word of God because it's misinterpreting the Word of God and using man's wisdom in the things of God. But if we're holding fast the head, that won't happen, will it? And everything we need we will find in him. Everything that is necessary to live a godly life for God's glory down here will be found in holding fast the head, and of course, ultimately in His Word too.
01:05:24
And we can check ourselves.
Right.
Using the scriptures.
To see what the 1St.
Questions.
That worship the Lord Jesus after he had gone to heaven.
For instance, uh.
There are people there do foot washing but first curse and never did that.
So why should we do that?
If they didn't do that, well, we can learn from them.
We're not. We're not supposed to do these things.
And other things, speaking in tongues, that's a great big subject.
We don't speak in tongues today.
I I think it's important for us to realize that when we hold the head, that is when we turn to the Lord independence and acknowledge His headship and that we seek to obey Him. He will always, brethren, He will always take care of us. He will never let us down. You know, that was the lie of in from the very beginning.
Umm, uh, of Satan was that God was withholding something and, and uh, unconsciously perhaps, but Eve and Adam, they kind of believed that they kind of took that for granted. God was not taking good care of them. Uh, holding the head got the Lord as our head will always take care of us.
Beautiful to see that in the Book of the Axes and the town in simplicity, the believers looked up to the Lord in all their problems. They were threatened by the authorities. I mean threatened to be killed. It had no effect on them because they were simply looking up to the head in heaven. And the Lord delivered them time and again. Well, there was times in the work delivered too. 12 Chapter James was killed.
And then Peter was miraculously delivered because they were praying they were going to the head. You don't have to go to intermediate race. We have a connection with the head and all through the book of the Acts in 16th chapter where Paul is in prison.
I suppose he had some in silence were kind of down moments in the first. It wasn't until midnight that they sang.
And praise God and.
I mean, the Lord does tremendous things that there was more simplicity, I must say, rather than traveling in some of those countries where people perhaps not quite as educated as.
I say it's amazing, but what kind of a God do we have any now there's a man in the right hand of God, a real man, rather than to whom we are united. And oh, to know what it means to hold the head in every situation of life. The difficulties, He allows difficulties.
Is that we can prove it is efficiency.
I can think of when the Lord was here and there was that multitude, 5000 men with women and children.
And the Lord says to them, to disciples, she gives them something to eat.
They didn't have anything.
They were in a predictably.
But there was a little boy.
5 blows. When you say loaves, it's just little rolls and two fishes. It looked ridiculous. It looked totally ridiculous.
01:10:02
But put those in the Lord's hands, and sometimes, you know, we don't have much.
Take what little you do have and put it into the Lord's hands, and you will find that your Lord can do great things. He fed the whole openly. They were all satisfied, and they took up afterwards 12 baskets of fragments that remained.
If they ended up with more than they had to start with. And that's the way our God is. The Lord Jesus now as man is in the glory of God and we are united to Him as His body. He feels what we feel. Let's not limit Him in our thinking.
Some time ago, Bob, you made a remark at a conference and I wonder if you'd repeat it again. Uh, I'll give you a bit of a hint so you know where I'm coming from. You mentioned that while there were problems and sometimes big problems in other lands that you visit, that sometimes in these favored lands, the Lord seemed to allow very complicated problems that.
Seemed to defy solutions.
In order, perhaps, that we might be more reminded to hold the head. Can you you remember that remark? Can you repeat that again?
MMM, yeah, I I think he said it pretty good, right?
Well, it seems too is to me that God is allowing in some cases very serious difficulties, not only in our personal lives, our family lives and other things, but even among the assemblies. The Lord is sometimes allowing very complicated problems and things that seem so difficult that they almost defy a solution.
And yet the Lord isn't restricted. The Lord's hand doesn't shorten the head. The head isn't, uh, if we could say it with all reverence, the Lord isn't up there in heaven wringing his hands and saying, Oh my, what are we going to do now? Oh no, no, the Lord knows exactly why he's allowed it. And in some cases, I believe it is in order that we might not rely on ourselves, but be willing to go to the head about it.
Not that it doesn't mean there's a time for action. Joshua fell on his face in the book of Joshua after Akinson and the Lord had to say Joshua get up, there's something to do. But he did it with the direct command from the Lord and with the direct guidance of the Lord as to how to deal with the situation. And so it is with us today, isn't it?
We live in a culture that is man centered and we've got some agency look at the Yellow Pages for somebody that can help you in this situation and that's the way our mind is geared.
But now, brother, we are in relationship with the men and the glory, and this is what it means to hold the head. I must say, the elements of your Bolivian brother have learned tremendous lack of simplicity of faith that I wish I knew better, brother.
I think I've mentioned this particular story that I repeated again that when we lived in Montero, Bolivia.
We used to do. There was a brother that lived across the street that used to get back as an attack.
And one day there was a cold S wind because the South wind is a cold wind down there in South Pole and.
His little son came running over to our house and said come quick, my father is calling you. And I ran over there to his house. He was sitting in bed gasping for his breath.
His little brother. What can I do to help you? Look, I'll go get my Jeep right away and we'll take you to the hospital.
And the brother between gasped his brother.
Please get down and pray.
Oh man, what a recruit to my North American thinking Into the hospital as soon as possible. As soon as possible.
Well, I did get down to pray and we did take it to the hospital, but we had it in order and I didn't. It was a real.
01:15:04
President, the Lord help us to know what it means to hold that every situation.
Is directly controlled by that man in the glory of God.
He's the head of all principality and power.
If something happens in my life.
He allowed it to happen for my own good and blessed.
And we can depend on the Lord right to the end of the journey for what we have in the rest of verse 80 or verse 19.
That is, he's going to look after his body, isn't he? He's not going to let it go. He's not going to neglect it. He's going to give that nourishment. Minister. Yes. Sad to say, we don't see the body of Christ outwardly manifested in its unity. The unity in God's eyes cannot be broken. There is one body. We bless God for that precious truth, and you and I are responsible in that way to walk in the unity of the Spirit.
The Spirit is that which, as it were, forms the one body and brings it together. You and I are responsible to walk in that unity, but we don't see the body outwardly operating in the unity that it should. But is the Lord going to let it go? Can we not depend on Him? Yes, we can. We can depend on that nourishment being ministered, that being knit together, if we seek that. And we can depend on the increase with the increase of God, and that'll take place.
Right until the Lord calls us home.
So I can't get so bad that the Lord can't control and minister because of all our problems, can it? No matter how we disrupt and problems we bring in, the Lord is still in control. And in the confusion even that exists, he's still able to minister.
What do the joints and bands signify? Is this dealing with human instrumentalities for work the board works through, or someone clarify that a little bit?
I was just going to ask you about that, Bill.
Well, I believe that joints are necessary. We all know we have them in the human body. Couldn't do much without those joints. But those bands are necessary too. Bands, I guess, are really ligaments, and they hold those joints in the proper position so that they can function well. And everybody here is probably familiar with what happens to a knee joint when, and this is well known in many circles. The young fellows here will all know what I mean when I.
Talk about the anterior cruciate ligament. That's one of those that easily get, well easily. You have to give it a good injury to do it, but it gets snapped in certain football injuries or something like that. And what happens to your knee? It's unstable. It doesn't function properly.
Thankfully, now they usually can do surgery to repair it, but those ligaments, those bands are necessary. And so I believe it shows that every part of the body of Christ is absolutely necessary.
The Apostle uses joints and bands here as an illustration, because the body can't move without joints, and it can't. Those joints can't function properly without bands to hold them in their proper place.
And if they those joints are places where there is a lot of stress at times due to what you say, yes, when the body is working properly and each one, rather each one of us needs to be exercised before the Lord as to what he would have us do the attitude. Well, there's the older brothers there. They're going to take all the meeting and they're going to do what's necessary rather than let's not get into that mentality.
Let's sit here in the Lord's presence in exercise, because I find He uses members that are at least expected at.
At times to be a real blessing to God's people, but we need to pull together and that's another point of the joints and balance that to me.