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I'm going to suggest we start at verse four of Colossians chapter 3.
Therefore your members, which are upon the earth, communication, uncleanness and ordinary affection, evils and kupisin and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which sake the ramp of God comes on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walks sometime when you live themselves. But now He also put off all these anger and wrath, malice, blasphemy and filthy communication out of your mouth. Line that one to another, saying that you have put off the old man with his ease, and have put on the new man.
We'll just renew it in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. Where there is neither Greek nor two, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarians at the end find more free, but Christ is all and in all. Put out therefore, as the elect of God fully into love, bow the mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, and sickness, along suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
Why submit yourselves onto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord? Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with Iservice's men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. Knowing that of the Lord, He shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which He has done, and there is no respect of persons.
Some very, very practical exhortations for our walk here in this world. But in the 1St 4 verses of this chapter, he lays, as it were, the foundation. Because the mind and the heart must be right if the exhortations are going to have their proper effect. And so sometimes that we hear exhortations and they really don't affect us, we don't take heed to their practical application in our lives.
And why is that, brethren? Well, perhaps it's partly true because we haven't set our mind on things above. We're not occupied with Christ where he is now. We don't understand true Christian position. If these things aren't understood and appreciated. And as I say, the heart isn't set right, then the the practical exhortations are not going to have any effect. And so before he takes up these practical things.
He brings before US1 more thing in our in the verse we started with, and that is what's ahead the future, because, brethren, we've had before us in the previous reading, that which is present where Christ is now, that which is is true of us now and that which we should be occupied with now. But brethren, there's a wonderful future ahead. This world has Christ hasn't been manifested in his glory to this world yet.
He came in loneliness and grace. They refused Him, and after He had remained on earth long enough to give ample testimony to His own as to His bodily resurrection, His feet left the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received Him out of their sight, and they saw Him no more. But there is a day coming, brethren, when this world is going to see Him in glory. The heavens are going to open up to reveal Him. The last glimpse. This world, God of the Lord Jesus, was hanging on a cross.
00:05:03
Crowned with a crown of thorns. But the day is coming, brethren, when He's going to come forth in power and glory, and wonder of wonders, we're going to be associated with Him. And so he reminds the Saints here He brings before them, When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. And, brethren, that ought to motivate us to live for His glory. Now that ought to motivate us to look up and by faith be occupied with Him.
Knowing that we're going to see him face to face in the coming day, knowing that he's going to be revealed to this world in power and glory, and we're going to be associated with him. And so in first John chapter 3, you have it again. It speaks of when he appears, we should, uh, shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And then it says, and every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, brethren, to realize there's a day coming when Christ is going to appear in this world.
And we're gonna appear with and like Him, coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all of them that are about Him in that day. That is a purifying hope. The measure in which this grips our souls is gonna have a practical effect on our lives. And so, as I say, we're gonna go on and take up these practical.
Exhortations. But the object before us forms our character, the object before us forms our character. And so we have Christ seated there now as our present object.
Our present occupation and we have the glory to look forward to.
That's the contrast between verses three and four and verse 3.
Our life is hid. The world looks at us. They don't understand the way we live.
Why? Because our life is hit with Christ in God. But then the contrast is.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. So the time is gonna come when our life will be manifested. But I've found this exceedingly precious. Rather than to realize that we can say Christ is our life, we can look up into the glory of God. There's a man sitting up there.
A real man, resurrected in flesh and bones. He is our life. You know, it impresses me and I see it quite often that we get occupied with ourselves, brethren.
And sometimes it's pretty discouraging.
I should say all the time, it's pretty discouraging.
For myself, I have to say that, but we have the right by God's grace to say Christ is our life. He is hid with, uh, our life is hid with Christ and God. But we can look up and we can see that man in the glory, complete perfection at every turn. And we can say that's my life and the more you and I are occupied with him.
The more it's going to, perhaps unconsciously, but it will transform us, the more we're occupied with him. Yet when I fail, I have to judge myself. But beyond that, we shouldn't be going back over our failures again and again and again. Leave it behind. Ye are dead. When a person is dead, you're taken out and buried. Do they pull them up every once in a while to see how he's doing?
No, leave him there.
That's what we are. Our life is hid with Christ and God. Be occupied with that man and the glory.
SMS.
00:10:00
Phrase Our life to me is very precious.
It's wonderful to take it personally as you've been speaking, Bob, say this is my life and look up and see the Lord Jesus.
In all its perfection and and take that personally.
But it's a wonderful thing to take it the way it is presented here as collected.
Our life. I look around the room here. I think about this verse yesterday, looking around. This is something brethren, we share collectively. He is our life. We are bound together in Him.
And our time and our times together ought to reflect this.
It's important to recognize too, and it.
Point, it's our life. He is our life. A lot of times that word life is used as something, oh, he had a good life and it's the kind of life that the person lived and so on.
It's more than that here, and it's what's already been said.
Is it consistent with it more than that?
When we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive eternal life.
It is a totally new life. It's a life that is given to us in John three. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's the natural life that each one of us is born with. But that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And so it's a life that comes from God.
But that's the life.
That eternal life, the life that comes in the Spirit, where is that life, is the life of Christ.
We, as as been said, are bound up in the same bundle of light. Each one of us naturally has our individual lives, our individual personal.
Life that's in the flesh, in the blood.
But when it comes to eternal life, it's one life and we have been made to partake in it, to share in that one and one only.
Life, and that is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we participate with Him in that life. He has it in himself, we have it in Him. That is, He has it.
As God, He has it in His own person, we have it as creatures in Himself, independence upon Him, and He maintains it. But it's the same one and only life. It's not like our natural lives, independent individual lives.
And consequently, when his life is displayed, because it's our life, we're displayed with it because we've displayed what we are which and what we have, which is his life. I say this because it's not talking about a character of life or simply I have a good life or I'm living the good life or I have a good object for my life or something like that. It goes beyond that.
It is the life itself is.
The life that we have is Christ. His life is our life.
And we'll have no different life when we get to glory than we have now. It will be the same life. The only difference is the flesh will be completely gone. Now we have the flesh. And so he finds it necessary to go on in these verses and exhort us to mortify or put to death there for your members and to put off the things of the flesh and so on. And we're going to need those exhortations as long as we're here.
But when we leave that all behind, we're going to be morally and physically like Christ, without anything from within or around us to distract us, to tempt us. And it will be no different life, I say, than that which we possess now. And that, wonderful brethren, to think that we have divine life now, the very life of Christ. As Brother Dawn has said, it's a life that delights in the will of God.
It's a it's a life that cannot sin because it's the very life of, of Christ. Now the question is what are we, what are we living in the good of that or are we acting in the flesh? It's one or the other. It's not a question of possession, brethren. It's a question of what are we living in the enjoyment and good of? Are we living in the good of the life of Christ? Or are we living, sad to say, sometimes we do. Are we living and in the.
00:15:20
Awfulness of the flesh. The flesh hasn't changed.
The flesh and a believer hasn't changed. The flesh in Peter was no different than the flesh in Judas. Peter denied his Lord three times with oaths and curses. Peter was weak. Peter was real, but the flesh in Peter was no different. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. But wonder of wonders, brethren, we have divine life. Christ is our life, and that in that way we can live for God's glory. But to think, brethren, that there's a day of display coming.
You know, think of it, you know, you, you look at my life now, you don't always see the life of Christ. You don't always see the manifestation of Christ in my life. But there's a day coming when the world is going to look on and they're going to see perfectly reflected in every believer Christ because there will be nothing to hinder in that day. And I think this verse four gives us to understand that.
When Christ comes back in glory, that is at the end of the Tribulation.
The the scriptures used 3 words in connection with that event. One is the appearing, another one is the revelation, and the other is the manifestation. But they are all in reference to when the Lord comes back in the probably what is in all time connected with this earth, the greatest display of power and glory there has ever been or ever will be.
When Jesus comes back and his Saints come with him, the myriads of those redeemed ones, and there they will see us, our neighbors, our unsaved neighbors will see us, and we will be manifested with Him in glory. Now the point is, as you were saying, Jim, what kind of testimony are we manifesting now?
My father-in-law was a officer in the Canadian Navy and he gave an illustration that has helped me in this chapter.
Verses 567.
Are those?
On a ship, let's say the ship has changed its commanders.
And there are some of the sailors on that ship that are so bad they have to be put to death. And that's what we have in verses 5-6 and seven. But there are other sailors on that ship that need to be put off the boat. So in verses 8:00 and 9:00, you have those sailors that are to be put off, and then you have the new crew.
For the new, uh, sailors.
You have in verse 1011.
Uh, well, 12 put on it says and 13 and 14 the ones that we are to put on. It has been a help to me. We can kind of think of that way. There's been a change in our commander. Once we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, it is no longer ourselves. It is Christ that is before us and there needs to be a change, complete change.
We're gonna be manifested before this world at the coming of the Lord, but in a certain way we are a testimony to this world even now by the way we act. How are we acting before this world?
There's a little bit of an Old Testament picture that's often we think of in Exodus chapter umm 34.
And verse 29, in connection with Moses, he was in the presence of the Lord, and he spent time in the presence of the Lord. He saw something of the glory of the Lord. And it says in verse 29, Exodus 3429, it came to pass when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses whisked not that his face, the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
00:20:03
And so there was evidence.
Of His occupation with divine things. And that's really what he's bringing before us here, isn't it? That there ought to be evidence in my life.
That I'm occupied with divine things or brother Harry Hail I never met him but I think of the thing that he oftentimes think of it. We can have as much of Christ as we want and our lives are going to show how much we want and so this is really he brings before us that Christ is our life in verse four and that future day when we're going to be appear with them. There was going to be a manifestation.
We're going to be acknowledged as those that, umm, had a love for the Lord Jesus and those that, uh, he has, uh, uh, redeemed those that he appreciated even as we, as we went on in the scene of his rejection and anything that was done for his glory as we walked through the scene and manifested his glory, He'll appreciate and we're going to be manifested there with him. But now in these verses of scripture, as you say in verses 5-6 and seven.
There are some things that are going to hinder that glory from shining out if I allow the flesh in any way. Is there a good part of the flesh? Is it is Are there? We think of civilization and we think of how there are some finer elements of what man has created. Perhaps the finest of music, perhaps the finest of dress, perhaps the finest of all these things. Is there a good part of the flesh? Can I take part of something that's good? But it's the of the flesh. God's conclusion concluded that it's all filthy. It's all.
Umm of the first man, Adam, and we need to put them says mortify. Therefore your members which are upon the earth, there isn't anything of the flesh that's profitable. And so it begins with fornication. Why? Because it's taking pleasure in something without reference to God whatsoever. No reference to God. I'm going to take pleasure in it. And so if I'm going to display the glory of Christ in this scene.
I'm not going to have the liberty to please myself.
Need to please Christ. Need to have a view of Himself in the glory of that coming day.
Contrast, uh, the things on earth are con are contrast in connection with the things we've had before us, the things that are above. We're just set our mind on things above where Christ sitteth, because everything that is above our heavenly is in reference to Christ. Thus God's reference point. Everything I say is in reference to Christ, but everything connected with this earth is in reference to the flesh and to man. It's for its self gratification.
Man draws a circle and puts himself in the center of that circle and does everything for himself.
That's man. He's the center of his world, but the center of God's thoughts and what he would have us occupied with in connection with heavenly things is Christ. So we've had Christ as the center of the world above. Now he's going to take up some things that, as you say, it really has man as the center, man as the reference point.
And self gratification. And isn't that the world we live in today?
And this really neutralizes our testimony if we get place to any of this, rather than we all have to recognize that our flesh responds to these things. But it says mortify put to death.
And a person that is put to death doesn't have any desire for these things. He's dead. We are dead, but we are to, uh, practically carry that out in our life. Don't give place to that. There's areas of the Internet that are terrible, brethren, and we need to not give even a little place to that.
TV, magazines, be careful of those things. If you let the flesh have just a little place, I'm going to keep the majority about just a little bit. Remember what happened to Saul? King Saul of the Old Testament. God told him to cut off the Amalekites completely and saw reserved a few that he thought were really good.
Who was it that ended up killing Saul?
00:25:03
He fell on his sword. He remembered to try to end his life, but he didn't end it. And it was an Amalekite that came along and put an end to Saul. And if we do not use a strong hand against the flesh, the flesh is gonna pop back in our face and completely destroy our testimony. Don't give place, not even a little bit to that. That's why it says mortify these things.
Their sexual sins that are mentioned here fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection.
Evocence. And then it mentions covetousness, which is idolatry, the desire to continue to have better and more and more brethren. We're getting ready for the move to glory. Shouldn't it be that we think about downsizing a bit? I think if we really think about it, it would be better. But covetousness, it seems like it's the American dream, bigger and better.
Let's not go that way, brethren. It's idolatry.
In Ephesians in a similar passage, Paul is warning the Christians in a similar light against the sins of the flesh and against fornication, and I find it very interesting. I'm referring to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17.
He says this, I say, therefore intensifying the Lord, that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. Now, isn't it interesting that earlier in Ephesians, Paul talks as to how they're sitting in the heavenlies and how how they have this new position as members of the one body where there are no Jews nor Gentiles? So that is our position, and yet we're still in this thing and we have these old sinful natures that need to be kept in the place of death, and we need to continue to reckon ourselves to have died in sin. So there's that practicality here.
But we are still Gentiles. We still have these simple desires and we have to deal with them seriously. So we have this wonderful new position in Christ. We're looking forward to the shout when we move, leave our whole simple bodies once and forever. And yet we're in this real world where there is that, uh, temptation that faces this. And we're still Gentiles. And we got to deal with this practically each and every last one of us that we're, we're not yet, umm.
Uh, in our new body, so we still have the old natures that have to be dealt with very seriously.
Amalek in the Old Testament is a picture of Satan's working on the flesh.
And in the wilderness, Israel had war with Amalek in the 17th of Exodus. And the reason I say is a picture of Satans working on the flesh is because Amalek, if we trace his lineage with a grandson of Esau and Esau was a man who sold his birthright for momentary gratification for, as we would say, a bowl of porridge. He something for the moment he sold his birthright. And it's interesting if you follow the history of Amalek, the last mention of Amalek in the Old Testament is that in connection with Haman in the days of Esther.
And Haman sought to annihilate the people of God. He wasn't able to do it. And the flesh in a believer can never cause him to lose his salvation or drag him down to hell. But as Bob said, the working of the flesh, if it's given it's given place, it can cause us to lose our testimony. It can cause us to lose our joy. It can cause us to lose our discernment. But what's significant to realize is that.
In that battle with Amalek in the 17th of Exodus, they, they, it says Joshua disquieted Amalek, a discomforted Amalek with the edge of the sword. He didn't get rid of him because it says that they would have war with Amalek from generation to generation. And we need to realize, brethren, that the flesh is very real and the enemy is very real. And Satan in the believer, he can't rob him of his salvation.
But he seeks to rob him of his joy in the Lord. He seeks to rob him of his testimony.
And his discernment and so on. And he's not going to give up. And we can never in divine things say, well, we're home free. The Ephesians has been pointed out. They were able to take in the highest truth committed to man. The Colossians had not quite as high, but some wonderful truth presented to them. But on both occasions they needed these practical warnings and these exhortation.
00:30:17
As to moral evil, as to covetousness and the sample lists of sin, I say it's Satan's activity on the flesh, and we're going to have to deal with it until we get home to glory. So that's the first time in Scripture that I find right? Exodus 17.
That's the first time that I have found writing write these in a book and.
From generation to generation we don't get any better.
Our children are just like their parents. They come up, they got the same heart, their same nature. And so it has to go on in the assembly because the 5th chapter they had that horrible case and that lasted a good wage. And then in the just look at what it says in the.
7th chapter of Second Corinthians.
Cornet didn't, uh, get assembly perfect. They just were asked to have this again and again and uh, in the 7th chapter, the first verse, having therefore these promises daily, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the place and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Our God said it, be holy, for I am holy, be perfect for I am perfect. Dear Father in heaven is perfect. That's in the old heaven.
You're definitely just standard and we can't change it either and the assembly can't change it. And so we have to be teaching these things.
Teach the responsibility that comes individual in these collectives. I mean these simple sense or simple sense unclean things.
And, uh, I think it, uh, you go to the last chapter of Second Corinthians to show you that, uh.
You don't, Uh.
Get the assembly perfect heater.
In the 13th chapter of the 2nd Corinthians, this is the third time I am coming to you and so on. I told you and we're telling you.
Uh, examine yourselves the first five, whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except he be reprobates it. You don't get to pass the danger of these things are rising again in another generation in the assembly. So it's holiness in a practical way individually, but they're watching out for from the assembly.
I'd like to just say this too in connection with our comments as to why you often find that fornication heads a list of sample sins that are given. There are two other occasions other than Colossians 3 that I can think of, and probably more. One has been pointed out in Ephesians. Another one is in First Thessalonians 4 where he gives another list there and warning to the Saints and fornication heads that list as well.
And there may be other thoughts, but I would just suggest that fornication.
Is so serious for two reasons. One is because it spoils the picture of Christ and the Church.
The other is that it, and really in that regard, is that it's the the one sin that leaves a mark on the human body for the rest of a person's life. Now, brethren, that's not to say there isn't restoration.
Because where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, and God is greater than our failure in sin. But it is so serious when the type when what God set up at the beginning as not only for the blessing and happiness of man on the earth, but as a type of Christ in the church. God was from Eden looking right down well from a past eternity. But when he placed Adam and Eve in the garden, he was looking on to the time when his Son would have a bride for his eternal joy and satisfaction.
And to spoil the type of Christ in the church is such a serious thing that it's plus one sin, I say, that leaves a mark on the human body for the rest of a person's life. That's why it says in Proverbs.
A wound, not a scar, but a wound. A wound is something that doesn't heal. A wound and dishonor shall he get. And brethren, it's a very serious thing. And I, this has looked so lightly on in the world in which we live. Though I sometimes said the difference between my young people going to high school in Smiths Falls and my going to high school in Smiths Falls 25 years before, it was this that when I went to high school in Smith Falls, there was still some line of demarcation.
00:35:32
Between right and wrong, there was still some standard of morals, as blurred as the line may have become. But when my young people went no, it wasn't that the line was just blurred, the line was completely removed. Everything is now acceptable and morality is really an amoral society. We don't live in an immoral society. We've moved beyond that to an amoral society where there are no morals.
And brother young people, we need these exhortations and we need to take heed to them. David sinned. He fell into sin with Bathsheba, and he sinned grievously. And it's true, there was restoration for David, thank God, and he was used in a wonderful way by God subsequent to it. But a sword never departed from his house forever. I was just over in the Middle East, and it's very evident that when Abraham sinned, yes, he was restored to the Lord.
But its descendants are still the constant enemies of the people of God to this day. There's the fruit of what was sown in that sin and young people and all of us, because it's for all of us. We never get beyond it.
And we need to take heed to this. And why does fornication so often had a list of sample sins and warnings to the Saints of God? It's because it is so serious it's not worth it. Fornication is sexual activity outside the marriage tie, and Scripture absolutely and unequivocally forbids it. And if you do it a wound and dishonor you'll get.
We're talking plain, but it is very, very serious.
And don't fall into it. The world says, oh, it's only for a moment and nobody's going to know or find out. Oh, it's very serious. God knows. And we reap what we sow. What you say is right, Jim. And I just like to reinforce it with this All sin is against God.
And there is a syndicate your neighbor, but there is a syndicate yourself.
Like to make a few remarks connection with what's before us from Romans chapter 7:00 and 8:00.
What's before us is somewhat explained in more detail here.
Just to read a tiny bit of it.
In Romans Chapter 7.
Umm, verse 22 But I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, worrying against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself.
Serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Down to verse.
Umm 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is not of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is light because of righteousness, and so on. Just to make a few comments about what we have here.
Man.
Corrupted himself.
By his unbelief and his original disobedience to God, and when he sinned the first time, he was changed.
Because he received as a consequence of his sin and his body that which Scripture called sin. And it is a fixed principle and it's in the members. That's why in our chapter it says mortify your members because all sin that takes place in US is an activity of our members.
00:40:22
Of our body and sin exist in the body.
Actually, and we won't try to get to the finer point of it, but flesh and sin are not identical. We often use them synonymously, but they're not, and the flesh has to do with that which.
Determines our actions.
When Eve was in the Garden of Eden, she looked at the fruits and she said it's good to my eye.
It's desirable to make me wise and so on. And it motivated her by what she saw, because unbelief was there to take an action against God, and all of us now have that morally corrupt.
Flash and sin, and consequently when we see something, we look at it and we say that's desirable to me.
And I'd like it, and we wanna have it. And the sin in our members motivates us. It's a fixed principle within us that will always cause us through the flesh to disobey God.
When we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive a new life.
But we still have that flesh, and we still have sin in our members.
And in a practical sense, every one of us goes through the experience of finding out that the flesh doesn't change and the sin in it doesn't change. It's still there. It still acts the same way.
And I want to say it's still easily overcomes because the mind says hey do this.
But the flesh acting by sin does, says I'm gonna do that. And all of us know what it's like to say I won't do that again. Even as believers, I will not do that again. And we do it.
The point I want to make without trying to.
Develop it further is we must have a deliverer.
That's what the man in Romans 7 practically had to learn. He could not deliver himself from the power of sin and his members. He could not deliver himself from the flesh that was still in him, even though he had a life which desired to do good.
Until in his soul, practically he said, Who shall deliver me from this body of death?
And everyone who has life, even life in Christ in a practical sense, in the school of God, has to learn the necessity of having a deliverer.
Until we do, we will constantly try to overcome the flesh in US and be totally miserable and failing at it. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, He is also our Deliverer. And He delivers us in two ways.
In our chapter, it's by the life he gives us.
In Romans it's by the Spirit, and so in chapter 8 we have the practical deliverance of the man suffering and the condition of Chapter 7, and in chapter 8 it's the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has set me free.
And that is the Spirit acting upon our new life gives a power to cause us to make a different line of decisions that honor God and don't control us anymore by the flesh. And it said we don't learn this truth abstractly and doctrinally.
00:45:07
Alone, but others have said we must learn it in the school of God. Brethren, we don't just learn it in a Bible reading. And consequently I say it because it's so easy for us to just sit here and say put to death. That's what Scripture says, put to death your members. That is, we are responsible to live life in Christ by the power of the Spirit.
And make the practical decisions that don't give that flesh and pin a place. But we can't do it in our own power. That's the main point I want to bring. You cannot do it in yourself. But every one of us has tried. It's natural to us to try. And we're miserable. Often Christians can live a whole lifetime of misery because the domination of the flesh that's still in them controls.
So often the life and so the same faith that put our trust in the Lord Jesus as Savior. We need to look to Him as deliverer and allow the Spirit of God to have its work in US.
Just add to what you've said from others rules that really the subject of deliverance in Romans begins halfway through chapter 5 if you want to understand how the Spirit of God.
Unfold the subject of deliverance over the power of sin. We must begin.
Right around verse 12, chapter 5, and it's going to explain that there are two men that God sees. He sees Adam, he sees Christ. Chapter 6, God explained to us that the cross of Christ, that's first man, Adam, was condemned.
So we must see that.
Other of atoms, if we're going to understand deliverance, I'm so glad we covered just a little bit. No, we're not in the room, but the truth we have in Romans is really important for us to understand so that we can really understand philosophy. That's all I'll say. Well, I think that's helpful because I was thinking too in Romans 8, there was another important element thrown into the equation.
Before there was a turn around in that man's soul and that is he had to come to the realization it is no more I but sin that dwelleth in me. So those two things were important. Who shall deliver me? And it's no more I because maybe there's someone here. And you say somebody asked me to do something and I said I don't want to do that. And then you felt guilty because you said I really did want to do that, but it's no more I but sin that dwelleth in me. You were right in saying I no longer want to do that because the divine nature doesn't and it can't. But the question is.
The problem is that the flesh is there and the flesh wants to do it. And so when the man realized that, he needed to deliver and realized the light in which God saw him. God doesn't see me in the light of the flesh of the old man. He sees me in the light of the new man. He sees me in all the perfection of the life of Christ. But I would also like to say this as to the illustration in the 17th of Exodus, just to illustrate what Brother Dawn said, because I think it's illustrated so beautifully there.
In Colossians, as Don was saying, it's our connection with Christ in glory and our life being hid with Christ in God. And there were two secrets of the victory against with Amalek there, uh, overcoming Amalek there in uh, Exodus 17. One is their connection with Moses, a picture of the Lord Jesus gone on high to fill all things. Moses went up on the mount and Aaron and her stayed up his hands till the going down of the sun. And we won't go into the type but.
Just to suffice it to say, that's perhaps more what we have in Colossians.
But then there was another secret of their victory as dawn has been bringing out that's more in connection with Romans. And that is we have Joshua as the captain down in the valley of conflict with the people of God. And if Moses is a picture of Christ on high living for us and our connection with Christ in glory, then Joshua is perhaps more a picture of Christ in spirit because we have as the power for our lives.
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To meet the enemy. Here we have the Spirit of God, and it's interesting that it doesn't say that Israel got the victory.
It was Joshua that discomforted Amalek. And how did he do it? With the edge of the sword. The sword speaks of the Word of God. And so it's the Spirit of God. The Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit. And that's how we're going to overcome the flesh. Brethren, we have the Spirit of God. We have the Word of God. You get a bad thought in your mind, Don't let it develop or it's going. Don't let it continue or it's going to develop into one of these sins.
But what do you do? Oh, you turn in your mind to the Word of God. You let the Word of God in the power of the Spirit come in and you fill a cup to the brim with water. You don't leave room for any air or anything else. And that's what we need to do. So I think it's illustrated very beautifully there in Exodus 17. We have Christ in glory and we're connected with him. Our life is hid with Christ and God, and we have the life of Christ. Christ is our life. And then we have the Spirit of God as the power.
So that we can meet the enemy and so that there can be victory. But it's not our victory, as Dawn was saying, we need to deliver. And if there's been any victory in our lives, brethren, we can't take credit to ourselves. It's all credit to him. And the figure that was mentioned yesterday of Israel when they went across the Jordan, went to Gilgal first. That's the cutting off of the flesh. It's the place of circumcision.
Means all the way around completely cut off in Philippians it talks about concision. Concision means cutting act. It's not cutting at brethren, it's cutting off. It's not allowing any place for it. And if there was going to be victory in Canaan, they needed to return to Gilgal every time they had a victory and.
Joshua would say that, he said. Let us return to Gilgal to renew the Kingdom.
It's important to return, to recognize any victory that God gives us, brethren, and I find it so often in myself that there's a tendency when there's something that I've done that might be something for the Lords. Glory to glory in myself. Got to get back to Gilgal if I'm going to continue to.
Have victory in my life or else there's going to be defeat in our lives.
We cannot trust that flesh anyway, shape or form, so it's to be cut off, be put to death. I'd just like to read those last three verses of Exodus 17 because I think we need it in writing and we need to read this book.
In the last three verses of Exodus 17.
Our last four verses.
Verse 13.
And Joshua discomforted Emily and his people with the edge of the sword.
Now this look at these last verses. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this.
For a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. That's true.
For I says the Lord will utterly put out remembrance of amulet from under heaven. And Moses built an older called the name of Jehovah Nissi. What does that mean?
Jordan SI the Lord might banner in the last verse.
But he said, because the Lord has sworn, think of that the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Brother Bob, the verse that you quoted in Philippians chapter three, I think it's verse two, it says beware of the concision. That's something to be on guard against because we have this list that's given to us in Colossians chapter 3, verses 5 and six here, 5-6 and seven perhaps are one passage, one paragraph, and we're to be aware of not to make rules to allow a little bit of the flesh.
So that we can gratify the flesh a little bit in our course of life. Just give a little example of it in Matthews Gospel chapter 18. The Lord spoke there and he taught very clearly in connection with that very matter. In verse eight he says, Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather than to having two hands or.
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2 feet to be cast into everlasting fire. Well, the hand perhaps might speak of my occupation, something that I might do for a living. And umm, if it's going to keep me from walking in a holy path, a path of obedience to the word of God, a path of life, I'm to cut it off. I'm to not to allow a little bit of it, just do it one day a week or something like that. No, I'm to cut it all off. The foot speaks of a course of life, and if there's a course of life that I'm going to go into.
And I'm walking in a particular path, and it's not a path of obedience to the word of God.
It's not going to. It's allowing of the flesh in my life and to cut it off, all of it, not just some of it. I'll give a little illustration. I had a brother. We were speaking a little bit about the entertainment of this world. And he said, you know, I used to have a television and I thought I could measure it. I thought I could just use the television just for the news and some of the finer elements of it, you might say. And he said, I found I couldn't do it. I had to take a hammer and smash it and put it in the garbage can.
And I had to be finished with it. And this is really what the word of God is giving us here in Colossians. We have a responsibility. The Spirit of God is not mentioned here because it's our responsibility before God to judge these things.
And to be done with them. And there's not just a little bit we're to be aware of the concision, we're to do it in entirety as Moses did. He forsook Egypt, He abandoned everything, every prospect that there was in Egypt. He turned his heart towards the Lord. Even before he left Egypt, he had forsaken it in his heart. And now we have that responsibility to identify those things that are of the flesh and to deal with them, to exercise self judgment.
Like to make a go back for comment on verse and Genesis chapter?
Three.
In our chapter.
Where we have, we've been talking about the flesh and we see it manifested in the things that are mentioned.
And it's corrupted form, in its most corrupted form, it didn't start that way. And the Garden of Eden, it didn't have that same developed character. But what happened is after man sinned the flesh in him.
Corrupted itself more and more until we see in the time of the flood two things, violence and corruption.
Filled the earth, but I won't because this flesh is so subtle. I would like to go back and just comment a little bit on where it is and its seed state and what characterizes it. And we see that in Genesis chapter 3.
And verse 6.
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took.
Of the fruit thereof, and did eat.
This is really the seed of the flesh.
It's the beginning.
Of independence.
And self will.
It was good to the eye.
It was. There wasn't any question about it. It was good for food.
It was pleasant to the eyes. It was going to give her him something they hadn't had before. It was desirable.
We hear the expression. What's wrong with that?
These things that she said passed all the tests of a question like that, what's wrong with that?
Why shouldn't I do it, or have it or take it? It's good.
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It's for good. It's for good food. It's pleasant to the eye, it's desirable. Why can't I have it?
There's two reasons. There's two things that are involved in it, the Lord said, and his own when he was tempted. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live. We don't just live by the food we eat, we also live.
By dependence and obedience to what God says.
That's why they forfeited their life, because they acted in independence and disobedience to what God had said.
The flesh in US will act in independence of God, and if it's desirable, if it's good, even though it's in a corrupted, awful, corrupted state now of fornication on cleanness and all those things, which is its most developed condition.
Still to the flesh it says, I want it, and it will take it. And in our chapter, why the life is so important to us is because God has now given us the life of Christ, which is characterized by dependence and obedience.
And consequently this has already been brought out. The Word of God is so important to us because the dependent man, the Lord Jesus, would not act without a word.
His opinion, his dependence as man was so great and so perfect. Even if there was food and he needed food, he would not take it because he was dependent on the word from the from God. And so he waited until.
He got it, the Word, and then He would eat, and He was obedient. I do always those things which please the Father, and so the Spirit of God acts in US in that life. And if the Spirit of God is there working instead of the flesh and sin, then if the dependent obedient man is manifested.
And so it is with us rather. And in the measure in which that life which is perfect in its dependence and obedience and has, has already been mentioned here, it's exhortation, its responsibility to live that character of life, to put away the old and to live the new, to put away the old character of life which is the flesh working in us. That's the old man, that's his character.
But God has made us the new man, and He wants us to live that life.
Well, this list that we've been considering in verse five, we very quickly see the seriousness of these things that are listed. But there's another list, brethren, and perhaps we look very lightly on these things sometimes. And that is in verse eight, he says, but now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another.
Seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds. Now, brethren, I think this list perhaps strikes us all. It strikes me perhaps we can say by the grace of God, we're not guilty of some most of the things that are all of the things of the first list, at least the out those outward moral things. But brethren, when was the last time we were angry? When was the last time you got angry at somebody? Or when was the last time we encouraged someone in that course?
You say I got angry at that person and they did such and such and you said, you know, I don't blame you. I would have got angry too. You know, that didn't help the person that just helped the person to act in the flesh. And so anger and and wrath, malice, these things, why not one to another, these things, these things strike home, don't they? But these things were to put off as well. Sin is sin Now it's true there are those sins, but.
Leave a mark on the human body. There are sins that affect others in a very real way. There's sins that have consequences for the rest of our life. There's things that sometimes we don't think are so serious, but they're very serious in the sight of God, and they are the manifestations of the flesh. And brethren were to put those things off as well.
01:05:23
Excuse me, umm, I'd like to just for the sake of the young people, I don't think.
Uh, we.
Clarify that the meanings of some of these terms in verse 5, and I don't before we get too far away from it, I'd like to just go over them briefly because it's we use the King James Version, which I hardly approve of. But some of the words are not real current today's language. So I'd like to just briefly for the sake of the young people and those others.
Who might not be familiar with these terms? Go over them briefly fornication we've spoken of.
That's that's something that's openly spoken of in the world and understood uncleanness. We if we have a conscience, we know who we what uncleanness is. We when we come in contact with it inordinate affection. That's improper passion, something that's glorified in this world. It, it appears in sports, Umm, hockey games and and football games are notorious for improper passion. The same with a lot of these umm.
Uh, video games, violence, improper passion, and of course a lot of, uh, today's music involves improper or illicit passion. And then the word evil concupiscence. Word concupiscence is a big old fashioned word for lust and the world glorifies lust and God puts it right up in the top list. Here is something that is to be put to death.
And then covetousness. Well, that's a mild term. In today's language, it means greed.
And we can be guilty of it.
Greed, which is idolatry. Pardon my interruption.
I think it's important to have those distinctions because we live in a filthy world, and you and I might, as we live from day-to-day, get accustomed to the filth. But God sees things very clearly, and it is a filthy world and it glories in the filth of it too. And so these things are mentioned very specifically. God doesn't waste any words, and He says it very, very succinctly.
I'll just say that.
Here in, in the verse that you mentioned, Jim, it says three things that really have to do with our Roth, our anger. It says anger, Roth and malice. Now, if you and I were writing this, we might have just used one word. We might have just said anger. But what's the difference? Why does God use 3 words? Well, one of them, perhaps the first one is the rising up of indignation in my heart. I, someone cuts me off on the road or someone does something and I feel anger, right?
Well then it says rock. Well now I start to really feel it. It shows now on my face that I'm angry. There's wroth. Let every man be swift to hear. Slow to wroth.
Swifty here, slow to speak, slow to rock. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
And so it shows on my face, but then it says malice. Now it says I want to hurt somebody, I want to get back, I want to get even. But the Spirit of God records that the Lord could say vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. So all three of those things are evil, and all three of those things are those reactions and the sin, the sin nature, the flesh rising up and action. And so every time.
That I feel angry every time that I feel anger.
Or Roth or malice. It's not the work of the Spirit of God at all. It's the work of the flesh. And I ought to judge it, ought to say it. And I often quote that verse to myself and James. I think it's chapter one. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rock. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wrath has the sense in it of retribution as well, doesn't it, to get even with that person and.
Do something I would like to.
Agree with what you say, brother Robert, I'd like to temper your comments with just this. That scripture says be angry and sin not. So there is a time for anger, but I'd like to show where the Lord Jesus was angry. It's interesting actually. I think the word occurs twice in Mark's gospel and the first one is in chapter 3.
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And it's in connection with that man in the.
Synagogue who had a withered hand and there were those who were watching to see if you would, uh, heal him on the Sabbath day just with the purpose of accusing him. And he says in verse four, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil to save life or to kill. But they held their peace and then verse five. And when he had looked.
Round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. Now here was an example of proper anger because there was no sin in the Lord Jesus, but there was anger at this juncture and I I like to think of it as that it was they were hindering the blessing in somebody else. It wasn't for something that it against him.
It was hindering the blessing for somebody else that he was angry about. And so there is a place for anger, but we need to be careful not to let the anger get out of hand. It's easy that that happens. And we need to ask if you're angry about something, are you angry because they did something bad to you? So that's not the case in the Lord Jesus. They hit him in the face, they crown them with thorns, they spit in his face.
Never any reaction of anger for those things, but it was when he they hindered the blessing that that God wanted so to give that he was angry. The other one is in a little further on in Marks gospel and it doesn't use the word anger but I think it is somewhat of the same thought.
It's where.
They tried to bring the children to the Lord.
Recently sees that it says uh.
It's, uh, in chapter 10.
Yes, chapter 10 and verse 13. And they brought young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
And when Jesus sighed, he was much displeased. Somebody had the Darby translation there.
Indignant. Indignant. Yeah, it's somewhat of the same word there. It is also a case of somebody else that was being hindered in getting to the blessing. That was reason for the Lord being indignant.
Uh, just, uh, kind of balances. Appreciate that, yeah.
Verse nine it says.
You have put off the old man with his deeds. That is here in this chapter. It's not as thought as we have dealing with the flesh and Romans or Second Corinthians, always a bearing about the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's something that needs to be done continuously. We always need to remember what it costs for Jesus to put away sin, to have a sensitive conscience, not to allow the flag to act in us our whole lives.
But the sense of what's put before us here is this is something that we're supposed to make a definite conscious decision about to do and be done with it.
We're to put off the old character of life, and from that point on we're to be characterized by a new life, new character to that life, as he says, verse sin and having put on the new.
And so in the positive sense, we've had to go over the sinful side, but here we introduced the other side of it. And he says, having put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him and skipping down just for a moment to.
01:15:05
Verse 11 The bottom of the end of verse 11. But Christ is all and in all comment is this.
Life isn't lived in a vacuum. Life necessitates an object. You can't live life totally within yourself.
You God has so made us as a creature that we have to have things outside of ourselves that become the object of our lives.
And the natural realm, some people, their object of life is money or fame.
Or honor, or control and power. These are things that man goes after in order to make himself happy and be satisfied within himself.
But God gives us the one and only perfect object.
To satisfy the new man, and that is Christ is everything. And in all, as Paul said we had in the last meeting, for me to live is Christ. We have to have an object before our hearts in order to live life. You can't live it apart from that. Something is going to have its way over your attention.
So in this chapter it begins sets your mind on things above. Put your mind on your object, put your thoughts upon your object. And that's what it means in Galatians 2 and 20 when the apostle Paul says.
I am crucified with Christ, as you might say what we've already had. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live.
The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of Man. Pardon me, Son of God.
Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Or to restate it this way, I live by the faith which has the Son of God as his, the object of that faith who lost me and gave himself for me. And so Paul was saying, yes, I live, I'm crucified with Christ, but I'm not still dead. I now live in Christ and that life which I presently live.
I live by faith in the object.
My object, the Son of God, is it a satisfying object? He loved me.
He gave Himself for me. Does that satisfy the heart? It sure does. If it is a soul that is totally given up to the enjoyment of its object becomes transformed to be like its object. And so in Second Corinthians chapter 3, we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord. That's the object.
Our change.
Are transformed into the same image even as from glory to glory, and so to have a proper object to the heart.