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Colossians—Chapters 1 & 2
Fred R. Coulter—August 13, 1988
Colossians is a very important book. There are a lot of
things for us to learn here. Let’s go to the very last part here: Colossians
4:13: “For I am bearing witness [bear him record] of him [Epaphras]…that he has
a great abundance of zeal…and for those in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis.
Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, salute you and send you greetings. Give
my salutations and greetings to the brethren in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church
which meets in his house…. [We’re having church in Lionel’s house tonight.
Isn’t it amazing, they didn’t have huge, great, marvelous, wonderful standing
congregations of thousands?] …in his house…. [v 16 is a key verse]: …And when
this epistle has been read in the presence of all of you, make sure and cause
it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that the epistle from
Laodicea likewise be read to all of you” (vs 13-16, FV).
I would love to know what happened to that epistle. Don’t
ask me. I don’t know what happened to it; but I’m just saying I would love to
know what happened to that epistle. Because when you read the prophecy of the
Church of the Laodiceans, I’m sure you’ve heard it enough, I don’t have to turn
there, “I’m going to serve you no certain thing. He says to the Laodiceans, ‘If
you say… [they talk back to God] …you’re rich and increased in goods and have
need of nothing; and no not that you’re miserable and poor and blind and
wretched and naked.’” So let’s go back here and begin in Colossian 1, and I
want to get through at least two chapters, because this becomes a really
fantastic understanding of God’s Word.
I’m going to read out of the Interlinear—so I
have the English here and the Greek—so don’t mind if the English wording
is not exactly the same, because the structure of the Greek word order is
different, and even the translation is somewhat different. Now, let me also
recommend, that if you don’t have one, go ahead and get an Interlinear of the New Testament. You don’t have to know any Greek. But just to read the
English gives you great understanding. For example, everywhere it talks about,
in the places it’s ‘born again’ in the King James, it’s all translated begotten. That helps solve a lot of the problems. But it’s very interesting what
happened.
Let’s take Colossians 1:1: “Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by
will God’s…” Now, he didn’t stand up there and say that he was an apostle by
fiat. He said by God’s will. He also said in another place
that the signs of an apostle were wrought among you. ‘I don’t want to
call myself anymore than the brethren. I can teach you God’s Word. I can pastor
a church. That’s all the more that I want to say that I can do. I don’t want to
be presumptuous and say I’m a prophet. I don’t want to say I’m an apostle.’ Any
of that! We’ve seen the fruit of what happens with that. But here Paul knew: by
the will of God. And you have to know Christ kicked him off his horse on
the way to Damascus. I mean, how about a conversion experience!
“…and Timothy the brother, to the in Colossae saints and
faithful brethren in Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and
{the} Lord Jesus Christ…. [Now, we read that; how many times have you read that
and say, ‘Oh well, Paul’s just introducing.’ No he’s not. He’s saying something
far greater. Let’s go back and read that again. He says]: …Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (vs 1-2).
Notice the emphasis! He’s saying it’s from God to you,
and God’s grace. Now, if you haven’t gone through the tapes on Grace (you may write in for them.) The grace of God is absolutely incredible! Absolutely
incredible! Because God is there; He wants you in His Kingdom! And you
need His grace to be there. And we’ve been taught, how many times, God’s doing
everything He can to keep you out. You better get yourself straightened around
or you won’t be there! And you better do it. NO! It has to be God’s
grace; and God’s grace means:
- God’s love
- God’s mercy
- God’s kindness
- God’s strength
- The working of God’s Spirit
So he’s saying grace from Whom? God the Father! And
the greatest, most exciting part we can preach about Christianity is that each
one of us, we have direct access to God the Father on a personal basis—every
day! Think on that—think on that more than once! But think
how fantastic that is! That God says ‘you have contact with Me!’ I mean, nobody
else is important—right? Oh they are; but not compared to that! That’s
why Paul said we have a ‘new and a living way’; that we can come right into the
presence of God. When you pray, you’re praying to God the Father. You don’t
have to ask some man, ‘Can I go through you to talk to God?’ And it’s so
fantastic that God Himself—we’ll cover this a little later—gave His
Spirit to be in you and He is your Father! And there’s no greater
relationship that you can have with any being on earth than to have Him as your
Father. And in the human realm, the greatest thing you can be is to reproduce
yourself, and in your children have some of you—your genes—in your
children.
And that’s why when I went through the series on the names
of God, I was showing how much we can learn from the names of God; but how much
greater the name of the Father is than the other names of God. And the other
names of God kept you at an arms length. For example: Your children don’t come
and say, ‘Mr. Bradley’—do they? They say, ‘father’; the little kids, they
say, ‘daddy.’ And the first thing they say is either ‘mama’ or
‘dada’—right? That’s our relationship with God the Father—the
greatest Being in the universe—Who upholds the power of everything that
is. Now, that is marvelous. So when he says, ‘Grace from God our Father, and
peace’—what does that mean? It means:
- you’re not hostile to God
- you have peace with God
- you have God’s Spirit
That’s should bring you peace of mind. Does God want you
walking around fearful of every little thing that you do? Is God looking over
your shoulder and tracking you down like a sniffing hound dog? NO! You
are one of the children of God and you have His Spirit, and He is there, and
the angels are there, and Christ is there, and the power of the Holy Spirit is
there to ensure that you get into the Kingdom of God.
So this greeting, there’s a lot more to it. You have peace
with God. Now, I suppose if you lived in Iran or Iraq and you went through the
war, you would value peace. But you have peace with God—who ‘was an enemy
before.’ Now, hold your place right here and let’s go to Romans, the fifth
chapter; because you can’t see this…you have to know a little bit of Greek to
understand this, to show you how fantastic God is and how He deals with us.
It’s incredible! And I mean, it is just mind-boggling!
Romans 5:6: “For even when we
were without strength, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, although perhaps
someone might have the courage even to die for a good man. But God commends…
[now it says in the King James: ‘His love to us’—but, no, it means
more than that. It say God commends to us] …His own love…” (vs
6-8). Now, in the Greek it gives you the emphasis on it. Where Christ says,
‘Keep My commandments’ (John 14); in the Greek, to emphasize it, they put an
‘e’ in front of it—which has the force of, instead of saying this is
my home, or this is my car, it has the force: these are mine—very
emphatic. Now, it’s the same way when it’s ‘His own.’ God doesn’t want us to be
fearful of Him. God loves us, brethren. I’m here to tell you God loves
us—how? With His very own! Now the word for own or self is ‘autos’—from which we get the word to in modern English, what do we
have? automobile—spelled the same way: a-u-t-o—self;
auto, self-propelled. This is THE auto, which means: God’s very own
love, from the Father. His very self!
And you probably ask the question: Why did
call me? Don’t ask me, when you’re resurrected, ask God! I can’t tell you. I’ve
wondered the same thing myself. God didn’t call us because we’re perfect. And
God didn’t call us because we’re great. God called us because He chose to. And gave
His own love—from God the Father. I want to emphasize that! From
Him! No one can cut that off. Don’t let anyone ever cut that off. And because
people may make you disillusioned, or angry—don’t let that interfere
between you and God.
I mean, after all, one of the greatest
prophets of God, Elijah, where did he spend three years? He spent three
years with a widow, eating out of her flour-barrel and drinking out of her
oil-cruse; and when he first came there, she was mad and cursed him out
because her son died. Did he sit on ice and virtually do nothing? Yes, he
did! But He had God’s very own love to sustain him. So when you’re alone,
there’s going to be a time—God is going to ensure, you can be guaranteed
of this—God is going to ensure that every one of us are going to stand
alone before God alone! Because everyone’s going to appear before
the judgment seat of Christ.
That’s why your comment was inspired, well
taken, that it’s between God and the individual. That doesn’t mean we reject
everybody else. But the substance of Christianity is that God Himself LOVES
you. And it says, furthermore:
“But God commends His [very] own love
to us because, when we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (v 8).
Now, when you understand what sin cost God—in other words, what price did
God pay for sin—and maybe you heard the sermon I gave on it—the one
that came on the audio cassette was not complete, it was about ten minutes
short of the video—but when you understand what God did because of sin.
And God knew. God had a choice when He created Adam and Eve and they sinned. He
said, ‘All right, you’re dead, that’s the end of it. You people have ruined My
plan. I’m going to destroy you and wipe you out.’ NO! God said, ‘Nope, I’m
going to punish you. You’re going to die. All your off-spring are going to die.
But in spite of all that, My plan is going to go forward because I love you.’
So God has called us, and He loves us. God the Father Himself, the greatest
Being in the universe LOVES YOU! That is inspiring and brings hope! “While we
were still sinners! Much more, therefore, having been justified now by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (v 9).
Now, let’s go back to Colossians, the first
chapter. I don’t know if we’re going to get through two chapters or not. There’s
an awful lot, there’s a lot in God’s Word. Then he says, Colossians 1:3: “We
give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually for you
praying, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus… [Now, let’s understand
something, Paul had not seen those in Colossae. He did not start the church
there. He says in chapter two, as we’ll see a little later, ‘that I wish to
come to you for as many of you have not seen me in the flesh as those in
Laodicea.’ So he says he’s heard of it. It becomes fantastic here] …and the
love which {you have} towards all the saints, on account of the hope which {is}
laid up for you in the heavens…” (vs 3-5).
Now, we have to have that hope, brethren.
And that hope is strengthened by the love of God. If there’s any one thing that
will inspire you to love God, that is to know that God loves you. And that is
the hope—that faith and that hope. It’s something! I tell you, it really
is! And that’s what needs to be emphasized to people. They’ve even found in
psychology: if you take a person and all you do is stand over them and nag and
pick at every mistake that they make, you’re going to destroy and ruin them. So
God doesn’t do that. He says, ‘Look, I have My only Son. I loved you, I have
called you, I am giving you every opportunity in the world to make it into the
Kingdom of God.’ Boy, you talk about born to be winners! Furthermore, you have
the guarantee:
- What did Jesus say? I’ll
be with you to till the end; I’ll never leave you or forsake you.
- What else did He say? The gift of God is eternal life.
- What else did He say? All that you have given Me, none
are lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled! And
those that you have given Me, no one is able to take out of My hand.
Now that is a guarantee! That is not to put
you in fright that you’re not going to make it. Completely the opposite. When
we come together as God’s brethren, can we not be inspired from God’s Word?
Should we go home and feel downcast and rotten? Or should we not go home and thank
God and praise God, instead of having someone up there saying: ‘Brethren,
you’re never going to make it into the Kingdom of God unless you pray a half
hour every day, and if you can’t pray a half hour every day, put the clock
there and pray.’ Oh, I gotta pray, where’s my clock! NO! Should you not
be inspired that you want to pray to God? Should you not be inspired because
God loves you, that you pray to Him? And that you love Him? Sure, that’s
what God wants. That’s what we’re talking about here.
“…which you heard of before in the word of
truth of the glad tidings, which are come to you, even as also in all the
world, and are bringing forth fruit, even as also among you, from the day in
which you heard and knew the grace of God in truth…” (vs 5-6)—have to
know the grace of God. And we’ve all learned, and I’ll guarantee you one thing:
in growing and overcoming, if every day you go to God and you praise God and
love God and bless God—a man can bless God; it may seem a little strange,
but a man can bless God. And I use the word ‘man’ not to slight any women, but
the word ‘man’ is in every word that refers to a woman anyway; so I use it in
the overall sense of the Greek ‘anthropinos’ which means a human being, a
person. Because I’m going to tell you, there’s going to be some women in
the Church of God who are going to go into the Kingdom of God and they are
going to have greater rewards than some of these strutting men that think they
know everything in the world. And I’ve met some.
Let’s go on: “…the grace of God in truth…”
(v 6). Let’s hold it here and go to Acts, the twentieth chapter for a minute,
because you’re so use to hearing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is
true; but it’s kind of like we have in the United States today: you have
separation of church and state because the first amendment says the Congress
shall not legislate any laws to the establishment of religion. But the
other half says: nor shall they prohibit the free exercise thereof. So if my child wanted to pray in school, no one can stop him—even a
court order can’t stop him. The same way with the Gospel. The Gospel of the
Kingdom of God is part of it.—Yes! Absolutely!
Acts 20:24: “But I myself do not take any of
these things into account, nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry that I received from the Lord
Jesus, to fully testify… [Now, I want you to pay real close attention to this]:
…the Gospel of the grace of God…. [And in Greek it’s emphatic. It
is THE grace of THE God.] …And now behold, I know that you all, among whom I
have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom of God…” (vs 24-25). Very interesting,
isn’t it?—how they go hand-in-hand. So when someone preaches only the
Kingdom of God, which is the government of God, which is the rule of God on the
earth, they’re only telling half the story. That’s only part of the good news.
That’s like being given a $10,000 bill, but you only get half of it. You run on
down to the bank and cash it and they say, ‘you’ve only got half of it, Fred;
you get the other half and we’ll deposit it. That’s why the grace of God is
very important. It’s the grace and truth.
Let’s go back to Colossians again. So he
hasn’t even started talking anything about doctrine, yet. This is all just
leading up to it. Colossians 1:7: “…even as also you learned from Epaphras
beloved fellow-bondman our, who is faithful for you a servant of Christ, who
also signified to us your love in {the} spirit” (vs 7-8). That’s what it should
be, brethren. When we get together, if God loves us and we love God, shouldn’t
we love one another? Sure we should. And too many times church has been
turned into the latest gossip session about someone that…That’s nonsense! That
is not what God wants. What we need to do is focus in on that love of God.
He says, “On account of this also we from
the day in which we heard {of it}, do not cease for you praying and asking that
you may be filled with the knowledge of His will…” (v 9). God wants us to be
filled with the knowledge of His will. He’s going to help us to understand. And
you know, all truth doesn’t necessarily just come through ministers. That’s not
a true statement. Truth comes from God! And truth comes to whomever is willing
to receive it. And truth comes to whomever is willing to act upon it. God is a
God of Truth—it comes from God.
What did the Apostle John say in one of his
parting words in 1-John 2:27 [transcriber’s correction]: “You have
an anointing or inunction from the Holy Spirit, and you need no one to teach
you.” It doesn’t mean you don’t need teachers. But he’s saying you don’t need
this false guy coming around—they’re trying to teach you. And if it works
out that you’re just alone, God will teach you. But you have to respond to
God—and study and pray. That doesn’t mean you’re going to know everything
about it; but you’re going to grow in wisdom and knowledge—and that’s
quite a statement.
He’s saying: “…that you may be filled… [the
Greek there is ‘pleroma’ from which we get the word today plutocrat—one
filled full with everything. That’s what it means, He wants you to be]: …filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding spiritual” (v
9). That’s what God wants for you. It’s right here;
available—it’s available. And that’s what’s so fantastic. Once you really
continually keep yourself in the grace of God and ask God to keep you in His
grace, these things come! And you can’t do it by beating someone up. You can’t
do it by commanding it. You can’t do it by legislating it. You’ve got to do it
with God’s Spirit. And that’s fantastic!
“…to walk {for} you worthily of the Lord to
all pleasing, in every work good bringing forth fruit…” (v 10) So, we’re to
have good works. Go back to the book of Ephesians 2:10, just for a minute. And
that’s something else! This is also mind-boggling! Now, one of the things that
is helpful to do, and I try and do, when we go through a Bible study or sermon,
the most important thing, brethren, is to think with God’s Word. Know it
enough to think with it. And this will help you. This will expand your
Bible study. This will stir up God’s Spirit in you, because you’re thinking
with the Word of God. And there’s nothing better that you can think with. Don’t
go out and talk to your neighbor about it, because they won’t understand it.
Just be nice to them in decent terms and love them in the way that you ought
to. But we’re studying here: God’s Word. This is something!
Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto the good works… [So, we’re to do good
works. What are those good works? Not only keeping the commandments. What is the greatest work that you can do? What did the teacher say when He
asked Jesus: ‘Master, what is the greatest commandment?’ And Jesus said, ‘You
shall love the Lord, your God, [how?] with all your heart; with all your mind;
with all your soul; and with all your strength.’ How to love God, that’s the
greatest thing you can do! That’s the greatest good work that God has given
for you to do. Sure you do, you have to learn how—that’s right.
Now, another thing that’s important here:
We’ll go back and look at this. For we are what? “… His workmanship… [what?]
…created in Christ Jesus…” So salvation is creation; a different kind of
creation; a spiritual creation; and you can assist God in
that—which is exciting. I mean, that’s fantastic! We’re to walk in these
good works. Not only keep the commandments of God. Not only love our neighbor
as ourselves. Do all of those things. Those are all the good works. We should
walk in them. So they’re the good works.
Let’s go back to Colossians 1:10: “…to walk
{for} you worthily of the Lord to all pleasing, in every work good bringing
forth fruit and growing into… [that’s what it means in the Greek] …into the
knowledge of God…” That’s something! Isn’t it awfully trite then that
people sit around and argue about doctrine? Yes, it is! What if someone
says, ‘I don’t think we ought to keep the Holy Days, because they’re not listed
in the Ten Commandments.’ How would you answer that, to convict them, yet not
be offensive? I’ll tell you how: You ask them:
- Do you believe that
we should not commit adultery? Now, that’s in the Ten Commandments—isn’t
it? Yes!
- Do you believe that
all the other illegal sex acts—because they’re not in the Ten
Commandments—are allowable?’ Oh, NO!
- Should we keep the
commandments there in Lev. 18 & 22? That ‘you should not do as the heathen
before you, that I cast out before you’? For they did all these things: list
all the adultery, incest and bestiality? Oh, NO we shouldn’t do that!
But that’s not in the Ten
Commandments—is it? So you answer it by saying it this way: The Sabbath
is in the Ten Commandments—correct? Oh, YES! We should keep the
Sabbath—correct? Well, obviously, God couldn’t put all the commandments
there, so just as those other sex laws are a part of, but subordinate to, ‘thou
shalt not commit adultery’ commandment; so the Holy Days are subordinate to,
but part of, ‘you shall remember the Sabbath, to keep it Holy.’ Exact same
logic! That’s how you answer them. And they’re really stuck, because what are
they going to do? Now, that’s a convicting witness to them. You might not get
them to keep the Holy Days, but I’ll tell you one thing: they will think on
that; they will never forget that. They might be out of their mind temporarily,
but they’ll never forget it. Haven’t you had that in your life: someone will
say something to you, you never forget it—remember it years later. It’s
not on your mind all the time; when certain things happen you never forget it.
All
right, now let’s go on here—notice how: “…and growing into the knowledge
of God; with all power being strengthened according to the might of His glory…
[Can you endure any trial? Sure! Sure!] …to the might of His glory… [that’s
something! And the word there: power comes from the Greek word ‘dunamis’ which
means power—from which we get the English word dynamite.] …being strengthened according to the might of His glory to all
endurance and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father, Who made
competent us…” (vs 10-12).
Now, I
don’t know how many of you heard the tape I did What Should I Do to Qualify
for the Kingdom of God? But, this is buried in the King James. You
don’t get the meaning of this.
Now, it says, “…giving thanks to the Father… [and the King James says]: Who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints.” Now, that is a poor translation, unfortunately. If you have a Greek Interlinear,
it says: “….make us competent…” But if you look up the word in the Greek, it
says, Who has qualified us. God has qualified us! How many
times have you heard in fear: ‘Brethren, you got to qualify to be in the
Kingdom of God.’ NO! God the Father’s qualified us. Now, that’s
good news! I mean, that is fantastic news! God has made it possible! That
doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to do. We’ve got a lot to do. Have to grow
in grace and knowledge of God. Also got to take care of commandment-keeping.
Hey, that’s going to help you do it better. Did Jesus break any of the
commandments while He was here? No, He didn’t! Is Christ, in you, going
to break the commandments willfully, determinately? No! But because of
our human nature and temptation and weakness, we’ll sin—that’s why
there’s grace there. God says, ‘I love you so much, that even in spite of the
fact you have the ‘law of sin and death’ in you, I’m going to give you My grace
to overcome that whole thing. And all you need to do is look to Me, keep My
commandments and love Me with all your heart—and I love you!’ That’s a
great arrangement!
Now, let’s go on. Notice how this builds
here. This is absolutely fantastic! “Giving thanks to God the Father, Who [has
qualified us] made competent us for the share of the inheritance of the saints
in the light…” (v 12)—I could give a whole sermon just on that: ‘…for the
share of the inheritance…’ I’ll just briefly touch on here. I want to give it
in such a way that I don’t want to make it trite. What do you buy from a
company that’s incorporated? You buy shares—right? Commonly called stocks. Isn’t that true? What do you actually hold? You hold some
kind of ownership in that company—isn’t that correct? Especially if
they’re preferred, first issue stock. You actually own part of that company;
and if you had enough of them, you could actually go in and take over as
chairman of the board and run it—right? Sure you could.
What is your concept of the Kingdom of God?
Now, I hope this doesn’t blow your mind, but again, I hope it does! What is
your concept of an inheritance in the Kingdom of God? While we’re thinking on
that, let me ask you a question: If you inherit something, what are you
considered then? For example: If your great-grandfather died and he left you
$100,000 and you inherited it, you what? Not only an heir—that’s
true—after you an heir, you are an owner—right? You inherit a
ranch, the testator has died—you own it! Isn’t that right? I’m here to
tell you, brethren, God is going to give us partial ownership in the Kingdom of
God. And not only are we going to live forever, He’s going to give us
partial ownership! How do we know that? It says in Heb. 1 that His Son
is the heir of all things—right? What does that mean? He’s going to
inherit the universe—correct?
Let’s go to Romans, the eighth chapter for
just a minute. This will blow your mind when you really understand it; and ought
to really excite you and realize the reward. The gift is eternal life. The
reward is a share of that inheritance. That is a share of the Kingdom of God.
While we’re turning the Romans 8, let me ask you another question. I do real
estate loans and I deal in real estate, so I’ll use some real estate
terminology. When a husband and wife own property, how is it titled? Jointly
or community property—right, isn’t that correct? In other words,
you’re co-owners. Legally, you’re co-owners. Before the law, either one of you
can exercise the headship of that parcel of real estate you own. I realize that
is by way of an analogy, but also it is by way of absolute truth.
Let’s really grasp what this is saying. With this,
brethren, if you know someone who’s ready to give up on God because of a human
being, sit down and have a nice long talk with them and show them what God has
for them. If they had a million dollars in fine gold dust down at the bank, and
all you had to do is go down on a certain day and claim it, they would be
there—early! God has much greater to give to you.
Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God…. [Now ‘huios’ in the Greek
means children; sons.] …Now you have not received a spirit of bondage
again unto fear… [God doesn’t want the Church ran on fear because that leads to
bondage—right? Sure it does!] …but you have received the Spirit of sonship, whereby we call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit itself bears
witness conjointly with our own spirit, testifying that we are the children of God. Now if we are children, we are also
heirs—truly, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” (vs
14-17).
Now that makes the hair on the back of my
neck stand up; because Christ has inherited the universe and we are joint
heirs. What is the difference between the first resurrection and the others? The
others are not given ownership! We are joint heirs. We are going to
inherit. We’re just not going to inhabit under the authority of; we’re going to
be the very sons of God. God, as a Father, is going to share what He has with
His children. What did Jesus say? He says, ‘In My Father’s house are [what?]
many mansions. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to Myself.’ If you’re going to prepare something—God is
preparing a place, New Jerusalem, for us. That’s part of the inheritance.
That’s where we’re going to live. I mean, that gets really exciting when you
read Rev. 21, about New Jerusalem. God is down here trying to hound-dog us; and
finding every mistake so we won’t be in the Kingdom of God. He’s got a great
and a fantastic plan. He’s going to have us inherit the Kingdom with Christ.
We’re going to be the bride of Christ. We are going to have community property
with Jesus Christ. I mean, think on that! That’s something!
Now, let’s go back to Colossians 1:12,
again. “…for the share of the inheritance of the saints in the light, who
delivered us from the authority [power] of darkness…” (vs 12-13). That’s
something! Satan has no claim over us. We’ve been delivered from that; from the
authority of darkness. So why then should we bring darkness back on the people
of God by trying to place a man between them and God? And you can go on and on
and on. Once you really understand, once you really get that connection between
you and God, that’s a fantastic thing! It makes us brethren then—doesn’t
it? We are truly brethren. We’re not the members and the
ministry. We are brethren! But if God gives us the things to teach, then we
should teach, and you should do it with the kind of mind that God wants, always
pointing the people to Christ. That’s why Paul said, ‘I didn’t take anything
from you. I didn’t take gold. I didn’t take silver. I want you in the Kingdom
of God.’
(go to the next track)
Colossians 1:12: “…[We are] delivered from
the power of darkness, and… [and a proper translation here would be, a more
realistic translation would be: transferred from the authority of darkness
to the authority of the Kingdom of God. That would have a greater
meaning. It also has a little more meaning this way: that we have been
transferred into the Kingdom of God. We’re not there yet. But God
does what? ‘He calls the things that are not as though they are.’ So how
sure is your salvation? It’s as good as being there, if you remain
faithful. So that is a true translation, too. Both apply.] …translated
{us} into the Kingdom of the Son of His love” (vs 12-13). And that’s a
fantastic statement there, because it is of His Son—the one of His
love. Now the King James it says, ‘His beloved Son.’ That is not as
powerful as the Greek—‘the Son of His love.’
“In Whom we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins; Who is {the} image of God the invisible,
firstborn of all creation…” (v 16). Now, some people look at that and say, ‘Oh,
Jesus was the firstborn then.’ No, that means the firstborn of all the creation
of God. How? By the resurrection from the dead; because it is a
creation. You’re resurrected: new body, new mind—it’s creation. To prove
that we’ll go down here to v 18: “And He is the Head of the body… [which is the
Church] …the assembly; Who is {the} beginning, firstborn from among the dead…”
So that’s the creation it’s talking about, not of everything that has ever been
created. That special creation, which is going to be finished through the
resurrection, because we are what? ‘We are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus.’
Let’s go back to v 16: “Because by Him were
created all things… [Now, how can He be the firstborn of all creation if,
through Him, all things were created? That would be contradictory and wouldn’t
make sense. So He’s the firstborn of all of those who are going to be created
through the power of the resurrection from the dead. But He is the one Who
created ALL things.] …the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth,
the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or
principalities, or authorities: all things by him and for Him have been
created. And He is before all… [that is has the preeminence] …and all
things in Him subsist” (vs 16-17). That’s something—isn’t it? It
says, Heb. 1, that ‘by Word of His power He upholds ALL things.’
We had a very interesting discussion today
about magnetism. I won’t go into it here but we may talk about it a little
later. But there’s one man named Joseph Human who has a theory—if you’ve
ever heard of him, he’s down in Louisiana—and he’s created what is
so-called the perpetual motion machine—it’s not! But it’s run by
magnetism, and he says what upholds the entirety of the universe, because there
has to be a unity of creation. He says that unity of creation is gyroscopic
particles which are smaller than all the atoms—they compose the
atoms—and that’s how God does everything. And it’s fantastic!
“…by His
Word He upholds it…” His Word—that is something! Some
people like to hear themselves talk because they’re important. They can go out
and make people come and go and all this sort of thing. But Christ “upholds the
universe by His Word.” That is fantastic! To really understand that that is the
God Who has called you. God is the one Who has died for you. And God the Father
is the one Who Himself loves you. Everything has been created by wisdom. But
also the fantastic creation that God has made; it is absolutely incredible: the
way that things grow; the way that things are done; and yet, the greatest
creation in the flesh that God has made is us! We can go look at
a beautiful waterfall; we can go through a beautiful scene and say, ‘Oh, God,
what a fantastic thing that is.’ And we don’t stop long enough to look at
ourselves and see what God has made for the habitation of His Spirit. Our
bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that’s mind-boggling! We put
all these things together. What God has called us for and to, is absolutely marvelous!
And the only thing we can do is say, ‘Praise God!’
I
remember a fellow I baptized and he had been attending church for 20 years.
Because he couldn’t quite smoking they wouldn’t baptize him. So I baptized him.
After he had a stroke and had gone through quite a few things, and he really
suffered a lot. And we had to scrunch him up and baptize him in the bathtub and
line it with plastic so it wouldn’t overflow on the floor and all this sort of
thing. He got up out of there and he said, ‘Praise God!’ And that was really
moving. We were all in tears.
Let’s
finish this off: ‘…and all things in Him subsist. And He is the head of the
body, the assembly [church]; Who is {the} beginning, firstborn from among the
dead, that might be in all things He holding the first place [preeminence
(KJV)]; because in Him was pleased all the fullness to dwell…” (v 19). That’s
something! All the fullness.
My favorite Scripture—and you’ll hear
a lot of sermons that I bring will end up in Ephesians, the third chapter,
where God says He wants you to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” That’s
marvelous. That’s a marvelous promise! Think of that! To be as God is God. To
stand there and look at God, see Him. When you understand the resurrection’s
going to take place on Pentecost; we understand we’re going to meet Christ in
the air and the Sea of Glass; and when you understand that you’re going to see
all the seven last plagues poured out before we come back to the earth; and
we’re going to be up there with the angels singing with God. We’re going to see
Christ. It’s going to be a marvelous time. That’s when the harvest is. That’s
one thing that maybe Worldwide has missed. That’s also another key in figuring
out when some of these prophecies come to an end.
Because God promised and said we will ‘see
the vengeance on all your enemies’ (Psa. 149-150). How are all the saints going
to see the vengeance of God unless they see it all at once? It says we’re going
to meet Christ in the air—right? Talks about Rev. 15, the Sea of
Glass—right? We’re going to be there. I can probably cover that more in a
Bible study, to go through that. But that’s exciting. And furthermore, it’s
very possible that the 144,000 will be sealed on the Day of Pentecost one year
before the resurrection—the very last harvest. Pentecost has seven weeks
to the harvest, plus there’s the 50th day—right? How many
churches are listed in Rev. 2 & 3? Seven! Each one of those equal
the work of the Church, not exactly in timeframe, but in symbolism. So there’s
seven weeks to the harvest, but there’s one more harvest accomplished outside
of the bounds of the Church; because the Church will either be in a place of
safety or martyred. Those we call in the Church now, us! Those who are going to
be saved—the 144,000—are the children of Israel; who will be in
what? In captivity. And the great innumerable multitude of all nations,
kindreds, families and tongues. When was the Holy Spirit given? When the
Church began on Pentecost. And
I can show that it can be pretty well be shown that that will happen on
Pentecost. What a fantastic time! And God doesn’t do it by a radio program. God
does it by sending His Spirit to convict them in repentance and then He says to
an angel: “Stand, don’t do anything, until the servants of our God have been
sealed in their forehead.” So we’re going to have all these people receive the
Spirit of God just like Cornelius—be baptized after the fact. That’s
something! God isn’t going to be limited. He’s going to save you.
The more you study the Bible, the more you
get into it and the more that you think with the Bible as you study. And that’s
why it’s good to memorize the Bible. Some people say, ‘Oh, well, you don’t need
rote memorization.’ Ten years down the road it does a lot of good because it’s
memorized. It’s in your mind. Then you begin to put it together and think with
the Word of God. Here’s another fantastic statement here in the book of
Colossians.
Verse 20: “And by Him to reconcile all
things to itself [Himself], having made peace by the blood of His cross, by
him, whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens…. [He’s
going to reconcile everything. God is not finished the reconciliation of
Satan’s rebellion, yet. Satan won’t be reconciled to God—no way! There’s
some people who say, ‘Well, you know, there’s going to be universal salvation,
even Satan the devil.’ NO! The reconciliation of that, or the justification of
that is, that Satan is going to be put away. And there’s one Scripture which
says that he’s going to be destroyed. So, can he be destroyed? Possible! Could
God destroy him? Yes, it is; but it’s like anything that God has
created, it will just change form then. There will no longer be Satan. But it
also says that they will be given into the outer blackness, of the darkness, forever
and ever. So, when we see the judgment of Satan we will know what’s going to
happen to him. He could be destroyed. Could be he’s going to go on forever in
blackness of nothing. It’s also says in Hebrews 4 that He will destroy him that
has the power of death—that is the devil. So that leaves us we cannot
dogmatically say he’s going to be destroyed—right? It does say it. We
cannot dogmatically say that’s he’s going to forever—because that means
age-lasting and age-lasting can be whatever the age is; because the word
‘forever and ever’ means to the ages of eternity. How long is that age
that he’s going to be there? Don’t no.
Next thing is: What good is it if we did
know. No good! It’s interesting. Does our salvation depend on it? Nope! Our salvation depends of being resurrected. So that’s an interesting point.
Should someone be put out of the Church because they believe Satan’s going to
eventually be destroyed? No! But they shouldn’t say that’s the only
thing the Bible says. That’s all. Let’s go on.
Verse 21: “And you once being alienated and
enemies… [the word here ‘enemies’ is the opposite of the word ‘peace.’ It says
you have ‘peace with God’; no longer enemies, you’re no longer fighting
God—right?] …in mind works wicked, yet now He reconciled in body of His flesh through death, to present you…
[this is fantastic when you read this.] …Holy and unblamable and unimpeachable
before Him” (vs 21-22). Now, let’s ask the question: Because God has given His
grace to you, how does God look at you? God gives you, imputes to you the
righteousness of Christ. Do you deserve it? No! That’s why it’s grace.
It’s a gift. So when He sees you to be in His Kingdom, He sees you as
righteous as Christ. Now that’s to inspire you to not want to sin. I
mean, that’s how you’re inspired to, by realizing that God counts you as
righteous as Christ. And it’s not going to be as one Baptist woman said to her
friend, she said, ‘Well, once saved always saved; and when Christ returns I’m
going to be raptured—meet the Lord in the air.’ And she said, ‘He’ll call
me even if I’m in the middle of committing adultery. Because once saved, always
saved.’ Not that!
Let’s go on here: “…you once being
alienated and enemies in mind works wicked, yet now He reconciled in body of His flesh through death, to present you
Holy and unblamable and unimpeachable before Him, if indeed…
[conditional] …you continue in the faith founded [grounded] and firm, and not
being moved away from the hope of the glad tidings, which you heard, which were
proclaimed in all the creation which {is} under heaven, of which became I,
Paul, a servant” (vs 21-23). So we have our part. He still makes it
conditional. But hey, with all of this on our side, the condition is proper.
Verse 24: “Now, I am rejoicing in my
sufferings for you, and I am filling up that which is behind of the
tribulations of the Christ in my flesh, for His body, which is the assembly; of
which became I servant, according to the administration of God which {is} given
me towards you to complete the Word of God… [that means to finish
writing—finish the Word of God. The Apostle John was the one who
finished it with the book of Revelation, but he had his part. So he means
‘finish the Word of God.’ Couldn’t mean anything else. What else is he going to
finish? Is he going to do away with it? No! He’s going to finish,
complete the Word of God.] …the mystery that has been hidden from ages and from
generations, but now was made manifest to His saints; to whom did will God to
make known… [in other words, God made the deliberate choice to be made known]
…what the riches of the glory of this mystery {are} among the nations… [It says
‘Gentiles (KJV), but ‘among the nations’; the way the Jews used the word
‘Gentile’ has kind of a very sarcastic meaning to it; but you go back and you
read in Rom. 4 where it talks about Abraham; he was made the father of many
nations—the word there is ‘ethnos.’ Guess what? Abraham also created
Gentiles. It merely means nations as differentiated from the nation of
Jews—has no other meaning.] …which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…
[and there’s another whole sermon, right there, that one phrase: Christ in
you, the hope of glory.] …Whom we announce, admonishing every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus…. [Now notice the work of the ministry. See what Paul said the
work of the ministry was? The work of the ministry was to present everyone
before God in this condition—the right conditions. To present everyone
perfect in Christ.] …When to also I labor, striving according to working His
which works in me in power” (vs 24-29).
That’s what the ministry has to be, and
that’s what it should be:
- To help
- To serve
- To guard the Word
- To stand for Truth
- To do the things
that are right
- To help people to
have the courage to do things that are right in their life
- To help them make
the choices to do what’s right
- And that’s what it
should do.
Colossians Two
Let’s finish up as much as we can here; and
this is really a tremendous chapter and also, please remember that there were
no Jews in Colossae. This was a wholly Gentile church. Hopefully also Holy.
Colossians 2:1: “For I wish you to know how
great conflict I have for you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not
seen face my in flesh; that may be encouraged their hearts, being knit together
in love… [Now notice all the time what is the bonding force that comes from
God? The love of God—correct? That’s how you’re ‘knit together.’]
…and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding [in]to… [Now, if the
English is a little different where you’re following along is because I’m
reading the English in the Interlinear text, adding the understanding of
the Greek as I go along. The ‘to’ comes from the Greek ‘ice’ which means into]
…the knowledge of the mystery of God and of {the} Father, and of the Christ;
which are all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge hid” (vs 1-3).
Now notice what he’s finding out and we’re
going to see a pattern. He’s going to say: this is of God/this is of man;
this is of God/this is of man; this is of God/this is of man—so if
you want to go through and mark it: ‘A’ is for what is about God; ‘B’ for what
is man. You’ll see how he’s bifurcated this whole chapter—by comparison
all the way down, verse for verse, thought for thought all the way through. But
he says—and it’s very important to know and understand:
A: (God) “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are
hid.”
Why does he say
that? Notice the next statement:
B. (man) “And this I say, that not anyone
you may beguile by persuasive speech.”
Notice we
started out with God—all wisdom, knowledge and understanding from God. Then men with persuasive speech. Isn’t that not for us today? Yes,
it is, persuasive speech.
“For if indeed in the flesh I am absent, yet in spirit with
you I am, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness in Christ of your
faith. As therefore… [admonished now, after he says don’t let anyone deceive
you; and that’s strong. And I say again, brethren. Don’t let anyone
deceive you! Not even yourself. This is where when vanity gets carried
away and people want to do something they get carried away into false doctrine;
because it’s their vanity, it’s not the truth. And we’ll see how that is
expressed here as we go along.] …As therefore you received the Christ, Jesus
the Lord, in Him walk having been rooted and being built up in Him… [Eph.
3—note rather than read it: ‘grounded and rooted in love.’ Here we’re
grounded and rooted and built up in Him] …and being confirmed in the faith,
even as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (vs 5-7).
Notice v 8—watch out, take heed, this
is a warning, folks. I’m writing you a letter. This is a warning: “Take heed
lest anyone you there shall be who makes a prey… [Now, what is a prey? A prey
is something that is captured and devoured by a beast—chewed alive! Next time you watch all these African shows and the lions are out and they
stalk the prey. What is the prey? The weak, the unguarded, the sickly. What
is the prey, spiritually? The weak, the unguarded, the
sickly—spiritually. You become prey! And we learned yesterday,
“don’t be carried about by every wind of doctrine”—right? Watch out,
don’t let anyone make a prey of you] …through philosophy…
[‘philosophia’—that’s any form of human reasoning that tries to give
an account of why we are here and what we ought to do when you exclude
God.] …and empty deceit… [New Age-ism, self-esteem (to put it in terminology of
today)—or that we’re going to crashing after the Holy Spirit and really,
it’s demons (we’ll get to that a little later). Don’t get involved in these,
the voluntary worship of angels. That’s demons! It’s pretty strong stuff here.]
…according to the tradition of men, according to the elements… [philosophy,
empty deceits] …of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him [Christ]
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily… [why is that an important
statement? You don’t need to learn about God from other spirits or other people
or other philosophies. You learn it through Christ, and in Him] …dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily…” (vs 8-9)
That’s what you need—Christ; not these
other things, because at that time they were taking these Greek philosophies
and beginning to interweave them. That’s where you had Greek Gnostics, Jewish
Gnostics, all coming together with a great Babylonian religion of their time.
We’re going to see it today. That is the ‘Achilles Heel’ (if I can use that, no
pun intended) of a pagan god; that is the ‘Achilles Heel’ of the ecumenical
movement; that is the ‘Achilles Heel’ of everyone who wants do a unity effort
because if it’s not in the fullness of Christ you’re going to be in trouble
somewhere down the line. Be careful, but you can’t be separated and out forever
all alone. But be careful. You must be careful. If Paul raised up these
churches, taught his churches—and every one of them were lost because he
was absent—whoa, watch out, be careful! Stay close to Christ.
Verse 10: “…and you are in Him complete…
[You don’t need to know about Buddha; you don’t need to know about Tamuz; you
don’t need to know about the occult; you don’t need the Maharishi Hooma Hamma
Hooma teach you; you don’t need to go to the demon-worshipers in India or
Africa or Tibet, or South America and say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, they do
have power.’ You have your fullness in Christ—all right? In Christ! That’s what he says, you are complete in HIM.] …who is the Head of all
principality and authority… [he’s saying all those other principalities and
authorities in the world, even Christ is over them! And they, even in their
evil must answer to Him! And you’re not going to go through
Christ by going through them.] …in Whom [Christ] also you were circumcised with
circumcision not made by hand, in the putting off of the body of the sins of
the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ… [Which then is a description of
conversion—you have your mind changed, a part of you is taken
away—that’s the carnal mind.] …having been buried with Him in baptism…”
(vs 8-12).
You died the same death (Rom. 6). It says
there, you are ‘co-joined to His death.’ How much free-will and independence do
you have? None! It all goes to Christ. You died when you were baptized.
You were co-joined in His death so that you could walk out of that watery grave
and walk in newness of life. What Christ is teaching is far more powerful than
we’ve ever understood. You must be far more committed than you’ve ever thought
you needed to be—through Christ, not through an organization.
Organization is fine as long as it helps facilitate the use of the Spirit. As
long it’s done in decency and order. As long as we don’t create a hierarchical
pecking order. But we also don’t allow sin. We also don’t allow heresy. But we
don’t come and crash on people because they do a little something that may not
necessarily please me as a person because it goes against my personal taste; or
your personal taste.
Personally, I get inspired talking to people
who know the Bible because I can say: you know this, and you know that and you
know the other thing. It’s far different than trying to go out and say to
someone ‘do you know the Lord?’ Oh, no, who is He?’ You have to start
from scratch. That’s fine, I’ll be glad to do it anytime with anyone. But who
needs also nurturing and caring, feeding? Those that God has called. And
we need to have our faith re-affirmed, re-confirmed, strengthened. How? By
Christ, by His Spirit, by His Word—and it’s fantastic!
“…Having been baptized in which also you
were raised with {Him} through the faith of the working of the God who raised
Him from among the dead. And you, dead being in offences… [your sins] …and in
the uncircumcision of your flesh, He quickened together with Him, having
forgiven us all the [trespasses] offences… [now, so far, no problem, no
Protestantism, no nothing involved. When Protestants come to read Col. 2, they
come with an idea that somewhere, we must find in the Scriptures somewhere, ‘Oh
please, Lord, tell us we don’t need to keep the commandments.’ So they find a
place where it looks like it says that they don’t have to keep the
commandments—and that’s not what it’s saying at all. This is one of
them.] …having blotted out the against us handwriting in the decrees…” (vs
12-14).
You’ve heard it before, dogmacin—those
decrees are by men. If you want a word study, get out our handy-dandy little
concordance, do a word-study on dogmacin and you’ll find that every one of
those are ‘decrees by men.’ There are a couple places where it refers to
teachings by the apostles—one or two places, that’s all. Now, if you are
a Gentile, if you don’t have the commandments of God, if you don’t’ have the
Word of God, and you’ve been totally pagan before—and what has been
against you, your sins; what has been the handwriting—there’s several
different things that they have. Some say it’s a ‘bill’ of your sins listed
out; it’s analogist to taken them a pagan temple and you bought yourself from
the pagan god. Some people say that. I know all the arguments there; but it’s
just simply saying ‘all these things that were written and decrees, the dogmas
of men are against you and cause you to sin.’ That’s what’s been blotted out.
You have no obligation to it. Now if any of you have been a long-time Catholic
you know what I’m talking about. Those things cause you to sin.
“…which was adverse to us… [commandments of
God are not adverse to us.] …also it He has taken out of the midst… [of what?
What do you mean ‘out of the midst’? Of our heart and mind because we were
baptized.] …having nailed it… [that sin of human nature, that conscience of
being kept into these traditions; He’s freed you from it] …having nailed it to
the cross” (vs 14-15)—not the Ten Commandments.
Then he says—now what else has He
done: “…having stripped the principalities and the authorities, He made a show
{of them} publicly, leading in triumph them in it” (v 15)—that is through
the crucifixion. In other words: why bother with philosophies and traditions of
men which lead you to sin and Christ is already conquered every bit of
that—all the principalities of the world, all the powers of the
world—He made an open show of them through the crucifixion.
Verse 16: “Not therefore… [in light of this]
…anyone you let judge… [in the seat of God to judge you concerning your conduct
in relationship to Christ] …in meat or in drink, or in respect of feast, or new
moon, or Sabbaths… [these are all things Christians do—Sabbath is Holy,
new moon is not necessarily, Feasts are. You have the Feast of Unleavened Bread
seven days. How many are Holy? Two days. You keep the entire
Feast—right? The other five days are not Holy—correct? Yes! But they are still the Feast of Unleavened Bread—correct? Yes! I’m
trying to come at you at a level that I’m assuming you understand certain
things when I say certain things and we don’t have to necessarily get bogged
down in going back to the basics to understand it.] …which are a shadow of
things to come… [or a foreshadow. Here is the key. Here it the marvelous,
wonderful thing about this, brethren, which we’ve known in form and substance.
The Holy Days tell us what God is going to do, when God is going to do it. And
they mean more.
Now folks we’re here for the Days of
Unleavened Bread. I never will forget, one minister got up there, opening day
of the Feast of Tabernacles. He got up there and gave a great beautiful
sounding, sanctimonious prayer and said, ‘Thank you, God, that we’re here for
the Feast of Unleavened Bread.’ Sometimes the Feasts have become that, so
boring because it’s the same thing. Now, if you want to get yourself all
excited about the Feast again, take and put up ahead of the paper: The Holy
Day: Old Testament Fulfillment/New Testament Fulfillment/Fulfillment for All
Eternity. And when you really get done with that it’s going to blow your mind!
Just one thing to excite you a little bit. The real meaning of the Last Great
Day is when God the Father comes down to the earth and reveals His plan for
eternity for now all of His spiritual family. Ought we to keep the Last Great
Day? Yea! Sure we should, absolutely!
Remember what Jesus said, about John 14, He
said, “If you love Me you will keep My words.” Who spoke the Old Testament? Who
spoke the New Testament? Who inspired Paul? Who inspired Peter? Who inspired
James? Who inspired Luke? Christ did—all are His words!
Now let’s go on here: “…the foreshadowing of
the coming things… [that’s literally what it means; because in the Greek, if
you look up there, you see, it looks like a ‘w’ with a ‘v’ at the end of it.
Right above ‘come’—you see those three Greek letters there gives the pronunciation toung. You see the three letters right above ‘of’—that is the
definite article ‘toung’ which means then this is a participle of action
present tense fulfilling, ongoing.] “…These are a foreshadowing of the coming
things…” Which means you can learn from that always, your entire life.
Exciting, huh? You don’t know how much is in God’s Word. I didn’t know how much
is in God’s Word. You set your mind to it.
“…but the body {is} of the Christ” (v 17).
In other words, the sum total of all these things, brethren, are what? Just
what I said, in Christ! Who’s going to judge you? Christ! We have
said, ‘Don’t let anyone judge you but let the Body of Christ judge
you—which is the Church.’ Now, we’ve got the noose around your neck! NO!
They tell us the time and place where to meet and do it in decency and in order
and preach the Word of God. They have no right to put a noose around your neck
to judge you. Christ is going to judge you. New truth? No! Been there
all the time.
Notice again, here’s the warning: No one you
let defraud… [or cheat you out of] …of the prize [your reward] doing {His}
will… [the will of the one who says don’t do it] …in humility and worship of
the angels… [fallen, doesn’t have to say demons, because a true
angel—remember what happened when John fell down to worship, he said,
‘don’t worship me I’m one of your brethren.’ Rev. 12 says, ‘and Satan and his
angels fought’ against who? ‘Michael and his angels.’ These are demons
to take people away from God in mysticism and spiritism taught in all the
occults. That’s what it is, all the pagan religions.
I’ll finish here and then we’ll end this
part. “…things which not He has seen intruding into, vainly puffed up by the
mind of His flesh… [and all of that leads to vanity] …and not holding fast the
Head [Christ], from whom all the body, by the joints and bands being supplied
and knit together, increases {with} the increase of God. If then you died with
the Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in {the} world do
your subject yourselves to decrees? You may not handle, You may not taste, You
may not touch, (which things are all unto corruption in the using.) according
to the injunctions and teachings of men, which are an appearance indeed having
of wisdom in voluntary worship and humility and unsparing treatment of {the}
body, not in honor a certain for satisfaction of the flesh” (vs 18-23).
In other words he’s saying, all these things of
will-worship and tormenting of the body—even gets down to
that—these are not going to draw you closer to God, these are going to
take you away into demon-worship. And unfortunately, the Church is also
vulnerable to that. So you have several sets of problems that we’re confronted
with:
- The problems of
wrong church government
- The problems of
wrong doctrines—you say, I can’t stand that and you get out.
- You have the
problems of weirdoes, spiritism, will-worship, doctrines of men that come along
It’s amazing! Some will come along
and say, ‘I don’t want this because that’s a doctrine of man. Turn around and
leave that and walk over here to another doctrine of man and basically say, ‘I
just found it.’ It’s crazy! I’ve see it happen! And it is true. Stick with the
Word of God. Behold Christ, He’s the Head.
Question was asked, what’s the meaning of
life? That’s another whole topic. But I’ll tell you something, it’s far
greater and far more than we’ve ever understood or even contemplated. And God
gave us minds to think. God gave us minds—wonderful, fantastic
minds—not to be used in stupidity, not to make bombs (which we do), not
to make instruments of killing (which we do), but so that we can have
fellowship with God and that our mind can be totally expanded. It’s also found
that with our physical mind, what happens? When you use them and you think,
your mind actually grows and connects those things permanently in your brain.
Now, with God’s Spirit, let’s really open our mind and see what God can do,
maybe we can understand a little bit more about the purpose of life—it’s
greater than we ever thought.
I mean,
when I go out to do these real estate loans and all this sort of thing, hey,
I’m in a mundane and it’s out here. That’s why people in the world don’t know
anything about life. And if you mention just a little bit of truth to them,
they look at you almost cross-eyed, you’re strange. Just to give you an
example. I don’t know if it will get on the tape. I was at a seminar to get my
real estate broker’s license—which is different from a real estate sales
license and different from real estate loan broker’s license. I’m sitting there
and here’s the lady talking to another lady and they’re talking and exchanged
business cards. She pulled out her little business card and here’s a flower on
it. And she’s explaining all about the Japanese mysticism of this flower. ‘Oh, that
is interesting. This flower means that we’re connected into the whole universe.
Oh, I knew as soon as we were talking we just locked down and it’s wonderful.’
and I sat there and I said—loud enough for them to hear: That’s a bunch of witchcraft! They looked
at me like that. I made sure I was walking—I didn’t want to create an
argument. But I just wanted to make sure someone told them that it was
witchcraft. Maybe you could say, ‘You weren’t nice and polite, you shouldn’t do
that to good, innocent people.’ Read what Jesus said. Jesus offended the
Pharisees so many times. That’s why they wanted to kill Him. But that’s the way
it is in the world.
Now, when
you read Revelation, read it from a different perspective. Don’t read it to say
you’re going to establish new doctrine. Read it from the perspective, look at
the battle between God and forces of evil; between the angels of God and Satan.
When it comes down to the Beast and the devil gave him his power and the devil
gave him his authority. Hey, we’re going to be up against some battles we
aren’t even prepared for, brethren.
Scriptures from the book of Colossians is from Interlinear
Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry—except where noted
All other Scriptures in the New Testament are from The New Testament
in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter
Scriptural References:
1)
Colossians 4:13
2)
Colossians 1:1-2
3)
Romans 5:6-9
4)
Colossians 1:3-6
5)
Acts 20:24-25
6)
Colossians 1:7-10
7)
Ephesians 2:10
8)
Colossians 1:10-12
9)
Romans 8:14-17
10) Colossians 1:12-29
11) Colossians 2:1-23
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- John 14
- 1 John 2:27
- Leviticus 18 & 22
- Hebrews 1
- Revelation 21
- Ephesians 3
- Psalm 149 & 150
- Revelation 15, 2, 3
- Hebrews 4
- Romans 4
- Ephesians 3
- Romans 6
- John 14
- Revelation 12
Also referenced: Sermons & sermon series:
· Names of God
· What
Should I Do to Qualify for the Kingdom of God?
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