No. 58 - THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS - BIBLE STUDY By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, November 20, 2004 Good morning everybody. I thought the hymn that we sang just before I came up here (“They Are Blessed Who Are Forgiven”) hymn 25, Psalm 32 was very appropriate to the sermon/Bible study that we are going to have today. If you notice, God’s hand was upon the psalmist here until the psalmist realized he needed to repent. When he repented, God quickly forgave him. But blessed are those who are forgiven. It was a wonderful hymn, and it tells us here that God does not want us to be held by bridles strong. When you have to steer a horse to make a work horse do the job, he has to be all trussed up so he does exactly what you want him to do. The same with a donkey. When you want it to work, you have to use a bridle on it. God says I do not want that. I want willing participants, but He has to lean on us sometimes to get us to realize our faults so that we repent. But He wants us to be willing children, and that is what that hymn was about. I thought it was very appropriate. Today we are going through the Book of Colossians. We are going to do a Bible study format, just going right through the book. There is a lot that we are told in this book. We are going to start with Colossians 1:1. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse…” Paul right away says I have authority to talk to you because I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am an apostle and one sent forth by the will of God. No person can declare himself an apostle. God must do that. But he says I have authority as such to teach the saints, and that is what I am doing in this letter. BEARING FRUIT Verse 2: “…Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth…” He is saying we are giving thanks to God for the faith that we see in you in the congregation at Colosse. He says we see your faith by your love for one another (the saints, it says in verse 4). By that love we know you are doing well. We are very pleased, and we thank God for how well you are doing. You had the truth preached to you, and you are bearing fruit. Bearing fruit, obviously, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We see that which tells us you are faithful and doing well. Verse 7: “…As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.” He says, yes, we appointed a minister to you, Epaphras, our fellow servant, and he has been a faithful minister on your behalf. He is working with you, and he tells us the reports of how well you are all doing. For this we give thanks to God. Verse 9: “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” He says the evidence of how well you are doing is great. Now we pray that you will be fully pleasing to God, that you will gain more knowledge, and that you will utilize that knowledge to grow and bear even more fruit. Even if you have to suffer persecution, that is what longsuffering is here. It is your patience and your perseverance. We want you to stick to it to the end. We want you to bear much fruit in faith and love. Reread Colossians 1:12. He said all of us working together on this project are going to be inheritors. We are partakers of the inheritance that is to come to the saints in the light. FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT Continue reading in verses 13-18. We are told here that God the Father is pleased that His Son has a body of faithful believers in the light and that His Son should have preeminence in that body. But I want to focus for a moment on verse 13. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…” We have been conveyed from darkness into light. How? By the power of that light, by Jesus Christ’s words, we have understanding. By the Holy Spirit we have been led into the truth. That truth is what is the light. It sets us apart from the darkness. Once we have the light in us, we are to allow that light to be reflected to other people. It is a very interesting concept. If you would look at the cover of the new booklet “Clearing God’s Name,” you will see a rainbow. That rainbow is a promise that God will not destroy the earth, and it is actually refracted light. It is light that has gone through a prism, the prism being moisture in the air. It breaks up into the different spectrum of light. That is what we have on Digest No. 10. But the light also comes from heat. It takes heat to form light. I would like to turn to Psalm 19 before we look at a little discussion about light. It is a short psalm so we will go ahead and read the whole psalm because, it talks about heat and light. Psalm 19, verse 1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” We are told here first of all that God’s glory in the heavens (the sun and the stars would be part of that glory) is a type of cosmic speech where God speaks to us night after night and day after day. There is no place on earth hidden from that knowledge. Continuing in verse 4: “In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun…” The physical sun we know just portrays what God is actually doing spiritually to the earth. Verse 5: “…which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber…” The bridegroom, of course, is Jesus Christ coming to marry His bride. “…and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.” Verse 6: “Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” The physical sun covers the entire earth every day. It goes up and it goes down. It warms the entire planet, gives its light and gives its heat which brings life. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our spiritual source of light, does the same for all mankind eventually. He starts with the Church, but His light never goes out. It is there to heat the Church, to illuminate the Church and give the truth. Eventually that light will cover the entire earth. There will be no spiritual darkness! Verse 7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple…” The law, of course, is the Ten Commandments, and the Bible is the written word of God, His testimony. Verse 8: “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes…” The eyes are where the light comes into the body and make it possible to see the things that we see outside. We are going to get out an encyclopedia in a minute and look at those things. Continue reading Psalm 19:9-12. The psalmist is saying here I understand that what can hurt me are my faults and my sins. There could be places of darkness in my body, in my mind and in my heart, and I have to get rid of these faults. Verse 13: “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins…” These are accidental sins. Whether it is an accidental sin or a sin I actually intend to commit, protect me God and forgive me. Verse 13 continued: “Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19 says nothing will be hidden from God’s light or God’s heat, just as the earth gets covered by the sun’s light and its heat every day. It is interesting, because I started studying light recently and wanted to see what makes up the light. I was reading a book about Sir Isaac Newton. He was the first one to start really explaining what light was. One of the brethren was studying light, and he gave me a sheet where he found the definitions of light in Luke. I am going to read that to you in a little bit. But I thought I would go right to what science has learned about light and share it with you. I wanted to show you some pictures that I have taken. I took these pictures yesterday. We call them sun dogs in the United States. I do not know what they are called in other places. They are like a mini rainbow in the sky, but it is not raining. It is just there. It has to do with moisture in the air. It is refracting the light of God and breaking it up into the visible spectrum. These are actual pictures I took from my house yesterday and on the way by, what we call here, the scenic Dollarville ditch. There was an old pussy willow whose fuzz was lit up by the sun. It is fall, and it was what was left on the branch. I wanted to show how the sun can illuminate. I have a copy here of the World Book Encyclopedia. There is an interesting article on light. They are showing light streaming through a forest here. Then they have this to say at the outset of the article. “Light is so common that we often take it for granted. Yet the world would quickly change if suddenly there was no light. We could no longer see because light that comes to our eyes makes seeing possible. Without light we would have no food to eat or air to breathe. Green plants use the light from the sun to grow and make food. All the food we eat comes from plants or animals that eat plants. As plants grow, they give off oxygen. This oxygen is a necessary part of the air we breathe. Literally without the sunlight this planet would go dead in a very short time. “Light gives us fuel. All the fuels we gain from the earth are a process over a time from light. The energy and the sunlight that shone on the earth millions of years ago was stored by plants. After these plants died, they were changed into coal, natural gas and oil. Today we use the energy of these fuels to produce electricity and to run our machines. “Light from the sun also heats the earth. Without the sun’s light, the earth would soon become so cold that nothing could live on it. Even if we burned all of our fuels, we could not keep the earth warm enough for life to exist. “Man has found ways of making and controlling light in order to see when there is no sunlight. At first he produced light with campfires and torches. Later he developed candles, oil lamps, gas lights and electric lights.” Christ used oil lamps as a comparison to His truth. “Man makes and uses light for many other purposes than to see by.” It goes on to mention televisions. It does not mention computers, but a computer screen or anything like that requires bursts of light to even have it. Nowadays its used even in telecommunications. We have fiber optic cables, and people speak. It is turned into light pulses and it goes through glass tubes. One fiber optic cable can carry 10,000 conversations at a time by coding it into pulses of glass. It is the quickest, surest way to get a message around with no interference. Electromagnetic interference does not bother it like it would your cell phones. That is why you are seeing more and more of these fiber optic cables going into the ground rather than using copper wires or just cell phones. They succumb to a lot of interference. We do not have time to read the whole article, but it goes on to say, “The visible spectrum consists of all the electromagnetic waves that the eye can see. It appears as a band of colors because the eye sees different wave lengths of light as different colors. These colors range from red through orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo to violet, the longest waves being the deep red and the shortest are the violet. Sunlight contains all of the wavelengths of visible light. When sunlight passes through a wedged-shaped glass or object called a prism, these wave lengths spread out and form the visible spectrum. This spectrum is called a continuous spectrum because there is no gap or missing colors.” They have a spectrum so you can see all the different colors. White light that you see from the sun has all of those colors in it but it comes out just pure light because they are all combined. If an object is absorbing all of the light and reflecting none, it is black. If an object is reflecting all of the light, it is a bright white. This is how you know if an object is holding some light back or releasing it. There are a lot of spiritual connotations to that, obviously. “Scientist have many uses for spectrum analysis. For example, they use it to identify the elements in stars and the sun. They also use spectrum analysis in chemical laboratories to find out what elements a piece of unknown material contains. The material is heated until it gives off light that can be analyzed.” Everything can burn at some temperature. With certain items it takes a lot more intense burning before they start to emit light. When something is burning, it emits light. You can tell the quality of that item by the kind of light that comes off it. That is the same thing with God. As He tests us, we are supposed to reflect His light. When we are not reflecting enough light and we are just dark, He continually heats us up with trials and tests and different ways of forcing us to show what it is inside. It shows what kind of light we possess and what kind of light we want to be. Sometimes it takes more intense burning (more trials) to get us to take spark and burn back for God and start to illuminate. That is what was in that song that we sang today. That was Psalm 32, hymn 25. God’s hand was heavy upon me night and day until I repented. God applies heat to the elements until they show light to Him. He wants us all to produce light. If we never produce light, we become a worthless object to Him. Ninety-nine point nine percent of people want to produce light, but they just do not know how. It is God’s pressure to help us to grow and help us produce this light. Then it goes on to say in the last item we will read in this article, “Reflection, Refraction and Absorption: When a ray of light falls on the surface of an object, one or a combination of the following three things happen. The light may be reflected, that is thrown back. It may be refracted, that means passed into the object. It may be absorbed by the object. The way different materials reflect, refract and absorb different wave lengths of light gives objects their individual appearance and their color. If an object permits light to pass through it as does a clear pane of glass, it is called transparent.” It goes on to say how a very smooth object like a mirror reflects almost all of the light back perfectly. You will remember how we talked about how the moon is covered with bits of glass (bits of a mirror) to reflect God’s light. It reflects the sunlight. We the Church (the moon) are to do the same. We are to reflect God’s light. If the moon is dark in the sky, it is not reflecting the light. It is showing the Church is not reflecting God’s light. God does not want us just to be absorbing. He does not want it to pass into us through the eye and illuminate the inside of the body, but go right back out and be reflected. The knowledge comes in, we use it and reflect it back out. We just do not take it in, and it sits there and does nothing. That is the concept that we are tying together with what science knows about light. Now if you would, turn to Luke. Keep a marker in Colossians, because we will go back there. Go to Luke chapter 11. This is something we have looked at before, but now this adds a little more depth to it for us. Read Luke 11:33-36. When we absorb God’s light and our body, our mind and heart, has no darkness in it, we reflect that light like a lamp very brightly. If that light comes in and does nothing and does not get reflected out, the lamp is dark. It is like you put a basket over it. In this case, it could be our sins or the world’s darkness (its lack of light). We are absorbed into the world, and we are not showing light. There is so much in these scriptures that we could spend the whole sermon on this, but we won’t. Let’s just look at a couple of items. What happens with our eye? We are letting light in all the time. That is how I see you. It is reflected light that comes back into my eye. My brain interprets it as you people sitting in front of me. That is what happens to us. What we do with our mind is tied to our eyes or our mind’s eye, which is that invisible entity in our mind. You can close your eyes, and you can picture things we have seen, smelled and heard. You can picture them in your mind and play them over and over again. So there is such a thing as the mind’s eye, and there is your physical eye. We can be letting darkness in. In other words, if we are going to movie theatres or watching television programs that are full of Hollywood’s darkness which is Satan’s influence, it is actually causing our mind to go dark in spots. If we fill our mind with dark thoughts and dark visions, it can go totally dark. This is part of what is being told to us here. The other interesting thing here is that these terms “light” come from four different words meaning light right here in this one set of scriptures. If you put light through a prism, it breaks up into all those different spectrums. Spiritual light has different things that compose it. The first time light is used here in verse 33 of Luke 11 it means the light of the moon or other luminaries of the night. God did not light the moon (His Church) to see it go dark. He developed the Church and developed the concept of the Church being a moon to reflect His light, and He wants it to be a full moon. He wants it to be fully reflecting His light. That is the first term light. We are to be a luminary that fully reflects God’s light. He did not intend to make us a lamp and put a bushel basket over it or hide it in the dark. We are to grow. Verse 34: “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.” That term light means well illuminated and bright and full of light. It is full of God’s truth. If we let good things in and we let God’s knowledge in, we then have a form of light in us that makes us spiritually well illuminated. Verse 35: “Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.” This means make sure that it is manifested and shows itself as a fire, as the light of the sun in the day time. So the term light there means make sure you can be seen by others. If you have been given oil, you have been given a lamp and you are part of the moon, make sure that you can be seen by others. You do not take the truth and hide it. You don’t take the attitudes that are Christ-like and hide them so that on the Sabbath you are one way but then during the week you are another way. Are you using foul language or are you cheating people in business? That is not reflecting God’s light. People should see that we are Christians all week long. The term light there means to make manifest. Make sure that it can be seen. Verse 36: “If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.” This once again means illumination to light and to give light to others. Our whole body will be so full of light that we pass that light on to others. We should be full of enlightenment. This is the concept that we are reading in Colossians. Let’s turn back to Colossians now after combining what we saw in science with what Jesus Christ’s words were in Luke. We were told in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…” He has conveyed us into the light. That is where we are to be. In verse 12 it says “the saints in the light” and that He has conveyed us from the power of darkness. Once we have been given the truth of God, once we have covenanted with Him to have our sins removed through baptism and we intend to do the work of God, we become part of that moon. We are removed from the darkness of the world and the ignorance. We are getting God’s sun light on us all of the time. It is up to us whether we are going to reflect it, let it in, or just absorb it and it does nothing. No one can see it. That is entirely up to us. That is basically what the rest of Colossians is about. Let’s continue by rereading Colossians 1:18. “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” Jesus Christ is the head of the body of the saints. WE ARE PART OF CHRIST’S BODY Verse 19: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” It is Jesus Christ’s blood that reconciles us to the Father. Verse 21: “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled…” So before we had the truth we were actually, without knowing it, enemies of Jesus Christ because we were reflecting darkness. We were reflecting no light. As we learned God’s ways, we have been reflecting more and more light and getting reconciled to the Father through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Continuing in Colossians 1:22. “…in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight…” We are reconciled to the Father in the body of Jesus Christ’s flesh. Verse 23: “…if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Paul says not only have we been conveyed from the darkness into the light, but once we are reconciled to the Father we have become part of Jesus Christ’s flesh. We have become part of His body. Jesus Christ’s body is composed of spiritual flesh. We are the flesh that composes that body, the people who form the body of Christ. We have become the body of which He is the head. Jesus Christ is the head of that body. Verse 24: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God…” He says I am now part of the sacrifice of the body of Christ, and my purpose as a sacrifice is to make up what lacked in the sacrifice of Christ. Was Christ’s sacrifice lacking in power to get us forgiven of sins? No. His sacrifice was one sacrifice for all sins for all time. That is what reconciles us to the Father. The body of Jesus Christ’s secondary purpose was to be a sacrificial offering in that we form the rest of the body. Jesus Christ is the head. His physical body no longer walks on the earth. He is the head, the mind of the body of Christ of which we have become a part. In essence, we have been absorbed into Christ’s body. This is why we are told in Galatians 2 that we have died. We have been crucified with Christ. In essence, we are dead and we have given our flesh to Jesus Christ to put into His body as He sees fit. He is the mind that now directs the body to do His work. We are that body that does the work. That is why we produce the booklets to help people get reconciled to God. We have our websites. We pray for one another, and we love one another. By that love for each other is how Jesus Christ can tell if we are healthy or not. Just like Paul could tell that Colosse was healthy by their love for one another. If we were not taking care of or providing for one another, not appreciating each other, giving each other a hard time or overly critical of one another, Christ would say My body is not healthy. There is something wrong with My body. We are His flesh so we should be doing His will. We should be exhibiting His characteristics. Of course, we just saw that is reflecting His light and passing on His heat and love to others. That is what it means to be absorbed into His body and be part of the body of Christ. This is a tremendous miracle. Christ is the head of that body. What do we do with our bodies? All of us in this room work at something. We do something with our bodies. We use our hands and our minds to fix machinery or run machinery. We work in an office or assist people in a service business. We are using our bodies to do something good for civilization. Jesus Christ is the same. He is using His body to help civilization in a spiritual and a physical sense. He wants to preserve the earth, but He wants to give the truth to the entire world. So He uses His body. He has hands and feet. We could read in I Corinthians about the body being made of many parts. There are the nose, the eyes, the feet and the hands. Can the hand say I am going to cut off the foot because I do not need you? No it can’t do that. It would not be a complete body. This is the situation Christ finds Himself in. He is working with imperfect people to try and accomplish a perfect task. His blood makes up for our shortcomings if we turn to Him and ask for help and forgiveness, but we must also bear fruit just as Paul said early on in Colossians. We must bear fruit. That is our job. Continuing in Colossians 1:24. “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.” The world cannot understand these things, but gradually God is going to let the whole world understand. He starts with the firstfruits. Now we are in the end of days. He is going to reveal this to the entire world very shortly. We are privileged to be a part of that revelation to the world. Verse 27: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ in the body of Christ is the hope for the world to avoid utter destruction as we have read before in Malachi 3 and 4. That is the purpose of the Church. We are a willing sacrifice to get the job done and become part of the government of God. When Jesus Christ returns, He can remove Satan’s government and install His peaceful government. This is part of the hope of the world, and it is a mystery how God is doing this. He is using a spiritual body composed of physical people. It is a tremendous mystery. Verse 28: “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” He says I know Christ is working in me mightily. As he said early on in Colossians chapter 1, we are going to work in you teaching you so that you can produce mightily the good fruit for God. CONCERN FOR LAODICEA Colossians 2, verse 1: “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He said I am concerned. It is interesting that he says he is concerned specifically for Laodicea, and we are in the Laodicean era. That church was just a church of the time which pictures what is happening in the Laodicean era today. He said I am concerned for both you and for Laodicea. I am worried about them. I want them to fully understand this mystery, this tremendous knowledge for God. It has been hidden for a long time. It is important knowledge, and it must be used wisely. Verse 4: “Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…” His fear is that they will be somehow persuaded by people with deceptive words to give up this wonderful knowledge and the hope and their part in this inheritance. He said that would be awful. He mentions Laodicea. He says it would be terrible if this were to happen. As you will see later, he says I want you to relay this letter to the Laodiceans so that this does not happen to them. Verse 7: “…rooted and built up in Him…” (which is Jesus Christ) “…and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” He says if you are part of the body of Christ and Christ is dwelling there, you have everything you need to grow with this knowledge! Beware of anyone who tries to cheat you out of the blessing that should be yours through vain philosophies, deceits and doctrines of men. We understand that can come in many forms. There are false worship, Trinitarian worship and pagan holidays. But it actually comes in more subtle forms, and in many cases more dangerous forms. For example, preaching God’s message in such a way that you have actually been tricked into preaching Satan’s message. Satan wants to destroy mankind and the world. God does not want that to happen. We are to reflect God’s love, His mercy and His compassion. We are not to scare people out of their wits showing our God to be a harsh, cruel, horrible God ready to kill the entire human race made in His image and likeness. That would be a travesty. This is part of the warning that we are told not to fall for. A NEW HUMAN BEING Continue in verse 11 of Colossians chapter 2. “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” This does not mean He nailed the Ten Commandments to the cross. It says the unnecessary statutes such as circumcision are now done in our heart. We are circumcising ourselves of sin because of Christ working in us. What took place in the Old Testament was a physical teaching tool for us to learn from today. We are to understand that we are now part of the body of Christ and our circumcision is actually a circumcision of the heart. By this we have been raised from the dead already, in this regard. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying we have been raised from the dead. But if we died with Christ at baptism and you are still walking around, you have been raised a new man. You are a new human being who has the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Our born again state will come when Jesus Christ returns and gives us our spiritual body. We are raised from the dead of the world who do not know God into a new life. It is like a new life form, so to speak. It is a combination of man’s spirit and God’s Spirit. This is what gives us the hope eternal and gives us the option of being part of the body of Christ. If we are not raised in Christ, we cannot be part of His body. CHRIST DEFEATED DEMONS Continuing in Colossians 2:15. “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” This is speaking of how Christ defeated Satan. Satan is the head of the principalities, the powers of the air, according to Ephesians. Those principalities have been defeated and made a fool of by Jesus Christ, because He was a human being who could not be tempted to sin. He did not sin, no matter what Satan threw at Him. Even in Matthew 4 where he offered Him all the kingdoms of the world without having to suffer, they still could not trick Jesus Christ into sinning. So He made a fool of them. Eventually they will be totally defeated when the body of Christ is fully formed together, so that He can come back and marry it and bring His government to this earth. This is coming very quickly. THE MOON PICTURES THE CHURCH Verse 16: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” It is interesting that part of being light is being part of the moon to reflect the light. Here we are told “…let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths…” A new moon is when God is healing and fixing His Church. That is what the new moon means. He is repairing and rebuilding a Church. Whenever you have a holy day, you know the date of the holy day by the moon. The Jews follow the moon’s cycles to tell us when the holy days take place. That is a physical and a chronological event that comes each year when we go through the holy days, depicting what God is doing with His Church. He said do not let anyone make a fool out of you or judge you if you are keeping these holy days or new moons, because they are only picturing the substance which is the body of Christ. It should say the body of Christ. The substance of the moon being worked on by God and reflecting the light, the substance, is the body of Christ, the Church. So when we go through the holy days, they are just picturing what the substance really is which we are a part of, the body of Christ. When the moon is going dark, the moon is showing us that sometimes the Church does not reflect God’s light very well. When the holy days are coming and we have a full harvest moon, we know God is depicting how the Church bounces back, reflects the light of God and then we go on into the Millennium. When we do the holy days, we are actually following a lunar calendar depicting what is happening with the body of Christ. That is why Passover, Unleavened Bread, Trumpets and Atonement all go by the moon. He said do not let anybody judge you. You are the moon. Do not let anyone judge you on these days. Those days are picturing what is really happening, the substance (the body of Christ). AVOID INDULGENCE OF THE FLESH Continuing in Colossians 2:18. “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject ourselves to regulations. ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle’, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” He says keeping Lent or things of that nature or avoiding certain things is not what keeps you from sin. Even such things as clean and unclean meats we do as a dietary principle and to learn what we can from that. But he says that is not what keeps you from sin. Avoiding the indulgence of the flesh, the flesh being the lust of the eyes, the mind and heart, greed, anger and hatred. These are the things that can ruin the body of Christ. In verse 19 here is what is interesting regarding the body of Christ. He says those who do not hold fast “…to the Head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.” The Head (Jesus Christ) supplies everything that the body needs. Just like your mind, your brain, directs your heart to beat, the blood to flow. All the things that take place in your body is directed by your mind. God is the mind of the body. You do not realize it, but your physical body is replaced approximately every seven years. Every cell in your body gets replaced about every seven years so that you are entirely remade, but not your brain. It is the same mind over that body. It is interesting, we are at the tail end of time. The body of Christ has been existing as a spiritual organism now for almost 2,000 years. Every generation is composed of new people! We are not the same people as from the Philadelphia era or the Sardis era when going back in time. We are new people but we have the same mind. The mind that runs the body of Christ is the same. It does not change. Once again the physical analogy is there from God to see that the mind never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The body of Christ may be constantly changing as people die and new people come into the body, but it is the same body of Christ with the same mind. That mind is His mind. CUT OUT WHAT MAKES US SIN What does He have to do with His body? He says the body should not cut off a hand or a foot because He says I need it to work with this body. Sometimes that actually becomes necessary in life. To remove a part of the body and get rid of it is necessary because it actually is going to kill the whole body. This often happens when you have an amputation. With the men in Iraq, when a limb is so blown apart that it cannot get the blood flowing, it must be removed or it will kill the whole body. They cut that off. Jesus Christ said sometimes I have to excise a part of My body. I have to get rid of it. We need to do that in our lives. If we have something making our body go dark, we need to cut that habit or problem out before it destroys the whole body. In essence, when we do that we are helping the whole body of Christ stay healthy. He could come along and of necessity have to cut a piece off if the whole body is being harmed. He is willing to that. We need to be willing also. I want to show you that Christ does these things very carefully. We will look at a few scriptures and talk about that. Turn to Matthew 5. Keep your finger in Colossians because we will be going back there. Matthew 5, verse 27: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” He said if we have a problem in our life, cut that problem out. He is not saying cut your eye out literally. But what you are letting into that eye and into your mind that is making your mind go dark, cut that part of your life out. Cut that habit out. What your foot or your hand finds to do that is causing you to sin, cut that out. It is better for you to cut off something you really like to do than to die over it. Turn now, if you would, to Matthew 18:6. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” It sounds the same but there is another variation here. In the first verses we looked at along these lines Jesus Christ started with discussing lusting after a woman. He said if your eye is causing you to do these things, you better work on it. Then He goes to the foot. Here He is talking about offenses. Do we have offenses taking place, especially amongst the body of Christ? Are we offending one another? He said if you are offending one another, woe to that person by whom that offense comes. Better get busy and cut that offense out because otherwise I will have to deal with it. He does not want His body falling apart because of offenses. That could happen to us in our little group, and it certainly has happened to the overall Church of God in the last days. Offenses have taken place everywhere and divided and cut the body up into many pieces. God says woe to him who caused that to happen! We need to be very careful to never offend one another. Do not put one another down or make someone feel bad. Woe to us if that person would ever stop attending Church because of something we did. God says if you hurt My body that way, it would be better for you if a millstone were around your neck and you get thrown in the Atlantic Ocean. It is going to be bad. Take those warnings to heart because it is very important. When we deal with one another, we are dealing with the body of Christ. Turn to Mark 9:42. “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched…” That we know is the second death. God says please take these warnings seriously because it is My body you are hurting. My mind runs this body. My heart is in this body. I love it very much. Please do not hurt it. If we get sick whether we have an ulcer or sore or we get a lump that needs to be cut out, we want it done carefully. One time I had a big mole I was born with on my back. It kept getting irritated. When I would lift things my shirt would hurt it. It started getting inflamed. My wife said you should go get that looked at, so I went to get it looked at. The doctor said there is nothing wrong with this thing, but it is in a bad spot. It keeps getting irritated. Before it becomes a problem, it would be so easy to cut it out right now. I said go ahead. I was really glad he did not go into another room and come back with a chain saw! I was glad he came back with a nice set of rubber gloves and a real small scalpel. After he froze it, he just cut that little thing out. That was all that was missing. When I was done, I walked out of there without a mole. I did not leave with a big chunk of me missing. That is how God operates, too. He does not want to have to cut a part of his body out, but He will do so in order to preserve the whole body. He uses certain techniques to do that. It is very precise. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4:11. “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…” (speaking of the Millennium) “…lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” (like what happened in the Old Testament) “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” We give account to the Head, Jesus Christ, for what we have done in the body of Christ. His word is so sharp, it is so precise and it is so well laid out that His word is sharper than any two-edged sword. He is willing and able to find a division between our body and our Spirit. What we lack because of physical problems and where the Spirit takes over in our mind and heart that is causing the problem, He can go there and precisely find it. It is as if He cuts between the joints and the marrow. We read earlier in Colossians that the body is fit together with the head supplying what every joint needs. What every joint, what every bone and what every muscle needs the head provides it. It sends blood there and takes care of it. But if there is a part that is so sick it is going to destroy the body, Christ uses His word to convict us. Now fix this, My hand is leaning on you so fix this before you hurt My body irreparably. If we do not work on it, that sword (the word of God) will go and convict us to the point that we have no excuse. If we end up in that situation, it is described as that fire that never goes out. It would be because after tremendous pressure and after a tremendous amount of time where God is trying to convict us to change, we refused to change. That is how sharp God’s word is. Everything we need to know is in here. Everything we need to understand is in here. We have no excuse. With the help that God is giving us, we need to use this very wisely. As we are told before Passover, God says examine yourselves and judge yourselves so that I do not have to do it. You cut the problem out. Then I will not have to. You take care of your sin, and I will not have to. You judge yourself, and then I will not have to. We have no excuse. We who have been doing Passover and observing the new moons and the festivals now for years and in some cases decades, are not going to have much excuse when Christ returns if we have not worked on these things. This is how serious it is, and this is what God is saying. He will do it to preserve the whole body. He will do it to preserve Himself. OUR FAULTS CAN BE HIDDEN Go back to Colossians 3:1. “If then you were raised with Christ…” (we are raised again, we are now a new man, we are with Christ) “…seek those things which are above…” He is contrasting the indulgence of the flesh to those things that come from above. “…where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Isn’t it wonderful that we are hidden there! As long as we are working on this, we are hidden. We have been absorbed into that body. Here is how marvelous this miracle is that we have spoken of a little earlier. When we become part of the body of Christ and we are working on our sins and every Passover we are doing everything in that year that we were supposed to do, when the Father looks at us, He sees Christ! He does not see us. He does not see me or my faults and my shortcomings. I am hidden in His Son’s sacrifice. I am hidden in His blood. I am part of the body of Christ. When the Father looks, He says I am just seeing what Jesus Christ did in you! I am not seeing your faults! That is the way it works when it is working well. It is up to us how well this works. Continue in Colossians 3:4. “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” We are part of the body of Christ. When He is resurrected, we will be right there if we have been faithful and persevered until the end! Verse 5: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.” We do not want to have to get cut. Work on these things and ask for Christ’s blood to cover us when we fall short. Then the Father will only see the body of Christ when the body is resurrected. Continue in Colossians 3, verse 7: “…in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” Once we have been absorbed into that body and He is in us, get rid of everything that is anti-Christ. He wants to be in the entire body. Get rid of everything that is against His way of life and against His character. We are being told here to grow and bear fruit. That is what Colossians is saying. Then we will be a part of the body, and we will be told like Paul told this congregation I can see you are doing well by your love for one another and your faith. I can see you are healthy. You are a healthy part of the body of Christ. It comes by conquering these things one at a time. It comes from cutting them out of our life, conquering them and overcoming them. That is what it takes. LOVE HOLDS THE BODY TOGETHER Continue in verse 12: “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering…” Do this patiently. We need to deal with each other with tremendous patience, love and humility. Nobody should be setting themselves up as greater or better than the other or I am holier than thou. Do not do these things to each other. We must not do that. Be merciful and kind because how we judge one another is how we will be judged according to Matthew 7. Verse 13: “…bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Bond is what holds things together. What holds the body of Christ together? Love! It is the glue that holds the body together. Selfishness, greed, envy, lack of patience, judging one another all tear the body apart. We have seen that evidence for the last 20 years. God says woe to those who tear My body apart or who offend. We need to learn these lessons, because they are huge. We have been called into something marvelous. It is a tremendous mystery, and it is a privilege to have been called. Now we need to take it seriously. Continue in verse 15: “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in 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 whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” You cannot say it better than that! This is what it is all about. He goes on to talk about families in verse 18. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” That is a tremendous mystery in itself. Study Ephesians 5. Verse 19: “Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.” Do not hold grudges against your wife. That is like Jesus Christ holding grudges against His Church. I do not want Jesus Christ not forgiving me for something! I want to know that when I go to Him and apologize, He forgave me. We are told in our families we are to do this as well. Verse 21: “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” Do not provoke our kids. We do not want God provoking us. I do not want God poking me in the ribs all of the time and slapping me down and putting me down. I want a God I know loves me. That is how I am supposed to be in my family. Verse 22: “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.” We could apply that to employers today. Treat your employers with respect. Verse 23: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.” We better stay hidden in Christ, because if we judge harshly, God will have no choice but to use the same measuring stick that we used on others. Continue in Colossians 4:1. “Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” CUT THE WORLD SOME SLACK Always talk as nice to people as we possibly can. Walk in wisdom with those who are on the outside. Those who are in the world do not understand the things we understand. Cut them a lot of slack. Most of them are trying to do the best they can. They are tempted terribly. Satan is the god of this world. He rules the world. They are thrown all kinds of false doctrine and evil lusts from the television set. It is amazing that people do as well as they do. It shows you that we really do pick from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and most people are trying to pick good: pay their bills, take care of their families. Some people are just overwhelmed so cut them some slack. Verse 7: “Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts, with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here. Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision; they have proved to be a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis. Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house.” You can tell the tremendous love Paul has for the brethren here. He just loves them immensely. Verse 16: “Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’ This salutation by my own hand. Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen.” He was in prison at that time. We know we are the Laodicean era, so I think it is very important for us to take the message of Colossians to heart and to work on it diligently. Bear as much fruit as possible while it is still today.