Gordon, John: Spread the Word Bible Study Colossians Part 3 of 4

We have looked at philosophy, and the next subject that the apostle develops is legalism. Do not turn aside to the philosophy of men, and secondly, do not be ensnared in legalism. But before we look at the, uh, subject of legalism, starting in chapter two and verse eleven, if we could go back for just a moment to Matthew chapter five and to look at those statements of the Lord Jesus, and the way we have characterized them is the I say unto you statements of the Lord Jesus. Now, we don't want to take, uh, a lot of time to develop each of these subjects, but starting in verse twenty one of chapter five of Matthew, the Lord Jesus said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. And so the prevalent thinking of the day was don't murder, don't murder, don't kill, but you can be as angry with your brother as you want to be. And you can have as, uh, bitter feelings toward him as you want to have internally, but don't kill him. You can hate him in your heart, but don't kill him. That was the common thinking of the day, because most of the teaching of the Pharisees and scribes was external, had little to do with the, with the heart, with the spirit. And so the Lord Jesus corrects the tradition, the philosophy of the day, and he says to them in verse twenty two, but I say to you, a direct contr- contradiction to what they had heard. I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, Rekha shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. And, uh, calling a man a fool in those days meant it would have been better for you not to have been born. Why are you breathing our air? Why are you, uh, corrupting the gene pool? You're worthless. Which meant die. Live no longer. And so the Lord corrected the thinking of the day. Look, please, at verse twenty seven. You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, and here's the spirit of the law. They were external. The Lord Jesus is teaching spirit matters. But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So he corrected the thinking of the day. Uh, verse thirty one: It has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you, and the thinking of the day on divorce was the established, accepted view. But the Lord says, I say unto you, and he established the truth concerning divorce. Uh, verse thirty three: you've heard that it was said by those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, and I think we've spent enough time there proving the point that when the Lord Jesus began his earthly ministry, there were many subjects, many areas of thought that had been corrupted by tradition and by philosophy. And I'll just ask this question in closing. Are our days any better? The one meeting that the Lord Jesus instituted for the church was what? The Lord's Supper. This do in remembrance of me. The pattern in the book of Acts is, in Acts chapter twenty, um, Paul remained, even though he was, um, anxious to continue his journey, Paul stayed over for the Lord's Day to break bread, and then he continued his journey. The pattern in the book of Acts is on the first day of the week, the disciples met together to break bread. That's the pattern. The teaching in the epistles is, upon the first day of the week, gather together to remember the Lord. Now, I went to, uh, Bible school for four years, and, uh, it was, uh, I think, uh, pretty much an established, uh, across the board interdenominational Bible school, probably predominantly Baptist, and in the dormitories we had, uh, friends and brothers in Christ, and it really mattered very little what denominational background you were from. We didn't go around saying you're Baptist, you're Presbyterian, you're Episcopalian. We didn't have a Baptist dormitory and a Presbyterian dormitory. Uh, we were, uh, all thrown together into the same mix and really enjoyed it. But I had just, uh, come into fellowship in an assembly, having come from a very large denominational background, and I was thrilled about some of these truths, and I just thought everybody knew them. And so when Sunday came, the Lord's Day came, I said to my roommates, there are four others of them, I said, where are we going to have the Lord's Supper today? And one of them said, well, we've already had it this quarter. And the other one said, we don't really do that very often, maybe once a month. And it dawned on me, and it's still dawning on me, that the one meeting that the Lord Jesus instituted for the assembly, his body, the bride, the one meeting he instituted has been relegated to almost unimportance by the church, through what? Through tradition and philosophies of men. I think that's a living illustration of this warning from the Apostle Paul. Uh, the, the philosophies of men go something like this: if you do it too often, it loses its value. Um, it becomes boring to us. It's, uh, it can be more special if we do it once or twice a year. It's interesting, uh, some of the friends I had in class, uh, we debated these things on a friendly basis. We never got upset with one another, but, uh, one was headed, uh, for a very large pastorate, and, uh, I would poke at him from time to time. I would say, you know, I've got a question for you. How often are you going to take an offering at that church? He said, well, uh, every Sunday. I said, why? He said, well, it says in first Corinthians sixteen, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as the Lord has prospered him. I said, what about 1 Corinthians eleven? in the same context, for you to break bread every Lord's day? He said, ah, that's not important. The important thing is, uh, and we, we went from there. It's amazing how tradition and philosophy can rob us of the preciousness of Christ. Uh, let me say just briefly, and I'm sure you'll agree with me, there is no more precious hour of the week than gathering together with other saints at the Lord's Supper, remembering him. And so this is something of the warning, philosophy, tradition, and so forth. The next warning is chapter two and verse eleven— legalism. Let me read from verse eleven, please. 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 the faith, or 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, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. This would have to do with the penalty of sin, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. I understand that this was a literal handwriting, a list of sins kept against the offender. It oftentimes was taking case in a, in a, in a city setting where a man had broken certain laws and had been guilty of certain offenses. They would write out his offenses, and then when he was punished in the, uh, in the town square or in a public place, blow for blow and punishment for punishment, those handwritings of ordinances would be cancelled or stricken through or checked, as if to say he's paid his debt. Paul relates this to you and me, and he says, when the Lord Jesus died, the handwriting or the list of all the sins we had committed were wiped out by his death on the cross. So the penalty for sins has been paid. Every sin you and I have ever committed, or ever will commit, was paid for in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. So that would be the penalty of sin. Verse fifteen would be the power of sin. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. And I'm sure you're familiar with the, uh, the, uh, captain, uh, the, uh, the commander of the army would go into a foreign city and carry on a, a military campaign. The victors, those who had won in the battle, would often come behind the commander, marching right behind him, and those that had been vanquished or beaten in the war would be marching before the commander, and they would be an open spectacle to all the city as they came back into the city victorious. Here the, the Apostle Paul is relating this to Satan and all of his demons and followers, that at the cross, the Lord Jesus defeated Satan, he defeated sin, and he defeated hell. And that's the place of victory that God has given to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that now in the believer's life, we are no longer under the control of sin or Satan. And this is where Romans chapters six, seven, and eight come in. Paul asked the question in chapter six, what then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And he goes into a, a very in-depth teaching concerning the freedom of the believer in Christ. When Christ died for our sins and paid the penalty for our sins, he defeated Satan and broke Satan's grip on our lives so that we are now translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, no longer under the control of Satan. We're free. That took place at the moment of salvation. Chapter seven is an illustration of this. Remember, Paul bemoans the fact of the flesh in the believer's life. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? There have been debates as to whether Paul is speaking there as an unsaved man or a saved man. I'm convinced he was speaking as a believer, and, uh, growing and bemoaning the fact of his flesh, which we do on a regular basis, don't we? We wish we didn't have to put up with the flesh, that old nature, that flesh part of us that hates God, doesn't have any interest in the scripture, that part of us that would rather live in the world as a part of the world. And Paul is b- bemoaning the fact that, that, uh, this body of flesh is dragging him down. The answer is the Holy Spirit. Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then chapter eight is the chapter on the Holy Spirit. We are set free from the power of sin as believers. Now, there's much more that could be said there, but let me underscore these two principles. We are free from the penalty of sin, and we are free from the power of sin solely because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a, um, a book, uh, on the, uh, actually a commentary on the book of Romans by William R. Newell. He wrote the song At Calvary. Any of you know the name William R. Newell? Do any of you by any chance have his commentary on Romans? You do? Oh my, this is a special group. If you do not have a commentary by William R. Newell on the book of Romans, start praying for it. Sell your teeth to get it, give blood, sell your car. We have it at the Greenwood Hills bookstore. Oh, it's at the Greenwood Hills bookstore. It ought to be gone very fast. In my opinion, in my humble opinion, that is the best commentary on Romans ever written. And, uh, in that commentary, William R. Newell relates the body of our flesh to the ancient method of execution for the murderer. Uh, the, the man who killed another man would be stood up, and his victim, the man he had killed or the person he'd killed, would be tied to him face to face, chest to chest, arm to arm, leg to leg, toe to toe, and compressed, so that in time the corruption of that decaying body would literally eat into the body of the living man. So he's looking the flesh face to face, and that's how William R. Newell describes Romans seven. As a believer, I am set free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, such that I have been cut loose from the power of sin in my life. To continue living under the dominion of sin would be like that murderer allowing the decay of the flesh to eat away at him. That's a description of our unsaved days. Bad getting worse. Treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Uh, those who are unsaved, uh, they perhaps do not understand that every day they live, their punishment is getting worse and worse because they have more sins to give an account for. Treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. The list is getting longer and longer and longer and longer. You and I as believers have been delivered from the power of Satan, so that now we no longer are forced to sin. If we sin, it is because we choose to, and then there can be forgiveness. But now into this discussion, Paul introduces legalism. Let me read it to you from verse 16. Now keep in mind that the context is we are free from sin's penalty. The handwriting of ordinances has been cancelled. I love to humanize these thoughts from time to time. I think, uh, of how often we as Christians view ourselves as sinners, how much we fail. We sin every day, don't we? And it grieves us. But be reminded today that God the Father has no record of our sin. That is the penalty of it. He has determined by divine decree, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, so that we stand before God in the very righteousness of God himself. It is the imputed righteousness of God to the believing sinner, so that when God looks at us, he sees us in Christ as righteous as God himself. Not ninety nine percent, not ninety eight percent, not fifty percent. It is the very character of the holiness of God imputed to our account. That's what makes us fit for his presence. So the penalty of sin has been dealt with. The power of sin, and we would add one day the penalty of the, the presence of sin. But into this background, the issue of legalism is dealt with. Verse sixteen of chapter two, So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or new moons or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you out of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels. And I think we have a hint here of something else that constituted Gnosticism, the worship of angels. Very quickly, can any of us think of a reference in the Bible where we're told not to worship angels? Revelation, another book? Not to worship angels. Book of Hebrews, any others? Well, just when you come to it, tell me at the break. All right. We're not to worship angels. Why? Because they're created beings. And the Gnostics worshipped angels thinking that they were the messengers of God, emanations from his presence, and Christ was simply one of them. If Christ was an angel, he was not to be worshipped, according to scripture, but he's not an angel. And so the idea here is that they were using festivals, Sabbaths, and other shadows, types and pictures of Christ. And Paul says the substance of these things is Christ, and you have gone back to the elementary rudiments of legalism, which is exalting the s- the shadow above the substance. That's legalism. Legalism is going back to the law and law keeping and exalting it over New Testament salvation and worship. And so there's a, a warning against legalism. Um, let me take up again at verse nineteen: 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. So what is the threat of legalism against the preeminence of Christ? Legalism takes us back under the law, keeping days, keeping festivals, eating or not eating meats, baptisms, practices, and when we're occupied with those things, we lose our view of the preeminence of Christ. Um, I think probably the best thing to do is let scripture define scripture. From verse twenty and following, there is a good definition of legalism. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? And here they are. 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. You know what comes to mind here? Monks in monasteries. The very reason why they went to the monastery was to carry out the legalistic demands of do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, thinking they could escape the lust of the world by closing themselves into the quietness of a monastery. And what we learned and what they learned is they carried all of those things with them because it's in the flesh. Beloved, the truth here is legalism only magnifies sin. Legalism and, uh, a legalistic lifestyle only magnifies the sin of the flesh. What's an illustration of that? Human nature being what it is, if you, uh, had a beautiful lawn, we'll say out in front of your place of business, just an absolutely gorgeous, lush lawn. If you put a sign up on your lawn, do not walk on the grass, you know what would happen? You'd have a path right through your lawn. That's human nature. Uh, human nature rebels against law. Um, tell a child not to run. That's like telling a duck not to swim. Why even try it? Uh, stop signs. I was reminded of this not long ago. There's a stop sign at the, uh, s- end of the subdivision where we live, and, and, uh, I just think it's absolutely unnecessary. And, um, so I have, I had, correct myself, I had developed the habit of just slowing down and looking to my left and just going right through the stop sign until a very fine state patrolman helped me not long ago. He pulled me over and he said, Mr. Gordon, can I see your license? Yes, sir. He said, you know why I pulled you over? I think so, sir. He said, do you see that sign back there? Could you spell it for me? I said, yes, sir, STOP. He said, does that mean S-L-O-W or S-T-O-P? I said, you're absolutely right, it means S-T-O-P. It means stop, and it's the hardest thing in the world to do. Come to a complete stop. The car is not moving. Then you've got to start all over again, and it's unnecessary. I hate stop signs. Don't you? Yes. Because the law says stop. If it had said slow, we'd be fine with that. Stop. Stop. And so human nature is that if I am occupied with law, the more I'm occupied with it, the more I see how far short I fall of it. But here's the truth Paul would have us to understand. The more occupied we are with Christ, the more we are satisfied with what he has done rather than what we are doing, because he's done it all. Beloved, there's tremendous freedom in worshiping, uh, the Lord Jesus and giving him his preeminence. So the warning in chapter two is against tradition, philosophy, and legalism. What is the cure for legalism? The cure for legalism is always grace. The two cannot coexist. All right, let's go then to chapter three. Chapter three, and we'll start at verse one. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are 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. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So this would be the practical section of the book. Not to say that the others are not practical, but they are more theological. Where is Christ? He is at the Father's right hand. He is the preeminent one. He has no rivals. He have no, he has no equals. He is at the Father's right hand, given the highest station in all the universe. And now the practical application to that is, set your mind on him. Look, please, at verse two. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. It's quite a challenge to us, isn't it? Set your mind, your thinking, your heart on things above, not on things on the earth. This certainly does not mean that we cannot use things, own things, maintain things. We are to be stewards of things. We have needs, cars, lands, homes, clothes, and so forth. But very clearly here, for the believer who understands the preeminent place of Christ and all that he means to us, there will be a, a desire to set our affection, and notice that it's singular, not your affections, set your affection or your mind on things above. And this is the result of knowing Christ and who he is. He's worth thinking on. He's worth investing our lives in. And so understanding verses one through four, who Christ is, that he is our life, that he is the perfect object of the heart, will help us then put into practice the balance of the chapter. If you look over, please, to, uh, chapter three and verse eight. Looking is the positive. Setting our mind on things above, that's the positive thing. Here's the negative thing, verse eight. But now you yourselves are to put off all these, and here's quite a list. Anger would be the beginning point, and we would say that wrath is anger unchecked. Uh, anger would be that emotional, um, response to having been done wrong. Wrath would be the extended condition of anger. It's more intensive. Malice would be the, the actual action that wrath takes. Blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth are sins of the spirit. We understand them. Do not lie to one another, since you 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. So as we gaze upon the Lord Jesus, as we've set our mind, our heart, our affection on him, what we are occupied with is what we become like. I think this is a powerful truth too. If we're occupied with the Lord Jesus, we become more and more like him. But here's the irony. If there is someone in our lives that we have not forgiven, that we have not freed from some sin or some offense, the more we think about them and our anger toward them, here's the irony, the more we become like them. Do you want to be like the person you hate so much? So we have a choice here of either setting our affection, our thinking on Christ, the preeminent one at the Father's right hand, who's done all these wonderful things for us, or we have the choice of being angry and, uh, vengeful and bitter and resentful toward people who have done us wrong. And the more we are occupied with them, the more we become like them. Defiles our conscience, doesn't it? We have, uh, a conscience that's no longer free and clean and clear. It bothers us when we pray and when we try to read the scripture. When these things have not been put off from our lives, if we harbor these things, we have a defiled conscience. Someone has said that our conscience is the window through which we see God's word. And if our conscience is dirty, it's like looking through a dirty window, and it's distorted. Someone else has said that our conscience is what makes us tell our mothers what we did wrong before our little sister gets to her. And so the action here, uh, the, the result of looking on Christ in glory is very practical. If I have set my mind, my affection on Christ, and if I am loving to see him, and if I am occupied with him, then the result will be putting off these sins of the flesh, these sins of the spirit, uh, the anger, the wrath, the malice, the blasphemy, the filthy communication out of our mouths, because the two simply cannot coexist. We have a lady in our assembly, her name is Peggy, and uh, she would be, I guess, in her early sixties now. She's given me permission to use this story. She was, um, involved in a, in a, in a pagan lifestyle. She was deeply involved in astrology. She bought all of these books, and she was worshiping stars and the moon and, uh, planets and, uh, really into witchcraft. And, um, she got up one Sunday morning, and this is the way she told the story, so understand that. She said it was as if this voice was telling her to go to church. And, uh, she said, well, what church should I go to? And, uh, she says the Lord was telling her to go to that little church down the street, which happened to be the Gospel Chapel. And she said, well, I can't go there because they make the ladies wear hats, and I don't have a hat. And she said the voice told her, yes, you do. You've got one on the top shelf in your closet. You haven't opened it for twelve y- years or so, but you have one. And so she got it down and put it on and came walking into our meeting one Sunday morning. And, uh, she heard the gospel and, in process of time, came to the Lord as her savior. She went back and burned all of her books, and, um, she has really been a, a, a real diamond in the rough. She has really grown. She came out to our house one night, and she was just absolutely, uh, beside herself. And she said, you know, I'm trying to grow. I'm trying to let the Lord cleanse me from the inside out. And I've burned my books, and I'm no longer involved in those things, and I know the Lord has saved me, and I want to keep growing in the Christian life, but she said, I have such a hatred for my father that when I pray, all I can see is his face. And she said, I hate him. And he was dead at this time. Come to find out her father had abused her sexually and physically, and her father was, uh, such an abusive man that he was, um, beating her brother one night, and Peggy pulled out a gun and shot him. Didn't kill him, but shot him. And, uh, I said, Peggy, why didn't you kill him? She said, I thought I did. That's how much she hated him, and he died later. Well, now this is twenty years later, and she said, I can't get him out of my mind, and when I pray and read the scripture, I hate that man so badly that, uh, I'm just afraid it's hindering my walk with the Lord. And we said, Peggy, perhaps the only thing you can do is to commit your father, your hatred of your father, to the Lord and ask him for overcoming grace. Put it aside. And, uh, we don't do this often, but I said, imagine your dad sitting in that chair right in front of you, and you verbalize these words, Dad, I forgive you. I'm sending it away. She had a struggle that night. She said, I don't know whether I want to forgive him or not, because I sort of like hating him. But she did. She verbalized those words, Dad, I forgive you, I'm sending it away. And I don't know that she has not struggled since then. But since putting it out of her mind, putting it away, putting it off, she's had relief from that awful bondage of hatred. I have come to realize that there are many believers who are not able to see Christ in his preeminence because their vision of him is blurred with anger and bitterness and hatred. And many of them go through the, through the motions of carrying a Bible and going to church meeting and of enjoying all the meetings, but down deep inside, they're filled with sin and hatred. And I believe there is a tremendous word of encouragement to us here. Put it off, and you'll be able to see Christ clearly. It's axiomatic. If we're viewing Christ with a clear view, we will want to get these things out of our lives. If these things are in our lives, we can't see him clearly, and we no longer give him the preeminence in our lives. I may have told you the story of, uh, H. A. Ironside, uh, I have to say that he is my all-time favorite author. Um, this, uh, sensitivity to the spirit of anything in our hearts and lives that are defiling, like anger or malice or bitterness or resentment, any of these things, uh, that we allow in our lives hinder our view of Christ. And he tells the story that, uh, he was at a conference, and his wife was with him, and they were walking along one evening after the last evening meeting, and she said something to him that irritated him just a little, and he snapped at her and, uh, caught himself right on the spot and said, dear, I'm sorry, I really should not have spoken to you that way, but you'll have to remember I've spoken five times today, and I'm really tired. She said, that's all right, dear, I understand, but you'll have to remember I've had to listen to you five times today. So it works both ways, doesn't it? This sensitivity to anything that defiles is what Paul, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, is encouraging us to, a sensitivity to self-judgment. If I am allowing, accommodating, harboring, excusing sin in my life, that I have not put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, this would not be an exhaustive list. This would be a representative list of anything that would mar my view of Christ. I have to be courageous and honest and say the same thing about those things that God says. And when I have confessed them, then I can see him clearly. So when that is done, the result will be verse twelve and the following. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies. Now, ask yourself this question as we go through this list. Would this kind of person be hard to get along with? Notice the list. Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If one has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are 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, word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through him. What a full, what a sweet Christian character. All the result of seeing Christ at the Father's right hand and drinking the man was quite a, quite a full life, isn't it? Well, in our next session, we'll take a look with, uh, verses eighteen and following. Are there any questions or comments about this section of the book of Colossians? Okay. Let's pray. Father, thank you for where the Lord Jesus is at this very moment, at thy right hand, in the highest place in all creation. Thank you for what you think of your beloved son.