How to Understand Colossians Two II Fred R. Coulter December 27, 2014

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1 How to Understand Colossians Two II Fred R. Coulter December 27, 2014 Understanding Colossians Two #2 After part one of How to Understand Colossians Two Jonathan asked me, What was the purpose of the sermon? Today you will find out! We have passed to you a study paper on Col. 2 that we ll use a little later. First, I want to cover just a couple of things in Proverbs. We will finish off concerning the Law. Why did I go through all those Scriptures in part one concerning the Law and the commandments? Because when we get to Col. 2:16-17, that s where Protestantism says the commandments of God have been nailed to the cross! Proverbs 28:4: Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law contend against them. That s exactly what we re doing here, we are contending against them. Verse 7: Whoever keeps the law is a wise son, but a companion of riotous men shames his father. Verse 9: He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. Proverbs 30:5: Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words (vs 5-6). Where do you also find that? Deuteronomy! Do not add to it or go to the right or go to the left. Where else do you find it? Rev. 22! Verse 6: Do not add to His words, lest He correct you and you be found a liar. That s what we re going to do with this. We have printed out for you Col. 2 with the Faithful Version and the parallel of the King James Version. We re going to learn some very interesting things with this. Let s start out with: Colossians 2:1-3, let s mark that A. I m going to read from the Faithful Version, and we can look over to the King James Version. In many cases it is very similar. Let s understand that with the Greek in the New Testament they only use 5,000 words. But since Greek is a very complicated language, you multiply that by many times. You have the root or the stem that is always the same. A Colossians 2:1: Now, I want you to understand what great concern I have for you, and for those in Laodicea The King James Version says, I would that you knew The difference between knew and understand is it s a different verb. To know is ginosko. This one here is oidamin that means to comprehend, to understand. for you, and for those in Laodicea (v 1). What does this tell us? Where have you heard the word Laodicea before? Rev. 3! So, he says at the end of Col. 4 to have this epistle read to the Laodiceans and the one from Laodicea you read. We don t have the one to Laodicea from Paul. That would have probably been very interesting indeed. We can say this is also an epistle to Laodicea. We re going to see there a lot of aspects of living in the world today at the end-time with the confusion with the Word of God that s rooted right here. and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in Whom (vs 1-3). This becomes very important because after the sin of Adam and Eve, what was the first sin that was recorded in Gen. 4? The offering from Cain! He brought an offering from the ground, but it was not according to the Word of God so he was going against the Word of God. The reason that I m going through this so meticulously is that you can t add to the Word of God; you can t take away from the Word of God. You can t bring good-sounding things from people in the world and marry it with the Word of God, which is what they were doing with philosophy. That s exactly what they do today with the Word of God. The whole knowledge of the mystery of God is the whole plan of God and everything about that. Verse 3: In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is a key verse because people want to come along and add on. People want to come along and take away from. What we re going to see when we study this is detail is that exactly what Paul is warning against that s precisely what Protestantism does when they read this.! A are all the positive commands of God. The things that we are to know! B has to do with the problems of men, some in the Church, some outside of the Church B Verse 4: Now, this I say so that no one may be deceive you by persuasive speech. What is persuasive speech? It is telling you something that sounds good, but it is really contrary to the Word of God, and it is even logical. But remember this: all logic is not Truth, but all Truth is logical! 1

2 What are some of the persuasive speeches that are going around today? There is one out and we heard it in the past, which is that it s okay for Christians to keep Hanukah. What verse do they use to justify it? They go to the Bible! This will be a good example: John 10:22: Now it was winter, and the Feast of Dedication was taking place at Jerusalem. And Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon s porch (vs 22-23). He was at the temple observing Hanukah. When you search out Hanukah you find out that not even the book of Macabees which they claim gives the authority for it even mentions it. When they came out of the Babylonian captivity, when they dedicated the temple at that time (Ezra 6), it was in the month Adar. According to the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, what is the month Adar? That s the last month of the year! The next month is Nisan. What do we have in Nisan? The Passover! What do you find in Ezra 6? They dedicated the temple and then they kept the Passover! Nisan is the first month in the spring. What is Adar? The last month in winter! So, if Jesus was at the temple in the wintertime, it is wrong to automatically associate that statement with the keeping Hanukah today. If someone comes along and says with persuasive speech, Oh, it s fun. It s from the Jews, and the Jews have advantages. They used to; today they have none. They may have an advantage in some of their histories, but that has nothing to do with the Word of God. That s one; I ll just give you a brief review of another, which is this: False doctrines come in cycles and in waves. Another one that is out there that is coming around today is that God is a God of love. True statement. Therefore, since God is a God of love and since God is going to do away with the wicked by burning them up so they no longer exist, therefore, (notice the logic) because God is a God of love, instead of tormenting Satan forever, God is going to turn him into a human being and burn him up so he no longer exists. And people believe it! The book of Jude says that they will be in the blackest darkness forever. Very important instructions here in Colossians 2:5 A: For though I am indeed absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, be walking in Him (vs 5-6). What did Paul preach? How did he preach it? If you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, what also do you receive? Just Him as a person? What also do you receive, which you must follow? Here is why I went through what I went through previously, so that we have to understand we must put the whole Bible together. We cannot take part of it and fight against another part of the Bible. That s a thing that s important to realize. Every word of God is pure The Law of God is perfect The commandments of God are perfect We have to take the whole and put it together. If you walk in Christ Jesus, what does that mean? That you just accept Him as your Savior and say, I believe, and go live your life the way the rest of the world does? 1-Timothy 6:3: If anyone teaches any different doctrine, and does not adhere to sound words, even those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that is according to Godliness. That includes Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That s a great chunk of the Bible. If you have received Jesus Christ, you are to be walking in Him. How do you learn to walk like Him? Matthew, Mark Luke and John! These things cannot be taken in isolation. They must all be put together. Notice what it says here, which agrees with what Paul is writing: Verse 4: He is proud and knows nothing. Rather, he has a morbid attraction to questions and disputes over words, from which come envy, arguments, blasphemy, wicked suspicions, Vain reasonings of men who have been corrupted in their minds and are destitute of the Truth men who believe that gain is Godliness. From such withdraw yourself (vs 4-5). Those are pretty strong words. Colossians 2:6: Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, be walking in Him; Being rooted and built up in Him (vs 6-7). What are the things that cause you to be rooted and built up in Him? all the general epistles the Epistles of Paul teaching you how to grow in grace and knowledge and understanding! and being confirmed in the faith, exactly as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving (v 7). Notice those A statements. When we get through and you go back and analyze it again, you will see how important that this it. B ties in directly with v 4. So you want to connect those, v 8: Be on guard That s quite a 2

3 statement! Where do we find this? Matt. 24 where Jesus said, Be on guard so that no one deceive you. We re talking about the same thing here. Verse 8: Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy How did the Church become corrupted from the Truth of God? I was watching the History Channel the other night and they were telling what a wonderful thing that Constantine did. He brought all of the churches together and he made them all believe the same thing and he made them all keep Sunday 312 years and 325 between 12 and 25 years later. That s longer than we ve been a nation. How much corruption do you think went on during that time? Verse 8: Be on guard so that no one takes you captive through philosophy [Acts 17] and vain deceit There s a lot of vain deceit in philosophy because those are doctrines of demons. according to the traditions of men [or according to men] according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ (v 8). the elements of the world has to do with the spiritual power that is in the world: the way the world thinks, acts, has its laws, and so forth. Can anyone remember the Scripture in Rev. 18, what is the command? Come out from her, my people! This is Jesus final prayer before He was arrested: John 17:11: And I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one, even as We are one. When I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name [ kept also means guarded and protected] I protected those whom You have given Me, and not one of them has perished except the son of perdition, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You; and these things I am speaking while yet in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in them. I have given Your words, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world (vs 11-14). So, if we take in the things of the world, then we re going back into the world. Greatest example is what we have just lived through: Christmas! Everybody knows it s pagan! Everybody knows it s built on a lot of lies! I was reading a book the other day where advice to children was given: don t lie to them. Then it was written: What do I mean by don t lie to them? I mean the Santa Claus lie? But if you tell the truth there is no Santa Claus, then let s keep Christmas without that knowledge and everything is fine. That is a perfect way of going back into the world. the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [here is the truth]: I do not pray that You would take them out of the world [sometimes we wish that would happen, but it won t] but that You would keep them from the evil one (vs 14-15). Who is the one behind philosophy? None other than Satan the devil! Verse 16: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in Your Truth; Your Word is the Truth (vs 16-17). This is what we want. This is what Paul is also teaching. We re not to be according to the elements of the world, but how is that we do things according to Christ? the Word of God the Truth of God the Sabbath of God the Passover and Holy Days All the things of God, that s what we are to do. We will go into an explanation of how these things come about. A Colossians 2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Which means: do not add philosophy to the Word of God do not add the way of the world to the Word of God do not add the practices and traditions of the world to your behavior All of those are there. If you want direct connection with God the Father and Jesus Christ, it s through: the Spirit of God the Word of God prayer study growing and overcoming. Verse 10: And you are complete in Him You don t need to add a little bit on. You don t need to take a little bit off. People ask me, How did your Christmas go? I said it was a nice day. Did you get anything you wanted? Not quite! I could say, You dirty rotten pagan, why do you believe in that? Got to use a little wisdom in it. Verse 10: And you are complete in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power. Who are the principalities and powers? Satan and the demons! Remember, Satan does not come along and say, I want you to become the most wicked person in the world. But that s what he really wants. He comes along and says, If you do this, you ll have a little benefit. 3

4 I was listening to the news the other night and here s this gal speaking for the blacks and she was black. She said, We need an honest discussion concerning race. Which means, I am honest; my opinions are right and yours are wrong. How do you answer that? Another black man said, All the troubles that the blacks are having is not because of the color of their skin, but because of the sin within. You can say the same thing concerning any people, name any of them, makes no difference. If the black people would obey the Ten Commandments and keep the laws of the land, how many do you suppose would be shot? How many do you suppose would be killed by other blacks, which is a problem? But you have Latinos killing Latinos. You have whites killing whites. You have Italians killing Italians. How about the Mafia and all their killing? It s not the color of the skin, it s the sin within! We are complete in Christ. Verse 11 becomes very important because this shows the process of how you become complete in Christ. Here s something else to learn concerning the Bible and how it s written. Many times it will tell you a summary at the beginning or the conclusion at the beginning and then tell you how it s accomplished. This is what it s doing here. How do you get complete with Him? walk with Him? avoid and keep away from philosophy? A v 11: In Whom you have also been circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. That is called the circumcision of the heart. Let s see how important that is, because everybody focuses on the outward behavior. What does the outward behavior reflect? Sometimes not very much, because people like to put on a good show. Stop and think about this: A lot of people think that if you are good outwardly which you ought to be God must accept you. But how does God judge every person? Everyone in the world? but especially us who have the Spirit of God? What was the first thing that God said just before He was ready to bring the Flood upon the world? That the imagination of man was only evil continually! What did God collectively judge the world on before the Flood? Their thoughts! Everybody can be, if they want to, be oh so nice on the outside. If you watch CNBC s American Greed, they give some good examples of how these con men and women work to really take people. They take them for lots. Let s talk about the circumcision of the heart, Romans 2:17: Behold, you are called a Jew The Gospel went to the Jews first and for about the first 12 years everyone in the Church was a Jew. After that when it came to the Gentiles, then we have the conflict between the Jews and the Gentiles. and you yourself rest in the law, and boast in God (v 2). To rest in the law the way the Jews rested in the law is through Judaism. They still claimed the law. They were still keeping the Sabbath, still keeping the Holy Days, but even during the Feast of Tabernacles what did Jesus say of the Jews who were there keeping the Feast of Tabernacles? None of you are keeping the Law. Why? Because of what was in their minds! Not that they were physically present at the temple. Being physically present at the temple did not change the heart and the mind. That comes through repentance. Verse 18: And know His will, and approve of the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the Law; and are persuaded that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light for those in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of the knowledge and of the Truth contained in the Law (vs 18-20). They didn t practice it was the problem. What did they do? (Acts 10). What problem did God have to solve by sending Peter to Cornelius? To break down the Jewish law that no Jew can associate with a Gentile, cannot stay with them, cannot eat with them! You can conduct business with them. You can charge them exorbitant interest, but you cannot keep company with them and you cannot have them into your house lest you defile your house. You talk about something hard to overcome. So, Paul s working on it here. Verse 21: You, then, who are teaching another, do you not teach yourself also?. Very important principle. Anyone who teaches from the Word of God must be learning from the Word of God being taught by God. If we re going to teach the Word of God we better be doing the Word of God. That doesn t mean we re perfect or we don t have sins that we need to repent of, because we have plenty of those. You who preach, Do not steal, are you stealing? (v 21). Guess what they could do on the Day of Atonement? They could go into the synagogue and they could pronounce a certain pledge that they would be absolved of all crooked business dealings in the coming year. Verse 22: You who say, Do not commit adultery, are you committing adultery? You who abhor idols, are you committing sacrilege? Paul s being real hard on the Jews because they were real hard on the Gentiles. 4

5 Verse 23: You who boast in law, are you dishonoring God through your transgression of the Law? For through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, exactly as it is written. For on the one hand, circumcision profits (vs 23-25). We re going to see what circumcision is all about that Paul is talking about in Col. 2. if you are observing the Law; on the other hand, if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcised (vs 25-26). That is, the ones that you hate and despise and hold in contempt. That s why Peter was sent to Cornelius. is keeping the requirements of the law (v 26). Was Cornelius a righteous man? Yes, indeed! Was he uncircumcised? Yes! Where was he living? Caesarea with all the band of the troops there with him and all of all of the other Italians there that were in his household, and so forth. Here s how God looks upon it then. Circumcision in the flesh does not change the heart. shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? And shall not the uncircumcised, who by nature is fulfilling the Law, judge you, who, with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is external in the flesh (vs 26-28). When someone comes along and says, The Law is done away, no, the Law has been elevated to a higher spiritual level. That s what he is teaching here. Verse 29: Rather, he is a Jew who is one inwardly [because of Christ, who was of the tribe of Judah and has the Spirit of God] and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. How does the spiritual circumcision come about? The spiritual circumcision removes that aspect of your mind that is hostile toward God and hostile toward the laws of God! you now love God you don t curse and swear you don t break His laws How does that happen? Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, so something must take place! A Colossians 2:12: Having been buried with Him in baptism What comes before baptism? Repentance! Repentance then becomes the first order of business every day and every night. What God is doing is cleansing our hearts and our minds, not getting us to have a greater and more perfect outward appearance that we can be vain about. by which you have also been raised with Him through the inner working of God, Who raised Him from the dead. For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses [sins] (vs 12-13). The circumcision of the heart is a complete change through repentance! You come to see how evil that your own human mind is, how wretched your actions have been, and how that God in His love offers forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (go to the next track) Let s see about baptism; baptism comes after repentance, like the Apostle Peter said, Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those four steps are necessary for the circumcision of the mind. Romans 6:1: What then shall we say?. [every Protestant ought to read this] Shall we continue in sin Sin is the transgression of the Law! Sin is lawlessness! The reason that it is not just the transgression of the Law alone the Greek there in 1-John 3 means lawlessness anomia. Why is just transgressing the Law more limited than sin is lawlessness? A lot of sin appears good! So therefore, appearing good you don t know that you re transgressing the Law unless you know the Law. For those people who say the Law has been done away, Jesus own words makes it absolutely clear that it s impossible to do away with it. Verse 1: What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? MAY IT NEVER BE!. (vs 1-2). The Greek there is me genoito, which means don t even let this come into your mind; me is the negative word for don t let it become a thought. Me genoito : MAY IT NEVER BE!. We who died to sin [that s what baptism is] how shall we live any longer therein? (v 2). Conversion and repentance and receiving the Holy Spirit are life-changing experiences that you go through, which you do not go back on. That becomes even more understandable if we can put it this way: When you make a covenant with God which baptism is, baptism is a covenant you pledge your death in baptism. Before, it used to be animals when they had the temple; now it is your own self. The reason you pledge your own self in this covenant is because who died for you? Jesus Christ! He gave His life as God manifested in the flesh. For us to come to God, we must come through Christ 5

6 and we must come through Him and what He has done. That s His covenant part. So, when we come to repentance and are baptized, we are symbolically burying our own self and we are symbolically crucified with Christ. The reason that it is full immersion in water is because if you weren t raised out of the water you would die. That s why sprinkling or pouring never works. You can t do it for babies, because babies have no consciousness of right or wrong and they re not accountable. Any baby baptism is worthless. It s only an initiation into a religion to keep you and your children in that religion. We who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Or are you ignorant that we, as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? (vs 2-3). He died for you! Because He s the Creator of all human beings, His life can cover the sins of every human being. Verse 4: Therefore, we were buried with Him through the baptism into the death [that s a literal translation, the death is the death of Christ] so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, in the same way, we also should walk in newness of life. How? by keeping the commandments of God by being led by the Spirit of God Verse 5: For if we have been conjoined together in the likeness of His death, so also shall we be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was co-crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin (vs 5-6). That s the whole process of the circumcision of the heart. We could go more in-depth than that, but that s just a review of baptism. A Colossians 2:13: For you, who were once dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has now made alive with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses [sins]. We need to understand where Protestantism goes wrong. Verse 14 (KJV): Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us The Law was against us. Is the Law against us? or Is the law against sin? The law if for us! We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and being. which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross (v 14 KJV). This is where the Protestants misinterpret this. They do not consult the Greek. They do not understand the process of conversion. Being carnal-minded they interpret this to mean that Christ nailed the commandments to the cross. There were two things nailed to the cross: 1. Jesus Christ for a sin offering, for the forgiveness of sin 2. a title inscribed: Jesus the Christ, King of the Jews It was written in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. A v 14 (FV) He has blotted out the note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins Now then, ordinances (KJV) should be translated decrees because it comes from the Greek word dogma. Have you heard of the word dogma? It s used four times in the New Testament and every time it refers to the injunctions or orders of men, never referring to the commandments of God. the decrees [let s leave out of our sins, for just a minute and read on]: which was contrary to us; and He has taken it away, having nailed it to the cross (v 14). In the Faithful Version, we have this footnote which explains it: Verse 14 does not in any way mean that the commandments of God were nailed to the cross. The phrase note of debt against us with the decrees of our sins means the note of debt, or the listing of our sins against God. Our sins and the debt of our sins were nailed to the cross when Jesus Christ was crucified and died. So, there s a record of all of our sins. The pagans used to have this: you would note all of your sins and all of your virtues for the year. Be kind of like keeping a journal. At the end of the year you go to the priest and the priest looks at them and he tells you, because you hand the note to him, this is the note of debt, and if you have more righteous works you re blessed. If you have more unrighteous works, you re cursed. The way you get rid of the curse is you offer certain offerings. How do you suppose most of those journals went? Considering the carnal mind are you going to write down when you were jealous? or envious? or every time you had a thought that was evil? No! But that s what you should write down. You would write down, I did this; I said that; I was wrong here, but I did all these good things. That s not how God looks at it. God wants the change in the heart and in the mind, called the circumcision of the flesh; of the heart, through baptism. What is against us? Are the commandments of God against us? No! Is God against us? No! Is sin against us? Yes! 6

7 Is sin against God? Yes! Where does sin originate? In the mind! What needs to be changed? The mind! That is done by the circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the flesh the 8 th day didn t change anybody s mind. As a matter of fact, they weren t even conscious that it took place except they felt a little pain at the time. That was it. You have to tie vs all together, because that s how we get rid of sin by going to the very heart and core of where sin begins. Sin does not exist because there is a law written on tables of stone or written in the Bible. Sin is transgression of the Law by human behavior and thought and the laws and commandments of God are eternal and function always, just like I talked about with the tides. It happens automatically high tide, low tide, highhigh tide, low-low tide twice a day, every day. The human mind operates all the time during our lifetime. In order for that to be changed, you need the Spirit of God. But you cannot receive the Spirit of God until you are baptized and you cannot be baptized until you have repented. Repentance is repenting of your sins, which are the transgressions of God s law and the lawlessness that you have committed. Who is behind sin? Satan the devil! He is the prince of the power of the air. Eph. 2 ties in with Col. 2: Ephesians 2:1: Now, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Everyone of us have within us the law of sin and death. We will not get rid of that completely until the resurrection. Because we have the law of death in us we are as good as dead at any minute of any day. Verse 2: In which you walked in times past according to the course of this world [walking in the way of the world] according to the prince of the power of the air [the one who rules this world spiritually] the spirit that is now working within the children of disobedience. Yet, if they do things which are not overtly sinful, they are counted as good upstanding people in the community: law abiding, helpful, all of that, but their minds have not been converted. They may be less evil, because they ve been trained than other people who have not been trained. Some people just give themselves over to murder. It seems as though with some, once it starts they cannot stop. Who was this murderer up in Washington; he killed over 40 women. They finally caught him; they made a deal with him. If you will tell us how many you have killed and where you buried their bodies, if you remember, we will not execute the death penalty against you. So, wanting to live, he told them and they were absolutely astonished! Was that the work of Satan the devil? Yes, indeed! Is every government on earth corrupt? Is that the work of Satan the devil? How about all the business that s going on with Christmas? Is that of Satan the devil? Oh, there are benefits to it until you get your credit card bill in January. You can apply that same thing to everything. Verse 3: Among whom also we all once had our conduct in the lusts of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh and by the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest of the world. That s why the Gospel goes out. That is the calling of God. If anyone wants to get right with God, they have to answer the call and God will deal with them. B Colossians 2:15: After stripping the principalities and the powers, He made a public spectacle of them, and has triumphed over them in it referring to the crucifixion of Christ. When Christ was on the cross, I just think there was a fierce spiritual battle going on right over Jerusalem with Satan and the demons and the angels of God. Satan was right there to the very last to try and get Christ to go against the Father, but He didn t. Because of all of that here is how they interpret this: A v 16 (KJV): Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. They say this means because He took it all out of the way and nailed it to the cross you don t have to keep these. Think about this for a minute. Those in Colossi and Laodicea were mostly Gentile. They didn t know anything unless there was small synagogue there, but that didn t bother them. Did they know anything about the Passover? No! Unleavened Bread? No! Pentecost? No! Trumpets? No! Atonement? No! Tabernacles? No! Last Great Day? No! Sabbath? May be they knew a little bit about it! What were they doing as followers of pagan religion? They were keeping all of the pagan feasts, 7

8 which were different versions of Christmas, New Years, and all of this. All of a sudden, you being a Gentile, you come to the knowledge of the Truth and repent and are baptized, and you quit living the way that you used to live. You quit going to the temple of Zeus. You quit going to the temple of Diana. And as Acts 20 says, when they had mass conversions, they brought all of their occult articles and books and burned them. What happened when that occurred. They wanted to kill the Apostle Paul, because those mass conversions were creating a recession among the idol-makers. No one was buying them anymore. What were those converts keeping? Sabbath Passover all the Holy Days of God What did they quit eating? pork shrimp lobster other unclean animals If you want to follow George Zimmer, you can see all of the terrible things that he eats. What do you suppose the reaction of your friends would be? They invite you over to their house, and you say, Today s the Sabbath Day and I have to go to church. Well, you used to come all the time! Today they would say, Come on over and watch the football games, all these college games, basketball games. or Let s go shopping. Some women like to get together and shop until they drop. All of a sudden you say, I can t do that. Well, stop by and we ll have dinner sometime. Okay. You stop by and there s a nice pork, and you say, I don t eat that. Why, that s what you loved. I fixed it just for you. Sidebar: Where does swine flu come from? Monkeys? Cows? Swine! When do they get flu? In the winter time just like everybody else! Here, have some of these nice oysters that we just got. Can t eat those either. With that in mind, v 16 (FV): Therefore, do not allow anyone to judge you If you were still doing all the things that you used to do as a pagan, would they judge you in the following things? No! in eating or in drinking, or with regard to a festival, or new moon, or the Sabbaths (v 16). Let s see where Paul brings this up again. He also had this in Ephesus, because what was at Ephesus? The great temple of the goddess Diana! Ephesians 4:17: So then, I declare and testify this in the Lord that you are no longer to walk even as the rest of the Gentiles are walking, in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts. They have cast off all feelings, and have given themselves up to licentiousness, to work every uncleanness with insatiable desire. But you have not so learned Christ (vs 17-20). If you go from that over to keeping the things of God, what a change that is that they would see. So, they would judge you and say: Why can t you eat this anymore? Why can t you come and have our drunken bashes like we used to have? Why can t you come to our sex parties where we all swap wives and other things? Colossians 2:16: or with regard to a festival What do you mean unleavened bread? What do you mean the Holy Day? What do you mean Pentecost? What is that? or new moon [You mean you re going by a different calendar now? Yes, you are!] or the Sabbaths (v 16). I don t know what our neighbors think, but we ve lived over here in this house close to 40 years; 1978 we moved in, so it s 37 years in the same house. We haven t stayed home on a Sabbath probably any more than a dozen times in all those years. Every Sabbath morning what do we do? We had the kids and everything, when they were little kids, we get in our car, take a briefcase, kids take their stuff and we go to church! We leave every Sabbath about the same time. Then we come home about the same time. They never saw a Christmas tree, nor did we pass out candy at Halloween, nor did we do an Easter egg roll with our children on the front lawn, nor did we put up any lights at Christmas time around our house to show off how smart we are. I think PG & E (power company) is really clever. Get everyone to put up all these lights in the winter where they will burn the longest and they will make the most money. This shows what? They were keeping the commandments of God (v 16)! Why do we do this? A v 17: Which are a foreshadow of the things that are coming If someone is coming to you and the light is behind them, their shadow comes ahead of them showing that they are coming. The Sabbath portrays what? The coming Millennium, the coming peace of God! 8

9 The Passover pictures what?!he forgiveness of sins for the world; starts first with the Church!! Unleavened Bread pictures getting sin out of your life, overcoming and growing, putting in the Spirit of God! Pentecost pictures the first resurrection! Trumpets pictures the second coming of Christ! Atonement pictures doing away with Satan the devil! Tabernacles pictures when the thousand-year rule of Christ is going to be on the earth! The Last Great Day pictures when God is going to solve the sins of the whole world through the second resurrection That s a lot isn t it? Verse 17: Which are a foreshadow of the things that are coming, but the body of Christ. The New International Version (NIV) deliberately translated a present-tense participle, the coming things, and they translate it the things that were to come. So, Christ came and all of it is done away. Steve was telling me about a conversation he was having with some people who are Sundaykeepers. These are probably some of the verses they would go to. The body of Christ means that the understanding of these things he was talking about, which foreshadow the things to come, are found in the body of Christ, which is the Church. B v 18: Do not allow anyone [that ties in with be on guard] to defraud you of the prize [What is the prize? First resurrection!] by doing his will [the will of men; you get a benefit from this] in self-abasement and the worship of angels Did any Christian ever worship an angel? What happened when John tried to do it in Rev. 19:11? The angel said, Don t worship me! In Rev. 22 the angel said, Don t worship me, when John fell down to worship him. A true angel of God will not allow you to worship him. But a demon, being a fallen angel, and they are still called angels. Rev. 12 says that the dragon, being Satan the devil, and his angels fought. They are called angels. The worship of angels has to be of those angels who sinned and became demons. What happens? intruding into things that he has not seen (v 18). I wonder what the mystery is? Wonder what it would be like? I ve got to check out these ghosts. Some people are infatuated with haunted houses and haunted caves. I saw something on television yesterday and I forget what it was, and it was something in India. They believe in reincarnation, which is a demonic religion. This little girl came and she told her parents that she was the reincarnation of grandma, who died. The Indians look at that and say, A validation of reincarnation. I wonder what they would have said if she would have told them that she was a reincarnation of the fly. I was a good fly for a long time. How does that happen? The demon that possessed grandma now possesses the little girl and tells her things that the demon alone would know of and other people would know of, but the little girl would have no knowledge of. If she tells them that I am the reincarnation of grandma, and she was born after grandma had died, there is a verification of their religion! Worship of angels. intruding into things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his own carnal mind And not holding fast to the Head [Christ] from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together by the joints and bands, is increasing with the increase of God (vs 18-19). A & B v 20: Therefore, if you have died together with Christ [through baptism] from the elements of the world [that s everything to do with the way the world is that s contrary to God] why are you subjecting yourselves to the decrees of men as if you were living in the world? Verse 20 (KJV): Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances. These ordinances are the decrees of men because the Greek word here is dogma or plural dogmasin, as if you re living in the world. Verse 21 (FV): They say, You may not handle! You may not taste! You may not touch! That is, things that they declare are forbidden, but God does not declare are forbidden. Verse 22: The use of all such things leads to corruption, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. Right here v 22 and v 23, perhaps the most illustrative example of that is celibate priests and socalled virgin nuns. As you saw in The Secrets of the Vatican [transcriber s correction], the Roman Catholic Church is filled with all kinds of illicit sex because of that decree for the priesthood, which was made by a man, a pope. It wasn t until about 1000 A.D. I may not have the date correct, but somewhere in that vicinity 9

10 of time when they made that order, if a priest were married and owned the land of the church, then the church could not get full control of it because title would pass to his wife. Think of that. B v 23: Which indeed have an outward appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship of angels [if you re worshiping Mary, there s a demon behind it] and self-abasement, and unsparing treatment of the body, not in any respect to the satisfying of the needs of the flesh. God says let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband, so that you don t get involved in immorality of sexual behavior. All of these things trace back to the demonic religions of the pagans. That s why this is a great demonstration in that men are not allowed by God to take what they think is good and add it to what God has given to us to do. Or to eliminate something that God has said to do because we think we have better understanding than God. That s all right here in this chapter of Colossians! Also referenced: The Secrets of the Vatican (pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/) FRC:lp Transcribed: Formatted: bo Copyright 2014 All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems. All Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted Scriptural References: 1) Proverbs 28:4, 7, 9 2) Proverbs 30:5-6 3) Colossians 2:1-3 4) John 10: ) Colossians 2:5-6 6) 1-Timothy 6:3-5 7) Colossians 2:6-8 8) John 17: ) Colossians 2: ) Romans 2: ) Colossians 2: ) Romans 6:1-6 13) Colossians 2: ) Ephesians 2:1-3 15) Colossians 2: ) Ephesians 4: ) Colossians 2:16-23 Scriptures referenced, not quoted: Revelation 22, 3 Colossians 4 Genesis 4 Ezra 6 Matthew 24 Acts 17 Revelation 18 Acts 10; 20 Revelation 19:11; 22; 12 10