Walking in Victory Seminar Part 3

Third session.

Halfway through.

Two sessions left.

Yeah.

Hopefully your minds can contain everything.

I know how it is when you come to a seminar or something and just get blasted with a bunch of stuff.

It can be challenging to just not not uh not feel over overloaded or overwhelmed.

But I appreciate the the thoughts and comments that you've given.

It um gives me confidence that you guys are on the same page as I am.

I'm not just up here spouting things that aren't getting through, so I appreciate that.

One of the things that you said in the last session though that is something that we really don't think about.

We're trying to get the idea that mankind is redeemed.

Yeah.

They do have to do that.

Right, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the yeah, that's the thing.

Rep repentance is still necessary.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

But you have you haven't something positive to resent them against the bringing that condemnation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And instead of instead of uh pointing out where they're at, you're pointing out where they're where they're called to.

And um so yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That God's given him.

Yeah, um, so yeah, I mean, definitely so.

Uh some of the actual comments have been, wow, I've never never thought of it that way before.

I see I've seen it that I've seen it said that way, but I've never really thought of it that way.

Or boy, you're different.

Um, and um I'll just give that testimony.

Um, I was I was at Lowe's and uh uh got talking with a gentleman, asked if I could pray for him, and he was well actually to start it all off, he came and wanted some money.

And he asked if if I had any money.

He he had uh he had a um uh I think trying to remember what it was, uh forget something something in his truck was was was broken and he needed to get it fixed.

And uh I said, you don't remember me, do you?

And he's like looking at me, and uh I said, uh you asked me for money at Home Depot for the same thing, and somebody had given you money before I could.

I was gonna give you money, but you'd gotten money from somebody to go do that.

And he realized he was caught.

Okay, he didn't really have a truck that was broke down.

I said, I said, listen, I said, I'll I'll give you money.

I said, if you need money, I'd be happy to give you money.

I said, but but um don't lie about it.

You know, don't it's not that you're lying to me, it's just that you're you're more than that.

And I started sharing with him the gospel message about who he was created to be.

And man, he left loose on me and told me that what kind of a God, because before he was he was all spiritual, he was praying to God, God said that he would help him.

And and when I started talking truth, I found out that he wasn't all spiritual, he wasn't someone that loved God.

In fact, he was he was hateful to God because in his mind, he said, what kind of a God would send his son and would and he he used some vulgar language to describe what God did to get his son here on this earth, and just a despicable um way of presenting it.

And we we continued to talk and continued to um, you know, got 45 minutes at Lowe's into this conversation, and he has a granddaughter, and he doesn't want his granddaughter to grow up the way he is.

We got done talking, and he wasn't quite the same person during the conversation.

I said, I said, listen, I said, God did tell me to go ahead and and give you the money.

And I gave him I gave him the money.

It was a hundred dollars.

I I didn't have anything else in my wallet at the time.

And I gave him a hundred dollars, and and he he he just took it and threw it down.

I said, listen, I said, you I said, you uh he goes, I'm not gonna take it, I'm not gonna take it.

I said, listen, you're not gonna take it because you you felt bad that I caught you in a lie.

I said, but listen, I I really do feel that God's God wants you to have that money.

He wants you to bless, he wants me to bless you with that.

I said, that that's grace.

It's not that you deserve that money, but I didn't deserve what God gave me.

And yet he still offered it.

And so it's not about what I deserved, but it's what he offers.

And so this is just a simple illustration of I know that you don't deserve the money because you lied, but it's grace.

Take it, let it change your approach.

And we got done, and his response was, Wow, you're different.

And that shouldn't be that shouldn't be um encouraging.

I should have had a thousand people tell me that that's who I am, but the fact of the matter is he's the only one that said it because up to then I hadn't been like that.

Um yeah, I am different.

I'm different now than I was, but that's that's praise the Lord for that.

And and so that's that's the thing that um Paul he says, um I didn't come to you with with a you know great speech and you know uh you know good way of presenting things.

He said, but I came to you in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And if we're going to impact people's lives, then it can't be just because I'm well at convincing people of things.

It's great that we have the ability to sit together, reason out scripture.

People did that in the Bible.

They reasoned together and they reasoned out, but all of that without the power of the Holy Spirit at work is not gonna do a thing.

And so, so yeah, I'd never never intended to um to do that that morning.

And when it got started, I was I felt like I was in over my head.

But by the time it was over, um, yeah, God had his spirit had worked.

And um, and so that yeah, that that's just a little bit, you know, when when we're when we're presenting grace, it's just amazing that um it changes because we're so used to seeing people where they're at instead of where God has called them to.

So, yeah, any other thoughts or anything on that?

It's the goodness of God.

Right, yeah.

I wanted to wanted to get to Wanted to get to this passage here eventually in this in this session, so maybe now would be a good time to go to it.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, starting starting in verse 12, talking about seeing people differently because of how it's kind of a continuation of last session.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

How God sees me is how he sees other people.

So, how do I see other people?

He says there in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 12, for we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

2 Corinthians 5:12

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

Or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

Verse 14, for the love of Christ compels us.

That thought there, when you think of being compelled, I think of being just thrust forward.

Okay?

The love of Christ just pushes me forward.

It compels us, because we judge this, that we make this judgment in our minds, that if one died for all, then all died.

If Christ died for all, then all died.

And he died for all.

The purpose that he did this was that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

We just talked about that.

The choice is still ours to make.

But the fact is, if Christ died for all, then all died.

There's no way around it.

That's that's what we we can't judge any other way in the evidence that's been given.

And that thought just compels me forward, pushes me forward.

So therefore, in verse 16, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Now that one's a tough one.

We regard no one according to the flesh.

Problem is we do all the time.

We still see people in the flesh.

We see what they've done, we see what they're doing, and that's how we judge them, according to what they're doing.

But he says, we see no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, and he's just pointing out, you know, it's true that at one point we've seen Christ in the flesh, yet now we know him this way no longer.

Why is he using Christ as an example?

We've established that if we were with Christ on the cross, we went with him into the grave, and we were resurrected with him, then if we've seen Christ in the flesh, but we don't see him that way any longer, how can we see ourselves or others any other way than we see the resurrected Christ?

Therefore, verse 17 if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

Why did Christ come?

To reconcile people to God.

What's been handed to us?

The ministry of reconciliation.

That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

How many times did Christ come across somebody that was involved in sin, and he didn't, he didn't hold that against them, okay?

It's not that he ignored the sin.

He even told some of them, go and sin no more.

He wasn't, he wasn't justifying their actions, but he was calling them to what they were created for and what he was about to redeem them for, or to, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us.

We beg of you on Christ's behalf, just be reconciled.

You know, I would love to someday walk into heaven.

I'm looking forward to walking up to Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh that said, No, you can't go worship your God, hardened his heart.

God finally hardened his heart.

Finally, they took off and he went after them.

That pharaoh, okay?

Walking up to him and saying, You're here.

When did it happen?

Now, be be clear.

I'm not saying that he is there, okay?

I can't say that.

But what we do so often is we put our faith and our trust and our confidence in what someone's actions have been, are, continue to be, whatever, instead of the finished work of Christ.

Who's to say that we've already established that in second, in First Timothy it says that a vessel that was made for dishonor can put things off in change to a vessel of honor fit for the master's use.

That can happen.

So what's to say that as Pharaoh was sinking to the depths of the Red Sea, that he didn't say, Whoa, I totally didn't see this.

And then years later, Jesus goes and visits the captives in prison, preaches deliverance to the captives.

And Pharaoh's like, whoa, yeah, I believe now.

I'm not saying anything other than scripture says we can't judge someone based on the flesh, what we see.

But we can, we can beg of them to be reconciled because Christ did the work.

They can be reconciled.

How we see someone else is a pretty good indication of what how we view the effectiveness of the sacrifice.

You know, when they when they would bring in the Old Testament, when they'd bring the sacrifices in, um you could go walking in there and you say, um, you know, I lied to my neighbor, um, I stole from my neighbor, I committed murder, I you could do whatever, you could say anything you wanted, but what they were, what the priest was concerned about is the sacrifice.

What kind of sacrifice do you have?

Is the sacrifice what's needed?

So that's the question we have to.

It's not about what we've done, where we've been, who we've been, how we've done it.

Those things, yes, we don't, I'm not, I'm not trying to minimize those things in the impact that they have on other people's lives.

But that's of no importance when the sacrifice is sufficient.

Turn to Hebrews 9.

We've touched on this a bit already, but here in Hebrews 9, we want to get back to the understanding of conscience free from sin.

You know, God is God is a relational God, okay?

God created us.

He said, let us make man in our image.

He he created us with a purpose, he created us, and then he revealed himself to us.

You know, he is a God that wants a relationship.

Now, if if we know anything about relationship, we know that whenever there's a anytime we we even feel like something is between us, it puts a strain on our relationship.

If we if uh if I leave the house in the morning and there and there's something between Janine and I, and we don't address that, I can go all day, come home that night, and there's a tension there because I feel there's something there.

There's not, it's not been cleared, it's not been it's not been settled, and so so that causes a tension in the relationship.

Now, we know that we know that we can still have a relationship with that.

I can come home, I can say hi, I can say how was your day, I can we can talk, we can visit, but there's a tension there that steals that steals intimacy.

It takes away from the intimacy that we have.

When there's nothing there, there's just a freedom to just engage and to be able to, and to be able to.

have that intimacy and the fact of the matter is with there's without intimacy there's no offspring there's a lot of relationships that that just don't produce anything other than self because that's all that's that's all that's put put into it so God is a relational God he's created us for relationship he's he sent Christ that he could restore that relationship so we're back to Hebrews 9 what was what was necessary was the conscience free from sin starting in verse 6 again we'll I'll just skim through it since we already touched on a lot of this now when these when these things had been thus prepared the priest always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the service but into the second part the high priest went alone once a year not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance the Holy Spirit indicating this that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

So he'd go into the Holy of Holies but into the holiest of all that that relationship with God that of intimacy was not there yet not while the first tabernacle was still standing.

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices were offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to conscience so there would there was just no way that these sacrifices could give a clean conscience because we could say you're forgiven but the sin was still there because the sin hadn't been removed it was concerned only with food and drinks various washings fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation but Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, which is what it did, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God so when Christ offered himself to God said here's the here's the sacrifice did it work I went I went to the cross went to the grave full of the world's sin what is here now what does the sacrifice look like now he went to the cross spotless received the sins of the whole world he's there presenting the sacrifice once again and the father says it's spotless it's clean that understanding how much more will that clear our conscience if we know what happened how can we say that we're still sinners how can we say we're still in sin when we have the understanding that everything present past future sins are covered under the blood of Christ not to give us an out so that we can go and sin all we want to and know that hey we got this covered because guess what there's no clear conscience in that that in 1 Timothy will talk we'll look at that to do that that shipwrecks our faith because we understand that we're sinning okay now if we if we recognize that we've placed it under the blood we can have a clear conscience but if we're if we're sinning just so that we can sin and trust that the blood of Christ is going to pay for it that's on our conscience that sin is there that's self-centered self-motivated and it it'll it says it will shipwreck your faith so what he's saying here is just to understand what that sacrifice did in cleansing our conscience from dead works to serve the living God chapter 10 he says again about it said for the law verse starting in verse 1 of chapter 10 for the law having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with the same sacrifice which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered if that if that had worked if that offering would have worked sacrifices would have been sufficient then they would have been they would they could have quit offering them for then would they not have ceased to be offered for the worshipers once purified once they were pure would they have they'd have no more consciousness of sin so the goal was the consciousness of sin.

Now if you go back to chapter nine again you'll see there that the sacrifice the sacrifice if it is sufficient would bring purification well in chapter nine it tells us that the sacrifice was Christ and it it declares that it was sufficient.

He presented himself spotless before the Father so that we might be able to walk in a consciousness of sin a consciousness free from sin.

So turn to first Peter three I want to look at a a little bit there in first Peter three we're looking at um look a little bit at the story of of Noah and what took place there.

See let's just um let's just start in verse 18.

We'll just work our way down through there's because there's a couple different places I want to touch on but for verse eighteen for Christ also suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the spirit by whom also he went so in other words it is by the Spirit that he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah this back up just a little bit imagine what what took place there when Christ went into the prison to speak to the souls that were imprisoned to speak deliverance to the captives I wonder what I wonder what his message was like but you know he's like hey guess what we did it um we were able to release you from bondage I mean that that is the message that we that we have I I just sometimes I wonder you know I I I try to figure out what it would have been like to be there um imprisoned and and have that message and then I remember well I was I was imprisoned I was in bondage what was it like to to know that that I'm free not because of my own abilities to stay free but I'm free because he has removed from me the authority that sin held sin no longer holds that authority it can come it can try but it doesn't have the authority over me that it did and guess what what that looks like is the enemy actually begins to understand you know every time I took something suggestive to Rick he would consider it sometimes he would say hey I'm giving into it I'm gonna go for it and sometimes there was a battle but he but usually he gave in all of a sudden the enemy's saying you know what he's got a different understanding he's starting to believe scripture that says he can walk free from this and I take something to him and he starts praising the Lord he starts giving honor and glory to God every time I touch him it puts him into a praise session I got to figure something else out here because either I keep growing his faith by doing this or I got to figure another way and he's tricky he's I mean he's deceitful he'll he'll he'll try to deceive you but the fact of the matter is he doesn't want you to praise the Lord and guess what happens those temptations they lessen I promise you it may take a while one of the in my in my so let me back up here again one thing I hesitate about giving my testimony is it's so easy to to look at someone else's testimony and say okay that's what I got to do and that's not the case um we're not to compare ourselves among ourselves we're not to look to each other for for we that was why we stress so much in session one God's word is final authority don't let your circumstances your experiences past people's experiences and circumstances don't let any of that weigh in on it go with the truth of God's word so when I say something I'm just sharing it what what I experienced and and it it is helpful for us to to hear that to see how God works but the reason I say that I shared this in the last in the last seminar but um I still remember and I'll probably remember it till I move on into glory but Tyler was was presenting some of these truths to me and and he was he was saying well God's you know see what God's word says here see what and he was he was doing a good job of it he wasn't doing it in the wrong way or anything and and I'm like well okay yeah I I see I see that um yes it says that um I've the thing is I have never seen that I've never seen somebody not walk in sin never seen somebody walk free from sin never never do anything wrong and so the best thing for you to do is to live that and then people will see that now this was good advice to give to Tyler it's good advice to give to anybody but it was not good for me to give that advice because what I was saying is I realize scripture says it and I realize that it's truth but until I see it I won't believe it.

Now if I see it then I'll believe it but what I'm doing is I'm putting somebody's experience over God's word we talked about that instead of saying you know what I've never seen that but God's word says this is this is available for us and hey I want to encourage you in that go for it it's it's possible um but I won't believe it until I see it.

You know the thing with the thing with that is that's unbelief okay and the the problem with unbelief is that no amount of evidence will change unbelief.

If you have unbelief you can you just not too long ago um heard a heard somebody give this illustration uh somebody said listen if God were real all he would have to do is take the Eiffel Tower turn it upside down and say right above that in the in the sky say I am God this is who I am or something to that to that in that manner and he said and then I would believe well we know mankind the minute especially nowadays the minute I would see that I would be thinking okay AI or what even if I was there in person I'd be what in the world that is that is one tremendous trick if I don't believe in God before I seen that I'm gonna be speculating as to how that actually happened.

That's not what's going to convince me of who God is so unbelief needs to be cast out he talks about in Hebrews 4 chapter 3 and chapter 4 but the the same message that that we have today was was given to the children of Israel but they failed to mix it with faith if you take this message and you never put faith to it's just going to stay there.

So back to back to this passage in 1 Peter 3 let's see uh why don't we in going on in the last part of verse 20 there in the days of Noah the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight souls were saved through water so he uses the story of of Noah there and remember what we were what is baptism like it's like death and burial right resurrect to new life when Christ died and went into the grave he took the sins of the whole world buried them removed them and when he was resurrected it says it says that we've been cleansed from all our unrighteousness no unrighteousness left well we have the story of Noah guess what happens eight souls when the eight souls that were righteous righteous because they believed and when the water ceased when the rain ceased when the water subsided he brought forth a new world and how much unrighteousness was there at the time none only eight righteous souls were saved.

He goes on to say he says there is in verse 21 there is also an antity which now saves us baptism wait i i didn't realize baptism saved us I thought we thought we determined that Christ saved us well christ did the work and so what does that mean he said not the removal of the filth of the flesh what does baptism do baptism is the answer of a good conscience when we realize what baptism is about when we realize that when I'm going down in that water I'm leaving my sin there and when I come up I'm coming up as Christ resurrected new life he did this with Noah as a as a type just just to show what was gonna come you know baptism let's see if um baptism is also here I didn't have this m this passage down so now I'm okay well we'll just I don't want to get into that if it's yeah if I don't have that passage but so the goal is that clear conscience why is the clear conscience so important let's let's turn to first Timothy one the first of all the one reason it's so important is that was that was how we were created we were created with a clear conscience a clean conscience there was absolutely no you know nothing straining in our in Adam and Eve's relationship with God they were able to just fellowship with him in the garden and nothing there but the moment that sin entered the picture that that fellowship was gone God wants to restore the fellowship the first thing that happened when Christ died the first thing that happened what was it the temple veil right he couldn't wait for that restoration to begin tore the the veil of the temple to just expose him again to the world because there was nothing now separating him from relating to his creation just take a little bit of time and think about what that is to be able to have full unfettered relationship with the God of the universe says to know the love of Christ is to be filled with all the knowledge of God talk about mind blowing why because he's given us his spirit he's not held anything back Jesus told the disciples I don't call you servants I call you friend why because a servant doesn't know what his master's doing but I I have told you everything the Father has told me.

How?

Through the Spirit.

God is Spirit.

If you worship a Spirit, you got to do it in spirit and in truth.

If we want to know everything about who God is, we got to do it in the Spirit.

He's given His Spirit to us.

He even says in the one part, he says, is an Old Testament passage that says, I hasn't seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those that love him.

And we use that verse a lot.

Well, just we can't comprehend God, can't understand God.

We don't know the heart of God.

All these things, and we even use that verse, I haven't seen, ear hasn't heard, we just can't comprehend.

The very next verse it says, but God has revealed them to us by his spirit.

It's like me giving, given, and we're going to use a computer again, okay?

Even even though I'm not a tech guy, I use computer a lot, right?

So I can I can uh take a computer and say all the secrets of the universe are on that computer.

Now, I can take a screwdriver, a hammer, I can take all kinds of tools and never find out what's on there.

Why?

Because I have to access it through the technology that it is, a computer, okay?

I have to be able to get into the computer through using the computer.

Same with the spirit.

God has revealed all things to us through his spirit.

There's not one thing that hasn't been given to us by God through his spirit.

But we have to access it by the Spirit.

My Spirit man has the ability to go to the Spirit of God and say, Hey, what is this?

And start searching.

Start.

It's interesting.

Um I've done that already.

There's been something I've been, I said, man, I don't, I don't understand this.

I don't get this.

I want to know what this is about.

And so, Holy Spirit, just reveal to me what this is saying.

And there's been times that that I've received a revelation about giving me clarification, giving me some understanding on it.

But what was most interesting to me is the times that I didn't get anything back about that topic, but something else just totally exploded.

Why?

Because I'd accessed the Spirit with my Spirit Man, made myself available to the Spirit of God.

I was looking for this answer, and it's still there.

He has the answer.

I don't, but guess what?

He revealed something totally different, and it was just a huge revelation to me.

But it was because I had accessed the Spirit.

So in 1 Timothy 1.

Um, I guess we'll start in verse 5.

Now, the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart.

Um stop there, okay?

Um actually I want to back up and and catch verse 3 because there's some stuff in there that as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

So he's he's saying, you know, there's a lot of mess in Christianity, in religion, and a lot of it is caused by getting so caught up in things that don't matter.

Now, he's not saying that we can't discuss things that don't matter.

I can I can ask um Derek who his grandpa and his mom's side was, and it's not it's not wrong to do that.

But when we've when we've started doing these genealogies and these things and and doctrine, and it's begin it's begun dividing people and churches, and there there's something wrong because it shouldn't do that.

He says, so just to clarify the purpose of the commandment, the the purpose of the law, the purpose of the Bible is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.

So what he's saying is unless we have a sincere faith, we will never experience a good conscience, a free conscience, conscience free from sin.

And if we don't have a conscience free from sin, we won't have a pure heart.

Well, what does Jesus say the pure in heart see?

God.

So if we don't have a pure heart, we won't be able to see God.

We've we we looked at this last night, some this morning already, but it's so critical, so important that we understand that if we are going to walk in fellowship with the Father, we have to do so with a clear conscience.

Anytime that I have anything in there that causes a strange relationship, I won't go to him.

Or if I see sense him coming, I'll cover up with some fig leaves because I'm ashamed.

And we'll cause ourselves from the only thing that makes it possible to walk in true freedom and walk in true victory.

That's walking in fellowship with the Father.

If the Father who is light walks with us, we're walking in light and not in darkness.

And we took um, as said before, from which some having strayed have turned aside, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither that what they say nor the things which they affirm.

Um see where uh, I'm sorry.

That's yeah, that oh I see.

It was the it the only thing I wanted to point out then also is the understanding that when we don't have that, when we don't have that um free conscience, when we and we took we said this earlier, when we when we when we do do all of this without a free conscience, what we end up doing is we end up shipwrecking our faith.

Because we we know in our heart what that our conscience isn't free, and yet we're still trying to navigate that relationship, and it ends up destroying destroying the the our faith and shipwrecking it.

So I wanted to see one one other thing that I wanted to look at in in regards to the baptism.

You know, let's see here if I can baptism is a I I think is probably a huge misunderstood practice a lot of times.

We don't fully understand um for myself, um we we couldn't come to grips with the fact that baptism saves us.

Oh no, baptism doesn't save us, and so so we had to try to get around the passage there in 1 Peter that says baptism not saves, which is true.

It doesn't it doesn't remove the filth of the flesh, and so then baptism to me became just an act of obedience.

We just do it.

I didn't really fully understand what was taking place because what it is, it's an agreement to me and from me to God that yes, I agree that I was crucified with you, was buried with Christ, rose from the water just as Christ rose from the grave.

How did Christ rise from the grave?

Righteous, free from sin, total there was no unrighteousness in him.

How did I come up out of that water?

Did that water do anything to cleanse me?

No, but that understanding is from a clear conscience, it's from an understanding that I am a new man, a new creation, made in his likeness to represent him.

He also um see also likens baptism to the to the circumcision not made with hands.

See that's go to Colossians Colossians two, I think.

Um Yeah, Colossians two.

Here he's talking about how how we should walk in this newness of life.

You know, we've we we've got come to the point where we recognize that we have a new life.

So how should we walk?

In verse 6 there, he says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.

How did you receive him?

Through faith.

So how do you walk this new life?

In faith.

So rooted and built in him, established in the faith, as you have been taught.

He's talking to Timothy here.

Um, so he's kind of inserting that because he had inserted that before in the fact, or he's talking to um about the way that we've been taught.

And so he says, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Now, verse 8, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men.

What does it mean to cheat?

If you were cheated of something, what does that mean?

Didn't get what you deserved, right?

If you went to the market and someone cheated you, you didn't get what you deserved.

If you were playing a game and someone else cheated, you didn't get what you should have won, they shouldn't have.

So that's what he's saying here.

Don't let anyone not give, keep you from getting what you rightfully deserve.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy, empty deceit.

He even says in Galatians there, he said, don't let anyone bring another gospel to the table here.

He said, even if an angel were to present some of the gospel, let him be accursed.

Through empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

So he's he's just bringing it all back to Christ.

He says, if anything, if your salvation, your walk, if any of this is based on philosophy, traditions of men, anything that doesn't line up with what Christ has presented, new life.

Forgiven life is great, but new life, that's transforming.

New life means a new creation, not the old person trying to not repeat the same mistakes.

It's new life.

So in you, verse 10, or verse 9, actually, for in him dwell in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him.

So when we see Christ, we see the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form, and in Christ we are complete.

There, I mean, think about it.

If we're in Christ, and in Christ is the fullness of the Godhead, then guess where what we're a part of?

The fullness of the Godhead doesn't make me a God.

I'm not trying to say I'm a God, but I'm part of the Godhead.

So you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Now, in verse 11, it goes right directly from this thought.

Christ is the head, okay?

He goes, in whom 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 other words, what he's doing is he's tying all of this together.

He's saying, the baptism is the circumcision not made with hands.

What is the circumcision not made with hands?

It is you you have to you have to think about what circumcision really is, okay?

It is the removal of the flesh so that the head can be revealed.

And that's what happens in baptism.

When we go into the grave, the removal of the flesh, so that when we come out, the head, Christ, is revealed.

That is the circumcision not made with hands.

It's not just, it's not just this command that we follow as a Christian.

It is a statement, it is a declaration that we make to those around us, but it has so much more meaning than just I'm declaring I'm a Christian.

No, it's I'm declaring that I went to the cross with Christ, was buried with him, was raised totally free of any unrighteousness.

And as he came up out of the grave, that's what I'm going to live like.

That's the declaration of baptism.

That's what we've experienced.

So it's the answer.

Baptism is the answer of a good conscience.

It's my conscience saying, Yeah, I I'm totally free from that.

And we can then walk in fellowship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.

Any thoughts or comments in closing of this session?

This is the way that I would take out this is the way that I would take it.

Yeah, no, there was there was probably a lot of a lot of lies that I that I believed.

One one of them probably in regards to that was um the lie that, and we've probably all heard it, especially us men.

Well, we're created men, that's how God created us, that's our drive, and so we're just gonna have to learn to control it.

So then I set out to control it.

No, the Bible says put it to death.

Doesn't say anything about control on it, put it to death.

It wasn't how I was created.

God created me in his image, he didn't have that drive in his image.

Adam, when when Adam and Eve sinned, they like we to like we talked about, suddenly they were severed from from one who is life, who is love, and they and God is love.

It's clear, God is love.

So when they were created, they were created to be love.

All of a sudden, they get cut off from the source, and they still have that image of love with nothing feeding it.

So, guess what they gotta do?

They gotta try to connect to something that's gonna feed it.

They became self-centered, and from that moment on, every person, that's one of the one of the laws of creation, I guess you could say, is God created everything to reproduce after its own kind.

Satan saw that and said, Hey, let's go with that.

If we can get people to reproduce this, it's just gonna keep going.

And so everyone after that was reproduced with that image of they we have we have the image of God, love, okay?

But it's distorted, it's twisted, because now instead of being love, we're needing love.

Instead of being love, we're looking for love from little on up, whether it's through um just uh just to get some um uh just to be able to have that confidence, you know.

Just just give me something, you know.

We we we wanted our parents to love us.

Um we want we wanted our teammates to love us.

We want, it was all about needing something that that we we weren't able to provide.

So then it brings us to when Christ was marred more than any more than any other human, it says, you know, his visage was such that it was it was unlike any other human.

The reason for that is our image from creation was so marred, it was so twisted, we didn't look anything like what we were created to look like.

Then Christ came along and he took that his image, and it was so marred, he didn't look anything like he did before, so that we could once again look like him.

So the the lie was in its in it and it came came across in a lot of different areas, is well, that's how I was created.

And you see that today yet in a lot of different realms.

That well, that's how I was created.

That's that's that's how God made me.

That's my my parents were that way, my grandparents were that way.

They um they dealt with it.

Uh and so it's just it's just in my in my blood.

You know, we we talk like that all the time, and it's a lie.

It wasn't how we were created, wasn't what he left us like, but he changed that.

So, yeah, there's probably a lot of lies, but that was what that was a huge one for me, is to is to understand that.

Like you had you had accepted that that was something you could trouble with, therefore there was no way that you could be free from it.

Right, yeah.

Yeah, not not part.

I don't think it's not can be nothing.

Right.

All I could actually do anything.

Yeah, all I could do is control it.

I had to control it.

I couldn't, I didn't realize that I could put it to death.

And so that's a huge part of it, is if you can put it to death, man, that changes things.

So, yeah.

Anyone else?

Okay, thanks again.

Um, if it works for you, if you're able to be here at six o'clock this evening, we're gonna do the final session.

We're looking at putting on his righteousness and uh looking forward to that.

Uh thanks again for being here, and we'll catch up with you later on.