[0:00] Colossians today and will be our place of scripture chapter 3 is where we'll specifically get into tonight and Colossians the book of Colossians and we'll start off in chapter 3 is where we will where we will land we'll start off with prayer and then we'll look at the scripture Heavenly Father we thank you for this evening we thank you for this day that we can join our hands together as the church body we just thank you for the fellowship that we experience here and the Bible study and and just being able to lift up our prayers to you Lord what a blessing that is so we just give you praise and honor and thank you for that pray Lord this evening that you will teach us from your Holy Word and draw us ever close to you and Lord just direct our paths each day and make us aware of the people around us the opportunities that we have to be a witness to others so we thank you for the for War Trace Baptist we do pray for unity we pray for edification we just pray that we would draw closer and closer to you each day and I pray these things in Jesus name amen all right well we will look at chapter 3 will be our primary focus this evening we'll look at a little other scripture in Colossians as we as we look at that what I want us to look at in chapter 3 at the end of let's see around verses 10 and 11 it talks about the old man and the new man and of course that's the transformation that we experience as we go from not knowing the Lord to knowing the Lord for being lost to having salvation there's a transformation that takes place in our lives we are different from the world our thinking is different and our our thoughts and our actions should be different and that's part of what Paul was writing this letter to the church in Colossae what he was writing to them about Colossians is about a hundred miles east of of Ephesus and if you look on your map and see Paul's journeys just go to the right a bit from Ephesus and you'll find
[2:54] Colossae and you'll also find Laodicea he's writing to them because as that as you know as you read the letters the thing they were battling against constantly and Jesus told them that it would be that way were the false teachers that would come in and try to say well it's Jesus plus this or Jesus plus that and want to persuade them to not follow Christ just for himself but to add to it the the Jews to adding circumcision and following the law and the eastern religions that were there to following after those I looked at that today for us because today I see us with the same challenges before us in the church the philosophies of this age are quite anti-biblical the philosophies of the world and if we're not careful if we're not biblically literate it's easy for the for those thoughts to get ingrained in our local churches and in you know we've even seen in entire denominations that at one time stood for Christ that are bowing to these false philosophies and allowing those to dictate to their to their members
[4:20] I would dread to be their their leadership talked about leadership this morning leaders that don't lead in truth lead their church into to believe in false religions and false thoughts and those kind of things they will definitely be dealt with at the judgment so so anyway that we're faced with that we're faced with these thoughts and so it is important for us to know God's word and to live by his word and to stand for the truth to protect the the church body and to make corrections when those things are needed one thing I would point out to you is Laodicea is also right next to Colossae so east of Ephesus sort of in the middle of that Asia I guess it's Asia Minor I think it was called Asia that area where they are Laodicea is the other one of the other churches that we know has also has a church there they are mentioned they're the last church mentioned in Revelations 2 and 3 where Jesus is giving approval to Philadelphia and I believe it's Smyrna the church is there and then the other churches he was correcting some of their misgivings within the church they were doing work but they were uh had also accepted things in Laodicea you'll remember is the one that was neither hot nor cold and he wanted to spew them out of his mouth they apparently had accepted some of these false teachings into the church and so the church was not pure and so they were instead of standing firm for
[6:07] Christ they were allowing these other uh thoughts into it apparently and so um so anyway the Lord said that he was going to spew them out of his mouth because they were neither hot nor cold and he wished they were one or the other so uh it's very important that as we hear these philosophies and I call them the strange philosophies of our of our day uh that we're very aware of what God's word says so that we don't get tripped up with with any of these uh false teachings um so in looking at um Colossians we're going to our focus verses are um 12 through 17 but I'll pick up in verse 1 of chapter 3 and through I think about verse 4 and then we'll skip over to our focus 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 and not on things on the earth for you died and your life is hidden with
[7:16] Christ in God when Christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory because we know Jesus is our redeemer because we know him as our savior uh we have salvation our our eternity is secure in him so we know that our because of that our thoughts should be along the line of his thoughts and our actions should be more and more reflective of him so as we um compare the carnal life to the uh to the the the fleshly life to the character of the new man the old man and the new man um that's important that's why we're different uh when we accept Jesus uh talks about there being the new birth it talks about there being a transformation and so we're no longer that old old person the old type of person that we were before our thoughts and our actions should reflect Christ day after day so for those of us who know Christ verses one through four starting in verse 12 it talks about the character of the new man the character of the new man therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness long-suffering bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you so you must do but above all things put on love which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and to be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom and 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 do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him this is the characteristics that we will take on as we come to know the Lord as you study God's word and as you spend time with him in prayer as you enjoy the fellowship of believers and we grow in Christ together more and more we should look like this the fruits of the spirit and and then these other attributes or characteristics of of Christ should be more and more what people see what do people say away from here do they notice that you're different do they notice they probably know you're a Christian so you know does that reflect to them the the body of Christ and does it reflect to them that that you know him but these are are attributes or characteristics that we should have is as as a as a as the new man as the as a Christian to contrast that we we're going to compare in contrast tonight uh in chapter one and verse chapter one uh verse 13 and 14
[10:47] Paul says he writes he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed in into conveyed us into the kingdom of the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins so there's the difference in being in the light and being in darkness is one of the ways that that Paul characterizes the difference shows a contrast we live in the light because we know Christ and Christ is the light Christ is the holder of all truth and so we walk in the light we walk in the truth of his word and and in the truth of reality of life really from creation to any of the philosophies you might hear today if they don't line up with scripture then they're a false teaching and we have to guard against that so he makes a comparison between darkness and light at one time we were uh he delivered us from the power of darkness we were under the control of darkness of sin and death until he delivered us so we praise him because he delivered us from um from sin and death he forgave our sins um another contrast we'll look at and then we'll get back to our focal verses is in um in chapter three talking about the old man and the new man uh starting in in uh let's see verse five chapter three therefore put to death your members which are on the earth fornication uncleanness passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry because of these things the wrath of god is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them but now you yourselves are put off all have put off all these things anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy language out of your mouth do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and you put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of him who created him um so we put off those things um some of the false philosophies of this world uh one of satan's places he likes to attack is with sex and of course a lot of the strange philosophies that we have today deal with that what we know is that god established man and woman we know that he established marriage god established the family and the family unit as it should be and so the philosophies of this world with with the tugging away at uh breaking up the family and uh questioning male and female man and woman those are philosophies that we need to reject and guard the church against uh because they're based on nothing but man's thoughts and totally ignore all the facts of of uh of life and of course in in the word but all of these things we are to put to death we're to no longer follow here and in several other places galatians revelations uh several places in the bible there are lists like this and it says that those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven those who practice these things will not enter the kingdom of heaven so as followers of christ those should not even be anything that we would follow after uh certainly should not be our practice and so we have to guard against these things
[14:53] um we pray for those who live these lifestyles like this but we don't follow in after that um he also lists down in starting in verse eight anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy language from your mouth all of those things we also should not follow after shouldn't practice those things the contrast of that is is is in the peace that christ gives to us um which is over in the rest of the list and i'm not seeing it right now but it's here it is it's in uh verse 15 and let the peace of god rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and to be thankful the peace of christ is within us we shouldn't have to we shouldn't we don't have to live in anger and wrath and those things because we have the peace of god we can can live um uh live apart from those things those shouldn't be a part of who we are uh jesus has died and went to the cross and he will carry our burdens for us it teaches us and so we can give those bird those burdens to him and and not have to carry those matter of fact jesus even teaches us that even if we don't commit the act of murder if we keep anger in our hearts then it's as if we have committed the murder it starts in our thoughts and then moves to our actions but those things shouldn't become a part of who we are uh we should live in his peace and not in these other emotions um that are listed before the character of the new man so back to our focal passage uh 12 through 17 verse 12 therefore as the elect of god holy and beloved put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness long suffering um those are characteristics that we should take on so as we grow in our our knowledge of christ and we spend time with him in prayer uh we know that we are chosen by god and that we are that he considers us holy and we are beloved by him we're set apart uh for the work that he's planned for us and we're loved by god and because of his love and that's a little bit over uh in there too verse 14 but above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection because god loves us then that love should be reflected to others our love first would be back to him uh jesus told us mark 12 i believe it's 31 and 32 when he answered the question what was the greatest command is to love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and so with everything that we are our first love is to love the lord our god and then out of that the overflow of that is to love our neighbor as ourselves so uh living in living under his love for us would give us a response back to him in love and then love others we love each other within the church as brothers and sisters of christ and jesus even teaches us that we're to love uh our enemies and how can we do that except that we have the love of christ within us is the only way we could do that um it also mentions mentions to forbear with one another and to forgive one another forgiving is hard so if someone has injured you greatly uh in one way or another
[18:54] it's hard to forgive and yet jesus commands us that we have to forgive so how can we do that and just as we do with love because he loves us we love others we realize how much he has forgiven us and so it should move us out of our love for him and love for others to forgive others and uh not to carry unforgiveness along with us jesus even teaches us that if we don't forgive then we won't be forgiven we want to be forgiven so uh we need to uh we need to uh have an attitude of uh of forgiveness also uh when you read that list the tender mercies kindness humility meekness long-suffering it reminds you of the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount and uh so paul is reiterating what jesus has taught us is what he's doing there uh for for bearing with one another and forgiving one another once again jesus he's repeating what jesus has already taught us and those should be characteristics that we have um if anyone has a complaint against another even as christ forgave you so you also must do uh jesus forgave us when we were sort of unforgivable uh you know we weren't uh we didn't uh we didn't deserve forgiveness but out of his great love for us when when he drew us to himself and we humbled ourselves before him and asked he he forgave us even though uh we had turned our backs on him at a time verse 14 but above all these put on love which is the bond of perfection the bond of perfection um the closer we draw to the lord and the closer we um the more we love him as we see how he's loved us unconditionally and and uh and eternally then it should reflect out in us and that's where the bond of perfection comes in um where others are going to see the love of christ through us and be drawn to him and then verse 15 we've talked about that and let the peace of god rule in your hearts to which you were also called in one body and be thankful we should live in the peace of christ um he teaches us that we're not supposed to worry that we shouldn't fret over things that we should trust him with those things that we should seek the kingdom of god first and then he'll provide all those things for us so uh as we grow in our knowledge and and in our faith in him i hope that we can trust him more and more and through trusting him with the burdens of our life um then we would live in his peace we know that paul uh he was shipwrecked stoned beaten imprisoned uh all those things and yet he knew the peace of christ he knew the joy of salvation even through all of those things and we can experience those too as we draw close to him as we trust him more and more um he teaches us that we're called into one body of course we're in the one body of the church uh worldwide uh we're called into the local body uh to serve uh where we can serve and use our gifts that that god has given us um okay then verse 16 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
[22:55] grace in your hearts to the lord the word of christ should dwell in us richly i encourage you to be in your bible every day uh read it every day i encourage you to have a plan where you can read through it in a year uh there's one with the church that gives you certain chapters to read each day lisa and i read a chronological bible that's laid out for you as to what you're going to read each day uh but pick a bible that you understand uh well and and get a plan and read the bible every day uh study it uh come to know more and more the truths of god's word it is the foundation of your faith that rock that your house is built on so when the waves of life come the floods of life come your house won't be moved off of its foundation it's going to be the word of god and then your relationship with ship with him through prayer those are the things that are going to ground you through the struggles of life when you get that diagnosis or when you have a financial issue or whatever the issue is a family issue uh then that's what's going to anchor you in in life so i encourage you in being in the word of god and and uh coming to know it more and more uh some of the tragedies in the history of the church have been in when the church the bible was only in the latin language and nobody knew it except just a few of the priests and they were using it for their own profit and not to glorify christ and we're blessed today to have it in our own language and there were many who gave their lives for that but but we need to know god's word well inside and out so that we're not tripped up by the strange philosophies of this world um talks about um in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the lord as we come to know him more and more our worship is is true our worship is pure and uh uh and we uh we we come to know him more the more i know about the bible the more i realize how much he loves us and what he gave to us so that we can can draw near to him uh so that we can even enter into his presence and it causes me to love him more and more and uh so the singing and and the hymns and worshiping uh as we come together and then just each day at the table is more and more real so i just encourage you to be in the word and uh and come to know him more and more spend time with him in prayer every day um and then verse 17 and whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him whatever you do in word or deed so the words that we say the things that we do should be guided by what uh by christ do all in the name of the lord if we're going about our day and as we uh whatever it is when you go to work or when you meet someone you're doing those things in the name of the lord it should change why we're doing what we're doing um it's not legalism it's not the reason i read the bible every day isn't legalism it's because i love the lord and i want to know him more as we go out and do uh it's not to uh check off a list or to get anyone else to notice what we've done it's because we love the lord and we want to serve him
[26:58] so as we serve others we're serving him so it matters what we do and um uh whatever we do in word or deed do all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him the lord will give us opportunities to be a witness to people around us he'll bring people along our path every day that we have an opportunity to uh to be a witness of or to and we need to take those opportunities we come together as the church and we grow in the word we grow in in the fellowship of believers we strengthen each other as we go about our our gathering together and so that we can be sent out and be witnesses in the community uh in the world wherever he sends us whether it's just across the street or if it's somewhere halfway across the globe we represent christ and and that should be seen by the people around us so we have a a contrast with the world it's the reason why we go about doing what we do uh we've put away these uh these sins and uh evil thoughts more and more as we draw draw close to the lord and we put on more and more of the characteristics of christ and so it rules what we say and what we do and what people see in us and so um i just encourage you in that to uh beware of the strange philosophies that are in this world today uh the wickedness of them and uh we'll guard the church and uh and then if we see a brother or sister slipping uh you know we need to go to them and get them back on the path what does the bible say that's the that's where we go uh when there's a question of if something's right or wrong we go back to the word because we know that word is jesus is the word and so the bible is his word and that's where we go jesus said if you love me you'll obey my commands and so we need to follow him and obey him and uh draw near to him so that's what i had that's what i had for this evening i hope that's an encouragement to you um the world is in a mess uh 50 years ago 60 years ago i would have never dreamed that some of the thoughts of this day are what they are uh nobody would have i don't think um i guess somebody wild out there maybe did but but uh the world is very different and we need to be pouring in to our young folks we need to be pouring in to the young adults the truth of god's word and walking along beside them especially most of us here this evening have seen a lot of water under the bridge and so seeing the change from what things look like 50 or 60 years ago to today the philosophies and the thoughts um where christ is no longer regarded at all in this day and time to uh what it used to be like so we need to strengthen each other we need to enjoy the fellowship that we do here and but we do need to be pouring into our children our youth our young folks and just encouraging them to to stay the course and not change from the course let me pray and then we'll be dismissed lord we uh do just thank you for your word and pray lord this evening that you would guide our steps that you would um draw us close to you and uh
[31:05] lord we want to build our house on the foundation and that foundation is you uh you are lord god and and you are the only way and so we pray lord for um a foundation of faith we pray for a foundation of your word to um to hold us steady uh lord we thank you for the privilege of prayer and just pray lord for um for these special times of prayer that we have you with in our quiet time and i pray lord for those times that we uh have a brother or sister or someone we've come across in the day that uh needs a word of prayer uh lord because we know you hear our prayers we know you're seated at the right hand of the father and interceding for us so lord uh watch over us as we go and uh prepare us lord for each day to stand firm in our faith in you and i pray this in jesus name amen so
[32:33] Thank you.