Peace, The Fear of Death, Music, The Christian Home, Submission, The Workplace / Colossians 3

How many of you read the Greenfield Recorder and the Faith Matters articles? Okay, so we got three or four people who still read that. Despite the demonic-looking picture on the front of that section.

At least the article, I didn't read it yet. I know it's good because the man, David, believes Jesus rose. And that's what today's all about. So let's pray and we'll get into our study of Colossians chapter 3.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day, the Lord's Day. And we can all rejoice because he is risen. And because Christ died and is risen and has conquered death, we can have full assurance of our salvation.

Full assurance of everlasting life because death is a defeated foe. So Lord, help us to walk in that assurance. And I pray each heart would receive a blessing through your word this morning. We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. So once again, let's turn to the book of Colossians. Picking up in Colossians chapter 3. Last week we talked a little bit about why Paul wrote the book of Colossians. We believe he was combating, at least to some degree, that he was combating the error of Gnosticism.

Anytime you read one of the New Testament epistles and you see the points that Paul or Peter is making, that kind of helps you figure out why they wrote in the first place because they're addressing common issues or things that have come up.

And this is true in sermons. When I pick a topic, it's because I saw this happen, so I'm preaching on this subject. Sometimes we go through a book and it's just whatever's next. But it's important we address relevant topics in the church, in the culture, and in our own lives.

So we'll see some relevant things come up this morning, I'm sure. So you're in Colossians chapter 3. We ended last time talking about the peace of God. And I said you cannot have the peace of God until what?

Until you first experience the peace with God. So you need peace with God before you can have the peace of God. People living in the world today don't have peace. Why? Because, well, one reason. The main reason is they don't know Christ.

And if you don't know Christ, you're not going to have peace. So we need to have peace with God. And how is peace with God accomplished? Back in chapter 1, Paul says it was through the cross. So peace has been made.

Man has been reconciled to God through the cross of Calvary. Look at Colossians 3 .15. It says, or Paul says, Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body. And be thankful.

So the peace of God, you could say, it's the knowledge that you are his child, that you have this security. You know, a little kid, all a little kid needs to know is, you know, do what mom and dad say.

And hey, trust mom and dad and they'll take care of everything. Well, in some ways, that's really what we need to know. That's all we need to know. Obey God, do what God says and let him, let him work it out.

That's a simple way to look at it. So this is where we get our peace, that we are God's children. Now, another reason why people don't have peace, and sometimes this can even affect Christians, is because people fear death, right?

People fear death. So let's go to Hebrews chapter 2. And this is one of those relevant things, because in the past two years or so, the world has been afraid of death, right? Hebrews chapter 2, we're going to look at this passage where Satan actually uses the fear of death to control people.

And that's, I think, a safe thing to say that Satan has kind of tightened his grip on the world recently. We know the verses, right? Second Timothy 1, 7. Who knows that verse? Well, I know you know it, but okay.

Heidi.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love in the Lord's coming home. All right, amen. So we've got two of you who know it.

Three. What is it? God has not given us a spirit of fear. And then there's another verse, 1 John 4, 18. Perfect love casts out fear, but Satan will use fear, specifically the fear of death to keep people in bondage.

He controls people that way. Look at Hebrews 2, starting in verse 10. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation.

Perfect through suffering. Speaking of Jesus, of course, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly.

I will sing praise to you. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I, or here am I and the children whom God has given me. And that's just for context. Look at verse 14. In as much then, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, that he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him.

Speaking of the devil, that Christ might destroy the devil who had the power of death, right? The devil, verse 15, and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

So in other words, Satan controls people through the fear of death, but Christ has kind of broken that spell. Why? Because death has been defeated. Death has been conquered.

Marcus. Well, I haven't noticed this. It's my impression that the Lord is the one who holds the keys to death and hell. This almost sounds like Satan has that power, but I don't believe he does.

Yeah, in Revelation chapter 1, Jesus, I was dead. I'm alive. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and hell. Right? So the way I look at it, Satan had control. He's the God of this world.

He's controlling the world. He has most people in the world under his dominion, but Christ in the resurrection broke that. So now Christ has that power, but Satan still has that power, I think, for the unsaved world.

I don't know if that helps with your question. Jesus has the keys of death. Nobody is going to die unless the Lord says so or the Lord allows it.

I think I'm just mostly trying to make it clear in case this was somebody's thinking. Because another verse came to mind, Ezekiel 18 where God says, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

But if all souls are God's, then He's the one that gives life and He is the one that takes it away. I mean, even to the point I think of, say somebody wants to commit suicide, I believe He can intervene there.

Yeah.

Any comments or questions on this? So let me just read this verse again. Inasmuch, verse 14,. Then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject in bondage.

So Christians don't need to fear death because Christ has conquered death. And that's something that cannot be said about any other religion because all the founders of all the world's religions, they're all what?

They're all dead. But Jesus is alive. Christianity is completely unique in that regard. Okay, let's go back to Colossians 3, verse 16. So the people...

The death that's referred to in Hebrews is the final death. Okay. If you're not saved, death is going to rule in your life, or rule, and you're going to be eternally separated. That's the death that's referred to, I think, in this verse.

Okay. Marcus. And also, I thought of it along the lines that... I mean, all human beings are born spiritually dead. That's why they have to be born again. They have to be born of the Spirit. So, in a way, that is true.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't fear death. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm a little concerned how I might die. You know, that's... But as far as death itself, if you truly believe that Jesus rose from the dead and has saved your soul, you should have no fear of death.

Because it's not really death. You just pass from here to life everlasting. Okay, Colossians 3, verse 16. And this is why Christian fellowship... Christian fellowship, the church... This is so important because we encourage one another and remind ourselves, remind each other of these things.

Look at Colossians 3, 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. So, the word of Christ, what is that a reference to?

The word of Christ. Now, you might think, well, these are just the things that Jesus said. Well, yeah, obviously. But it's more than that. The word of Christ is a reference to what? Right. Scripture as a whole.

If you've been coming on Wednesday nights, you know that going through the book of Exodus, going through the book of Numbers, it's all about Him. The Old Testament... The whole Bible is about Jesus Christ.

So, it doesn't matter what book of the Bible, it's still... It can be said that it is the word of Christ. So, Christ is the central figure in the scripture. And the word of Christ should not only dwell in us, it says it should dwell in us what?

Richly. What does that mean? We think of rich, we think of someone who has a lot of money. Well, that's not what it's talking about here. Dwell in you richly means abundantly. Maybe that's some of your translations.

It will say that. The word of Christ, the scripture, should dwell in us abundantly. And when something dwells in us abundantly, it's overflowing. So, if the word of God is in you and it's abundant, it's going to come out.

And that's the idea here. It should just come out in day-to-day life. Not just on Sunday morning, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yes.

I was thinking the word saturated. Saturated, that's another good word. If it's saturated, it's likely to ooze out a little.

Yeah, when I think of something saturated, it's just there, it's just laying there, it's just wet. Overflowing, it's coming out. This is the idea that you have the word of God within you and, hey, I want to talk to you about the word of God.

I want to talk to you about Christ. Nope. Yeah. Nope. So, it should dwell in us abundantly. If you only have a little bit, let's say you only have a little and it's in here. Well, you can keep that down.

You can keep it quiet. But if it's abundant, then it's just coming out. Let me use this illustration. If someone is a football fan, and you know what the word fan means or where it comes from. Sure. Fanatic, right?

So, if somebody's a fanatic about anything, but let's just use football. If somebody is a football fan, you're going to know it, right? Because they're always talking about it. Sunday, you know where they're going to be, right?

They're in the recliner watching football or whatever, and they might even wear the jersey. But you're going to know that they're a football fanatic. It's going to come out. That's the way it should be with every believer.

It's not that way necessarily with every believer, but it should be that way with every believer because the word of God should dwell in us richly. I think some people have the idea, well, I want the idea that I'm going to heaven.

You know, I want to have some spirituality. I do want to go to heaven, but I don't want to take it that seriously. I don't want to be one of those people. That's the way some people would look at some of us, right?

We want to be one of those people, okay? All right. So verse 19, it gets into because if it's not about Jesus, it's going to be something about something else. If Jesus isn't controlling your life, it will be about whatever the other thing is.

And that other thing is going to die. That other thing is going to cease to exist one of these days. All right. Ephesians 5, 19, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Now the subject of music comes up, and I think that music is one of the most controversial subjects you can get into in a Sunday school class. You would think it would be about maybe something else, but like music and dress and that kind of thing, and something else we're going to look at in a few minutes.

These are some of the more controversial subjects. What about music? What does Paul say? He kind of breaks it down into three categories. The music that Christians would sing or should sing, what are they?

Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So what are the differences between these three things? Who wants to explain to the class what's the difference between a psalm, a hymn, and a spiritual song? I'll be impressed if you can.

I'm not even sure I got the differences here. The first one's easy. We know what the psalms are. You can turn to the book of Psalms, and there's Psalm 23, Psalm 24. And the thing about the Israelites, they would sing the psalms.

The psalms are poems, but they're songs in a sense because they would sing them. So sing the psalms. That's simple. And there are churches, New Testament churches, that actually sing the psalms. I don't remember us ever doing it.

I'm sure it's probably happened at some point. The problem with Western culture is we like our music to rhyme. And the psalms don't really rhyme. They don't really rhyme in English. Yeah, well, maybe they rhyme in Hebrew.

I don't know, but they don't.

It's got a different meter than what poetry is.

But if you can sing the psalms, great. So the quartet, hey, if you can pull that off, great.

That's what we were doing on Wednesday night. There were a few of the psalms we were singing were psalms, taken from the psalms. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, good point.

And then hymns. We think of the hymns of blessed assurance and amazing grace. And the modern hymns are structured in such a way where they're easy to remember and easy for everybody to sing together. And I'm a big believer in congregational singing because worship should be all of us together worshiping God.

But obviously, hymns here is not referring to modern hymns. So we know what the psalms are. What's the difference between a hymn back in the first century and a spiritual song? All right, last chance.

Anyone to really wow the class if you can explain the difference?

Yes, Carolyn. Spiritual is from the heart. Okay. Particularly living in the South, you hear a lot of the old spiritual songs coming out. Yeah. And they tell the stories.

Yeah, of what they went through. Yes. Right, okay. She's on the right track here, I think. So Pastor John MacArthur says this about hymns. He says, a hymn is a reference to a song of praise distinguished from the psalms.

Okay. What about spiritual songs? He says that a spiritual song is probably a personal testimony expressing truths of the grace of salvation in Christ. But if you just think of it as a personal testimony, you're singing about what God has done in your life.

And it is from the heart. So excellent answer. All right. Any other comments or anything else with music? If you have anything to say or anything to add, now is the time to do it before we move on. I'll just say one last thing about music.

I don't really have, well, I guess I do prefer the hymns because it's what I was brought up with, and I really love the hymns. Singing the psalms, great. Modern praise music or spiritual songs, great.

We just want to make sure they're God-honoring. Christ needs to be the focus. God needs to be the focus where so much of the modern music is man-focused. And it's so vague. This is the thing that sort of bothers me a little bit of why I don't think it should be brought into churches necessarily.

It's because it's so vague. And it could be about, you've heard this before, it could be about somebody's boyfriend or girlfriend if you just swap out like one word. Maybe not even swap out the word because it's just not, it's not clear.

All right. Look at verse 17. So have the word of God dwelling in you richly. And now he says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through him.

So whatever you do, which includes what? Everything. Everything you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of Christ. So the Christianity that we're reading about is not what some people call weekend Christianity.

We're on Sunday morning. It's I got my Bible and I prayed and praise God, but you forget about it until next Sunday. Everything we do should be in the name of the Lord. What does that mean? Can someone give a practical example?

That doesn't necessarily mean that every five minutes you need to bring up the name Jesus necessarily.

But how does this affect your life? Your actions would determine what this verse is saying. And you can't, not everything in your life is going to be God honoring. Right. Your thoughts, your actions, because the world sometimes has a way of creeping in.

So the point I think Paul was making is, is that you need to set that aside and think in spiritual terms always. Yeah.

Spiritual terms always. And it goes down to the practical areas of life that we're going to get into next. We're going to talk about the Christian home. Talks about wives submitting to their husbands.

Well, a lot of women don't want to do that. But if the word of God is dwelling within you richly and you're doing it for the Lord's sake, then even if you don't think, well, my husband isn't upholding his end.

Why should I do that? Well, yeah, that's the wrong way of looking at it, because it's for the Lord's sake. All that you do, right? Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Or if a husband is frustrated and he's not maybe doing what he should do and he has his complaints. Well, you need to love your wife and be gentle because that's what the Lord says. Or in the workplace, you do a good job at work.

You work hard. And you might think not so highly of your boss or you feel like your employer is taking advantage of you. Well, that might be true, but you're doing it for what? The Lord's sake. So do a good job at work.

Why? Because whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. So you're doing it for Christ's sake. So do your best and do the right thing. That applies to every area of life.

Okay. Any final comments before we move on to the next section? Okay. So the Christian faith isn't just something that we do on Sunday morning. It should permeate everything. It's not just in the church house.

It should be in your house. And that's why the apostle now, I think, gets into God's plan for the home and for the family. Look at verse 18. Wives submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children obey your parents and all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers do not provoke your children. And another passage says, don't provoke them to wrath.

Lest they become discouraged. So this is practical advice for the home. You want God to bless your home. This is how it's done. Why is Paul writing this? Because he knows that people really aren't doing it this way.

So why does Paul say this? Because people need to be taught. And even if you while I've heard this before, well, we need reminders, right? So this is God's will. And it is fitting and well pleasing to the Lord.

Now, I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying that three out of the four of these admonitions are still culturally acceptable. Three out of four. The average person out there. OK, I either agree with that or I can.

I can see that. I can go along with that. There is one that is no longer culturally acceptable. Which one is that? First, 18 wives submit to your own husband as is fitting in the Lord. Is that am I going out on a limb saying that that's not?

Yes. No, I'm not going.

OK. Yeah, I saw a hand. I remember Larry said if husbands were doing their part, then wives wouldn't have to be told to submit to him.

I think that's true to a large degree. Because this what happens is you you end up in this cycle where the husband isn't doing his part. He is bitter. He isn't loving his wife as he should. And that makes her a lot less interested in submitting.

But then she's not submitting. So it's harder for her to love. And it just. Yeah. So somebody has to break the cycle. And all it takes is one person to say, OK, you're not holding up your end. And it's not necessarily helpful to, hey, point that out because that could just inflame things.

You do your part and then see six months from now if anything's changed. I mean, that, I think, is the way to do it. But, yeah, obviously, some of these things are still viewed as, if not acceptable, a good even from the world's point of view.

Children obey your parents in all things. I've never met parents who say, you know, I just wish my children would disobey more. I just love it when they rebel and don't do what I say. Has anyone ever said that?

I don't. Maybe. Yeah. But husbands love your wives. OK, well, there's plenty who are not doing that the way they should. And the thing about that is in Ephesians, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.

That is a high standard. You could argue that it's an impossible standard, but that's a standard we should try to live up to. So husbands love your wives. I don't think there's anyone saying that. No, husbands don't need to love their wives.

Again, I don't think there's anyone saying that. Fathers do not provoke your children. What would it look like to provoke your children? A father who provokes their child is they're just they're on their case all the time.

They never encourage them. They never say, hey, good job. It's just criticism. They're looking to punish them. They're looking to say something mean spirited. And that makes the child, you know, act out eventually.

So all of these things are problems that we can say, hey, yeah, you shouldn't do that or you shouldn't do this. So just to kind of summarize this section, you know, what does the Bible say? All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

And nobody's measured up to these things. So the key is break the cycle and forgive. If the other spouse hasn't done with it, forgive them. You do the right thing and vice versa. That's what Christ does.

That's what Christ did. You haven't measured. I haven't measured up, but thank God he's forgiven me. Amen. So that's part of our sinful nature to not want to submit. And the Bible also says submit one to another right in the in the assembly in church.

We ought to put other people first. Maybe I want it done a certain way. But, you know, for the sake of someone else, we're going to. OK, let's let's let you do this, you know, this way. So submit to one another.

And, of course, there's admonitions about submitting to the governing authorities. And this now gets into the workplace. That's at least the application we're going to look at. Verse 22 bond servants obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh.

Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. So you may be working for your boss. Yeah. But really, you're working.

You're working for the Lord, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. But what does he mean when he talks about it? Not with eye service.

OK, obey your masters and all things, but not with eye service. Well, in other words, don't just work hard to be seen when the boss is watching. You know, there are people who they're really good workers when the boss is there, when they're being observed.

But once the boss is gone, then it's a it's a whole other story. I probably shouldn't even relate this to you, but I've repented of this many years ago. OK, so I used to work at a job where the boss would drive through.

We would have a crew working and he would just drive through slowly and just have his head out the windows, like watching, just like looking. And it kind of bothered everybody. Yeah, you drive by and you check out what's happening.

See where we're at. Fine. But he just felt like he would just like just stare at what you're doing. So nobody liked that. So whenever he would do that and leave, then everyone is a written rule, unwritten rule.

OK, five minute break. Every time he comes and does that, we're stopping and taking five minutes. The same thing with a cruiser.

Unless we go around the block, you'd be surprised what you see.

But that was wrong. OK, that was the wrong thing to do. He was the boss. He had every he could stand there all day and watch us if he wanted to. So I, I repent of that. OK, but this is the idea that Paul says, you know, work hard.

Yeah. Do what your master says or do what your boss says, because ultimately, who are you doing it for the Lord? And if you slough off and you're a lousy worker and they know you're a Christian, what does that say?

Well, all these Christians are just lazy and they don't do a good job. So it's a bad testimony. So that's really what he's getting at now. We only have five minutes left. But the original context here was one controversial subject after another.

The original context is obviously slavery, because slavery did exist in the ancient world. And I guess there's probably places where it still exists. Going over into chapter four, look at Colossians chapter four, verse one.

So people who hate Christianity or are critics of the Bible, they'll say, well, look at this. The Bible endorses slavery. Paul is telling slaves they need to do what their master says. Well, that is what he said.

That is what he said. But now he has some work. He's not endorsing slavery. Slavery was something that existed. And he's giving advice. Now he has some advice for the masters. Look at what he says. Colossians four, verse one.

Masters, give your bond servants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. There's a book in the New Testament titled Philemon. How many of you have read Philemon? Well, here's an instance where there's this man, Onesimus.

And Paul actually mentions Onesimus in verse nine of chapter four. But Onesimus was a slave and he had his master Philemon. Now Philemon got saved by the apostle Paul. And something happened where Onesimus, it looks like he stole something and took off.

And wouldn't you know who Onesimus runs into? He runs into Paul, who knows Philemon. Long story short, Paul actually, well, he converts Onesimus to Christ and he encourages him and trains him a little bit.

But he tells Onesimus to go back to Philemon. Now that would make some people mad, right? Why would you send him back to the master? But Paul wrote the book of Philemon and said to Philemon, the slave master.

He said, you know, I'm summarizing, paraphrasing what he says to Philemon. He's like, you know, I could command you to do the right thing. But I'm just going to trust that you're going to do what's right, like not giving him a choice, really.

So he sends Onesimus back and he tells Philemon, receive him back, but not as a slave. Receive him back as a beloved brother. So the thing about Christianity is it breaks down these worldly sinful structures of injustice to where now in Christ, Philemon and Onesimus are no longer master and slave.

Now they're brethren. Now they're on the same level. And if people would just put biblical principles into practice, then all that sinful worldliness will break down. And of course, that's thankfully what happened in this country and many, many others.

So the bottom line, if we do things God's way, that's the best way. You want to be blessed, do things God's way. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for each one who's come out on this Easter and Resurrection Sunday.

Lord, we pray that hearts would be touched through the ministry of the word, through the songs, through prayer and through Christian fellowship. We thank you for this day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.

We thank you again in Jesus name. Amen.