Colossians 2 — Robert F. Adcock

Christ Loved the Church and the Meaning of Ecclesia

I'd like for us to turn, to begin with, to Colossians, chapter 2. If you were here last week, our brother Brian Stewart introduced us to this subject of Christ loved the church. And what we're endeavoring to do is to review and go over what we believe are very important parts of the whole doctrine of the church, teaching regarding, as our brother started out last week, reminding us and describing for us what the church is all about, how you would define it.

And he did give us a good start. We're taking some of the material and the outlines from this book, and I ask if any of you would like to have it. And some hands were raised. Charles ordered some of these books.

They're on the table in the rear, and if you've never taken this, it's in the form of a Bible study from a Maus Bible course. And it's been around quite a while, been used very effectively, and a lot of folks have been helped by it.

So if you raised your hand, you'd like to have one. They're on the table back at the back. The downside of that is, put six bucks in the box. These things, we were a little shocked. This was a fairly old one, I think about three dollars for this.

The price has doubled. All printed material, as you well know, has gone up. So avail yourself of it. In Colossians, chapter 2, and I'd like to read verses 18 and 19. "'Let no man beguile you of your reward on a voluntary humility in worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together in creases with the increase of God.'".

I think I'll let that suffice for that reading right now. In the Ephesian epistle, I'd like for us to look at several passages, but if you recall, Brian made mention of the fact that this word ecclesia, a Greek word as I understand it, means assembly.

It describes that spiritual body of believers. It's made up of those that have been born again into the family of God, and they are placed in this spiritual body, the body of Christ. You must be born again.

If you want to get into this church fellowship, you've got to be born again. I thought about Romans 10 and 9, "'For thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord.'". This acknowledgment as an individual that our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of that title.

He is God manifest in flesh. His Lordship is something that we acknowledge gladly, but I don't want to take anything away from him. It seems strange that when you get into the whole matter of the headship of Christ, establish him from the scriptures as being the head of the spiritual body.

It's a spiritual body with many members, and Christ is the head. We have the mind of Christ. We receive our instructions through this person, our Lord Jesus Christ. How to behave ourselves in the house of God, how to keep your feet on the pathway of righteousness for his namesake.

It's important to acknowledge that. I believe I will right now just turn to Ephesians 1, verse 22. Here we have, if you have a Scofield Bible, it is titled, Christ as the exalted head of his body, the church, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Christ Alone Is the Head of the Spiritual Body

Now, Brother McDonnell, in approaching and dealing with this subject, makes mention of the fact that something has happened. Men are not satisfied with what the scripture says about this matter of Christ being the head of the body, the church.

You know, it's a strange thing, but I read some comment where there is no more ignorance around, as far as spiritual things are concerned, as exists in this one area of the church, the body of Christ and him as its head, and individuals as its members.

A lot of strange stuff has been introduced into the picture. It goes way back. You take one of the largest, best organized, I suppose, religious groups in the whole world. They have established somebody as being head of the church.

They've given him a title, they've given him a position, they've given him authority, they have vested in him the kind of authority that, indeed, seems almost unreal. Because this body of Christ is made up of spiritual members, and every member in that body has a role and a part to play, but it is not the head.

The head is already in place. That's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it strange that already someone, this goes back several hundred years now, goes back quite a while, that someone would establish a human being in that role of being the head of the body, the church?

And, of course, they have developed out of all of this a number of different groups of believers, so-called. I'll use that expression. But it seems like it has an appeal to man, natural man, human speaking, to place someone, another human being, in a role that is only reserved for the Son of God.

You know he can't do it. He can't do it. You see, they are doing it, they are making a very feeble attempt at it. Around the throne of God in heaven, it is well known who is the head of this spiritual body.

If you are not here tonight, aren't you thankful you know who is the head, and you are not bowing your knee to a man, and you are not giving place to a person that doesn't deserve that place, nor that title.

If someone were to tell you or me, we are going to install you and put you in that place as the head of that particular body, that religious body, I would run. I would flee, because it is just abhorrent to think of someone, a human being, taking upon himself.

And think about it now, it is with the endorsement and approval of so many people that have believed a lie, when it is so plainly taught in Scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the spiritual body.

The spiritual body being the assembly, the church, made up of individual members, and of each member making a contribution. Let's turn to the 4th chapter. This will enlarge somewhat on this, Ephesians 4, and verse 15, it says, 15 But thinking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Every Member Has a Function in Christ's Body

Now I know what I do in the body. I am a member, I'm there, I can make a contribution. I am looked upon and described here as a joint that supplieth a need to the body. That's one of the tragic things today in the body of Christ, that there are those that do not recognize their role as a joint that can supply something that is sorely needed in the body, and it's not being provided.

And I'll tell you what, when one member in the body doesn't function and work right, the whole body knows all about it, and it suffers from it. I've watched some people with strokes, and it's a sad thing.

Here's a member who looks perfectly normal, everything looks all right, but it won't work. It just won't work. It won't do what it's supposed to do. The hand won't do what it's supposed to do. The arm won't do.

The leg won't move. Isn't it sad that we have that condition in the body of Christ today? There are members that are joints that should be supplying, working very effectually in a way that would bring about increased edifying and building up of the body, but they're not doing it.

Let somebody else do it. That's not my gift. Oh, you just get so many answers that are really not legitimate, and it's not scriptural, because it says every joint, every joint, every one of us as a member in the body of Jesus Christ have a role that we're to play.

Brother and sister, we'd better do what he has equipped us to do. Don't try to do something he didn't equip you to do, but do what he equipped you to do. And always keeping foremost in your mind, I know who my boss is, I know who is the head of this body, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ's Preeminence Over Human Organization

In the Colossian epistle, the Apostle Paul puts a strong emphasis upon the person of the Lord Jesus receiving the place that is first the pre-eminent place. If anybody is going to be seen, if anybody is going to be exalted, it's him, not another man, not men, not women that are a part of this spiritual body.

Now, when you think about human organization and you sometimes wonder, how did men first get off of track as far as establishing things that are not true to the Word of God? Well, they didn't use the Word of God as a guide.

They didn't use the Word to establish what was set down at that time as being correct, that was appropriate, was according to the truth that God would have you and me to practice in this matter of being a member of the body.

Anybody ought to recognize pretty soon on that human headship is not according to Scripture. The exaltation of a man and giving a man a prominent place, it may be in that place that I referred to where this individual is really exalted and given a special place.

He is reverenced. He is identified as being holy, and would to God that that's true, I don't know. I know one thing, he's out of place when he claims that he is the head of the church, and anyone associated with him claims that he's head of the church.

You know, if you and I, and there's not a theologian in the group, if you and I can read these things and interpret them aright, they can, too. That particular religious organization has some very prominent theologians in their midst, and they know better than that.

But here we have human headship, but according to the Word of God, that's not accepted. There's no such office open to man. There's nothing in the Scripture that says it's there for man, and he should desire to be the head of the body.

I'm going to say this, I've seen some preachers that would scramble around like they wanted to be a head of the body. They want to tell everybody else what to do. And that's sad, but that's happening all over.

I'm acquainted personally with some of that. I know some people, and I thank God I'm not associated with them, and I don't have to be a part of it. And people cry about it and talk about what this individual has done.

You know, if you read that passage there in 3 John, it's in the 9th and 10th verses about this solidiotrophies. He wanted the first place in the assembly. He wasn't going to stand for anybody to make a decision that he didn't approve of.

Do you know there are preachers like that today that so control and rule a local body of believers that nobody dare do anything unless they ask him? They won't have it any other way. Now, Brother, if you think I'm exaggerating, you just haven't been there, and you just don't know what happens in some of these places.

I've had people talk to me about this and weep. Why do they do that? That's not right, and he has hurt us by what he's done. And finally, some men, some people have to get together, and you have a big blowout about it, and they get rid of this fellow, and they go out and hire somebody else.

A lot of times he comes in with about the same attitude. That's bad, but that's true, and that's what's happening so often in Christendom today. There's only one body. You say, well, we've got many local churches.

That's true, but there's only one body. Part of that body is already home in glory. In fact, someone has remarked something about the church going through the tribulation period. Well, that's true. I would think it would be safe to say that most of the church, the body is already at home.

Are they going to be brought back to this place on earth and go through the tribulation period? I don't think so. I think we're going to be delivered out of here very soon. I believe that that one body with the one head is so well-established in Scripture that that's exactly what God had planned and purposed, and that's what he wants us to acknowledge.

Brother and sister, don't bow the knee to no man. No man. Don't bow the knee. Don't even begin to give someone the opinion that they have that kind of authority over the people of God. It doesn't need a human name, and yet many people seem to be very comfortable with taking another name other than the name of Christ.

Isn't that strange? They wouldn't want to call themselves, I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and immediately if you ask someone about the matter of their spiritual status, well, I'm a you put the name in there, and you say, well, I'm going to tell you something.

I don't believe that has anything to do with it, really. I ask you a question. Are you a Christian? Are you a true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ? And you may be a member of something that I never heard of, and that won't make a bit of difference.

But I'll tell you something that makes all the difference in the world, and that is whether you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord or not. And it does matter if you acknowledge him as Lord.

He is the Lord Jesus Christ. God has raised him from the dead. There is authority and power in him, and that's God's plan and purpose. And I thank God tonight that we believe it from the Word of God. We take no human name.

Gathering in Christ's Name and Rejecting Human Authority

Matthew 18 .20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. He's here, brother. That's what I believe. We've gathered together to the person and the name of our Lord Jesus tonight for prayer, and he's here.

The Lord Jesus Christ is here. I believe that. And it's comforting, and it certainly adds an air of mystery, but it's real. It's real. It's not something in fantasy world. It's according to the scripture.

And we're not ruled by human government. The order that we have in scripture is so well established on how to order the affairs of a local assembly, it's in the Word of God, how spiritual leaders are raised up, and how they are.

We were talking about this even today. The human leaders are servants, that's all they are. They are servants. We've got seed boys, and we've got water boys, and we've got servants. Servants of the true and the living God.

Not some exalted place, but serving every member in the body. The assembly is to be governed by thus saith the Word of God. No human authority, no human head, no human pattern. We simply gather together again to that person, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I tell you, I wouldn't want to go to a place that he wasn't acknowledged to be in there. We're going to meet with the Lord. We're going to sing hymns of praise to him, his name being the preeminent name.

Some pattern being established whereby certain rituals, certain things that are even the kind of importance is attached to them, and unless you do this, you're not well-pleasing to the Lord. And it's maybe human ordination or something else that man has introduced into the whole scheme of things.

It's not controlled by human ritual. I think about the priesthood of the believer. Turn to 1 Peter, chapter 2, and let's look at that just for a moment. This is what we believe, brother. This is what we believe, and this is what we rejoice in, that this truth has been shared with us.

I know men, I know people, I know one woman in particular that was isolated and read the Word of God. Now, this just tells you the power of the Spirit of God in being able to teach. That dear lady learned to the letter what God had planned and purposed in the person of Christ as to the establishment of the local church and the universal church, and that it was comprised of living numbers, and those numbers were found.

This lady did this all on her own. She didn't have any help. She had the Word of God. The Spirit of God was helping her as her teacher. But listen to this passage, and this certainly is something that's comforting.

The Believer as a Holy and Royal Priesthood

Let's read from the first verse. This spirit, wherefore, lay inside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, that newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that she may grow thereby.

If so be ye if tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as living stones or lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood.".

That's what we are. We're a holy priesthood, sanctified, set apart from judgment, set apart for a purpose. A blessing to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also it is contained in the Scriptures, Behold, I lay in thine a chief cornerstone elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.

But ye, thank God for this, you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

What does the thought of a priest bring to your mind? I'm thinking about somebody that goes into the very presence of God. I think about that great day of atonement when the priest, the high priest, went right into the Holy of Holies.

You know, that's what we can do. We can go into the very presence of God. You don't have to ask me. I don't have to ask you. All I've got to do is get on my knees and say, Lord, I want to have some sweet fellowship with you.

I want to tell all my troubles to you. I want to praise you. I want to worship you. And as a royal priest, I function and I praise God, and I give the person of our Lord Jesus Christ his rightful place, first place.

Head of the body. Well, this is just an introduction to this. Brian will be back with further studies concerning the Church, the body, and then there will be others on Wednesday evening that will be taking up further studies in this book, Christ Love the Church.

So if you'd like to have one, get it and use it.