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Thank You and Good Afternoon! It’s good to be here as opposed to where else, I’m not real
sure yet. But at least I’m here. We’ve been sharing with the entire time I’ve been here; our
fourth session I suppose and we’ve been sharing on the gospel of peace. The Gospel of Peace
for me has been the pivotal point of the change of understanding in my heart of what the Gospel
is. Number one; there’s only two things called the gospel in the New Testament; one is called
the Gospel of Peace and the other is called the Gospel of the Grace of God.
The Gospel of Peace is very specific in its understanding in that it is the gospel of the cessation
of hostilities. It’s good news. There’s no more hostility. Good news there is no more anger
coming from God to this earth.
Now, we’ve covered this in entire chapters up to this point and I think that we have seen that
Jesus really did become that lightning rod of the ages for the anger and the wrath of god; that
great day of judgment; that great day of wrath when God would punish the sin of the whole
world. That really did culminate at the cross of Jesus Christ.
You know, we’ve talked about it, even on the sides. Some folks have asked some questions
about judgment day that is coming and I really don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m not trying
to teach on future events. I don’t understand future events. I know there are a lot of people who
do understand everything about the future; however I’m not one of those. I find it difficult to
find a day of judgment that supersedes the ‘day of judgment’ that took place at the cross of
Jesus Christ. I find it difficult to find a day when God would deal with sin, sometime in the
future; sins that he failed to deal with at the cross of Jesus Christ.
So what we’re beginning to at least look at and we have seen that this indeed has been stated
repeatedly, consistently and persistently in the Old Testament and also in Paul’s teachings in the
New Testament. Jesus own declaration that he was here to bear the judgment of God. He was
here for judgment. That is what he came here for. He didn’t come here to judge but he was
here for the main purpose of judgment. And we find out that he then took that judgment as it
says upon himself.
This message of that freedom from judgment has somehow like a rock skipped across the water
and has bounced away from modern day Christianity. We have mixed into the preaching of the
gospel this incredible good news and then this incredible bad news. It’s almost a threat. If you
don’t believe in Jesus, you’re going to get it. That’s kind of a difficult concept; you know that
Jesus has offered us all this love and this redemption and it’s all free BUT if you don’t believe
it, he’s just going to beat the daylights out of you someday. In fact, it’s not just someday. He’s
going to punish you throughout all eternity.
My mind and heart has conflict with that. I don’t know about yours. I’m not telling you I have
all the answers to that but I would much rather open my mind to the possibility that Jesus has
done a tremendous amount more than what we give him credit for when he went to the cross. I
did not give him the credit due him for many, many years. I believe that we are all in error to
some degree. I do not believe that I have met a person that is not in what is defined as error.
What is error? Error is believing something that isn’t exactly true. And I am letting you know
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that I am not in a position of telling you that I am absolutely convinced that everything I’ve
believed is absolutely correct because I have changed my mind too many times up to this point.
And I’m looking forward to changing my mind probably a few more times in the future in my
growth in grace and truth. How can you grow in grace and in truth and in the knowledge of
Jesus Christ and not change your mind about things?
However, religion seems to want to captivate us to a doctrine that says you can’t think any
different than this; you can’t grow any more than this; this is where you are; this is where
you’ve got to stay. Then as you begin to be confined into certain religious doctrines and
structures, your heart begins to say, but I’m beginning to feel this; I’m beginning to think this
but it doesn’t fit the doctrine.
Anyone here been in an association or group where that they had everything figured out but
suddenly your heart began to say, something is wrong, something is wrong. Did anybody get
ostracized because you decided something was wrong? Well, I think there were two of you that
went through that type of situation. Folks, it doesn’t make any difference. It doesn’t make any
difference what group you’re in and it makes no difference what religion you’re in; Christian or
what else. If you ever begin to think on your own, you will very rarely fit comfortably in any
religious organization. If you actually have ideas, thoughts, feelings and expressions that you
need to express and if you want to be an individual, you will rarely fit comfortably in what we
know as Christian organizations, Buddhist organizations, or even Satanic organizations. It
seems that you have to believe what the group believes.
And what we’re proclaiming to you, we’re hoping is going to help you experience the freedom
of expressing some of the thoughts and the feelings and the things that you thought all this time.
One of the things I really enjoy getting responses from people is when I stand up and I share
something and as my mind changes about things and I share it and I think, oh God, this is it.
They’re going to burn me at the stake for sharing this one. But I’m sorry. I can’t keep from it. I
have to follow my heart whether I’m wrong or not. I have discovered the greatest joy in
knowing Christ is that I’m free to be wrong. I don’t have to be right and in that freedom, I can
grow and understand more and more. Some people freak out at fact that I say I’m free to be
wrong. Well, if I wasn’t free to be wrong, I could never put up with you guys. You know.
Let’s face it. But in that freedom to be wrong, all the barriers drop down; then we can begin to
entertain some things.
How many of you believe there is room for learning more and understanding more of what
Jesus did for us at the cross? How many of you believe he did more than what we think he did?
How many of you believe he could have done it for people we think he left out? Well, every
group leaves somebody out.
Believe me! In some groups, just because I shave my head, believe me I’m going straight to
hell. That’s for sure. But I never will forget when I first did this, five years ago, getting the
letters and things, it was so funny. We sent out the mailing list and I had my new picture in
there. It was incredible. There was some little Grandma with tear stains on the letter saying that
oh we can see there’s something spiritually wrong with Bro. Mike. There’s something
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spiritually wrong. We can see it. We had some of them come back with horns drawn on my
head. We had one lady that wrote back and said, “You scared my son.” He’s seven years old
and he looked at that picture and said, “Mommy, is that Satan?” I wanted to write back and say,
you know, I’m not so upset that he thought I was Satan. I’m more upset that you gave him that
image that Satan was something that looked like that.” You know! I’m more upset that you
would have caused him to become so narrow minded that he couldn’t have a concept of his
own. That’s what I’m more upset about. Oh! I’ve been called worse things than Satan. Is
there a worse thing than Satan? I don’t know. Some of the names make you feel worse. That’s
for sure.
But this teaching that Paul gave, this Pauline doctrine of the gospel of peace, he was the one
who spoke of this gospel of peace which means the cessation of hostility between God and man.
And he brought it forth. He taught it out of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. He brought it out with
great clarity; unlike any of the other apostles had the ability to declare this incredible Gospel of
Peace. He is the one who constantly said, “Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father.”
And he wasn’t talking about a condition of a peaceful, tranquil heart; he was talking about
undeserved, unmerited favor for you from God; this Gospel of Peace.
Let yourselves know and be comforted in the fact that God is not angry with you. And he’s not
angry with anyone that you know. He is not angry with anyone that you know.
Now it’s real easy to prophesy when you get angry. Man I tell you what! We could prophesy!
The churches that I was in; all you had to do was to be upset with the congregation. Boy I tell
you. I was pastoring a church back in the early 80’s. If I ever got angry, it seemed like God got
angry too. You know what I mean? If I would get up to teach, it was like, I had my righteous
indignation on. God was just as upset as I was. So I got to blame it all on him. But as my heart
and understanding begin to grow in the gospel a little bit more, I begin to see that I was angry
but God wasn’t. And it was time that I stopped implicating him in my own anger.
Now, this did cause a great conflict when Paul speaks of the great conflict that took place in his
surroundings and in his time of teaching. He said in the book of Acts, “The reason I am in
trouble is because that I preach that a man is justified by faith without works.” He said, “That’s
the whole reason I’m in trouble.” There’s not any other reason. And Paul’s preaching that God
was not angry was even contradicting much and in many times even what Jesus own disciples
were saying. You say, “Oh my gosh. He just said Jesus own disciples were wrong.” Well if
you don’t know that by now then we have absolutely no foundation to go ahead. They admitted
themselves they were wrong for the first fifteen years after the death burial and resurrection of
Jesus. They didn’t know the Gospel was for the whole world. They thought it was just for
Jews.
Remember! Jesus had to let down a sheet from heaven with all manner of four footed beasts in
it and he said, “Rise kill and eat.” And Peter said, “No way. I’m not going to.” He told Jesus
no three times and out of that revelation though, Peter had to go back to the church and say,
“Hey guys. I found something out. Jesus appeared to me and let me know that he did this not
just for Jews but he told me don’t call unclean what I have cleansed. Now he was referring to
the entire world folks!
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You know we are still in the Christian world calling unclean what God has cleansed. They may
not have believed yet. They may not have the knowledge yet. But we have got to stop calling
unclean that which God has already cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
I know this is a Gospel Revolution for many peoples’ hearts and minds. It’s a Gospel
Revolution for me. But I believe I have just begun to conceive some of the wonderful things
God has accomplished through his Son at the cross.
Going back into Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel and seeing what they prophesied would
happen; has happened. And it was completed at the cross of Jesus Christ. This conflict that
Paul had; this gospel that was preached when Paul had to be taken into the wilderness after
Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus; this gospel that Paul preached did not bring
conflict between himself and immoral people. It didn’t bring conflict between him and
prostitutes; the gospel Paul preached did not bring conflict between himself and homosexuals; it
brought conflict between himself and people who believed in Christ but held on to the law of the
old covenant to prove they were Christians through the law.
Folks, I only have one proof that I’m redeemed and that is the blood of the lamb. (and the fact
that my head is shaved) When I see a shaved head; man I know. That’s a saved person. Boy I
tell you! That is ultimate salvation there. (chuckle)
But this conflict, this incredible conflict; do you know that in the modern day Christian world,
most people have never seen the conflict that the Gospel brought in its’ time. We see the
Gospel in conflict with abortion; we see the Gospel in conflict with the gays; we see the Gospel
in conflict with gambling; we see the Gospel in conflict with young people who wear their hair
pink, purple, and yellow; we see the Gospel in conflict with everything under the sun except
what the Gospel was in conflict with Paul preached it. The Gospel was not in conflict with any
of these things. It was in conflict with religious minded people who said, ‘yes we believe in
Jesus but you have to keep the law to be saved.’
Now! I have had the pleasure of experiencing a little bit of that conflict. Believe me it is not
the gay community who is protesting my meetings. It is not prostitutes that feel uncomfortable.
It’s not even atheists that feel uncomfortable in my meetings.
I told you the story the other day about the atheist, the Buddhist, and the scientist; sounds like
the beginning of a good joke, doesn’t it? We had an atheist, a Buddhist and a scientist sitting in
the room. I taught the Gospel for three days. They sat there and they were not offended at what
I had to say and listened. They saw that I was not challenging what they were thinking or what
they did not think. I just had some good news for them. It was good news. But there is a sector
of society, especially in North America, that opposes the Gospel. And most of it is called
Christianity; the Gospel. Christianity has taken on a form. Christianity has taken on a deviation
away from the Gospel to such extremes, that all we know of Christianity basically, is it is a
means of a good life. It’s the good life. You gotta live the good life. But there is something
much more to this Gospel than getting in a group and everybody trying to do right. There’s a
powerful revelation in this Gospel that I believe can bring an incredible revolution to this world
and affect every society on the face of planet earth. That’s my hope; maybe I’m delusional but
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that’s my goal. I believe with all my heart that this Gospel, as Paul said, is the power of God. It
is the power of God. I’m not trying to conjure up any power. It is the power of God.
Colossians 2: You’re going to find where this conflict was against the Gospel of Peace; against
the Gospel of Grace. You’ll see very clearly once we get in to it.
Colossians 2: 1 Paul said for I would that ye knew what great conflict I had for you and for
them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. He said, “I want you
to know, there’s a conflict that’s going on.”
Now, it’s going to be vitally important in this chapter that we maintain continuity as we read
through this chapter, verse by verse. Let’s see where the conflict is and then let’s stop and see if
Christianity is in conflict with the right thing or is Christianity now become the conflict of the
Gospel? He said, I want you to know about this conflict that I’ve had. He said there’s been a
terrible conflict. Now, if we go back and look at Paul’s history of his conflict, you’ll find no
place where he was accosted by immoral groups saying ‘we hate you because you are telling us
we’re going to hell. We don’t like you because you’re self righteous. We don’t like you
because you are condemning. We don’t like what you preach because you say these things and
it makes us feel guilty or condemned.’ You won’t find that.
Paul’s conflict was always with religious people; never with immoral people. Never! Modern
day Christianity has taken on an entire new motive for being around. We have become the
moral judges of the world. In fact, we even in the states, we even have the wonderful ordination
called, The Moral Majority, which has become one of the most self righteous, condemning
groups with an agenda that has absolutely no compassion on those who they are condemning;
none whatsoever. I regret to tell you I used to be a part of The Moral Majority but I repented.
(chuckle)
He said, the reason I want you to know about this conflict that took place in side of me-
Colossians 2: 2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all
riches of full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and
of the Father, and of Christ.
He said, the reason I want you to know about this conflict – there’s a conflict that I want you to
understand why I went through it; what was going on because if you understand the conflict, he
says it will help you to come together in love and he also said it would help you to come unto all
the riches of full assurance. This conflict, if you understand it, will take you past the doubts and
unbeliefs; the wondering as to whether or not you’re saved; wondering whether or not you’re
going to hell; wondering whether or not God loves you; wondering whether or not God has
abandoned you or whether or not you have committed the unpardonable sin or whether or
not….If you understand the true conflict, Paul said you can come to a full assurance that comes
through understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of
Christ. Paul also stated in one of his letters, “This is the mystery. This is the mystery that God
has brought righteousness to an ungodly world.” Folks, that is the mystery. That is the mystery
of Godliness. The mystery of Godliness is not that we know what is right and wrong; the
mystery of Godliness is that you become righteous outside of the laws of right and wrong.
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Now, can this revolutionize society? We are addicted to right and wrong. We are addicted to
control through right and wrong. You say, “Well you’re just saying that we should abandon all
laws.” Folks! In society, we need laws and rules. You need the RCMP. We need that.
We need that in society. What we do not need is Christianity preaching the rules that it takes to
have salvation with God. We do not need Christianity teaching….Folks! You can hear the
punishment that the Canadian government is going to give you and your penal system here is
going to incur upon you if you break certain laws. But that is not what the church is supposed to
be doing. The church is not supposed to be preaching what God is going to be punishing you
with if you do wrong and what he’s going to reward you with if you do right.
Jesus nailed all of those doctrines to the cross 2,000 years ago. And the glorious news is, as
David stated. Paul said the entire new covenant is based on one revelation that David had
several thousand years ago, after he had committed adultery, fornification, and murder and he
(David) got this great revelation. This revelation came to him and he said, “Blessed is the man
who God makes righteous who hasn’t done it right and blessed is the man who when he sins,
God doesn’t mark or count it against him at all.”
Now folks! Christianity doesn’t preach that. Christianity doesn’t preach that God makes people
righteous who are ungodly. Christianity doesn’t preach that when you do wrong, God doesn’t
mark it or hold it or count it against you. And Paul said, that is the fundamental basics of the
entire understanding of the new covenant. Some of you are sitting there thinking, “My God! If
what this man is saying is true, what we know as church today could fall apart completely.”
Let me continue. (Chuckle)
Colossians 2:2 He said, you would have this full assurance of understanding to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Colossians 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge.
Now, in Jesus is where all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge abide. Folks, if you want to
understand something, don’t leave the cross out of it. If you hear a good preaching about
judgment, leave out Jesus and you will miss the point. If you hear about all the things that God
wants to do in your life, leave out Jesus and you’ve missed the point. When you’ve been taught
about tithing to be blessed of God, you have missed the point. When we’ve been taught about
what to do to keep God from judging us, we’ve missed the point, we’ve missed the cross of
Jesus Christ. There’s only one thing that keeps God’s judgment off of your life or anyone else’s
and that is the cross of Calvary.
Colossians 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
Isn’t this incredible! He said the reason I’ve told you this; the reason I want you to know this
conflict; what it’s all about. He said if you don’t know it, there are men out there who will
entice you with beguiling words; deceiving nice sounding words. Now folks, it’s nice to be
taught that if you do this, God’s going to do all of these things for you. But you see, on the
other side of the coin, you cannot preach and teach that God is going to bless you for doing
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good unless you also preach that he’s going to punish you for doing bad. You can’t do away
with half of the order of the Old Covenant.
If you are blessed, whatever you call that….but folks, my whole definition of being blessed by
God has changed, completely. I’m blessed because I’ve been made righteous without having to
do right. I am blessed because when I am human, in my humanness, whatever my humanness
is, there are no barriers between me and God because of it. Christianity preaches that there are
barriers between you and God. It’s because of your actions and your deeds and your failures;
you haven’t confessed your sins; you haven’t tithed. God can’t help you because this is wrong
and that is wrong in your life. And folks, what is happening right now in the Christian
community, people are burning out and they’re just giving up completely; a mass exodus is
taking place. Every Sunday you go back and you learn what is wrong with you and if you get
that straightened out, you’ll be all right with God. The next Sunday you go back, and you find
out something else is wrong with you. “Well here we go again! I gotta get rid of that.” And by
the time you go three weeks, the first thing you got rid of, you got back again. (chuckle) It’s a
never ending cycle.
You say, “But what you’re saying Mike, is dangerous. It’s making people think they can
whatever they want to do.” Let me tell you what’s dangerous. It’s telling somebody they’ve
been alienated from God because of what they do because once the conscience gets seared
thinking their works and deeds have alienated them from God, then they are freed to go out and
commit incredible atrocities against the human race; kind of what we just saw in Colorado.
Now of course the news media comes on after a total influence by the religious community and
says, “The problem in the school is a lack of morality.” Folks! These guys knew what was
right and what was wrong. Why do you think they killed themselves when it was over with?
They knew what the laws punishment was for what they had done. They were not out of their
minds, unable to comprehend what they were doing. They were people who had no hope that
God would ever accept them. And I’ll guarantee you, they didn’t get that from their buddies
they did drugs with; they didn’t get that from their buddies in the group of Trenchcoat Mafia.
They got it from Christian teaching; you are rejected because you have not measured up.
You show me someone who believes that they are rejected by God and I’ll show you someone
whose behavior is far outside of that of someone who knows every one of Gods’ laws or
someone who knows none of Gods’ laws at all.
There are whole societies that function within the realm of normal treatment of each other who
do not even know The Ten Commandments. Folks, there’s something very deadly about a
mixture of Jesus and the law. The hope that comes to the heart when you hear Jesus Loves Me
and Just As I Am without one plea, you accept that. God loves you just the way you are. But all
you got to do is accept him and honey, for the rest of your life, you’re going to find out all that
God hates about you and what you’ve got to change. You’d be better off staying a sinner that
God loves. Remain an unbeliever as long as you can. (chuckle) Cause boy I tell you, once you
become a believer and you get involved in Christianity, man we put you on the treadmill and we
judge and criticize and analyze every area of your life as to whether or not you are measuring
up.
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Then you get in groups like what I was in and even if you get sick we know you got sin in your
life. We know that if you’re broke, it’s because you’re not giving the ministry enough money.
We know exactly what is wrong with you. But then we develop doctrines of convenience. In
our groups and what I was trained in and taught for 15 years, we had an answer for everything.
If you were sick, we knew exactly why you were sick. If you were broke, we knew exactly why
you were broke. And we all knew, it was because you had broken some law, rule or regulation
or commandment and you opened the door to Satan and Satan came in and he did what he
wanted to do. Because you were in rebellion against God; you got out from under the covering.
So God couldn’t protect you any more. For those of you that have been in those types of
churches that I pastored, have you ever noticed that when the pastors’ kid goes crazy; when the
pastors’ wife is sick; have you ever noticed they don’t ever stand up and say, “Folks, it’s
obvious me and my family are in sin.” (chuckle)
Suddenly, the very same thing that happens to you has a complete different definition. Of
course the reason it happens to us as ministers is because Satan hates us for preaching the gospel
and he’s out there trying to stop us. So you just send us more money to show him you’re on our
side.
If you think I speak a little too well about these things, it’s because I’ve done them but I can’t
tell you I did them without my heart bothering me. I can’t tell you that it didn’t bother my heart
to point out the faults of the congregation and the problems they were having and point to their
faults as the reason why they were having them and then point to my good deeds as to why I
was having problems in my life. The reason you were having problems is because you had bad
deeds and the reason I had the very same ones, was because I was so holy and righteous and I
was the minister and the devil was trying to stop me. You deserved it! I didn’t! Hum!
Paul said, “I’ve got to say these things to you. I’ve got to let you know where the conflict lies
because if you don’t, people will come in with enticing words, beguiling, deceiving words and
entice you away with words.
Colossians 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words
Colossians 2:5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and
beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
Did he say…and the stedfastness of your obedience to the law?” No! He said…observing your
stedfastness of your faith in Christ. Folks, the big battle that Paul had, were people being
Judaized again. They were being drawn back into Judaism. The term apostasy now means in
modern day Christianity that smokers went back to smoking again; people who were on drugs
went back to doing drugs again. They’ve committed apostasy; they’ve gone back. Paul’s
definition of apostasy was someone who trusted in their own righteousness then accepted the
righteousness of Jesus and then went back to trusting the law again. That was apostasy in Paul’s
definition. You gotta know where the real conflict is.
Colossians 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, now you have to obey all the law.
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What does he say? As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, that’s the same way
you’re supposed to walk in him.
Now! Modern day Christianity teaches you that you’re walking in him if you’re obeying and
keeping any particular group or denomination’s rules and regulations for an external
demonstration of true Christianity. Now that can be from the Mennonites who believe with all
their hearts that their garb and their cars with their bumpers that don’ts shine is the way to let
people know that they really are believers. You get in the Pentecostal church and they believe
with all their heart that the way to prove they’re really Christians if for the women to not cut
their hair and wear make-up. Every group has a different way to prove they’re Christians. You
get into the Word of Faith movement, where I was a preacher and teacher, and we demonstrated
to the world that we were different because we were rich and never got sick.
Everybody has their external proof that they are Christians. Every denomination and every
group are different. If you find any group that doesn’t put upon you any external proof that you
are a Christian, folks, you might can stay around and listen for awhile. But the moment that
external proof of Christianity or spirituality is put on your life, if you submit to that, you are
back in bondage once again. And believe me! The fact that you don’t cut your hair and wad it
up in a ball on top of your head or the fact that you wear dresses all the way down to your
ankles…I’ve tried that. it don’t work for me. I mean it’s just way too long. (chuckle)
I got really tickled yesterday when George stood up. Now we have quite a few people here that
were in the Worldwide Church of God. And they’ve learned the Gospel and my goodness
they’ve come out by droves. It’s been an incredible thing that has happened in this group. Now
you see, in the Worldwide Church of God, they didn’t teach against drinking alcoholic
beverages at all. Did you know that? Some of you are going to run and join the Worldwide
Church of God immediately, today. (chuckle) There was no teaching against drinking alcoholic
beverages. In fact, that’s what the feast days were; I mean my goodness, from what I
understand, it’s BYOB. You know. This is it. You know. We’re having feast days here.
I got so tickled because it’s the first time in my life I have heard a moderator of a meeting say,
‘we’re having a fellowship meeting, bring your own wine; bring your own beer’. I got so
tickled. I thought this is absolutely fantastic because George is standing up here absolutely
innocent in what he was saying. We started talking afterwards and I told him, “You know” I
said, “We were totally forbidden in such things. You told people to bring beer and wine who
have been trained that is the ultimate rebellion against God. I mean you might as well just said,
just bring your own pimp. Bring your own prostitute with you.” (chuckle)
But it just amplified to me the difference in groups and they’re all so all fired important. Man I
tell you. “I’m not letting that bottle touch these lips. Bless God.” Man I heard that preached at
the Baptist church when I was little. That’s the reason I made friends with a Catholic priest. I
used to go over to his place and get drunk. (chuckle) And uh, everybody has their different
rules. And as long as the group accepts it, folks, why do we feel accepted? Is it because we
know the Gospel of Jesus Christ or we fit in the group? Why do we feel rejected? Is it because
we know Christ or we know the rules we’re supposed to follow in the group we happen to be in?
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Could you break all the rules and still feel accepted in that group? If you can’t, you’re not in a
place that preaches the Gospel. Could you still be accepted? Um! I’m having fun.
Paul said the very same way you receive Christ, that’s how you walk in him. Now how did you
receive Christ? Did you decide to obey all of his laws, rules and regulations? No! You decided
to accept a free gift. You decided you couldn’t make it on your own and so you accepted the
free plan. So if you’re going to keep walking in what you received? What are you going to
walk in; the law? You didn’t receive the law. You received grace. And folks, one thing that
you also know, those of us who have fit so well in a religious organization that it’s obvious on
the outside, you know as well as I do, people avoid us. If you are obviously Pentecostal,
(chuckle), I can spot a Pentecostal ten miles away. If you are obviously Mennonite; if you are
obviously Catholic; if you are obviously any of these things, that’s not a welcoming card that
says all walls and barriers are down, I’ll be your friend. In fact, it says just the opposite. That
may not be the heart of the person, but the external proof of their belief says to you, that you are
alienated from them. You don’t fit with them. They don’t accept you. People with hair find it
hard to approach me. (chuckle)
He said, the same way you receive Christ, walk in him the same way. Don’t switch; for God’s
sake, don’t switch. Don’t do like the Galatians did who received all this through the Spirit and
then begin to think it was their job to perfect the flesh. Don’t switch. Folks, you’ve trusted in
Christ. Don’t turn around and then put your trust in an organization. Don’t turn around and put
your trust in a man.
Colossians 2:7 Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
I tell you what! Everything that you learn about the true faith will produce in you thanksgiving.
Everything you hear about the Gospel, you’ll stop and say, “Oh wow! Thank you Jesus.” And
it won’t be something that you have to perform to be able to say, thank you Jesus. He said you
will abound in thankfulness.
I used to have to make sure that when I sinned, I turned off all Christian music and to make sure
there wasn’t a Bible in the room; guilty conscience! Now what good did that do? What good
did it do to make sure I turned off the Christian music? What good did it do to make sure that
the Bible wasn’t in the room? We’re so religious minded.
We must become confident in who we are; not because of what we have done but because of
what Jesus has done; no other cause or reason. Nothing should be able to take your confidence
away that you’re one with God if what you did could not give you confidence that you were one
with God, then why should what you do, take away the confidence that you’re one with God?
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
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The term spoil simply means rob like a thief breaking in and stealing. Now so far, has he
warned you against demons and devils and all that? No. Hey! The big warning here is about
men. The ladies said, well we knew that all the time. (chuckle)
Side 2 of The conflict
Beware lest any man rob you.
I know that for the religious mind and even the Christian mind, that is like an explosion going
off because we thought that obeying the rules was obeying Christ. I thought that once I got all
the laws and the rules down real good, that meant I was following Jesus. Boy! Peter got the
shock of his life when Jesus let down that sheet from heaven. In it was everything that the law
said you could not eat of, for if you do you will become unclean. And Jesus spoke to him three
times and said, “Rise, kill and eat.” (Acts 10:9-16)
1. How did Peter respond to Jesus Christ the Lord who had told him to “Come”.
(Matthew 14:26-3 –when Peter walked on the water with Christ
2. He was the one that Jesus gave the key of the kingdom to; whatever you determine that
to be. (Matthew 16:18,19)
3. He’s the one who after denying Christ, Jesus stood before him and let him know I never
held it against you in the first place.
(Mark 14: 66-68 John 18:15-18 Matt. 26:71-75)
4. He’s the one who preached the first sermon after the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people
came to the Lord. (Acts 2:14-41)
Do you think Peter didn’t know who was talking to him? No! He knew exactly who was
talking to him because he addressed him as Lord. He said, “No Lord, I will not do what
you’re telling me to do.” Wait! Wait! Folks, this is too incredible! The Apostle Peter told
Jesus, “No, I will not obey you.” Why? “I will not obey you because I have to obey the
law.” Boy! That blew me out of the water when I started seeing that. I thought obedience
to the law was obedience to Christ. And then here all of a sudden, we have this incredible
man by the name of the Apostle Peter. And he’s telling Jesus, “I can’t obey you.” Why?
“The devil wants me to go down to the bar; that’s why.” I’m going to choose to obey the
devil.
What was his choice? Was his choice obeying the devil and obeying Jesus? No! His choice
was obey the law or obey Christ.
The church community hasn’t accepted that choice yet. We have not accepted the choice of
obeying Jesus from the heart rather than external laws, rules and regulations. Because we
have chosen laws over Christ in the heart, we have become mean, condescending,
judgmental guilty people who can’t accept people who aren’t exactly like us.
Now there’s a big problem out there folks. There’s a big conflict but you need to know what
the real conflict is. Don’t get caught on the wrong side of this conflict because it will rob
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your heart of joy and peace and you’ll do all the Christian things you are taught to do and
live in misery, condemnation, guilt and fear for the rest of the days of your life.
I have a good friend in downtown VanCouver. (Canada) We met actually in my travels
around the country and we got to talking. Now I told him I was a motivational speaker. I
wasn’t about to tell him I was a preacher. I don’t tell anybody I’m a preacher. I told him I
was a motivational speaker and we got to talking and I thought to myself. Hum! Looks like
we may continue to develop this relationship. So I finally sat down and said, “I gotta
confess something to you. I gotta tell you what I really do.” But by then, we had developed
a report; we had developed a friendship. And I did all the pre-warnings. “Even though I’m
gonna tell you what I’m doing, it’s not like what you think I’m doing.” He thought I was
going to tell him I was a mass murdered or something. So I finally told him. We talked for
a long time. He was a very kind fellow. But from that point on in our friendship, he began
to try to do everything he could do to offend my Christianity and he couldn’t do it. He
didn’t know what to do about it.
I was visiting him here probably some time last year when I was in VanCouver and I
remember we went out that evening to have something to eat. He was taking me back to
drop me off at my hotel room when we passed a squirrel that been run over in the road and
there was blood coming out of it. And he said, “Oh look! There’s blood! Somebody just
got saved.” I mean, that’s the extreme he would go to. I laughed about it. Then I began to
try and explain to him and he was so intrigued because he couldn’t get the reaction out of
me that he had perfected to get people to react.
I begin to explain the difference between what I teach and basically what the Christian
community teaches. I told him God loves you no matter what you believe or don’t believe.
God accepts you just the way you are; believe or don’t believe. He would ask a question
and we talked for about 45 minutes or so; in fact we stopped the van and we sat outside
before I went in. Now I had known him for almost a year and a half at this time and he had
never divulged anything to me of a personal nature at all; about his family or anything like
that. I thought this man is such a hard core atheist; he must come from a long line of hard
core atheists. And as we sat there talking I looked over at him and the first time in all of our
friendship, I saw tears in his eyes. And he said, “Mike, my parents are Pentecostal. They
are now elderly people.” And he said, “They live in fear every day that they are going to
miss heaven because of something they have not done right or not done good enough.” He
said, “I don’t know if what you’re saying is true and I still don’t know if there’s a God or not
but at least if my parents believed what you taught, they could live the rest of their lives out
in peace and not have all this anguish and pain.”
Folks, it’s been incredible being on the Gospel side; having friends that really do need to
know the truth rather than arguing with religious folks. It’s been awesome!
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man rob you…..trying to put you back under laws and rules
and not after Christ. You’ve been robbed. The moment you go back under one law, you’ve
been robbed. Paul made that statement very eloquently through the entire book of Galatians;
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add one law and you’ve been robbed of the power of the cross of Jesus Christ; add one
single law and ye have fallen from grace. You have not fallen from righteousness.
Paul said you have fallen from grace but he didn’t say you have fallen from grace because
you have broke a law. He said you have fallen from grace because you’re keeping a law
thinking that law adds to the blood of Christ. And he said you have made the power of
Christ of no effect. What an incredible statement. What on earth could make the power of
Christ of no effect? What a statement! Was it sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll? One single law from
Moses makes the power of the Gospel ineffective. Now it doesn’t mean you’re not
righteous. Paul said it just means you’re stupid; his term was foolish.
For in him…..why do you not have to go back to these laws? Why don’t you have to go
back to the rules and traditions of all of this stuff that’s in this world? Why do you not have
to go back to that?
Verse 9 is the best reason you will ever find. Colossians 2: 9 For in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. Why do you not need to be under a law? Because there’s
nothing in them! Everything God has is in Christ. It is not in any law and you are complete.
Here’s another real good reason not to go back to the law. Colossians 2: 10 And ye are
complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Now wait a minute. I
don’t know what you were taught about principalities and powers; anybody here had any
good principalities and power teaching? All right. Getting up there and pulling them things
down out of the heavens. Okay, there’s a couple of you. Now my Worldwide Church of
God friends are wondering, “What fools”! All right? (chuckle)
Principalities and powers…instead of taking this out of context and trying to create our own
definition of what a principality and power is according to Paul, lets keep reading and let
him define it for us himself. Now so far, he’s been making reference to men. Has he made
reference to demons or men? It’s been men. Beware of certain men. How many times?
It’s been several times. Now he is the head of all principality and power. Now folks, if
these are demons he’s talking about, Jesus is the head of them. And if he’s their head, then
demons are the body of Christ. So there’s something wrong here. All right? Lets read on.
Colossians 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Folks, you have the circumcision because the circumcision is Christ. It’s just like the
preaching on tithing. You don’t have to tithe; Jesus is your tithe. He’s your Sabbath. He’s
your every thing. Jesus is the fulfillment of every law, rule and regulation. And now,
everything that God has; the fullness of God is in Christ Jesus. It’s not in a law. When
somebody tells you that you’ll be blessed if you keep this law, they are preaching antichrist
doctrine. It’s antichrist because they’re saying you can find it in a law.
You notice I saved the best stuff for near the end of our meetings here. (smile)
Have you put off the sins of the body of the flesh yet? (chuckle)
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We’re working on it! I got good news for you. The sins of the body of flesh have already
been put away in the body of Jesus Christ. “Oh my God! Then what are we going up in
altar calls for? We’re asking Jesus to forgive us; over and over and over and over again.” If
the body of sin was dealt with once and for all in the body of Christ….go ask your preacher.
(chuckle)
Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
In baptism….not water baptism. You have been buried with him in the burial of his body.
That is a baptism. People take the term baptism and they automatically think…water! The
term baptism doesn’t mean water; it means to be completely filled and immersed in. And
folks you are completely filled and immersed in Christ without ever being put under water.
This is being buried in Christ. The Bible says if one man died; they all died. And if they all
died when Christ raised from the dead, then all have been raised.
Buried with him in baptism, where in also ye are risen with him through the operation of
God….Are you risen with Christ because you believe in him? No! You are risen with
Christ because of the faith of the operation of God Almighty himself.
Who hath raised him from the dead….If God raised Jesus from the dead, what happened to
you? He raised you from the deadness of sin and alienation and separation from God.
“Well, why preach this Gospel then if he did it for everybody?” Because folks, everybody
needs to know it. Walking through this life; redeemed and don’t’ know it. Walking through
this life; cleansed by the blood of the lamb and don’t know it. It’s an incredible message.
It’s got to get out!
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Wait a minute! He did this while we were yet dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of
our flesh, God quickened us at the same time he quickened Christ.
Having forgiven you all trespasses…no pleading, no asking. “Oh Bro. Mike. If you don’t
forgive, then God won’t forgive you. If you don’t forgive, Jesus won’t forgive you.”
Jesus said, in fact it’s red lettered edition, “If you don’t forgive others, God will not forgive
you.” Folks! It’s just another law. Jesus made that statement before the cross. How can
you give something you don’t have? You’re going to forgive so you can be forgiven? That
is the old covenant. He was showing the demands were so high, you’ll never attain to it.
How can you give away what you do not have?
Paul explained in Colossians and Ephesians, after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
and Paul’s encounter with Christ and learned about him in such a powerful way and then
Paul taught this; that you and I should forgive one another even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven us. We do not forgive to be forgiven. We forgive because we have been
forgiven and received forgiveness already. I don’t have to forgive anybody. I don’t have to.
Man I tell you, I went through those sermons of you have to forgive! You know, the more
you have to the less you want to. It’s awful to have to forgive somebody you’re mad at.
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And why do you forgive them? Is it because you’re filled with mercy, grace, truth and love?
No! You’re scared to death God is going to send you to hell. “ Well okay! I’ll forgive them
but I’ll never forget about it.” Folks! That’s part of what forgiveness is; that he would
remember our sins no more. You mean a human can do that? Out of the treasure of the
forgiveness you’ve been forgiven, honey, you can forgive anybody. But you can’t, if you
don’t know you’ve been forgiven. Once you know that you’re forgiven and you don’t have
to do a thing to merit it; once you know you’re forgiven; once you know you’re cleansed;
once you know you’re redeemed; once you know your relationship with people does not
determine your relationship with God, your relationship with people will get better. As long
as you believe the way you treat people and what you say to people and how you act and
what you do determines your relationship with God, you will treat people worse and your
actions and deeds will become more deceptive. It’s called Christianity.
Not only did he forgive you all your trespasses, what else did he do? He blotted out the
handwriting of laws and ordinances that was against us. Remember we looked into Isaiah
and found that ‘against us’?
Colossians 2: 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was again us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross.
Did Jesus just come and take away sin? No! He took away the law that held sin against us.
Folks, this is a great, great, great salvation. You’re not only cleansed, you are now
incapable of having a fault presented to God against you. It’s not possible. Jesus said in
John chapter 6, “Don’t even think that I will ever accuse you to the Father. There’s one that
accuses you, even Moses in whom you’ve put your trust. Jesus told a bunch of Jews that;
Jews that had never believed anything. They hadn’t accept him. And what did Jesus tell a
bunch of unbelieving people? I will never point out any of your faults to the Father. How
many mediators do you have between you and God? You have just one. Who is he? So
how much bad news does God hear about you? Absolutely none! Aren’t you glad?
Man I had this vision of God just stacking up these bad reports; got that against him; got this
against him; well gotta mark that down now. Now I was taught in Christianity that all your
sins are forgiven and washed away completely when you first come to Christ. But
afterwards, a list is kept forever and not only that, they’re going to play it back on a video
screen in heaven. Now I thought heaven was a really pure place and then I found out they’re
going to be showing porno movies there. Honey! If they’re going to play my life
back….we aen’t even going to talk about yours. I dreaded going to heaven. I thought,
“Well God, I can’t get through the first day. This is going to be horrible. I’m going to be
standing there and it’s going to be my time for them to play everything I’ve done since I met
Christ.” Folks, I accepted Jesus when I was five and now every one of my deeds are going
to be played on a screen in heaven. Wow! Now we’ve got more people wanting to go to
heaven than what you thought. (chuckle)
..blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us which was contrary to
us…the law is not helpful to you, it is contrary to you. It is against you. And he took it out
of the way and nailed it to his cross.
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Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it.
And having spoilied principalities and powers…
Wow! There’s that term again. Now this term ‘spoiled’ here is not the same spoiled a little
earlier in this chapter. The term ‘spoiled’ here is like taking a general who has all the bars
across his shoulders and stripping him of that recognition of his authority and then if he has
a weapon in his hand, it’s taking that weapon out of his hand and saying, you can’t use this
any more. You don’t have the authority to do this to people any more and no longer do you
have a weapon to use.
Having spoiled principalities and powers; totally stripped and totally taken away the ability
of principalities and powers to use something against you. Now what are they? What are
they using against you? Folks! We haven’t read a thing about sex, drugs rock ‘n roll, so far.
What has been used against you in this chapter? What has he taken away? What was
against you? What was contrary to you? It was the law. And he said he also defeated the
principalities and the powers and he made a show of them openly and triumphed over them
in it. Folks! You want to see the most beautiful demonstration of Jesus making a show of
them openly? Where is it? Show me where he made an open show of demons and
triumphed over them in it? Let me show you; the thing that he made an open show of was
those principalities and powers. He made fools out of those guys. Those people who were
using the law against people. They would come with questions, trying to trip him up and he
made a show of them openly.
Now! We still could be talking about demons but lets read a little bit further. What’s he
talking about? He says, that these principalities and powers, he triumphed over whoever
principalities and whatever they are, he triumphed over them in it. In what? The only ‘it’
that we’ve had reference to is the law, so if he triumphed over demons, he triumphed over
them in the law. But was it demons that were using the law against people? Now since he
has triumphed over all principalities and powers, look at Verse 16.
Colossians 2:16 Let therefore no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.
Now wait! If principalities and powers are demons, and Paul just said that Jesus defeated all
principalities and powers; Jesus defeated all these demons, don’t you think he would have
said, “As a result of that, therefore, don’t let any demon run over you.” But what did he
say? He just said, Jesus completely defeated all principalities and powers. Therefore, don’t
let any man judge you.
Turn principality and power in the New Testament in this time of the world was no different
than the term such as governor or senator. It was people; it was positions. You say, “But
Bro. Mike, it says in Ephesians that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against
principalities and powers.” And that is true folks! Your battle is not with the person. It’s
with the doctrine that they preach. People’s battle wasn’t with me. It was with the doctrine
that I preached. People didn’t develop all this difficulty in their life because of me
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personally. It was because of the doctrine that I preached and the judgment that I shoveled
out.
Let therefore no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holyday, or of the new
moon, or of the Sabbath days. Don’t let any man judge you where any law is concerned.
Colossians 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ.
Is it from this point? No! It’s from the point they were given. Folks! All of these things
were a shadow of what was to come but the body is of Christ. So you either get what? You
either get the body of Christ or a man that is judging you. You either get the body of Christ
or a man that is judging you.
You say, “Well, I thought that was what we did in the body of Christ.” No, that’s the total
opposite to the body of Christ. You either get men judging you, or you get the body of
Christ.
Colossians 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and
worshipping of angels, intruding into those things, which he hath not seen, vainly puffed
up by his fleshly mind.
Here again; what is he saying here? Did he say, don’t let any demon do this to you? Don’t
let some demon take this rule over you after he’s talked about these things being a shadow
and after he’s talked about this being defeated?
Let no man beguile you of your reward….Now, where is your reward? Is your reward in
rules and laws and regulations? Your reward is in Christ. Your reward is in Christ. Don’t
let any man rob you of that reward or beguile you away from it. How will they beguile you
away from it? Folks! We go from being thankful because all that we have and all that we
are is in Christ, to going back and trusting in laws and you’re going to wind up feeling
defeated. You’re going to wind up feeling alienated.
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.
He said there are two things men will beguile you in; false humility and spiritual
experiences. How will they rob you away from trusting in Christ and Christ alone? It will
be by a false humility and they’ll tell you about all their spiritual experiences. They’ve seen
angels; they’ve got all these great things to tell you about. Do you know that in the United
States, I cannot count one charismatic, Full Gospel leader, that is not a leader for any other
reason other than that Jesus appeared to him; an angel talked to him. Why does Mormonism
exist? An angel came and told this man all about it; gave him copper tablets. You say,
“Well that is really stupid for somebody to trust in Mormonism.” Folks! Is it any less
stupid to follow somebody because we believe their spiritual experiences?
I’m not here to doubt their spiritual experiences, but folks, you and I do not have to sit back
and listen to spiritual experiences and think that makes the doctrine correct. It doesn’t make
it right. I can stand up here today and say I saw an angel last night; walked into my room
last night and spoke to me. Do you know that I could go in to most churches, because of it
being pre programmed to think that is spirituality, whatever I say, they’re going to listen.
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Don’t let anybody beguile you like that. Don’t let anybody rob you away from your reward
that’s in Christ because you’ll start trying to get rewards through external spiritual
experiences, rather than the internal spiritual experience, which is Christ in you; the hope of
glory. Don’t let any man beguile you, going around talking about their voluntary humility
and what they do “without” for Jesus.
And the worshipping of angels, spiritual experiences, intruding into those things which
they have not seen.
Do you know that the religious mind can become so desperate for a religious experience; the
need to feel spiritual; your mind can create visions of things. You can swear to God you
saw something you didn’t see. Folks, the need to feel spiritual and a need for spirituality is
deeply embedded in every human being. And all you have to do…man I tell you…that need
for believing we’re spiritual beings, creates all kinds of doctrines and beliefs and
experiences. The mind can create something so incredibly real. You say, “You mean you
don’t believe in experiences like that?” No! I’m telling you I don’t trust in them.
I don’t care if Jesus visits you every night. It doesn’t mean that what you say is right. I
hope he does visit you. He’s never visited me. I’ve never seen an angel. I’ve never heard
the voice of God. I used to say I did. I used to say I did. Why? Because I needed so much
to convince people that I really was spiritual. So I’d tune in real hard and listen. “Yes Lord.
I hear that.” Folks, I’m not here to tell you that the Lord can’t speak to your heart and you
get direction, instruction, and inspiration in your heart, but don’t listen to voices in your
head.
It’s amazing! You know when I was a teenager, I went through a lot of trauma; when I was
just a child I went through a lot of trauma. I thought it was because of the things I
experienced was the reason I ended up in the mental institution. I found out later it was
because of the religion I was raised in that put me in the mental institution. I was hearing
voices; clear as day. They put me on medication though. I got out of the mental institution;
somebody cast a devil out of me; told me I was free and now I was going to follow Jesus.
And they started teaching me how to listen to voices. (chuckle) I said, Ah! That’s easy!
All I have to do is go off medication. (chuckle) I started ignoring several years ago all
voices that come to my head; good ones and bad ones. Because folks, if what I have can’t
rule in my heart, and rule my life from my heart, let me tell you, this brain of mine can
believe anything has been said or done for the need of spirituality. But I don’t need it any
more; now that I know who I am in Christ. I don’t need a voice to tell me that I’m saved. I
don’t need a voice to tell me what to do. I don’t need a voice. I’ve got a heart that makes
me feel one with everybody I meet; Buddhists, atheists, I feel no walls, of division, between
me and anyone else except a few religious people. (chuckle)
Intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind…the term fleshly also a very wonderful term. The term fleshly in Paul’s definition, in
his teachings all the way through Romans, a fleshly mind is a mind that is stuck in the law.
They believe that their righteousness comes through their obedience. That’s fleshly;
incarnal.
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Colossians 2:19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands
having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having
nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with spiritual experiences?
No! It increases with the increase of God.
Colossians 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments(rules) of the
world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances.
Now wait! They say the world is where there are no laws. Paul’s talking about a world
where there’s nothing but laws. And where is that world where there is nothing but laws?
Folks! It’s in religion. He said, “Why have you come to Christ and now you’re living in a
world full of laws? You’ve gone back to the world of rules. Why are you subject to these
rules?
Colossians 2: 21 Touch not, taste not, handle not.
22 Which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and
doctrines of men?
23 Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship?
Whoa! Wait a minute! How many of you believe we’re supposed to be worshiping God.
What if you’re under the law and saying that you’re right with God because of the laws you
are keeping? You’re worshiping your will. You’re not worshiping God. Well I don’t do
this. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t cuss. I don’t chew. I don’t run around with the
girls that do. If you believe that what you do gains you favor with God; if you believe what
you do causes you to lose favor with God, Paul said you’re not worshiping God at all.
You’re worshiping your will worship.
And folks, the doctrine I was in with the Word of Faith movement is the epitome of the
perfection of will worship. And I taught it for fifteen years. It’s will worship. Our friends
from the Worldwide Church of God, they could tell you about all the things they did. It was
will worship, wasn’t it? It was your will; what you were able to do to keep the
commandments; to keep this and keep that and do this and do that. It was the worship of
will; not the worship of God. It’s the worship of man. He says it’s a good show of wisdom
in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body; not any honor to the satisfying of
the flesh.
One translation puts it this way. No matter how much will and effort you put into obeying
these laws, it will never quench the flesh’ desire to be righteous before God. No matter how
much will power you put into this, it will never quench your flesh’ desire to be justified
before God. Paul said in Romans that no flesh will ever be justified in the sight of God.
You say, “Well Mike, I’m in trouble.” No, you’re not because 2,000 years ago, in God’s
eyes, your flesh died because it could not be justified.
The Gospel of Peace Series
The Conflict
Tape IV
20
For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. This flesh has no justification.
People say well we’ve got to live the life that exemplifies Christianity. Folks, that’s what
people are sick of. It’s people that act like Christians. Maybe we need some people, who
like Paul, when he got a revelation of this grace, said ‘Man, I’d rather go around bragging
about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Folks, this world doesn’t need a Gospel that says if you change enough, you’ll be accepted
by God. It needs to see some really good weak flakes who have great confidence in God.
I volunteer. (chuckle) It needs to see people, who are disqualified by God’s law, have great
confidence in the redemption power of Christ. It doesn’t need any more testimonies. “Well
I used to not know God. I was doing drugs and drinking. I got saved and I quit all that.
Hallelujah!” We don’t need any more of that folks. Now thank God you gave up drugs.
Thank God you gave up going out and getting blitzed and getting behind the wheel of a car.
Stupid! That’s not salvation. If change or behavior is salvation, salvation can come through
most anything other than Christ.
This salvation is a great salvation and the warning is a great warning. And the conflict is a
great conflict. And you have not experienced this conflict until you have come to grips with
the Gospel of peace and the Christian community; not the pimps and prostitutes, and the
atheists of this world come again you for it but when the Christian community begins to call
you a heretic because you believe that Jesus took the wrath of God at the cross. This is a
great and mighty salvation beyond a shadow of a doubt. Folks, there’s no way I could tell
you how privileged an old pervert like me feels to be able to preach the goodness of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m proud to let you know, I can find many laws that disqualify me
in God’s eyes. I’m thankful that I found them and I’m thankful that I found the redemption
that there is in Christ. The Christian walk is not where you have all the laws down good; the
Christian walk is where that you know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God’s love has
been demonstrated to you while you were yet a sinner.
This great confidence can’t be moved; not by what people think of you nor by what you’ve
done. But you see folks, I don’t want any more confidence based on what I do because the
moment I do wrong, I lose all my confidence. And now, I’ve experienced a conversion by
putting my confidence in Jesus.
Mike Williams Ministries