Fools

Colossians 1:1-2

COL-086

Our subject is "Prayer for the Colossians," No. 20 in Colossians 1:9-14.

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, in piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching; for reproof; for correction; for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work."

2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth."

We have been devoting ourselves to the study of what it is to be a functional human being. Very simply, a functional, normal human being is one that possesses what the Bible calls "the mind of Christ," literally the mind of God.

Full Knowledge

As one great theologian once put it, it is thinking God's thoughts after Him. What He thinks, you think. And, of course, from our thinking comes the expression of our emotions, and comes the expression of our will. This divine viewpoint mentality, we have seen, is the product of what the Bible calls, not just knowledge, but full knowledge "epignosis" of Bible doctrine which is stored in the human spirit reservoir via the grace system of perception. The grace system of perception is a means that God has provided for us to acquire the mind of God. It is, of course, centered upon the ministry of the local church, the pastor-teacher instructional ministry, and, not the least of which, is the completed canon of Scripture, the completed Bible.

Church service is for no other purpose in the Word of God except to explain the Word of God, and to explain the deep things of the Spirit of God to the people of God, so that they may now understand them, and at that point, they may take over themselves: either to throw it out, by not believing it; or, to take it to their bosom and make it part of their minds by believing what God has said by an act of faith. This divine viewpoint knowledge obviously is absent from the thinking of those who are not saved. Their minds are dominated by human viewpoint thinking which comes from the sin nature.

The apostle Paul admonishes these Colossian Christians, who are off and running in the splendid way in the Christian life, that, as church age believers, they should pursue with a vengeance, and that their minds would continue to be possessed by the full knowledge of doctrine stored in their human spirits – that part of us which is God's point of contact. God does not contact you in your soul. He does not contact you in your Bible. He contacts you in your human spirit. And it is through what is in that spirit of the knowledge of the Word of God – that's what the Holy Spirit uses to govern your life. So, the point of this is: get the word; get it in your human spirit; and, keep it there, primed and ready to go.

The Greek word for this full knowledge is "epignosis" knowledge. It is used by the Holy Spirit to produce the mind of Christ in the mentality of the believer that will guide his emotions and guide his will in daily life. This is a functional Christian. And at this point, the believer may go to the prime of his spiritual life, to the super grace level which characterized the humanity of the Lord Jesus.

The Christian, thus, will know the will of God in matters, Paul pointed out, that deal with spiritual wisdom in applying doctrine. And he will have spiritual understanding so that he will have discernment about people and circumstances.

Now those are two marvelous things to have. This means to have the mind of God so that He will give you, upon you're asking, the spiritual wisdom to be able to apply what you know at any point in your life, so that you do the right thing. And you will have the understanding (a spiritual discernment) so that you see through all of the deceit and all of the nonsense that is put out.

Now, if you've been watching the current political conventions of the two parties, you have had a splendid opportunity to gauge your own spiritual understanding. If you have the quality of the mind of God and great spiritual understanding, you are able to discern all the nonsense; all the conning; all the deceptions; and, all the subtleties that the devil could possibly put together. One man said, "I finally got so disgusted that I had to turn it off because I didn't want to lose the good supper my wife had just cooked for us." If you didn't have that kind of reaction, you have something wrong with your spiritual understanding. It was a splendid test case opportunity. But if you have it, you sat there, and you shook your head and said, "I can't believe it, just as God sat up there in heaven and did the same thing. He was shaking His head, and saying, "I can't believe it. I can't believe what I see them doing. I can't believe what I hear." This "epignosis" full knowledge is what life is all about for the Christian.

Now, the problem is that those who don't have it usually don't have it because they have the illusion that they do have it. The illusion of possessing spiritual knowledge, or any kind of knowledge, greatly hinders the discovery of the real truth. Because you think you know, you never get to the full knowledge.

For example, all the wise people, basically, that lived at the time of Christopher Columbus, knew that he was wrong in his claim that he would be able to reach India by sailing West instead of East, because they knew that the earth was flat, plus other indisputable reasons that they put together. And when the papal court gathered to consider this, they gave all the arguments, and they were foolproof that Columbus was wrong. They knew that you couldn't do that. And because they thought they had knowledge, none of them ever did it. And not the least argument was: "You get your sails full of air, Columbus, and it'll carry you one way, but you'll never get back."

However, because Columbus had real knowledge, Columbus knew that if he dropped down south to the Canary Islands, the circulation of the air that he had discovered in his own navigational experiences would carry him would carry him West to what he thought was India. But coming back, he also knew that, if he came up north, he'd catch the prevailing winds the way. And he was smart enough, as the papal Court said, "You prove it to us. You can't do it." He said to himself, "I'm not going to tell these suckers. I've discovered prevailing winds, but I'm not going to let them know. If the Portuguese ever get wind of that, they are so clever, and they are so powerful as navigators, that they'll grab it, and they'll be out there before I can get going. And he kept the secret of prevailing wins to himself. He was the one that had the knowledge. The rest of these people, in the highest echelons of the government, and of the religious people courts, were a bunch of fools.

How about the Wright brothers? All the people of their time (the people of science) knew that the Wright brothers were wrong. They should have known that that was not possible by the very name that they had: "Wright;" and, wrong. But they were sure that the Wright brothers were wrong because they knew that nothing heavier than air, because of the force of gravity, could stay in the air. They just knew it. You could not get something flying through the air that was heavier than the air. It was going to come to the ground because of gravity. Therefore, they thought they had knowledge, and so they didn't pursue it. But the Wright brothers, because of their experimentation and their scientific discernment, had real knowledge. And one day they did the unbelievable thing at Kitty Hawk. They beat the force of gravity, and got a heavier-than-air machine off the ground, and landed at the same height that it had taken off. That was the first time in the world when something heavier than air that could take off at a certain level; fly into the air; and, land at the same level. It had actually climbed into the air.

Fools

So, when people who thought they knew that this could not be done, all they did was not do it. Dysfunctional people, we should understand, are characterized by God by a very strong word. God calls dysfunctional people "fools."

So, this is not just some small thing. This is not some thing such that you should say, "Well, I guess there are people like that in the world. Psycho-babel tells me that. What you should be concerned with is whether maybe you are one of those dysfunctional people, and if you are, you'll find that it's possible that you have, as a Christian, areas of dysfunction, and you should know that God says that you're a fool for having things like that. Especially for a Christian, there's no excuse for you to be dysfunctional. And He lists things – the book of Proverbs shoots them left and right. "This is a fool; this is a fool; and, this is a fool." If we know just what the book of Proverbs says, it will go a long way to be able to evaluate ourselves. You may think that you have great knowledge about what you are, but when you put it up against Scripture, on various accounts, people who are confident that they are in the know, the Bible says, "You're a fool."

For example, how about Luke 12:20? There's a story about a very rich man. He didn't have enough room in his storage sheds and barns to be able to keep the things that he had. So, he is going to build a new and bigger one. This man could have done two things. He could have said, "Boy, I've got so much, I don't even know what to do with it. I don't know where to put it. I don't know where to store it. And I'm scared sick that I'm going to die, and somebody else is going to use it all." But his only focus was on what should he do with what he had.

So, he decided to build a bigger barn to store it. Luke 12:19-20, "I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods,'" The soul represents the man himself: "You have many goods laid up for many years to come." Boy, do you have security? "Take your ease: eat; drink; and, be merry." Bingo! In comes the Almighty God. This man thought that he had real knowledge. He had this whole thing figured out. He knew exactly how it was going to go: "But God said to him, 'You fool, this very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared?" This poor man, instead of storing his treasures in heaven, and using what he had for the intensity of God, piled it up on the earth, and made himself poor in eternity.

Then there's Romans 1:21-22. "For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God." They had a knowledge of real truth from the earliest times: "Or give thanks, but they became foolish in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Anybody who is negative to Bible doctrine, the Bible says, "You're a fool." Anytime you sit in this auditorium and hear an exposition of a Word of truth, and you see it from the Bible, and you see the Scripture, and you see that words say things that you know what the words mean, and you turn your back on it, and you thumb your nose at it, the Bible says, "Fine, but just know that you're a fool." Now, that's a kind of shocking that almighty God would so speak.

Well, he did it in the Old Testament too. There's Psalms 14:1: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. There is no one who does good." Be careful that you do not cheat yourself by not taking these handouts home and reading them carefully today. We're giving you the world's religion there. In that world religion, you will see a list of things that characterize spirit religion. One of them is: "There is no God." The only God that there is, is man himself. And God says, "These people are fools." Yet, they are consulted by people in important positions in life; in society; in government; and, in industry. These are the people who are being consulted – who say, "There is no God. There's no personal Creator God. There's only man and eternal matter; and, man who evolved from eternal matter. They deny the existence of the Creator God.

Now you really have to be a fool to do that. But how did they become fools? They thought they had the scoop. They thought they knew the truth. It's people who are confident that they are in the know who are the ones that become the fools.

Proverbs 10:18: "But he who conceals hatred has lying lips. And he who spreads slander is a fool." Anybody who spreads slander, whether it is true or false – it's a foolish thing to do. But the word "slander" usually refers to what is not true – something slanderous that you hear, and you repeat it. The Bible says that you're a fool. It diminishes you in the quality of your manhood and your womanhood when you do that.

Proverbs 10:23: "Doing wickedness is like a sport to a fool, and so is wisdom to a man of understanding." Here, doing evil is a game, and God says you're a fool when you do that. You do evil. It's a game. You get out on a stretch of road, and you see how fast you can race your cars until somebody gets killed, and a lot of people injured. And they do it for a sport, and it's against the law. The Bible says, "You're a fool."

You have a drive-by shooting, and innocent people get killed. It's a sport. The Bible says, "You're a fool for doing that." The reason is that there are not only consequences in time, but what God is going to do to those people is beyond human imagination when they come into His presence.

Proverbs 12:15: "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel." It is characteristic of a fool that he rejects good advice. You've been getting a lot of good advice and good information by special mail-outs from me recently. And anybody who has thumbed his nose at that is a fool, because you are rejecting good advice. You think you're right, but it's only in your own eyes. Do you see what I mean again? People who think they have knowledge are those who really are denied true knowledge. There is nothing so horrendous like a mind that is not willing to be taught.

In the Old Testament, God says, "Don't be like the and a mule, such that we have to put a bit in your mouth and jerk you around until you hurt before you'll start listening to God. The fool always rejects good advice. It's not convenient. It would be a struggle to put the good advice into action. So, you excuse yourself from doing what you should do with yourself; your friends; your children; and, your family.

Proverbs 14:16: "A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is arrogant and careless." Fools are characterized by being very arrogant and being very careless in what they do.

Proverbs 14:8: "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. But the folly of fools is deceit." A fool is a deceiver. It is so easy to be a liar. It is so easy to be a deceiver. And the Word of God says, "When you are deceitful, and when you put on a front, God says you are a fool. And there are always people who think that it's no problem to be a deceiver.

Proverbs 15:2: "The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts folly." When you listen to a fool, you're listening to a bunch of human viewpoint with someone speaking with a great deal of smug confidence. And nowhere is that more true than in religious matters. It is just absolutely amazing to me that somebody is born into a home that has a certain religious denominational point of view, and the thing is as wrong as it can be. It's just anti-God. It's just as not the mind of God as it can be. But boy, are you going to give it up? No. You will keep spouting the same deceit, and your human viewpoint will be so precious to you that you'll spout the folly of what you were born into. What are you going to tell God when you stand in front of Him? "Well, God, I was born into a Mormon home. What did you expect me to do? They told me I was a god. How did I know that you really weren't a human being? They told me you were a human being who became a god, and that I was going to be a human being, and I was going to become a god. And besides, we had another testament. I saw it on television. I knew it was true. They advertise it. They wouldn't put it on TV if it's not true." What are you going to say, Mr. Mormon, when you get up there?

How about Islam? "Well, God, how did I know that Allah the moon god wasn't really you? They told me that you and Allah the moon god were the same thing. And your prophet Mohamed – he told me Jesus wasn't God. He told me that that wasn't true. And I knew it when I was a kid. They taught me: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. I had to repeat that several times a day. How do you expect me to have known better?" Because you have the Bible, and because you were a fool to repeat the folly of the religious system you were born into. You shouldn't have been repeating the religion that you were born into.

I can talk like that because I made the correction from what I was born into. Therefore, I speak from experience. And mine wasn't very bad. But it was deviated enough that it needed correction. And this is what a fool is in religious matters. He is just so sure he is right. How? Because he does not have the knowledge of the Word of God. If he is born into a religious system that's wrong, that's all he's ever taught.

Proverbs 18:2: "A fool does not delight in understanding." Now, do you remember what the word understanding means? Discernment. He doesn't take pride in being able to see through and have discernment, but only in revealing his own mind. He has no delight in discernment, but only in sounding off his own opinions, and saying what his human viewpoint opinions think. But he doesn't take delight in finding from God how to see through to the truth.

Proverbs 20:3: "Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man. But any fool will quarrel." It is characteristic of fools that they always want to argue and have a quarrel. They are not peacemakers.

Proverbs 23:9 says, "Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words." That's interesting, isn't it? It's kind of hard to do because you're tempted to want to sound off and debate. But I've been reading this verse, and trying to steal myself that when I'm in the presence of unteachable people, whatever the subject is, I spot them to be fools, because that's what God has said they are. Therefore, I back off, and I let them speak, and I do not respond. I do not speak in the hearing of a fool because I know that that fool is incapable of appreciating divine viewpoint wisdom. He's incapable of having discerning understanding. Therefore, he will not appreciate what you say. Therefore, you have wasted part of your life and part of your energy.

Did Jesus teach that? That's exactly what he taught when he said, "If you find somebody who won't listen, and somebody who thinks they've got knowledge, because, boy, they were born into that home that had the real truth: shake your feet; knock the dust off; turn your back; and, let them go. Most of them will go to the hell that they richly deserve because they think they have a knowledge on how to get to heaven, and it happens to be exactly wrong, because some deceiver managed to catch their family line devotion, and they've passed it on to you.

Proverbs 24:7: "Wisdom is too high for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate." The Bible also says that it is better for a fool to keep his mouth closed than for his ignorance to be exposed (Proverbs 17:28). Now I was taught that as a child. It's better to keep your mouth closed, and not let people find out your ignorance. I don't know why they taught me that so assiduously, but they kept drilling that into me. It's better to keep your mouth closed than to reveal your own ignorance. And here it is, right out of the Bible. This guy lacks divine viewpoint. He gets with a group. It's too high for the fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate. "In the gate" is where the rulers are. This is the authority councils. These are the people who run things. If he gets into a group like that, and he has no knowledge because he is a fool, and because he does not have the information of God. So, he sits there, because he doesn't have anything that he can contribute. And when he does open his mouth, everybody around the table looks at him. They're embarrassed. They shake their heads. They feel sorry for him. And they wonder how he could be such a fool.

Proverb 26:11 (this is my favorite): "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." Now, this is a prime example of what a fool is – a person who knows that something doesn't work, and he keeps doing it. This is how sometimes people deal with each other – husbands and wives deal with each other. They know that some approach is not going to work with this man or with this woman. But like a dog who goes back to his vomit, he says, "I liked it the first time. So, I'm sure I'll like it the second time." And they keep going back to the thing, instead of saying, "I'm glad to be rid of it. I have to have a new approach. I'd be a fool to go back and do the same thing again." That is returning to your own folly.

Can you think of anything in public life that demonstrates this? This is government all over, isn't it? This is government right now. The government is trying to straighten out something that began in the days of the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt called the welfare program. It has had 40 years of anti-biblical ground upon which it was done, and it was, let alone, non-constitutional ground. But beside that, they've had 40 years, and finally, they have a Congress that forced a president, out of fear of the people, to sign it, who didn't really approve of it, and who silently has promised that, once the election is over, and he's back in power, he'll change it. But here is 40 years of what has degraded human beings, and wasted enormous money in the welfare program. And this vomit has sat there, and they kept eating it back again, and throwing it up, and eating it, and throwing it up. They never learned. The fool keeps returning to his folly.

Now, if you don't have some way to correct that (your folly), you'll keep returning to it. So, what are we back to? We're back to full knowledge of doctrine. You're back to the "epignosis" concept all over again.

You kids, you young people in your youth, boy, if you smarten up, and you catch the value, and the importance, of the full knowledge "epignosis" of God; being a student of doctrine; and, storing it, and strengthening yourself in your human spirit, sometimes you'll have to ignore your parents to do this. Your parents may not be good examples. But you know Jesus Christ is your good example. You can trust Him, and you do it His way. You stick with the Word of God. What a wonderful life you're going to have! And how many agonies you will save yourself. You won't keep returning to your own folly.

Proverbs 27:22: "Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him." Now that's a beauty. You do something and you get all beaten up for it. You know what a mortar and pestle is it? It's a little ceramic bowl. That's the mortar. And the peal is a little ceramic pounder. It's just a little thing that you pound with. So, you put something in the mortar, and you pound it with the pestle. You break it up. You squeeze it. Here, he talks about grain. If people want to get oil out of a certain grain, that's what they do. They squeeze it, and they pound it and they beat it with the pestle. And he has the image here that here's the fool. He's in the mortar. God's pestle is beating him on the head, and crushing him because of what he's doing. And he never learns. He doesn't learn from his suffering. He keeps doing the same thing.

When was the last time that you found yourself doing something again that caused you suffering once before? When was the last time you saw somebody else do something that caused suffering, and you're going down the same path, and tolerating the same thing? That's the fool who's in the mortar with the pestle of God's word and God's grace beating on you. And yet your folly will not leave you. You just will not change your mind.

Proverbs 28:26: "He who trusts in his own heart (his own thinking) is a fool. But he who walks wisely will be delivered." If all you have is human viewpoint, up from your sin nature, and that's what you trust in, you're a fool. It's when you get the divine viewpoint of the "epignosis" full knowledge of God in the human spirit – that's what you can trust in, because now you have the mind of God.

Here's one more from the book of Proverbs. Proverb 29:11: "A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back." Now, sometimes you do get hopping mad. In fact, the Bible says, "Be angry," but don't sin when you do it. And it also says, "Don't let the sun go down before you blow the anger off." Then you go back to square one. There are times to be angry. Those who are the enemies of Christ are my enemies. Therefore, my enemies make me very angry. But you do not lose your temper. You understand that the fool always loses his temper. But the wise man holds it back. And one of the best ways to hold back your temper is to walk away. Just get out of the combat zone. That's all you have to do. Once you're out of the combat zone, your temper's not going to cause anybody in trouble. You can go into a room by yourself and have a temper tantrum, can't you? You can do that. That's okay.

One of the most prominent psychobabble organizations here in Dallas has a person on its staff now who teaches primal therapy. Do you know what primal therapy is? It's screaming, and screeching, and yelling, and lying down on the floor, and kicking. People who come into the clinic think that somebody is beating somebody up, because down the hall they hear this screaming, and yelling, and shouting, and: "Oh boy, that makes me feel so good." Well, if that helps you, get in a room, and go ahead and do it. To each his own. But don't do it where somebody can see you. And, by the way, what I have just told you is a very significant psychological psychiatric principle. You didn't know it, and I've revealed it to you. People pay hundreds of dollars. Sometimes it takes them two weeks in the hospital, and thousands of dollars a day to get that information. I hope you you'll show your appreciation to the offering box as you leave. If you really want to show it, take one of those envelopes, and put my name on it when you put your offering in there, so that you will at least recognize to whom you are indebted for primal of therapy instruction.

Ecclesiastes 2:14, "The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness." The wise man's eyes are in his head. That means that he's looking around. He's thinking. But the fool walks in darkness, so there is no direction.

Then we have one more from 1 Corinthians 4:10 – this business of being a fool, because if there's anything that the world thinks about us Christians, it is that we are unmitigated fools because of our devotion to doctrine. Paul says, "We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are distinguished, but we are without honor." Now, this is a bit of sarcasm, because the congregation in the Corinthian church has been beating up on Paul, and has been saying a lot of slanderous, ugly things about him. And they've been telling him to stay away, and bug off, and that they're not coming to church when he comes to town. And yet, they are shot through with sin. It's a horrible, horrible carnal church as he begins laying out what they have been guilty of in this letter. So, here it is. They consider Paul nothing but a stupid fool in what he says. And he says, "Well, I'll be a fool for the sake of Jesus Christ. And I know you are all very prudent wise people." They thought they had knowledge when all they had was their human viewpoint. He was the man with divine viewpoint. He was the one on track. He was the one they should have been listening to.

Now, the only way for any of us to have the mind of Christ, so that we are not fools, is by listening to Him. That means we are receptive to what the Bible has to teach. We are receptive to the principles of doctrines that the Holy Spirit is recorded for us. In Matthew 17:5, we read, "While He was still speaking (that is, Jesus), behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud saying, 'This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased. Listen to Him." This is on amount of transfiguration. And there are the three words we ought never to forget: "Listen to him." And that word "listen" means "learn and act upon what you learn." How are we going to listen to Him? It is not voices. It is what he has put in the Scripture. That's what we listen to – what we've been talking about all morning.

In John 14:15: this principle is again reiterated: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." That's the only way to keep from being a fool. You listen to Him.

John 14:21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to Him." Who has the commandments? Only those Christians who sit in an expository preaching church. That's it. Nobody else. And those of you who are getting anything less than that, you don't have the mind of Christ. There's no way you could get it. There is no possibility you could get it. All you can do is sit and have inspirational kicks, and you'll pay someday for that: "But having learned My commandments, you have to also keep them – a positive volition response: a doer of the Word. That's the person who really loves Me," Jesus says.

John 14:23: "Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and he will come to him, and make Our abode with him." If you learn the Word of God, and you are receptive to it – it's there within you now, and you have the mind of God, and God Himself has come to dwell with you. He is in fellowship with you. And as John 14:21 said, "He will disclose Himself to you." You'll find that you have a very intimate close relationship to the Son of God. Any Christian who lacks the mind of Christ, obviously, is not going to live his life in the will of God. That's the real problem. That's the bottom line. You will not live your life to fulfill your mission (your purpose). And what is the result?

The result is going to be that, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, there's going to be a lot of people who are very much ashamed of themselves. In 1 John 2:28, John says, "And now, little children (speaking to believers), abide in Him." Now, you know that the term "abide in Him" in Scripture means "stay in temporal fellowship:" Keep your known sins confessed as per 1 John 1:9: "Now, little children, keep that temporal fellowship in force, so that, when He appears, we may have confidence, and not shrink away from him in shame at His coming." If you stay in temporal fellowship, you'll be doing the things of God. You'll be learning the Word of God. You'll be doing the will of God. You'll be executing the purpose for which your life was conceived. And the result will be that you stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and they shoot up on the screen: here's what you should have done. And they shoot up there what you did do. Now, nobody else is going to see this – just you and God. And you're going to look there, and your head's going to come down, and your eyes are going to moisten, and they're going to fill with tears as you see: this is what He wanted me to do, and this crummy little thing here is all I did. And what's the result? You're going to be ashamed of yourself.

Now, this factor was a very great concern to the apostle Paul. He lived very much under the consciousness that he did not want to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ (JSC) and be ashamed of himself.

Philippians 1:20, "According to my earnest expectation and hope that I shall not be put to shame," Paul says, "in anything. But that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Paul says, I never want the Lord Jesus to have to be ashamed of me. And I never want to find myself put to shame with what I did, whether I live, or go into His presence. That is my earnest expectation. That is my hope – that I shall not be put to shame in anything. That is very wise.

In 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, the apostle Paul says, "Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I buffet my body, and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." Disqualified for what? For salvation? No. That would contradict other Scriptures which say that you can't lose your salvation because you didn't do anything to get it. It was just a gift from God. But this is to be disqualified here for rewards: "My life should be disqualified from being enriched for all eternity, for whatever those rewards are that God is going to give. And I don't want to find myself disqualified. Here I was – the great apostle Paul. I've written most of the New Testament. I would be humiliated. I'd be so ashamed." And Paul says, "I have to keep that in mind with what I do. And the only way I can preclude that condition is doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. I have to know what the Word of God has to say.

All human IQ levels can have the highest spiritual IQ level. Whether you have a low IQ (humanly), or a high IQ, it makes no difference in developing a spiritual IQ. The person with the lowest human IQ can have the highest spiritual IQ, simply through being willing to sit in church; learn the exposition of the Word of God; receive it to your bosom with positive enthusiasm (positive volition); that will be converted by the spirit of God into full knowledge "epignosis" stored in your human spirit, and you will possess the mind of Christ. It's just that simple. And the more the mind of Christ you have, the higher your spiritual IQ goes. And finally, you find that you are head and shoulders above people around you. Then your heart will look at these people who've been born into a religious system and say, "Well, I know it's right because this is what I was born into. And a Muslim has no hesitancy of killing somebody. He has no hesitancy of murdering what he calls "an infidel" – someone who does not say that Muhammad is God's final prophet and His last word. He has no hesitancy. Why? Because the Quran tells him that that's what you should do to an infidel.

In Saudi Arabia today . . . , you would recoil in horror to realize that anybody who tries to speak for Christianity, or worse yet, any Muslim who converts to Christianity – he can be put to death. If he speaks for Christ, and will not be silent, they'll cut off a leg, or cut off a hand on opposite sides of the body. If he persists, they'll gouge out an eye. And they have full medical procedures and setups in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country, where Satan is completely in control. Nothing but the false religion of Islam is tolerated. And this brutality is exercised upon children and adults – innocent human beings. But they were born into it. So, they're sure that this is the truth. They're sure they have the knowledge.

No, there's only one place – that's this book. And if you don't sit in church where this book is explained, you're going to go out of this life with a lot of nonsense that's going to cost you an enriched eternity.

Our Father, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we ask You to help us to rise to its highest potentials and possibilities. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

Back to the Colossians index