Deliverance through Redemption and Justification

Colossians 1:1-2

COL-70

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

2 Timothy 2:15: Be diligent to prepare yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of God. Preach the word. Be ready, in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction."

2 Timothy 4:3-4: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desire, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myth."

We continue looking at Colossians 1:9-14. Our subject is "Paul's prayer for the Colossians," segment number 34.

Some people in the human race who, by nature are justifiably headed for an eternity in the lake of fire, are by an act of God's sovereign grace rescued from that destiny. God chooses some of these doomed ones, which includes the whole human race – God includes some of these doomed ones, whom He qualifies for the inheritance of salvation in heaven. God's grace also enables the believer to invest his life in Christian service to earn eternal rewards in heaven. This supernatural transformation is all based upon the light of Bible doctrine truth. The Bible repeatedly contrasts the enormous chasm between the light of God's truth and the darkness of Satan's lies: Bible doctrine against human reason.

A man yesterday asked me about a Dallas seminary student who recently has become a Roman Catholic. And he said, "How can that happen?" His argument is that, in one passage of Scripture, Paul speaks about commending the believers because they held to the traditions of the apostles. And he said, "This seminarian concluded that the traditions that the Roman Catholic Church claims are just as authoritative as what the Bible says." And I said, "Well, that is the great difference between human viewpoint and God's divine viewpoint. And an experience like that only points up the fact that it is an act of God that you understand that this book is the Word of God, and nothing else.

Of course, what the apostle Paul was referring to were the traditions of the apostles. That means the truth that God had revealed to them, which is recorded in the Bible. It is not traditions that somehow are floating out there on their own without any basis of authority. So, there is this constant battle between the truth of doctrine and human reason. That is the constant conflict. And every Christian is always torn between what seems reasonable to the human mind, and what God has said. That is because what you think is affected by all the people around you. The whole society that we live in, and all the people who make the headlines – they're the people who affect what you think. The only way you can control not being deceived is that you have such a solid base of doctrinal understanding such that you're stabilized in what is true.

So, every believer must daily be on guard against the glamor and the attractions of Satan's spiritually benighted world. The world is a glamorous place, but it is spiritually dark. Love for Satan and his world, and love for God in his kingdom are mutually exclusive. And if you're a young person, you are particularly under the gun in this respect. You have to understand that if you like doing the things that are the big things of Satan's world system and society, you don't like the things of God. They're mutually exclusive.

We have this taught to us in 1 John 2:15: "Do not love the world." And the word "love" is the Greek word "agape." That means: "Do not have a goodwill attitude toward the world. Hate the world with a vengeance. Do not have a spirit where you're welcoming and accommodating what the world has to say. Do not love the world, nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

The World System

Now, some people are very honest about this, like the fella that used to work with Paul in his missionary enterprises. His name was Demas. Finally, Demas says, "Hey, I love the old world system. I love everything that's out there." So, he went off to Thessalonica, one of the good time cities of the world system of Satan, and he left Paul behind to carry on the missionary work. He at least was honest. He didn't pretend that he was going to be part of this thing in the world, and this thing in the world, and say that he still loved God, and say that he was going to serve God. That much we can give to Demas. But he, as a Christian, of course, will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and what an enormous loss Demas is going to suffer. What an enormous tragedy he will experience. Here he was, with one of the greatest apostles of all time, and he turned and chose the world instead of the kingdom of Christ.

Luke 16:13, also says, "No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." In this particular passage, Jesus is talking about people who love the financial material aspects of the world. And that's what the word "mammon" means. It's money. And anybody who says, "Oh I love God, and I love the Lord Jesus Christ," and his heart is absorbed with getting rich; with money; and, with possessions, and that's it (an entity unto itself), that person is lying. He does not love God. He loves the world. Therefore, the two are mutually exclusive. Any spirit of friendship with the world's system; that is, its way of organized life, is actually an act of hostility toward God.

We have this pointed out to us in James 4:4, "You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Now if something is against the principles of the Word of God, and something is a violation of the moral code of God, against doctrinal rules, and the world opposes that, they do that because they're an enemy of God. And if you become friendly with the people who oppose the moral code of God, you have made yourself an enemy of God.

Now, stop for a moment to realize what you've done to yourself. The moment you accept friendship with the world, who rejects the ways of God, you have yourself now rejected the way of God, and you're out of fellowship, and you're totally out of the control and the protection of the Holy Spirit. And you are out floating there now, where Satan gets over you and puts his claws in you, and he brings you down with some great tragedy. It is a very dangerous thing to be a friend of the world. And the younger you are, the more important it is for you to understand that. People who are young (youth) want to be accepted. They don't want to float along and be out there by themselves. But you have to become a real man and a real woman early on and say, "I go with the Lord Jesus Christ. I am His friend. He is my friend. And if you oppose anything that opposes the Word of God for which Jesus Christ stands, then you are not my friend. I might have to be associated with you in some aspect, but I never, for one moment look upon you as my friend. I see you for what you are. You are my enemy.

What on earth do you think David meant when he said that the enemies of my Lord are my enemies, and those who hate my God, I hate. That was a very clear statement. David understood the principle of the world system of Satan.

Paul is commending these Colossians because they understand this. But he is also very much concerned because they're being bombarded with people who are telling them: "You don't have it straight. There are greater things out here that you're missing." And Paul says, "Don't believe them. They're lying to you." Those of you who are with the Word of God, you've got it all. Those of you who are seeking to evade it, you've got nothing.

Now, even if you are a Christian (you're born-again), and you are instructed in the Word of God, and basically you agree, and your heart is in that direction – you still have to realize you've got a sin nature that's always saying, Hey, what would it be like to get out there in the world? That's exactly what happened to Demas. And finally, it tore him apart, and he broke off from the evangelism with the apostle Paul.

So, be aware that you have a deadly viper in your bosom, in the sin nature. And don't bemoan the fact that you cannot do evil. There are some Christians who bemoaned the fact that they cannot do evil. You need to get to God and say, "Let's straighten this out. I want to be what I am. I'm a person in the light, not in the darkness, and I want my desires to be compatible with the desires of Jesus Christ.

James 4:4, "For friendship with the world is enmity with God." Carnality in a Christian, he describes in James 4:4, as "spiritual adultery." You're being unfaithful to the one to whom you have committed yourself – Jesus Christ, when you have become a friend of Satan. A friend of the world is an enemy of God. So the question is: "Do you want to live like and for the world, and thus to be an enemy of your heavenly Father?" Is that really what you want to do? Do you want to go with the sin nature's temptations and be an enemy of God? What kind of madness is that?

The lifestyle of Satan's world is summarized by the apostle John in three succinct statements. In 1 John 2:15, as we've already read, he said, "Don't love the world. Don't have a good attitude toward it. Everything in it is the enemy of God." Then he follows it up in 1 John 2:16: "For all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes; and, the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." And this world is Satan's organization. It is from the world system of Satan.

The Lust of the Flesh

So, here are three things that characterize this world that can seem so attractive – the one that Demas went for. First of all, it's the lust of the flesh. What is that referring to? That's the evil cravings of the sin nature. We refer to that as the lust pattern of the sin nature. The sin nature is one lust pattern of violation of the Word of God after another. Now, everybody has that sin nature, even as Christians. And that is constantly seeking to get hold of you. The lust of the flesh – the world goes along with it. It can't help itself. That's why the world is in such turmoil. That's why people's lives are so destroyed and so distraught. Just cast your eyes on the tabloid newspapers as you go out the checking counter at the grocery store, and see what goes on in the lives of people who are rich and famous, and who are under the domination of the sin nature. Their whole life is the evil cravings of the lust of the flesh.

The Lust of the Eyes

The Boastful Pride of Life

Now, when you take the world to your bosom, are you really willing to say: "This is what I love? I love the evil cravings of the sin nature – the lusts of the flesh. I love the evil cravings of covetousness and the desire for material wealth – the lust of the eyes. I love the boastfulness of putting on and showing off my ostentatious way of life."

You can only buy so many things. After a while, you've got a car, or maybe two cars. So what do you do? You and your wife go to church, and you each drive a separate car. If you have three kids, you buy them each a car, and the five of you are driving five cars to church. That is ostentatious. And that's a way of life. If you buy it, you have to use it. You open your jewelry case, and you have 50 earrings. So, you wear three at a time so that you can use them. You have these ring, and you put one on every finger, and one through your nose. You have to use it. You have it. You own it. This is absorption. How far can you go with the pride of life showing that you are somebody because you have something?

Now, this is not to be interpreted for one moment, which I think you know, that there is something evil or wrong in being rich. That is a matter up to God. You do your job; you apply yourself with faithfulness and integrity, and understand that what God gives you in material things He gives you for you to execute your mission in life. As long as you do that, you have no problems. And you are perfectly free to enjoy your financial means to whatever extent you feel free to do it before God. But you never lose your focus that the only reason you have wealth is to serve Him. When you lose that, you have become a friend of the world. And what you should do (the Bible is very clear) is to seek to be as prosperous as you can be, but with the proper focus that this gives you freedom to make free the work of the Lord. Nothing can be greater in life than to have material means in order to turn loose, and make free what the Word of God can do in the lives of people.

So, you keep it in proper balance, but the devil always comes, and he distorts the blessings of God into a curse. The world of Satan, with its evil values; its hatred of God; its contempt for His Word, the Bible, is all headed for destruction. 1 John 2:17: "And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever." And that's the sad part about pursuing the world system. It's all going to blow up. It's all going to be destroyed. It's all going to be gone. You're going to leave it all behind. What are you going to take with you? You're going to take with you the will of God. That's it. Those who have performed the will of God in their lives, that consequence will abide forever. Your enrichment in heaven will be beyond your fondest dreams. Satan's world organization with its three characteristics is all destined to pass away and to end. And with the passing away of Satan's world also goes the sin nature's lusts, which Satan has been promoting.

The believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who do the will of God – these are the people who will abide forever because what they do will never be lost. The blessings and the love of God are upon those who have a passion for God. Everything we do here at Berean Church is geared to this, if you haven't caught onto it: get people, young and old alike, to have a passion for God, like we have a passion for so many things, and wonder why, at the end of the line, the least passion we have for is God. From the nursery department in Sunday school through the expository preaching services, there's only one objective in everything we do to bring people to a passion for God. It's all we do in Berean Academy. It's all we do in the Berean Youth clubs. It's all we do in these agencies that are agencies of service (like our musical agencies). They're all designed to help people develop a deep, intense passion for God.

That is what the apostle Paul is trying to do for the Colossians. And you'll notice that there's only one way to do that, and that is through the doctrines of the Word of God, and your positive volition to it. The Christian is not enslaved to Satan and to his evil world structure. He is not in spiritual darkness. He is in the spiritual light of the kingdom of God.

Deliverance from One's Enemies

So, in Colossians 1:13, the apostle then says, after having declared how qualified he has made us to enjoy the inheritance of eternity in the light rather than in the darkness of Satan, he says in Colossians 1:13: "For He delivered us:" "For He" is referring to the Father in Colossians 1:12: "For He delivered us." The Greek word "delivered" looks like this. It's the word "rhuomai" (rhoo'-om-ahee) R H U O M A I. This word means "to draw to oneself." It connotes the idea of a rescuer. It's like somebody who's out in the water drowning. You swim out there; you reach out in a proper careful way (from behind him – not from the front of him); you put your arm around him from behind; you draw him to yourself; and, keep him afloat while you swim to safety with him. This word means "to draw to oneself." It connotes the idea of liberating someone from someone or something. It pictures the work of God's strong arm, acting as a mighty warrior, placed around us. It is God the Father who drew the Christian to himself at the point of salvation. Nobody goes to heaven until God the Father has decided to choose you for that life.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 have this to say: "We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by our Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." What an astounding statement. I'm going to heaven. Why? Because I believed the gospel. I believed that Jesus Christ paid the requisite penalty of death for my moral guilt, my sins. And His death was sufficient. That was confirmed to me by the fact that God the Father raised him from the dead. If His payment had not covered my sin, He would never have been raised from the dead: "We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the mass of unsaved human beings, who don't deserve to go to heaven, and have no claim upon God for eternal life whatsoever. But by His grace, He has chosen you from the beginning, in eternity past – every one of us He chose for salvation through the sanctification." The word "sanctification" means what? Setting apart: "Through the setting apart of the Holy Spirit." He set you apart from that mass of dead, doomed humanity. He set you apart for something better: "For eternal life," through what? Through faith in the truth. The truth of what? Truth In the doctrine of salvation. Christ died for my sins: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."

2 Thessalonians 2:14 says, "And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is through this faith in the gospel (this belief in the gospel, and faith in Jesus Christ): "That you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Someday, that marvelous glory that surrounded Adam and Eve, and which they lost when they sinned, will once more exude from you. That's what it means to have a resurrection body. That's why we refer to that as a glorified body. You will have in your humanity a glow of glory of God around you that will be dazzling to human eyes. And it will demonstrate the fact that you are in Christ. You have joined the person of Jesus Christ in the eternal glory of God Himself.

So, this word "He delivered us," with its connotation of somebody reaching out; putting his arm around you; and, drawing you to safety as a rescuer. It is God who drew you to safety out of that mass (that pool of humanity) which was destined for the lake of fire. Now, that ought to cause you to have a little humility. It ought to cause you to have a little personal sense of relief, and a realization that if it wasn't for the grace of God, there would be nothing – absolutely no hope for you.

This concept of divine deliverance from one's enemy is a theme which is prominent in the Old Testament, this same idea. Here are a few examples. God uses this idea of His coming up; putting His arm around you; and, rescuing a person from a desperate situation in Exodus 6:6. Here it refers to rescuing from the Egyptian slave masters, for the people of Israel. Exodus 6:6: "Say therefore to the sons of Israel, 'I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments." There you have the same picture: "My arm is going to be outstretched; I'm going to put it around you; and, I'm going to take you out from slavery to the most magnificent and the most powerful empire of the day: the Egyptian empire.

Exodus chapter 14 also has that picture of God coming and putting His arm around a person to rescue him. Exodus 14:30: "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptian dead on the seashore." When the water was parted, the Egyptians went through the Red Sea in perfect safety. They got out. And Pharaoh once more changed his mind. He sent his charioteers out to go back and bring those slaves back. The charioteers charged into the opening of the waters. They thought they could just go through that corridor. All the Jews were now safely on the other shore, and suddenly, the ground, which had been perfectly dry as the Jews walked through dry shod, now became mucky mud. And the wheels of the chariots stuck. They began to mill around as the front ranks began to bog down. The others piled up on them. And then the Lord stopped the wind. And when the wind stopped, the walls collapsed, and that's what this is referring to – that you saw them die in the water. And pretty soon, as the Jews stood there, the bodies floated to the surface, and the wind blew them to the seashore. And the whole seashore was littered with the bodies of the dead Egyptians, because God had put His arm around His people.

This is also illustrated for us in the book of Judges 6:9: "And I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians, and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you, and gave you their land." As Israel went into the land of Canaan, God had His arm around them. He rescued them from people who were far more powerful than they were.

That is also stressed in Judges 8:34: God delivering Israel from all of their enemies. Judges 8:34: "Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, Who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side." As Israel went on, they began to drift away from God. They forgot how He had put His arm around them and rescued them from all their enemies.

Many of the psalms in the Old Testament sing of God's work of deliverance in the past, and therefore, they prey on that basis for deliverance in the future. They call upon God: "As you've rescued us in the past, do so in the future." This is illustrated, for example, in Psalm 33:18-19: "Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him – on those who hope for His lovingkindness to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." There they are remembering how God has done this in the past. And they're calling upon Him in their present time of need to do the same thing.

Psalm 79:9: "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name, and deliver us, and forgive our sins for Your namesake." Here the psalmist is saying, "Help us, Oh God, as you have in the past, for your own glory."

Then Psalm 86:13, "I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever." Why? Because in this psalm, he reiterates how God has rescued them.

Now in the New Testament, the idea of deliverance appears mostly in a prayer context. Many times, there is this same idea of God coming and putting His arm around someone to deliver them in some situation is there as a rescue act expressed in prayer. This idea is seen in Luke 1:74: "To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear." This is in the Zacharias' Benedictus, when he thanks God that he has lived to see the Messiah Savior.

In Matthew 27:43, again you have this same idea: "He trusts in God. Let Him deliver him now if He takes pleasure in him. For He said, I am the Son of God." Now, here the Pharisees are taunting Jesus. He's on the cross. He's in the suffering. And they're saying, "He trusts in God. Let God put His arm around Him and rescue Him, if God takes so much pleasure in Him, as Jesus claimed He did when He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" Well, let's see if the Father will say, "He is My Son and I'm going to save Him. But, of course, that was their human viewpoint darkness. That was their ignorance, because the Father was going to rescue Him. The Father's hand was around Him, but it had to go in the order of the payment of death. And then the Father would put His arm around Him, and raise Him from the dead. It was very clear that everything Jesus claimed He was, and that He was doing was exactly true.

One more: Matthew 6:13 is again in the context of prayer: "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Do not put us into situations where we'll be tempted to do evil – that is what this means. God does not tempt anybody. But the prayer is: "Keep me from finding myself in a situation where I can be tempted to do evil:" "And lead us not in the temptation. Deliver us from evil". There is the same concept: delivery. Put your arm around me, and rescue me from the presence of evil and from the temptation of evil: "For thine is the kingdom," and so on.

For you and me as Christians, we too wait for this arm of God around us to rescue us. This is expressed in 1 Thessalonians 1:10: "And to wait for His Son from heaven Whom He raised from the dead (that is, Jesus) who delivered us from the wrath to come." Now, in this particular context, this phrase "from the wrath to come" refers to the tribulation era – those seven horrible years upon the earth, filling out the last of Israel's seven-year program of the 490 years of Jewish history predicted by Daniel. God is going to deliver us from the wrath to come.

It is a great relief to us to know that we Christians are never going to face the tribulation time, where nature will be torn apart by God. Destruction will be widespread. The world has about six billion people about now. Do you know how much a billion is? A billion is 1,000 million. That is a lot of people. Once the Christians are gone, and God's program with Israel resumes, there will be seven more years to fulfill the program that God has set out. Within three-and-a-half years, three billion people will be dead. The world is going to be one huge graveyard. People are going to be dying from diseases. Look at what is happening in Africa. They get a disease that nobody has ever heard of before, and it eats your body up. Two or three days later, before they can even treat you, your body has been eaten up by some bacteria that they don't even know how to control; where to get; or, what to do with it. So, they burn everything in sight that has any contact with it. And what they're finding out is that even a deadly disease like AIDS, when they get on the track or something that may resolve it, it has a mutation that makes a little change, and they're back to scratch. They have a whole new breed of it.

I told you some weeks ago that the honeybees were almost gone. Some states have practically none at all because of a mite that is eating them. Well, since then, we have found news that the honeybees are coming back, and it is because they're honeybees who survived the mites, and now they're immune to them, and now they're reproducing, and they're taking over. And that is how it works in nature. And in the tribulation, these things are going to happen so fast that there's not going to be any talk about having any medical research to solve the problems. They're not going to be able to do that. Now, we wait for His Son to come from heaven to do what? To deliver us – to put His arm around us, to keep us from that tribulation horror.

Redemption

Now, when we have this word "rhuomai" (rhoo'-om-ahee), this word for rescue (for deliverance) that Paul is speaking about here in Colossians, it has two main doctrines involved in that idea – two doctrines which clarify for us what is meant when he says "For he delivered us." God has delivered us Christians. It includes first of all, the doctrine of redemption. Redemption brings forgiveness of one sins. It brings forgiveness of one's moral guilt. This is what we call the negative factor in salvation. Something has to be taken away from us for us to go to heaven.

Ephesians 1:7: "In Him we have redemption, through His blood; the forgiveness of our trespass according to the riches of His grace." So, the first thing that you have in God's deliverance from the realm of darkness and enslavement to Satan is redemption. What does redemption means? It means that your sins are forgiven. It means that for all of your moral guilt based upon the blood of Christ, that is His death, you have forgiveness for your trespasses, and all of this according to the riches of grace. It is not because you did something, and not because you deserved it. That is the negative. But if that's all you had, you wouldn't go to heaven. You would just be a grease spot on the surface of the earth. You have to have something else to go to heaven. You have your sins removed, but that's not enough.

Justification

Isn't it odd that when people talk about being saved, what do they emphasize? They emphasize getting your sins forgiven. And they never stop to realize that that'll never get you into heaven. It's not enough to have your sins forgiven. You must also be as good as God's own righteousness. You must have imputed to you His absolute righteousness, and that is what justification means. Then, when you are justified, that means that you're equal to God. Now, morally, you're qualified for heaven.

So when he says He delivered us, that's what he's talking about. These are the two great things that God does for those who do nothing more than say, "I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I believe that God is telling me the truth. He will redeem me. My sins will be forgiven. He will give me absolute righteousness. I will be justified."

Now, this rescue of the believers in salvation is done, once for all, by God at a point in time. We know that because this word "rhuomai" (to deliver us – to rescue us), is in the Greek aorist tense, which means a point in time. That's the marvelous thing of the Greek language. You can't see it in English, but you see it in the Greek. It says, 'Bingo! It happens now." And I stress that to you because Roman Catholicism is confusing people by saying, "You cannot be justified instantly, but you must spend your whole life progressively getting better and better, until you deserve to go to heaven." That's not true. It is a lie according to the very Greek grammar that the Holy Spirit has used. You have been delivered (aorist tense), for your Greek grammarians, instantly– a point in time.

So, he is instantly delivered (Instantly rescued) from a destiny in the lake of fire. This is indicated to us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come." If any man is in Christ, and that's what happens when you trust in Christ as savior. You receive the dry baptism of the Holy Spirit, which instantly places you in Christ. You are now in Christ. You have become a new creation spiritually. And the old things (the death realm of Adam is what is in mind by "the old things") passed away. And, behold, the new things (the life realm of Jesus Christ) have come.

Now, this verse is sometimes misapplied by applying it to your conduct before and after salvation. Now, it is true that it has that implication, because when you are a new creation, you are now born-again. You're now in the image of God. You are now spiritually alive. You are no longer spiritually dead. You now have the Holy Spirit. You have the power to conquer evil. Therefore, it is true that the old things of sin will pass away, and that the new things of a godly life will become characteristic of you. That should be, unless you're walking in carnality. But the old and the new things here are the old things of the death realm of being in Adam, over against the new things of being in eternal life in Christ as what is in view. But the point is that it happens instantly. The moment you believe, you're in.

Domain (Authority)

So, our spiritual liberation, from Satan's slave market of sin, demands that we Christians should live as godly people, obeying the moral standards of Scripture. Paul says Colossians in 1:13, "For He delivered us" (that is, we believers). Paul, and the Colossians – church-age saints: "He delivered us all from the domain." This word "domain" looks like this in the Greek Bible." It's the word "exousia" (ex-oo-see'-ah), E X O U S I A. "Exousia" means "authority." He delivered us from the authority of darkness. This connotes a sphere of power which is exercised by another. Here it refers to the tyrannical, lawless, unrestrained power to which man is enslaved. And what that power is, is described by the word "darkness." Man is enslaved to an authority of darkness. This has reference to spiritual ignorance; to spiritual falsehood; to sin; and, to all the things that connote the world of Satan.

This darkness is described in John 3:19: "And this is the judgment that light is come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil." It is characteristic of people who are in sin to love evil doctrine. It is characteristic of people who are acting in sinful ways to want to do it under the cover of darkness. We who have are Christians have been rescued from the authority of this spirit of darkness; that is, the realm of Satan's authority.

Romans 13:12 also alludes to this, "The night is almost gone. The day is of hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and put on the armor of light." Now, if that were true in Paul's day as he wrote to the Christians in Rome – that the night was almost gone, and the day is at hand, what is he talking about? He's saying that the night of Satan's authority over the world is almost gone. The day of Jesus Christ's authority over the world and the millennium is at hand. Therefore, let us start living as people of the light. Let us put on the armor of light, which means doctrine, so that we can live as what we are – the children of light.

If that were true in Paul's day, when he wrote this letter, how much truer is it today? Those of you who saw the video we showed one Sunday evening by Grant Jeffrey on the 10 signs (never true in the history of the world before) that indicate the immediate presence of Christ – you were blown out of the water. People are still talking about that one, because it showed how things have suddenly come together, and we are on the threshold of the appearance of Jesus Christ. Before that tribulation begins, we have to all be gone. The rapture is indeed at hand. Therefore, let's stop living as if we belong to Satan's system. Let's stop being what we are with all that that brings to us. If you want blessing, and if you want long life, the Bible is very clear. Play the game by the rules of God. That's all.

This was the same principle to the Jews. When He brought them out as slavery, He said, "Here's the deal. I'm going to give you the rules. On two rocks, on two tables of stone, I'm going to write the moral code. There are going to be ten principles. These will preserve your freedom. I'm going to put five on one, and five on the other. And Moses will bring these down. You'll see that My Own finger has etched these into the rock. It will be very authoritative. Now, the rest of you go down the mountain. I want Moses to stay up here. I have 613 principles and commandments and ordinances all together, and I'm going to dictate these now to Moses. He will write them down as I give them to him. And then he will bring you the full gamut of information by which you will live. And if you obey these principles of life that I will give you, none of the diseases that the Egyptians have (these horrible things that are taking place) – not a bit of those diseases will be on you. Part of this will be because you're obeying My sanitary laws. You're obeying M dietary laws. You're obeying the way you handle certain things; how you dry your clothes in the sunshine; and, how you deal with human problems that are in the course of daily living. All of these things were spelled out, and the first thing of all, while you have to do the good health stuff, you must do the good spiritual things. If you obey Me spiritually, none of these diseases will come upon you. Your bodies will function like clockwork. You'll all have an old age. You'll enjoy your grandchildren. You'll have a super life."

Now, they stood there, and saw that thunder, and saw that lightning, and having the fool scared out of them, made then say, "Moses, you talk to Him. We don't want to talk to Him. We don't want to be facing God at all. You tell us what He said." You would think that they would've said, "Okay, we're going to do that. But because it took him 40 days, Moses was a very slow writer. So, God had to keep saying the things slowly, and spelling the words out for him until he got it all down. It was a lot to write. And finally 40 days later, he comes down, and what are they doing? They're worshiping a Baal God made in the form of a golden calf. And Moses got so mad, as you know, that he took the two tablets, and he was holding one in each arm. Now, this guy was an 80-year-old dude at this time, and he had to be pretty strong to carry two heavy slabs of rock like that. And I don't know if he broke it on somebody's head or what, but I think he just threw it to the ground, and they smashed.

So God said, "Okay, Moses, let's cool it now. Come on back up here. I've made duplicates, and this time don't mess them up." So, God gave him a second set, written with the moral code. He said, "Now take the rest of the directions on how they will live. If you do that, you will lay aside the deeds of darkness. You will put on the armor of light."

Now, those of you that are always being instructed in doctrine, you have no reason not to walk in light. You're not fools. Most people in most churches are spiritual fools, because nobody informs them. Therefore, they're always stumbling, and injuring themselves, because they're always listening to the world; to that dominion; that realm; and, that authority of darkness. The minion of darkness – this is the realm of Satan's authority. Romans 13:12: "The night is almost gone."

Then there's Ephesians 6:12 about this terrible realm of darkness. Ephesians 6:12 puts it this way: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers; against the powers; against the world forces of this darkness; and, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." That is what darkness means. It means everything associated with Satan and his demonic angels.

Now, it's true that human beings express this. But you must always remember that when you confront a human being that is doing evil, that you are confronting a satanic problem. It is what is behind this human being. That is where the real darkness lies that we're struggling against. God our Father has taken this domain of darkness, and has exposed it. And not the least of which He has exposed is Satan, who is a great liar, and who is always seeking to deceive; and, he pretends himself to be an angel of light.

It says in Corinthians 11:13 that those who serve Satan (the false teachers) – they pretend to be apostles of Christ. Verse 14 says, "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." So,

God our Father has delivered, or He has rescued, believers from the tyranny of spiritual darkness. This is the place where evil powers rule (Luke 22:53). It's the place where Satan has usurped authority, and has usurped authorities exercise. Matthew 4:8-9 and Acts 26:18 speak about these areas where Satan exercises his usurped authority.

This is a power realm (this area of darkness – this authority of darkness), which is horrible. It's monstrous in which all the unsaved of our society are imprisoned, and they're powerless to escape until God pulls us out of it; until He chooses to redeem us; and, until He chooses to justify us. That darkness is a place of great wretchedness and hopelessness, in which the believer gropes about, trying to live his life. Most of the world is groping in spiritual darkness.

On the other side, the Christians, the Christians have been rescued from Satan's kingdom of darkness at the point of salvation. God the Father has drawn us to Himself. He has taken us out of the kingdom of Satan. He has rescued us from the authority of darkness. Then, Paul says, "That wasn't all." It is wonderful enough to realize that He has rescued us from that abysmal place of spiritual darkness, but He has also now transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. And all that is connoted by that is enough to make you stand up and shout, "Hallelujah. Glory to God." And we shall pick that up next time.

Dear God, we thank You for this, Your Word. And we pray that You will seal it to our understanding.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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