Go back to Colossians 3 with
me. You would enjoy reading the whole
book again if you haven't read it lately. I did that. Just wonderful,
wonderful. Look at verse 4. When Christ
our life, who is our life, the words who is is in italic. When
Christ our life shall appear, then shall You also appear with Him in glory. How does that make you feel?
How does that sound to you? Now, until we must be born again,
our Lord said you must be born again. This is not a message
on how to have life. No. This is a message on how
God gives us life and how to enjoy this life and how to to
nurture this life, live this life, he tells us. We must be
born again. This is to those who he said
are risen with Christ, born again, given life. Until God gives us
life, spiritual life, we're dead and trespassed in sin. You've read scriptures like this,
God is not in all their thoughts. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge. That was me. There was a time I didn't
give God a thought. I certainly didn't give Him thanks.
I certainly didn't come to worship Him. I was not interested. I was completely given to the
things of this world. Was that you? And such were some
of you. I can't preach without those two words. See, this is
the gospel. This is you, like Ephesians 2,
and you. Children of wrath, even as others.
Dead and trespassing. That's you. And you. Well, what
happened? But God. This is salvation of
the Lord. Why do we keep saying that? Because
it is. Anybody thinks otherwise, they've
not been born again. Until God gives us life, we're
dead and trespassing sin. But God, rich in mercy, His great
love were with the loved some. Not all, but some. Many chose
some that they might have life. He sends his Word, the Gospel. We're born of the Word of God. Born again by the Word of God,
the Gospel. I started reading in chapter
1, and Paul kept saying, thank God for the hope laid up for
you in heaven that you heard, that you heard before in the
gospel. He kept saying, since today you
heard it. So we must hear the gospel. And God gives us new life, spiritual
life, when we hear this gospel. He gives us new heart, new affection,
new creature. New creature, new heart, new
mind, new soul, new spirit, new eyes, new ears, new mouth, new
hands, new feet. Life says Christ our life. Christ is something that is your
life or someone. Someone or something is your
life. It's who you live for, what you
live for, what you think about all the time. It's who you live
with and who you want to walk with and talk with and what you
want to pursue. It's the things that takes up
your time and your money and your effort and your thoughts.
Some of you live for sports or some of you live for recreation
or jobs or making money or family and on and on it goes. Hobbies
and worldly pursuits, things of the world. But when this life of God comes
into your soul, Christ becomes your name. You start thinking
on Him. You never thought of that before. Now you can't go very long without
thinking about Him. You want to hear about Him. You've got new ears, don't you?
There was a time when these things became, you know, I grew up under
these blessed things, but you've heard my story. It probably went
on. And there was a time there, thankfully
a brief time, that I just didn't want to hear these things. It
pricked my conscience is what it did. You know what I'm saying? I'd hear some old hymns or something
and I'd turn it off. Honestly, I don't want to hear
that. I want to hear, you know, this
other music. That was my life. What happened? I didn't make a decision. Life
came. New eyes, new ears. New mouth,
new hands, new feet, new pursuits, new love. Okay, verse 1, it begins
this way. If ye then be risen with Christ. You, you, you, you. If you be risen, not raised,
and you have to be quickened who were dead. If you're truly
risen with Christ. Now, he's talking to believers. He's talking to those who have
life. Because this is not the affection of unbelievers. But
those who have been, who have risen with Christ. Look at Galatians
2. Go back to Galatians chapter
2. And Paul says this in all the epistles. He said it in chapter
2 of Colossians. Buried with him in baptism, risen
with him. But Galatians 2 is just wonderful. like Ephesians, like Colossians.
Galatians 2, some of you, all of you that know these verses
love them. Paul said in Galatians 2.20, you have it? I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Christ in you, the hope will
go. And the life which I now live in the flesh, in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Paul
said this, can you say this, for me to live is Christ. Oh, I want to win Christ and
be found in Him. Are you waiting for your ship
to come in? Are you already in the ark? Are you waiting to win
the lottery? Look at Galatians 6. I know you know these verses.
This is so good. Galatians 6 verse 14. God forbid that I should
glory. There used to be many things
that I gloried in. I was amazed by. I admired people
and things and music and this and that and the other. I aspired
to being whatever. Great things. I can't think of one person on
this earth that I admire. I mean, out there in the world.
Some of my brethren in Christ. I can't think of one thing I
aspire to be or have or do. How about you? Glory? There's nothing glorious. After you've seen Christ's glory,
there's nothing glorious, is there? If you've ever seen Christ's
glory, everything else fades. We sing that song. Fade, fade,
this earthly joy. The Lord Jesus is mine. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifice,
the life, the death, the crucifixion, the redemption that's in Christ.
Look at it. By whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world. by whom the world is crucified
unto me." If you've ever really seen His glory, nothing and no
one will capture your attention with your glory and admire it.
It says in 1 Thessalonians, when He comes to destroy this world
with the brightness of His coming, it says He's coming to be admired. to be admired and glorified in
His saints and all that believe. Jesus Christ has all my admiration. No one else. No one else. By
whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world. I want
to be like Noah sitting in that ark. Let the world pass by and
laugh at us. We'll have the last laugh. New
creature, walk in newness of life. Go back to Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Now this is to
living believers. He says, set, if you then be
risen with Christ, crucified with Christ, buried, raised,
confess Him in believer's baptism. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things of the earth. Go back to Psalm
27. Psalm 27. Do you love the Psalms? I know
you do. Do you love Psalm 27? Oh, my. Psalm 27, look at that. He said
in Colossians 3, Seek, seek, seek. He said, Christ our light. Look at Psalm 27. The Lord is
my light, my salvation. I didn't know anything. I couldn't
see clearly. I couldn't see myself. I couldn't
see things as they are without Christ, the light, my salvation. He's the one that came and did
the gospel and redeemed me and saved me, my life from destruction. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life, my strength. Of whom shall I be afraid? Verse
4, one thing have I desired of the Lord. And that will I seek
after. Paul said, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
Well, he's not the first one who said that. David did. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. Why, David? I want to behold
the beauty of the Lord. I want to see Him. To inquire
in His temple. Read on now, verse 8. When thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, and not until then, but when he did, my heart said, Thy
face, Lord, will I seek. O hide not thy face from my servant. Verse 10. Don't you love this?
When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take
me in. Verse 11. Teach me thy way, O Lord. Lead
me in the plain path. Don't deliver me to my enemies,
sin, the world. Verse 14, don't you love this?
Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He'll strengthen
thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. What does that mean? It
means we're waiting on the Lord to come get us like life, sitting
in the gate. Do you love that song? Does that
mean anything to you? You must have life. You must
have life. Things above, where Christ sits. You know, the things that are
seen. All these things right here. Temporal. There's nothing on this earth
that you look at that's not going to be gone. Totally dissolved. Seeing that
all these things be dissolved. It's like a soap bubble. But the things that are not seen
are eternal. Eternal. So he says, set your
affection on things that are eternal. Do you remember this
over in Philippians? We devoted a whole message to
this one Wednesday night. Brethren, whatsoever things are
true. Hard to find anything true today,
isn't it? I admit, I Google things. I do. What's the temperature? I was looking at the weather
all over, the temperature all over when it was 13. I thought,
oh, it's cold. And I thought, hey, Google, what's
the temperature in Moscow? It's 32. It's colder here than
Moscow, Russia. But, now, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
was six below zero. I had to say that because, you
know, we look into things and you can't believe everything
you hear. People do. Google says it must be true. Let God be true. So, what's everything
he says? Set your mind on these things. Don't let anything else bother
you. Is there anything anybody can say to change your mind,
to disprove what you know to be true in God's Word? Anything? I was reading, what's the name
of it? L-U-C-A. Did you know life began
by this thing called LUCA? Yeah. That's what the scientists
say. They discovered even deeper that LUCA is where we came from. It's a single cell bacteria. That's where we came from. Oh
yeah. That's what they said. It's all a lie. Men are liars. What sort of things are true?
Everything God says is true. God's true. What sort of things
are honest? Honest. I've got to go on through
this. What sort of things are just
pure, lovely, a good report, the gospel, virtue, praise? Think on these things. Think
on these things. Set your affection on these things. Not on things of the earth. Don't
listen. Don't look. Don't look at these
things. Don't do it. Things above. Things of God. What He says. What He has done. What He's going to do. Oh, my.
Look at chapter 3 in Colossians. You're dead. Your life is hid
with Christ in God. Don't you love this verse, John?
John Sheasley. Ron Fanning, you're dead. Your life is hid with God in
Christ. I'm so thankful Brother Ron read from Romans 6. I was
going to quote some of this. Such a good choice. He was obviously
preparing for tonight. But Romans 6 says this, I'll
just read it to you. Reckon yourself be dead indeed
unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your body,
your mortal body, and obey the lust thereof. Don't yield your
members to these unrighteousness. Yield yourselves to God as one
alive from the dead. Sins shall not have dominion
over you. Christ said so. So he says, you're dead. You're dead. Dead yet alive.
It's a mystery. I was once dead. I was not alive
in any sense of the word. Right? Very much alive to the
things of the world, but dead to God. Dead in sin. No thoughts of God. But God,
when this life of God came, now you've got a spirit that's life. A new creature that's alive under
God. And then you've got this old
man. He's dead. He's dying. And every now and then he lifts
up his ugly head, doesn't he? And Paul, we're going to see
that here in a minute. That dead yet alive, Paul said, we're crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. An old man's dead and he's dying. This body of death, this flesh,
and he's not going to be gone until they lay this body in the
grave. The sooner the better. And then
no more sin. No more struggle. No more battle. No more sorrow. No more tears.
No more nothing. A new life. A new life. A new man, alive and living. This old man lived for the world,
sin, self. But can you say with Paul, for
me to live is to win Christ, be found in Him, Now, we're still
in this world. Go back to Colossians 3. We're
still in this world. We have lives to live and things
to do, and we have to think on our jobs and our children and
responsibilities and all of that. But don't set your heart on these
things, because we're going to lose everything and everyone. This is why I said this Sunday,
this is why, you know, we love our children and we'd love to
be with them forever, wouldn't we? Well, if they know Christ,
we will. Right? So, we'll be forever with
the Lord, together. Set your heart, set your mind,
set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. Your life is, look at this, you're
dead, your life is hid with Christ in God. Now this means a couple
of things. Your life is hid. That means
the security of it. No man, like Christ said, no
man taketh my life from me. No man can take your life from
you. You know that? God says, I kill. I make a life. So don't fear for your life.
Don't fear anything. You hear me? You're dead anyway. But don't fear for your life
because nothing and no one can take your life until God says
so. And then nothing can stop it.
Right? And don't be taken up with trying
to save your life. You can't. If you didn't give
yourself life, you can't keep it. We're kept by the power of
God in every sense of the word. The security of it. And this
new life, this new life, God gave it to us and he says, he
that liveth and believeth in me will never die. No one can
take it from you. Something, the Lord has something
already in my body, perhaps, unless it's a car wreck or something
like that, has something that is going to be the instrument
to take my life, to stop my heart, to clog up my lungs or something
to go to my brain. God does. He does that. He's already purposed it. There's
nothing I can do to stop that. Nothing you can do to stop that.
I like that. That way I don't have to buy
too many supplements and do too much exercise. I try. I tell you, the older I get,
it's just hard to stretch, let alone run ten miles. Right? Bodily exercise problems. Very
little. Godliness. Thinking on things
above. That's what godliness is, you
know that? Thinking on things above. Thinking on the things
of God. Not worldliness, godliness. Thinking
on things above. So this is the safety of it,
the security of it, this new life, and the secrecy of it.
We're a mystery to ourselves. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. And you take a good look at yourself and you look
within and you say like John Newton, how
can I be a child of God and think that? I still think thoughts
that I thought when I was 16 years old. Things still tempt me and things
that make me mad and I just want to beat the living daylights
out of somebody for no reason. What's wrong with me? That's
that old man. But there's a new man. There's
a new man. See, that old man would give
vent to those things. That old man, nothing stopped
him. There was the restraining grace of God, but it didn't bother
you to carry out those desires. What stops you now? The Spirit
of God. The grace of God. The goodness
of God. God knows how to deliver the
godly from temptation. He's the only one who can. Look
at verses 5 and 6. He said, mortify your members
on the earth. And this is what the world is
all about, isn't it? These things. Fornication, sex
outside of marriage, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
desires. covetousness, money, greed, which
is idolatry. For which thing's sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience? Paul says that several times
throughout the epistles. Let no man deceive you with vain
words. God judges men for these sins. But my pastor said it's not just the sin itself, but
the love for sin, the hatred of God, the hatred of His holiness,
the hatred of God's Son, and the wrath of God. The wrath of
God abides on the ungodly. You know that. Not the love.
Look at verse 6, which things are sake, the wrath of God cometh
on the children of disobedience in which you also walk sometimes.
That was your life. That was your walk. That was
what you did when you lived in them or lived for them. Let me
just read. I just gave someone a set of
these commentaries. If you don't have them, you need
them, my pastor. on the epistles is no better. He said, the Lord's people are
still human. We have a real struggle with
the flesh. He'll give grace and mercy for every need. The fact
that we're exhorted to mortify these things tells us that they're
still there. And God's wrath is upon the children
of disobedience, so we need to put these things down by the
grace of God. Before we met Christ, this was our way of life. We
walked and lived in these things, giving full release, full vent
to these things. And now we love Christ and long
to be like Him. We want to be like Him in conduct,
speech, attitude. So we need to put these things
down, mortify, kill it. For which things sake the wrath
of God, and you walked in these things, but now God's Wrath was
poured out on Christ, wasn't it? But now, verse 8, he says,
put off all these. Anger. Wrath. We all get angry, don't we? Yes,
we do. But don't give vent to it. Wrath
is anger unleashed. Malice. Malice, that's wanting
someone to hurt. Evil will fall on somebody. No,
no. Blasphemy. Don't speak of God or the things
of God or the Word of God in any respect, any way other than
complete reverence and fear. The world makes a mockery of
God's Word and the Word of God. Don't ever use God's Word in
a light, flippant, joking, careless manner. Don't do it. That's blasphemy.
You hear me? Watch your tongue, slips of the
tongue. Oh golly, oh gosh, that's too
close to the name of God. I heard a believer say that,
oh my gosh. And somebody over here might
have thought she said, oh my God. You don't want to do that. You don't want anybody to think
that you're blaspheming God's name to them. Stop that. By the grace of God, you can.
Immortify these members and ask the Lord. Without Him, you can
do nothing. But with Him, all things, right?
By the grace of God. Lord, help me to bite my tongue. Help me, when this fellow wants
to speak, to tell him, shut up! Don't do that. Don't think that. Don't say that. Stop! Right? I can't. You can't, but through Christ
you can. He said that. Besides, there's
a fine line between can't and won't. Right? He just said the wrath of God
comes on children of disobedience. Does God ever get angry with
his people? Yes, sir. Did you ever get angry
with your children? Why? They acted wrong. So will
God. He's not going to kick you out. But you'll suffer some chastisement
and some punishment. And you'll know it. And you'll
know why, won't you? Put it off. Put it off. Put it
off. Put off. Now, he keeps saying in the rest
of these verses, he says, put off and put on. Put off and put
on, doesn't he? Put off the old man, put on. Look at verse 8, put off all
these things. And verse 10, put on the new
man. Verse 12, put on therefore his
elect of God. Put off, put on. Have you ever
been put off by somebody? You ever called somebody and
kept calling them and trying to get a hold of them and said,
they're putting me off. Meaning, they don't have anything
to do with you. They're ignoring you. They're not answering you. They're
not calling you back. They don't want my company. Put
off that old man. By the grace of God. Put off. Put on. Good on. Good on. There was an old Indian
chief of Lakota Indians in Dakota, South Dakota, Lakota Indians,
Sioux, that's what they were, named Sitting Bull. You've heard
of him? He said this, pretty good. He said, two wolves live
inside of me, one good and one bad. And they fight all the time. You want to know who wins? He
said, the one I feed. Now that's not true of him. He didn't
have anything good in him. That's not true of people that
don't have life. There's none good, no not one. But God's people
do. There's a new man, he's good.
There's an old man, he's bad. And they fight all the time.
They do. There's a warfare. It wasn't
there before. When you were dead, there was just one man there.
One old man. Nobody opposed him at all. Nobody
kept him in check. Then this new man came. And it's
a constant warfare. Warring in your members. Who
wins? The one you feed. The one you feed. The old man
lives on the flesh. You keep feeding him, he gets
stronger. Peter said this. He said, abstain
from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. By the grace of God. Feed that
old man and he'll cause you nothing but trouble. Feed the new man. Grow in grace. It's the last
thing Peter said, that grow in grace in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Read on in verse 9, verse 8. Put off filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another. The world
loves to lie. Oh, lie not one to another. Live upright, honest. Seeing
you put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new
man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him, we know now This is not our life. Christ
is our life. Things of God. Things that are
higher. Things that are nobler. Kingdom
of God. We have here no continuing city. Rahab, the harlot. I love that story, and you do
too, don't you? She was a harlot. That's as low as a human being
could go. You know, she sold her body to
anybody that would have it for money, for pleasure. And, you know, just total degradation
of yourself, everything about you. And she lived that way. I don't know how long. We don't
know how old she was, do we? 30, 40, 50? Was she 50 years
old right here? Lived a long time like that. It's awful, awful. But God sent two men to tell
her the truth. Two men that represent the preachers
of the gospel. Angels of God, like the Lamb.
And they came to her and they told her, God's going to destroy
this decadent city named Jericho. God is angry with the wicked.
God's going to destroy this thing and everybody in it. But we've
been sent to you to warn you. And the fear of God was put in
her. And they told her about Joshua, the great Savior, the
great Redeemer, whose name is Jesus. And that he'll receive
and have mercy upon everybody that calls on him, everybody
that asks him. We'll be saved by Him and go
to live with Him someday. That He'll send us back later
on to bring you to Him where you'll live with Him forever. Does that sound good to you right
now? I can't think of anything better.
I'm so tired of Jericho and myself and my sin. I want out. I want it out of me and I want
it out of here just like Lot. Are you serious, you men? Do
you promise you'll save me, my family, everybody? Yes, and here's
the token. They said there's this scarlet
line, this red thread, this red rope. You tie that in the window. You tie that in the window. And
when we see the scarlet line, When we come to destroy this
place, when we see that scarlet line tied where you live, bound,
we're going to come in and take you home and be with Joshua. Now what is that scarlet line?
It's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a token of God's
love, God's mercy, God's grace, God's salvation. He shows it
to every right hand, to every sinner. Makes them fear God,
makes them want out, makes them want sin out of them and them
out of this place. And what makes them want to go
and be with Jesus? The Lord Jesus Christ. And the
token, the sure token that they believe, that they trust, that
they hang on, it's not a thread, it's a rope. And they hang their
life, their hope, their salvation all upon the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ who died for their sins. So we can't redeem our
sins. We can't put away our sins. We
can't do anything to pay for what we've done against God.
We can't even clean up our lives but God. So you believe on the
Son. You believe Christ. You look
to Him. You desire Him. Set your affections.
We're coming to get you. We will promise. We can't lie.
How does all that sound to you? And one day the trumpet started
blowing. How long did Rahab have to wait? We don't know. It doesn't say. Weeks? Months? A year? Doesn't
know. I don't know. What's she doing?
What's she talking about? Did she go back to her former
life? Oh, no. If she did, she would have been
destroyed with Jericho, wouldn't she? She's talking about, she's
hastening the coming of Joshua. So much more she sees the days
approaching. And that trumpet starts saying,
that's what I'm doing. Blowing this trumpet. Blowing
this trumpet of alarm and this trumpet to gather. There were
two trumpets in the Old Testament. One of alarm and one to gather
the people together. And I'm blowing this gospel trumpet
to every Rahab, to every sinner to tell you Christ is coming,
Christ is coming, Christ is coming. You look forward to that? Oh
yes. He promised. He's at the door. Because Christ is all. There's
nothing else at all. There's nothing worth living
for. Nothing and no one. Because everything is vanity.
Christ is all. And in all His people. And it
doesn't matter if you're a Greek or a Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian. It doesn't matter if you're a
barbarian from Kentucky. Or, you know, highfalutin from
wherever. It doesn't matter if you're male
or female. It doesn't matter. Christ is all. All your hope,
all your life, all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, all your love. And in all, He's in all His people.
He really is. If I ask anybody in this room
that claims to believe Christ what your hope of glory is, you
give one word answer and you cry it. He's all, He's all. Okay, stand with me.