May it please almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let us turn to the epistle of
Paul to the Colossians in chapter three, and we'll read the first
four verses. The epistle of Paul to the Colossians
chapter three, and reading verses one to four. If ye then be risen with Christ,
Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. How often as we read the New
Testament and as we read the epistles of the Apostle Paul,
we find that he continually directs our minds to the difference between
the things of the earth, the things of time, and the things
of heaven, the things which are eternal. And quite clearly it
is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to direct us, young and old,
to think upon the things of God. How easy it is. to find ourselves
taken up with the things of the earth. And yet the things of
the earth will quickly pass away. And especially perhaps the young
people and the children amongst us to realize that we live now
on the earth in what we call time, but our time on this earth
is fast passing away and the years quickly, quickly, quickly
go and very soon we shall be out of time. Sometimes there are those competitions
which are done and people enter into and they have a time limit
and they have to complete everything within that time. And it comes
that they are out of time and they can't do any more. It's
the same with examinations, isn't it? The young people know what
examinations are. We have a time, a time set to
produce the answers and give that which is necessary. It becomes
that situation where we're told to stop and we're told to finish
because the time has ended. that time given to answer the
questions. Well, in a much greater and a
much more important way, you and I live on the earth just
for a period of time. Perhaps you might think, well,
is that relevant? Well, it's relevant in that way
because really you and I are facing a continual examination
the Bible tells us to examine ourselves to see whether we are
in the faith or not that means whether we are spiritually alive
or not there is you might say that examination which continues
for us in life and it's good therefore if we are able to question
ourselves whether under the influence of the Spirit of God we ask ourselves
the great question with regards to whether we are spiritually
alive. Because the time for answering
that question will one day finish. We shall not be able to ask ourselves
the question anymore. because we shall be out of time. What a good thing it will be
if you and I have had the examination and we've been able to answer
the question adequately, that we've been able to answer it
correctly and we've been able to answer it in the fear of God. and we've come to the great and
wonderful conclusion that it is therefore well with our soul. This is something that you and
I should not therefore deter from considering. You know, in
our school life and our college life, we can't usually avoid
examinations, can we? And also We can't avoid knowing
what the result is for those examinations. And it's the same
really in our spiritual life. There is that examination which
we can't really avoid and there will be a result which all of
us will hear, we'll all know what the great judge of the earth
brings to us. as to whether that examination
has been passed or whether that examination has failed. Now then, if that examination
has been passed, the wonderful blessing is that we shall be
found in heaven at last, forever, and if that examination we failed,
we shall be in hell forever and ever. with the devil and his
angels. And so the great question will
be to know that we are amongst those who have received what
we refer to as the grace of God, which is the free unmerited favor
of God, which directs us to examine ourselves and to find in that
examination we are not good people but in actual fact we're bad
people and in actual fact we come under condemnation because
we have offended God because we have sinned against God and
therefore we're not good people we are indeed bad people and
we need then to be made good people and we should only be
made good people through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
to save us, to deliver us from that condition of condemnation
which we are all under because of our sin, because of our disobedience
before a holy God. So these things are very, very
important. And just to conclude on this
introduction, you know, the examination of our soul is far more important
than the examinations we take in life. Because the examinations
we take in life refer only to the things of this life. But the examination of our soul
refers to the eternal state that we shall spend in eternity. So I'm sure we can all understand,
young and old, the great importance of passing God's examination
as he tests us as to whether we do possess the life of God
in our soul. And really, this comes back to
the very first little word in this first verse of this third
chapter of the Colossians, where the apostle, as he speaks to
the church of Colossae, and he says, A great question, isn't it? For
all of us. If, and then he goes on, if ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Now, if you and
I are risen with Christ, What it means is that through the
favour of God, through the blessing of God, you and I have been born
again. We now possess the favour of
God. We now possess spiritual life. We now possess the light of God
shining into our hearts. And this you see is the great
and important thing that all of us need to know. So that in
answer to this question, if as we are given grace to examine
ourselves, we can conclude, yes I am, I am by the grace of God
risen with Christ, I am alive forevermore. When God gives this
great gift of spiritual life, it is a life which is never taken
away. It is a life which ever lives. Well, what a blessing. What a
wonderful thing that is. And I'm sure all of us can appreciate
the great importance, therefore, of possessing this wonderful
gift of being risen with Christ. It means that we are united to
Christ. It means that we are indeed one
of his children. And Jesus spoke about this and
spoke about how we need to come right down to little babes. And
in the Gospel of Matthew, the 11th chapter, verse 25, this
is what we read. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and truant and has revealed
them unto babes. So what he means there is that
these things are not naturally understood. You and I can't get
out a textbook and therefore learn it all up and therefore
come to an examination and pass the examination because of our
learning. We only can and pass the examination
because of what God has come and graciously given to us. And that which he has given to
us is the gift of eternal life. And if God has given us that
gift of eternal life, it will because we come right down to
ignorant little babes. Babes don't know very much, do
they? But what a blessing it is if the Holy Spirit of God
has come and has revealed Himself to us and has shone His light
into our hearts so that we can therefore say, yes, praise God,
yes, thankful to God, yes, bless God, I am risen with Christ. Well, all of us today, all of
us must answer that question. You see, you can't answer the
question for anybody else. I can't answer the question for
anybody else, because it is between our souls and God that we may
have the wonderful evidence that we are born again of the Spirit
of God. And these things, as the apostle
tells us here, those things which are above. These things are not
of the earth. These things are heavenly things. These things are eternal things. These things will never be taken
away. They will never vanish. They
may sometimes become a bit dim. You know, naturally, as we see
the sun shining, we think this is wonderful. lovely blue sky
and wonderful sun shining and we can appreciate that and sometimes
then the clouds come up and the clouds cover the sun and we can't
see the sun but the truth is the sun is still shining the
sun is still there it's just been covered for a while with
clouds clouds don't last forever. My friends, that's the same in
our spiritual life. Yes, what a blessing when the
Son, we can think of that in a spiritual thought, the Son
of Righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ shines into our heart,
What a wonderful sight it is. It warms our soul from coldness
and it brings light from darkness. It's a wonderful and glorious
revelation and we praise God for it. And then there may be
a time perhaps when clouds come and seem to cover the sun, but
the sun's still there. And in that situation we have
to pray to God because it may be that our sins have come and
separated between us and our God. They've caused a cloud to
come between. Sometimes a cloud may be very
dark and it may seem as though perhaps it never will be in light
again. Well, the Lord is able and the
Lord is willing. to come and take away the cloud
and to reveal Himself to us again as the glorious Light of the
Gospel, as that wonderful Saviour who has taken away all our sin,
removed it all, yes, far away, and reveals to us His love, His
grace, His mercy. And then you see The blessing
is we can then, by His grace, see with clarity the wonderful
plan of salvation. And that clarity shows to us
that the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to produce that deliverance,
died upon that cross at Calvary to take away our sins. and that death was so great and
so important and so valuable and it involved his blood being
shed as the evidence that his life had been taken and therefore
what a glorious scene it is and what a time of spiritual life
there is and spiritual night there is and spiritual rejoicing
there is And so the apostle here directs us to this scene, not
an earthly scene. An earthly scene will only bring
us into darkness. A spiritual scene will bring
us into heavenly light. And that's really what the apostle
is homing in here in this account to the Colossians. And as I've
said, you read all the epistles you will find again and again
he directs the Church of God to heavenly realities and so
today may our heart may our mind be directed to heavenly realities
and may we therefore recognize this great truth if and may we
come out the right side of this if ye then be risen with Christ
Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. It's a great truth, it's a wonderful
truth if you and I can believe and understand the Lord Jesus
Christ when he finished his work on this earth to save our souls,
to redeem our souls, He then went down into that sepulchre
and then on the third day rose again a conqueror, arose again
a conqueror. And what a blessing if we are
amongst those who rise with him. Excuse me. and who will indeed rise with
Him eternally. But the Saviour rose and then
He ascended up to glory. He ascended to His Father to
sit on the right hand of His Father on the throne in glory. And there He is. And there He
sits today. Just think of the wonder, of
the glory, for the favour, the blessing of this same Jesus there,
seated on the Father's right hand, and yet at this very moment
in time, looking upon us as we are before him in worship. Well, does that rejoice? your heart rejoice your soul,
I hope it does. Because if you and I are amongst
those who are risen with Christ, these are the truths which bring
joy and peace into our heart. Because they are eternal realities,
they are things which will not fade away. No, they may have
a cloud sometimes covering them from our view, but they are the
same. Jesus does not change. He remains
ever the same glorious Saviour. So we have this statement here.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Seek after these things. And
the Word of God tells us this, be encouraged. Seek and ye shall
find. Don't stop seeking. Seek and
ye shall be found. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. To knock at the door of mercy,
the Lord will open that door. There you and I will see the
glory of Emmanuel's land. Well, here is. this gracious
encouragement for us today. We may live in a dark world,
but blessed be God, our Saviour is not dark, because He is the
light of the world, and the light shines from Him into the souls
of His people, that eternal light which will never, never go out
through eternity. and consider the greatness of
these things. And so he says, seek those things
which are above. He doesn't say seek all the things
on this earth. And if you and I just stop for
a moment, it's good perhaps sometimes to stop, you young people. You
live in a mad world, a world rushing along, to sometimes stop and consider. What are you to
stop and consider? I'll tell you what you to stop
and consider. The things of world perish. The things of eternity
last forever. It's good therefore if you and
I can be moved by the Holy Spirit to consider the reality of eternal
things. and to compare them with the
trivialities, the relative trifles of the things of time. As you know, I don't often refer
to things in my own life. I don't want people to think
too highly of me, but you might just think of this little account
which the Lord was gracious to me many years ago. When I was
a teenager at school, and they were choosing prefects. Well, I'm sure many of the young
people know what that's all about. And of course, prefects are quite
important when we're at school. And anyway, they were choosing
these prefects and I thought I had a good chance of being
elected a prefect. And the head came into the room
and called out the names of all the people that were to be prefects,
and as you went down the list, one after another, my name was
not included. And when it was completed, one
of my friends who was sitting next to me, who was chosen to
be a prefect, he turned to me and he said,
oh, tough luck, Steve. Sorry about that. The Lord then dropped in these words, Triforce of theirs, a kingdom yours. Triforce of theirs, a
kingdom yours. Well, I didn't know where it
was. So it was a powerful word and it didn't disappear. I went home and I looked in the
Bible and got a concordance and couldn't find it. And I thought,
well, that's very strange, but the word didn't disappear from
me. And it wasn't until months or
I think perhaps years later, I suddenly realized that it was
a line of a hymn. It's a line in our hymn 257,
Trifles are theirs, a kingdom yours." But the blessing
was that that word had a good effect
insofar as for the next year, because obviously the prefects
were chosen for the following year, and for the whole of that
year really, although several of my friends were prefects and
I was never envious, I was never jealous, and I was very happy
to be amongst those who were blessed with the gift of
that eternal kingdom, the kingdom of glory. So we see how important
indeed eternal things are by comparison with the trifles of this earth. And so the apostle
goes on to say, seek those things which are above where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God, those eternal blessings
in heaven. We don't know really what they
consist of. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard
the things that the Lord has prepared for his church, but
we do know they will be very wonderful, and we know they
will be very glorious. So then the apostle comes and
he says, therefore set your affections on things above, and not on things
on the earth. That is indeed a very important
and a very wonderful and a very precious word from God and it's
something that you and I need to constantly be aware of and
constantly be reminded of because it is very easy to have our affections
set on the things on the earth. And so the Lord puts it very
positively, strikingly so, he directs us first to the heavenly
things, set your affection on things above and not on things
on the earth. Now the Lord is so gracious,
he gives us such a word to remind us of the importance of heavenly
things, because heavenly things are eternal blessings. And to
think that by the favor of God, not because what we've done,
not because what we merited, but all because of the love of
God, the love of Christ. You can think of that in three
ways. The love of the Father, the love of the Son, and the
love of the Holy Spirit. all combined in love to redeem
our souls. It's a wonderful consideration. It's a really good thought and
a very good meditation to consider the wonder of Almighty God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, all concerned, all united with regards to the
redemption of your soul, my soul, indeed the saving of our soul,
and are directing our affections therefore to things above and
not on things on the earth. Now we live on the earth, I know
that, and the things on this earth obviously are important
to us, but we ought to say they are relatively important to us,
because we always need to combine it with the relevant condition
of the eternal state of our souls. And that, you see, puts things
then into a good and a right perspective. You see, the devil
will always try and blot out the importance of eternal realities. He will always try, and he does
try, to persuade us that the things of time are the most important
things, that we should concentrate greatly on the things of time
and not so much on the things of eternity. Well, the things
of time vanish, the things of eternity are forever. And so says the apostle, set
your affections on things above and not on things on the earth.
That's a very clear statement, isn't it? You and I don't need
to have great education to understand the great and simple truths of
God and the great and simple direction that God gives to us. We are so thankful that the Lord
sets before us, in simple words, important things. And here is
an important consideration to set our affection, your affection,
my affection, your affection on things above and not on things
on the earth. So he goes on, for you are dead
and your life is hid with Christ in God. You see at one time we
were dead to the things of God and we were alive to the things
of the earth. What a great blessing, therefore,
those things have been reversed. They've only been reversed because
of the goodness and the mercy and the favour of Almighty God.
For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. That means to be united with
the Lord Jesus Christ, part of the Trinity. Wonderful, isn't
it? Think of that. you and me as
utterly unworthy sinners, utterly unworthy of any notice of God. We don't deserve any notice,
do we? You know, that's a good thing when the Holy Spirit shows
us that we don't deserve any notice. We are just too sinful,
too black. What a mercy when the Lord looks
upon us and comes and gives us the great gift of eternal life. So then this word then stands
out, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Well, I hope your life and my
life may indeed be hid with Christ in God. And we may be seeking
first the eternal blessings. Indeed, the Lord Jesus when he
was on the earth and he preached that wonderful sermon which we
refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. You can find it in Matthew
chapters 5, 6 and 7. And in the 6th chapter and the
33rd verse, this is what the Lord says. But seek ye first,
not second, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be
added unto you." What that means is that every needful thing,
every necessary thing for you and me, as you and I pass through
this life, will be given to us. But the great and important thing
is to be found seeking first the Kingdom of God. Well, you
might come back to that very first little word in the first
verse, Here, what are we seeking first?
Have we sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness, which
is the gracious word, the gracious instruction of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and may we therefore be concerned that we come within
such a glorious statement? Well, says the apostle, when
Christ who is our life shall appear. Then shall you
also appear with him in glory. Well, this is a sure and certain
statement. The Lord will appear. Yes, the
Lord wonderfully will appear to all his saints when they leave
this earth, when they die. If you and I stood on the earth
before the Lord returns, the Lord will appear. We won't be
alone, the Lord will appear when we pass out of time into eternity,
when Christ who is our life, he was the apostle's life, as
we thought recently in that first chapter of the Philippians, our
meditations on a Friday evening. Yes, that the apostle says, for
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He was very familiar,
wasn't he, with this great and wonderful truth. And so when
Christ, who is our life, well, this morning, as we may sit the
examination before Almighty God, is this true? Have we passed
the examination? and by the favor and grace and
love of God, can we say, yes, Christ is my life? It's a big question, isn't it?
That's an important question. Bless God if he is your life,
and you'll be very real and very precious to think that this great
Savior has given his life to remove our sin. take it all away. The only way it could be removed
was that Christ died for our sins. Yes, bless God. And so when Christ who is our
life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. That is the position. That is the truth of God. That is the promise of God, that
is, that which God's children can rely upon, that when we pass
out of time, it will be to go and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Why is it far better? Well, there's
no sin in glory, there's no sadness. What is that? happiness, joy,
peace, and we shall be with all those blessed Christians, all
the whole Church of God, who are like-minded, who are blessed
to receive this glorious grace of God, and who are now enjoying the
pleasures of glory eternally. So when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall he also appear with him in glory. You see, we won't be alone, because
we shall be, as the hymn writer says, forever with the Lord. No separation. Forever with the
Lord. Surely that is a wonderful and a blessed consideration,
and a wonderful and a glorious prospect. So there may we today
be thankful to God that we have such a statement as we meditated
on this morning in this third chapter of the Colossians. If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, set your affections
on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead. Your life is here with Christ
in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Amen.