May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
epistle of Paul to the Colossians and the third chapter and we'll
read the first four verses. The epistle of Paul to the Colossians,
chapter three, and reading the first four verses. 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 and 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. The apostle here speaks to us
very plainly and very necessarily that we may have right views
of the things of God and right views of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and right views of our own selves and our own position. The Apostle asks this question
really, he says, if ye then be risen with Christ. And that is
such an important consideration, is it not? If we are risen with
Christ, what it means is that we have been born again by the
Spirit of God. We've been risen from that dead
state of our nature in which we were born. And we have been
brought into the light of the Gospel and into that spiritual
life of God. How important these things are. How easily we pass over them. The Apostle has really gone through
some of the ceremonies etc. in the previous chapter, which
of course were good and right and important in their time.
But now the relevant and important consideration was to have the
knowledge of Christ, to know that we are born again of that
Spirit and therefore we are looking forward to our eternal home,
that we are setting our affection upon the things of glory, the
things of Christ and not on the things on the earth. And we need
to be, I suppose, constantly reminded of the need for these
things because so easily we become sidetracked, so easily we lose
sight of the one thing needful, the Lord Jesus Christ. How easily
we pass along in this world and we're distracted by so many things
which do not profit. And therefore we should be thankful
that the Lord in his love and mercy to his church has granted
us such words of exhortation, such words of encouragement,
as we may have indeed and need to have the evidence that we
have been blessed with the movement of the Holy Spirit, that movement
which has brought us into spiritual life, that movement which has
indeed, as the word tells us, quickened us that we might indeed
be amongst those who are quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. Well the great question surely
is then, are we this morning risen with Christ? Or are we still dead in trespasses
and in sins? Has the Holy Spirit come and
blessed us with a wonderful favour of quickening, of being made
spiritually alive. It's something we must not really
cast aside. I think a little consequence.
I think, well, I hope I'm all right and I just press on and
I just go on day by day. May the things of God be so urgent
upon us Remembering that how short our life is, isn't it?
How short our life is. Can so soon be cut off, can't
it? One of the school friends of
my grandson at Hurstville Point College was driving to school
last week and was killed. You see, instantly, in eternity. how relevant and how necessary it
is to consider this great important question as to whether we are
risen with Christ. That means to be united to Christ. That means to have a good hope
that Christ indeed died on our behalf to take away all our sins
and to enter in to the truth of those words having been quickened
together with him having forgiven you all trespasses no sinner
unforgiven will ever enter into glory there is no sin in glory
There's not the slightest bit of sin in glory. It is a holy
place. And therefore, if you and I are
able, are redeemed and privileged to enter into that blessed place,
it will be because the Lord Jesus has blessed us and granted us
this wonderful favour of being forgiven of all our sins, of
all our trespasses. if ye then be risen with Christ. Well, this morning, then may
we ask ourselves the question as to whether we are risen with
Christ. And if we can't trace out the
work of the Spirit in our hearts, you know, may it be a real concern
with us today. In a word, God tells us this. Today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The devil wants
us to turn away from the things of God. He wants to harden us
against the things of God. He wants to try and convince
us they are not very important. Or if they are, we can address
them perhaps in the days to come. Well, don't forget the Word of
God tells us today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year,
today. And if the Lord speaks to our
hearts today and asks us this question as to whether we are
risen with Christ, and if we don't have the evidence of it,
may we earnestly, earnestly pray that the Lord will give us that
sign and the evidence that the Spirit of God has come upon us
so that no longer are we in that state, that dead state, that
lifeless state. But by the Spirit of God, our
life has been given, that new life. And we understand then
what the Lord said to Nicodemus, he must be born again. Well, it's a familiar word, isn't
it? I'm sure we've all read it, heard it many, many times, but
has it really entered into our hearts with that urgency? Well, may the Spirit of God apply
His Word and make us concerned that we are risen with Christ. Now, the Word of God then goes
on and it tells us, if we are, what should be our desire and
what should be our aim. Is it to just fill our pockets
with money, increase our bank balance, live comfortably and
in pleasure in this world? Is that what we're to do if we're
risen with Christ? Not at all. The word tells us
in simple words that all of us can understand. You children
can understand the simple words of the Bible. And here we have
them. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Now this is not
some fiction. This is true. The Lord Jesus
now is in heaven, seated on the right hand of the Father, and
there to intercede For us, that means to present our prayers
to His Father. He is in heaven. And so here
comes these words, that we are to seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. It doesn't
say at all, set your affection on the things of this earth.
It doesn't say at all, that we are to spend a lot of time on
the things on the earth. We are to set our affections.
And how important it is that we might understand that the
Mahajan explains that word affection as set our mind on things above,
to concentrate on heavenly things, to constantly be concerned that
our souls are ready for that great day when we shall depart
this world. It's certain, isn't it? It's
obvious, isn't it? All of us will depart this world. We won't live forever in our
natural body on this earth. Death will come into all of our
lives. And so may we be found then when
that day will come, which it will, unless the Lord shall return
in all his glory before. The day will come. when we shall
have to bid goodbye to everything in this world. All our loved
ones, all our friends, all our treasures perhaps, the things
which we valued in our homes, have to leave them all behind. And therefore, are we setting
our affection upon things above? So you set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth. That's very simple,
isn't it? It's very straightforward. You
don't need a dictionary or somebody to stand beside you and tell
you exactly what it means. It's very clear, isn't it? Set
our minds on things above. That means on things in heaven. and not on things on the earth. And you see, the devil is a past
master at distracting us from such things. And it's not easy. In fact, it's very difficult
to set our heart, our affection, our minds on things above. And yet, we are to seek those
things which aren't above. We are to seek them, And we are
to desire that we might be able to set our affections, our minds,
on those heavenly things. And those heavenly things are
centred in one person, and that is really the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if we are to truly desire
these favours, it will be because the Spirit of God has granted
us this desire to know that we are risen with Christ. You see naturally, naturally
we live in this world and the world and the things of the world
are very powerful and remember that the devil knows what things
you like in this world. and what things attract you in
this world. And we're all different, and
it may be different things attract us in a different way. But the
devil knows what our weaknesses are, how we do so easily go after
the things which do not profit, the things which do not benefit
our souls. How good it is, isn't it? And
how necessary, and how wonderful it is if we continually ask ourselves,
The things that we're doing, the things that we're saying,
the things that we're walking in, are they benefiting our souls? And through those things, are
we growing spiritually? Are we growing in grace? That means the unmerited favour
of God and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We all, when we're young, we
grow, don't we? Every day, when we're young,
we grow. And it's obvious, isn't it? You look
at a babe and then, you know, two years later you see a little
babe, not a babe anymore, toddling around. And a few more years
and you see it beginning to read and then write and then moving
on and working and doing things. We see, don't we? We see a wonderful
progress in things naturally. Well, are we growing spiritually? Are we growing spiritually? I've
told you before and I'll just remind you that quite a few years
ago now when I was out in St Lucia on a Christmas Sunday,
we'd had our lunch and then we all sat round in a big circle
And the pastor said, now, he said, we're near the end of this
year, 360 days or 59 days out of 365. And it would be a good thing,
he said, if we can all speak of the things that God has done
for us during this year. Well, that was a good exercise,
wasn't it? And it brought our minds to Remember and to consider those
things which God has done for us in the past year. Whether
we have grown in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. It would be a sad thing, wouldn't
it, if you come, sit down and say, well, nothing. Nothing. That means we've stagnated. That
means there's been no growth. Well, what a blessing it is if
the Spirit of God has granted us spiritual growth. And therefore
we are really desiring to find ourselves walking in these ways,
seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. It's a good meditation. to try
and sit down and think upon the things of glory, and think upon
the Saviour there, seated on the throne with his Father, and
to think of the glory that there is provided for his people, his
church, when they have finished their life on this earth. It's
not a morbid scene. It's a glorious scene. And it's
a scene which you and I should all be concerned about. And so
may we realise the great truth here, as the Word of God tells
us to set our affection, set our minds on things above and
not on things on the earth. Well, perhaps when you come to
next Lord's Day, perhaps you look back in a week and say,
well, now have I been able, by God's grace, to set my affection
on those things above and not on things on the earth." It doesn't
say, well, set your affection on things above and on the things
on the earth. It says, not on things on the
earth. So easily, we do just that, don't
we? And then perhaps we look at ourselves
and we listen to others and we think, We don't grow very much
and we just kind of move on and we're not what we would be and
we're very sad of our situation. Well, all those things may be
true but perhaps it's because we're not following the gracious
exhortation of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus said this, that
we should deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him,
follow me, he said. And that means denying ourselves
of all those things which perhaps our flesh goes after. And yet, if we just concentrate
on those things, and we come at the end of the week or the
end of the year and we think, well, what can I say? And we draw a blank. And what
does it mean? Has our life brought honour and
glory to God? Or have we just spent our life
pleasing the devil? Well, it's a very important consideration,
isn't it? The devil would always try and
turn us aside from the great issues of God. He would turn
us aside from meditating upon the great and glorious life and
work, and death, and resurrection, and ascension, and intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great breadth there is
there, isn't there, to meditate on. Yes, right from the beginning,
right to the end, and into eternity. And so, here is this gracious
exhortation to those who are born again in the Spirit of God.
If we classify ourselves among such, and I pray it may be so,
and if it's not, do urgently pray to God that it may be so,
then may we be a real follower of such words as this. The Apostle
knew the value of this. He knew the value of real religion. That's the problem today, isn't
it? Religion today is very shallow.
It's very shallow. And it's concerned very often
with external things rather than the great work of God in the
soul. Yes, and it's that which brings treasure in heaven. The
work of God in the soul. When Christ is precious, when
Christ is valuable, when we rejoice in the great and glorious work
of the Saviour, Oh, so then set your affection on things above
and not on things on the earth. Do you remember the difference?
One is to do, the other one is not to do. And it's so easy to
take both things and try and do both. The Word of God tells
us we cannot serve God and mammon. And how we perhaps try to do
it, we won't succeed. We'll succeed in failing in both.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. And then the apostle goes on,
for ye are dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. This is a great statement really.
For ye are dead. Well, it can't mean that we're
Naturally dead can it because we're not and It cannot mean that we are
spiritually dead if we are risen with Christ because we're not
So we can't be dead. Can we in either of those two
situations? But what does it speak to us
that it speaks a very powerful word? For ye are dead to the
things of this world and dead to the things of this world. Well, is that true or is that
not true? I expect, if we analyse our minds,
we have to say, well, it's probably not true. Because the things
of this whole world, we're not dead to them. If we're dead to
them, they wouldn't attract us, we would ignore them, we'd turn
away from them. Do we do that? We go after these
poor old things of time. Here is this word, for ye are
dead. Well, what a blessing it is if
we are concerned that we may be truly dead to the things of
this vain passing world, the things which really only cause
us to sin, don't they? Now the Lord's given us many
things, but in those things, you know, but we are to not put
them before God. We are to not allow them to take
the place of the things of God. We should not allow them to interrupt
our meditation on the things of God. So this statement is a very powerful
word. For ye are dead, and your life
Now then, we are being addressed here as those who are born again
in the Spirit and your life is hid with Christ in God. That means we are united to Christ. We are united to Him as our life,
that life which He has given, that spiritual life. Your life
is hid with Christ in God. Now the thing is, if you and
I are hid with Christ, what does that mean? That means that we
enjoy those things which are hidden from the world. That means we enjoy spiritual
blessings. That means we enjoy spiritual
food. That means the Lord provides
us with that heavenly manner which is to be enjoyed with Him. That which is secret between
our soul and God. Those things which God reveals
to us. Those things which are the life of our soul. are things
which the world doesn't realise, the world doesn't know, but it's
that spiritual union and that spiritual fellowship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's really that which the Apostle
desired and sought after when he wrote to the Philippians,
and remember what he desired? When he tells us, he said, for
yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That was what he valued. He didn't value the things of
time, he says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. We see the value he put on Christ. We know the blessings that the
Apostle enjoyed. We see the value he put on Christ. And he says, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win
Christ. Naturally, dung is not very valuable.
I know farmers need it, but it's not very valuable, is it? And
be found in Him. Be found in Him. Here we have,
your life is hid with Christ, in God. Be found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness,
everything which we might think is good of our own, taken away,
mine own righteousness which is of the law. The law says do
this and live. Well we can never do that perfectly
anyway. But that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God, by faith. The Lord gives this great and
glorious gift of his righteousness as we have faith to believe the
great and glorious truths of the gospel. And he just runs
on in this wonderful way that I may know him, to be hid with
Christ, know him in a personal way, not just in an abstract
way, not just in an historical way, but in a spiritual way,
that our life is hid with him, that I might know him, and the
power of his resurrection. Resurrection power is simply
this. It's that which changes death
to life. That's a power, isn't it? You
see a dead body. We can't give that body life,
can we? We can't give it resurrection
power. And that's the same with us by nature, you see, we were
dead. in trespasses and in sins. But when the Spirit came and
raised us from the dead, gave us life, and be it found that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, never underestimate
the power of the Spirit's work in our souls. It's amazing. It's wonderful. It's glorious.
And the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead." And of course he's speaking now of the time when
we will be resurrected from the dead into that glorious eternity. And so the apostle says, for
ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Well, are we enjoying that hidden
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes alongside
us, when he speaks to us, when he conveys to us through the
Spirit his great and glorious work in our soul? What is it? It's this. Our life is hid with
Christ in God. You see how essential it is. that you and I are privileged
to know this unity with Christ, this union with Christ, this
true fellowship with Christ. Do we yearn after it? Do we strive
after it? Do we long after it? Do we pray
after it? Do we continue to desire it? And then the apostle goes on,
when Christ Who is our life? Well, he was able to confirm
that, wasn't he? Christ was his life. He lived for Christ. What a testimony. When Christ,
who is our life, that one who gave himself that we might possess
life, that one who died to take away all our sins, All our sins
of neglect, all our sins of serving ourselves, all our sins of thinking
about ourselves and poor things of this time, all our sins of
forsaking Him. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the
price in order that we might be set free. Free indeed, made
holy. blessed with that glorious righteousness
which he puts upon us, to cover our nakedness. Who is our life? Well, this morning, may we all
answer the question as to whether Christ is our life. Simple question, isn't it? A
lot hangs on it. Eternity hangs on it. It's not
something just to pass over. Christ who is our life. Is Christ our life today? You have to answer before God. And may we be able to answer
before God, that He is our life. And we can thank God that it
is so, that He has given us those positive evidences, that He has
died for us to take away our sins. Yes, He's paid an enormous
price. The Lord of life and glory suffering,
sacrificing himself, that we may be given that glorious gift
of eternal life. We come to Christmas, we give
gifts, don't we? My friends, there is no greater
gift to receive than the gift of eternal life. The things that
we have given to us. Well, they wear out, won't they?
They don't wear out when we die, we have to leave them behind.
But if we receive the gift of eternal life, it is eternal. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, which he will, the Lord will appear, then shall
you also appear with him in glory. So when we die, or when the Lord
returns, will it be that Christ will appear for us? We don't want to be alone, do
we, when we die? We don't want the devil to be
there waiting for us to clutch us and to take us into hell. We want to know that Christ will
appear. Yes, when Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall he also appear with him in glory. That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? To think that as the Apostle Paul is now in glory, And all
the saints of God that have passed out of this time are now in glory.
So, by His grace, you and I will be found in glory, if Christ
is our life. When Christ, who is our life,
it really comes down, doesn't it, to this question, what think
ye of Christ? is the test. That test is the
reality of your and my religion. What does Christ mean to us? Well, we have the glorious, and
it's a high, and it's a wonderful example, as King Solomon tells
us in the Song of Solomon, when the bride of Christ described
her beloved, and she said this, he is the chiefest among ten
thousand, and the altogether lovely." Well, that's a wonderful
description, isn't it? Well, it's a wonderful blessing
if you and I are brought to that position to be able to come and
say, and truly desire to say that above everything else in
this world. He is my beloved. He is. the chiefest among 10,000,
and the altogether lovely." Well, what do we think of Christ today? It's an important consideration,
isn't it? The Apostle Paul, therefore, gives us these wonderful words
by the Spirit of God to encourage us to press on through life. And you know, we read together
in that chapter, the wonderful significance of baptism. Many people pass over it and
ignore it today, but here the Apostle tells us, buried with
him in baptism, that's dead with Christ. Wherein also you are
risen with him through the faith as we are raised up out of the
water, risen with Christ. With the faith of the operation
of God, hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross." Well, what a favour it is to realise that our sins have
been taken away. The Lord Jesus Christ has cast
them into the depths of the sea, and he's paid the price for our
redemption, so that by his grace we shall appear with him in glory. 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 we 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. Amen.