Colossians chapter 3, and we're
looking at verses 1 through 4 this morning. Colossians chapter 3,
verses 1 through 4. The title of the message this
morning is, A Death, a Life, and a Glory. A Death, a Life,
and a Glory. The Scripture says in verse 1,
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 are dead,
there's the death, and your life is hid with Christ in God, there's
the life, In verse 4, "...when Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." There's the
glory. So you can see right off, there's
a death, a life, and a glory. Now Paul here is speaking to
believers in Christ. You know this from the very first
words, "...if you be risen with Christ." Only those who are believers
in Christ have been risen with Christ. Now, he began this discourse
in the previous chapter, in verse 10, when he said this, "...Ye
are complete in Him." You are complete in Him. If you are a
believer in Christ this morning, Know this, you're complete. You lack nothing in your acceptance
with God Almighty. You lack nothing because you
are complete not in yourselves, but you are complete in Christ. And that's what it is to be risen
with Christ. You see, when Christ was raised
from the dead, His mission was complete. His salvation that
He had made was finished and it was manifest to all men. When you believe in Christ, you
must believe that you are risen with Him. That you are risen
with Him. And he explains this in the previous
chapter by the illustration of circumcision and baptism. Circumcision was an ordinance
in the Old Testament. Baptism is an ordinance in the
New Testament. Both of which have nothing to
do with a man's salvation, but both of which picture a man's
salvation. Circumcision, he says, that you
have been circumcised. Look at that in verse 11 of the
previous chapter, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands. in putting off the body of sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Jesus Christ." This is not
a physical circumcision. This is a spiritual circumcision
in that the flesh, the corrupt nature of the man has now been
cut off. He's been cut off. That which
kept us from God, no longer keeps us from God. It's been cut off
by the circumcision of Christ, which was His death. When He
took our sins in His own body on the tree, He took our sins,
our nature, our flesh on Himself. And when God cut Him off, He
cut off our sins. He cut off our flesh. And we
have been circumcised in Him in the removal of the flesh by
the grace of God. By the grace of God. That is,
by Christ offering Himself for our sins, He put off the body
of sin. And so in baptism, we picture the burial of Jesus Christ,
the death, the burial, and the resurrection. As you stand in
the water, you identify with His life. As you are immersed
in the water, you identify with His death and His burial. And
as you come up out of the water, you identify with His resurrection. You identify with Christ. And
so Paul says, since you have been raised with Christ, set
your affections, set your heart, set your love on things above
where Christ is. He is seated at the right hand
of God right now ruling all things after the counsel of His own
will, and we are to set our affections on Him if you be risen with Christ. If you're not risen with Christ,
these things don't make any sense to you. These things don't make
any sense and they don't appeal to you. Your affections are here. Your love is here. But our love,
if we be risen with Christ, is to be set on things above, on
Christ. And so, Paul, in our chapter
3, he begins his practical application of this doctrine. Practical application
of the doctrine. Friends, practical teaching without
doctrine is meaningless. as is doctrine without practical
application. Both of them are absolutely necessary. We practice in our life, we do
practical Christianity by our conversation because of the doctrine,
because of what Christ has done for us. That's what moves us. That's what constrains us. That's
what causes us to set our affections on things above. It's the doctrine.
And if you miss the doctrine, you miss the reason why you should
do anything. I told you this morning in the
first message how I heard the man talking about giving. Giving. Giving is a good thing. Giving is the right thing to
do for the believer in Christ. Not to set your affections on
the monetary values of this world, but to set your affections on
the ministry of the gospel. And we do this by giving. But
friends, without the doctrine of why we should give, I don't
suggest you give anything. If you've never heard why you
should give, if you give to expect rewards in heaven, don't give. You're not going to get it. You're
wasting your money. Keep it. Keep it. We don't give because we're going
to get a reward in heaven. We give because Christ gave everything
He had for us. And everything we have is given
to Christ in sacrifice in this life. We give everything for
Christ. So Paul begins a practical application
here of the doctrine of salvation. If we are a believer, we have
been risen with Christ, if we have been saved by Christ, if
we have been sanctified in election, redeemed in time, and called
by the Holy Spirit, is it not reasonable then for us to set
our affections on Christ? Is that not reasonable to ask?
I mean, someone who doesn't want to set their affections on Christ,
they said, well, you know, I believe in Christ, but I don't believe
in going overboard. That person has never known Christ.
I had never known Christ. You can't go overboard. You can't
go too far in believing in Christ. You can't. It's impossible. I
could never give myself enough. Though I had 10,000 lives to
give, it would not be enough. It would not be enough. We should
set our affections on things above. A man's affection and
his treasure go hand in hand, don't they? Jesus said, where
a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also. And where
your treasure is, you'll find your heart. Where does a man
spend his time, energy, and money, and you'll find out what he loves
the most? That's just the truth. Where a man's treasure is, that's
where his heart is. And a man who loves sin, longs
for sin, and despises the things of Christ, it doesn't matter
how much he says, I love Jesus, he does not love Jesus. He loves
the Jesus of his own imagination, the Jesus of his own thinking,
but he does not love Christ, not the Christ of Scripture.
If we be risen with Christ, does it not stand to reason to set
our affections on Him, to set our hearts Our minds, our souls,
our wills to engage in worship of Christ. Of course it is. Paul
says in Romans chapter 12, that's your reasonable service. That's
just reasonable. Believer, our natural man loves
to root. You know, I've seen a hog and
how they root. You know, they dig their nose
in the ground and they love to root. The natural man is just like
that hog. He loves to dig himself down
into the dirt. He loves to root himself in this
world and the things of this world and the affections of this
world. The natural man loves these things. He loves his sin and he doesn't
want to part with it. The natural man loves these things. Believer, when you were risen
with Christ, know this, your natural man did not change. He
didn't get better. Salvation is not making the natural
man better. It's creating in us a new nature
that is holy and righteous after God. That's what salvation is.
The old man is still there. He's still in us and He hangs
on to us as a dead corpse. That's how He feels in my heart.
I feel like a dead corpse tied around my neck, dragging Him
along in this world. That's how I feel about this
old man. And we must be careful about
this old man not to let sin have dominion over us. Don't let him
root down into the things of this world. You set your mind,
you set your heart, believer, on the things of God. Because
that's where our heart should be. Now Paul in verses 3 and
4 gives us the reasons why we should set our affections on
Christ. First of all, because you're dead. A death. Look at that in verse 3. For
ye are dead. Pastor, I'm not dead. I'm alive. I can hear you. Paul's not speaking
about carnal death. He's not speaking about physical
death. That would be silly. And Paul
is not speaking about spiritual death either. Not what he's speaking
about. He says, for you are dead, and
this is not... Dead in trespasses and sins. Look at that in verse 13 of chapter
2. Paul says this, "...for you,
being dead in your sins and uncircumcised in your flesh, hath he quickened."
So he's not talking about spiritual death. These believers have been
quickened. If you've been risen with Christ,
don't it stand to reason that you're alive? I mean, somebody
that's risen is alive. I mean, you raise up a dead man,
he's just going to be still dead. But when we were raised, we were
raised unto life. What does Paul mean by death?
Well, it's not spiritual death. Remember, this is a message of
Christ who has risen from the dead. And as Christ arose from
the dead by the power and operation of God, you, believer, and I
have also risen from the dead, haven't we? by the operation
of God. He says that in verse 12, "...buried
with Him in baptism, wherein ye also are risen with Him through
the faith of the operation of God." Salvation is the operation
of God. It's not the operation of you.
It's not the operation of me. It is the operation of God. God
must save us. And if God has not saved us,
we're not saved. If God has not raised us from
the dead, spiritually speaking, then we are dead in trespasses
and sins. Salvation is an act solely of
the grace of God alone. Let me ask you, are you a believer
in Christ? Now, you can say yes with your
lips, but I want you to know in your heart Before you leave
here today, are you a believer? Not your neighbor, not your husband,
not your friends. Are you a believer in Christ? Have you seen the weight of your
sin that you cannot merit the favor of God? Have you seen that? Do you know the wrath of God? Do you know the holiness of God? Do you know the utter and complete
sinfulness of your nature? That you by yourself from the
top of your head to the sole of your feet are nothing more
than wounds and bruises and putrefying sores in the eyes of God. That
your religion is nothing in the eyes of God. God could care less
about your religion. God can care less about your
works because every work we have ever done is nothing more than
sin. Have you seen that? Have you
seen Christ to be altogether lovely? Have you seen Christ to be all
God's salvation? Are you still trying to earn
God's favor? If you see Christ as all your salvation and believe
on Him, know this, this was an operation not of you, but of
God. Take a man on an operating table.
He's out. He can't do anything for himself.
He's not going to operate on himself. That would be foolish.
For a man to operate on his own soul is a fool's errand. God must perform the operation. The man is dead and He must give
him life and that life must come from God alone and not from man. Salvation is altogether the operation
of God. Believer, in order to understand
what Paul means here, you are dead. What does he mean? If it's
not physical death and it's not spiritual death, then what is
it? How is it that we are dead if we've been risen? What does
that mean? Well, to understand that, you
must understand what Christ came to be for us. You see, Christ
was anointed of God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth anointed of God to be a representative man. A representative man. There are
only two representative men in all creation. Adam and Jesus
Christ. All of us were represented with
Adam. All of us. But when Adam sinned,
all of us died. But God having an elect people,
God having a people that He would save, that He would bring to
Himself, He must send another representative for them so that
they might be saved. Jesus Christ was anointed as
a representative man for the elect of God, for all those that
the Father had given Christ. And Jesus tells us that none
of them would be lost. Hold your place here. Go over
to John 6. John 6. Look at this in verse 37. Let's start in verse 37. Yeah, verse 36. But I said unto
you that ye also have seen me, and believed not. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me. that of all
which He had given me." As what? A representative. A representative. I should lose how many? Nothing. Nothing. But raise it up again the last
day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. And I will raise Him up at the
last day. Jesus Christ became a representative because God's people needed someone
to merit the righteousness of God for them. God's people needed
a representative to merit the righteousness of God for them. They couldn't do it themselves.
I couldn't do it myself. You can't do it yourself. Guess
what? Christ has done it Himself. Christ
has done it Himself. He became a man and under the
law of God, He lived in perfect, absolute obedience in thought,
in word and deed. He said, I was sent not to do
mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And He did
the will of God. He completely did the will of
God so that God said, this is My beloved Son whom I'm well
pleased. What does that have to do with
us being dead? It has everything to do with you being dead. Because
this representation should be looked at as a union. When Christ represented us, we
were in union with Him. In union with Him. Let me ask
you this. Who was there when Adam sinned? Who was there when Adam sinned?
Yet when Adam sinned, you all died. I died when Adam sinned
and I wasn't even there. Why? I was in union with Him
by nature. My nature was in union with Him.
He was my representative. And as He died, I died. And so
did you. Well, guess what? If you're a believer in Christ,
when Christ lived a perfect life, you lived a perfect life in union
with Him. Because you were in union with
Him. Ephesians 5.30 says this, "...for
you are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."
That's pretty close, isn't it? I don't think you can get much
closer than that. We are so in union with Christ,
the Scripture speaks of Him being our Head, and we being the members
of His body. That's how much we are in union
with Christ. And so, when He obeyed God, we
obeyed God in Him. Romans 3.21 says, But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. It was His faithfulness and obedience
that made our righteousness without our own personal obedience. You understand that? Who here
has done any righteousness personally? Anything? No. without any personal righteousness
of my own, yet Christ, being in union with Christ, I have
the righteousness of God." Now, you can't get any higher than
that. Don't talk to me about rewards in heaven. Friends, if
you're a believer in Christ, you have the righteousness of
God, how can you get any better? How can you get any better? You
can't. And even so, by his faithful
obedience to God, he earned our righteousness. But he not only
earned our righteousness by his life, he also earned our freedom
by his death. So that when he died, we did
what? We died. That's what he's saying
right here. You are dead in Christ. Your old man is dead in Christ. Romans 6, and if you
want, I suggest you read this. These two verses are summed up,
what he says, all in Romans chapter 5, 6 and 7. So to get these two
verses, you really want to read the whole of Romans 5, 6, and
7. But in Romans 6, verse 6, he
says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. When our Lord was crucified, God, not willing to impute our
sins to us, He took our sins, our old nature, and He imputed it unto His Son,
Jesus Christ, who is the sinless Son of God. And as He hung on the cross,
God poured out all of the wrath and justice that was due our
sin He poured it out on Christ. And just as the Lord Jesus Christ
was truly dead. Friends, Jesus did not pretend
die. Did He? It wasn't an act. It was a literal death. He physically
died under the weight of God's wrath. And so did I. So did I. And so did you, who
are believers in Jesus Christ. When He died, you died. And Paul says, you are dead.
Speaking of our death, being in union with the death of Christ. And so now that we are in union
with Christ, our debt that we owe to God has been paid in full. You take a man who committed
murder and the sentence of that is death. The judge hands down
the sentence and the man goes to the electric chair. They flip the switch, he's dead. How much does he owe the state
anymore? Nothing. He's at zero balance. He has paid in full what he owed. And guess what? When Christ died,
He died for all of our sin, and therefore our balance we owe
to the justice of God is nothing. Nothing! You owe nothing to God! Why? Because Christ had paid
it all. And so believer, even so believer,
when our Savior died, we died to three things. I want to say
three things we died to. You died to sin, you died to
the law, and you died to the world. You died to sin, you died
to law, and you died to the world. When we were dead, we were dead
in trespasses and sins were we not free from all righteousness. Yeah, we were free from righteousness. No one could ever accuse us of
being righteous. You couldn't do that. Matter
of fact, Paul says that in Romans 6, 20. He says, you were free
from righteousness. But now, by the death of Christ,
we are made free from sin. By His death. And friends, this
was the only way we could ever be free from sin. What's the penalty of sin? Every child knows this, for the
wages of sin is what? Death. Death. And in Jesus Christ, this debt
was settled. Settled forever. He suffered
the wages of sin and He bore the awful wrath of God so that
we might go free from sin. It was sin that opposed us from
being accepted with God. And now then, sin has been blotted
out by the blood of Christ. And by His death, He has destroyed
the body of sin. Romans 6.10 says, For in that
He died, He died once. He died unto sin once, but in
that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin." How many times did Christ die?
Once. And that's all that was necessary.
I could die 10,000 times, but that would not pay for one sin.
He died once and paid for all sin. I love this in Isaiah 40 and
verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all our sins. Double. How many times does the guilt
of our sin overwhelm our conscience? Believer, how many times a day
do we struggle with this? How many times do we doubt and
fear? How many times do we struggle
with death or with sickness or pain and doubt God's goodness
to us? Is it not because we don't understand
that we are dead to sin? If we would see that, oh, what
joy we would have in our souls. God cannot demand payment from
our Savior and then expect it at our hands. Isn't that great
about God being just? He cannot demand twice payment. Why? I'm dead. What else could
He do? What else could He do? The penalty
has been paid. And so we are free. from the
penalty of sin. We're also free from the power
of sin. In our old nature, all we did was love sin. But now
that we have a new nature, what is that love? It loves God. What
made the change? What made the difference? God
dethroned the old man and He put a new man in us. He created
a new man in us. bows on the old man and comb
his hair and fix him up and put him in a church? No! He killed
that man and He gave us a new man. I like that. He killed that
old man and gave us a new one. And He no longer reigns in us.
And yes, we feel at times, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
He has delivered me and He will deliver me. Why? That man's dead. That man's
dead. We're also dead to the law. If you're not a believer, listen
to me very carefully, because you are under the law of God,
whether you like it or not. It doesn't really matter. It
doesn't matter how men feel about it. Every man is subject to God's
law. But we that are in Christ are
no longer subject to the law of God. I'll tell you, anybody that wants
to be under the law of God, they've never read it. I promise. They've
never read it. Scripture says that he that doeth
not all things that are written in the law to do them, he's condemned
of them. If he misses one thing, he's
guilty of the whole thing. And yet, why do men still constantly
want to bring law into salvation? They constantly want to say,
well, we've got to obey the Ten Commandments. I have. Where? In Christ. In Christ. That's finished. Let me ask you, anybody that
desires to put the Ten Commandments as a rule of life, does that
make you holier if you obey them? No. Matter of fact, I've never
obeyed them. I've never done any one of those
things completely personally, but I have in Christ. And He
has taken the law, and the law looks at me in Him, and it finds
me perfect. It can do nothing to me, and
it has nothing to do with me. Paul says, have you begun in
the Spirit and are made perfect by the flesh? No. No. Matter of fact, in chapter 5
of Galatians, Paul says, if you be circumcised, if you put one
law in the mix of your salvation,
Christ shall profit you nothing. That's a powerful statement.
And I'll tell you what, tithing is another thing. We don't tithe. Tithing is under the law, friends. It's under the Old Testament
covenant. It's not for us. We're not to be put under that. If you put that in your salvation,
Christ will profit you nothing. And lastly, we're dead to the
world. Dead to the world. James says, don't you know the
world is at enmity against God? Don't you know that they're at
war with God, they hate God? And whosoever be a friend of
the world is an enemy of God. Christian, let us know that this
world and its religion hates God. If you'll notice, there may be
diversity in religion. Some may say you need to eat
the Lord's Supper. Some may say you need baptism.
Some say you need to make a decision. They may diversify in how you
merit God's favor, but one thing they all agree in is this, you
must merit God's favor. That's what all false religion
says. You must do something to earn
God's favor. And they'll all agree on that.
Just what it is, they're in disagreement. What it is they're disagreeing
about. And you know this, when the gospel is preached, no matter
who they are, they'll all come together against the gospel.
They'll all oppose salvation by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone, always. But friends, let us not be a
part of them, let us not partake of them, because they are enemies
of God. Let me ask you a question. Go out to the cemetery. And you
ask a dead man how he feels about the world's affairs. Ask him. How does he feel about this thing
in Libya? How's that going? How does he feel about that? Is he anxious about it? Is he
concerned about it? No, he's dead. And so are you. That's how much you should be
concerned about the things of this life. You should be about
that anxious. as a dead man. Why? We're free
from this world. This world has no change. And
I'll tell you what, the world... Someone said this one time, there's
nothing more dangerous than a man who has nothing to lose. Friends, we have nothing to lose.
We should be the most dangerous people in all the world. We have
nothing to lose. If they take our life, so what? We're dead anyway. Number two, we have a life hidden.
I better hurry. I know I spent too long on that
one. We have a life hidden. Look at that in verse 3. It says,
You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Believer, our life is like a
seed planted in the ground. When you plant a seed, can you
see it? No. You can't see it. I'll tell you
what, this world cannot see our life. I know most of you and
I believe most of you know the Lord Jesus Christ, but you know
what? I can't see your life. It's hidden from me. I can't
see that. I've known many people I thought believed in Christ
and went away. Our life is hidden. It's hidden
with Christ. in God. And though the world
can't see it, I really don't care. I care that it's with Christ. My life is secure in Christ. And I'll tell you, the day that
God kicks Him off the throne is the day my life ends. And
that will never, ever happen. If our life was hid here somewhere,
I imagine somebody can get to it. But one thing about it, they
can't get to our life if it's with Christ in God. Jesus said, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. We are in the hand of Christ,
and Christ is in the hand of God, and our life is hid in Him,
and nobody will ever be able to take it from you. Sometimes our life is even hid
from ourselves, isn't it? Oh, the pain of that. When God
hides His face, exercise of grace is low and our faith is so small. But that doesn't stop my life
from being with Christ, does it? My little faith? My little
faith. A smoking flax, He will not quench. A bruised reed, He will not break. And friends, my little faith,
He will not take away from me. My life is hid with Christ in
God. Where is yours? Is it in this world? Are the
things of this world what you're living for? I feel sorry for
you if that's your case. My life is not here. My life
is in Christ. And one day it shall appear. John says, Our beloved, now we're
the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. You can't look at me and see what I'm going to be. One day my life will appear. Christ will come. And this is the glory spoken
of in verse 4. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. Do you realize that one day we
will be glorified? with the glory of Christ. Now that's something. That's
what I'm living for. That's what I've died for and
that's what I'm living for. And that's what I'm waiting for. Who is your life? Where is your
treasure? If it's in Christ, then let us
therefore mortify the deeds of this body." Friends, cast off
the old man at every turn. Let him not gain one ounce of
advantage. Why? He's dead. He has no authority
here. And my life is hid in Christ,
and one day it'll be as it should be. I shall worship God and love
God as I want to. Why? I'll be like Him. And I'll
see Him as He is. Is that not a good reason to
cast off this world and the flesh? Is that not a good reason? That's
a good reason. That's a great reason. I pray that God will
bless this to our hearts. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.