Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles to Colossians. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. The topic of my message this
morning is life. If we're being honest with ourselves,
most people go through their entire lives with their main
focus being their own life, whether it's improving it or maintaining
it or extending it or whatever that reason is. Some get a little
past that and their focus becomes the life of someone else, the
life of a loved one, a spouse, a child, or something that becomes
very important to them. And then a rare few, solely by
the grace of God, come to the realization that the only life
that matters is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we look in verse
four here of Colossians chapter three, we see a phrase that our
pastor read last week and caught my attention. When Christ, who
is our life. And if we take out those italicized
words, the three words there say Christ, our life. When trying to explain and illustrate
how important life is to us. I had a few pop culture things,
a few things from our lives. And this morning I thought, you
know, I don't need to say those things. Everybody understands
how important our life is to ourselves. But I'm gonna say
the four of them for a reason I'll tell you in a second. When
I was a child, one of my favorite movies were the Indiana Jones
movies. And one of those movies, the
whole premise through fighting and killing people and all this
stuff, was to get to this one place where there was one cup
that if you drank it, it would heal you. And then, I remember
the stories from centuries past of a thing called the Fountain
of Youth. that we hear stories of men and groups of people would
travel all the way across the world, almost resigned to the
fact that if they didn't find the fountain of life, they were
going to die trying. And if they found it, they could drink from
this fountain, and they'd live forever. And today, the most
popular movies are about superheroes. And what's the most powerful
characteristic any superhero can have? Immortality. You can't
die. And nowadays we have people who've
realized that they are not smart enough or we are not smart enough
to have all the cures for all the disease and illness we have.
So what do they do? They freeze themselves so that
when that does become available, they can then come back to life
or extend their lives. And we didn't need to hear all
those, you understand that. But this morning, for some reason,
well, I say that, but providentially speaking, it just hit me, those
four illustrations that I just used, the first being that cup. The Lord Jesus Christ drank the
cup so that we could have everlasting life. This fountain of youth,
there is a fountain flowing from Emmanuel's veins. that in Christ
we live forever, in the blood of Christ. In this power of immortality,
the Lord Jesus Christ conquered over death and lives forever
on the right hand side of God. And then finally, because we
can't heal ourselves and all these things we try to do, we
freeze ourselves. Why not just go to the great
physician, the one who can heal every ailment? All of these things
to say that Christ is our life. Christ is life. And in this verse
where it says Christ who is our life, we see so many different
angles of this phrase. Our lives are everything to us. Even if we don't realize it,
everything we do is kind of surrounding about making our life better
or providing for the lives of others or staying healthy and
extending our life and all these things. But what we need to see
is it doesn't really matter what angle we look at life. We always
need Christ. So I just want to go through,
read a few scriptures, and make a few comments about some of
the things that make Christ our life. And this is not an exhaustive
list. I couldn't, I'm not smart enough
or able to come up with even partial list of these things.
But I just think these are some of the most important things
that show Christ is our life. Turn with me to the book of Genesis.
Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. We didn't exist. God formed us. He made us into who we are. He shaped us and made us as we
now see and call ourselves humans. He made that. Now down the road,
there's an amazing wax museum that if you look at those bodies,
they look real. It is hard to tell if it's a
real body or not. But our Lord breathed life into
us. He gave us life. It wasn't enough
that he formed us. We couldn't ever give ourselves
life. We couldn't, the concept of us being, becoming out of
something or just like slowly through billions of years somehow
becoming man. God formed us and gave us life. He's our creator. How could we
even remotely argue that we are in control of our own lives when
someone created us? Then turn a couple pages over
to Genesis 6. We were created, and then this
is what we became. Look in verse 11 of Genesis 6. The earth also was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked
upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had
corrupted his way upon the earth. Look at verse 17. And behold,
I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy
all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and
everything that is in the earth shall die. We are so evil that
God thought the best thing to do to these people is to kill
them, just destroy them. That is the best thing, that's
the only thing they deserve. But God preserves us. Look in verse 18. But with thee,
with Noah, will I establish my covenant, and thou shalt come
into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives
with thee, and of every living thing, of all flesh, two of every
sort, shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with
thee. They shall be male and female.
The only way for us to stay alive is through a covenant with the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we aren't in the ark, if we
aren't in the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not have life. We just don't have it without
Him. Turn with me to Job. So the Lord has preserved us. The Lord, through His grace and
His mercy, decided that He would save some of the awful people
in this world, that He would choose someone to save. Though
in choosing us, we have to understand, as it says here in Job 14, our
days are numbered. Job 14, verse 1. Job 14, verse
1. Man that is born of a woman is
a few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and
continueth not. And dost thou open that eyes
upon such a one and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one? Seeing his
days are determined, the numbers of his months are with thee,
thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Our days
are numbered by the Lord Jesus Christ. We spend so much effort
and time prolonging our days. There are advertisements for
the right exercise, the right food, the right medicine, all
these things constantly. And do you know one of the Lord's
greatest mercies to us is that he numbers our days. If we lived
in this flesh, the longer we do, the more miserable and the
more awful we will become. Oftentimes we say things like
wisdom comes with age and experience and things. Anybody who has any
wisdom understands that our sin just grows and festers in ourselves. It's just that we become better
at hiding it and we become better at realizing that we need to
not do something so that other people don't see exactly who
we are. In Ecclesiastes, it says, all the days of his life, which
God giveth him. All our days are simply given
to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read you something in
Acts chapter 17. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription to the unknown
God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Neither is worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things. He giveth all life and
breath. And he hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds
of their habitation. He controls everything. He bounds
our habitation. That they should seek the Lord. He does this so we seek Him.
If happily they might feel after Him and find Him, though He be
not far from every one of us. For in Him we live and move and
have our being. The only way that we live, we
move, and our beings is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He controls
everything. Now, what about our Lord providing
our sustenance, the things we have to have for life? In Psalm
55, it says, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain
thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Our Lord provides everything
we need to be alive. He gives us everything. David
wrote, I laid me down and slept. I await for the Lord sustain
me. That's all we have to do. We
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love that David says, I laid
down and I slept. And from the time I slept to
the time I woke up, the Lord sustained me. Think about sleeping. We don't have any awareness of
what we're doing, anything going on, but the Lord sustains us
in all our moments, in every second. And in 2 Corinthians
3 it says, our sufficiency is of God. The Spirit giveth life. Everything we can do, all our
abilities, everything comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. And what
about all our comforts? In Corinthians it says, blessed
be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
and the God of all comfort. You know that we have things
so good that our definition of life is actually different than
the original definition of life. You know, most people through
time would have described life as just not dying, staying alive. But nowadays, that's not what
we do. In our sin, we actually feel like that's an obligation
to us, like we deserve it. We don't wake up every morning
and go through our daily life worrying about whether or not
we're gonna die. We don't worry about those things
because God has provided so much for us. Instead, what we think
of life is all the things we have around us. People say things
like, what style of life do you live? Or what is your lifestyle?
Or what are your goals and ambitions in your life? All these things
that don't have anything to do with the Lord and only with this
world. Thankfully, our Lord, it says, God is able to make
all grace abound toward you that ye always having sufficiency
or contentment in these things. The only way that we don't spend
every second chasing the things of this world is because our
God has made us content and sufficient with where he's put us. Now,
don't get me wrong, all of us do this. All of us cannot get
away from the flesh. It's impossible. We want the
things of this world, and that's okay. The Bible doesn't tell us that
we can't. Well, it says here how the Lord
provides so many comforts for us. If he didn't want us to have
comforts, he wouldn't give them, but remember, The life of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that matters. We need not
chase these things that we call comforts of the world. And then
a broad thing that's very important in our lives, if we want any
quality of life, the thing that has to be our driving force is
looking toward the Lord Jesus Christ. we have to have Him as our focal
point. And anyone who understands that
the Lord has had mercy and shown them who they are and who the
Lord is, they realize that when their eyes start to turn, that's
what life does. If we're looking at Him, and
we can only do that through Him, I wanna emphasize that, and I
don't wanna keep going back to that same point, but the Lord
must make us to see Him. He must make us to look at Him. We don't have the ability to
even open our eyes in the right direction, to even think about
looking at Him. But if He does that, we realize, and He shows
us, that every good thing in this life comes from looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those things is our hope. You know how miserable it would
be to not have the hope that is the Lord Jesus Christ? In
John it says, ye shall continue in the Son and in the Father.
This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life. Turn with me to Titus, Titus
chapter one. Many years ago, Tracy and I went
to a funeral of a young person that passed away. And I remember
nothing about the funeral except for about a five second moment
in which at the beginning when the preacher got up and talked,
he said, God didn't want this to happen. And I remember going
through an array of emotions that in the moment I didn't even
realize what was happening. But the first thing that happened
was just utter shock. I remember Tracy and I grabbing
each other's hand and just squeezing it and just being amazed that
someone would say this. I mean, what in the world? And then I quickly went to anger
after that thinking, somebody in this room is gonna believe
that. How could you, the irresponsibility,
I mean, just, I was just so mad. And then I quickly followed that
with pity and thought to myself, oh my goodness, he believes that. How sad is it to think and go
through this life with the thought that God has no control. I can't do anything. I can't
put my mind to something and get it done no matter what. Anything
can throw me off. And when I had the pity, it immediately
transitioned to just thankfulness. Because when you realize that
that's the thought of this world, how grateful we must be to know
it's so foolish. Because that's what most people
think. I mean, people think going through this life that whatever's
gonna happen is gonna happen. It's just what's gonna, I'm gonna
do my best and we'll see where it ends up. Man, if you know
yourself, you wanna talk about fear. The fear of me controlling
things? Man, I just, and in a flash,
I just do crazy things and say things and just, oh, I'm just
awful with it. And I say that to say this, our
hope and then our peace and everything we have in this life that's worth
anything all comes from knowing the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
and what we have in Him. Our peace in Him. Look at Titus
1 verse 2. It says, in hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. God promised
his children eternal life, and he can't lie. Is there anybody
who has heard someone promise something? And I have this problem
in my house right now with a little one. Their word doesn't really
mean much. When they say, will you do blank? Or can I do blank? They follow
it when you say no with, I promise. And it doesn't mean anything.
Say, I promise I won't hit you. And I mean, in my mind, I'm like,
well, it's a 99% chance you're going to hit me. You saying you
promise meant there's one of 100 chances you might not. But
have you ever had someone tell you something? and they say it,
and they don't have to promise. The Lord, this word in here where
it says He cannot lie and He promised, that's not to reinforce
Him or to quantify God's promise. That's to just tell us and to
reinforce our doubts, because we don't know anyone that tells
the truth all the time. We don't know anybody that we
can count on 100% of the time. But this shows us God, when He
says something, that's what it is. And when we put our trust
in Him, our life in Him, it is a sure thing. That's why salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful. The work's already
done. It's finished. It's over. We don't have to think
to ourselves. And I'm so thankful for this.
We're hard on the Old Testament. prophets and people in the Old
Testament, but they were going off of a promise. They hadn't
seen it yet. I'm so thankful that the Lord
has already died for us, because we can see what he did and what
he said and what he promised, and we can say, it is finished.
We don't have to look at it and say, in our trust, our mind,
we'd find fault in anything, but we've seen it, he did it.
And our hope is in him. Look at Titus three, verse four. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We have
such a great hope, and we have peace in this hope. In Psalms
it says, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? I'll be honest, I'm afraid sometimes.
I'm afraid of some people. I was in a situation not that
long ago that there was a potential confrontation. It's all I could
think to myself, I don't wanna have a confrontation. I don't
know what'll happen. I'm scared of the situation.
But we don't need to be scared of anything when it comes to
our salvation and eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
needn't worry about nothing. Whom shall I be afraid? Nothing
can harm me. Nothing can touch me. And then
in Psalm 64, let me just read this to you. You don't have to
turn over to it. In Psalm 64, there's a word that's repeated
three times in this verse. It says, hear my voice, O God,
in my prayer. Preserve my life from fear of
the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity. David
is saying here, hear my voice, preserve me, hide me, I'm scared,
is what he's saying. And the last verse of that chapter
says this. The righteousness shall be glad
in the Lord, and shall trust in him, and all the upright in
heart shall glory. Shall, shall, shall. The Lord says things in absolutes.
He says things because they're sure. He says the righteousness
shall be glad in the Lord. He says they shall trust in Him. How wonderful it is to think
the Lord says that we shall trust in Him. I don't feel like I trust
in Him, but He said I shall. Now, what that means is in the
day of judgment, he's gonna put me in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because I'm in him, I can't not trust him. I can't do it.
That's the only way we shall. And then finally, in all the
upright, in heart, shall glory. We shall praise him. David said
that we shall, we shall, we shall. And let me finish this with probably
the, well not probably, but the most important part of this.
And I spent a lot of time on this, on what we talked about,
with the things of this world, because that's what we need.
We need to hear things that give us this peace, this hope and
comfort in this life, so that we go through this looking at
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me make a couple quick
points here. We are dead without the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our life is in His sacrifice. In Romans 6 it says, For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. In John it writes, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death into life. Then in John
6, The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and
giveth life unto the world. I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. All these things.
Life comes in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've talked so much
about the life in this world and what we're living now, but
so much more importantly is eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me read a couple verses here real quickly from Ephesians.
This is a passage we know, but when talking about what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done and our salvation in Him, I just want
to read a few of them. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you're saved, and he hath raised us up together, made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. not of works,
lest any man should boast. I love how it just keeps telling
us, it's not you, it's Him. It's not you, it's Him. It's not you,
it's Him. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk
in them. We are dead. We have no life
apart from the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in judgment,
life is in Him. Our life is in Him. In Lamentations
it says, O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast
redeemed my life. Turn with me to 1 John 5. 1 John
5. Verse 11. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Before
we go on, look at this. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. It is very
simple. That verse says this. If you
don't have Christ, you're dead. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have life. It's as simple as that. Verse
13 says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal
life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask
anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know
that, He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we desired of Him. Look down at verse 20. And we know that the Son of God
is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in
His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. In that verse, follow what this
says with me real quick. And we know that the Son of God
is come. We know this. And it says, and
hath given us an understanding. How do we know it? Because he
made us understand it. We didn't know it, he made us
understand it. That's how we know. And then it says, what
is it we're gonna know? That we may know him that is
true. What we need to know is Him.
We just have to know Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are
in Him that is true. This does not say anything about
how we got there, any details, anything. It just says we have
to know Him and we know that we're in Him. If you know Him,
if you have been shown who He is and taught who He is, that's
because you're in Him. You're in Him, in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. What is eternal life? To know
God and to be found in Him. That's eternal life. And then in closing, the last
thing I wanna say that our eternity is in the life of Christ. In
John 11, it says this, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and
the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Ever, that word never, ever. And then let's finish by reading
the actual verses around where it says in the scripture, Christ
is our life. Look at Colossians 3, and we'll read these four
verses. Verse 1 of Colossians 3, 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. We're dead, but our
life is hid with Christ. Christ who is our life, Christ
is our life. And may the Lord make us to actually
follow through with this. I think we believe it because
he's shown it to us and he gives us faith. But may the Lord make
our faith so much greater to realize that in this life, in
this life here, in this flesh, to just look at the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's everything to us. The Lord Jesus Christ is
life, all right.