If you can open your Bibles to
Colossians chapter 3. Before we read the portion that
I want to look at this morning, let's seek the Lord's blessing. Our Father, the Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. These bodies can only do so much.
And even though at the present time we want to enter into your
gates with thanksgiving, We want to spiritually, from the heart,
approach our God. Yet we feel so much hindrance
in the flesh to do these things. Bless us, Lord. Uphold us as
we worship. Cleanse our minds from dead works.
Purge our hearts from guilt. and give us boldness to enter
the holiest of all by Jesus Christ. Make him known, Lord, this morning.
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now, the religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ is unlike any other religion, and that for a lot
of reasons. And in the early church, one
of the problems was that people would creep in And Paul said
they crept in unawares. That is, nobody realized what
they were up to. But they creep in and they try
to introduce into the church those things actually from which
the church has been saved. And among those things from which
the church has been saved is a life or a lifestyle regulated
by multiple rules, human regulations and useless regulations. For example, if we look in chapter
2, it says in verse 20, since you died with Christ to the basic
principles of the world, why as though you still belong to
it, Do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste,
do not touch. These are all destined to perish
with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have
an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their
false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body. But they
lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Now, in the
church of my youth, they were always talking about worldliness
and warning us against being worldly. And you know how they
said to avoid being worldly? Don't eat that, don't taste that,
don't do that. It was all this don't do, don't
do, don't do. But what does Paul say are the basic or elementary
principles of the world? Do not handle, do not taste,
do not touch. You can identify worldly religion
in large measure. You can detect it pretty easily
by this. It is encumbered with many rules,
most of which don't make any sense. Now they'll have an appearance
of wisdom, Paul says, in self-imposed worship. For instance, someone
may make a rule to themselves. In fact, some churches do this.
They seem to think the more church, the better. And so you look at
their roster of activities, there's something abuzz at the church
building all week long. And people get the idea, the
more church I go to, the better it is. And they aren't enjoying
it. They don't want to do that. That's not really where their
heart is. But they're going there, meeting after meeting after meeting,
because they think that's the rule. That's the rule. Other things. And these are the
kind of things that creep into Christianity. Do not taste. I was raised in a church and
a home, a teetotaler church and a teetotaler home. I never had
anything with alcohol in it until I was 22 and a half years old.
And that was only because I went to church and they were serving
the Lord's table and that particular church happened to use wine for
the Lord's table. Now, I'm not advocating that
people go out and start drinking wine and beer or whatever. You
know, for some people it's a big trouble. Some people should never
touch the stuff. But the scriptures say that God
gave wine to make glad the heart of man. There's a legitimate
use of it. So to make a rule like if you
want to be a really good Christian and have a good testimony in
the world and not be worldly, don't ever drink wine or beer
or anything like that. As I was saying in the Sunday
school class, I wasn't allowed to dance as a kid. And not just
I couldn't go to the school dances. In the sixth grade, I remember
they were going to teach us to square dance in gym. My mother wrote
a note. I didn't have to square dance. I kind of liked that idea
at that point, you know, because I wasn't interested in dancing.
All kinds of rules. Don't dance. Don't play ball
on Sunday. I even know some that go so far
as to say you don't read the newspaper on Sunday. Rules. That's worldly religion. And
it sounds very wise. Because we get the idea, somewhere
in our minds, in our fleshly minds, we have the idea that
following God is something miserable. You know something? For a whole
lot of people it is. It's a chore. It's drudgery. Because it's nothing but a heap
of regulations that they've got to keep. even though they don't
want to. Now I think it's interesting, in
my copy of the Scriptures, here, it's got some headings, and it,
just before verse 6 of chapter 2, there's this big heading that
says, freedom from human regulations through life with Christ. And
then right at the beginning of chapter 3, rules for holy living. You know, I'm going, okay, now
which is it? Which way are we going to go?
Well, I know this, Paul didn't write those headings. Those were
put in there by someone else. Let's see what Paul says about
how we should live, that is, what should regulate how we live. He says in verse 1 of Colossians
3, since then you've been raised with Christ, set your hearts
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden
with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." The apostle after this does give
some directions about how to apply these principles in certain
circumstances, but you'll notice that, and if you read past there,
verses five and on, you'll notice the thing that Paul says that
we as believers ought to do, nobody would have any problem
with them. Nobody's gonna go and say, well,
those are just stupid rules. Those are useless regulations.
No, they are all simply outworking the spiritual principles that
are part and parcel of the gospel. And let's see what those spiritual
principles are. First, he says, since you have
been raised with Christ. Now, you say, how can I be raised?
I haven't died yet. Well, actually, if you are in
Christ, you have died. For in verse three, it says,
for you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. I feel
like that little kid, you know, as I look at this congregation
here, and you believers here, and the kind of people Paul would
be talking to, I feel like that kid in that movie, The Sixth
Sense, I see dead people. Because according to the Apostle
Paul, every one of you in Christ has died. So obviously he's talking
here of a relationship between us and this world A relationship
between us and the law that rules this world. And he's saying we've
died to it. You have been raised with Christ.
Now we cannot be raised with Christ if we did not first die
with Christ. Now here's one of those aspects
of the Christian religion that is different from all the others.
You see, all of the Christian religion is wrapped up in Jesus
Christ, who he is and what he did. And there is nothing in
the religion of Christ that depends on what we do. Now, the religion of the gospel, it
will affect what we do. But it's not founded on what
we do. And the gospel sets forth only one person. Now you think
of that. The gospel's not about you and
me. The gospel's about one person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who he
is, the Son of God. What he did, he lived a perfect
life, and then he died in the place of sinners, but it's even
more than that. Some of the apostles, or sometimes
the apostles would put it this way, he didn't die simply in
our place, he died as us. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
hanging there on the cross, in one sense, the Lord didn't see
Him. He saw me. He saw every one of
you who believes. And therefore, when Christ died,
so far as God is concerned, we died. Therefore, when judgment comes,
when the judgment day comes, And it's said, the wages of sin
is death. And all sinners must pay those
wages. The books are opened. And you find every name of every
one of God's elect. And by it will be written, paid
in full. Paid. So, I mean, I never paid
for my sins. If you're in Christ, you paid
for your sins. You paid for your sins in Christ
because you died in Christ. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, all of his people were in him. That's one way the Bible
puts it. He chose us in him and he redeemed
us in him. Just like Noah went in the ark.
And the ark bore the flood. And since Noah was in the ark,
Noah bore the flood. But we are in Christ. We were
in Christ. And God the judge looks upon
what Jesus Christ did and says that we did it. We suffered the
penalty of sin. We died with him. Now, right
here it says, since then you've been raised with Christ. The Apostle Paul here goes right
to the end of it. He could have said you lived
in Christ, you died in Christ, and you were raised in Christ.
But he just, he mentions just the last one. And that implies
all the others. But we were raised with Christ. Now, the Bible says that Christ
died under sin once. But now that he lives, He lives
to God. And here is the only way that
this can be understood. And this is applied to here. When Christ died to sin once,
we died with Him and we died to sin. And so far as sin and
judgment and death are concerned, we're already dead. We don't
exist. Brethren, there's a great relief
in this. The law of God sees me as a dead man. And it is written,
the law has jurisdiction on a man only so long as he lives. We don't execute a lot of people
in this country, but some whose crimes are particularly bad.
And you know, so long as that man is alive, the law Got him. So long as he was alive, he was
under the law, required to obey it. And as soon as he broke the
law, the law got a hold of him and dragged him into the court.
And a trial was made and he was found guilty. And the judge made
the verdict official guilty. And then he assigned the proper
sentence. And he said that, you know, whatever
means of death, you know, your punishment is death. And so the
law still got jurisdiction over him. Takes him to a prison. Puts
him in a cell all by himself. Locks the door. He is under the
law. He's trapped in the law. He can't
get away with the law. He's under the jurisdiction of
the law. His execution date comes. And I think the United States,
not all of them use the lethal injections. They strapped him
to the gurney. And they put the needle in his arm. And they put
those chemicals in there. And it causes his heart to stop
and his brain to quit functioning. Eventually the body dies. And
the moment he's pronounced dead, the law has no hold on him anymore. So much so that if there's any
loved one of his, they can come in and claim the body. Say, sure.
We, we have no concern or interest in this person anymore. The law
has gone as far as it can. And brethren, in Christ Jesus,
the law has gone as far as it can with us who are in Christ
Jesus. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. He died under sin, under the
law. And once He died, the law said,
OK, I'm finished. That's as far as I can go with
this. And Jesus Christ died a death
that actually put away sins and therefore He was raised to life. He died to sin once. So the law
says, I'm done. That's all I can do. And yet He died in such a way
that the sins He bore were gone, and therefore God His Father
called Him out of the grave. And inasmuch as we went into
the grave with Him, we came out of the grave with him. Now before
Paul gives us one word of instruction about how we ought to live, he
shows us where we got our life in the first place. He takes
us out of this whole realm of rules and regulations takes us
out of this realm of having a very small world as it was or having
our minds completely encompassed by the things of this world and
going after the things of this world and concerning ourselves
with the do's and don'ts of this world. He says you belong to
another world. Christ died in the world. He
died under sin in this sinful world. And when he raised again,
he was the firstborn, the first begotten from the dead, the scriptures
call him, and he is the first person in the new creation. He doesn't belong to this world
anymore. You know, when our Lord, though he were God, God in human
flesh, he came into this world and he lived under the rules
of the world in which he lived. He never broke a one of them.
He always did those things which pleased the Father, which all
of us ought to do, but our Lord went even farther than that.
He submitted Himself to the rules of men. He submitted Himself
in many respects to the useless regulations that all the rabbis
had added them like barnacles on a ship, you know, to the Jewish
religion. Oh, so many rules they had to
keep. And in every way, our Lord lived
under the bondage of this world. You'll notice that after he raised
from the dead, he went and did just whatever he wanted to do. We're amazed by the fact that
he didn't obey the laws, you know, the physical laws of nature.
I mean, he could be here one moment and he's over there the
next moment. The disciples were all in a room and the doors were
locked because they were afraid that those who wanted to kill
the Lord Jesus would also want to kill them. And so they locked
the doors and they were all in there afraid and all at once
the Lord appears in the room. I don't know if he walked, I
don't know how he got in there. But I know this, the rules, the
natural physical rules no longer apply to him. Why? Because he's
not part of this world. And you know what? He wasn't
concerning himself. about where he was walking or
how far he was walking on any given day. He was no, he, we
have no indication that he had any regard to Sabbath days or
holy days. He walked and lived as a free
man and we have been raised with him. And brethren, I know that
in this flesh, we're still a part of this world, you know, and
we can't just disappear from here and end up over there. We
can't walk through doors. We've got to open them first.
Got a sliding door at the house I grew up in. One time I didn't,
I thought it was open. Had every intention of going
out. You know, I remember back in those days, there was a lot
of preachers saying, if you just believe something, Even though
it's miraculous, you know, if you believe it, it'll happen.
Well, I believed I was going through that door. I didn't.
I smashed my face right into that glass door. And I want you
to know, you don't realize how much momentum you have until
you come. I don't know why I didn't bust
out the glass. Boy, that hurt. No, so far as this body is concerned,
it's still part of this world, still subject to the way it operates. but in my soul I am free. My spirit, and I say me, I'm
not trying to draw attention to me, this is true of every
believer, my spirit has been born again and not born again
into this world, but like Christ was raised into a new life, a
different life, part of the new creation, the spirit of every
believer is part of this new creation and is free of all the
restrictions, as it were, of this old world. You've been raised
with Christ. Now, if we've been raised with
Christ, and when he talks there about being raised with Christ,
it doesn't just mean he got out of the grave. There's more in
mind here. Remember the resurrection, what
we call the resurrection, was just his first step back to his
throne. So when he talks about Christ
being raised from the dead, he means being raised to the right
hand of God. He paused here for 40 days. But
when he came out of that tomb, his goal was the throne of his
father. And so, when it says, you've
been raised with Christ, brethren, it's not just that we have been
given new life, that we've been spiritually raised from the dead,
or that legally we've been counted dead, and now we're alive in
a new world. It's not just that. It goes beyond
that. We are, according to Paul in
the book of Ephesians, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly
places. You say, wait a minute. No, I'm seated on a pew in Rock
Valley, Iowa. Yes, your body is, but your head is in heaven. Christ is the head of the church,
and there He is, and all the church is there in Him. I've heard people make the boast,
I'm so sure of my salvation, I'm as sure of it as if I've
been there a thousand years already. The church of the Lord Jesus
has been in heaven for two thousand years. Because when Christ ascended
to the right hand of his father, he took the church with him. Now, these are things which must
be understood by faith. In fact, maybe understood is
not the right word. They must just simply be received by faith.
How can I be here and be there? Well, I'm not going to try to
figure that out. Well, I may, but I don't think I'll ever get
it figured out. But I don't have to figure it out. I just have
to know that's what it says. And since my life now, I've been
raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places,
then set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. You know, a person always has
an eye toward home, doesn't he? I mean, no matter where you go,
just about everybody has a place that they call home. And no matter
where they go or for whatever reason they're going or even
how much they may enjoy being wherever they have gone, there
is a part of their heart and mind which is always looking
to home. Our home is with the Lord Jesus
in heaven. And he says, set your heart there. Now, this is a difficult thing
to do. I confess it to be so. And the
reason is, is our minds are made, we can't hardly think of two
things at once. And so, tomorrow morning, many
of us will get up and there is work to go to, or school to go
to, something like that. I mean, there are things that
pertain to this world and this life which must be attended to. And it takes effort and it takes
concentration. How can you set your heart, and
in verse two he says, set your minds, how can your heart and
mind be set on things above when you're down here trying to get
done what needs to be done to get through the day? I bet you wish I had a list of
five things you can do to accomplish that. I don't. You know, Paul tells us to set
our hearts on things above. It doesn't tell us how to do
that. But all I can say is this, it
must mean at least this much. That just like a person who is
on a trip, no matter what we do, we realize we're not home. And our heart and our desire
is for home. Back in August, Bonnie and I
went on a vacation. We had a good time. Went down to Branson, Missouri,
where the old people go. We had some fun. I enjoyed staying
in the two or three motels we stayed in. They were nice. I
enjoyed meeting some people I'd never seen before. But you know something? The whole
time I was gone, I knew I wasn't home. And the longer I was gone, the
readier I was to go back home. Now, we're going home to a place
we've never been before. The believer is. He's going home
to a place he's never been before. And yet, if we'll set our hearts
on that, and looking forward to that with
anticipation, not dread, anticipation, then we will be able to see this
life in its proper perspective. For example, say when Bonnie
and I went on that vacation, we're in a motel, and all at
once a fire alarm goes off, and everybody gets out of the motel,
then it burns to the ground. You know what my response would
be? Well, that's mighty inconvenient. Okay, we'll go over to this one
over here. Why? It's not home. If it burns down, it's not my
home that burnt down. I still have home. And the things
of this life, and I don't want to be trite about this because
I know it's difficult, I know it's hard. But if we can learn,
as the old song said, this world is not my home, I'm just passing
through, then the things that go on in this world and in our
lives won't mean nearly so much to us. That is, the things of
this world will not excite us so much, nor will they bring
us down so much. Paul talked about being dead
to the world. The story is told of a fellow that went to his
preacher, and he said, what does it mean to be dead to the world?
And he said, well, get in the car with me. So the guy got in
the car with the preacher, and they drove out to the cemetery.
And somebody in the church had just recently died, so here was
this fresh grave there. Didn't even have grass over the
top of it yet. We'll just figure it was some guy named Bob. And
he says, you see Bob there? Yeah? Okay, I want you to brag
on Bob. You just tell him how wonderful
he is. What? Yeah, just start complimenting
him. The guy said, well, Bob, you
know, you're a really good guy. I mean, I just think you're the best
thing there ever was. You were so friendly and you're
so talented. And this guy brags on Bob. When
he got done, the preacher says, now, insult Bob. as bad as you
can. The guy's thinking his preacher's
lost his mind, but he's just gonna does what the preacher
said. He said, Bob, you are a scoundrel. I never met anybody I despise
more than you. You're a cheat. And just heaped
all kinds of insults on him. When he got done, he said, okay.
Now, he said, when you bragged on him, how did it affect Bob?
Well, it didn't affect him at all. He's dead. Well, you cursed
him. How did it affect Bob? Not at
all. He's dead. He said, that's what
it means to be dead to the world. You're neither impressed when
it brags on you, nor upset when it finds fault with you. You're
dead. We set our hearts on things above. The heart is used here to talk
about affections. And I like this word here translated
set means to regulate. We regulate our hearts and our
affections, not by what goes on in this life, but what awaits
us in the life to come. On things above where Christ
is seated. Our Lord Jesus Christ is right
now at the right hand of God making intercession for us. Now, if our hearts were seeing
that, instead of football players taking a knee during the national
anthem, or this politician doing something we don't like, or a
dwindling bank account, if we were in our hearts beholding
our Lord at the right hand of the Father, being our advocate,
Wouldn't it make all these other things seem just pretty useless? None of this stuff in the world
means much anything compared to the reality of Christ, our
Savior, seated, accepted at the right hand of God and us with
Him. Regulate your affections by those
things which are to come. regulate your heart by the things
which are above, where Christ is, and where we shall be, not
just as a matter of position, but as a matter of our own experience,
and realize that all you gain in this world will be lost, and
all that you lose in this world, no big deal. Someday you'll be
with Him. And then verse two, set your
minds on things above, not on earthly things. Once again, regulate
your mind. Now, this cannot be done if we
do not purposefully train our minds to think that way. Now,
I find it is very difficult for me to discipline my thought processes. It's like my brain goes 10 different
directions at once. and trying to get it to get on
a thought and stay there, that's pretty difficult. But if we can learn, and as much
as the flesh will allow us to do so, think about those things
above. Let this fill and occupy our
minds and regulate the way we think, and that will make a big
difference. in our peace and in our contentment. Imagine this. You're an heir
of a huge estate. I mean, back home, there's money
to burn. And it's all got your name on
it. But you're out on a trip. And
while you're on a trip, sometimes it rains on you and you don't
have a really nice coat to cover you up. Sometimes you've got
to eat in nasty restaurants, even though you're worth more
than the restaurant is. You're on a trip. Now, you could
be growly on the entire trip and say, man, that's lousy food.
This rain, it's just tearing me up. I had to sleep on a hard
bed last night. Or you could set your mind on
what awaits you at home. and thereby be willing to endure
whatever it took in the trip and endure it with a smile on
your face. Everybody else might think you're
silly, but that's because they don't know where you're going.
They don't know the treasure that is stored up for you in
the presence of God. If we could live every day consciously
thinking that we're just on our way home. That's all. Someone once put it this way.
Believers are not citizens of earth trying to get to heaven. They are citizens of heaven just
trying to make their way through the world. You are not of this world if
you are in Christ. Even though you've got to live
here and there's nothing wrong with making it as pleasant an
experience as you can. But know this, you'll spend your
assigned time here and then the Lord will come and get you. Don't know when, don't know how,
but he will. And he'll call you to himself
and grant you full possession of all that is already yours.
And Paul says, if you want to know how to live the Christian
life, live your life with your heart and your mind set on what
lies ahead, not on what's going on here. Now I'm standing up here preaching
and I'm just going to confess to you, I'm no good at this.
At least I don't think I am. I don't feel like I am. Just
things start going wrong and how long is this going to last,
you know? Just anything that happens contrary to what I expected,
I get kind of thrown off by it. Well, why should I? I'm on my
way to glory. I'm on my way to the Savior.
I'm on my way to riches, what the Bible calls unsearchable
riches. And I don't mean in money. I don't know, I couldn't describe
to you what all those unsearchable riches of Christ are. But there
are things beyond our imagination. Verse three, for you died and
your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ died,
we died. Christ died to the world, we
died to the world. I am crucified with Christ, says
the Apostle Paul. Nevertheless, I live. He said, I'm crucified with him.
Well, what does it mean you're crucified? Well, anybody who's
crucified no longer has a real connection to the world. Once
again, crucifixion was an execution. And once they were done crucifying
a guy, they dumped his body in a grave and they went like this.
The world didn't care about him anymore. Paul says, I'm crucified
with Christ. And it was kind of proven because
the world didn't want to have anything to do with him. But
he said, that's okay. Yes, I'm still living, but I've
been crucified with Christ and the life that I now live, I live
by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. So the only reason I'm staying
alive, and that which keeps me alive and makes me willing to
live here, is the knowledge that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my
Savior. And I live by faith in Him. And
if that means I go somewhere and preach, and lots of people
believe, and a nice church is set up, and everybody is at peace,
fine. I'm good with that. I like that.
But if that means I go somewhere and preach, and they lay hands
on me, and they put me in stocks and bonds, or throw me in a jail
cell, if that means they, as he said that between five times,
they beat him 39 stripes, or if they throw him to wild animals,
or as they eventually did, cut his head off, he said, That's
okay, too. That's okay, because I'm already
dead. What can you do to a dead person? Nothing. You are dead. You died. Your life, your real
life, the life you should be concerned most about is hidden
with Christ in God. When Hurricane Irma hit, and
I think especially as it hit down there in those Caribbean
islands, oh man, what devastation down there. And people killed. And they were killed because
they didn't have a good place to hide. Some of those Caribbean islands,
it's amazing people can even live like they do. They live
in tin shacks, little lean-to's here and there while you take
a 150 or so mile an hour wind There's no safety in one of those
places, is there? Where is your life hidden? Your
life is hidden with Christ in God. Now, how safe is that? The believer really has no legitimate
cause for fear. The Lord Jesus Christ said, He
that lives in me will never die, and he that lives and believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live. There is a life that
every believer possesses, which cannot be touched. It's hidden in God with Christ. In verse 4, when Christ, who
is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in
glory. That word translated appears
in both occasions. There's really not a good English
word to translate it. It might be better put this way.
When Christ, who is your life, is revealed then you will also be revealed
with him in glory. You see, what we are has not
yet been revealed. It's not been revealed to us,
and quite frankly, it's not been revealed in us yet. But there's coming a time when
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be revealed to this world
Not as the world thinks he is, but as he actually is. People try to draw pictures of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, they always draw
him as a first century Palestinian man. Well, actually, more often
than that, he looks like a Caucasian. But they hardly ever draw a fellow
that looks like a, you know, a Semitic person. But nonetheless,
they draw him You know, wearing the typical kind of robe they
wore in those days, you know, and all this. Do you realize
that if the Lord Jesus Christ were to appear on earth right
now, he'd kill anybody that looked at him? It says when he comes,
he'll destroy him by his very brightness. Men have no concept of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. He is the God-man. But even in
His humanity, He is possessed of such glory, no man can look
on Him and live. Try drawing a picture of that. And it says, John says, now we
are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what
we shall be, but we know this, when He shall appear, When he
shall be revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him
as he is. Now we all have these pictures
in our mind of, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know,
and think, boy, what's he gonna look like when I see him? Maybe
he'll be like this, maybe he'll be like that. You and I don't
have any idea what he'll look like. But when we see him, we're gonna
look like him. An amazing miracle of the gospel. No man can look on Him and live,
except those who've been redeemed by His blood. And when they see
Him, the sight of Him will transform them to be like Him. When Christ, who is your life,
is revealed, then you will also be revealed with Him. Now when
it says in glory, it doesn't mean in heaven. You will be revealed
as the glorious person that God has made you to be. We all have
our weaknesses and infirmities. We have our temptations and our
struggles. We have our sorrows. We have our sicknesses. We have
all this. We don't look very glorious, do we? I always get
tickled, you know, they have that Miss America pageant every
year, you know, and some woman probably between 20 and 24, something
like that. Supposedly the most beautiful
person in the United States of America. And I want to say, well,
just give it 50 years. You know, time is going to take
that beauty away. But there's coming a day when
the true beauty of the people of God will be revealed. Christ is our life. And because he is our life. The
way we live our lives should reflect that. And that is that
we shouldn't be bowled over too much about what goes on here.
That we ought to put to death that which is contrary to eternal
life. Like he says in verse five, put
to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is
idolatry. These kind of things are bringing
the wrath of God. And then also to put aside in verse eight,
anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips.
Put away lying and all this. And you know why? You say, that
just sounds like he's heaping a bunch of rules. No, brethren,
if our life is hid with God in Christ, if Christ is our life,
why would I wanna have anything to do with those things anyway?
I've got something better to be. Something better to look
to. And I've got a better destiny, I guess is the
only way to put it. That when He comes, when He is
revealed, I will be revealed with Him, like Him, in glory. I won't be the guy that you see
right now. I'll be this person, but I won't
look like this. I didn't sleep a lot last night,
and then you get a dreary day like this, you put those two
together, it kind of makes me thicker in the head than usual.
And I was thinking, how in the world am I going to preach? I
can't put two thoughts in a row. Well, one of these days that's
just not going to happen anymore. Not that frailty of mine in the
flesh, not all the other things that go with my existence in
this life. And so Paul says, well, you know
that's all going to be gone someday, as much as possible. Live as
though it's all already gone. Now those things that Paul listed
there, things to put away, you know, I look at those things
that he says put off, I don't want them anyway. Now I'm not
saying that those principles don't work in my flesh and that
they aren't a temptation to me. I'm just saying I look at that
and I'm thinking, oh, I'd love to be rid of all of that. And
then I look at those things in verse 8, envy, rage, malice. When were you ever made happy
by envy? When did you ever see what someone
else had? And kind of grind your teeth
and, well, Wish I lived like that, one of those rich guys,
you know? It doesn't make people happy.
Malice? People that are malicious toward
others, and this is something I believe is true. If someone
treats you bad and makes you feel bad, I've come to this conclusion,
that nobody can make you feel worse than they already do. that the malicious person is
more miserable than the one on whom he visits his malice. Rage,
what fun is there in that? Set your heart on things above
where Christ is. Isn't that where you wanna be?
Set your mind on things above. Isn't that what attracts you
anyway? and live your life with those
things in sight. My father, bless your word. We
thank you that we've got something better to look for than the things
we see in this world. We thank you that our Lord Jesus
loved us and gave himself for us. And that based on that, we know
that our sins are forgiven and our eternity is secured. Bless
all who's come. In Christ's name we pray it.
Amen.