Colossians chapter 3. I thought about this for a little
while. It's one of those chapters that
just brings me back into focus. If you're risen with Christ,
seek those things that are above. What we have here in these verses
in this chapter here, is the life of a believer in
this world. I titled this message, The Life
You Live Now. If you take someone who has lived
their whole life in captivity to another, and then one day
that person is set free. I mean, they've spent their whole
life born in captivity, raised in captivity, lived to be an
older person in captivity. Then one day, one day, they are
set free. What are they to do? That's all
they've known is captivity. Where are they to go? And this is what we see here.
It's the Colossians. There have been some Colossians
whom the Lord has saved. They were raised in paganism,
most of them, as far as that's concerned. The majority were
Gentiles, and they were raised in paganism, and that's all they
knew. And then one day, the gospel
came along. The gospel of God's sovereign,
free, sovereign grace was preached to them. Christ was preached
to them. And the Lord saved. He saved and raised up a church
there at Colossae. And He saved some of them Colossians,
and here they are free. You know, when God saves a sinner,
that sinner is not the same no more, and we don't live in the
same... I know we live physically in this world, I know that. But
we also live in another world. We live for the first time, we
live in the kingdom of God. It's a spiritual world, it's
a spiritual realm. And we live under the authority
of a king, don't we? We live under the authority of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We looked at this Sunday, he
said, all power, is given to me in heaven and earth." Now,
you go preach to all nations. You go to all nations and preach,
and they say, make disciples. And those who believe, you baptize
them. And when that happens, This thought just came to my
mind. When that happens, all they've
known and all we've known was a false religion, you know, Arminianism,
but now you're set free. What are we to do? Well, it tells
us here in verse 1, If ye then be risen with Christ, or seeing
that you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God." If it's true, if it's true that you have been
risen with the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been risen with Him representatively,
you've been risen in Him spiritually, and if that be so, and you have
been joined to Him by faith, then seek those things which
are above. Set your heart Set your heart on things above. This
is a good scripture for me to read often. And especially, you
know, you go out into the world, you've got to work, you've got
to mingle, you've got to deal with it. But let us never forget,
this is our privilege and our duty, to seek those things which
are above. Like Abraham, who looked for
a city whose builder and maker, it says, is God. This is not
our home anymore. When I was young and growing
up and a teenager, one of the first things that's always asked
to you, what do you want to do? Are you going to go to school?
What do you want to be when you grow up? I mean, every kid has been
asked that question. Well. Since the Lord has saved me,
I'll tell you what I want to be. I want to be a faithful child
of God. I want to be faithful where He's
put me. I want to grow in grace and knowledge of Him. And I want
to live out my life on this earth. I want to live out my time on
this earth to the glory of God Almighty. That's what I want
to think and do. And this is not our home anymore. I'm watching my parents coming
up to the end of it. And I can see it's tough for
them letting it go. This is not home. This is not
the end. In other words, we're not staying
here. You know that. We are strangers and pilgrims
in this world. That's what we are. That's all
we are. Do you really see it like that?
Do you really see yourself as a stranger and a pilgrim in this
world? Passing through. You're just passing through like
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob did. We're on a journey. On a journey. I was telling someone the other
day, I said, this is just a journey home and everything we experience
is something we experience on our way home. And God has ordained
all my experiences. Every one of them, everything
I'll experience, God has ordained it, and He brings it to pass
in time. In time, He brings it to pass,
and I go through it, and you go through it, and He brings
us through it, and then another one comes along until finally,
finally, that day on the calendar, God's calendar, is marked, and
we come up to that day, and we get to go home. We get to go. We don't have to go. We get to
go. One time I said, I said, well, I have to preach and Paul
Mayhans corrected me. He said, no, you get to preach.
I said, you're right. I get to, I don't have to, I
get to. We get to go home. That which has our heart is above,
not the things of this life. Not at all. We belong to another
kingdom. Everything we seek now is above. Everything we seek is above,
and we won't lose any of it. We will not lose one thing above. We will lose everything here
below, but nothing above. That's why our Lord said in Matthew
6.33, "...but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you." Put your heart
on those things. Seek those things. The things above that he's talking
about are the real blessings. Peace, pardon, Righteousness. Everything we need to stand before
God is above. Everything. Where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God, that's where He is. There He sits. That does not mean He's not doing
anything. He's running the universe. But
our Lord is God. Jesus Christ, He is God. He's
not walking around wringing His hands trying to figure out what
to do next. He is seated there. He gives this command and it
happens, and this command, He gives His Word and it's fulfilled. He's just sitting there just
making it all happen. Everything today, He's made it
all happen. The sun to come up and everything
we've experienced. Our Lord has made it happen.
He's done that. And He's seated at God's right
hand. That's a place of power. A place of power. It's a place where things are
done. It's a place where things are
commanded. It's a place where He is worshipped.
A place of power, and he's seated at God's right hand. A man is
seated there, not an angel. Not an angel. Gabriel's not seated
there. Michael's not seated there. Jesus Christ is seated there
at God's right hand. And he's seated because the work
that he came to do is finished. That word is used to show us
that the work of redemption is done. The high priest is seated.
Jesus Christ being the high priest, you know, in the tabernacle,
there was no seat in there. Because the high priest, his
work was never done. But Jesus Christ being the high
priest, when He was on the cross and He said, It's finished, it's
finished. And he went up on high, and he
sat down at the right hand of the Father. He sat down. He sat
down because he got the job done. He's not trying to do anything.
Our Lord finished it. He's seated. And it says here in verse 2,
"...and set your affection..." That is your mind. You know,
our mind is set up on something. I was telling Vicki the other
night, I said, I wish I could turn my mind off. I said, I wish
there was a way when I go to bed at night I could actually
just turn it off. Instead, it's just like, bzzz,
bzzz. It's buzzing all the time. There's
always just thoughts going on. And I'm sure you're the same
way. But I find it to be the most pleasant
and most profitable time, when my mind literally is set on things
above. When my mind, it says here affection,
is on things above. When I think of Jesus Christ,
when I think of His person, when I think of what He has done for
me, when I think of glory, I think of that new heaven, new earth,
I think of these things. When I think of these things,
I find peace. I find joy, I find some real
comfort in such a tumultuous place like we live in now. But set your affection on things
above, not on things on this earth, continually. And listen,
this is an effort. It takes effort to do this. This
is not something just automatic because we have such a sinful
nature still about us. It fights us to not think about
these things. But we are to continually set
our minds on things above. Be very concerned and diligent
about the things above. Because, I'll tell you this,
where your heart is, your treasure is. If that's where your mind
is, that's where your heart is. That's where your affections
are. It's on things above. That's where your heart is. And
our citizenship is in heaven. Yes, I was born in the United
States. I am a citizen of the United States because I was born
here. But I tell you this, I am first and foremost a citizen
of heaven. That's where my citizenship is.
My citizenship here is gonna end. The day I die, the day I
die, my citizenship here ends. But my citizenship in heaven
will never end, be forever and ever and ever. We ought to be more mindful of
things above than things on this earth. If I tell you this, if
our minds, if our minds are on things above, if they are really
set on things above, we won't get tripped up so easy, will
we? We won't get so easily sidetracked if our mind is on things above.
Things like touch not, taste not, handle not, and the rudiments
of this world, they won't bother us. They won't bother us so much. Paul says to these here Colossians,
look back here in chapter 2, He said, ''Wherefore, if you
be dead with Christ from the rudiments or the elements of
the world, if you've died to these things, if you've died
to this world, why as though living in the world are you subject
to ordinances?'' Don't let anybody bring you back under this. ''Touch
not, taste not, handle not.'' That's false religion. That promotes
self-righteousness. ''I don't do this, I don't do
that, I do this, I do that.'' which all are to perish with
the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men, not after
God. Set your heart, your mind, your
affection on things above and not on the things of this earth.
Who in the right mind would set their mind and their heart and
their affections on a burning house? Seriously, God's gonna burn this
down. I'm telling you the truth, God's
gonna burn this down. Sooner or later, He's gonna burn
it down like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. He left them as an
example. He's gonna burn it down. You
know and I know that a person would have to be out of their
right mind to invest in a house that's on fire. This is what
the world is. The scripture says that the whole
world is under condemnation, doesn't it? This world is a landfill of sin. That's what it is. And don't set your heart on earthly
materials and pleasures, but on Christ. I know we have to provide for
ourselves, and I know we have to provide for families, but
they don't have to get you. They don't have to get your heart.
I tell you what, if we can learn how to enjoy these things because
the Lord's given them to us, all things are yours in Christ. All things are yours to enjoy.
But Henry used to tell us back home, he'd say, use them but
don't abuse them and don't let them have you. Don't let them
get you, you keep them. Someone told me one time, it
says, money is a great servant, but a terrible master. A terrible master. Don't set your heart on them
things. Set not on things of the earth, on things above. For you are dead. You have died
in Christ. In Christ you have died. He's
speaking here of our union to the Lord Jesus Christ. "...for
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Our
real life, our real life is Christ. It says, "...when Christ our
life shall appear." He is our life. Paul said, "...for me to
live is..." what? "...for me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain." I pray. I do pray. that I and you can come up to
the end of our life with that attitude. For me to live is Christ,
and the day I die is nothing but gain. And there's no loss
to it whatsoever. No loss. At one time we were dead in trespasses
and sins with no spiritual life, no interest in Christ, no interest
in things above. But now, now you've been crucified
with Christ, you're dead to the things of this world. The world
has nothing for us, does it? Not for the believer, not for
the believer. It has nothing for us. Everything that's for me is above. Nothing in this world is for
us now. We are dead to the condemning
power of sin. We are dead to the curse of the
law. We are dead to the curse of men,
to the hatred of men. We're dead to it. It's not that
we're ignorant of it. But like sin, it doesn't control
us no more. Sin is not my master no more.
Sin at one time was my master. Like a master whistle force dog,
you're just going to give in to it. You're going to give in
to it. All it's got to do is whistle,
and there you come running. It's like the alcoholic. He says, I ain't going to do
that no more. He sobers up in the morning. He says, I'm not
going to do that no more. I'm going to straighten up. A day or two goes by, and
what happens? That master whistles, and he
goes right back to it. Sin is powerful. Powerful. It's the most powerful thing
there is, is sin. But it's not our master no more. The power of sin is broken. God uses it. He uses it. I believe we sin, we fall, and
God uses that to teach us our dependence on Him. but it doesn't
have a condemning power no more. Not for the believer. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. Our real life is with Jesus Christ,
is Christ, and it's in God. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
life, He's our hope, He's our joy, He's our all in all, as
it says here in verse 11, He's our all in all. And it can't be lost. It can't
be lost. I was driving home, or driving
back home, driving back to my other home. Driving back to my
other home, it was Monday morning. As I was driving, you know, I
mean, all those trucks flying and people, some of these people
just going vroom. I mean, I was going vroom, but
they was going really vroom. They was going past, they was
blowing past me. And I thought, there are so many
ways to die. I thought, how many ways to die? What struck me so strong was
how God keeps me alive on this earth. Because it is so easy
to die. There are so many ways to die.
I mean, it's just innumerable ways to die. And it struck me
so strongly how the Lord keeps me alive. I thought, Lord, you
keep me alive every second. Because there are so many things
that take my life. So many. Your life, your real life is
here with Christ and God. And nobody can take that. It
can't be touched. What was it that Christ, when
Satan came to before God, and he's going to touch Job. He wanted
to touch Job. What is it, the one thing God
said you can't touch? You can touch everything he's
got. You can't touch his life. Because for him to touch his
life, he had to touch God. That's why. And that ain't going
to happen. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. What would a man give in exchange
for his life? Take the richest man there is.
He'll spend every dime he's got to live another day longer, another
week longer. He wants to live. He knows that
when he dies, I'm talking about an unbeliever, he knows when
he dies, that's the end. That's the end. But you and I,
it's the beginning. It's literally the beginning. This mortal has finally put on
immortality. This corruption has finally put
on incorruption. And when Christ our life shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory, never separated
again from Him." Never separated from Him. It says when He comes,
this last time when He comes, He will come with what? Ten thousand
and ten thousand of His saints. He's not leaving them behind.
He's not saying, I'll be back later. Never, ever, ever will He be
separated from His people again. Never. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him, and
it says, in glory, right there in the presence of God. I can't
put into words glory. I can't put into words paradise.
The Lord said to that thief on the cross, Today shalt thou be
with Me in paradise. We can't describe that. It's
not even describable. Now here where he is said to
be our life, he said to be our life and that he's the author
of it, he is the sustainer of it, and he's the glory of it. He
is the glory of our life. He said, because I live, you
shall live also. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. If I have Christ, I have eternal
life. Listen, I have the life of God
in me. That's eternal life. Everybody's
going to live forever. One place or the other. But to
have eternal life is to have God. It's to have God in you. is to be a partaker, as the Scripture
says, of the divine nature. That's what it is to have eternal
life, to be a partaker of the divine nature. And it says here that they shall
appear right now. He's seated at the Father's right
hand until His enemies are made His footstool. Then He'll come,
He shall appear, and He'll appear suddenly, and you should also appear with
Him. We'll be right there in glory.
I can't imagine that. I just try to. I try to. I try
to have some imagination of it, but it's very vague. As Paul said, we look through
a glass darkly. And when we appear with Him in
glory, we're not going to just stand there and just behold His
glory, though we are. We are going to be partakers
of His glory, partakers of it. Now, he says here, seeing this
as so, 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 of the earth. Your
life is totally different now. This is Paul writing to these
Colossians, these pagans. That's all they've known, most
of them. He was mostly made up of pagans. And he says, set your
mind on things above, not on things on the earth. You've got
to think differently now. You're not thinking the old way,
you're thinking a new way. And you are dead. That is, you
died in Christ, and your life is here with Christ in God, and
when Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear
with Him in glory. Now, until that happens, until
that day comes, mortify, put to death. Now, he's telling them
to do this through the aid of the Holy Spirit. You know, we
can't, this is a battle we can't fight on our own. Mortify your
members which are upon the earth." And he says here, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness,
which is idolatry. You say, are these things still
in us? Absolutely. Absolutely. This is where the
warfare, this is where it starts. The Scripture says that the Spirit
lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit.
They fight against one another. There's a real struggle that
goes on. I never had a struggle until God saved me. The only
struggle I had was trying to figure out how to do it. That's
the only struggle I had. Trying to figure out how can
I get there from here. You know, how can I afford it?
That was my struggle, that was your struggle, is how to fulfill
the lust of the flesh and stay out of trouble. That
was us. But he says here, these things
are still in you, but here's the warfare. He said, mortify
dead and don't feed that old man. Don't feed that old nature. It's like feeding the bears.
You're going to get bit. "...and for which things sake
the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience." He's
saying God's wrath is coming on this kind of behavior. "...in which ye also walk some
time." Sometimes we forget that, don't we? As we look down on these persons
that still live in these things, Paul reminds us that we all walk
like this at one time. Don't forget it. Because that
leads to self-righteousness. In which you also walk sometime
when you lived in them. That was your life. What he had just mentioned there,
fornication, uncleanness, are the sins of the flesh. And someone
may read that and say, well, I've never done that. I've never
committed fornication. I've never done this one or that
one. But now he comes down here to the sins of the Spirit. It's
like if I don't get you one, boy, I'll get you another. Now put off all these. Anger. You ever been angry? For no reason, really. Wrath,
because that's what anger leads to, unchecked. Malice. Blasphemy. Filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lying not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man, the old self with his deeds. That's not you anymore. That's
what Paul is saying. That's not you anymore. God has
saved you. He's given you a new nature,
a new heart, a right spirit. That's the one you feed. That's
the one you nourish. And that's exactly what you're
doing tonight. You've come here. You've opened the Word of God.
I'm standing here speaking to you out of the Word of God. You're
nourishing that new man that's born of God. You're feeding that
new man that's born of God. That old man doesn't like it.
An old man doesn't like it. That flesh doesn't like it. But
that new man does. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds. It's like
putting off an old dirty coat. He's saying, don't put it back
on. And you've put on the new. That word man has been supplied,
but you put on the new. It's that new creation. It says
on 2 Corinthians 5 that you've been made a new creation, a new
creature in Christ Jesus. You're not the same no more.
You're not the same old person no more. That's not you no more. You've put on the new man which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
Him. You now know your Creator. You now know your Savior. You
know who Jesus Christ is. And more than just an historical
fact, it's a heart fact. It's a heart truth. You know
Christ in your heart. He's real to you. He's real to
you. You're renewed in knowledge.
And I tell you this, which is renewed in knowledge, you're
continually being renewed. That's what's going on right
now. You're being renewed in knowledge again. You're made
to think upon Him again. You're made to open the Word
of God and look unto His Word again. Thank God for that. Thank God for that. I'm glad
He said, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. You need
to come together. You need to open my Word together.
You need to sing His praises together. We need to do this
together and be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
Him, being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You know, the
trials that God sends our way conforms us to the image of Christ.
But so does His Word. So does His Word. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, where Christ is all, He's everything. He's everything. He's all and in all. He's all to the Father. He's all to the believer. He's
all the glory of heaven. Christ is all. He's everything. And He's in all. Everyone whom
God saves, whether it's in this community, whether it's in another
country, another part of the world, Jesus Christ is in all
of them. He's in all of His children.
No matter where they are, no matter who they are, He is in
all His children. He's in every one of them. And
it's the same Christ. The same One. There's no difference. There's no difference whatsoever.
We have the same Father. We have the same Savior, we have
the same King, same Lord. He is all and He is in all. Set your heart on things above.
Let's be reminded of this, let's remind ourselves of this continually
as we pass through this life. As we go through this life and
as we grow older, the one thing that I want us is to grow in
grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That we could
grow up in Him, mature in Him, and look for His appearing. Look
for Him. Not dread the day that we're
going to die, but to look for it. To look for it. excited about it. All right.