And it's found in the same chapter,
Colossians 3 and Ecclesiastes 3. Let's read the text, verses 1
through 4. 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. Four, ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. You and I need this. We all desperately
need this. So much more as we see the day
approaching. The day our Lord comes. Maybe
He will come for all of us. Our Lord said, John said, there'll
be some that, Paul said, there'll be some that won't sleep. That
means won't die when the Lord comes. There'll be somebody here
when the Lord comes. He's coming. and that right soon,
we're certain of that. But he's going to come for us
one way or another, where he takes us out of this world individually,
or he comes and takes us all away together. We want to go
together. But any day now, any day now, the time is short. So what are we thinking about? And that's what this is telling
us. What are we thinking about? What is our mindset on? What are we going after? What are we looking for? It was that David said, Lord,
what am I waiting for? What wait I for? He said, I'm
waiting on you. That's what our Lord said. He
said, you'd be like men and women that are waiting on their Lord
when he comes. Now verse 1 says, if ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, set your
affection. This is talking to those who
were crucified with Christ, buried. Look at chapter 2 verse 11, in
whom you're circumcised with a circumcision made without hands
and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. That's Christ crucified, buried
with him in baptism. Wherein also you're risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him
from the dead. You love Ephesians 2, don't you?
And you that were dead and trespassed in sin, hath he quickened. He's
quickened us together with Christ. So this is speaking to those
who are born again, those who were crucified with Christ, buried,
and the spirit of God raised through the preaching of the
gospel, risen with Christ, crucified with Christ, buried with Christ,
arose with Christ, and now seated with Christ. Someone commented
on what it is to be in Christ in the message recently. And
someone wrote and said, now I know what it means to be in Christ.
Well, we say that. Always know, in Christ, in Christ,
those in Christ, in Christ. What does that mean? It means
to be in his heart, in his mind, in his covenant, in his love,
in his affection, one with him, a union with him. As he is, so are we. He's our
head, we're his body. Now this is a mystery, but it's
just so. Okay? So, we can't, it's a mystery,
we can't, I can't really explain it, that's the best I can do.
Like a child and it's mother's womb, alright? A child is so
unaware, a child is not aware of anything
much, but she's there, it's there. And so are we, in Christ. It's
a mystery. And one of these days we're going
to wake up, and we're born into that new world. Now I see. Our life is hid with Christ and
God. This life, this eternal life,
it's hidden to the world. People can't tell any difference
in us than anybody else. And it's, in large part, hid
to us. The only thing we have every
now and then is some spirit of God bearing witness with our
spirit. But then the flesh drags us down. We think, I'm just no different.
There's nothing's changed. Oh, there's life there. You're in Christ. You're risen
with Him. And it just remains to be seen.
I love that verse, which is seated in the heavenlies with Him. He's
sitting right now at the right hand of the Magistral High. He is. He's there. You can't
see Him, but He's there. He sees us. And He said, I go
to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also.
Have you ever gone to a restaurant? and you told some friends to
join you there. You remember? And you got there
first, and you reserved a table. Okay? I want a table for so many. All right? We're going today,
going to be a bunch of us. And anyway, so you're there first,
and you're waiting on your friends to arrive. The table's ready. And that's what the Lord said.
All things are ready. It's all been reserved. It's
got a place for God's people. And every chair's got a name
on it. It just remains for us to show up. We're going to be
there. And he's waiting. He's waiting. And we're going to join him too. And he's the one to decide when.
So he says, set your affection on things above. Paul exhorts
us to seek those things which are above. Mac and I read from 2 Corinthians
4 recently on the things that are, our outward man perishes,
but the inward man is renewed every day. He said, we look on
things that are, the things that are seen are temporal, but the
things that are unseen are eternal. And we're all, we're all decaying.
Our bodies are getting old. And when I, when Adam sinned
in the garden, he said, Dying, you shall die. And the next message we want
to talk about is time. It's time. So it says, set your
affection on things above your eternal home. This is so temporary. This tent, that's why they call
this a tent, tabernacle. It's temporary. We go camping
a lot. I'm ashamed to say it's not in
a tent anymore. We used to. We used to. But it's
so temporary. A tent is so temporary. And we have a house. And 2 Corinthians
5, after that, says, we have a house in the heavens. We have
a tabernacle. We're waiting on that. A new
body. A new body. A new dwelling place.
So he says, set your affection on things above. Look in your
hymn book. Look at number 266. This is a great hymn. Fade, fade, each earthly joy. Look at the words with me. This is a great hymn. Jane Bonar,
I think that's Andrew Bonar's daughter. What a great preacher
he was. Horatious Bonar. Verse 1, fade,
fade each earthly joy that Lord Jesus is mine. Break every tender
tie. Jesus is mine. Dark is the wilderness. Earth has no resting place. The
Lord Jesus alone can bless. And He's mine. Verse 2, tempt
not my soul away. And it does, doesn't it? We want
to stay here. No. We can't. We don't want to. You don't want to. Here will
I ever stay. The Lord Jesus is my perishing
things of clay. Verse 2, born but for one brief
day passed from my heart away. The Lord Jesus is my farewell,
ye dreams of night. One of these days, that's what
we're going to say, farewell? The Lord Jesus is mine. Lost, it's going to be lost,
all these things, forgotten forever. Lost in this dawning bright.
All that my soul has tried left but a dismal void, the Lord Jesus
alone satisfied. The last verse, farewell mortality. It's going to be swallowed up
in victory. Welcome eternity. Welcome, O loved and blessed.
Welcome, sweet scenes of rest. Welcome, my Savior's breast. The Lord Jesus is mine. That
make you smile? Ah, such affection. Peter said
this, in 2 Peter 3, he said, seeing that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be? Now,
heavenly, holy conversation, looking for that glorious appearing
of our Lord. What manner of persons ought
we to be? Listen to this. Listen to Psalm
16. Let this get a hold of you. You get a hold of this and let
this get a hold of you. It says, My heart is glad, my
glory rejoices, my flesh shall rest, rest in hope. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell. Our Lord said that from the cross. Neither wilt thou suffer that
holy one to see corruption. Thou will show me the path of
life in thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand are
pleasures forevermore." The pleasures of sin are for
a season. Don't you love Hebrews 11 where
it says, Moses. refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God, to enjoy the pleasures of sin, than just for
a season. He said, no, I'm going to wander
40 years with God's people, better than being in Egypt for a little
while. Oh, let that get a hold. Let
your hearts be set on things above. Here's the thing. Here's
the thing. Let me ask you. Do you love what you're doing
right now? We're talking about the things of God. That's what
we're doing. That's why we're here. To try to block out all
this earthly stuff. Everything and everyone. To have
our hearts and minds and affections set on eternal things. The things
of God. Do you enjoy this? I'm not talking about health,
I'm not talking about wealth, I'm not talking about anything
but the things of God. Eternal things. Do you enjoy
this? That's a good sign. His glory. We love to hear about
His glory. When we read that, that just
struck me. The Lord will appear with Him in glory. I've seen
a little bit of His glory. I've heard a little bit of His
glory. Haven't you? Don't you love to
hear about His glory? Don't you love to hear the gospel
of God's glory? Glory makes you want to say,
glory, hallelujah, doesn't it? My dad used to say, glory, glory. Robin, you know it. Glory, glory. His worship, do you love doing
this? Do you love worshiping the Lord?
The world does. There was a time, this is a furthest
place from my mind. I'd rather be anywhere but here. But now, but God. I thought, I don't want to hear
that preaching. Now I is one. Just making my jaw drop. That's
why there's going to be silence in heaven for 30 minutes. I'm
here. Me. He can go away and enjoy that
for a minute. These songs of Zion, don't you
love to sing these songs? You just wait. Some of you say,
I can't sing a lick. You will. You will. His kingdom, his people, don't
you love God's people? These are our companions. Wait
till we all get together. Just wait till we all get back
together. The disciples were so blessed.
I asked you one time if you could live in any period in history,
when would it be? With who? What man or whom would
you like to know and meet? And I thought about that much.
Abraham. Noah. Would you like to be on that
ark? Joseph, I really think of David. I'd love to have been just one
of his men in that cave with him. But just a week with the Lord Jesus
Christ would be unspeakable. The disciples got him for three
and a half years. They took him for granted. And
He's gone. They were so blessed, weren't
they? To have Him. They walked with God. They talked with the Lord Jesus
Christ. They got to hold Him. He put
His arm around them. They saw Him. No man spake like
they heard Him every day. Day in and day out. He told them
things. Showed them things. They were
in awe. day. They were enraptured. They
were full of joy. They were just, they'd look,
don't you know they'd look at one another, did you hear that? Like Queen Sheba came to Solomon,
you know, and he told her things that she didn't even think to
ask. She went home, that whole journey home she's talking about. And they never wanted for anything.
In His presence they never wanted They all left their families,
they left their children, they left their wife and everything,
but they didn't miss him. They didn't miss him. They were with the Lord. They
didn't worry about him. He's taken care of. They finally
found out he's been taken care of. Everything. They didn't worry
about anything. No fear. No fear. No. In his presence. Tell me, is there ever a time
in this short time that you feel more peace or more comfort or
more joy or more confidence than right now? He said, where two or three are
gathered, I'm there. And He speaks to us through His
Word. And we get such peace, such assurance, such confidence,
we're just ready to go. And then we leave. And we're gone. And all these
people start coming back. Isn't it so with you? Isn't it
so with me? So He says, set your affection.
And what we're doing here this morning is asking the Lord to
set Our hearts and minds in affection on things above, not on things
of the earth. Verse 3 says, you're dead. You're dead. You are dead, and
as good as dead. It's a twofold. Do you remember the message on
the sentence of death? Paul says, we have the sentence
of death. It's a two-fold death here. We're
dead with Christ. Romans 6, go back there quickly,
I'm running out of time. Romans 6, there's a two-fold
death here, or dead reckoning I call it, dead reckoning. That's an old sailing term, you
know, that dead reckoning where you observe the winds and the
speed of the boat and this and that and the other and you chart
and come to see where you are exactly. Where are you right
now? Well, let this be dead reckoning this moment. You're dead, but
alive. I don't understand. Well, you are. Your life is hid
with Christ. What am I losing? I can't lose
it. You can't lose if it's in Christ, with God, and he's with
God. Reckon it to be so. This is dead
reckoning. We're dead with Christ. Romans 6 verse 1 says, what shall
we say? We continue in sin that grace
may abound? No, God forbid. How shall we
that are dead to sin? There was a time we were dead
in sin. Never thought about this thing. And now, crucified with
Christ. Dead to sin. We want it dead
and gone. We want it gone. We want this old man gone! But he is. In God's mind. In God's heart. He's dead. He's been crucified with Christ. But I feel him. Just a little
while. You're just dragging a dead body
around. Verse 3, no you're not. As many
as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized in His death. Do
you know when we were baptized? Do you know when you were? Do
you have the date of your baptism written down? If you do, erase
it. That's not when it happened. You were baptized with Christ
on that cross, immersed in His blood. You were black, you put
in a fountain filled with blood, red, and you came out white. baptized into His death. So we're
buried with Him, this is verse 4, into death. As Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. So this new life is hid from
our eyes largely, hid certainly from the world, but we see by
faith. And the Spirit of God works in
us bears witness with our spirit,
there is a new man there. It just is. How do you know?
We've just been saying it. He takes the things of God, the
things of Christ that you had no interest in before, you were
dead to those things, and now you're very much alive. Very
much alive. There's a new man in there. And
you're dead. Dying to this world. You remember when Noah was in
that ark and finally the door shut. When he went in that ark, the
door was open. It stayed open for seven days.
Picture of the mercy of God. Picture of the gospel. The time
is short. The Lord is going to shut the
door soon. But the door is open. The gospel's
being preached right now. The door of God's mercy. Come
to Christ. Come. He's the door. The door's
still open. We're hoping and praying that
our Noah, the Lord Jesus Christ, will go out and get some of our
loved ones and bring them into Him. We're hoping. In this very
room. Hoping and praying. And Lord,
we'll bring them into Christ. Okay. And when He brings you
into Christ, The door is open, but when you go in there, you
come to Christ, you're baptized, what you're saying is, I'm in
Christ, I believe I'm in Christ, and I want to be dead to the
world. I was out there, now I'm in here. And I'm going to the promised
land. And alright, when Noah was in
the ark, the world said, I'll let him go. What a fool. What a fool. There's no rain. What a fool
he is. We're going to see who's the
fool. He's dead to the world. The world
says never mind him. Forget him. Let's go on. Let's
eat and drink and be merry. Let's buy and sell and build. And that's when the Lord said
they're going to start seeking, striving to enter in and won't
be able to do it yet. So Noah was dead to the world,
and the world was dead to him. He's saying, I want another world. And the world says, we don't
need you. You're dead and dying to the world. And our time is
short, every one of us. Very, very short. What if someone
told you you only had a few days to live? How would you act? What would
you be thinking? Someone has told us that. Told and reminded all the time. I try to remind us all, myself
included. The time is short. I just, Mindy
told me that my grandnephew, Sam Henry, 17. I said, no, it's
not possible. No way. Yes. I was 17 yesterday. It's almost 50 years. It's scary. Time is short. We have a few
days. This is why he said, teach us
to number our days. Apply our hearts to wisdom. What's
wisdom? They know what? So we're as good as dead. A young person says, I've got
my whole life ahead of me. I just told you. 50 years goes
by like, dang. We were tending to my old mom
last night. She's having trouble with her
phone, you know. And I punched Hannah and said,
that's me. Real soon you're going to be
saying, old dad, he can't figure it out. We're going to have to
help old Pawpaw. That's tomorrow. That's tomorrow. It is. But it's not bad. It's good. Look at verse 4 in
our text. It's good for those that go,
Christ our life shall appear. That's what Mack said to me. He said, Christ is my life. Christ our life shall appear
and He's going to. Either for all of us or each
of us individually. Then we'll appear with Him in
glory. Don't you know when Noah and
they all got off that ark, they had a little bit of light, didn't
they? One window. What were they doing when they
were in that ark? Resting. Do you not know that they were
not troubled? That ark is shaking, trembling,
up and down. Are they going to perish? No
way. Why? Why? Because that was a
good swimmer. They got a little bit of light.
And you go up to that window, you know what you would see if
you went up to that window in Noah's Ark? You know what you'd
see if you looked out there? You'd see a world perishing. And you'd go back down there
and be thankful to be among the sheep. Oh, I'm thankful to be
inside. All right? And then one day, that ark rested. And that door... And there's
the brightest sunshine I've ever seen. A new day, a new world. Do you think it's muddy? Oh,
no, no. Children of Israel didn't walk
through on mud. And Noah didn't walk out into a new world. There
was no mud on his shoes. And it was so bright, the grass
was green, the birds were singing, that duck. Spirit. New life. I want to appear with him in
glory. A new day. A brand new day. And do you have this life? Does
that appeal to you? Does he appeal to you? I was
going to turn to Revelation and read several verses at a time,
I'm sure. There won't be any time then,
we'll have all the time we need.