Someone once said, and I've said
this, repeated this over and over again, but someone once said, Scriptures
are full of promises lest we despair. Full of promises lest
we despair. And yet it's full of warnings
lest we presume. I'm going to say that again because
I know how it is when I'm giving the introduction. You probably
didn't hear that. It's just the way we are. We
have a hard time getting warmed up. Let me say it again. It's
necessary to lay the foundation of what I'm about to say, what
we're about to look at. Someone once said that the scriptures,
and it's true whether they said it or not, the scriptures are
full of promises lest we despair. And yet it's full of warnings
lest we presume. And you only need to casually
browse through the Word of God to see that this is true. And
it's generally in that order, promise and then a warning. And
so I suppose that every message from God's Word ought to contain
both promises and warnings. Now, I did this. When I was studying
this passage, I went over here to Colossians 3 and was looking
at verse 4. And I just kind of, this thought was going through
my mind, promises and warnings, and I kind of just said, well,
let's look. I kind of just glanced across
the page. If you have a Cambridge like I do, like Rick, some of
you have, just look across the page at chapter 1. It's true.
It is true. Look at chapter 1. Look at verse
21. Paul said, you were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now God has reconciled. These are
promises, blessed promises. In the body of his flesh, Christ
through death presents you holy and unblameable and unapprovaled
in his sight. What a blessed promise. But there's
a colon there, isn't there? If you continue. Warning. You see that? Blessed
promise, and on the back of it is a warning. If you continue
in that faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, continuing that faith, grounded and settled, be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel, spiritually and literally. Don't move away from where the
gospel is. Well, look down at verse 25. He said, I'm a minister
of this gospel, according to the dispensation of God. God's
put me in the ministry to fulfill the word of God. This mystery,
verse 26. This mystery which has been hid from ages and from
generations, but now it's made manifest to his saints. We saw
this morning how the Holy Spirit has revealed this gospel to his
people. Verse 27, to whom, to his saints,
that God would make known the riches of his glory, the riches
of this mystery among the Gentiles. That's us. Which is Christ in
you, our hope of glory. That's a promise. Christ in you. Verse twenty-eight though, there's
a colon, whom we preach warning every man. So I just casually
glanced across the page. Look down at chapter two, verse
two, beginning with verse two. Paul is saying here that he's
hoping that their hearts might be comforted and knit together
in love and to all riches, the full assurance of understanding,
the acknowledgement of this gospel, the mystery of God and of the
Father and of Christ. in whom in Christ are hidden
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And he said, This
I say, lest any man should beguile you. There's a warning there. Some fellow's going to be out
to beguile. Look at verse 6. He says, As you therefore receive
Christ the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him,
established in the faith, as you've been taught, abounding
there with thanksgiving. But beware. Beware. Lest any man spoil you." So you
just need to casually look through the Scripture and see that this
is so. Promise after promise, but right
behind it is a warning. It's a warning. If we had eyes
to see and the spiritual wisdom to understand, we could see both
in every single verse of Scripture. If we had the spiritual understanding,
we could see and dig into every verse of Scripture. And this
is our text. Such is our text. Just three words. Three words. Yet, in these three words, it
ought to do all of these things to us. These three words. It
ought to thrill your heart. Thinking about our text, and
we'll get to it in a moment. It ought to thrill your heart,
but it ought to chill it. It ought to comfort the heart,
but it ought to convict it too. It ought to encourage us, but
it ought to admonish us too. It ought to give us a promise,
but a warning also. It ought to give us joy, yet
sorrow. It ought to make us happy, yet
sad. And it ought to fill us, and yet make us feel so empty. There are italicized words in
the scriptures. It means that it wasn't in the
original Greek or Hebrew translation. And the translators that put
it into English, they did so for ease of reading so that it
might be more understandable. And it doesn't do, generally
it doesn't do damage to the scripture. But you can read it without the
italic, without the italicized word, without the italics. And
I'm going to do that. He says, when Christ our life shall appear. That's the three words I'm talking
about. It ought to thrill you, it chill, chill you. Fill you
with joy, it's sorrow. It's a blessed promise. Oh boy,
it's a warning, isn't it? If you already see, if you already
have some understanding, you know where I'm headed. It makes
me rejoice, yet it fills me full of sorrow. Christ is my life. In Him I live. That's joy to
me. But yet, I think, is He? Is He
my life that I live for Him? You see what I'm saying? Christ
our life. And I wish I could preach this
in such a way as to make us leave here in wonder of Christ. In wonder of Christ and wondering
at ourselves. In wonder of ourselves. Shaking
our heads in wonder. I wish I could accomplish both,
but I can't. The Holy Spirit has to. I wish
that could be accomplished in me. But what a paradox we are. And this passage is going to
prove it. Such a paradox, the believer is. I want you to look,
let's look at this text, these words here and principal meaning. I want to apply it in the end.
I want to give us four things, three things, and then the last
one will be a question, three things, and then the fourth will
be a question. First of all, let me let me read the text again.
Let's look at verse three. He says, You're dead. And your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ Our life shall appear,
then shall you also appear with him in glory, provided that Christ
is your life." He said that up there, if you be risen with Christ,
in verse 1. First of all, Christ our life,
and we'll look at that. And secondly, Christ is hidden,
and so is our life. And thirdly, Christ will one
day appear. And so will we. We will be. We
will appear or be revealed. And fourthly, the question, is
Christ your life? Let's look at this first point.
Christ is our life. To understand the meaning of
this. Now, bear yourselves up here. Let's study this. To understand
the meaning of this, to believe, to really believe in your heart,
and your mind and your soul, believe this, whatever fiber
you're being, that Christ is your life. To understand the
real meaning of these words is salvation. Salvation in three
words right here. Christ is our life. Christ our life. To understand
the meaning of that is to be a saved man or woman. That's
how important this verse is. That's how important these three
words are. A misapplication or misunderstanding
of this is behind all error and hypocrisy. I hear things like
this. If you don't hear it, maybe you've
said it. I heard a preacher. I know what he meant. I know
he didn't mean it the way he said it, but I heard a preacher
say one of these things. And I have as much confidence as
you can have in a man, in this man. But I hear things like this. Christ is first in my life. And I hear this, Christ is Lord
of my life. Christ is the most important
part of my life. Christ shows me how to live.
Christ has changed my life. Now, I know what some people
mean by that. I know some people are in error
when they say these things. I know some people may mean well
when they say these things, but this is not what our text says,
is it? That's not what the Bible says here. It doesn't say that
at all. And this is the gross error of
modern modern theology. They say, make Christ Lord of
your life, don't they? Make him Lord of your life. Let
Christ into your life. Don't they? You hear those things,
don't you? Now, wait a minute. They don't understand. Christ
is life. If you don't have Christ, you
are what? Dead. How are you going to do
anything? You won't. Christ is life. This is the heart of true theology
and salvation. Christ is life because Christ
is none other than God himself, who is the author, sustainer,
life itself. God himself. If Christ be not
in you, you are dead. and trespasses in sin. You don't
have life. You've got some kind of animal
existence, don't you? Like a monkey or a dog or a cat,
but you don't have life, in the sense of this word, life. No
man can let Christ into his life or make Christ a part of his
life. He doesn't have life. If he doesn't
have Christ, he doesn't have life. He's dead. Let's look at
creation, for instance, as an example. This picture is regeneration. Creation can be rightfully called
generation. God's generation. He generated
life upon this planet. The earth was what in the beginning?
Dark. Without form. Without form? Void. Scripture said. Empty. Nothing. Vanity. Why?
No life on it. Just a blob. Just a globe. A ball of dirt that wasn't Did
the earth say, let's let God into our life? We don't have
life. They had no thoughts of God and
didn't have life. Did the earth say, look, we're
going to decide to let the sun shine upon us and create life
in us? It did. Without God, without
the Son of Life, who is without whom, is to not have life. But one day, how did life start
upon this planet? One day, in the beginning, God,
who is life, God spoke, and then there was life, right? That earth
was just a void, a form. That's us, just a form, just
a void. It causes us that, doesn't it?
Less than nothing, vanity, void. Void. Most of us, well all of
us by nature, have a tremendous void between our ears. Void of
understanding. We read that this morning. Void. But one day, God, who is light,
what did it? Spunk. The Word. That's Christ. Scripture says
God is light. Light appeared. The sun. How did God start this whole
ball rolling? Sun. Turned on the light, didn't
it? God, Christ is the Son of Righteousness
who hath appeared with healing and with life. And Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. But men loved darkness rather
than light. But He had to shine upon them,
didn't He? And the Scripture says, You hath
He quickened who were dead. You hath He made alive who were
dead. and trespasses and sins. Anyone
who has true spiritual life, born of God, spiritual life,
one day was dead without God, without form, void, vanity, without
God, without hope, without life in this world. But God decided
in and of Himself to give life where there once was none. And
what did He do? How did He do that? One day God shined, as
the Scripture says, God has shined in our hearts. to give us the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He
appeared on the scene, the Son of God. The Son, S-O-N, S-U-N,
of God appeared to us and gave light and life and understanding. Life appeared. Christ came to
you. Christ in you. Eternal life. And you have this
ray of light within you. And that's the reason it has
to do with the understanding. is often reckoned or likened
to light, light and light and understanding, or seeing, right?
Understanding, discernment, and the opposite of that is blindness
and darkness. Regeneration, that's what it's
called, the giving of true life, spiritual life. Regeneration
from darkness to life, from death to life. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. How, when, where,
to whom? It's a mystery. But it's in Christ. This mystery is in Christ. Now,
bear with me here. This is meat. This is ribeye,
medium rare. Can you handle it? Got your teeth in? This is strong
meat. And I'm way over my head here.
I'm way over my head and yours too. But let it suffice to say,
That anyone who is saved, regenerated, born again, born from above,
a son of God, is so because God, who is life, moved upon the face
of the waters in their life. Moved upon them. And He acted
upon them. He moved. He brought life to
them. They didn't go get it. They were
dead, right? And they know it. Buddy, they know it. Adam, when
he woke up, he knew it. He knew it. And they talk like
it, they walk like it, they act like it, they look like it, and
they'll always have it. They'll always have it. Now,
let me go into this in depth. Some ways that Christ is our
life. Look at these ways with me. Some
ways that Christ is our life. First of all, he's the source
of life. He's the source of life. That's
what I've been talking about. He's the source of life. The
same voice that had to call old Lazarus out of that tomb has
to call you and I. The same Christ, the same Son
of God has to do it just like He did it to old Lazarus. He
has to call us by name. And I've said this before, if
He called Roberta Sword, it might not mean you. It might be 5,
10, 20, 100 more just like you. And you don't know if that's
you or not. But he calls you by name, all right, doesn't he,
Roberta? Sinner. You know that, don't you? And
he calls you by his grace, by his spirit. He calls you just
like old Lazarus. Come forth. Where? To what? To whom? What am I supposed to
do? Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come unto me, all you that labor.
Sinner? You're laboring, aren't you? Uh-huh. You're heavy laden,
aren't you, with burden? Yeah, uh-huh. Come unto me and
I'll give you rest. You need it, don't you? Uh-huh.
Come unto me." And you do. Christ said this at the tomb
of Lazarus. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto you, the hour is coming. There's coming a day when he's
really going to speak audibly. It's time. He said, the hour
is coming. Truly, truly, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, but he said, it now is also. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Now,
he wasn't just talking about old Lazarus there, was he? When
he stood there at that tomb, he said, barely, barely, I say
unto you, the hour is coming. In just a few minutes, I'm going
to call Lazarus, but yeah, in the future. The hour, his hour,
finest hour is coming. And now is. Right now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice That old dead woman named Barbara Ross heard the voice
of the Son of God, just like Lazarus. She's laying in the
tomb, stinking, and she heard his voice one day through the
gospel. And the dead, they shall hear and shall live. And I ask
you that question. I believe it's true of most of
you. Have you heard this voice? Or like I said this morning,
have you just heard a couple of good sermons? It's the difference between hearing
his voice and it's the difference between life and death. So he's
the source of our life. He's the substance of our life.
Christ is the substance of life. What is life? It's the question that the sages,
the mystics, little men in big long white beards sitting on
mountain peaks have been asking from the beginning of time, everything.
What is life? What does it consist of? What's
life all about? Let me look at three forms of
life. We know something about three forms of life. There's
the plant life, there's animal life, and then there's spiritual
life. Right? Right. That's basically
three forms of life. Let's look at these three things.
Plant life. What does it consist of? What
is plant life? Anybody that knows anything about biology knows
that there's this substance within all plants called chlorophyll.
It's the blood. It's the life blood of all plants. This is amazing in itself. Plants
have blood flowing through their veins. It's amazing. It's amazing. But they have this green blood
and they're nourished by the sun. The sun creates it. The
air, the oxygen, the water, all these things come together and
make this blood flow through their veins and make them to
grow and live. They have life. Where does that
come from? It's a mystery, and it's amazing. It's amazing. Life. You can't see that blood. You
can't see them moving. You can't see them growing, but
they are, aren't they? I love some of these high-speed shots
of plants with flowers opening up, you know. It's amazing. Life. There's life in a plant.
Where does that come from? God. God. And the fool has said, no, God.
A biologist, a scientist, fools. Fools, I tell you. God is life. He's what gives life. Animals. Let's look at animals. Animal
life is much more higher than plant life. It's plant than mineral. But animal life, animal life
is mysterious. It's very mysterious. What makes
a dog a dog and a cat a cat? Hippopotamus. What makes the difference? You
don't see any mutations, do you? In the very beginning it says
God created things after its own kind. After its own kind. After his kind. After his kind.
But it's mysterious, isn't it? This life. You look in the face
of a dog and they have emotions. Feelings and cats even you don't
don't don't have cats don't believe that day They do don't they John
they got personalities even even cats But this is a mysterious
thing. It's this animal life. They eat
they drink they think they get sad They really do get happy. I've seen dogs smile Hadn't you
read they do don't they? They smile well who is behind
this life animal life I What makes this different than plant
life? God is the author of life. It seemed good in his sight.
He made animals for another yet higher form of life, human life. Well, we're considered in animal
life there, but I want you to consider this third form of life,
spiritual life. It's even more mysterious and
infinitely higher than animal life, as mysterious and as complex
and how wonderful animal life is, this world as we know it. Spiritual life, which we know
very little about, is even, is deeply wondrous and mysterious. You look in the eyes of an animal,
like, you know, everybody likes to talk about evolution. Look in the eyes of an ape. Here's a good test. You look
in the eyes of a chimpanzee, and then look in the eyes of
a man. Oh, there's a vast difference, a vast difference. And I'll tell you what's even
higher, what's even more so, more different. You look in the
eyes of a child of God, then you look in the eyes of a child
of this world. There's a big difference there
to it. Where does that come from? Where's the difference? Life.
God. God. It's not always easily perceived,
but if you cut into a man at death and try to cap this thing
of life, you cut into a man starting to die, and finally he, this
is mysterious. Life is mysterious. And the only
reason I'm bringing it up is just so we think about it. It's
mysterious. Here we are, we're light, we're
living, even when we're asleep, our minds are working, dreaming.
It's mysterious. And when a man reaches his deathbed,
and he lies there, and finally, he's breathing. And the heart's
beating slowly. And then finally. Now, if you could, if a surgeon
could cut into that man, his brain, his heart, his mind, where
is it? Life! Let's find it! What made that body move, animate
it? What is it? What's it all about?
Where is it? It's in God. It's in His hand. It came from
Him. Right? Right. It came from Him. And
if you get into the heart, now here's what I'm trying to get
at. This is the illustration I'm using. If you cut into the
heart and the mind and the soul and the speech, the life of the
child of God, you can find it. It's Christ. Christ, the beat
of His heart. Now, I'm not just trying to sound
real flowery here, but this is so. He deserves wonderful words. This gospel is true. It does
deserve wonderful words, as wonderful as I could possibly, any man
could possibly make them. If you cut into the heart of a believer,
his heart beats for Christ. Salvation. Redemption. It beats for Christ. The breath of his lungs. If you look down in the lungs
of a believer, it's prayer. The thoughts of his brain. Thinking
on things above where Christ sits. Everything you look at,
in some way, it can, it will, it ought to remind you of Christ.
the thoughts of his brain, the speech of his mouth, seasoned
with what? Grace. Christ. There's a big
difference between animal life, that is, and that's the life
of just human beings that are without Christ as animals, beasts,
right? But there's spiritual life, the
life of God that only he can give. And it beats within, it's
within every child of God, the style of his walk. It's Christ,
yeah. Oh, yes. Like I said, I'm not
just being flowery here. This is the way it is. And what
our text says? Christ is our life. Now, buddy,
this will get to the heart of your religion right here. This will put it out there on
a big screen for us to see. This is what it is. Christ is
our life now, or He's not. Right? Christ is in us, or He's
not. No, you're not. Here I go again. No, you're not,
your own self. How the Christ be in you, except
you be reprobate. Void of judgment, understanding,
no light in darkness. Like that little girl said to
her daddy, Daddy, if Christ was in me, he'd stick out, wouldn't
he? Yeah, yeah, he would. So Christ
is the substance of our life. Christ is the sustenance. Long
word for sustaining or keeps us, provides for us. The believer,
now this is good meat here, it's bread. That's what I'm going
to talk about here. The believer feeds upon Christ.
And it's a good message. I don't care if I have liberty
or not. It's a good message. And this is what we need. The believer feeds on Christ,
his flesh and his blood. He says, take and eat. He says,
my body, this is my blood. My body is broken for you. My
blood is shed for me. He said, if you don't eat of
me, you have no part in me. This is mystical. It is, it's
mysterious, but it's true. Christ said it. He said, if you
don't eat of me, you got no part in me, didn't he? That's what
he said, his gospel. This is why I'm constantly saying,
talking about this appetite for the gospel. I'm constantly harping
on this. You think I harp? But when the
appetite wanes, there's problems, serious problems. I know it in
myself. I feel it in myself. I go through
droughts, times of my appetite wanes. And I feel it. My spirit
diminishes and wanes. And if there's an appetite problem,
you get real sick or else eventually it turns into no appetite whatsoever,
doesn't it? And just proves it dead. Doesn't it, Jeanette? D.E.A.D. dead. Dead folks don't eat, do
they? I mean, you can go to a grave
and you can stuff all, you can put all in front of that man
that you want to. The greatest, the most tasty
food upon the face of the earth, he's not interested. He's dead. But Christ is our
water. I thirst. I go through this.
The water of this life leaves you thirsty, doesn't it? Do you
thirst for hunger? Do you hunger and thirst for
God? I'm getting at the root of the matter here, aren't I?
I mean, really, man. Christ is the water that satisfies
this thirst. And sometimes you can't put a
finger on it, can you, Vic? You've got this thirst. You don't
know what for. And really, when you come to
hear the gospel, if God blesses you, it meets it. It satisfies
that. It satisfies that thirst. You
didn't know what it was you thirsted for, but then you finally found
that. Yeah, it was Christ all along. And he's our air that
we breathe, our sunlight, our life. Scripture talks about all
these things. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. He's our mediator, our prophet,
our priest, our king, our intercessor, our lord, our savior, our brother,
our friend, our mother, our father, our all. Christ is all. He's
all. And in all. So he's the sustenance.
of our life. He's sustained. We live on Him.
In Him we live. Well, He's the consolation of
our life. Noah's Ark. What was the solace
in Noah's Ark? What was the comfort? I mean,
think about this. Noah was in this dark boat, covered
with pitch on the inside, covered with pitch on the inside and
outside, pitch. He was in this dark boat, and the waves were
crashing and pounding, and don't you know they were seasick? Man,
they'd never been to sea before. Oh, they were seasick, and the
animals smelled. Oh, it was always horrid, wretched,
putrid. It was awful. A terrible existence,
wasn't it? In that ark, it really wasn't
as safe, though. I mean, it was awful. They had
a hard time living in that ark. Forty days. When's it going to
end? Give them some more gram of mead. They didn't have gram
of mead, but they were miserable. What was their comfort? What
was their solace? Besides the safety. You know what was in
that ark? And after a little while, Noah
used it. A window. I bet you, just as soon as that
rain stopped, and maybe before it stopped, old Noah would go
up to that window and look out. He'd look out that
window and get a big breath of fresh air. And he probably got
tired of hearing his wife and his daughter-in-law talking.
And he just dug his head out that window. That was his solace.
That was his comfort. He could look. He could see.
Christ is the window. He's the light. He sheds light
upon this otherwise dark world, doesn't he? See what I mean?
It's light. It seems like a small thing, doesn't it? And it takes a small place in
our life. You know what I mean. In the midst of this chaos that
we live in, this religion here, these times together, these windows,
these openings of God's understanding and light to us, it's seemingly
small as compared to our daily living. But it's our consolation.
It's our solace. Christ is our solace. We open up the book and look
into these things and we're refreshed and we're not so downtrodden
and downcast in this old dark world and not so sick of things. Again, we get a breath of fresh
air. Sunday morning, Sunday night, breathe all you can now. I'm
telling you. Breathe, take a good breath because Monday morning,
right back at it. All right? Better come out Wednesday
night to get your breath, get you a good deep breath, fresh
air, because it's about Thursday morning. So he's the solace of
our life. He's the solace. In this world,
Christ said we're poor, poor in spirit, but in Christ we're
joint heirs, rich. We're mourned, we're sad in this
world, but in Christ we're happy. We have eternal consolation.
In this world we feel meek and weak. But in Christ, we're exalted,
strong, strengthened, Son of God. In this world, we're hungry
and thirsty. But in Christ, we're filled.
Our cup runneth over. So Christ is the solace of our
life. Christ, fifthly, is the object of our life. Let's get down to it here. Christ
is the object of our life. Scripture says, for me to live
is Christ. Now, that's not just so much
for so many words, is it? I like to use the term religious
rhetoric. Paul's not just saying that to sound good. He meant
that. And, Henry, we've got to mean
that too, buddy. Yes, we do. For me, to live is Christ. To die is gain. David said this,
Whom have I in heaven but thee? Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there's none on earth beside thee." David never saw Christ
either. He lived before Christ came.
But he said it. And I say it too. You say it?
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And really, when it all comes
down to it, you've got a wife, you've got a lovely wife, and
a daughter, a lovely daughter and all. But they might be gone
tomorrow. You ask them. They may be gone tomorrow. Whom
have I in heaven but thee? And whom have I on earth beside
him? Byron? He's all you got, isn't
he? Really? Yeah. Christ, he's the object of our
life. He's the object, and he's the
example. We do use this term, he's the
example. I want to walk like Christ. Deborah,
don't you? Don't you want to be like Christ?
If you don't, I want to walk like Christ. I want to think
like Him. Let this mind be in you, Sherry. Don't you want it
to be? Wouldn't you like to think like Christ? Think on things
above. Think about your heavenly Father. Think like Him. Speak like Him.
Wouldn't you like for grace to pour out of your lips instead
of the poison of asps? Wouldn't you, Rick? Wouldn't
you like to be able to bless as easily as you curse? Oh, it
comes easier than this cursing. Boy, mash your finger and hell
itself will come out, won't it? Don't you wish blessings? Live like Him. Live in Him. Walk like He walks. Have His
knowledge, His mercy, His grace. He's the example of our life.
Yeah, He is. Christ our life. Now, that's
the first point. Second point here. Christ is
hidden. And I'll hurry. Christ is hidden,
and so is our life. Look at verse 3 with me. He says,
You're dead and your life is hid with Christ in doubt. Now,
the major part of a believer, and I'm going to talk fast here,
get it? The major part of a believer's life is not seen, never will
be, to this old world. They can't see Christ in you.
It cannot be seen by unspiritual eye. To the world, there's no
such person as Christ anyway. Just a mythological figure, and
your religion is just some opiate of the masses. You've just got
some sugar daddy that you imagine, you know, is helping you out
when you get in trouble. You're not taking responsibility
for yourself. You're not taking destiny into your own hands,
and you're calling on some mythological character. That's what they say.
That's what they believe about. They can't see Christ, and they
can't see Christ in you. He's hidden. And so is your life
in Christ? Yes, it is. But Christ, at this
present moment, whether men acknowledge it or not, or see Him at night,
He's reigning and ruling. He's Lord over everything. Yes,
He is. Whether men acknowledge it or not, John, He's Lord. It
doesn't bother me what they say. No, it doesn't bother me. The smartest men on the foundation
of the world got together and tried to refute all this. Where
are they? They're dead, and they're looking at that one that they
tried to. do away with. The Bible, they
try to do away with the Bible and so forth. But they can't
see Christ in you either. They can't see Christ. They didn't
see, like, I think Barnard may have said this, they didn't see
Jesus in Jesus. They don't see Christ in you
because men are blind, deaf, and dumb. Prove your religion.
Prove it. What can you say? Can you? I mean, really. Can you? No.
No, you can't. It's a revelation. It's a revelation. It's spiritual. All you can say
is, Christ. Right? Prove that Christ is alive. Can you prove that He lives?
No, you can't. He lives in me, though. He lives
in me, in my heart, by faith. But there's a part of Christ,
listen to this, there is a part of Christ that they see. There's
a small part. There's a part that they see,
and just like Him, they don't like it. They don't like it. They despise it. The more you
become like Christ, too, the more you'll be hated by this
world. And you and I were talking about this. The more you become
like Christ, the more you'll be loved by Christ's people.
And that's a real mystery. It's a mystery. But the more
like Christ, the more you'll be hated. There's my third point.
So Christ is hid, and so are you. Your life is hid with Christ
in God to the natural life. Thirdly, Christ is going to appear,
and we will appear also. Look at the text again. It says
you're dead, your life is hid with Christ in God. Now, that
is speaking, too, of God not beholding our sin and our wickedness
and our iniquity, that our life is is hidden, our sins, our filthy
lives that have come so short of God's glory is hid in Christ,
covered under the blood of His righteousness in God. Now verse
4, when Christ, our life, shall appear, now He's coming, He's
coming back. At a time when you think not,
He's coming. He says, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Now, it was true that Christ
was manifest in the flesh. He came. He really did. He came,
and everything bears witness to that. You want proof that
there was a man named Jesus upon the earth? Well, our time, the
way we date, our calendars and so forth, give evidence of that. But Christ was in the flesh upon
this earth. He was here. But it was a shrouded
appearance. We saw through a glass very dimly.
We saw a man. Men saw a man. They didn't see
his glory, did they? As of the only begotten of the
Father. But someday he's going to appear.
I mean, he appeared one day. He was here. But someday he's
going to really appear. And we shall see him, as the
Scriptures say, as he is. Then they'll know, won't they,
John? And these agnostics and atheists,
and we even will know, even as we've been known, the whole earth
is going to see him someday in all his splendor. I look forward
to it. Don't you? Oh, yes, goodness
gracious. I look forward to it. But if
I don't, I'm the biggest hypocrite in the world. What in the world
am I doing up here doing this for? I want to see him. I want to
see. And you know, the reaction, the
whole earth is going to see him in all his splendor, and they're
going to either rejoice or mourn or hide from him. They're either
going to run to him or hide from him according to their state
or their state before him at that time, according to their
condition, their spiritual condition before him. So I'm going to say
this. When the trumpet sings and when we hear that Christ
has come, he's here. Some are going to say, Oh, Lord, he's here. Oh, my Lord, he's here. By grace and mercy, that'll be
our reaction, by grace. If we know him now, that'll be
our reaction then. But some are going to say, Oh,
my Lord, he's here. It's a big difference, isn't
it? Big difference. And it doth not yet appear, though,
to us what we shall be. It doth not yet appear right
now, brother. Christ will appear and we will
appear with him. And it doesn't, we can't enter
into it. Listen to this. The acorn, you
reckon the acorn ever thinks, the little acorn, you reckon
he ever thinks about birds lodging in those giant 50-foot branches. Gale forces come along, him not
being moved. Well, he's tossed about with
every wind that comes along. Every rain just beats him to
death, you know. Beaten, driven down into the
ground, buried, covered. Oh, he thinks, I'm dying. A little
acorn. I know, I'm gone. It's all over
now. I know, wait a minute, just wait
a little while, a little acorn. That's what I say to you. That's
what he says there. Wait a little while, little acorn. It doth not yet appear what we
shall. Well, you think that little worm ever dreams or ever thinks
about flying? A little caterpillar. Crawling
along. That's us, isn't it? Crawling
along on this earth so slowly, not making any progress, spiritual
progress. And one day he gets in that cocoon, before you know
it. Fred Zill's wings. He'd never
dreamed. He never dreamed it. Don't you
know, Stanley, when he got those wings on him, he went to flying
around. I never thought, I just never
dreamed it. I can't believe it. That's about the way, I believe
that's going to be our reaction in heaven. That's crazy. I never
thought. I can't believe it. Can't believe
it. You don't feel like a bird in
a cage, do you? You long to be free from
bondage. You feel like you love to fly
away. And we sing that song, I'll fly away, oh glory. Well, it's true to a certain
extent. We are caged birds. We are bound. We are caged birds and we feel
flight in our souls. Sometimes we want to fly, we
want to mount up on the wings of vehicles and fly away to the
sun. Yeah, we do, but we're bound. And part of the evidence of being
a bird is they always want to fly. I mean, you can put a bird,
you can take the flight, you can take the bird out of flight,
but you can't take the flight out of a bird. I mean, that bird,
he's sitting, he's in that cage, and he's a whistling eagle. But
what's he wanting to do? He wants to stay in a cage. Oh,
he wants out. He wants to fly out. But he's
bound. But he whistles. God gives him
the grace to whistle. And that's us. We're birds in
a cage, bound here. And we want to fly away to our
God. We want to go be with our Father, with our Lord, our Master. And if God gives us grace, we'll
whistle in our cages. But we long to fly away. An evidence
of being a bird is the desire to fly. And the believer, you
know the evidence of a believer? The difference between a believer
and an unbeliever? Well, we saw it up there in verse
1. They seek, they set their affection, they seek those things
which are above. They're thinking about better
things. Right? They're thinking about,
and it ain't religion either. There's a difference between
a child of God and just child that's working, a religious person.
And I'm just thinking about religion. I'm just thinking about heaven.
All right then. I'm thinking about Christ. There's
a difference. Christ is life. Christ. And lastly, let me ask this question.
Is Christ your life? And it needs to be asked. Is Christ your life? For the sake of our eternal soul,
we need to ask ourselves this question all the time. Like I
say, these three words have great impact, both joy and sorrow,
thrill and chill, comfort and conviction. It comforts me that
all these things have comforted me, considering these things.
But now this question. Christ our life. That's great. That's wonderful. I'm glad. I'm
glad Christ appeared and gave me life. But then I think, as
far as this life goes, me living, we sang that song, Take My Life
and Let It Be. I think, is He my life? Is He? That's a good question. We need
to ask ourselves that, don't we? Is all my desire to win Christ
and be found in Him Is my course of study to know
Him and His power, His life, to know Him and the power of
His resurrection, the conformity of His will, of His sufferings,
is the reason for our existence to grow in grace and the knowledge
of Him? That's what it is. That's what it means. That's
what it means for Christ to be our life, the reason for our
existence. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. And it's the same thing with
you, believe me. Everybody in here, starting here. It's the
same thing. For us to live, I mean really
live, and have life more abundant, it's this abiding with a person,
in a person. It's this life of Christ. And
I've tried somewhat, with the Spirit's help, to talk about
this, but you really have to experience it. And I haven't, not as though,
Paul said, not as though I've already attained or arrived.
No, no, no. But I'm pressing. I'm forgetting
those things behind. Oh, I've come so far short, haven't
you? Oh, so far short, even today.
My mind has wandered so terribly, even in the course of this message.
But I won't forget that. All right, let's forget it. And
press forward. Strive. Press. Go to Mark. The price of the high calling
of God in Christ, to know Him. If I haven't loved you before,
Newton said, let me begin today. Let me love thee more and more.
If I love it all, I pray. If I've not loved before, help
me to begin today to love thee. You're dismissed. you