And we're gonna stay right there
in Colossians chapter three, where Brother David just read. This passage has always been
one of my favorites, especially in considering the glory of God
in Christ, the salvation that he accomplished. And I titled
the message from verse 11, the last line there, Christ is all
and in all. That's the title of the message.
And the reason that I was thinking about this passage and this subject,
because of some of the last lessons that we did on Christ in the
Old Testament, and it began to dawn on me, you know, false religion
and false Christianity, especially, always places salvation at some stage, to some degree,
in some way, upon the sinner, upon sinners, rather than solely
upon Christ, which the grace of God does, the Bible. And it
always puts something in the way of the sinner in Christ,
something the sinner must do, something the sinner must act
upon, whatever it is, it's always a corrupted way, And I think
about what the apostle Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 11. I mentioned
this in the Sunday school this morning. Paul, he said to the
Corinthian believers, he said, I fear, lest by some subtle way,
Satan corrupts your mind and draws you away from the simplicity
that's in Christ. And that word simplicity has
the connotation of a single aim or goal, a single thought, singularity. And what it is, it's simply this,
it's simply that everything in salvation, everything connected
with it, all of its blessings, all of its benefits, eternal
life, glory, living the Christian life, as they say. That it's
all found in and by, motivated by, created by, worked by, empowered
by the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of His person and the
power of His finished work. And that's what it's all about. I've listened to some messages
that people, they'll ask me, they'll go hear a preacher, They'll
ask me to listen to this particular preacher and I'll go listen and
I'll hear a lot of truth sometimes. Sometimes I won't. But what's
missing most of the time is the preaching that Paul said, the
preaching of Christ crucified, risen from the dead. that single
message of God's grace in that great and glorious person and
work of Christ. And I told a person a couple
of weeks ago, I said, you know, whatever subject I'm preaching
on, you know, Paul, he deals with the Christian life here. He talks about mortification.
That's putting something to death. That's what that means. He says
in verse 5, put to death your members which are upon earth.
He's talking about the flesh, the sin that remains, that we're
to be at war with it. Our aim is to put it to death.
We know we won't accomplish that in this life. You're not going
to be able to kill all sinful thoughts, passions, motivations,
You're just not gonna be able to do it. I know that from personal
experience, but I know from the Bible too. Even as believers,
even as sinners saved by grace, we're only sinners saved by grace. And we'll never be anything more
than that while on this earth. We will be free, we're free from
sin's condemnation. We cannot be condemned. Now that's
what Paul deals with in the first few verses of this chapter, verses
one through four. We're sinners who cannot be condemned
by God. And the reason is, is because
God doesn't charge us with our sins. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. There's
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
We cannot be condemned. And so we're free from sin's
condemnation, but we're not yet free from sin's contamination. Sin still contaminates our thoughts,
our actions even. We still have to deal with that.
But knowing that we cannot be condemned is to be a motivation
to fight it. Whenever sinful thoughts come
in, we fight them in a way of grace, not legalism, not mercenary
for earned reward, but for the glory of God. And so Paul deals
with this. But I told this person a couple
weeks ago, I said, for me to preach on what we call holy living
or Christian living, the life of faith, without preaching the
gospel, the simplicity of Christ is like trying to get in your
car and run it without gas. You might have a beautiful car,
might have a brand new car, but it's not gonna run without, or
today, electricity, whatever they're doing. Either way, there's
got to be some fuel there. There's got to be some motivation. And that's what Paul's doing
here. as he's inspired by the spirit. In the first four verses,
the foundation laid in and by Christ. Listen to what he says,
if you then be risen with Christ. Risen with Christ, what does
that mean? Well, if we're risen with him, it means we died with
him. And if you'll look over in Romans,
chapter six, we have an explanation of that. He's talking about Christ
as the representative Christ as the surety, Christ as the
substitute and redeemer of those whom the Lord gave Him before
the foundation of the world. That's what He's talking about.
When Christ died on the cross, His obedience unto death, He
didn't do it for Himself, He did it for a people that the
Father gave Him before the foundation of the world. That's what he
said. He called him his sheep, his
church. He even called him his friends,
called him his brethren. They're sinners, they don't deserve
to be saved. They cannot earn salvation, but
he did it for them according to the terms of the everlasting
covenant of grace. And it says here, look at verse
three of Romans chapter six. It says, no you not that so many
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death. Now I've said this a lot before,
so most of you know this, but baptized here doesn't mean water
baptism, not the ordinance. We baptize people in this baptistry
here. That's a New Testament confession
of Christ before the public, before men and women. But baptized
here doesn't mean that. Baptized here means united with
Christ. Literally placed into Christ. So you could say it this way,
know you not that so many of us as were placed into Jesus
Christ. Now when were we placed into
Him? Well we were placed into Him before the foundation of
the world when God the Father chose us and gave us to Him. Put all of our salvation conditioned
on Christ. Made Him our surety. even imputed
our sins to Him, charged our sins. We weren't even born yet. But this is what the Bible teaches.
Now, if you've been placed into Jesus Christ, you were placed
into His death. What does that mean? That means
when He died, He died for you. When He was buried, He was buried
for you. When He arose again, He arose
again for you. That's what the ordinance of
baptism symbolizes. That's why we go down into the
water, died with Christ and buried with Him, and we come up out
of the water, risen with Him. That's a confession of this reality
that took place on the cross in His burial and in His resurrection. That's a legal union with Christ. The Bible says when He died,
He died for his sheep. And he says in verse four, therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
He is my representative. I didn't do that personally.
Some people say they did, but they didn't. And he says that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now
when he arose again, we arose again. And the Bible says that
he arose because of our justification. Well, what is it to be justified?
It's to be forgiven of all of our sins on the one ground of
his blood. Not any other ground. A false
religion will lead you to other ways of forgiveness. They'll
say, well, you've got to repent in order to be forgiven. No,
that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that once the
Holy Spirit brings you to a saving knowledge of Christ, the Redeemer,
and shows you that you're forgiven by His blood, then repentance
comes as the result. Then that's when you'll repent.
That's when you'll believe. So all of this, your tears, your
confession, will not bring forgiveness. The blood of Christ brings forgiveness,
and if you ever see that, you'll cry those tears, you'll confess
your sins before God. All your sins. You say, you mean
I have to remember every sin? No, you can't remember every
sin. You're not capable of that. Neither
am I. But we confess every sin when
we confess this, that if God were to judge me based upon my
best, I would be damned forever. I have one hope of forgiveness,
one hope of justification, to be declared righteous in God's
sight. How is that possible? Only by
the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me. God accounting, charging
his righteousness to me. And from that comes what the
Bible here calls the newness of life. Look at verse five of
Romans six. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. What does that tell you? It says
this, if Christ died for you, you'll be resurrected. No possibility
of being condemned. And so he says in verse six,
knowing this, that our old man, that's our old state in Adam,
our old standing of being condemned in Adam, is crucified with Christ,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin, we're to be servants of righteousness,
sinners saved by grace. Verse seven, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. That word freed is justified.
So go back to Colossians 3. If you then be risen with Christ,
if I'm a sinner saved by grace, if I'm forgiven of all my sins
by the blood of Christ, if I'm risen again with Him, if I'm
justified by His righteousness imputed, if I've been given life
from the dead by the Spirit in the new birth brought to Christ,
then what am I to do? Seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Don't be so tied
to the earth as if this was the be-all and the end-all, because
it's not. I saw a cartoon this morning. Has a guy running hard, long
way ahead of him, and has all these dollar bills in front of
him, and he's chasing those dollar bills. And then the next scene,
he gets closer. He's got some of them in his
hand, but there's still some out there. And then he comes
to the next scene and he's got them all, but there's a cliff
and he can't go any further. The end. So when he finally had
them all, there's no more life to live. That's what it was teaching. Seek those things which are above.
In other words, our hearts and our minds and our goals and our
aims ought to be set on eternity. How am I going to spend eternity?
And this is another way of saying what the book of Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 2 says. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Look at verse 2. Set your affection,
your mind, that's what that is. You can say your heart on things
above, not on things on the earth. There are things we have to deal
with on earth. He's not telling us, as one old
preacher said, be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly
good. He's not saying that at all. Take care of business here
on the earth with your jobs, your families, all of that. But
realize that this is not the end. This is not eternal. This
lasts a few years at the most. And then it's over. Then there's
eternity staring you in the face. Set your heart upon those things. Verse three, for you are dead.
Now how are we dead? We're dead to sin. The scripture
said, we read it over in Romans six. That means sin cannot be
charged to us. Sin cannot be imputed to us.
Sin cannot condemn us. We're righteous in God's sight
by the grace of God through the blood of Christ. And your life
is hid. with Christ in God. Not hidden
from view, but hidden in safety. Nothing, if you're in Christ,
if you're risen with Him, nothing that can come against
you can move you away from the grace of God and eternal life
in glory. Your life is hid. You're safe. You're secure. There's no way
that you can ever be condemned and die and perish. And here's
how sure it is, look at verse four. When Christ, who is our
life, now is Christ my life? Well, he's really the only life
I have. He gave me physical life, and he gave me eternal life.
So when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you
also appear with him in glory, as sure for heaven, as if you're
already there because of him. Now, that's the foundation laid. Now here's the life we live out
of Christ. He says in verse five, mortify
or put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth.
He mentions specific sins, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, that's lust. Covetousness, which is idolatry. You know what covetousness is? It's the unlawful desire of things. And that which is idolatry is
that which takes you away from the worship and service of God.
Anything you desire that you pursue that takes you away from
the worship and service of God is idolatry. And what is he saying? He said, fight these things. You're in a warfare, the warfare
of the spirit and the flesh. Now again, you're not going to
totally get rid of the contaminations of sin. Look at verse six. He
says, now he reminds them of this, verse six, for which things
sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
Now in the Bible, a child of disobedience is an unbeliever. You know, we have the same problems
with sin that unbelievers have. But we can't be condemned because
of the blood of Christ. We're under the blood of Jesus.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood, all right?
But those who live and die in unbelief, that's a child of disobedience,
and the wrath of God abides upon them. for these things. Why doesn't
the wrath of God abide upon me? Because I'm risen with Christ. I died with Him. I was buried
with Him. I rose with Him. My life is hid in Christ, with
Christ in God. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
He says in verse seven, in the which you also walked sometime,
which when you lived in them, this was your lifestyle, he says,
as an unbeliever. But now, verse eight, you also
put off all these things. Fight these things. Anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one
to another, seeing that you've put off the old man with his
deeds. What is the old man? That was my former connection
in unbelief with Adam. And you know what? It's more
evil to try to save ourselves by our
works in fighting these things than it is in doing these things.
Because that's self-righteousness. Well, when did you put off the
old man with his deeds? When you were born again, when
you looked to Christ, when you believed in him and rested in
him. He says, you've put on, look at verse 10, and have put
on the new man. That's my current connection
with Christ in the spirit. Again, a sinner saved by grace. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And this new man, which is renewed
in knowledge, You see, this is a matter of how we think, what
we know. It's not just reformation of
character and conduct. You know, that's what most people
think salvation is. Well, you were this, you started doing
that, you stopped doing this, stopped doing that. Well, there
may be things in salvation you stop doing and things you start
doing, but this is a matter of the mind, how we think, a matter
of the heart. And this was created in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And in this state, as
sinners saved by grace, look at verse 11, there's neither
Greek nor Jew. Doesn't matter whether you're
a Gentile or a Jew. That has no bearing on salvation.
Circumcision nor uncircumcision has no bearing on it. Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free. These distinctions that exist
among us on earth have absolutely no bearing on our salvation. I'm being made right with God,
but here's what makes the difference. Christ is all and in all. Christ is all and in all. Let
me give you this little outline. As I said at the beginning of
the message, everything connected with salvation is found in Christ. You understand that? All of its
blessings, all of its benefits, any advantage that we have, any
gift that we have, the life that we live, it's all found in Christ,
the simplicity of Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes under the Father but by Him. The only
way of forgiveness, we have one way of righteousness, that's
Christ. And here's what it means. It's all about who Christ is. Let's study who Christ is. I
know what I am. I know what you are. We're sinners
who are so much in need every day of His grace. And where is that grace found?
It's found in Christ who He is. And who is He? He's God manifest
in the flesh. That assures us that He's able
to save us to the uttermost if we come unto God by Him. He is
our surety. That means my sins, past sins,
present sins, future sins were laid on His account. The Bible
says, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All of
his people, all of his sheep. He's God manifest in the flesh. Every bit God. Only God can create
life. I know man says he can do it
in a test tube. He can't do it. Only God can
create life. And only man can die. And only
a perfect man can die for the sins of others. Well, Christ
is both God and perfect man. Who is He? You know, He asked
that question over in Matthew 22. There was a group of self-righteous
unbelievers who were trying to ask Him questions to trip Him
up. And they couldn't do it, obviously. He twisted them around
His little finger. And at the end of it, He said,
well, I've got a question for you. And he says, who is Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? And they had to think about their
answer. And they said, well, he's David's son. Now you know
who King David was. And sometimes the Messiah is
identified as the son of David. And they were right. He is David's
son. But Christ followed it up with
another question. Well, then how could David call
him Lord? If he's David's son, how could
he be both David's son and David's God? They didn't know the answer. But we do. How could he be both
David's God and David's son? Well, in his deity, before the
foundation of the world, he's David's God. But in his humanity,
That human body that was created for Him in the womb of the Virgin,
He's a descendant of King David in His sinless humanity. He's
both God and man in one person. That's essential. It's about
who He is. Here's the second thing. Salvation
is about what Christ accomplished in His obedience and resurrection.
It's not about what we accomplish or try to accomplish. It's not
about what we do or try to do. Listen, it's not even about our
decisions. Sometimes we make good decisions,
sometimes we make bad decisions. If God the Holy Spirit ever gives
us life, we'll decide to follow Christ. But you know what that's
about? That's about what He accomplished,
and what He fulfilled, and what He brings about. Not about what
we accomplish or fulfill. He made the statement in John
12. He said, if I be lifted up, meaning on the cross to die,
he said, I will draw all unto me. If he's lifted up, if he
accomplishes his work, he will draw all of his sheep unto himself. That's what that means. They'll
come to him. They'll make the right decision
because God, the Holy Spirit, will convince them in the new
birth. to choose Christ, apart from His work, we wouldn't choose
Him, none of us would. We'd say thumbs down. It's about His blood shedding
to put away all our sins. How in the world can we be redeemed
from our sins when they're with us every day, every hour? People
tell me today that you can come to a point where you don't sin
anymore. Well, that's sin even to think
that. How in the world can we be redeemed,
free from sin? Well, it has nothing to do with
what we do, but it has everything to do with what He did. How can
I stand before a holy God who knows my thoughts Who knows my
intentions? Who knows my aims? My motivations? How could I stand before a God
like that and be counted righteous? But it's not about what I do
or have done or try to do. It's about what Christ did on
that cross. He accomplished it. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness. That's what salvation is. Christ
is all. And if you believe in Him by
the power of the Spirit, He's in all. Here's the third thing. It's about what Christ provides
for His people in salvation. It's not about what I give to
Him. It's about what He gives to me. Everything, every blessing
of salvation comes from Him. My faith, the faith that I believe
with, it comes from Him. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. If you have faith to believe
in Christ, it's the work of God through Christ in you. He's all
and in all, you see. Repentance. That's that change
of mind that turns me away from self and turns me to Christ.
That's a gift of God. We're not the source of that
or the power of that. We didn't make that decision
because we're better than people who don't make the decision.
It's all about Him. It's a gift of God. God grant
us repentance. The continuance, perseverance
in the faith. How does that come about? Well,
the Bible says He's able to save us to the uttermost. It says
that, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. He
said, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, they know me, they
follow me. No one shall pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Even our continuance, our perseverance, is about Him. He's all, He's
in all. Every gift, every good and perfect
gift comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there's no
shadow of turning. And then it's about what Christ
commands. The word of Christ. That's what
salvation's about. It's not about what people get
together and decide, the rules. It's not about laws of men that
they bring down on you and you've got to do this, you've got to
follow this. It's about what Christ says.
Here in this passage, He says, fight sin. So we're to fight
it in a way of grace, in a way of gratitude, in a way of love. But it's all about Him because
He's all and He's in all. May the Lord bless His Word to
our hearts. Well, let's turn to hymn number 359, and we'll
sing this as our closing hymn. 359, My Faith Looks Up to Thee.