Okay, let's look back at that
passage that Brother Randy read. As he said, I'm just going to
do about the first four verses this morning on the subject of
Christ, who is our life. And Randy, I shouldn't embarrass
you. I've gotten tongue-tied in the pulpit, too, on concupiscence. That's a word we don't use that
much anymore. It means lust, what it means. But I remember
one time I was preaching from the book of 1 Thessalonians. Well, if you know, the Thessalonians
lived in the town of Thessalonica. And I was looking there, I was
trying to say the Thessalonians, and I kept saying the Thessalonikians. And somebody challenged me, and
I kept doing it. I didn't even realize I was doing it, but somebody
challenged me after, I said, oh, haven't you heard of the
Thessalonians? That was the people in Thessalonica who invented
Nike tennis shoes. So you gotta get your wayin'
out. See on those things. I've often said if I ask one
of these men to read one of those Old Testament passages that's
got those $20 names in it, I said the key to pronouncing those
names is pronounce them with authority like nobody can disagree
with you. That's the only way you can do
it. Well, Christ, who is our life,
took the title from this message in verse 4 there, Colossians
chapter 3. When Christ who is our life. Now it's true that Christ is
the giver of life. And he is, isn't that great?
We have life from him and through him. He is the giver of life. Now when we speak of life here,
we're talking about spiritual life and eternal life, but you
know he's the giver of physical life too. John one speaks of
that. And I've said, I said it in the
Sunday school this morning, the Bible studied this morning. I
said, think about the next breath you take. Did you realize that's
a gift from God? That's what it is, isn't it?
So we can see he is the giver of life, but not only is he the
giver of life, the Bible says for his people who are risen
with him, That's the key. If you, look at verse one, if
you then be risen with Christ, he not only gave you that life
and he did, but he is your life. What does that mean? You know,
one thing, that is pretty much common to all versions of false
Christianity. Now let me, you know, I said
that term one time up in Kentucky when I was preaching. Somebody
said, what are you talking about false Christianity? I said, well, talking
about just about the majority of what comes under the name
of Christianity today. Now that shouldn't surprise you
if you read the Bible. You know that? You know, people
today, they're talking about the second coming of Christ.
Well, this speaks of it. Verse four, when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him. That's the second coming, isn't
it? He's coming again, isn't He? I believe that. I don't know
when He's coming. You don't either. You might think
you do. There was a preacher out in California. I think he
was all over the map with dates. And the last date that he predicted,
when Christ didn't come, he died in sorrow. Nobody knows the day
or the time, but you know what? Christ taught his disciples that
there are signs of his coming. Now, I'm not talking about the
kind of signs that the Pharisees were looking for. You remember
he said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.
You know what that's talking about is this. Our hope of salvation
is not based upon signs that we're looking for. Our hope of
salvation is based upon the pure, unadulterated, unmixed, unconfused
Word of God. That's right. I'm not looking
for a sign from heaven. I'm not looking for the face
of Jesus. I've already seen his face, the
glory of God in the face of Christ. Nobody knows what he looked like
physically. These people, they say, well, look here, there's
a drop, there's something appeared, you know, in a cloud, looked
like Jesus. You don't know what Jesus looked like. Brother Tim James
up in North Carolina, he said all those paintings of Jesus,
he said he saw one, he thought it was Wild Bill Hickok kneeling
on a rock. But you don't know what Jesus
looked like, nobody does. And Paul said that when we're
made new creatures in Christ, we judge no man after the flesh,
though we judge Christ after the flesh, judge him no more
after the flesh. How do I know I believe in the
true Jesus, that I've seen the true Jesus? By the word of God. Who he is, what he did, why he
did it, where he is now. What he accomplished. on Calvary
when he died for his people, not to make them savable, but
to save them from their sins. And he secured it. But you see, when he talks about
signs of his impending coming in the last days, and understand
now, the last days in the Bible refers to the time of his death,
burial, resurrection, and his ascension all the way up to his
second coming. So we've been in the last days,
the last time for over 2,000 years now. But one of the most
telling signs of his second coming is the emergence and the multiple
growth, the almost exponential growth of false Christianity. Did you know that? You ever heard
of the loosing of Satan? When Satan shall be loosed to
go all over the world to deceive the whole world, and you know
what his main deception is? False Christianity. Christ told his disciples that
they'll come to you, there'll be false messiahs, they'll come
to you saying, here's Christ, there's Christ, but don't believe.
And he said this, he said, some will be so close that if it were
possible, they could deceive the very elect. Thank God that's
not possible for the elect to be deceived unto perdition. But how are we gonna know the
difference? It's by the word of God. But one thing that's
common to all versions of false Christianity is that they're
tied and bound to the things of the earth. In other words, physical things.
Traditions of men. Temporal blessings. Somebody
wins the lottery. There was a fella up in a little
old town. I mean, it's just a bump in the
road up around Ashland, Kentucky. It's called Westwood. There's
a little, I think the main thoroughfare is called Soggy Bottom. There
was a fella up there who won the lottery. I think he won like
$42 million, and they interviewed him on the news, and the first
thing he said, you know what he said now? Now listen to this.
He won the lottery, and he said, there is a God. And I thought when I heard him
say that, I said, well you fool, there was a God before you won
the lottery. But that's the way people think
now. Oh, he must be doing something right. He's being really blessed.
Oh, he must be doing something wrong. You know who had that
kind of theology? Job's three miserable comforters. That's who had that kind of theology.
They're tied to the earth. They're tied to emotions. Now
look, there's nothing wrong. I've been emotional. You have
been emotional. I've been emotional like crazy here the last few
weeks. But I don't judge salvation or my relationship with God based
on my emotions, do you? I've seen people say, well, I've
went into that church, I just felt the Holy Spirit because
everybody said hello and smiled. My friend, Satan can say hello
and smile. That's no gauge of it, you see.
But that's what people are tied by. You see, unbelievers, the
natural man, that's the way they judge salvation, lostness. And
this is why when we're saved, we're made new creatures. Our
whole standard of looking at things, our whole view of things,
our view of the world, our view of God, who God is. I didn't know God before God,
the Holy Spirit, brought me to see the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. I was religious. I was brought
up in religion. I called myself a Christian,
but I wasn't. I just didn't know and I was
deceived. I was ignorant. I was in darkness. Our whole
view of ourselves changed. I thought I could do something
for God, and I found out I can't do anything. I thought I could rise above
the mass of humanity who didn't believe in Him, and I could muster
it up out of my own free will belief. And the Bible says, no,
that's not true. Do you have within you a desire
to glorify the true and living God? Do you have within you faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, not just in some notion of Christ
now, but the Christ who is identified and distinguished in this book?
Do you have a desire? to worship God in spirit and
in truth according to his word. Do you see yourself as you really
are? Do I see myself as I really am? A sinner, I mean a wretched sinner
saved by grace. Did you know that's who you're
listening to right now? A sinner saved by the grace of
God. I'm not the Reverend Dr. Parker.
Don't call me Reverend. Holy and Reverend is his name. Holy and Reverend is His name.
Don't give me His name. That belongs to Him. Belongs
to God. Do you have a desire to hear
Christ preached and the glory of His person and the glory of
His finished work, His righteousness alone? Or do you want to find
some place that will tickle your itching ear? Scratch your itching
ear, rather. Well, if you have a real desire
to do these things, do you know you're a miracle of God's grace?
You're created by God in Christ Jesus? Well, the following, this
is an exhortation here in chapter three of Colossians. And this
exhortation is for believers in union with Christ. Look at,
the first thing he says here, to identify who he's talking
to, He says this, number one, it's for those who are dead in
Christ but alive with Christ. Who is this exhortation for?
It's not for everybody without exception. Oh, I believe everybody
without exception should read it. I believe that everybody
without exception should pray that God would open up their
eyes to see the reality of it and believe it. But this is an
exhortation to believers. If you then be risen with Christ. You know that word if could be
translated since. Since you then have been risen
with Christ. But it's not a condition that
you must meet in order to be risen with Christ. It's an evidence
that you already have been risen with Christ. That's what the
if is. I've told you about this, I said it's like physical life. I could tell you said, well,
you've got physical life if you breathe. Well, you know it's
not your breathing that gave you the physical life. Did you
know you had physical life before you breathed? When you were in
the womb of your mother? I'll let Dr. Paul talk about
that someday. He's an expert in that area.
But see, that's physical life. They're arguing over whether
or not there's life in the womb that's a person. Where in the
world have we come to? You see what I'm saying? But,
breathing. When that baby's born, they wanna
hear that, they wanna see breath, they wanna hear breath in that.
That's evidence of the life, isn't it? God didn't say, now
if you breathe, I'll give you life. And the same way with spiritual
life. The evidence that I have spiritual
life, the evidence that I've been risen with Christ is this, if you then be risen
with Christ. Now, Paul had been talking about
union with Christ, risen with Christ. It means a participation
in his resurrection. In other words, was I a part
of that resurrection? But before we can be risen with
him, we must first die with him. Look down at verse three. You
see, resurrection is resurrection from the dead, isn't it? It's
not making somebody who's already alive just more alive. I mean,
this person who's risen with Christ, that person's dead, verse
three, for you are dead. You are dead. What is that talking
about? And your life is hid with Christ
in God. What is he talking about, you're
dead? First of all, he means that if
we're risen with Christ, we're dead to sin. Dead to sin. Now, does that mean that when
I'm born again, resurrected with Christ in that way, does that
mean that I no longer sin? Well, no. I'm still a sinner. Only a sinner saved by grace.
Only a sinner saved by grace. That's my story to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's all I am. And I'm nothing
more than that. Only a sinner. How did I become
dead to sin? Well, the scripture says we became
dead to sin by the body of Christ. That is, by His death. And I
spoke on this a while back. Christ is the representative
of His people. You see, when Christ was set
up to be the Savior before the foundation of the world, God
gave Him a people. And they're called, I know people
don't like to hear this today in religion, and even in what
they call Christianity, they're called in the Bible, the elect. You know, I've had people get
upset with me on it. I'm just telling you what the
Word of God says. Christ said this about the last
days. He said some of them will be so close that if it were possible,
they could deceive the very elect. Well, Lord, you shouldn't have
said that. Most of these Christians out here don't even believe that.
They think that's talking about the Jews. No. You know who the elect are?
God's people. His church. His sheep. The redeemed of the Lord. Believers. Paul said, he told Timothy, Paul
was writing, they threw him in jail, they threw Paul in jail
because he was preaching the gospel which they didn't like.
And Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, the reason I'm going
through all this stuff, the reason I'm going through all these trials
is for the elect's sake. That's what he said. Well Christ
is the representative of God's people. Christ is the surety
of God's people. Now what that means is this.
Have you ever run up a debt you couldn't pay? That's what sin
is. There's a lot of different words
for sin in the Bible. The most common one is the word
that means fall short, miss the mark. The mark is perfect righteousness. We fall short of that mark in
our doing. In all that we are, we fall short. That's why we need grace. That's
why we need Christ. See, we don't come up to snuff.
We don't come up to the mark. Even the best of us. Alright? That's the most common. But another
word for sin has to do with debt. We run up a debt. We fell in
Adam. We sin. We run up a debt that
we cannot pay. And the debt, the only payment
for sin is death. The wages of sin is death. When
Christ was made our surety, the debt of God's people was put
on Him. His account. It was reckoned
to Him. It's like if you had a debt you
couldn't pay and somebody come along to the bank or whoever
you owed the money to and said, put that person's debt on my
account, I'll pay the debt. That's what happened. Christ,
in the everlasting covenant of grace, between the Father and
the Son, the debt was put upon Him, and He voluntarily said,
I'll pay the debt. Well, what's the price of the
debt of sin? The wages of sin is death. So not only is He my
surety, He's also my substitute. He took my place on the cross. In His obedience unto death,
He paid my debt in full. He paid the redemption price.
He paid the ransom price. My sin, my debt was imputed,
charged, accounted to Him. And out of His payment by His
death, He accomplished what the Bible calls righteousness. What is righteousness? It's perfect
satisfaction to the justice of God. He paid the debt in full by His
one offering as the surety and the substitute of His people.
So what the Bible tells us is this, when Christ died on that
cross, His people, His sheep, His church, the elect of God,
actually died with Him. We're dead to sin. Now what does
that mean? Does that mean I'm not a sinner? No, I'm a sinner.
It means sin cannot condemn me. It means sin is not charged to
my account. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of, oh, here's that word again, God's elect. It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather, is risen again and
is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make
intercession for us. So that when Christ died, I died.
When Christ was buried, I was buried. When Christ arose from
the dead, I arose from the dead in union with Him. Now, when He died, He established
righteousness, and righteousness demands life. You know, it says
in verse 1, if you then be risen with Christ, to be risen with
Christ, first I have to die with Christ. The debt's got to be
paid. But when he died, he established
righteousness. Sin demanded his death, demanded
my death in him, but righteousness demands life. Romans 521, as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The
reason that I can say that I'm alive spiritually is because
of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. His righteousness
alone. And so my debt was imputed, charged,
accounted to him. His righteousness is imputed,
charged, accounted to me. Now, what's the proof of that?
What's the evidence of that? Well, here it is. If you then
be risen with Christ. Now there's that legal union
with Christ, death, burial, and resurrection, but there's also
a spiritual union in the new birth. And you know what the
Bible calls the new birth? In Ephesians chapter one, it
takes the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the power
of the spirit, Romans chapter one, that's the same power that
raises us from our spiritual death in the new birth. We're
risen with Christ. And here's what he says, verse
one, if you then be risen with Christ. Verse three, for you're
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Now that word
hid there doesn't mean hidden from view. You know what it means?
It means you're safe. It means you're protected. It
means you cannot be harmed. That's right. It means, you know
Job? What I read there. Now, is there
any doubt that Job had problems? Troubles? Trials? Job is kind of like the poster
child for all suffering, isn't he? We talk about, somebody says,
well, you know, somebody suffers in this life, what I'm going
through, what you guys are going through, and we say, well, you
like Job. Oh, I didn't even touch Job. You know, Job lost his whole
family. You know what Job lost? He lost
his family, he lost his possessions, and he lost his health. Probably
the three things that we hold most valuable as far as physical
life goes. I mean, lost everybody. Lost
everything he had. And then lost it, you know the
Jews used to say, well at least you got your help. They couldn't
say that to Job. He lost his help. And here's
what he said, I know my Redeemer liveth. And I'm gonna stand with
him in the last day. Now you know what it takes to
say that and mean it? Well you gotta be better than
everybody else. No, it takes the grace of God. All right. My friend, if you're a believer
in the Lord Jesus, if God has brought you to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works, your life is hid with Christ
in God. Satan cannot touch you unless
God allows him to, like he did Joe. Satan had to ask permission. You know, most people, they kind
of look at Satan like the equal counterpart to God. No, no, no,
no, no. That's not the Bible. Here's
the God of good and Satan's the God of evil. And they're trying
to, I had a fellow in Sunday school one time, he said, it
seemed to me, he said, it seems like they're fighting it out
and whoever gets the most people wins. What, really? You know why Satan is so active
in his evil deceptions? It's because he knows his days
are numbered. Did you know that? His days are
numbered, and he knows it. He doesn't know when, but he
knows it's coming. I had an old preacher say one
time, he said, Satan is on God's leash. He sure is, isn't he? Somebody says, well, how do you
figure all that out? God's not the author of evil. That's right,
He's not the author of evil, but you're not going to be able
to figure all that stuff out, let me tell you. If you're in Christ, if
you're washed in His blood, we're going to be, that's a sin, that
bread and that Cup is a symbol of the blood, the death of the
Lord Jesus. If you're washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness, your life is hid with Christ
in God. You're protected, you're saved.
You cannot lose salvation, like some of these so-called Christians
say. You know why they believe you
can lose it? Because they believe they gained it by something they
did, something they decided. I mentioned this in the Bible
study. A preacher friend of mine up in Ohio, he was talking about
these preachers, they preach you can lose your salvation,
but then they preach fear not. Well, my friend, if you believe
what the Bible says about us, even as sinners saved by grace,
if you think you can lose it, you ought to live in mortal fear
every day of your life. The only reason that I can fear
not is because my life is hid with Christ in God. I'm a sinner, but God said He
won't remember my sins. You know what that means? Hebrews
10. It means He won't charge them to me. It means He won't
hold them against me. It means He bears no record of
them. My slate is clean, washed not
by my good works, not by my free will decision, washed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God looks at my account,
somebody says, well, everybody's going to give an account. Well,
let me tell you what my account. Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord, my
righteousness. I'm righteous in Him. I have
His righteousness accounted to me by God Almighty. And it cannot
be taken away. It cannot be contaminated. And
I'll tell you why, because I didn't have anything to do with it. Hidden, not from sight, but protected
from danger. There's no sin imputed to this
person who is in Christ. No accusation from Satan can
stick. No condemnation. And Romans 8
tells us, no separation. We cannot be lost. And then in
verse 4 there he says, when Christ, who is our life, we were all
born dead spiritually. So if we have spiritual life,
it's from Christ, and it's the resurrection life of Christ that
comes forth from him because of his righteousness imputed
to us. Paul said in Galatians chapter two, the life that I
now live, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God. His righteousness
charged to me is the ground of my right standing with God, justification. His righteousness charged to
me is the source of my sanctification. He gave me life. His righteousness
accounted to me is the assurance of my glorification. That's what
he says. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
So how should that work out to an exhortation? We'll look at
the third thing here in verse one. If you then be risen with
Christ, here's what he says, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection. That's your
mind. But now it's not just an intellectual
thing. You know, the heart in the scripture
is not, you know, people talk about, and I do this too, we
all do this because it makes a point. We'll talk about how
salvation's not here, it's here. That's not really literal, you
do know that. I mean, it's not in this organ,
the heart. In the Bible, the heart is the
mind, the affections, the will, the inner, it's who you really
are within. See? And when God saves us and when
He regenerates us by the Holy Spirit, He gives us a new heart,
doesn't He? A new way of thinking, a new way of believing, new affections,
what we love, new will. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power, doesn't He? So he says, set your affections,
your heart on things above, not on things of the earth. Where Christ, and what does he
mean by that? Set your affection on the word
of God. What does God say? That's what I'm interested in.
When I come to worship, I want to hear what God has to say.
And that's why I preach his word. Not the traditions of men. Not
on the fleshly things. Not on the visual aids of false
religion that are meant to stir people up emotionally without
truth, but on the spiritual things of God. And how do you do that? Well, here's the key. Where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. That means where Christ
resides as my intercessor. Jesus Christ the righteous, John
called him. And it says, our whole view,
now think about it this way, our whole view of life, of death,
of salvation, is to be viewed in light of Christ and His finished
work, where Christ sitted. Did you notice it said that?
Remember the high priest in the Old Testament, he could never
sit down, because his work was never finished, but Christ sat
down. at the right hand. That means
He finished the work. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness
and my whole view of life, of death, of salvation, my relationships,
all is to be viewed in light of Christ and His finished work
of redemption. His righteousness alone to justify
me, His power alone to sanctify me and to preserve me and then
ultimately to glorify me. He is all and in all. Our view
is not to be on ourselves as far as attaining or maintaining
salvation, but on Christ. And whenever we do view ourselves,
and the Bible says examine ourselves, doesn't it? It ought to be so
as to be convicted to drive us right back to Christ. To grow
in grace and knowledge of Him. and all assurance and all motivation
and all purpose in him and in him alone. That's what it's talking
about. It's all about him, isn't it?