Let's open our Bibles to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter three. This particular passage of scripture is one of my favorites. I've preached on it many times and I got my mind on it and couldn't get it off of it, so I thought I'd preach on it today. On the subject of Christ, our hiding place. Christ our hiding place.

It says in verse one of Colossians chapter three, if you then be risen with Christ, if you then be risen with Christ. Jump down to verse three. Now I'm not gonna leave out these other words. I want to try to help us put it in context. He says in verse three, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

And then when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, And that's speaking of his second coming. Now he's already appeared to us if we're born again in the word by the spirit. But when he shall appear in the clouds, then shall you also appear with him in glory.

Now that's where I got the title, Christ Our Hiding Place. But let me dispel two myths about this to start off with. Christ being our hiding place doesn't mean that we're hiding out of fear of man or even of the devil or anything like that. And it certainly doesn't mean that we're hiding from view.

In fact, in that realm, the Bible tells us to shine forth as lights in a dark world. That's what a believer, a church, true church is to do. We're to be shining lights of the glory and truth of God in Christ in this dark world. And of course, you're all familiar with the passage Matthew 5 16 let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and do what glorify your father which is in heaven in other words understanding that the world by nature doesn't even know what a good work is the world by nature just thinks good works are the moral sincere charitable deeds of men those can be good works but in God's sight, goodness has a whole level that men and women by nature don't understand.

When we talk about goodness according to God's goodness, by nature there's none good, no not one. Remember what the Lord told the rich young ruler when he approached the Lord, not believing that Jesus of Nazareth was God manifest in the flesh. And he said, good master. And Christ met him on that ground. He said, why you call me good? There's only good, no one good but God. And good works, how can we bring forth good works? Well, that has to be those things which God has foreordained.

Read Ephesians 2.10. If we're sinners saved by grace, were his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of which God hath before ordained that we walk in them. And they're acceptable to God, not on their own merit, because they have no merit.

Do you understand that? Our good works have no merit before God. Now here's what I mean by that. It has no earning power. You're not earning your pay in the kingdom of grace. And if you think you are, you know what that is? That's a dead work. I don't care how it appears to men and women. Do you understand that? That's biblical. That's the mind of Christ. There's no merit. There's no earning power. Our good works do not bring us to a point where we can look at God and say, well, I deserve this blessing. deserve any blessing. I don't. We start off in grace, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christ, Christ is our life. Did you hear him say it there? When Christ who is our life, there's my earning power, Christ, what he did. You say, well, I'm saved by grace, but I'm trying to get a bigger mansion in heaven. I don't believe in luck, but good luck with that. Won't work. Won't work. What this means when it says our life is hid with Christ, it means safety. That's what it means. It means security. It means eternal life assured, protected from all harm. There is a sense in which the world, the flesh, and the devil, listen to this now, cannot touch me. I'm touched. I don't mean I'm crazy, but maybe I am. But we get touched all the time. You get sick, you get hurting, you get in trouble. All of that, I've done it all, and I will do it all again if the Lord lets me live longer.

But there is a sense which none of those things can even get close to me. let me tell you this, let me tell you the glory of this passage and passages like this, this is not the only one, sin mars and influences and pretty much contaminates everything I do. For example, the bible tells me that I'm to love God perfectly, And the reason I cannot, I wanna try, but the reason I cannot love God absolutely perfectly is because of my sin. Self love. And I wanna love you perfectly, I do, believe it or not. But what keeps me from it?

Sin. I mean, it influences everything. A thought. We're here to worship today. I want nothing but pure thoughts, but an old sinful thought will fly right in there. And I can't help it. And somebody says, well, if you had the spirit, No, you couldn't.

In fact, it's the spirit that keeps me aware of it. So that I'm continually repenting. But with all that going on in my, and certainly sin touches my body, you know, with the wrinkles and the gray hair and the pain and the arthritis and heart disease, and we could go on and on, can't we? But there is a sense in which even my sin That which surrounds me, that which is within me, cannot touch me.

And it's right here. If you then be risen with Christ. The first thing that you need to see here is the assurance of salvation and safety and security as we are hidden in Christ. And realize that He's everything. He's my all in all. He's not just part of my salvation.

It's not a situation as the old country song says. You remember the old country song? Me and Jesus got a good thing going. No, he's got a good thing going. There's another country song. Boy, I'm getting on the countries out here. There's another country song that said, where I come from, we're working hard to get to heaven. Well, work hard, buddy. But it'll do you no good. And I'm not just making fun. You say, well, people don't really mean that. Well, I don't know what they mean anymore.

Do you? If you then be risen with Christ, risen with Christ means that we participated in His resurrection. How? How? Because He did it all for His people as our surety. Now, what is a surety? That's one who took my sin debt upon Him to pay it in full. He didn't leave me any to pay. If He did, I'm doomed. He paid it all, Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Some people sing it, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Do you believe that? He did it all.

So as my surety, as my substitute, He was made flesh Now this is God, the second person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, the second person of the Trinity, God manifest in the, He took upon Himself a flesh without sin. You and I were born sinfully in sinful flesh, and that's not just sex, that's our fall in Adam. our fallen Adam, disobeying God. We're born spiritually dead but Christ took on himself a human body without sin to be my substitute so that when he died, now look at it, he says if you then be risen with Christ and then down here In verse three, he says, for you're dead. Now, before you can be risen, you got to die. Christ died.

He obeyed the law. He died under the law for the sins of his people. They were charged to him, accounted to him, imputed him. Our sin debt became his before the foundation of the world. And He came to this earth, took on human flesh without sin, walked under the law and kept it perfectly. He loved His Father perfectly. He loved His people perfectly.

And He suffered unto death on the cross as our substitute. And when he arose from the dead, he arose for his people, we rose with him. He was our representative, he's our redeemer, he's our life giver. The life that we have in the spirit comes from him, is given by him to us.

So he says, you're dead. Now, how are we dead? We're dead to sin, legally. That means sin cannot be charged to us by God. 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. Yea, rather, is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father. Now, that means that my sin cannot touch me so as to condemn me. That means that the law cannot condemn me. I'm dead to the law, Romans 7 says. Romans 6 says dead to sin. Romans 7 says dead to the law. In other words, the law, it can neither demand obedience of me in order to attain or maintain salvation.

That's Christ. He's my all in all. My life is hid with Christ in God. And the law cannot condemn me, cannot pronounce a judgment of condemnation on me because Christ took my condemnation. When he was made of a woman, he was made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So we're dead. Now, that's a legal death, all right?

And then he says, your life is hidden with Christ in God. Once in him, you know, people argue about this, and this is pitiful. Once saved, always saved. You hear people argue about that. I always ask them, well, what do you mean by that? Here's what I say. Once in Christ, always in Christ. That's what it is.

Now, if you think you can lose it, why would you lose it? Now ask yourself that question. Why would you lose it? Oh, because I commit some great sin. Well, what great sin is it? You suppose. It has to be something pretty bad. I had a guy tell me that one time. He said, well, you can send it away. I said, well, what sin could you? He said, I don't know, he said, but it has to be something pretty bad.

I thought, well, if you read the Bible, all sin is pretty bad. In God's eye, the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Now, it doesn't say the wages of one particular sin is death, but the rest is OK. You know what sin is in the Bible? Anything that falls short of the perfect righteousness of the law that can only be found in Christ. And I'm telling you, if you don't believe that Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the God man, did not by his one sacrifice for sin, shedding his blood unto death, Completely take care of all the sins of all his people Given to him by God before the foundation of the world and secure their salvation under glory if you don't believe that You're in trouble Because you're just in the same shape that Cain was in you've got it to deal with If he didn't deal with it and shut the door on it Our life is hid with Christ.

There's no safer place to be. There's no other safe place to be. So once in Him, always in Him. Again, hidden not from sight, but protected from danger. No sin imputed to me. And the glory and the joy of having His righteousness imputed to me. That's what this hiding is all about. In Christ, there's no condemnation. In Christ, there's no separation. We can never be lost and we can't lose it. So in verse four, he says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.

We're all born spiritually dead, so if we have spiritual life, it's from Christ. It's, one old theologian's called it the resurrection life of Christ, the spirit of Christ, now that's good. It's from Christ and it's the resurrection life of Christ that comes from him because of his righteousness, justification, imputed to us. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

His righteousness imputed is the ground of our justification, our forgiveness, our acceptance with God. His righteousness imputed is the source of our sanctification in the life by the Spirit. Listen, His righteousness imputed is the assurance of our glorification.

When Christ shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. That's the assurance of glory. That's not saying to me, well, if you measure up now and live a good life and do better, you'll appear with him in glory. It says when Christ, who is our life? He's my life.

You know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians that every person must give an account before God at judgment. Now here's the truth of that. If you're a believer, if you're a sinner saved by grace, if your life is hid with Christ in God, what is your account? I'll tell you what my account is.

Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. There's my account. I'm washed in the blood of Christ. I'm clothed in his righteousness. That's my account. But now if you stand before God without Christ, what is your account? Well, Lord, I did this, I did that, I accepted you, I walked and I got baptized, only to hear him say, depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you.

You see the difference? So now go back up to verse one. Now here's the vantage point of our hiding place. We can see things that others don't see. Now that's the truth. That's not bragging. But you remember what Christ told the disciples when he spoke in parables to the Pharisees? He said, they have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they don't hear. But blessed are your eyes, for you see. Blessed are your ears, for you hear. Well, who gave you those seeing eyes and those hearing? God did.

You didn't earn them and you didn't deserve them. It's blessing, it's grace. How many times have I told you, if you're a true believer who's been brought to repentance of dead works, you're a walking, talking miracle of God's grace and power. You're not the product of your own decision, your own work. You're the product of God's grace. Just like Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am.

Christ is my life. So if you then be risen with Christ, here's the vantage point. Seek those things which are above. Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, set your affection, in your concordance you might have the word mind. That's your heart, that's your inner person, your very being, on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead and your life is here." Now what does all that mean? The Word of God set your mind and your heart and your affections on the Word of God, not the words and traditions of men. Not just on fleshly things that are gonna fade away, but spiritual things.

When Christ, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, where Christ resides as our intercessor, our mediator, Jesus Christ, our righteousness, the author and finisher of our faith. Keep your eyes on Him. Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. For I'm God, there's none else. Our whole view of life, of death, of judgment, of salvation is to be viewed in light of Christ and his finished work of redemption, his righteousness alone to justify us, his power alone to sanctify us and preserve us and to glorify us. Our view is not to be on ourselves as far as attaining or maintaining salvation, but on Christ.

We're not to look to ourselves for assurance, that's what I'm saying. It's all right, we look to ourselves because I do, I wanna know myself. I don't wanna fool myself. I know what I am. And here's the first thing I know, is there's no way I can get me there. There's no way I can finish it of my own power and goodness.

I'm gonna set my affection on things above. not on things of the earth, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. That's the right hand of acceptance. I'm accepted in Him, justified. I'm justified by His blood and righteousness. And then He comes to this problem. verse 5. Now I'm going to give you just an overview of this and I'm going to come back and preach on this next week. But what he really gives us here from verse 5 on down to verse 11 is how we as believers are to deal with the problem of sin. How we're to deal with it. And he first establishes that vantage point of the assurance, the certainty of our position before God in Christ. That's what those first four verses do. Risen with Christ. I've already died to all my sin legally.

I haven't died the physical death yet, I'm getting there but physical death is coming but that's okay because for the believer that's a passage, that's a passage into glory. Paul said for me to live to live to die is gains what he said and so to live is Christ to die is gain And I'm sure that unless it's by what we refer to as an accident, God doesn't see any accidents, you all know that.

But unless I'm just taken out just quick and not even time to think about it, I'm sure that the Lord will bring me to a place in my thinking where I'll say, boy, I'm ready to get out of this old veil of tears, this trouble, But when it comes to dealing with our sinfulness, he uses the word mortify. You know what mortify means, don't you? It means put it to death. What are you talking about? And he goes into things, you know, somebody said, you know, there are denominations that say if you're a Christian and you're filled with the Spirit, you don't sin, that's a lie. They just sinned, they lied.

So that's why we have to fight sin but we have that vantage point. We died with Christ to the condemnation of sin, we arose, we were buried and arose again with him when he was our representative, our surety, substitute, representative, redeemer and he's now at the right hand of God ever living to make intercession his people. That means he intercedes for us, he stands for us. Our life is hid with Christ in God. And so the vantage point, the victory that we have over sin is by setting our minds, our hearts on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is empty sand. And then the expectation that when he appears, we'll appear with him in glory.

So what do you do? Now look at verse 5. Mortify therefore your members, the members refers to our hands, our eyes, our ears, the things of this body, through which sin expresses itself. Our hands and our eyes and our ears are not sinful but sin expresses itself through these members. See?

I mean, I can use my hand to slap somebody or I can use it to open a Bible. It doesn't matter. I mean, it does matter. But I mean, it's not a sinful hand. It's suffering the consequences of sin. It hurts to do this like it didn't used to. But sin is a principle within, a power within.

And so he says, he says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, don't use them for sinful purposes. And he mentions fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In the Bible, the children of disobedience are unbelievers.

And specifically, it's those who are reprobate, Non-elect who go through this life in unbelief and die in that state. In the which you also walked sometime when you lived in them. We were no different before God brought us to faith in Christ, gave us life in the new birth.

But now you also put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. I'm gonna deal with that next week. The old man is our former connection with Adam in our sinfulness without Christ. And then have put on the new man. The new man is our present state of being born again in faith looking to Christ. which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created, where there's neither Greek or Gentile and Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. We'll pick up there next week. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. All right.