Turn in your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3. I want to read some scripture here. I've been preaching through this chapter in the last two messages. The first part of it up through verses 1 through 4. showing the believers standing before God in Christ. And that's one of the, that is the foundation of our faith. Our standing before Christ. Our standing before God in Christ is eternal. The Bible teaches that God chose us before the foundation of the world, and He put all the responsibility of our salvation under the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus.

It's on you, He said. And Christ willingly, Christ the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, He willingly took that responsibility for the glory of His Father and for the good of His people. It's because of His great love wherewith He loved us, unconditional love. because we didn't earn it and didn't deserve it. None of it. All we deserve from God and earn from God is wrath and condemnation. And that's why salvation is so great, so amazing, amazing grace, that God would set his love upon a sinner like me. That's amazing. And I'm afraid with some people it's not so amazing because they think they deserve it. They think they've earned it, but we have it.

Our best. The Bible says this in one of the Psalms, man at his best state, I think it's Psalm 50, but I'm not sure. Don't double check me on that. But man at his best state, And who of us can say we're at our best state? And if we could, could we say it all the time? Man at his best state is altogether vanity.

That means worthless. Because we've sinned against God. We've sinned against our Creator. So, understand that, that our standing before God, And we can only say this if we're believers now in the true gospel. I'll get to that. But our standing before God in Christ is we stand before him saved by grace. Through the blood and the righteousness of Christ. We stand before God washed in his blood. That's a metaphor now. God didn't reach down and pick us up and put us in a bath of blood or anything like that. That means that Christ died for me to pay the penalty of my sins. We stand before God righteous in Christ.

I have a perfect righteousness in which there is no flaw. Now I'm not bragging because I didn't have anything to do with it. Christ did it all. He kept the law perfectly. Thought, word, and deed. He satisfied justice through his death. The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The righteousness that I have is the righteousness of God, which was accomplished through the person and work of Christ. God manifests in the flesh. Obeying the law unto death. And that's why he said on the cross, it's finished. He finished the work that he came to do.

Isn't that amazing? So we stand before God in His grace and mercy and unconditional love, totally justified, forgiven of all of our sins, based on a just ground, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ, and righteous in His sight on a just ground, the imputed righteousness of Christ, accounted to us, if we're believers now. That's what verses one through four is really describing when it says we are dead for example in verse three and our life is hid with Christ in God. The death that I deserve because of my sins Christ took for me and he was my representative, he was my surety, he was my substitute and my redeemer And that means this, when he died, I died in him. The penalty was paid for me. So I'm untouchable by sin and the law. The law cannot condemn me. Sin cannot condemn me. Christ bore it all away.

That's what it means when we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. And we're certain to be glorified. Now that's the foundation of our faith. That's the viewpoint, the way that we look at all things now when we talk about the life of a believer, even the death of a believer, the physical death that we die. We're safe in Christ. And that's the way that we are to look at our lives. You know, whatever I do in the way of obedience, I'm not doing it to get saved. I'm doing it because God has already saved me through Christ. I'm not trying to earn my rewards. Christ is my reward. What more would I want? We could go on and on.

Now, he speaks of now because we still are plagued with sin in our lives, even though it cannot condemn us, it cannot even be charged to our account. Isn't that right? shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that does." All right, it cannot charge, the law cannot charge me, God Himself cannot charge me because it's God that justifies. He's the one who justified me by His grace in Christ, not based on my works.

All right, So now, because I'm plagued with sin in my personal life here on earth, and will be until I die, or until Christ comes back again, see, that's the only thing that's gonna remove sin totally from my life. Even though it cannot be charged to me, it cannot condemn me, the only thing that can remove sin totally away from me my thoughts, my actions, whatever, the vileness of this body that's dying right before you.

The only thing I can do is one of two things. Either I die and my spirit leaves this body and goes to be with the Lord, where my brothers and sisters in Christ who have died have already gone, or I'm on this earth when Christ comes in the clouds. The second time. To destroy this world and to gather his people unto himself.

That's what it's going to take to remove sin completely, 100% from my life, from my thoughts and my dreams and my words and my actions. Do you understand that? It's gone legally. It cannot touch me legally. But it's here every day. in my thoughts and in my doings and all of that.

And so he tells us how to deal with it. In verse five, he talks about mortify. Mortify, he says. That means put it to death. And what he's telling us is, look, even though we still have to deal with sin, we're to fight it. We're engaged. See, once you're born again, you're engaged in a warfare of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who indwells you, and the flesh, which stays with you until you die. And when he's talking about flesh, he's not talking about fleshly bodies. He's talking about the thoughts of the flesh, the ideas, the desires of the flesh, because it's not good. So you got a warfare in you, you know.

And you're gonna fight that warfare every day. And your goal is to put sin to death. Even though we know we're not gonna be successful in this life doing that. But we do it, why? For the glory of God. For the good of our brethren. All kinds of reasons that we do it for.

You know, somebody might say, well, because I can't get rid of, why don't I just give up? No, don't give up. And I'm gonna tell you something. You can't give up if you're a believer, because the Holy Spirit indwells you. And he won't let you give up.

He'll work on that conscience. That's a cleansed conscience now. Sin cannot condemn it. The law cannot condemn it. But it's still there. So he talks about mortifying. I talked about that last week. Mortification as a done deal. That's what Christ did on the cross. He killed our sin in the sense of condemning us. He cannot do it. And then mortification as a goal. Fighting the flesh. Fight the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. All right, now, he comes to this point in verse nine. And here's where we're gonna get the title of the message in these verses. Put off the old, put on the new. What are you talking about putting off and putting on? Like a garment? Like a coat? Well, it's a metaphor. Put off the old, Put on the new.

Now look at verse nine of Colossians three. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new, the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the which of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. Now, what does he say? What is this putting off and putting on? Well, turn back to Galatians chapter three with me. This term putting off and putting on is used often in scripture as a metaphor for faith in Christ, putting on the new man. Repentance of dead works, putting off the old man. Look at verse 26 of chapter three. Galatians 3, 26, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. What he's talking about is the realization that we are children of God.

How does that realization, that reality come to my mind and my heart? It's through God-given faith. Now what does that mean? That means believing what God says. A lot of people today have the idea that faith is just believing. Will you just believe? No. There's something you have to believe. You can believe the moon is made of green cheese.

And that's not gonna help you to know that you're a child of God. It'll help you to know that you're a nut. But that's about it. That's about as far as that one goes. Just believing won't give you any foundation, solid foundation, to claim that you're a child of God.

But it's what you believe, because it's a message from God in the gospel. And so he says, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Well, who is Christ Jesus? Well, He's God, manifest in the flesh. He's the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of His people. He fully paid the debt that they owed to God's law and justice as it was imputed to Him. He was made sin. Sin was imputed, charged to His account, the debt of sin.

See, by nature, there's a debt to God's law and justice that has to be paid. Just like if a criminal commits a crime here on earth, he owes a debt to society. It's usually a prison term. It could be capital punishment, whatever. But in the scheme of things here in the universe, to God, sin is running up a debt. Sin's many things, and it's all ugly. but sin is running up a debt against the law of God.

And the only penalty that'll pay that debt is death. That's why Christ came to die for his people, to pay the debt. So, Jesus Christ is the one who paid the debt in full for his people. So that they must go free. They must be born again. They must be saved. Anybody who ends up perishing at death, he didn't pay their debt. If he paid your debt, this is how you're going to end up. So that's who Jesus Christ is. Faith in this person who did this work.

The gospel. Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the justified shall live by faith. Well, what is the righteousness of God? It's the payment of the debt that Christ made for his people, his sheep, his church, his elect. That's what it is. It secures their salvation. will not leave them perishing in hell."

So back here at Galatians 3 26, for you're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, the Christ of this Bible, who did this work as related in this Bible. And he says in verse 27, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ to be baptized into Christ means to be united with Him, it doesn't mean water baptism like back here in the pool, that's an ordinance that Christ gave to His people as a confession of faith, that's what it is. There's no salvation in the baptismal waters and when the Catholics dip those babies into that water, it does not wash away their original sin, that is not biblical. That's man-made, meant to get families into the church, because they reasoned back then, if you can get their babies in, you can get them in. So understand that. Baptized means placed into.

As many as you as have been united to Christ, spiritually, legally, have faith in Christ, all right? That's what he's talking about. He says, you've put on Christ. Now, what does that mean? You've put him on. It means you believed in him. That's a metaphor. And the metaphor goes all the way, or the picture goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

Back in the Garden of Eden when Adam fell, He and Eve knew they'd broken God's law and they had brought condemnation down on themselves so they hid from God, remember? They used to have uninterrupted fellowship with God. But now they hid from God. And they realized their nakedness. Now that's a metaphor for knowing that you have no righteousness. But they were naked. And they sewed fig leaf aprons together to cover their shame, their nakedness. They put on fig leaves. When God came along and he found them, he knew where they were all the time, but he found them. He took off the fig leaf aprons. He put them off.

And he got an animal, which I believe was a lamb, he slew that animal, he killed that animal. You see, he told Adam that the penalty is death, blood has to be shed and he made coats of skin and put them on them. That's a picture of Christ's blood and righteousness applied to the believer legally. That cloak, that coat that he gave them, That's a picture of His righteousness imputed that covers us for justification.

And that doesn't mean it's just on the outside. There's nothing on the outside that does anything for me. It's His righteousness legally imputed, accounted, charged to my account. To where I'm not lacking. And that's what this put off and put on. He says, you've put on Christ. You believe in Christ. And anytime we as believers look to Him in our minds and our hearts, that's what that is, we're putting Him on. And anytime we go through the process in our minds and hearts of repenting from sin, we're putting that off. Putting on the new man, putting off the old man.

And he says here in verse 28 of Galatians 3, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. What he's saying is that the distinctions that exist between all of us make no difference in our standing before God. It's all Christ, verse 29. And if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed spiritually, and heirs according to the promise. You see that? Now go back to Colossians 3.

He's virtually saying the same thing here in different words. He says, lie not, verse nine, to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. And that's, you've put off the old man The old man, what can you say about the old man? Well, the old man is our connection with Adam in the fall.

See? That's what I was. Now, I still have sin. Some people call that the old man. I think they misused the term, but that's okay. It's no big deal. We're not gonna warp the world over it. former connection with Adam which is sin and unbelief and depravity and darkness and ignorance, all of that, put it off and all of his deeds. The old man's a liar. And he lists all these things here. He didn't just list lying. That's just what ended up in verse nine. He says verse eight, but now put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

That's the sin that is connected with my old connection with Adam before I was brought to Christ. and have put on the new man. That's the godliness that's connected with Christ as a new man in Him. And you do that by believing in Christ, following Christ. Look at verse 12. He says, put on therefore as the elect of God. In other words, if you have this mindset of our standing with God in Christ, mortifying the flesh, mortifying sin. That's evidence that you're elect of God. He elected you.

Holy and beloved. Holy doesn't mean that I'm sinlessly perfect in myself, it means I'm set apart by God. And beloved, bowels of mercy, that's compassion, that's what that is. I can have compassion for you and your sins because I know me and my sins. Kindness, humbleness of mind, humility, going through life with the riches of God's grace that we have in Christ and knowing we didn't deserve or earn even one of them. That's humbleness of mind. I mean, I can tell you right now, whatever blessings I'm getting today, I did not earn them and I don't deserve them.

But God's going to give them to His people. Meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. How did Christ forgive me? Unconditionally. I don't have to jump through hoops to get Him to forgive me. I'm a sinner saved by grace and the blood of Jesus Christ forgives me of all sin.

And just knowing that brings me to sorrow and repentance. He says in verse 14, and above all these things put on charity. That's love. Put it on. Make it active in your life and in your mind, which is of the bond of perfectness, the bond of completeness and unity is what that is.

And verse 15, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Well, what is the peace of God? Well, Christ is the prince of peace. The gospel is the gospel of peace. Think about it this way. If you can have peace with God who knows your every thought and motive, if that doesn't amaze you, I don't know what will.

Let it ruin your heart, your mind, your affection, your will, to which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful. Body is the body of Christ. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Go by the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. That's worship, that's what that is. Worship together. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

What a tall order, isn't it? This phrase that he used up there, where he talked about being renewed in knowledge. What that is, it's a continual reminder of our standing before God in Christ. Continually learning more and more according to the pattern of Christ himself. Following him in every way.

Praying unto the Lord. Prayer's a big part of this. Lord, help me. I can't do it on my own, but Lord, help me. And think about that. I always go back, I like to read those first four verses quite a bit, because it's just a continual reminder that even though I can sometimes be a failure, I am safe and secure in Christ. And God will not let me go. So put off the old, that which rears its ugly head in my heart and my thoughts, that flesh, and put on the new. And that new is so refreshing and so uplifting and so joyous that we'll spend the rest of our lives in eternity thanking God for that. All right.