I've entitled today's message, Risen with Christ. If you then be risen with Christ, Galatians 3, I mean, Colossians 3 opens up. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, for Christ sits on the right hand of God. In Brad's prayer, he was talking about all of the tendency we naturally have to act in the opposite of what we just read there in Colossians, where he says, put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, don't lie to one another, and so on. And a lot of that comes from a lack of awareness of what we have been forgiven. and a lack of awareness of what we have been given.

And so he says in verse 17, where we just read at the very end, giving thanks to God and the Father by him, the Lord Jesus, by the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by the Lord Jesus. And this is a theme throughout the book of Colossians. In chapter one, he said in verse three, This is Colossians 1 verse 3, he says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints.

So the Apostle Paul here is teaching us that faith is God's work. Faith and love are God's work. They are the fruit produced by his grace in us. We call those the graces of God given to us. And so he therefore thanks God. You wouldn't thank God for something that was not from God, but because it is from God, therefore we give thanks to him for it. And then he goes on in chapter one, after he said, since we heard of your faith, in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints, he says, we're giving thanks also for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, the gospel, that is, the word of the truth of the gospel has come to you. As it is in all the world, and notice, and brings forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God in truth. So what produces fruit? The coming of the gospel. And that's consistent, isn't it?

In Romans 10, he says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In Colossians 3, where the Lord, through the apostle, tells us, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, he comes to that conclusion, and it is a conclusion. It's a springboard for further exhortation. There's a basis that's been laid, a ground that's been established, and upon the foundation that he's already established, he tells us, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. So there's a context, there's this foundation that he's laid, and it's a very, very strong foundation. It's a glorious truth that has been laid down by God through the apostle for us in the gospel.

In that context, we remember what he said in the early parts of Colossians. He talked about how God the Father has qualified us, how he has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, so that we would be ruled over by the son of his love. And that was in verse 13 of chapter one.

And then he says, in whom in Christ we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And he goes on to say that the one who redeemed us is none less than God himself, the creator. for whom and by whom all things were made, and He's not only the Creator, but He's the Mediator because He's the Head of the Church. In all of the fullness of all of God's blessings and grace, all of God's grace and blessings, God is pleased, God the Father is pleased to have deposited in our Mediator and given to us in Him. And that's in verse 19, where he says, I please the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And he goes on in verse 20 through 22, talking about how Christ also reconciled us to God and how this reconciliation was to present us to God, holy, unreprovable, without blame, before him in love. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is obviously seen here as our Redeemer. as our creator, and also as the creator and the head of the new creation, which is the church.

And that's all in chapter one. And he goes on in chapter two by telling us that we should not be deceived by the attempts of men to rob us of the reward that God has given us, the inheritance God has given us in Christ, by listening to the philosophies of men. Because all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the beginning of chapter two.

He tells them you've been rooted and built up. and established, and those things are God's actions, rooted, built up, and established in the faith. And he said in the verse six, as you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. So this is the context, the general context.

It's our standing in Christ before God. It's the complete, our complete standing in Christ entirely done by God. and perfect in Christ, it's a standing that is complete in Him. It says in verse 9, the fullness in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him right now. Not because God called you to strive towards a completeness which you will someday achieve, but at the outset, at the very beginning, because the completeness is in Christ, God put us in Him.

This is the way He qualified us, as He said in chapter 1, verse 12 and 13. And he tells us these things in order to lay the foundation. This is who you are by God's doing. You are his elect, as he says in chapter three, where we just read. You're God's elect. You've been rooted and built up and established in the faith upon Christ, in Christ, by God.

He redeemed you by his precious blood. He reconciled you to himself. He presented you to God. by his own reconciling death. And so you're complete in him. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him. Now he's given them this foundation. This is the shield against all who would come against them to rob them, to spoil them of this blessing.

And so what he's really going to be driving at here is on the basis on the foundation upon which God has dealt with you in Christ, on that basis, and by that power now, by that power, that same power, He exhorts us, if you then be risen with Christ, then seek those things which are above. Okay, so it's not due in order to achieve, it's due because of what Christ has done, what you are in Him.

This is the fundamental difference between Christianity, the truth of the gospel. and everything else in the world. Everything else is man striving for recognition from others and from God to himself for his own honor, for his own reward, to escape punishment. All of these things are motives which are sinful motives and efforts which are sinful efforts in order to influence God and motivate God and try to obtain something by my own performance. But the gospel always starts with our sinful condition, and in light of that sinful condition, God's work of redemption and our standing in Christ by what God has determined, by what God has performed, what God has accepted, what God tells us He's done in the Lord Jesus Christ. So everything in our life now is in the frame of mind of what God sees, what God has accomplished, what is true and revealed to us in the gospel.

And this is so important. He says in Romans chapter 4 and verse 17, God calls, He raises the dead. He gives life to the dead and He calls things which are not as though they were. He created everything out of nothing, and so much more spiritually, He has created us in Christ Jesus. And even though the world and even ourselves can't see it yet, it doesn't yet appear, it's done. It's established by God, by His Word, by His work, according to His promises, according to His eternal will. And it's all done by our Savior, our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So these things are said in the book of Colossians in many ways, and this is the context for chapter 3. And I want to go back with you and review that context just briefly here before we go further in chapter 3. Look at chapter 2 and verse 12. He says in verse 12, Colossians 2 verse 12, Actually, verse 11, he says, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

All right, so in the Old Testament, there was this matter of circumcision, and to be uncircumcised represented a spiritual condition. The spiritual condition that uncircumcision represented was alienation from God, being outside of the covenant, being separated from God by our natural condition. That's what uncircumcision represented, but God set it up that way. So throughout the Old Testament you'll see God referring to the uncircumcised and always ascribing to them this heart condition that was alienated from God and that they themselves were not part of the circumcision.

And so he begins here and he teaches us that we have been spiritually circumcised and the way this happened was in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 11, in whom Christ you are circumcised, but not with a physical man accomplished work, but with the work of God when he put off the body of the sins of our flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Here we go. This is the context. Circumcision was that first law. Everything else seemed to follow it. Abraham was circumcised and then later God gave the law through Moses and the Jews then circumcised their male children and if they weren't circumcised, no part in the covenant.

To be uncircumcised in lips, Moses said, I can't talk to Pharaoh. I'm of uncircumcised lips. I don't have the ability to communicate to Pharaoh in such a way that would compel him that this is God's word. I can't do it. My lips are uncircumcised. Isaiah, in chapter six of Isaiah, he said the same thing. Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. And I'm among a people of unclean lips.

So these things reflect what that circumcision represented, our natural, as we were born condition, uncircumcised. And in order for us to be circumcised in heart, we had to be circumcised in the death of Christ, in the putting off of our sins. So that's the first thing. And this is the first law. And we had to have it. We had to have this law fulfilled.

But we couldn't fulfill it because we can't perform a heart operation. And our sins accused us before God, so the Lord himself undertook and bore our sins. And in his death, the sins of our flesh were cut off, and therefore, what is true of us before God was applied to us by the Spirit of God. And we were circumcised in heart in order that our hearts might not be just natural, but spiritual. And in this spiritual life that was given to us in this spiritual circumcision now, we worship God in the Spirit.

That's what Philippians 3.3 says when he says, we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh. That's the evidence of spiritual circumcision. And that circumcision is by the death of Christ. applied by the Spirit of God. So get that. Make sure we understand that.

Then in verse 12 of chapter 2, the second part of the context here, in review, he says, buried with him in baptism. In Christ's baptism under the wrath of God, we were buried with him. wherein also you are risen with him, notice, through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. What does this mean? Through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead.

Next week, people will celebrate next Sunday as Easter Sunday. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like God has designated a day when we celebrate the resurrection, but we talk about it all the time, and here we have it. God is speaking of resurrection right here, and he talks about the operation of God, who raised Christ from the dead. What he's teaching us here is that there's both a basis and a power exerted in the resurrection of Christ, and the same basis and the same power that was exerted by God the Father in the resurrection of Christ is the reason that we are raised. So the faith of the operation of God is saying the truth or the objective work of God in raising Christ from the dead. And this is the object of our subjective faith, you see. So here we have both the objective fact of God's grace towards us in that he, on the basis of a work completed, sins put away and righteousness fulfilled, he raised Christ from the dead.

Romans 4.25, he was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification or because of our offenses and because of our justification. The resurrection of Christ proves sin was put away and righteousness was fulfilled. God did that, that's the basis, that's the ground of it. The spirit is life because of righteousness, Romans 8, 10.

And so here, he's saying that we were buried with Christ in baptism, in his baptism, not our water baptism, though our water baptism signifies that. Wherein also you are risen with him, there's a union here. You see the union? The union we have with Christ in his burial and in his resurrection is referred to in our water baptism emblematically. It represents that. But that's not the substance of it because as we read on in verse two, chapter two, the body is of Christ. All these signs and shadows point to Christ and him crucified.

So here, the faith of the operation of God is God's reason for raising Christ from the dead. And the power exerted, and that same reason, that same power is exerted towards God's people. And this is the operation of God that produces in us life, and in that life, faith. because faith is a result of this life given to us. So God is both the one who performed the resurrection in righteousness and in almighty power, and he's the one who is the source of the faith we have out of this life that's been raised with Christ.

So that's what verse 12 is talking about here. And this is all talking about resurrection, isn't it? Which chapter 3 and verse 1, if you then be risen with Christ, is speaking about. And then in verse 13 of chapter 2, he says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He's referring to our natural condition here. We're sinful and our condition is dead in sins. We have no more ability to contribute to our salvation than a dead man can contribute to his resurrection.

The power comes from God. The power of God is exerted by the will of God. And this is what's true in every spiritual life. Life, spiritual life, is a resurrection from spiritual death. And so he says, you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, see how he connects these two things as synonymous? Uncircumcision, spiritual death because of sins, and then spiritual circumcision and life because of righteousness. you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened, given life together with Christ because Christ is the resurrection and the life.

We are raised because the one we're joined to is resurrected and he is the resurrection and he is our life. He's all life and he is our life. And this life of Christ is a life out of death, his death. And our life, therefore, is a life out of death, our death with him in his death. And so because, he goes on in verse 13, being dead in your sins, the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he made alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses.

There's the basis of life. Life is not given to a sinner. Life is given to one who has no sin. Where sin is, there's a consequence, death. But where sin has been removed, there's another consequence, the gift of God, eternal life. So over and over we see this emphasis in scripture that life is the result of righteousness.

In Romans chapter four, David said in prophecy from the Psalms, in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And the apostle Paul, by the spirit of God says, this is proof that justification God's justifying of his people is by grace without their work and is done because of Christ's righteousness. And so the forgiveness of sins, therefore, is part of our justification. A justified man has no sin. A justified person is righteous before God. That's what justification means. No sin, perfect righteousness.

Of course, that's not true of ourselves apart from Christ. It's true of us, though, in Christ. And that's why he's emphasizing this. Having forgiven you all trespasses, he has made you alive, you see. So the life given to us is because of the death of Christ for us and our union with him in his death. We were dead in our sins, that's our condition. We were uncircumcised in heart, in our flesh, yet he made us alive together with Christ who is the resurrection and the life because he has forgiven us all of our trespasses.

What a wonderful blessing this is. And this is the context, you see. He goes on in verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Now, the law served as a record against us. The law of God, just by virtue of its commandments and by virtue of our condition, is an accusation against us. It's a recording.

Look, thou shalt not kill, but look what you've done. Thou shalt not commit adultery, look what you've done. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit, thou shalt not covet. Don't, everything that the law says, there it is recorded, guilty, shameful, filthy, before God, condemned, under the curse of God. That's what the law does.

And what he's emphasizing here is that testimony of God's law against us was blotted out in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ when he sacrificed himself to God for our sins. God received his sacrifice. It was a satisfaction to God, a propitiation. It removed, it gave cause for appeasement of God's wrath. God's wrath was removed from us because it was poured out on Christ. He substituted himself with our sins and endured the wrath of God in our place. And therefore, the law is blotted out. The record of the law, the debt we owed God has been terminated. It's been put away. We owe nothing.

And this is our condition now because of Christ, because of his work on the cross. And then in verse, he says, nailing it to his cross. You can see it's shredded, shredded as we were talking about this, as though the nails piercing Christ pierced that law in answer to every charge and in fulfillment of all righteousness.

And then in 15, verse 15 of Colossians 2, the other part of this context is that in doing so, God disarmed all of the accusations of Satan against his people. And he also removed the deception of the devil that the law was given for you to fulfill in order to acquire God's approval and acceptance. Both are wrong. You see, the devil accused God's elect But God always justified them in Christ. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Romans 8, 33 says, it is God that justifies.

And if God justified, then there's a ground for the justification, and it is a holy and righteous ground, and that is the blood of Christ shed for his people in substitution, in satisfaction to God, to the glory of his truth and his grace for the removal of all their sins. And the devil had therefore nothing to accuse with. And since the law was revealed to only be fulfilled in the one in whose heart it was, he delighted in the law of God and he came to do it and he did it and he fulfilled it all. Therefore, he magnified the law and he honored God and he applies that to his people. It's their righteousness because they were in him.

Therefore, the devil is a toothless devil. He's taken his teeth out. He disarmed him. He triumphed over him. He exposed him for his motives and his deceit. And he proved the truth of God. He upheld God's honor. He made known God's honor on behalf of a sinful people that God would find a way to save them and give them all that he promised to them, even though their sins were against him. And he did it in a way of righteousness and holiness and truth. and peace, and no one can accuse God of wrongdoing in this."

And the devil has spoiled his people, God's people, are taken from his kingdom. just like Israel was taken from Egypt, and the devil is destroyed, just like Pharaoh in the Red Sea, in the flood of God's wrath, through which Israel passed untouched, the devil and his kingdom is destroyed.

And that's what he's saying here. This is the context now. And he goes on in the next verse, let no man therefore judge you. All the law, he says in verse 17, was a shadow of Christ, the essence, the reality of that law. Now, going on to chapter three, he says this. He says, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

Risen, it's not an if as if somehow these things may not be true. No, on the basis of this truth, In conclusion of this fact, since this is the case, risen with Christ, as we just went through this context here from verse 11 through 15, you are in fact risen with Christ. This is not a potentiality. This is a done deal, a work completed, a resurrection accomplished. basis and power, the basis laid down and the power of God exerted in the resurrection of Christ and with him, all of his people. If you then be risen.

He's telling us about the fact that God has done all these things for us, forgiven our sins and given us eternal life in Christ, with Christ. From the dead, from our sinful condition, when we had no strength, we're complete in him. And in Him all the fullness of God's truth and grace is given to us. Everything from God is given to us. All fullness in Him dwells. For us, our mediator, he has it all, if you then be risen with him, you see.

He directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He directs us to his finished work. Resurrection is evidence of a finished work. Resurrection is evidence of sins put away, of death conquered, of no more tyranny from sin to bring us to death. If sin reigned unto death, much more. The grace of God and the gift by grace reigns in righteousness unto eternal life. Romans 5, 21. So what God is telling us here, fix your eyes on Christ. Realize what God has said that He has accomplished.

You're risen with Christ. The one who died to take away your condemnation rose. for your justification. No one can lay anything to your charge. It's Christ that died, yea, rather who was risen again. How certain is it then that death and sin have been conquered and the devil disarmed and exposed and shamed and defeated and his power taken? against God's people, because Christ is risen, and not only risen, yea rather, who is risen again, who is also seated at the right hand of God.

That's where he is. He says here in verse one, seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. You see, this is a place where God's people are now. God pulls back the curtains. He says, you are risen with Christ. You are seated with Christ. You have all things in him. You're complete in him.

And as you go on and read about, well, now put away malice and anger and wrath and all these things, you can say, why would I be angry? God forgave me when I had this huge debt with nothing to pay. Out of free grace alone for the sake of what Christ did as my substitute. He took my sins. He took my case. He pleaded God's cause and he advocated for me with his own blood, interceded, stood in the gap, saved me. I'm seated with him.

That's what he's telling us in the gospel. Since this is true, then seek those things which are above. And what are those things which are above? Well, we just read about it, Colossians 2, verse 11 through 15, how God has done everything for us in Christ, how he has blessed us with all these blessings, spiritual blessings made us complete in him.

In Christ, we have all the fullness of God. We've been delivered from sin and from death. The alienation, the separation between us and God represented by our uncircumcision has been removed. Now we are circumcised in the death of Christ and in heart.

And so he says, you've been risen with Christ. This is who you are. This is where God put you. You're the sons of God by the death of Christ and by the spirit of God given to you. Therefore, the same basis, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the faith of the operation, that's what he's talking about, the fact of it, the objective truth of it revealed to us to be believed, that truth, that operation of God, he's saying you're risen, you're risen with Christ. And so therefore, by the same grace, by the same righteousness, and the same power of God, live accordingly. Live this way.

Look at those things that God has declared are true in Christ. Lay hold on eternal life. Cling to Him with all your heart. Look to Him. And then, as we read in chapter 3 and verse 17, he says, giving thanks, In the name, do everything, whether it be word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father, to God and the Father by Him. You're in a position where everything that could be done has been done in Christ.

Be thankful. Live thankfully. Thanksgiving is something that we express because of something given to us, something undeserved, something bestowed upon us freely. We express thanksgiving. Thank you for that. I didn't deserve it. You did it out of your own kindness. I'm thanking you for it.

That's just a token of the real thankfulness that a believer has for what God has done out of his grace and his goodness when we were undeserving to give us everything that he gives his sons and heirs in Christ and with Christ. It's fantastic beyond words.

And so we struggle to bring the the full weight of what God has said we are in Christ. But he uses this weighty truth, this eternal truth, an eternal accomplishment, in order to tell us now how we are to think, the attitudes we're supposed to have, how we are to live ourselves, because we've been redeemed. That's what he's telling us here.

You seek those things which are above, things that are certain and sure and accomplished, things that glorify God, the revelation of who God is in the accomplishments of His Son, His humility, His grace, His truth, His love, His faithfulness, His holiness, all of His power, everything about God is revealed in that. Consider that. That's the things above. We are taught to pray in the Lord's Prayer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's what he's telling us here. This is done in heaven. This is true. It's not something that's yet to be done. It is so now.

You have been made children of God. You have been given all that children are given, the Spirit of God, the incorruptible seed of God's Holy Spirit in us by the Word of God given to us concerning Christ who died for us. So seek those things. Be led by the Spirit of God away from yourself, away from the philosophies of this world, away from the entanglements of a law unfulfilled that's put upon you with conditions and blessings conditioned upon your personal obedience. Let the Spirit of God, by the gospel, lead you off yourself to Christ.

That's what he's saying. Look to him. Look to Him. He is seated at the right hand of God. Everything has been done. Glory and honor and blessing have been bestowed upon Him alone. And we have, by God's grace, that same glory and honor and blessing in Him. Live as those who have been redeemed by the Lamb of God. Look to him, things above, things accomplished, things testified to from God's word.

He goes on, he says in verse two, set your affection, your mind, your desires, what delights you on things above, not on things on the earth. Things on the earth are so temporal for one thing. And not only are they temporal, but they're unsatisfactory. They always leave you wanting more.

Jesus told the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. If you come to this well, you're thirst again. If you come to me and drink of me, you'll never thirst.

That's things above. The water of life given freely by Christ at the expense of his blood. In fact, the drinking of Christ is taking by faith what he's done for us in his own blood. And this is the life. This is our life. Set your affection on this. Things above, things that are in the presence of God now, you now are in the presence of God in Christ, seated, accepted, justified, made holy, glorified in Christ. That's where you are. That's what he's telling you. Take hold by faith on what God has given you because of Christ. This is where you belong in Christ, in God's presence. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's where we live. That's where our citizenship is. That's where we are in Christ. And faith teaches this to us, and therefore walk according to that faith.

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, the truth revealed concerning him and your salvation in him, so walk. That's what he's saying. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, total victory, total triumph, sin and death, completely vanquished in the triumph of Christ and his resurrection.

And so set your affection. This delights our souls. These things cause us to say, oh, Lord, my God, thou art very great. that you would stoop and take my sins against you and bear them yourself and answer for them in satisfaction to your holiness and fulfill all righteousness to clothe me in my nakedness with your perfections, the perfections of your obedience and your love and all of your grace toward sinners. That draws out our affections, doesn't it? That occupies our mind as a believer. This is what God has said. This is truth. There's no truth. There's no error in this. There's no deceit in it. That's what the world does.

That's what the hawkers of man's religion do. They lay burdens on men too heavy to be born. And Christ says, come to me. Come to me. Don't stay away, come, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. This is your state, you are dead, verse three, chapter three, verse three, you are dead. You died to the things of this world. All these things that the philosophies of men, the man-made religion of men, you're dead to that. You're seated already with Christ in glory, in the presence of God's glory. You're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

It's safely there. And it also is a life that doesn't yet appear because it's hid with Christ in God. But he says in verse four, when Christ who is our life, shall appear. Then shall you also appear with him in glory." You're there, but it's veiled now through the body of this flesh, through the things of this world, because as the gospel goes out now according to the will of God in power, and God by His Spirit calls His people to faith in Christ, drawing them with His irresistible life-giving, persuasion of God in the gospel, directing them to Christ, who is our life. He says, when He, who is our life, shall appear, then God is going to disclose, He's going to make openly known His people that they are in Christ, seated at the right hand of God. The glory is real, but it's yet to be revealed in us. When He appears, that's when it will happen. What a marvelous thing this is.

Just like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, so the believer sojourns in this world in the body of this death as in a strange country. We live like strangers, don't we? We're living as those who have laid hold upon the promises of God in Christ as promises already fulfilled. and yet to be appearing, the appearance of it hasn't occurred yet in ourselves. So we live by faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the substance, faith now given to us is that bedrock substance of things yet to come. The truth declared is certain, it's true. And we believe it by God's grace. And that's what we have now. It's the substance. It's the evidence. The present evidence of things not seen. That's what he's saying here. It shall happen when Christ comes. He is our life. He will appear. We then will appear with him in glory according to what has already been done, what has been declared, what is true. Now he goes on in verse five.

Mortify, therefore put to death your members which are upon earth these things. He's talking about fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. All these things are internal. They're internal acts of sin. He says you're seated with Christ. Put your affections there. Christ has put away your sins before God by the power of God. He's raised him from the dead. You're raised by the same power on the same basis.

Therefore, live by that power, going to God who gives it, who exerts it. and has revealed the basis of it, going to Him on that same ground for His power to give what He requires, what He tells us to do. We always do that. We don't produce what God tells us. We go to Him that He would perform the work He's promised.

He says in Philippians 2 verse 12 and 13, he said, it is God who is at work in you. It's God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So we know that this is God's work. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

All these things arise, and they cause us great fear and concern because we know by faith this is not who we are in Christ, and yet we see these things and we wonder, how could I be His if I have these inclinations? What do we do? As you've received Christ Jesus, the Lord, just like a sinner with nothing in your hand, so walk ye in him. Lord, this is what you said concerning your people in the Lord Jesus Christ. By your grace, you have made us all that he is in him, complete in him.

Lord, give me this grace. Give me this grace. I can't believe, I can't repent, I can't perform these things, but you can. In my weakness, I look to you for the very faith, for the very life I need to live. That's what we do. That's what depending upon Him is. It's giving God all thanksgiving and praise for what He gives to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. The cause of these, I mean the wrath of God against the children of disobedience is because of these things. And God has delivered us from that wrath in Christ, so therefore we live according to what God has said. Verse seven, in the which you also walked some time when you lived in them, but now you also put off all these things. Put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Don't lie to one another. Seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds and you've put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. You see, God renews his people to think. according to the truth revealed concerning Christ, the knowledge after the image of him that created him. There's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. Christ is all in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, you are God's chosen people, you're holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness. These things are exactly what we know of Christ.

Look at him, what do we see? Bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing us. And so he says, therefore, you forbear one another, forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. You see? He teaches us what we are in Christ. He tells us what you learned of Christ in salvation. He says, by the power of God, on the basis of God's word, you live as that is the truth. Follow Christ.

What a wonderful way of exhorting us. And then he says in verse 14, he says, above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. What a gracious command to love, isn't it? What a gracious command. In the beginning, in chapter one, he thanked God.

He says, we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the saints. And for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. That's what the Lord is teaching us here. The Lord is the giver of our life, the savior of our souls, the sustainer of our faith. The one who will bring us to glory.

Look to Him. Long for Him. Trust Him. Call on Him. In all the struggles of your life, realize that these things prove our confidence and our assurance because of His saving will and power. Not because of us. It's all certain because of Him. Let's pray. Father, help us to be thankful.

Help us to realize that all that we have was given to us freely by your grace because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to realize what you've done for us in Christ and where we are now before you in him. Help us to realize our condition there and help us so to live here now. and put to death those things which are part of this sinful flesh that we might according to the revelation of the truth of what you've done for us in heaven we might live on earth accordingly longing for all those things you've told us of our righteousness and our our blamelessness, all of our sins washed in the blood of your dear son, redeemed to God, given life, liberty as children of God. Help us, Lord, to realize these things, that we might find this love going out to you in dependence and praise and honor and thanksgiving. and therefore live by your grace according to what you've told us we are. This is the revelation of the gospel. What a wonderful God, what a wonderful savior and salvation. In his name we pray, amen.