for a scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. This will also serve as my text. Colossians chapter 3. He said, if you then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth. For ye are dead, your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon earth. He's talking about the body of
sin now. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience. in the which
ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them. But now ye
also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, saying
that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace
of God Rule in your hearts to the which you're called in one
body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. 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. We'll stop right there. He names
all of these relationships, talks about our attitudes, talks about
our conduct, talks about all these things. He's instructing
us in the way of life. I'd like you to turn back with
me now to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapters 3 and 4 is
about the believer's life. We have a life to live, a death
to die, and we got a good hope by grace for heaven to gain. There's sufficient instruction
in the New Testament Officials for whatever situation may arise. And there's a lot of them out
there. Whatever relationship that we find ourselves in, or whatever trouble comes our
way, there's sufficient instruction in the New Testament Officials
concerning all these things. We have in these epistles plain
instruction as to the right, what's right and what's wrong.
This ain't right. Well, I don't know. Let's look.
Let's look. Because we sure don't know by
nature. And we sure don't know just because we spent some time
in this world. We have plain instruction as
to what's right and what's wrong. Good practices, bad practices. Good attitudes and ungodly attitudes. Good manners and bad manners.
I'll tell you one of the sorriest things that I find in our day
is the lack of teaching manners in school. Just simple manners. Simple manners. There's good manners and there's
bad manners. So is how a believer lives really important? Oh, you
bet it is. You bet it is. His life, his
person, his job, his family, his attitude and conduct is now
tied. It's bound. It's tied with the
name and reputation of God their Father, and God the Son their
Savior, and God the Holy Spirit, abides in them. The Comforter. He tells us in
Colossians 3.17, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, what
you say or what you actually do. Now watch this. Do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus. His name is affected by what
we say and do. For years as a young man, I went
about living my life as a little rebel, as though I was the only
one who was affected by it. It's my life. I'll live it any
way I want to. That was my attitude. And it nearly broke my heart
when I discovered how my rebellion reflected on my father's good
name and character. Oh, you mean what I did reflected
on Him? How much more when we come to
see that all our sins are against the love and mercy and grace
of God? How brokenhearted should we be
that we're not sinning against against an angry God, a God who's
out to send us to hell. We're sinning against a God with
open arms. Huh? You find your sins against
the love of God. Listen to this, when we were
yet without strength, no strength to produce any good,
no strength to restrain from evil. When we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the, what? Ungodly. You ever think about yourself
that way? Ungodly. Nothing in me like God. Nothing
I do, nothing I say. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love for
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Our lives being reconciled to God must be lived accordingly. And it's the happy lot of every
believer to be thankful. Be thankful. Show me a man who's not thankful,
I'll show you a man who's not a believer. What's he thankful for? Everything. Everything. Listen to this. What have you
gotten that you haven't received? Huh? Not one thing. You didn't make
that error out there, did you? You didn't create that fish,
that cow, that whatever that you ate. God did. That's what he said. The cattle
on a thousand hills are mine. If I was hungry, he said, I wouldn't
tell you. You couldn't do anything about it anyway. Huh? What have you gotten that you
haven't received? Has God not given us a being? He could have simply just left
us out of it completely. He'd given us a being. Has He
not provided for you, fed you, watched over you as a loving
Father, made provision for you, laid up for you an inheritance? Giving thanks always, He said,
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the happy lot of every believer
to be thankful, and especially for that unspeakable gift, which
is Christ. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift, the gift of His Son, 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15. Now here's my text
down here in verse 11. This is concerning the new man
that he talks about in verse 10. Paul reminds us of what we were
and what we did and what we said. We ought to know that, but boy,
we soon forget. We have to be reminded. And this
is concerning the new man, where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. In Galatians, he says there
is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ. What
does God see when He looks at His church? He sees His Son. He sees His Son. What is faith
all about? Christ is all, now listen, and
in all. That's salvation. Now this morning I hope, I hope
by the grace of God to show you three things concerning my text
here in verse 11. I want us to see first of all
that this is the believer's hope. It's all my hope. And then to show us that this
is new ground. And then thirdly, that instruction
of life is a necessary exhortation. So let's look first of all at
the believer's hope. And I'm going to ask you something.
I'm going to ask everybody in here this question. You answer
it until you say it. Do you have a hope before God? Because you're going to die. You're going to die. And what
comes after that? Judgment. It's appointed unto
men once to die, and after that, the judgment. The judgment. What's your hope? What's your
hope before God? You're going to leave this, something's
going to happen. Something's going to happen. We're looking at something. We're
not sure if it's a shadow or if it's actually something in
there. So I'm going to send you down here to the specialist.
And you go down there and he looks in there and he says, it's
a cancer. Boy, that changed your whole
outlook, don't it? A house don't mean so much now.
That car don't mean anything anymore. Oh, I had some money
put up. Ain't gonna do me no good. Naked
came I into this world, naked I'm going out. Huh? I'm telling you the truth. There's
a day coming, you're gonna leave this world. It could come, it
don't have to come by natural means, it could come out here
in an accident. You, you, car coming down the
road, he's looking at his phone, he's all excited, talking to
his girlfriend, pow, head on. You think that don't happen? That's right. Disease, heart
attack, blood clot, on and on the list goes. It's endless.
You're going to leave this world, and as soon as you leave this
world, you're going to appear before God. What's your hope? Do you have a hope? Oh, you don't
want to go out and meet Him as is. What am I talking about a hope?
I'm talking about a hope of acceptance with Him, a hope of righteousness,
a hope of life after death, a hope concerning my eternal standing
before God. Do I have a hope? Well, according
to the Word of God, by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned. That's where I'm at. That's how
I was born. That's how it's brought up. That's
how I'm living probably right now. Scripture said in Adam all die.
Nobody's going to die apart from sin. You and I came into this world
being born with a corrupt nature. Before our quickening with Christ,
Paul said in Ephesians 2, 3, and we're by nature children
of wrath, even as others. How do we get there? Well, we
go astray as soon as we be born, speaking lies. Our heart's deceitful
above all things, desperately wicked. All of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Man at his best state. Not his
worst, at his best. Altogether vanity. And here's
the thing, you may have been raised in a good home. You may have lived a sheltered
life. You might be a model citizen. If you are, you need to thank
God for His restraining grace. God restrains men and women to
keep them from being as evil as they could be. If He didn't
restrain them, you couldn't live in this world. But don't mistake God's restraining
hand for personal righteousness. There are none righteous. No,
not one. You and I are sinners. And the
God of the whole world is a holy God. His character is called
His perfections. His perfections are called His
attributes. And God's attributes make up
His character. The attitude they attribute to His Godhead. It's what makes God, God. Love, mercy, grace, goodness,
kindness, long-suffering, righteousness, justice, wrath, vengeance. These are his main attributes.
It's what makes God, God. Sovereignty. And his character
is maintained in perfect harmony all the time. No attribute of God is compromised
in favor of another. I think it was my sister told
me one time. She said, I don't believe a good
God would send anybody to hell. I said, I don't either. But a
just God will. A righteous God will. An angry
God will. We were by nature children of
what? Wrath. Wrath is in you now. God's good, but that's just a
part of what God is. And that goodness is perfect. But so is that justice. And so
is that wrath. And these things, as they work
in harmony, this is what holiness is. It's the whole character
of God in perfect harmony. That's holiness. And he said,
be ye holy, for I am holy. And the only way we can be holy
is through faith that does not compromise his character. That's
what it is to be holy. You want to be holy in this life?
He chose us in Christ that we might be holy. That's the only
way you're ever going to be holy, in him. Note that coming back to our
text. Christ is all, and in all. He will not compromise his righteousness
to manifest his mercy, will not compromise his justice to manifest
his grace, and he will not compromise his righteous wrath to manifest
his love. According to Romans 3, 24 through
26, God must be righteous in his remission of sins. He must
not only be just, but just in his justification. of all but
believe. He is just and justifier. And
this can only be accomplished through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Do you have a hope before God?
This God? This kind of God? What's your
hope? What's your hope? I know right now, you're sitting
here, especially if you're young, you're sitting here thinking
about death being way out there. No it ain't. No it ain't. It could be so fast that you
can't even comprehend it. Do you have a hope before God? Well, there's no hope in the
sinner, and there's no hope in the world. There's nothing but
lies and false religion. Where are you going to find this
hope? Where are you going to get it? How are you going to
come up with it? And get this notion out of your head that
God uses religion of all different persuasions to save God's people. Just get that out of your head
because He don't do it. That's a lie. That's a lie. John said in the book of Revelations,
talking about heaven, the Spirit of God carried him out and allowed
him to see the judgment, allowed him to see this new heaven, new
earth coming down. And he said, there shall in no
wise enter into glory anything that defileth, now listen, or
maketh a lie. And religion is one big lie.
That's what it is. It's a lie. Our Lord looked at
the most religious people this earth has ever seen, the Pharisees. They were spotless. Paul said,
it's touching that righteousness which is of the law. I was blameless. You couldn't examine their life
and find anything wrong with it. If you just look in that,
they didn't steal, they didn't, you know, I'm not like that tax
collector. Huh? Oh. Our Lord said, you are of your
father, the devil. He was a liar from the beginning. He was a murderer from the beginning.
Nothing's going to enter into glory that maketh a lie. It's
not going to happen. Now here's the believer's hope.
Colossians 1.27, To whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, among the
heathens. That you and me, we're Gentiles. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Hmm? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Only one hope percentage, Christ
in you. He says in 1 Corinthians 15,
21, for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. And I don't care how intellectually
appealing it is, or how many people approve of it, or how
long it's been around. Anything that offers a hope apart
from Christ is a lie. He's our hope. He's all, Paul said, and in all. That's a believer's hope. Here's
the next thing I want us to see. You and I are on a new ground. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Ain't nothing else to compare
him to. That's what God said about himself. What are you going
to compare me to? Huh? What is there out here you're
going to compare me to? Nothing. Nothing. Well, here's a new creature.
Any man being Christ, he's a new creation. He's a new creature.
Ain't nothing to compare him to, except Christ. Old things passed away. We keep
wanting to go back and dig up the old things. Leave them behind.
The old things passed away. Be thankful for it. Be glad. We're on new ground. The Bible
said we have a new heart. I'm going to give them a new
heart. Let me tell you something about
the old heart. It's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Well, if I know my heart, If
you did, you'd run from it. Yes, you'd want to dig it out,
get it out of there. We have a new heart. I'll give them
a heart to know me. This new heart knows God. It rejoices in what it knows. How does it know me? That I am
the Lord. It recognizes Him as Lord. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
Lord of the dead and the living. He's Lord. And they shall be my people and
I'll be their God. For they shall return unto me
with their whole heart. The only way you're going to
return unto Him with your whole heart is for Him to give you
a new heart. We're on new ground, ain't we? We have a new way. We have boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and
living way. Religion. It's as old as man. Here's the first two boys born
of Adam. What do they do? They're going to go to worship.
How are they going to do it? One's going to bring a cart full
of vegetables. I can't imagine, out of the Garden of Eden, what
kind of vegetables he must have brought. I know what they brought
back from the Promised Land was nothing compared to what Cain
brought to that altar. Abel just brought a, he brought a lamb. That's what
his daddy told him to bring. And that's what God told his
daddy to bring. Demonstrated it to him. Told him what it was
all about. Righteousness and shed blood of the lamb. Behold
the lamb. But now he brought the works
of his hands, didn't he? Huh? That's religion. Religion. Oh, we're called on to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is,
His flesh. We have a new mind. We have the
mind of Christ. Huh? You still think like you
used to? Not if you're a believer, you
have the mind of Christ. I view everything in Christ. God made provision for my salvation
in His Son before the world was. I didn't have that before I knew
the Lord. Did you? I have it now because I have
the mind of Christ. How could God be satisfied with
me? He can't in myself. But He put
me in union with His Son and He sees me in His Son and He's
satisfied. Satisfied. With the mind, I myself serve
the law of God. How in the world can you do that?
I serve the law seeing it honored and exalted in Christ by faith,
by seeing its loftiest goal in Christ and pointing men and women
to it. Christ is the end of the law,
the goal. I serve the law by my new mind
seeing the person and work of Christ typified in it. That's
what we were doing this morning. There's no other way. You can't
serve the law of God any other way. I have the mind of Christ,
and I'm encouraged to be renewed. Now listen, in the spirit of
my mind, much of what we are and do is
in the mind. Paul wrote it in Romans 8 that
to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. So much of what we do and say
and think has no bearing on us at all. Why? Because we have nothing
to draw from but our old nature and this old fallen world. Let
me tell you what I'm talking about. I want you just for a
minute to picture in your mind that leper. He had nothing to draw from.
He's filthy. He's unclean. He dined from the inside out. He had nothing. He was forbidden
to come around people. He was to cover his mouth with
a leper's cloth. Old pus and blood dried on it,
and he's covering his mouth, and he's telling them, unclean,
unclean, unclean. I see that old leper in his past
inability and filth. And then I see him after Christ
speaks to him and now he's clean and his limitations are widened
and he's got a new life. We're on new ground. You see
what I'm saying? I see old blind Bartimaeus sitting
on that filthy blanket in his blindness and his whole life
was on that blanket calling out into the darkness. And then Christ
gave him eyes to see. Old things passed away. Behold,
all things become new. Huh? We're on new ground. Believers do what others can't
do. They love God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. Believers love God. Believers
worship God. They come in here, they don't
just sing hymns. When they sing that hymn, they
worship God. It has an effect on them. They worship God. Believers pray. We don't know what to pray for
as we are. The Spirit of God makes intercession for us with
hymns, with warnings and utterings. Believers obey God. They believe God. We're on new
ground. But we're not left on this new
ground without instruction. That's my point. God has in this
world what the old writers called the militant, the church militant. I looked at that. Yvonne and
I were talking about it this past week. The church militant. The church militant is the church
as she is in this world, engaged in the business of God's ministry
and establishing of His kingdom. She's called the pillar and ground
of the truth. And we're to be instructed as
to how to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
We have to be instructed. Well, I thought you ought to
know that. No. No, you're on new ground. You
have to be instructed. Huh? We have to be instructed
on how to behave ourselves in God's house. What's His house?
That's His church. That's what He says. His church.
What church? The church of militancy. Now
you don't have to worry about that church of glory. Huh? They're not fighting this fight
anymore. Well, God, we're about here. And the thing of it is,
can we be instructed? Can we be instructed when we
come in here and gather ourselves together to begin to prepare
ourselves for worship? Can I be instructed to do that? To be as quiet as I can, to be... Let my mind be focused on what
that man says and what I'm reading in this book. Can I be instructed? That's what Paul said, we have
to be. We have to be. What do we need to be told? Everything.
Everything. What to do and what not to do,
what to say and what not to say, how to act and how not to act,
how to teach and who to teach and who to leave to themselves.
Attitude, conduct, worship, how to be a godly parent, child,
wife, husband, servant or business man. We have to be told everything.
Why? Because we're on new ground.
We've not been here before. And what happens is we gather
together and we start drawing from the old man, the old well,
the old ways. Old things have passed away.
New things ain't going to do you any good. You can bring them
up and revel in them wallow in them all you want to. It's just
the pig going back to its wallow. That's all it is. We've got to
be instructive. We're on new ground. We've not
been here before. We've got to be taught. We're on new ground. We're not
left alone to figure Things out. God has ordained the means and
messengers and ways and governs His providence to graciously
give us the opportunity to be instructed. That's how it is. So we see the believer's hope.
It's all Christ. Christ is all and is in all.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. He's all and in all. Secondly,
we've looked at the fact of our being on new ground. We have
to be instructed. We're God's workmanship. Created under good works which
God hath before ordained that we walk in. You can't walk in
something you don't know. You have to be instructed. And
then thirdly, I want us to see a necessary exhortation then
to the life of the believer. And this is what Paul does in
every epistle. He states to us our hope. He tells us that we're
on new ground. And then he goes on and tells
us how to live and what we ought to do. In verses 12, 13, and
14, Paul gives us a necessary exhortation. He said, put on
therefore. If Christ is all, and Christ
is in you, and that's your hope before God, then put on. Listen to this. As the elect
of God, holiness. Holy. Beloved of God. Now watch this, bowels of mercies. You put on as the elect of God,
holy and beloved, you put on bowels of mercies. What else? Kindness. Kindness. Be kind. When somebody says something,
don't step on them. Be kind. Be kind. Humbleness of mind, huh? You know something or you didn't
before God taught you, remember that. Humbleness of mind, meekness,
long-suffering. Somebody said that means putting
up with. How do we put on such things?
Where do we draw from? We draw from Christ and Him crucified. We draw from the accomplished
redemption in Christ. You can't be forgiven and not
know how to forgive. Huh? Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. Now listen, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you, Paul said, we glory, listen to
this, in tribulation. In trouble? Yeah. Knowing that tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, as he shows us God's mercy and
grace getting us out of trouble. Or keeping us out of trouble. We're not left to wander aimlessly
in this world, feeling our way from day to day after God. We're instructed, verse 13 of
our text, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any
man have a quarrel, When the quarrel rises, then they go to
the Word of God and they find something that's on their side
and they pick it out and they come to the pastor and say, this
is what you need to do. If any man have a quarrel against
any, who's that covering? Any. What about this? Any. That's a big word. Listen. If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgive you, so also do you. How did
he forgive you? Through the blood. Through blood-bought
redemption. Through the work of a substitute.
Oh, I think I can forgive you on them grounds. And above all, above all, It's
necessary for me to say that to you and for somebody to say
it to me. It's necessary. Above all things, put on charity. What's that? Active love. That's not love in words now,
this is active love. What's that? That's handing that
present to somebody on their birthday. Just want you to know
I love you. Can you come down there? Why
would you want him down there? Because I love him. I love him. We missed you last Sunday. How
come? Because we love you. We love
you. Active love. That's what charity
is. It's active. There's no such
thing as a love that's not active. God's love is active. He demonstrated
that to us in Christ. He demonstrates it to us every
day. No such thing as an idle love, a love that's just a fact,
just a word. It's active. And above all, they
put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Believers
are a people made perfect in Christ. By one offering it says,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And by God's
redemptive will, we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. All those he sanctified, he perfected
and did all in one sacrifice. And the bond, that which binds
redeemed sinners together, is charity. It's charity. And then in verse 15, he said,
and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. What's that talking
about? Well, Christ is our peace, isn't
He? How does that rule? Because He set the rule. He set
the rule. How did He make peace? Through
the blood of His sacrifice. Through reconciliation. And that
reconciliation teaches us something, don't it? That reconciliation,
the fact of that reconciliation and how God saves sinners, that
rules. Somebody said, well, how are
you going to walk without the law? That is the law. Love, God constrains us. Peace
rules. Where does it rule? In the heart.
In the heart. To the witch also you're called.
Now watch this. In one body. It's not something
that just happens to you. It happens to everyone in his
church. They're one mind. One mind. They're one people before God. And He calls us, and He calls
us to that one body. And listen to this. This is where
I started. Be thankful. Huh? Oh, be thankful. When you open your eyes, be thankful.
Be thankful. You walk that whole day, you
think about what could have happened to you and didn't. and be thankful. Be thankful. You're one among
a thousand that believe. Be thankful. Do you repent? Do you honestly know what you
are? And you're sorry for it, and
you despise it, and you're turning yourself from it. Do you repent?
You've been led to repent. Be thankful. Be thankful. Oh, I tell you, by the time the
week's over, and we come in this place, we ought to be thankful. Huh? He not left me to myself. I'm not the only one trying to
walk in this world. There's a people. And they're
here, and they're together, and they're in union. And God sent
me a preacher, and I can hear him. And God's Spirit works in
my heart and tunes my ears and allows my mind to receive it. I've been called in one body.
There's a body, the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the
truth, and I'm in it. I'm in it. Be thankful. Be thankful. Oh, God help us to be thankful
for Christ.