If you will, for our scripture
reading, turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. If you have a marker, you can put
one there. I'll be coming back to this in
just a moment. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. All hope is in Christ. If you're
going to seek Christ, you're going to have to seek Him where
He is. He's on the throne. You're going to have to seek
Him as He is. He's the King. He's Lord. He's Savior. He's the High Priest. Set your
affection on things above. If that's where your hope is,
that's where your affection ought to be. Not on things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members
which are upon the earth, 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 walk sometime when ye live in them. But now
ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
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 or 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, and longsuffering, 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. I invite you to turn back with
me now to the book of Colossians. If you weren't here a few minutes
ago when I talked to the church, A man I met in Ashland back in
about 1978 or 9, went to church with him there, tended to preach
a school with me, Brother Joe Terrell. Been a pastor up in
Rock Valley, Iowa for a long, long time. He was awakened early Monday
morning after the Bible conference up at Drew Dietz, and lured by
his son-in-law under the pretense of helping him with some sheep, lured him out behind the barn
and stabbed him to death, just brutally murdered him. And upon hearing the news, I
can't tell you all the thoughts and feelings
that I've dealt with this week. So many, so many things. I preached
with him up in Montana a few years ago when I went up to the
Bible conference there and visited with him and Bonnie's wife. And upon hearing about his death,
I thought about all the missed opportunities I had to call him. Or maybe to invite him down,
have him preach here, get you folks to know him. But more than anything, I wonder
this. Why? Why? Why would the Lord, in a day
when so few stand and preach the truth, take such a faithful
man away? And let me tell you something
I hope that you know by now. The Lord killeth. And the Lord maketh it alive.
He's the Lord. He's the Lord. Ecclesiastes 8.8
said there is no man that hath power over the Spirit. Talking
about your soul, your awareness, your mind and heart, your being
as a man. No man hath power over the Spirit
to retain the Spirit. Neither hath he power in the
day of death. And there is no discharge in
that war. You're going to face it. And
you're going to go through it. None of us, Paul said, liveth
to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live,
we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. And the
Lord's using you in some way. In some way. He may be using
you like he did Esau. He may be using you like he did
Canaan. Or he may be using you as a faithful
servant, as a dear brother or sister in the Lord. But we're
the Lord's. We're the Lord's. And there may
be a myriad, and usually is, of reasons, situations, circumstances
that surround the death of a man or a woman. But behind it all
is the Lord of Glory. So here's the questions that's
going through my mind. Why Job? Why now? And why this way? We always think in terms of disease
when we think about death, don't we? Wonder what kind of disease
I'm going to have. Well, it may not be a disease
that kills you. You might die in a car wreck.
I got a call that same day on Monday this past week. My daughter
was in a collision. Bad, bad. I'll show you pictures
of her car after. Nothing up to the dashboard left.
She's broken in two places, and she's in a back brace and resting
at home. She could have died of this disease
in these jails, but she didn't. God spared her. But when we think
about death, we don't think about these things. We think in terms
of disease or old age, but when God takes a man this way, it
shocks us, and it ought to. We need shock. We're so caught
up in this world and in the manner of it and the ways of it. We
need to be shocked. We always think of these things,
but why would God allow such a thing? Well, let me give you
just a few things to think about. It could be that he took only
judgment to prevent this man from a greater crime. If a man will stab another man
to death, what would he do to his whole family? Well, we hear
it every day, don't we? Somebody got a gun, went in,
killed, shot the whole family, went into a school, killed all
these students. We hear about it every day. But
it don't come close to home. But when it does, it shocks us.
And we're asking why. Well, it could be. It may be
that the Lord directed this man's anger tore Joe alone and spared
his whole house. Something else that occurred
to me is Joe was a preacher. He's a man of God. Maybe the
Lord took him in this manner to shock an intellectual society
back to the reality of sin. I guess when things don't happen,
I read about generations of martyrs It was a horrible, horrible thing. I'll tell you how bad it was.
I was reading Fox's Book of Martyrs. I had put it up. It was making
me sick. The manner, the evil. I don't even have words to tell
you. The manner of death that they
put these believers through. Burn them at the stake. Light
them on fire. They didn't throw them in a furnace,
they lit the fire and let it burn slowly up around them, let
them die a long death in the fire. Oh, just tragic things, tragic
things. But we live in a society and
not much of that goes on, is there? Huh? Not much goes on. And so it kind of lulls us to
sleep and we get all intellectual and we like to get aside and
debate over this issue and that issue and nothing really comes
home to the heart. Maybe God took Joe as a preacher
to shock an intellectual society back to the reality of sin or
perhaps to show us how valuable Just how valuable a minister
of the gospel is and what a void is left behind when he's gone. God sent this man to this place
to do this work and now he's gone. Now what? Now what? But having said these things,
I think the best thing for us to do with such a thing as this
is to leave it where it really is, in the hands of an all-wise,
all-powerful, all-knowing God. I think that's the best thing.
In light of this tragic death, I want to offer you some comforting
exhortation this morning. And I hope by way of the gospel
of Christ, the word of God, and I pray the presence and power
of the Holy Ghost to console your broken heart. I want us to look here in Colossians
3 verses 1 through 4 at three basic things. These are things
that I talk to you about and teach you every week. There's
a problem we're going to have to deal with. There was a problem. A madness. A delusion. Things that just weren't true.
There's a problem. And then, there's a difficulty. There's a difficulty in perceiving
the problem. A great difficulty. There's a
difficulty when I preach the gospel, somebody walks in here
off the street, they've never heard these things before, they've
never dealt with these things before, there's a difficulty. But thank God there's a remedy. After the shock of this thing
begins to pass, we'll realize that nothing has changed. Sin
is still sin. It's still sin. Evil's still
evil and God's still God. Nothing has changed. We still
live in a world of chaos and tragedy, and tragic things happen. They happen every day. Yvonne
looked up the statistics just out of curiosity. How often do
you think somebody's murdered? Not dying of cancer, not dying
of natural... How much time do you think passes
by every day before somebody's murdered? 32 minutes. That's it. Every 32 minutes somebody's brutally
murdered in this world. You think about that. That's
the kind of world we live in. While this tragedy, because it
comes close to us, is shocking, it's a common reality concerning
this world. Why? Well, the scriptures fill
in the blanks. God doesn't leave us to fill
in the blanks on these things. We have the Word of God. Everything
that you will ever need to know about any situation is in this
book. All the answers. And if you don't
know the question, they're in here too. The Scriptures fill in the blanks. So let's just focus on the Word
of God for a little bit and look for just a moment or two at the
problem. Paul begins this chapter with an if. See it there? If
you then be risen with Christ. Risen from what? Why do I need to be raised? Huh? Why does a representative
have to come down here and raise me with him? What's he talking
about? Well, look at verse 3, for you're
dead. Huh? You're dead. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1,
you hath equated who were dead. That's where God found you dead.
And that has, you could go on for days just talking about what
it means to be dead. But there's a problem here, and
that's why he inserts an if. The scripture said that sin entered
and death passed. By one man, sin entered into
the world. Here it comes. Now it's in the
world. It wasn't in the world, but now it is. So what happened? Death passed upon all men. Isn't that what the scripture says?
And so death passed upon all men. By the offense of one, the
Scripture said, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. There was a worship service back
in the beginning. Find the account of it back in
Genesis chapter 4. There was a worship service. Adam had taught his two sons,
Cain and Abel. He taught them. instructed them
as to the worship of God. You bring a lamb. Bring a lamb. And you offer this lamb as a
sacrifice to God as an emblem of faith in Christ, the coming
Redeemer. Here's the lamb. This is how
you're going to worship God. You're not going to worship Him
any other way except in the crucifixion of Christ. Christ and Him crucified.
Well, Abel came and brought a lamb. Cane, cane, and had a wagon load
of carrots and who knows what. Sweet potatoes. Prettiest vegetables
he ever laid his eyes on. He was so proud of that guy.
And he brought them there before the Lord. And the Lord come by
and he had respect unto Abel. Blessed his heart, boy. Made
him to understand what that land was all about. Abel, he come
to Cane. And he just looked at it and
walked on by. Disregarded his sacrifice. Gave no regard to
it whatsoever. And boy, the next day, these
two boys out working in the field. I'm going to tell you something
here about witnessing. Abel didn't say anything to Cain. Read it for yourself. Cain talked
to Abel. Now I'm going to tell you something.
When somebody asks you a question, now you can deal with them. But
when you try to pop into their life and tell them something,
it'll go right in one ear and right out the other. They're
not going to hear you. Not going to hear you. But when
God opens that door, now you can talk to them. And I know
Cain heard what Abel had to say because it made him mad. Now here's the exact same situation
as with Job. There's a worship service. The
gospel was preached. If nothing else in type, it was
preached. But I believe Adam preached the
gospel to them. Told them what that lamb was
all about. Next day, they're out in the field. And Cain's
still mad. He's still mad. And the Lord
said, well, if you did right, He said, what's your problem?
But if you didn't, what's the problem? Sin lieth at the door. It lieth at the door. You won't
receive the things of the Spirit of God. And he rose up and killed
his brother over the gospel. Killed him. Didn't want to hear
what he had to say. Didn't want to hear... I don't
believe Abel stood up and got in his face and angered He just
talked to him. He just talked to him. That was
enough. He rose up and slew him. He had no reason for it. He had
no foundation for it. But sin, God said, lies at the
door. Now listen to God's prophet Jeremiah. Listen to this. We're talking
about the problem. Now, I'm going to take a little
time this morning. I may go over my lot of time,
but I want you to listen. This is so important. Jeremiah
17, 9, he said, the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Your heart will lie to you. It'll lie to you. My heart will
lie to you. Oh, yes it will. Don't you ever
believe a man just because he cries a few tears. You believe him based on this
book. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Now listen to this. Who can know
it? Oh, if I know my heart. That's the problem. You don't
know your heart. And you can't know your heart.
The only thing that I really know about this heart is what
God tells me in this book. That's it. That's it. Now tell the truth. Do you walk around thinking of
yourself as an adulterer? As a whore? Do you walk around
thinking about yourself as a murderer or a thief? You don't, do you? And the reason you don't is because
you don't know your heart. That's exactly right. The only
thing I know about my heart is what God tells me and what I've
experienced by His grace. That's it. And I've heard people
say it. They've said it to me. I know
my heart. But you don't. And here's what
happens. Man looks on the outward countenance.
I look on your face. I look on your expressions. I
look on your deeds. I look on your clothes. That's
as far as my eyes go. I can't see your heart. But God
looks on the heart. Well, what's in the heart that
makes it so evil? I want you to listen to this.
This is Ecclesiastes. This is the preacher. And here's
what he says in chapter 9, verse 3. The hearts of the sons of
men are full of evil, now listen, and madness is in their heart
while they live. And after that, they go to the
dead. Madness. Their heart, what's
in the heart? It's full of evil. And madness is in her heart.
What does he mean, madness? Well, by definition, foolishness. That's one of the terms. Foolishness. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Foolishness unto him. Gospel preaching to the Jew is
a stumbling block. To the Greeks, to the wise, to
the philosophers, it's foolishness. Madness is in men and it's foolishness. The thought, the scripture said,
of foolishness is sin. What else? Well, madness is idiocy. It's stupidity. Behavior that
shows a lack of good sense or judgment. I like what that character
Tom Hank played in a movie. He said, stupid is as stupid
does. Ain't that the truth? Madness is lunacy. It's insanity. Can't think aright. He's delusional. He walks in the vanity of his
mind. He sees things in his own mind. Madness means disorder, chaos,
mayhem. It means out of control. Madness. Where is it at? In the heart.
Whose heart? Every son of Adam. What is this madness and how
does it manifest itself in this world? Sin against God. Huh? Do you believe there is a God?
Do you believe in the living God? You believe God sits in
the heavens looking down on you, seeing everything that you think,
feel, and do. Then to sin against Him is madness,
is it not? It's madness. Sin against God, any sin, every
sin, all sin against God is madness. Who but a madman would stretch
out his arm against God? Huh? Who but a madman would defy
the living God? Isn't that what David said? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should defy the armies of the living God? He's a madman. And all the scriptures tell us
that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That's madness. Natural
man is mad. Not by the world's definition.
He's normal by the world's definition, but they're all mad. He's mad in his lust, he's mad
in his purpose, he's mad in his motives, and he's mad in his
religion. Who but a madman would dance
naked around a golden calf and call it worship? Huh? He's not sane. Moses couldn't
believe his eyes when he come down off the mountain. Who but
a madman would bow to a dung beetle and call him God? Who but a madman would exalt
his will and reason and decisions above the living God? What's in the heart? Well, he
said it's full of evil and madness. And then in Matthew 15, 18-19,
here's these self-righteous Jews, and they look down on their disciples
because they've eaten corn without washing their hands. Why, you
unclean sinners! And so our Lord gives us even
more information about what's in his heart. He said evil thoughts. Tell me you don't have evil thoughts.
You're a liar if you tell me that. I know better. You may
be having something against me right now. Evil thought, adulteries,
fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies against God. And
the list goes on. Where are these things? In the
heart. They're in the heart. Paul said,
we have before proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under
sin. They're under it. They're not
in danger of falling in it. They're not floating on the surface
of it. They're buried beneath it. They're
all under sin. And destruction and misery are
in their ways. No fear of God before their eyes. You want more proof? Your own
belief in Christ stands as a supreme evidence of your madness. You
can't find a reason for not believing on Christ. Can you? Huh? There is no reason. And I tell you this, if the Holy
Ghost ever convinces you of the sin that I'm talking about this
morning, that's how you're going to do it. Your unbelief in a
perfect Savior. So here's the problem. Sin. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But there's a difficulty. He
speaks of this difficulty in the text, telling us to seek
those things which are above. If they were easily discerned,
we wouldn't have to seek them. There's a difficulty involved.
Seek these things which are above and set your affection on things
above and not on things of the earth. And the difficulty is
how these things appear to be and how we perceive them. That's
the difficulty. Why do some folks appear to be
good folks? I'm not talking about church
members. I'm not talking about people who made a profession
of faith. I'm just talking about people. People. Hard working. Honest. Kind. Give to people in need. Helpful to their neighbors. Live
clean lives among men. How do you explain this in a
people you say are filled with madness? Will you hear me if
I tell you? God's restraining grace. That's the reason. Only he that
now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. God
restrains men from being as evil as they really are. How? How
does he do that? By laws and punishment. Men fear. And they're restrained by it. They're restrained by relationships.
I didn't let my children do everything they wanted to do. And they'd
get mad and pout and stomp the floor and hide in the room and
everything else, but I didn't let them do everything that they
wanted to do. I tried to restrain them. And
people are restrained by relationship. You're restrained by marriage
relationship. And then we're restrained by
well-ordered providence. It prevents opportunity and circumstance. The only reason I don't do what
Charles Manson did is I didn't have the opportunity. That madness
is there. That craziness, that stupidity
is there. Why don't everybody act like
him? We're the same. God's providence didn't allow
it. That's why. A lot of the difficulty with
our knowledge of sin is due to our personal experience. And
we mistake God's restraining hand as some kind of personal
righteousness. God not only tells us what's
in the heart, but he tells us our inability to discern it.
Who can know it? And then here's another difficulty,
false religion. False religion fills men's minds
with lies. Lies about free will and self-righteousness
and men's potential and who God is and who Christ is and what
Christ did and where is he now. Peter said, there shall be false
teachers among you, who frivolously shall come in and bring in damnable
heresies. Things, if you believe, will
damn your soul. And many, he said, shall follow
their pernicious ways, and they'll make merchandise out of your
soul. Reality is a shocking truth.
We're dead. And we live out our days in what
God calls this present evil world. You don't think it's evil. I
don't know. You're living in a bubble. And the difficulty is man's understanding. His understandings darken being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's
in him. And he walks in a vanity of his mind. He walks believing
certain things. that just are not so. What is vanity? Well, it's conceit,
self-love, self-admiration, self-absorption, vainglory, always looking within
for answers and believing them when you get them. The last person you won't believe
in is yourself. I'm telling you the truth. Even at the judgment, deluded
men will still say to the Lord, have not we prophesied? We were
preachers. Huh? Did not we prophesy? Now listen, in your name. I was a Calvinist preacher. Big
deal. Big deal. I don't mean anything. The Lord will profess unto them,
I never knew you. Depart from me. Now listen, there's
a little bit of good in religion. I don't think so. Listen to this. Depart from me. I never knew
you. You that work iniquity. Have not we done many wonderful
works in our name? No. You work iniquity. Both the problem and the difficulty
leave men and women at the mercy of a covenant God. And that's
where we ought to be. It leads us to His will to save
or pass us by. It leaves us, if we understand
it and believe it, it leaves us as hopeless, helpless sinners
before God. And if he ever brings you to
that point, you'll be in the place where you can hear the
good news. Nobody else is going to hear
it. They're just going to go on doing what they always did.
Go on talking like they always talk. Go on living like they
always live. Brethren, there is a remedy.
There is hope. And the remedy is the God of
all grace. We mourn the death of loved ones
and often are left wondering why. Seems strange that they're
gone. But the reality of it all is
we live in a world of madness, chaos, and trouble. And there's
three things that help me to go on. Three things that help
me to go on with some sense of joy and peace and assurance. The first is God's work for me. The second is God's work in me.
And the third is God's work through me. Huh? God's done a wonderful and glorious
work. We're ever believing so. He chose
us in His Son, made full provision for us. No matter what the circumstance,
no matter what comes our way, we're blessed. He blessed us
in that, in our election, in His predestination, in His purpose
of grace. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. There's security in
Him. This world couldn't touch Him.
Nobody's going to touch Him. There's security in Him. Our
life is hid with Christ in God. Isn't that what it says? That's where the hope is. He
chose us, loved us, made full provision for us in His Son,
and He did it all according to the good pleasure of His will.
And our merciful and great God predestinated us not to be servants
in His house, but to be children, heirs of God, joint heirs with
Christ. I was thinking about this when
I studied this. It'd be a glorious thing to be
an elect angel, wouldn't it? God has elect angels. Not all
of them are elect. Some angels fail. Some are locked
in chains of darkness, waiting that day of judgment. But to
dwell in heaven, to serve God, to be in the presence of His
glory, And by reason of God's adoption,
this whole race of heavenly beings, he's appointed to minister to
those who shall be heirs of salvation. Christ himself was made a man. He was made, as Scripture said,
a little lower than the ancients. But he was raised and exalted
far above. I'm talking about what God's
done for us. Chose us in Christ, made us heirs in Christ, made
full provision for us, not only in His Son, but by His own will
and presence and power of the Holy Ghost. And everything that
followed, creation, the fall, time, circumstance, all things
were governed to this end. God's work for us began in eternity
past and in the purpose and counsel of God, but it didn't stop there.
God arranged and ordered His providence according to His will
and purpose and for the good of His beloved children. And
nothing can touch you that God don't permit. Nothing. Nothing. Satan well said to God
concerning Job, he said, if you considered my son, I considered
him alright, but you got him hedged about. Huh? Has not thou made a hedge about
him, and listen, and about his house? You worry about your children?
The dog's house got a hedge. He got a hedge. He had a hedge
about Job, he had a hedge about his house, now listen to this,
and about all that he had on every side. Nobody's going to
touch anything that Job has without God's permission. And his archenemy
was standing there and he knew it. He said, you lift your hand,
he'll curse you in your face. He said, I'll lift it. But don't
take his life. Time's not some uncontrolled
series of things that suddenly come to pass. because of circumstance
and situation. Jesus Christ himself is the faithful
steward of time. Read Ephesians chapter 1. And
he orders everything in, and he worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. And when I think of the evil
and wickedness and fallen nature of men, oh, my soul. My only peace and comfort comes
from Christ who was the head of all principality and power. Something else God did. He sent His Son into the world
to do for us what we could not and would not do for ourselves
to satisfy Holy God. He died for His people. And now
He said, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Brother Joe was brutally murdered. No question about it. He was
brutally murdered. But let me tell you something.
All that did was usher him into glory. The worst thing men can
do to you is usher you into glory. That's it. That's it. They can't do anything
else. Don't fear men. They can kill your body, but
that's as far as they go. Fear God. He can destroy both
soul and body in hell. Now think with me for just a
second. I know I'm running a little long. Think about what God's
done in you. John said, to as many who have
received him, Who's that talking about? Every believer. He's talking
about men and women, the chief of sinners, reaching out and
embracing Christ. Throwing your arms around Him.
Laying yourself down at His feet. Hoping for that provision promised
in Him. as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become sons of God. It wasn't their will. It wasn't their ability. God
gave them all these things. He gave them power to become
sons of God who were born. Now listen to this, not of blood,
not of the will of the flesh, and not the will of man, but
of God. Not just left here in a vacuum
waiting for his coming. We're fellow laborers of God. There's only two reasons I find
for our still being left in this world. One is to prove to all
men that God has done a work in us. He's going to manifest
his glory in the salvation of his people. I in them Christ
said, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect and one,
now listen, and that the world may know that thou hast sent
me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. He's going to
manifest the glory of his love and grace on his people. A believer is the work of God's
grace and power. He's a living evidence of it.
The second reason is the privilege of working together with God.
Sufferings in this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Sinners saved by grace. So what shall we say to these
things? Well, Paul tells us, he tells us, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Salvation is a knowledge that
we're in God's hand and that no man can pluck us out of His
hand. Salvation is being persuaded
that God's able to keep that which we've committed unto Him
against that day. And it's confidence that what
God has begun He'll perform unto the day of Jesus Christ. So how do we deal with this tragedy? Huh? Same way I deal with that
trouble every day. Because the reality of it is,
it's all around you. It's all around you. How do we
deal with this tragedy? Well, we deal with it the same
way we deal with all trouble in this world. We look to Christ. You're not finding comfort anywhere
else. And it may be during this trial
they'll hire somebody to come down and explain
all the inward workings of an insane man and all this. Huh? That going to help you any? Only
comfort you're ever going to get is in Christ. In Christ. He can't do wrong. He's God. Oh, this is all wrong. No, no
it ain't. It's exactly as God would have
it to be. And you'll find comfort in that.
Put it in His hands, because that's where it's at anyway.
And do that with every trouble you have. Look to Him, big or
small. Look to Him. Why? Well, He tells us, and I read
it to you there in the book, Christ is all. the pain.