If you will, turn back with me
now to the book of Colossians. I want you to notice something
here in chapter two that I read to you. He has told us, as we
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, we heard him
declared in truth. We know who he is, who he really
is. whom God says that he is. He's
the Lord's Christ. The Lord's Christ. And as you
have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. That's your life. You walk in
him. That's all you need. Don't need
anything else. Rooted, we're talking about growth
now. Here's the new believer. We're
worried about his growth, we're worried about his maturity. So
he said, rooted and built up in him. Not in things, in him. Election is of no value apart
from Christ because everybody God chose, he chose in Christ.
Predestination in and of itself does nobody any good. because
we're predestinated under the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
There's no doctrine in the doctrine of Christ, there's no doctrines,
no individual teachings that are of any benefit apart from
Christ. So here's what he says about
our growth, rooted and built up in him, established in the
faith as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware. Beware of what? Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy. Whose philosophy? It can be anything. It can be religious philosophy.
It can be philosophy of a strange god. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, this
is man's tradition to do this, been done since the beginning,
after the rudiments or basic principles of the world and not
after Christ. Now I said all that to say this.
The title of my message this morning is Logical Theology. But it ain't logical. when you're
deceived by the rudiments of this world. If you take the basic
principles by which this world operates, man has a free will,
God loves everybody. These are the rudiments of this
world. Everything that they do is fashioned
around that. That's how they think. You take
those principles and preach the gospel to them and they just,
what? That can't be. It's not logical,
is it? It's not logical until you see
Christ. But once Christ is established in the heart and you see that
salvation is altogether in Him, it was in Him before the world
was. And now you start to see these
things about election and they're logical. Well, if God hadn't
chosen a people, we'd all be in hell. Is that right? Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, well how come some are going to be
saved? Because of the grace of God. Because if he hadn't chosen
people... I'll tell you what the scripture
said about election. If God had not chosen a people,
we'd all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what the scripture said. So when you know something about
the grace of God, all of a sudden election becomes logical. You
can't build this house of hope on anything else but electing
God-chosen people. It's what it comes down to. It
comes down to the sovereign grace of God. And I said that to say
this, believers are a phenomenon in this world. They are real and unexplainable
work of God's grace. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul calls
him a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's not like anything else in
this world. Something not a part of the first
creation, but rather something God did after that creation. And believers are like other
men and women, but only so far as they have in common with their
father Adam. Like others, we're born with
a fallen nature, born under a curse by nature, children of wrath,
even as others. Living out our days in darkness
and ignorance and rebellion to God, we're all that way. Serving this present evil world,
serving the desires of the flesh, following the thoughts of a corrupt
mind. Shut up to ignorance and darkness. And we have plenty of common
ground with natural men. But then God intervenes. God
has a people he chose in Christ, a people he made eternal provision
for, a people he set apart by divine purpose and for his glory. And according to his good pleasure,
he predestinated them unto the adoption of children. And nothing
can ever prevent it, nothing can ever change it, nothing can
ever cause it to fail. Brother Don said before he died,
he said salvation is never a miscarriage. The bride of Christ never has
a miscarriage. Nothing can ever prevent it,
change it, or cause it to fail. In Romans 8, 28, he said, and
we know, who does? Those taught by the Spirit of
God, those who hear the gospel. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For, here's why. Just keep that
thought in mind. Everything's working together.
All these things out here are just gears like in a big clock. And this one's going that way,
and this one's going that way, and this one's going around this
way, and all of these. But it's all working together.
All of it. Everything out there. Everything
God has set in motion. He's working it. And it's all
working together. For good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose, for. Whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be, that is Christ, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Who did God call? Everybody he
predestinated. And whom he called, them he also
justified. and whom he justified, then he
also did glorify. God has a people he chose in
Christ before the foundation of the world and for them made
eternal provision. He appointed on our behalf a
savior, a great and wonderful savior. He appointed him as our
federal head. He is the head of the body, the
church, not Adam, Christ. There are two federal heads,
Adam and Christ, and by these two men, they represent two covenants,
the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Paul wrote to the church at Rome
and he said in Romans 5 verse 15, he said, not as the offense,
By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men. Not as the offence, so also
is the free gift, for if through the offence of one, many be dead,
much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by
one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. All men represented
in these two men. And then the last words of the
psalmist David was, though, although it be not so with my house, yet
God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. And he said, this is all my salvation
and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. That is,
he didn't save everybody in my family. He had a son who hated
him, tried to kill him. He didn't make it to grow, but
he made it with him. And he made it with his son Solomon. And that covenant, he said, is
ordered in all things and sure. That covenant is made sure by
the surety, and the surety is Christ. God has a people that
from the beginning were chosen to salvation. The means were
ordained through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. And our great surety come in the fullness of time and accomplished
our redemption, established as our divine representative a perfect
righteousness for us and a complete reconciliation to God. He tells
us in Colossians 1 that those whom he has reconciled in the
full sufficiency of his person and work, He said he'll present
them to the Father blameless, blameless, perfect in the eyes
of God. They reconciled them to God by
his blood. And when God raised our Lord
up from the grave, he publicly declared his acceptance of his
son's work and our justification and righteousness in him. He
was delivered for our offenses. raised again for our justification. In Ephesians 2.5 it said, even
when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ
and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Do you believe that? Do you believe
when that third day rolled around and God Almighty sent his angels
down and they rolled that stone back and Jesus Christ sat up
on that bench Unwrapped all that linen off of him and folded it
up neatly and laid it on there and and came out and walked around
and visited Saints for 30 days His resurrection Can be no doubt. There's no fact more Established
by witnesses than the resurrection of Christ 30 days after his resurrection
he remained in this earth And then with a chosen few, he went
out on that little hill, stepped onto that cloud, and was ascended
right into glory. And Paul says, here we ascended
with him. We were in him. That's our representative
going up there. And them angels said, what are
you staring at? What are you standing there like
this is the end of the world for? This same Jesus whom you
see taking up from you, he's coming back. Only this time,
he ain't coming as a baby. He's coming in all the glory
of his father's house. He's coming with all his angels
and all his elect. And those that are dead should
be caught up first. And those who are alive and remain,
they're going to be caught up with him. And then he's going
to judge this world. And he did all this, he said,
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Milling
around in this fallen earth is a people chosen and made provision
for by God. They don't know it. I didn't
know it. I didn't know it. I'd gone through
all the old traditions of the world, going through those rudiments
that Paul warns us about. I was just milling around in
the earth. I had no idea. I didn't know what election was.
I never heard the word. You ain't going to find out anything
about election and false religion. More than likely, you'll never
even hear that word predestination, except in some negative manner.
First time I brought it up, the deacon in the church I was in.
This was just pure old false religion, but here's what he,
I mentioned something about predestination to him, and I thought he was
gonna lose his breath. Oh! He said, don't go over there,
don't go there. He said, the secret things belong
to the Lord. I said, if it's secret, why'd
they put it in his book? He told John when he didn't want
something on, he said, put your pen up. The things that he'd written
there for our learning and comfort. But when men don't know what
something is, they want to make it mysterious and forbidden.
Oh, can't go there, don't go. Why, my soul. That's the very
ground of my hope. God's in this thing. God's doing
this. Christ came because God sent
him. I came not to do my own will, but the will of him of
my father. And this is my father's will,
that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing but
raise it up again at the last day. When it pleases him, he'll call
them by his gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They'll see him not as that babe
in Bethlehem's manger, they'll see him as the eternal God come
into the flesh. They'll see something of the
glory of Christ. He crosses their path with a
gospel preacher and the Holy Spirit will attend his preaching
and it'll be effectual in their hearts and minds and it'll shut
them up to Christ. And from that day forward, they'll
never be the same. Their lives will show a divine
presence. His providence will lead them
and provide for them and open effectual doors for them. Their
lives may seem to waver at times, but their end is sure. They're
not of them who draw back under perdition. They're of them who
believe to the saving of the soul. Oh, what a graciously privileged
people are the signs of god you know back in the old testament
uh... somebody said joe was the oldest
book in the old testament and maybe but there was worship services
back then and uh... and the signs of god all got
together and they come to the worship services and god was
there and the angels were all there looking on at the worship
of the saints And Satan showed up. And the
Lord said, whence camest thou? Well, we don't see him, do we?
He's here. He's here just like he was in
that worship service. He's here. He's here. He'll misuse anything
he can get his hands on. And the Lord said, whence camest
thou? And he said, from going up and down, to and fro in the
earth, and from walking up and down in it. You know where I've
been. You know what I'm doing. And
the Lord said, have you considered my servant
Job? Now listen, this is the Lord's
testimony. This ain't mine. This is the
Lord's testimony. There's not a man like him in the earth. Huh? Isn't that what I just said? You can say that of every saint
of God. God has privileged him beyond his wildest imagination. He's blessed him from all eternity. He's given him his son. He that spared not his own son,
how shall he not with him also freely give us off? And there's not a man like a
saint anywhere in the world. There's some pretenders out there,
but there's not a man like him. Oh, he said, you take away his
health, he'll curse you to your face. He said, take it. And he
did. He took away his children. He
took away his holdings. This was the richest man in the
East. Took away everything he had.
And then his wife comes out and said, why don't you just curse
God and die? Took away his wife. Took away
everything the man had. He was just sitting there covered
with balls. And he's sitting there in the
ash heap with a piece of glass scraping the balls. And his friends
come and they mocked him for days and days and days on end. Won't you just curse God and
die? Job said, the Lord giveth. Who
does? The Lord giveth. There's not
another man on earth that'll say that when he's in Job's position,
but every saint of God will say it. The Lord give you, and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Huh? Oh, my soul, I'm telling you,
there's not another person in this world blessed like a saint. He's a new creation, there's
nothing like him. He may seem to waver at times,
but his end is sure. Blessed beyond description, predestinated
to sonship, hedged about by grace, made full provision for in Christ. And even now in these perilous
times, God has sent us a holy comforter. Oh, what a privileged
lot we are. God attends us every day by a
race of creatures that he created solely for our benefit. You ever
think about that? Angels, what use does God have
for an angel? He can do anything he wants to.
He created all these angels, he said, are ministering spirits
sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation.
He created a whole race of beings for us. And they attend us whether
we see them or not. We're talking about a people
who will one day sit with the Lord and judge this world. He
said, no you not, you shall judge angels. We used to sing a hymn written
back in the 1800s years ago. I don't care for all the lyrics,
but the name of the hymn was Count Your Blessings. Count your blessings, name them
one by one. Count your blessings, see what
God has done. Oh, I don't know how you can
keep a straight face and even think about it. Count those blessings,
the blessings of God upon his people. Now with those things
in mind, let's take our look at our text here in Colossians
3 and let me give you a few things to think about. He says in verse one, if you
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. And the first thing I want you
to think about is this little two-letter word, if. The if here is not used to draw
doubt or question your standing with God. Paul has already taken
care of that in chapter one and two. The if here is used logically
and by way of godly reasoning. And it said from a point of positive
argument that we're the chosen of God. Are we? Are we the chosen of
God? Have our eyes been opened to
see the glory of God in Christ? Has He taken us by the Spirit
and the Gospel and abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
made known to us the mystery of His will, His redemptive will? Has He carried us back into eternity
to see all His precious promises in Christ? as He showed us all
His precious prophecies concerning His Son, as He declared to us
the person and work of Jesus Christ, as He showed to us how
to determine our election in Christ. If you then be risen with Christ,
spared that awful condemnation of the world, spared the blindness
and ignorance of the flesh, spared all the deceitfulness of satanic
religion. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which God put in him. Seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Nothing, now hear
me, nothing of this world shall survive the judgment except those
whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Read the
book of Revelation. You'll see. You'll see. Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my Word's not going anywhere. My Word's
not going to pass away. Everything God intends to preserve,
He put in His Son, just like He did back there in the flood.
Said, Noah, build an ark. A what? An ark. I don't know
what an ark is. I'm going to show you what it
is. You don't worry about that. I'm going to tell you about this
piece of wood and where it goes. And I'm going to show you the
shape of it, and you make it in that shape, and you put it
all together. When you're done, you're going to have an ark.
Everything I intend to say, I'm going to put in that ark. That
ark is Christ. Christ. What did they seal that
ark with? Pitch? Pitch, that's what kept
out the wrath of God. That's what kept that water from
drowning everything that God put in the ark. That's what preserved
all those things with that pitch. That word is kephar. Same word
for atonement. The atonement. Our atonement's
in Christ. And God put us in him. All of
these things, they're all in Christ. All these promises, things
you can't even Imagine things that you won't know for eons. All in him. Now if we'd be risen
with him, why are we still down here looking at this and that
and something else and devoting our life to it? Everything God
has for sinners is in Christ. But men want to talk about everything
else. They want to talk about security
in this world. There is no security in this
world. You ever read that parable? He said, this man said in his
heart, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down
my barns and build a bigger barn. And then when I get that done
and get them filled, I'm going to say, OK, soul, take your ease. He said, thou fool, this day
shalt thou soul be required of thee. There ain't no security
in this world. Our security is in him. Well, what about my future? Your future is in him. Is that right? If you be not
one of his, I feel sorry for you. Because you're just going
to find some way that appeals to you, and that's the way you're
going to go. And you're going to find some religion that satisfies
you, and that's where you're going to sit. And you're going
to sit there and live out your days in the flesh until you wake
up in hell. There's our future, seeing him.
Well, what about heaven? I don't know, but whatever it
is, it's in him. It's in him. Who do you think orders this
providence down here, huh? Boy, we want to try to build
a safe house, don't we, and get in it. Every time the sky clouds
up, we run and jump in it. My soul, your life is hid with Christ
in God. Who do you think pushing that
tornado around? You think just going? And I'm
going to tell you something. If God sets his bait on you for
a tornado, he's going to get you no matter where you go. No
matter where you go. Our inheritance is secured by
the resurrected Christ and kept incorruptible, Peter said, and
undefiled in heaven for us. This is logical theology, theology
based on the promises of God in Christ. And then secondly,
what I'm reading to you this morning is based on our eternal
union with Christ. If we'd be risen with Christ,
well, how can you be risen with Christ? Well, while we were yet
sinners, God quickened us together with his son. How does a person get in Christ?
Religion talks about it all the time. Come to the front, sign
this card, make this plea, pray this prayer, repeat after me,
join the church, or any number of things. I mean, it's almost
limitless what they tell people. But how does a person get in
Christ? Well, according to the scripture,
God puts him there. I'm gonna read it to you, 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30. But of him, that is of God, are
ye in Christ Jesus. How'd you get there? God put
you there. Oh, I thought I went into Christ
when I believed. No, he put you there before the
foundation of the world. That's how come you believed. Is that right? Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that gloweth, let him glory in the Lord. These things are all based on
our eternal union with Christ. And then the third thing I want
us to think about is the resurrection of Christ. When God raised up
Christ from the dead, His work of redemption was fully complete,
fully accepted, fully rewarded. Faith is a reward of the redemption
accomplished by Christ. Did you know that? He bought
your right to hear. He secured it. He secured it. The life of the sinner is not
in his own hands, it's in the hands of his substitute and redeemer. And we're dead, he tells us in
Colossians 3.3, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Everything concerning the salvation
of sinners in Christ Jesus is our resurrected hope. We're
begotten again unto a lively hope, a living hope. And then fourthly, And this is
the last thing I want us to think about and put into practice.
We're to live in the light of our all-sufficient Savior. We're
to live that way. Colossians 3, 4. When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
him in glory. We live out our days here. Paul
said, for me to live is Christ. We say, preacher, I got a family.
I know you do. I have one. I have one. What, are we just to forget about
our family? I'm not going to. And I didn't
tell you to. But I'm telling you, your foremost,
your foremost thing better be for him. He better come before
your family. If he's not, Christ said, you're
not worthy of me. You put them before me, you're
not worthy of me. I don't care who it is, father,
mother, sister, brother, doesn't make any difference. We're to live in the light of
our all-sufficient Savior. And I have, over the years, seen
many dead folks. My father, my mother, my grandparents,
my sisters, my brothers. my friends, even my wife. And
I see them laying there in the casket, and they look just like
they used to. Air put up, everything, look
just like they used to. It's amazing what these guys
can do with a corpse. Except when you get up there,
their heart's not beating. Their lungs aren't breathing.
Their eyes don't see, their ears don't hear, their mind don't
think. Their feet don't walk. They're dead. They're dead. Nothing of this
flesh is alive. And that's what Paul said. You're
dead. I know you're still breathing.
That's because you have an eternal soul in you. But you're dead. This flesh is
dead. This flesh is going back to the earth from whence it was
taken. You're dead. But boy, we pampered. We pampered like we gonna live
in it from all eternity. No. Now it's going back to the
flesh. From the dust thou was taken,
from the dust thou shalt return. You're dead. We're to consider
this world and all its ungodly practices as dead. We're to consider
all the desires of our flesh and of our mind dead. We're to
consider all of our worldly relationships outside of Christ dead. This world, I believe, is what
the Holy Spirit is talking about when it says, yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death. He's talking about
this world. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. And by way of faith and the new
birth, we're to reckon ourselves alive from the dead. To walk
in newness of life. And that walk is to walk in the
light of accomplished redemption. It's to walk in the light of
Christ. And to find in Him a full and
complete satisfaction. To see Him and rest in Him and
glory in Him and rejoice in Him. Look to Him and live out the
remainder of our days in gratitude and praise to God with a patient
waiting for, just like old Simeon, for the consolation, the consolation
of God. As you have received Him, so
walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the
faith. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now here's the logical argument. Are you in Christ? Then you were
raised with him. If you were raised with him,
you ought to be interested in what's in him, shouldn't you?
And everyone who's in him, you ought to be interested. Ain't
nobody else gone to glory. Just God's saints. But we tried
to build an eternal relationship with dead sinners. And forget about the saints.
My nearest relative's thousands of miles from here. But really
and truly, I told Walter yesterday, I don't have a mother and I don't
have a wife that's here praying. But I do. I do. I have mothers in the church
and brothers and sisters in the church. Friends. in the church,
people who love me, care for me, provide for me. Oh, how we
ought to rejoice in these things. Thank you.