What an honor to be here. What
a blessed, blessed privilege it is to come and if you open
your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 3. And I'm very grateful
that the Lord brought your preacher, your pastor out of the hospital.
Hopefully in a week or two he'll be able to preach. I use my mind
at home to keep time for myself. I don't want to preach too long. Colossians 3, and thank you all
very much. Read these four first verses
of chapter 3. 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 on the earth, for you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." See, he mentioned
the Lord Jesus four times in these four verses. But I get
my subject there in verse 4. You notice who is, is in italics. So in Christ our life shall appear. Our life, Christ our life. Christ
is our life. There is no life that we have
apart from Him. But I'm going to start my message
this morning talking about life is relative. Life is relative. And what do I mean by that? Well,
there are some who have life, but aren't living. People on
machines. People that's on life support,
as he mentioned this morning. And people who, through sickness,
have no quality of life. No quality of life. People in
nursing homes who don't know who they are or anybody else
is. And some live a life of debauchery,
perversion. That's no life. Some live a life
of pride and self-righteousness, trusting in themselves that they're
more righteous than others, as the Pharisees did. Some live
a life of partying, riotous living, and call, boy, we're really living,
ain't we? Really living. I had an uncle, one of Mary's uncles,
Fred. He used to go out and get drunk
every Friday and Saturday night. And they'd ask him, well, did
you have a good time? He'd say, well, they told me
I did. They told me I did. Now, that's not living. That's
not living. No. And then there's some who
live a life of hatred and misery, never satisfied with anyone or
anything. Titus, Paul told Titus like this,
we were hateful and hating one another. Hateful and hating one
another. And then there's other people
who live a life no different than an animal. No different
than an animal. They just get up, they eat, they
sleep, They're unconscious of any other life than this one
here. Think that this one's all that matters. But last, last
life that I want to talk about is some lead a very religious
life, deceiving and being deceived. So now you see what I mean about
how life is relative? Life is relative. It's according
to how you view it. But there is life, capital L-I-F-E,
Life, in capital letters. A life full, abundant, free,
full of joy, full of peace. A life of the greatest quality.
When our Lord Jesus talked about eternal life, He's not talking
about how long it is. He's talking about the quality
of it. It's the quality of life that we have in our Lord Jesus
Christ. A life that's united to Christ.
And here God himself defines what life is. He defines what
life is, and he defines it in his word. And he defined it right
here in verse four, when Christ our life shall appear. Christ our life, and that's life. I lived before I knew Christ,
but I didn't have life like I know it now. And I tell you, let me
give you several things about it. First of all, Christ, our
life, He's the source of our life. He's the source of our
life. We have no life apart from Christ.
You already said it, without me, you can do nothing. And we
know that. We know that without a shadow
of a doubt. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am come that they might have life and not only have life, but have
it more abundantly. Now, oh, how abundant the life
is that we have in Christ. is full of justification, forgiveness,
righteousness, full of peace and joy, full of faith, forgiveness,
all the life that everything we need for this life in this
world and in the life to come, God himself give us that abundance
in our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean abundance of it. more
than we could even begin to imagine. And that's why he says, when
Christ who is our life shall appear, he said, this is how
abundant it is, we shall also appear with him. Appear with
him. And oh my goodness, and our Lord
Jesus said, because I have life, you have life. And oh, listen,
He's the source of all life in this world. He's the source of
the heavenly life, star, sun, moon and stars. He's the source
of all animal life. He created all life and He's
the source of all animal life. And he's not only the source
of all, he's the source of all vegetable life. My mother-in-law,
she raised the garden every year, and every time she planted a
seed, she'd say, Lord, bless this seed to come up. She'd pray
over her whole garden as she planted it, Lord, bless this
to come up, because if you don't, it won't make it, it won't amount
to nothing. So she understood that vegetable
life even comes from Christ. And our mineral life, natural
life, but especially spiritual life comes from Christ. You keep
Galatians and look with me in John 17. Look with me in John
17. This is what the apostle's talking
about here when he talks about Christ our life. Look what our
Lord Jesus said in John 17 one. I could quote this verse to you,
but I want you to look at it. You know, he said here, And our
Lord Jesus Christ, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his
eyes to heaven. You know why he lifted up his
eyes to heaven? He could actually see the Father. He could see
into heaven. He lifted up his eyes because
he could see. He could look into glory. He
could see his Father. He could look into eternity and
said, Father, Thou has come, glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou has given him power,
authority over all flesh, and not only authority, but actually
the might, the strength, the ability to give life, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And
this is life eternal. This is it. that they might know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. He's the source of our spiritual
life. And that's why Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Now listen
to what he says here, yet not I. I live in, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in this
flesh, I live it by the faith or the faithfulness of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He says, we were
dead in trespasses and sins, but he quickened us together
with him. When he died, we died. When he
was risen, we rose with him. When he ascended to glory, we
ascended with him. When he sat down, we sat down.
And when he appears, we're gonna appear right with him again.
He's the vine, we're the branches. Not only is he the source of
our life, but he's the security of our life. You know, it's one
thing to save us, but it's another thing to keep us saved. You know, that's one of the things
that amazes me. After all these years, as frail
and as weak and as sinful as I am, I'm still saved. I'm still saved. You know our
Lord Jesus Christ said I give unto them eternal life. The next
thing says they shall never perish. Never. He says, the Father which
give them to me is greater than all, and they're in my hand,
and no man's able to pluck them out of my hand, they're in my
Father's hands. And so we're in both hands of
God and Christ, and we're in a two-fisted salvation, so how
in the world is anybody gonna get us out of them hands? God's
got, here's what he said, he said, they're in my hands. You're
in my hands. And I'll tell you, not only in
his hands, but we're on his shoulders. When he found us his sheep, he
laid us on his shoulders. And he's big enough, glorious
enough, and mighty enough, and powerful enough to hold us in
his hand, carry us on his shoulder, and carry all of us at the same
time. That's how glorious our Savior is. That's no problem
for him. David said, when he said it before
the Lord, he said, this is a small thing for thee. That's just a
small thing for him to do. Oh, he's never ever lost one
for whom he died. He says, Father, you gave them
to me and I've not lost a one of them, not a one of them. And oh, listen, he says, Father,
he said in John 17, 24, I will that they whom thou hast given
me be with me. where I am, that they may behold
my glory. You reckon we'll get to do that
one of these days? Go, you know why? Because he
said, I will. That's the key to it, I will.
And I, you know, John 6, 37, everybody knows this. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me. Everyone that the Father gives
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
never, There's not a thing they can do, not a sin they can commit,
not a fall they can have, not a stumble they can make, not
anything that they could ever possibly do cause me to cast
them away. You look at the history of the
church, the history of the saints of God, and if God was ever gonna
cast anybody away, he'd have started with me. but there's
nothing. And I tell you what, there's
nothing, I mean nothing, nothing that a believer can do that would
cause Christ to say, I disowned him. It never happened. And I tell you what, you don't
have to do anything, just what we think is bad enough. We just,
what goes through our mind's bad enough. But I listen. David, but I've heard Don say
this and you have too. David was as much one of God's
child and loved of God when he was in Bathsheba's arms as he
was when he was dancing before the Lord. He suffered for it. That don't mean we're not gonna
suffer for it. There's consequences to what we do, but God ain't
never gonna cast us out. Oh, when Simon Peter said three
times, he denied him. If there was anybody ever should
have been cast out from Christ, Simon Peter should have been
the one that done it after denying Christ three times. But the Lord,
the scripture said in Luke 14, 1662, it said he looked over
at him, We used to weep and we used to
weep to cry. And the Lord asked him three times, do you love
me? You deny me three times, do you love me three times? Yeah, Lord, you know, you know. And I'll tell you, beloved, the
Old Testament saints were preserved by him. forgiven and justified
by Him and because of Him. He which begun a good work in
you, He shall, He shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And I tell you, beloved, I'm
persuaded that life, death, angels, principalities, nothing is able
to separate us from the life of God and the love of God which
is in Christ. So He's the security of it. You
know, I If Christ don't save me, I won't be saved. If Christ
don't keep me, I won't be kept. If Christ don't preserve me,
I won't be preserved. And you know, we persevere because
he preserves us. He preserves us. Not only is
he the source of it, the security of it, but he's the sustainer
of it. And what I mean, the sustenance of it, the sustenance of it.
You know, He gave thanks for lunch even today. And what we
have to have in our natural life, we have to have the same thing
in our spiritual life. We have to have water. We have
to have bread. We have to have light. We have
to have rest. We have to have sight. We have
to have hearing. We have to have a movement to
be able to get around. And all those things are given
us in Christ. We know we need bread. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, they told him, he said, give us a sign that
you're who you say you are. He said, they said our fathers
did eat, Moses gave our fathers. Man in the desert, and there
now they're dead. Now Lord Jesus Christ said, Moses
didn't give you that manna, my father gave you that manna. And
now he has sent the true bread down from heaven. That heavenly
manna, that true bread, they said, Lord evermore give us this
bread. And Christ is our bread. Christ is that heavenly bread.
He's sent down from heaven himself to navy himself for us. And then
he's the water. We gotta have water. He was that
rock that was smitten. You know, when he was that woman
at the well, he said, if you knew the gift of God, you would
ask of him and he would give you a drink of living water. And we drink living water. We
eat living bread. If you eat my flesh and drink
my blood, and that's what we do every time we meet. We don't
do it when we take the bread and the wine. We eat and drink
our Lord Jesus Christ spiritually every time we meet. Our communion
with him. And not only is he the water
of life, the bread of life, but he's the light of life. And then
he told us about it. He that seeth the Son. How do
we see the Son? By faith. How do we come to Christ? We don't come by our feet. We
come by faith. We don't embrace Christ with
these arms, but we embrace him. We don't kiss him with the kisses
of this mouth right here, but we kiss him. We actually don't
lay on his breast like John did, but yet we find ourselves resting
and trusting in Christ. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, we can't give ourselves spiritual, we didn't give ourselves
spiritual life. We can't sustain this spiritual
life, and we got to have everything spiritually that we have to have
naturally, and Christ is everything that we need in this life. Everything. Oh, we gotta have rest. Larry
asked me, he said, did you sleep good last night? I said, I did.
I rested. And I'll tell you what, I'm resting
now. I'm resting now. You say, boy,
you seem pretty active. No, I'm resting. I'm resting. Where at? In the Lord Jesus Christ. God sees from his works, I see
from mine. And not only is he the sustenance
of our life, the source of our lives, the security of our life,
but he's the object of our life. The object of our life. Turn
back over to Philippians, Philippians right to your left, Philippians
one, verse 21. He's the object of our life. He's the object. When Christ
who is our life shall appear, we're looking for him to appear.
He's the object of our life. Look what he said here in Philippians
1.21. Look what he said here. He's
the object. For me to live is Christ. For
me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. What does he mean? That we keep
our eyes on Him. He's our life now. There's three
things about dying. First of all, it's blessed are
they who die in the Lord. That's the first thing, blessed
are they who die in the Lord. Second thing is to live is Christ,
to die is gain. So we gain. We gain. And then to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. And that's what
God says it is. So for me to live is Christ.
We have seen Him, you know, looking unto Jesus. Looking, not have
looked, not gonna look. We look back. No, no, looking,
looking, always looking. We're looking this morning. We
look when we read the Bible. We look when we pray. We look
to Christ. When we're in trouble, we look
to Christ. When we're weak, we look to Christ.
When we're strong, we look to Christ. Where else we gonna look? And
how do we look? We look just like we always did,
by faith. And one of these days, faith
will cease to be, and it'll be sight. Oh my. And I tell you what, not
only are we gonna see him, we have seen him, we will see him,
and one of these days we'll see him as he is and we'll be just
like him. That's what predestination is,
to be conformed to the image of Christ. And I do know this,
I know this without a shadow of a doubt, and you do too, God
knows we know this. When we look to ourselves, look to ourselves for anything,
and look to this flesh for anything, you know what's gonna come out?
Despair. Depression. Discouragement. Doubt. If you look to yourself
and start thinking, boy, I don't think like this, I don't feel
like that, and I haven't done this, and I haven't done that,
And then you start looking at yourself for what you haven't.
No, you're in trouble. We don't look what we've done,
we look to what He's done. We don't look what we're going
to do, we look what He's already done. Why in the world would
I want to look at myself? Why would I want to do that?
Why in the world would I? I know what I was before Christ
saved me. Why would I want to look back? That's like a man
going to a home, off to eat, to look to himself. What has
this flesh ever done for me? That's why it says, we trust
not the flesh or look to the flesh. We know that in this flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Why does this flesh, my fallen
nature, ever done for me spiritually? Huh? It's never done anything
for us. That's why we look to the Son
of God. That's why we look to Christ.
The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God. Oh my! But all looking to ourselves
or anything in this flesh, despair, discouragement, depression, but
living by Christ, looking to Christ, enjoying Christ. It brings joy, it brings peace,
it brings comfort, it brings assurance, and it gives us a
life with purpose and definitiveness. You know, when you're listening
to the gospel, when you're listening to somebody preach the gospel,
you have more assurance while you're hearing the gospel than
you do at any other time. Now ain't that right? Right while
you're hearing it. Because you know what? You're responding
to it. You're responding to it mentally, emotionally, spiritually. You're responding to it. And
that's why you have such... Oh my! And that's like, you know,
when all those disciples walked away from our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, there was hundreds of
them, thousands of them. They was following Him around.
And a bunch of them turned, he says, you know, no man can come
unto the Son but by the Father, lest it's given to him. And boy,
many of them turned and walked back. He looked at the 12. He said, will you also go away? You know what he said? Simon
Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Why? Because you've got the words.
the words of eternal life. You got the words of life. And
when we're here in the gospel, we're here in the words of life.
When Christ speaks, it's words of life. When the gospel speaks,
it's words of life. Words of life. And not only is
he the sustenance of it, the source of it, the security of
it, the object of it, and you know our whole salvation. Let
me tell you this. Our salvation completely is outside
of ourselves. It's all objective. You know
Christ, I heard Paul Mayan say this, and I hope he'll say it
to you next week, but he said this. He said, Christ, they say,
well Christ crucified 2,000 years. He says, no, no, he was crucified
before the foundation of the world. We wasn't there when that took
place. That's done outside of ourselves. When Christ came here
and lived, that was outside of us. When he died on the cross,
that was outside of us. We didn't even exist at that
time. But when Christ died, he died for us. He put our sins
away right there. So everything that's been done
for us has been done outside of ourselves. And then he comes
along and gives us the faith to believe what he did. And then He keeps that faith
alive and He keeps us believing and cleaving to Him all the days
of our life. Oh, bless His name. No one like
Him. Oh, hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And
not only is He the subject of our life, and look over here
in 1 Peter chapter 2 with me. 1 Peter chapter 2. He's the example
of our life. I'll tell you, look what he said
here in 1 Peter 1 and verse 21. Chapter 2 and verse 21, excuse
me, chapter 2 and verse 21. He's the example of our life.
Look what he said here in verse 21, 1 Peter 2. For even here
unto where ye call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example that we should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he didn't
revile again. When he suffered, he didn't threaten
anybody. Oh, listen, I'm gonna get even
with you for that. I don't get even, I just don't forget, that's
what we say. But look what he said here. When
he suffered, he didn't threaten anybody, but he committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously. Now, what do we mean then that
he's our example? Well, he is a perfect man, the
only perfect man that's ever lived on the face of this earth.
He was a sinless man. holy man, harmless man. His life,
the life that he lived was perfect in every aspect. He was perfection
personified. When he was on this world, he
said, which of you convinces me of sin? But how could he be
our example that we should walk in his steps? Now, I would be
the first to tell you, be the first to tell you, that I seem
to live so far beneath my privilege as a believer. And there's so little that I
know. But because I'm not that way,
that doesn't mean that I'm going to give up, keep looking, and
keep trying, and keep trusting. That's not what I mean. But he's
our example by his submission. He said, Father, not my will,
but Thine be done. We can do that. God, give us
grace. We can do that. Say, Father,
not my will, but yours be done. You said, is this where it's
gonna be, Lord? If it had to be, you couldn't
have done anything about it. He'd say, Lord, give me your
grace. That's all you can do. We realize
how frail we, we're not, God said it like this. He says, He
pities us as a father pities his children, knowing that we're
nothing but what, dust? Dust. You ever seen the wind
pick up dust and just blow it? That's, we're just dust. That's
what God blows over us and we're dust. And oh my, so we submit
to him, Lord, not our will, but thine be done. Please, whatever
you do, do not leave me to my own will. Don't let me have my will. I don't want nothing to do with
free willism. I don't want nothing to do with
my will against God, because you cannot win. And oh, listen, he was obedient. We're obedient, you know. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, you
know, he that believeth my word and obeyeth my word, he's indeed
my disciple. We take him at his word. We do
what the Bible says, not what somebody else says, not what
a denomination says, or some preacher says. We say what God
said, and by his grace, we obey his blessed word. And you know
the first, the commandment that he gives us more than any other,
any other, is to love one another. That's the greatest thing he
told us to do. He said that over and over and
over. By this shall all men know you're my disciples. You'll have
love one another. He that loveth me, my Father
will love him. And we're gonna come and take
up our boat with him. And all beloved, in humility
was anybody as humble as our Lord Jesus Christ. No one was
as humble as our Lord Jesus Christ. No one. Humility, all the humility
that our Savior had, humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. We can have some humility. That's the most needful grace
I think that we need, other than the love of God shed abroad in
our heart. Humility. Humility. You know what humility
means? that you're the lowest one on
the rung. You're the lowest rung on the
ladder. That means everybody else is
above you, beyond you, better than you, more, you know, it's
just, and then we, he gave, and oh, as our example, can we not
give and give so generously? Give of ourselves, give of all
the things that God's blessed us with, And prayer. Oh, what
a prayer. What a man of prayer. When they
come to apprehend him in the Garden of Gethsemane, he went
over there to do what? To pray. Went over there to pray. And oh, forgiveness. Father,
forgive them. They know not what to do. Oh,
we can do that. Love, forgiveness. Oh, we can forgive. And oh, there's,
in fact, I've had words with men over the years and women
over the years, sisters and brothers in Christ over the years, and
I'm telling you something. After it's over and done with,
it's like it never happened. You know, you see little children.
They go to play and they'll, you know, first, you got two
kids, you got good kids. You put a third one in the mix,
you in trouble. One of them's gonna say, well, he's not treating
me right. Well, they didn't pay any attention to me. They did
not doing this, not doing that. So they'll get all out of pocket.
But you know what they'll do? They'll get all back together
and it'll be as if it never happened. And that's the way it is when
you have, if you have something goes on between the brothers
and her brother and sister, it's as if it never happened. It's
never brought up. It's never mentioned. And anybody
that can't forgive, They're not converted. I believe that with
all my heart. If you can't forgive, if somebody wrongs you and mistreats
you, I tell you what, in fact, you won't even tell them that
they've done it. You'll just take it and say, Lord, thank
you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my,
he was a servant? Can we not be a servant? Some of you are some of the Some
of you are some of the best. If you serve, I tell you, I can
say without a doubt, some of you are such servants, and I'm
so thankful for it. And we should be servants. You
see, when God gets through with us, we're gonna end up just like
His blessed Son. That's what this thing is about,
being conformed to His Son. And then let me give you another
one here right quick. He's the crown. of our life. When Christ, I say Christ's our
life, He's the crown of our life. Go right back over here to James.
Back to your left, James chapter 1 verse 12. He's the crown of
our life. He's the crown of it. You know, James said here, chapter
1 verse 12, blessed is the man that endureth temptation for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him. And what that means is that
he's the reward. He's the reward. You know he's
called the crown of life. He's talked about giving us a
crown of glory, a crown of righteousness, and an incorruptible crown. And
Paul said it like this, says, my departure is at hand. I've
fought a good fight, I've kept the faith, and the time of my
departure is at hand. Henceforth, I shall receive a
crown of righteousness as the Lord has promised to all them
that look for his appearing. And so when we get these crowns,
I've heard pre-millennials talk about this. I don't believe a
ounce of pre-millennials. It's awful, it's just a despicable
doctrine. But I know they'll say, well,
God, there's seven crowns you get, and boy, I want all seven
of them. Well, I'm telling you something.
Here, when it talks about all these crowns, Christ is the crown. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. And when we, if we once, if we
have crowns, you know what we're going to do with them when we
get there? We're going to throw everyone
at his feet. That's why Paul said, I press
toward the mark for the prize. What's the prize? Christ is the
prize. You know, when you run in a race,
and that's what he said, let us run with patience, the race
set before. You start, there's a starting
line, the starting place. Christ is the place we start.
We start with Christ. And you know what we do? We end. When we cross the finish line,
guess what our reward is? Christ himself. Oh, listen, what about you? Can you say Christ is my life? Can you say for me to live is
Christ and to die is gain? Oh, bless His holy name I can.
Now back over to Colossians and I'll wipe this thing, I'll wrap
this thing up. Back over here in Colossians
3. Oh my, He's the crown of it.
He's the crown of it. Oh my. He's the crown of our
life. Oh my. He's the glory of our life. He's
whom we glory in, whom we rejoice in. And look what he says there
in verse 4. Well, verse 3 says, For you're
dead and your life is healed with Christ in God. Let me tell
you this. The best, safest place to hide from God is in God. and our life is hid with Christ
in God. You can't find no better place
than that, can you? And then what it says, when Christ,
our life, now listen to this, shall appear, then shall we also
appear with him in glory. Whatever glory he has, that's
what he's gonna give us. We're gonna be changed in a moment. in the twinkling of an eye. That
quick. Oh, for a believer to go and
to be with Christ, when Christ, and He's going to appear. The
Lord, the scripture said, the trumpet shall sound, the Lord
shall descend, and those that are dead and asleep in Christ,
God will raise them from the dead and those which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the
Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Oh, no wonder he said Christ
our life. He's gonna appear in glory, but
we'll appear with him. You know there's a Let me tell
you, I hope I haven't preached too long. I know this. You read in Revelations, I forget
where it's at, but it says, you know, there's silence in heaven
for the space of 30 minutes. And I don't know if 30 minutes
is like our time or what, because God don't deal with time like
that. But whatever it is, I'm going to quit preaching and tell
you what I think that means. That when there's silence in
heaven for 30 minutes, that's gonna be when Christ receives
us all of his church, all of his blessed saints, into glory. And all the angels, all the angels
that minister to him, and ministers to us, those eternal beings,
will align the avenues of glory, and they'll stand in utter astonishment
that this kind of people This is what he went for. This is
who he died for. This is what he laid down his
life for. And they'll stand there and there'll be no sound while
we are taken down the streets of glory. Christ ascends his
blessed throne. And then we're gonna start singing
that new song. And you know, nobody know who
that song is except the redeemed. Amen. Oh, thank you, Larry, for letting
me come down. Oh, what a blessing. What a blessing.
I've enjoyed it so much. Love you all very much.