Turn with me if you will please
into Colossians chapter 3 Colossians chapter 3 and the first four
verses My message today is the next one in the series that I've
started on Sundays in Colossians, and it follows on from a long
series that I did in Revelation, and really it was the series
in Revelation that has prompted these thoughts, but when I came
to look for a suitable text, these first four verses of Colossians
chapter three were very much put upon my mind. Let's just
read them first of all. If ye 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 ye are dead, and 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." I've
called this message, Things Which Are Above. How many more gatherings
for fellowship in the gospel? It's great to get together year
by year and we in our own fellowships and gatherings week by week.
How many more gatherings for fellowship in the gospel are
there going to be? What about the days in which
we live? Does it not seem, certainly seems to me, as though we're
living in what Revelation calls Satan's little season before
the end. Because I look and I see everything
that I can see that needs to be completed is all but completed.
I cannot see anything else that is remaining. For sure, the end
is coming. This was a great lesson that
we took from the book of Revelation and I know how familiar it is
to so many of you. was that the end is coming, the
end of this created order, the end of this space-time universe
in which we live. It's not going on forever. Yes,
the scientists, the cosmologists will say, yes, the universe is
coming to an end when the life cycle of stars and galaxies runs
its evolutionary course from the Big Bang until it all collapses
again in billions of years. No, no, not according to that.
It's coming to an end when God decrees that all things are accomplished. All things that he has said must
be accomplished. When all things are accomplished,
it is going to end. This world that looks so firm,
we're warned in the scripture about the things that look so
solid, and yet how, in reality, how fleeting they are. So Paul,
in these verses, encourages believers to set their affection on things
above, not on the earth, not on the things of the earth. I
was once told many years ago when I was talking about Christian
things and the things of the gospel to somebody who didn't
believe the gospel that I was becoming too heavenly minded
to be any earthly use. You might have heard that phrase.
That is not the counsel of scripture. The counsel of scripture is set
your affection. on things above. What is your
affection? What does he mean here by your... Set your holy
covetousness. You know there is a covetousness
which is sin. Thou shalt not covet. There is
a covetousness which is idolatry. But there's a holy covetousness,
coveting the presence of God, coveting the righteousness of
God, coveting the eternity of God. Set your holy covetousness,
your affection on that sinless bliss, that perfect, endless
communion with the living God, to which those who are his people
from all eternity are destined. But who is it then that has any
claim to this prospect of eternal glory? I think if you were to
ask everybody, if they were being perfectly honest, they have a
great sense of immortality, that this is not the sum total and
the end of all things. And that when they die, they
hope that they're going to something good, that their consciousness
is going on to something good. But as we know, according to
the scriptures, the vast majority of those who have some hope of
going to something better or comfortable or not too bad beyond
death. Their hope is a completely false
hope. Their hope is a groundless hope.
It's based on nothing but shifting sand and not on the solid foundation
of the rock which is Christ. No, it's only those with what
Peter calls like precious faith. like precious faith as these
Colossian believers have. In the first few verses of Colossians
in chapter 1 you see that Paul marks out what it was, Epaphras,
their faithful minister, came to him when he was under house
arrest in Rome. and told him about these people
that he'd been ministering to, these Colossians. And he was
clearly overflowing with joy at the way that they were receiving
the word from him. And he marks them out as those
who have faith in Christ Jesus. Not faith up there, Faith down
here. Heart faith. They've got heart
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's turned their affections. It's turned their desires. It
informs what they think, and what they do, and where they
go, and the voice that they hear. Their faith in Jesus Christ.
Which issues itself, because it's not just head knowledge,
it issues itself in love. To all the saints. Love to all
the saints. Key mark of those who are true
believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the fact also that they walk
around with a hope. They have a hope which is laid
up for you in heaven. Faith, love, and hope. And if
you look down in verse 27 of chapter 1, Paul there says that
the basis of the mystery is Christ in you. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Those that are bound to the rock, which is Christ, by the anchor
that keeps the soul, they're the ones who have a hope of eternal
life. They're the ones who have the
need as Paul says here to set their affection on things above
because that is their destiny and they have the grounds if
they're in Christ to have a solid basis for that hope which is
set before them. Peter says to believers in 1
Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 he says be always ready this
is a mark of Christians be always ready to give a reason To anyone
that asks you why you have this hope of eternal glory, it's something
that we ought to have in our minds all the time. This is not
going on forever, so this is why I ask, how many more of these
gatherings? We ought to be waiting, we ought
to be looking, we ought to be, as Don Faulkner says, standing
on the tiptoe of faith, looking for Christ to come again, because
He's coming again. These things are going to end.
He's going to wind up this creation. He's going to wind up, in judgment,
this sinful creation corrupted by Satan and all his demons.
And he's going to bring in his kingdom. What did Jesus teach
his disciples to pray? Thy kingdom come. That's what
he taught them to pray. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom
come. It's those who have a vital union
with Christ who have this hope in them. A vital union. They
have a vital, living union with Christ. Do you know, believer,
if you know you're in the Lord Jesus Christ, have you meditated
upon this? How united with Christ you are. The scriptures tell us that we
were united with him before there was such a thing as time. Never
mind this world in which we'd... Before there was time, we were
united with Christ in sovereign electing grace. In the love of
God, we were foreknown. and being foreknown we were predestinated
and being predestinated we were called yes I'm sure that means
called by the gospel but I also think it means in the context
called with his name you know how it used to be before we liberalized
marriage and all the other things you know the wife was happy to
suddenly stop being called by her maiden name and be called
by her husband's name and you've been called with his name we're
united in an eternal marriage with the Lamb before the beginning
of time. And in time, because He loved
us, He came and justified us by satisfying the law at the
cross of Calvary, as Peter so clearly reminded us this morning.
And being justified, what's your destiny? Being justified, we
all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the
things done in the body. What's your plea going to be
there? Your plea is just going to be
this. It's going to be, Christ has died for me. Christ has satisfied
the law for me. And you'll hear those blessed,
blessed words. Come, you blessed of my father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. And how do we experience it all?
Here and now? Whilst we're bound in these bodies
of sin, this weak flesh in this world, how do we experience it
all? we experience it all by faith.
It's by faith that we experience it. So I want you to look with
me and again I'm trying to keep to time and keep things moving
along and conscious of the fact that you've listened to a lot
of preaching so far but I'd like you to look with me at the marks
that Paul delineates here in these verses of those who have
a sound basis for expecting to be taken to eternal glory. First
of all, and I'm not doing it in the order they appear, but
first of all in verse three, for ye are dead. For ye are dead. Ye are dead. Peter mentioned
this this morning. Ye are dead. The sole basis for
a credible expectation of heaven is union with Christ. it's a
marriage union with Christ Christ and his church husbands love
your wives as Christ loved his church and he goes on wives submit
to your husbands in all things and oh here's some good good
sociological uh... teaching about how husbands and
wives ought to behave and then Paul tells us but I'm really
speaking about Christ and the church Christ and the church
that's the marriage he's talking about in God's divine justice
our only claim to justification and sanctification is by virtue
of our union with Christ as Ephesians 1 verse 4 says chosen in him
before the foundation of the world such that such that this
is how united we are Ephesians 5 30 we are members of his body
of his flesh even of his bones how united is that we're members
of his body of his flesh and of his bones believer If you
are in Christ, you are united with him in every aspect of his
work of redemption. If you would be united with him
in the bliss of eternity, you must be united with him in his
earthly existence, in every aspect of what he is. He resembled us
in taking our flesh, wasn't he? He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh, yet without sin. He took our flesh, he resembled
us in taking our flesh. and we resemble him when the
Holy Spirit comes in the new birth in taking his spirit if
any man have not the spirit of Christ as Paul tells us in Romans
8 we are none of his we don't belong to him you must have the
spirit of Christ we must resemble him in taking his spirit by his
spirit coming upon us he bore the earthly image that we might
bear the heavenly image as first Corinthians 15 tells us When
he shall appear, says John, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. But a key part of that union
and that conformity with Christ is in his death. ye are dead,
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God, ye are
dead. Christ came, why did he come?
A body was prepared, a body of flesh and blood, a body of human
flesh and blood, yet without sin. Why was a body prepared? Because he had to come to justify
human beings as a human being. He had to come with human blood.
What was the price of sin? The soul that sins, it shall
die, it shall die. And where is the life of the
being? The life is in the blood. And he, united with his people,
like as I often tell our folks, the husband, in old law, used
to bear full legal responsibility for the deeds of his wife. In
that perfect picture, the husband, Christ, The church's husband
took full legal responsibility, and where the law demanded their
death, he, as the infinite substitute, stood in their place and came
to die. That's why he came. He came that
in a body he might die. He came that in a body his lifeblood,
his innocent, perfect lifeblood, the life is in the blood that
it might be poured out unto death on the cross where he bore that
curse that curse that cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree
but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being
made a curse for us hanging on that tree and pouring out his
blood for us that human yet sinless person that human yet sinless
person who was made sin that his people might be made the
righteousness of God in him that human person in whom a few verses
earlier in chapter 2 of Colossians in verse 9 we're told in him
The man, Christ Jesus, in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. And he was shown he did no sin.
He lived perfectly. Why did he live perfectly? To
show us that he was the Passover substitute, as they used to examine
the Passover lamb for 14 days before the Passover, to check
that it was a lamb without blemish and without spot, that it was
perfect. That's why he lived under the
law. Could the law find anything wrong with him? No. Who accuses
me of sin? Nobody could bring any accusation. And being perfect, He was made
sin, made the sin of his people. And being made the sin of his
people, why do all of the Psalms, you know you read through the
Psalms, and yes they're the experience of David, and yes they're the
experience of individual believers. but they're also the experience
of Christ. My sins have overwhelmed me. Who's speaking there? Christ
is speaking there when he was made. Did he ever commit sin?
Never. But he was made the sin of his
people. Why was he made the sin of his
people? That he might bear it and that he might satisfy the
law in his death for it. Why? That his people might be
made the righteousness of God in him. he drained the cup of
the wrath of God for his people so that his people might be made
that righteousness of God in him and truly when he died his
people in union with him died in him and so Paul says here
what is A shocking statement to start with. You read this,
you are dead. You think, no I'm not. Yes, you
are in Christ. If you're in Christ, you are
dead. You are crucified with Christ. As we read this morning,
Galatians 2.21, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live in this flesh, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Legally,
before God's law, we're dead. Legally, before God's law, we've
been killed. We're dead to sin and its legal
demands. Just as when in this country
we used to have execution for capital offences, when the law
had executed a criminal, there was no more it could say to him.
There was no more it could do to him. It had vented all of
its anger on him. There was nothing else to be
done. The law had no more claim over it. He's dead. He's dead.
He's dead. But in what sense are we dead?
In what sense are we dead? When did you begin to die, truly? when your soul was made alive
to God by His grace. When His grace came, made your
soul alive to God by grace, separated you in your mind by that new
man of the Spirit of God in the new birth, separated you from
fleshly pursuits. Yes, the flesh still loves its
fleshly pursuits, but there's now a new man. there's the spirit
of God separated from fleshly pursuits killed by God's law
what does Paul say about covetousness as a Pharisee he thought he was
perfect he thought he was blameless before the law he thought there
was nothing that the law could say to him until the Holy Spirit
convicted him and he read thou shalt not covet and he realized
what a coveter he was and the law killed him he says the law
killed him killed under God's just wrath given a sense of conviction. Who's been given a sense of conviction
other than those that are truly the people of God? Those that
listen to me regularly will know I nearly always quote this, but
there's that lovely hymn which says, a sinner is a sacred thing. Why? The Holy Ghost has made
him so. A sinner is a sacred thing, a
sense of conviction. Repentance. What's repentance?
Something I do. No, it's not. It's the gift of
God that God has granted to the Gentiles. Repentance. Dying to
the things of time and space and all the enticements that
it contains so that your life your true, eternal, spiritual
life, your new birth life, is hid with Christ in God. Yes,
the flesh continues to live with its sinful lusts, but when it
comes to judgment, the flesh is dead already in Christ. It's
crucified with Him. Is that you, believer? I don't
often read out things that I've found but many of you will know
our dear friend Rose Fenton who is not well she's often confined
to bed and I'm sure she's going to listen to this later so she'll
get a shock when she just heard me say that but she sends out
daily JC Philpott devotionals and the one from last Wednesday
is this let me read this as dying and behold we live Though we
die and die daily, yet, behold, we live. And in a sense, the
more we die, the more we live. The more we die to self, the
more we die to sin. The more we die to pride and
self-righteousness, the more we die to creature strength.
And the more we die to nature, the more we live to grace. And
this runs all the way through the life and experience of a
Christian. Nature must die, that grace may
live. The weeds must be plucked up,
that the crop may grow. The flesh be starved, that the
spirit may be fed. The old man put off, that the
new man be put on. The deeds of the body be mortified,
that the soul may live unto God. As we then die, we live. The
more we die to our own strength, the more we live to Christ's
strength. The more we die to creature hope, the more we live
to a good hope through grace. The more we die to our own righteousness,
the more we live to Christ's righteousness. And the more we
die to the world, the more we live to and for heaven. This
is the grand mystery that the Christian is always dying, yet
always living. And the more he dies, the more
he lives. The death of the flesh is the
life of the spirit. The death of sin is the life
of righteousness. And the death of the creature
is the very life of God in the soul. Christ in you, the hope
of... What beautiful words, what lovely words. I found that so
encouraging. So is that you, believer? Do
you hold the things of the flesh? Yes, we all have things in the
flesh, the things, our families, the things that we love, the
things that we possess, there are things that you're very,
very fond of, I know, I know, we all are, don't try to deny
it, that's the nature of flesh. But how do you hold it? Do you
hold it like that? In a tight fist, clenching it?
Why do you hold it in an open hand? On an open palm? Knowing
that God who is sovereign over all things can come along whatever
it is and if he thinks it's for your good and if he deems that
it's to correct you and to loosen your grip on the things of this
world he might just take it away from you. Do we live like that?
Do we live like that? Or are our affections grasping
tenaciously to the delights of the flesh and physical existence?
Those who have the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ are dead with
Him. If you're dead with Christ, then
just as surely you are risen with Him. Look at verse 1. If
then, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above. When he says if, and he's talking
to believers. He doesn't mean some of you are
and some of you are not. When he says if, he means seeing
that. Seeing. If you're believers,
if you've got the faith, the love, and the hope of true believers,
if Christ is in you, giving you that hope of glory, then it's
seeing. Because of that, you are risen
with Christ by virtue of your union. If you just look back
at verse twelve, of chapter 2, buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead. Baptism is a picture
of what has happened to the believer by virtue of union with Christ
buried in baptism in the waters symbolizing the death with Christ
the death to the flesh and to the sin and all that he has redeemed
us from and the resurrection coming up out of the tomb the
resurrection with him it is pictured there in baptism transgressions
put Christ on the cross. He was lifted up for our transgressions,
but having paid the ransom price in full, he was raised for our
justification, Romans 4.25. And so we read these words in
Ephesians 2, 5 and 6, Even when we were dead in sins, He has
quickened us together, God has quickened us together with Christ.
By grace are ye saved. And listen, and hath raised us
up together. He's talking to people that are
living on this earth in those days. And the same applies to
believers now. You, if you believe in Christ,
if you're in Him, if you're united to Him, He has raised us. It's done. It's a done deed.
He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. As we die in Christ, so we rise
in Him. When Christ rose from the dead,
the law had no more power over Him. It had expended itself in
killing Him. And as with him, so with believers. The law has no more power over
us to condemn us. So Paul says in Romans 8 and
verse 1, there is therefore, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Christ Jesus.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
And that knowledge of being in Christ, with there being no more
power of law to condemn us, no more power of law to condemn
us, rejoicing in it, does that not make your heart glad? Or
is it something that is just without any emotion at all, it's
just a fact that you keep hearing. I tell you, if you know it, if
you experience it in your heart, it's a cause of rejoicing, rejoicing
in Him. As when Christ showed Himself
to the disciples, John 20 and verse 20, He showed unto them
His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. And so we rejoice in the Spirit
when we see these things. We are with Him all the way.
were with him, when united to him in eternity, before the beginning
of time. When he came and was born, when
that miraculous, that wonderful, that incomprehensible thing happened,
our God contracted to a span, as that hymn says, when he became
man. When he became that which he
had not been before, in time he became man. When He lived
under the law, we were with Him. When He went to the death on
the cross, the Scriptures assure us, you are dead with Him. When
He was buried in the grave, we were buried with Him. When the
Holy Spirit came on that third day and quickened Him in the
tomb, and He rose from the dead, we were with Him in Christ. When
He ascended to heaven, Paul has told us, we're raised up together
and sitting in heavenly places in Christ. We're sitting there
in him. In all these things the church
has union and communion with Christ. Jesus said, what were
some of the first words he said following his resurrection? Go
and tell the disciples, go and tell them, I go to my father
and your father. I go to my God and to your God. So that, he talks about the hope
which is set before us, the hope that is set before us. Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus. And then he goes on to say in
that same passage of Hebrews 6, "...and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Believer. Believer. You're there already. Do you
know that? You're there already. Already? What's that a word to do with?
Already is a word to do with time, isn't it? You know, I always,
we always do, because we're creatures of time. I slip into the mistake
when I'm talking about heaven, you know, do you know what, the
argument I have with Amazing Grace, the hymn, is that verse
that says, when we've been there 10,000 years, I'm sorry, there's
no time there. That's a concept that we're bound
to in this space-time realm. Already is a word to do with
time. But what did John see? You know
the vision that John saw in Revelation? John saw a multitude that no
man can number of every tongue and tribe and kindred. And where
were they? In eternity. They were in heaven.
Are you there? Are you there in eternity? I
know we're bound here now, but Paul assures us you're there
in eternity with him. And so We're dead, we're risen,
but we have this hope, and we're waiting for it. This is my third
point, we're waiting for it. Verse four, when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory. Waiting for things. Seems a long
time, doesn't it? Some things seem an awfully long
time coming. I'll give you an illustration.
And I'm not doing this in the slightest because I want any
of you to send me a birthday card next year. But, you know,
ever since I was about 30 years old, every year I used to get
a pension statement. And it would say, your date of
retirement is the 26th of May, 2016. And it seemed like 35 years to
go. And then it was 25 years to go. And then it was 15 years to go. Oh boy, it went on and on and
on. And I wonder when on earth is it ever going to... I'm really coming to the conclusion
that this retirement date is fiction. And it isn't going to
happen. You know what I'm alluding to
how we think about heaven and heaven coming. I'll tell you,
last Thursday it was the 26th of May, 2016, and it's done. I'm an old age pensioner now,
officially. As surely as that, no, more surely
than that, the promises of God concerning the return of Christ,
they're going to happen. The perfection of his church,
our translation into his kingdom of eternal bliss, it will come. It's fast approaching. I've already
said, I'll say it again, He's done everything that He has said
He would do. We found that when we were studying
Revelation, we came to the conclusion that we can see virtually nothing
left that needs to be done. He's done it all. It's just waiting.
We're on the tiptoe of faith, looking. This all creation, as
much as aspects of it we might love, and we relish the things
of what he's got for us is so much better. Oh, said Paul, I'm
in a straight between two, whether to stay or whether to depart,
but to depart and be with Christ is far better. I tell you, whatever
your greatest bliss is here, whatever things you've yet to
do, you might have things to do in your career, in your life,
some are just starting out, some are seeing the end in view, you
know, whatever it is you have to do the things that Christ
has you know what's that verse that talks about we haven't come
close to conceiving what he has prepared for those that love
him are things good here yes of course they are some things
are do you want to leave them no you don't want to, loved ones
things that you've got, business things that you're doing, interests,
they're all legitimate in themselves, but, verse two, set your affection
on things above. Cultivate it. Cultivate it. How do you do it? Meditate on
it. use the you know the blessing of preaching and reading and
prayer and all I'm not doing a kind of a legal you must do
all of these things but these are the things that encourage
you to set your hearts on things above your affection on things
above because it's far better than here. Philippians 1.23 was
that verse where Paul said, to be with Christ, which is far
better. Set your affection. He exhorts us. Subdue fleshly
affections. Promote heavenly ones. Subdue
the old man of the flesh. Liberate the new man of the spirit
at every opportunity. And the more you do, the more
desirable heavenly things will appear. Amen.