If you will, turn with me to
Colossians chapter 3, where my brother just read. I can't tell
you what a delightful, pleasant surprise
it was to look up and see Scott and Christine walk in. I was
not expecting them to be here today. I thought they would still
be driving back from Florida, but good to have you all back. I want to start out the message
this morning, and I confess, I want to give you a very morbid
illustration. Oh, great, huh? I want to give
it to you, though, because I think it will illustrate the point
that this passage of Scripture is making. Today, when you leave
here, go to the nearest funeral home or cemetery and find you
the body left of a deceased person. Just deceased. And see if you
can get that body. Take it on to yourself. Walk
around with it. Move its hands and its feet.
When it has an opportunity to commit some sort of outward horrible
sin, you hold it back from doing that. Use its hands to do some nice
kind work for somebody to help them out. And brag on it. Brag on how much
that body's done. And put all your confidence in
it. and say, I'm looking to this right here to get me to glory
with God. That'd be foolish, wouldn't it? That's what this passage is teaching
us. If we look to ourselves or anything on this earth other
than Christ, it's like glorying in a dead body. Believers, seek those things
which are above where Christ sits at God's right hand. Look
at Colossians 3.1. 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. The title of the message this
morning is Things Above, Not Things on the Earth. If you'll look over to the first
chapter with me in verse 12, it says, giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. in whom, in His Son, we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Has God made you fit to be a
partaker of the inheritance of the saints? Has God delivered
you from the power of darkness and translated you into the kingdom
of His dear Son? Has Christ bought you with His
own blood Have you been forgiven your sins, past, present, and
future? Then it's because you're risen
with Christ. Therefore, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of
God. Set your affection, your desires on those things and not
on things of the earth. Believers are the body of Christ,
His church. of which He's the head. Look
at Colossians 1.18. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning. He's also the beginning. He's
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace Through
the blood of his cross that is through his laying down his life
at Calvary By him to reconcile all things unto himself By him
I say whether they be things in earth of things in heaven
and you That were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
work Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh by dying to present you when He rose again. He presented you to the Father,
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Are you persuaded that He's risen?
Are you persuaded He's the firstborn from the dead? Are you persuaded
and satisfied that God's pleased for Him to have all preeminence? Has Christ made peace between
you and God through His blood? through His righteousness, by
laying down His life, by arising and presenting you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, then it's because you're risen
with Christ. Therefore, what does Paul say
here in verse 23? Continue in the faith. If you
continue in the faith, continue in it, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. We looked
at that in our lesson this morning. Which you've heard, which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul,
am a minister. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits at God's right hand. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of the earth. The reason we don't seek the
things on the earth is because the believer is no longer seeking
to glorify self. What do I mean by that? Verse
3. Chapter 3, verse 3. For ye are dead. This applies to everybody in
this room. The believer and the unbeliever.
The unbeliever is dead in trespasses and in sins. But the believer
to whom this applies is dead in Christ and risen with Christ
to live evermore. Look here, for you're dead and
your life is hid with Christ in God. It's hidden. I can't
see your life, Scott. I can't see it. I can't see your life, Art. Try
something else. I can't see the life that Christ
has given you and that you have in Him. I can't see it. You're dead. The life that you
and I can see, that you and I look upon as we look upon one another,
is really dead. It's dead. The believer's true life is hidden
with Christ in God. It's a hidden thing. Look here
at Colossians 2 verse 9. For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Do you want to look at
a body? Do you want to look at flesh
and glory in flesh and glory in a body? Then look to His. He's seated at the right hand
of God, a man, and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. All fullness dwells in Him. And
look here at this next verse. And ye are complete in Him, which
is the head of all principality and power. You know, when you
sit there in that job interview, you know what you can think? The head of my body is the one
in whose hand this man's heart is. He's the head of this man. He's running this whole operation
right here. He's the head of all principality and power in
whom in Christ also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands. The putting away of filthiness.
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. How did He do that? When He died. Through His death, He put off
all our sin, all our iniquity was put on Him. He was made sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And we were buried
with Him in baptism. Baptism is a picture of how we
were buried with Him when He went into the tomb. Wherein also
He arisen with Him through the faith of the operation of God. That's God's faithfulness. He's
faithful who promised Christ. And He raised Him again. And
when He raised Him, He raised you who believe in Him. Raised His people, His elect.
who hath raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your
sins, that's how you were, and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses. You mean I'm not guilty anymore?
No. He reconciled you to God. And not only that, but He blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. You mean
all the ceremonies are blotted out? All the law of God is fulfilled
and satisfied toward me? Yes. It was all contrary to us
and He took it out of the way. It was an obstacle between us
and God. And He took it out of the way.
Nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly. Triumphing over
them in Himself in everything He did. He did that. So you're dead let no man therefore
judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or
of the new moon or of the sabbath days Where are those things? Those things are below Those
things are down here We're we're exhorted to seek those things
which are above Where christ sits at god's right hand those
things are a shadow of things to come they all pictured christ
And the body's christ. Where's the body now? He's seated
at God's right hand. That's where we seek Him. Let
no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, a free
will humility, in worshiping of angels, intruding into those
things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind, not holding the head from which all the body by joints
and bands have nourishment, ministered to them and are knit together
and increases with the increase of God. Wherefore, if you be
dead with Christ, if you died in Christ, if you really did
die in Christ, and His people really did, the body of sin was
put away and we died in Him. If you be dead with Christ from
the rudiments of the world, the elements of the world, why as
though living in the world. Why doesn't he say why since
you are living in the world? He says why as though, as if
your life was in this world. As if your life was consisted
of things below. That's what he's saying. Why
then as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances? What does our text say? You're
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Where is Christ? He's at God's
right hand. So why do you act as though you're
living in the world and that you're dependent upon these things?
Subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which
all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines
of men. Because when they die, when you
die, when this body finally goes to the dust, those things are
going to perish with it. All your works, all your experience,
Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and
humility and neglecting of the body those things they're impressive
outwardly But not in any honor to the satisfying of flesh Why
did why did Christ have to take our sin upon himself and die
that our body might die? Why did he have to do that if
these things could satisfy the flesh? I? If these things could
make us make the flesh perfect, why then did Christ have to die
and rise again? Look at Romans 6, 6. I'll try
to keep this within reason on my time. Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, That our old man is crucified
with Him. That the body of sin might be
destroyed. That henceforth we should not
serve sin. It's not, it don't have dominion
over us. Sin's not what's ruling us. The
lust of the flesh is not what's ruling us anymore. We got a new
king now. And therefore we don't serve
sin. And I'm going to get to that
in just a minute and talk about what that is. For he that is dead
is freed from sin. Dead men aren't sinning anymore.
And if we be dead with Christ, we believe we'll also live with
Him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no
more. And you being raised from the
dead in Him, dieth no more. When you put off this body, that's
not death for the believer. That's the first day of all eternity. That's a happy day. The happiest
day you'll ever have. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Seek those things which are above. Don't seek things below. Don't
look below. Seek Christ where He's risen. You don't want to live in sin?
Seek Christ where He's risen. Let's move on now. When Christ
who is our life shall appear, then ye also appear alive with
Him in glory. You'll be with Him in glory.
Right now we have Romans 8.10. Let me just read this to you
because I'm trying to move along here. It says, If Christ be in
you, the body's dead because of sin. You see, it's still dead. It's still what it always has
been. But the spirit is life because of righteousness. There's
where a life is there's where that's the hidden man of the
heart. That's the inward man But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his spirit that dwelleth in you Now, oh, no, no, no, not right
now Your mortal bodies are gonna die just like mine is gonna go
to the grave But afterwards, He's going to quicken those bodies
and raise them. You know why He doesn't quicken
them now? Because right now we look one
place. We're looking where we're seated,
at the right hand of God with Him. Because we still got the
old man with us. We still got this body of death
with us. We still got it worn against us. So we're still constantly
dependent upon Him. We've got to go through much
tribulation and learn and learn and learn over and over and over
and over not to look to this flesh, not to look to things
below, not to look to anything here because this is not our
life. Our life is in Christ. Hidden in Christ is with Christ
in God. That's where our life is. Now
look here, so how are we to treat the flesh if our life is the
hidden man of the heart? How are we going to treat our
flesh? I'm in the flesh. I'm still in the flesh. So what
do I do? How am I to treat this flesh?
Look at verse 5. Verse 5. 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,
in those things, you also walked some time when you lived in them."
When you lived in your members, which are upon the earth, those
are the things that, that's the fruit that we brought forth.
That's the best we could muster up, was those things. Now, but
now ye also put off all these. Now here's more inward, in the
heart. This is where these outward things
begin, where they come from. Put off all these, anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one
to another, seeing that you've put off the old man with his
deeds. What does the Spirit of God mean
here when it says, lie not one to another? Well, of course, we know it means
don't lie. We know that's what it means. If you tell somebody something,
tell them the truth. Don't lie to them. But you see
the problem at Colossae here was, is that some men were coming
in and they were saying, we want to tell you about some great
things, about angels. We want to tell you that you
need to touch this and not touch that. That there's some ordinances
you need to obey. Now let me show you here. Look
at Colossians 2 verse 4. And this I say, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words." If I beguiled you with
enticing words, do you think I'd be lying to you? Well, yeah. I'm tricking you. That's what
the word means. Look here at verse 8. Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ. If I did those things, would
I be lying to you? I sure would. If I start speaking philosophy
and using vain deceit to deceive you, I'm lying to you. Look at
verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon
or of the Sabbath day. If I bring you under the law
again and under the yoke of bondage and tell you, you guys stay under
this yoke now, this is what's going to keep you, I've lied
to you. Look here with me at verse 18.
Paul says, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which
he hath not seen. Why does he do them? Because
he's vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and he don't know
Christ. He don't see Him, don't know
Him, don't love Him, don't have anything, don't want anything
to do with Him. And everything that that man speaks is a lie. It's a lie. Tempting believers
with our own flesh is tempting them to commit spiritual fornication
Look back now at our text verse 5. We're gonna go through these
Mortify your members which are upon the earth if I tempt you
to look back to your flesh And I entice you to and paint
a beautiful portrait of your flesh and what it can do for
you, and you go to it, you've left Christ and you've committed
spiritual fornication. That's where sin begins. Everything
else that happens afterwards, the literal meaning here of fornication
is nothing more than the self exalting itself and saying, I'll
be God. I'm going to do what I want to
do. And I'm giving you the spiritual application of these so that
you see the deeper meaning of them, so that you see how that
we're to make these outward things dead. If we have the innermost
meaning of these things, then it'll be easier for us to say,
I'm just going to ignore it. I'm not going to do anything.
I'm not going to cater that flesh anymore. Look here. Uncleanness. If I said, If you reform that
flesh and you clean up that flesh, you'll be clean before God. I'm
saying you can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing.
I'm saying that the Ethiopian can change his skin and the leopard
can change his spots. That can't happen. That's uncleanness. If I preach those things, I'm
being unclean. I'm committing spiritual fornication
for you. Wasting sinner's time with things
that are not revealed in Scripture, angels, times and seasons, dispensations
and eschatology and all these things that men write book after
book after book and preach message after message after message on.
It's inordinate affection. You know what that is? That is,
exceeding curiosity which goes beyond the limits of revelation.
It's affection. It's all out of order. It wasn't
ordained. It wasn't given to us. It's inordinate
affection. And so is looking at this flesh. It's flesh is what it is. All
of these things, at the heart of all of these things is, I'm
going to be God. I'm going to do what I want to
do. I'm going to prove God's Word wrong. That's what's at
the heart of all these things. Now look here. Pointing men to
the flesh instead of to the Spirit is evil concupiscence. That word
concupiscence means cravings, lusts. It's an evil, lustful
craving for God's glory. Covetousness comes right behind.
It's coveting to bring, to look and say, I want those sheep and
I want them in my pasture. Well, they're God's sheep and
you can't have them, God says. That's evil cravings. That's
coveting that which belongs to God. Then the second branch of sin
that Paul says here we also put away where all the others begin
in the heart. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy. You know what all these things
end up? They end up in filthy communication out of the mouth.
Lying to one another and calling it worshipping God. And these things are the best
we can come up with in our old flesh. That's the best our flesh
has to offer. Even now, brethren, even now,
that's the best we have to offer. We can't present it to God. Carnal
religion, that's the best it has to offer. Why do men put
on robes when they get up to preach and look all silly? They
got to show you they're righteous somehow. It's all outward. It's all carnal. It's all carnal. It's sin against God, first of
all. It says here that it's idolatry. It's idolatry. Every one of these
things are idolatry. Why? Because it's the worship
of self. It's the seeking of things that
are below. It's looking to things that are below and not looking
to Christ, who's seated at the right hand of God. Secondly, these sins are against
our own selves. And thirdly, these sins are against
our fellow man. And it all ends up in death. That's all it is, is death. It's
death trying to worship God through death, is what it is. Those things can't be, brethren.
Now, mortify, what does that mean? It means make them dead.
Paul says this, treat your flesh exactly as it is. Treat it just
like it is. It's dead. Treat it that way. Treat it like it is. How do we
mortify our members? First of all, we mortify our
members through the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God gave
you life and turned you from yourself to Christ, He revealed
to you, in you, your old man was dead. And that you were alive
in Christ and you died to that old man. Isn't that what Paul
said? When the commandment came, sin revived and I died. If I sin, Paul said, it's no
longer I that do it. It's sin that dwelleth in me.
For I know that in my flesh..." Wait a minute now. Let me back
up because I am born of the Spirit. That is, in my flesh dwells no
good thing. He said, I know that in me. Then
he said, in my flesh dwells no good thing. I'm born of the Spirit
of God, and that's how I worship God, in spirit. But this flesh,
it's just what it was. It wars. The spirit wars against
the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and the contrary
one to the other. So how am I going to mortify him? When the Spirit
came and gave you life, you turned from that dead body and you said,
the light came on. And you realized, these things
I've been holding on to are death. And you said, get thee hence
from me like a filthy rat. Get away from me. I don't want
to have anything to do with you anymore. And there's where the
warfare started. That's when the war started between
that old man and the new man. But that happened through the
Spirit. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with
the affections and the lusts, Paul told the Galatians. They've
already done it. They did it. When? When God gave
me faith and I said, Christ is my life. My life is hid in Christ.
I'm risen with Him. Put away that flesh. Done with
it. It's over with. Not going to have anything else
to do with it. But now, it's still with me, isn't it? It's
still with me. These things we just read about,
they're ugly things. And if everybody here is honest
with me, everybody here say you still struggle with them. Every
one of them. The Lord said, it's written in
your law, thou shalt not commit adultery. But if you look on
a woman to lust after, you've already done it in your heart.
I'm talking about the heart of the matter. The Lord said, it's
not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, it's what
comes out of his heart that defiles him. But we all, every one of
us here, still wrestle with these things and struggle with these
things. So how do we make these, how do we ignore it? How do we
treat it as if it's dead? The Spirit of God continues lifting
our attention, our eyes to Christ. He doesn't leave us. We continually
are turned to Him and look up to Him. and are continually turned
away from self. We may go through a season. We
may fall into looking at ourselves and going, well, you know, I've
cleaned up my act a lot in the past 30 years. Proud of that. That's that flesh. If Christ left you, if the Spirit
of God left you to that, you know what the next thing you
do? You'd start telling other people, you need to be like me.
The next thing you know, you'd set up all kinds of rules and
regulations on how to govern God's people. And the next thing
you'd do, you'd be whipping people that didn't live up to Him like
you live up to Him. And all the while, all you've
done is gone right back into the grave and pulled out that
dead body again and started going, look at what I've done. Look
at what I've done. Here's my hope. A dead body,
that's my hope. The Spirit of God takes us in
those hours and convicts us in our heart. Sprinkles the conscience
with that blood again of Christ and turns us from dead works
to serve the living God. He turns us. I like the, I want
to give you illustrations. Look at Romans 8 with me. I was
just noticing this. I see it all through scripture.
I just, I was kind of trying to show it to you here through
Colossians. But I'll show you here in Romans
8, 12. I want you to see something. Notice how the Spirit of God
always moved men to write the blessed accomplishments of our
Redeemer. Then the Spirit of God gives
us encouragement to treat this flesh as if it's dead. All through
Scripture this is the case. I want to show you Romans 8,
12 begins, Now let's see, as Brother Henry
always said, let's see what it's there for. Go back with me and
listen to all the good news that the Spirit of God moved Paul
to write in these verses leading up to this 12th verse. Romans
8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 2. The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Romans 8.3, God sent in his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Look at Romans 8.9, the
end of it. You're not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
That's good news. Look at Romans 8.10. If Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive
because of righteousness. I just read that too, verse 11.
And that same Spirit is going to raise that body one day too.
Glorified. That's all good news. And then
he comes to this, and he says, after pointing out Christ and
everything He accomplished, and all that the Spirit accomplished
in you, and that the Father ordained before the foundation of the
world, then he comes to this, Romans 8, 12, and says, Therefore,
brethren, we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if ye through the Spirit,
do make dead the deeds of the body, he shall live. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they're sons of God. And you've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received
the spirit of adoption. You're a son. You're not a servant,
a son. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're children
of God. There it is. He continually points
us from ourselves. We start looking at this flesh
and seeing what we're not doing and how we're breaking God's
law continually. We don't really think about our
thoughts. We go past that. It always used
to tickle me. Men would tell you, don't preach
that message of depravity. You catch more flies with honey
than you do with vinegar. We exalt ourselves a little bit
too much. Before a fly comes a maggot,
and we're a maggot. We're not even a fly. We're less
than a fly. That's what we are. But what
it says here, when we start looking at that and we start getting
all bent out of shape and all legalistic because we've been
sinning hand over fist and we know we have, thinking bad thoughts,
saying bad things, doing bad things, Christ reveals to us
again through the Spirit, you're a son. You're a daughter. I bought you. You don't have
any sin. I've redeemed you. And the carnal
mind says, you can't tell men that, they'll just go out and
sin. No, God says the opposite. He says it's that way that Christ
turns us from this flesh to Him. And we seek those things above
and we have the peace of God in our heart. Isn't that right?
And then we start looking at the flesh and we start talking
about how good we've done. And we start getting puffed up
then. And in case we Run off and think we can stand on our
own. He brings us back down again and points us right back to Christ.
Continues and says, you're a son. You're a son. You're not God.
You're not the Father. But you are a son. Now come down. Get back down here where you
belong. Quit thinking so highly. Or if you're brought down, get
back up here where you belong. You're a son. And he keeps us
there. Now let's go on. That's what Paul meant when he
said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But
I see another law of my members warring against the law of my
mind, bringing me into captivity. He cried, O wretched man that
I am. What did he say? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I used that morbid illustration.
That's where I got it from. Right there. That's exactly what
Paul said. You've read of that old Hebrew
punishment where they used to take a man that committed murder,
and they would take a dead body and strap it to his back, and
he had to walk around with that body until it decomposed. That'd be rough, wouldn't it? A man would be hard-pressed to
get through that. Not the man that's born of the
Spirit of God. That's what He's doing. That's what we're doing
right now. We're walking around until this
body decomposes and it's gone back to the dust. But because
He bought it, He's going to raise it, glorify it. It's like He's
already given us life in the Spirit. You see what I'm saying? That's seeking things above.
That's not looking to things on the surface. There's not anything
I can do for Him or against Him. in my flesh. But in the Spirit,
by His grace, I can just sit and say, Lord, I believe you.
I trust you. I'm going to follow you. Now, listen. We seek those
things that are above, where God sits at His right hand. And in doing so, verse 9, you
put off the old man with his deeds. We don't put him off for
good, do we? But we lay him apart. We put
him aside. We don't have anything to do
with him. put off the old man with his deeds and have put on
the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of
Him that created him. You and I didn't do that. That's
what the Spirit of God did when He gave us life. Gave us a new
heart, a new nature. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew. You see, you know how badly the
Greeks and the Jews hated one another? But there's neither one of them
now. for a believer. He's not looking at race, circumcision
or uncircumcision. He's not looking at law. Barbarian or Scythian, bond or
free. He's not looking at your status
in this world. The believer's not even looking
at you or me. The believer's looking at Christ.
If I'm looking at Him, I can't see you. If I'm looking at him,
I can't see my own flesh. I'm treating it like it's dead.
That's what it is. And here's the conclusion. One
last word here. Paul ends with, "...the fruits
of the Spirit in the inner man, the hidden life which is hid
with Christ in God, wherein the believer walks." He says, verse
12, "...put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved."
That's what you are. as the elect of God, as risen
in Christ, you're holy and beloved of God. You can't change that,
that promise we looked at this morning, by two immutable things,
by His decree, His purpose, and by His covenant, everlasting
covenant, in which it's impossible for God to lie. That can't be
changed. It's indestructible grace. Unchangeable, immutable, can't
be changed. So these things I'm about to
show you, they're not going to add to it one bit. But they're
the fruit of the Spirit and wherever God's made a man holy and loves
him with an everlasting love, these things are going to exist.
They're going to exist. If He's spirits in him, they
are. Look here. Put on vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind. Those men that intruded into
things that they didn't know anything about, why'd they do
it? They were puffed up in their fleshly mind. Christ gives us
humbleness of mind. We don't think more highly of
self than we all. Meekness. You read your bulletin
this morning, there's a word on meekness. Swift to hear, slow
to speak, slow to wrath. Long-suffering. Forbearing one
another. and forgiving one another. If
any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. And above all these things put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, love. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts. have dominion, reign, not lust
of the flesh, the peace of God, to the which also you are called
in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, not lying to one another, not
pointing to our downfall, to our faults, appoint one another
to things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms. Who do all
our songs speak of? Or all the psalms speak of? And
hymns. Who do all our hymns speak of?
And spiritual songs. Who do all our songs... Have
you ever heard somebody say, that's music to my ears. When
you have a brother that's cast down and you remind him you're
a son in Christ, that's music to his ear. That's a spiritual
song. You might not be able to carry a tune in a bucket, but
that's a good song right there. Singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word
or deed, Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him. You know where the Spirit of
God has ended this message up? Right where He started it. Everything
He just said right there is the same thing as saying, 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. It just come full
circle, didn't it? Oh, I hope that's a blessing
to you. It was to me. I preached it to Melinda when
she came in from work the other night. She asked me that I want
her to get on the telephone and call y'all all together right
quick. I really wish we could have, but I hope that's a blessing
to you. I really do.