Don't believe we could have had
a more appropriate scripture reading or song than we did for
this message. I. Hope the Lord is pleased to bless
our consideration of that passage scripture I just read. I covet
your prayers. That the Lord will enable me
to preach this message as it ought to be preached. And that
he will enable us to hear it as it ought to be heard. I've
entitled this message, Christ Our Life. Christ Our Life. Now, Paul begins this third chapter
with this statement, if you then be risen with Christ. Now, there are two ways If man
can be risen with Christ, then every believer is risen with
Christ. As I have been united, as every
believer has been united to Him, what a wonderful thing to think
that when He was in that dark tomb and was laying there dead,
and He opened His eyes in life, I did too. That's what union
with Christ is. Everything he did, I did. I was in him, and when he was
raised, I was raised as well. The other aspect of being risen
with Christ is being given spiritual life, being raised from the dead. There was a time when I was dead
in sins. Dead. Now I had physical life. I had emotional life. I had moral
life in some respect, but I was dead in sins. He gave me life. Every believer
has been risen with Christ. Both of these ideas are found
in verses 12 and 13 of chapter two. Look with me. buried with
him in baptism. When he died, I died. Wherein
also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God who has raised him from the dead. When God raised him from
the dead, he raised every believer from the dead. And you being
dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him. Hath he given life together with
him, having forgiven you. all trespasses. Now, if we're
risen with him, he says, seek those things which are above. That's a glorious thought, isn't
it? There are things that are above.
All this stuff going on Right now, in this place, there's something
much more glorious. Things that are above, where
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Christ, the Son of God, the Son
of Mary, God's prophet, God's priest and God's king. Sitting
at the right hand of God, the place of all authority, the place
of all power, he's ruling and reigning right now as we speak.
Aren't you glad he rules? He he's the Lord. He reigns.
Sitting at the right hand of God, I like to think of this
thing of him sitting, the scripture makes an issue of him sitting. when he had by himself purged
our sins. What's it say next? He sat down. How come? His work was finished. Those sins were purged, purged
away, washed away, and he sat down. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down. on the right hand of
the majesty on high, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He sat down. Oh, I love to think
of the Lord Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father,
sitting on a throne. Now, what's in heaven? He said,
set your affections on things above. If you be then risen with
Christ, seek those things that are above. Well, what's above?
He is, there's a man in glory right now, Jesus Christ the Lord. Worship is in heaven. Can you
imagine the worship that's going on there now? Can you imagine
that great heavenly choir singing his praises? Oh, this is a place
of absolute holiness. This is a place where God's will
is always done perfectly. Oh, what a place this is. Seek those things which are above,
the things of God. Seek those things which are above
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. And then he says
in verse two, set your affection, set your
mind on things above and not on things on the earth. Now we
seek those things above so that our affection will be set on
them. I'd like to repeat that. I want
you to think about it. We seek those things that are
above so that our affection, our mind will be set on them. Our mind and heart consumed with
them. We mind the things of Christ.
We mind the things of God. Now this is being heavenly minded.
Don't you want to be heavenly minded? I want to be heavenly
minded. And that's what he's exhorting
us to do at this time. Seek those things that are above.
Set your affection on things above and not on things on the
earth. Now, the things that an unsaved
man sets his affection on. Now, a believer, his treasure's
in heaven, isn't it? My treasure. What's precious
to me is in heaven. And I love that song. All that
thrills my soul is Jesus. And you know, he really is the
only one who thrills my soul. He is more than life to me. I love that phrase. And the fairest
of 10,000 in my blessed Lord. I see now there save men and
women. who love the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there's everybody else
who set their affection on the things of this earth, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Now
that is a summary of everything that's on this earth. Now we
love this planet. We love this earth. Lord made this place and
we love it. This is, this is my father's
world. And it's not like, but the, what he's talking about
is evil. the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life, which basically are these three
things. Pleasure, popularity, and power. Those are the three
things that the natural man seeks after. Pleasure, popularity,
and power. Moses refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Popularity, being concerned
about what other men think, what other men see, that's the lust
of the eyes. What if everybody's for you,
but God's against you? But what if nobody's for you,
but God is? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Power. Oh, people love power. Eat this fruit and you'll be
as God. She thought she would have power
with God, equal power with God. God has a monopoly on power,
a complete monopoly. I don't know of anything that
I find more, I don't know if amusing is the right word, but
when people talk about powerful men and powerful women, powerful?
Power belongs to the Lord. He has all power, and me and
you do not have any power. If I set my affection on power,
I set my affection in something I never did have, do not have,
and never will have. Power belongeth to the Lord. So don't set your affection on
things on the earth, but things above. And here's why we're to
not set our affection on things on the earth. He says in verse
three, for you're dead. You're dead. Here's why we set our affection
on things in heaven and not on things in the earth, because
you are dead. Now, don't you think it's kind of interesting
that our culture right now has kind of a fascination with death?
all these zombie TV shows, the Walking Dead, the zombies and
the vampire movies and there's all, I mean, all kinds of, you
know, the living dead, the living dead. Now, I reckon the reason
people like this kind of stuff is because they're kind of sort
of dead, but not all the way dead. And there's some kind of,
you know, I don't know what the fascination is with it. But believer,
you are dead. You are dead. When Christ died,
you died, and you are dead. And I've used this illustration
before, and I was talking to Lynn about it, and I was excited
about it, and she said, well, you've said it before. Well, I'm going
to use it again. It always means something to
me. How much is a dead man affected
by what's going on in the world? If you come up to a dead man
and you start bragging on him and praising him and flattering
him and tell him how wonderful he is, how much is it going to
affect that dead man? Not a bit. If you speak abusively to him,
if you criticize him and condemn him and treat him hatefully,
how much effect is it going to have on that dead man? None. None. If you tell him,
we ought to be optimistic. These are great times. The stock
market is doing well. The economy seems to be on the
uptick. Unemployment is getting better, and things are just looking
good. How much does that affect him? None at all. If you tell him
the economy is going to tank, We're in trouble. The moral fabric
of our society has been destroyed. Things are going down. How much
is that going to affect him? Absolutely none at all. You're
dead. That's why I'm not to set my
affections on this world. How much interest does a dead
man have on the things of this world? See, I died with Christ
and I'm dead to this world. And that's it. It doesn't say
you ought to be dead. It says you are dead. Every believer
is dead to this world and they see this world as dead. Paul said, but God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is a crucified thing, a dead thing to me. Now, in light of Jesus Christ
and him crucified, what attraction is there to this world? You're dead. You're dead. While we're dead, for you are
dead, he says in verse three, while you're dead, your life
is hid with Christ. Well, though you're dead, you've
got a life. You've got the life. And it's
hid with Christ in God. It's hidden from this world.
World can't understand this. Natural man would hear this and
say, you're crazy. That's insane. That's foolishness. I don't believe that. You mean
Christ Jesus is your life? Your life is hid with Christ
in God? Well, you know, the Lord said, thou hast hid these things.
God hid them. Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babe. So a natural
man won't understand this and we don't expect him to. But it's
still true. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. Now, Christ is in God. God is in Christ. Our life is
in Christ. And we're all in God. That sounds
pretty secure, doesn't it? Sounds pretty safe. Now, verse
four. This is the verse I wanted to
dwell on. When Christ And notice the who
is, is in italics. It was placed there by the translators.
And we can very easily leave that out. When Christ our life shall appear, then shall you
also appear with him in glory. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
God. He's the God man. He is the Bible. The Bible is
written of Him. He is salvation. We just read
when Simeon said, Now let us thou thy servant depart in peace,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And He Himself is the believer's
life. Now, I have over the years enjoyed
reading autobiographies of people that have interested me in reading
about their lives and so on. But every time I read an autobiography,
I always say, really? Really? I mean, you're actually
writing a book about yourself? But then whenever I think that,
I go back to, I remember one time, I used to, I still do admire
him. But David Brainerd was my hero
in college. He was the missionary to the
Indians back in the 1740s and 50s. He was a contemporary with
Jonathan Edwards. And he wrote a diary, and he
kept that diary, and I bet I've read that thing ten times. I
loved reading that thing, reading about his life, so I remember
I said, I'm gonna start keeping a diary like that, and I started
writing a diary, and everything I wrote about myself, I would
think, what if somebody reads this in 200 years? And I thought,
stop it, stop it. You need to just stop this. It's
vanity, you trying to do this. An autobiography? And a biography. What about a biography? Yeah,
I've read a lot of biographies. I've really enjoyed. But you
know, there's never ever been a biography that was true. Not
honest. Not honest. No way. No way. There's always something emphasized
that shouldn't be, something covered, something hid. I remember
when I used to read the biographies of these religious guys and And
I remember reading one book where it said this one guy spent so
much time in prayer. If you look by his bed, there
were, there were holes notched in the floor where he'd been
praying on his knees and so on. And I remember I'd read stuff
like that. I think, well, I need to know
that's nobody believes it. Nobody believes it. But do you want, if you want
to read the true biography of every believer, Read Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. That's my life. That's the truth
concerning me. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life is my life before God. And I love thinking about that.
His life. is my life before God. The truth
about Todd Nybert, the real truth, what God sees, and what God sees
is the way it really is. You read about him in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. That's the life of every single
believer. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that he gives us life,
although he does, but he himself is our life. The Lord said in
John chapter 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now, don't you love being identified
by him? That's my life. He is my life. He himself is my life before
God. When Christ, our life shall appear. Turn with me to first John chapter
5 for a moment. John says in verse 10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
his Son. And this is the record that God hath given to us, eternal
life. And this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now the life of Christ, I wish
I could preach this as it ought to be preached. I wish you and
I could hear this as it ought to be heard. The life of Christ
is the sum of our spiritual existence. I was eternally united to Him.
So however old Christ is, that's how old I am. There was never
a time when I was outside of Him. There was never a time when
I was viewed independently of Him. I've always been in the
Beloved. Now that's so mysterious. That's
so glorious. You know, God never viewed me. God never said, well, I'm going
to take Todd and put him in Christ. No, I've always been in Christ.
Every one of God's people have always been eternally united. One with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a place to be. I was chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world. And all that I have and all that
I am was given me in Christ Jesus before the world began. Second
Timothy 1.9 says he saved us and he called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. He is the source of life. Life must have a cause. Now,
to think that life could come independently
of God, to me, seems very irrational and unreasonable. You know, as
far as people being atheists, everybody knows better than that.
I realize some people would say, well, I'm an atheist, I don't
believe in God. But every effect, everything has to have a cause.
And life had to come from somewhere. It's just completely unreasonable
and irrational, in my opinion. Well, I know it is. I mean, because
the Bible says that. Not because I say it, but because the Bible
says that. These things are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so
that they're without excuse. Life's got to come from somewhere
where Christ Jesus is the cause of my life. If we have life,
it comes from him. Ephesians 2.10 says we are his
workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Christ is the source of our life
and Christ is the substance of our life. His life, His perfect
obedience before God, His law-keeping is my personal righteousness
before God. Don't you love the way He said
to John the Baptist, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. That perfect law-keeping of the
Lord Jesus Christ, His life, His holy life, His righteous
life, is my life before God. That's justification. And His
life is our inner life. Christ in you. the hope of glory. Paul said in Galatians 2.20,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. He is my life. He's my life of justification
and he's my inner life. And think of this, Christ is
the life of all of our, for lack of a better word, Christian graces.
What do I mean by Christian graces? Well, everything we have spiritually
is a Christian grace. If you have faith, it's the gift
of His grace. But what's faith without Christ? He's the object
of faith. He's the subject of faith. He's
the author and the finisher of faith. Faith is a meaningless
term without Him. Repentance. Repentance. It's a change of mind. is what
the word means, the Latin repentance, reconsider, the Greek is more
of a, to change your mind. Well, it's a change of mind concerning
him. You know, one of the saddest scriptures that I know of is
there in Isaiah 53, where it says, we esteemed him not. What a sad, horrible testimony
about us by nature. We esteemed him not. But oh, when we repent, our mind is changed. We see him
as altogether lovely. We see him as everything in salvation. We see his righteousness as the
only righteousness. Love. Well, we love him. Because he first loved us. And everyone that loveth him
that begot, also loveth him that is begotten of him. What about
hope? Isn't it a glorious thing to have hope? You know, the worst
feeling in the world, I suppose, is despair, when you think it's
not going to get any better, when you just feel hopeless.
But oh, to have a confident expectation regarding the future, where the
scripture says, He is our hope. I've got a confident expectation
that on judgment day, God is going to say to me, Todd Nybert,
well done, thou good and faithful servant. And every one of us
cringes at the thought of that. Well, if his life is my life,
what else would he say? Peace. What a glorious thing
peace is. To not be in turmoil. To know
that everything's fine. to, oh, it's a great feeling
of peace. Not unrest, not turmoil, not
conflict, but peace. Ephesians 2.14 says, He is our
peace. Now here's my peace, that He
made my peace with God. And He Himself actually is my
peace. When God looks at His Son, how
much peace and satisfaction and joy does He feel when looking
at His Son? He looks at me and every believer. He is our peace. He's the sum and substance of
all Christian graces. What about forgiveness? Be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. If you see how he's forgiven
you, it's easy to forgive, isn't it? It's easy to forgive. What about humility? Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Oh, how he humbled
himself. Comfort, he is the consolation
of Israel. He is the comfort of Israel. Now, for me to live, Paul said,
and you know, this is what I love this statement because it doesn't
even make grammatical sense, but it makes all the spiritual sense
in the world. For me to live is Christ. Consequently, to die is gain. It'll be the best day of my life. He's the object of our life. He's the goal of our life. Turn
with me to Philippians 3. This is a familiar passage of
scripture, but I sure love it. Here's our goal. Here's our objective. Here's
what we want. Here's the desire of our heart.
This is true of every believer. He says in verse 7, but what
things were gained to me, my religion, those I counted loss. They went from the good side
to the bad side for Christ. Yea, doubtless. And I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. For whom I've suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but done. It always troubles me when somebody
talks about what all they've sacrificed for Christ. What does
Paul say? I count it as nothing but dumb
that I may win Christ. And here's what every believer
desires that I may win Christ and be found in him. When God
comes looking for me, there's only one place I want to be found
in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Here's what
I want to know. I want to know him. This is my
desire. I want to know him. I want to
know him so that he knows me. I want to know him so that when
I speak of his name, it's not name dropping. He knows me. I want to know him. I want to
know him like Moses did, where the Lord spoke to him face to
face as a man speaketh with his friend. I want to know him. I
don't want to just know about him. I want to know him. I want
to know the living God in Christ Jesus. This is the desire of
every believer. And then he says in verse 10, that I might know the excuse
me, that I might know the power. of his resurrection. Oh, that
what power was exerted when Christ was raised from the dead and
all the sins of God's elect were put away. This is not just talking
about the power of victory to walk above sin and so on. I'd
like to have that. But that's not what it's talking
about. It's talking about the power of what his resurrection accomplished
when he was raised from the dead. All of God's people were saved.
And then he says in verse 10, I want to know the fellowship
of his suffering. I want to know that what he did,
he did for me. Don't you? I want to know. I want to know
that I had fellowship in that, that I shared in that, that what
he did, he did for me. I want to have the fellowship
of his suffering. And then look what he says next.
He says in verse 10, being made conformable unto his death. Now, what's that mean, being
made conformable unto his death? Well, the scripture says in Philippians
2, and this is what he's referring to, In this same book, he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I want to
be made conformable to his death in this sense. I want to be obedient. I want to be an obedient child. By the grace of God, I want to
be conformable unto his death. Wouldn't it be glorious if you
and I would choose death over sin? It was up to whether I sin
or die, I'll take death. And that's what Paul is saying.
To be made conformable to him unto his death, if by any means
I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. That's what I want.
I want to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Now, Christ is the
sustenance of our life. You know, we feed on Him, don't
we? You know, the only thing that gives me life, that gives
me nourishment, that makes me live before God, is His broken
body and His shed blood. That's what gives me life. Christ
is my eat and drink. He said, except you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
We feed on Him in the secret of our soul. He's our sustenance.
The sustenance of our life. You know, Christ is the life
of the ordinances. What is baptism without Christ?
It's a meaningless religious ritual and nothing more. What
is the Lord's table without Christ? He said this do in remembrance
of me. What is preaching? Without Christ. Paul said, I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now you can't
preach the person of Christ and not preach the work of Christ.
And you can't preach the work of Christ without preaching the
person of Christ. He is known by what He does.
And what is preaching if I'm not enabled to worship Him? If
I'm not enabled to sit at His feet and hear His Word and rest
in Him? Christ is the life of all we
do. What's prayer without being able
to pray in His name? He's the life of Christian ordinances. And what's our doctrine without
Christ? What's election without Christ? What is justification without
being justified by His righteousness? What is redemption without being
redeemed by His blood? You can't speak of Him without
His doctrine, His words. But what are these things without
the Lord Jesus Christ? Heaven will be being with Him. That's heaven. David said, as
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied
when I awake in thy likeness. Now go back to our text in Colossians
chapter three. Don't you love having Christ
as your life? to where all God sees is the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love that. I wouldn't want
it to be any other way. I love it that way. And I'm glad
this is what the Bible teaches. Christ, our life. Now, Paul says
in Colossians 3, verse 4, When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, to them that look for Him shall
He appear. The second time without sin,
all that sin has been put away unto salvation. John said, it
does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we'll be like him for we shall see him as he is.
Now y'all want you to think about the glory of this person who
is our life. His glory is such that when we
see him, it's going to turn us into his image. We're going to
be without sin. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, he's not going to be appearing alone. Look what
it says. Then shall you also appear with
him in glory. He said the glory which thou
gavest me, he said this to his father, the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them. Whatever glory he achieved as
the savior of sinners, that glory he gives every one of his people. And when he appears, we shall
appear with him. Now, I have always had, have, and always will have, a
good life, because Christ is my life. Now, 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 in the earth, for you're 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. Let's pray.