Colossians chapter 2 I'm going
to start with verse 20 and I'm going to read down through verse
17 of Colossians chapter 3 So beginning with Colossians chapter
2 verse 20 I It says, wherefore, if ye be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, touch not, taste
not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using after
the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed
a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of
the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.
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. 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 ye also walked some
time when ye lived in them, but now ye also put off all these
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, 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.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which
also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 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." Let's have a word of
prayer. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank you. We thank you for your greatness.
We thank you for your might. We thank you for your sovereignty
and your holiness. We thank you that you are truly
a God that is worthy of worship. You are a God that is worthy
of all of our adoration. You are a God who is worthy of
all of our praise. Father, these things are truly
understatements for what you are worthy of. Father, if we
have all of eternity, which surely we will if we are in you, Father,
it will not be long enough to sing your praises. But Father,
I just pray this morning by your grace and by your mercy that
you would speak that you would, by your power, Father, that you
would give a word to these people. Father, they do not need to hear
my voice. Father, they need to hear you
speak. They need to hear the Spirit
of God, Father, breathing to them life. Father, we need you
every hour. We need you every minute. We
need you every second. Father, we are truly a people
that are prone to wonder. Father, draw us in this morning.
Draw us to Yourself. Father, may we see more of Your
greatness and Your great works, Your great glory that is found
in the face of Your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
may His name be lifted up. Father, may we glory in nothing
other than Christ crucified. Jesus Christ, may He be our everything,
Father, our all in all. Father, we love You. We pray
that those would not be just words that come forth from our
mouth, but Father, as we read this text and as we listen to
what Paul has written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
may it be revealed in our lives that our words and truly our
theology, Father, is Christ is all. Father, may that be seen
in our lives. Father, may we go out in this
world that is dying, Father, that is dead spiritually, and
may we go out with that message and that message alone, that
Christ is all. That is the message that saves.
That is the message that has power in it. Father, that is
the message of the cross of Christ. May it be that which we speak.
May it be that which we glory in. Father, thank You. Thank You for this opportunity.
Father, we remember Your other pastors and teachers that stand
around this land and proclaim the Gospel of Your redeeming
grace. Father, we pray that You would be with them this morning,
that You would lift them up, that You would bless Brother
Bruce as he speaks this morning. Lift him up. Father, may he speak
Your words this morning. Father, remember the brothers
that stand there in Bainbridge this morning and proclaim Your
Word. Father, remember Brother Wayne who stands in Danville
there. Father, lift them up. Speak through
them, Father. Help me. Father, we pray in your
dear Son's name we ask these things. Amen. Well, if you were to read Colossians
1 and 2, which we don't have time to read the whole of Colossians
1 and 2, you would come to find out very quickly that what Paul
is doing here is really what Paul always does. Paul's got
a way about him that he begins by preaching and teaching Jesus
Christ. And that is truly what we must
do. We must begin by preaching the person and the work of Jesus
Christ. And that is what Paul revealed.
Christology is in Colossians chapter 1 and 2. He is revealing
to us what Jesus Christ has done for his people. He is revealing
that we are dead in Christ and what that really means. And is
that understanding of what it means to be dead in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we are partakers of his death. that we are actually
those that have went with Jesus Christ. If we truly know the
Lord Jesus Christ, if we are saved by His grace, then we are
those that have actually went with Christ into the grave. Okay? And when Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, and He was buried in the grave, He took
our sins with Him there. And they are laid there. And
we no longer are under the guilt of sin. No more. It's gone. They're buried in the grave.
And that's what Paul is teaching us in Colossians chapter 1 and
2. He's revealing this beautiful doctrine of being dead with Christ. But then he gets over into Colossians
chapter 3. And what a text we have in Colossians
chapter 3 verse 1. It's really kind of a hinged
text. It really is because what Paul is doing is he's teaching
us all these things about what we have in the death and the
burial of Jesus Christ and the fact that all of our sins are
in the grave and then he goes on and he says but if you then
be risen with Christ. So now he's not just talking
about that we are dead with Christ, but he is revealing to us something
else. He is revealing that we are alive with him too. That
we have also, not just partakers of his death, but we are also
partakers of his resurrection and that we are now alive in
Jesus Christ and there's power in that because we are now partakers
of the blood of Christ and we now live with Christ, right? And so that's what he's teaching
here in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1. It's really, these 17 verses
in Colossians chapter 3 are really revealing to us something about
sanctification. Okay, now note the word sanctification
is not really liked in some circles. But it's taught in the Scripture.
Paul teaches sanctification. And I know that we are perfectly
justified in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we see in the death
of Jesus Christ, right? We have been laid in the grave
with Christ. Our sins are buried there with
Him. We have come forth perfectly justified. We now stand before
God Almighty as if we have never sinned. We are sinless in His
sight. were justified perfectly in His sight. But yet, there
is something about sanctification as we go through this life, how
God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, now if we take sanctification
out of the Scripture, we are taking away from the work of
the Holy Spirit, is what we're doing. We gotta realize that.
That the Spirit of God is working in us and through us to do what? To conform us to the image of
His Son. Now, there's so many misunderstandings about that.
This is not saying that the flesh is somehow getting better. That
is not what sanctification is. The flesh profiteth nothing.
It never will profit anything. The old man, you can put bows
and ribbons on him, but he's always going to be the old man.
He's never going to be the new man. All right? There are two
natures in the believer. There's the old man and the new
man, and we see that later on in the text, and we're gonna
get to that. But we're gonna see that what God is teaching
us here, through His Holy Spirit, He's revealing how it is that
we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
truly what He is doing here. But first of all, we gotta see
this first part of the text here. It says, if ye then be risen
with Christ, because this is huge. That's where it all hinges, right?
If you're not risen with Christ, this text doesn't mean anything
to you. If you have not been risen with Christ, and you do
not have a new life, you are not new creations created in
Christ Jesus, if you go on and read the rest of it, it's just
gonna be legalism to you. That's all it is. I'm just going to
teach you a bunch of moralistic stuff. That's all I'm going to
teach you. You must be risen with Christ because everything
about this text points back to that. It points back to the blood
of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us in the death and
burial and his resurrection. So that's huge. The trouble with
modern day Christianity is this, and it's just like in Colossae.
Okay, modern day religion, they kind of point to the fact that
we got to start with the gospel. Okay, so we, we take all the
people and we get like these big revival meetings, we have
this big gospel message, and Christ is all, Christ is all,
that's what they're really, they're trying to say here. And so everybody
comes down the aisle, and they're all converted, they make a decision
for Christ. And then they go and they put them in, plant them
in churches. in different areas, and they preach legalism to them.
They just preach works to them. This is how you must do this
stuff. You've got to live this way. You've got to do this. You've
got to do that. You've got to do something else. What happened
to the blood of Christ? And this is what Paul is teaching
here. If you go back to verse 20 and 21, of Colossians chapter 2, this
is what Paul is saying. He says, wherefore if you be
dead with Christ, if you are justified with Christ, if Christ
is everything to you, and you are dead with Christ from the
rudiments of the world, why as the living in the world are you
subject to ordinances? touch not, taste not, handle
not, which are all to perish with the using after the commandments
and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom
and will worship and humility." That's what the Pharisees were
all about, right? All the time, show. They were all about show. So
it has a show of wisdom in it, and a show of worship, and humility,
and the neglecting of the body, and not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. So Paul is revealing to us here
that the trouble, like here and in modern day Christianity, is
we like to start with the gospel, right? We like to start with
Christ, and then we make it about us. Okay, we try to add things
to it. Last weekend on Saturday, I was
standing around a fire and there was about 80 or 90 of us sitting
around this fire and I got to preach to these people. I used
Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ. I said, that is an
equation. Okay? For me to live equals Christ. You add anything to this side
over here, you add anything to Christ whatsoever, then that
doesn't equal this side anymore. We don't live any longer. Right?
Isn't that what Paul was saying? You add the law, you're guilty
of the whole law. You gotta live by the law then.
No, we're not Christ plus the law equals life. That's not right.
No, we live in Christ. That's the only reason why we
live. It's Jesus Christ. And so that's what we need to
understand. We preach Christ crucified, right?
Under the Jews, a stumbling stone. Under the Greeks, foolishness.
But to them that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the
power of God and the wisdom of God. That's what we preach. We
preach the blood of Christ. But that's being removed from
the church. It is. It's being taken out, sucked
out of the church. And that's why most of modern
day Christianity, most churches are just glorified mortuaries.
And that's just, if you really see it, that's what it is. It's
just, you're just preaching works, works, works, law, law, law.
And there's nothing about Colossians 2. There's nothing about the
blood of Christ, what Christ has done for us. And so we need
to see this. Listen. Verse 1 of chapter 3
is teaching a very important doctrine and that's the doctrine
of our vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The primitives
called it eternal vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ because
truly we've been eternally unified with Him. We were chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world. They're big on that. They're
big on that. But yet, that's what it is called,
the eternal, vital union. And there must be in that union
an intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There must
be. That has to be the case in our
lives. Christ in us, the hope of glory. And my fear is that in many,
many churches around this land, that there is a head knowledge
of Jesus Christ, and there is no heart knowledge. There is
no vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. They've got this
understanding something about Jesus Christ, but they do not
know Him. This is a problem. Turn over
to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 Jesus Christ spoke about this
about men who just have a head knowledge and they do not know
him and he does not know them Matthew 7 starting with verse
21 look what it says it says not everyone this is Jesus speaking
not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. Listen to verse 23. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. All right, turn over if you would
to Luke 13. Luke chapter 13. versus 23 through
28. starting with verse 23 says,
then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate.
For many, I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not
be able when once the master of the house is risen up and
has shut to the door and you begin to stand without and to
knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us and he shall
answer and say unto you, I know you not when she are. Then shall
ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and
thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you,
I know you not whence ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all
the prophets in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves are thrust
out. So there's much to be said about
this understanding that we must have a vital union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. It must be He knows us and we
know Him. I am my Beloved's and He is mine. So we see that. Let me bring
this into a story. We have a bunch of children in
our church. I look out here, this is really
neat because there's like 30 adults here or 25 adults. when
I'm preaching. We might have 25 adults, but
there's about 40 kids sitting around. So it's a little bit
different. But I like to use stories when
I'm preaching. When I was growing up, I loved the game of football.
I've always loved the game of football. And I really enjoyed
that game. And I remember in about 1984,
I believe I was about 13 years old, there was a team called
the Los Angeles Raiders. And they went to the Super Bowl
and they had a running back by the name of Marcus Allen that
played for them. And I wasn't really a Los Angeles Raiders
fan. I liked the Pittsburgh Steelers. My dad liked the Cowboys. There
was never any rivalry there or anything. It was nothing big
there, but But anyway, so I saw this game. We watched it on TV,
and I saw this Marcus Allen I really liked him. I got to study in
a little bit about him. I got to know some stats about him
You know that he was a he went to college at USC He's like a
12,000 yard rusher some other stats about him I got to know
some stuff about him Then I found out that he was going to come
to Great Falls, Montana Which this is big because nobody comes
to Great Falls, Montana The only reason why you'd ever go there
is if the plane gets in a snowstorm and you have to land in Great
Falls. It's probably a lot like Alaska
there. Nobody ever goes there. So anyway, but he was coming
to Great Falls, Montana, this MVP of the Super Bowl. And I
was like 13 years old, and I loved the running back position. And
so I said, I've got to get to Great Falls. I've got to meet
this guy. So I ended up getting there somehow. I don't know how
I ended up doing it, but I ended up getting there, standing in
line, waiting to meet this guy. And when I got up to him, I remember
there were some pictures there, and I handed him the picture,
and he signed it real nice, and he shook my hand, and we talked
a little bit, and conversed back and forth just a little bit.
And when I left there, it was like, I know Marcus Allen. I know this guy, and I remember
going to school, and all the kids at school, I'd say, me and
Marcus were like this, man. I know the guy, right? He's like my buddy, okay? So what ended up happening was,
and what, I guess where I'm going with this, is how well did I
really know him though? Let's put this in perspective.
Okay, let's say today I get this idea, I'm gonna go see Marcus.
I'm going to jump on a plane and I'm going to buy me a ticket
to Los Angeles. I don't even know where he lives.
I'm going to have to look it up, find out where he lives. I fly to his house
and I go up to his door. He's not home, so I pick the
lock and go into his house. Marcus and me are close, so I
go to the cupboards and I get out. popcorn, and I make myself
some popcorn, I go sit on his couch, and I begin to watch TV,
and I'm waiting for Marcus to get home, right? So when Marcus
comes in the door, what's he gonna do? Yeah, shoot me. Yeah, right. I see, I see handcuffs
in my future, right? I see mace. I see me getting
drugged down to the jail, right? Because Marcus doesn't know me.
I know something about Marcus, right? I know some stats about
Marcus, but I don't know him. And there are so many in Christianity
today that don't, they don't know Jesus. They know a stat
sheet about him. Ok, yeah, Jesus Christ, yeah,
He was born in Bethlehem. He was born to a virgin Mary. right? He was the Son of God. He began his ministry at 30, right?
They got this stat sheet about it. He was taken to Calvary's
cross and he was crucified there and he was resurrected out of
the grave. They got all this head knowledge
about Jesus Christ, but they don't know him. They know just
about enough about Jesus Christ to make them dangerous. That's
what they know, just about that much. They know just about enough
about Jesus Christ to know that if they know any more, it's going
to change them. And they don't want that. But
they know enough. They know enough. Let me ask
you this. If you were taken out of this
world, okay, and you were placed before the judgment seat of Christ,
and that's not far-fetched, because that's all going to happen to
us. It's going to happen to every single one of us. But if you
were taken out of this world, the Bible said it is appointed
unto man once to die and then to face the judgment. We're all
going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And so if we
were to be transported out of this life and we were to be placed
in the judgment hall of Christ and we were to hear the seraphims
and the angels crying, holy, holy, holy. And we were sitting
there in that room waiting for that one to come down that hall.
I'm asking you, how would you be sitting? Would you be sitting
there looking and saying, oh, whoa, I've got to get my stat
sheet out. I've got to figure out what I've done. I mean, have
I done everything? Have I dotted all my I's? Have
I crossed all my T's? Uh-oh, I screwed up here. And
your knees start knocking? You starting to shake? I hope
not. I hope not, because if you know
them, they're not. I know that one coming down the hall. I know
him. He's my beloved that's coming down that hall. Turn over to
Solomon chapter 5. Song of Solomon chapter 5. Real
quick. Say, oh boy, where's this guy
going? He's taking us to Song of Solomon. It's just a book
about marriage, right? No, I don't think so. There's
a lot of preachers that preach on it. You know, get marriage
stuff out of it and love and intimacy and stuff like that.
But I'm afraid they just don't know Christ. A lot of them. Listen
to a song of Solomon, chapter 5, verse 8. This is a church. This is God's
bride. Listen to what she says. She
says, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my
beloved, that you tell him that I am sick of love. Is that you? Is that you with Christ? What is thy beloved more than
another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved
more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us? Listen
to verse 10. My beloved is white and ruddy,
the cheapest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine
gold, his locks are bushy and black as a raven. His eyes are
as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and
fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set
with the burl. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon.
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, yea,
he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." Is that who's coming
down the hall? Is it? Is it your friend? I hope so. I hope so. Our beloved. Think about that. Well, look over Colossians 3
again. Colossians 3. Look at verse 17 of Colossians
chapter 3 real quick. It's a weird start at the end,
but I'm going to start at the end and then go back to the front
here real quick. Because I think Colossians chapter
3 verse 17 is kind of the the culmination of what Paul's teaching
here. In Colossians chapter 3, look at verse 17. He says, and
whatsoever ye do in word or deed, now this is if you've been risen
with Christ. This is if you know Him. It's all about love. This chapter's all about your
love for Christ. That's what it is, for what He's done for
you. Look at verse 17, and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
Father by Him. Let me ask you this, is there a difference in
your life between what you say and what you do? We all got good theology, right?
Christ is all. Verse 13, I mean verse 11 here
is our theology. Christ is all and in all. If
you want to sum up the doctrines of grace, that's it. Christ is
all. I'm totally depraved, worthless,
vile, wretch. Christ is all. Christ is all. I have been unconditionally elected
because if it was me, And if He was looking at something in
me, He wouldn't have chose me. Christ is all. His blood is everything,
and it does not fail. Where His blood is applied, that
application is effectual. Christ is all. Right? The Spirit
of God is perfect. He reveals who? Christ is all
by Himself. Christ is all. Christ is all. perseverance and preservation
of the Saints. Why am I going to be preserved?
Christ is all. Why do I persevere? Christ is
all. Right? It's the sum and substance
of our theology. That is our word. Christ is all. Is that what we do indeed? Is
that what we teach when we go out here in the world and we
walk through this world? I hope everybody here says no. If we're
saying yes, that that matches up perfectly, then I guess we're
perfectly sanctified. You know, that's a lie. We are
not. See that? We're not perfectly
sanctified. Absolutely not. There is a gap
there between word and deed. We say Christ is all, but yet
in our lives there's a gap. You can see it. I know I can
see it. Paul in Romans chapter 7 can
certainly see it. There's a big gap there. And
so what is sanctification then, truly? It is God, through his
working of the Holy Spirit, bringing that together in our lives. So
that Christ is all, it's not just words that we say, but it
is actually part of our lives. So it's not just word, but it's
also deed. Faith without works, James said,
is what? It's dead, it's dead. So what Paul's saying is that
you can say all you want to about Christ is all, but unless you
get out here and live it, it's dead. It's dead. And so, this
is what Paul is teaching us. This is what the Spirit of God
is teaching us here about sanctification. But I want you to understand
something, that he never separates this from the fact that we must
keep our eyes upon the fact that God has justified us freely in
the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And apart from that, we're nothing because Christ
is all. He keeps pointing us back to that. He keeps bringing
us right back to that. That's what he's teaching us
here. Um, look at, so let's just start with, uh, Colossians chapter
three, verse one says, if you've been risen with Christ, what
seek those things which are above where Christ sit it on the right
hand of God. What's he telling us? Look to
Christ. Christ is all. So if He'd be
your all, if what you say in your life, your theology is Christ
is all, then why do you got your eyes down here in the world for?
They're down there, aren't they? We're looking down there all
the time. I know, I am too. I am too. Why is our eyes down
there? If Christ is my all, they should
be up there, right? They should be on Jesus Christ.
Listen, victory is in Christ. It's in the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's in what we have in Him.
Now, let's just look at just a bit. What does it mean to be
dead with Christ? What does that mean? Because we've got to keep
coming back to that. Now, surely that doesn't mean
that we're dead to the presence of sin. We've talked about that. We're not dead to the presence
of sin. It's still there. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? It's still there.
We're certainly not free from the power of sin, because we
feel it, don't we? There's another member in me
warring, right? That war is right there. So we're
not free from the power of sin, but we are free from the dominion
of it, right? And that being said, we are guilty
of what? The guilt of sin. And that's
what, when it says we are dead to sin, it means we are dead
to the guilt of sin. The guilt and what the power of that, that
we're no longer under the dominion of sin. Meaning that the elders
shall serve the younger. The old man is going to serve
the new man in the new creation. And that's a promise of God.
And that's a promise we need to hold on to as Christians.
And so if I was gonna teach somebody, okay, let's say somebody came
to me and they've got a problem with alcoholism. How am I going
to go through that with them? Am I going to point them to alcoholism
and say, okay, this is the evils of alcoholism, this is why you
do not do this, this is why you shouldn't do this, or am I going
to point them to Christ and say exactly what the Apostle Paul
said, do you love alcohol more than you love Christ? Do you? That's the question. Is that
your God or is that your God? You see, what Paul is saying
here in verse 22 of Colossians chapter 2, or 21, I'm sorry,
is when he says these ordinances are touch not, taste not, handle
not. The church was teaching, there
were some people in the church teaching that when it says touch
not that we shouldn't marry. Are you serious? God has created
marriage, it's beautiful. The union between a wife and
her husband is beautiful. That's something that's being
created by God. But what we do with that is wicked. It's what we bring into it, it's
other things that we bring into it, lust. These things are wicked. And so what Paul is saying, don't
say that, touch not, no. No, but if it's done in God,
if it's done in the right way, it's beautiful. But if this is
your God, if lust is your God, it's wickedness. It's wickedness. Same thing with taste not. Wine's
not bad. Who ever told you that? Anybody
ever tell you that wine's bad? No, it's not. You can drink some
wine. Paul said, you drink some wine
for your stomach's sake, right? But I'm gonna tell you right
now, alcoholism is making a god out of it, and if you do that,
it's idolatry and it's wickedness. Wickedness, all right? What about
Handle Knot? What's he talking about there?
Money. Is money wicked? Is really the dollar bill wicked?
No, that's what we do with it. If it's a god to you, it's wicked.
Look to Christ, not to that god that's down there. That's nothing. Don't, don't. You're no longer
under subjection to that. You're no longer under dominion
to that. And that's what Paul is teaching us here. And he says,
so he says, set your affections on things above, not on things
of the earth. Don't do that. There's victory in Christ. I
can't sit here and point you to this and this and this and
this and say, here's how you're going to beat this. You're going
to roll up your sleeves and you're going to beat it. No. Now I'm
going to point you to the fact that what Jesus Christ did in
your lives, and wouldn't we do everything for Him? That One
who loved you and set you free, is that more important than Him?
And that's what Paul teaches. Paul's not legalistic. He's lobalistic. It's all about the love of Christ.
I am constrained by that One who gave everything for me. I
love Him. I love Him. That one that talked
about the Song of Solomon? I'm seeking after him. I desire
to find him. I want to find him. Why are we here this morning?
Did you come here this morning because you had to? If you did,
you might as well go on home. I hope you came here because
you wanted to hear about Christ and what He's done for you. He
set you free. He set us free. Do we know what
that means? Growing in grace and the knowledge
of Jesus Christ is more and more and more in our lives We understand
who Christ is the holiness of Almighty God and how far we fell
short of him And what he did set us free Okay, look at verse
verse 3 Okay, so Paul here in verse one
and two, he gives us these things. Look to Christ, look to Christ,
look to Christ. And all of us are sitting here going, man,
I failed already. I've been sitting here 15 minutes and already I'm
thinking about the world. I'm thinking about this, I'm
thinking about this. These little gods in my life, I'm thinking
about this. So Paul takes us right back, look at verse three.
What does he say? Just roll up your sleeves and
be a man. That's not what he says. He says,
for ye are dead, and your life is hidden from Christ and God.
It takes us right back there to the blood of Christ, doesn't
it? What Jesus Christ has done for us. It takes us right back
there. Listen to verse four. When Christ,
who is our life, who is everything to us, when He shall appear,
you shall also appear with Him in glory. He's going to present
you. Do you ever think about that?
What Jude said there, now unto Him who is able to keep you from
falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy, ecstatic joy. He's going to be singing
in heaven. Singing in heaven over His people.
It says God sings over His people. Joy is over His people. That's
beautiful. He's going to present us. Present
us what? Sons and daughters of God. Sons
and daughters of God. Look at verse 5. Mortify therefore
your members which are upon the earth. What's this therefore,
therefore? Why is it there? Mortify therefore. Why? Because you're dead with Christ.
You're justified perfectly in the sight. He has taken you from
the dunghill and he's placed you among princes. Therefore,
mortify your members which are upon the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness
which is idolatry. For which thing's sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience? In the witch
ye also walked sometimes when ye lived in them, but now ye
also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication, out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. Now how do
you put off the old man? How do you do that? A lot of
the struggle. with that, right? I bet you do. I bet you do, because I know
I do. And like an old pastor said, I know you because I know
myself. I know how to ring your bell
because I know how my bell gets rung. Alright, when I tell you
to put off the old man, you're probably sitting there going,
yeah, okay. Alright, I'll give it a shot. Now listen, the only
way we can do that is to understand that that old man is the reason
why Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross. And I'm going to seek
Him. I'm going to put that away. I
have dominion over that. I do. Why? Because of me? No, because the
blood of Christ has been applied in my life. And now I'm going
to seek after Him. I'm going to do it. Praise God
by His grace. His grace is sufficient for me.
That's what Paul said. And it is. It is sufficient for
us. By His grace, may we mortify. It's not cleaning up the old
man. No, we gotta leave it. Put it
off. That's why I say it's like a
garment. You're not taking it to the tailor. You're not getting
it fixed up and sewed up and made look all pretty. No, you
gotta lay it aside. You remember when that, when
Jesus was walking, where was it? That blind bar to maze. was
sitting there by the wayside begging. Remember that? And Jesus
walked by him, and he heard him cry, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me! And those disciples were with
him, and all the people turned around and said, shut up, be
quiet, don't be yelling so loud, you're making a nuisance out
of yourself. And Jesus said, no, you go get him. Call him,
bring him up here, I like that guy. I've elected that dude,
right? He's mine. Go get it. You remember,
they went and called him out of his filth and his wickedness
and his old dirty rag. You remember what he did with
that? That dirty rag? Says he took it off and he cast it on
the ground. And he ran to Jesus. Why? Because he knew there was
something better for him. He knew he was going to clothe
him in righteousness. And I'm telling you, we need
to leave those rags down there and we need to run to Christ
because he's got something to clothe us in. Right? It's His
righteousness. It's His beauty. It's His merit. Oh, that we might see that. Verse
10, "...and that put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created him." Listen to verse 11, "...where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, scythian, bond-free." When you look out at this church,
what do you see? We're all guilty of this. I know
I am. I kind of rank people. You go to witness to people and
just be honest. The best thing we need to do
with ourselves is just be honest. You go to witness to somebody
and you look at them and you say, that guy doesn't have a chance.
I mean really. You go to somebody that's kind
of cleaned up a little bit and they look a little bit better
and you say, this is going to be easy. I got this guy. We need to view everybody in
one way. You're either a sinner that is not redeemed or you're
a redeemed sinner. That's the only thing, that's
what makes up the church, is redeemed sinners. Isn't it? And that's all that's there at
the throne of God. That's it. Whether you be Jew
or Greek, Barbarians, skiffy, bond or free, that's all that's
there is redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Christ,
and what is it teaching us? Christ is all. Nothing added
over here. It's not Christ plus a pedigree
equals life. No, just Christ. Just Christ,
whatever. Whatever your circumstances here,
I don't know everybody's circumstances. I don't know where you've been,
where you came from. I don't know anything about you. All
I'm telling you, it makes no difference in Christ. You stand
in Him, you stand free. You stand at liberty. You stand
justified. Justified before God. You say,
well, I don't know. My neighbor does it. He thinks
I'm a bad guy. He very well possibly could. But if you stand in Christ, you're
free. You're free, you're saved. There's
something there. Verse 12. Put on therefore as
the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. These are the
fruits of who? The fruit of what? Spirit. Right? It's the Spirit's work within
us. That's God's work. That's being clothed with what?
The new man. Right? Verse 13, "...forbearing
one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against you, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." The thing
the guy down the street did to you, is that worse than what
you've done to Christ? Really? Do we understand what we did
to Christ? You say, I wasn't there, I didn't do anything.
Yes, you did. Your sin nailed Him to Calvary's cross. You were
there, and I'm telling you what, if you would have been there,
apart from the grace of God, you would have fought the Roman
guards for the hammer to drive the nails farther into His hands.
And I'm telling you this, sin in our life, that's exactly what
it is. It's nailing those nails deeper
into Jesus Christ's hands. That's what it is. We need to
view it like that. That's why we must run from it. Flee from
it. That's what Paul said. That's
why the judgment of God is coming upon men. It's sin. Oh, that we might flee from it. Verse 14, And above all these
things put on charity or love, which is the bond of perfectness.
What Paul said over there in I believe it's Corinthians 13.
Remember what he said? He said, I can sound like an
angel if I have the tongues of men and angels and have not what?
Love. I'm like a sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. I'm just up here just ringing
like I'm beating some big old gong. I pray God this love would
be seen in what I'm saying here this morning. I love you folks. I do. I told the people back
there in Banjo, I love you. I love you. I'm going to tell
you what God says. I ain't going to stand up here
and just tickle your ear. I ain't going to do that. Why?
Because I love you. I love you. I want more than anything for
you to fall in love with Jesus Christ. I look at these little
kids. I look at these young people. That's what I want for you. Fall
in love with Jesus Christ. That will change your life. Verse 15, and let the peace of
God rule in your hearts. Here's another verse that has
been greatly misunderstood. What's this mean? Does it mean
we're trying to seek after peace? Peace, peace, how are we gonna
find peace? No, we have peace with God, don't we? Take you
back to Colossians chapter two, and I'm gonna show you. If you
were buried with Christ, you have peace with God. You can
stand before God Almighty as His Son and Daughter, and you
are justified in His presence. You have peace with Him. So let
that understanding right there rule your life. Because before
you had peace, you were in enmity with God. You hated Him. You did, didn't we? To the witch also ye are called
in one body, and be ye thankful." That's why we came here this
morning, right? I know it is. We came here to worship God.
We came here to praise God for what He's done for us. To thank
the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm, in singing, in the worship of
God. That's what our preaching's all
about. We preach Christ crucified, right? That's all we got. We
don't need any more. We don't need anymore. You ever
get a hold of that? You ever get a hold of that?
It's gonna change you. It's gonna change you. And the
more and more and more that's revealed to us in our lives,
that's growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, isn't
it? Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in
all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord. Verse 17, 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. Christ is all, right? Christ
is all. I remember a story. There was an Italian conductor that was
very well known. named Antonio Tortellini. He gave this great symphony masterpiece
in Germany one time and the crowd just went crazy. It was Beethoven's
9th. And the crowd just went nuts, and they were screaming
and wanting an encore. And so they bowed a couple hundred
times. And then he turned around to
the people, and everybody kind of calmed down a little bit.
He turned around to this orchestra, and he looked around at them,
and he saw some smiles on their faces like they'd accomplished
some great big thing. And he looked at them and he
said, I got two things I want to say to you. Number one, you're
nothing. Number two, I'm nothing. Number
three, Beethoven's everything. The guy who wrote this music,
the guy who came up with this song, the guy who came up with
this in his head and placed this on paper, he's everything. Or
nothing. I want you to understand something
here this morning. It's something we gotta get. You're nothing. I'm nothing. Christ is all. He's all. If that gets a hold
of us, I pray that it will. I pray that it will get a hold
of me. I pray that it will get a hold of me. It's going to change
me looking down here. It's going to change that. Oh yeah, how
many times in my life am I going to look down there? We all are.
But it's going to put my eyes upon Him. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory. in grace. John Newton wrote a song, How
tedious and tasteless the hour, when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet
prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness
to me. But alive with a sense of His
love, a palace, a toy would appear, and prisons would palaces prove,
if Jesus would dwell with me there. Christ is all. Christ
is all. I pray that we'll come to understand. I hope I didn't keep you too
long. Lord bless you. Oh, I was going to pray. He asked
me to say a prayer. Let's have a word of prayer in
closing. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank you. We thank you for the beauty of
the Gospel. Thank you that it was not in
us that you looked down and saw something miraculous. She saw
some great work that we had accomplished. But Father, that You, by Your
sovereign grace, You came and arrested us. That we were truly
beggars on the dunghill. That we were dead. Father, that we were like Jairus'
daughter. We were like that young man and
that buyer. We were like Lazarus. Father, when you rolled that
stone away, we stunk. But God, you set us free. You
brought us out. You called us out of darkness
into marvelous light. You removed the chains that bound
us to our depravity. Father, help us to live like
free men. Help us to live in the light
of your glorious grace. Father, it is only by your grace
that this is possible. that You are a great God who
is so gracious. Father, thank You. Thank You. Be with these people here. Bless
them. Bless the ministry. Bless Bruce's ministry here in
this place. Thank You, Father. Father, we
just thank You for the food we are about to partake of. Thank
You for this generosity in the hands of those that prepared
it. Father, we just love You. may
it be seen in our lives. In Your precious name we pray.
Amen.