Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Our reading of the Scriptures comes to us this evening from the letter of Paul to the
Colossians, chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3.
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
nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
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 ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by him.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice,
as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve
the Lord Christ.
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is
no respect of persons.
May God bless our reading of His Word to us. Our text is found in the first three verses
of this chapter. The first three of Colossians 3.
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.
The occasion for Paul writing this letter to the saints, the new Christians in the church
at Colosse is that there was a danger of them falling back into their paganism. There were
those who thought the answer to that danger was to require of them what was, in the mind
of the apostle, just as devastatingly wrong. They wanted to tell them that their faith
was to be evidenced in a lifestyle of "touch not, taste not, handle not," that he deals
with the last part of chapter 2.
The answer of the apostle is that that solution is just as bad, if not worse, than the problem
that the Colossians were facing. Instead, the apostle brings out basically two simple
lines of thought in this letter. And he wants them to be the answer that saints here must
have. If there is a danger of them falling away from Christianity and going back to into
paganism, then he wants them to be aware of two real simple truths.
First, don't look at yourselves and what's happening to you, but remember the message
that was always brought to you, especially initially. This message: Jesus Christ, the
divine Son of God, is the object of your faith. Keep Jesus before your mind's eye, and understand
Who He is. So in the first chapter he's over and over describing in all various ways Who
Christ is. And it's very interesting just to catch a little flavor of that. He says,
verse 13 of chapter 1, God delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us
into the kingdom of His dear Son. His beloved Son. This is what's happened to you. You want
to revert back? You've been translated from the power of darkness, you've been brought
into the light, the transforming light of the kingdom of His dear Son.
Then he describes that Son. In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, Who is the image of the invisible God, He's the first born of every creature,
by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers--these of the things that you're
afraid of, He created them all--all things were created by Him, and all things are for
Him. He is before all things, in the mind of God, and by Him all things consist. He
is the head of the body of the Church, the firstborn, who is the beginning. The firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. This is the one Who
was the object of your faith. Look at Him! Look at Him! And he continues to do that in
the second chapter. That's the first thought. The answer to your lapsing is, "Look at the
object of your faith!" Look at Jesus.
The second thing that he does is what he seeks to do in the last two chapters. You have been
united to Him. Now we're going to look at that in our first point, that union that they
have with Christ. He is to be this source of the life you're living. You want to fall
back? There are some who say, "Don't fall back. This is what you've got to do. Don't
touch those things, and don't touch those things, and do this." Handle not, touch not,
taste not. No, no, no. It's all about a relationship that God has established with you in Christ.
That's chapters one and two.
Now in three and four, just live out of Him. Pretty much that simple. Live your life out
of Him, and live your life out of Him in every part of your life. Not just the Sabbath day,
but in the home. When you kick off your shoes and you put up your feet, live your life out
of him. When you go to work, whether you run a business or you work for somebody, do it
out of Him. And that's what we have here. Now he makes it even more simple, and he gets
down to the basic things.
In these first verses that we want to use as a consistory when we visit your homes,
it is to remind you. First, seek the things that are above. Set your affection on those
things. Why? Because He who is the object of your faith is risen from the dead, and
He sits at the right-hand of God. He is there. So because He Who is the source of your life
is there, seek Him, and seek to live your life out of Him.
First, you've been joined to Him in His death, but more importantly, in His resurrection.
That's what we want to consider first. You died with Him. This is picking up a thought
that the apostle expressed in the previous chapter. He looks at these Gentiles--look
at chapter 2:11--he's talking to these Gentiles. They didn't know circumcision physically,
but he says, in Christ, he just said Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, verse
9, and he says: You are complete in Him. You have everything you need in Him. You don't
have to add, you can't add, because He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So when
He is joined to you, you have everything you need. You are complete in Him, in Whom also
you are circumcised with a circumcision that was made without hands. Nobody cut any piece
of flesh off your body. Nobody did it with hands. But even though you're uncircumcised,
you have the real circumcision. You've got the real thing.
What does that circumcision, that real circumcision, consist of? Verse 11: putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Then he adds this: you were buried
with Him. Think of Romans 6 again. You were buried with Him into His death by baptism,
wherein now also you are risen with Him. He died, you died. He arose, you all arose. You
can't say, "I'm dead in trespasses and sins, I can't help it" anymore. No, you arose! Children,
young people, old people, you died with Him, you arose with Him. When He died, you, all
of us, everyone in Him, endured the sentence that He received, and we died with Him.
Our old man. That's what he talks about first. We've got this old man. They can't, but you
can, because this old man is dying. This old man that you have doesn't have the right to
be alive. When you say, "I can't help it," that's a lie. Because your old man doesn't
have the right to be alive. And that's why we can kill him. Mortify: put to death. Those
things that are so natural to our old man. Those things that are so natural to our old
man, such as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate loves and likes, evil concupiscence, evil
lusts. Remember the desires that we talked? Covetousness. Wanting things that God gave
to others but we want them for ourselves, now. We have the ability to kill that, because
our old man died in Christ, does not have the right to be alive anymore. We live, nevertheless
Christ lives within us.
Sweet Abigail came to David once when David was angry. He felt justified to be angry.
He was just plain mad. Nabal was a fool. His name was legitimate and David was going to
show him he was a fool. So David was going to take care of Nabal, that fool, and kill
him and everything that belonged to him. I Samuel 25. Abigail, Nabal's wife, was wise.
She anticipated what David would do. She saddles her donkey, she gathers gifts of food and
thanks for what David had done to protect his sheep shearers. I Samuel 25. Listen to
this wisdom about our life being in Christ. She says, I pray thee forgive the trespass
of thine handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord, David, a sure house, because
my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul.
And here it is. But the soul of my lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life with the
Lord thy God. Your soul is bound up in the bundle of life with Jehovah your God. Roll
that one around. Dwell on that. Think about that. I Samuel 25:29. The soul of you is bound
up with the bundle of life of Jehovah your God. He lives, we live. He lives within my
heart today, you sang. He's there. Bundled up with His life. Ever connected to it. He
sits at God's right hand. He lives and rules and reigns. He'll never die. Your life, your
soul is bound up with that. And that's the way she answered David. You with your anger--kill
it. That's the old man. Put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind. You're alive
with Christ.
And again, now, this is what we're striving to do in the treatment of this passage of
the Word of God. We've got things we have to do. We can look at those commandments that
God sets before us. Mortify these, put on these. You can go through life saying, I've
got to do this, and I mayn't do that. I've got to put off these and I've got to put on
those. Okay, good. There it is, it's God's command. But the incentive, the motivation,
the willingness to say, yes, God's commandments and compliance to them is good for me. I want
to do it. O Lord, give me the grace to do it. The desire and the incentive to obey those
commandments arises from this knowledge: I died with Him.
And now I live with Him. He has a life, and so do I. I have the very same life He has.
And not, I will have. That's true, but we already have it. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. It's hid so that, if you just look at somebody when they're standing, you can't
see it. The Christian isn't distinguished from the unbeliever because there's some evident
mark on him that makes it obvious that their life is in Christ and they're alive in Christ.
It's inside. It should show itself--this is how it will--but start with the realization
that I can walk down the street, and walk through Meijer, and nobody can tell whether
I am or I am not. You can't look at others and see. Because this life is hid with Christ
in God. It's a spiritual reality. And it is already realized.
That it is already realized and not just something for the future--sometimes we think that: I
can't see it, so therefore I'd better wait until I get to heaven--no, it's a reality
that's already ours, because you have been quickened, Ephesians 2:1, been made alive.
And the evidence that you have been made alive is that you are able and do actually believe
that Jesus, the Jesus described in chapters one and two, is the only begotten Son of God.
You're able to believe that the baby of Bethlehem, and the Jesus of Nazareth, wasn't just that.
He wasn't just a man. He was God's only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in Him shall
not perish but has, right now, everlasting life. You are alive in Christ. It is, as it
were, Christ's heart is pulsing and beating in you.
Now remember this, the chapter ended, and there's no respect of persons. He especially
identified that, whether you be Greek or Jew, whether you be circumcision or uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, whether you're bond, a slave, or you're a free man--and now, let's
add, whether you're a male or you're a female, whether you're gray, in the strength of youth,
or you're just a little child--there it is. It's beating. It's pulsing in you. Realize
that! Know that! I'm alive in Christ. I'm no longer dead in trespasses and sins. And
therefore, to repeat, I can't use that as an excuse. We've been raised with him. We
possess within ourselves the unending life of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That
pulsing heart of Christ in us is never going to die. When your body dies, and you breathe
your last breath, that heart of Christ, that life of Christ, is still going to go on. It
passes through the Jordan, still pulsing, and it takes you immediately into the presence
of Christ. Death cannot, human early death cannot destroy and stop that life. You put
on monitors to check the beating of the earthly heart. It's going to stop. Straight line.
But not that one. You are risen with Him.
So now, it's because of that essential truth, if we be dead with Christ from the rudiments
of this world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? You're
alive. That being true, now let us live consistent with that reality. Live consistent with that
reality. And that's done. Now, the apostle acknowledges, we're still on this earth. We're
still in the body of this death. We still have this old man, and we aren't going to
get rid of him, until we die. He's going to be there. But you still have this life inside
of you. The ungodly don't, but you do.
Now, he addresses them in a very unique and powerful way when we get to the twelfth verse.
He says, I want you to know your name. You've got three of them. Three names. You are the
elect of God. When I played in Hope School's playground, and we had to pick sides, and
usually the captains were the better guys, better players. And immediately, you wanted
that one, not that one, etc. Do you know you have been chosen by God? Don't let the wonder
of that ever escape you. It's not, "Did Jesus died for me?"
The Scriptures always go back to election. And that's amazing, here, before the foundations
of the world, this is the truth that he wants us to realize: you've been chosen by God!
God picked you! The eternal and unchangeable decree of God to select unto Himself a people
and put them in Christ and give them to Jesus Christ. That decree of election you may know
to be true about you! And you may know that when you observe in yourselves the infallible
fruits of election that are pointed out in the Word of God. This childlike awe and reverence
for God. Not how much of it you have, but that you have any childlike reverence and
awe, the fear of God. True faith in Christ, that you are able to believe.
Don't try to figure out how you got it, but that you are able to believe that Jesus is
the true only begotten Son of God. That you find in yourself, never perfectly, never as
often as I ought, but you find in yourself sorrow, godly sorrow for sin. That you have
within you a hunger and thirst to be righteous in God's sight, and to live righteously. Those
infallible fruits of election assure you, I am elect of God! So he says that. As the
elect, as the ones chosen and selected by God, the ones that died with Christ and are
risen with Him.
And then he says, number two: you're holy. Sometimes, with our mouths and our actions,
we like to act like there's a halo that's over our heads. But you have it. You didn't
put it there. Ours are always thrown off because we put them there, but you have it. You are
holy. Maybe there's a lot of times you don't want it there, but God put it there and you
can't get it off. Praise the Lord! You're chosen by Him. He declares you to be holy.
Beloved--there it is again--beloved.
Moses came to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 7, and he said almost
those same three things. He did. Listen to Deuteronomy 7. Remember, Deuteronomy 5 is
the law. Deuteronomy 6 is you have to teach your children, love the Lord your god with
all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Deuteronomy 7. For thou art an holy people,
unto the Lord thy God holy. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people to
himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set
His love upon you nor choose you because you are more in number than any people, for ye
are the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. Holy, chosen, loved. The
more you realize who you are, as God looks at you, the more you will want to, you will
have the incentive to, obey the commandments.
We will do that by seeking and by setting our affection upon. That's the language that
he uses in verses one and two. There will be pursuits. This seeking and pursuing is
not, I'm going to try to do it in order to discover something, but I'm striving to do
it in order to obtain it. This is my pursuit. I seek it and I set my affections upon it.
Set my affections is that I will think about it, I will ponder it, I will dwell upon it,
I will take out the bible and see what it says, and I will look at them and think about
them, and I will appreciate and love them, set my affection upon them. I will long for
them. I will begin to pray that God work them in me more and more. Strive. Ponder. Desire.
In the original language in verse one, he sets "those things which are above" in front
of the word "seek". He wants them to have the emphasis. Now that's interesting. Even
though he's going to go on in verse five through verse nine and talk about all the negatives,
mortify fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness.
Put off from you wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying one to another.
He's going to make them there. He's going to set that list first. We've got that list
in front of us. But before he gets to that list, he says, your ability to mortify isn't,
okay, I've got to do this to myself. He says it begins by setting your affections on things
above, and you seek Christ, and your life, which is hid with Christ in God. You make
it simple. You look up. Just look up, and all that that implies. There He sits. There's
that awesome God Who has chosen you and loves you and has made you holy. Look up at Him.
And let the knowledge of what His relationship to you is, be that which makes you get after
and kill that part of yourself that the ungodly can't kill, but you can.
The apostle does this often, even as he approaches us, and he gets very specific. The approach
of the scriptures is often: fill yourself so much with the knowledge of what God has
done for you in Christ, and what He thinks of you. Fill yourself up with those thoughts.
Think on those things so much that you don't have time or room for indulging your flesh.
Yes, we've got to say no to the flesh, we've got to put it off. But the way to put it off--sometimes
you've got to use a knife, yes--but the best way to put it off is to fill your mind with
the knowledge of what He has done for you in Christ. I just read a little pamphlet on
May I be angry with God? And he ended with this: sometimes we've got to take out the
Bible story books that are for little children, and start reading the Bible stories that describe
in a very concrete way what God has done for us in Christ. Just read the Bible stories.
Look up.
Here's another one. Overcome evil with good. He says in Galatians 5, walk by the spirit
and then you will not gratify the desires of your flesh. Romans 13:14, put on the Lord
Jesus and then make no provision for the flesh. You don't have time for him because you're
so busy putting on. Now, to follow the figure, he's gotta say you put off before you can
put on. But he really says, keep putting on. And that's how you you're going to shed. If
you approach a temper: I've got to check myself, I can't give way to anger, I can't let it
brew: yes, good. But the best way to take care of anger, and wrath, and malice, and
evil speaking is: put on bowels of mercies. Gentleness, meekness. Fill yourself with humility,
real humility. Then you can forbear and forgive. Forbear and forgive. Forbear and forgive.
If any man have a quarrel with any--we've got all kinds of them--forbear and forgive,
even as Christ--and then he adds this. He's already said it, but he's got to put it in
here, right here. This is the time when it's needed again--as Christ forgave you, so do
ye. And above all other things. He can't tell us how to feel--phileo--but he tells us how
to think--agape. Put on charity. Know one another. They're risen with Christ too! He
chose them as well! He made them holy too! And He loves them! Oh, you'd better be careful
if you're angered yet, because He loves them! Teenagers, there are treasures that are hid
with Christ in God. They're all in Christ, and where is Christ? They're all bundled up
in Him. He is at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above. Now, not only
because they're with Christ, but because that's the high way, and not the low way. Somebody
does something low and mean and dirty to you. Well, our natures are to get right down to
their level. We're going to do it back. Get down. No, walk the high road. Overcome evil
with good. Be not overcome of evil. Know, always know thi:s vengeance is His. He's got
a record, and He can take care of them, and He will, and me, when I get even.
What does it mean to seek the things above? Isn't it striking, that when he starts to
make very specific application, the very first application isn't to the head of the home,
but it's to the wives. Because husbands are not to be the kind of husbands that drag and
lasso and drive. Husbands are to lead, and if nobody follows... So he says wives, it starts,
in many ways, with you. All of the home starts with how the conduct and attitude of a wife
is toward the husband--no, wait a minute, sorry--toward the Lord who made her a wife
and gave her that husband, as it is fit in the Lord. What a tremendous responsibility
you wives have. It starts with you and your attitude, revealed in tone, revealed in words,
toward the husband that the Lord, in perfect wisdom and infinite love, gave to you. You
want him? Submit yourselves, so that you will always reveal an attitude of respect and reverence
to him.
Husbands, now you love them as your own body. And because they're different and you start
to get better because they don't think the way you think, because they can manipulate
and control in their own way, you start to get frustrated. Be not bitter! Be not bitter.
Love them. Put on charity. Love them as your own body, and dwell with them as men of understanding,
giving honor unto that more delicate vessel, remembering that there's no respecter of persons.
He doesn't say, you're the man, and they're just the weaker vessel. No, he says you're
joint heirs of the grace of life. And your prayers could be hindered. You don't love
them, and get bitter.
And then, he doesn't start with dads. He goes to children. Children, in all things, not
the ones you like, don't select, in all things obey your parents. Look up! That's well pleasing
to the Lord. Parents, understand how you can provoke to anger. Communicate. Each one is
different. Don't discourage them in this walk. Encourage them. Show them forgiveness. You've
experienced it. Show them forgiveness. Encourage.
Holy, beloved children of God, you in whom is pulsing the life of Jesus Christ Himself.
You are such a special people. You are. You're the apple of His eye. That's why you're so
precious. Put off, and put on. Fill yourself up with bowls of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing and forgiving. So that wrath and anger, filthy
communication, malice and blasphemy is gone. Put on! But start by looking up. Know who
you are in Christ. Amen.
O Lord our Lord, our Father. How excellent Thou art as our God. And what an excellent
thing Thou hast done and art doing for us. May we know Thy relationship to us and who
we are in Christ, so we live it. For Jesus' sake, Amen.