If Ye Then Be Risen With Christ

[00:00:00] I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 3. This is a passage that over the years has really been important to me, one that I have appreciated, one that I've went to often. I was tempted as I decided the Lord was leading me to preach from this passage to go back and find some old notes and use them. [00:00:39] But I decided, no, I think that it's best sometimes to just take and try to study something in a fresh way. and to look at it even though sometimes looking at some old notes can really bring about some things and I'm not against that but I just felt like I needed to look at it and like I've said often sometimes I like to read a passage like it's the first time I've read it [00:01:11] and I think we can really see some insights. Do children have all the outlines? I don't know if all the children got their outlines or not. Any of the children that did not get their outlines? Okay, I think you're pretty well. Okay, Will, would you get, I think there's some outlines of one of the ushers, and just give them to the children as they, if you don't have one, raise your hand, and here's a couple of, a few of them up here. [00:01:45] All right, Colossians 3, 1-17. Let's go ahead and read that. And then we will try to learn from it. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, for Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. [00:02:18] 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, and the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them? [00:02:51] But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, and 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. For 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, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. [00:03:34] 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. And 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. [00:04:19] One of the things that I think is important as we look at the scriptures, and that is that sometimes some of the scriptures are teaching us something. And then also part of them are making applications of what has been taught. And I think it's important for us to see that. In this passage, I see the first four verses as being the basic teaching. Now, Paul is going back, he's continuing on here from chapter 2, and sometimes it's easy for us to just kind of jump in the middle of something here. [00:04:59] But if you go back into chapter 2, you'll see that some of this teaching that Paul is giving here in the first four verses is really an expansion of what comes out of chapter 2. And in chapter 2, I'm going to read, I want to read, actually, if you go to verse 8 in chapter 2, I think we see pretty much the emphasis or the reason why Paul is writing. And his concern, and I think a lot of the book hinges around chapter 8, or verse 8 of chapter 2. [00:05:37] He says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. And so his concern here is that we're not led astray with what comes from the world. And we're going to see that here in these first four verses. He gives us the contrast of whether we seek after heaven or we seek after earth. [00:06:13] We have that contrast. We have those two options there. And we're going to be seeking after one of them. Everyone is. We're either going to be seeking after the things of heaven, or we're going to be seeking after the things of earth. And, you know, we live in this earth, don't we? We live here in this world. We all have to deal with the things of this world. We can't get away from it. [00:06:44] And we all deal with weather, we deal with the government, we deal with laws, we deal with disaster, we deal with our health, hunger, death, all of these things, we have to deal with them. And we can't get away from it. Over in Romans 8, there's a couple of verses there that I found very interesting, and I think could answer a lot of questions for us. But go over to Romans chapter 8, 22 and 23. Sometimes people almost have the idea that when we're Christians that none of these things in this world affect us. [00:07:29] But in Romans chapter 8, verse 22, it says, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Now, when this was written, it seemed like things were in a turmoil. And with all the earthquakes and everything that happened, we understand what he's saying. Now it says, and not only they, not only the people of this world, not only the ungodly does this happen to, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, [00:08:07] Waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body And so the things of this world do affect us But we have a choice to make We have a choice to either focus on those things Or we have a choice to focus on something higher which is in heaven And I believe that this is what the challenge is here in these first four verses. [00:08:38] You know, if we're risen, and by the way, that word if there has the idea of since we have been risen with Christ. That's the idea of that word if. Since we are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. And where Christ is. Set your affection on those things, not on things of this earth. And that's a very conscious choice we're going to have to make. [00:09:10] Whether our affection is going to be down here, or whether it's going to be the things that the Lord wants for us. So that's important that we make that decision. It says we're dead. We're dead to this world. Now here again, it doesn't mean we don't live here. And we don't experience the things that happen as we said. But our nature, our spiritual nature now, being risen in Christ, we had to die in order to be risen with him. [00:09:43] And he reminds us that we're to be dead to those things and be risen with Christ. And so when that happens, when Christ who is our life, and he is, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He is the life within us. That's real life. And he says, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. And so we need to have the long view, don't we? We need to not just look at this short view of earth, but we need to have the long view that when Christ appears, we're going to be with him. [00:10:22] And how important that is to keep that long view in mind and not be short-sighted. Now, those first four verses are some basic teaching that is very important. And by the way, if you go back and read some of this in the chapter before, and also read Romans chapter 6, is a good chapter of talking about being buried with Christ and raised with Him, and so on. There's a lot that we can learn from that. [00:10:56] But I want to move on and now get into the application of what he's saying. How do we, are we focusing on earth or do we focus in heaven? And the way we're going to do that, first of all, in verse 5, he says, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. He's talking here about these things that we deal with here on earth. That word mortify is the same word that is used for a mortician. [00:11:28] You know what a mortician is? A mortician deals with death, don't he? With the death, or with people that are dead. And he's saying take those and kill those things, or do away with, Subdue those members that are involved in these things And he's talking here about our own members of our body That are involved Now, these things pretty much are sexual in nature [00:12:02] He talks about here of fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence We connect those with sexual sins and we're not going to go into those in detail but we all realize what those are and how prevalent those are in this world. Now notice, I just want to point out though, he talks about covetousness and idolatry. Are those sexual? We usually don't think of those as being part of sexual sins, do we? [00:12:41] And yet those are included right with that list. And I really think what it is, is those are the root of sexual sins. Those are the root. Those are where sexual sins come from, is covetousness and idolatry. Desiring to have something that does not belong to you is covetousness. We all know that definition, don't we? We all know what that is. [00:13:14] And that's really what sexual sin is involved in. Having a desire for something that is not lawfully mine. Does not belong to me. And that is the root of covetousness. But what about idolatry? Where does that come in? I believe that it comes in because I believe there becomes a real worship of sexual things. I think our society is there. [00:13:45] I think if there's any, if there's a, well there's a number of things that can be idolatry in our society. But one of them is the worship of sex and immorality. That it is so prevalent all through our society. We see it, we see it often times just disguised as entertainment. And, well, that's just entertaining, you know. No, I believe it becomes a worship of sexual things. [00:14:18] People hold up movie stars and celebrities. They hold up styles that are promoted and pornography and all of those things. But it becomes a worship. It becomes idolatry. And those things are what take our focus. And those become our focus rather than on the heavenly things, rather on Christ and so on. And so he's saying, mortify these things in your life. [00:14:52] Get rid of them. Kill them. And here again, it's only going to be done through the power of Christ. The only way it's going to be accomplished is to have the power of Christ. And I believe that it's going to take the grace of God to be able to do that. I really think that this is where the grace of God really comes in. Too often in our culture, in our idea, even across Christendom today, [00:15:26] the grace of God amounts to God overlooking sin. And people say, you know, God overlooks sin. His grace takes care of it. And thankfully He does. There is some that, you know, if it wasn't for the grace of God, we wouldn't be here. But I'm afraid that the definition only stops at that. And Titus 2 is a good example of this. Go over to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 [00:16:03] I'm having trouble finding Titus, there we go Titus chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Now, I think that's a definition of grace that we're very familiar with But here's what it does It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. [00:16:39] And that's what the grace of God does in our lives, is that it helps us to mortify those members that he's talking about here over in Colossians chapter 3. Okay, let's go to verse 6. And here again is something that our society does not want to talk much about. Even churches do not want to talk about. It says, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. You know, I can't think of anything worse than to be under the wrath of God. [00:17:16] And, but he's saying, those that are involved in these things that he just listed, he said the wrath of God comes upon them. And I believe that happens. It happens individually, in an individual's life. Also, I think it happens in a society or in a culture or in a country's life. And I believe some of the things that we're experiencing in our country is the wrath of God upon us. [00:17:50] I can't help but think of any other things. That God does not look favorably upon one of the things that are happening. And he just reminds us that God's wrath is upon those things. He said, and these are the things that you used to walk in. Before we were risen with Christ But now that we are risen with Christ No longer are we to be involved in those things [00:18:20] Now he goes on to another list He gives another list of things to put off And starting in verse 8 8 and 9 he's got another list of things And I noticed that these are more of sins of the spirit. Someone has labeled that first list that we looked at as sins of the flesh. [00:18:52] But these are thought of now more as sins of the spirit. Now, he's saying that these are anger. Talked about that in our Sunday school, didn't we? Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth And it seems like anger and wrath lead to those others, don't they? Filthy communication, not always, but sometimes that filthy communication is dirty talk and cursing and all that type of thing [00:19:24] But he's saying now, get rid of those too Those are things in your life that you need to put off. You know, we can feel kind of good about ourselves. Maybe in that first list we say, well, I'm not involved in those things. And, you know, maybe we can feel pretty good about ourselves. But what about this list? Do we feel as good about ourselves in this list as we did about the first one? [00:19:55] And then in verse 9 he says, Why not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds? Be truthful. I appreciate Brother Ray's honesty this morning. And, you know, just be truthful with each other. It's pretty easy to try to give the impression that, well, I never have problems, you know, and everything's fine with me. And, you know, we can live a lie without saying anything sometimes. Just by giving the impression that, you know, everything's fine and nothing's wrong with me. [00:20:33] But we can put on a front. But he's saying, lie not one to another. Be truthful with each other. Because he said, you put off that old man. That's the way the old man was. The old man was hypocritical and tried to put on a good front. But, he said, as a new man, now get rid of those things in your life that need to be gotten rid of. And then he says in verse 10, and have put on the new man. [00:21:04] Again, he says, we put off some things, but we need to be putting off. And by the way, these things don't all happen at one time. At least I found that, you know, putting off the old man is a process. and putting on the new man as a process. You notice that? It's not just a one-time thing, but it's something that seems like it's continual throughout our lives. Now, he gives the description of the new man here. [00:21:39] What is this new man like? How would you describe the new man? And he gives that. He said that is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him. And who obviously is that? That's Jesus himself, isn't it? The new man is patterned after Jesus. If we're going to have an old man, we know what that's patterned after. But if we're going to have a new man, that has to have a pattern too. And that pattern, of course, is our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:22:10] And he's saying that that pattern has nothing to do, it has nothing to do with our nationality, it has nothing to do with our color, it has nothing to do with our background, it has nothing to do with our status in life. That's not what it is, that's not what makes the new man. But that new man is Christ, and when our life is patterned after him. That's where we become that new man that is so important. [00:22:45] Now he goes on then in verse 12 through 14 and continues to talk about the things that are important to put on. I had to think about as I was thinking about this area of putting on. It reminded me of what Jesus said over in, I think he says it in Matthew, but also in Luke. Go back to Luke chapter 11. In Luke chapter 11 verse 24. [00:23:30] I think it's important we all read that. Luke chapter 11 verse 24. He says, [00:24:05] And dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Now something stood out to me in that passage that I had never really noticed before. I mean, I've read it, but I've never really paid attention to it. You know, we get that picture, here's someone that Satan has left, and after a while he comes back to check out what's happened. and the place is all swept out [00:24:35] and then he uses a word there that I find interesting and he said it's garnished what does that mean? if something is garnished you know I always just thought here's a bare house, nothing in it and that's why Satan can come back in but it's garnished I looked up that word to see, well, what does that mean? It means decorated. It means painted. [00:25:07] It means pictures on the wall. A little different picture, a little different idea than what I used to have of this passage. You know, I think that what he's saying here is that, you know, Satan left and, you know, things were kind of put in order, but it stopped there. There was no real life. All there was was paint on the walls and some pictures and some decorations and that sort of thing. [00:25:44] And you can have that in a house, but that doesn't mean there's life there. I believe that the Lord wants us to take, and as we put on that new man, there needs to be real things happen and change, real change take place. Not just some few decorations to put up, not maybe just change a few outward things in our life and think, well, that takes care of it now. But he wants real change to happen, real inner change in our lives to take place [00:26:20] He wants it beyond just a few cosmetic things But he wants real change And this is the things that he wants us to put on, I believe, here in Colossians chapter 3 Put on, therefore, is the elect of God, holy and beloved I like that I used to read that, I used to kind of skim over that But, you just see the affection that Paul has here for those that he's writing to. He calls them, he says, Holy and Beloved. [00:26:52] He says, I love you. And I'm saying these things because I love you and I care for you. And he says, here's what you do. He says, I want you to put on, and here again, it's just not something we can just kind of put on ourselves. It's through Christ that does it. But he said, I want you to put on bowels of mercies. Now that word bowels is used different here than what we normally use it. That word is used in a lot different way today. But that word bowels has to do with our inner parts. [00:27:26] And the best way that I can probably describe it is I studied that word. It has to do with what we would probably call our heart today, or our emotions, our feelings, and so on. But it's a heart of mercy, a heart of kindness, a heart of humility, and meekness, and long-suffering. These are things that come from within. [00:28:00] How the work of Christ has changed us from within. And these are the things that come out. I believe it's what he's saying. He says, put those things on. Strive after those things. Develop those things in your life. And, you know, if we really have a heart for the Lord, we've got plenty to work on, don't we? There's no reason to get bored in our Christian life. I think we've got plenty to work at. [00:28:32] Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. You know, these are things that cannot be faked very long. You know, sometimes people can kind of fake the Christian life. But if we're going to really put on the new man, and we're going to really put these things on, if they're not for real, they're going to soon show up. [00:29:06] It won't last very long. And we usually can't fake these for very long. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Everybody gets into disagreements with people, don't they? How do we react to that? I think it shows what kind, you know, are we really putting on the new man? Or are we still living under the influence of the old man? [00:29:38] But then he sums it all up here in verse 14, that whole list. And he says, above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Above all those other things, and really at the basis of all those other things, is love, isn't it? Charity here means love. He says, put all those things on. But he says, above all that, he says, put on love. Jesus, that's just simply following what Jesus taught us, isn't it? When he said that the whole law is summed up in one thing and that is love. Loving the Lord with all our heart and our neighbor as ourself. Put on love. And if we have a real love and it takes a new man, it takes being a new man in order to have the love of Christ that he has for us and that he wants us to have. [00:30:34] Now, in the next three verses, I sort of titled this as a summary of this passage. And I see that as three things that he tells us to do here to summarize this of what he's instructing. Actually, I think in a way it would have been better to have the chapter heading right after verse 17. But it isn't, and I think this whole 17 verses is a continuation of chapter 2 [00:31:12] The first thing he says in verse 15, he says, And let the peace of God rule in your hearts Let the peace of God rule in your hearts Now when he's talking about the peace of God, what does he mean? I think he's talking about peace between us and God, first of all. When we make a decision and we decide what we're going to do with something, do we let that peace between me and God help make that decision? [00:31:49] Do we say, Lord, is this something you really want me to do? Is that our first thought? Or is our first thought just, well, this is what I want to do or I don't want to do it. But let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Also, I think it's talking about the peace of God among his people. Let that be a deciding factor as we make a decision. Because the peace of God, notice there, he says in verse 15, [00:32:23] Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body. He's saying, you know, the peace among the brethren, brothers and sisters. Let that be a deciding factor in how we make our decisions and what we do. And then he says in that, and be ye thankful. Really, I probably should have made number four here, but I included that in that verse 15 Because I think when we're thankful, we're going to want the peace of God to rule in our hearts. [00:32:56] But thankfulness is so important there just to have a thankful spirit in our lives. Just a thankful spirit, thanking God every day for what he's done. And just have that kind of a spirit in us. And then verse 16, he says, and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. [00:33:27] Now, if you stop there, you would think that, you know, this is, we get up, we read the scriptures to each other, and we talk to each other, and that type of thing. But did you notice it here, how we are to teach and admonish one another? through singing. Isn't that interesting? We ought to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [00:34:01] singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. I just really was encouraged or inspired, I guess, by that. That just how important singing is to us. You know, I think we could come and sometimes we go, well, we're going to have a couple of songs and we pick up our hymnal and we just sing and yeah, well, that's good. But do we really stop and think how important singing is? It is a really important part of the church service. [00:34:38] And what he's saying here is that, and not only this in the church service, but I think it's something we can do, you know, other places too. We can sing to ourselves, we can sing as a family, and so on. But I think especially now here in the church service. And I just want to encourage us in our singing. Because we are singing not only between us and God, but we are singing to each other. We don't normally think of it that way, do we? [00:35:10] At least I don't. But we really, we are singing to each other. We are challenging each other as we sing. We are admonishing each other. We're teaching each other. We're sharing the wisdom of these songs with each other. And, you know, he's saying, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly through these. I think that's why it's important, the kind of songs that we sing. I think the kind of songs we sing are very important. [00:35:45] Now, I realize here, he's saying in songs, and there's times that we sing some of the songs, don't we? Not very many, but some of the songs that we sing are really, they're songs. But then there's hymns, and then there's spiritual songs. I guess I, you know, I see a lot of times we have hymns, but then we also at times we sing choruses. I think those are spiritual songs that we sing. [00:36:17] Sometimes we call them children's songs that they sing. And, but, you know, we have different kind of songs that we sing. And I think our songs need to have meaning. I think they need to be accurate to the scriptures. And I think they need to be songs that encourage us in the word of God. I guess I'm not in favor of some of the modern so-called Christian rock that I hear sometimes. [00:36:53] To me, I'm sorry, but to me they have very little meaning and have very little content to them. Now here again, I realize maybe some people see that differently, but I just have a hard time really, they seem so shallow to me. And here again, I want to be careful with that, but it just seems like we need to have songs that really admonish and really teach and really have some real meaning to them. [00:37:32] And there are songs that are to encourage and that are ones that edify us. And I want to do that in closing here in just a little bit. I want to give an example of that as we sing together. I want to look at verse 17, yep, before we close. 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. [00:38:10] Whatever we do, whatever we do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And again, that attitude of being thankful. What a challenge that is to us, that everything I do, I want it to please the Lord. What I'd like to do in closing, I'd like for us to take our hymnals, and just a good example, in page 437, is this song, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, and I'd like for us to sing it. [00:38:50] I'd like for us to sing it in the way that it tells us here to teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And I want us to sing this song to each other. Now we sing it to the Lord, but really it's the type of song that we are to sing and to challenge each other with. [00:39:22] And 437, let's stand together and as we sing, let's sing it in that way. Glenn, would you lead us in that song? Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross Live high in royal manner, if not, not suffer loss [00:39:59] From victory unto victory, his army shall he lead O every foe is vanquished, and Christ is born in thee Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpets call away [00:40:31] for to the mighty complex in this his glorious day you had an inbound service against unnumbered foes Your courage rides with danger, and strength is strength of hope [00:41:04] Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone The arm of Christ will fail you, ye cannot trust your own Put on the gospel armor and watch in a new prayer [00:41:36] Where beauty falls or danger, be ever one king there Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long This day the noise of battle connects the victors' song [00:42:09] To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be He with the King of glory shall reign eternally I trust we challenge each other as we sung that song that we can all really stand for Jesus. [00:42:43] God bless you. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much. Thank you for your word again this morning. And I pray, Father, that your word can dwell in us richly. Lord, as we sing, as we sing as a congregation, and as we sing by ourselves or with our families, Lord, that your word can really be rich in us. And I just pray, Father, that you would help us all, that we can continually be putting on the new man, [00:43:16] That we can be putting off the things that need to be put off And put on the things that need to be put on Lord, work in all of us And we ask that your Holy Spirit would give us the strength and the power And Lord, that it would be a work of yours Not a work of our flesh We just pray that you would just work in all of us, dear God Thank you We pray now you dismiss us with your blessing Help us as we go forth That we can really stand for you In Jesus name we pray. Amen.