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Colossians Chapter 3.
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God.
When Christ who is your 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 that which ye also walk sometime 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 Newman, 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, 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 which also ye are called in one body. And be 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 heart 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 provoked not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants obey in all things your masters, according to flesh, not with thy service as men pleasers, but in singleness of a heart fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartless to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of 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.
I know this chapter is.
About a lot of practical exhortation that is very important.
I would like to suggest that if perhaps.
Maybe in this first meeting we can.
Take up the doctrine.
Of our position in Christ that is mentioned in the last chapter.
And I expressed my reason for suggesting this chapter, brethren.
Is that it seems to me that in the Christian world of which we form a part.
There is the idea that we are saved by grace and.
Then with so many, it seems like it is just living life like we have always lived it, not realizing that our position once we have accepted the Lord as Savior has completely changed. And if you go back to the last chapter.
Look at verse 13.
It says in you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
Happy, quick and given life together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
And then go back to verse 12.
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Buried with him in baptism.
Wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
So as believers in the Lord Jesus, if we understand our position properly, we are dead with Christ, we are buried with him, and we are risen again. So verse one of chapter 3 begins with that.
If or since she then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
So it's not living life just like anybody else down here. It is understanding the life that we have. I really fear, brethren, that many true believers do not understand what Christian life is about.
It is completely on the other side of death and the grave. We live as believers in resurrection territory.
And you can't talk about resurrection unless you know what death is 1St. And so these things have a practical significance. But we don't understand that this is the case. Then we will think that we live our lives just like most anybody else in this world does.
I really suggest that we don't really understand what Christian life is all about, and so I just suggest that perhaps we can.
Uh, comment a bit on the doctrine of our position.
As identified with the Lord, Jesus Christ died for us.
And we have died.
With Christ.
To sin. And now we are looked at as buried and risen again in a completely new position before God.
And on that groundwork, we have the exhortations of Chapter 3.
It's the death, our death with Christ that is in view Here We have the death of Christ for us, particularly in the book of Romans, but in Colossians it's more the emphasis on our death with Christ and its consequences, and so the crossing of the Jordan River.
Into the land of promise is seen in verses 12 and 13 of chapter 2.
There's a consequence if in going through death with the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is seen not very clearly in the King James, but verse 20.
If ye be dead with Christ.
There's consequence to death.
People die and it puts them in a certain position, and so we have died with Christ.
It puts us in a certain position with respect to the world, with respect to ourselves, with respect to God, and just to give the overview of it in verse 20 the consequences he talks about to the chapter 2 if you be dead with Christ. And then in chapter 3 it begins getting risen with them.
And so the other side of it is if we are not only dead.
But we are risen with Christ. That brings the consequences. Well, if you take a dead person and raise them from the dead, well, that changes things. Bob used the word position. If you take a dead person and you raise them from the dead, their position is rather significantly changed. Not that it happens among us in the world, but at least but it does spiritually, even though it doesn't physically. And then, if you will, the next paragraph of the subject begins in verse five of chapter 3.
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It says mortify. That's an exhortation. New translation says put.
To death there is a practical is another meeting, and we, I suppose, will take up, Lord willing. There's the practical exhortation given to us of things that we are to treat as put to death in our lives as a consequence of it. And then finally, if you go on to verse 12 of chapter three, you find the parallel.
Exhortation put on.
So first there's the things that are put off as having died, and then there are the things that were exhorted to put on as being alive.
And so again, if we pass through death, and as a consequence of it, if you be dead, there are certain consequences. And then the apostle tells us, if now you be alive.
There are consequences to that. And then he says to us, these are the things that because you are.
Dad that you put off in your life and then he exhorts us in things that because we now live that we are to put on.
In the culture and the world were passing through.
It's often been called a humanistic.
World or California culture?
It's with man at the center of his world.
And so often we as believers and brethren, were passing through this world.
And to a certain extent or another, we're all affected by the current of things. I think it is helpful to be able to see that and understand it and to judge it in the measure that we can before the Lord.
But it is with man as the center of his world.
And they're things that are not morally wrong.
You want a car? What kind of car you like? What color do you like your car and everything. It depends on what you like. And before long, we get into the current of thinking with ourselves at the center of our world.
Brethren, I think this is robbing us of our true life and the enjoyment of living.
With where God has set us in our position as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Wonderful to realize a dead man. Does he have preferences?
Not really.
What do you do with a dead man? You take him out and you bury them.
Do you pull them out once in a while to see if there's any change for the better?
No, you leave them there.
And that's where our culture tends to pull us right back out and continue to focus on us. And I see so many young people that get discouraged because they don't seem to be able to understand that what we are as men in the flesh before God is dead and gone.
It's Barry. Don't pull it out again. Leave it there.
Our life is now beyond the tomb. We live in resurrection life no longer with ourselves as the focus of our lives. There's a man in the glory in this verse. One of chapter 3. Actually, it's verse.
Verse four says Christ.
Is our life. So the focus has completely changed. It is not what I am any longer as a man in the flesh.
No, there's a man at God's right hand. I can look up into the glory and I can say there's.
There's my life.
In resurrection grounds, that is the position of the believer in the Lord Jesus.
But may the Lord help us to understand the wonderful place that God has brought us in, the Lord Jesus.
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We're dead, we're buried, We're risen. Again, Don mentioned that the what we have here is.
Typified in the Jordan River, our death with Christ and that in Romans you get more.
Well, you have typified in the Red Sea.
It is the death of Christ for us, that which completely delivers us from this world system.
We do not form part of this world system any longer, brethren. We have been removed from it, the one who is recognized as Prince of this world.
Is not the one we recognize in authority any longer. We recognize somebody else. But it is interesting in the figure of the Red Sea and the Jordan, I think you'll find in the Old Testament history.
That the children of Israel are said to have gone into the Red Sea and they come out of Jordan.
The wilderness. We go through those experiences, but the purpose of God is to bring us into the full enjoyment of our heavenly portion. And that's Canaan. So may the Lord help us to understand better. It's a wonderful thing to get a hold of in our souls, to let it sink into our souls. Brethren, all that I am as a man in the flesh is gone before God.
Dead and buried, and now we are risen with Christ.
And as such, then it should reflect in our lives that this is the life that is now been given to us. Let's live that life, brethren, dear young people.
I know that it is a struggle in this day and age, but to keep your focus properly is so important.
We are not part of this world system, Lord Jesus said. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
They put him out of it and that's our position as well.
And the whole result of all of this.
Is not in any way to bring the believer in ******* is it? So often we end, if we're not careful to look upon these things as a matter of *******?
But it's rather that we might enjoy practically the position into which God has placed us.
An old brother, long since with the Lord, used to remind us, and I guess I've repeated it many times, he said. Every exhortation of Scripture is based upon what we all ready possess.
And so, as you say, Brother Bob, the Lord has already put us into that position, and now here it's the practical enjoyment of it.
That second verse here.
Read it as it is in the Darby. It's a little more accurate, not so much. Set your affection on things above.
But rather set your mind on things above.
My affection naturally goes.
To that which is dearest to my heart. And so you get that expression in the 12Th chapter of Luke for where your treasure is.
There should your heart be also. Is that right? No.
There will your heart be also couldn't be otherwise. My heart goes to where my treasure is, but my mind is something that I can set actively on one thing or the other.
I don't have to allow it to run rampant over any kind of subject that comes to mind. I can take that mind and I can set it in the right direction. It can be an act of my will, and it should be. Why do I do that Is it?
An effort to do it? Yes, it is sometimes, but it's well worthwhile. Why? Because everything I have, as Bob has said, is connected with a risen Christ in glory.
I want, and I trust we all want, to enjoy it and to enjoy it presently, even in the midst of a world that is totally contrary to us.
And so God would have us to set our minds on those things which are above.
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Do we have to set our minds occasionally on something down here we do.
If you're going to school, you'll occasionally have to set your mind on an assignment, don't you? If you're in class, you have to pay attention to the class, and it wouldn't look very good. If I were to be reading my Bible when I was supposed to be listening to the teacher or the professor. That wouldn't be a good testimony, would it?
If I'm at work, my boss will expect me to keep my mind on what I'm supposed to be doing in order to earn my wages.
But.
When it's a question of the things of this world.
Paul says set your mind on something better.
It'll pay off.
Christianity, or the Christian faith, really begins with death.
And after death comes life.
And if we don't understand that, we won't properly embrace our faith.
That God has given to us. When God created Adam and Eve and put them in a garden, he came down and to enjoy fellowship with them, because it was the desire and heart of God to have a creature that could know him and that he could fellowship with, and so he created man. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they morally died and then physically died.
And the consequence was that for nearly 4000 years of history.
God worked with man to see if there was a basis with man in which his fellowship with God could be restored.
On the ground of being part of Adam's race.
But when the Lord sees us.
Died on the cross.
The Lord Jesus came into this world to participate.
In flesh and blood, to partake of flesh and blood, to become a real man among men.
And in him God found pleasure.
But the world said, no, we will not have this man and put him to death.
And at that point, God.
Judged.
That there will never be any relationship between man and God.
On the ground of Adam's race.
It was over with. It was done with. No man is going to have fellowship with God as a member of Adam's race.
In his condition of being sinful.
But God did not leave the Lord Jesus Christ in death.
He raised him from the dead.
And now, on the basis of his work on the cross, his death on the cross, God is forming a new creation in Christ.
Having his life. And so the Lord Jesus had to say to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you can't see the Kingdom of God.
Essentially, you can't have a relationship with God, Nicodemus unless.
You must be born again.
And so you must be born of the Spirit.
You must have the life that God gives.
And we see in this chapter 3 of Colossians that that life is Christ is our life.
Its eternal life elsewhere called, we have to have it.
And so if we receive eternal life, we become part of a new creation, and we're not to live.
Before God anymore, in our relationship with God according to the old.
But we have been brought into something that's new, and as a consequence, in Colossians, we're being taught the truth of what it means for us to live with Christ, our life before God. We have a new object to life.
God so made man that he cannot live without an object.
People have to have something to live for. They have to have something before them that's outside of themselves. Even in Adams race, but so in Christ it's the same.
But God has given to us as the object of our lives.
What he finds his pleasure in his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so God has given us a life that finds pleasure in what God finds pleasure in.
So He can have fellowship with us, and so He has given us His Son to be the object of our hearts and our lives. And since He's in heaven and we're on earth, then we set our mind on that Himself where He is.
And that morally changes us and forms the character of our life.
And so it is if, as Bob said, we go back and try to say I'm saved, I'm going to heaven.
But we don't recognize the new position we're in before God. Then we'll muddle along trying to live.
Half Adam's way of life and half the Christian way of life, and they don't mix and they don't work together and we will be very disappointed in how life goes.
But true satisfaction and joy is found in finding Christ our life, and having him as the object of it.
I'd like to go back a few moments to.
Romans 6 which speaks of death and burial as well.
Even though it is a different context a bit, but I think it is helpful just to get these points clear that we're talking about.
Let's read the first few verses of chapter 6 of Romans, it says. What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Doesn't say how shall we that should be dead to sin.
It says How shall we that are dead to sin?
You are a true believer in the Lord Jesus.
This is your position.
You might say, well, I don't feel very dead. When temptation comes around, I don't feel very dead.
It's not a matter of feeling, it's understanding the position God has put us into.
Ceiling. We don't base our lives on feelings. Feelings are very real and you can't ignore them. But we don't follow feelings. We follow the truth of God's word. And then feelings will find their proper place.
We are dead to sin.
Remember as a young person struggling with that.
And coming upon verse 11 of this chapter which says.
Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that word reckoned. Perhaps we don't use very much today, but I like to just put it in these simple words. Think that way.
You are dead now. Think that way.
You think as if you are dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
A Member struggling with the impulses of sin in my life and I've found that I was totally powerless.
To correct them.
And it came to me after a time that I was in vain. I was struggling. What I needed to do was simply take God at His word, he says. We are dead.
Remember how easy the struggle ceased and I simply took God at His word? That is what we need to do to understand. But then going on here in the 6th chapter, verse 3.
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. So we there we have what we mentioned in Colossians 2. We are not only dead, but we are buried with Christ and risen again.
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And so how important it is to understand this our position if we're going to take up these exhortations of Chapter 3, because Bill that mentioned that it's not a matter of getting into legal codes like is mentioned in Colossians 2 and verse 20.
If you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as those living in the world are you subject to ordinances?
Touch not. Taste not. Handle not.
If we go back to legal codes to control the flesh, we are recognizing that the flesh is alive and well, and that is a practical denial of our Christian position, he says. Why do you do that? That is not our proper position as believers. We are dead. We are buried, we are risen again, we're beyond That doesn't mean that as believers.
We have liberty to let the flesh do whatever it wants to know the flesh doesn't have liberty. We as believers in the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
Ground have liberty.
Oh, it's wonderful if we can understand what our position, what our life really is in Christ, brethren.
I think it's helpful as well to understand that he is not.
By our effort and we.
That was, God has already.
Viewed us.
Requested Adam, the first man.
In Adam that could bring forth fruit to him, and after fully testing him, he came to the conclusion.
That there's only one thing that I can do with Adam.
That's commit him to death.
Take him out of the way completely and bring about.
Life in a new man, and that new man is Christ.
He was tested. He proved to be that which was was brought glory to God. And so God says, OK, I'm taking you out of your the position of being an atom, and I'm condemning you in that position to death. But you're gonna rise again and you're going to be in a new man. I'm going to place you in position.
In Christ Jesus and if we would turn to active, If you are still in Romans, you can just go over.
It says therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
So I think it's helpful for us to see, as we speak about these things that in God's purposes there were two men.
There was Adam, and there was Christ.
And excuse me.
We our position is we have no longer anymore identification with Adam in God's eyes. If that's not something that we accomplished by our own effort, it's something that God chose to do to condemn us, as it were.
In Adam give us life in Christ, and now we're seen in Him and all of His perfection.
Might help. Is a.
Way of seeing it.
This room? No. I'm sure that the Lord Jesus was hung on a cross and he was in the middle of three people. Two men were hung on either side of him, and the two men hung on either side of the Lord Jesus were there because of their own.
Responsible behavior among men, and they were condemned to death and they died that day along with the Lord Jesus.
Who we know is unique and totally different for reason being there.
But it might help if you looked up on one of those crosses and you wrote your name.
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Above one of those two men and you said that's me.
That's me. And you see yourself that day before God.
Being put to death for what you are.
And what you've done.
Of those two men, we know that one of them died in that condition and someday will face God in judgment.
And end up with the second death, which is the lake of fire.
The other man had put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we know that as to his personal life, he died that day. But as to faith and life, the Lord Jesus could say to him today shalt thou be with me in paradise. But remember, 3 days later the Lord Jesus himself rose from the dead.
Ephesians chapter 2 Says of us.
Ye are quickened with him.
That is, we can see ourselves if we want to look at the one who died and said that's the end of my life before God. It's been condemned and judged.
And in God's sight there's death there. Then we can also, by the grace of God and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he rose from the dead.
And in his life, from the dead, we can say, God says to us, you see that life, That's your life.
We're quickened with Him, and as he has life forevermore, so do we in Him as it says, Christ here in this chapter is our life.
And it's a perfect life. It's a life that will never sin. It's a life over which death has no power and never will. It's eternal in its character. It's his life, and that's our position.
With Christ in life before God.
But we don't enjoy it properly, if you will, unless in our own mind's eye we can see ourselves, if you will.
With our own name over one of those crosses and say that's the end of my life in Adam.
The scripture here uses the word in verse 3.
Your life is hid.
And that means that.
All of this about which we have been speaking, must be appropriated now by faith.
What Don has been bringing out is blessedly true that God has seen the end of the first man at the cross.
And when man crucified the Lord Jesus and rejected all of God's claims through his Son, his trial was over.
As Bob was saying a few minutes ago.
God saw the end of Adam, and there was nothing to do but bury him.
And now we have a new life in Christ, but it's hid.
Hid with Christ in God. Why does it say that? Because as it says.
In one John Three it doth not yet appear, but we shall be.
If someone looks at you and at me, as far as our bodies are concerned, we don't look much different from anybody else in this world. As we've been reminded recently, we get old, we get diseases, as everybody else does. We die, we're subject to accidents and other things in this world. All, of course.
Controlled and ultimately allowed by the hand of God? Very definitely yes.
But nevertheless, we don't see all of this manifested publicly down here, do we?
But it's there just the same. And you and I can appropriate it by faith, but it does require faith, and that is the practical side of it. Here, if I go by what I see around me, if I am concerned as we get in 2nd Corinthians 4 with the things which are seen, the Word of God says they're temporal, they're temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
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And so there's an exercise required, and I know Bob wanted to get more into the doctrine of all of this, but that word hid brings that before us to show us, I believe, that everything that is ours, while it is blessedly true, given to us in the word of God, made good to our hearts by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Yet it is appropriated by faith, lived in and enjoyed by faith.
There will be a day, thank God, when it will all be manifested.
When as it says again.
In one John Three we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So there will be a day when all that will be manifested, perhaps sooner than we think.
But for now it's a matter of that life being hid and yet nonetheless real, because it's hid and nonetheless, shall we say, important for us in its reality. You and I can appropriate it by faith, enjoy it by faith, walk in the good of it by faith, and recognize the reality of it by faith.
That's verse 4, isn't it, Bill?
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, that's His appearing because.
He's going to be manifested before this whole world. Every eye shall see him, and so we will be with him then when He comes back in power and glory, and then our life will be manifested.
Today, the world around doesn't understand why we Christians live like we do.
They can't do it. They can't understand it.
But they will in that day when they see us coming back with the Lord, because our life is going to be manifested.
I'd like to go back just briefly to verse one again.
And as I mentioned before, that word, if it's not calling in question, but it's you could use the word sin, since then you be risen with Christ. That's our position.
Seek those things which are above.
Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
I just in my own soul, rather than have felt that.
It's a exhortation that we need to heed.
So much of life in this world.
Is occupied with things down here, and it's not that it's wrong like Bill says we.
Have to go to school. We have to be occupied with a occupation. But, brethren, shouldn't there be part of every day when we seek those things that are above? We're going to spend all eternity.
There in that place of heavenly glory of which the Lord Jesus is the center.
Shouldn't we be occupied, and I have to say, so often, at the end of a day?
I reflect. What percent of this day have I been occupied with things that are above?
Could I say 10% most of the time? Not even 10%?
What percent?
The Lord give us to understand, brethren, but it does seem that we need to be occupied with that place, that is, that we are brought into in my faith in Christ.
Even now, brethren, we are to be occupied. We are to seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Still, remember one time South America.
We had a time with some young people and I said.
It says seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
And I said to the young people, OK, I want you to tell me some of those things that are associated with the Lord Jesus in his heavenly glory that we are to be occupied with.
You know what? The first reaction A blank.
Brethren, I don't think I'm any better. I'm not saying that to condemn anybody.
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But, brethren, are we occupied with anything above? There's the Lord Jesus heavenly glory. There's the Father's throne, where Jesus sits presently.
There are so many things.
Associated with that heavenly scene of glory that we.
Are so distracted with things down here. I'm not saying they're wrong. The things down here, we have to be occupied with them to a certain extent.
But shouldn't there be something given some time given to seeking those things which are above? I notice when people are going to travel to some place on a vacation, they often try to find out all they possibly can about that place before they go.
Why did they do that? Because they're going there and they want to know about it.
Rather than we're going to heavenly glory, and I really believe it's getting close.
Shouldn't we be interested in knowing as much as we possibly can? Sometimes people say, well, you can't know very much about that. It's so beyond us that is true. It's beyond us. But there are things that are said in scripture. The Tabernacle was made after the pattern of heavenly things.
Perhaps if we had studied the Tabernacle we would understand more about heaven.
And there's other scriptures. Revelation tells us about the heavenly city, tells us about other things there. The tree of life, the throne of God, from which flows the river of the water of life.
The light of that city, the gates, the foundations of that city.
Those are things we can set our minds on and I really believe it will have the effect.
Of our enjoying that life that is already ours here.
Could we say, Bob, that times the reason that we don't enjoy that new life as much as we should is because we haven't recognized in our own souls how bad the old man really is?
We didn't talk about the first chapter of Colossians, but there it brings out that we are delivered in verse 13 from the.
Power of darkness.
And very often I speak to my own heart.
Whether we're unbelievers and haven't been brought to Christ.
Or even as believers that know the same, we have to be reminded sometimes of how bad that old sinful self really is, don't we?
How bad we really are as children of Adam. Later on in this chapter we are told to put off a number of things, including anger. Raw, it says in verse 8, malice, blasphemy, Filthy, communicates a note of your mouth telling lies and all the rest of it. And of course the list could go on and on. And I suppose before we were saved, we often don't recognize how wrong these things are.
And in the world of today, if we could put it this way, especially in these favorite lands that have known the truth of the gospel, there is an increasing turning away from the word of God. And we see a lot of these things on the ascendancy in the world around us, and we tend to get a little bit.
Shall we say harden to them? We don't realize how bad the old sinful man, the old man, really is in Adam, and so sometimes the Lord has continually to remind us of that, doesn't he?
Even as believers, but certainly as unbelievers, what was the beginning of our Christian pathway? It was a matter of being brought to the point that we recognize that what God said about us was true. That when he said we were not only sinners but lost sinners, that it was true that there was an absolute need for repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that isn't primarily the subject of Colossians, but.
Will never really seek those things which are above until we realize the worthlessness of everything that God has saved us from.
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Would you say, brother, that you learn that by being in the presence of the Lord, not by being out in the world and learning it by experience?
Amen. Sad to say. Some do learn it by being out in the world, and they can say as the current catch phrase goes.
Been there, done that.
But anyone that I've ever talked to that has ever been able to say that about some?
Sin that they were involved in.
Is never proud of it. As a believer, they're never pleased with the fact that they have been exposed to the depths of sin that others have not. And we as believers, I believe, have two ways of learning how bad the sinful self really is. We can believe what God says about it, as Bob was bringing out. Or, as one of our good writers put it, we can have the Lord take us by the collar.
And hold us over an awful Cliff and say, do you see where you're headed? If you keep on this path, do you see where that sin will lead you?
And if we don't listen, the Lord may in a measure have to let us go down that Cliff to see where it goes. And it's very sad, but we don't have to be exposed to all the sin in this world to know how bad the flesh is. That's a good remark, brother.
Draw me, and we will run after the the King had brought me into his chamber.
I am black but comely.
O ye daughters of Jerusalem.
Here the the the the bride is longing to have the assurance of the love of the bridegroom. The bridegroom brings him into his secret chambers and reveals things to the heart of the bride, and ** *** comes out with two two things.
I am black.
And but comely.
And when we, when we get into the presence of the Lord, just the two, the two of us, as it were, and He reveals to us the things that he wants to to show us, he'll show us two things. He'll show us that we're black.
Will also show us. He'll show us what we are in ourselves and then he'll show us what we are in him.
So we're black and we're comely.
I'd like to make a comment along the line of what Bill just was remarking.
People in general recognize their sinners.
Most anyone will if this, even if they don't believe in God.
Will recognize what they might call sin, and man in general recognizes that there is sin and that he's a Sinner, but man in general does not recognizes that he's lost.
And they're different.
I'm a Sinner for what I've done.
I am lost for the condition in which it's put me.
I'm lost for what I am.
And as a consequence, when man sinned, he became lost.
And I'll he doesn't know how to find the path of life.
And so man is constantly trying, even in his condition, even if he says he's a Sinner.
And he's constantly trying something or the other that will satisfy his desire to be happy.
The woman at the well had had five husbands. She wanted happiness. She wanted something out of life.
And Adam's race, as we've been talking of it, doesn't recognize that it's lost.
The way of life it knows not.
There's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
And if I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to take care of my sins, but I don't recognize.
In a practical sense that I was lost, I may still try to find happiness in life on my own.
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I may say I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do the other in life. And underneath it all is the desire to find satisfaction and happiness.
But the truth of the matter is, man cannot.
Find it.
And so God came to seek that which was lost.
He came for man to seek him, that he might be found.
And that as a consequence of being found, he might also show him the path of life and guide him in it. And I'd just like to make a couple of comments about that as it connects with our chapter Colossians 3 turn to John's Gospel, chapter 17.
This is the prayer of the Lord Jesus at the end of his life, when he's talking to the Father as the Son and could speak of things as already accomplished.
Even though, as to time, he still had to go to the cross.
And so, in speaking to his father, he says to them.
Verse 19.
For their sakes.
That's those who are trusting in him.
For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
What he's saying to the father here is father, I'm leaving this world.
I am going to put my I'm going to be with you on high in a separated place that is not tainted by sin, the Father's house.
The father's place. And he said I do that for their sakes.
Why? Because we have a life.
That finds his satisfaction in himself and in nothing else. He knows it.
We do have a life.
In Christ that is satisfied by himself.
The love of Christ constrains us. It does. It's not. Maybe it will. Or maybe it could.
Or maybe it will satisfy.
Absolutely it does. And the Lord Jesus sets himself on high as the object. Christ our life, set your mind on things which are above, he said. I put myself in a separated, pure place, and there my own hidden, yes.
The world sees it not. The world knows it not. It's not on earth. It's separated from earth. But nonetheless the eye is placed upon himself and finds his satisfaction of heart and occupation with himself.
One more verse in connection with it and 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse chapter Corinthians chapter 3.
Verse 18 But we all with unopened face, beholding us in a glass, or without a veil, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, that is.
The one that Bill spoke about in one John Three that has this hope of being like him and the assurance that he's going to be like him.
When he sets his mind. When he sets his thoughts upon the Lord Jesus.
God says that's good. And while your mind is set upon him, while your thoughts and affections are on himself, I'm going to do a work. You're not gonna do it, but I'm gonna do a work. I am going to change you daily to be more like him.
By my spirit, And so the Spirit of God working in the soul of us.
Sepsis with himself in such a way that we are changed to be more like him. It's a process and we know that when we get home to glory and are with himself, the process is finished. And when he then appears, as we've already had in Colossians 3 and 1St John 3, when he appears we'll be like him.
Completely, perfectly and forever like him because the last step of the process.
Is to take these bodies that we have that he paid for, and as Romans 8 says, he's going to redeem them. And when he redeems them, he will change them to be like unto his own body of glory. He will remove from them that thing in us called sin that still resides in our flesh. And then we will be forever.
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Just like our Lord Jesus Christ in glory.
Imperfection.
As Brother Clem Buchanan used to always say, wonderful thought, he said. God is so delighted with his son.
That he wants heaven to be full of those who are just like him, and God is going to have that desire realized.
And so just one more little practical comment, brethren in connection with him as your object and my object, it's a nice thing when you wake up in the morning.
The the first thought of your mind is Good morning, Lord.
And when you go to bed at night, the last thought is good night, Lord.
As in his heart, so is he. That's why it's so important.
That we don't let our minds go helter skelter and.
We need to control him, Peter says. Gird up the loins of your mind.
And we need to control our thinking. Don't sit in front of.
A tube that will occupy you with things that are negative.
You are responsible for what you allow your mind to think about.
We Scripture speaks a lot in the different Epistles.
In Second Corinthians chapter.
10 it says, bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Oh the Lord, help us, brethren, to gird up the loins of our minds, to set our minds on things above in the world we live in. Sometimes may not be anything morally wrong, but I notice.
Sometimes young people get involved in reading novels.
It's not true. And Scripture says whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are, umm, honorable. What sort of things are just there be any virtue, And if there be any praise, think on these things. Occupy your mind with things that are true, so important because it will have a forming effect on your life and mind.
Brother Lundin used to say, and I think this is a very practical he used to say, you become holy by spending time with him who is holy, not by trying to be holy. And I believe that the same thing is not to find out how bad we are. You will find that out by being in the presence of him who is holy.
So we set our minds on things above. The more time that we spend in the presence of the Lord, the more these things will be real with us.
278.