You've Been Raised with Christ — Now Live Like It | Colossians 3:1-11 - Cameron Dobbins

Well, for those of us who are familiar with the gospel accounts, we are familiar with the fact that throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, he often taught what was predicted in the Old Testament that he would die and resurrect on the third day.

He explained this on several occasions to his disciples, even though they didn't always fully grasp it.

He did make it clear the Son of Man must be lifted up, and in three days he will rise again.

Knowing that story, knowing that for thousands of years the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would die as he did, picture this.

So we're familiar with on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene is the first one to the tomb.

She sees the stone is rolled away, and she realizes it's empty.

Jesus is not there.

Though I just saw him die on a cross three days ago, he has fulfilled what he said he would do.

He has risen from the dead.

Now imagine if Mary saw that, saw the evidence that Jesus is resurrected.

He's not there, he has risen from the dead, and she went and told the rest of the disciples, as she does in the gospel accounts.

Imagine if she just, her and the disciples just kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, All right, well, what's for dinner?

Let's get back to work.

Let's get back to entertaining ourselves and let's just get back to the normal rhythms of life.

We all would recognize that that response would be absolutely absurd if Jesus truly fulfilled what he said he would do, rising from the dead, which no one has done in human history, dying and raising themselves from the dead, that should radically alter your reality.

And it did radically alter her and the disciple, the rest of the disciples' reality.

Because that life-altering reality demands that type of response.

In Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11, our sister just read for us, Paul connects Jesus' resurrection and ascension and reigning on the throne to our daily lives today on this side of heaven.

Colossians 3:1–11

His argument is if Christ has been raised, which he has, and if you as a Christian have been raised with him and are united to him, which you have, if you're in Christ, then everything about how you think, what you desire, and how you lead your life should radically change.

And that's what we're gonna look at this morning.

If you're visiting with us this morning, feel free to use the pew Bible in front of you.

If you don't own the Bible, please take that Bible home with you.

We want to make sure everyone has a copy of God's word.

But since we talk about Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension every Sunday, we're not changing anything.

We're just gonna keep moving through the uh uh the book of Colossians and preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

But what I want us to see this morning is this.

Brothers and sisters, if you're in Christ this morning, because Christ has been raised from the dead, and if you have been raised with him, you should therefore live like it.

If you have, if Christ has been raised from the dead, and if you are united to him in his death, burial, and resurrection, then we should live like it on this side of heaven.

And we're gonna see how our union with Christ, if you've been here for a minute, going all the way back to Ephesians, we've been talking a lot about the doctrine of union with Christ.

We're gonna see three aspects of our union with Christ in Paul's words in Colossians 3, 1 through 11, beginning in verses 1 through 4.

Well, we're focused on this.

You have been raised with Christ, so seek what is above.

You have been raised with Christ, so seek what is above.

You look down at chapter 3, let's just read the first four verses again.

He says, So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you die, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

Now the foundation of all that Paul is saying here in this chapter is the statement if then you have been raised with Christ.

This is not hypothetical, it is a settled reality for every Christian.

If you are a Christian, you have been raised with Christ.

That is fundamentally true.

That is the foundation of all of Paul's exhortation.

If you're not familiar with the doctrine of union with Christ, I would encourage you to study it.

It's my favorite doctrine to study.

But essentially, Paul, in describing union with Christ throughout his letters, he's saying, if you're a Christian, that you are so vitally connected to Jesus, your head, that what happened to him happened to you.

His death became your death.

His baptism became your baptism.

His resurrection became your resurrection, and his burial was your burial.

That is how vitally connected you are to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Your life is found in his.

This is why Paul in Galatians 2.20 says, I no longer live, Christ lives in me.

It's one of my favorite New Testament passages, and I don't even fully understand what it means.

How does that work?

All I know is when God looks at us, he sees you united to his son, Jesus Christ.

And Paul makes it clear that this is a reality that is already established because he says, You are buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith.

We saw in chapter 2, verse 12.

So there you go again, union with Christ.

When Jesus rose, he brought his people with him spiritually.

Think about that.

Like Jesus didn't die on the cross selfishly to just get himself more glory as the king of kings.

He said, No, I'm dying, I'm gonna bring a whole bunch of people with me.

They will raise with me, they are united with me.

We see this in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

So, in light of that, Paul gives a command in verse 1 seek the things that are above.

Which just makes logical sense, doesn't it?

If you're united with Christ, if you're vitally connected to him, and he's seated in the heavenly places, according to Paul, then you should seek the things that are where where he's at.

If you're connected to him, then that's where your gaze should be.

Seek.

That word seek means a continuous, active pursuit, not a passive hoping or sitting on our hands hoping for better things.

He says, seek continuously, actively pursue the things that are above.

Why?

Because you've been raised with Christ, which means spiritually your destination changed from earth to heaven, so to speak.

So the question is, are you seeking heaven or still chasing after earthly treasures?

Now let me be very clear.

Heaven, if you study scripture, the Bible does say quite a bit about what the new heaven, new earth will be like.

It's pretty neat to think, wow, we're gonna live on an earth that's recreated.

There's gonna be culture, there's gonna be streets of gold and all this good stuff.

But friends, what makes heaven glorious is not no more sin, no more death, streets of gold.

No, it's Jesus Christ.

The fact that there will be no need for a son, because the son will radiate in glory.

He is what makes heaven heaven.

And when we are saved, when you are raised with Christ, you are transferred spiritually from the domain of sin, darkness, and death, and transferred into the kingdom of his glorious light.

So that's why Paul can say, seek the things that are above.

If you are raised with Christ, seek those things where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Not only seek these things, verse two, set your mind on things above and not on earthly things.

Notice the late, like these are commands, aren't they?

Paul's not saying, like, hey, here's here's some good suggestions to improve your Christian life.

These are commands.

He says, here's the logic.

If you have been raised with Christ, which if you're a Christian, check, then seek things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

And the focus is our minds, our logic.

These are things we have to do.

We have to renew, have our minds renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So we got to ask a question here, myself included.

What consumes your thoughts most often?

Like just think about that.

Are you discipled more by the cares of this world?

Which those are important, obviously.

We all have a level of stewardship, responsibilities, but are you more discipled by a particular political party, particular podcast, a book, anything outside of Christ and his word.

Because if you've been raised with Christ, you are to set your mind on things above.

And last I check, I don't think Jesus is in heaven right now watching Fox News or MSNBC or listening to the hottest podcast.

He's reigning on the throne.

He is sovereign over all things, and we are to set our minds where he is seated.

So we have to ask ourselves what dominates our mental energies the most throughout the course of a week?

And we're all human.

We all have responsibilities.

We have cares of the world and things that, you know, there's a circle of concern and a circle of responsibility, things that are within our control that we have to be responsible for.

But what most dominates our mental energy in our minds?

Is it our careers, our finances, our relationships, our entertainment, our personal happiness, or is it the glory of Jesus Christ and his kingdom?

Now I'm not saying we gotta be Christian monks and we just walk around, you know, with our eyes closed, just reciting scripture 24-7, right?

But if we played, imagine if we showed up on Sunday morning and we threw up on the screen here a highlight reel of all your thoughts from the past week.

Who would volunteer to go first?

Right?

But that's the battle.

Like, Lord, help us to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Help us to remember that we are exiles.

This is not our home.

We belong to a heavenly kingdom that we long for its return.

And until then, we want to live as those who are heavenly minded now.

And here's the logic that Paul gives for these things in verse 3.

The reason he says, you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

That's past tense.

You have died.

It's done.

That is foundational.

That is a final reality for the Christian.

You have died, and the new life you have is hidden with Christ in God.

So your old identity, your old master of sin, your old destiny, all of that is finished.

We learned that in chapter two, didn't we?

He took the penalty of death and all of its consequences and nailed it to the cross and embarrassed his enemies through his victory on the cross.

The old you has died.

You have a new master, and his name is Jesus Christ.

You have a new life that is secure in Jesus Christ.

Go read Romans chapter 6 later today if you really want to just marinate on the beauty of your union with Christ if you're a believer this morning.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

The old you has died, which then gives you hope in verse 4.

Because when Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with him in glory.

Brothers and sisters, the second half of that verse is a promise.

So for anyone who's a Christian this morning, you're you feel like you're struggling in your sanctification, you feel like, you know, I'm not as mature as I think I should be, I haven't gotten victory over this sin that I thought by now I would have victory over, or whatever it may be that causes spiritual depression and despair in your life.

Praise be to God that your maturity level doesn't determine whether you will be with Jesus Christ in glory.

Because he's the one who's completing the work he's begun in you.

He says, Paul says, When Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with him in glory.

Praise be to God.

Praise God that we as Christians don't get report cards.

And then when we get to the gates and Jesus is standing there, we got to turn in our report card and we're just hoping he grays on a scale.

Or that he's willing to give extra credit.

Like, Lord, just give me a thousand years or just go back and do some extra credit and I'll come back.

No, if you've been raised with Christ, the old you has died.

And the new life you have is not even your own, it is wrapped up in Jesus Christ.

And when he appears, which means he's coming back as he promised.

And when he does, you get to appear with him in glory.

What is that gonna look like?

I know all the youngers like to talk about, you know, their swag and their drip.

Nothing compares to this.

When Jesus shows up in glorious drip, we get to appear with him in glory.

The ultimate drip.

For some of y'all, just ask someone younger than you to explain it.

But Paul says, Christ is your life, not just part of it.

He doesn't say Jesus is an accessory to your life.

He doesn't say, hey, your life is going okay, but if you just sprinkle some Jesus on it, it'll be a lot better.

No, he says Christ is your life, not an aspect of it.

He is your destiny.

Your destiny is glory with Christ forever.

That is the beauty of salvation.

So I can summarize every other world religion outside of Christianity like this.

There's a deity who you've offended, and you have to do enough good deeds to appease that deity's wrath.

You'll never have assurance of whether or not you've done it, but you better hope you've done enough deeds.

So when you die and you stand before that deity, they'll say, You did a good enough job, you can enter into whatever glory is.

Christianity is the one religion that says, God is so holy you can never even come remotely close to appeasing his righteous judgment.

Therefore, you need salvation outside of yourself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is God who came in human flesh, lives perfectly in obedience to God's law on your behalf, and all you gotta do is repent of your sins and trust in him as the object of your faith, and you receive the gift of salvation.

That is completely backwards when you think about it.

So, for example, there's an excellent church history book written by a brother named Bruce Shelley, and in the very first sentence of the entire book, he says this Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.

Think about that.

Every other religion, the God is just this great, grandiose being, and you just worship it, right?

And that's the same with Christianity, except our God was willing to succumb to being born in a virgin's womb, or being in a Mary's womb, born learning how to walk, learning how to speak.

Think about that.

God, who, as we sung, right, everything was created for him and by him and through him, he sustains all things, and yet he needed to be fed.

He had to learn to walk, he had to grow in wisdom and stature.

He experienced physical pain.

He had emotional hurt.

People betray him, slander him, lie about him, and ultimately murder him unjustly.

And he succumbed all of that voluntarily to save sinners like you and me.

Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.

The God who was mocked, beaten, stripped, naked, and crucified will appear in glory, and you, Christian, who are united to him, will appear with him with that same glory.

This is why when we get to heaven, sometimes Christians, you know, they'll ask questions like, well, what is what's going on in Corinthians with um, you know, everyone's gonna be judged based on their good deeds on heaven, and some will burn up, and others, and and we're gonna get crowned.

I don't give a rip about any of that.

I don't care.

I can live in the projects of heaven, as far as I'm concerned.

As long as I am there and I get to look Jesus in the eyes, and he says, Well done, good and faithful servant, that's the prize.

That is what we long for.

That is the glory that is to come.

So you've been raised with Christ, so seek what is above.

But how does this look practically?

Because sometimes, if you've been a Christian for a while, we use a lot of Christian ees, we quote scripture and we say things that are common, but we sometimes don't connect the dots.

But what does that mean?

What does that look like practically in my life?

Well, Paul gives the hard truth.

Resurrection life requires putting sin to death, which brings me to verses five through nine, and we'll focus on this aspect of your union with Christ.

You have been raised with Christ, therefore put sin to death.

Look at verse five of chapter three.

Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient.

And you once walked in these things when you were living in them.

But now, put away all the following anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.

So if you've been raised with Christ, the logic according to Paul is you should therefore put sin to death.

This is a command.

Look at verse 5.

This is not a suggestion.

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

The therefore is important because he's saying you have been raised with Christ.

This is the logic of grace.

So if you've been raised with Christ, then what follows logically is you then put to death sin and anything else that is of your earthly nature.

I don't think I really need to unpack what it means to put to death, right?

To put sin to death means to actively kill it, to execute it, to destroy the remaining corruption in you.

This is violent language for violent action.

Jesus says something similar in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, 29, didn't he?

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He says, if your right arm causes you, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

Was he really telling people to go uh amputate themselves?

No, it's a figure of speech, saying that is the level of severity you as a Christ follower should view your sin.

It is not worth you going to hell.

Cut it off.

Actively kill your sin.

Okay, Pastor Cam, I agree as a Christian I should put my sin away.

I should kill it, but how do I do that?

Thank you for asking.

That's why I like preaching to y'all.

You ask all the best questions.

To put our sin to death, we could talk a lot about how to do that.

But let me get at the foundational root of what we should be motivated by to do it.

You cut sin out by replacing desire for sin for a greater desire for Jesus Christ.

You can't just pluck sin out of your life and just say, you know what, I'm just gonna edit my life and just take this sin, I'm just gonna delete it.

We all are designed to worship, specifically to worship God.

We all have an orientation in our hearts to gravitate towards worshiping something as our God.

And that's what leads to our beliefs and our actions and our feelings at times.

So to kill sin, we have to replace the desire for whatever particular sin you are battling and replace it with a more powerful desire for Jesus Christ.

And sin loses power when Christ becomes more beautiful and more satisfying in your heart.

When Christ becomes more compelling than sin's fleeting pleasure.

Let's just be honest here.

It's okay to say this as Christians.

Sin and temptation is enticing.

If it wasn't, it wouldn't be a struggle.

There's a reason why we sin.

There's a reason why temptation feels powerful because our flesh and the enemy deceives us into thinking this is desirous.

Give into it.

And then you do, and then you're left feeling empty, guilty, ashamed, and embarrassed.

But oddly enough, you never get that feeling obeying Jesus, do you?

Have you ever obeyed Jesus?

And then on the other side, you were like, man, that was a waste of time.

That was unfulfilling.

No.

But yet we voluntarily continue to sign up for this self-inflicted cycle, right?

Of, oh, I know this temptation's bad, but I'm gonna give in anyways, and oh now I feel like crud.

And then we just repent and then we just repeat the cycle.

God is gracious.

But we put sin to death by replacing it for a greater desire for Jesus Christ.

John Owen, in his book, The Mortification of Sin, I would highly commend it to you.

It's a Christian classic.

He says this do you mortify?

Do you make it your daily work?

Be always at it while you live.

Cease not a day from this work.

Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

Be killing sin.

Or it will be killing you.

Brothers and sisters, the remaining corruption residing in your heart is never neutral.

Sin is never just at bay, just saying, you know what, I think we're content today.

No.

Kind of like Batman, right?

Crime doesn't sleep.

That's why he fights justice at night.

Sin never takes a break.

Sin never goes on vacation.

Sin never says, you know what, I'm a clock out.

I've been working hard on you already this week.

Sin, we are all one decision away from completely wrecking our lives and our testimony.

And sin will happily do that.

Even though the old man, the old woman has died, there's still remnants of that remaining corruption, isn't there?

Right?

We've all been in situations where we've been provoked or tempted, and maybe we gave in to something we're like, ooh, that old me is still right there.

It's not fully gone, right?

That's all of us.

But notice that Paul gets into specific sins in verse of the second half of verse five.

He says, therefore put to death what belongs to your earthly nature.

And in case you're confused, let me give you examples: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

We gotta camp out here for a little bit.

So when Paul uses the word sexual immorality, you don't need to know Greek, but if you're not familiar, the New Testament was written in what's called Koinea Greek and translated for us, obviously, in our English Bibles.

But that word pornea is actually a general term.

So it's an umbrella term for any sexual activity outside of marriage.

So according to Paul, he's saying every form of sexual activity outside the marriage covenant is sinful, earthly, and of the old man.

This is homosexual activity, sex before marriage, cohabitation.

We can go on and on.

Watching others engage in sexual acts on a screen.

Paul says all of these are immoral.

And notice he goes on impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness.

What's interesting too is even those can, in some way, be connected to sexual immorality.

Impurity, evil desire, even evil desire.

I mean, when people are guilty of adultery, isn't that a form of covetousness to an extent?

All of these are connected to sexual sin.

And notice this sexual immorality, brothers and sisters, is both self-centered and idolatrous.

It is a self-centered sin because it trains you to say I'm going to view other people as objects for my own physical pleasure.

That is sinfully self-centered.

It's also idolatrous because it's a way of saying, this is my God.

It brings me fulfillment, joy, and happiness.

Now, let me just be very clear here.

Many Christians have done a very poor job of loving those who struggle with sin or loving those who are not saved in other communities outside the Christian faith, like the LGBTQ community.

Brothers and sisters, everyone in here is a sinner in need of God's grace and mercy.

And all of us need to explain that grace and mercy to anyone that the Lord gives us opportunity to.

But at the same time, the beauty of God's word is that it doesn't shy away from telling us the truth about ourselves and the world and the world we find ourselves in, so that we can walk in obedience with Jesus and find hope and help in him and his gospel.

So Paul is not being unloving and describing these sins.

He's doing the opposite.

He's warning them, brothers and sisters, these are things not to play with.

These are things that could be signs that you truly are not a Christian.

Therefore, put them away from yourselves.

And in the second half of verse five, he connects it to idolatry.

He says, put it this way, this is how I would connect sexual immorality with idolatry.

Because if you are ensnared to a habitual pattern of living, as he uses that word, living in sexual immorality, then you are saying, I love this particular sin more than Jesus.

That's fundamentally what you're saying.

I am not willing to give this up.

So, or what some will do is, well, I profess that I am a Christ follower, but I'm also going to live with my boyfriend and girlfriend, and we're going to sleep with each other.

And it's like, well, you can't customize Christianity.

It's one or the other.

You can't create your own way of walking with Jesus.

Paul says, put away these things if you are truly in Christ.

And brothers and sisters, it is a dangerous thing to ever allow your heart to get to a place where you are, at least through your actions, declaring to the world, I love this sin, whatever that sin is, more than Jesus Christ.

Why?

Well, because Jesus from his own mouth said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And he doesn't give us the right to determine, well, what does that look like to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength?

No, he made it very clear, if you love me, you will what?

Keep my commandments.

The cure for idolatry is not willpower, though, is it?

It's not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

No, because idolatry is a worship disorder.

The cure for idolatry is again to replace whatever's whatever sin, whatever, or even it's not always sin, because idolatry can even be us loving a good thing that's a gift of God's grace to us more than we love Jesus.

It could be me loving my identity as a husband and a father more than I like to trust and serve Jesus.

It could be me loving my career more than I love Jesus, whatever it is, if anything has become a ruling desire that sits on the throne of our hearts and dictates our obedience and joy and fulfillment, then it has become an idol or a ruling desire.

And the way to replace that is to pursue a greater love for Jesus instead of counterfeit things that replace Jesus.

You don't defeat a counterfeit God by gritting your teeth, you defeat it by falling more deeply in love with the true God until Christ's superior beauty excels in your affections.

That is how you uproot idolatry.

So ask yourself: when you are in moments of stress and despair, where do you go by default to find comfort and hope?

If it's anything other than God and his word and Christ and his gospel, that doesn't mean you're an idolater, but it could be a sign you're on the way.

We find our hope and our confidence in God and God alone.

We can be guilty of submitting to a functional savior, if I could use that phrase, where we go to anything but Jesus as our source of peace, of comfort, of care and love.

And friends, whatever that may be, it will always let you down.

So for example, even if you have a godly marriage, you should never look to your spouse as a functional savior, because they will let you down.

If your joy and your peace and comfort is determined on how well your spouse is walking with Jesus, you are gonna be horribly disappointed.

We have to ask, what is our functional God?

Is it Christ or something else?

But connecting back to sexual immorality and idolatry, we got to address, you know, so in the Bible, it's made clear that we as Christians are elect exiles, as Peter says.

This is not our home.

We are sojourners waiting for the heavenly kingdom where we will reside forever.

But we're in the world, but not of the world, but we gotta deal with the world, don't we?

So we have a cultural lie that is constantly trying to indoctrinate us as Christians to lead us to wander away from God and his word.

So the cultural message, at least here in the West, is radical individualism.

The fact that you can do whatever makes you happy.

You have the right to.

You deserve to be happy.

So whatever makes you happy, pursue it with no restraint to the fullest.

That is what the culture tells you.

You deserve happiness, pursue it with no restraint.

Interesting enough, Thomas Brooks, a classic Puritan who wrote a book called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.

Every Christian should read it at least once in their life.

Uh, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.

It's an entire book on how Satan and our flesh tempt us to rebel against God.

And in it, he says this the devil's policy is to persuade us that there is no great evil in sin and that there is great good in it.

Let me read that again.

The devil's policy is to persuade us that there is no great evil in sin and that there is actually great good in it.

Now it does not not summarize our culture.

The culture says sexual immorality is not immoral.

It's actually good.

If you actually want to know if you should marry someone, you gotta you gotta test the car out.

Live with each other, sleep with each other, do this, do that, whatever the sin may be, pursue all of it.

And these things aren't sin.

They don't even have a category for sin.

You do what you want.

If that's okay with you, that's your truth.

You do you, and everybody else do them.

But here's what's interesting the narrative of the culture is not stacking up, friends.

Just go read statistics for yourself.

Here's a few.

Couples statistically who cohabitate and sleep with each other before marriage have a 50% higher chance of divorce.

Pornography has been linked to increased depression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction in romantic relationships.

Or despite living in a culture with unprecedented sexual freedom, we see historic highs in loneliness, depression, and suicide.

The Emperor has no clothes.

Even though the culture puts it all in your face and says, this is good, this is enticing, this isn't bad, it seems that our Bibles friends are still checking out that sin leads to death.

The world's promise of freedom through sexual license is an absolute lie.

It delivers nothing but bondage, brokenness, and emptiness.

So, what is the motivation for putting off these things, these these categories of sin that Paul is describing?

Well, we don't have to guess, it's right there in verse 6.

Because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

If you are living an ongoing, I want to emphasize here ongoing, habitual, unrepentant sin, the most loving thing I can say to you this morning is if you do not repent and turn from your sin and turn towards Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, you will go to hell.

God's wrath is a terrible reality.

We as Christians do not celebrate God's wrath.

We don't smile at the thought of divine judgment.

But we're all here because we've been saved by God's wrath and saved to God's infinite mercy and grace.

This is nothing to play with.

This is why Paul, as a loving apostle, is writing a letter to an entire group of Christians and saying, if you do not put these things off, God's wrath is coming and it will find you.

If you do not repent, turn from sin and turn to Jesus in faith and obedience, God will pour out his wrath upon you for all eternity.

And friends, the world, as I said, is offering emptiness.

Why for a drop of sin would you drink an ocean of God's wrath?

This is what Paul is getting at.

But the only way we can turn from our sin is by pleading at the foot of the cross to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.

We can't just take our desire for sin and delete it.

We can't just walk out of this sanctuary and make a logical decision of, you know what, I heard the claims of Christianity and I made a pros and cons list, and I think this will work good for my life.

So I'm gonna start following Jesus.

It's a supernatural event in which God graciously invites us to repent through the gift of faith and draws us to himself.

But this first has to happen, as Thomas Brooks says, till sin be bitter, Christ will never be sweet.

You can never follow Christ until sin becomes bitter to you.

Until it's something that, like Paul, you you read this and you think, I think of my man Joseph when Potiphar's wife tried to tempt him.

He says, How can I commit such evil against my God?

That is the work we are pleading for God to do in our hearts and to continue doing.

But though we can't shy away from God's wrath, this is why we love to just preach through books of the Bible verse by verse.

We're not hiding from anything.

We're gonna give you the whole counsel of God's word.

If you don't like that, Redeemer's probably not gonna be a good church for you.

We just want to know what the Bible says in every book that we look at.

But friends, praise be to God that the Bible never stops at the terrifying reality of God's wrath.

When Christians share the good news of Jesus, we have to share all the news.

The bad news, which is God's wrath is coming and it will be poured out on you, but also the good news that God offers you something infinitely better than what the world and the devil offers.

He offers himself forgiveness, joy, and peace and salvation through the crosswork of Jesus Christ.

So don't settle for poisonous drippings of sin when God offers living water that satisfies forever.

And I'm talking to both unbelievers and all the believers in the room because though we love the Lord and we're saved, guess what?

We're still prone to wonder.

We're still prone to go back and say, you know, I know what you saved me from, but man, maybe I am missing out on something.

And we go back, and he still stands ready to forgive and offer freedom and peace and joy and eternal, eternal life in his son.

But he goes on in verses seven through nine to talk about the old self.

The old self in verse seven of chapter three.

And you once walked in these things when you were living in them.

But now put away all the following anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.

He's using this uh past tense language again.

You once walked in these things, which means that's not you no more.

You once walked in those things.

That's not who you are.

You're a new creation.

Therefore, it doesn't even make sense for you to go back and walk in those things.

You're reverting back to an identity that has been destroyed through the cross of Jesus Christ.

So if that's true, then put them all away.

Anger, wrath, malice, obscene talk.

Here's another way to put it.

If Jesus was a guest in your home and you wouldn't say it, don't say it.

I know Christians get caught up in all the legalistic, like, are we allowed to cuss, or we're allowed to do this, or talk about this, or share that joke.

We don't got to get into those debates.

If Jesus came to your crib for dinner, would you say it?

Would you tell that joke?

Put it away if the answer is no.

But Pastor Cam, this is just how I was born.

Like my family, my culture, this is how we are.

We get loud, we fight, we go back and forth.

That's just how I was born.

Well, then be born again.

Be born again.

No one will stand before Jesus on judgment day and he'll say, Oh, because Cam, you were black, or you grew up in this context, or you're from this culture or this country, these aren't sins.

That's just how you were born.

No.

Put away all anger, wrath, malice, slander, upscene talk, and lying.

And Christians, we gotta love each other enough to graciously confront each other with these.

Because I feel like some of these are like categorically respectable sins.

Where some of these are like, you know, yeah, we know that's a sin, but we're not really gonna like confront that in each other because we all wrestle with that.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

We have to help each other follow Jesus.

Listen to uh Peter in 1 Peter 2.11.

He says, Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

Have you ever have you ever thought about your sin like that?

Your remaining corruption is waging war against your soul.

Think about that.

Or Galatians 5, 24, Paul says, Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So again, we hear that language of we gotta work.

I think this is a big void in a lot of Christianity.

We talked about this a couple weeks ago, where a lot of Christians would acknowledge, yes, as a Christian, I have to pursue holiness and I have to put off sin, but then they stop short of actually putting forth the effort to be holy.

We are commanded to work, to discipline ourselves.

That is a fruit of the spirit, self-control.

Sometimes I think we view our holiness as like God is just gonna zap me and I'm just gonna keep maturing into more of the image of Christ every single day.

But I don't really have to do anything.

I don't have to actually say no to sin and say yes to righteousness.

No, friends.

We work with the Lord who blesses our efforts to mold us into the image of his son.

But before, you know, we we think, okay, here's a typical pastor just giving us a bunch of rules to keep and all the bad things not to do, Paul doesn't just leave us with commands of things to not do and things to do.

He also gives us the deepest reason why we can change and why we must change, as we see in verses nine through eleven.

The third aspect of our union with Christ: if you have been raised with Christ, you are being made new.

If you have been raised with Christ, you are being made new.

Look down at verse nine.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self of its practices, and have put on the new self.

You are being renewed in your knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

In Christ there was not Greek and Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all.

Past tense again.

The past tense reality, you have put off the old self with its practices.

It's already happened.

It's done with.

The old you is dead.

When you came to Christ, that person died.

You are no longer who you used to be.

Many of you in this room have different testimonies.

Some of you, by the grace of God, you came to faith at a young age.

You grew up in a Christian household.

Praise be to Jesus.

I would give my right arm to have that testimony.

Others of you came to faith later in life, and you can still vividly remember your life before Jesus.

And maybe sometimes that causes some grief and shame and sorrow over the things you participated in and that God saved you from.

But I would just encourage you to remember this.

Whenever Satan tries to remind you of who you were, remind him, yeah, you're right, and that's who I was.

I have put off the old self with its practices.

When I came to Christ, that person I'm ashamed of died.

And a new person was born.

And that new person's life is hidden with Christ in God.

The present reality, then, is to put on the new self, which is being renewed.

Praise be to God.

We're like software as Christians.

We're always getting updated.

Praise God.

And it's not like those updates that like breaks everything else sometimes.

It's like updates that actually work and make you better.

We are being renewed.

That is a promise as well.

You are being renewed.

I don't care what you believe this morning as you sit there.

I don't care if you're hearing me and you're thinking, well, sure doesn't feel like it because I'm still with wrestling with this and this and that.

I don't care.

Jesus said in his word, you are being renewed because the Lord is the one doing the renewing work.

This is a present progressive and ongoing process of transformation into the image of Christ.

Though, don't escape your role.

Christians are expected to work, to put forth effort, but we do so knowing that it is God ultimately who is transforming us day by day.

And in verse 11, we talk about community often.

Paul makes a lot of his exhortations corporate.

He talks about the new community in Christ in verse 11.

He says, in Christ, and remember that phrase is like one of the most common ways to describe a Christian.

We use the phrase Christian or are you saved?

But when you read your New Testament, it's actually in Christ, those who are in Christ.

That's another sermon.

But verse 11, in Christ there was not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarians sit the enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all.

What is he talking about here?

There's a lot of Christians who they mean well, they have good intentions when they say, hey, as believers, we should be colorblind.

We shouldn't see ethnicity.

That's not what Paul is saying.

You should see color, so to speak.

Because if you didn't, that'd be really weird.

Because I am black.

I don't know if you noticed, but you cannot see color.

And God, in his divine providence, made us the ethnicities we are, placed us in the countries he placed us in, the cultures and all that.

That is all God's divine plan.

And the new heaven and the new earth.

We will still have culture and other great aspects of God's creation.

So though some mean well, no, you should see color, but that's not what Paul is getting at.

He is saying the gospel is so radical, it creates a new community.

In which, when you are a part of that new community, the main defining mark is not your culture, it's not your address, it's not your political party, it's are you in Christ?

Which means in Christ, there are no status distinguish uh status distinctions based on ethnicity, culture, social class, economics, or whatever else we want to come up with.

Whatever Facebook group you're a part of, Instagram, none of it.

You are fundamentally in Christ, which is why he can say Christ is all and in all.

Christ is supreme in the unifying reality of every person who is in Christ.

This is why, similarly, in Galatians 3.28, he says, there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This is why it's very sad as a pastor to see all the conversations that are constantly happening about racial reconciliation within evangelicalism, important topics.

We should discuss those things.

But I would say fundamentally the main issue is we keep forgetting that Jesus has already reconciled all of us on the cross.

And the real challenge we have is living out that reconciliation into the glory of God.

So we got to ask ourselves: do you treat fellow Christians differently based on any other distinction or category?

Christians specifically.

Do you treat other Christians differently based on their ethnicity, their socioeconomic status, their education, social status?

This is a hard one because we got to do some examination.

For instance, I grew up in a particular context that some people wouldn't even want to drive through sometimes.

And sometimes it burdens my heart when I hear other Christians say, oh, I don't know if I'd ever want to go do ministry over there.

It's like I'm just curious.

I thought we want to see people come to faith in Christ.

Oh, you mean certain types of people where it's safe to share the gospel with them.

We gotta be careful and guard our hearts.

Or even within our church family, do we see everyone in this church who is a member of our church family as our brothers and sisters in Christ?

When you came to faith in Christ, you inherited a family through the power of the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, you're gonna spend an eternity with.

So you might as well get to know them now.

And this is what I love about our church.

Uh uh one thing I love is people ask me, like, hey, what's something you love about your public gathering?

And I'll say, well, after service, people hang out for well over an hour if I would let them.

Just fellowshipping.

And what's interesting, if someone came from the world who's not a Christian and they just watched us just hang out with each other, I would assume at some point they might be a little perplexed.

It's like, wait, this makes no sense.

Why is that older couple hanging out with that black guy from the inner city or that person over there from the south?

And like, this makes no sense.

And we would say, oh yeah, of course not.

But what draws us together is an empty tomb over 2,000 years ago.

We have a gospel revealing community.

If someone in the world ever were to come around a Christian community and just see all the young moms hanging out with the young moms, all the empty nesters, primarily hanging out with the empty nesters, all the young families hanging out with all the young families, guess what?

The world would be like, yeah, that makes complete sense.

There's nothing different here than what we do, right?

We want to have a gospel-revealing community, and that's what Paul is getting at here.

All barriers of distinction have been torn down, and a better one has been created, and it is called those who are in Christ.

So, in conclusion, brothers and sisters on Resurrection Day, we celebrate Christ has been risen from the dead.

But not only that, if you are in Christ, you spiritually were risen from the dead with him.

Your old life is dead, your new life is hidden with Christ in God, and the promise that he gives his children is that when Christ appears and he will, you will appear with him in glory.

But it doesn't stop there.

So here's a little pet peeve I have about resurrection day.

We all get excited about the resurrection, and you should, it is extremely important.

But we forget what happened after the resurrection.

Jesus ascended in glory back to the right hand of the Father, and he is seated on his throne, interceding for his children.

So let's get the resurrection right.

But let's remember where is Jesus right now?

He has ascended on high and he has sat down because the work is finished.

Our salvation is secure, and Christ reigns, and you, united with him, will one day reign with your risen Savior.

Let me give you three reminders to walk away with.

Number one, brothers and sisters, seek what is above.

Stop living for earthly treasure.

Fix your gaze upon Jesus on the right hand of the Father and let eternity shape your priorities today.

Second, put sin to death.

Do not make peace with sin.

Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

And if you are a broken sinner like me who falls into sin, I gotta stop using that phrase.

You choose sin voluntarily to rebel against God, praise be to the Lord that he always opens his arms and offers forgiveness for those who repent and turn back to him.

If anyone in this room feels like I'm too far gone for God to save me, Jesus specializes in saving people like you.

You can never outstand the mercy of Christ.

Number three, if you are in Christ, remember who you are.

You are not who you used to be.

The old you is dead, and you are a new creation who is ongoingly being renewed by your Savior into his very image.

To summarize the process of sanctification, brothers and sisters, on this side of heaven, you are working with the Lord's help to become what you already are in Christ.

Christ is risen, you are risen with him, therefore, through the power of the Spirit, live like it.

Amen.

Let's pray.