Christ is Our Life

Number three.

Colossians chapter number three and verse one.

We have a guest speaker next week, and then on the 25th, we'll begin our fall series.

And so begin reading in the book of Isaiah and chapter 40 in God's Word, and Lord willing, we'll all join ourselves together there in a few weeks.

We chose as a theme verse for this year what I'm about to read here in this passage.

If ye then, verse one, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

I'm taken by the words in verse four.

When Christ, who is our life, as I read the grammatical construction of the sentence, I notice we could read verse four, when Christ shall appear.

When Christ, who is our life.

For to me to live is Christ.

And we take up our theme from those words in the book of Colossians this morning.

Let's pray, may we?

Our Father, bless the reading and the declaration of your word today.

We thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for standing and please be seated together.

Isn't it wonderful to know that we may add to our faith, but we can add nothing to Jesus Christ.

He is a complete Savior.

David Brainerd was a young man who had given his life for Christ.

He had burned out at the age of 29.

29.

His body was ravaged by tuberculosis.

Brainerd had every earthly reason to cling to life.

But as he approached death, his diary wasn't filled with regrets about what he was losing.

Rather, his heart was increasingly consumed with God.

He wrote of his, quote, absolute dependence on God in all respects.

David Brainerd learned something that Paul wanted the Colossians to understand, and that is that Christ isn't merely the most important thing in our lives.

He is our life.

On October 2nd, 1747, Brainerd wrote, My soul was sweetly set on God today at various times.

I longed to be with him, to be able to contemplate his glory.

What is the secret that David Brainerd learned?

It is that Christ is our life.

In modern times, coming to Jesus involves the idea that we somehow make a profession of faith and follow him at our leisure and our convenience.

But our model of discipleship bears no resemblance to the discipleship that is native to the gospels.

J.I.

Packer said, Jesus, the rabbi who spoke with authority, the prophet who was more than a prophet, the master who evoked in them increasing awe and devotion, till they could not acknowledge him as their God, found them, called them to himself, took them into his confidence, and enrolled them as his agents to declare to the world the kingdom of God.

Before Paul gets the Colossian believers to this massive text in chapter three, in chapter one, he introduces us a pattern of belief about Jesus that ought to shape our minds and the grandeur and greatness of our Lord.

If you can turn with me to the first chapter, we'll read a few verses together here in just a moment.

Paul was dealing with a controversy or a heresy.

Sometimes a pastor is a peacemaker, as one of those dear children said, sometimes he declares war.

And in Colossians chapter 1, Paul declares war on those who are denying the deity of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Shepherds have two voices.

There is the voice of consolation, the voice of comfort, the warm expressions of a tender heart.

But, brother, there ought to be the thunderings of a man who believes God, who will protect the flock from false danger, from false ideas and from danger.

That's what Paul does.

He speaks the truth in love.

It is the most unloving thing in the world not to tell the truth.

And when we speak the truth, we ought to do so in love.

What Paul is addressing in the region of Colossae was a pernicious doctrine that spread, which taught that things that were spiritual in nature were good, and that which was material that had come into the world was evil.

That God could not send a son into the world which was made in flesh, made up of sinfulness, would be beneath this creating God to create or allow himself to be seen in physical form.

But Paul points out that Jesus Christ is God.

He is thoroughly God.

That not only is it not beneath him to come into this world, it was not beneath him to become as we are.

It was C.S.

Lewis, if I'm correct, who famously said, the Son of God became one of the sons of men, that the sons of men might be called the sons of God.

He doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

In chapter 1, Paul paints the picture of the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice in verse 16 or verse 15, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him are all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether there be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

And can the church declare?

Amen.

And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

Now, very quickly, Paul, before we give our lives to Jesus, let's declare who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

Paul here talks about the centrality and the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God.

He's the firstborn of all creation.

Not the first created, the firstborn.

He stands on the creator side of the distinction between the creator and the creation, not among the things he created.

John Flavell said years ago, Jesus embraces all things that are lovely.

He seals up the sum of all loveliness.

Things that shine as single stars with a particular glory all meet in Christ as a glorious constellation.

Please the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

Then he continued, cast your eyes among all created things, survey the universe, you will observe strength in one, beauty in a second, faithfulness in a third, wisdom in a fourth, but you shall find none excelling in them all as Christ does.

Jesus is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded, and whatever a soul can desire is found in Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying, Jesus Christ is all in all, and there is nothing and no one greater than the Lord Jesus.

He is supreme as Lord of all.

Verse 18, he is the head of the body, the church.

He existed before the church, but the church exists because of Jesus.

Jesus loved the church.

He gave himself for it.

Did you ever think that you are a part of something that was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ?

Someone was trying to buy a car or sell a car.

And someone said, What is it worth?

What is it worth?

And his friend replied, It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

What's the value of the church?

The church was purchased with the blood of Christ.

He saw us as worthy, as unworthy as we are.

Praise God.

We are sinful and hell-bound with the hammer down, the old preacher said, but we're not hellbound.

We are heaven-bound because Christ purchased us with his precious blood.

I'm from the south.

Some of you are from the north or from the west or from other countries.

That's not what unites us.

We have different persuasions about incidental things in life, but there is one common theme that ought to run through every row and every pew and every heart at the Calvary Baptist Church, and that is we all mutually love with all of our heart the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How many of us can say, I love the Lord Jesus Christ?

He is supreme and he is worthy.

Paul in verses 16 through 20, I would just want to point this out to you quickly, gives a masterful poem in which he talks about the created world and the church.

Notice, first of all, he talks about creation, the created world, and he says three things about the Lord Jesus.

First of all, he says, of the created world, Jesus is the source.

That's verse 16.

For by him were all things created.

The word is ex nahilo.

He created out of nothing.

Everything that is was created out of nothing by God.

In the beginning, God.

Before creation, God.

He created.

He is the source of all things.

He is the sustainer of the created world.

Look at verse 17.

He is before all things, and by him all things consist.

He holds the world together.

It means that he established and joined this world together.

This universe that we all live in and enjoy.

I was up in Upper Michigan for a few days this week and on a country road.

There's a lot of country roads in northern Michigan.

And very little light pollution.

And it's as if you could take with your hand and reach up into the sky and grab a piece of the Milky Way.

Do you know who holds all of that beauty and grandeur together?

It is the power of our great God.

He is the sustainer.

The universe is not self-sustaining.

The one who created it is the one who holds it all together.

He is superior.

Verse 16.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether there be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

Because he created them, he is greater than all of them.

Think about Christ's power in the created world, but think about the power of Christ in the new creation, the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ.

And he turns this figure again.

He's not only the source of the created world, he's the source of the new creation.

He's the source of the church.

Verse 18.

He is the head of the body, the church.

The church was not our idea, not men's idea.

The church was God's idea.

And by the way, I said in our membership class this morning, Jesus did not say, You will build my church.

He did not say, I will build your church.

He said in Matthew 16, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church was born not in the heart of men, born in the heart of God.

He's the source of the church.

He's the sustainer of the church.

Look again in verse 18, he's the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

He sustains the church.

Aren't you glad that we are in hands much greater than ours?

He is the sustainer of the church, the source of the church.

He is superior.

It says in verse 18 that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Someone said years ago, that doesn't mean first of many, it means first of all.

It means unrivaled.

Eppie Meyer said, in all Christians, Jesus is not only present in others.

He's not only present, he's prominent.

But in some Christians and all too few, Jesus is not only present and prominent, he is preeminent.

He is to be unrivaled in our affections.

I always use this illustration, and forgive me for how base it is.

I've been married to Marie for 24 years.

Overrounding at this point, we're a few months away from 24.

Will you give me the 24th?

I jokingly say I'm 24 years into a life sentence.

Can I get an amen?

I'm happily arrested.

If I came to her, imagine on our anniversary, I wrote her a card, I put it on her vanity with some beautiful flowers, and it said to my favorite wife, look out, we were all going to be in trouble.

Hell hath no fury like a woman's wrath, right?

Not one of many, not preferred over others, unrivaled in my affection.

Marriage is an unending pursuit of one person for the rest of your life.

That in all things, Jesus shares his glory with none.

He is a jealous God.

Not that he is jealous in a vindictive way, he's a jealous God because he loves us and he remembers the price he paid to purchase us to himself.

He is the sustainer of the church.

He is superior to the church.

And this means that in the realm of the spiritual and eternal things, Jesus Christ is preeminent.

This Jesus I preach of, the eternal, pre-existent, autonomous, miraculous, sovereign, Lord, and King of all, is not something or someone that you add to your life.

He's not an addendum to your life, not a helpful additive to the fuel of your lives.

It is not Jesus plus good works, Jesus plus baptism, Jesus plus traditions.

It is Jesus Christ only that's to receive the glory in our lives.

Paul notes here that our lives were founded on Jesus and should be focused on Jesus because we are furthered by Jesus.

It was an early Christian who noted, our hearts are restless until they find rest in Him.

So what Paul says to the Colossians is that they are to come to a heavy and irreplaceable reliance upon the person of Jesus Christ.

He is our life.

Let's go back to chapter 3, and I'll give you the four-point outline quickly.

Can I ask you a question?

Is Christ your life?

If we were missionaries in maybe Haiti that is founded upon the religion of voodoo, can you imagine a government founded upon voodoo?

It's easy to go preach Jesus and add him to your pantheon of gods.

Well, I need Jesus to solve this problem in my life.

I used to hear that song when I was a teenager.

I can't even walk without you holding my hand.

Christ is our life.

And what I'm going to give you very quickly here, because some of you look hungry, and when people get hungry, they get angry.

As do I.

When Marie was in college, she took a home economics class taught by Mrs.

Wilkerson.

And Mrs.

Wilkerson said, when your husband is angry, he's just hungry.

So just feed him.

And then this is not in a sermon, but it's fun.

And then she said, if he comes home and you didn't have time to finish dinner yet, I know this is so patriarchal.

You millennials will just have to bear with me for a second.

If dinner's not ready, just boil an onion, and the smell of that boiling onion will just soothe his irritation.

And so I must have been angry a lot because when I got married, I just I just put so much weight on, I don't know.

And she's she's quite a cook.

That was so good, I don't even know how it worked into the sermon, but it was it was so helpful.

Four truths from these verses.

Number one.

The verb of the Greek here is an active verb.

It literally means before you died.

Did you know that?

Before you died.

We're dead in Christ.

A completed event, not a continuous ongoing process.

We are so fully identified in Jesus' death.

Because he fully identified with us in his substitution.

Jesus' death has removed the penalty of our sins.

It removed the power of sins in our lives.

Every Christian is crucified unto the world.

Galatians 2.20.

I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

I'm crucified with Christ.

I was looking up that word, crucified with Christ.

I found it five times in the New Testament.

I am crucified with Christ.

Can we say that together?

I am crucified with Christ.

It's the word crucify with the prefix sus with Christ.

It's found three times of two men who died with Jesus between them.

The thieves also which were crucified with him.

John 19, 32.

Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and the other which was crucified with Christ.

Romans 6, 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.

I use this as a quick analogy today.

I'm crucified with Christ.

Go to the top of Golgotha and see Jesus dying with two thieves, one to his left and one to his right.

One recognizes his great need of Christ, the other rejects the payment made by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I say to you today, if you've come to faith in Christ, you have already died, but you might live with the recognition that you think you are still alive.

But can I just tell you today, if you are in Christ, you are dead.

And you know what that means?

It means you have died to your ambitions, to your feelings.

When Phoebe was a little girl, she got in trouble.

I don't remember for what, but with enough money, I could probably bring it back if you wanted to know.

And she began to cry.

She said, You hurt my feelings.

I said, Where are your feelings?

And she pointed at that little salty tear coming out of her eye.

I know a lot of seasoned Christians that are too up in their feelings.

Great peace of they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

We are dead in Jesus.

Did you know you can't offend a dead man?

He's dead.

You can't hurt.

I am crucified with Christ.

Dead in Jesus.

Christ is our life.

We first of all have to recognize we are dead in Jesus.

Number two, we are raised with Jesus.

Look again in verse 1.

If you then be risen with Christ, now this is so wonderful.

I used to sing a song that says, I wasn't there by the shores of Galilee when Jesus touched the blinded eyes and made them see, and though I did not see the empty tomb that day, I still believe.

That's true.

I've seen the lowest sin sick soul breathe life anew, be made whole, pure, and clean.

I have felt him break the chains of sin and set my captive spirit free.

But wait a minute.

When Jesus went to the cross, I was there.

When he died, I was there.

When he was buried, I was there.

When he rose again that third morning, I was so identified in Jesus that I claim it as my own.

I have died in Jesus.

I am raised to walk in newness of life.

We were spiritually dead, enslaved to sin, captive to the desires of the flesh, under the power of sin.

We were not merely struggling to live, we were spiritually lifeless, separated from God, deserving of his wrath.

We were all one heartbeat away from eternal judgment.

God is rich in mercy.

He took those who were dead in sin and united them with his Son, the Lord Jesus.

And when Christ died, our old life died with him.

And when Christ rose victoriously from the grave, we were raised to walk in newness of life with Jesus.

Christ is not simply a new addition to your old life.

Christ has become your new life.

Number three, we are hidden in Jesus.

That's verse three in the second part.

Your life is hid with Christ in God.

Now there's three words that I want you to notice here.

First is the word secrecy.

We are hidden in Jesus.

Someone said this secret place is where the believer's life is nurtured by secret springs.

I was with a friend for a few days in Upper Michigan.

He lives about 35 minutes from Mackinac City, and so we took a few hours, took the ferry over.

Never been on the Great Lakes before.

What a place.

I said, how deep is this water?

Hundreds of feet.

Does it have tributaries?

Some.

It's fed by deep channels of water.

The best I can figure is that when the Bible says of the flood that the fountains of the deep broke open, I think the Great Lakes are proof of that.

Fed by secret springs.

Hey, listen.

Our lives are fed by deep, deep springs of living water.

Because guess what?

We don't find our water in this world.

We find those deep hidden springs in the person of Jesus Christ.

Praise God.

Think about the word safety.

We are safe in Jesus.

He has protected us, sealed us, he's labeled our contents free from contamination.

No hellish burglar can break that combination.

Our salvation is sustained in Jesus.

Think about the word identity.

We are hidden in Christ.

As Christ's glory was hidden from view as he was in his incarnation, so true is the glory of the church and believer now kept from view.

Many of you like college football, the pageantry, hundred, one hundred thousand people, all in the same colors, uttering the same expressions, rooting for the same.

What pageantry?

And its glory is evident to all.

Oh, but when someone drives past the Calvary Baptist Church today, they may not see the glory that will someday be revealed in us.

The world isn't seeing in us what God sees to be true of us.

We are the people of God.

Praise God.

We're dead in Jesus.

We were raised in Jesus.

We were hidden in Jesus.

There's a fourth truth here, and that's found in verse 4 as we close.

We live in Jesus.

Notice it.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear.

For to me to live is Christ, because of the price he paid for us, because of who we are in Christ, we live for him.

And there's three truths I want you to notice.

Because of this, because we live in Christ, we should seek Jesus passionately.

We should seek Jesus passionately.

Are you seeking Christ in your daily life?

Are you walking with the Lord?

We ought to seek Him passionately.

We ought to set our minds upon Him purposefully.

That's found in this text as well.

Verse 2.

Set your affection on things above.

That word there means your mindset.

What do you think about all the time?

What occupies the real estate of your ambition?

Set your affection on Christ.

Surrender our lives to Jesus perpetually.

You know what the Christian life is?

It's an unceasing series of surrenders to the Lordship of Christ.

Not my will, but thy will be done.

Hudson Taylor was a famous missionary in China many years ago.

His friend wrote of Hudson Taylor, faith and prayer gave Hudson Taylor power with God.

Firmness and love procured him a moral sway over the hearts of men.

To preach Christ by any means that came to hand.

And then he said this there was nothing so real to him as the individual soul and God in Christ for its salvation.

It's a famous book written about Hudson Taylor's life.

The title of the book, It Is Not Death to Die.

It is not death to die.

For to me, to live is Christ.

You know what death looks like?

Death looks like living for ourselves, pleasing ourselves, promoting ourselves.

The man who said, For to me to live is Christ, experienced something magical in his life.

In Acts chapter 14, he was stoned to death for preaching Christ.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

He later says he knew a person 14 years before that text was written that had been taken into the third heaven to see unlawful things it was not lawful for a man to utter.

We don't know the whole story, but we know that Paul is sent back to the here and now after spending a few days in the buy and buy.

Can you imagine today being transfigured into the presence of God?

How many of you would want to come back?

Say, Jesus, I'd love to stay here, but the Lions are playing at 4 o'clock today.

Appreciate my friend Al up here.

I was not on close to my TV, and he was giving me play-by-play of the Tennessee game, and I think he took joy in telling me that Tennessee might lose that game.

He comes back to the here and now.

He says, I'm in a strait between two things.

I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.

And when he says that, to depart to be with Christ is something that has become very real to him.

Just think of stepping on shore and finding in heaven, of touching a hand and finding a gods, a breathing air and finding it celestial.

I'm in a straight betwixt two.

I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

And then he says, For to me to live is Christ.

To die is gain.

All of that that I saw, I will inherit in Christ someday.

But until I'm with Christ eternally, Christ is my life immediately.

And thank God for the person of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together.

Encourage our team to come and make ready to sing as we close our service today.

Jesus Christ is the source of our salvation.

He's the sustainer of our faith.

He is superior to anything that might rival for our affection.

And as we close the service today, I hope many hearts will just bow to the greatness of our King and just be grateful for who Jesus Christ is and what we found in Christ and what he means to us.

After the service today, I'll be in the lobby.

We'd love to talk to you.

If you have questions about your soul salvation, I invite you to come and speak to us in the lobby.

We'd love to open a Bible, show you how you can know for certain that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior.

Just a moment we'll stand and we'll end in this great song we started the service with today.

But we just stop for a moment and just say, Lord, I just want to thank you for being my life.

Lord, that old life.

That old man that has been crucified with Christ.

Thank you for rising again that I can have new life in you.

And thank you, Lord, for resurrecting your power in me so I can serve you and live for you and love you and glorify you.

And in prayer, will you just make that commitment once again to the Lord Jesus Christ?

Lord, I love you and I want to serve you and I want to be faithful to you.

I don't want to be sidetracked by lesser things in my life.

I don't want to live for my own self.

I want to live for you.

I want to glorify you.

Because you're worthy of my praise.

Just tell him how much you love him.

Father, thank you for working out our plan of salvation.

Oh Lord Jesus, thank you for purchasing our salvation.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for working our salvation in our lives.

You are a great God.

You're a wonderful Savior.

And we tell you today how much we love you as we give our lives to you today.

Let's all stand together, sing that great song.

The splendid