Well, good morning again. If you would, take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Colossians. We will continue our study in this wonderful epistle, marching our way into a new chapter today, chapter three. We have been taking our time, of course, gleaning all that we can from this wonderful Christ-centered epistle. Paul here laboring on the work in person of Jesus Christ, which of course is central to scripture and is the gospel. So we wanna make certain that we understand who Jesus Christ is and what we have in him and what's been provided to us through him. Our union with him, of course, is very important to Paul and he wants to make certain that we're understanding that. Before we get started this morning, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our blessed Heavenly Father, Lord, we are so grateful that we can gather here today without fear of reprisal or without any type of hindrance. We ask, Lord, that you would preserve those liberties that we have enjoyed for so many years into the future, that we would be able to continue to do this, and if not, that we would still be faithful and stalwart and committed to the work and person of Jesus Christ. We pray for those around the world today who do not enjoy these freedoms, have taken their lives in their hands, so to speak, by assembling together and singing together and praying together and reading and studying God's word together. We lift them up to you and that you would protect them and keep them and help them to be firm in their faith and ease their pains and their burdens and their losses, Lord, we pray. We ask that you would bless the preaching of the Word today, that you would open our hearts and our minds, that you would try us as David would state in Psalm 26 that you would examine us, and that examination, of course, takes place through your word, through the convicting work of the Holy Spirit as your word is proclaimed and preached, as it's studied. We are always in need of improvement, of growth, of pressing forward, so help us today, Lord, to take the words that are spoken from your word and to apply them to our lives, not just a means of rote memory, but in a real application way, the way that changes our way of going, our way of living, our walk. We ask, Lord, that you would protect us from the evil one today, that you would protect us from the buffeting that accompanies his attacks on us, that you would keep us and preserve us. Help us to set aside the cares of the world, help us to focus on Christ. Dear God, help us, I pray, that we would love Christ more, that you would instill in us a great sense of the wonder of his work and all that he has done for us and all that you have done for us through him. Christ is all, and may those words that we'll read today from Colossians ring in our heads and our hearts and cause us to live in a manner worthy of our calling, we pray. In the name of our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ, amen. Colossians chapter 3, we'll read the entire chapter. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices. and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all. So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart. Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. Well, we have been taking the time to work our way through this epistle, and we know from our study that this epistle is being written to a church full of people who, according to the opening verses in chapter one, are known for their faith, their hope, and their love. They're referred to as holy ones, the set-apart ones, ones who have been set aside and set apart by God for His specific service and work. And that's important, and we also know that a false teacher has come into the midst of this congregation. This would be of grave concern to the pastor of this church, Epaphras, who then would travel all the way to Rome, some 1,300 miles away, to communicate to Paul, who was in prison in Rome at this time, about what was going on in this church. And so Paul then would pen this epistle and he would send it back and it would be delivered to the church and read to the church. And in it we see that Paul is indeed concerned. And what he does is that he sets before the people of Colossae, the believers in Colossae, the wonders and the work of Jesus Christ. The work and person of Jesus Christ. Paul knows that the way to defeat, the way to attack false teaching is to take people back to Christ. because false teachers always take our eyes off of Christ. They always cause us, typically, to focus on what? Ourselves, what we do, how we do it, the things that we do. And so Paul engages in chapter one and chapter two in this amazing doctrinal treatment of the work and person of Jesus Christ. He explains who we were in Ephesians, in Colossians chapter one, he talks about the totality, the expanse of the control of Christ and the authority of Christ, and that he is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, and how the Father has designated to him responsibility and tasks that are part and partial of his work with regard to the church. In chapter two, we have a greater understanding of the nature of the false teacher and what he's teaching. We understand that he is a silver-throated orator, that he is persuasive, Colossians 2.4 tells us that. 2.8 tells us what content of his teaching is basically, and then we get to the latter part of chapter two where we see that the false teacher is filling these people's minds with all sorts of nonsense. Works-based righteousness, asceticism, spiritism, elements of pagan teaching, worship of angels, visions, all sorts of things that are counter to the Word of God and taking away from the glory of Christ, the focus of Christ. We also know from chapter 2 how it is that we were saved and what it meant when we were saved in terms of the work that God did for us through Jesus Christ, understanding that we were dead spiritually dead, and the word dead means the same thing in the Bible that it does in the world. It means that they're dead. There's not degrees of deadness. As I've said before, when you go to a funeral, you don't ask how dead is the person. You know that they're completely dead. So too in scripture. And Paul takes the time to explain to these believers who they were before God saved them. And he ties everything back in their salvation to Jesus Christ. And it's because of Jesus Christ that their sins had been forgiven. It's because of Jesus Christ that the certificate of debt, which is the law, had been nailed to the cross and they were no longer beholden to it because Jesus Christ had fulfilled it all for them. And so now what happens is that when Paul has finished setting forth this presentation of doctrine, he begins to move from the indicative, which is the doctrine, into the imperative, the idea of what it is that we now do in response to all of these things that have been explained to us. Doctrine leads to a delightful duty, a loving response, an action of gratitude, back towards Christ. We're not doing more to be saved, we're not engaged in additional works to become more saved. Indeed, Paul blows that idea out of the water in the latter part of chapter two, where he talks about the idea that the false teacher who is adding different things that they have to do, don't do this, do that, don't touch, don't taste, don't handle, observe this day, this festival, this Sabbath, do all these things, add all these things, Paul says no. In fact, Paul says at the end of chapter two that doing all those things, even though they appear to be wise in and of themselves, and you will look at this person and say, oh wow, that person is really holy and really good, and I need to do those things too. Paul will ultimately say what? They do little good to fight the sinful inclinations that we have in the flesh. So what Paul then does here in chapter three is really remarkable. He begins to go back, he's gonna lay some additional foundation and talk to us a little bit more about Jesus Christ, but he's also going to ask us and tell us and direct our mind back towards Jesus Christ. Back towards Jesus Christ. And so that really is the focus here of the opening portions of chapter three. The title of this series of sermons will be The Quest for Christ because really Paul is driving people to look to Christ, to follow Christ, to seek after him, seek the things above as we'll see here in verse one. This is an important chapter. Spurgeon would refer to this as the sapphire text of the Bible. It's almost inexhaustible in terms of its depth and its magnitude. I'm hard pressed to see how I'm going to get through it in a year. But we will. So we'll be looking at verse one today, and although verses one through 11 are a treasure trove of Christ-centered theology, I'll quote Spurgeon. He says this, this little text is yet one of the greatest in the whole Bible. It is like one of those rare gems which are little to look upon, and yet he who carries them bears the price of empires in his hand. It would not be in the compass of arithmetic to set down the value of this sapphire text. I might as soon hope to carry the world in my hand as to grasp all that is contained in these few words." Isn't that amazing? Isn't it wonderful that God would give us something like that? That God would give to us a text that is so rich. so, so deep that it's hard to exhaust it. You know, I like to sail. And it's, a couple of years ago I had an opportunity to sail along the main coast and I was told that a person could take a lifetime of sailing and never exhaust all of the different coves and harbors and inlets and islands that run along the main coast. And this is like this chapter here in Colossians, even these first 11 verses, this is what Spurgeon is referring to. And in fact, he would go on to say, to talk about the fact that the coastline of this text is inexhaustible in its exploration. You cannot plumb the depths of it. You cannot see all that it has. And indeed, in our fallenness, in our meager, the frailty of our own minds, the finite nature of our minds, it's difficult for us to even completely communicate all the wonder that it contains as it drives us towards Jesus Christ. Of course, the culmination of this is in verse 11, where Paul tells us that Christ is all, and that's ultimately the culmination of all the things that he's told us about Jesus Christ in chapter one and chapter two. I would encourage you to go back and read chapter one, beginning with verse 15 through 19 and 20, and then looking at chapter two, beginning with verses nine and 10 and 11 and 12, where Paul expands and gives us that depth, that HD5K, if you will, perspective of the work and person of Jesus Christ. And let's not forget here, too, what the false teacher was doing. He was taking the Colossi believers' eyes off of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to pay particular attention to this, and I want you to think about the context of this epistle. Good hermeneutics is driven by three rules, three principles. Context, context, context. We want to make certain that we understand the context of what is happening here. Again, there is a false teacher in this church. Let's not forget that. What this false teacher has done is taken these believers' eyes off of Jesus Christ. This is not something that's new. Indeed, in modern evangelicalism today, the eyes of the believers in these churches, if you can call them believers, and we're gonna talk about something a little bit later that I came across while I was on vacation that I think is quite compelling as it relates to what the churches are full of, but at the end of the day, what's happening in modern evangelicalism is much akin to what this group of believers was experiencing, this false teacher coming in and giving them another formula, another model to follow rather than Jesus Christ. Today, it's what? It's woke theology, it's revoiced theology, it's social justice, it's BLM, it's all of those things that have usurped the work and person of Jesus Christ. And you, in the pew, are responsible for stopping that. It is your responsibility. If you recall back in chapter two, Paul uses firm language with these people and he says to them, don't do this, stop them. Don't let them do that. Stop them. Stop them. It's your responsibility to do that. So Paul here in the face of this onslaught by this false teacher is bringing Christ back into focus and explaining that we do what we do as Christians not to gain heaven but to rather demonstrate that we love Christ for all he did for us as explained in chapter two. So many people today labor under the false impression that what they're doing now is gaining something for them in the future, namely heaven. that if they do the things that they ought to do, we talked about these things back in chapter two, if they don't drink and they don't smoke and they don't go with the girls that do, that they're going to go to heaven. And thousands upon thousands upon hundreds of thousands of people have stepped into eternity and walked through not the gates of heaven but into the gates of hell and they'll be there for all of eternity because their focus was not on Christ but was rather upon themselves. This is the danger. This is the great error. This is the grave error facing the church today. This is why Paul is laboring this issue so deliberately and why in chapter three, he kind of goes back into this whole thing about Christ again. You would think to yourself, you would say, Paul, why are you doing that again? Why don't you just jump to verse 12 and tell me how to live with my wife? or my husband. Although I can't imagine that's ever an issue. Well that just tells me I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time on that passage. But here Paul is going back to Christ. And in verses one through four it's unique because he begins to lay a foundation again that's held together by the mortar of the work of Christ. And he wants to make certain that before he begins to move into the imperatives, he's gonna give you a long list of different things that Christians ought not to be involved in. These are things that are the product of the redeemed's life. They naturally ought to be flowing out because of the gratitude. Remember the paradigm in scripture is this. It's guilt, grace, and gratitude. Guilt, we are standing condemned as we know in chapter two because we are an Adam. And Adam was a sinner and we are his progeny. And as a consequence, we too are sinners. There is grace that is given to us by God that saves us, that brings us out of that state through the work and person of Jesus Christ. And as a consequence of that, I then have a heart of overflowing gratitude for what has been done for me that compels me then to say, I am not going to do or live the way that the world does. I'm not going to engage in that behavior, in that conduct. And so, ultimately, Paul wants to make certain that they're seeing this, that they're understanding it, and I want this for you too. What I want for you as your pastor is that I want your motivation to be based upon what Christ has done for you. Not because I tell you to do it. Not because one of the other elders tells you to do it, or you read it in some book. I want you to love Jesus Christ so much that you see what Paul means when he says that he is all, that he is all-consuming. And as such, as you dwell upon the work and the person of Jesus Christ, your mind moves heavenward as you anticipate being with the lover of your soul, Jesus Christ. I am bothered at times when I attend funerals or I participate in funerals and I hear people talking about what the person who is deceased is doing. This is what typically happens. They're either playing golf, they're doing something other hobby, or they're crying, leaning over the edge of heaven, which is the rain. Grandma misses you so much, she's crying, and that's what's happened. No, she's not. If she was the redeemed of God, she's worshiping Jesus Christ. She is doing what we did this morning, singing worthy is the lamb that was slain. No one's playing golf right now. No one's playing euchre. And I can promise you that they're not playing that abominable math game that you guys all play. What is that, dominoes? Yeah. There will be no dominoes in heaven. I can tell you that right now. I actually had anxiety one time playing dominoes with the hand riches. I had to count. My score was like 4,000 or something. And I lost track and I was embarrassed. But here Paul wants our minds to be on Christ. He's saying to us, friends, look, look to Jesus Christ. And this sermon today is gonna be more of an introduction into the text because what I want for you to see is how important Jesus Christ is. Before Paul lays out the imperatives of the Christian life, he lays a foundation that is built on Christ. Because he knows, now think about this, dear friends. Think about this. Think about this, saints. You saints out there. You holy ones set apart. Remember, this epistle has been preserved for you, so when you begin to read it, you can say, oh, wait a minute, God kept this for me to read, and he's calling me a holy one. At the very beginning, I am set apart. And Paul then knows that holiness can only flow from our lives when we are focused on Christ. The natural consequence of a person, a man, a woman, who is the redeemed of God is to be so consumed with Jesus Christ. that these things flow out of them. This is Paul's point. In 2 Peter chapter one, verses one through four, Paul lays forth the wonders of our salvation, the work and person of Jesus Christ, that Christ indeed is God, that we have been redeemed by God. Peter basically says that a lot is cast, if you will, is the language that he uses, and that God has redeemed us and set us apart in Christ, and as a consequence of that, out of our faith, grows Christian virtues that are the consequences of a consuming perspective of Jesus Christ. This is what I want for you. Remember this too. Chapter 2 and verse 23 ends with this solemn warning. Think about this for a minute. Go back to 23, because the segue in verse one ties us back into what has been taught to us in chapter two. We're gonna talk about that more, but think about this for a minute. So the end of chapter two, verse 23, by way of reminder, says this. Paul talking about the do not handle, do not taste, do not touch type of thing, all those works types things, Paul says this. These are matters which have. And there's that dripping condescension in Paul's, these are matters which have to be sure. The appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body. but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. That begs this question, what is? What is going to keep me from engaging in fleshly indulgences? What does have value to keep me from doing those things? Where does he take me? He takes me right to Christ. Does this not remind you of Romans chapter seven? I have a whole list of things I want to do, I don't do them, I ought to do them, but I know that I don't do them, and it frustrates me to no end. But where does Paul take you after Romans seven? He takes you to Romans chapter eight, which is all about who? Jesus Christ. the Mount Everest peak of the Bible, if you will. Paul does the very same thing here. He tells me in verse 23 that those who would give you this works-based righteousness idea, that if you engage in these things, that if you practice these certain things, that you will not engage in these indulgences. Well, apparently they still were, because Paul's still talking to them about it. He's still telling them he's gonna give, he's gonna talk to them about all these different things. If you go back through the list, you'll see them. And it gets very practical, even to the point of how you treat each other and your kids. All of that flows out of a correct perspective of who you are in Jesus Christ, your union with Christ. Christ is all. Christ is all. And so Paul wants you to understand this. I want you to understand this. The man-made system promotes the very antithesis of what God requires in salvation, does it not? If I am in the person engaged in chapter two things, beginning with verse 18 or 16 rather, and running through and doing all of those things, That person stands in stark contrast to what the word of God teaches me about what God expects to find in a person in relationship to salvation. It reaches back, if you will, into Matthew chapter five, verse three, the beginning of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, that verse there in Matthew chapter 5 does not talk about poverty. And this is what's happening today. The social justice people are using it, the BLM people are using it, the woke people are using it to make people take care of the poor. It has nothing to do with the poor in that context. It has to do with the idea that a person who is genuinely born again recognizes that they have nothing of themselves that they can offer to God that would save them. Nothing. Nothing. So this man-made system promotes the very antithesis of what God requires in salvation, the emptiness of self-righteousness which produces that desperate cry that we heard from Blind Bartimaeus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Or the prayer of the tax collector, be merciful to me, a sinner. They both went home justified is what the scripture tells us, but the Pharisee didn't. And if you remember the rich young ruler, he was clinging on to all the things that he had done that were good, and he went away disappointed because he began to realize it wasn't going to be enough. And so, So many Christians today are still caught in this vortex of works-based righteousness, not understanding the distinction between the law and the gospel. A.W. Pink, in his magnificent book, The Sovereignty of God, says this, just as the sinner's despair of any help from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth and grace. Now, do you understand what he's saying? So, as you look, as you look at Colossians chapter three verses one through four, what you're going to see there is a person's mind who has been divested of the cares and concerns about themselves in the context of self-righteousness, a person who has rejected the model presented by the false teacher. This is what Paul is calling this person to do. So verse one, therefore, reaching back into what we've been talking about in chapter two, therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, Okay, it's a big, big question there. It's a question you need to ask yourself this morning. Have you been raised up with Christ? I say this often. Do you really know him? This is the essence of Paul's argument here. Do you really know Jesus Christ? If you have been raised up with him, this reaches back into the imagery of Colossians 2, 12, 11, and 12. Circumcision, baptism, we saw that picture there. Primarily baptism is the imagery that Paul is using here. Paul wants to make certain that the person is questioning, okay, now we read Psalm 26 this morning, right? Examine me, try me, try me, know my heart. Lord, you know my heart. Examine me, see if there be any wicked way in me. And so Paul here wants to make certain that we are engaged in this type of analysis, not necessarily a morbid self-introspection, navel-gazing, if you will, but rather a serious biblical assessment of where I am. What is my faith in? Am I faithing in my faithfulness? I did a pretty good job last week. I wasn't as bad as I could've been. Oh man, I could've committed some doozies last week, but I didn't. And so I'm going to faith in the fact that I didn't, rather than rejoicing that you didn't because of the person Jesus Christ, and that God has saved you, and that he's given you a spirit that is now willing to do the things that please the Lord. That's the point of Galatians chapter five. Those who walk in the flesh act like they're in the flesh because they are in the flesh. Those who are in the spirit walk like they're in the spirit. This is the point. Now, Pink's point is important. Again, he says, just as the sinner's despair of any help from himself. That's important. In conversion, this is why I'm always concerned about trips to Daytona on spring break and running through and giving people the four spiritual laws, but they continue to do what they're doing in Daytona. Where is the despair of any help from themselves? See, in conversion, there is a realization as a consequence of the work of regeneration that I can't do it. I don't have what I need. I'm failing. I don't have anything. I am bankrupt. I am void of anything good. Even my very best is absolutely damnable before God. Where do I go? Where do I turn? Where is this Conundrum resolved. Where is the tension eased? It's in Christ. Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Be merciful to me, a sinner. We don't talk about sin anymore because people won't come to church if the pastor talks about sin. Well, why would you go? I mean, what's the point? Go play golf. You want to hear the good news? The good news is connected to the issue of sin. But Pink's other comment is good. He says, so the loss, now think about this, this is where I want you to be, all right? Think about this. So the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth and grace. The loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth and grace. You must see yourself as bankrupt, poor in spirit, looking only to Christ, the Alpha and the Omega. This is exactly what Paul is doing here. in the first part of chapter three. He's drawing us to Christ, pressing us, prodding us, pushing us. He wants you to see Christ. He wants you to be enraptured with Christ. He wants you to be so enraptured with him that the things that are listed out here, the idea of considering your members dead, is the natural consequences of a person who understands who they are in Christ. He wants Christ to be all to you because if he isn't, then the holiness to which he will call us in the balance of the chapter will be an effort in utter futility and complete frustration to you. He also doesn't want us to see Christ as a mere means to an end. Did you hear what I said? He doesn't want us to see Christ as a mere means to an end. a genie in a bottle, a quick fix in a crisis, a prayer partner when things go south. He wants these people to live in the context of the holiness by which they've been identified at the beginning of the epistle. And he knows the false teacher is taking them away. If you go to 2 Peter chapter 2, Peter there characterizes typically the life, the style, the personality, if you will, of a false teacher. And it's not good. It's just not good at all. And oftentimes what happens with these false teachers is that they bring in these types of things and it ultimately results in a very loose style of living, a licentiousness, if you will. It's interesting the things that Paul would list out in regards to the things that we would put off, the things that we would move away from. And he understands that if Christ isn't all to you, then holiness is going to be a difficult pursuit. He doesn't want us to see Christ as a mere means to an end. And for Paul and for us too, Christ is the means and the end. Christ is the means and the end. Paul ultimately doesn't want this. He doesn't want a church full of unsaved Christians. Wait a minute, pastor, that's kind of an oxymoron. Unsaved Christians, aren't Christians saved? Well, we live in a nation of unsaved Christians. Cultural Christianity. I read a book about that on vacation. I'm gonna quote from it here in a moment. But people's who faith is in their own goodness and in their faithfulness rather than on Christ. And if you look at verses one through four, if you look at the entire epistle, Paul's focus is what? Always on Christ. Always on Christ. And Paul wants us to be genuine Christians, not mere theists. Not people who just acknowledge that there's a God. The demons even do that. as we'll see, and this is why he begins the chapter with this clarion call to set our minds on the things above and to keep seeking the things above. What's interesting to me is this, though. If you look at this, and this is, I love this. Paul does not set forth a single legal argument. in the context of the law, he takes them back to grace. He takes them back to Christ as the motivation, not the law, but Christ is the motivation. I want you to think about that for a minute. It's not the law that's motivating, it's Christ that is motivating. That's a distinction that's incredibly important. That's a very important distinction. Christ is what motivates the person to move forward. For Paul, Christ is all, because he is actually all, right? The fact of men possessing Christ is all in all in the church. That's something for Paul too, because in every deed, In every fact, Christ is all in all. He has to be, he is, and the Bible declares him to be so. All that is real in the Christian, all that is holy, heavenly, pure, abiding and saving is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Spurgeon would say this great granite fact lies at the basis of the whole Christian system. Christ is really and truly all and all in his church and in each individual member of it. That's what Spurgeon said, and I agree with him. And this is the point that Paul is driving home here. So what does Paul do to motivate them? He bases his arguments in grace and not the law. He feeds the flame of their zeal and love with the suitable fuel of Christ alone. He doesn't beat them up. He doesn't go back and put them under more festivals and new moons and Sabbaths and rituals and rites. No, he gives them Christ because all of those things are complete in Christ. It goes back to what Paul says in verse 17. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the what? Substance, the reality belongs to Christ. It belongs to Christ. The issue here for Paul and for us is the genuineness of our conversion. Some in Colossae clearly had bought into the error of the false teacher, and they, like so many today, had the trappings of Christianity, observances, rituals, and a list of rules, but they didn't have or know Jesus Christ. As I said on vacation, I was reading a book called The Unsaved Christian, Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel by Dane and Sarah. It's a good read, timely, of course, And in this book he talks about a variety of different issues and concerns that he has about this issue of what the church is full of today. And one of the things that he points out, kind of reaching into that mindset of that moralistic therapeutic deism that's so prevalent in the church today, he says this. Under the idea of belief, what people believe, he says cultural Christians, and he uses that term interchangeably for unsaved Christians, so when he says cultural Christian, he's talking about unsaved people that are in the church. Cultural Christians believe in God and they believe in heaven. It might seem like a strange paradox that belief in God is actually a barrier to reaching someone for Christ. Cultural Christians are not atheists. To suggest otherwise would be viewed as quite offensive, since believing in God is a given for them. This theism extends well beyond the mere belief that there is a God, higher power, big man in the sky, or something out there. Cultural Christians believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and that his mom's name was Mary. They may even have words like faith and hope in their home decor. Just below the belief-inspired signs is where the nativity scene is set up for the month of December. They can also tell you exactly what is celebrated on Easter Sunday. Knowing stories of the Bible and believing they actually happened are commonplace in cultural Christianity amongst unsaved Christians. In his New Testament letter, James had something passionate and pointed to say about basic belief. You believe that God is one, good. Even the demons believe and they shudder, James 2.19. James was not impressed with a knowledge of Christian facts alone. The faith of James' audience was deficient, lacking a response of the gospel that would compel them to accompany their belief with good works. That's what James is about. That genuine faith produces these types of things out of a heart of gratitude. James compared this faith to the faith of demons. I often wonder when I read the passage if James sounded extreme by making such a comparison. He was unimpressed by a belief system that didn't result in actually living for Christ, and he called that faith what? Dead. Dead. Now, the same is applicable here in Colossians. So, in a similar fashion, Paul does this. He begins chapter three, the imperative chapter, with another treatment of Jesus Christ, just to make certain that you know that the reasons that you do what you do is because you love Jesus Christ and because your mind is set on the things above, we're gonna talk about that more, not because you're trying to work your way to heaven. He wants to make certain that you're understanding that. Paul does not want unsaved Christians in the Colossi Church. The problem is today that the church is full of unsaved Christians. Now, when I ask you this question every Sunday, do you know Jesus Christ? I'm trying to tease out that issue because my concern is always this. My concern is that your faith is in your faithfulness and not in Jesus Christ. That you're looking backwards Rather than looking forward to Christ, you're looking backwards to the past week, maybe the past hour, and say, okay, I didn't commit a big sin, I'm okay. If you're a believer, you're always okay, genuinely. But here, We see that in the context of these unsaved Christians, they do the rote things, they go to church, they show up for Easter and Christmas, they come and they go, they do some things, they might help in this and that and the other thing, but there's no real affection for Christ. They're doing it because it's what we've always done. It's what we do, it's what we do in America. We go to church on Sundays, at least we used to. This is even slipping away to some degree. Holding to some basic, the author goes on to say, holding to some basic beliefs was not going to do the trick in the kingdom of God. It is difficult to point people to their need to trust in Christ when they already believe the basic facts about him. And James wasn't afraid to go there by claiming that even the demons believe those things. He was addressing specific issues for professing yet falsely assured believers. but the principle is as relevant for the neighborhoods, churches, and families of today. Believing in God does not make one a Christian. Believing in God does not make you a Christian. The focus, of course, has to be Christ. I'm troubled at times when I hear Christians, and I've even taken the time to correct, and even my own children at times over this issue, when the focus is kind of talking about God. Talk to me about Christ. Talk to me about Jesus Christ. Psalm 2, kiss the son lest you make the father angry, is the summary of what that psalm says. The focus is on Jesus Christ. Look at chapter three. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, for Paul, it's axiomatic, it stands to reason, it naturally flows out of the argument, the premise, if I know Christ, my mind will be set on the things above. That's in your DNA as a believer. That's who you are as a Christian, a Christ one. A Christ one. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is. Now, translation-wise, this is interesting. In the NIV, they take the comma out. I think that's a grievous error because the focus of the passage grammatically in the Greek is on Christ. The idea that Paul is communicating is to be where Christ is and that he is there and he's also there in authority, which is what the balance of the verse means. And so, in conclusion, You have to ask yourself, as we move into this, because my concern is this, and I know that this is the inspired word of God and that God has given it to us and I'm gonna preach my heart on it and I'm gonna preach it till I'm wringing everything I can out of it. But my concern is going to be that you're going to begin to look at these imperatives and measure your life against them in the context of your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm gonna warn you right now, do not do that. These are things that ought to be part and parcel of the Christian life because they grow out of us as a consequence of our salvation. You know, it's kind of like, you know, you have a kid and they kind of look like you, right? There's that DNA that passes on those traits, good, bad, or otherwise. But this is the idea here too, we are going to grow in and up and appear and look as Christ would in the context of our behavior. It's not what would Jesus do, not that nonsense. That's faithing in your faithfulness, okay? That's all works-based righteousness. But rather, taking on the persona, the attitude, the mindset, let us have this mind, the mind of Christ, see? And Paul's gonna talk about the mind in verse two. That's important. And so my exhortation to you is this. As we move in the chapter three, I want you to be thinking about the idea of a focus that is on Christ, that Christ is all, okay, and because he is all, that as a consequence of that, you're going to live a life that demonstrates that out of gratitude for what he has done. Okay? At no point in time am I going to be asking you to measure your relationship with Christ in the context of just the works. Now, I want to see fruit. There's an issue with fruit. Obviously, there's a fruit that has to be evident. But at the same time, the faith is not in that because when you fail and you don't produce fruit, what do you do? You look to Christ who never failed and always produced the fruit, right? Christ is all. Christ is all. And so in chapter three, verse one, we begin to make that transition into this imperative mode, and Paul wants to make certain that the Christ foundation has been laid, and he's going to be reminding you that you need to be thinking about Christ, and thinking about Christ, and thinking about Christ, and thinking about Christ as we move into the imperatives, all right? The last thing I want for you is to come away with a long list of dues and get discouraged because you didn't do it very well last week and you come in skipping and hopping. You don't leave skipping and hopping, you come in skipping and hopping because you did them all perfectly all week long. Well, welcome to Community Bible Church, you Pharisee. Verse four, when Christ, who is our life, who is our life? Is Christ your life? Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you bought into some type of moralistic, therapeutic deism? You have a belief in God, you've engaged in the Christian rites of passage, you really don't have a full grasp of the gospel? Is that you? Then you need to get saved. All who call upon the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved. Call upon His name today. Now, I'm serious. I want you, I'm as serious as I can be. I want you to examine your life. Make certain, think about it, what are you trusting in right this second? What are you looking at? Is your mind drifting back into your works? Is your mind thinking about what you've done? Is your mind thinking about what you could do? Is your mind thinking that God's gonna give me a pass? Is your mind thinking that God is love, God is gracious, God is good, He's gonna let me in because I've been good? You're going straight to hell. It's all about Christ. Christ alone. Christ alone. Do you know him? Do you know him? Lord, we love you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the exhortation that we have from Paul to think about Christ, to look to Christ, to be focused on Christ, to know that Christ is all. And as we move into this chapter, Lord, may we have a heart that is consumed and overwhelmed with Christ. May we come to know Him and to love Him more than we ever have, and may we have a sense of great gratitude for the wonders of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, who did all these things for us, who took care of all of these things for us. We've been united with Him. Thank you, Father, for that. Thank you for loving us so much that you would do that for us poor, vile, wretched sinners. Creating us a poverty of spirit that causes us to look with wonder and amazement at Jesus Christ and to say with Paul, he is all, he is all. Lord, give us the grace that we need to live in a manner worthy of our calling this week. May our minds be focused on Christ. May our inclination be towards him. May our minds be set on the things above, where Christ is. And we look forward to the day when we will be where he is. That is your promise to us. Thank you for so great a salvation. In Christ's name we pray, amen. God bless you.