Well, if you will turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, and beginning in chapter 2, the end of chapter 2, the sermon text is 3, 1 to 4, but beginning in chapter 2, verse 220, and we'll read through verse 5. Colossians 2 verse 20 reading through chapter 5 of paragraph verse 5 of chapter 3. Hear God's word. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. 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 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. Thus ends our reading of God's Holy Word. Let's ask His blessing upon the preaching and hearing of it this afternoon. Our Father in Heaven, once again we call upon Your name. We ask that You would come now And help us that you would bless the preaching and hearing of your word this afternoon Send forth your word your eternal word in the power of your holy spirit To save and to sanctify your saints. We pray this in jesus name amen So The sermon title is minds set on christ And what we're going to see this afternoon is that the believer belongs to a new realm, a new world. Hence, the old world is to be put away as we move toward our goal of being revealed in Christ. Colossians 3 verse 1, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Therefore, it calls us back to the previous section of avoiding the man-made rules in order to attain deeper fellowship with God or greater spirituality. There are means given for drawing closer to God, for tabernacling fellowship with God, as I think we see one of the themes here in Colossians. They are what we call the means of grace. What do they do but bring us into contact with the Gospel, the God and the Christ of the Gospel? They are means to Christ, if you will. I suppose I should clarify what they are. They are prayer. They are the Word and they are the sacraments. Those are the means to draw closer to God, into fellowship with Him. Anything outside of these, what Paul is saying, ought to be avoided. They are of no value to you. Abstaining, for example, from watching movies, from specific skirt sizes, from wearing shorts. I just heard the other day, if you wear shorts, you aren't a Christian or aren't a spiritual Christian. From card playing, game playing, whatever it is. None of this enhances you as a Christian. Preferences ought to stay preferences. But what is not a preference for Paul, what is not a preference is that you be seeking the things above. Why? What are the grounds by which Paul is arguing thus? This is a typical indicative imperative pattern. Indicative to command. He states something that's a reality and then he commands something in light of it. You could read it like this. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is. Then you could ask the question, why? Why should I keep seeking the things above where Christ is? And Paul would say, since or because you have been raised up with Christ. You have been raised up, he's saying. Raised up from what, you might ask? From being dead in our transgressions. From the certificate of debt. Our just condemnation is fallen sinners who have not kept law or covenant. Our certificate, the certificate of debt being cancelled in Christ. Him having nailed it to the cross, as we learned earlier in Colossians 2. It is all covered because you didn't die alone, but you died with Christ. The believer died with Christ, and further, you died to the things of this world, as the previous section showed us. And if you have died, then by consequence, you have been raised up to another life with Him, another world, into an invisible temple dwelling with your Savior in Him. You are of the new order. You are putting on a new self, being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, meaning you are becoming a renewed and restored image bearer. You are going towards the goal of what Adam was to achieve in the garden. And here's the thing that needs to be grabbed on today, dear Christian, death and resurrection in Christ are not merely future events, especially resurrection. If you be in Christ, Paul is challenging the reader here as well. If you be in Christ, it could be translated since you're in Christ, or if you be in Christ, then the marks of your dying with Him will already be evident. Your marks of being raised up with Him will already be evident. You will be putting your flesh to death and you will be living a renewed life. Another way to put it is that the death and resurrection that have taken place now are spiritual. And as we'll see, if this has begun in you again, then you will be in the future. If this has begun in you now, then you will in the future be conformed into an image that can never fall, because the place our Savior brought this image is to an unchangeable state. Adam did not do that. Christ does. In this new realm, To conclude, there is no room for the elementary principles of this world. There's no room for going back to these ridiculous things. He says, keep seeking. You have resurrection power in you, dear believer. You have resurrection power in you. Seek after that new heavenly life that will be yours at the consummation in full. Don't for one moment grow weary, though false teachers or false converts try to throw you off. You have resurrection power by the Spirit of God to resist, and more than that, to live an upright and heavenly life. The exalted Christ, seated in power, is ruling over His and our enemies now, over the spiritual realm. They've already been disarmed. And you have access to the same power that disarmed them. Do you get that? You can draw from that same well, if you will. Paul is not short, if you've caught this, Paul is not short on references to letting believers know that they have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at work in them. He's at pains to demonstrate this in Ephesians. That's his first prayer, is that you would realize this. And if the powers are subject to Christ again, and we are in Christ, if the powers are subject to Christ and we are in Christ, then if we have this, what kind of silly man-made rules could entice us to go after something else when we have the greatest possible abilities in Christ, freedoms in him, worship of angels, vision, self-abasement. Today, you have babbling tongues, second blessing of the Spirit, other man-made markers for holiness. It's all garbage. If you are united to Christ today, you have what you need to live well and pleasing to the glory of God, now and to your death or the second coming. Right now, you have everything you need. What could be more thrilling than knowing and exercising resurrection power by the Spirit of God in you? But it's not showy, it's not flashy, it's not immediate, it's not tangible. Which is why we come up with all this other silly, ridiculous stuff. We look for other ways. More concrete, more black and white, more visible. For some it's because they're weak in the faith, for others they just want to see something in flashier, evident, I don't know. But this verse, I think, clearly depicts for us the inauguration of Psalm 110, which is the most quoted and alluded to Psalm in the New Testament. With Christ seated at the right hand and with us as his willing subjects in his army, armed with power from our great royal priest, which Psalm will sing at the end of our sermon this afternoon. So verse two sets your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. The believer is to focus on the exalted position of Christ. Set your mind on it. Think on it. What does any great athlete or anyone who achieves excellence at some hobby or vocation do? They don't just seek it. They set their mind on it. They eat, sleep and breathe it. As they say in Rocky four, which is an absolute classic. If you have not seen it, please do yourself a favor and watch it. It's one of my all-time favorites. But when he arrives in Russia, he's going to fight the Russian that's just killed one of his best friends, OK? When he arrives in Russia to set out in this boxing match, he sets the picture of the Russian opponent on his mirror in his room that he's going to see every single day. What is communicated by that? He wants something more tangible, so it is ever before him. I've not just traveled thousands of miles for an exhibition boxing match, but to win, and specifically to defeat that individual. He's not just trying to win, he has the whole of his being set on victory and accomplishing what he went there to do. You must not only seek heaven, you must think heaven, Lightfoot says. It is your life. It's falsely said by some that you can be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Falsely said. You cannot be so heavenly minded. Here's the actual statement. You cannot be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. This is a false dichotomy. The one who is most heavenly minded will be the most earthly good. It is because you are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, because you have been raised with him who is seated in power. It is because of this heavenly participation that you are what you are on earth. And so the more you know it, the more you realize it, the more you think on it, the more it will come out in the way that you live, in the way that you speak, in everything that you do. This is how you work works pleasing and more pleasing to God and avoid false teachers and asceticism, all this stuff that's before this. It is when you are not setting your mind above, when you're not setting your mind on things that are above, that you come into danger, that you come into sluggishness and laziness as a Christian. When you're in danger of backsliding, it's when the mind is not set on those things. or creating or falling into other errors, as we said. For you have died, verse three, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. It would be rather odd for one who has died to the world to go back into it, to live by base principles or to put yourself into bondage because you've been set free from it. To live by base principles or to put yourself into bondage would be odd because you've been set free from those. And he says hidden, hidden in the midst of trouble. The idea of secure could be used as well or protected. Psalm 27 five gives us the idea of what's going on here. For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle. In the secret place of his tent, will he hide me? He will lift me up upon a rock. Christ. Dear believer, Christ is the tabernacle of the new covenant believer. When the church comes together as the body of Christ, as the new temple, they come to the hiding place of God. This is what it means to live by faith. Let me ask you if any of the blessed realities we've spoken of here so far today are visible to the casual onlooker. I think none of them. Spiritual death and resurrection, No. Resurrection power at work in you? No. Being even now seated with Christ in heaven? No. We walk by faith. But this is madness to the unbeliever. It's confusing to the unbeliever. But to us who walk and live by faith, it is reality. It is our currency. We've seen it in ourselves. We've seen it in others. We've experienced it and know it all because the Spirit has made these things known to us. Even as we heard from 1 Corinthians 2 this morning in our scripture reading. We have the ability to perceive spiritual realities. That's what we're doing here is walking by faith. And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. This is further motivation. It is coming, is what he's saying. It is certain. Even Christ himself is hidden. He is in the heavenlies, though here by his spirit, but he will be manifested. He will come. The hidden wisdom and knowledge that only those with eyes to see could see will be openly manifested. The hidden wisdom and knowledge that only those with the eyes to see could see will be openly manifested at the coming of Christ. Gloriously manifested. The mouths of scoffers and mockers will be stopped. He says it is Christ. who is our life. Christ is our life. Why does He say that? Because you have died with Him. You have been raised with Him. You've been justified, adopted, sanctified. You are even seeking Him now. And you will be revealed with Him. He is your life from beginning to end. He is your life and He is your all. As I believe in this chapter, He'll later on say, twice repeated in these last two verses, Christ being the life of the believer. Brothers and sisters, we are even now beginning to put on the new self that one day will be, as we've mentioned, unchangeable in the beatific vision. When we see Him, we will become like Him, never to fall again. The end is better than the beginning because it's indestructible, it's unchangeable. He's brought us to a far more glorious state than Adam could have. In glory, It says, Adam fell short of glory. Jesus is bringing many sons and daughters to glory, as Hebrews says. And the language of scripture, brothers and sisters, speaks of it as if we already now possess it. That's how sure we can be. That's why we are to strive for it with that great confidence. We'll end with this wonderful, wonderful consideration, not consideration, but Closing to Psalm 27 in verses 13 to 14. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for such a rich and wonderful passage of scripture. We pray that you would give us to take these things, let them sink deep into our hearts, that we would not only lay them up and practice them in our lives, but just that you would even change our minds in the way that we think about temptation, the way we think about sin, the way that we anticipate and long for the second coming of our Lord and Jesus Christ. Let these things be for the good of your saints and for the glory of your name. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen.