What's nice about Bible teaching is there's so many avenues and aspects of it. You can talk the historical side, you can talk the spiritual side, you can talk eschatology, the end times. We're going to come right back in here and we can talk about how we're supposed to be living. In chapter 1 and 2 of Colossians, we've been talking about, in a sense, Jesus. Chapter 1 is His preeminence in the sense that He's the first in creation because He created everything, but also He joined creation, died, and was resurrected beginning the new creation, which we've now joined as believers. We've been born again. We have new life. And so He has preeminence in the created world, but He also has preeminence in The new world because he is the creator of the new world also and so we talked about in chapter 2 As we read through this all the things that he's done that he's the head over all the powers and authorities. I'm chapter 2 Just looking at some verses here. It's just celebrating in a sense what Christ has done Colossians chapter 2 It says So just as you received, chapter 2, verse 6, so just as you received Christ, Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthen in the faith as you were taught, overflowing with thankfulness. And so we have this, we can have faith, we believe in Jesus, and so we join in the new birth, we are born again, we are in Christ, He's done the work. But this says, just as we began in Christ, we now have to now live in Christ. Today we begin to live in this resurrected life, this image of Jesus. We've been born again in Christ. Now we need to live in our physical world in this newness of life. But there was a warning. In those next verses for the rest of chapter 2 it warns you about all kinds of things that can distract you When it says do not anyone judge you on what you you know eat or drink or all these what we'd say religious Activities that now you're Christian because I do these things. No, you're a Christian you're born again because you are in Christ and And now you need to start living that newness of life. But when we start talking about this newness of life, living in righteousness, you could very easily slip into here's your list. Here's your religious list of things to do. And it becomes very, very worldly. This becomes a thing of the earth, a thing of the world, the lower things, meaning I'm going to demonstrate my righteousness by how I cut my hair or how I wear my clothes or what I eat or what I drink. And these are all these rules. Well, that's all the earthly things. You've been seated with Christ in heavenly places. These are the things that are above. You need to, it's going to tell you, set your mind on these things and start living this way. And it's such a fine line. between having this religious list, because some of these things can go in both categories. Let's say you're going to try to prove your righteousness in the worldly way by not drinking certain things. Well, that doesn't prove you're right. That's just a worldly demonstration of a religion. But yet, if you're going to live in Christ, there's going to be certain things you're not going to do, for example, you're not going to drink and be drunk. It's like, well, it's the same thing. It's like, well, no, you're being religious here by not drinking these things or eating these things or doing these things. But your life is in Christ, and so now there's this list of things, and not a list of things to do, but you're going to think about this, you're going to desire this, and so you're going to walk away from, put off the drunkenness. And now we're just talking about drinking and drunkenness but it's going to be an attitude of life and that's where we begin now in chapter three verse one I'll begin in chapter 2, verse 16, so we kind of wrap this part up right here. I'm reading in the NIV. The notes are going to be the English Standard Version. Chapter 2, verse 16. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival or a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. That's all these earthly lower things. These are all these, I just act like I'm a Christian. These are a shadow of things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility, religious activities, and the worship, that goes on into some other things, the worship of angels disqualify you from the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen. That starts talking about the false teachers that they're having to deal with. They've had visions and all these things. Verse 20, since you died with Christ, now this is an important verse, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belong to it do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. In other words, this right here, this world, you can't find salvation here, you die to this world and are resurrected in Christ, so your life is now up here, not down here, which now begins, we can look in chapter three, verse one, since then, Chapter 3, verse 1, So no longer think about all these things you're going to do. Think about Christ and where He's seated above. Now again, this is going to give you, you're not just going to become mystical and spiritual, you're going to have, your mind is going to be renewed, you're going to have things to think about, things to do, you're going to have a whole newness of life. Now some of them may be similar over here to these false copies, you know, just like Satan tries to become an angel of light. It's like, is this an angel of light or is this Satan? It's like, how can you tell? They're both appearing as angels of light. This can look very religious and very holy, but it's nothing but this world. Where in Christ, this is where it's going to come down to. It's going to be your mind. Paul even tells in Romans 12, the renewing of your mind, to understand these things. So here we go. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And I have to point this out as we go by, I'll maybe say it a couple more times, but this is where Bible teaching comes in. Really, Bible teaching and understanding the Scriptures, I've said it a thousand times, It's not really an option. If you're going to say, I become a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ, I'm saved, and now I'm going to just follow my heart, I'm going to follow a good Christian religious practice, you're going to end up down here. You're going to end up in the earthly, worldly, whatever the cultural trend of religion is, this is what's going to become your Christianity. You have to have the Word of God that's going to renew your mind, because this is the Word that told you the way of salvation. I mean, I repeat myself, if we're going to, without the Bible, make a list of things you need to do to go to heaven, it would be, you know, be this good person and make sure you treat people this way. Yeah, and you say, OK, this and that's why people have funerals and they talk about how good they you know, they're a good person. They've gone to a better place now because they've done all these things right here because they've decided what salvation is by shutting the Bible. And let's just talk about if we were God, what would be the requirements to get into heaven? Well, we'd have a list. Well, and we pretty much, we could generalize, have a democracy, we could all kind of, we all agree on these things. And this person right here, we're having a funeral for, that kind of describes them. So surely they've gone to heaven. Well, no, no. This tells you the way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. He is the door. Without having faith, without accepting, without giving your life to Jesus and letting Him be your Savior, there is no salvation. How do you know that? It wasn't on the list, right? It's not on the list, it's in the book. So now that you've found the way of salvation from the book, oh, okay, this is how we're saved. I'm a Christian, I've accepted Christ. How should I live? Well, it looks like this list is pretty good. Well, you didn't find salvation except in the book. Where are you going to get your lists from? How are you going to live your life? Well, it comes in the book. The same place salvation comes from is where we get our information. And so it says this, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, these lists that we come up with. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory." And this is, again, a contrast. We are in Christ, but we look at each other, we don't look like we're in Christ, we look like just anybody else at the shopping mall or the grocery store or wherever we go. We look the same, except when He appears, the life that is inside of us is going to manifest. Just like He was resurrected, we will be resurrected. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, because this is true. Now here comes your list. again be careful because the things on this list are going to look a lot like the things on this list or the things down here because they're going to be so many of them are moral issues put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature here we go here's the list sexual immorality impurity lust evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming." We're going to talk about this and the previous part where we talked about when Christ appears, when He appears in glory, when He comes back He'll come back in salvation for believers, but at the same time, He'll be coming back in judgment for unbelievers. So when He appears, we'll appear with Him in glory, but also when He appears, because of these, the wrath of God is coming, He's going to come in wrath. There's going to be salvation for believers and wrath for unbelievers. So you've got His second coming is there on both aspects of it, the salvation and the judgment. And the wrath is coming because of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You, and that would be you, plural, talking to the Colossians of 62 AD, you used to walk in these ways. Now, by application, we would assume, yes, we also used to walk in these ways. But he's talking to the Colossians. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But remember what happened, that life you once lived, you died and were born again. You turned to Christ, you gave yourself to Christ, and there was a, in a sense, a spiritual born-again experience that's going to eventually manifest in a resurrection. So you've died to these things. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must put yourselves, excuse me, but now you must rid yourself of all such things. And these are, again, we'll look at this going closer. These are in the active sense, the imperative active. It's a command and you're supposed to do it. Christ has done the work. He is the creator. He is the one who was born from the dead first. He's the one that's prepared the way for us. We've got salvation because of Him. But now that we've joined Him, we now have an imperative. We have a command. And we're going to do it. I mean, we have the Holy Spirit. We have the Word of God to renew our minds. But we have to do these things. The list continues. Now, we had five. We have some more. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these. Here comes another list. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self, which is the part that died, the self that died, with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge, in the image of its creator. Notice again, put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator. So just like Paul says in Romans, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is saying, very similar, which have put on the new self which is being renewed. How? In knowledge in the image of its creator. So if you just have, again, your little human list of things that you're going to have, this is not going to renew your mind. This is what you already think. You're going to need to come to the Word of God, receive the knowledge, the insight, the information, not just how to be saved, but how to live, what is His standard, and renew your mind. And that's going to be a source of faith. It's going to be a source of power for the Spirit of God to help you sanctify yourself. uh... verse eleven here there is no this is going to be we branch off into a new category here uh... but we'll read this in the next verse here there is no greek or jew circumcised or uncircumcised barbarian sithian slave or free but christ is all and is in all and that verse eleven now kind of kind of gives a a look back at what the false teachers were probably dabbling in Because some of the things they've talked about, you know, the feasts and the dietary laws, sounds kind of Jewish, possibly, like something that's coming out of the Jewish culture affecting the Christians. Well, and Paul says, that's a shadow. We're leaving that behind. And now we start comparing Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised. So again, that looks like there's been some division between these are the Jews, these are the Gentiles, these are the circumcised, these are the uncircumcised. But he goes on and includes The barbarian, the Scythian, the slave, the free. So again, there's a multi-cultures, many religions coming together trying to confuse the collagens that Paul's pushing aside, saying that's the false teaching. Once again, that's why knowledge, if you're just going to get together and have a big community of religious people, you're going to have all these religious ideas, but it's going to be very confusing and it's not going to lead you anywhere. You need to renew your mind to this, and Paul's pushing all those others out of the way, saying this is the truth here. And in verse 12, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, and we're going to get into these things next week, the more the positive side. But here, notice right here, we'll make a contrast, it says clothe yourself And earlier it says to put on or put off. So we're talking about taking clothes, the old self or the clothes off, and putting on the new clothes and the new self. And all of that is, again, Christ has done the work. We are saved. But now that we are in Christ, our responsibility is to put off the old self, put off the old clothes, and put on the new self, and put on the new clothes, which is basically in your mind, in your thinking, and then in your speech, and then in your actions in your daily life. Here's what we're talking about. I'll write these things down. The first thing is Justification. How do you spell that here while I'm talking? Justification. And that is where you've been justified, not because of anything you've done, because Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He's paid for your sins. You join Him in the resurrection. You're justified. That's what chapter 1 is about. There's no blame in heaven. When the courts of heaven hear your case, there's no evidence. You are innocent before God. Christ has paid for your sins. Your past sins, and even your future sins. It's like He didn't just pay for your earlier sins and now that you're born again, you're on your own. He's paid for my sins for all time. So I am justified because of the work of Christ. It's not because I'm a good person. I'm justified because of the work of Christ. But because I'm in Christ, I need to become like Christ. Now you may want to say, become a good person, but I'm not sure what you mean when you say, I need to become a good person, because you could come over here to this list. What is a good person? And a good person, you have this whole list of things. I'm not going to follow this list of what you say a good person is. I want to become Christ-like. I want to become sanctified. Sanctify. Sanctified. Okay, you don't know how hard it is. You probably do. I have a hard time spelling, but I'm talking while I'm saying it. Sanctified. Okay, talking and spelling. Mine's going three different directions. Okay, this, you may want to say this is the good person right here. But I'm not sure where you're getting your definition. You may be getting your definition from talk shows or Hollywood or the woke community. So I'm not interested in what your definition of good is. I'm not trying to become a good person. I'm trying to be sanctified. I'm trying to put off the old self and put on the new self and be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. So he's done the work here, justification. We are now actively doing this work of sanctification. Now, again, you've got the Holy Spirit, you've got the Word of God, you've got other believers, you know, other members of the body of Christ that are all leading, guiding, encouraging, helping you sanctify yourself. But this is your work of sanctification. And when he appears, we will appear with him. We will be resurrected. And at that point, we will be glorified. That is where the work is complete. I am saved. Today, I'm in the process of being saved. And when he appears, I then will be saved. So again, I was saved in the past. I am being saved in the present. And I will be saved in the future. So that's saved, saving, and will be saved, if that's the idea there. So this is justification, sanctification, glorification. Glorification is mentioned in our verses today. We're talking about sanctification because we spent chapters 1 and 2 talking about the fact that we've been justified in Christ. And so these verses are about our present sanctification. Now, the question could come up if you have faith in Christ and you are a believer, uh... then you need to live a holy life right here that'd be the sanctification uh... so that you can then go to heaven in the future so this would be justification in the past sanctification now i'm living holy so that i can go to heaven glorification in the future so i'm saved by faith i'm a believer but what happens if i don't quite do the holiness. I just say, again, this is in a sense an open-end question. It's kind of like several things. I mean, you're going to have an answer. There is an absolute truth. But in this mystery of life, how do we know? You know, we talk about eschatology. When is the rapture? You know, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib. You know, no rapture. It already happened. We're already there. We have ideas. Some things we're not real sure of, like explain the Trinity. We've talked about, you know, the Trinity is a mystery. There's only one God, but yet there's three persons. Well, that mathematically doesn't work out. 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 3, not 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 1. And so it's like you've got to work with that. And same thing here. I am saved. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. But what happens if I sin, what happens if I, maybe yourself have had a time in your life, or maybe you know somebody that's a Christian or went to church, became a believer, but they just kind of walked away, they're just going through their life. Maybe they go to church, maybe, especially on Easter and Christmas, but they're really not too concerned about their holiness or their sanctification, and forget about renewing their mind to the Word of God, They're not even sure the Bible's true. It's just a history book, a legend, whatever. But they do believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ. Now, are they going to experience glorification? Do they have faith in the past, sanctification now, and they're going to be glorified in the future? Well, if this is missing, I mean, at some point, if this is missing, there's nothing here. Zero. There's nothing here. In one answer, and we go through the scripture, in one answer, you'll know them by their fruit. If this is a zero, they don't have saving faith. They've got some kind of, you know, yeah, I think, you know, is it Muhammad or Allah? Is it Hindus or the Buddhists? Is it the New Age or is it Jesus? I believe in Jesus. Okay. You chose one of the world religions, but did you have faith? Have you trusted Him? Have you placed your faith? Have you committed yourself to Christ in the sense that I'm a sinner and I need to change and I want Christ to save me and I'm going to make effort to conform myself into His image? Now, if this is a zero, it's like that probably didn't happen. You had some kind of youth group experience, you know, an emergency situation, you needed God. Who knows? Who knows what? But if you have no sanctification, That's probably not saving faith. There's probably no sanctification today and no glorification in the future. Your destiny is another direction. We're not going to talk about that at this point, but it's damnation. Now, if the sanctification, like if it's a, you know, let's say a bar graph, it's this much sanctification, it's a little bit higher sanctification, maybe this guy's really, you know, he's got a Bible teaching ministry called Generation Word and he's really pushing the limits here, you know, or maybe this is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday's down here. It's like, I mean, you know, and this probably describes a lot of our lives right here. I mean, at what point Even Paul says, it makes it clear, no one is hitting 100%. He even says, not that I've already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Christ Jesus saved us, took hold of us, we are here, and he's got a purpose and he's helping us grow into that purpose. Which again, be careful when they say purpose, It's like we've all got to find our purpose in life. You know, I'm a truck driver, I'm a musician, I'm a teacher, I'm a mother, I'm a father. It's like, okay, that's your worldly response. Your purpose, in the general sense, is to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. I mean, we cut it short with our self-help church programs. Everybody find their purpose, find their place. your place is to be sanctified and conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Now, you may be driving a truck or teaching a class or having a business or whatever, being a parent or something, but whatever you're doing, that is almost, again, this is not your typical self-help Western church message, that's almost second. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It doesn't matter, I found my place in this world. You have no place in this world. You are passing through this world on your way to glory. And so if you found your place in this world and you're content with that, that may be putting yourself over here on this list also. I found my place in this world. you're not looking for something above, something better. My purpose is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Yes, but I'm a truck driver, I'm a teacher, I found my place in this world. That's totally secondary. If you're a truck driver or if you own the trucking business or if you own the business that's producing the stuff that's being trucked and you're a billionaire, that doesn't matter. What matters is each of those people trying to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ during this process of sanctification. And I think that right there, that statement like that, if you are here, Pushing towards this being transformed you realize you realize I am a sinner I have in the past made mistakes Rebellion towards God I daily face sin. I have a I live in rebellion I live in a world that's in rebellion and And I recognize this and I cry out to my Savior to deliver me from my past sins, my present sins, my future sins, and I'm trying to grow and mature this way. Now we're talking about saving faith. You have been saved and you are in the process, again here, process of being saved. And if you say, well, John, I mean, I can go to 1 John, anyone who says he has no sin, is a liar. I mean, John says that, because there's going to be those that say, well, I've reached, I've reached sanctification. I've reached maturity. I don't, I don't say it's like, John is like, oh, come on, man. I mean, if you are a man living in this fleshly body, your thoughts, your actions, your responses, the things you don't even realize what is offensive to God. No, but I'm keeping this list right here. Now maybe the people on the talk shows or in the community, what a fine individual, but the very fact you're using this list to justify yourself is a stench to God because, ah, I'm doing this by myself. It's like, okay, that's a sin right there. I'm doing this by, no, you're not. You are a sinner and everything you try is failing except for the fact that you're being conformed in the image of Jesus Christ. And so that again is the process of sanctification. And again, heaven or glorification is in the future for this person. But this is where we struggle at. And again, I think there's a place where someone can say they've got faith and they've got zero here. Okay, they've got faith in Jesus Christ, they say, but all they've got is what we'd say, good works. They're just doing this list. I'm doing all these things to prove that I've got faith. It's like, you don't prove you've got faith. You're pursuing Christ and you're producing what we'd say fruit. You're alive and you're being transformed. Things are changing. Well, no, I just check these things off my list to prove I'm saved. That's what Paul's talking about in chapter 2. Don't let anyone judge you by these things, what you eat, what you drink, all these practices. That's just good works trying to prove that I've got salvation. Don't even worry about that. What you're doing is you're focused on Jesus Christ, and by growing, you'll start producing fruit. Now, going back to this list, we're going to look at the notes, and we'll read through this again on the English Standard Version. And we'll get into some more terminology here, but this is going to be the negative verses on these are the things that you're putting off. And again, they're pretty drastic stuff. I mean, it's pretty dramatic, gross sins that are being mentioned here. i'm on i forgot to put numbers on the bottom of these pages so good luck keeping up with me collages chapter three verse one on the top of i can say page one because i know it's page one after this i'm gonna get lost chapter three verse one from the english standard version of already read it if then you have been raised with christ you're born again seek the things that are above where christ is seated at the right hand of god uh... and again point one if or since is in the first class condition which means that means it's assuming you have been raised with christ it doesn't say that doesn't mean if i don't know if you are or if you're not that means if and we know you are this is assuming there's four classes of if in the greek and this if is and we know it's not a question So this is the first class condition. And so it's assuming that you've been resurrected already into this new domain and are no longer part of this world. You've been resurrected. And so this over here, the things of this earth are not of your concern. Again, we've got to be responsible. We've got to take care of things, but you're not using this world as your standard. Your standard is above. And notice right here, the next thing, You have been raised is a passive verb, point three. You have been raised. This happened to you. I didn't raise myself. I was raised. Now this sanctification is something I'm actively doing. These are in the imperative in these verses about commanding. You're being commanded. You do this. So you either are or you're not sanctifying yourself. This faith or this raised, that happened to you. That was done to you. Now that you're here, Start tapping into it. You have the ability. God has empowered you. You just have to decide, am I going to do it or not? And that's where it talks about the knowledge of this comparison. If you don't know any of this, you're not going to try this. You're going to make up your own plan. Point four, this is written in the imperative, I've said that, and urges or commands the Colossians to a, think, learn and understand Christian theology. Now be careful when I say Christian theology, I mean the ways of Christ, the ways of the Word of God. And again, it's Christian theology because it's not, you know, a talk show or something. It's not some, you know, university philosophy. It's the ways of Christ. And so you learn those, and once you learn them, point B, you live, do, and act that theology out in your life. Point five, set your hearts on things above. Again, that means to seek or desire. In fact, if you look up there, the word is at the end in the Greek line, the first Greek line, it is where it's in the transliteration or the word for word translation, it means to seek. uh... and it's matches up with things like jesus says in matthew six seek first the kingdom of god uh... and jesus told nicodemus that you talk about things that are above not below philippians three fourteen talks about the upward calling galatians talks about the upward city so we're we're moving up and point six there's that word desire it is the word zetteo z-e-t-e-o and it means to seek, to search, to require, even to demand. So, since you have been raised with Christ, desire, seek, demand, your focus is on the things that are above from this world where Christ has been resurrected, where He has gone to be seated, where Christ came from to the world to save us from this world below. Set your minds on things above. It's a whole changing of your focus. And again, point seven, it mentions the word above, set your minds on things above. It is possible that in the mystics and the false teachers of Colossians, Paul is reclaiming that word above because you can even see in pagan religions, you know, It's always above where the stars are, where the spirits are. And they may have had some false religions. And so he may be, instead of just using the way Jesus used it, talking about above where Christ is seated, he may, in a sense, be reclaiming it, taking that word from the false teachers and putting it back into a Christian theological perspective. And it goes on to list all the things that happened above. The spirits were defeated. That's where Christ's domain is. It's the location of our treasures. Those are all things that Jesus talked about. Chapter 3, verse 2. Set your minds on things that are above. not on things that are on earth. So you have a contrast. The things that are above, which would be from heaven, it's going to be the abode of God. It's going to be where our treasures are. It's where our hope is. It's where life comes from. And then the things on earth are things that are temporary. They're passing away. They are in a fallen world. The things of this earth are in a fallen state. I'm of this world. I'm of this earth. So I am in a fallen state. Fallen means not just sinful and rebellious, but it means you're dying. You're not going to last. You're passing away. And so instead of having your minds on these things, set your minds on things that are eternal. That's that chapter 3, verse 2. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. That's step one. How do I begin to sanctify myself? I've been saved. How do I begin to sanctify myself? Set your mind on things that are eternal, not on things that are passing away. And then always a preface, because we are of this age, we have to eat food of this age to keep this body alive in this age. So there's jobs, there's responsibility, there's things we need to do. God has left us here for a purpose that we need to take care of. But our desire, we're not seeking these things as a permanent fixture. We're seeking the things that are above. Point one under chapter three, verse two, We saw this very thing in chapter 2, verse 20, where it says, if you have died with Christ, it is now contrasted with if you have been raised with Christ. So if you've died with Christ, you've been raised with Christ, and that's point two. Chapter 3, verse 2 is a parallel to chapter 3, verse 1. Chapter 3, verse 1, I've got it written down there. It says, set your hearts on things above, which means to seek and desire things above. Chapter 3, verse 2, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So they're similar. And I already described earthly things. You see that there's some more discussion about earthly things. The flesh contrasted with the spirit. And yeah, point five, Paul was critical of the same thing to the Philippians, urging them to avoid earthly things, Philippians 3.19, and thinking and having the mind of Christ. So having the mind of Christ and thinking about these things instead of thinking about the earthly things. That's Philippians 2.2 and Philippians 3.20. Chapter three, verse three, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. That's a great line. You have died to this age. You know, you're not dead. but you have died to this age. In a sense, you are unresponsive. Now, people never, in a sense, die. If you think of the word die, meaning cease to exist. That is really one of the scary things about reality, especially when you come to the Christian faith, is no one dies and ceases to exist. you may lose contact with your body and so you are dead to this body and you've gone your body remains here but you didn't like cease to exist you've just lost contact with this body and that's the same idea here when you accepted Christ You have died to this age. You didn't cease to exist. Your relationship with this world was broken, was severed. So you are, it says you're seated with Christ in heavenly places, but we're living, still moving in this world. But the problem is we sometimes think that we are connected or we make decisions like we're connected here when actually these things of this age are passing away, but you are living, you've already tapped into the new life, you're living eternally. And so, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And this is important, point three, I'll read this under chapter three, verse three, it's hidden along with the treasures in Christ, Colossians 2.3, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge have been hidden and that is where you are seated and that is what your focus is to be on. And what Paul is doing here is this is a historical truth rather than mystical. This is what's different between Christianity a biblical Christianity and what we may say contemporary Christianity, a watered-down Christianity, is it becomes mystical, it becomes spiritual, it becomes something that, well, I feel, I have this emotion, I've experienced, I've tapped into, do you sense that? It's like, well, no, no, no. This is a historical reality. These are facts. Jesus entered time. He died in a body, was resurrected, and then ascended into heaven in a physical body that was resurrected. We have placed faith in that, and so we've lost contact. We've been severed from our relationship. When Jesus Christ returns, we go with him. We do not suffer the wrath that's coming on the earth. We have no place here. We are dead. It says, well, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Now, no one in this room has died. No one in this room has died and then come back to life. I mean, maybe possibly if you had like some kind of a heart situation, they shocked you back to life. You could have been dead for 20 seconds or something. But We're all alive, but yet we're dead dead. How does that mean it means to this age? We are dead and our life is hidden in Christ. And so that is where we're to be tapped into that source of power and it is a historical reality it happened to christ and we have been transferred we don't see it and this is part of understanding the scriptures we don't experience i i feel pain i i can i can stub my toe i can spend my hand in the car door you things that happen in life disappoint me or or excite me or cause pain in my my memories or something but it's like This age is passing away and it will not drag you down into judgment or wrath or death because you are hidden with Christ. You're in this tension. It's now you're in Christ, but not yet. We're still in the sanctification part. It wasn't hard to get saved. Jesus died on the cross. We go, OK, I'll accept that. And it's not going to be hard to be glorified when he returns. We'll see him as he is. We'll be resurrected. It's like, oh, look what I did. I was like here and boom, there I am. It's right here is where that fluctuation you are saved and you will be glorified. And that's going to happen. This right here is the tension. This is where we are tapping into this or where we're not as we should be. Chapter 3 verse 4, when Christ, here it comes, the glorification part, when Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory if you do step 2 correctly. No, no, wait, it doesn't say that. It says, when Christ, who is your life, appears, if you are hidden in, it says you are hidden in Christ. Now, that ideal of being hidden, it has the ideal of security. It's not, you're hidden, but you know what, if you escape, you know, everybody goes to sleep for the night, and you sneak out the back door, and you sneak out, and you run back down to the earth, well, now you're losing your salvation. Now, I'm of the position, it's another decision, another question, can a person that's saved lose their salvation? I say no. I think the Bible supports that. Again, that's a huge conversation. I think if a person appears to have lost their salvation, they were never saved in the first place. They were never in that saving faith. They were never hidden in Christ. They bought themselves a cross necklace or they went forward at some youth concert when the music was really loud or something happened or they had to choose a God and they chose Jesus. Okay. Okay. That's not saving faith and you're not hidden in Christ. And so you're not saved. Now you may look like you lost your salvation, but I would say in my theology, again, this is debatable and there's different in good, good Christian theological groups. There's good debate in all of it. There's some churches and theologies that are just stupid and are demonic. Then there's some that it's like, well, you know, they're, they're, they're struggling with these mysteries. I have come to the place that if you have faith in Christ and you're hidden with Christ, you will not lose your salvation. You will then be glorified. And that's what I think this is saying. It says you've been hidden in Christ. Now, chapter three, verse four, when Christ, who is your life, if Christ is your life today, then you also will appear with him in glory when he returns. Again, I wrote heaven here, but this would be his return and the process of glorification, or we could say the resurrection. And again, that's simplified in Hollywood terms as you go to heaven. But this is where you're glorified and are resurrected into the image of Christ and your process of salvation is complete. So if you're hidden with Christ, the glorification is going to take place. So when Christ, who is your life, appears, you will also appear with Him in glory. Point one at the bottom of that page appears is the word, you can see it up there in the Greek. It's the fourth word in on the Greek box. Phanerothe, which means to make visible, to make clear. It's used to say to make clear, to make visible, to manifest. John 3.2 uses that word, Phanero, which means to become manifest. He says, beloved, we are God's children now. and what we will be has not yet appeared." We are God's children now, but what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, right there is your word we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is when christ appears he reveals himself we will also then see him because we ourselves will appear romans chapter eight Creation is waiting eagerly, it's desiring, it's longing, creation, the world that God created that went under the curse when Adam sinned, creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. Now we are, John just says right there, he says, Beloved, we are God's children now. You are God's child now. You have been born again. Your life is hidden with Christ. You are seated with Christ in heavenly places. But we look just like the world. We're still in this age, during this age of sanctification. But when He appears, the sons of God will be revealed. And Paul writes in Romans, when the sons of God are revealed, All creation is set free. I mean, the new creation will take hold. Just like God made the earth in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, okay, Jesus did that. Adam's sin, the whole thing was handed off into sin, futility is what Romans says in Romans chapter 8. Well, Jesus came to this earth as a man, died for the sins was a resurrected the first one out of the grave to begin the new creation we place faith in him have joined that new creation and when he appears that new creation takes over and this earth is relieved of its utility and brought into the age of the sons of god so when when jesus christ is not just us being glorified and resurrected it is all of creation being brought into that new state of of Jesus' resurrection. It's like He created it and His resurrection from the dead creation is setting the stage for the new heaven and the new earth. And so that's exciting things right there. And so, the next, where are we at here? Am I? Yeah, I'm on page... Okay, I don't know what page we're on. Chapter 3, verse 3. Chapter 3, verse 4. The next page after chapter 3, verse 4. Yeah, at the top. Just so you know, we're looking at that word for appears, when he appears. There's four other Greek words that are interesting. You're familiar with some of them. Parousia is talking about Christ's coming. That's his parousia. The epiphaneia is the manifestation, the appearance, or we get the word epiphany. Epiphany, he comes and appears. The apocalypse or apocalypse is revelation, where he's revealed. These are all four, in a sense, could be synonyms, but they have a slightly different shade of meaning. And then, of course, the one that's used here, phanero, he appears. So the coming of Christ, the manifestation of Christ, the revelation of Christ, and the appearing of Christ are all four different words that are being used. Romans 8, 19, here's the verse I was referring to. For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. And there the word revealing is the word apocalypsin. Chapter 3, verse 5. So, because this is true, I'll read the last two verses. For you have died 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. So those two verses, you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ. You have faith, your life is hidden with Christ. You've been justified. Now, because you've been justified, when He appears, you will appear with Him in glory. You'll be glorified right there. You'll appear with Him. Now, back to this middle. So, what about now? Well, because you've died to the earth, you still have tendencies, because you're of this earth, to follow that. Put those things to death. Now, you've died and were hidden in Christ, but you still have, well, these desires, this sinful tendency. It's your responsibility to say, no, you're dead. We don't go there. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Here it is, verse five. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is then I described as, which is idolatry. And if you notice right there, I've got in the box the word put to death. You can see the word necrosete in there. Necro, talking about necro death. Put to death, it is the aorist tense, which means it's an action in the present or the future. Put to death now, or in the future. It's imperative, which means it's a command. You put it to death. If you don't do it, no one's going to do it. And active, the subject does the word. Again, the active makes it you're the one that's doing the command now or in the future. And it's a second person pronoun plural, which means you or you all. And so you all, you all, collagens in the context, all you collagens that are Christians, you put to death these things. And the meaning of put to death means this right here. It means put to death, make as dead, render weak. So that you could, if you want to kind of play with that a little bit, put to death. Well, how do I put it to death? Well, you can make it weaker. You can render it weak. You cannot feed it, let it starve. Or reduce to impotent. Just keep walking away from it until it has no, it gets no attention. Again, those make it sound sometimes easier than it is. But these are the things, the five things that you are to put to death. There's six more coming after this. And here they are, the five of eleven, and they all seem to be wrapped around some kind of sexual sin, or at least they can be connected to sexual sin. I think as you get further away from the first one, they become a little bit broader, but they all can tie into sexual sin. So the first one, these are the things you are to put to death. It's a command. You're the one who's going to do it. You need to render it weak. You need to stop feeding it. Make it impotent. And sexual immorality. That's the word pornea. You can recognize the English word. And that is any sexual activity outside of marriage. Sexuality is good. God created it, but he created it in a framework. He created it for a purpose. And sexuality can be, in a sense, holy or sanctified when done the way God created it. But like anything, it can be taken out of God's place, God's purpose, God's intention, and brought over here into the world and perverted. I mean, they can pervert, in the Garden of Eden, the tree of knowledge, the fruit was perverted. Don't. They did. How can you mess up a tree? Well, they did. So everything God created can be twisted and perverted. Look at Satan. God created Satan. Satan twisted it and perverted it. So we're not saying sex is impure. We're not saying sex is immoral. We're saying pornea, sex in the wrong frame, is a problem. And again, you could put that with food, with attention. You want attention. Anything that is good, you can give a child attention, or you can give a child too much attention. You can give a child food, or you can give them too much food. Everything in the world can be twisted. And so right here, this is talking about sexual immorality, and that's sex outside of marriage. In the Old Testament, very interesting, and it's much broader than I even understand, it's associated many times with idol worship. Anytime there's idol worship, there was sexual immorality. I don't say anytime, but very frequently. I don't even want to put a percentage on it, but if I would, I'd say 80% of the time. If there was idol worship, there was sexual immorality going on around that activity. And so it's interesting that that's connected. And so Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, all connect idol worship and sexual immorality. Impurity, that word also can be translated uncleanness. In the Old Testament, uncleanness was manifest in two ways. Ceremonial uncleanness, meaning you violated some kind of dietary law, you violated some kind of social code, you did something, it could be considered sin. But it really wasn't like a rebellion as much as it was you didn't follow the correct order of things. It became unclean or impure. Sexual morality is also considered to be impurity. That's seen in Romans, 2nd Colossians, and Galatians. So impurity means uncleanness. either dealing with ritual worship or with sexuality once again. Passion, the word is pathos. The word pathos translated passion here in the English standard means that which befalls one a passion or a suffering. It's used to say suffering, emotion, depraved passion, or lust. Here it refers to lust and uncontrolled, shameful passions. Now, there's things that you can have a passion for things in an appropriate sense, but this is an uncontrolled, shameful passion, and possibly associated with sexuality, but it could branch off into a variety of things. Point D on the next page is evil desire or covetousness. It is two words, epithumian and kakan. Kakan means evil or bad and it's epithumian It means desire, passionate longing, lust, or inordinate desire. So generally this is referring to some kind of passion that is evil, something that is bad, something that is evil, and you've got a passion, a drive for it. It's an evil desire. Again, you can see how that fit into sexuality, but it can refer to a variety of things. And again, everything in its place, passion is good. You may have a passion for the Word of God, or you may have a passion to lead people to Christ. Those would be a desire. Paul had a drive, he was driven, he had a passion, but it was a passion that was set on something above, something on eternal, not something of this earth. And the last one of these five is greed or covetousness. It basically means advantage or covetousness. It comes from two words. Two words combined there is pleion, which means more or numerically more. which means to have, and it's a desire to have more, which means just an unnatural desire to want more, more, more, more, or to gain some kind of advantage. I want more of an advantage. I know we both got, you know, I don't know, not green yards, but I want a greener yard in my front yard. I deal with that. And so anyway, but you know, that would be an example of the problem with that. And it says, this is now, which is idolatry, that desire and unnatural, normal desire for an advantage is idolatry. And that's where that connects. Now chapter three, verse six, or tick tock, here we go. On account of these, The wrath of God is coming. And again, like we just talked about previously, when He appears in glory, our salvation will be there and we will appear with Him. But also when He appears in glory, guess what? The believers are going to be resurrected and see Him in glory. But when He comes in glory, On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. This is also the day of His coming is the wrath. That's when the prophet says, why do you long for the day of the Lord? Well, the day of the Lord, it's salvation. The day of the Lord is a day of wrath also, and it's going to be a day of judgment. And on account of these things, these five we just mentioned, the wrath of God is coming. Point 3 at the bottom of the page there, Paul talks about the wrath of God being revealed in time. In chapter 1 of Romans, the wrath of God is being revealed even in time. You can't always pin it down and say, well, that was the wrath of God. But the judgment on this fallen world is taking place even now in time. But there is a day coming. That's in Romans 2, verse 5. Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself on the day of God's wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed. And that is going to be the eschatological in the future. Romans chapter 1 verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven today. So God is judging the world at some level today, and we don't always understand the concept, but there's a day coming. Eschatologically, Romans chapter 5 verse 9, since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? If you've been saved by the blood of God, you're going to be saved from the wrath that comes at his glorification, when he comes in glory. And also here's the big verse everybody wants to talk about when we talk about the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 1.10, And to wait for the Son from heaven, we're waiting for the Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. So when we appear with Him in glory, which it seems like that's the rapture, then we're also being delivered from the wrath that's coming to the earth. So as we go up to meet God in resurrection glory, the wrath of God is coming to the earth. And so that will play into the eschatological verses. Chapter 3, verse 7. In these you too once walked, all these things, we just mentioned those five things, and those five things are one of the reasons God's wrath is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them. That was your old nature, your old practice. It says chapter 3 verse 8, but now you must put them away, put them all away. And now here comes another list that we've got to pick up next week. But now you must put them all away. Those first five we just mentioned, put them away, render them useless, dead, don't feed them. but also anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth and again here it says put them all away I've got that Greek word circle or put in a square box that is put off just like you put on Christ you put on the clothes you now put these off you're putting on these clothes you're taking these clothes off or these garments are being put off and as again you're doing that But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. And it says, from your mouth. And this right here, the fact that this ends with the phrase, from your mouth, may not just be referring to, in fact, I've got it in a box at the end of the Greek, at chapter 3, verse 8. out of the mouth of you, that could be referring to just that last word, the foul language or obscene talk, or it could be referring to all of them, reading them backwards, it would be foul language from your mouth, slander from your mouth, malice from your mouth, rage from your mouth, anger from your mouth. I mean, that could be a definition for all of those, just like idolatry was a definition for those others, those first five. There's more here, of course, that we've got right here. How close did I come? Not very close. Looks like I've got notes for next week, too. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but next week we'll talk about those negative meanings. And then it goes on and says, Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. You put it off, you're not going to be lying to each other, talking about the community. and have put on the new self. Once again, you're putting off the old self in chapter three, verse nine, putting on the new self, chapter three, verse 10, which is being renewed, here it is, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Your new self is being renewed. And the best thing I can tell you, besides you just pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and doing it, the imperative, you do it, is which is being renewed in knowledge. You, the best I can do to help you is teach you that this is God's word. This is the truth. These are the things that he wants you to put away. These are this is where you're seated with this knowledge. It gives you some. OK, I'm walking away from this. I'm going to not feed this. I'm going to seek this. And with that knowledge and having put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, your new self in Christ is now today. You're already hidden in Christ. But today it's being renewed. in knowledge after the image of the Creator. I mean, that's why Bible teaching is crucial right here. Paul says in Romans, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is right here, being renewed in knowledge. If you shut this book and say, we're not going to, we're just going to just, you know, worship God and fellowship and go to church and have activities. Well, you're not being renewed in knowledge. There's no knowledge. You're just, you're in a group, pretty soon you're going to be following this list over here, listen to talk shows in the woke community and think, ah, I'm a good person. And you're not going to be growing in the sanctification. Now, I'm not going to say you don't have salvation. I'm just saying you're just not very sanctified. I mean, that's another whole conversation. OK, I'll pray and we're done. Father, we do thank you for the chance to look into your word. We ask that we would take these things serious, that we would realize the great gift that you've given to us in salvation and the great hope you have prepared for us. with the resurrection of all the believers. We look forward to these days. But right now, in between the justification, the glorification that we're looking forward to, we ask that we may take serious the sanctification process that we would put on the things that you've called us to, that we would, in the knowledge that you provided for us, use that to evaluate decisions we make and the things that we do to walk away from the things that are dead on this earth and pursue the things that are alive. from above where Christ is seated. We do thank you for this opportunity and the life that is in us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you for your time.