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If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, and therefore put to death what is earthly in you. This week we have been reading Colossians 3, verses 1 -11. We're going to come back through that passage again today and summarize five points of everything that we have read so that we might know Christ as preeminent when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. A blessing to have you along as we continue our study of the book of Colossians. Today we're in Colossians 3, verses 1 -11, and we'll be doing our five-point review of everything that we have read this week.
If you want to open up your Bibles and join with me there. Remember that our theme for this study through the book of Colossians has been knowing Christ as preeminent. He is top. He is above all things.
We need nothing else. We are completely satisfied in our Savior. And as we apply ourselves to a study of Colossians, we deepen our understanding of our Savior, our knowledge of Him, and it makes us better worshipers of God.
Furthermore, if we are completely fixed on Christ as our satisfaction for all things, we know all meaning and truth and knowledge and understanding comes through Christ. Therefore, we will look for nothing in this world to satisfy us.
We will not even try to find any additional meaning in anything in this world or any additional satisfaction because we are completely satisfied in our Savior. This world cannot give us anything that has not been given to us by God.
So all that we do, all that we put our hands to, our knowledge, our growth, our understanding, all of this is to give praise to God who gives us all things. We need nothing else but what we have in Christ Jesus.
So we come to Colossians 3, verses 1 -11, summarizing what it is that we've learned this week as we deepen that understanding of knowing Christ as preeminent. Before coming to this text, let's come to the Lord in prayer.
Our wonderful God and our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for salvation that has been given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. And it is because of salvation, knowing that there is life after death, that this world is transient, it is temporary, we're just passing through, but our home is in heaven above.
Knowing those things, we have peace with God, a peace that surpasses all understanding and nothing in this world can take that away from us because we are steadfast in the hand of God. Keep us according to your word, help us to grow in knowledge and understanding of these things, restoring our hope and expanding our knowledge of God as we read your word and apply these things according to your spirit.
And it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. So we read in Colossians 3, starting in verse 1, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised.
Barbarians get the enslaved free, but Christ is all and in all. Now, remember, as we are reading this text and we are reading these 11 verses here, Paul has already set the stage in chapter one by establishing Christ as preeminent.
He starts the letter preaching Christ. Then he starts addressing some false teaching in chapter two. And as we arrive here in chapter three, he's going to give instruction on how we are to live among one another as fellow Christians and also how we are to live in the world.
But the stage has been set first to know Christ as preeminent above all things. And it is Christ who is mentioned first, even in this section. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is.
So therefore, in light of that, we put to death what is earthly in us, as it says in verse five. So here's the five points that we want to summarize from this section, verses one through 11. Point number one, live as a citizen of the kingdom.
So we've been raised with Christ. We have died to the elemental practices of this world and instead have been raised with Christ and are seated with him. Seek the things that are above, then where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
So since we are citizens of the kingdom, we must live as a citizen of that kingdom. Your citizenship in the kingdom of God does not begin when you when you die and then appear with him there in glory.
You became a citizen of the kingdom the moment that Christ redeemed you. We have this charge that has been given to us in Matthew chapter six that goes well with what we read in these first four verses of Colossians three.
Here's what Jesus says in Matthew six, starting in verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart will be.
Also, the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness.
How great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters for either. He will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on is not life more than food in the body more than clothing.
Look, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more important than they and more of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?
Oh, you have little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans? Seek after all of these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
And I truly believe that the Apostle Paul had this section of the Sermon on the Mount in mind when he wrote this section of Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4. Seek the things that are above where Christ is.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Let us live as citizens of the kingdom. That is point number one. So here's point number two then. Do not live as a citizen of the earth.
If we are a citizen of the kingdom, we should not live as citizens of earth. Remember that passage that was mentioned there in Matthew chapter 6. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money. So we can't think that we can live on earth in a certain way and then live in. We can also have ourselves in heaven. So let me enjoy these things on earth a little bit while I'm here.
We have no citizenship here on earth. Our citizenship is entirely in heaven. So let us live as citizens of the kingdom, not as a citizen on earth. Have you ever heard the saying, don't be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good.
I tell you that is a lie from the pit of hell. It is not possible for you to be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good. We are in the world, but we are not of it. As Jesus prayed for his disciples and praise also for us in John chapter 17.
So let us live not as a citizen of this earth. Therefore, as we read in Colossians 3, 5, put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. So everything that we're going to read then in the next several verses have to do with the way a person on earth lives, the way a citizen of earth lives instead of a citizen of the kingdom.
So in light of knowing that we have been raised with Christ and we have died in our lives are hidden with Christ in God, then we are to put to death what is earthly in us. And what is mentioned first has to do with sexual immorality.
So point number one has been to live as a citizen of the kingdom. Point number two has been do not live as a citizen of earth. Here's point number three, abstain from sexual immorality. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
All forms of sexual immorality are bowing at an altar to a false God. So we must understand the seriousness by which all of these things have been said for us in the scriptures, and it is repeated constantly.
Jesus said it in Matthew 15, 19. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. Matthew 15, 19. So we must commit ourselves, our hearts, our minds to God and be transformed in Christ.
So we do not think in these ways, but we think with a mind that is from God. Consider other passages where we have been warned to abstain from sexual immorality. In Acts chapter 15 is where we have the Jerusalem council considering what should be said to the Gentiles about how they should live as Christians, not submitting them to a yoke of slavery under the law as the Israelites once had been.
But what about the law should they consider? Acts 15, 20. Abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. There you go. That has been that's what has been called upon the Gentiles to remember according to what has been stated in the law.
Stay away from the things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, what has been strangled and from blood. And one of the reasons why blood is mentioned there, not to make too fine a point out of this, but blood is mentioned there because the pagans believe that you can drink blood and it will give you some sort of a life force.
You will take the take on the life force of the creature whose blood that you are drinking. Not uncommon in the world today, even in the United States for that still to be a practice continuing on. So I don't tangent too much on that concept.
But Romans 13, 13, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. Ephesians chapter five verses three through five.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place.
But instead, let there be thanksgiving for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
That's how serious sexual immorality is. First Thessalonians four, three, for this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality. Hebrews 13 for let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
So again, to clarify, sexual immorality is any kind of sexual conduct that is outside of what God created sex to be. And that is to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife only. That is where it is to be enjoyed.
If we are indulge in porn, if we indulge in adultery of any kind, lust of any kind, all of these things are sexually immoral. And don't make excuses about porn. There are some people that will try to say, well, I'm not looking at porn.
I'm just looking at art. You know, I'm just enjoying the human body as a as a work of art. Yeah, you're making excuses. You're actually indulging in porn. Now, porn can be all kinds of things. It doesn't just have to be images of nude people.
It can be a certain form of dress that you think looks really attractive on another person. And so that becomes your desire is for a person who looks that way. And you start looking at images of a person who dresses that way or carries their body a certain way.
I mean, there are all different kinds of things, even objects that can become an object of sexual immorality. And that becomes pornography. We must abstain from even those things. For, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter five, if you have lusted after a woman in your heart, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.
It's not just an affair. That is an act of adultery. It is also the lust in your heart for another person. That is an act of adultery. You know, here's another thing. And I didn't mention this when we did our episode on sexual immorality earlier in the week.
But I had mentioned in that particular episode that we must be very careful with one another, not talking in such a way that would cause a brother or sister to stumble. One thing that I did not mention, this is still very important.
Do not flirt. OK, flirting with somebody who is not your spouse is not OK, and it causes a person to think thoughts and say things that they should not be saying or thinking about anyone other than their spouse.
So don't even cause a person to stumble in that way by flirting with some. Oh, it's just a little innocent flirting. Don't flirt with somebody whom you are not married to, to those who are not married.
And perhaps you are looking for a spouse. Just be very careful with how you do that. And remember the advice that has been given in the Song of Solomon. Do not awaken love until the proper time. We have other passages that warn us about sexual immorality.
But one last one I want to mention comes out of the book of Revelation. Revelation 21, eight, where Jesus says, as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
So abstain from sexual immorality, be cleansed in Christ Jesus. The passage that we read earlier in the week from First Corinthians, Chapter six, verses nine through eleven. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. So be cleansed in Christ Jesus from all forms of sexual immorality.
Again, point number one is that we are to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God. Point number two, then, by contrast, do not live as a citizen of Earth. Point number three, abstain from sexual immorality.
And here is point number four. Be angry, but do not sin. Colossians, Chapter three, verse seven. And these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
And so coming back to Ephesians 4, 25 through 32, which we read yesterday, but expounds on this concept of how we understand using anger in a right way. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. So it's not that it is inherently wrong to be angry.
We can be angry in such a way that it is actually a righteous anger. But we must be careful not to let that anger fester and turn into something that then becomes sin. As Paul expounds upon it in Colossians 3 .8, it turns into wrath and malice and slander and obscene talk.
We must not even talk in such a way that becomes putting other people down. Even if it doesn't involve swearing, you still must not put other people down. But keep your mind, your thoughts, your heart, your speech filled with thanksgiving.
Let us be gracious and charitable to one another rather than putting one another down. I want to draw a point out of Ephesians 4 .29. Again, the verse there is, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Have you ever heard of the Christian band Building 429? That actually was a phrase that they used in their youth group whenever they heard somebody speaking something that was tearing another person down instead of building them up.
In their youth group, they would say, hey, Building 429. They would call a person out that way and remind them to build one another up with our words instead of tear each other down. And that name, the name of that band Building 429 comes out of Ephesians 4 .29.
There's a little tidbit of trivia for you there. So the fourth point was be angry, but do not sin. Here's point number five. Live as Christ as he lives in you. So we go on to read that we have, we must put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Very common thing that Paul uses in his letters. He mentioned it to the Corinthians and the Ephesians also that in Christ, we are a new creation. So we put off the old, we take off the old self and all of its former ways and practices.
And put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, where we read in Romans 8 .29 that we are being renewed in the image of Christ. Verse 11 here, there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian, Scythian slave free, but Christ is all and in all.
We see something similar said to the Galatians in Galatians 3 .28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Not to see that, not to say that there are not distinctions between men and women, but there's just no separation between the two.
If you read the full body of Paul's work very clearly, he says there are distinctions between men and women roles that God has called men to and roles that he has called women to. But when it comes to the way that God shows his grace upon those that he has called to be his elect, there is no male and female for he has called both equally to live under his grace and no eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So if we know Christ as savior and he lives in you, you must live as Christ. Do not discriminate. There should be no prejudice or bigotry against any brother or sister in Christ and against no one in the world.
We also must not be prejudiced when it comes to sharing the gospel. We cannot look at these people and say they don't deserve to hear it. But look at these people over here and go, you know, those are some people I would like to have in my church.
We must not discriminate in any way preaching the gospel to all desiring that none should perish, but all would come to salvation. Live as Christ as he lives in you. So here was our five points that we were summarizing here from this section of Colossians chapter three, verses one through 11.
Number one, live as a citizen of the kingdom of God. Live as a citizen of the kingdom. Now here on earth, we carry a piece of the kingdom with us as we go with the gospel. So live as a citizen of the kingdom.
Point number two, do not live as a citizen of earth. So do not indulge in earthly things don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, as is said in Romans 12 to, but we have died to the things of this world and are hidden with Christ in God.
We must live in the world, but not be of the world as Jesus talked about in John chapter 17. Point number three, abstain from sexual immorality. We know that the wrath of God is coming against all of these things.
So we must abstain from that and know what God created sex for something to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife only. Point number four, be angry, but do not sin. Do not let it turn into wrath, malice, and hatred of one another.
Point number five, live as Christ as he lives in you. God, as we wrap up what we have read this week in this text, Colossians chapter three, verses one through 11, help us to put to death what is earthly in us and to live in the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of Christ.
Remind us that there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. And we pray and ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen.
There's a place in Kansas City called IHOP. No, not the International House of Pancakes, though KC surely has one of those. Rather, it is the International House of Prayer, started by Mike Bickel, September 19th of 99.
And since that day, they have hosted nonstop prayer and intercession 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now, that sounds great. Nonstop prayer. Who wouldn't want that? But we should also ask what kind of prayer.
IHOP has encouraged praying the scriptures, which is a great way to pray, but not the way IHOP does it. One of their methods involves reading a Bible story, then closing your eyes and imagining yourself as that character, experiencing the story with all five senses, playing it out in your mind.
Again, this is what IHOP is calling prayer. Another method involves using a Bible verse to tap into the spiritual realm, then meditating to find the Holy Spirit. You will then be brought to a place where you can ask God to show you visions and prophecies.
None of this is prayer. In fact, it goes back to a second century false teaching called Montanism. Montanus, along with two women disciples, Priscilla and Maximilla, claimed the Holy Spirit revealed things to them that superseded even the apostles.
They made false claims about the end times, which Bickel has also done, as he said the church brings about the Great Tribulation through prayer, just as Moses brought plagues upon Egypt through a staff.
The Bible warns against listening to those who go on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind instead of having the mind of Christ. We should indeed pray, but we must be discerning about right prayer when we understand the text.
Our latest what video on the International House of Prayer, and you may have also heard a reference to Colossians chapter two, where the warning was given to stay away from those who go on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head, who is Christ from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
Colossians chapter two verses 18 and 19. If you have any questions that you would like to submit to this ministry that maybe you want to have answered here on this particular broadcast, send them to when we understand the text at gmail .com and we will certainly collect those questions, give you a response by email, but maybe also feature one of those questions here on this particular program that wraps up this week.
We will continue in our study of Colossians chapter three next week, so please come back and join us. God, as we conclude our time in the scriptures today, I pray that these things would be written on our minds and hearts that we continue to be renewed in the image of our creator, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whom we have salvation, the resurrection from the dead.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
Join us again next week as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.