FBC Adult Bible Study

Last Sunday, we talked about the paradox of the believer being both dead and alive from Colossians chapter 3. I want to go back to that because we only got it really about halfway through that, talking about the principle of being dead and alive in the first few verses of Colossians 3 verses 1 -4, where the first verse begins with the fact, stating the fact of the believer being alive.

He says, if then you were raised with Christ, so there's resurrection from the dead. But then in verse 3, he says, for you died. For you died. So you've got both of these realities. You've got the reality of having died and the reality of being alive.

You died with Christ. As Paul says in Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ, but you are alive in Christ. Nevertheless, I live, Paul said. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. So you've got this fact of our hidden life where we have died, have been raised, and our life is hidden with Christ and God.

All of this is a way of describing our union with Christ, the believer's union with Christ. So mysteriously to us, in a mystic or spiritual way, the believer, when Christ died, died with him. When Christ arose, the believer arose with him.

All right. Those are what we call the indicatives, the facts of the matter. You died, you are alive in Christ. Those indicatives bring with it a couple of imperatives in verses 1 and 2. The first imperative is to be seeking the things above.

The second imperative is to concentrate on those things above. We talked about what those things are, and I suggested that the things above is really a way of talking about the objective of holiness, the cultivation of holiness.

Remember a few weeks ago, we described what we're after when we're cultivating holiness. We're after the imitation of the character of God, conformity to the image of Christ, and submitting to the mind of the spirit.

So if we could do those things perfectly, we would be totally sanctified. If we were completely consistently always imitating the character of God, if we were consistently faithfully displaying conform to the image of Christ, if we were always submitted to the mind of the spirit, we'd be sanctified completely and holy.

But those are the things that we set our mind on, or that we seek. We're seeking those things that are above. Then in verse 2, he says, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. Concentrate on these things.

It'd be another way of translating that. As I pondered these two imperatives, to be seeking the things above and concentrate on the things above, I asked myself the question, what is the difference between those two ideas, seeking the things and concentrating on?

How can we think about this in a way that would be very helpful on a practical level? What came to mind are a couple of different images or a couple of different metaphors. Think, for example, of a runner in a race, like a mile race.

He's out on the track, he's there with other runners and so forth. What is he setting his mind on? What is he seeking? Let me put it that way. What is he seeking? What he's seeking is victory. He's seeking to be the first one across the finish line.

He's seeking to be a successful champion runner. That's what he's seeking. But in order to accomplish what he's seeking, he's got to concentrate on something. Of course, in this metaphor, there are a lot of things that he needs to be concentrating on.

But first and foremost, while he's in that race, he's concentrating on what? The runners around him? What happens to a runner in a race if he's constantly looking around at the runners, looking to see who's behind him and how close they are?

What happens? He loses. He falls behind inevitably. Now, what's he got to be concentrating? He's concentrating on that finish line. That's what he's concentrating on. He may also be concentrating on some strategy that he knows will help him to accomplish that.

I guess I'm not a runner, so I'm not that well-versed in this stuff. But I do know that runners don't start off in a sprint. Long-distance runners don't start off in a sprint. They have a pace, and then in the last quarter mile or something, they pick up the pace.

I mean, they've got their strategy. But that's one analogy. Another I thought of is really also like a basketball player. A basketball player. He gets the ball. What's he concentrating on? Well, he's concentrating on winning the game.

But in the short term, what's he concentrating on? Getting the ball through the hoop. Getting the ball through the hoop. He's seeking to score points. He's seeking to win the game. But he's got to concentrate on ultimately getting the ball through the hoop.

Again, there are other lesser things that he would be concentrating on in the course of that objective of getting. You could think of this in terms of any worthwhile goal that you might have in life. All right, let's say, for example, just to be very practical, let's say you have a goal of losing 10 pounds.

You want to lose 10 pounds by Christmas so that you can gain it back, right? So that's your goal. That's what you're concentrating on. I'm concentrating on losing. And then you're seeking this. And this is the goal that you're seeking.

You're concentrating on this. And you're going to be doing things along the way to help you reach that goal. Okay, so maybe that's helpful. Maybe it isn't. Concentrate on things above. Now, verse 4 shows us the prospect of the hidden life, and that is that it won't be hidden forever.

Because Christ, who is our life, appears, we will appear with him in glory. So when Christ appears, we will see him and we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. All right, and then verses 5 through 17 goes from the principle to the practice.

The principle of being dead and alive, and then now the practice of both killing and animating. There are things we have to kill, there are things we have to animate. And verses 5 through 11 exhort us to kill the old man.

So he says, therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth. This is our duty. This is our duty. We are not to be passive about this. We're not to assume that I don't have to do anything and God's just gonna do the killing.

No, we are told to actively put to death these things. And a couple, in verses 5 and then in 8 and 9, Paul gives us a couple of what we call vice lists, or sin lists. I mentioned last week, and perhaps you remember this, that whenever you see these sin lists in the New Testament, none of them is exhaustive.

I mean, it's not a list that has all the possible sins that you might commit. They are instead representative. So in verse 5, I suggested these sins listed here represent self-centered indulgence. Self-centered indulgence.

Put to death these things. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. And again, note how the list moves from the outward behaviors to the inward motivation or stimulation for those behaviors.

Fornication and uncleanness would be the outward expressions of that self-centered indulgence. The passion within can also display itself outwardly. The passion in and of itself can be both inward and outward.

The evil desire is what's going on inside of you, as is the covetousness. And these may be things, the evil desire to covetousness may be some stuff that nobody knows is going on inside of you, for now.

But it'll eventually come out. And so Paul says we gotta put these things to death, this self-centered indulgence. And then in verses 8 and 9, we need to kill relationship-destroying expressions. And here, Paul moves from the inward to the outward.

What kind of things? Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, which is just a form of slander. Blasphemy is not limited to speaking against God. When I speak evil against somebody else, I'm blaspheming them, I'm slandering them.

But to put away filthy language out of your mouth and do not lie to one another. So these are sins that have the effect of killing relationships, destroying relationships. And before we destroy our relationships with these sins that begin with anger and wrath and so forth and then eventually show themselves outwardly, we need to kill these things.

All right, so remember, this is a representative list, it's not exhaustive. So killing is our duty. Now what verse 7 indicates is that that killing is possible. It's possible. Because he says, you yourselves once walked in these things when you lived in them.

So Paul is writing to Christians. It's like he's writing to you and to me. And he says, before you came to faith in Christ, this was your way of life. These things would come up, the things of verse 5, the covetousness, the evil desire, the passion, it would show itself in uncleanness or whatever.

And verses 8 and 9, I mean, you lived in these things. They were just part of your life and you didn't think anything of them as being particularly wrong or sinful. You might have lamented some of the consequences of those things when it caused you some pain, but you didn't think of them in and of themselves as being sinful or causing you to go to hell.

But then you came to faith in Christ and God worked in your life and showed you these things are sin. And he did many of these things very quickly. You realized, this is wrong, this is sin. I can't live like this anymore.

And you turn from these things. Obviously not perfectly, right?

Why?

How do you know it's not been perfectly accomplished? Because he goes back to say in verse 8, you need to put these things to death. So while he tells us this, he exhorts us to put these things to death, he encourages us with the reality that that killing is possible.

It's possible. And then we finish this section talking about the fact that this killing is necessary. It's needful. Why is it needful? In verse 6, because this sin that is so so characteristic of the old man is something that angers God.

He says, because of these things, the wrath of, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. And the logic here is, if I am no longer under God's wrath, and I'm not, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

If I'm no longer under God's wrath, then why would I, why would I willingly, without any sense of, without any sense of grief or sorrow over it, engage in these things that I know incite God's wrath? I should not do so.

And then verses 9 through 11, the second reason that killing is necessary is because we've been restored to the image of Christ. Look at verses 9 through 11 again. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. So by God's grace, when he saved you, he's recreated you into the image of God, restoring you to the image of God.

Since we've been restored to the image of God, then should we not wear the clothing that goes along with that recreation? That's the idea. Put on the new man. Put on the new clothes that goes along with who you are.

Again, this point, Barrett and Beakey made this comment. They said, dress according to what you are. To be hidden in union with Christ demands death to sin because we have put off the old man and put on the new.

Those who have trusted Christ have changed clothes. We've changed clothes. By the way, look at verse 11 again. I just want to mention this in passing. Verse 11 says, in Christ, who is all and in all, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free.

This verse is a good verse to serve as a basis for rejecting any form of racial or ethnic discrimination within the church. It is not biblical. It is not New Testament Christianity to say that, well, because you're not like me, you don't have my ethnic background, you don't have my skin color, you don't have whatever, that therefore, you're not welcome here.

You're not in the same socioeconomic strata as I am in, or we are in, therefore, you're not welcome here. That is an unbiblical attitude. I guess in 2021, you could add a couple more categories like vaccinated or unvaccinated, or any other way that the culture is trying to divide us as a people today.

And I think it's very sad, very tragic, what's happening in a lot of churches right now in our current culture. There's all kinds of division going on over things that have nothing to do with doctrine, nothing to do with the Christian faith.

There are some of these subcategories that are created by the culture, and that should not happen within the church. All right, I just want to mention that in passing. All right, so in verses 12 to 17, verses 12 to 17, in verses, the first five through 11, we're talking about killing the old man.

In verses 12 to 17, we're talking about animating or making alive the new man. And of course, the new man we're talking about is that, and here's a quotation, that regenerated nature in which the Holy Spirit has implanted the principle of spiritual life.

This is the new man. The regenerated nature in which the Holy Spirit has implanted the principle of spiritual life. To wear, Barrett helps us out here, to wear the new man is to be adorned with Christ who is all in all.

He is our uniform, as we just said. All right, so what are the marks of living spiritually? What is involved in living spiritually? What's involved in living spiritually? First of all, developing the marks of spiritual life.

What are the marks of spiritual life? Verse 12, he says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on these things. Let me point out that the developing the marks of spiritual life is really to fulfill the goal of election.

You see this here, right? He says, therefore, as the elect of God, do this. As the elect of God. And this corresponds very well with Romans 8, 29, where Paul says, speaking of those whom God has chosen, he says, for whom he did foreknow, he predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

So Romans 8, 28, and 29 tell us that the goal of election is to be conformed to the image of his son. And Paul is essentially saying the same thing here, that the goal of election is to develop these marks of the spiritual life.

And the way he puts it here in verse 12 is that we develop the heart of Christ. We develop the heart of Christ, which is what? Putting on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness, here in verses 12 and 13.

The heart of Christ is a heart of tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. That's the heart, that's what's in his heart. By the way, one of the books on the bookshelf back in the hallway there, this is one recently written by Dane Ortlund, I think at the end of last year, entitled Gentle and Lowly, which really, I mean, he really opens up an understanding of this heart of Christ.

When Jesus says, I am meek or gentle and lowly. And Paul is really just kind of expanding on that here at the end of verse 12. Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. Developing those, developing the heart of Christ will manifest itself in the implications of that heart.

And the implications of that heart come out in verses 13 through 13 and 14. Look at what he says. A heart of tender mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and long-suffering will result in bearing with one another, forgiving one another, and in verse 14, love, loving one another.

Because this is the way Christ demonstrates his heart for his people, right? Forgiveness, forbearance, and love. So the mark of the spiritual life is to have the heart of Christ, which then demonstrates itself in practice with one another, with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

How do we do that? How do we do that? Verses 15 and 16. What is the method of spiritual life? What's the method of that spiritual life? And again, Paul suggests three things. Number one, let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

Let God's peace rule in your heart. We read earlier this report of what our brothers and sisters in Christ are enduring in Afghanistan. And you remember the comment near the end of that article from one of the Afghan believers.

They acknowledged the challenge that many of them have in maintaining their faith in God in this time. I wonder how we would deal with that. I wonder how the average American Christian would handle that kind of threat.

My guess is we wouldn't do very well. I don't think we'd do very well. We've just enjoyed way too much freedom and comfort and ease. I don't know how we'd handle that. But the thing that I wanted to emphasize is what that one guy said.

He said, we know that God is sovereign. We know that God is sovereign and that he has his plan. I'm paraphrasing. He has his plans for Afghanistan. Now, that's the kind of thinking that lets the people of God rule in your heart.

Because here you are in the throes of a chaotic, anxious-ridden set of circumstances where if you did not have that perspective, if you did not have that mind whatsoever, you would do any number of things, right?

I mean, you might just kill yourself or you might totally abandon the faith and say, you know what, I renounce this whole Christianity thing. I'm going back to Islam. You might do any number of things if you did not have the truth that God has revealed to bring peace to your otherwise troubled, anxious spirit.

That's what this guy was doing. He was letting the peace of God rule his heart. Second thing Paul says, not only let the peace of God rule your heart, but let God's work fill your heart. I see this in just the simple exhortation at the end of verse 15 where he says, be thankful.

Be thankful. What does it take to be thankful? You have to have your eyes open, right? You have to have your ears open. You have to have your heart open. You have to be aware of and be deliberately thoughtful about what is God doing?

What has God done? What is God like? And when your eyes are open to that, when your ears are listening for that, you can recognize the character of God and recognize the work of God as it's being played out around you, in your heart, in your life, in your family, in your community, in your job, in your nation, in your world.

So even though there can be all kinds of things that are terribly chaotic and harmful and destructive and all the rest of that kind of stuff, nevertheless, be thankful. So Paul, in the first part of verse 15, he's acknowledging the reality of life where there's the potential for unrest, where there is no peace, where your heart is not at peace.

He says, don't let those things rob you of your peace. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. You've been called to this. And then he says, be thankful. So this is taking it all a step further. Okay, what has God done?

What has he done in my life in the last 24 hours? What's he done in our family in the last 24 hours? What prayer has been answered in the last 24 hours? What's going on? What is God doing that I can be thankful for?

This is what he's talking about. Be thankful. The method for developing the heart of Christ and living out the heart of Christ is to let God's peace rule in your heart, let God's work fill your heart, and then in verse 16, let God's word guide your heart.

So notice what he says. Let the word of Christ, literally here, let the word about Christ, let the word about Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Let God's word guide your heart in your conversation, right, teaching and admonishing one another, communicating with one another. Let God's word guide your heart. And then in our worship, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

There's so much more that could be said about that and elaborated upon, but I think the bottom line here is that when God's word guides the heart, that word-filled heart affects our lips, our tongue, what we say.

It affects our worship, what we do, how we worship, and our engagement in that worship. It's like one of the, here's why I wonder how well we as American, average American Christians would handle the adversity like in Afghanistan.

A lot of professing Christians, they figure that worship, a worship service has failed miserably if the songs that we sing don't make my feet tap and they don't make me feel good and I don't particularly like the tune or something like that.

In other words, it's all about the singing and it's all gotta be what I like and so forth, rather than letting the word of God, letting God's word guide the heart. Like if we're singing theologically rich hymns of praise and worship and even testimony of our God, then I may not like the tune, the poetry may not necessarily go real well with my inclinations and all that, but if this is right, if this is good, if this is wholesome, then I should find delight in this, I should find joy in my worshiping of my God, why?

Because God's word is guiding my heart and it's therefore informing my worship. This is an example of one way of applying that. And then this passage closes in verse 17, challenging us as we animate the new man to act on the motive for spiritual life, the motive for spiritual life, what is that?

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The motive for our spiritual life is that the Lord Jesus Christ, in all things that we say and do, the Lord Jesus Christ, his name would be exalted, that he would be glorified.

In commenting on this, Barrett and Beegee wrote this, who Christ is, and he's giving us a little bullet point list here, so catch this, who Christ is, his authority over us, our identification with him, our knowledge of his will, and our thankfulness to God for him.

All of these things, who Christ is, his authority over us, our identification with him, our knowledge of his will, our thankfulness to God for him, all of these things factor into every sphere of life.

To speak and act consciously and intentionally in the name of Jesus will unquestionably affect what we say and do. Here's the concluding principle that we've heard multiple times in this study. Right thinking produces right behavior.

We cannot get away from this axiom. Right thinking produces right behavior. So, in conclusion, living out our faith, living out our faith simply means living in the reality of the religion that we profess.

Living in the reality of the religion that we profess. And that affects our whole being. In the mind, we must know the truth. In the desire, we must love and believe the truth. And in the will, with our hands, we must implement and evidence the truth.

So, let's cultivate holiness. Let's pray. So, our Father and our God, we have to confess with one of the Puritan writers of old that there is much unconquered territory in our nature. We pray that by your grace, as your spirit works in us and through us, as you work in us so that we both will and do your good pleasure, that you would scourge out the buyers and the sellers of our soul's temple, and you would give us in return pure desires and longings after perfect holiness.

And this we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, we have a dozen minutes till the service begins this morning, at the time of fellowship and preparation.