We prepare to sit under the ordinary means of grace. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our great God, we are grateful to you that you have gifted men, Lord, to rightly divide your word. We pray for our brother Cruz this morning that you would give him boldness, that you would hide him behind your cross, Lord, that your word would be proclaimed, that unbelievers would come to hear your gospel. And Lord, that today would be the day of salvation for the lost among us, that you would grant true faith and repentance, and that the word would edify your saints on this, your Lord's day. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning. I bring you greetings from Waco Family Baptist Church, a sister church within our association. We're thankful for our sister churches here in Texas. And I know that from time to time we all travel, we go places. I hope Let me encourage you to visit your sister churches. Make your vacation plans around their locations and go and sit and pray and sing and sit under the preached word with the saints who care for you. I'm thankful for the friendship that Pastor Shifflett has with my pastor, Pastor Todd and Pastor Brent as well. It's good that I don't come here as a stranger, even though your eyes and faces aren't some that I see quite frequently. And I'd also like to say, thank the Lord for giving us New Testament churches. I mean, the catechism questions, the songs we've sang, I'm always thankful that the sermon that I attempted to write and bring has already been preached from this pulpit this morning. It's there. So I bring nothing new. But I hope to share with you what the Lord has shown me the road he has taken me down recently. I recently preached two sermons on chapter 21 of our confession, the chapter entitled of Christian liberty and Christian conscience. I also spent a lot of time in Colossians during that study and used Paul's building blocks of doctrine and theology woven throughout the first two chapters to help reinforce the points about our new identity in Christ and about guarding ourselves from the teachings of false teachers. That study led me right up to the beginning of chapter three where we see that the freedoms we have been given because of the person and work of Christ come with purpose. Chapter 21 of our confession gives us a list of freedoms Christ has purchased for us through his active obedience, his life, death, and resurrection, freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the rigor and curse of the law, to name a few. Once we were condemned by the law, once it could only be viewed as a level of perfection that we could never obtain, something we could never live up to. Now we may see it as the attributes of God's character that we should strive for, that we should desire to obey in order to grow in our own personal holiness. We will not be able to uphold that law rightly, but for those in Christ, the Father no longer views our shortcomings in these things of the moral law as failures, but as faithful attempts from an obedient heart, trying to please our Heavenly Father, God accepts the works of Christ on our behalf. We have been sprinkled with his blood, set apart, and made holy. Second Corinthians reads, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Likewise, the second chapter of Colossians gives us a list of freedoms obtained for us by our union with Christ. Freedom from enticing words and plausible arguments. These are in the second chapter of Colossians starting in verse four. Freedom from the empty deceit and vain philosophies. Freedom from being dead in our trespasses and sins. Freedom from improper worship in verses 18 and 19. Freedom from the doctrines of men is the culmination of chapter two. According to our confession, The purpose of these freedoms, the end of Christian liberty, is that we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. I quote John Bunyan, wherefore thou the Christian, as a Christian is the only man at liberty, as called there unto of God, yet his liberty is limited to things that are good. He is not licensed thereby to indulge the flesh, holiness and liberty are joined together. Yea, our call to liberty is a call to holiness. Our purpose is to live holy lives, godly lives. Chapter three gives us a picture of what that is like. With warnings of putting away the old nature and encouragements of putting on the new, We see rules for Christians later in the chapter, how we should live, communicate, and serve within our families, our vocations, and in the world in general. But that is a little further ahead in the chapter than where I want to be today. Today, I would like to review Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, which speaks to the position of the believer. There is as much doctrine packed into these few verses of scripture as there has been throughout the entire first two chapters. Paul is so good at this. He lays down foundational truth and layers it into Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, showing us how the Old Testament writers pointed towards Jesus. Then we get application that is based not just on what you should do, what we should do, but application that reiterates the responsibility of the believer. The believer has to be obedient because of our place as creature and his place as Messiah, as Christ, as the anointed one. Or as stated in Colossians chapter one, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4. 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. Let us go to the Lord one more time to pray His blessing on His word preached. Our Father in Heaven, I ask You to be with us now. I ask for Your Spirit to help give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We know it is Thee at work, of the effectual calling of the spirit that regenerates souls. And I ask that you make us good listeners, active listeners, that we meditate on these truths, that we see them in other places of scripture, and that we leave changed. In Christ's name I pray, amen. So working through Colossians chapter three, verse one, If, or some translations, therefore, if, it's the first word. How much truth of scripture can you pack into the word, if? If you look back at chapter two, starting in verse six with me, you'll see it run through, if you have received Christ the Lord, if you have been rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, Skip to verse 10. If you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority, if you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, a circumcision of the heart, if you have been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith, if you were once dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, but since God has made alive together with Him, if God has forgiven you of all of your trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against you, if this he set aside by nailing it to the cross, if then you have been raised with Christ. What does this mean, having been raised with Christ? In these chapter two verses we just read, we see scripture versus references to being buried, to being raised, raised from the dead. In being raised, we have been forgiven our sins and trespasses and given new life with Christ. John 3, 3 reads, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. I've used an example from Romans chapter 6 and 7 a lot lately. And it feels that ever since I have properly understood it, it has become my favorite explanation of our standing with Christ and with the law. I'll ask you to turn with me to Romans 7. Romans 7 verse 1 reads, or do you not know brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. In this first part of chapter seven, remember we are dealing with the believers standing as dead to the law. Verses one through three provide an illustration of marriage or of the law of marriage. And verses four through six give us an application of this principle. So Romans 7 verses 1 through 6, I apologize if I go back and forth a lot here, but I think there's a good point to be made here. Romans 7 verses 1 through 6, Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So marriage is a union that ceased to exist lawfully upon the death of the husband. In the illustration, verses one through three, someone else has died, the husband. In the application verses four through six, it reads, you have died. 7-4 reads, died to the law through the body of Christ. I'm going to flip to Romans 6. because these words reiterate, verses three and four. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 7-4 continues, so that you may belong to another. By nature, you were in union with, in bondage with Adam. You were under the law. You were in bondage to sin. Chapter 6 verse 5 reads, in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. You are now in union with Christ, dead to the law, as it appears in 7.4. 6.18 reads, having been set free from sin, and have become slaves to righteousness. Why? In order that we may bear fruit for God, as stated in 7-4. Romans 6, 20 and 21, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Death has ended an obligation to marriage, and death has ended in obligation to the law. Six four says we were buried, therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. and 7-4 read, likewise, my brothers, you have also died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. Notice this resurrection language, the newness of life, raised from the dead. These things cannot be done on our own. It is God who works and wills. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Dead to the law in the sense that we do not have to fulfill every letter perfectly in order to obtain salvation. Dead to the law in the sense that Christ has fulfilled it and the terrors of the punishment due to those who do not keep the law have also been laid upon him. Upon his head, upon his back, and at the cross. Dead to the law in the sense that it no longer threatens condemnation. Romans 8.1 reads, therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. From Hendrickson's commentary, the result of all this is that we now serve God in newness of the spirit, no longer in oldness of the letter, that is the legal code. There used to be a time when we thought that by strict obedience to the external code, the mosaic written law, as interpreted by tradition, we could be saved. But now, having been set at liberty, having been set free, we serve in newness of the spirit. But now we are released from the law. having died to that which held us captive, so that we may serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Back to Colossians 3.1, if then you have been raised with Christ. All of this, this if, this little section of scripture, It's a big suitcase and it's packing a lot of theology. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek is the next word. Seek, look for, search for, as to desire something. I think about a few years ago when I accidentally left my laptop bag in my truck overnight. And by coincidence, I left my truck unlocked the same night. And my bag was stolen, my work laptop, some personal belongings. And the next morning, when I discovered what happened, I started thinking, what could have happened? What would this person have done? I'm thinking maybe he would go through the stuff. Maybe he would ditch the bag quickly. So I drove around the neighborhood. I checked areas where storm inlets were. I drove through the park and walked around and looked in the trash cans. I was seeking. I was looking for my bag. And I didn't find it. I don't remember it bothering me too much. Nothing was taken that could not be replaced. My employer got me a new laptop and I picked up right where I left off with emails and documents. But what about when we lose other things, more important things? I've also misplaced my wedding ring. You start removing couch cushions, you start retracing your steps, you're moving the furniture, trying to figure out where it could have been. It's a sentimental thing and it's almost heartbreaking, the weight of losing something like that because of what it represents. And you don't give up the search very easily. Your mind focuses, it fixates on the task at hand. And you don't give up unless you have to. And you gain such a sense of relief once you find it. This weight lifts off your shoulders and you feel like you can breathe again. Thank goodness I found it. And as I thought about this, I was saddened. I doubt, I doubt that I seek the things of God as I should. I mean, how are we to know God? seek, look for, search, desire. God has given us what is often referred to as the ordinary means of grace. The following statement was found in my notes from a Sunday school lesson about a year ago. I don't believe the words are my own. Most likely they belong to Dr. Renahan, but they're helpful and applicable. The public means of grace are given by a dominical institution. That means they are given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. The preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, Lord's Supper and baptism and prayer. These are the methods of how God is active in the church. These are how God brings to us the benefits purchased by Christ. These come by command of the Lord Jesus. These come with a divine promise of blessing or efficacy attached to the method. The means of grace are promised to be effectual to us. I have an excerpt from Table Talk Magazine written by Nick Batzig. The means of grace are God's appointed instruments by which the Holy Spirit enables believers to receive Christ and the benefits of redemption. Although he could have chosen to reveal Christ immediately to his people, he has determined instead to do so through certain means. God assigned the word, sacraments, and prayer to be the foremost means by which he communicates Christ and his benefits to believers. If we are to grow in grace, we must acknowledge that God has appointed certain means for that growth. We should approach these means with eager anticipation and childlike reliance on the one who adds his blessing to them. And we must rest content in a right use of them, knowing that God has promised to bless them as we use them with repentant and believing hearts. One of my favorite concepts about the ordinary means of grace is that they are just that, they are ordinary. God made creation. And he could reveal himself to us. He could come down right now. But his creation is good. And he uses it in the way he sees fit. And he brings weak men to study and learn and to proclaim his word. And the gospel is shared through people. And we're called to all of these one another statements in scripture that we should be a church and that we should every seven days spend time together, the Lord's day. It is for our good. And again, he does the supernatural through ordinary means. The Holy Scriptures call us to know God. The verse that we are discussing here reminds us that if we belong to Christ, we should seek the things that are above. We don't do this by our own means and methods. We do this in the manner which God has appointed. We should be present to hear his word preached. Present doesn't mean being physically at a building in the chair, but being an active listener. We refer here to these ordinary means of grace, but know this, the word preached is the primary means of grace. It is the means whereby God gives sinners salvation. Preaching is the supernatural activity of Christ by the Spirit proclaiming the word of God, pleading through a minister. The word preached is a blessing to its hearers, we should expect a response in our heart to the Word as we believe the promises of Scripture and are enabled to obey its commands. You've heard this before, but the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. I can't say as much as could be said about baptism in the Lord's Supper, but I don't want to skip over them either. A small summary statement is what I'll make in practicing baptism and the Lord's Supper. We proclaim Christ as Lord in front of his people as well as to an unbelieving world. These sacraments are continual reminders for ourselves as individuals and as members of the body of Christ of our communion with him. And then there is prayer. Remember, we are reviewing these means of grace as the God-appointed ways that we are to seek the things that are above, as is commanded of us here in Colossians 3.1. How often do we skip out on prayer? Our opportunity to take our worries and our sorrows to him, our opportunity to give adoration for who he is, our opportunity to confess our sins, to give thanksgiving, to ask for supplications for our needs, Our opportunity to grow closer to God by recalling his promises found in scripture and repeating them back to him. Not because God may have forgotten, but because we are forgetful. Communication is one of the most important, if not the most important part of any relationship that we have with your employer, with your friends, with your children, with your spouse. It's how we share our lives with one another and give each other understanding. It's how we grow in closeness within our relationship. What relationship do we have that is more important than the one that binds us to our Savior? Prayer is our opportunity to communicate with Him, to grow in grace and holiness and righteousness as we are called to do. As Christians, our entire being should be wrapped up in growing in the knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior. Prayer helps us with this. When combined with the right understanding of the things God teaches us in scripture, it is a work that we are called to do. It should be the work of our entire lives. The following two quotes on prayer are from the works of Jonathan Edwards. Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life. And to say a man lives a life of faith and yet lives a prayerless life is every wit as inconsistent and incredible as to say that a man lives without breathing. A prayerless life is so far from being holy that it is a profane life. He that lives so lives like a heathen who called not on God's name. He that lives a prayerless life lives without God in the world. Those whom do not pray do not know God. They have something more in common with the unbeliever, something more in common with the wicked. is not our own sinfulness enough that we look to attach ourselves to live in the same way as those whom God will not hear? From J.C. Riley. You may be very sure men fall in private long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly. in the eyes of the world. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord's warning to watch and pray. And then like Peter, their strength is gone, and in the hour of temptation, they deny their Lord. Let us remind ourselves that in the Old Testament, blood was necessary to approach the mercy seat, and that was done only by the high priest, whom also had to make an acceptable offering for himself first. in order to have his prayers heard. Now God's throne of grace is sprinkled with the blood of Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. How encouraging should it be to us to know that God himself has made the way so that we may approach him in prayer, and that the fact that he has done this tells us that he desires it. God wants this for us. He wills it. and that we are fulfilling God's desires for us, God's will for us when we come to him in prayer. If you wonder about God's will for your life, it is this. Give yourself to the means of grace. Seek the things that are above. Obey the commands of God given to us in the word and be a man or a woman or a child of God who prays. seeking God, knowing God is stressed a great deal in the book of Colossians. Paul speaks much about knowledge, wisdom, and truth. In chapter one, verse five reads, of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. Verse six, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, Verse nine, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Verse 10, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. This wisdom, this understanding, this knowledge of God and His will is an understanding of who the triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is. He is truth. The words of Christ in John 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Again from Christ in John chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It also struck me that John 1, 1 we're all familiar with, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I mean, you put these things together. The Word is God. Your Word is truth. I am the truth. To seek the truth, the wisdom, the knowledge of God is to seek the things that are above. Give yourself to the provisions God has provided in order that you may know Him rightly. Give yourselves to the God-ordained means of grace that he has instituted for the good of his people. Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Many commentaries refer to this seated at the right hand of God language as a reference to Psalm 110, proclaiming the position of authority Christ has and where he can make intercession with the Father. Psalm 110 reads, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter, rule in the midst of your enemies. Charles Spurgeon writes on this psalm, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Away from the shame and suffering of his earthly life, Jehovah calls the Adonai, our Lord, to the repose and honors of his celestial seat. His work is done, and he may sit. It is well done, and he may sit at his right hand. It will have grand results, and he may therefore quietly wait to see the complete victory which is certain to follow. The glorious Jehovah thus addresses the Christ as our Savior. For, says David, he said unto my Lord, Jesus is placed in the seat of power, dominion, and dignity, and is to sit there by divine appointment while Jehovah fights for him and lays every rebel beneath his feet. He sits there by the Father's ordinance and call, and will sit there despite all the raging of his adversaries till they are all brought to utter shame by his putting his foot upon their necks. In this sitting, he is our representative. The meditatorial kingdom will last until the last enemy shall be destroyed. And then, according to the inspired word, cometh the end. when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. Paul's letter to the Ephesians also contains language that gives us insight on what it means for Christ to be seated at the right hand of God. from Ephesians chapter one, verses 19 through 23. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Isn't it wonderful that we can seek places throughout scripture that speak more clearly or at least give us a fuller sense of the truth contained within? 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 the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. We're still in verse two. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Paul is echoing here the teaching of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6, verse 31. Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all 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. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Again from Matthew, a little earlier in chapter six, verses 19 through 21. 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. Earlier we defined the term seek to look for, to search for, to desire something. Paul is telling us that we should here be desiring the things that are above. Affectionately desirous and concerned for them. Granted, we still need things while we're here on earth. Food, water, shelter, medicine, work. Elsewhere, scripture gives us examples and parables of being good stewards of the good gifts that we have been given. Whether those gifts be our talents and our abilities, our finances, our authority or role in our home or our workplace, we still have an obligation to take care of what God has given us. I bring this up because we don't just dismiss the things that are on earth. We know we have a responsibility to be good stewards. This has to do with the love your neighbor as yourself commandments of scripture, the second table of the law. But these things should not completely consume the desires of our minds and of our hearts. 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. Colossians 3, 3 begins, for you have died. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 2.20 tells us that with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world. We explained earlier what this means to have died from the Roman 6 and 7 verses, that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we could no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. A destructive relationship has been brought to an end through death. And that death has brought freedom from that which once held the believer captive. We spoke earlier of the freedoms we have gained from the person and work of Christ on behalf of all those he would call to himself. Freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the rigor and curse of the law, as listed in our confession. Freedom from vain philosophies, improper worship, and the doctrines of men, as listed here in Colossians 2. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. John chapter 10, verses 28 and 30. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your new life, your eternal life, is secure as it is in the hand of God. All that was required to justify sinners in the eyes of God the Father was completed by the Son. Those who now belong to Him have been adopted, taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. They are sealed to the day of redemption and will inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. In reference to our life being hidden with Christ and God, John Gill writes, moreover, this phrase is expressive of the safety as well as of the value and preciousness of this life. Things of worth being hid for security. It is hid and it is hid with Christ. Spiritual life is with him as the head, root, and fountain of it, and so is safe, and can never be lost, because he, the head, lives. The members shall also live. And as long as it is in him as the fountain, the streams and supplies of it shall not be wanting to his people, nor can the communication between him and them be ever cut off. Eternal life is deposited in His hands by the Father, is bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord God, and is in Him forever safe. Nay, it is not only with Christ where it is secure enough, but it is with Christ in God. Christ is in God, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. They are one in nature and so in power and glory. And this union between them, which is natural and perfect, is the foundation of the security both of the persons and of the life, spiritual and eternal, of God's elect. Your life being hidden with Christ and God speaks of your unity with him, your oneness with his body, the church. It speaks of your eternal security protected by the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. Deuteronomy 7. Colossians 3, 4 reads, When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. I have one more quote from John Gill. And it's a long one, but I think it's a good one. Christ is the author of spiritual life, the fountain from whence it springs, the object on which the saints live, yea, their very life itself. It is not so much that they live as Christ that lives in them, and He is their eternal life. It is Him, and given forth by Him, to know Him now is the beginning of it, and its perfection hereafter will lie in the vision of Him, communion with Him, and conformity to Him. The Jews have a saying that lives depend upon the son of Jesse. All sorts of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal. At present, Christ, the life of his people, is, as it were, hid. When he had done the work he came into this world about, and for which he was manifest in the flesh, he departed out of it, ascended up into heaven, and went to his God and Father, where he is and will be retained until the time of the restitution of all things. And though he appears in the presence of God and on the behalf of his redeemed ones, yet he is now out of sight and not to be seen with their bodily eyes. but e'er long he'll be revealed from heaven and come in the clouds of it and be seen by all to the terror and confusion of some and to the joy and salvation of others when his appearance will be exceeding glorious. not only in his glorified body or exalted human nature, and as the judge of the whole earth, clothed with majesty, authority, and power, but as the Son of God, God equal with the Father, in all the perfections and glory of deity, which will be manifest and apparent to everyone. Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. The dead bodies of the saints will then be raised and united to their souls, which he will bring with him when he appears. and living saints shall be changed and caught up together with the raised ones into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so all shall be with him together wherever he is, whether in the air or on the earth or in heaven and whilst he is in either and shall be forever with him. Enjoy communion with him, be made like unto him and behold his glory. Yea, they shall appear in glory too. with the glory on their bodies, which will be raised in glory, like unto the glorious body of Christ, and on their souls being in perfect holiness, having on the wedding garment or robe of Christ's righteousness, being clothed upon with their house from heaven, and appearing in the shining robes of immortality in corruption and glory, having the glory of God upon them in soul and body, and such a glory revealed in them as the sufferings of this present life, and all the enjoyments of it are not to be compared with, all which furnish out strong arguments and reasons, enforcing the above exhortations to seek for and set the affections on things in heaven and not on earth. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. There's so much here. Look at everything we've covered. the preeminence of Christ in all things, freedoms established by his person and work, freedoms from the keeping of the law, the freedom from giving ourselves over to the doctrines of men, the old nature of those in him having died, having been nailed to the cross, being raised to newness of life, the words of the psalmist in the Old Testament pointing us to better understanding and meaning in the new, understanding of how God delivers blessings and offers communion to his people, who we ought to be and how we ought to live. The foundations of truth that are consistently reintroduced and built upon so that we may have a fuller knowledge and understanding of the wisdom and the grace and the mercies of God for sinners. This good news of our salvation, the good news of the gospel is only good news because it is true. And it is only good news for those who have died with Christ, who have been given new hearts, new affections and desires to seek the things that are above. Christ is our strength, our surety, our anchor in this life and in our life still to come. And consider this, that none of these good things, none of these freedoms, none of these assurances are for the unbeliever. Those who will not see the folly of their lives living for themselves. Those who will not repent and believe on the sun. They will remain in bondage to sin, and the only promises for them is enduring the coming judgment of the Almighty. I would ask you to read your Bible, to attend a church where you can hear the word of God proclaimed rightly. Give yourself to the means of grace which God has appointed. Pray to the one who offers newness of life, justification, adoption, salvation. The one who offers you freedom from your slavery to sin. Again from Romans 6. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, The fruit you get leads to sanctification, and it's end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the truth of your word. Your word is truth, and Christ says, I am the truth. Father, we ask that you help us see these things, these liberties which we have been set free from because of the person and work of Christ, the freedoms from the sinful things of this world. Father, we thank you again for your truth. And we thank you that we can see this and understand that we are to live in holiness. We are to be set apart. And we know that we cannot do this on our own. Lord, we seek, we ask for, we beg for your spirit to bring your word alongside of us as we run into temptations and trials in this world, to give us the strength to fix our eyes upwards, to seek Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen.