Good morning. Let's be turning to Colossians chapter 3. This chapter is written for believers. It's not a chapter on how to get yourselves saved or how to be accepted with God. This is written to living creatures, those made alive by Jesus Christ. Now in this chapter, Paul makes this statement. He says, Christ is all and in all. And for the new man, those born of the grace of God and Jesus Christ, this is a banner of life. This is our hope. We believe this. By experience, the experience of his grace, Christ Jesus is all. He's everything to the believer. He's all our salvation. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ is all? Has His grace taught you that truth, that Christ is all? I want to look together with you at nine admissions of grace, that's what I'm calling them, nine confessions, nine admissions of grace that Paul addresses, that he weaves in here in these verses, these first 11 verses that give us this banner, this understanding that Christ really is all to the believer. He's everything. My whole salvation is contained in Him, really truly. Not plus Him, not me plus a little Jesus or Jesus and me. It's all of Him. He's everything to the believer. So these nine admissions of grace, they are confessed and believed by everyone to whom Christ is all. So the gospel reveals that our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, that he died as the sacrificial lamb of his people. His death was done to atone for the sins of the people, and atonement is a covering. And so He, by His blood, provided a covering for the sins of His people, to put them away, to settle our debt with Holy God. His blood is an atonement for our sins. He went to the cross, not for His own sins. He went to the cross in obedience to the Father. This is why the Father sent His Son to go to that cross as the substitute in the place of His people to make that blood atonement. That's what he did for his people. When he died, he accomplished that purpose for which he came. It's called his redemption. He purchased his people. He bought them. When he died, he bought his people. They are his own. And then they took his lifeless body, his dead body, down from the tree and they laid it in a grave. And the father, being well pleased with all that the son did, Meaning that the son accomplished everything the father sent him to do. So the father was well pleased with him, therefore he raised him from the dead. Thus the scriptures say, justifying you that belief. Meaning that your hope in him, you will not be ashamed for that. God has justified that hope. He's saying, yes, it is right for you to believe in my son, because he is the salvation of my people. That's what that justification means. Not because you believed, but your faith is justified by God, because he raised him from the dead. Your sins are put away, you that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, having shown himself to his disciples for many days, proving that his body, his resurrected body, was standing before them, testifying and speaking to them. They saw that. They knew it. It was a fact. Then, right before he left them, he gave the great commission to the church, telling them, go and tell people of this thing. Make disciples. Teach them. Declare. Proclaim the gospel. And those that believe, baptize them. Bring them into the church. Preach this gospel, feed and nourish my sheep. Do this." He gave us this great commission, and then he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and now, right now, sits in session as the King, ruling and reigning heaven and earth. Right now. And this is the witness and confession of the Church. These truths are foundational to our faith. We believe these things. All of God's people believe these things. This is what we testify of. And out of those things, Paul indicates, or in conjunction with those things, in that truth, we are given an understanding of what that means. The Lord teaches us these truths in the heart. These are not just some distant doctrines that we give assent to. We are taught these things in the heart. They have meaning. Our lives are different, we're not our own anymore, we're Christ's, we're our Lord's. And these are revealed in these first 11 verses that Christ is all to the believer, that sinner who believes Christ and trusts Him for all their righteousness. So first, verse one, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. So, in addition to what I just said, that this is why Christ came, and that He died, was buried, and rose again, the confession of the believer, what we're saying is that when Christ died, it was for my sin. I'm the sinner. He didn't just die for the sake of some generic death. He died because his people are sinners and have a debt to holy God. And he died to settle that debt, to pay that debt for his people, because we cannot do it. So we're confessing that Christ's death was for me, because I'm the sinner, because I offended holy God, because I rebelled against him. I did this. And for his love's sake he came and laid down his life for me. And that's the understanding that his people are given by holy God. And that's understood, that understanding is contained in what Paul said, if ye then be risen with Christ. What we are taught by the Lord is, I was with Christ. When he died, he took me up and carried me in his body. And he put me to death to the law. He satisfied and settled the law which was against me. He established for me a perfect, holy righteousness, perfect in all things. I couldn't do that under the law. I wasn't able. I'm still not able to do that myself. Christ did that for his people. And so our hope is I was in him when he did that on the cross. That's my hope. that when he died, I died in him, and that he's my righteousness. The Lord teaches us that sin cannot go unpunished. My salvation is not accomplished by my works. It's not accomplished by my giving assent to some cardinal or important doctrines of the faith and then working some practices in that so-called faith. That's not what saves us. Christ is the Savior. Jesus Christ, by His own death, saved His people, delivered us from our punishment, our death, the wrath of God. And the Lord teaches that to His people. He makes us to know it was for me, for my sins. I'm the rebel. I'm the sinner. I'm the one who's transgressed the laws of God. I've trespassed against Him. And I don't have what it takes to settle that debt. I can't make that right in myself. And so this is what the Lord teaches us. It would be hard to say it more beautifully than what Paul said in Galatians 2.20. He said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, to settle my debts, to make me righteous before my Father. And so it's impossible for this flesh to understand that, to enter into that, to comprehend that, but the Spirit which he gives, by the spirit we understand that it was for my sins and his blood cleanses me of my sins. Again, Romans 6, 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, and that not serving sin is very broad, It includes our laboring in the flesh in terrors and doubts and fears and worries, laboring in the flesh to try and keep the law, to try and make a righteousness for ourselves. The scriptures teach, the Spirit teaches us that is laboring in sin, that's serving sin. Continuing to try and make a righteousness for ourselves when the Father has provided the one who saves his people entirely. That's rejecting the salvation of God. That's rejecting the light of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Because we're saying, nope, that's not enough. I don't believe that. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. And Paul says that's serving sin. But that's the very thing that Christ saved his people from, laboring in fears and doubts and worries and spending and sacrificing and giving all of these things to save ourselves. Christ came and said, put that away. That's not your life. That is not your salvation. That is no salvation. That's laboring in sin. Those are wicked works, because the salvation of God is here. in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's revealed in Him. Now, if we be dead with Christ, Romans 6, 8, we believe that we shall also live with Him. And so we that were crucified with Christ believe that we have also been raised together with Christ. And He is our life. He's our all. He's our salvation. And so that's the first confession of the sinner saved. I died with Him and I'm raised with Him. newness of life. Second, verse two, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. And what that's speaking to that this affection is we have a new heart. We have a new spirit. We're not old creatures. We're not laboring in this flesh. Yeah, we're in this flesh, but that's we're not laboring by the works of the flesh. We have a new heart. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our hope of salvation, and it's a good hope. Ezekiel 36, 26, the Lord says, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And so we have a new heart. And in this body, that new creature cries to the Lord and waits on the Lord and trusts the Lord by faith that he has done this. He is our salvation. And so this fleshly nature, this flesh, it's not changed. We still see sin in our members. Our bodies wait for the redemption of Christ. We wait for his return when he comes and raises us again from the grave. Or those that are alive shall see him and be transformed. They shall be like him as he is for we shall see him. We shall see him in that day. But the Scriptures say this right now for us, we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Galatians 5.5. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8.25. We have a good hope, a hope of salvation that Christ has done this and we're walking by faith. Because this flesh, we see sin in its members, we see that we cannot save ourselves, but God has provided Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God who provided his son. That's who saves me from this wicked body. That's who saves me from my sins. That's who saves me from this body of sin. That's who delivers me from the law of sin and death, Jesus Christ. He's the one that's done it. So presently our flesh is still an old creature, weak, dying, corrupt, full of sinful lusts, but that has no bearing on our eternal inheritance. Christ does. And that's not a license to sin. We don't sin that grace might abound. We're thankful to the Lord for what he's done. So thankful to him for what salvation, what life, what inheritance he's given us in himself. He's made us new creatures by his life and power. Second Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That is the old things meaning, not this old flesh, but old things meaning how we labored and strove to make a righteousness for ourselves. how we circumcised ourselves and cut this out and cut that out and tried to fix this and make that right. That's not our hope. Our hope is Christ. It's Christ. Galatians 6, 15 through 16. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. That's our rule, Christ. The law isn't the believer's rule of life, Christ is. And he's revealed to us in the gospel. He's given us the gospel to make known unto us what he has done for us. And he says right there, mercy and peace on them. That's the Israel of God. Those that believe the son. Those who are sons and daughters of promise in Christ. Following on this very thought, we look at the third thing in verse three, Colossians 3, 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. We died with Christ when he died, in which the law, that law which was over us in Adam, it's now silenced against us. It's been satisfied. The law has nothing more to say to you. There's no more condemnation, fiery barking at you from the law. It's satisfied. You're dead to it. It has no more authority or power over you. The evil one saying, you messed up there, didn't you? You didn't do that right, did you? Well, now you're going to hell. That's what the devil says. That's how he uses that law against you and terrifies you. But Christ is a soothing balm to the fiery soul, to that fiery dread of the wrath of God, because that law has nothing more to say to you. It's silenced against the people of God. It cannot dictate what your eternal inheritance shall be. Christ does. Our death to the law has delivered us from the law's demands. We're not in Adam's body anymore. You are made members of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I was a teenager when President Ronald Reagan said to Gorbachev, the president of Russia, he said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall. And that wall came down. Came down, the people basically took it down. They hit it with sledgehammers and took it down piece by piece. And then they were able, that was in Berlin, in Germany. Berlin, because after World War II, Russia got some of it, some of Germany, and the West got some of Germany. And under communism, where that wall was behind, those people had a very dark and miserable life. And it was hard. And they were under a hard rule by communism. When that wall came down and they began to cross over to the west, they didn't hear from anybody on that side, on the east side, saying, now remember. Remember what we said. If you do anything, we're going to get you. No, that law was silenced against them. It had no more authority. They were delivered out from underneath that rule of communism. Well, the same thing with the law. We're not in the house of Moses. You're in Christ's house, the Son's house. He builds the house. And we hear him. We don't look back. Moses, can you tell me how I'm supposed to live now? No, Christ has given you his spirit. That's how we know how to live. That's how we cry, Abba, Father, save me, Lord. Have mercy on me. Keep me, Lord. Deliver me from these sinful lusts. the flesh. Lord save me. God has given us an understanding that Christ has put that away from us. That he silenced the law against us. That he's destroyed that body of sin. That law of sin and death hath no more power over you. The second death hath no more power over you. holding you, making you afraid and fearful, it's put away. Put away. God's given us an understanding of that. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And you that are members of his body, death hath no more dominion over you. It's put away. It's put away. Fourth, he says in verse four, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. In other words, Christ shall return again. He will come again, and he will raise up our bodies, and that's when they'll be redeemed. That's when they'll be changed and transformed. But this is our great comfort and joy, that these light afflictions, And that foregoing of momentary sinful pleasures of this life is, these things have nothing compared to what Christ gives his people in himself, our inheritance in him. Paul said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. He's my righteousness and he's my inheritance. I'm leaving it all with him. I'm so persuaded, he says. So persuaded. And that's what the Lord persuades us of. Christ really is all. He's everything to the believer. Now, verse five and six. Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In Christ Jesus, we are not children of disobedience. That's who this wrath is coming upon. But he's saying those practices are what they practice. That's what they do. But if you do, he's not saying that you're going to be destroyed with the children of disobedience. He's saying you're dead to those things. Look to Christ, cry out to him, seek him, because it's only by grace that those things are put away. Nowhere does Paul mention the law. He's declaring the sins, these wicked things which are in our members by nature. We all were children of disobedience at one time, but we've been saved from that. We're out of that. We have no part in that. We're in the body of Christ. Look to him for your dead and your life, right? That therefore, mortified therefore your members goes back to verse three. Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. And so what he's saying is, we are entirely dependent on the grace of God who saved us at the first, and it's gonna be his grace and mercy that saves us throughout all the way to the end. Keep turning to him, keep looking to him. Don't be turned now to the flesh and just sucking in the world and loving the world. That's not what we've been saved to. We've been put to death to those things. Our inheritance is the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's through the grace of God that these lusts and passions are subdued, not turning to the law, turning to Christ, looking to him. It's by the grace of God that we abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. It's in love to Christ. It's in desire to serve Christ and to serve our brethren, not be all wrapped up in guilt and fear and terrors because we committed those things. Don't do those things because it does war against the soul. It does trouble you. It does make you feel like you're not alive, that Christ hasn't saved you. You're just troubling yourself. Return from those things. Trust Christ. Look to Him. Lean upon Him. He's our hope. He's our salvation. He's our strength. He's our all. And walk by the Spirit, by faith rather than the flesh. And what we see here, this grace that we admit of, that we speak of and declare in this is that it's all of grace that I am saved. It's all the grace that turns me from the works of the flesh. and going the way of the flesh. I need the grace of God to keep my heart, to preserve me, to keep me ever looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't turn to the law to put to death these lusts. We turn to Christ. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. When the lusts and passions rise up in you, Abba, Father, save me, keep me, Lord. Keep me looking to Christ. Preserve me. Help me, Lord. Save me. That's the Spirit. That's what the Spirit does. Testifies of Christ. And so, through faith, we learn to pray and trust him to keep us, to be our righteousness, to help us turn away from the works of the flesh. And Lord, help me bear fruits of righteousness in me by your spirit, lest I turn to the works of the flesh to deal with this and fix this and do something in my flesh. And so sixth, in the witch, verse seven, in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them." In other words, believers in whom Christ is all, we confess, I'm a sinner saved by grace. It's not that I've fixed my life and turned it all around and I've got it all straightened out now and I'm a good little Pharisee. No, that's not it. It's I'm a sinner saved by grace. Sinner saved by grace, and that's what the Lord does. And in addition to that, I don't boast that the child of God in whom Christ is all, they're not gonna boast of what they've done. I mean, you ask a lot of people in the world, well, how do you know that you're saved? What do they do? They start to tell you what they've done. Well, I gave my heart to Jesus. I walked the aisle. I confessed my sins, and I turned things around. I stopped doing this, and I started doing that. And that's all you hear is I, I, I, I, I, I. That's all their hope. But the child of God boasts of, well, the Lord. The Lord saved me. The Lord was merciful to me. The Lord brought the gospel. The Lord opened my ear to hear the gospel. The Lord showed me my sin. The Lord showed me His sufficiency. Very different. One is I, and the other is Him. What He's done. What He's done for me. And so that's the boast of the child of God. Listen to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 and 31. But of Him, of God, the Father, are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it's written he that glorious let him glory in the Lord and so it's not that I was baptized that I confessed Christ that I accepted him that I let go and let God that's no it's not what I did it's what Christ did what our father did for us in Christ That's the confession of the child of God. Seventh, he says in verse eight and nine, but now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. And what this list is picturing is these are the works of the flesh, as Paul defined in Galatians 5, verses 19 through 21. He tells us these are the works of the flesh. This is what the flesh turns to to fix things, to show somebody something, to teach them a lesson, to get back at them. They get angry. They turn to wicked things, adultery. They turn to wrath, murder, hatred, end beings. They turn to seditions. Well, I'm not going to go there anymore. I'm not going to show myself to them anymore. I'm not going to listen to them anymore. We turn away from people in divisions, in strifes. That's what seditions are. They're turning away from, they're dividing from one another, as if that's going to fix it. Just for some reason, you've been offended. Well, I have rights, and I've been offended, so I'm not going to. fellowship with them anymore. Well, that's just the work of the flesh. Now, of course, they have justifications, right? And they'll start throwing you under the bus and saying things about you to justify themselves, but that's all it is, is works of the flesh. It's not the fruit of the spirit. And so we see that all the time, and Paul saw that in the Corinthian churches, right? There was all kinds of divisions and little factions and all these things, people dividing from one another. And so we need the grace of God to bear fruit in us lest we turn to the works of the flesh to fix it and to make it right, because that's what the flesh does. It's so natural to us, we don't even see it, and we're so good at it. We need the grace of God to save us from that. And so it's by His grace that shows us the way of the flesh is not the way for us to go. Christ is the way. And we need his grace, always, always need his grace. And that's what he teaches us. James 1.20, I think, captures that thought very well. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And we do. We get angry. We get offended. We have rights. And so we turn to some work of the flesh to fix it. And it's just the works of the flesh. It hasn't fixed anything. It hasn't made anything right. And so what we're doing in Turning to the Works of the Flesh, what are we doing? We're satisfying the lust of the flesh. Oh, they got me. That burns me up. And I'm going to show them. And so that's just turning to the flesh. And that's what we do by nature. But the bare fruits of the spirit, it can only be by his grace. And that's the gift of Christ to his people. He gives his spirit and he gives us life and faith and hope and love in him. And we still see the warring, we see the Philistines warring in the flesh, warring in this land. the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Amalekites, all manner of sin and darkness and wickedness still runs through this flesh. And by the grace of God, those things are put down, those rebellions are put down and silenced against us. But it's by his grace. And we're never going to get to a point where we don't need him anymore, we don't need his gospel. We're always going to need his mercy, his hand, his voice, His leading, His spirit, and He does that. He does that, He blesses us. That's why He's telling it to you right now this morning. He's comforting you with the gospel, comforting you that salvation is entirely in Christ. Don't look back to that husband that's dead now, Moses. He's not your husband, Christ is your husband, and He bears fruit in you. Fruits of righteousness unto God, to the praise and glory of His name. He does it. Verse 10, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. In other words, we are a creature of his grace. This new man is not because of something I did, it's because the spirit has taken the things of Christ and showed them to me with effectual power unto the saving of my soul. I live by the incorruptible seed of Christ, that's the new man. We're born of the Spirit of God. We call it regeneration, a new birth, a new birth. All things are dead. All things have become new in Christ. And that's how we bear these fruits of righteousness and turn away from the works of the flesh. And when we see them, when we see the works, Lord, help me, save me. Brother, I've offended you. And we go to our brethren, and we want to reconcile and make that right. And by the grace of God, they're ready to receive it, too. And say, yeah, let's make it right. And by His grace, that's how we live, as members of His body. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. And so you look at that, and those are various characteristics that men use to what? To divide, to cut down, to put down that group, to put away that and divide from them. That's what we do. But that ceases. in Christ, by His grace, that ceases in Christ. And what the Lord teaches us is there's one Savior, and sinners need that one Savior. Don't look on the outward to deny and put away others from you. The Lord has His people in every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. He has it in all people. And so what we have here Our verses, in these verses, is a confession that in my flesh, my focus is on the wrong thing. That's how we divide and make things easy for ourselves, is looking at the flesh. And all of that is worthy of death, what I am in myself. by my works, I'm worthy of eternal death. But by the grace of God, he's delivered me from that and given me a hope of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and given you, his people, a hope of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he joins that hope with love and faith by his spirit, testifying in you that Christ is all. And you need him, and I need him always. And he's everything that God has given to us, and he's sufficient. He's sufficient. So how do you hear that? Is Christ all to you? Do you believe that? By his grace, you do. And by his grace, you'll continue to believe that. And by his grace, you'll continue to believe it more and more and see it more and more how that Christ Jesus really is all to the believer. Amen.