Gooding, David: 9 - Enjoying the Triumphant Life

Let's begin by reading from the Epistle to the Colossians once more, chapter uh two and verse twenty. Colossians two and verse twenty: If you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances, such as handle not, taste not, touch not. All which things are to perish with the using, after the precepts and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and severity to the body, but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For you died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. So now let's begin by looking once more at our layout of the contents of the epistle to the Colossians that may help us get the contents of the epistle on our minds and memories, and also help us to consider the thought flow, the major thought flow of the epistle. We have noticed in our previous studies that there are three major thought flows in the epistle, and at the head of every one of them, as is eminently reasonable, there is one leading theme. So, in the first movement of the epistle, we noticed the emphasis that the apostle places on hope, and how the question of hope then follows all the way through the three paragraphs of the first movement. In the second movement, we noticed that the leading theme was a question of wisdom and knowledge. And last week, we enjoyed our studies as we traced through all three paragraphs, this emphasis upon the wisdom of God in the means of our salvation, contrasted with the pseudo-wisdom of false religious teachers. Now, this week, we come to the final movement, the third of the three movements, and we notice that in the first paragraph of that movement, reference is made to the question of our life. Your life, says the apostle, is hidden with Christ in God. Now to appreciate that life and what is the nature of that life and its source and so forth, so that we may enjoy it the more fully, let's, uh, look back just for a moment to what the epistle has told us as to what has been going on in our experience. In the second paragraph of each three movements, we are reminded of our past, and then we are reminded of what God has done for us, so that now we are different from what we used to be. In the first movement, we were reminded that in the past we were alienated and enemies to God. And we have now been, therefore, reconciled, no longer enemies, but reconciled to God through the blood of Christ's cross in the body of his flesh through death. And in the second movement, we were reminded that in the past we were not only alienated and enemies, we were dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh. And God has given us life. He has made us alive. So says chapter two verse thirteen. Now, in this third movement, we're going to be told about the difference in the nature of that old life and the present life that God has given us. So in the past, we were characterized by the lifestyle of the old man. But now, says the apostle, you have put off the old man. Colossians three verse nine: seeing you have put off the old man with his doings, and you have put on the new man. So there is not only a new life, but a new quality of life, a new lifestyle. It is the new man which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. And then we may pause to notice just once more, to get it into our hearts and memories, the part that Christ has had to play in this tremendous change in our lives. When we were alienated and enemies, then as the Creator incarnate, and with all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in him, he reconciled us to God, says the, says our epistle, through the blood of his cross, through the body of his flesh, through death. And now that he is risen, he is head of the body, which is the church, that in all things he might be first and supreme. Christ first, therefore, and supreme. First in that new creation, which is the church's body, as he was first in the original creation, which was made in him and through him and to him. Then in the second movement, as we considered ourselves in the past dead in our trespasses and sins, and God's intention to give us life, we thought of the problem that faced God when he wished to give us new life. There was the problem of the two great powers that stood against us. There was the power of God's holy law standing against us and our trespasses. There was the moral challenge of the principalities and powers ranged against God, defying God to dare to forgive us. And God met both challenges through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily, head of all principality and power. He became man, that we might be joined to him, so that his death counted as our death, his burial as our burial, his resurrection as our resurrection. Christ, therefore, sufficient to redeem us, sufficient and triumphant over all opposition. Now, when we come to this third movement, and we're going to consider the difference between ourselves, as once we were with the lifestyle of the old man, and now we have put on the new man. Well, what's the difference between the lifestyle of the old and the lifestyle of the new? Why, says, uh, the apostle, the lifestyle of the new man can be characterized by this, that here Christ is all and in all. That is the lifestyle of the new. So now we're going to set out today on the enjoyment of this new life that God has given us, and try to think through with God intelligently what the implications are of this new life and how it is expected to work itself out in our daily behavior. And we notice that chapter three verse one begins by saying, if you then were raised with Christ, do this, do that, and do the other. If you were raised with Christ. Now, it would be very important for us here to understand exactly what Paul means by this, so that let me spend some time on it. If you were raised with Christ, do this, that, and the other. Well, let me ask the question to start with. Have you been? Have you been raised with Christ? It's no good proceeding if we haven't, is it? Because the whole of the outworking of what follows depends on this initial thing, if you have been raised with Christ. And if you haven't, it's no good attempting what is later discussed. So, if you have been raised with Christ, ladies and gentlemen, have you been? I wonder what you would say if I came round individually. Some of you might say, of course I have been. I wonder if some of us would be inclined to say, well, I think I am a little bit, just a little bit raised with Christ. I have been praying a lot recently and reading quite a lot of the Bible, and I, and, and I've been trying hard, and I think I've managed to raise myself just a little bit. At least I've got my head above the ground, uh, above the water, as they say. Trouble is, it's so div- easy to slip back again, you'll see, Mr. Lecturer. So I don't know what really to say whether I am or I'm not. Yes. Well, if that should be our response, then we need to spend a little time, don't we? Because if we respond like that, it's a very understandable reply, but it shows that we've not yet quite understood exactly what the apostle is saying. Raised with Christ is not a condition which I have to gradually attain to by my effort. Raised with Christ is for the believer a literal fact. I nearly said an historical fact. You have been raised with Christ, says Holy Scripture. So that when Paul says, if you have been raised with Christ, he's not asking you to entertain a doubt. It's not the if of doubt, it's the if of argument. That is why some of the new translations, such as the NIV, translate it not if you have been raised with Christ, but since you have been raised with Christ. It's the if of argument. Madam, if I come to you and say, now look here, madam, if you were born a woman with a woman's instincts, you will know. If you have been born a woman, I'm not questioning that you have been born a woman. Of course I'm not questioning, have you been born a woman? You are a woman. I'm simply saying, well, righto then, if you have been born a woman and have a woman's instincts, then as a woman, you will know how other women feel. Yes, and if you have been raised with Christ, God is not questioning, that is, if you are a believer, he's not questioning whether you have been. He's saying, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, since you have been raised with Christ, then these things follow and do this, that, and the other. And the same thing applies, doesn't it, to that earlier statement in chapter two verse twenty. If you died with Christ, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances? And we could afford just a little time, couldn't we, just to make sure we've got that in our minds. If you died with Christ, why, as though you were living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances? When did you die? For you have died. Well, the scripture has told us we died when Christ died. When we received the Savior, his death was counted ours. When he rose from the dead, because we are joined with the Savior, his life is ours as well. You'll see, if we don't understand clearly how we get this new life, then we're going to run into great difficulties and disappointments and frustrations when we try to live out that life. So the ifs, if you died with Christ, if you're risen with Christ, they are telling us how we got the life, and upon that Paul is going to build now how we should live out that life. Let's, um, listen to Paul then and use an illustration, if we may, to get the point once more clearly. Here's a poor, unfortunate American, and he's committed multiple murder. He has been condemned to the electric chair, and he's in his cell on death row. And I come along to the American, and I'm allowed in by the guards, and I say, look here, old chap, you know, what made you so hostile to everybody was your liver was out of order, and what you want to do is to take up vegetarianism. That will help you. Because it'll put your liver right, and you, you won't be so inclined to see red and, uh, be so pugnacious and hostile anymore. What do you suppose the man would reply? He'd say, what's the good of your dribbling there about vegetarianism? I'm as good as dead man. Vegetarianism isn't going to stop the execution. And so they lead him off eventually to the chair, and after he's dead, the guards, by special permission, allowed me to go in and see him there, now a corpse. And I say, you know, well, you ought really, I, I mean, vegetarianism is very good. You ought really to consider taking up vegetarianism. The guards would consign me, if not to the electric chair, to the lunatic asylum. Vegetarianism is never going to give the man life, and he's dead in this world. How do we get our Christian life? If you died with Christ, says Paul, why are you still carrying on thinking that little regulations like touch not, taste not, handle not are going to give you new life? That is as foolish as telling the man who's been electrocuted to take up vegetarianism. We don't get life that way. We get life when we agree, first of all, with God, that our sins demanded that we be executed. And instead of waiting for the final judgment, for the sentence to be carried out, and for us to be consigned to eternal perdition, we come round to agreeing with God, and we say, yes, God, you're right. I agree to the sentence being carried out. That's what is repentance. And when we agree to that, then, hey, presto, God has a savior ready for us. He says, then my good man, my good woman, take hold of my son, be joined to my son, and if you'll do that, then my law can count it that when Christ died, you died. And when Christ rose again, in giving him life, I give you life. And oh, what a marvelous presupposition that is. That's going to be the foundation on which we build everything today. If you're risen with Christ, in giving Christ life, God has given you life because you have received Jesus Christ, his son. So let's put that down formally, shall we, so that we can, uh, get it clear in our minds once more. The question of our life, the life that we now have and that we're going to be asked to live out in practical affairs in our day-to-day existence. Our life, according to Colossians, what is its source? Its source is God. Colossians two verse uh twelve: having been buried with him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. As I repeat, God, in raising Christ from the dead and giving life to that corpse, gave you life. Yes. How would you get a little electricity? Well, go and put your hand on a live wire and you'll find some. And how would you get new life? By receiving Christ, because God has raised him from the dead. And says verse, uh, uh, you'll see verse three of chapter three? you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. The life comes from God. And how do I get it? How is it appropriated? Well, look, if you will, at two verse twelve. It says you were buried with Christ, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the operation of God that raised him from the dead. Through faith simply, not by effort, not by discipline, simply through faith. Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead? Who gave him new life? Now let's get this clear. Was it my faith? You know, some people, when they read that we receive eternal life by faith, say, ah, well, my faith isn't quite strong enough, you'll see. And what they're really thinking is that somehow our faith produces this life. So let me take you back in imagination to the beginning of things, when our blessed Lord Jesus had died at Calvary and had been buried, and there was his body in the tomb. And I say to you, do you know what? Your only hope of ever having eternal life is if the body of Jesus Christ comes up out of this grave. You say, I know that, and I've been doing my best to get it out. I'm believing and believing and believing, and I hope if I believe enough, the miracle will happen and Jesus' body will come out of the grave. Well, once more, you'd be a lunatic to say that, wouldn't you? It isn't our faith that brought Jesus Christ from the dead. It's God's working that brought Jesus Christ from the dead. How do I get it then? I get it like a can of petrol gets the petrol. It just opens its lid and takes it in, if you see it, I mean. Yes. Excuse the crude metaphor. By faith, with my empty hand, so to speak, with my empty soul, I just receive the gift that God has to give me. And what is the nature o- o- o- o- o- of this life when I get it? Well, verse, um, four, uh, Colossians chapter three and verse four tells us what its nature is. When Christ, who is our life. The life we have as believers is nothing other than the Lord Jesus. Anything other than him isn't life in this sense. It is the life of the living Lord living within us. And so we ask the next question, how is it imparted? How is this life imparted to me? And the answer that the, uh, Colossians gives, not once, but many times over, we get this life through our union with the Lord Jesus. If you go in for marking the Bible, well, mark the little words with Christ now at the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three. What a lovely chorus they make, don't they? Two verse twenty, you died with Christ. Two verse, uh, twelve, you were buried with Christ. Two verse twelve again, you were raised with Christ. Two verse thirteen, you were quickened, you were made alive with Christ. Three verse three, your life is hid with Christ. And finally, three verse four, when Christ is manifested, you shall be manifested with him, manifested with Christ. That's how we get the life then, in our union with him. And we're going to hear how that risen life, nothing less than the blessed Lord Jesus himself, is waiting as the main spring of all our future development to work himself out through us in our daily living. One more question remains. This life, where is the source of it located? Says chapter three, verse one, if then you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. That's where the source of our life is located. We have no life but him. Now, this is very important. Notice the tactical advice. If you are risen with Christ, if your life is Christ, well, then, of course, you must constantly set your thoughts on where your life is, where the source of that life is, that is, set your thoughts on things above, where Christ is. Now, I know there are some people that are mos- monstrously afraid of this advice. They say, if I were to do that, I should become so heavenly-minded as not to be any earthly good. But then it is foolish and mistaken to talk like that, isn't it? You consider, during the Second World War, how that, um, the Low Countries, the Netherlands, were overrun, and their sovereigns fled, and some of them fled to England, leaving behind the resistance movement. How vital it was for that resistance movement in their secret radios of a nighttime under the bed covers or down in the cellar to tune into London. This is London calling. This is your sovereign and king. We are coordinating the resistance. And setting their minds on where their king was, was of course the very nerve center for carrying on an effective, uh, resistance, wasn't it? And if you be risen with Christ and yet have to live in this ungodly world, then set your thoughts, set your minds on where the very source of your life is, where Christ is at the right hand of God. You don't have any other life but him. I wonder how you treat your, your garage man, you, you know, your, your car engineer. I can tell you how I treat mine. Never go near the man. Well, that's not true. Uh, I, I, I, what I mean is I don't go if I don't have to. But there he is, a resource man. He's a charming man. A resource man when I need him, you see. So long as the car goes all right or moderately all right, I don't think of going anywhere near him. It's when the car goes wrong, then I go down to the resource man and say, this thing is no good, and would you put it right, please? And he does his best, do you see, and I get it back again. And when he says, now there you are, Mr. Gooding, now it's all good the next ten yards, I say, ah yes, what? Well, now please, uh, I'd like you to come into the car with me, and wherever I go to to tell me how to drive it and where I ought to go, and please come home and live with me. Well, of course I don't. Don't think you do either. When he's put it right, I say, thank you very much, old chap. Well, goodbye. Hope I never see you for another ten years. You see, I got the car from him, but I want to live a life independently of him. And you know, there is a danger sometimes we treat the Lord like that, isn't it? He's a kind of resource person. And when we come into difficulty and the family marriage breaks down or things go wrong, then we come to him and we want his help. And when he puts it right, we don't say bye-bye, but off we go. We don't constantly set our thoughts on things above. Our heart isn't there. We want still the old independence that we used to have before we were converted, and that can be disastrous, of course. We don't have any life apart from the Lord Jesus. We are to set our thoughts, therefore, where he is at the right hand of God. It's a bit difficult, isn't it? Because you'll see the verse says that our life is hidden. Be easier if we could see it, wouldn't it? Really believe it's there. You see, but sometimes it seems a little bit of imagination, they're faced with the cold light of Monday morning and the butcher shop, do you see, or the dentist chair, then this heaven thing seems a bit remote, do you see? Difficult to set your thoughts on it. Yes. Bible in the Old Testament has a lovely story of a king called Joash. Uh, it was a difficult time in the history of Judah. There had come an imposter on the throne called Athaliah, and for political reasons, she rose up and murdered all the seed royal in Judah, every prince that she could lay her hands on. Murdered them all except one little fellow, for his nurse stole him away and took him to the high priest, who hid him in the house of the Lord. And there was that ugly old tyrant Athaliah ruling and reigning, thinking he was supreme, and actually hidden away in the temple was the young king nobody knew about. Oh, but there came the time when the high priest felt there were certain men in Israel that he could trust, and he called them together, and he took them into the temple, and when all the doors were shut, he said, I've got something to show you, and he went and got the little king, and he showed them the king. Oh, my dear Christian friends, I wish I could do it now. I wish I could shut the doors of Absalom and open the doors of heaven and show you the king. He's there. This is no imagination. More real than we are sitting here this morning, in a world that is more real than our world, in the glorious tabernacle that the Lord pitched and not man, in that heavenly temple, at this very moment sits the risen Lord. Oh, could I show you him? But what I can't do, that the Holy Spirit will do. He's there, friend, your life literally there. Set your mind on things above. Oh, there came a marvelous occasion when later on the people loyal to the high priest had all prepared themselves, and the king had grown up, King Joash, I mean. That they arranged for the multitudes to be assembled, and the soldiers in their serried ranks, they opened the door, and they brought the king out, and the trumpets played, long live the king, and the king was manifested. Always going to happen one day. Who knows but what it could happen now this very day when the heavens burst asunder and the king that's been hidden is manifested. And when he is manifested, he who is your life, you shall be manifested with him. Or set your mind on it, friend, on things that are above. Let the Holy Spirit cause you to soak up the reality of the existence of our Lord at the right hand and the glorious fact that one day he comes. Set your mind on things above. We had to do it. It is obvious that the early Christians did it, isn't it? For that phrase, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, is of course an allusion to Psalm one hundred and ten verse one. Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, it's an allusion to Psalm one hundred and ten verse one. the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. It was a verse that the Lord Jesus first brought to the attention of his disciples and indeed of his enemies. But it is a verse that is quoted all over the New Testament and shows us that the early Christians did precisely that. They set their mind on things that were above where Christ is at the right hand of God. And using Psalm one hundred and ten verse one as their guide, they saw the wonderful implications of God's word to the Messiah, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. There are some of the references. In Matthew, the verse is used to teach the deity of the Messiah. In Acts chapter two, it's used to teach his resurrection and ascension. In Hebrews ten:twelve, it's used to preach his finished work, for having done the work of salvation and sacrifice, he sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews eight one uses it to remind us of the majesty of the place in which our Lord now ministers, not in a tabernacle made with hands. He enters now into the majesty on high and is sat down at the right hand of the majesty. Hebrews one three to four and again verse thirteen uses the verse to indicate our Lord's superiority to all angels. To which an- angel did he ever say, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool? Hebrews chapter twelve and verse two uses it to encourage those of us that are on the Christian race and finding the going hard, bids us to look off unto Christ, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame, and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The triumph of our Lord's life of faith as an example and incentive to us. And Hebrews ten verse thirteen uses us to show, uses the verse to show that the Old Testament indicated that there was going to be a period between his ascension and his final triumph over his enemies. Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. And it is very important that we get hold of it. You may have some unconverted friends, I have a good many, who want to tell me that all your faith in Jesus Christ, you see, as the Messiah, is misplaced. They say, if Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and if he is the Messiah, why doesn't he proceed to do what the Old Testament said the Messiah would do, and put down evil and judge the world and bring in an age of peace? You say he's the Messiah. Well, if he's the Messiah, why is, where is he? What's he doing? Why doesn't he put down evil? And of course, the answer that the Old Testament as well as the New gives, that the program and timetable for our Lord's putting down of evil was to be as follows. He should be incarnate, be dead and buried and raised, and be bidden to sit at the right hand of the majesty on high. Sit at my right hand, and then immediately put down evil. Oh no. Sit at my right hand until there was to be an intervening interval between the ascension of the Lord Jesus and his coming again to put down evil. And things are going according to the prophesied plan, are they not? And the Lord has ascended. Oh, set your minds on things above, for very soon shall he rise up and his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. And now to our classes, and since you have already stolen ten minutes of my time, Dulce, yes, because we didn't get started till a quarter past, a great Christian charity, I'm going to give you, uh, five minutes extra at the other end.