Christ is our life | Pastor Dr. Roger Cook | 18 August 2024

Introduction we've been looking in the in the book of Colossians and we've been drawing out various things not trying to cover everything but just looking at some of the mo more important things that God has to say to us um through his through Paul writing to the church at Colossians and um we'll wrap that up today and and move on to other things but I was looking for a verse which kind of what sums up the main message of uh this letter which was written to a particular Church in a small town Inland from Ephesus in uh what is now Western turkey but it has words in it which resonate for all Christians everywhere for all time and the letter follows Paul's um normal way of uh helping and building and strengthening the faith of uh the churches he wrote to he usually takes a theme a spiritual theme Builds on it makes some observations in the first part of his letter and then and then he applies it to all sorts of practical real life uh challenges that we all face in the second part of his letter and he does that in um in letters like the Ephesian letter and uh the galatian letter and certainly in this colossian letter well right in the middle of the letter after he's addressed some some spiritual issues and when he begins to turn to so how should we live how should we glorify the Lord in in our daytoday living and that hinges at the beginning of chapter Colossians 3 v1-4 3 so I just wanted us to remind ourselves of um Colossians chapter 3 and let's read verses 1 to 4 together it's good to see some Bibles around I love to see that for me it's not quite the same when you read a phone I mean read the scripture however you read it but it's nice to see some some open Bibles amen let's read it out then if you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God set your mind on things above not on things on the earth for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ Christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory amen and um we just read out you died you died you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God and um that's what is acted out whenever an obedient heart comes to baptism in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit it's a physical representation an outward an outward sign of an inward truth you died you died in Christ and nobody comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without suffering a little death I I give up I yield I'm prepared to leave behind my old way of living I'm dead to all that and I'm going to live a new life in the love of God and in Christ amen amen so what phrase and and and Paul talks about this in Colossians specifically he doesn't really talk about um um baptism in water or baptism in the spirit when he writes um earlier on we've looked at it before that you Colossians 2 v12 are buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead that's what Paul writes and that's in Colossians 2:12 and he is talking about that inward Resurrection from the dead that waking up of what has been asleep that sensitizing of what had been inert death not seeing not knowing what had been dead to the presence of God is brought to life amen and just as Jesus himself was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy SP Spirit when God sent the spirit to wake him up again that's what he now does in the heart and life of everyone who comes to him Christ is our life amen I love this little phrase in what we've read out Christ is our life amen Paul puts it another way um elsewhere it's in the galatian letter he says the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God or I live in the faith of the Son of God that is what I am living for that is why God allows me to draw breath that's why when I gave my heart to him I'm talking on behalf of every believer here he didn't say okay you're washed now you're clean now your your past is behind you now you can now you can come and join with the angels no he doesn't say that he leaves us here amen so we can increase in our knowledge of of what God has prepared for those who love him amen and and Paul in this letter is saying now now now be careful how you live how you walk there are all sorts of distractions all sorts of uh other ideas they were around in Paul's day they were around today and they will try to rob you of everything that God has prepared for you one one of the one of the one of the main philosophies that affects everything in our day and age um and we need to be careful of it we need to be aware of it and to not be affected by it is that um I just watched two minutes of a very old um uh television program uh last night of a man who wrote a book called the ascent of man and I I just wanted to say well you're not talking about The Descent of Man because Adam fell from the presence of the Lord and we are all the children of Adam and the sons of Adam and we all in him lost that awareness of God in our lives that's the picture that's laid out for us in Genesis when Adam was expelled from the Pres presence of God in the garden and that's where we start off so ideas of the ascent of man from I don't know fish and monkeys and and we're not saying that there isn't such a thing as evolution of course there is but the world is saying there's no such thing as creation and we are saying oh yes there is oh yes there is and everything that we see in the world around shouts at everybody the heavens declare what do the heavens declare the glory of God and no human being anywhere including you and me before we found faith is left with any excuse God made all things holds all things together and we are created and upheld by him so that's a philosophy we' got to be careful to say all right things do evolve things do change of course they do but God made me and God calls me and God invites me and God commands me to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ amen so beware of any ways of thinking which Rob us of everything that God has prepared for you and me in time yet to come [Music] amen Christ is our life now I'm going to make a confession question to you um one of the readings that Helen and I use um weekly and even daily are a couple of books by a man called Charles Haden Spurgeon and uh his daily readings are quite something occasionally he pedal a certain theology but very rarely um usually they are so rich and uh this week I'm confessing it just in case anybody here uses not What's called the checkbook of the bank of Faith anybody use that it's really worth reading um and that's just a daily little reading but he wrote another book called morning and evening readings it's just a little passage every day every morning and every evening and uh he uh this in in his readings for this week he takes this verse Christ is our life and um I wouldn't normally do this and no self-respecting uh preacher of the Gospel should pinch other people's ideas too much but I borrowed from Charles Haden Spurgeon his outline and I'm confessing it so I'm I'm borrowing his outline of what he says about this verse in Colossians which sums up the book really Christ is our life and uh he says he says four things you could probably add one or two more he says Christ is the source of our life I'll go through them Christ is the strength of our life Christ is the Solace of our life and Christ is satisfaction for us our lives so that's pinched from Spurgeon but you you might be able to add more if you if you wanted to but but um let let's just think about this a little bit Christ is the source of spiritual life nothing else is people talk a lot about spirituality nowadays but there's only one source of true spiritual life and that's our Jesus amen amen Paul puts it this way let 1 Corinthians 15 v45-47 let's read uh what what he says to the church in Corinth um and it's 1 Corinthians chapter 15: 45 to 49 it's a favorite passage of mine personally it's talking about the resurrection and uh how you and I will appear and what Glory will will have have developed and grown and rest upon uh every believer depending on how they have lived and how they have walked but in the middle of that passage uh Paul says this and it it may seem a bit difficult but let's read it out and so it is written the first man Adam became a living being the last Adam became lifegiving Spirit isn't that wonderful there's an old hymn some will know um when all was sin and shame a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came well it's it's a good himm but actually if you're being strictly what this book says doesn't say Jesus was the second Adam it says Jesus was the last okay there was a first Adam and who he was and how he lived and how he deafened his ear to to the word of the Lord affect all of us but God said I'm going to start again with Humanity I'm going to come and and bring to Earth a new man a a last Adam there isn't another Adam to come God said I'm going to send another man who will be the pattern of how my wish and desire is for human beings to live how should we live look at our prototype and he is the last Adam this is it this is God's offer of Eternal salvation to all men everywhere get your life hidden in Christ because only Jesus is acceptable in every way to his father only Jesus lived his life on Earth in a way which was completely pleasing to his father now we know what we're like we don't have to tell each other what we're like we know what we've been we know what we've [Music] done we know where we've fallen short we know all of that more importantly God knows it and God says now come into the Lord Jesus Christ and when you do and if you do and you let his his Spirit work in your heart you know what you can please the father too only by the blood of the Lord Jesus only because of his grace only because of his power to change who you are and how you think and what you do and where you go but by the grace of God you and I can say we can live a life where God can say to his people well done well done well done you've been a good and faithful servant amen that's the power of having the source of our life grounded in Jesus amen Christ is our life he is the source he is um the strength and the substance he's the strength of uh of those who learn to lean on him as we live and trust him we spent some time this week with a young American lad uh only 20 years old but I think the Lord has called him we might get the chance I'm not sure how long he's in the UK we might get the chance for him to come and give us testimony clearly a young man called of the Lord to uh to to serve him and uh he's a fan of American country music he was singing a song Somebody may have heard of it I I I thought I was a big man I thought um I thought I could be a man who could take a stand but the song goes I can't even walk doesn't look as though anybody's heard that song here I can't even walk without you holding my hand amen I thought I was going to be a big man but I can't even walk without you holding my hand there's a song I just Psalms 18 v32 want to know if people know it it is God who GTH me with strength anybody know that one no okay that's fine it's God it's from Psalm let me just have a look it's Psalm 18:32 it it is God who GS me with strength when I'm all in when I've had it when I'm defeated when when I don't have the heart to carry on what's that phrase there you go Psalm 1832 let's just read it out we might learn the song sometime it is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect it's God who does it it's God who does it there there's um there's a phrase which used to be very popular and it's worth knowing it's man's extremity you know what extremity is when we're we're really at the end of all our resources and his giving has just begun man's extremity that's God's opportunity amen it's God who GS me with strength Christ is our life is our life he's the source of life and he's the strength of the Christian don't be surprised if there are seasons not all the time but there are seasons when everything seems to go wrong and God takes his people through sometimes difficulties where you think I can't possibly survive this but God knows what he's doing he saw he saw you before you breathed your first breath he knew the path that you would take and sometimes for the sake of preparing you and me to be in his presence he will might lead you through very deep Waters why would God do that I thought God was completely kind and loving and merciful why would I have passed through such trauma it's because God wants to so work in you that you realize he's the strength of my life it's he who sustains me it it it's him who gives me life day by day amen and God will go to extremes if he sees something in you which can become a worshipper of God that's what we do as a church together we worship God and and uh if he can see let's call it potential in you to be one who will shine in glory he he might take you through some deep Waters sometimes not your whole life amen amen he is our strength he is our sustenance and I'm still borrowing from Mr Spurgeon and he says Christ is our life and he uses the word Solace that's a bit of an old-fashioned word now well he was writing 150 years ago but um Solace what does solace mean well it it simply means he is our comfort when times are hard he he is the restorer of my soul let let let's put it 2 Corinthians 1 v4-5 this way let's read what Paul said when he went through a difficult time and we don't completely know what happened but the Apostle Paul went through a period when everything went wrong for him and he talks about it um in the second letter to the Corinthians and one of the things he says is this let let's read it out out together he Comforts Us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the Comfort which we are ourselves are comforted by God isn't that wonderful isn't that wonderful um in what's called his Farewell discourse in the chapters of John John's gospel chapters 4 14 to8 Jesus has a final talk with his disciples it's after about the time of the last supper and um and one of the things he says very clearly to them is I'm going to send the comforter that's an oldfashioned word but I am going I'm going to go away and and you think that's not good but it is because I am going to send God the holy Spirit who is our healer our comforter our counselor who renews Us in every situation who gives us wisdom who who is who is the one who shapes us in God's image not like the world is but in God's image and Paul went through a period when he said I just have to go to the Lord I I have to I have to come to him for him to strengthen and comfort me with his presence amen Paul was went there and I guarantee you that everybody here has been there and maybe there not right now amen God is is our comfort our our consolation you know what a consolation is amen sometimes when we fail when we've had it when we're down and out when we're on our knees God says I'll give you a consolation prize you know what a consolation prize is but this prize is not because uh you didn't quite make the gray this is because I loved you with an everlasting love amen and I can comfort you when no human being can I know all about you I know more about you than you know about yourself and I can send the spirit of the Living God from on high where Jesus now is in Resurrection to comfort the human heart amen amen in that passage in uh in in Corinthians Paul says lots of things about the holy spirit from God who anoints us who establishes us in Christ who who who sends the spirit to seal us into him amen who gives us a taste a foretaste of the life yet to come when Jesus returns so our last s we don't want to be want to finish five minutes early today um our last s is uh Spurgeon puts it this way the satisfaction The Source the strength the Solace and satisfaction amen I grew up singing a song a worldly song before I ever came to Faith I Can't Get No Yeah quite a few people know that song and it's kind of true when I'm driving in my car and the man comes on the no I can't get no well that's right there's something in life which is not quite right until we come to Faith amen and only in his presence only knowing that God is with us amen Adam was banished from his presence but in him the sons of Adam boast more blessing more blessing than our father lost amen talking about satisfaction we we we're going to sing A Hymn to close today um I'm sure many know it it's not it's a popular hymn now but it was written 150 years ago Before the Throne of God I stand we know that himym Before the Throne of God I stand and one of the things that hymn says is God the just is satisfied God is satisfied to look on him and pardon me amen and that's one way to understand something of what was going on at the cross God who had been offended by the way I lived who had had to turn his face away from my sin because God cannot look on sin and somehow or other by a miracle of Grace we don't fully understand it at the cross Jesus became sin my sin that I might become the righteousness of God and God can look on him and pardon me and God says it's okay I I I'm satisfied I I'm content it's all right I can look I'm not going to name any names here but I could this morning we could go around I can look on Billy I can look on chabba I I can look on you and be perfectly satisfied and pardon anything anything anything that either I have done or has been done to me I can pardon it because I'm satisfied with what Jesus has done in giving his life for you and me amen and Psalm 17 v15 uh just a final point then if God is satisfied let's just read this verse out and we'll we'll uh close slightly early this is what David wrote in one of his Psalms as for me I will see your face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness amen I can be completely satisfied in this life isn't that wonderful in another place the Psalms say my heart can needn't be restless needn't be searching needn't be unsettled psalmist uh describes his heart as like a a young baby that's just been that's just been milked out and you've ever seen that you I'm sure you have with a with a very young baby and they've they've they've they've been filled to fullness they're completely satisfied Amen in his presence amen Christ really is our life amen and we're going to celebrate those who are declaring that to the world around to the church to the Lord himself to Angels by going through this baptism this morning uh let let's pray thank you Lord You Are The Source you are the center all things hold together because of you and what you have done in purging us from our sins in in in coming down as a human being living before your father and saying now I'm sending the spirit of God to enable you to live pleasing to the father through the Forgiveness of sins through grace and mercy poured out on your life thank you for doing that for us Lord we're sorry when we miss the mark but you have set before us a plan and our purpose for our lives and we say to you Christ is our life in Jesus name amen amen amen