Colossians 3:1-17 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. I want to make it known that I'm not unprepared this morning.

[0:13] Brother Byron asked me before service, what are you going to be teaching us? Because we wrapped up the Gospel of John last week. And of course, you know, I considered just doing a recap of the entire Gospel of John.

[0:25] And I prayed about it and didn't feel like I was supposed to do, so I prayed some more. I've studied the same passage of Scripture for the past two to three weeks.

[0:38] I told Byron, I've studied it, I've read it, I've compared it with other Scriptures. I've done everything that I normally do for Sunday school. I woke up this morning and I was like, I don't think that's what I'm going to be teaching.

[0:51] So, I may come across as unprepared, but it's not because I wasn't preparing. Evidently, I was preparing for the wrong thing. And that happens sometimes.

[1:02] And that keeps us on our toes, does it not? But this morning we'll be in the New Testament, the third chapter of the book of Colossians. This is going to be, not be as verse by verse as those of you that regularly come to Sunday school are accustomed to.

[1:23] It's probably more topical as opposed to expository. But the third chapter of Colossians, if you will, just right off the top of my head, if you want something to compare it to in Scripture, read the fourth chapter of Ephesians because there's a lot of the same things you find in there that Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus.

[1:48] Which is good because that shows that Paul wanted all the churches, all these congregations doing the same things.

[2:01] Not only God, but God being the one to inspire via the Holy Ghost the writings of the Scripture.

[2:13] It shows us that God wants these churches doing the same thing. All these congregations and folks, we being the body of Christ, we have one real goal.

[2:27] What is that goal? We find it at the end of this passage we're going to be reading here in Colossians. Our number one goal, though, is to glorify Christ.

[2:38] That is our number one goal. Some people will say, well, I thought our goal was to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. And, you know, and lead people to Christ and show people the things of God.

[2:53] And folks, that is. But what does that do? That glorifies Christ. That glorifies God. Our chief end, really and truly, is to glorify Christ.

[3:04] As his people. Everything that we do should glorify Jesus Christ. So we're going to read here. We're going to read 17 verses. And I may touch on several of them independently from the rest in expository fashion.

[3:26] And we may not. I'm not positive. So Colossians chapter 3, starting in verse 1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

[3:40] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then ye shall, ye also, I'm sorry, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

[4:00] Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

[4:12] For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

[4:30] Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

[4:45] Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

[4:56] Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. For bearing one another and forgiving one another.

[5:09] If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

[5:22] And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

[5:42] And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Amen. Now, I know that was a lot of reading.

[5:55] I understand that. But the one thing that's really been on my mind the past several weeks, probably a couple of months now, is concern.

[6:09] Concerned, not because we all know what February 16th was bringing, as far as, you know, church moving on to other hands, so on.

[6:23] My concern, though, is what are we all going to do? What are you going to do? What am I going to do?

[6:33] One of the main things we need to concentrate on is staying within the body of a local congregation.

[6:46] Whether it be here, because we all know there's another church coming here. And I've never met any of those people to my knowledge. I've heard their statement of faith.

[6:56] And if they stick to that statement of faith, I don't see any reason why I couldn't call them brothers and sisters in Christ. But where are you going to move to?

[7:08] Where are you going to go? Are you going to go? Is the big question. Y'all have heard me say it. I've preached it here. I've preached it at other churches. I've taught it as well. And the big argument is I can stay at home and worship God just fine.

[7:24] I can go to the beach and worship God just fine. I can go to the ball game and worship God if I want to. I can go downtown. I can worship God in Walmart.

[7:35] I can do it at McDonald's. I can do it at DG, Dollar Tree. I can do it at any of these places. And folks, all that's true. We can worship God anywhere that we go. And we should worship God anywhere that we go.

[7:47] The question is not can we. The question is will we? Will we worship God in those places? Truth be known, we go anywhere outside of the walls of the church.

[8:03] And God is one of the furthest things from our minds. If truth be known. And that should not be the case. Folks, we come to church.

[8:14] We congregate with other believers to glorify God. We come to worship God. We come to sing songs. Just like we read here in Colossians chapter 3.

[8:28] It's a command that's given here. It says to admonish one another. It's not a suggestion, folks. It's a statement in the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit of God that Paul wrote down to admonish one another and to sing songs and hymns.

[8:46] Do we do that when we go to these other places? Do we do that at Walmart? I don't normally break out into a hymn when I'm at Walmart. Thankfully, I rarely go to Walmart, but that's beside the case.

[9:00] I rarely do that, though. But where will we do that? At the house of God. At the house of God. This morning, we sung a song on page 306 out of the hymnal.

[9:16] The good old gospel ship. I love that song. But we sung a song together. But we're also to admonish one another. Folks, we can't do that if we're at home.

[9:28] Now, you can say, well, I can give a phone call. I can shoot a text message. Again, it's not the case of what can you do. It's a case of what will you do. Not only that, but folks, the congregation of believers, those that believe in God, it has been from pretty much the get-go of this entire thing.

[9:53] If you start with Abraham, Abraham was kind of, sort of, by himself. But you go just a little bit further in Genesis, and you see his 12 sons, the 12 tribes of Israel.

[10:05] You see them. And you see all them come down into Egypt, and they all stayed together. They all moved to the land of Goshen, did they not? But they all come up together.

[10:17] And God took care of them together. God takes care of us together. Now, can he individually? Absolutely. Will he individually? Absolutely.

[10:29] But folks, the congregation is important. It is important for us to be found in the house of God somewhere with other believers.

[10:40] It is very important. It is commanded in Scripture. It is brought up numerous times in Scripture. In fact, you see Jesus. All throughout the Gospel accounts, you see Jesus going different places and healing different people.

[10:54] What did those people want to do? They wanted to follow Jesus. But folks, it wound up being collectively. They wanted to follow Him together.

[11:07] There is a man, you can read about it in Mark chapter 5. The demoniac that we read about. And after Jesus healed him, cast out all the demons, and threw them into the swine, and the swine ran down the hill, and into the water, and all these good things.

[11:22] What did that man want to do? He wanted to follow Jesus. Now, Jesus sent him on His merry way and said, no, you go to Decapolis. You tell them the things that I've done for you in Decapolis. But folks, for the most part, for the most part, people follow Jesus.

[11:41] And people worship Jesus. And people listen to Jesus. Why do we come to church? How often do you read the Word of God at home by yourself? I'm not talking about a three-minute devotional.

[11:56] Those are great and fine and well. I read some of those too. How often do you really sit down with the Word of God and choose a passage or a verse and spend time on that?

[12:11] Most of us probably don't do it very often. So where do we learn the Word of God? We learn it at church. We go to hear the exposition of the Word of God.

[12:24] We go to hear the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. We go to learn about this God that saved our souls. And what better thing to learn about?

[12:36] What better person to learn about than God? And what better thing to learn from than the Word of God? Inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

[12:48] I'm trying to encourage you today. Don't get out of church. Don't get out of church. Don't say, well, you know, this one flopped. It didn't flop. It didn't flop.

[13:02] Obviously, God was done. He was finished. Finished for this time frame of this particular church. And that's fine.

[13:13] That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'm trying to encourage you to stay in church. Because you're going to gain strength from other believers.

[13:28] You're going to gain wisdom from other believers. You're going to hear about other believers' experiences that may line right up with your experiences as well.

[13:38] So you don't feel all alone in this thing. There's all kinds of reasons that we gather for church. But the main reason that we go to church is to glorify God.

[13:52] You know, we've all heard it quoted numerous times over. I've preached it as well. Hebrews 10, 25, Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves as the manner of some is.

[14:04] We've all heard that. I've heard it over preached, actually. But, folks, we can't overemphasize what the Word of God says. We don't need to forsake the assembling of ourselves.

[14:16] This is what we are told. This is what we are guided to do. This is what the Scripture teaches us to do, is to gather in God's house with godly people to sing psalms unto God, to worship God.

[14:34] And your form of worship, you know, when I say that, I'm not saying you have to cut a shine every time you come through the doors. You all have heard me say that before. You don't have to run the aisles.

[14:45] You don't have to jump the pews. You don't have to scream and shout. No more than the preacher has to get up and shout and scream and slobber when he preaches a message.

[14:57] None of that is necessary in order for a church service to be taking place. But, when we gather with other believers, folks, number one, it's a gift from God that we can do that.

[15:15] And, thankfully, we live in a country where that hasn't been made illegal yet. And yet it's so neglected by so many. It is neglected by so many people.

[15:30] You know, and y'all, I've already given the examples of, you know, what people say as far as, you know, well, I can worship God. I can sit at home and bring up YouTube.

[15:41] I can turn on a preacher on the television or on the radio or whatever the case is. But will you do those things? Will you do those things?

[15:51] Or will you have the desire to go to the house of God and be with other believers? David said in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

[16:08] He was glad. And that wasn't just, you know, a passing happiness that he was talking about. We're talking about a deep joy that he had when they said unto him, let us go into the house of the Lord.

[16:23] Now, I understand that there's some context there. I understand that's one of the Psalms of Ascent. And that was one of the Psalms that the Jews would sing in their pilgrimage to go to Jerusalem.

[16:37] I get all that. But nevertheless, the psalmist said, I was glad. Folks, we should be glad to walk into the house of God. As long as it's a true blue house of God, I'm not going to talk about one of these halfway places, one of these places where people just congregate because that's what they do.

[16:58] And unfortunately, churches in America are full of people that do that. They show up to church because that's what they do on Sundays. They don't show up to worship God.

[17:08] They don't show up to exalt the name of Jesus Christ. They don't show up to hear the Word of God preached. They show up because that's what they think they're supposed to do. Folks, that's not why we come.

[17:20] That's not why we come. Again, we come to hear the Word of God. We come to learn the Word of God. And we come to worship God. And we come to be encouraged and exhorted by our brothers and sisters in Christ.

[17:34] And we come to be an encouragement and to do some exhorting ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not to mention the house of God. I mean, you've also got the accountability aspect that's there.

[17:49] How many of us, you know, would be out here doing God knows what if it weren't for our accountability that we had to our brothers and sisters and our accountability that we had toward God?

[18:05] Just like, I mean, Brother Justin got up this morning and said, I don't know where I would be without this church. Where would any of us be? Where would any of us be without having a congregation to be held accountable to?

[18:21] I'm not saying that man is your judge. Don't get what I'm saying wrong here. Man is not your judge. God is your judge. God is all of our judges.

[18:34] Now, folks, the reason we read the Scripture that we did this morning, Colossians 3, 1 through 17, I want you to notice something in it.

[18:48] I want you to notice not only in Colossians, but when Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, when he's writing to the church at Corinth, he's writing to all these places.

[19:00] But everything we read this morning, it was in the plural. He was writing it to a congregation. To be read to a congregation.

[19:14] Y'all have heard me teach it plenty of times over because I want it pretty much burned into your minds when you read the word ye. That is plural.

[19:26] More than one. And we read that several times in this passage of Scripture here. He's telling them, as a congregation, you've put off the old man.

[19:37] He's telling them, as a congregation, put on the new man. Do these new things because you've been redeemed. You've been saved. And you're being sanctified. And you're constantly being sanctified.

[19:49] We must do these things. But folks, he wrote it to a congregation. To be read in front of a congregation. God did not call a single person in this sanctuary right now to a life of isolation.

[20:05] Not a single one of us did he call to be by ourselves. He has called us to be part of the body of Jesus Christ. Christ being the head, we being the body, but the body does what the head tells it to.

[20:22] We must keep these things in mind. And if the head tells the body, you go to church, you go and congregate, and the head has told the body that.

[20:35] And folks, what other choice do we have? And it is a choice, mind you. It is a choice. People say all the time, y'all have heard the same excuses that I have.

[20:47] I got hurt in church. The pastor said something that really hurt my feelings. Pastor got on my toes. I don't like the singing. I don't like the pastor's wife.

[20:58] I don't like the pastor's kids. Them deacons really get on my nerves. I don't believe in organized religion. Folks, one of these days, people are going to realize they're going to run out of excuses.

[21:13] And they're going to have to come up with a legitimate reason. None of which did I just list. And one doesn't exist for a true child of God.

[21:24] There is no reason that exists. Now, I understand people get sick. I mean, folks, I missed two months of church last year because of a surgery that I had. So I get, people get sick, and people get incapacitated to a point that they cannot show up.

[21:41] But if someone is able, and there is nothing else on the calendar, and there is nothing physically hindering them from going, and they simply choose not to go, folks, it is not because the pastor hurt them.

[21:54] It's not because he's probably going to preach the same thing again. It's not because church is boring. It's not because of this. And it's not because of that. It is simply because they do not want to go to church.

[22:05] And someone with the attitude of I do not want to go to church, I would question whether they were even saved or not. That's a desire that should be in the heart of every child of God is to congregate with other believers.

[22:22] We see it through the Scriptures. We see it. I mean, folks, you read about it through the Gospels. You read about it in the book of Acts. You read about it all throughout the epistles.

[22:35] And the letters to the churches. You get over to Revelation, folks, and it ain't one person here and then 30,000 light years away is another person. No, everybody is congregated together.

[22:46] And doing what? Worshiping God. It's been like that from the beginning. And it was like that during the times of the Bible, both Old and New Testament.

[22:59] And it will be like that in the future. The people of God are gathered together to worship God. They worship Him as their Creator.

[23:11] They worship Him as their Redeemer. They worship Him as the Maker of everything and the Master of everything. But the people of God worship God.

[23:23] Maybe God saved you from sin that He didn't save me from. But either way, if you're sitting here and you're born again, you were saved from sin. You were saved from yourself.

[23:33] And you were saved from the wrath of Almighty God just as I was. People will look around. They'll say, well, my sin's not quite as dirty as that one. Your sin's filthy in the eyes of God just like mine is.

[23:47] Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. People will say, my sin's not so bad. Folks, when I'm street preaching, Burns heard me preach it dozens of times from Luke 13.

[24:00] That's one of my favorite Scriptures to preach when I'm out on the street. You've got two groups of people there that thought that something bad had happened to other groups of people because of their sin.

[24:11] And Jesus tells them all the same thing. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And it's the same way for us. It's the same way for the lost world out there.

[24:24] Folks, except we repent, we shall all likewise perish. But this letter, going back to where I was, it was written to a church.

[24:35] To be read in front of a church. I wasn't there. I don't know exactly how it went down. But I would imagine it was something along the lines of the pastor or an elder in the church would have received this letter that the church of Colossae in this particular context.

[24:52] And they would have received this letter from Paul. They would have stood up one morning or one afternoon whenever it was that they met. They said, we've received a letter from Brother Paul.

[25:03] Let's see what he had to say. And this letter would have been unrolled and it would have been read. Who would have been read to? They didn't call them in rooms individually. It would have been read to the congregation.

[25:17] Folks, when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and received the Word of God, the commandments of God, and brought them back down, he didn't say, I want you all to break up into small groups.

[25:32] I want you, some of you to go over here, some of you to go over there. He didn't say, ladies, I want you all to take the children and go off somewhere. No, he came down and he presented the Word of God to the entire congregation of Israel.

[25:48] And when we gather together in corporate worship, folks, it's a corporate thing that we do. Yes, we can worship God individually. Folks, I've had some good times with God driving down the road by myself.

[26:01] I've had to pull off in the emergency lane because I was crying so hard because the goodness of God was right there in the passenger compartment of my vehicle with me.

[26:15] So yes, we can worship God individually. But we go and we learn about this God corporately. Yes, you can learn about Him at home by yourself.

[26:26] But again, the question is there. Will you? Will you do that? I'm encouraging you today to get involved in a local church, in a gospel preaching church, not a feel-good church, not one where somebody gets up behind the pulpit and gives you a pep speech or pat you on the back and tells you what a good person you are.

[26:52] Folks, the Bible says quite the opposite. The Bible says there is none that doeth good. No, not one. There's none that seek after God. No, not one.

[27:05] Don't find churches that do that. You find a church that preaches you the gospel and you listen to that gospel over and over and over. I want someone to remind me what a wretch I am.

[27:18] I want someone to remind me how undeserving of salvation I am. But I also want them to remind me of the God even though I'm undeserving and even though I am a wretch and even though I'm evil and wicked down to the bone.

[27:33] Even Paul said, oh wretched man that I am who shall save me from this body of death. Paul, a man that wrote half of the New Testament. Paul, a man that we know was redeemed called himself wretched.

[27:44] and if he could call himself wretched, I know I am. I need to be reminded of that, but I need to be reminded of the grace of the God that saved me.

[27:57] And it was utter grace and all of that is found within the gospel and how is the best way to be reminded of that? To gather at the house of God and to listen to the preached word of God.

[28:11] And if a man is preaching the gospel, he'll bring up all those points and more. And God will be glorified in that. We are to glorify God in our lives.

[28:24] In everything that we do, we are to glorify God. Do I always do that? Absolutely not. I'd be a liar if I stood here and told you that I did. But folks, we're constantly being sanctified by God.

[28:37] We're constantly being consecrated by God. For what? For his service and for his glory. Not anything to do with us, folks. It is all about God.

[28:49] Every bit of it is about God. And where do you learn this? At the house of God. At the house of God where the word of God is taught, where the people of God come together to worship, where the people of God gather and they testify.

[29:07] How often do you call people? Or how often do you text people and say, what's God done for you this week? Never. Once a week, once a month.

[29:19] Hardly ever. Folks, we come to church and what do we hear? We hear the people of God. Sometimes the preacher or pastor doesn't have to stand up and say, somebody got a testimony.

[29:34] Sometimes people just break out in testimony about how good God is. And how many of us have missed such opportunities because we were elsewhere?

[29:46] I said, folks, I get it. Things happen. Sometimes people can't come. I get that more than anybody does. But if we can, we should.

[29:57] We should. And we should have a desire. We should have a burning desire to be in the house of God. To be around the people of God. I've said it many times.

[30:10] 1 John says, You shall know you have passed from death unto life because you love the brethren. And if you love the brethren, you will want to be where the brethren are at. And you will want to be sharing in the goodness of God with the brethren.

[30:22] We all know the verse from the Gospel of Matthew. It says, where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst of them also. I understand there's a lot of context around that that is hardly ever touched on.

[30:34] But nevertheless, it's there. It's there. Well, folks, if we're saved, it's not Christ with each and every one of us. At all times.

[30:45] I mean, it's the indwelling Spirit of God, which is Christ. Dwelling within us. So He's with us all the time. But when Christ says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst, folks, that tells me that when two or three or a dozen or twenty or a hundred are gathered in His name, folks, there is a special presence of God there.

[31:08] If we know from Scripture, if we know for a fact, and we do from Scripture, that Christ is with each of us all the time, then it had to be talking about a whole other realm of presence when He said, there am I in the midst of them.

[31:23] In other words, if y'all are out there by yourselves, I ain't with you. That's not what Christ says. That's not what the Bible teaches. It says, where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst.

[31:35] You ain't going to get that at home when you're lazy boy. You ain't going to get that at home laying in the bed. You'll get that when you're gathered with other believers.

[31:47] You'll get that when you're gathered with brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ. Again, the main reason I read those verses, and there was probably 50 other places I could have read from.

[32:02] The main reason I chose those verses this morning, though, is because of the way that passage ends. In verse 17, whatsoever you do in word or deed, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

[32:25] So, whether we're at home, sick, in bed, shut in, afflicted, whatever the case is, whether we're eating, whether we're drinking, whether we're mowing the yard, regardless of where we are, regardless of what we're doing, give glory to God, give glory to God through Jesus Christ.

[32:55] That's the only way we can do it. We worship God through Jesus Christ. We pray to God through Jesus Christ. Anything that we do toward God, it is through Jesus Christ.

[33:08] Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. So, we do these things.

[33:19] We come together, we worship God. Just a few verses before this, we see admonishing one another, we uplift one another, we encourage one another, we sing our songs, we sing our hymns.

[33:34] Whatever we do in word or deed, though, we do it in the name of Jesus Christ. And we do it as we give thanks to God and the Father through Jesus Christ.

[33:47] Folks, it is a privilege to gather together. It is a privilege to admonish one another. But again, I'll say it again, I will reiterate it, it's hard to admonish one another when we're not around.

[34:04] It's hard to admonish one another when we're not around each other. Yeah, sure, we can make a phone call, shoot a text message or an email, the folks that doesn't hold nearly as weighty, I guess, as to be in the physical presence of other brothers and sisters in Christ.

[34:28] There's people out there in the world that meet secretly because of fear of arrest or fear of death, but they still meet.

[34:40] And here, again, it's still perfectly legal for us to show up on Sunday morning, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, Thursday nights, Tuesday nights. I know all kinds of times that different churches meet.

[34:53] It's still perfectly legal for us to do that. Don't neglect that. Don't neglect it and don't take it for granted. Do not take the assembling with brothers and sisters of Christ for granted.

[35:07] God bless y'all. That's all I wanted to say this morning. Anybody got any comments or questions on any of that? Alright.

[35:17] God bless y'all. I appreciate you.