What Does It Mean to Be Hid With Christ in God?

We're going to go right back to where we left off after our last program where we finished Colossians chapter 2, and we're going to be ready to go into chapter 3, verse 1. And again, we like to let our television audience realize that we've got people from all over Oklahoma today, and we've got several from Minnesota, and we just are thrilled by the fact that you've come down to see us and be a part of this. I've always said, you know, I couldn't do this without you folks out there. I could never teach just into a camera, so I appreciate so much that you put forth the effort and take the time to come in and be a part and parcel of the ministry. You know, many times I write to people that, after all, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9, that we are co-laborers together with him. And that, of course, is what you are when you become a part of our class here in the studio. Now I guess I'd better mention, I hate to take time for it, but all the past programs are available on video, on the audio cassettes, or in a little booklet, and you just call us or write to us, and we'll get the information to you. We've got a lot of ground to cover yet this afternoon, so let's go right back into Colossians chapter 3, verse 1. I'll have to admit, when I first started series in Paul's letters, I thought, well now I know that Paul repeats a lot of things, and I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to keep people interested going verse by verse, and chapter by chapter. But every time I start a new letter like Colossians, the mail comes rolling in, and oh, Colossians is the best one yet. So we just have to feel that the Lord is in it, and He's the one that's using His Word. After all, as I've said so often, this is just an informal class. We're not tied to any group, and all we try to do is get people from whatever background you may be involved, to just simply search the Scriptures. Don't listen to what I say, and say, well that's what Les says. No, you've got to be able to say, I've searched the Scriptures, and I can see that this is what it says. All right, verse 1 of chapter 3 of Colossians. If Paul says, you then be risen. Now what's the if for? If you're a true believer. If you're not a believer, none of these things apply. This is only for true believers. Not a professor, but a true believer. So that's why the little prepositional if is in there. If you are really a believer, and you have risen with Christ, then seek those things which are above. Now we were just talking at break time. I think 99% of us can hardly wait for the Lord to come, because we understand the glory that's waiting for us. We're not tied to this whole world as beautiful as it is in places, and I've always said it on the program. People who know, I love my cattle, I've got as good as they come, but they pale in insignificance when I think of eternity, and going into the Lord's presence. And so we do. We seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Positionally. Now again, you know I had somebody ask one time, and I can't blame people for wondering, you mean he's just up there sitting on a chair next to God the Father for the last 2,000 years? Well hardly, hardly. But positionally, and this is what we have to see, that positionally He is at the Father's right hand interceding for us. And of course that's not just a Pauline concept. Come all the way back to the book of Psalms, Psalms 110 verse 1. And this is way back 1,000 years B.C. at about the time of David, and this is David's Psalm. And this is good for people to realize, that this is not just a Pauline concept. This is David as well, understood that the day would come. Psalms 110 verse 1. And it's so plain, and this isn't such deep theology that you've got to have 4 or 5 degrees to understand it. It says, "...the Lord," which I think is a reference here to the Father, "...said unto my Lord," the Son, "...sit thou at my right hand, until," and that's a time word, "...until I make your enemies your footstool." Now isn't that plain? Positionally then, when Christ finished the work of the cross, He ascended and went into the very throne room of heaven, and positionally is at the Father's right hand, interceding for us. All right, come back to the New Testament again if you will, and we can go into Hebrews, and we have that same comment. Now all these things substantiate, see? That's why we repeat things, that we lock it in. That isn't just some fluff that you just take in and let it go. You lock it in, because Scripture has repeated it over and over. Hebrews chapter 1, and I always have to start at verse 1 to pick up the flow. God, the Triune God, "...who at sundry times, and in diverse manners, spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets." Now what's that speaking about? The nation of Israel. Back in those days of antiquity, He spoke to the nation of Israel by the prophets, Isaiah and all the rest of them. Verse 2, "...but he hath in these last days," and again I always have to qualify, what are the last days in God's program? Well from His first advent on, those are the last days. Everything from Adam until Christ were what you would say the other part, but from Christ, this direction are the last days. So in these last days, God, verse 1, "...has spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also He made the worlds." Now here it comes in verse 3, "...who being the brightness of His glory," see? He never was less than God. "...so being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power," see how that fits with Colossians 1? "...and by Him all things consist, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, He," what? "...sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." Same kind of language as Psalm 110, verse 1, but it's a positional term. Just like we are citizens of heaven, well we're here, but our citizenship is up there, positionally. So He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Well I had another one, and it escapes me. So let's come back to Colossians chapter 3, "...where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Oh I know where it was, now it comes back. First John chapter 2, verse 1. Now we can also use verse 2, but what we want is in verse 1. First John chapter 2, verse 1, "...my little children..." So even here, who are they writing to? Believers. See this doesn't apply to the unbeliever. "...my little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Now John doesn't refer to him as the right hand of the Father, but isn't that where he is? Sure, he's our advocate. Every time we fail, every time we sin, he is right there, and he is confronting the Father. Yes he's sinned, but he's under the blood. I've paid for that sin, and this is our comfort. Now then I guess you can come back to Colossians chapter 3, and so if we're a believer, and we have experienced that death, burial, and resurrection, we've been identified with his death, we're identified with his burial, we've been identified with his resurrection, then we realize that our advocate is sitting at the right hand of God the Consequently verse 2. My what a common sense admonition. If we are a child of God, if we realize that our Lord and Savior is there at the Father's right hand, constantly interceding on our behalf, then doesn't it follow that we can set our affection on things above, and not on things on the earth? Now there's nothing wrong with things. God doesn't tell us that we have to live Spartan. God doesn't tell us that we have to just simply exist because we're Christians. But what's the word? Priorities. That's the one Iris and I are always using on the kids. Get your priorities straight. There's nothing wrong with things if they're in the right level of priority. But what should be number one? Heaven, where our citizenship is, and where we're soon going to be going. So set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. Now here's what I like again, verse 3 and 4. For you are dead, that is to the old Adam and to the old flesh, the natural. You're dead, and you're what? Life. Now it's hard for us to comprehend death and life in the same sentence. But listen, do you ever realize that throughout all of nature you cannot get life until first there's death? You know that. Every plant seed that you put in the ground before it can have new life, what does it have to do? It has to die. The Lord Himself used the same analogy back in John's Gospel. Let's go back and look at it. John's Gospel chapter 12, and he puts it so beautifully, so simply. I have to start at verse 20. They still write and tell me that I'm going too fast. They keep telling me, slow down, I can't find them fast enough. So we'll try to give time enough for everybody to find this. John's Gospel chapter 12, dropping down to verse 20. There were certain Greeks, non-Jews, Gentiles, among, it doesn't say they were worshipers, but they came in among them that came up to worship at the feast. Now you've heard me do this before. Every time we go to Jerusalem and we visit the Temple Mount naturally, where do we go? Well, the Wailing Wall. And we as tourists, we stand back here and we watch those Jewish people holding their bar mitzvahs and so forth, and we're just onlookers. They don't even pay any attention to their tourists, they're used to that. Well I think that's what these Greeks were. They were just in there awed by all the activity of these thousands and thousands of Jews gathering for the feast day. So they were just among them. I don't believe they were worshiping at all. And so they were among those that came up to worship, and then verse 21, the same, that is these Greeks, came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip, not knowing how to handle it, because he could remember only too well, what did Jesus tell him back there in Matthew 10? Go not into the way of a Gentile, but go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And for three years that was their command, and they never ministered to Gentiles. And so now, when a couple or three, however many there were, the Bible doesn't tell us, but I'm guessing two or three Greeks came up and said, Well now Philip, you've been with this Jesus of Nazareth, we've been hearing about Him, take us to Him. And how do you suppose Philip thought? Hey, how am I going to handle this? I don't want him to embarrass everybody, and just tell those Greeks that he doesn't have anything to do with them, and I know he won't, but he doesn't want to take full responsibility, so what does he do? He goes and tells Andrew. And can't you just, can't you put that conversation in your mind? And Philip finds Andrew, and he says, Andrew, there's some Gentiles out here, and they want to talk to Jesus. Now we know that he's not going to, but what are we going to do? And Andrew probably says, Well, we can't take the responsibility ourselves, let's go in and ask Him. So they find the Lord Jesus, and I always again picture Him probably in one of the buildings of the temple complex, but whatever. Philip telleth Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together go and tell Jesus, see? And what do they tell Him? Hey, there's Greeks out here that want to see you. They're Gentiles, but they want to see you. Does Jesus say bring them in? No. But Jesus gives the reason, now here it comes. And He answered them and said in verse 23, the hour is come. Now you want to remember this is a matter of hours before He's crucified. The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. That'll of course happen at His resurrection. Verily, verily, I say unto you, here it comes, except or unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground, and what? Die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Of course, the seed kernel dies, up comes the blade, hopefully a hundred kernels. All right, He's here of course in John, now you can be coming back to Colossians, in John He's referring to His own death, burial, and resurrection. And the Gentiles would have no object of faith until He would accomplish that death, burial, and resurrection. And so that's why He didn't invite them in. They could not come and partake of Him until He had finished the work of the cross. And so this is exactly what Paul is talking about now then in verse 2 of chapter 3 in Colossians, or verse 3 rather, that you are dead like that seed. We have died with Christ to our old Adam, but our new life, our spiritual life, is what? It's hid with Christ in God. Now I don't use the board as much as I used to, but I'm going to use it here. And I'm going to use some circles, and here we are. We're way down in the recesses of the Godhead, and out here we have God the Father, and here we have Christ the Son, and here we are way down in the middle. Now, there is nothing that can touch any one of us believers without coming all the way through. Isn't that comforting? Isn't that something? That's where we are. You've heard me in my class in Oklahoma, I'll use the old black walnut. We've got a lot of them around here, and that old big black walnut with that outer shell that nobody wants to fool with really. But if you want to get to the meat of that black walnut, you'll clean it off, and then you get to the hard part, that hard shell of the walnut. My little wife's good at it. She can put them on a piece of concrete and beat them with a sledge, and she can crack them. But whatever, down in the crevices then are the what? The goodies. See? And that's every time I break a walnut, that's what I think of. That's where we are. We are hid in Christ, and Christ is hid in God. And listen, there's no way you can get out of there. Once you're in there, a lot of people never have really gotten there. But once you're in those little crevices like under that walnut, you're safe. Nothing can touch us because we are hid with Christ in God. That's what the true believer is. Now then, verse 4. Oh, it just keeps getting better. It just keeps getting better. For when Christ, who is our life, the One who not only saved us, He not only keeps us, but now He gives us eternal promises. For when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him where? In glory. Now let's go back to Romans 8. My goodness, if this isn't enough to even excite young people. Now I know when we're young, we've got our life ahead of us, and the hope of ambitions of being successful, and having a family, and all that. But as rotten as the world has become, and I hope young people realize that there's not that much good future left on this planet. So we better start looking at eternal things. Romans 8. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons, or the born ones, of God. For you, if you have been born of God, you have not received the Spirit of bondage, legalism, to fear. Have you ever stopped to realize that every religion of the world, and I'll use those that are most removed. You take the Buddhists, and you take the Shintos, and you take Mohammedans, and you take some of these religious people. What is their basic attitude? They're scared to death. They're superstitiously scared to death for doing anything contrary to their religion, lest they lose their hope for whatever they're looking for. And that's bondage. And I don't care what religion you get involved in. It's going to be a bondage. It's going to be a constant fear. Even in Protestantism and Catholicism here in America, if you're going to depend on works, then there is that bondage of fear that you're not working quite hard enough. I'm not doing quite enough, or maybe I've done too much of the opposite. And there is that fear, if they really understand eternity. Now a lot of people anymore don't even think about eternity. I know that. But for those who have a concept of eternal doom, they are scared to death in their superstitious legalism, and consequently they cannot have this liberty that we have. So verse 15 again of Romans 8, you've not received the spirit of bondage. We're not bound with legalism to fear. See the two go together, but you have received the spirit of adoption, which is again a technical term spiritually. We have been placed by virtue of our salvation into a position in the body of Christ. All right? And you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Verse 16, the spirit himself, the Holy Spirit, beareth witness with our spirit that we are not hoped to be, not working toward that end, but it's a done deal. We are the children of God. And if we're children of God, then we're heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. Now the condition of course is that we're true believers. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also, here's what I came to see. What? Glorified. See? If we suffer with him, we're going to be glorified together with him. And that's our prospect. We're going to be united to him as members of the body. We're going to be joint heirs with him like a husband and wife are here. And everything that's Christ will one day be ours and all of glory is going to be ours to enjoy. No limits, no confines. You know what I like to think? If we want to go to Pluto, you're going to go in a split second. Now that's the way I have to look at it. We're going to have that new resurrected body that won't be confined by time and space. We're going to have absolute freedom. We're going to have full knowledge. We won't need computers to project our travel. We'll be able to just about do anything that you can imagine. And we're going to have total freedom. Okay, that just gives you a little glimpse. Now let's read Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Now with all that as a prospect, then for goodness sakes, mortify, put to death. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, that is the things of the flesh. And of course there's only one place a human being can put these things to death, and that is the cross. When we become a believer, we automatically put to death these things that are part and parcel of life on this earth. And then he begins to list them as he does over and over in his letters, admonishing Christians that this is not part of our lifestyle. It was part of the world, and we're not to have any part of it. And what are they? Same thing as before, fornication, sexual immorality in all of its various forms, uncleanness, inordinate affection, in other words affection that is not normal, evil contributions, in other words I think I could use the word double meanings, and covetousness, envy, which is idolatry. In other words you don't covet something unless you tend to idolize it. Now come back with me all the way to Leviticus chapter 18, and even though it's Scripture, the language is such that I'm not going to read it in a mixed group, and certainly not over television, but you can read it in the privacy of your own home. I haven't got time to go back to Genesis, but you'll remember in Genesis 15, God told Abraham that they would have to wait 400 years before the iniquity of the Amorites would be full, so that He could destroy them, and let Israel have the promised land. Do you remember that? He said the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And so they went 400 years, and then they got so wicked, they were so immoral, that God said, destroy everyone, don't save an old man of a hundred, or a young baby of infancy, because of their wickedness. Now look what He comes to the conclusion in Leviticus 18, after He lists all the immoral things that we're reading about every day in our paper lately. And He has one word for them, abomination. Now look what He says in verse 24, He says, defile not yourselves in any of these things, that He's written in the previous verses. Don't defile yourselves in any of these things, for the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you. All right, now because of our lack of time, I got to take you up to verse 30. Therefore shall you keep my ordinance, that you commit not any one of these abominable customs, and that you defile not yourselves therein. Why? Because I am the... Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. 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