Clean Up

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Well, a very cordial, a loving hello from your friend, Dr. Cook. I’m glad to be back with you. And we wanna turn now to the third chapter of Colossians once again and see what the Lord is saying to us there. My purpose in bringing these broadcasts to you day by day is to put a handle on the Word of God so that you can get hold of it for yourself. I trust that that may be so today. May there be something special for you today.

Also, “since you’re risen with Christ, now” your King James version says if, but you could very well read it since. “Since you then are risen with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Then he gives you a list of earthly sinful things that are part of sinful human nature; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In which ye also lived 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. Lie not one to another, seeing 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.”

I read that whole passage because it does hold together there. The fact is that when you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior and committed yourself to him something happened not only in the matter of your eternal destiny, but also in your entire relationship to God and the world around you.

He said you’re risen with Christ buried with Him, you died with Him at the cross, you were buried with Him, you’re risen with Him, everything He did was for you, wasn’t it? So that by faith you accept all that He did for you. See all the religions of the world, all the other religions, Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a faith but for our purposes, we’ll use the word other. All the other religions in the world say that you must do something or go somewhere, or pay something or whatever, or join something.

It’s something to do but the faith that is in the Lord Jesus Christ says it’s all done. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed, that’s Isaiah 53. Come over to 2 Corinthians, God hath made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It’s all done so that when by faith get hold of this beloved because it’s the principle on which all of your life can be lived victoriously. When by faith you accept what the Lord Jesus is and what He did for you, then you become identified with Him at that point, and you can say, “I died with him, and I was buried with him, and I rose again with him, and today, by faith, I share his resurrection life Christ is made unto me. 1 Corinthians 1:30, Christ is made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”

Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know, righteousness is being spontaneously good, sanctification is being separated unto God without being sanctimonious, and redemption is wrapping up the whole package of life and living it for the glory of God now and in eternity. Christ is made unto us all these things and by faith you accept what he is for you, right? Well, since that’s true, said Paul, now you’re still living in a human body, you’re still living in a human society, you’re still subject to the stimuli of things that are happening around you, and words that are spoken around you and people whom you are meeting who are living around you, you’re still in a world of things and people. What do you do about it?

Since you’re risen with Christ, he says seek those things which are above. It’s an interesting word, the word seek. Now seek peace and pursue it. You’ve got another verb that means pursue like a soldier pursuing his captive or like a hunter pursuing his quarry. This word seek, Greek word’s zeteo. It means to diligently inquire or to seek, 98 times in the New Testament it’s translated seek but it has the idea of asking and inquiring and digging into an idea. All of that is wrapped up in that one word. He says give your attention, in other words give your attention to things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Now, how do you do this?

Well, how was it that you initiated your first relationship with Christ? You began to be aware of your need of a savior, you came to him and by faith, you committed yourself to him. Isn’t that true? Now, Colossians 2:6 says, “as you received him, so live every minute of every day in him.” And so to seek those things which are above doesn’t mean that you’re gonna be so heavenly-minded, that you’re no earthly good, but it does mean that you will refer every part of all of your daily life to Jesus Christ, who is now your life and your Lord.

I used to tell our students at the college pray your way through the day, a very simple statement which has a profound effect upon daily living. Refer the events and the decisions and the experiences and the feelings and the temptations and the reactions and the words and thoughts of every day’s living, refer them all to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He’s our intercessor, he ever liveth to make intercession for them who come unto God by him. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ is the man in the glory, there’s one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

And so you have a person there at the right hand of the holy almighty God the Father, you have a person there, a human being now, the second person of the Godhead, who took upon him a human body, in order that he might be our savior. You have him there at the right hand of God, representing you and so you bring the details of every day’s life to this person who is now your Lord and who in himself is your life. Christ is our life. When Christ who is our life shall appear. Paul says in the fourth verse of this third chapter, you bring the details of every day into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul the apostle had to learn to pray this prayer early in his Christian life, his second prayer was, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” First of all, who art thou, Lord? That was his first prayer. The second prayer was, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” I think that prayer has to come from our hearts again and again and again, if we are to know the reality of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ because you’re risen with Christ, it’s a fact. He did it all for you, and by faith, you have accepted it, so, you’re risen with him because that’s true, said he. Now pay attention to what he’s interested in — things above. Pay attention to what Jesus is interested in, you that is and his life lived through you. Now, then how does… Remember now, we’ve got all these different key verbs, I went over them, one of the last times we got together; seek, set, mortify, put off, put on, let the peace of God rule in your heart and let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. These are the things that are the results of realizing that you are indeed alive in Christ, okay?

So he said seek those things, inquire into them, set your attention on them, pay attention to them, think about them. What you think about happens in your life, you know that, right? What you think about happens in your life, so think about Christ’s will and the things he’s interested in. Read the Gospels with this question in mind: what does Jesus want me to do? You won’t get very far in Matthew before you run into what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And there you’ll have the Beatitudes and you’ll have Him saying don’t do your praying for other people’s sake, but you pray to your Father, which is in heaven, He’ll reward you. Don’t do your good deeds for other people to give you credit for them, but you do them for your Heavenly Father. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Learn to obey God rather than just talking about Him, “whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them shall be like a man who built his house upon a rock.”

Learn the secret of a clean heart that comes from a clean mind and a clean eye and clean thoughts, all of them cleansed through the precious blood of Jesus. Learn how to love in spite of the hatred of people around you. These are things he tells us in what’s called the Sermon on the Mount, doesn’t he? You won’t get very far in reading the Gospels before you’ll run into a lot of things that Jesus wants you to be and to become and that He wants you to do. Well, pay attention to that, says Paul, pay attention to it, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.

Realize that he’s there to represent you. You can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, you needn’t hang back, you needn’t feel shy, you needn’t be afraid Christ is there, He’s your intercessor, He is your mediator, He’s your elder brother, He’s your glorious savior and coming king, and He loves you. The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, said Paul. And so you are immediately in the presence of the one who has your eternal destiny in hand, and you want them to pay attention to what He wants. That’s what that verse means. Set your affection is the next thing he says there, set your affection.

Now, can you determine how your affections work? Young people come and talk about being in love and maybe they’re in love, unfortunately, with a person who is not a Christian, and they’re concerned about it, and they say, “Well, brother, I can’t help how I feel. I can’t help how I feel. Now is that true? Yes, of course, it’s true. There are some feelings that lie so deep that it’s impossible it would seem for you and for me to change them. But there is a sense, dear friend, in which your feelings, your affections can be by an act of your will through faith in Jesus transferred from earthly things to heavenly things. It’s quite possible, as I told you the other day, to love earthly things like my neighbor so many years ago, who just loved his Model A. It’s quite possible to love earthly things and to be tied to them emotionally, so that you really are emotionally upset if anything happens to them, but it is also possible for you by faith. Now all of our dealings with God are by faith, it is possible for you by faith to begin to transfer your feelings, your affections on things above.

Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth. Does that mean you won’t pay any attention to earthly life? Oh no, it doesn’t mean that. Does that mean that you’ll just squander your money and that you won’t pay any attention to your possessions or that you’ll let your house run down or that you’ll let your car fall into disrepair. No, of course not. Does that mean that you’ll be so busy being spiritual that you’ll neglect your health? No, it doesn’t mean that. What we’re talking about here is by faith setting the scheme of importance in your life so that the important things are heavenly things, and then everything else falls into place. We’ll get at this again the next time we get together.

Dear Father today, by faith, we place our affections and all of our scheme of important things in Thy hands, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!