What it Means to Be “In Christ” | David Jeremiah 2023

God is saying to you today:
“l know you’ve been in a difficult season. Hold on. Change is coming. I’ve heard your prayers and I am making a way for you. You’ve been
through so much, but you’re still here. You’re going to make it.”

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

Welcome to Turning Point Weekend edition.
Do you want to know what someone believes? Just watch how they behave today?
Doctor David Jeremiah examines the link between belief and behavior through the eyes of the Apostle.
Paul, listen as David shares what it means to be in Christ.
You know the word in Christ is one of the most common phrases in Paul’s writings.
And it is really a glorious thought that when the father in heaven looks at me, he doesn’t see me, he sees me in Christ, he sees Christ and I am in Christ.
He doesn’t see my unrighteousness. He sees Christ’s righteousness.
I am in Christ and you are too, if you’re a believer.
And uh sometimes I think we forget that and we don’t live up to that standard.
So we’re gonna talk about it on the weekend edition of Turning Point, what it means to be in Christ from Colossians chapter three.
As we jump into our text today, we’re going to look at Colossians 31 to 11 and you will notice there’s a shift in tone and a shift in subject matter.
In chapter three of Colossians, Paul begins the practical application of the doctrines that he has been teaching us in chapters one and two.
Now I’ve explained to you that’s how Paul writes. It’s consistent in all of his letters.
The first part of the book is doctrine. It’s difficult doctrine.
And the second part of the book is practical application.
So it’s like here’s what we believe and because this is what we believe, this is how we’re supposed to behave, how many of, you know, your behavior is based on what you believe.
And Paul has been talking to us in Colossians about our belief in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.
And he’s the creator of the universe and all of these things that we’ve learned.
Now in chapter three, he’s going to give us some instruction based upon what we know.
This is what we should do based upon the doctrine. Here’s the duty.
Once again, the key to it all is Jesus Christ.
And he’s mentioned four times in the first four verses of our text.
The title of our subject in the book of Colossians is Christ. Above all.
If you, I’m picking that up, you’re not reading the same book I’m reading.
Because listen to this, if then 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, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
What is the link between Christ and you? And what is the link between Christ and me?
And why is that so important in the 1st 11 verses of Galatians chapter three?
The Apostle Paul answers that question. He says, Christ is everything.
He ends the chapter by saying he’s all in all. He is everything.
And first of all, because Christ is in you, you are a new person.
Let’s unpack that for just a moment three times in this passage, Paul uses the phrase with Christ.
He uses the words with W I T H. He describes our connection to Christ. Listen in verse one.
He says, you were raised with Christ in verse three.
He says, your life is hidden with Christ in verse four. You also will appear with him in glory.
I’ve highlighted the word with, to show you how critical it is in this frame of thinking with is a word of connection.
Our lifeline to Christ. The Bible says when he died, we died with him when he was buried.
So were we and when he was resurrected, we were resurrected with him.
And now he is seated at the right hand of the father. And the Bible says, we’re there too.
So how could that be? Well, let me explain it.
When Jesus went to the cross, he took all of our sins on him.
So when he died, we were there everything that we’ve ever done or will do that’s rotten and corrupt and anti God and sinful and vulgar and just simply wrong.
Everything, all of it was on Jesus. When he died, we died with him.
And when he was buried, we were buried with him.
But thank God, when he came out of the grave, victorious over death, we were with him then.
So we are resurrected in Jesus Christ. We’re alive in Christ. That’s what the text is saying.
I want you to understand the truth is just that radical. The old you is dead.
It’s in the grave, the new you is raised to walk in the newness of life and to live victoriously for Jesus Christ because of your connection with Christ.
Three things are true about you. First of all, your past has been changed.
Colossians 31 and three says, if then you were raised with Christ, you died.
And the word, if there is not a word of doubt, the word really should be translated.
Since, since you were raised with Christ, you died first, you’ve been raised up. Second, you’ve died.
Our identification with Christ and his cross has two aspects to it.
First of all, our identity with his death cuts us off from our old life because we died with Christ.
Our old life is in the rear view.
Mirror our identity with his resurrection connects us with our new life.
In this verse, we know that the history of every Christ follower is, we have been raised with Christ just as surely as Christ marched out of that tomb.
First Easter Sunday, there was a day when David Jeremiah was spiritually resurrected through faith in Jesus Christ.
And at that moment, the Bible says, all things passed away and all things became new. Hallelujah.
And then your present has been changed. Look at verse three, your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Now that you’re a Christian, there’s something different about you in the present.
This is expressed in the words hidden with Christ which point to our secure relationship. Listen to this.
The Bible says, we’re with Christ in God. Let me show you how that is.
If you’re a Christian, you’re in Christ and Christ is in God, it’s a double lock on your security.
You’re in Christ. Christ is in God.
The Bible says as a Christian who died and was raised again, your current state of affairs is your life is hidden with Christ in God.
That is a statement concerning your present situation.
If we are believers, the Bible says we are hidden, it does not say seek to be hidden, it does not say pray that you might be hidden, try to hide yourself.
No, it just says you’re hidden when you become a Christian. The Bible says you are hidden in Christ.
The language here is taken from treasures which are hidden or concealed in a place of security.
And the idea is that the eternal life that you have is a valuable jewel so valuable that you are in the hand of Christ.
And Christ has got his security in the hand of the father and let somebody come and try to take you away from that.
So your past has been changed, your present has been changed.
Notice Paul goes on to tell you that not only is your past different and your presence is different, but your future is different too.
Colossians 34. When Christ, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Philippians 2 10 and 11 says this one day, every knee is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, every knee in heaven on earth, those under the earth, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
The father, the Bible says that one day we’re going to be with Christ. That’s what Paul wrote.
He said you will appear with Him in glory.
Now our life is hidden, but one day it’s going to appear, we’re going to appear with Christ in heaven.
Here’s what it says in first John 32 beloved.
Now we are Children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
But we know that when he is revealed, watch this, we shall be like Him. Can you imagine that?
I mean take a look at yourself.
Come on now, one day what you see is going to be so radically changed that the only way to describe it is you will be like Jesus for we shall see him as he is in the present.
We are hidden. But one day we will be revealed with Christ.
All that is a secret to everyone now will be made known to everyone.
We are in Christ, we are revealed with Christ. Listen to this, we are like Christ. That’s your future.
So it’s true to say that if you’re in Christ, you’re a new person, your past is different, your present is different and your future is different.
Now, Paul goes on to say, since you’re a new person, you need to have a new perspective on life.
So look at verses one and two again, if then 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.
When you become a Christian, your whole life is changed and when your life is changed, your perspective has changed.
Now, your perspective is more upward than it is downward.
Now you realize that if you seek those things which are above, that will help you function in a way that you could never function otherwise, grammatically, these are commands.
Paul did not say to us that if we would like to do.
So, here’s an option you have for your Christian life. You might want to try looking up.
No, he says, do it look up?
Well, in Christ, you’re a new person in Christ, you have a new perspective as you give your energy to the things above your priorities are going to change.
And now we’re going to get into some serious discussion here, folks.
It’s almost like Paul knew what our world would be like when we would read his letter.
Now he wrote the letter from Rome to the church in Colossi and he knew what the church in Colossi was like because Epirus had come and told him and he was concerned that while they were worrying about all this false doctrine that was in the church, if they weren’t careful, they would quit living the Christian life the way it was supposed to be lived.
How many of, you know, you can get caught up in stuff like that.
I know some people that spend their whole life studying this or that.
And in the process, they don’t take any time to live their Christian life and they can become experts on something that it would be good for a Christian to know.
But in the process, they lose their relationship with God.
Therefore, because you’re a new Christian, because you’re a new believer because you have a new perspective.
Therefore, there’s a certain way you should live.
Therefore put to death, your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, even desire and covetousness, which is idolatry because of these things.
The wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
The first thing he says is you got to develop some sexual discipline in the Greek language.
The phrase put to death is very strong. In fact, in some translations, the phrase is rendered mortify, mortify.
Therefore your members and the word mortify is the word from which we get our English word mortician.
When it comes to the sins of the flesh, we need to be spiritual morticians and bury them in the ground.
So when Paul says we are to put our sins to death, he means to cease completely from activity with the implication of extreme measures taken to guarantee cessation, to stop completely, to cease completely, to stop doing it.
Were to take off the garments of sin that linger when we become Christians and get rid of those garments and stop doing the old things that we used to do before Christ came to start the process of making us new.
How many of you know, when you get saved, everything doesn’t immediately change for everybody.
Sometimes there’s a period of time when you have to grow in your faith and little by little, they’re like scales, they fall off of you.
But Paul says you need to take note of the fact that when you become a Christian, if you’re not careful, he actually mentions it here.
You can actually live as if you weren’t a Christian. You think that’s true.
I know lots of people who are that way. Do I think they’re saved? Probably do. I think they’re happy.
No, because you can’t be happy in Jesus when you’re not following his instruction in 16 65 the great plague raged throughout the city of London and those who could afford to leave the city, they left and those who remained were living in terror because the people who remained in London did not know what caused the plague.
The most elementary hygienic precautions thus were ignored. They didn’t know what was causing it.
And the city continued to send parcels of used clothing.
Often the property of the dead to poorer relatives and relief agencies listen to this even clothes that were stripped off.
The bodies of the plague victims were collected and dispatched all over the country to help poor people who didn’t have any clothing.
So imagine a family getting this parcel and proudly and gratefully putting on clothes much better in quality and style to their usual everyday wear.
They discovered that these attractive new garments had come from the plague houses with what horr would they strip them off and consign them to the fire.
It is with such horror that we should strip off the old man in his deeds.
He has the plague and you don’t want that in your life as a Christian just because Jesus has forgiven you all of your sins.
That doesn’t mean you don’t have to deal with sin anymore. Can I get a witness?
Everyone knows that he’s forgiven you of your sins.
But some of those old things keep creeping back into your life and if you’re not careful, your whole Christian experience can be ruined because you don’t deal with the things that Paul is talking about.
Here in verses five through seven, he gives the Colossians a list of five things they were to ruthlessly eliminate from their lives, followed by one reason they were to put those things to death.
Listen to this fornication refers to sexual immorality in general.
The word fornication comes from the word from which we get our word pornography, uncleanness means lustful impurity that is connected with luxury and loose living passion describes a state of mind that excites sexual impurity.
The person who cultivates this kind of appetite can always find opportunity to satisfy it, evil desires, just mean that base evil desires and attached to this list of sins.
Is this warning? Listen to this Paul said because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
What Paul is saying is this when you do these things, you’re doing the very things that put Christ on the cross, you’re doing the very things that he came to die and save you from and you’re doing the very things that one day are going to be punished when God comes to judge this world, he’s going to judge these things.
Do you want to be in that category?
Do you want to be doing the things that put Christ on the cross?
Do you want to be doing the things that is causing him to come back?
And with all of the judgment on this earth, you’re a Christian.
Why are these behaviors and desires to be put to death?
Because they are the things that God hates and they are the things that make him angry.
Paul reminds the Galatians of their past. He says you were once filled and dominated with all this junk.
You once walked in all kinds of sin, but no longer God has changed you.
And he says, listen, as far as the position you have, you already are forgiven.
You have died, you have been resurrected. You are new in Christ. That’s your position.
Here’s something I learned some time ago that’s really helped me with this when I was growing up, when we’d have a testimony meeting on Sunday night, there was this one old lady who used to get up every time she was a sweet woman, but she gave the same testimony every time she got up.
And when she got up, I saw little kids mouthing her testimony before she said it.
I am saved. I am sanctified and I am satisfied. Thank God.
And she’d sit down, I knew what save meant and I thought I knew what satisfied meant, but I never knew what sanctified meant until I got the seminary.
And I found out what sanctified is. Sanctification.
Listen to me carefully is becoming in practice what you already are in position.
God says that as a Christian, you have been buried with Christ, you have died with Christ.
You are buried with Christ. You have risen with Christ. You are a new risen believer.
Now, sanctification is acting like it go out and live like who you are. You’re a child of God.
Don’t let the sins of the flesh corrupt your testimony.
Don’t let sexual immorality get into your spirit and destroy you.
I do not know one person who’s ever done that who ever truly totally gets back to the place where they were before it happened.
Oh You’ll be forgiven and God restores. Thank Him for that. Guard yourself against it.
Paul says put it to death, take it out in the barn and shoot it.
Don’t ever let it happen again. I’m trying to help say this and not get nasty about it.
I just, I want to say it in such a way because I love you guys and I want you to understand it.
You cannot play with sexual sin.
It’s interesting to me that in this passage, all of the other sins we’re gonna talk about.
We’re told to put them off this particular package of sins we’re told to put to death.
It’s no incident that when you study the Bible, the Bible says you’re supposed to run from some things and the Bible says, flee fornication.
What does that mean? Run from it, run from it as fast like Joseph who ran out of Potiphar wife’s house.
And the Bible says he ran out and left his coat in her hand because he didn’t want to submit to her temptation.
You cannot fight with this, you cannot play with it. You cannot make deals with it.
You have to be ruthless in the New Testament. We’re told to crucify the flesh.
You know what it means to crucify something. It’s personal, it’s permanent and it’s pitiless.
So that’s what I’m saying. When you crucify the flesh, that’s what you do.
You go after it and you put it to death, you say, well, how do I do that?
You know what to do if you’re in a situation where you’re likely to submit to some temptation?
Get out of that situation, don’t leave yourself vulnerable. You say, well, I can’t, yes, you can.
And you would, if you really were serious about doing what Paul says, put it to death, then there’s mental discipline.
It goes on to say in verse five and covetousness which is idolatry, covetousness is subtle.
Did you know that? Because it is violated totally in the mind.
I read about a priest who said this.
He said he’d been listening to confessions for over 50 years and not one person in 50 years had ever confessed to covetousness.
Isn’t that interesting? It’s not something we confess.
We probably don’t even think it’s a sin, but it is a sin in the invisible violation that no one else sees you and I can have our act completely together on the outside, but inside, we can be agonizing, lusting, being consumed by the desire to have what someone else has.
It isn’t interesting that this is up next to the sexual sins because that’s what sexual sin does.
It causes somebody to come in another person’s wife or husband and then they get involved in in morality.
Warren Sby wrote this as Paul named these sensual sins. He added covetousness.
Covetousness is the sin of always wanting more, whether it be more things or more pleasures.
The covetous person is never satisfied with what he has and he is usually envious of what other people have.
Covetous is an attitude. And the Bible says in this text, it says it’s idolatry.
I mean, I was shocked when I read that again.
I guess I didn’t pick that up the first time around the Bible says when you covet somebody else’s stuff that’s idolatry.
It’s an attitude that is an enemy to the sufficiency of Christ.
When you come up, you’re saying by that, I don’t think Christ is taking care of me.
So I got to go take care of myself and get something somebody else has got it is idolatry because it raises a rival object of worship.
The writer of Hebrews says that we’re to replace coveting with contentment.
Let your conduct be without covetousness and be content with what you have. Coveting is idolatry.
The worship of a false God.
Contentment is praise the worship of a true God, sexual discipline, mental discipline, here’s social discipline.
Paul goes on in the next verse to say, but now you yourselves are to put all these things off, take them off like they took off the clothes when they found out they were from the playhouse, put them off and here’s what you’re supposed to put off anger and wrath and malice.
Anger is a feeling of emotion that boils below the surface.
Wrath is a sudden outburst of emotion that flares up and burns with intensity.
Malice refers to getting even malice is what you do when you don’t deal with.
The first two, when you let anger and wrath take over in your life.
The next thing you know, you’re trying to figure out a way to hurt somebody who’s done something to you that you don’t like.
And then there’s one last one vocal discipline, sexual discipline verses five through seven mental discipline. Verse five.
Social discipline, verse eight and vocal discipline. Listen to this.
But now you yourselves are to put all these things off, put them off, take them off.
These are bad clothing, take them off blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds.
In other words, you’ve already accepted Christ. You’re already a Christian now start living like one.
Don’t let these old things that are part of your old life, the life that put Jesus on the cross and that’s going to ultimately cause his wrath upon this world.
Don’t let that stuff be a part of your life, be him embarrassed that that stuff is still a part of your life.
I know a lot of Christians who they’re struggling with this, they’re working on it and they’re embarrassed that it still shows up how many know what I’m talking about.
You think you got this stuff all together and all of a sudden something happens you didn’t expect takes you off guard and you respond like the old man, Paul says you gotta quit doing that blasphemy is defamation of character, slander, don’t slander other people.
You know, there’s not very many good things about what’s happening in social media right now, but it does give you pause before you slander somebody on social media and you want to keep your job, right?
I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s fair.
I don’t think it’s right and what’s happening to a lot of people is really wrong, but I’ll tell you what it causes you pause before you write something that could come back and hurt you while you’re trying to hurt somebody else.
So don’t do that. Don’t slander filthy language refers to vulgarity in your Christian life.
You don’t want to slander people and you don’t want to be filled with vulgarity.
And then it says blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth and then don’t lie to one another.
Those are three vocal disciplines we all need to develop as Christians.
Finally, in verses 10 and 11, you have a new purpose and here’s what it says in verse 10.
And you have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised, nor uncircumcised, barbarian scythian slaver free.
But Christ is all in all.
Here’s what he says, Paul just gave us the number one remedy to racism.
Here’s what he says, Christians live like Christians.
And if you do, what will happen is racial barriers will be gone.
Greek or Jew, religious barriers will be gone, circumcised or uncircumcised.
Cultural barriers will be gone, barbarians, scythians and social barriers will be gone slave or free.
Paul says, when we live the life that we’re supposed to live as Christians, we can even have an impact on culture.
You know, a lot of Christians are getting caught up in all this ugliness that’s going on in our country right now.
We don’t need to be there we need to be forceful.
We need to be strong in our conviction, but we’re to be filled with grace and truth as Jesus was speak the truth in grace.
And when we do that as believers, the Bible says, we start breaking down barriers that have been built up around us.
And all of a sudden, we’re having an impact on culture.
Do you know if every Christian who is a Christian in America started living like a Christian, there would be a whole different situation that we have in this nation than we have right now.
Christians have morphed into a world that they don’t belong in.
So let me just end it with this. Maybe your life is not the way it should be.
Maybe you’re a Christian, you know, you’re a Christian, but you hear me today and I’ve been a little bit, you know, back into that whole thing where if you’re a pastor, you comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
And I’ve been doing a little affliction today and you know that I don’t have any choice.
I’m teaching this book and this is what’s in the book.
I got to teach it, but it’s good for us.
And it just reminds us that if we get caught up in that and we become impure or unclean or greedy or angry, controlled by anger, maybe we are lying about things.
Here’s the point. Listen to me, Christ does not do any of those things and you are in Christ?
Are you with me? Christ doesn’t lie. He’s not angry, he doesn’t have wrath.
He doesn’t accuse people of things. Christ doesn’t do that.
And since you’re in Christ, you don’t have to do it either, that’s what the whole thing is about.
You can take off all those habits and all those desires and instead each day you can dress yourself with the new man, you can focus all your effort, all your attention on who you really are.
You are a pure, clean, generous, patient, honest believer in Jesus Christ now just live like that.
And we end this sermon, we return to the beginning. You can’t do that in your own strength.
You need Christ in you to do that, don’t you? I can’t do that by myself.
I need the Holy Spirit. I need Christ in me.
In the first verses of chapter three, we are reminded that we are with Christ and Christ is in us.
Now, at the end of these verses, we’re reminded, this is the last thing in the text.
Christ is all in all you say. Can I do that? No, you can’t do it. But Christ can.
Why can’t he? Because he’s everything, he’s sufficient. That’s what it means.
He’s enough for everything you need to do in your life. He’s enough. He will help you.
There’s no need to look elsewhere.
He can save us from our sins, listen to me and he can save us from ourselves. Amen.
And we need more of the second as believers than we do. Of the first.
We need to be saved from ourselves, receive him and love him and follow him and worship him and fellowship with him and share him with everyone.
You know why? Because he’s above all. Hallelujah.
And one day he’s coming back and he will get the credit he deserves when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.
So the take away from all of this is simple.
One day, he will be Lord over the universe right now today in this place, he wants to be Lord over.
You don’t get so caught up in his lordship over the universe that you forget what it means to let him be Lord over you.
He doesn’t want to be resident in your life. He wants to be president in your life.
He wants to be Christ in you, the hope of glory, amen.
We hope you enjoy today’s turning point weekend edition with Doctor David Jeremiah.
You can also hear turning point Monday through Friday on a radio station near you to find one or to contact us.
Visit our website at David Jeremiah dot org slash radio. That’s David Jeremiah 10.0.0 R G slash radio.
Ask for your copy of David’s new book Christ above all, a study in Colossians to help you truly know who Jesus is.
It’s yours for a gift. Of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English standard, new international and new King James versions.
Get the details when you contact us at David Jeremiah dot org slash radio and be here next weekend as Doctor David Jeremiah brings another message from God’s word here on Turning point weekend edition.