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[0:00] As we get started, we're going to be in Colossians chapter 1, verses 24 and 29, and we're going to be pretty much spending our time in verse 27, and particularly in seven words in verse number 27.

[0:16] And this morning I trust that we will be able to consider what it means, what it really means to be in Christ and to have Christ in us, and what it means to live the Christian life.

[0:29] And the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Colossae, and this is what he says, starting in verse 24. He says, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.

[1:01] The mystery, verse 26, which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among you, the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[1:24] Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

[1:35] To this end, I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. And in verse 27, what we hear or what we see is these words, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[1:55] And I'm convinced that if we grasp this truth that our hope is Christ in us, and which is the hope of glory, it will change our Christian life.

[2:09] So let's go word by word. And if you're looking in your notes this morning, you see we have taken each of those words in verse 27.

[2:21] Christ in you, the hope of glory. So we're going to take it word by word. So we'll start with, and where does it all start?

[2:33] Starts with, what's the first word? Christ. Christ. And so the Christian life is the empowered life.

[2:43] If you're taking notes, that's the first thing that we see. Christ in you. The hope of glory. It all starts, the Christian life starts with Christ.

[2:56] And because of some false teaching that was going on in Colossae, the Apostle Paul writes to them in the book that we have entitled, The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians.

[3:09] And what he's doing is he is trying to get around that false teaching and hit it and teach the supremacy of Christ. Teaching that Jesus Christ is supreme.

[3:22] That Jesus Christ was not created. He is not just flesh. That he is supreme. And he is above all thing. And I think what we see, what I believe we see in here, in this portion of Scripture, is probably the most beautiful portrait of Christ anywhere in Scripture.

[3:47] So what I want us to do is go back to verse number 15 and take a look at what we're going to see there. And verse 15 says, He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation.

[4:06] So who's Jesus? Jesus is God. The Bible says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

[4:18] So it all starts with the empowered life. Jesus is the image of God. And in verse 15, the word firstborn, the Greek word for that is not the Greek word firstborn that means order of birth.

[4:35] It means supremacy. Because it was the firstborn that was the boy in the family who was supreme in the sense that it was the firstborn that got a double portion of the blessing and the one that was going to become the patriarch of the family eventually.

[4:56] So simply, Jesus Christ is supreme over all creation. He is the image of God. He is God revealed in the flesh.

[5:07] Look at, and what we see is He is the image of God. I'm sorry I didn't put that slide up for you. He is the image of God. Let's look over in chapter 20, chapter 2, verse 9.

[5:20] And in chapter 2 of Colossians, and in verse number 9, the Bible says, For in Him, for in who? In Christ. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

[5:36] So in Christ, this is God revealed in the flesh. He is the image of God. Then you go to chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, and you see that He is the author of creation.

[5:51] Jesus Christ has always been the author of creation. In the beginning, God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And there was a plural noun that was used there.

[6:04] So it says in verses 16 and 17, as we're building this portrait of who Christ is, in verse 16 we see, for by Him, again, by Christ, by Jesus, all things were created.

[6:22] Everything that has ever been created, Christ, God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, created all things that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.

[6:47] He is the image of God, the author of creation. Verse 17, and He is before all and in Him all things consist.

[7:00] He is the, not only is He the image of God, but He is the author of creation. The only reason why we have breath today is Jesus is sustaining us. The only reason the grass is standing up outside is because Jesus is sustaining it.

[7:14] The only reason why we don't just explode in the biggest atomic explosion ever because Jesus is holding our structure, our molecular structure together.

[7:25] He is the author of creation. But not only that, God's Word tells us He is the head of the church. He is the head of the church.

[7:39] We see that in verse 18 as we continue going through here. And He, Jesus, is the, not only is He the image of God, not only is He the author of creation, but He is the head of the body, which is the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

[8:06] That's what Paul was writing about. That's the error he was correcting, is that Jesus is God. Jesus is the creator of the universe.

[8:17] He is the author of creation and He is the head of the church. Sovereign not just over creation, but sovereign over the church. And not only that, the Apostle Paul brings out to the Colossian Christians, He's the Savior of the world.

[8:33] He is the Savior of the world. Look in verses 19 and 20. For it pleased the Father that in Him, that in Jesus, all the fullness should dwell.

[8:46] All what fullness? Godness. The fullness of God is in Jesus. And by Him, by Jesus, to what? Reconcile what?

[8:58] All things. All things to Himself. By Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through what? How did Jesus reconcile the world to Him?

[9:11] Through His blood that was shed on the cross. Not only did God create all things, but the only way for all things created to be reconciled to God was through Jesus Christ.

[9:24] Through His shed blood on the cross. Now this is a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ that we have in Colossians 1. And the awesome thing is, if Christ is anywhere near you, He's going to change your life.

[9:42] But the beauty is, Christ is not just near you. If you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the Bible says, Jesus is in you.

[9:55] Jesus is in us. The Christian life is the empowered life. Now don't just let that go by you.

[10:07] If you've trusted Christ as your Savior, you are not living this life on your own. It's Christ in you. What does it mean for Him to live in us?

[10:19] So, remember, it is Christ we come to in you. Christ in you. And it is the transformed life.

[10:31] Not only is it the empowered life, it is Christ, the author of creation, the God of the universe, the image of God, the head of the church, the Savior.

[10:42] He is in us and that transforms our life. The Christian life is the empowered life. It's the transformed life. It's Christ in you.

[10:53] And this is the picture that Paul is talking about in verses 26 and 27. Remember when we were there? He says that in the mystery that has been hidden from the ages, not a mystery that's a big secret that he was trying to keep secret and finally it came out.

[11:13] No, it was something that God has been waiting down through the ages, wanting to reveal it to the world. And if you look through the Old Testament, we see this picture of God being near his people, God being with his people over and over.

[11:31] Genesis 12, Genesis 15, I am with you, Abraham. Genesis 26, I am with you, Isaac. Genesis 39, four different times, God said, I am with you, Joseph.

[11:47] And when Moses passes the mantle of leadership to Joshua, he says to Joshua, just as I was with Moses, I am what?

[11:59] I am with you. To Gideon, Gideon, you're going to fight these Midianites. Don't be afraid because I am with you. I will be with you.

[12:10] To David, God told David, I am with you. To Solomon, he says, Solomon, just as I was with your father David, I am with you.

[12:22] To the prophets, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, he said, don't be afraid. I am with you. Then Jesus comes on the scene and the Bible says his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[12:42] So Jesus is carrying on that same nearness, that same withness, God with his people, God near his people. And then when you come down to John 33, Jesus is saying, I will only be with you for a little while longer.

[13:01] And then panic sets in. Well, wait a minute. God's been with his people all these centuries. God was with David and Solomon and Moses and now with Jesus.

[13:14] God is with us. Emmanuel, God with us. And Jesus, you're going to leave and God will no longer be with us. Red flags go up.

[13:25] But here comes the mystery. Here comes the mystery. Verse 26. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations has now been revealed to his saints and this is the mystery.

[13:47] To them, God willed to make known. He wanted to make it known in the Old Testament but the time wasn't right. What are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles?

[14:05] Don't miss this this morning. God was with, God has been with his people for millennia. With his people. With his leaders. Near his people.

[14:16] They wanted to be near God. They went to the temple and the presence of God was in the temple. But the mystery is God wanted to live inside of us and then also God wants to live inside the Gentiles.

[14:32] That was something incomprehensible to a Jew in the first century. And so that's the mystery which is Christ in you. That's the mystery. Christ is not only with us he is in you.

[14:47] Verse 27 says Christ in you the hope of glory. that was a mammoth truth for first century Christians. And it just kind of passes us by without a second thought sometimes.

[15:01] But if we can wrap our get our arms around wrap our mind around this mystery this mammoth truth is Christ is actually the author of the universe is actually in us.

[15:14] The head of the church is actually in us. The savior of the world is actually in us. Jesus died to forgive our sin.

[15:27] But the thing is Jesus didn't just die for our sins. Jesus died so that he could be in us. Jesus left this planet after his resurrection so he could send his Holy Spirit so his Holy Spirit could reside in us.

[15:48] And this brings us to the next truth. Jesus died for you so that he might live in you. And see that's really the only way that he could do it.

[16:02] Die on the cross in our place. Take our sin upon himself. Pay an eternal price for our sin so that he might be able to live in us.

[16:14] Jesus died for us so that he could live in us. And so often Christians are trying to live the Christian life on their own.

[16:29] He's not just our Savior. He is our life. And often what we're trying to do is we're trying to live that Christian life and the reality is the Christian life is impossible.

[16:46] And it's designed that way. Because who is the only one that's ever lived the Christian life? Jesus. He lived the Christ life.

[16:58] And we need to get to that point where we see and realize that it's not us doing it. It's Christ that wants to live the Christian life through us.

[17:10] Throughout history, some of the great heroes of the faith have come to this realization. I quoted from Ian Thomas last week.

[17:21] He was the director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He was working in London in all kinds of slums doing ministry. He had been saved about seven years and he had grown in his faith and he was doing this ministry.

[17:36] And after seven years he said, I had been reduced to a state of complete exhaustion spiritually until I felt there was no point in going on.

[17:47] Then listen to what happened to him. This is what he writes. He says, Then one night in November, just at midnight, I got down on my knees before God and I wept in sheer despair.

[17:57] I said, Oh God, I know that I'm saved. I love Jesus Christ. I am perfectly convinced I am converted. With all my heart, I have wanted to serve you. I have tried to my uttermost and I am a hopeless failure.

[18:14] That night things happened. He says, I can honestly say that I never once heard from the lips of men the message that came to me then. God that night simply focused me upon the Bible message of Christ who is our life.

[18:31] And the Lord seemed to make plain to me that night through the tears of bitterness. You see, for seven years with utmost certainty you have been trying to live for me on my behalf the life that I have been waiting seven years to live through you.

[18:50] Did you get that? He'd been working, ministering, serving God, and for the seven years it finally was plain to him God saying to him, he says, not in an audible voice, but he made it plain to me that I've been waiting these seven years to begin to live my life through you.

[19:13] And he says, I got up the next morning to an entirely different life. George Mueller was asked, what's the secret behind all that you've done?

[19:27] Here's what he said, there was a day when I utterly died, died to George Mueller. His opinions, his preferences, his taste, and his will died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends.

[19:41] And since then I have studied to only prove myself approved to God. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, same thing, ministered for many years as he realized in his own power and his own strength until he realized one day that it was not about him.

[19:59] It was about Jesus living his life through him. Now, I want to show you a truth that many people, many Christians miss and the truth is this, authentic spiritual transformation happens how?

[20:15] It happens from the inside out. Christ in you, the hope of glory, Jesus Christ making the transformation. I want you to look in your notes and what we have in our notes here is a picture of the Christian life.

[20:34] It's kind of like a bullseye and you have those concentric circles around and these are different areas of our life, Christ in us, and he can change our mind.

[20:46] He can transform our mind and the way our lives work. See, our mind affects our emotions. emotions. We do not have an emotion unless our mind decides.

[21:02] You say, well, what do you mean by that? You know, some people say, well, they made me mad or they made me upset or they hurt me. They only made you upset if you made a conscious belief about their action.

[21:18] And what I mean by that is, every time we hear something, every time we filter anything, from the outside world, we make a mental, through a mental process, we determine the importance of that event.

[21:34] And we determine positive or negative. We determine good or bad. We determine what we think a person's motive might be. And if we think, oh, that's good, they meant it well, and they meant it to help me, then what's our emotion?

[21:50] Happy? We're glad? sad? Or if we make the assumption that, oh, they did that to hurt me, they did that to get me, and they didn't do it for my best interest, then the resulting emotion might be sadness or anger.

[22:12] So our emotions have to go through our mind first. And what we decide about that event then elicits an emotion. Then our emotions obviously affect our body.

[22:28] If we're sad, if we're feeling depressed, it affects our body. We begin often to be lethargic. We have difficulty getting started and enjoying life.

[22:42] Our will affects our relationships. relationships. All of this affects our mission. Where does the average Christian spend most of their time and energy?

[22:54] On these outside circles. You know, well, I need to get my mind right, and my motions are out of check, so I need to work on my emotions, and then, well, you know what, my body, I need to get my body under subjection, and so I need to go back and work on my mind, and so, but then I need to work on my will, and I think most of us are working on our relationships, you know, be a better husband, be a better spouse, be a better father, be a better child, be a better whatever, and so what we're doing is we're like that, remember last week, that plate spinner?

[23:31] You know, working on our mind, then we go, we read another self-help book about our relationships, then we work on our relationships, and then all of a sudden, oh, we're not eating right anymore because of our willpower, and so then we will get that plate spinning again, then we come back and we're constantly working on all these areas of our life to try to be a good Christian, and then the plates start falling, and we're frustrated.

[23:59] I want you to listen again to Ian Thomas. He says, beware, unless even as a Christian you fall into Satan's trap. You may have found and come to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving him sincerely as your Redeemer.

[24:17] Yet, if you do not enter into the mystery of godliness and allow God to be in you, the origin of his own image, listen to this, you will seek to be godly by submitting yourself to the external rules and regulations and by conforming to behavior patterns imposed upon you by the particular Christian society that you have chosen and in which you hope to be found acceptable.

[24:43] You will, in this way, perpetuate the pagan habit of practicing religion in the energy of the flesh and in the very pursuit of righteousness, commit idolatry in honoring Christianity more than Christ.

[25:01] What a picture. Idolatry. Honoring Christianity and the resulting behaviors rather than honoring Christ.

[25:12] And what we do is we're at the center of our life and we're trying to work on all these concentric circles. Rather than, as Ian Thomas said, understanding the mystery.

[25:26] Christ in you, the transformed life where he wants to live his life out through you. And then Jesus is the one that is making all these things work.

[25:41] And that is what the Christian life is all about. Get this. Jesus has no desire to improve you.

[25:55] Jesus doesn't want to improve you. Jesus does not want you to turn over a new leaf. What does he want? He wants to transform you. Change you completely from the inside out.

[26:08] Because a lot of people say, you know what, I want to go to church because things aren't going well in my life. And you know what, and I hear this, you hear this too. I want to turn over a new leaf. I want to get things right in my life.

[26:19] What are they doing? It's in the work of the flesh. They want to make things right. But when we catch the beauty of the portrait of who Christ is, it's freeing.

[26:34] Just let Christ live through me. Let him transform me. And then let him transform my life by the renewing of my mind. Romans 12.

[26:45] 2. Let Christ transform my will. Let Christ transform my desires. Because now, because it's him living through me, I want to do right. I want to obey God.

[26:56] I want to stay away from sin. I want to say no. to temptation. It's him doing it through me, rather than us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and saying, you know what, I'm going to push through this temptation and I'll do it.

[27:10] Let Christ do it. And let him live his life through you. Big difference. Freeze us up. We can stop reading self-help books. Even the Christian self-help books. I'm not saying they're bad.

[27:22] I'm just saying we tend to fall into the trap of, we go buy another self-help book to help us with this, one of those concentric rings in our life. And we get, we fall into the trap of, well, if I can change my behavior and change this area of my life, then things will be okay.

[27:40] And don't think that we're doing it in the power of our own flesh, rather than letting him do it through us. Christianity is nothing less than the outliving of the indwelling Christ.

[27:57] Jesus living his life through us. Then, that brings us to the exchanged life. We have the empowered life, the transformed life, Christ in.

[28:11] Now we come to you. The exchanged life. I want us to look at two options when it comes to living the Christian life and what's at the core of this picture.

[28:25] Two options. Look in your notes, this next graphic. On the left, we've got sinful nature. That's what we're all, that we're all born into that.

[28:36] No matter how hard we try, no matter how much we work on those outer circles, or try to live by the values of the Christian life, that's always the core of our life, apart from Christ.

[28:48] Some people are trying it on their own. They're going to church, they're trying to live a good life. And you know, I'm convinced that it's possible to really do a pretty good job on all those concentric circles without knowing Jesus.

[29:06] Because I'm sure some of you know some very moral people who simply don't know Jesus. And they're trying to live a moral life, but they don't know Christ.

[29:18] Look at Matthew 7, 22 and 23. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawliness.

[29:40] There are some who are doing all the right things, yet don't have Christ. So here's the second part of the picture. when we trust Christ as our Savior, we have now the spiritual nature within us.

[30:00] See, Jesus has exchanged his life for us. Here's the beauty of the picture of what Christ did on the cross.

[30:11] He took our sinful nature. He took our sin, and he crucified it. And in place, he put himself. This is what we see.

[30:25] This passage talks about this. He says, I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, and so that you do not do the things that you wish.

[30:45] I want to go back to this drawing in your notes. And some may wonder, well, what does it mean about the sinful nature, the spiritual nature?

[31:00] What difference does it make for Jesus to be in me and living out his life through me? Well, if we can think of the sinful nature, bring it to the animal kingdom.

[31:12] The nature that we have, the nature that we're born with, is that which everything in our life flows out from. I mean, we do everything according to our nature.

[31:23] Take a grizzly bear, for instance. What does a grizzly bear do? A grizzly bear does grizzly bear stuff. It goes out, it hunts, it kills, it eats.

[31:37] And don't you dare cross a grizzly bear out in the wild because what will it do? It will kill you and it will bite your head off and eat you. And you know, I hear the, you know, you see on Facebook, you see these people who have, I saw one this past week, a guy who had a pet bear.

[31:55] I mean, he had it from when it was a cub and this thing was, I think he said it was, I forget, like 800 pounds now and 800 pounds and he puts his head in the bear's mouth and then he has to be very slow and cautious to take his head out.

[32:08] He says, because if I jerk too much, the bear, I'm going to just hear crunch and then I won't hear anything else. Why? Because the bear still operates based on its nature.

[32:20] But what were to happen, I know it's not possible, but what were to happen if you were able to take the nature of, let's say, a golden retriever, tail wagging, love everybody, golden retriever, and replace that into the nature of the grizzly, what would you have?

[32:38] You'd have a thousand pound golden retriever on the seat in your lap, right? Lick you and just want to love on you, right?

[32:48] What would be the difference? Same fur, same dangerous claws, same dangerous teeth, everything, but a brand new nature that would change its life.

[33:01] And the nature of that golden retriever would be lived out through that bear. And everything it would do would be golden retriever stuff. In our life, we're born with a nature to sin, a propensity to sin.

[33:14] Sinning comes naturally to us. But what Jesus did was he took our sin, he took that sin upon himself on the cross, crucified our sin with himself on the cross, and then now he replaces that sinful nature.

[33:28] He comes to live in us, and like we were talking about, or as we saw here, he says, walk in the spirit. How can we do that as a Christian?

[33:39] He's in us. So Paul says, walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the spirit, spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

[33:53] But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

[34:09] He says, I have been crucified. Let's go back to Galatians 5, 24, and 25. This is awesome news. We're no longer slaves to sin, because it's Christ living in us.

[34:22] He has put our sin nature to death. So it's there, but it's like carrying around a dead body. It is no longer alive and no longer has control over us unless we allow it to control us.

[34:40] So the Christian life is not about us going out and trying to defeat the sin in our lives and the temptations that we struggle with. Christ has already taken care of that.

[34:51] We're simply to let Jesus live out his life through us. Now listen to what Paul says in Galatians 2, 20, probably one of my favorite verses. I have been crucified with Christ.

[35:05] It is no longer I who live. See? Paul got it. It's not Paul trying to live the Christian life. He says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[35:20] And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now why has Jesus exchanged his life for us?

[35:31] And I believe it's for this, to fulfill his mission through us. See, God is no longer revealing himself by dwelling in the temple. And for people to see God, we no longer have to go to the temple.

[35:45] What God is doing is he's revealing himself to the world through indwelling in his people. People want to see God. If people want to see Jesus, they can see him through us.

[35:57] And that is how God is revealing himself to the world today, brothers and sisters. He is revealing himself through us, through the indwelling Christ living through us. Like Paul says, it is no longer I who live.

[36:10] It is Christ who lives in me. He is revealing himself to the world through his people. Look back at verse 24. Colossians 1, 24. 24. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

[36:25] We're going to go through this next section very quickly because I've got an object lesson for you a little bit later that I think will tie it all together. And fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church.

[36:40] And I have made it also, made it my aim to preach the gospel where Christ was named lest I should build on another man's foundation.

[36:51] And the apostle Paul, when he wrote this, was in prison in Rome. He wanted to go to Spain to share the gospel because they had not heard before.

[37:01] And Paul was suffering for the sake of the gospel and wanting the gospel to spread. And here's what we see next. Excuse me.

[37:12] Christ suffered to accomplish salvation. Jesus suffered so that he could provide your and my salvation.

[37:23] We suffer to spread salvation. In other words, we take up our cross. Remember, Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. That means be willing to die for me.

[37:34] Be willing to suffer for me. Jesus already said, unequivocally, if you love me and you live for me, people will what? People will hate you. They will misuse you.

[37:44] They will mistreat you. They will because they don't they didn't like me. Don't be surprised when they don't like you. So in other words, we take up our cross because we want to show the world a savior who died for them so that they might know his love.

[38:01] So Jesus suffered to accomplish salvation. We should be willing to suffer to spread salvation. And so our question is this. Will we embrace the cross of Christ so that they they the world who does not know Jesus might enjoy the Christ of the cross?

[38:20] So we have the empowered life. We have the transformed life. In you, we have the exchanged life. Jesus exchanged our sinful nature for for the nature of Christ.

[38:34] Christ. And then it brings us to the secured life. The secured life. Now, this is not a dream. This is not a hope. So that we're going to be in glory with him one day.

[38:46] It's for sure. It's for sure that Christ in us and that glory awaits. I want to show you a picture of what Christ in you, the hope of glory really means.

[39:00] And I want you to follow me for just a bit. What I want to do is I want to take this container. And what we'll say is this container is your life.

[39:14] And what we'll do, we'll write on here. You. This represents you. So I'm going to open you up.

[39:27] And what we see is we were born with a sinful nature. We were born empty of the life of Christ. We were born devoid of Christ in us.

[39:40] But when we trust in Christ, what happens is in this particular container, Christ comes to live in you.

[39:52] So we'll let this container represent Christ. So this is Christ, not actual size.

[40:04] This is Christ. And when you trust Christ as your Savior, the Bible says he comes to live within you. So before we had an empty life, sinful nature, devoid of Christ, trust Christ.

[40:18] Christ comes to live in you. And I'm going to seal you. If this were Tupperware, I'd burp you. But Christ, you get the picture?

[40:29] Christ comes to live in you. This is Christ in you. This is Christ in you.

[40:42] We see in him, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, it says, In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

[41:01] And we also see who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory.

[41:14] Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect. What do we see there? In Christ.

[41:26] Now, this is the most common picture that we see that we have from the Apostle Paul in Scripture. Not us in Christ, but Christ in us.

[41:41] But the beauty is, not only is Christ in us, we see that we are in Christ. So let's bring the picture of Christ to the table, and we'll also let this container represent Christ.

[42:03] And so what does the Bible say? Through the Holy Spirit, Christ lives within us, living out the Christian life. But the Bible also says, remember what we saw in that last verse?

[42:15] Because you, Christ, is also in us. Look at Colossians 3.3. For you died, and your life is what?

[42:28] Your life is hidden with Christ. And so what we see, let's go back here. Christ, we, you are in Christ.

[42:41] And the Bible says we are sealed until the day of redemption. So this makes a seal. So the picture is, we have Christ in us, but we are also in Christ.

[42:58] Pretty secure. But it gets even better. Go back to Colossians 3.3. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ. Where? Really?

[43:10] So it's Christ in you. You are in Christ. But what? Christ is in God. I'm loving that.

[43:21] See why I got so excited about preparing for this message this week? And so we'll let this container be God. And so what we have now is Christ is in us, living out his life through us.

[43:36] But then because he wanted to seal us to the day of redemption, he put us in himself, us in Christ, sealed to the day of redemption.

[43:48] But it gets even better. Christ is where? Christ is in God. Then, we seal this thing.

[44:06] Christ in you, you in Christ, Christ in God. Pretty secure picture, isn't it? A picture of the Christian life. Now, what if the adversary wants to get to you?

[44:19] What if Satan wants to get to you and mess up your life? What does he have to do? He has to get through God. And he doesn't have a good track record with God.

[44:32] But let's say he gets through God. What does he have to do next? Get through Christ. We all know the story of that. He tried it once before, the cross.

[44:43] What happened? Christ defeated him. He defeated sin, defeated death, and he defeated Satan. Talks about that in the book of Revelation.

[44:55] By his heel, he crushed Satan. But let's say, whatever he gets through, which he won't, but gets through Jesus again, what has he got to contend with?

[45:08] Christ in you. There's Jesus again. And so we have a picture of the secured life. Christ in you. You in Christ.

[45:19] Christ in God. Now, next time you get frustrated, or next time we're afraid, or next time you get discouraged because Satan makes you think that you're not as good Christian as you think you are, go back to Colossians.

[45:37] And say, no, wait a minute. Jesus is in me. And I'm in Jesus. And Jesus is in God. I'm secure. And in order for me to live this Christian life, I just need to stop working at it and let Christ work through me.

[45:59] Let him do it through me. And then that brings us to the completed life. And let's look at Colossians 128 as we wind this to a close.

[46:14] Colossians 128, Paul says, In him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man what? Perfect. That's the goal.

[46:25] Perfect. In Christ Jesus. The goal is perfection, completeness in Christ. Now let's go to chapter 3, verse number 4. When Christ, who is what?

[46:37] Christ is our life. We've been talking about that. Christ, who is our life, appears, then what? Isn't this great? You will also appear with him in glory. That's the completed life.

[46:49] That's the goal of the Christian life. Ultimately, perfection with Jesus being presented before God. This is our hope. This is our assurance. When Christ is in your life, there's going to be a day when you and I will appear with him in glory.

[47:06] Look at Romans 8, 29-30. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

[47:21] Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified.

[47:32] So we have the picture is Christ in you now, is Christ in you forever. We are secure in Christ.

[47:43] We can never lose what Christ has given us. We are adopted into the family of God. We are sealed until the day of redemption. Christ is in us.

[47:54] We are in Christ. Christ is in God. And Satan, no one else will ever be able to get to us because they've got to get through God, they've got to get through Jesus, and Jesus is in us.

[48:06] 2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, and being, our being, transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[48:27] Christ in us forever. Christ in you, the what? hope of glory. Christ in you.

[48:37] We have the empowered life. He's in us to transform our lives. We have Christ in us, the exchanged life. We have the hope, which is the secured life of glory.

[48:54] We're going to be glorified with Him one day. That is a picture, beloved, of the Christian life. It's a beautiful picture.

[49:06] Let's let it get a hold of our minds, get a hold of our lives, just like Ian Thomas, just like George Mueller, just like Hudson Taylor. Come to the point where we realize it's not about us, and it's not about us working and trying hard to live the Christian life, change our behavior.

[49:25] It's the point where we realize we can't do it, and then we begin to allow Jesus to do it through us. then and only then is where we are where God wants us to be.

[49:37] Christ in us, living out His life through us, and that's the hope of glory. Let's pray. Lord God, this morning, we are so, so very thankful for you, for your love, for exchanging our sinful life and transforming us and placing the spiritual nature within us so that we can live a life that honors you and pleases you.

[50:08] And we thank you, Lord God, that the only one ever able to perfectly live the Christian life, the Christ life, is now living in us, empowering us to live that life through us.

[50:20] Father, let us surrender our lives to you. Christ in us, the hope of glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[50:30]  Amen. Amen.