Paul had said, put off the deeds of
the old man. We saw that last week there and
back in verse, I believe it's verse 11, or not 11, but back
in earlier in a part of this chapter in verse, let me find the verse. In verse 5, he
says, "...mortified therefore your members which are upon the
earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
covetousness, which is idolatry, for which thingsake the wrath
of God comes on the children of disobedience. And this is
the way you walked at some time, and put off all these also, anger,
wrath, malice, and lie not one to another, and have put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him, and telling us here in verse 12, put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering. This message And I would have
liked to have brought this message in the next service as I was
going over it this morning, because it's a family sermon. It's a
message to God's children, to His family. But we're gonna look
at it this morning, just us. He says here in verse 12, put
on therefore. The one we are to put off, the
old man, The other we are to put on. Both take effort. They take effort. One is the
works of the flesh, as I just read to you. And the other is
the work of the Spirit, which is what I'm about to give you.
This is the work of the Spirit. And he says, put on therefore
as the elect of God. He's not talking to a bunch of
unregenerate people. That's why I said this is a family
sermon. It's to God's children. It's
to you. who believe the gospel. This is to us. And this has to
do with our walk now. You know, in the earlier part
of this letter, Paul set forth the preeminence of the Lord Jesus
Christ in all things. In creation, in salvation, in
the church, and in us individually. But now he's telling us, as his
children, how we are to act. And this is, you know, how we
are to walk. And he calls us here the elect
of God, chosen of God, born of God. This is who he's speaking
to. He's not speaking to the unregenerate
because, listen, you can't put on something you don't have.
You can't put it on. An unregenerate man has none
of these things. They have none of these. They
can't put it on, but you and I can. And we are to do this. This is what we are to give our
attention to as we pass through this life, as we grow in grace
and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice here
how Paul describes the elect of God, holy and beloved. Holy and beloved. Made holy in Christ and beloved
of God. heart even put into words other
than just to say that God has to give us an understanding.
Beloved of God, loved of God. The love of God is shed abroad
in your heart. He first loved us. It is written
in the scriptures. We didn't first love it. He first
loved us. Loved of God. A love that's undying. A love that's unchanging. Our
love changes now, I'm telling you. We can grow cold. God's
love never grows cold. It never diminishes. Ours is
like up and down, up and down because of our sinfulness. But
God love is a holy love. It's an undiminishing love. It's
a never-waving love. It's constant and it's holy. And he calls us the beloved of
God, loved of God. And then Paul gives us those
things that we are to put on, those things we are to seek after,
we are to give ourselves to. And the first one he says here
is bowels of mercies. These things that we're gonna
look at are the things that identify us. Bows of mercies. A real heartfelt
pity for those who are down and out. I mean a real genuine empathy
and a heartfelt pity for those who are down and out. Bows of mercies. Kindness. Not just feeling it, but showing
kindness. You know, The fruit of the Spirit
is kindness. And the kindness that He works
in us is not just for us personally. It's not just for me personally.
The kindness that He works in me is for you. It's me being
kind to you. It's me showing mercy to you,
and you being kind to me and showing mercy to me. Put on these things, vows of
mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, which is a total opposite
of the kind of mind we used to have and we still struggle against. We still have to struggle against
it. This is opposed to being high-minded. This humbleness
of mind will enable one to think of others better than themselves. It's sad. We got to be reminded
of this. You got to put it on. It's like every morning when
you get up, you've got to put on the clothes you're going to
wear for the day. And as believers, every day we
put this on because we are so prone to laying it aside, aren't
we? By nature, we're so prone to
forget these things. He says here, you put these on
and you put these on daily. Bows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, Henry said one time, we miss some of the greatest
blessings by not being a blessing. We miss... Let me read it again. We miss some of the greatest
blessings by not being a blessing. And then meekness, long-suffering. You know, our Lord was meek and
lowly to perfection. To perfection. That defined Him. Sinners felt comfortable in his
presence. He sat down and he ate with them.
That doesn't mean he sat down and carried on with their foolishness,
but he sat down and he ate with sinners. This man, they said,
one of the charges they brought against him was really a compliment. This man receives sinners and
he eats with them. I'm so glad he does because this
morning, I pray that he receives us sinners and eats with us this
morning. meets with us, I truly do. I want him to be with us
and be in this service and be the leader of this service. And then he says in verse 13,
forbearing one another and forgiving one another. The word forbearing
there means this, putting up with. Sometimes we just have to put
up with one another. Sometimes we have a bad attitude
for that day. We get up with a bad attitude.
What's the old saying? You got up on the wrong side
of the bed? That's what he's saying here. Putting up with
one another and forgiving one another, patiently endure wrong,
praying and waiting for God to make things right between us.
And he's speaking here between us, the church. You know, James
said, in all things we offend. We get offended and we offend. And he's telling us here how
to handle it. Forbearing one another. That's what God does.
God forbears with us. He forgives us. Forgiving one
another. Putting the matter out of mind. Let it go. That's the easiest
way to put it. Just put it out of mind and let
it go. If any man have a quarrel against any, And I've seen this
over the years. I've seen believers kind of get
odds with each other. Sometimes personalities kind
of, you know, don't mix it. But he says here, if any have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so
also do you. You do the same thing as Christ
has done for you. He's forgiven you. And on that basis, we forgive
each other. On that basis, we let it go. I'm so thankful God lets things
go. And he doesn't call me to task
for everything, but so merciful. We wouldn't even, I mean, chasing
would never let up if he didn't. Would it? It would never let
up. Because we do not love God with all our heart, soul, mind,
and body. I wish we did. I wish we had bleed with perfect
faith, but we don't. We don't. But yet the Lord doesn't
deal with us after our sins nor reward us according to our iniquities.
He's merciful to us. And on that same basis, he said,
that's the way you deal with each other. That's why I said
this is a family sermon. Christ is the standard. This
is good. Christ is the standard by which
we measure all our actions. Not somebody else. I'm not the
standard. You're not the standard. You're
dealing with me and me dealing with you. Jesus Christ is the
standard. He's the standard by which we
measure our actions. And above all these things, Above
all that's just been said. What's been said? Well, he said
here, put on vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, lowliness, forbearing one another, forgiving one another
as Christ forgave you. Now, above all these things,
here's the only thing that's going to make these things work.
This right here is the only thing that will make all the above
genuine. And above all these things, put
on charity, which is love. Love one another. Love, which
is the bond of perfectness. There's no stronger bond than
love. There's no stronger bond. between
God and His children and between His children, us, each other.
There's no stronger bond than love. Love, you go over there
in 1 Corinthians 13, it endures all things. It thinks the best. It thinks the best of one another. You know, if you really, if we
really love one another and somebody says something that's, that's,
you know, that's probably shouldn't have been said. Love will say,
they didn't mean that. No, you're just having a bad
day. And you go on, you think the best of one another when
you really love one another. Now you can, you can mark this
down. Somebody says something that
maybe they ought not said, then you get mad and you're ready
to slap them or say something back. You know what I mean? Love's
not present. Love is not present. That's flesh
against flesh is what that is. A spouse who constantly runs
down their mate does not love, does not love that mate, him
or her. If they're constantly finding
fault, love is absent. It's not there. Fault-finding comes from the
absence of love. You remember over in Song of
Solomon, when she's describing the Lord? He's altogether lovely. When there's real love, you look
beyond those human faults, those old fleshly faults, and you love
that person. And you're not finding fault.
You're not looking to agitate and jab. I'm telling you, when
that happens, love is absent. It's not there. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts. Let that be what... Let that
rule in your heart. That settles a lot of things
right there. It's of the Lord. It's of the
Lord. When the peace of God rules in
your heart, you're at peace. And I'll tell you what, when
a person is at peace, that person is not trying to cause trouble.
When peace is ruling in the heart, that person is not trying to
cause trouble. In fact, that person is trying to make peace.
Keep the peace, you might say. Let the peace of God rule in
your heart. Run everything else out. Run
everything else out. To the which also you are called
in one body and be you thankful. Be a thankful people. I honestly, other than, I guess
maybe myself, but other than that, I have nothing to complain
about. Do I? I mean, I may complain about
myself because of my sinfulness. I can complain about that to
myself. But the Lord, does he not do all things? What did Joe
say? He does all things well. He has
done all things well. I have nothing to complain about. Be thankful. I like being around
people that are thankful. Thankful people are not complainers.
They're not. Thankful people are not complainers. When you hear a complaint going
on and on and on, thankfulness has left the building. It's not
there. Let this be what rules our hearts,
thankfulness and peace. Our Lord said in the scripture,
he said, my peace I give unto you. I give you my peace. He made peace with God on our
behalf and he gives us his peace. Now that's more than just a real
feeling. That is a real, that's a settled state. I mean, we feel
the peace, but it's a real settled state of peacefulness because
it's the peace of Christ. It's the peace he has. And there's nothing that can
take the place of a peaceful heart. That's a heart at rest. That
heart's at rest, at rest in Christ. And let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. Dwell in you. Make much use of
the Word of God like we are right now, verse by verse. Make much
use of it. Not just read it, though we have
to read it, and we ought to read it, must read it, desire to read
it, but to eat it, to digest it, like you do your daily food. Don't read the Word of God like
you read any other book. Read it with this attitude. Speak,
Lord, through Your Word as I read. Speak to my heart. Give me understanding. Because He says here, Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Give me understanding. I ask the Lord this, every time
I study to preach here, I ask the Lord, Give me understanding
of Thy Word and of the message that I'm to give. Give me an
understanding heart of this. I don't want to just stand up
here and say, well, this means this, this means this, but give me
an understanding, give me wisdom in preaching your Word. And give us wisdom as we read
the Word. Give us spiritual nourishment
out of your Word that we may grow by it. As he says here in
verse 16, teaching and admonishing one another. in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the
Lord. Teach and admonish one another.
What he's telling us here in verse 16 is look after one another. Look after one another spiritually.
As the old saying goes, I have your back, you have my back.
We have each other's back. That's what he's saying. Teach
and admonish one another. And do this in psalms and hymns,
what we're going to be singing here in a little while, spiritual
songs. Believe me, a whole lot of what's
being sung today are not spiritual songs. They're moneymakers. They're moneymakers. Anytime
someone makes videos, these music videos, It's nothing, it's for
money, it's for money. It's what it's for. It's not
for spirit. There's some that, there's some,
not many, there's some who do sing, you know, Mike made a tape
some years ago of spiritual songs, but not for entertainment, not
for entertainment. Singing with grace in your hearts. Now listen, to the Lord. I said
this to you the other day, or the other couple weeks ago. Our
singing is to Him. It's not just singing. We're
singing to Him. Here in a little while, we are
gonna sing again. Let's sing as to Him, because we are singing
to Him. Let us instruct one another and
look after one another, witness to one another, This is to be
our life as we pass through here. This is our life. And whatever
whatsoever you do, well, Paul's getting right down, he's
getting right down to the, what I've heard said, the rubber meets
the road. Whatever you do, this covers
everything. This covers absolutely everything.
Whatever you do in word or deed, whether it be inside this building,
outside this building, in the community, at work, wherever,
you know, whatever it is, whatever it is, whatever you do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do what you're
doing in the name of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks to God and
the Father by Him, whether it's work or pleasure. Do it in the name of the Lord
Jesus. You're His servant. You're His
ambassador. Wherever you are, wherever I
am, I'm His servant. I'm His child. I'm His ambassador.
And whatever I do, I do it in His name. Let everything we do
be done for Christ's sake. If we can't, if we cannot, then
we don't do it. In other words, whatever we do,
we do it in honor of His name. We do it in honor, and we do
it in a way, put it this way, we do it in a way that honors
His name. We do it under such conduct that
His name is honored. Because there's so much sin in
us, we can sure bring reproach real quick. I know. I have it. I have enough of it
in me to turn it the other direction. Everything we do, we are to give
thanks to God the Father by Christ, and we are to do it in a way,
in a manner that's honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, after
giving us all the above, Paul gives us the order of authority
and conduct in the home. He gave us our conduct with one
another as a body of Christ and our walk. This is our walk, this
is our conduct with one another in Christ. Now he's gonna talk
to us about our homes. Now he's coming to our homes,
but now listen. If the above is not present,
What He's given us here is not going to happen. It's not going
to happen. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. As it is fit in
the Lord. We know that the marriage of
a man and a woman is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that's
given to us in Ephesians. It's a picture of Christ and
the church. The church is to submit to His
authority. The church respects His decisions
or His judgments. The church admires and loves
Him, right? And He said, this is the way
a marriage is to be. This is the way the marriage is to be
among believers. He's not talking to the world.
This is not to the world, this is to us. The world's gonna do
what they're gonna do, but we have an order. We have a set
order given by the Lord Jesus Christ. The wife, he says here,
is to submit to her husband because God said so. This is the order
of authority that God has set up in the home. It says, it is
fit in the Lord. That word would mean right. It's
right. It's right. It's right to do
as the Lord has said. As long, listen, as long as it
does not violate the word of God, as long as it does not violate
the gospel. He's not telling us to do whatever,
you know, I mean, if your husband's a thief and he wants you to drive
the car, tell him you go drive it. I'm not doing that. You know,
it's not, you're not, you gotta keep it within reason. But other than that, in the home,
in the home, the husband is the head of the house. You know,
I think one of our greatest problems in today's society is this thing
of total independence and individuality. The scripture says when two are
married, what do they become? One. They melt into each other. A believer and Christ are what? One, we melt into him. We melt into him. But we don't,
this in society, no, that's, they want their own individuality
and independence. No one wants to depend on someone
else. No one wants to follow someone
else. They don't want to do that. The world can do whatever it
wants to, but this is what the Lord's given to us. He's given
this to us. Now He says, Husbands, love your
wives, and be not bitter against them. Be not bitter against them. Love
your wives. This word love comes into play
again here. Blessed is that home that is
established in love. The first example, the first
example that the husband should be in the home is an example
of love. That's the first example the
husband is to be. And I'm telling you what, it
is not hard to submit to someone you love and to someone that
loves you. The husband is to love his wife
even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. He's
to look after her. He's to protect her. He's to
do everything that he can do to take care of her and love
her, look after her needs. Has our Lord not looked after
ours? Does He not meet our needs? Did he not give himself to die
on the cross for his bride? He sacrificed himself. And this is what we're to do.
Husbands, love, love, love your wives. You know, I was thinking
of this this morning as I was going over this, when Paul wrote
this, Most of the marriages at that time were prearranged. They
didn't even know each other. A lot of them, I mean, they may
have known each other, because most of them were relatives.
But they didn't know each other in a way where they had dated,
like we do here in America. A lot of them were prearranged
marriages. And they learned to love one
another. They learned to love one another.
And I never thought of that before until this morning when I was
looking at this, when Paul says, husbands, love your wives. Well,
a lot of them had to learn to love their wives because they
really didn't know them that well. And don't be bitter against them. Love thinks no evil. Love thinks
no evil. Go and read, if you want, for
us husbands, If we want to know how to really conduct ourselves
in love, go read 1 Corinthians 13. That's the conduct of love. And that's the conduct that a
husband should show to his wife. And then children. He says, children,
obey your parents in all things. In another place, it says, children,
obey your parents in the Lord. Because there are some things
you can't obey. There's some bad parents out
there. There's some bad parents out there. And they've had their
children to do bad things. And he says, no, you don't do
that. You obey them in the Lord, that which is right. Obey your
parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Happy is the home where everyone walks according to the word of
God. I know this is very rare. It's
very rare whether you have a home where a husband and wife and
children believe the gospel. Young people in the home, they
believe the gospel. It's very rare. But Paul gives this here. He says, children, obey your
parents. Submit to their authority because God's given them that
position. Submit to their authority and wisdom. They've been where
you are. Parents are not old fogies. They
may be old, but they're not necessarily fogies, whatever that word means. I have to look that up. I don't
know what it means. But there's wisdom that if you
follow it and listen to it, you'll save yourself a lot of heartaches.
You will save yourself a lot of heartaches and pain you don't
want to experience. You don't want to experience
everything. Take my word for it. There are some things you're
just better off not to experience. Listen to wisdom. Go over there
and read, it's over in Proverbs, where Solomon says, son, give
me your heart. I'm going to paraphrase it. He
says, son, give me your heart. Listen to me. Listen to me. Take my instructions and bind
them around your neck. Bind them to your heart. Listen
to me. I can save you a lot of pain
if you'll just listen to me. Parents give to their, good parents,
give to their children the best instructions that can be given.
You know, my mother was in the hospital here about a year ago
and she was having a heart problem and they was wanting to put a
pacemaker in her chest. She didn't want to do it. She
was refusing it. But she needed to have it because she was really
having problems, bad. But she wouldn't mind. She can
be stubborn. She was not going to do it. So I called my sister.
She was there at the hospital. And I said, Ask mom, if I were
laying in that bed, ask her what she would tell me to do. She
said, I'd tell him to do it. I said, well, then you tell her
to do just exactly what she'd tell me to do. Because I know
that we give our children the best advice. Children, obey your parents in
all things. Listen, Paul's writing to the
church. He's writing about godly parents. He's not writing about
unregenerate parents. He's writing about godly parents. And he says, now you obey them.
They look after you. And listen, this was the first
commandment with a promise. You know that? Obey your parents
and you'll live long on the earth. Honor your mother and father
is what it said. Honor your mother and father, and thou shalt not
live long on the earth. That was the first commandment
given with a promise. Now, he turns, fathers, provoke
not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. It's like,
boy, I can't do anything right. You know, I had a good father.
He was not mean, but man was he tough. And my dad was tough,
strict as strict as could be. And it is more than once that
he provoked us to anger by being too strict. He was too strict.
My dad was afraid to say yes. He always said no to everything.
Can I go over there with my friends? No. Can I do this? No. That was no. We'd always tell
mom to come in there, and mom would come back and say, he said
no. I mean, it was just an automatic thing. But I learned as I grew
up that saying yes comes with responsibility. And dad was afraid
to say yes because of what could happen. And he wasn't able to
take that kind of responsibility. I know now, looking back, when
you say yes to your child, to your children, that they can
go here, go there, do this, or do that, you've got to take the
responsibility of saying yes. Because whatever happens, happens.
It's in the Lord's hands. But he says here, fathers, because
fathers are the head of the house, in God's house they are, they're
to be the head of the house, and they are the ones who can
provoke by too much. My dad said he got to whip him.
His dad whipped him one time so hard he whipped him like...
Like a mule, he said, and he came back and the first time
his father ever apologized to him, but he said, he liked to
kill me. He whipped me so hard. That's provoking to anger. Don't
go that far with it. You know, we can only go so far
with discipline and it's just, it's going to be what it's going
to be. God said to Israel, why should
I discipline you anymore? And I'm going to paraphrase.
Why should I discipline you anymore? You'll just revolt more and more.
And I do know this by experience. The harder He whipped me, the
madder it made me, the more I revolted. It never broke me. It just made me that much madder.
And that's why he says here, don't break their, and here's
what he's saying, don't break their spirit. Don't break their
spirit. I jotted this down this morning.
I thought this, they need to be strong to face the world. They're going out there into
the wolves. That world will eat you alive. Don't break their
spirit to the point where they go out there and they're like
little little lambs that they eat up. Don't break their spirit. Let them have some backbone with
respect. Put it that way, backbone with
respect. Fathers, provoke not your children's
anger. And servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh. God made them your masters,
now obey them. And He says here, in all things.
You know, I know I'm going a little long here, but this is so necessary
because these are the areas we really fail in. We don't fail
in believing in election. We don't fail in believing in
the doctrines of grace. We fail right here. This is where we
fail. Your servants obey in all things your
masters. And here's how we're to do it.
Not with our service as to men, please, but as singlets of heart
to God. We're working for Him. I'm employed
by Him. Look at it that way. Look at
it that way. God is our real Master and He
says obey those that He puts over us. You know, He may put
someone over me as a trial. You know, I can look at that
person, not with anger, but I can look at it as a trial of my faith.
Just stamp trial on that gospel red. Said, here comes my trial
today. And I obey, I obey in all things. Of all people who ought to be
obedient, it is us who've been saved by the grace of God. Now, I'm going to close. If all
the above concerning the new man is not put on, what I first
read to you, none of these other things are going to be present.
To truly submit and obey takes the work of God. in the soul,
to do it willingly, submissively, and with the right attitude,
that you're doing it as unto the Lord, not as unto men, but
you're His servant. You and I are His servants wherever
we are. That doesn't mean you're going
to be like an old shoe and be walked on all the time. It doesn't mean
that. It doesn't mean that at all. The last place I worked
before I went out the last place I worked the time before before
I started my business The men wanted to walk out on a strike.
There's gonna walk out on the street And they came to me and
asked me to walk out said we're walking out at noon. I said we'll
go ahead They said you're coming out with us I said no, I'm not I Said I'll walk into the office
with you and And we'll go right in there to that plant manager's
office and we'll sit down and talk to him, but I'm not going
out there on that street. And we walked in, they all walked
in with me to the office, we sat down and got that whole thing
settled in less than an hour and it was over with. And everybody
went back to work. I was not going to submit to
that kind of conduct. Because all that, I told him,
I said, the only thing you're gonna do is you're gonna build
a wall that neither one of us can get over. We're not gonna
build a wall that we can't get over. And I told him that, I said,
but you'll put him on the spot. He'll have to talk to us. They
were in the right with what was going on. I said, he'll have
to talk to us. And that thing got worked out. It got worked
out. In verse 23, in whatever you
do, do it heartily, do it with your heart as unto the Lord and
not unto me. Let our actions, and I'm gonna close with this,
let our actions be a true indication of our heart. And let it be done
as unto the Lord. Our actions are, now listen,
our actions are the true indication of what's going on in the heart.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. All right.