Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, Christ
our life, if Christ is your life, if you've been crucified with
Christ, buried, risen with Him, to those in Christ, he says in
verse 10, she put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image Him that created Him, created in the image of
Christ. That's this new creature in Christ Jesus. A new creature
created in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2 says, unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. You like
that? That's what it said. That's why
he saved it. for the glory of God, our Father. Didn't our Lord
Jesus Christ say, herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit? Like Christ. You want to be like
Christ? I do too. Do you think you are? We've come far short. That's
why these exhortations, that's why all through the epistles
are these exhortations. Create an image of Christ, and
we begin as a baby, and hopefully we grow. There's only one way
to grow. We don't make ourselves grow.
The Lord does through His Word. But we grow. Paul said in Ephesians
4 that Christ gave preachers for the perfecting of the saint,
maturity, that we might grow into the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. Be more like Christ. That is
mature. And that's what we want. This
is not progressive sanctification. This is maturity. Christlikeness. Be like Christ. He's simply exhorting
us in these verses to act like your Lord. Anything wrong with
that? There's everything wrong with
us if we don't want to. And if a preacher doesn't exhort
us to, as Paul does, all through the Scripture, every single epistle.
All right? He's exhorting us all through
the epistles. This sounds just like Ephesians, doesn't it? And
don't, I've looked at, do not hang your head while I'm preaching
this. Smile at me. You think I've got this perfected?
I need this worse than you do. And I love it. I love the rebukes. I love the reproofs. I love the
chasing. I love the correction, don't
you? If he doesn't, we're bastards. We don't take it. In Ephesians
4, he says this. He says, put off the old man. Verse 22. He said, put off concerning
that old fellow, that old man's corrupt. Be renewed in the spirit
of your mind. Verse 24, put on the new man,
which is after God's created in righteousness and true holiness. Consecration. So this sounds
just like that, doesn't it? Mortify that old man. We heard
that, didn't we? Don't feed him. Did you like
that illustration? Two men living in you, which
one they're fighting and which one wins? The one you feed. Which one grow? Don't feed that
old man. Starve him. Feed the new man. With what? The sincere milk of
the Word. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word. You do, don't you? Why? That
you might grow thereby. Grow in grace. The knowledge
of our Lord. The milk of the Word. Grow in
grace, knowledge, love, humility, kindness, meat, The bread and
the wine of Christ's body and Christ's blood. That's how you
grow. In love, mercy, and grace. So he says in verse 12, here's
where we pick up. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, put on vows of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, and so forth. put on as the elect of God. Now there he goes again. Elect. That's how salvation started.
There is no salvation apart from God's sovereign election of a
people, is there? Nobody chooses God. The elect
of God. The elect know that. They all
know that. talking about someone else saying
that you can know part of the truth and still be saved. That's
not settled. Must you believe in an election
to be saved? Well, you can believe in an election
and not be saved. But you can't be saved and not
know that God chose you. And not understand that you were
dead and He quickened you. Right? That you were a rebel
against God. That you despised and rejected
Him. Right? Christ was a man despised
and rejected by who? Everybody, including me. So one
day I accepted. No. He chose me. He accepted me. And He told me, I chose you. You didn't choose me. Didn't
our Lord keep telling His disciples that? We know it. Ask all of
them. Ask any true disciple who chose
who. That's a fact. No, you can't
be a child of God and think that you chose Him and let God be
God and let Jesus into your heart. That's blasphemy is what that
is. The elect of God know that. They believe salvation started
with God's eternal, sovereign choice of them before the world
began, and put their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, and
gave them to Christ their Head, who came here and did all the
work of salvation for them. Period. We had nothing to do
with it. Then, now, or whenever. It's
all God's work. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. We all know that. Chosen, elect, in whom? Blessed be God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him, in
Christ. Christ is the elect. Isaiah 42. You know where that
is, don't you? Go to Isaiah 42. I'm not going to have you turn
to too many scriptures, just a hundred or so. No, really,
I'm not. I want to, but I know you can't
bear it. I got an advantage over you know,
I just sit and read these scriptures and it's hard to know what to
leave out, it's all so wonderful. Isaiah 42, the elect of God,
holy and beloved, who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy One of Israel. God's well beloved Son, His elect,
His first elect, His first born among many brothers. He gets
the preeminence. Verse 1, Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my
spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Understanding, discernment of
the truth. That's us, Gentiles. It goes
on down to say in verse 4, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. God is going to send him in prophecy,
to this earth to save his elect. Did he do it? Yes, he did. He said so. It's finished. Christ
is the elect of God, the chosen one, chosen from among the people
to save God's elect. He's the second Adam. He's the
sinless man. He's the God-man who came to...
Well, look at chapter 59. This is so good. I'm going to
talk about a robe. We're going to talk about garments.
The title of this message is The Garments of God's Elect.
Well, we wear one principal garment. Look at Isaiah 59, verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened. Anybody that says he has no hand doesn't know God. Anybody that says he's trying
to save and can't unless you let him, doesn't know God. His hand's not too short. If
they say that, they're praying to a God that cannot save, according
to Isaiah, according to God. Our Lord's hand, everything's
in it, and if you're in it, no man can pluck you out of it.
Right? And it's not short. I don't care
how far down you are, If He's going to save you, He'll
pull you out of the pit. No, they cannot save. No, no,
no, no. He says, verse 2, but your iniquities... See, this
is you. Your iniquities have separated
you and your God by nature. Your sins have hid His face from
you. He will not hear. You're defiled. Verse 4, none
called it for justice and pleaded the truth. Was that you? That
was me. I wasn't calling on God. But you know what happened? He
called on me. He called me by the gospel. He
chose me and called me by the gospel through the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 12. Our transgressions are multiplied
before God. That's Isaiah talking. Our sins
testify against us. They're with us, our iniquities.
We know. We know. Verse 16. Well, he saw and wondered
that there was no man and there was no intercessor. Therefore,
his arm brought salvation, his righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon
his head. He put on garments. Look at chapter 61. Our Lord
robed himself in flesh. Brothers and sisters, you've
heard all this before, and I've preached it so many times, but
I do not tire of saying this thing. If there's nobody, if
somebody's going to listen to this later on, or somebody listening
right now who's never heard the gospel, you're hearing the gospel
right now. That the robe, the garment that
all of God's people wear is the dress code of heaven. It's the
marriage garment, the wedding garment. This is the only way
you're going to be allowed into God's kingdom, is wearing this
garment. What is it? It's the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. He robed Himself in flesh. He took on flesh, the likeness
of sinful flesh, but without sin. He condemned sin in the
flesh. He was holy, spotless, unblameable,
unreprovable, perfect, pure in the flesh. And God out loud,
God hadn't spoken in 400 years. And out loud said, this is my
beloved son. I'm well pleased. Isaiah 42,
I didn't read that. It said, I think verse 21, he's
well pleased for his righteousness sake. We labor this point, don't
we? Why? It's God's glory. It's our
access to heaven. Our Lord one time told a parable
of a man who made a marriage for his son. And he found a fellow that wasn't
wearing a wedding garment. He said, how did you get in here
without that wedding garment? He said, bind him hand and foot
and cast him in the outer dark. They'd be weeping and wailing
and gnashing up teeth. Paul said there are a bunch of
people going about to establish their own righteousness. Sewing
themselves a fig leaf apron to cover up their sin. But God looks
on the heart. You can't do that. There's only
one thing that covers our sin. The blood of Christ. Only one
thing that makes us righteous. The righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Do you ever get tired of hearing that? Oh, no. Do you know how
few people know that? Do you know how few people care?
Well, we do, don't we? Does the name Jehovah Sid Kenu
mean anything to you? It means everything to us. The
Lord our righteousness. Isaiah 61, did I tell you to
turn there? Isaiah 61 said, ìThe Spirit of the Lord God, this
is Christ, is upon me.î And he stood up in Nazareth that day
and preached this. He said, ìThis day is the Scripture
fulfilled. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me.î Now in verse 3 he said, ìI am going to point to them
that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil
of joy for mourning, the garment of praise.î I'm going to give them a garment
that they're going to praise me for. What is it? Well, look
down at verse 10. I thought you'd never ask. I
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. Now, I've just preached the gospel.
That's it. He clothed me, Adam and Eve,
the first sinners. They tried to cover it, didn't
cover it. How ignorant can you get? To
cover your sin with something you do or don't do, or you know,
your little patchwork righteousness from the all-seeing eye of God
who knows your thoughts. That's ignorant. And when those first two sinners,
God stripped them of those big leaves, and right before their
eyes, He slew an innocent lamb and stripped that lamb of its
covering. That's Christ crucified. And
He took that lamb's skin and covered those naked, trembling,
guilty sinners, and it covered them and warmed them and gave
them some comfort. And he told them about Christ's
coming, the woman saved to put away their sin by the sacrifice
of Himself and crush the serpent's head. You know what all that means,
don't you? That's the gospel. And when Christ was literally
stripped when He hung on that cross, who stripped Him? Men stripped Him? God did. For
God made Him to be sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made, can you quote the rest of it? The righteousness of God. Where? How? In Him. It's in Him. You're chosen in
Him. You're redeemed by Him. You're
covered by Him. Saved by Him. It's all about
Him. That's understood in that garment. The robe we wear is the righteousness
of Christ, which He wrought for us with His own hands. It's the wedding garment. And
He doesn't ask us if we'll take it. He puts it on us. Right? In Psalm 40, a sister was eating
supper with us, and she said, y'all are treating us like royalty.
I said, you are. I said, you're one of the king's
daughters. Oh yeah, listen. King's daughter
says of the king, his garments smell like myrrh and aloe and
cashew from the ivory palace where he comes from. King's daughters
are among his honorable women. Says she'll be brought, she's
glorious, her clothing is wrought gold, she's going to be brought
to the king with raiment of needlework. Is it a raiment that she wrought
with her hands? No. It's Christ He wrought with His
hands, and His feet, and His heart, and His mind, and His
Word. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but by works of righteousness which Christ
had done. I can't say, I can't labor that
too much, you know that. And in Revelation 19, it all
ends by saying, They are all clothed. Blessed are they that
are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. They are robed in
righteousness. Alright? Go back to our text
now. Colossians 3. Is that understood? When we talk about put on these
garments, we're not talking about you making yourself righteous
before God. Is that clear? Everybody listen,
I'll make sure. Is that clear? Okay. But here's what Titus said. And
here's what Paul said to Titus. Listen to this. Titus chapter
2 says, Adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
Adorn the doctrine. For the grace of God that brings
salvation hath appeared to all. And it teaches us to deny ungodliness
and worldly love, put off the other. It teaches us to live
soberly, righteously, live righteously. Is that what it said? Is that
what it said? Yes, it does. And godly. in this
present world, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior who gave Himself for us to redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. And he said, Titus, speak these
things, exhort, rebuke with all authority. Don't let anybody
despise you for doing it. Don't let anybody call you a
works preacher. Didn't it? That's my desire. This is what I teach and preach,
isn't it? And he went on, you know, I just
quoted, he said, it's not by works of righteousness which
we have done. No, no, no, no. It's according
to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration. A new creature. All right? Colossians
3, verse 12. So put on, therefore, as the
elect of God. as Christ? Holy? Dedicated? Concentrated? For God's use?
For God's glory? Beloved? Does God love us? Yes, He does. How much? As much
as He loves Christ. That's amazing. David, his name
means beloved. Who named him? God did. And so
are you. That's amazing. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, bowels of mercies. Bowels. Paul uses this term.
It's a biblical term. We don't use that term. It means
your innermost being. All of your vital organs are
down here. If you get injured there, if
there are problems there, you're sick and you'll die. Right? where your innermost beings,
what you said, put on deep inward feelings of compassion and mercy
for all, as God, as Christ has for His people, in deep feeling. Now listen to me. Righteousness
imputed is of the Lord in them. So is righteousness imparted.
So is this new creature. You don't make yourself a new
creature. And you can't make yourself grow. Try as you may,
you can't. But He can. Without Him, we can do nothing. He says, put on. You say, Lord,
help me. You understand? Put on. Bowels of mercy. And I don't
know of another way to put this, You know, Scripture, Psalm 4,
I believe it is, says, Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with
your heart on your bed. On your bed. Be still. Commune with your heart.
Doesn't it? Go to sleep. Just commune with
your heart. Thanking the Lord. When you wake
up, do you put on clothes in the morning? Sure you do. When
you wake up, this is what we need to put on. Bowels of mercy. innermost feeling. Put off that
old man. If you get up on the wrong side
of the bed, get back in the bed and get up on the right side. Tell that old man, by God's grace,
you stay in bed. Wake up grumpet. My niece, my sister told Cary,
you all know Cary Grace, Simpson. She's just delightful, you know.
The Lord saved her and she's just delightful. But she's a sinner saved by grace
and she's a little girl. She came down, woke up, got out
of bed and came down. She's maybe four years old. She's
not speaking to anybody. My sister said, you go right
back upstairs in your room and don't you come downstairs until
you've got a better attitude. You don't have a right to make
my day bad. You don't have a right to make
everybody else unhappy. That's good, isn't it? You know
how she is now, don't you? If she walks in this room, she's
got a smile on her face. And you don't have a right either.
Wake up thinking His mercies are new this morning. His compassions
have failed not. I'm not in hell where I belong. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Lord,
for Your mercy. Put that on. Put off that mean
attitude, that rotten man. Lord, make me check my heart,
my mind, my tongue, my mouth. for your glory, as a testimony
to your mercy and your grace. No murmuring, no complaining. Ask the Lord. Look at the next
thing. It says, bowels of mercy, kindness. Kindness. Be kind. Now, our Lord doesn't give advice,
does He? He gives commands. We're going
to see the last command above it all. Love. That's not an option. It's a command. Neither is mercy.
Neither is kindness. It's a command. Be kind. Be kind. Do you need this? Do you ever
feel real mean, mean as a snake? Do you ever speak unkindly to
anybody, those you love in particular? Do you? Be kind. Put on kindness. Speak kindly. Tenderly. Act kindly. There's not many sayings that
men have that I like, but this was one of them I kind of like.
It's on somebody's bumper. It said, practice random acts
of kindness. You ever seen that? You know, the old random acts
of violence. Practice random acts of kindness. Just be kind. I like that. Anything good, mind you, comes
from man. He got it from God. But act kind
and kind. Not mean, not irritable, not
selfish. Look at the next thing. Humbleness
of mind. Humility. Humbleness of mind. Think low thoughts of yourself. Think low thoughts of yourself.
If you think low thoughts of yourself, you'll act that way.
You can't be lifted up with pride if you think low thoughts of
yourself. The only way we can be lifted up with pride is if
we think too highly of ourselves. And that's why we always get
offended so easily. We think too highly of ourselves.
And that's where meekness comes in. We've looked at that. But
put on humbleness of mind. Humble yourself. Peter and James
both said this. Peter and James both quote Paul,
Peter, James. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God. Humble yourself. Bring yourself
down. Deny yourself. Put off that self. If we don't humble ourselves,
God will. If we don't humble ourselves,
God will humiliate us. He will let us humiliate ourselves. If we don't humble ourselves,
He will let us humiliate ourselves and probably humiliate those
that love us. And we'll be so ashamed of how
we've acted and what we've done to other people. So He says,
humble yourself. Come down. You don't have any
Scripture that God talks about pride. He hates it more than
anything. Six things the Lord hates. Seven
are abominations. The first thing is a proud look. Aren't I something? God says
He hates it. Why? It's only the grace of God
you're not totally disfigured or quadriplegic. Hates it. What do we have we
have not received? Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, the strong man in his strength, the woman in her
beauty. Anybody glory, glory in the Lord. Glory in His mercy.
Glory in His grace. Glory in His goodness. God hates pride. I'll never forget
the Scripture. I learned it when I first learned
it. Isaiah 23, 9. He says, The Lord of Hosts has purposed it.
The Lord of Hosts has purposed it to stain the pride of all
glory. He's going to bring it down.
The lofty looks of man are going to be brought down. Yes, sir.
And nothing characterizes this modern generation from old to
young more than pride. The Lord has purposed it to stain
the pride. He's going to bring pride down.
To bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. That
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God.
He said, the lofty looks of man are going to be brought down.
Count on it. Nebuchadnezzar. You remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar?
He said, look at this mighty Babylon I've done. Made an image
of himself. Look what I have done. You know
what Nebuchadnezzar's last words were? He said, he that walketh in pride,
he is able to abase. And he did. He made that mighty,
strong man act like an animal. Didn't he? Humble yourself. Humble yourself in the sight
of God. Or He'll let you humiliate yourself. Think low thought. Put on humility. Meekness. Look at the next step.
Put on meekness. We looked at this. Remember,
we devoted a whole message to it. Meekness. It means take whatever
is done to you. Whatever anybody has done, whatever
mistreatment, take it. Whatever they say about you.
As a person, you say, if they say something bad, just be thankful
they don't know everything about you. Meekness, take it. Our Lord did. Didn't He? He said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. If something good happened to
you, say, oh my, it's better than I deserve. Something bad? Yes, I deserve that. That fellow cussing David one
time. Remember that? He said, Lord, Senate, I need
it. Humble me. Meetness. Take it. Our Lord,
Peter, wrote this. He said, he's left us an example
to follow. He said, when he was revived,
he was revived not again. Now listen to it. You defend
your Lord. You defend His name. You defend
His truth. You defend your brother. You
defend this pastor. But don't defend yourself. Okay? The Lord will do that. Yes, He will. He said, vengeance
is mine. I will repay. Don't defend yourself. Don't defend yourself. Take it.
Take it. Look at the next sentence. He
said, put on long suffering. How long am I going to put up
with this? How long am I going to take this abuse? How long
am I going to take this abuse? How long is the Lord going to
have to take your abuse of Him, your neglect? How long? You know what? The long suffering
of the Lord is our salvation. That's what Peter said. Because
the Lord is long-suffering. He said that one time to the
disciples. How long must I suffer with you? How long did he? Having
loved his own. He loved him to the end. He put
up with me. You're going to put up with that
boy of yours until the day you die. Why? You love him. He's yours. He'll never not be
yours. And we'll never not be his. And he puts up with us. So this
is our motivation, isn't it? This is for this reason, because
God is long-suffering us for Christ's sake. Let's be the same. Let's be the same one. Put it
on. Wake up. Endeavor by His grace
to be long-suffering. You remember the message on tender
mercies and the pity of our Lord. You remember that? He knows our
frame. We need to consider others. Try to consider others and be
merciful and kind and long-suffering. We don't know what they're going
through. I'm talking about everybody.
We don't know what they're enduring. We don't know the abuse or whatever
it is that they suffer. So we need to be long-suffering.
Not knowing what that person is going through to make them
act the way they act. Right? I'll give you an illustration. was being mistreated in school
by another girl in school, much bigger than her, and she just
treated her very badly. And Hannah told her mother, and
her mother told her, honey, just try to be, God take it, he said,
you don't know what she's going through. You don't know what
that girl, you know, maybe she's living in abuse. Maybe her father
or mother or somebody's abusing her and she's making her take
it out on other people. So Hannah did. A few years later, she's working as a nurse in Franklin
Memorial. And that same girl came in. She'd
been abused. She was pregnant. not married,
and she was having a miscarriage. And she tore all the pieces,
and she saw Hannah. And she said, you were always
so kind to me, and I was so made to you. And crying, she begged
her forgiveness. Be kind. We don't know who might
be one of God's elect. Right? Wouldn't you rather them
later on say, I remember I was so mean to you, but you were
so kind to me. Huh? Isn't that the way our Lord
did that? Father, forgive them. They just spit in His face. They
slapped him. They beat him to a bloody mess.
Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. I want to be that way, don't
you? Ask Him. Wake up in the morning.
Be kind. Be merciful to all. Maybe it
might be your future brother or sister. Verse 13. I've got to hurry. Forbearing
one another. Forgiving one another. If any
have a quarrel or a complaint against any, as Christ forgave
you, so also do you. Let me read my pastor on this.
I couldn't improve on that. He said, as long as we're in
the flesh, we're going to have misunderstandings, unpleasant things, injustices. We're going to feel like we've
been wronged and violated. Others have treated us wrong,
what they've said, what they've done to us. It's going to happen. James wrote that. In many things
we offend others. We all do. Reflesh. Can't help
it. You may not intend to do it,
but you do it. What's to be our attitude? Forbearing
and forgiving. Forbearing means control your
emotions. Put it off. Don't let wrath and
malice and anger come in. Surrender your rights for the
time being. Paul said it this way. Suffer yourself to be defrauded. Be patient. Be patient. To forgive,
forgiving means actually, it means to put the misunderstanding
out of your mind and restore in a state of love and fellowship.
Forget it. You haven't really forgiven unless
you forget it. Right? Has our Lord forgotten,
forgiven our sins? Yes, He's forgotten them. He
said, I'll remember them no more. That's love. That's love. That's the way our Lord treats
us. He's long-suffering and patient with us, forgiving our sin and
remembering them no more. As Christ, as God for Christ's
sake has forgiven us, Ephesians 4. All right, the last verse. Above all, verse 14, over and
above all these things, put on charity or love. That's the bond
of perfectness or maturity. Love. This is a binding principle. This will bind us. This is what
binds us together in the love of God, the love of Christ, the
love that God that He sheds upon our heart for Him, for Christ,
the love that He gives us for one another. By this shall all
men know you are my disciples. You have love one another. That's
how you know. Love doesn't leave. It's bond. Right? You can get mad at each
other. You can have a falling out. You can even separate and
not speak for a little while. But you can't stay separated.
You can't stay unforgiving. Why? Love won't allow that. Love
you too much. So quit acting like that. Love. Right? There's nothing hurts worse than
people that you love leave and never come back. I don't know
of anything that's ever hurt me more than that. Love won't
do that. Will it? Love is a bond. It's a bond of
perfectness. It's maturity. Like a parent
loving a child, a child will never love A parent like a parent
loves a child. Some of you parents, isn't that
so? Isn't that so, Debra, Mindy? They won't understand until they
become a parent. And in the end, they won't appreciate
your love for them. They won't do it. It's just a
fact, isn't it? And that's the love of our Lord
for His people. And I close with these verses. Let me just read
them to you. I'm talking about love. Herein
is love. Herein is love. You want the
definition of love? Here it is. Not that we love
God. We're enemies. Talking about
being kind to everybody. Oh, our Lord's kind to to the
wicked, to the enemy. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us. How do we know? He sent His Son
to be a bloody covering for our sins. That's how we started this,
wasn't it? And that's how we're going to
end it. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another. What God did, what Christ did
for us binds us to Him forever. Doesn't it? And that ought to
bind us to one another forever, shouldn't it? Okay. Stand with
me.