If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians, the fifth chapter. This is in the bulletin. Let
me be sure I call your attention to it. The offering we're going
to take up for Larry and Robin and Chris. Their house has been
damaged pretty heavily in a flood. They need some help. We've sent
something to them already, and then whatever we take up from
everyone, we'll send that. here in a little bit too, so
please remember them in your prayers. This is a very difficult
time. Ephesians chapter five, we'll
begin reading in verse one. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling saver. But fornication and all uncleanness,
or covetousness, let it not once be named among you, as becometh
saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving
of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with faint words, For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for
the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
these For it's a shame even to speak of those things which are
done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest
is light. Wherefore he saith, awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God. We'll end our reading there.
All right, let's stand together. Sean leads us in singing our
call to worship. The blood of Christ, the spotless
Lamb, O God, is all my plea. I have not merit of my own which
I can bring to thee. No sacrifice save his who bore
my sins upon the tree. No other plea which lips could
speak could intercede for me. O wondrous cross, O precious
blood, O death by which I live! The sinless one for me made sin,
eternal life to give. By that blessed cross, that cleansing
blood, I know His power to save. I stand in Him completely blessed,
the calmer or the grave. Okay, if you would, turn in the
red hymnal to song number 282, Hiding in Thee. O save to the rock that is higher
than I My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly So sinful,
so weary, thine, thine would I be Thou blessed rock of ages,
I'm hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm
hiding in Thee. In the calm of the noontide,
In sorrows flown out, In times when temptation Casts o'er me
its power, In the tempest of life, On its wide-heaving sea,
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm
hiding in Thee. How often the conflict when pressed
by the foe, I have fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe. How often when trials like sea
billows roll, have I hidden in thee O Thou Rock of my soul,
Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee, Thou Blessed Rock of Ages, I'm
hiding in Thee. If you would please open your
Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. We'll read a portion of Colossians
chapter 3 starting at verse 5. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which
thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,
in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them, but
now ye also put up all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not to one another,
seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and
have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness,
and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also
you're called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in Psalms and in spiritual and Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in
the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God. and the Father
by Him. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together and thank God for His Word. Our great God
and heavenly Father, we thank You for this place that You've
given to us. And come and preach the gospel
to us. Thankful that You brought each
one of us here today to hear the message prepared. clear our
minds, the thoughts and cares of this life, the things that
we need to do in our daily lives, and let us receive the message
prepared. Pray that you'd be with Frank
this morning as he stands and opens the word to us. Teach us
out of the scriptures this morning. Let us worship and honor and
praise our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the precious
sacrifice of Christ to do for us which we could not do for
ourselves. Thank for His broken body and shed blood to atone
for sin. Cause us each day, Father, to think on this, to know that
our only hope is the sacrifice of Christ to atone for sin and
pray that we be found in Him. Let Him be in all and all to
us each day. Thank you for the many blessings
of this life. Cause us to be thankful and to know that all
that we have is a gift of your hand. And I'll be taken up with
the abilities you've given us. It's there by your hands, your
hand, and cause us to be thankful. Pray for those in other places,
Father, that are standing this morning to preach your word.
Be with them and the assemblies there and let it be a true morning
of worship. Praise for our Savior. These
things we ask in prayer in Christ's name. Under His wings I am safely abiding,
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild, Still I can
trust Him, I know He will keep me. He has redeemed me, and I
am His child. Under his wings, under his wings,
Who from his love can sever? Under his wings, my soul shall
abide, Safely abide forever. Under his wings, what a refuge
in sorrow, how the heart yearningly turns to his rest. Often when earth has no balm
for my healing, there I find comfort and there I am blessed. Under his wings, under his wings,
Who from his love can sever? Under his wings my soul shall
abide, Safely abide forever. Under His wings, oh, what precious
enjoyment! There will I hide till life's
trials are o'er. Sheltered, protected, no evil
can harm me. Resting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore. Under his wings, under his wings,
who from his love can sever? Under his wings, my soul shall
abide, safely abide forever. I enjoy that so much. Okay, if you would, open
your Bibles now again to Colossians chapter three, passage Brother
Wayne read for us a few moments ago. I've titled the message this
morning, Put Off the Old Man, Put On the New. And I hope that
you'll pray for me even as I preach this message. I pray that the
Lord will enable me to deal with it truthfully and preach it in
such a way that our Savior will be glorified and God's children
will be instructed. I have wrestled mightily with
this text this week, finding the right message and the way
that it should be preached. Now, what we're going to be looking
at is the believer's walk, the believer's conduct in this world.
And let me begin by saying this, this is what we know and believe,
that sinners are saved by grace. We know that, don't we? That's
the only way a real sinner can be saved, is by grace. We know
that sinners are made righteous by the obedience of Christ, our
representative. It's not our works of the law,
it's not our obedience to the law, it's his obedience to the
law. Our works of the law can only condemn us. So the only
way we can be made righteous, the only way a real sinner can
be made righteous is if Christ makes them righteous. His work
that he's done for us and in us. The Lord Jesus Christ is
our salvation and we are complete in him. Now, if we're complete
in Christ, our works can't be added to that. It's already complete.
We're already full. If we're complete in Christ,
there's no room for our works to be added. And if we do try
to add our works to it, we're gonna mar it. It's got to be
all Christ. And so we know this, salvation
is by grace. It's all in Christ. And secondly,
we know this, we believe this. God's people are blessed for
Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. Not our works, not because we've
done anything to deserve it, for Christ's sake. Now, I say
this to you. You know, people already know.
We're going to talk about the believer's walk. People already
know how to live. People don't need a preacher
telling them how to live. You already know right from wrong. Do the right
thing. Spend time in prayer. Read God's
word. Be faithful to attend the worship
service. Look for opportunities to serve
one another. Be kind to one another. Show
love for one another. You know that. Do those things. But don't expect God to bless
you for them. That's works, isn't it? If I expect God to bless
me because I do the right thing and he'll bless me more than
this person because they don't do the right thing, that's works. Now, let's be careful here. Let's not say we're saved by
grace, but then God's going to bless me by my works. No, it's
all of grace. God's not going to bless you
and me for doing what we're supposed to do anyway. That's just our
reasonable service. God blesses His people for the
very same reason He saves them. Freely by His grace, not because
we deserve it. Now you know that, don't you?
That we believe that. That's what we believe. And all
of that is true. And I believe that just as strongly
as I believe anything. And by God's grace, I won't compromise
that. I won't move a millimeter from
that. I know you feel the same way. But at the same time, this
is also true. The believer's conduct matters. Now, our works don't matter.
Our works don't contribute one whit to salvation, but the believer's
conduct does matter. And this is why I ask for your
prayers. I want to be able to preach this in such a way that
God's children are taught our conduct matters, but that we
never cross the line and trust anything that we do to contribute
to our salvation. or contribute to our righteousness.
I want to come right up to the line and stay on it and not go
over it or behind it either way. Our conduct matters, but nothing
we do ever contributes to our salvation. Bro. Eric and I were talking about
this text at lunch this week, and he made a very good statement.
He said, if there's a new man in us, that new man ought to
be seen. That's true, isn't it? If there's
a new man in us, it ought to be seen. There ought to be some
evidence that he's there. Now, that doesn't mean that a
believer will be perfect and everybody will always see, oh,
what a stalwart man of faith this person is. David's a man
after God's own heart. You couldn't always look at David's
actions and tell that, could you? No, the old man's still
there. And this I promise you, that
old man will be seen. He's gonna make a show of himself. But the new man should be seen
too. But our salvation is not in people seeing that new man
in us. Isn't that right? Salvation is not in people seeing
the new man in us. Salvation is in Christ. And we
need to come right to that line and not cross it. That's the
way I hope to be able to preach this this morning. And I believe
I have something that may help you with this. It helped me a
great deal when I looked it up, and we'll get to that in just
a minute. In our text, the apostle talks about putting off some
things and putting on. some things. And that made me
think about changing clothes. You know, shorts and t-shirts
and sandals, that's fine for the beach. That's appropriate,
isn't it? That's not so much appropriate here in the worship
service. It's not appropriate. You know, there are some clothes,
there are some actions and attitudes that are just not in style for
the believer anymore. When I was a boy, 9, 10 years
old, my mother made me a sky blue leisure suit. I loved that
leisure suit more than any piece of clothing that I had. That's
out of style now. I mean, it's just out of style.
If I wore that now, it would be kind of hard to listen to
me, wouldn't it? Because it's out of style. So put that off. Put that off. and there's some
new clothes to put on. Don't just take off, put on.
Put on some attitudes and some actions that are in style for
the believer, that are appropriate for the believer to wear no matter
where you go. Now there is a nature of faith and holiness and righteousness
in every believer. This is in every believer. These
attitudes and things that we're talking about here is in every
believer, because that's what's born in you, in the new man.
The spirit causes him to be born. But we still have to be taught. You know these things, these
things, but we have to be taught. Otherwise it wouldn't be in God's
word. So Paul begins in verse five, talking about mortifying
some things. And that word mortify means this.
It means to make dead, to make old, to make worn out, and to
make like an impotent old man. I'm starting to understand that.
Make like an impotent, weak old man. Now you can't get rid of
that old man. Not until you die can you get
rid of that old man. But I tell you, we can deprive him of some
power and some opportunity to do so much damage. You can't
get rid of him, but now he can be mortified. In verse eight,
Paul talks about putting off some things. And that phrase,
put off, means this. It's to lay something aside.
Throw it away because you don't need it anymore. Janet is always
looking for things to throw away. She just wants to, you know,
get rid of things, just keep the house from getting so cluttered.
Now, I'll tell you this, they usually happen to be my things,
you know, she thinks, but she's throwing stuff away all the time.
You don't need this anymore. So throw it away. Put it off.
That's what Paul's saying here. Now, before we look at what we're
deprived, to deprive the power of it, what it is we're to throw
away, I want us to look at how. How is the believer to mortify
these things? How is the believer to put off
these things? And I believe this will be very
helpful to you. Now, this is not something to
mortify the old man, put off these things. That's not something
that we do by our own strength. You're not going to be able to
conjure up the strength to do this on your own. And unfortunately,
it's not something that you do once for all. You're gonna have
to constantly keep laying these things down, constantly keep
throwing these things away. Just like the believers continually
coming to Christ. Peter said, to whom coming? You're
constantly coming to Christ. We're constantly looking to Christ.
We're constantly believing Christ. Well, in the same way, we're
gonna have to constantly put that old man down, constantly
deprive him of his power, but he's gonna come back strong.
He's gonna come back, so you're gonna have to put him down again.
Now, this is what was very helpful to me, I think will be to you.
I normally don't do this, but like I said, I was really wrestling
with this and looking at all this, and I did something I almost
never do. I looked up the tense of this
Greek word, and I don't much know all the right verb tenses
in English, so I certainly don't know Greek, but this is what
I looked up and what I read. And the tense of this verb in
the Greek, lets us know how the believer is to mortify these
things. How is the believer to put these things off? Well, the
verb tense, and this is what was in the Greek dictionary,
it expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action
by the order and by the authority of the one doing the commanding.
And the example the dictionary used was this, the Lord's commandment,
repent ye and believe the gospel. That's a commandment. This is
what the dictionary says. This is not an invitation at
all. It's an absolute command requiring
full obedience on the part of the hearers. Now, the only way
that you and I can do what the Lord commands, it's by his power,
by his authority, by the authority of the one doing the commanding.
You know, we don't believe we're saved by grace, and then suddenly
we believe that the believer somehow has some ability to do
these works and has the power to walk on his own and do these
things on his own. But salvation, remember, is all
by God's grace. It's all by God's power. That's
the only way a sinner can be saved. Well, a believer walks
aright in the very same way, by God's grace and by God's power,
by the authority of the one doing The commandment, it's all by
God's power working in us. Salvation from its beginning
to its ending is all of God's power. It's His sovereign right
to choose us. It's His sovereign right to send
a savior to put away our sin. His power to call us. His power
to keep us, His power to cause us to walk aright, His power
to cause us to be the salt of the earth, to be His witnesses
on earth, and His power to call us home and glorify us. From
beginning to end, it's all of His power. And the key to the
whole matter in this thing of the believer's walk, the key
to the whole matter of all of the believer's life is found
in verse 11. Christ is all. Christ is all. Now on one side
of verse 11, Paul talks about putting off some things. On the
other side of verse 11, he talks about putting on some things.
And the hinge that controls that is this. Christ is all. Christ is all. It's the motivation.
It's the power that we have to walk as a believer ought to walk.
Christ is all. And before we start looking at
specifics, let me also point out this. We're not dealing here
with just outward actions. You know, most people, everybody
in the flesh, when they talk about putting off these things,
they only think about outward actions. But the apostle here
actually spends more time dealing with the emotions and the thoughts
and the motives and what comes out of the heart. You know, you
may have some success controlling the outward action. I hope you
do. I hope I do have some success controlling the outward action.
but you'll have absolutely no success controlling the motions
of sin, the desires of sin, the things that just come up from
your heart. Every single one of you knows
this. There's thoughts that fly through your head, even as we're
reading God's word, even as we're bowing in prayer. Wayne, he was
up here praying, leading us to the throne of God Almighty. And
undoubtedly, some thought flew through our head, and you think,
I wish you hadn't thought that. You can't stop it, can you? Because
we have a nature of sin. We have no power over it. But I'll tell you this, we sure
can pray and ask God to give it. See, this is how the believer
mortifies these things and puts off these things. It's by prayer. It's by prayer, asking God to
give us the right conduct, give us the right attitude. The only
way that we have to mortify these things and put some things off
and put other things on is by prayer. It's by prayer. And I
believe if we got that, you'll get everything else. It's all
by prayer. All right, first, let's deal
with the outward actions Paul talks about here. The first thing
in verse five, is sexual sins. He says, mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth, fornication. And that's what
fornication is, it's sexual sins. Everybody knows that's wrong.
I mean, everybody knows that that's wrong. I know the world
today tells you if it feels good, do it. You know, you ought not
deny yourself anything. But everybody knows that's wrong.
So mortify that, mortify that. Not only don't, just don't commit
these sexual sins adultery and those things because they're
wrong, but my goodness, how they hurt the ones that we love. How
they hurt, I mean, if a husband does that, I mean, how he hurts
his wife, how he hurts his family. He violates the trust, doesn't
he? But I tell you, worse yet, what
it violates, these fornication sexual sins. It violates the
picture of Christ, the great bridegroom, and his one bride.
Now that puts matters in a whole nother light for the believer.
Christ the Savior is the faithful, loving husband of his wife, his
bride, the bride that the father gave him. He's faithful to her.
He loves her. And who he is, who he is to us,
that Christ is all. He's the faithful husband. He's
the loving husband. He's the faithful provider. He's
always there. Never leave you nor forsake you.
That's the motivation to the believer, to mortify these sexual
sins. Christ is all. The second thing
he lists here in verse five is uncleanness. And that word means
moral impurity. And what that, again, this is
what the great dictionary said about this word. It's doing something
that's obviously wrong and doing it out of an impure motive. I
mean, it's not something you did wrong that you didn't really
think about. No, you thought about it. and you did it, something
that you knew was wrong and you did it out of a motive of greed
and lust. Now mostly I tell you what that
comes from, this uncleanness, doing something out of the wrong
motive. It comes from looking out for
number one. Oh, I dread ever hearing somebody say, boy, I'm
going to start looking out for number one now. Buddy, you can
bank on this. Somebody in that person's life
is getting ready to get hurt. If you're looking out for number
one, you're gonna hurt others. Now for the believer, our motivation
to mortify the uncleanness as acting in the wrong motive is
Christ is all. To the believer, Christ is number
one. Christ, his cause, his people,
they're number one. And we mortify uncleanness by
faith in Christ, by prayer and asking God to give us faith.
I tell you what, I tell you this all the time, whatever it is
that God has given you to do today, do it with all your might. Do the absolute best that you
can do at it. Just whatever, I don't care what
it is, when you go to work tomorrow and you think it's Monday and
going back to the salt mine, I tell you what, just buck up
and remember this, whatever it is you got on that job to do
today, do it with all your might. Trusting God's going to take
care of you. See, do what you're supposed to do, but don't trust
in it. Do it trusting that Christ is going to take care of you.
And if you trust Christ, you trust He's going to provide for
you, you trust He's going to take care of you, then you don't
have to do something wrong to try to get ahead, do you? You
don't have to do something wrong thinking, oh, I better take care
of myself here. No, God will take care of you. See, you mortify
this by faith, by trusting Christ. Now, the next thing, you have
to get clear down to verse eight, is blasphemy. And the word means
slander. Now again, this is something
that you're coming to this world knowing it's wrong to lie, to
lie about other people. Your mother taught you that.
Don't lie. Don't lie. Tell the truth. Don't slander
people. Don't do that. Don't lie about
other people. When you do that, mostly people
know what they're doing when you go lying on somebody. It's
your purpose to try to destroy their reputation. It's your purpose
to try to make yourself look better by making them look bad. Don't do that. Don't do that.
That's slander. And whatever you do, don't blaspheme
God. Don't blaspheme God. And here
is in the context of what this verse means, slander. Here's
the way we blaspheme God. It's by not giving him the credit
for salvation. It's not giving him the credit.
The recognition that he is who he is, he's God. Now it's blasphemy
to say this. Salvation is up to my decision.
See, you know why that's blasphemy? It's not giving God credit for
who he is. Saying I was saved because I made a decision, that's
blasphemy. That's slandering God, denying him the credit that
salvation is by grace, by the will and purpose of God. If you think that you're blessed
because you did some good thing and this other person is not
blessed because they didn't do some good thing, that's blasphemy. That's slander. That's not giving
God the credit for his mercy and for his grace. I tell you
how we avoid that. How do you mortify that? Trying
to give yourself credit does not do you. It's prayer. Prayer. Ask God to give it to
you. Ask him. The end verse 8, filthy communication. It means
exactly what you think it means. It means foul speech. Now, cursing
like a sailor, that is just out of style for the believer. It's
out of style. It's unbecoming. You know, there
is for the royal family in Great Britain. Now, there's kind of
one set of standard for behavior for society. And there's another
one for the queen, for the prince, for the princess. They're just
held to a higher standard. This kind of behavior is unbecoming
to the believer. It reflects poorly upon our father,
upon our savior. And the way to mortify it is
prayer, is prayer. Then says this in verse nine,
lie not one to another. Now again, this goes with slander. Be honest with each other, be
honest. Tell the truth. With your family, certainly.
With this family, certainly. When you're in business and you're
doing, tell the truth. I mean, let somebody know. I
don't need you to sign a contract or get you all hemmed in so you
do what you say you'll do. Just be the kind of person that
does what you said you'd do. Just be honest. Don't lie to
one another. But now listen. There's only one answer to the
question, do these jeans make me look fat? There's one answer. You boys remember this. There's
one answer to that question. So does that mean just tell the
truth all? Well, you know, discretion is the better part of valor.
Let me tell you the main meaning of this passage. Why not one to another? Don't
put on a false religious front to make everybody think you're
better than you are. Don't put on a false religious
front to make somebody think you're more holy, you're more
righteous, you're on a higher spiritual plane than them. That's
lying. That's just a bold-faced lie.
Don't ever give the impression to somebody that you are not
as needy and is not as dependent upon the Lord as they are. Make
sure people know I'm just as sinful as you. I mean, I got
no way, no reason to look down on you. I'm just as sinful as
you. I am just as dependent on God's grace and God's mercy to
keep me as you are and to give the impression that somehow you're
stronger in the faith than you really are, you know, and you
don't fight these battles with sin and sinful desires. It's
just a lie. It's just a lie. And I tell you
what, when you do that, oh, you might feel better about yourself
thinking you're making yourself feel better than you really are,
but I'm going to tell you what you're doing to your brother
and sister. You're hurting them. Because they think, oh, maybe
I'm not saved. Maybe I don't know the Lord.
Because I'm not as good as them. Brother, you and me aren't the
standard. Of course you're better than
me. But who cares? The standard is Christ. The standard
is Christ. We need Him. We need Him. And we ought to preach that from
the pulpit as our doctrine. We ought to live like we believe
it. I need Him. And to do otherwise is a lie. And I tell you the key to it
is this. Christ is all. Christ is all. If Christ is all to you, you
want people to know He's all to you. So He gets all the credit
and you get none. All right, that's action. Second,
let's deal with the attitudes, the thoughts and motives of the
heart. And you'll notice this, that there are more attitudes
here listed than actions. Our attitudes and our emotions,
these things, the desires that come from that old fleshly nature,
it's impossible for us to control these things. But we can pray
about it. Now, we sure can pray about it.
You know, there's something I want to make clear always in my preaching. There's nothing that you can
do to get God to save you. Nothing. There's nothing you
can do to earn or deserve God's mercy and grace. But don't ever
think that means there's nothing you can do. You sure can beg
for it, can't you? Those blind men, the Lord's passing
by these blind men. There's not one blessed thing
in this world they can do to give themselves sight. They can't
do anything to make the Lord give them sight, but they sure
could beg, couldn't they? And people told them, be quiet,
they could yell all the louder. You can beg God to save you.
And the same thing applies here. We can't eliminate these sinful
desires and thoughts and go through our minds, but you sure can pray
the Lord enable you to put them off, to lay them aside and to
mortify them. And the first one he mentions
in verse five, is inordinate affection. And that simply means
having too much love for something. It's an ungoverned love and inordinate
affection. Ungoverned love would be a parent
saying, Oh, I love my children so much. I just can't spank them.
Oh, I love my children so much. I just can't tell them no to
anything. That's an ungoverned love. It's not good for them.
But the main issue, that's just an example that we all can understand,
but here's another thing that we can all understand. Inordinate
affection is loving something more than we love God. And a
person, I've heard people say this. People have told me this,
it's just shocking. I cannot believe your gospel. I see what you're saying from
the word of God, but I cannot believe it. Because if what you're
saying is true, my mama's not saved. My grandmother's not the
same. Someone will say, I just can't
find time to go to the worship service. It's just life's too
busy. I got too many other things to do. Well, mortify that. Put that feeling off, and you
will if Christ is all to you. If Christ is all to you, you'll
bow to him. and you'll want to bow to him.
You'll need to worship him. And I tell you what, the more
you worship Christ, the more you look to Christ, the more
you hear him preach, the more he would be pleased to reveal
himself to you, the more you'll be able to put off, mortify this
inordinate affection. Then verse five, evil concupiscence
and covetousness. They both go closely together. And it simply means this desiring
what is forbidden. Now that was Adam's problem in
the garden, wasn't it? He wanted what didn't belong
to him. He wanted to be God. He wanted to be the one to make
the rules. He wanted to say what's good and what's evil. He wanted
what doesn't belong to him. He wanted what belonged to God.
And this thing of covetousness and evil concupiscence, wanting
what is forbidden to us, 100% of the time leads to free will
works religion. It's trying to get something
that doesn't belong earn a righteousness by my own works, make God happy
with me, accept me by what I've done. And this is human nature,
and you see it came directly from Adam. You may not even think
about some particular thing, wanting to do it or desiring
to have it, but the very moment somebody tells you you can't
have it, it's all you think about. You just suddenly want it more
than anything in this world, only because somebody told you
you can't have it. Well, here's how you put that off. To this
flesh, to hear the gospel and say, this is forbidden to you.
Glory and salvation. Credit in your salvation. That's
forbidden to you. It all belongs to Christ. Boy,
the flesh just fights that because the flesh just wants it so bad.
Well, here's how you put that off. It's by believing Christ
is all. Christ is all. And if Christ
is your all, tell you what you'll do. you'll seek him. You'll seek
his mercy, you'll seek his grace, you'll seek those things first,
and all these other things will be added to you. A real good
way to put off these things and mortify those things is spend
time in prayer with your heavenly father. It'll help us have the
right attitude, won't it? Then, verse eight, anger. It shows you how good I'm doing,
that's why I told you about something today, it made me angry, didn't
it? Well, this anger he's talking about here specifically is an
anger that causes you to seek revenge. Now, this flesh loves that. I mean, loves it, craves it. Well, how do you put that off?
You put it off if Christ is all to you. If Christ is all to you,
you know this vengeance belongeth to Him. And you trust Him to
take care of you. You trust Him to vindicate you.
It may not be to glory, but He will. Maybe in this earth He
will. Maybe not to glory. But I'm telling
you this, one way or another, He'll vindicate you. Just wait
on Him and trust Him to do it. Then, verse eight, wrath. And
wrath is a fierceness in character. Just a fierce person. I'll tell
you why when you want to put that fierceness off, I'll tell
you what will help you to put off this fierceness. Christ is
all. If Christ is all to you, you
want, it is your desire to be meek like the Savior was meek. He said, I'm meek and lowly of
heart. That it's your desire not to
be fierce, but to be meek. and lowly, like he was, like
he is. Then last, verse 8, malice. Now, anger, wrath, and malice
are all tied closely together, but the word specifically means
a desire to hurt someone, and being unafraid to break the law
because you don't think it applies to you. That's what the Greek
word means. Now, again, that is a motion that comes from this
man of sin, that's old nature, and you can't stop it from coming
up in your heart, can you? But you know what will help you
put it off? Christ is all. If Christ is all to you, you
want to help people, not hurt them. You want to help them.
You want to help them mainly by preaching the gospel to them,
but you want to be a help, not seeking to hurt them. If Christ
is all to you, you want to put these things off. But now don't
just put things off. Paul now tells us put some things
on. Put these attitudes on and wear them every day because they're
fit for every place the believer goes. And right here is what
false religion always misses. They only deal with quitting
some outward sins. They never deal with the inward.
They only deal with the outward sins. And true religion is not
just quitting something. True religion is turning to Christ. True religion is not just turning
from your idols. If all you want to do is turn
from this idol, you'll turn to another one. True religion is
turning to Christ from your idols. It's not just the outward, it's
the inward man of the heart. So Paul says in verse 12, put
this on. He says, put on therefore, as
the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies. Now this phrase,
bowels of mercies, means love and affection that's in the heart. And Paul says, now you're holy,
you're beloved, you who believe, you who know Christ, you're holy.
He's made you holy. He's given you a holy nature
in the new birth. Now what can be more holy than
love? What can be more holy than loving
God? What can be more holy than loving your brethren? Loving
your fellow man. What can be more holy than that?
And I tell you your motivation to feel genuine love. I mean,
you know, by nature, all we're born with loving ourselves. I
tell you the motivation to feel genuine love and then show that
genuine love is what Paul says here. You're beloved, holy and
beloved. You're beloved. You're beloved
of God Almighty. Now, if you've been born again,
that's all you need to hear to be motivated to love others.
And I know, I recognize this. Some people are harder to love
than others. I understand that. But we need
to remember this. They're not harder to love than
me. They're not harder to love than me. I'm just sure of this. If God loved me, I'm just sure
I can show love to you. I'm sure of it. And notice this, this is in the
plural, bowels of mercy. Show your love in every different
situation to all kinds of different people. And I tell you, the way
to be able to put that on is pray. Pray to the one that made
you holy and beloved, that he might give you this attitude
of love and enable you to show it. All right, the next thing
in verse 12 is kindness. And the word means gentleness.
You know, go the extra mile to be gentle to your brethren. I
mean, you know, I know people do things that aren't just right
or do wrong things or do things that hurt my feelings, but just
go the extra mile, not to be judgmental and harsh at them,
but be gentle, be gentle. Being gentle, smooths over a
lot. It just smooths over a lot. If
someone is not fierce with you, but they're gentle, how do you
respond? In gentleness, don't you? In
gentleness. And again, this is our motivation for feeling this
way, for desiring and praying that God give us this attitude.
Christ is all. If we just begin, to start to
think about the Savior's gentleness to us. Doesn't that just overwhelm you?
That makes me want to be gentle to others. That makes me want
to pray that the Lord will be gentle to others. Then verse
12, he says, humbleness of mind. And humbleness of mind simply
means this, a low opinion of self. That's the great definition
of this, a low opinion of self. Frank's definition would be this,
a right definition of self. A right definition of self is
a low opinion of ourselves, isn't it? And again now, this is a
genuine feeling of the heart. If we have a low opinion of ourselves,
God's gonna have to give it to us, isn't he? So we're gonna
have to pray for this. But this is not being a hypocrite.
It's a genuine low opinion of self. And if there's any fruit
of the Spirit at all in you, you're going to give God the
credit for it because you know it didn't come to you naturally.
If there's any humbleness in you, God had to give it to you. That didn't come to you naturally.
You know you are what you are by the grace of God, by His grace
that He gave to you. And it ought to be easy for us
to be humble. It ought to be easy for us to
esteem others better than ourselves. We're told in scripture, esteem
others better than yourself. Well, that'll be easy for us
to do because I don't know your secret thoughts. I don't know
the secret thoughts and desires of your heart, but I know mine.
And when I, oh my soul, you gotta be better than me. I got to esteem
you better than me because I know what's in here. And that's not
being hypocritical. That's just an honest opinion
or right opinion of self. That's why Peter said, be clothed
with humility. be covered with this right opinion
of ourselves. And the motivation to feel this
way, humble, have a right opinion of ourselves, is Christ is all. If the Lord of glory could humble
himself to be made flesh and to come to serve his people,
to serve his people by saving them from their sin, I'll tell
you what, that makes me want to serve you too, in humility. humbleness. And the way, the
only way we can have that, the only way we can put this on is
by prayer. The end, verse 12, meekness.
And the word means mildness. You'll be mild with each other.
But the main meaning of this word, mild, is to be mild concerning
God. Now you might ask, well, how
can I do that? How can I be mild concerning God? Here's how, having
this attitude. Everything God does with me is
right. And I quietly submit to it because
that's his will for me. That is being meek with God.
Now, this flesh doesn't feel that way, is it? So how are you
going to put this on? This meekness, knowing everything
God does with me is right. I'm not going to question it.
I'm not going to keep complaining about it. I'm going to quietly
submit to his will. The only way is prayer. asking God to
give it to you. And our motivation for this,
that to have this, this meekness is to think how mildly, how quietly
the savior submitted himself to the will of his father so
that he could redeem his people from their sins. He quietly and
submissively suffered for sin because he knew what the father
was giving him was right. If Christ is all to you, you
want the same attitude, and you pray that the Lord enable you
to put it on. Then, verse 12, long-suffering. And the word
means what you think it means. It means patient. And I tell
you, the best standard that you can think of, how long-suffering,
how patient should you be with your brethren? Be as patient
with others as you are with yourself. You know you need to grow up
a little bit. You need to mature a little bit. You need to learn
a little bit. Well, you're willing to wait. Be patient on that to
happen, aren't you? Be patient with others. Well, they're waiting
for God to cause them to grow a little bit, too. You know you
got some faults. You got some faults. Well, you're
patient with them. You think, eh, it's not that
big a deal. Be that patient with the faults of others, just like
you are with yourself. And I tell you the motivation
to put this on, to go to God in prayer and ask Him, Lord,
enable me to put this on. It's how patient the Savior is
with you. And forbearing one another. And
the word simply means this, put up with. Verse 13, forbearing
one another. Put up with. Now remember this,
we're all still in the flesh. We're all still have this sin
and we're going to be hard to get along with from time to time.
Well, if somebody's hard to get along with, one of your brothers,
one of your sisters here, just grit your teeth and just put
up with it. Just put up with it. And that
ought to be easy to do for us, considering how often somebody's
got to put up with me, and how the Savior's put up with me.
Then verse 13, forgiving one another. When somebody offends
you, This is the mark of a believer.
How can we not forgive others after God's forgiven me? How
can we not do that? God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
me. That makes me want to pray and
ask the Father and enable me to put this on, put this forgiveness
on, that I would be forgiven so readily and quickly. Then
verse 14, love above all these things put on charity, which
is the bond of perfectness. And I tell you why Paul puts
love at the top of the list above all these things, put on love.
Because if you put on love, all these other things will flow
naturally from it. You're not gonna lie to somebody you love.
You're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna be mean to somebody
you love. You're gonna forgive somebody you love. You're gonna
be gentle with somebody that you love. Love quickly overlooks,
love quickly forgives. And again, our motivation to
pray for this and enable me to put this love on is this, Christ
is all, Christ is all. If God can love me, I'm just
sure that I can love you and do things to show you that I
love you. Then verse 15, let the peace
of God rule in your hearts to the which also you're called
in one body. Now this word rule here, is umpire,
that's what the word means, umpire. Let the peace of God umpire your
life. Let the peace of God define the
rules by which that you follow. And again, your motivation to
put this on, to pray that Lord able you to put this on, is Christ
is all. Our savior is the prince of peace. He made peace with God for us
through the blood of his cross. That if he's applied that blood
to your heart, cause you to be born again, your desire is to
live at peace with all men, as much as is possible, live peaceably
with all men. And we put that on by prayer,
by prayer. And then last, verse 15, he says,
and be thankful. All God's people should be known
as a thankful people, not a grumbling, complaining people, but a thankful
people. There are people, have you ever
met somebody that just can't be satisfied no matter what?
We're not thankful. Be able to be satisfied. Be thankful
with what God's given you. And again, our motivation for
this, to pray and ask God to make me thankful, is Christ is
all. If I have Christ, I have everything. I want nothing. I sure should
be thankful, shouldn't I? Then verse 16. Here's how you
can help one another in this matter. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Now use these things. Talking
to one another richly in all wisdom, teaching one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with the word of God. Use
these things to speak to the new man. That's what will strengthen
him. That's what will enable him to
put these things on and put these other things off. You know, reading
God's word and talking about God's word, it just strengthens
and feeds the new man. Now, verse 17. Whatsoever you
do, word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him. Now, whatever it is you
do, you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is
a very easy way to see what I should put off and what I should put
on it. doing it in the name of Christ. And as God's dear children,
you remember this now, what you do out there in the world reflects
on your father. Well, I'll tell you, if Christ
is all to me, the last thing that I ever want to do is bring
shame to his name, to bring reproach upon his gospel. I don't want
people to think less of my God, less of my savior, less of my
gospel, because I act like a horse's behind. God forbid, God forbid. Now in closing, I've preached
too long, but let me tell you this, it got all this far, let
me finish up. This is a statement Brother Todd
Nyberg made one time. I thought a lot about it this
week. It's a true statement. He said this, if you live like
hell, that's where you're gonna go. It's a true statement, isn't
it? Well, let me add to this, this
to that. You're not gonna get to heaven
by acting like heaven. You're not going to get to heaven
acting as good as you can act. The only way we're going to get
to heaven is by God's sovereign mercy and God's sovereign grace.
And that's what we ought to be seeking. And it is that same
grace, that same mercy, that will enable me to put these things
on and walk as I'm supposed to walk, as I ought to walk. You
know, again, now we can't do anything to stop the sinful desires
of this old man. But contrary to what people are
teaching today, let me tell you something. There is, now I know
those things come up. I mean, I know, believe me, I
live with it, I know. But there is such a thing as
self-restraint. I mean, just because the desire to act with
malice and hatred and slander, just because the desire for those
things comes up in our heart, doesn't mean you have to act
on it. Doesn't mean you have to act on it. And the way we
might not act on it is by prayer. See, that's the way we put these
things off and put them on. It's by the authority of the
one who commanded us. I apologize for my length, but
I wanted to get through all that in one sitting, and I hope it's
a blessing and a help to you. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word, the word that
gives life, reveals Christ our life and applies mercy and grace,
salvation to our hearts. And your word that instructs
us to walk in that same mercy and that same grace, looking
to and depending on Christ and Christ alone. Father, I pray
you bless your word as it's been preached. Blessed to your glory,
blessed to the hearts of your people, that we might be edified
and taught and learn even more to depend more fully, more completely,
on Christ our Savior. It is in his blessed name we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, turn to song number
168 and stand as we sing, Even Me. Oof. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
Let Thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, whilst
Thou calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, sir, of Jesus'
merit, Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, Let
Thy blessing fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
By my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let thy
blessing fall on me. you.