Colossians chapter 3, I'll start
in verse 12. It's evident by looking at you
this morning that you spent some time dressing yourself up. You spent some time on yourself.
You know, I went to the closet this morning. Of course, when
I go to the closet, I try to figure out which one fits. I choose. But I spend some time
on what I'm going to wear. And I spend some time on my appearance. I do and you do. But how much
time, and I thought about this last night as I was going over
these notes. I thought how much time and effort, because it takes
effort, do I spend on dressing that inner man? Look in verse
12. Put on, therefore. This takes effort. It takes effort
to do this. Back in verse 9, he said, Lie
not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with
his deeds. You see, you put off the old
man with his deeds. That takes effort. Mortifying
the deeds of the flesh. which we are told to do earlier
in this chapter. It takes effort. It takes a lot
of effort. This has nothing to do with working
for salvation. This has everything to do with
adorning the gospel of God. And it really has a lot to do
with the worship service, what I get out of it. What I get out
of it when I come here is what happened before I come here.
That's what he says here, put on therefore. Seeing that you
are born of God, that's who he's writing to, you are a new creature,
a new creation in Christ Jesus, then put these things on. And
I'm going to read these to you. And I want you to notice as we
go down through these verses, and I wrote out by, I just made
a line down through these verses, and I put short and simple. If there's wisdom in it, especially
if there's the wisdom of God in it, it will always be short
and simple. God is not in the explaining
business. He just proclaims, He declares,
He commands, and we hear and obey. So you'll notice how short
these things are. We don't need to write a book
on them. We don't need to write a book on these verses as volumes. We just need to hear what he
says in these verses. Now, I said he's speaking to
those who have been born of God because he calls them holy and
beloved. Holy and beloved. No one is holy
by nature, by the natural birth. None of us are. Holiness does
not come from mom and dad. It comes from God. We pass on
sin, we pass it on to our children and they will to their children
and so on. We cannot pass on holiness. That comes from God. That is the work of God. David
said in Psalm 51, 5, Behold, I was shaping in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. Not a sinful act. It wasn't a sinful act that he
was conceived. The very seed that he was conceived with was
full of sin. Also, he calls them elect. He says, you are the elect of
God. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, as God's chosen,
as God's children. Put these things on. And all these things have to
do with the inner man. Now, he starts out here. Now,
listen. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
vows of mercies. This is what you dress yourself
up in. This is what you work on. This is the inner man. This is that one that's born
of God. And these are the things he's to be dressed up in. Vows
of mercies. That's inward affection that
is true and real, tender mercies. Let your mercies, let your kindness,
your tenderness come from your heart. Not a show, not saying,
well, I'm supposed to be kind. I'm supposed to be merciful.
No, I tell you what, you are merciful because you can't help
it. Those who have received grace
are gracious because they can't help it. They love because they
can't help it. The love of God is shed abroad
in their heart. What is in us is that which will come out of
us. That's what comes out of us, what's in us. That's what
really comes out. And the reason to show vows of
tender mercies is the Lord's tender mercies to us because
of His tender mercies Look over in Psalm 51. We're in Psalm 51. Verse 1, Have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy lovingkindness. according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies." Is that how I want God to deal
with me? I do want God to deal with me in loving kindness and
tender mercies. Well, we are to do the same.
We are to do the same. Look over in Psalm 119. In Psalm
119, In verse 77, let thy tender mercies come unto
me, that I may live, for thy law is my delight. And those
same tender mercies we are to dress up that inner man with. Put on. That's why he said, put
on. And this takes effort. This takes
effort. We are not just floating through.
We are to put on, and this takes effort. And then he says, not
only that, but put on kindness. Kindness. That means excellence
in character or demeanor. That's to be our demeanor. That's
to be our attitude. Kindness. It can be said of us. It should always be able to be
said of us. He or she is kind. We ought to be the kindest people
that anyone knows. Put on kindness, kindness. And then put on humbleness of
mind, that humility, humility of mind. Our human nature teaches
us to be the opposite. This world teaches us to be the
opposite. It teaches us to be proud. Proud
of race, proud of face, proud of grace. It grows on any ground. It'll grow on concrete. But here,
he says, humbleness of mind, humility, that's considering
others before you do yourself. This is what we are to be dressed
up with. True humility, not pretended humility, but true humility. And then meekness. Meekness. Wouldn't you like to meet this
kind of person? Much more would you rather be
this kind of person. Be this kind of person. Meekness. Easily approached. Now there are some people I do
not feel comfortable approaching. There are some people I do not
feel comfortable going up to and talking to them, they don't
make me feel easy. But our Lord, our Lord was meek
and lowly. And sinners, I mean the vilest
of sinners, publicans, harlots, felt comfortable in His presence. They could approach Him. They
could talk to him. This man receiveth sinners. This is the charge that was laid
against our Lord. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. I'm glad he does. I'm glad he
does. I'm glad he receives sinners.
I'm glad he welcomes sinners. Meekness, I tell you what, meekness
is just to be like your Lord. It's to be like your Lord. Meek
and lonely. Now don't mistake meekness for
weakness because it's not. It's not. Meekness, I tell you,
I think somebody truly meek has far more strength than someone
that's arrogant and proud. That's a real strength of character
there, meekness. Kindness, my soul. that God would enable us to put
these things on as the elect of God. This is what the elect
of God, this is what they are to be dressed up with, these
things. And we need to give attention
to these things. I sat down last night and I thought as I was
going over this, I thought of how much attention I give to
my dress, to what I'm putting on and cleaning up. And I have to say, I felt a little
pricking of the conscience. Do I spend that much time on
that inner man, reading the Word of God, studying the Word of
God, seeking after Him, following after Him? Meekness. And then long-suffering. That's the one thing. That's probably one of the hardest
things we have to deal with in this flesh is patience. Us being patient with others. Long-suffering. God is long-suffering. My soul,
he still puts up with me. Long-suffering. And how many
conflicts would be avoided If we put these things on every
day, when we get up in the morning, we start looking and thinking
about what we're going to put on. Let this be the first thing
we think of. Oh, that we could read this word,
digest this word to the point that when we awoke in the morning,
the first thing we would think of is not what I'm going to put
on on the outer man. What am I going to put on that
inner man? thoughts on the inner man, my thoughts on Christ, wearing
these things. How many conflicts would be avoided
if we put these things on every day to wear? Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, patient
with one another, and listen, forgiving one another. The hardest
thing to carry is a grudge. That's the heaviest thing you'll
ever carry in this life is a grudge. Forgiving one another, if any
man have a quarrel against any, And I know, I know that sooner
or later, at one point or another, we will have a quarrel against
somebody or somebody against us. But here's how we are to
handle that quarrel, that complaint. Even as Christ forgave you, how
did he forgive you? How did he forgive you? Completely. You know, the scripture
says that he remembers our sins no more. That is complete forgiveness. When you cannot even remember
the offense. I wish this could be so, and
I know that in his flesh, it seems like we can remember the
things that are done against us. We can remember the onerous
jokes. I can remember ornery jokes I
was told in elementary. But I can't remember a lot of
good things, really. We can't seem to retain a lot
of those things. But that we can actually forget
an offense and forgive it and forget it. And if it's ever mentioned,
it's like, well, I forgot all about that. I forgot about that. That's how we are to forgive. And above all these things, put
on charity, love, be dressed in love. Let it be that which
covers it all. Let love be that which covers
it all, which is the bond of perfectness, maturity. Above all these things, he says,
put on. That takes effort. It takes effort. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, not malice, not envy. Those things are not of
God. You can be sure where there's
envy and there's malice, there's contention, you can be sure God
is not in it. He's not in it. Let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to which you are also called, in
one body, and be ye thankful. And let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another." And this is how we are to speak to one another.
You know, we have fellowship with one another. We gather at
one another's houses, speaking, admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart
to the Lord. Boy, I tell you, I long for the day, and this
gets stronger as I get older, I long for the day when I can
drop this old fleshly nature that I carry around, and that I can truly sing psalms
and hymns with that throng around the throne without sin. Oh, wouldn't that be something? Cole asked me the other night,
he said, what's heaven like? I said, well, the hardest questions
always come from those little ones. First I said to him, I
said, I said, Cole, I haven't been there. And I started talking
about what God's been like. He literally started telling
me. He said, is there happiness? Is there joy? Is there peace? And I said, well, why don't you
tell me what it's like? Then I turned him over to Revelation
21. It said there'll be no more sorrow, no more tears. And I
tried to just read. I sat there and just read the
Scriptures to him. A description of what it's like. Description of it, when there's
no more sin, no more sorrow, there's just happiness and joy
and peace and, you know, God explaining His language. And
I thought, boy, I'll be glad when this day, when this is all
gone. And that's what we enjoy. That's
what we enjoy. And our dress is not something
we'll have to put on every day. It's something that'll just be
there. It'll be the only dress we have. We don't have to deal
with this old man anymore. But anyway, back to verse 17. And whatsoever you do, in word
or deed, whatever you have to say or whatever you have to do,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and
the Father by Him. Do it all in His name. Listen,
and this is a good rule of thumb. Here is a good rule of thumb.
If you cannot do it in his name, don't do it. If you cannot with
a good conscience, say it or do it. In the name of the Lord,
don't do it. Boy, is that a good rule of thumb
or not? And always, in everything, give thanks to God and the Father
by Him. Always give thanks to Him. He's
the one who gives us our daily bread. He gives us our life. He gives us our breath. He gives
us all that we have. These are our Father's instructions
to us. If you keep my commandments,
then are you my disciples indeed. It's evident, it's evident you're
my disciples if you keep my commandments. And then he says on down through
here, and I'll be brief. I'll tell you why I won't be
brief, because it's brief. You know, my dad used to, when
I was growing up, he'd say, son, go mow the yard. He didn't have to write a book.
I understood what dad meant when he said, go mow the yard. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as it is fit, it's right in the Lord. We know
what submit means. We know what this means. Usually
we want to write a book because we want to try to get it to come
around to what we want it to mean. He says just submit because
it's right. It's the authority in the home.
It's the way God established things. That's just the way he
established it. And now husbands, love your wives,
and I assure you this, the wife will love to submit
to her husband who loves her. It's not hard to submit to love,
is it? It is not hard to submit to love. Husbands, love your wives, and
be not bitter, harsh, rude against them. She's your wife. She's not your slave. She's your
wife. Love her. That's all he said,
love her. And I tell you what, if you just
take these two verses, the wife submits to her husband and the
husband loves the wife, you're going to have a happy home. You're
going to have a home where there's harmony. You're going to have
a home where Christ dwells. Obey your parents in all things,
for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. And fathers, provoke
not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Don't break
their spirits. Don't overly, don't be overly harsh, hard,
difficult. Don't provoke them to anger.
Discipline them. Discipline them. But there's such a thing as discipline
with love. Our Heavenly Father chastens
us because He loves us. And it is a hand dripping with
love that chastens us. And we are to do the same. And
servants, obey in all things, not just the things you think.
Well, it ought to be like this. You know, that's just not a good
way to do things. Well, let's just illegally If
it's illegal, don't do it, or immoral, don't do it. But other
than that, service obeying all things your master is according
to the flesh. Be obedient servants, not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God, looking to Him, doing it
as unto Him. These are so simple. I quit writing
on them last night, or the other day. I started writing an outline
on this, and I thought, well, this is the outline. Just read
it. Just read it. And the sheep will
hear it. The sheep will hear their master's
voice. That's one thing I've learned
about preaching. Just pretty much read it. Maybe
make a few comments on it, but the sheep will hear the master's
voice. They'll hear the instructions. David said, thy testimonies have
made me wiser, thy commandments, thy law, thy law has made me
wiser than my teachers. This is what we need right here.
And the Spirit of God blesses it. You don't need a long, drawn
out explanation. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, eagerly. Our Lord said this. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me. Is my meat to be any less? Is
my desire to be any less than His? He said, My meat, my desire,
is to do the will of my Father. Whatever you do, do it heartily.
Do it with enthusiasm. As to the Lord and not to men,
because really, you may work down at the plant or you may,
you know, wherever it is you work, you're working for somebody
and they're paying you. But now really, really, whose
servant are you? You're the Lord's servant. We
are his ambassadors. We represent him. But in whatsoever you do, do
it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of
the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance." We have a good end. We have a
good inheritance. Because we serve the Lord Christ.
That's who we really serve. I may work somewhere else. I
may do, you know, but in reality, In reality, you are
serving the Lord, the Christ of God. But now he that doeth
wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. God will take care. He'll take care. He'll recompense. I told a man
one time years ago I was running a company up in Huntington. And I had a man there that was
a good worker. Man, he was good. Young man. Young man. Worked a lot of hours.
And what he did, he did right. I mean, it was right. It was
good. But he came, he started complaining to me that the other
men were not carrying the load, so to speak. And he was saying,
they don't do it. I said, you do your job. You
keep doing what you're doing. I promise you that'll end up
getting taken care of. And it did. Those other guys he was
talking about ended up losing their job. They lost their job. They got fired. Took about two
years, but they lost their job. They eventually lost their job.
He never lost his. And right now he's working for
a company making very good money. Very good money. And I told him
at that time, I said, you take care of what you have to do every
day. Don't worry about these men.
It'll get taken care of. In time, it gets taken care of. And he's saying here, now he
that doeth wrong, don't get taken up with watching that person.
The Lord sees. The Lord will deal. He'll take
care. He that doeth wrong shall receive
for the wrong that is done. And there's no respect of persons.
Don't think because of who he is or she is that they're going
to get away with it. He's no respect of persons. God
brings judgment in his time, not ours. He does it in his time. But now you put on all these
things. Now let me just read it. And the Lord bless it. Put on
therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing
one another, 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 ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. 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." And whatsoever ye
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands,
love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey
your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the
Lord. Father, provoke not your children to anger, lest they
be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service,
as men pleasures, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing
that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for ye serve the Lord Christ. But now he that doeth wrong shall
receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect
of persons." Is there anything difficult to understand about
what I just read? Put it on. Let that inner man be the first
one you dress up in the morning, that you take care of in the
morning. Let that be the one we take care of.