Good morning. Brother Son, I thank you for
that message you brought to us. I thank you also for the concluding
remark you made where Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. Many people
stop at that, forgetting that Jesus also said, as he reminded
us, Loose him and let him go. Now, religion might say, tie
him up, put laws and regulations on him, customs and whatever,
and Jesus said, no, turn him loose. I have always appreciated that.
Loose him, let him go. And I thank you for your message. Now I invite your attention to
Romans chapter 13, the epistle of Paul to the church in Rome,
13th chapter. My text is found in verse number
14. My message is titled, Put on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Put him on. I begin reading in verse number
8. Oh, no man anything but to love
one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Did you read that? Is that what
it said? He that loveth another hath fulfilled
the law. I've had people ask me, do you
try to keep the law? No, I've already fulfilled it.
If you love one another, you have fulfilled the law. That's
what Jesus said. That's what Paul is here reminding
us. Why, for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment,
it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no will to his neighbor,
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law, and that knowing the time, that now it
is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let
us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, and
here's my text, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make
no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. In the year 2011, I was ministering in the West
Indies. My beloved and I took a trip
to the USA, and we took advantage of this trip to purchase some
clothes that were unavailable in the place where we resided. It was, as I recall, May, and
there was a springtime clearance sale at one of the major brand
stores. So I went, and it was a clearance
sale. I found four pairs of pants,
different color, and they were way beyond what I could have
afforded, but it was a clearance sale. I bought four pairs. I
was so pleased. I rushed to our son's house,
I wanted to show him my new pants. And told him I bought them in
one of the major stores. These are a brand that is highly
recommended. Men love this brand of clothing.
Now look at them. They got razor sharp creases
and double pleats. You may have noticed that I think
every pair of pants I own except blue jeans have pleats. Most
of them have doubles. Well, these had double pleats.
I showed him the cloth and I showed him that you can wash these pants
and not have to iron them. They come in different colors.
Now, son, you better run up there because it's a clearance sale.
You better go right now and get you some of these pants on clearance.
And I mean, are they not great pants? And he said, yeah, they're
very good pants for an old man. For an old man, he riledly said. And my daughter agreed with him. And my wife agreed. No, she didn't
want any of these pants either. So as you can see, Our taste
in clothing differ. We all have different kinds of
taste with regard to clothes. And so it is in the spiritual
realm as well. Some people are clothed in hypocrisy. They present themselves in public
as paragons of virtue and morality. But all in their private lives,
how different they are, immoral and depraved, when people are
not watching. Jesus called them hypocrites
and told them that you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed
appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are dead men's bones and
all uncleanness, hypocrisy, lawlessness, and iniquity. Now you know some
of these folks. hypocrites. You know what a hypocrite
is? He's an actor. He's someone pretending
to be something that he is not. In fact, an actor on the Greek
stage was called hypocrite. That's what the word means. That's
where it comes from. What is an actor? Someone pretending
to be someone else. And that's what a hypocrite is.
And he dresses himself in his hypocrisy in public He's not
what he really is in private. Whitewashed tomb. Don't open
it up, folks. The stenches of death is inside
it. But outside looks quite beautiful,
you know. And then there are those who
are clothed in self-righteousness. They are unclean in their hearts
and try to cover their filthiness with good deeds. They boast of
being holier than thou. They brag about what they've
done for the Lord. But if they were honest, if they
were honest, they would confess with the rest of us that we are
all like an unclean thing. That's a leper. We are all like
an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses, regardless of
how many they are, they're like filthy rags, monstrous cloths. Some people are clothed in self-righteousness
and God despises it. Some people are clothed in immodesty. They who are unashamed of their
shame, will expose their shame and not be ashamed of their shame. I think we see this in Hollywood
actors and actresses and entertainers wanting to expose themselves
and let us just see how shameful they are. It is interesting to
note that when Jesus visited Gadara And the demoniac approached
Jesus, the gathering demoniac. The scripture says he was naked. He was naked, a madman. Jesus exorcised the demons from
him. And then the scripture says he
was found sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. I think that'll preach. He was
sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. He no longer proved by his nakedness
that he was far from God, controlled by Satan, exposing his shame
and out of his mind. That's what immodest people do.
They're out of their minds and they want you to see it. I say
to you, let us throw off hypocrisy and self-righteousness and let
us fully cover our nakedness by obeying this exhortation. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Put Him on. Put Him on. Two points to my
message. One, the one to wear, and second,
the manner of putting Him on. So consider that first point,
the one to wear. Put on, now watch how he has
identified the Lord, not Lord, the Lord, Jesus, the Christ. Names and titles, one name and
two titles. Consider first, wear him as the
Lord, the deity possessing all divinity. He is the blessed and
only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Lord
of lords is also God of gods, the great God, mighty and awesome,
Deuteronomy 10, 17. And He is God manifested in the
flesh. That's who He is. He is the God
of gods and He is God manifested in the flesh. Now is God in His
incarnation, clothed Himself in our humanity, let us in our
faithfulness clothe Himself in His deity. Put Him on. He who is divine, put Him on. Wear Him. Let us obey the exhortation
to put on the beautiful garments, Isaiah 52. and let us do it by
wearing him who is the beauty of Jehovah Psalm 27 verse 4 if
you want to see how beautiful Jehovah is look at Jesus Christ
with the eye of faith with the eye of faith and then put him
on the beautiful garments let us wear him as our robe of righteousness
for his name is Jehovah our righteousness and we are clothed in him He's
my righteousness. Some clothe themselves in self-righteousness. God despises them. Let us be
clothed in Jesus Christ and say, this is my righteousness. My
righteousness is Jesus Christ. Let us say with Paul, I desire
to be found in Him. What a powerful statement. I
want to be found in Him. When you look at me, I want you
to see Him, that I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Put Him
on. Let Jesus Christ be your righteousness,
and wear Him as your beauty, and wear Him as your righteousness.
Put Him on. Then second, wear him as Jesus. His name means Jehovah is salvation. And he was given this name because
he will save his people from their sins. We're told that we
should wear the garments of salvation in Isaiah 61 verse 10. How do
you wear the garments of salvation? You do so by wearing Jesus Christ. Because we read, God is my salvation,
Jesus Christ is my salvation. If you wear Him, you're clothed
in salvation. Wear Him as the Christ, which
name means Jehovah's Anointed, Psalm 2, verse 2. Jesus Christ,
God's Son, His only begotten Son, begotten from eternity by
an eternal generation. Jehovah calls him My Anointed
One. What does this anointed mean?
It means that he was anointed to perform the three mediatorial
offices. He's the mediator, the one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's the prophet
sent from God to be his spokesman to his people. He is the priest
from the people to God, making sacrifices for their sins and
obtaining their forgiveness. He is the king who rules on God's
throne in the place of God, protecting his people and providing for
them. His three offices, prophet, priest,
and king. Now put him on. Notice that we read, Christ Jesus
the Lord. The Christ is the prophet, the
priest, and the king. So how do we put him on as the
Christ? How do we put him on as prophet,
priest, and king? Well, consider this. Let us swear
the Christ is our only prophet from God, for God's Word tells
us that God who at various times and in various ways spoke in
time past, Old Testament times, to the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by his Son. Now consider
that. Jesus Christ is the last prophet
from God. His name is the Word of God. And he is the final word from
God. When Jesus Christ had come and
spoken, God did not need to reveal anything else because Jesus Christ
had revealed it all. The final prophet, the final
word, the final authority. God spoke in Old Testament times
by many prophets. But in these last days, only
by Jesus Christ. Now wear him as your prophet. And do not wear some other prophet. Oh, there are many claiming to
be, but do not wear them. Do not follow any prophet who
rose after the Christ, thereby denying that the Christ is the
final prophet from God. Do not follow any prophet claiming
God sent him with new revelation thereby exalting himself as the
final word from God. And do not forget that Christ
the prophet warned us that false Christs and false prophets will
rise to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Now, I want you
to just look around you. When you drove in this morning,
particularly those of you living in outer districts, here where
we live, in this area, a lot of people have a prophet who
arose back in the 1800s, claimed new revelation from God, something
God had never said until this man said it. And with a magical
device and the skill of a penman, he wrote it out as though to
say, now God has finally spoken. I am the prophet. I am the final
word from God. And strangely enough, many people
believe it. Now, the elect will not, if it
were possible they would deceive the elect. The elect have put
on Christ and do not put on the false prophet. Second, let us
where the Christ is our only priest to God because every priest
stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same
sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, the
Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down at the right hand of God from that time waiting till
his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified. That's my priest. That's my priest. I'm going to wear him. I'm going
to wear that priest who made one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down and God said, I require no more sacrifices. Jesus paid
it all. Jesus paid it all with one sacrifice. I'm going to put him on. He's
my priest. Do not follow any priest who stands up every morning,
seven days a week, at some man-made altar and offers repeatedly the
same daily offering. And he must do it because his
offerings never took any sin away. If his offerings ever took
sin away, there'd be no need to offer it again. They prove
by the repetitiveness of their offerings that their offerings
do not take away sins. You want to be clothed in that
kind of a priest? You want to follow that kind
of a priest? Do you want to follow a priest? Surely you do not.
Who says, come into my booth and confess your sins to me because
I have divine power to forgive you of them. Only God can forgive
sins, but I can forgive sins because of who I am. No, I am
not going to be clothed in that priest. I am not going to follow
that priest. I'm going to be clothed in the
Christ who is the priest, the one who made one sacrifice for
sins forever and sat down because God said, when you said it is
finished, It is finished. All right. Third, Jesus Christ,
I am clothed in Him as my only prophet from God. I am clothed
in Him as my only priest to God. And I'm clothed in Him as the
King. In the scriptures, in one verse, we are told that He is Lord God Almighty
and King of the Saints. Revelation 15 verse 3. He's my King. He's my King. Many people do not want Him as
their King. That's okay. For the time being. I mean, this is not forced on
you. But one of these days, every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord
of all, Lord of all. I'm going to put him on right
now. I'm going to wear him as my prophet from God, my priest
to God, and my king ruling in the throne of God and watching
over me. Now, second major point, the manner
of putting him on. How do we obey the exaltation? Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, first, God must put him
in you before you can put him on you. You do not put him on
you so that God will put him in you. God must put Christ in
you before you can put Christ on you, and God does this in
regeneration. In regeneration, the dead are
quickened, and Christ is made to be their life, and God puts
Christ the life into dead sinners, and Christ indwells them. And
then, they who have Christ in them are told, put him on. Let him be not only in you, but
on you as well. And you do this through faith.
How else do you put him on? Well, put him on in Christian
baptism, Galatians 3.27. For as many of you as were baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. Do you see the correlation? Baptized into Christ and put
on Christ. What does baptism do for us? Well, it is our confession of
faith. When we are baptized, that is
our confession of faith. We are confessing that we have
taken all of our old garments and gotten rid of them, and now
we are clothed in Christ. We died with Him. We are buried
with Him. We rise to walk in newness of
life in him. But they that have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. We come out of that watery grave
signifying that I'm now clothed in Christ. I'm going to be following
Christ for the rest of my life. Furthermore, put him on by donning
things associated with him. I can show you at least three
of them here. First, put on the new man, Colossians
3 verses 8 through 10. But now you yourselves are to
put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language
out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since
you have put off the old man. So we have to put something off
before we can put something on. Yes, put off the old man with his deeds. What are his
deeds? You see, anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy language. And you have put on the new man.
who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of God who created
him. We are exhorted to put on the
new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness
and holiness. Now watch, we're looking at an
old man and a new man. We are to put the old man off,
we're to put the new man on. What is the old man? He's your
own Adamic nature. That nature with which you were
born? That nature that can do nothing
but sin and can do nothing righteous? What is this new man? He is the
divine nature of which we have become partakers, according to
Peter. Everything associated with your
old nature, put it off. Put it off. Get rid of it. Quit
lying to one another. Let us get malice out of our
hearts. Put on the new man! Put on Christ and look like Him, act like Him,
walk like Him, and be like Him, and we are as He is in the earth. Put Him off. Or put the old man
off and put the new man on. Then furthermore, put on Christian
virtues. Colossians 3, verses 12 and 14.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender
mercies. Observe what we are to put on.
Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering,
but above all things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Put on love. Have you noticed
here that love has been presented to us as the greatest virtue?
We read it, you know, just a little earlier, love is the fulfilling
of the law. It is the bond of perfection.
What is love? Well, Shawn, you might Google
this one, but I'm not sure you're going to get the right answer
like you did on your question. What is love? God is love. God is love. The scripture says
so. God is love. Put him on. Put him on. Put on love, which
is the bond of perfection. Notice there are things to put
off and something to put on. You
remember that prodigal son. left his father's house with
this part of the inheritance, wasted his inheritance in riotous
living. This good Jewish boy is now reduced to taking care of the swine of
a Gentile. You cannot go lower than that,
folks. A good Jewish boy now tending
the swine of a Gentile and wishing that he could eat as well as
they could. His clothes are now in tatters. He lives in a pigsty. What is left of his garments
are filthy and stinking. And he thinks all The servants
in my father's house have it better than I do. I'm going home. I'm going home. He gets up out
of that pigsty, still filthy, stinking, goes home. And the old father's been looking
for him every day. He looks down the road. That
looks like my boy walking here. He's not quite walking the way
he did when he walked out of here, but I believe that's my
boy. Look, he's coming. And the father
ran down to meet his prodigal son. And the father said, Son, these
clothes you're wearing stink. Take these clothes off of him
and bring the best robe. They did. They took off the clothes that
had been worn from the pigsty, filthy as self-righteousness, and they put the best robe on
him. The best robe in the father's house. Now, what do you suppose
is the best robe? That's the term that is used,
the best robe. What do you suppose is the best
robe in the Father's house? It's Christ. Christ is the best
robe in the Father's house and the Father is saying, get these
old garments off my son and clothe them in Christ, the best robe. Now that's what God does. When
God gives the best robe to you, put him on. Put him on. Wear him. And then, one last
point. Put on the armor of light. We're
now back to our text. Go back with me to Romans chapter
13. Romans chapter 13. Verse 12, the night is far spent,
the day is at hand. That's the day we've been looking
for, the day of our salvation. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Put on the armor of light. What is the armor of light? Well,
I can tell you this. The light is Jesus Christ. He says, I am the light of the
world. There is no darkness in me. Christ is the light. Now, put him on. Oh, how glorious
you will look when you put on the light. Ah, but here's a man. He overslept. He hurriedly dresses himself. He rushes to work. He punches the time clock with
not a second to spare. He turns around and his co-worker
says, friend, look at you. Your shirt and your pants do
not match. You're wearing two different
shoes and it looks like that's a woman's belt around your waist.
What did you do? Did you dress in the dark? Dressing
in the dark can be dangerous, folks. You just never know what
you're going to look like when you come into the light if you
dress in the dark. Well, I can tell you this, no
one who ever put on Christ ever dressed in the dark. He's the
light. He's the light that dispels all
darkness. And if you wear Christ, every article of clothing you
wear will be perfectly coordinated. From head to toe, perfectly coordinated. If you wear Christ, the only
thing that will clash with you will be the works of darkness. Did you
read them? The works of darkness. And you're going to be clashing
with them, but Christ the light will be your armor. You are well
armed to do your clashing with the works of darkness. What are
the works of darkness? Well, look in verse 13. Let us
walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting. That word rioting
has changed in meaning since our King James Version was translated. Rioting now means burning the
town down and whatever. This word means revelry, revelry. Many people live their lives
in revelry and drunkenness. Not in chamberings! Now what
in the world is chamberings? Well, the Greek word for chamber
means a place to sleep. It is a bed. Now some of you
are already probably making the connection, us older people.
Oh, so that's why they call it a chamber pot. for the bedroom,
for the bedroom in chambering. But here, something simple is
going on in the chamber. Marriage is honorable and the
bed is undefiled, but whoremongers God shall judge. These are chamberings. These or those are engaged in
such chamberings. And then there's wantonness. What does that word mean? Well,
just remove the second syllable and it's wantonness. It means
wanting things you should not have that belong to somebody
else. It means lust. Now, lust can be A very good
thing if it is between a husband and a wife. You will agree with
me, I'm sure. Lust can be a very good thing
only between the two. But in the works of darkness,
it is lusting for someone else, even for strange flesh, and then
strife and envy. Folks, those things do not mark
us, do they? Oh, God forbid they should mark
us. Put them all! all this revelry and drunkenness, licentious living, lusting for
others, and striving and envying. Put them off. Get rid of them. And having put all these things
off, because they're going to clash with you, be clothed in Christ. And you'll
be well armed. you would be well armed against
all these works of darkness. As I told you, the only thing
that will clash with you, it'll not be the top part of your garment
clashing with the bottom part. It'll not be the sandals on your
feet being of two different sorts. It won't be any kind of a clash
like that. The clash is going to be with
the powers of darkness. But if you're clothed in Christ,
if you put Him on, you are well equipped to face the world. Therefore we are told in our
text, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision
for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. I would hope that in this world around us,
people not notice We're just a little bit different. The early disciples were called
Christians because the world says, we thought we got rid of him,
but look, there's a few thousand of them walking around now. They
walked just like him. They walked like him, talked
like him, lived like him. Why? They'd put him on. If you
have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, there's quite a resemblance to
Him. Now put Him on. Let us all put
Him on. And O God, our Father, be pleased,
we pray to bless this Word. Put Christ in us. We will put
Christ on us. To Your glory in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.