Put on everything that is the name of Jesus

[0:00] and we're going to pick it up in chapter 3 verse 12 and reading all the way down to chapter 4 verse 1 and then of course next time it will be the final message out of the last part of chapter 4. Let's now hear God's word. Colossians chapter 3 beginning at verse 12.

[0:46] Put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved compassion kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and above all put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do in word or indeed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord fathers do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged slaves obey in everything those who are your earthly masters not by way of eye service as people pleases but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord whatever you do work heartily as the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you are serving the

[2:36] Lord Christ for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there is no partiality masters treat your slaves justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven well we're going to come back to that after we've sung and we'll come back well we come really to the second half in many ways of the message that you heard last week the first half of the message last week was about getting undressed in many ways taking sin off this week it's all about getting dressed in other words putting Christ on putting the virtues of Christ on and no one in their right mind would put clean clothes on a dirty body you wouldn't put clean clothes over dirty clothes you would first take it all off and then put the clean ones on and that's effectively what Paul the transition here that we have in Colossians chapter 3 and all of this points to one simple truth that as Jesus changes us with him and with God we automatically change towards other people now it doesn't necessarily mean that the other person changes if that other person isn't saved they're not going to necessarily change towards you unless of course they change towards you because now you're a Christian and well we don't want anything to do with you that can happen but the point here in in a Christian community in a church is that as Christ changes you you change towards one another in the fellowship that you're in and because we all bear the name Christian we bear it for a good reason okay the reason why you have for instance Adidas or Adidas or not quite sure how you pronounce it or Nike or Nike again on on these ticks on the trainers is because there's a sameness about them that they share the same quality there's the same type of make gone into it it's the same type of branding and so there's a likeness about all of them well you've not been given the name Christian because you're different you've been given the name Christian because there is a likeness about you there's a like there's something in you which is exactly the same in the person sat next to you or at least there ought to be and that's what Paul is getting to here bearing the name Christ means that there's a likeness between you and the person who sits next to you in church tonight imagine that for a moment am I right and especially if you know each other well

[5:25] I've always said that that that that once a pastor and I learned this from another pastor and I've you know after 15 years of ministry you begin to experience the truth of it he's and he he was he was having a go at pastors that jump around every five or six years you know moving on to another church believing that they've taken it as far as they can as if as if they could take it anywhere to begin with it's the Lord's work not theirs and he he basically says that the reason they move around is because pastors see all their faults come back at them but you can't see that after a year it takes a few years and then when they don't like what they see they disappear well you know I've seen a few of mine come back at me it's not pleasant but you know but that's that's what happens in a community of believers you sit with each other you talk with each other and after a while you get to see their ugly side okay you get they got a nice side and they got an ugly side and it and in fellowship in in relationship that that is bound to come out it's one of those things you can't hide but here's the good thing what better place is there for it to come out than in a community where you've been commanded to forgive each other right if it's going to come out anywhere it's best to come out in a place where you know what it is to be loved by God and you know what it is to forgive one another because we're all in the process of being renewed let me put it a slightly different way there is a story of exalic alexander the great I don't know if it's a true story it could be an apocryphal story it could be a true story I don't I don't know but it serves the point well alexander the great as you know was he was pretty great in his own way demolishing you know countries in what have you and there's the story of him being camped on ground between ground that he's just occupied that he's won through warfare and ground that he's just about to take over you know in the morning you know they've set up camp they're having a few days rest the soldiers are are nursing their wounds and in a couple of days they're going to go and advance into another territory and take that over as well and in this intervening period alexander the great gets wind of a soldier and his unruly behavior he's just disrupting the camp and alexander the great turns to his guards and his servants and he asks for this soldier to be brought to him and the soldiers brought to him and he comes into alexander the great's tent and alexander the great looks at him and says soldier what is your name and the soldier looks and says my name is alexander said alexander the great soldier you either change your name or you change your behavior but one has got to happen and what the apostle paul is saying here in this passage is you have the name of christ so you either change your name which you can't do or you change your behavior you put off you take off everything that is sinful that everything that is not like christ and now you put on jesus you put on the virtues of christ and that's what paul is driving at with these christians the reason why we have a bunch full of letters in the new testament of churches that are falling out only indicates that that is this is partly normal for churches churches are not the place where you have a bunch of perfect people despite what the world might think a church ought to be the church is actually the place where perfect people have their imperfections worked out in a community where love is possible and forgiveness can happen we're all in the process of being renewed none of us get saved because we're perfect and the moment we get saved we're not perfect and even if we've had a good 50 years of the christian life and so we've had more being poured into our life that is good than the bad that was there before we're still not perfect the question is however are we moving in that direction i mean when we get into the depth of the relationships you know your wife sat next to you is going to know whether or not you're harsh with her okay your wife will know what type of husband you are and husbands you will know what type of wives you have these things may be hidden from everybody else but they can't be hidden from each other the same thing is going to play out in relationships within the church so the first part of chapter three was take it all off take off all the sin second half of chapter three into chapter four verse one is put on everything that is true of jesus okay take off all the sin get undressed and now the end of chapter three get dressed in the likeness of christ remove those things that are old that are no good that cause problems and put on all those things that add blessing to relationships and the church bearing in mind all the time that as we do this we're becoming like jesus now this is hard but at the same time this is the thing that a christian should be interested in this is incredibly difficult but this this should interest you more than anything else this should be like i can't wait to hear this this is this is the thing that grabs your attention that this is you know we ought to be interested in what god is doing in our lives not disinterested so this is prime interest for us and so you'll notice that in any relationship especially in the church it is not the things that are like jesus that cause us to fall out in our lives it's the things that are not like jesus to to cause us to fall out in our lives i think it was ronald dunn who said it i might be misquoting him but i think if it wasn't ronald dunn it was um roger carswell it's one of the two i think he said it in the book and he said that a disagreement is nothing more than your old nature rubbing up against my old nature and that you just go at it and so if you're not putting on the new virtues of christ if you're not putting on christ it's a bit like going out in your old nature it's a bit like eating breakfast in your old nature with your family it's a bit like eating tea in your old nature with your family and then all of a sudden suddenly there's world war three around the kitchen table or wherever it may be okay you're not ready paul's saying here to sit down and engage with anyone in any form of relationship until you've got dressed you just can't you just can't you just can't do it it's just it's just not going to happen some days you can get away with it and other days you can't you realize that you said something you should never have said you've behaved in a way that you should never have behaved behaved it's all because you've not got dressed and so i have three points really to focus on uh this evening all about getting the virtues of christ on us what is it to get dressed for for christian living okay there is if i can just cement this point in a slightly different way apparently there's a brand in america called zena zena television sets and they have a wonderful logo it's probably the best advertising logo that i've ever come across not that i read magazines for advertising logos or anything but you know you you grab your attention and this one says the quality goes in before the name goes on the quality goes in before the name goes on well you have christ in you the quality's in the highest quality is in god in you and the name has gone on and so the issue is now is is as you're out there in the world will it live up to its name that's what paul's concerned about we are you going to be able to live up to your name the name that jesus has given you and you can and you can not in your own strength but in the strength of christ and you can because jesus gives you all of these things but you have to get dressed in them and so here are the three headings firstly verses 12 to 14 what to put on in verses 12 to 14 secondly verses 15 through to 17 where to get dressed where to get dressed and then thirdly verses 18 through to chapter 4 verse 1 where to wear it the the simple answer of course is everywhere but it's a little bit more specific than that so what to put on where to get dressed and where to wear it firstly then what to put on you may be sat here this evening believing that an easier life uh would be a better life if only my life would be easier then it must mean that that life would be a better life if only my life was simpler then it would mean that i would have a better life if only i had a life where i didn't have to do that then that means it would be a better life and how many of us have woken up with those type of thoughts that an easier life leads to a better life that's a temptation that we all believe we have okay the easier life leads to a better life the life with fewer commitments is a better life than a life with several commitments okay but where do we get this idea from that an easier life is a better life because it doesn't seem to come out of the christian life as is explained in scripture the easier life in scripture is not the better life it's the sinful one it's the one where you do what you like say what you like go where you want eat what you want okay but it's easy no there's there's no challenge there's no comeback there's no boy what are you doing but the harder life where there's challenge where there's brothers and sisters pulling brothers and sisters back into the faith necessary where you got brothers and sisters challenging one another in the faith in the church okay it's hard it's difficult and but it's a better life it leads to a much much better life in that type environment and challenge because what you're doing is you're having the other person's interest at heart and so it it's hard for you to speak to someone about an issue it's even harder for them to accept what you're saying to them and and in all this difficulty it's actually the better life it leads to the better life you have their interest in heart and of course they have yours in heart when the tables are reversed and so we make an effort when we know the effort is worth making it on the flip side of that then we don't make an effort when we feel the effort is not worth making it's just not worth it and so where people make effort in their own life and in the lives of others they do it because it's worth making it's it takes a lot of effort to put on these virtues and go out and live this way and so you'll notice the type of things that we're to put on we are called chosen we are called holy we are called beloved and we are told to put on as god's chosen ones holy and beloved compassion kindness humility meekness and patience the question is is right now that i've read it how do i put it on and the only way you can put it on is to pray them in ask god to strengthen you in the virtues that are already true of you that if christ is in you they're already in you and pray that they start working their way out this is why jesus says first clean the inside of the cup and the outside will take care of itself if you want to deal with what comes out of your mouth don't try and deal with what comes out of your mouth don't try and deal with your mouth deal with the inside i can remember growing up and the and the threat of if you say that again you will have soap in your mouth now i never thought i never thought why why would you do something like that to me and i never thought that my mom would ever go through with it after all she was a good few feet shorter than me but what is she going to do but there there it was soap in the mouth and it was disgusting but did it work no because a couple of days later there i am doing it all over again you can't deal with the inside by coming at it from the outside this is why christ is in you everything must be worked on in the center and so these things like compassion and kindness humility meekness and patience you've got them all in christ in you the question is now they have to come out you have to put on christ you have to pray christ you have to live for christ you have to be mindful that this is the way jesus is and you're to imitate him and then when you find yourself imitating him you find yourself imitating him it comes it just naturally comes out they're all muscle memories it just starts to develop in your life and then he says above all in the relationships of forgiving one another remember love which binds it all together in perfect harmony harmony is one of those words that i think is just a brilliant word because it just explains something that's far deeper than unity unity you take ian's piano you got the black and white keys together they're in unity but there's nothing harmonious about it unless you know how to play the piano and the moment i play all the keys are in the right order they're unified but it's a complete horrible mess but the moment ian starts to play you have this wonderful harmonious sound and the difference between unity and harmony is that it takes somebody else to bring that harmony out it's the combination of two things then produces a third and so all of these qualities are in your life but in order for it to to be harmonious in an environment it takes christ to bring that harmony out in other words you can't do it on your own we're not masters enough to do it on our own this is why marriages for instance as we get on to wives and husbands in a minute can can have a united marriage but not necessarily a harmonious marriage okay you're together you're united but there's no harmony there okay harmony is something completely different from unity harmony takes two things to be together but it's something additional to unity in and of its self and so love which binds everything together is the thing that does it in perfect harmony so put on these things and in the same way when you go outside you'll put your coat on because you recognize you need your coat on for going outside you ought to recognize tonight that you need to put these things on because you need them for in here as well as out there okay get dressed for the occasion and the occasion is fellowship the occasion is meeting with one another the occasion is waking up in the morning and seeing your family the occasion is going to work and and seeing the person that you don't necessarily get along with that well okay we've all had those moments where we've been out in the workplace and there's just that one person that just makes our life difficult it just makes anything you know is my boss punishing me why has he put me with him again and everything in you just wants you want to quit my job when i go somewhere else when i i just i just want it right what's the tent the tension is it's difficult to deal with difficult people and so in that in an environment where we're all supposed to be christians okay it's it's vitally important that we put all these things on because it's difficult to deal with difficult people okay and this is why a church like we have here this evening should be a place where we can just just gravitate towards one another there's going to be some people in this church that you'll like more than others there's going to be some people in this church that rub you up the wrong way uh you know even more than others but at the end of the day all of that has to be pushed to the side because jesus matters more okay this is the only environment god willing the only environment in the world where you're going to experience the kind of love and forgiveness that you need to get along that's the thing that we need to be putting on in the church so as you put as you put your coat on to get dressed for winter you need to put these on to fellowship with one another secondly then where do we put them on where do we get dressed well you'll notice paul says verse 15 to 17 believe it or not you get and you're getting dressed here you get dressed in church in fact church is the only place to get dressed in these things he says that is the church is gathering together and you can tell that the church is gathering together one because he's speaking to them in a group let the word of christ dwell in you richly verse 16 you know let the uh peace of christ rule in your hearts verse 15 he's speaking in a way where the church is listening to this uh together and so don't get dressed to come to church get dressed into church that doesn't mean come to church naked but what it does mean is don't come to church putting on a different kind of face okay i can remember telling a story where uh something that i'm not proud of but i mean back in the previous uh position where i was pastor in inskip the house was was a few hundred yards down from the church in a straight line and uh every now and then you'd you'd uh walk up different parts of the day and i can remember one day for some known reason susan said something to me and i said something to her i thought i was right she thought she was right i was clearly in the wrong and i and i was right that's it you know and i and i've said this is why it's this is why the manse is difficult because we have two doors i think i said shared this to you before so i shut the inside door in anger to make a point in my wife but then i shut the outside door in absolute calm to make a point to the neighbors right because that's the way we're built okay and i can remember walking up to the church thinking no i really am wrong and i'm thinking no how how many more yards can i get before i can convince myself that i'm right and i get sort of 350 yards whatever it be and now i have to turn around because there's just no way there's no way i'm going to be able to go to church let alone stand up in church not even be able to go to church with this look on my face because what's going to happen is either i can go back and apologize or i can put a different look on my face and so if you're the type of person that gets dressed to come to church forget it you need to get undressed from that because in church you need to be dressed in the right things in the virtues of christ and all of those things stop us from placing these things on top you just can't you can't do it so we need to come spiritually speaking in many ways naked to church and getting rid of all the sin and all the wrong things and putting on the virtues of christ so he says verse 15 and let the peace of christ rule in you in other words stop trying to rule your own life and let christ rule it for you that's the biggest challenge isn't it ruling your own life paul knew how important it was for these believers to know that they were saved it's important to the christian he knew how important it was for these believers to know and to have assurance of what god actually thinks about you have you ever woke up in the morning and asked god god what do you think about me well scripture tells you exactly what god thinks about you paul knows it's an important question paul knows the christian lives the christian life when he knows or she knows exactly what god thinks about them so we let the peace of christ rule in our hearts we stop trying to rule our own life and we let christ rule it for us verse 16 we then let the word of god dwell in us richly in other words we stop trying to be our own authority and we let the authority of god speaking rule our life in the same way to dwell in us and you'll notice that this is happening in the congregation he goes on to say this is something that you need to wear you know verse 13 put on all these things get dressed in church but then he goes on to say that this happens in the family this happens in the fellowship and when you do this make sure you are teaching and admonishing verse 16 one another in all wisdom so this gets back to the conversation amongst us this evening you are you really teaching and admonishing one another you're out of line there this is the way we live this is not the way we live this is you know that's a real encouragement to me to hear you serving in the church in that way you know you're admonishing you're building one another up you're teaching one another but it needs to happen in an environment where there's agreement it cannot happen in an environment where you don't agree it's impossible you know as i said wednesday night two can only ever walk together if there's agreement it may seem incredibly boring incredibly boring that the church is to believe the same thing but actually it is the only thing that can actually keep us getting on the only thing so put on christ let the peace of christ rule in you let the word of god dwell richly in you and you'll notice that the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to god is part and parcel of the teaching and the admonishing that you have been taught just by the very first hymn that you sung this evening you have been admonished admonished by the very hymns and psalms that you've heard this evening so don't underestimate how god communicates his grace in the church we're to get dressed in church in the same way a person joins the army and puts on a uniform and that uniform applies to everybody who joins the army the same thing applies in church that as we come into church we're all getting dressed in the same thing what are those things compassion kindness humility meekness patience love forgiveness these are the things that we're getting dressed in in church so thirdly where am i to wear it well of course the obvious answer is everywhere but paul doesn't say everywhere does he you know put on these things he tells you what to put on he tells you where you're to put them on and then if you ask the question well where am i to wear all of this am i going out he doesn't say everywhere he gets right down into the nitty-gritty wise husbands children's masters slaves so forth and so on so if we have husbands and wives we have marriages if we have children's and parents we have a form of family if we have servants and masters or employees or and employers we have this original point that as our relationship is changed by jesus with us and him we are changed towards other people every single instruction that paul gives the church here is fixed and rooted in the lord verse 18 the instruction for wives to submit to their husbands is in the lord verse 20 as it pleases the lord verse 22 fearing the lord verse 23 work for the lord everything here is for jesus everything is we do it for jesus okay i don't shout at my wife for jesus not because it's wrong just because it's wrong but i don't because it's wrong because it's wrong because of jesus okay these are important issues that we have so wives start with you as it starts with you here submit to your husbands wives you are to submit to your husbands as it is fitting in the lord and the reason why this is so important is because you only have to read the bible and pick out all those moments where you notice a wife not submitting to her husband and see what it does to your husband see what not submitting to your husband does to your husband destroys him absolutely tear him apart it may not happen all of a sudden it'll happen over time but wives who don't submit to their husbands in love and affection and it doesn't mean servitude it doesn't mean that you take second place or a lower position in the marriage it means submit it means to obey the leadership of the husbands so submit because not submitting just it's not good for him the reason why this command is given to a wife is not just because it's the wife is being told to do something is because by not doing it it affects the relationship she's in it'll actually affect her husband but husbands you don't get away with it either and because of a man i'm going to go harder on you than i am the wives amongst us you have to be a particular type of husband okay you have to be a particular type of husband you have to love your wife and you're not allowed to be harsh with her you have to love her and love her completely as paul says in ephesians you have to love her like christ loves the church it's it seems like an impossible task in fact on your own it is an impossible task to love your wife in this way you need jesus to do it so if you're sat there thinking do you know what that's right my wife isn't submitting to it hold your brakes are you loving your wife the way that you're meant to you loving your wife the way that you're meant to okay remember what jesus said about the speck and the log okay it's easy to see what other people are not doing but take a good look at yourself husbands and wives amongst us why because husbands also need to know what it does to their wives when they're harsh with them and what is it to be harsh with your wife well the snide comment you know the word being able to say the thing that really hurts them and and knowing that you can do it with that with a tongue you can manipulate it's just it's just really naughty it's just awful and and the thing is is men we can do it and it's not right it's real but it's not right and so we need to be completely aware of not just what we're doing but we need to be aware of what it does to the other person that we're doing it to so wives submit husbands do not be harsh with your wife but love them we then move on to children it's an evening service so we only have a few children amongst us this evening but you'll notice that paul is speaking to you he's not speaking to the parents so children obey your parents obey your mom and dad do what they say why is this important because children need to understand what disobeying their parents does to their parents okay you as parents you'll know that your child your child rebels against you and and see what it does to you you know it it it's it's like a reenactment of the fall all over remember the fall is about god's image bearers rebelling against god the very people made in the image of god are now rebelling against that image and so children when they rebel against parents it's the same thing happening over again and again and again so children need to know what disobeying their parents does to their parents everybody needs to be aware of what they do does to the other person and of course he moves on to slaves and masters or another word of way of putting that employers and employees paul's point is as he says earlier everyone's equal but everyone has different response abilities in order for everyone to get along we're all free in christ we're all one in christ we're all united in christ but if you're the type of person who's rallying for a position in your relationship or you know you want status in your relationship you need to understand that that is the very thing that will damage your relationship whether it's with each other in the church here or whether it's more personal between a husband and wife or parents and children so in conclusion then get undressed to get dressed get undressed to get dressed take off all those things that are sinful that are the old self and put on all those things that are true of jesus and you and i know that if we don't do this one conversation that's all it takes i can remember someone uh saying to me it takes 10 years to build a relationship it only takes one argument to lose it one act of deceitfulness to lose it you know it's it things fall apart much quicker than they are built up and so by not getting dressed in these ways you're prone to to not only cause problems for yourself but for other people if you're not dressed in these things all the time and we're in them all the time you can start your day out wrong then you have a hard day and at the end of the day you're too tired to put the wrong right and so the argument that the problem goes down the sun goes down on the argument nothing gets sorted out and here's another day and what's the problem with that well the problem is the issue is not just yours it's god's because everything has to be done in the lord is fitting to the lord but we forgot about that right we forgot about that bit that actually my marriage is as much about jesus as it is about me and my wife that my parenting is as much about jesus is a bit as it is about me and my kids and that applies to all of us my relationship in the church is as much about jesus as it is about my relationship with other people here in the church so get undressed to get dressed take off all those things which destroy relationship and put on all those things that are true of christ jesus says and i'll finish with him he says if you want to deal with the outside don't deal with the outside first wash the inside of the cup and the outside will become clean also okay if you want to deal with the outside don't deal with the outside deal with the inside first wash the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean also amen you