Uniforms have a purpose, don't they?
If you are a Downton Abbey fan, you know what uniforms play, what role they played in the 19th century Victorian manor household,
where each person had a particular dress code that related to their station and their role in life.
And though we might rejoice in the democratic overthrow of such social constructs,
so that we can come to church wearing a suit coat or blue jeans and not worry about it,
yet we still, even today, recognize the role that a uniform might play.
We see someone walking down the street in dark blue with a gold shield on their chest.
And when we see that person in uniform, we expect certain things from them, don't we?
We know who they are. That's a policeman.
And we expect that they are going to uphold the law, be helpful, be a serve, what is it, to serve and protect the community.
This is the role that they've been called to.
And even more so as we, or, you know, in other contexts, we see a similar thing.
If we see someone in military uniform, or we walk into the hospital and we see a long white coat,
we have expectations and we have these roles that we expect, that we, as we see a uniform, we think,
oh, now I know who this person is and I know what to expect from them.
What kind of uniform ought a Christian to wear?
Well, clearly, look around, at least today, it's not a certain kind of clothing, is it?
Praise God for that.
Right?
We have freedom to wear the clothes that we enjoy wearing.
But as we think about Christians in this world, there have been times when Christians would be known.
They would put on not physical clothing, but certain characteristics that would be known.
There's sort of the old saw, right?
Christians are people who don't drink or chew or go with girls that do.
Right?
Some of you are way too old or way too young to recognize that.
But in the 1950s, that was kind of a thing.
So, it would seem like the Christian clothing, so to speak, would be very simple.
Right?
To be like Jesus.
But isn't it true that that's a fraught concept today?
To figure out what it is that Christians ought to wear in our public persona, in our private life.
And it's hard.
It's fraught today because we live in a time and place where it's challenging to know what does that look like.
Certainly, if you asked 10 people on the street in New Haven what the public perception of a Christian is,
they would talk about politics.
They would talk about hypocrisy.
They would talk about intolerance.
And they would talk about rigid moralism.
This is what our culture today expects.
When you say Christian.
And though we may protest that, in fact, it ought to be something different,
we struggle, even privately, with what is it that we are supposed to put on.
We don't want to look like those things.
But we know our own hearts.
We fear hypocrisy in our own lives.
We run from wanting to be known as Christians at times because we know that our past sins
and our present failures continue to haunt us.
And we wonder, how can we wear anything publicly?
I think often, in light of this, we take off our clothing altogether, so to speak.
We put off our Christianity and don't wear it at all.
We live a highly privatized faith where we don't talk to people about it
and we don't really seek to live it out.
Or sometimes we think, well, I don't know.
I don't know what these people think, but I'm going to try to please them.
And so we end up coming up with a different kind of clothing that will be more acceptable in our culture today,
but that may be veers from what the Bible actually says.
Why am I talking about all this?
Well, because as we continue in our series in the book of Colossians,
we're talking about clothing today.
That's actually the language that the Apostle Paul uses as he's instructing the Colossians in chapter 3
about how they are to live out their life in Christ.
If you want to turn with me in your Bibles, in the Pew Bibles, it's page 984, I believe.
We're going to look at chapter 3, verses 9 through 17.
And we're going to be asking ourselves the question,
what are the clothes of a Christian?
What is it that God has called his people to put on?
And how might we do that?
So let's first read the passage and ask for God's help.
Colossians 3.
I'm going to be focusing my message this morning on 12 through 17,
but I'm going to back up a little bit and start in verse 5
just so you get the context and the flow of the chapter.
Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you,
sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry.
On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
In these, you too once walked when you were living in them.
But now you must put them all away.
Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
after the image of its creator.
Here there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all.
Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
compassionate hearts, 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 these, 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 deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this word.
Lord, thank you for the encouragement and the exhortation it is for us
to live as those who bear the name of Christ.
Lord, we confess how we need correction and instruction.
Lord, how we need encouragement.
How we need to remember what it is that you have called us to in Christ.
Lord, I ask for your help this morning, that, Lord, as we look at this word,
that you would use me and that your word would be clear
and that by your spirit you would apply it to our hearts and to our lives for your glory.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
What are the clothes of a Christian?
We're going to look at three parts this morning.
First, we're going to look at the foundation.
Second, we're going to look at the form.
And third, we're going to look at the focus of what it is that God has called us to put on in Christ.
So first, let's look at the foundation.
The foundation of what it is that God has called us to, what we are to live in,
is the new reality that Christ brings to our life.
We read back, look in your Bibles with me, in verse 10.
Right?
Verse 9 says that you've put off your old self with its practices.
All those things that were listed before says you had an old self that you have put off because of Christ.
If you remember back in chapter 2, Paul reminded us that we have died with Christ to this old life.
To this life that was controlled by sin and rebellion against God.
Verse 10 then says,
And we have put on a new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
The starting point for what we are to put on is the fact that Christ has made us new.
We are being restored to what we were meant to be as women and men made in the image of God.
That sin has marred that and ruined it for us.
But in Christ now, in the redemption that he is bringing into our lives,
he has fundamentally changed us so that we are now made new.
What used to be true of us is no longer fundamentally our essence.
You are different.
Therefore, be so.
How do we see some of these things played out?
Look with me in verse 12 again.
As Paul begins this instruction to live in particular ethical ways,
to have a certain kind of character,
he starts by calling them God's chosen ones,
holy and beloved.
And if you listen carefully to the passage we read earlier from Deuteronomy 7,
we are reminded that this is a special language that was used by the Jewish people in the Old Testament
to describe these are God's special people.
These are the ones that he has set his love on.
These are the ones that he has made his own.
These words remind us that he has chosen them,
that it was God's initiative towards them,
and that therefore they ought to be not proud,
but humble,
recognizing that God did so for no good reason,
that was in themselves,
but only by his good pleasure that he chose them.
Now, it also reminds us that God's dispossession towards them
is that they are beloved in him.
God has not simply coerced a bunch of people to serve in his army,
but he has sacrificially laid down his life to make them his own family.
And so he sets his love on them.
As a husband sets his love on a prospective wife,
saying,
that didn't come out right.
As a man sets his love on a prospective wife,
says,
I have chosen you to be mine.
This is what God has done for his people.
And it represents their role and their purpose.
This word holy,
which we usually hear in ethical, moral terms,
is actually a term that means set apart.
When you're not in the military,
it doesn't matter how you act
in relationship to the military standards and expectations.
But when you are brought in,
you are set apart,
and there is now an expectation
for you to act in a certain way
that is in accord with the new role
and the new identity that you have.
And God has now set you apart to be his.
You are now in my family.
Live like it.
Yes, it is ethical.
It is moral.
But fundamentally,
it's reflective of the character
of the Father God
who has made you his own.
So the foundation is not only having a new self,
not only being given a new identity
and a new relationship with God,
but verse 13 reminds us
that the foundation is based
in the very act of our salvation,
that in Christ,
God has forgiven us our sin.
The sin of rebellion against God
that has been lived out
in so many different ways,
listed in the earlier chapter.
Go back and listen to Pastor Greg's sermon
from last week
to think about all the things
that we are to put off
because they are not of God.
Paul reminds us
that these things were shackles
that bound us.
They were a cancer in our spiritual soul.
They bear a weight of guilt
that crush us.
And Christ came to set us free,
to set us free to pursue life
and holiness.
Godliness.
And godliness.
To set us free to finally be able
to do what is right
and to rejoice in it.
He pulls from what Paul reminded us
in chapter 2, verses 11 through 16.
That though we in our sin
stood before a holy God,
guilty of law-breaking
and of rebellion.
Christ came
and by bearing our sins,
he took that guilty verdict
and he nailed it to the cross.
You guys know that great hymn.
It's nailed to the cross
and I bear it no more.
It is no longer ours
and we are free from its penalty
and from its power.
Christ has forgiven us of our sin.
And finally, in verse 15,
we see that we have been called
into the peace of Christ.
The peace of Christ, as we'll see,
has both vertical and horizontal elements.
But here, the peace that we've been called into,
first and foremost,
is peace with God.
Because our sin has been taken away,
because we've been made new,
because we've been brought into the family,
we now have a relationship with God
that is not characterized
by fighting and struggle and strife,
but by love and peace,
by submission.
So we see that the foundation
of this new life in Christ
is a new identity
and a new standing in Christ.
And this is what it means to be a Christian.
And the fundamental framework,
and it's not just here in Colossians,
it's throughout the New Testament,
is that we are to live in a certain way,
not to be accepted by God,
but because God has made us new in Christ.
And the ethical exhortations
for us to live in a certain way
are to be who God has already made us to be
in Christ.
You are dead in your sins and trespasses.
He has made you alive in Christ.
So put off the old that's dead
and put on what is new.
So that's the foundation.
The new life has a uniform
that comes with this identity
and this standing.
What does it look like?
What is this new way?
Well, friends,
there's a rich, rich painting here
of what it looks like to put on Christ.
Verses 12 through 16 show us what it means,
what the form of this life is to look like.
And it has two parts of it.
There's a character to put on
and there are patterns to be controlled by.
But one of the things that you will notice
most clearly,
and this is parallel to what we've seen
back in the earlier verses
in verse 5 and 7,
that sin certainly is something that we do.
But these actions that we do,
these things that come out of our mouth,
they ultimately spring from our hearts.
And that when Christians are commanded
to do things or to put on things
that are the uniform of the Christian,
we are meant to put on things
first and foremost in our heart
that is then expressed in how we live
and how we relate to others.
This is in direct opposition
to what we saw back at the end of chapter 2
where Paul condemns empty,
self-made religion with its rules.
Do this, don't that.
Don't do this, don't that.
Don't do that.
It's not this externalism.
But in fact,
this internal transformation of our hearts.
What does it look like?
Well, let's walk through these quickly
if we can.
We could be here for a long time
unpacking these wonderful words
and the richness of them.
But I'm going to try to give you
a portrait,
a painting of it.
What are we to put on in Christ?
Look with me in verse 12.
We're to put on compassionate hearts.
The word heart there is actually talking about our,
it's easier,
more literal translation is our bowels.
The very center of our being,
the very core of who we are
is meant to be one of compassion.
Compassion is one who seeks to understand
rather than simply to judge.
Compassion seeks to come alongside
rather than to exclude
or inflict.
It is this compassion that Paul appeals to
in Romans 12.1
where he says,
therefore,
as you have received the mercies of God,
offer yourself up as living sacrifices to him.
And those mercies of God
recount all that he's talked about
in Romans 1 through 11
about the work of Christ
in saving us from our sin.
God has been compassionate to us,
not treating us as our sins deserve.
The second thing that Paul says is kindness.
We are to put on kindness.
Kindness is a generosity
and a consideration towards others.
In the Greek version of the Old Testament,
it is what is translated in Psalm 34.8
that we are to taste and see
that the Lord is good.
It's the same word here,
that the Lord is kind.
That the basic approach towards someone
is to want to do them good
and to have a way of considering who they are.
The third thing we see in this list
is humility.
Interestingly enough,
humility in the ancient world
was almost always a negative term.
It talked about mean
and base servile types of activities.
It often was derided as a negative.
And yet in the scriptures,
God takes this idea
and he redeems it
and he fills it with something good.
Maybe you sit here today
and you think of humility
as someone who's always getting walked over.
Someone who never stands up for themselves.
Humility might be thinking poorly of yourself.
Like I'm no good,
I'm no good,
I'm no good.
And that that's what humility
is meant to look like.
But biblical humility
is actually not thinking more highly
or more lowly of ourselves than we ought.
It is actually to think rightly of ourselves.
To see ourselves as God sees us.
To recognize it
as human beings
created by an infinite creator God.
We are not the center of the universe.
We are not the most important thing.
We are not the greatest human being
that ever blessed the earth
or our family
or our discipline
or our school
or our workplace
or wherever else you want.
That we are not the greatest thing there.
And yet,
it does not mean that we are nothing,
but we are something in God.
And because of God.
This is humility.
humility.
And God loves this.
Isaiah 57, 15
reminds us that God
is high above the heavens
and yet he dwells
with those who are lowly in heart.
So not only compassionate hearts,
kindness, humility,
but also meekness
and gentleness.
Gentleness has to do
with a bit of how we carry out
what we do.
To do it with a softness
that does not do,
cause undue harm.
With a consideration
for one another
that is sensitive
rather than insensitive
to the needs,
fears,
concerns,
or vulnerabilities
of those around us.
That's what we see
is meekness
here in this translation.
Finally,
the last one is
patience.
Now we all know
we need more patience.
All you have to do
is get in your car
and drive in Connecticut.
And we know
we need more patience.
And if we have to go
to DMV,
Lord help us,
we know
we need patience.
But the patience here
is actually even
greater than that.
Because the patience here
is a long suffering
in the face of sin.
It is withholding
condemnation and judgment
in hopes of a better outcome.
When after the Israelites
had sinned against God
by creating an idol
and worshiping it
at the base of Mount Sinai,
when Moses demanded
that God reveal himself
to him again,
that he would see his face,
God said,
the Lord,
slow to anger
and abounding
in loving kindness.
This is the patience of God.
That he sees
our weakness
and our frailty.
He also sees
our proud
and arrogant
rebellion
and our willful
disobedience.
And he is patient
with us,
not wishing
that any would perish,
but that all would come
to salvation.
This is why
he withholds
his judgment
on this world.
Because he is
working
to redeem
more souls.
This is the patience
of God.
God.
And this leads us,
of course,
into what we see
in verse 13.
Bearing with one another.
We are not like
the football coach
that says,
here's the standard.
If you can't meet it,
you're off the team.
Period.
End of discussion.
But we are called
to bear with one another
and bear up
one another
towards godliness
in this.
And this is not
a Pollyanna view.
If you see
what he goes on,
he says,
look,
bearing with one another,
if one has a complaint
against another,
he's saying,
of course,
we're going to have
conflicts.
We're a bunch
of fallen people
living in community
together.
Of course,
we're going to have
complaints against
one another.
It's not a question
of if we will have
conflict.
It will be a question
of how we respond
to it.
what is it
that comes out
of our hearts
when we feel
like we've been
wronged by someone
else?
What will come
out of our hearts
when we disagree
with the decisions
that have been made
or when we feel
slighted?
How are we going
to respond
to the person
who says something
that we find
offensive or difficult
to hear?
to bear with
one another
is to not be
overly reactive
to those things
and to not fall
into black
and white
thinking
about how
we view
someone else
but to continue
to look
for the good
even as we
resolve conflict,
even as we have
to speak the truth
in love,
even as we have
to admonish
one another
sometimes,
we do it
in a way
that is forbearing.
And of course
this leads us
to the next
thing as well.
Bearing with
one another
and forgiving
one another.
Forgiving
is one of
the most
remarkable things
that Christians
understand
because
in Christ
we have been
forgiven
of our sin.
Forgiveness
means that
we do not
take the role
of judge,
jury,
and executioner
in someone
else's life.
We do not
stand in the
role of
taking vengeance
and inflicting
punishment on
someone else
for their sin
against us.
We can live
in a world
where we
misunderstand
forgiveness
a lot.
Let me
clarify a few
things.
If I go
to you
because I've
said an
unkind word
to you
and I say
I'm sorry
I said that
will you
forgive me?
And you say
yeah it
doesn't matter.
You have
not forgiven
me.
Maybe you've
born with
me.
Maybe you've
overlooked
my sin.
But if I've
done something
but if I've
actually sinned
against you
forgiveness
means that I
look you in
the eye
and I say
yeah that
was wrong
and it
hurt.
You deserve
judgment
for it
but because
of Christ
I am not
going to do
that.
I will not
take it out
on you.
That's what
forgiveness
means.
It doesn't
mean ignoring
wrong.
It doesn't
mean absolving
someone of any
consequences for
their sin.
It doesn't
mean
that we
don't stand
up and
protect one
another when
wrongs are
being done
but it does
mean that we
do not stand
in judgment
and bring
condemnation
to others
and the only
reason
why we can
let go of
that
is because of
what God has
done in
Christ.
to forgive
one another
is to say
yes you did
sin against
me but I
am not going
to hold that
against you
and in
hopeful
trust that
God is at
work and
that he can
rebuild this
relationship and
restore trust
I'm going to
engage with
you.
Why?
because that's
what God
does with
us.
Think about
this my
friends.
How offensive
has your sin
been to
God?
Has he
brought final
judgment against
you?
Has he brought
the rightful
punishment that
you deserve
for your
rebellion against
him?
For your
disregarding
him?
For you're
not treating
him as the
God of the
universe who
deserves our
worship and
our praise and
our adoration and
everything that we
have because
everything we
have has come
from him in
the first place?
Has God
treated you like
that?
In fact he
hasn't.
He's done the
very opposite.
He sent his
very own son
to take the
very punishment
that you
deserve upon
himself in
love so
so that you
might be
forgiven of
your sin.
This is why
Jesus tells
us that we
are to forgive
70 times 7
for one
another.
And why even
when we go to
one another to
confront sin we
must go first
taking the log
in our own
eye.
A recognition
of our own
sinfulness and
our own desert
of punishment.
judgment and
the way that
God has so
graciously and
mercifully dealt
with us so
that we can
deal with
others.
This is the
meaning of the
parable of the
unforgiving servant
who is forgiven a
great debt and
then turns around
and refuses to
forgive the
small debt of
one who owed
him.
love.
And friends of
course this is
the greatest
expression of
love that we
have.
This is the
final thing that
Paul tells us to
put on in verse
15 or in
verse 14.
Above all these
put on love
seeking one
another's good
as God defines
it is what love
is.
It is not a
warm feeling.
It is not a
romantic episode.
It is seeking
the good of
others above
your own.
And seeking
that good not
as you define
it nor as
they define it
but as God
defines it.
This is Jesus
love for us.
Laying down
his life for
sinners.
A physician
coming for the
sick.
A lover
coming to
reclaim a
wayward spouse.
A shepherd
finding a
lost sheep.
A friend to
walk with us.
Jesus
confronting the
rich young
ruler in his
misunderstanding.
Jesus
bringing hope
to the woman
caught in
what feels like
terminal
uncleanness.
Jesus bringing
hope and
clarification to
Samaritan woman
who has wandered
far from God.
Jesus speaking
to Peter
after the
resurrection.
After Peter's
betrayal of
him and
restoring him
gently.
This is love
not that we
love God but
that he loved
us and sent
his son as
Greg read
earlier.
Friends what
would it look
like if the
church was
characterized by
these things?
What would it
look like if
Christians were
known to be
people like
this in the
world?
what a
beautiful thing
it would be
if this were
the uniform
that we
actually wore.
And we know
that the world
will not always
be impressed
by that.
But still
we know it
would be a
beautiful thing.
So not only
are we to put
on these
character qualities
but we're also
to put on
controlling patterns.
verse 15
and 16.
Verse 15
talks about
the peace
of Christ.
The peace
of Christ
is this
standing before
God that we
have but
Paul says
it is to
rule in
our hearts
and he
applies it
in our
community
to which
indeed you
were called
in one
body.
Pastor Greg
covered a
good bit of
this last
week in his
sermon.
That as
Paul is
giving these
exhortations
they're not
merely
individual
but they're
also and
maybe even
primarily
corporate
exhortations.
That we're
to do this
not as
individual
people but
as a
community
of people
that we're
to express
these
characteristics
to one
another.
together.
That we
would gather
together as
people who
humanly would
have nothing
in common
and who
would have
conflict with
one another
and not
just to come
together and
to tolerate
one another
or to have
a cold
frigid
distance
but to
actually have
an embrace
to embrace
one another
in the peace
of Christ.
To look at
someone with
whom humanly
I don't know
anything except
for the image
of God and
the redeemed
image of
Christ in
that person
and to look
at them and
to say we
are together
in one body.
Do you guys
know the movie
Remember the
Titans?
I know it's
old.
If you haven't
seen it you
young people go
see it.
It's a great
movie.
It's about an
integration of a
football team.
Black and white
football team.
And it's
particularly focusing
on two of
the characters
lead football
players on
each team
one white
one black
and how they
develop a
friendship even
though they
have no prior
opportunity to
do this.
Now they do
this over
football right
but near the
end spoiler alert
I'm just going
to tell you
near the end
the white
defensive captain
is in a car
accident and he
goes in the
hospital and his
friend his
friend Julius
comes in to
visit Jerry
and Julius is
black and he
walks into the
hospital and
walks into the
room and the
nurse says oh
no you're not
allowed in there
only Ken's
allowed to go in
there.
And they
developed such a
friendship and
such a recognition
of the humanity
in each other
that Jerry looks
out and says to
the nurse Alice
aren't you blind
don't you see
the family
resemblance
that's my
brother.
Friends that's
what the church
is meant to be.
We look at each
other and we
say you are my
brother and my
sister and I
embrace you as
such.
This is what it
looks like when
the peace of
Christ rules in
our community.
Not only is the
peace of Christ
to rule in us
but the word of
Christ is to
dwell in us
richly.
Paul says that
if there is to
be a controlling
rule an
authority greater
than ourselves
that binds us
together it is
the word of
Christ.
And that
certainly meant
in Paul's
time the
declaration of
what God had
done for us
in Christ.
I think today
we see that it
means this as
that declaration
has been recorded
and codified and
preserved in God's
word in the
Bible.
It is to dwell in
us richly.
It is to be the
center of our
feasts and our
conversations.
It is to be the
thing that we
meditate upon and
what fills our
mind.
It is to be the
thing that comes
up regularly in
our conversations
with one another.
Paul says we are
to let it dwell
richly in us
teaching and
admonishing one
another.
That is reminding
one another,
informing one
another of the
content of God's
word, sharing
with one another
what it is that
we are learning
about God from
God's word and
then encouraging
one another to
continue to know
God more in the
midst of it.
And though we
live in a fairly
academic community
and many of us
think about deep
theology and that's
wonderful, it's
great, but recognize
that he says
teaching and
admonishing one
another and how
else do we do it?
By singing.
What a wonderful
thing.
This is not
ours in the
library, but this
is singing the
songs and the
psalms and the
hymns.
And don't get
hung up on those
words.
They're not
technical words.
It's meant to be
a collective word
to say all the
words, all the
ways that we can
sing the truth
about who God
is.
It's why we sing.
Have you ever
thought how weird
it is that
Christians sing?
But we do.
We sing because
it reminds us.
It's a gift from
God in a different
way for us to
learn and to
speak God's
word to one
another about
who God is,
about how we
are to live,
about how we
respond to him.
So God's
word dwells in
us richly in
our community.
It dwells in
us individually
as we read and
memorize and
meditate, as we
follow reading
plans.
It dwells in
us richly as we
pursue this in
small groups,
together, whether
it be formal
weekly or
bi-weekly groups,
or whether it
be the informal
meetings over
coffee and
meals and in
our homes, where
we get to talk
about the
richness.
And not only
that, but we
get to sing.
We get to sing.
I don't know, in
my family, we
started, a couple
years ago, we
started singing
grace as we
ate meals.
Praise God
from whom all
blessings flow.
Our God, our
Father, once
again, thank you
for our
blessings.
Thank you for
our blessings.
Amen.
We sing these
songs together, and
they root themselves
in our heart, and
they shape us.
And this is what's
to rule.
Because, remember,
it is God's word
that tells us who
God is, and what
it means for us to
be in Christ.
Christ.
So, friends, if
this is true, then
how do we put it
on?
How is it that we
put on these
character qualities
and these patterns
in our lives?
Well, we're to do
everything, whether
in word or deed, in
the name of Jesus
Christ.
Remember, then, what
uniforms are meant
to do.
They give us an
identity, we know
who we are, and
they give us a role
or responsibility, who
we represent.
And that's what the
name tells us.
To do something in
the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ is
to say, I'm with
him, or he's with
me, but however you
phrase it, I'm with
him.
I'm identified with
his family.
I represent him, and
that's to whom I
belong.
How do we do
this?
How do we put it
on?
Well, friends, we
have to wrap this up
by looking at the
whole chapter, right?
Because putting this
on doesn't mean to
try harder to be a
little more patient
this week.
To put this on
doesn't mean to
try harder to be a
little more gentle
with one another.
It's not that we
shouldn't try to do
that, but that's not
going to get us
there.
It's not going to
get us there at all
by far.
No, we first have to
go back to the
foundation that we
now have in Christ
and to remember that
foundation.
And then we go all
the way back to
chapter 3, verses 1
and 2, and the
sermon that Pastor
Nick preached two
weeks ago.
This really should
have been one really
long three-hour
sermon that all wraps
it up together.
We didn't do that to
you.
But how do we do
this?
If then you've been
raised with Christ, you
now have this new
foundation, how do we
live?
We fix our minds.
We set our eyes on
things above where
Christ is seated.
Great English Puritan
Thomas Chalmers wrote
this book that you all
need to read, The
Expulsive Power of a
New Affection.
How is it that we are
transformed and changed?
Not by trying harder to
do better, but by
loving something more
than the thing we
loved before that led
to the patterns that we
lived in.
We love our sin because
in the short term it
gives us something that
we want, but in the end
it's death.
And what Christ gives us
is something greater for
us to set our affections
on.
And as we see him, he
will root out our love
of sin and he will bring
instead his life to us as
we meditate on who he is.
So let us close briefly by
meditating and thinking
about Christ for a minute.
That we might arouse our
affections for him, that we
would be blown away again at
what a savior we have.
Think of Christ in his
humility who left all the
privilege and power of
heaven and humbled himself
and took on the form of a
man and made himself a
servant and suffered and
died for us.
Think about Christ in his
gentleness as he walked
this earth the way that he
dealt with the broken, the
outcast, the grieving.
How he was only rough with
those who were arrogant and
proud.
Think about his patience with
us.
That he continues to allow a
fallen world to exist so that
he might redeem fallen people
like you and me.
Think about Christ and his
forbearance.
He does not blow up at us at
the end of the day when we
fail again to put our dishes in
the sink.
He does not blow up at us again
when we allow the car to run out
of gas again and have to be
rescued.
His forbearance does not give in
to frustration.
And his forgiveness, he does not
treat us as our sins deserve.
He does not say continue in our
sin, but he says in your sin I
will bear the weight and I will set
you free from it.
He does not use our past sins
against us as a weapon.
But he says as far as the east is
from the west, so far I have
removed your sins from you because
Christ has borne it away.
And his love for us, how he loves
us, how he delights in us, how he
sings over us, how he speaks truth
to us, how he doesn't allow us to
get away with sloppy, careless,
selfish living, but how he confronts
us to save us from those things.
And how in his confrontation, he
lovingly woos us and walks with us
and enables us.
Do you know the power of being
loved by someone who really believes
that you can be something better than
what you were?
Christ is the greatest one who knows
what he has called you to be, what
he's redeemed you to be for all who
are in Christ.
And friends, when we sit and behold
Christ, when we look at these things,
we can treat one another with the
character and the patterns that we
see in this passage.
I can be different towards one
another, but towards others because I
look at Christ, because I remember how
he has dealt with me in my sin, and
because I remember that if he's dealt
with me in my sin like that, that's
how he's dealing with John in his sin
like that.
And if God is being gracious to John,
who am I to be condemning and hate-filled,
to be frustrated and despairing,
rather than being compassionate, kind, humble, gentle,
patient, bearing with and forgiving one another
out of love, that my brother might know the life in
Christ that God has given him.
Friends, can we put this on?
Can we put on these clothes and be known for who we are in
Christ?
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for this word.
Lord, we do pray, Lord, that you would help us to obey this
command to put on Christ in all of his manifestations,
in all of his character and patterns.
Lord, help us.
We pray for we so easily look to other things,
cling to other things, want to try to do this in other ways,
Lord, help us to put on Christ for your glory.
For your name's sake, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.