2010 BBC Preach-A-Thon - Joey DeFilippo

When he walked in out of the office, big burly guy, in overalls and a flannel shirt walked out with a big long beard and an axe over his shoulder, you might think, am

I in the right place? I thought I walked into a doctor's office. A doctor you'd expect to wear a white jacket, police officer, has a certain uniform.

So too, a Christian has a certain apparel that they should be distinguished by. I mean, our society really, to a great degree, is based on what a person wears.

A banker is known for that pinstripe suit. Mailman. So we're going to look at eight virtues today that define the apparel of a

Christian. Open up your Bibles, please, to Colossians 3, 12 through 14.

I am so excited about this portion of scripture. I think it's going to blow you away today as it's blown me away in the last month that I've been studying it.

Colossians 3, 12 through 14. Verse 12, 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.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of these verses, I just want to give you a summary of Colossians.

So Colossians was written, at that time, the

Colossians were looking to other areas, legalism, different ways to gain favor with God.

So Paul wrote Colossians to address the sufficiency of Christ, that Christ is sufficient for us.

Again, legalism was creeping in. If you look at chapter 2, verses 21 through 23, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.

These have indeed the appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism, but there are no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The indulgence of the flesh, there are no good in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Chapter 1 of Colossians, I want to summarize here because it ties in to chapter 3.

Here we see in Colossians 1, verse 15, we see the preeminence, the superiority of God.

Verse 15 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, verse 19, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

I don't know about you guys, but when I read that verse, it just makes me think about God. It just makes me think about this awesome alpha omega beginning and the end

God. And I read those verses because in order to be chapter 3, to put this apparel on, it's gonna take the transforming power of the

God in chapter 1 in order to be able to put on the attributes of Christ because can we do that ourselves?

No, but we have the perfect example of it in Jesus Christ. So if you are a believer here today, you know you've been justified.

You know that you've been regenerated. God has given you new life. And then there's sanctification.

I like what J .C. Ryle said. He said there's three things that are essential to every

Christian in Christendom. Justification, regeneration and sanctification.

If you're saved, you're going to be sanctified. If five years ago you were a Christian, you're more sanctified today than you were five years ago.

And that work is a work of God, but it's your responsibility to work out your sanctification as well.

Colossians 1 .22 says here, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

So regeneration is going to be an inseparable consequence of your salvation. And it's something you're responsible for.

So let me ask you a question. How many of you have attained the upper echelons of sanctification here?

Anybody? I don't see any hands because this is a work that we are continually going to experience until we reach heaven's doors.

Sanctification is not going to end until we reach heaven. So with an understanding now of this great

God, we need the God of chapter one, his transforming power in order to put this apparel on.

If we look at chapter three, verse one, getting into our text now, chapter three, verse one, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

If then you, you have been raised with Christ. Yes, I'm talking to you, fellow believer. Maybe you thought this would be a nice little

Saturday morning breakfast and you'd hear some newbie preachers, but I am speaking to you here right now, just as this text hammered me for the last month.

So in chapter three, we see a putting off and a putting on.

We're going to talk specifically about the putting on, but we're to put off the old man. Do you know, you realize that when you're a

Christian, you still have an old man that's following you around and that daily you have to put on the new man that you are or woman you are in Christ Jesus.

So you are to put off pride, anger, envy, covetousness.

We see in chapter three and following. And then the imperative, we're to put on.

How many of you guys woke up this morning, looked in your closet and admired your clothes?

You said, man, that's some nice Armani I got there. Now that's a

North face sweater. I'm gonna, I'm really admiring that. No, you put those clothes on.

In the same way, the Christian attributes, we need to put on, there's an imperative here, a command like imperative to put these things on.

And it's a daily putting on. And so before you're a Christian, what kind of clothes did you put on?

You might've put on the tuxedo of self -righteousness. Maybe you were a good person in the world standpoint.

Maybe that everyone looked at you and they thought you were a pretty nice guy. But do you realize that if you were not saved, that you were an enemy of God, that you lived for yourself?

So whether you put that tuxedo of self -righteousness on, or you put that suit of hypocrisy on, maybe you even were in church and you were fooling everybody and you were kind of playing the game of a

Christian, but you really weren't and you weren't pleasing to God. And so those were the old clothes that you put on, but now you're gonna put on the new clothes.

And guess what the new clothes include? It's the sackcloth of humility, humbleness, you say, that's not very appealing.

I don't like putting on clothes of humility. First Peter 5, 5, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So we're to put on the clothes of a humble servant. Put on the attributes of Christ.

Since you have died and your life is hidden with Christ, there is a chain reaction that should follow.

So verse 12, put on then as God's chosen ones. So here

Paul gets into the meaning, why are we to put these on? Well, as God's chosen ones, do you think you say, are you getting an election here,

Joey? Are you talking about election? I don't like election. Well, are you gonna pat yourself on the back when you get to heaven and say,

I did a really good job getting myself here? No, God's chosen you. God's divine intervention occurred in your life when you were saved.

So in light of that, do the following. And then holy and beloved. Holy means set apart.

You're taken out of the mainstream and you've been set apart. I like what

MacArthur says here. When believers fail to act differently from the world, they violate the very purpose of their calling.

Does that sound like you, my friend? Do you act differently from the world or you just go with the flow?

Are you in the mainstream of what the world's doing?

Are you distinguished by what you wear? The Christ -like attributes.

Beloved, objects of his special love. Here's another motivator. These are the reasons building up to why you're to put these clothes on.

Objects of his special love. He chose us and he made us objects of his divine love.

Man, that's awesome. If you think of an incentive, I just had a meeting with my manager this week about our incentive plan, okay?

And so those incentive plans motivate you to work, right? How about beloved of God?

How about chosen by God? For a Christian, that should make our hearts jump and rejoice when we think that we have been chosen by God, beloved by him.

So let's get into these virtues. Compassionate hearts, we see in verse 12.

That's bowels of mercies, yearning compassion, inner being, stomach, heart, spleen, liver, kidneys, that deep felt compassion.

Do you yearn for those who are without Christ? Do you have compassion on those who are in need?

It's an emotive term, it emotes deeply felt need. And it's a divine quality.

It's not a quality that we can kind of muster up on our own, it's a divine quality that we can look to Christ to put on.

Matthew 9, 36, you don't have to turn there. He, Jesus, had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

I'm so grateful that we have Christ to look to for these attributes. So I ask you, are you sensitive to those suffering in need?

Do you yearn? Do you long for your loved ones to be saved who are without Christ?

Do you lose sleep over those who are without Christ? Kindness, closely related to compassion.

And again, we have Christ to look to for this. But we should be kind as a reflection of God's goodness to us.

Is it not his goodness that led us to repentance? Was he not kind to us in our own sin and our rebellion against him?

Just another motivator to put on kindness. God has been kind to us, therefore we're to be kind to others.

You say, yeah, I'm a pretty kind person. I'm nice to people. I visit my grandmother in the hospital every other week.

I take care of, you know, I buy Girl Scout cookies when they come to the door.

I'm pretty nice. How about this? Are you kind when people stab you in the back?

How about one of those hunting knives, serrated, stabs you in the back? How about when your coworkers lie about you?

That's when you're really gonna see whether you're kind or not. Humility, put on humility.

Now, I really enjoyed studying this word because humility in any other culture, it's in the negative term.

So humility is not the kind of thing you put on your resume. It's not the kind of thing that was esteemed in the

Greek culture. It was looked at, it was looked down upon if you were humble. And it took, through Christianity is where humility became a virtue.

And it's our new wardrobe. As we spoke about earlier in 1 Peter 5, five, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another.

For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, in the sight of God, and he will lift you up.

It's the antidote for self -love. How many of you guys have issues in your family? How many of you guys have had arguments with your wives and husbands?

Guess what? The antidote for that's humility. Put on humility, and you're gonna see a difference in your home life, your work life.

And it is one of the hardest pieces to put on as you humble yourself, as you look to Christ as the example.

Have you put on humility today? Are you wearing it? Number four, meekness.

This is tied in with humility. And this is another one you wouldn't really put on your resume.

Would you put meekness on your work resume? Hey, I'm a meek person. Oh, Mr. Meek, how are you today?

I don't think so. Again, closely connected in with humility.

Let it distinguish you. MacArthur says this gentleness can only be produced by the

Holy Spirit, and should mark the Christian's behavior at all time. So again, we need to be reminded that these aren't qualities that we have to strive to put on, but we look to Christ who puts those attributes, who allows, we look to him as the perfect example, and he will equip us to be able to be meek and humble and lowly.

Patience, number five, it's the opposite of resentment, wrath, anger. Does not get angry with others.

Do you know anybody who has not? I mean, could you imagine someone who never got angry with somebody? Can you think of anybody who has never, ever gotten angry with somebody before?

Jesus Christ never got sinfully angry with anybody. He was patient when ill -treated.

Are you patient when you're ill -treated? Are you driven to bitterness and wrath when people offend you or, you know, someone's holding you up at the stoplight there, and you just let it rip?

So again, we look to Jesus Christ as the perfect example, as in every attribute, that we look to him as our chief example.

Forbearing with one another. Willingness to suspend the rightful demand out of consideration for the plight or weakness of a fellow believer.

Forbearing with one another. This one's kind of hard too, because you put up with things that maybe aren't, you would say,

I have a right to put myself over this thing, but no, forbearing with one another. Enduring, bearing with one another in love, holding oneself erect under the burdens imposed by others.

First Corinthians 4 .12 says, when we are reviled, we bless, when we are persecuted, we endure.

We hold up. How well do you hold up in the adversities of life? How well do you hold up under the adversities that others put upon you?

Number seven, forgiveness. Oh, and I am so glad that we,

I mean, when you think of forgiveness, think about what God forgave you. Think about his forgiveness towards you, that you were a sinner, you sinned against him, you hated

God, you spit in his face, and he forgave you.

He loved you when you were very, very unlovely.

And so forgiveness, again, we look to Christ as the example of that, but in order for a community to hold together, for a church to hold together, for a family to hold together, you need to have forgiveness as a daily part of it, because we are sinful people, and we're gonna hurt others, and we need to be forgiving and forbearing with one another.

Number eight, final point here, love to hold all of these pieces together.

Now, all of these graces would be pointless and mere hypocrisy if they were not held together by the perfect bond of love, because God is love.

It's like the fastening around this outfit, this new outfit that we've just heard about.

This is the piece that holds it all together.

First Corinthians 13, two, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love,

I am nothing. So love binds them, completes them, perfects, and it really is the example of the matured faith as we grow in our love.

It denotes a completeness and a maturity in a Christian. So with all this said, are you dressing the part of a

Christian today? Are you putting on these attributes daily? I don't know about you, but some days

I feel like I forgot to put certain ones of these on. Have you put on humility, compassion, kindness?

Five years ago, if you're a Christian versus now, do you see these attributes more in your life?

Do you see your need for them? Do you yearn for them? Do you long to put these on every day? If you're not a

Christian here, these are impossible for you to put on. God's creator,

God, he's holy, he's perfect, just. Man, sinful. We've sinned against God.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we need, and we're in need.

Jesus was perfect man, 100 % God, 100 % man. Died for those who would believe upon him, put their trust in him alone.

He bore the punishment that we all deserved. He appeased the wrath of God against us.

On the third day, he was raised to show the power of God. So what must

I do to be saved, you ask? Well, you must believe upon him. You must repent and believe, agree with God that you are a sinner and that you need him and he will save you, because his word says that he will answer the call of those who humbly come before him in belief and repentance.

So I would plead with you to believe upon Christ and put your faith in him.

Let's pray. Father, we just thank you for your goodness to us.

Thank you for saving us, giving us new life. Father, help us, help everyone here to put on these attributes, these virtues that you line out here,

Lord. Help us to work out our sanctification, Lord, that we would grow in our love for others and our humility and meekness and kindness.

God, teach us your ways. Help us to love others. We're grateful for your promises.