Now I want to start preaching here in verse number one of the chapter that we just read where the Bible says
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Now keep your finger here in Colossians 3 and flip over if you would just back toward the front of your Bible, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he said, If ye then be risen with Christ.
You see, not all are risen with Christ. Only those who are saved, only those who are believers who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
have everlasting life and have been risen and resurrected with Christ.
He said if, there is question there, some are not risen with Christ.
But if ye then be risen with Christ, he said, set your affection on things above.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it says in verse number 14
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
So the Bible here is explaining to us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his death, her own resurrection, was a picture of our lives as Christians
how we need to die to self, our flesh should die, and like as Christ was raised up from the dead, we should walk in newness of life.
Now first of all, we are saved by his resurrection, if it were not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ we would not be saved.
It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
You see, none of us is good enough to go to heaven, the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Now get this right here, the resurrection is necessary for salvation. People will try to just take one part of God's plan of salvation and focus on it and say well we are just saved by the blood.
And then others will say we are just saved by his death, or we are just saved by his resurrection. It's all of the above.
The Bible says in Romans 5 we are saved by his life. The Bible says in Colossians 1.14 we have redemption through his blood.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 3.21 that we are saved by his resurrection. You see the death, burial and resurrection is the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15.
How that Jesus Christ died and that he was buried and that on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. That's what the gospel is.
That's the good news. That Jesus paid it all. That Jesus died for our sins. That not only did he die, not only was he buried, but that he physically, literally, bodily three days later
rose again from the dead. And the Bible says that like as Christ was raised up from the dead. Just like Christ died. And by the way he really was dead.
He wasn't just in heaven or somewhere like that. He was dead for three days and three nights. He said I am he that liveth and was dead.
And behold I am alive forevermore, amen, at the keys of hell and of death. Jesus Christ died and three days later rose again.
The Bible here is giving us an illustration in Colossians 3.1 and in 2 Corinthians 5. Get back to Colossians 3.1.
It says if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
You see we were dead according to 2 Corinthians 5. It said all were dead.
Now you remember in the Garden of Eden when Adam partook of the fruit of the tree of life, God told him in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
Now he didn't say you're going to die eventually hundreds of years from now. He said in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
And when he ate that fruit his body did not die. He did not physically die but his spirit died.
Man is a body, a soul and a spirit and the spirit died and every single person who is not a believer in Jesus Christ, their spirit is still dead according to the Bible.
Their body is functioning, their soul is functioning. The body is what interacts with the natural world. I can take hold of this pulpit. This is the physical realm.
The soul is my personality. I can interact with you. I can talk with another person and it's not like talking to an animal. There's a soul there.
And then the spirit is how I communicate with God and that's why the person who is unsaved cannot understand the Bible.
The Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned and his spirit is dead.
But the moment that a person believes on Jesus Christ, that spirit is resurrected. That spirit is quickened again, brought to life.
Now, the body is not changed when we get saved. The body stays the same. My body is the same as it was before I believed on Jesus Christ.
My soul is the same soul. I'm the same person that I was before. Same personality. Same likes and dislikes in a general way. I am who I am. I am who I was.
We were created to be a unique person, a soul that God created. But when I got saved, my spirit was resurrected, was quickened, the Bible says, the moment that I believed on Jesus Christ.
Now, someday my body will also be quickened at the first resurrection and I'll have a brand new body and so forth. But right now, I have the firstfruits of the spirit.
My spirit has been resurrected and brought to life and that is what's known as the new man, the inward man. Look down at verse 10.
It says, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
And so my spirit is righteous. My spirit is a new creature. The Bible said this, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Now, many will abuse this verse. I was looking at what someone had to say about this on their statement of faith and they said, if you get saved, there will be a change in your life.
Okay? And here's what they did. They quoted that verse about if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. And here's what they said. According to this verse, there will be some change.
Now, is that what the verse says? Does it say some change? No, it says old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So let me ask you, if that is referring to your lifestyle, that would mean you'd be living a perfect life.
If that verse is referring to your lifestyle. Because that would mean that all things are become new. You don't do any of the sins you used to do and that is not how anyone in this room is living.
That's not how anybody in this world is living because there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not. There is none righteous, no, not one.
And so don't tell me that that's talking about your lifestyle. That is talking about the new creature, the new man, the spiritual man. And that's why God said that if we're in the flesh, we're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
But if we die to self, if we mortify the flesh, think of a mortician, that's what it says in Colossians 3, if we mortify the flesh, if we put on the new man, if we put on the Lord Jesus Christ as it says in Romans 13, if we walk in the spirit, we will not obey the lust of the flesh.
Because when we're walking in the new man, when the spirit is in control, we're doing right. Now let me ask you something, if a person gets saved, they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but then they don't attend church, do you think they're going to be walking in the flesh or in the spirit?
Probably in the flesh because of the fact that they're constantly hearing all the wrong things from the world and they're not hearing the right things from God's word by being in church.
Or how about this, if a Christian never reads their Bible, do you think they're going to be predominantly walking in the flesh or walking in the spirit? They're going to be in the flesh.
If a person watches TV for five hours a day and reads the Bible for five minutes a day, what do you think they're walking in, the flesh or the spirit?
And so therefore, you can look at somebody and say, why is their life wrong? Maybe they're not saved. Maybe they're not saved, but here's the thing.
They very well could be saved and just feeding that flesh and walking in the old man and that's why God is commanding us here in Colossians 3. It's not automatic.
You're not automatically going to walk in the new man. You're not automatically going to mortify the deeds of the flesh. You're not automatically going to walk and live as a new creature.
It's not automatic. It's going to take you making a decision to mortify your members. Just as Jesus died and was buried and rose again, that's a picture of the fact that we have to die to self.
And as Christ was raised up from the dead, it says in Romans 6, we also should, not automatically will, he said we should walk in newness of life.
You see, today if we're celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, why don't we live the resurrected Christian life instead of living like those who perish?
Living like we're dead in our sins. And by the way, if you're walking in the flesh, you will be just like you were before you were saved.
Because the flesh doesn't change. You will be living the same way you were before you got saved. All the same things that you used to do, if you become backslidden, you will get back into those things.
It's true. I mean, if you, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Don't think you're above sin. If you get out of church, get out of God's word, stop praying, stop soul winning,
you will go back to the same type of things you were involved in before if you get backslidden because the flesh is still the flesh.
Only when we die or are resurrected will we be delivered from this flesh. Until then, there's a war going on. The flesh warth against the spirit and the spirit warth against the flesh.
And these two are contrary, the one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Let's look at the admonition here in Colossians 3.
It says in verse 1, now that we have all that doctrine, now that we understand these biblical principles of what it means to be saved, what happens when you get saved, the spirit is brought to life, it's a new creature, it's a brand new Stephen Anderson, it's different than the new Garrett is not the same as the new Stephen Anderson.
The new Stephen Anderson is not the same as the new Brother Force, it's a different creature. We're all unique, we're all different.
And so this new man, this new creature, is something that I have to put on, the Bible says. Look at verse number 1, it says,
If he then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore, and that means put to death, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, and he begins to list what those things are.
Now wait a minute, Christ who is our life, can you truly say Jesus Christ is my life? Think about that. Christ who is our life, Christ not somebody that we talk to once a week on Sunday, or for five minutes in the morning when we wake up. No, Jesus Christ is our life.
Every facet of our life, every part of our life is dominated by him, we meditate on the word of God day and night. He says, When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members, your members are referring to your body parts, he's talking about the flesh.
He says, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Here are some of the things that need to die in your life, if you're ever going to live the resurrected Christian life the way that Jesus Christ wants you to live, fornication is going to have to die in your life.
That's what the Bible says. You're going to have to mortify fornication. You're going to have to die to fornication. You see, fornication is people basically committing the action between a man and a woman that's supposed to take place within marriage, within the confines of marriage.
Basically going to bed with someone that you're not married to is fornication, and I'll put it delicately like that, for sake of children that are here. That's going to have to die. You're walking in the flesh. You're not right with God, you're living in sin, you're wicked in the sight of God if you're living in fornication.
That's a condemning message. Yes, it is a condemning message because there's a condemnation on sin throughout the Bible. It's wrong, it's wicked. Now, if you're saved and you believe on Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven, but wait a minute, I don't want to live in sin. I'm supposed to be dead to sin, and I'm supposed to put on the new man and live the resurrected life.
Instead of just looking at Jesus on the cross and saying, there's Jesus on the cross, dying for all my sins, shedding his blood to forgive my sins, and therefore my sins are forgiven, I want to fast forward three days and look at Jesus resurrected from the dead and say, hey, wait a minute, I want to walk in newness of life. I want to live the resurrected life. I'm not just going to focus on the fact that Jesus paid for my sins. I do want to focus on that, but I want to focus on the fact that he rose again and said that we were to walk in newness of life as he walked in the dead.
And I'm not just going to say, well, I'm forgiven, so I'll just continue in sin that grace may abound. God forbid that you would continue in sin that grace may abound.
Now listen, if you continue in sin, grace will abound. If you're a believer and you continue to live in sin, your sins will be forgiven because Jesus died for all of our sins, past, present, and future.
But is that what we should do? Is that how we honor and respect Jesus Christ our Savior who said, if you love me, keep my commandments?
I thank God he doesn't force us to keep his commandments. He gives us the freedom. He gives us the choice. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
But which choice are you going to make to just abuse God's graciousness and say, well, I'm going to use my liberty, as it says in Galatians 5, for an occasion to the flesh?
You know, I don't want to use my liberty or really abuse my liberty in Christ as an occasion for the flesh and say, well, I'm going to commit fornication and it's okay because Jesus paid it all.
Hey, I want to walk in a Christian life that honors Jesus Christ. I want to set my affection on things above, not on things on the earth, and I want to mortify the members of uncleanness in my flesh and put on the new man and walk in a way that pleases Jesus.
That's why the first thing I got to get rid of according to verse 5 is fornication. Fornication. Marriage is undefiled. Let me get this right. Marriage is honorable in all, the Bible says, and the bed undefiled.
It's a wonderful thing, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, Hebrews 13. He says fornication, but number two, uncleanness.
And this goes hand in hand, uncleanness. This is anything that's dirty. You know, we know that word. We use that word today to talk about things that are dirty in a metaphorical sense. That's what God's talking about when he says uncleanness.
Here's a vocabulary lesson. Unclean equals dirty. And then the next word here it says is inordinate affection. Inordinate affection. Having the wrong type of affection.
If I were to show my wife affection. Let me show you some affection here.
Now somebody else's wife come up here. Now listen, that would be inordinate affection.
Right? Now there was nothing inordinate about that because we're married, right? But if someone else did that to my wife, wouldn't that be inordinate affection? We need to put that off. Put that away.
Look at the next one. He says evil concupiscence. Now let me help you understand this word concupiscence. Have you ever heard of cupid?
Okay? See that root word there? Concupiscence is basically a desire or a lust for, again, someone that you're not married to.
So you see how all four of these are pretty much almost in the same boat here? God's emphasizing this. He's saying, look, let me just spell this out for you. I'm talking fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and then he steps in with covetousness which is idolatry.
Now this is kind of the forgotten of the ten commandments. It's the tenth commandment. And many people do not even really know what this word means. A lot of people have explained this to them and they say, that's a sin? Really?
When I explain to them what the word covet means, they say, you mean that's a sin? And yet it's one of the ten commandments. Thou shalt not covet.
Covetousness is when you desire that which belongs to someone else. That's covetousness. So if you pull your car in front of a big mansion and say, oh, someday, I'd love to have this house. That's covetousness.
Oh, I wish I had so-and-so's car. It's covetousness. It's not right. Be content. He said this, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have.
For he had said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. The opposite of covetousness is contentment. But when you always want something that belongs to someone else, you wish you had more money, you wish you had more cars, more fancy clothes, whatever the case may be, he says, you're walking in the flesh.
You're living in the old man. He says, put away covetousness. And covetousness is idolatry, by the way, he said. Because the love of money is the root of all evil and you cannot serve God and mammon.
And therefore, money and the desire and lust for money and the things that it buys, you say, I don't love money, I just love all the cars and fancy clothes and fancy dinners. Okay, well, that's loving money, okay.
But basically, when that takes precedence in your life instead of the things of God, he said, it becomes idolatry, like a money worship, is what he's talking about.
Then he says this, for the witch thing's sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. God's anger, God's wrath is kindled against those who practice fornication.
You know, don't get upset at the messenger. God's anger and wrath is kindled against those who fornicate, who are unclean, who have inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness.
He says in the witch, he also walked sometime when you lived in them. He said, look, we've all been there and done one of the above. You know, we've all participated in sin in some way, shape or form.
Not everyone has fornicated. Not everyone has participated uncleanness, but we've all had covetousness. We all have our own sins, you know, even if we never fornicated, we have our own sins that we've committed.
He says, but now ye also put off all these, and then he lists more. He says anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Now, don't get me wrong here, don't get God wrong, anger is not always wrong. Jesus looked upon the Pharisees with anger in Mark chapter 3.
The Bible says, be ye angry. We're commanded to be angry in Ephesians chapter 4, but there's an anger that's out of place. The Bible says, whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of death.
You know, when you just are angry, and the Bible says with an angry man, thou shall not go. He said stay away from people who are just angry all the time.
Have you ever got around people who are just angry every day, all day, they're just mad people? That is not right. The Bible says we should give place under wrath.
There is a time to be angry. There's a time when we're commanded to be angry. Righteous indignation and anger is often justified, but when anger just lives inside of you and just eats you, and you're just mad all day, every day, that isn't right.
We're supposed to rejoice, we're supposed to have joy and forgiveness and all these different things. We shouldn't just live life angry.
Now, if you're a person who never gets angry, you need to put off some anger. That's another sermon.
But anyway, it says anger, wrath. Again, wrath is just extreme anger. That's what wrath is.
Malice. Now, do you know what it means to be malicious? Mal. Think of Spanish, malo. Malicious. It's basically when you have bad intentions, evil intentions to harm others.
He says, malice. Blasphemy. Blasphemy. This is using Jesus Christ's name in vain. And this is one of the Ten Commandments as well.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. He said this, I will not hold him guiltless that taketh my name in vain.
The Bible says in the book of Psalms, thine enemies, David speaking to God, thine enemies take thy name in vain.
And we ought to have reverence for the name of God and not blaspheme God's name by using it as an expletive. Jesus.
You know, Jesus Christ or whatever. Or even combining it with another expletive and just using it as some kind of an utter.
You should never utter the name of Jesus Christ, the name that's above all other names. He's given him a name that's above every name.
That name should never come out of your mouth unless you're talking about Jesus, the person, or to Jesus. That's the only time that word should ever come out of your mouth, Jesus.
It shouldn't just come out of your mouth, oh Jesus. You know, just throwing it around, trampling on God's name.
And by the way, here's another name. God. That is a name. It is a name. You can say, oh it's just a title. It's a name.
God was not even known by the name of Jehovah until the burning bush. That's when he revealed that name for the first time to Moses.
He said, I'm the Lord. I appeared unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty.
But by my name of Jehovah was I not known unto them. Abraham didn't even know the name of Jehovah. Isaac didn't know the name of them.
He knew the name God Almighty because that is a name. And therefore we should not throw it around and say, oh my God.
For God's sake, these type of things. Reverence the names of God. And God has many names.
His name should be called the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.
And that's why we shouldn't just give the title of Father to everybody who comes down the pike.
Oh, Father so and so, would you pray? There's only one Father and he's your Father in Heaven.
Now you could have a Father in the physical sense. You may have, you know, obviously your dad who actually begats you or who adopted you.
That's your physical Father. But to call a man who's a spiritual leader, Father, is giving him too much reverence.
Because he said, call no man your Father upon the earth, Matthew 23, 9. For one is your Father which is in Heaven.
And it's blasphemous to call a man Father. It's blasphemous to say, oh my God, oh my Lord.
Lord is another name of God too, using the Bible. The Lord. And it's Jesus, all these different things.
Have respect and reverence for God's name. Whether it's the name of Jesus, whether it's the name of God Almighty, whether it's the name of Jehovah, whatever the name.
Use it with respect and reverence. Put off blasphemy. Filthy communication. These are your dirty jokes.
This is basically talking about the bedroom outside the bedroom. That's filthy communication. That's not right. It's unclean.
He says, get rid of it. Put it out of your mouth. Lie not one to another. He's saying, tell the truth. Don't be a liar.
And he says, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Put on therefore as the elect of God. So we saw the things that we need to put off, right?
If we're going to walk in the new man, if we're going to walk the resurrected Christian life, if we're going to walk in newness of life and be like Jesus Christ,
we can't say I'm living the Christian life, I fornicate. I'm living the Christian life, I'm a liar. I'm living the Christian life, let me tell you a dirty joke or let me listen to a dirty joke.
Because we don't want filthy communication in either direction. Because communication is a back and forth here.
So I don't want to receive the unclean communication and I don't want to be transmitting the unclean communication.
And I don't want to be receiving on my television set, my radio, my XM, whatever.
And he says here what we need to put on, holy, he said first be holy, be separated, set apart, be different than the world.
He says holy and beloved, God loves you, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
So let's go through these quickly. Mercy, being merciful. Mercy is not an absence of judgment. Mercy and judgment should go hand in hand.
They should both be able to coexist because they're both righteous qualities, judgment and mercy.
Mercy is when you basically extend people to grace that you would want them to extend to you, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, the Bible says.
For example, let's say my child does something wrong and I want to be merciful to them. Does that mean I'm never going to punish? No, but for example it means that I can punish and then let it go.
And today people will throw things in somebody's face from their past that ought to be let go. It ought to be forgiven and that's why the Bible goes on to say he said mercies and then a little bit down he says forgiving one another.
And another place says forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake had forgiven you. I thank God that God does not bring up to me things and he's not going to bring up to me things when I stand before him one day, you know that I did as a teenager.
Oh, you remember when you were 15 and you did this? David said remember not the sins of my youth. Let people live things out. Be merciful to people. Give people another chance is what he's saying too.
Extend mercy. Don't always just, if somebody makes a mistake, just have to just cloud up and rain on them and just never let it go and so forth. You can be merciful and you can still have judgment and have justice and you can still have mercy though.
For example, in our country we ought to have justice as in people should be punished if they harm someone else, right? But in many cases they should be extended mercy as well. For example, let's say somebody steals from one person and then they pay back and make it right.
Then mercy would say, okay, let's let that go, right? Let's move on. I'll forgive you. And that's why God's laws are so much better than our laws. Because in God's law, you steal from somebody, you pay it back five times. You steal a hundred bucks, you pay them back five hundred bucks. Today you pay the government five hundred bucks.
And then you carry that around with you 30 years later. Have you ever been arrested? Yes, I have, but it wasn't my fault and I was acquitted. Have you ever been, and it wasn't for stealing, have you ever been convicted of a felony? Yes, 30 years ago, whatever. Let it go. Give people a chance to move on.
And so mercy and judgment should go hand in hand. We should be merciful and say, I'm going to treat people who've done wrong the way that I'd like to be treated. I'm going to give them another chance, depending on the circumstance. That's a whole other sermon.
But he said, bowels of mercies. Bowels there is talking about your feelings, your heart. The word bowels, and we don't use this kind of language maybe in the 21st century here. Really, what are your bowels? Your guts, right? Is that a good word for it? Your intestines, your guts?
So it's like, show mercy from your gut. Obviously that doesn't sound very good, but the point is that you should feel inside, is what he's saying. We would talk more about what? The heart. We wouldn't really go to the intestines, we would choose the heart.
But if you say the word bowels in the Bible, it's used many different times. Bowels of compassion. It's just basically talking about a feeling that you have inside that causes you to have compassion and mercy and care about others. That's what he means there by bowels. So don't let that bother you.
And then it says bowels of mercies. Kindness. Another word that's associated with kindness that we would use would probably be gentleness. Not always just throwing your weight around and being rude, but being gentle and kind. We would probably just use the word being nice to people.
He says kindness. Humbleness of mind. Not thinking that you're the most important person, not putting yourself first, but putting others first. That's what humbleness is. And today the opposite of that would be pride. Thinking that you're the greatest person, thinking that you're the most important.
We ought to be humble enough to condescend, the Bible says, to men of low estate. And not condescend as in act like we're better. That's what today the word condescend means. When the Bible used the word condescend, it means getting down to the level of people and treating them as your equal because they are your equal.
In Christ there's neither bond nor free. There's neither Jew nor Gentile. It doesn't matter what color you are, what your financial status is. And that's why if you're too good to go soloing with us in the ghetto, you need to get right with God.
Oh, I'm not going to go to that neighborhood. I just don't like black people or whatever. You need to be able to go talk to whatever kind of people and I don't care what they are. I don't care if they're poor or if they're derelict as you'd call them or if they're homeless or whatever the sin that they're living in or whatever color you don't like or whatever.
You need to get right with God because Christ has made all nations of one blood anyway. There's no race in the Bible. And so you ought to be willing to basically be humble enough to say, you know, just because I make X amount of money, which I don't.
But, you know, I make X amount of money. I wear fancy clothes. You know, I'm afraid I'm going to go break a nail, you know, or whatever, knocking that door in the ghetto. You need to be humble and say, I don't matter. I'm nobody.
And it's these people that matter and I'm going to give the Gospel to them whatever it takes. I'm not going to worry about myself. I'm going to worry about them. And so we have to have humility and humbleness.
That means we don't walk around puffed up, arrogant like we own the place, but rather humble enough to put others on our same level because they are on your level anyway.
And he says in verse number 12 there, he says meekness. Again, meekness is similar to humility. Meekness is basically humility, not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to think, letting others go first and so forth.
And then he says long suffering, that's being patient with people, not expecting people who just got saved to live the perfect Christian life that you don't even live up to.
And it's amazing how, you know, I've been saved now for 20, let's see, 22 years approximately because I got saved when I was six years old. I don't know exactly what month it was. I'm 28 now.
So I've been saved for approximately 22 years. So it would be very easy for me to look down at some other person who maybe just got saved one year ago or two years ago or three years ago and say, oh man, I can't believe that they're so wrong on this issue or that they dress the way they do or they act the way they do or they're so biblically ignorant.
I've been saved for 22 years. And by the way, for a lot of that 22 years, I wasn't really growing. If you would have found me after I'd been saved for 10 years, I was very spiritually immature at age 16.
I hadn't been taught a lot of the things that I needed to be taught. And so you ought to be patient and long suffering with people wherever they're at in their development. And here's what I say, as long as people go in the right direction, they're welcome here.
You know, great. Come on in. You may not be spiritually where someone else is at, but do you desire to grow? Are you moving forward in your Christian life? Then you're welcome. We'll receive you as you are as long as you're moving in the right direction.
Now, we don't want people to be going the wrong direction, becoming backslidden, going away from the things of God. But people going the right direction, come on in.
And it takes years and years and years to grow as a Christian. And you've got to be patient and long suffering with people and just not expect people to just all of a sudden...
And by the way, not everyone had a church like this ripping their face every week. You know what I mean? Because if you go to some watered down church, you'll get like one one-hundredth of the teaching that you might get in one service here.
So that means they might have to go there a hundred times to get one week worth of teaching. Because the pastor will read one verse maybe and just, you know, tell stories and whatever. Or maybe two verses and tell a bunch of stories.
So you're getting a lot of, you're getting like preaching concentrate here. You know what I mean? You have to like get a spoon, open your mouth, you know, it's too much.
But you can't expect everybody to have been in this kind of a church. And so therefore maybe somebody's a great person. It's not that they don't desire to live for God.
You know, they just haven't really had this kind of preaching. I mean I hadn't had this kind of preaching and teaching when I was a teenager. And therefore I was an idiot in a lot of ways.
You know, and I was doing a lot of silly things and nothing. But I thank God that when I started going to a church that started really teaching me things and an independent fundamental Baptist church in Sacramento, California.
When I got into that church, I thank God that they accepted me where I was at and helped me to grow. And I was there for years before I really grew into a lot of the things that were taught and preached there.
And so have long suffering, have meekness. But the flesh, remember this is the new man. The flesh is going to want to look down on everybody else and be proud and arrogant and say, look at me, look how great I am. Look how wonderful I am.
You know, that person's wearing something. And that's why we don't tolerate this in our church. And we've had people try to do this in our church and we nipped it in the bud where visitors would come to our church and they would accost them about the way that they were dressed or about what they were doing. That is wrong.
It's not your job to be the little police force in this church. Who do you think you are? This church is made for anybody to come. And I thank God we always have visitors. We always have new believers coming. We always have babes in Christ.
If everybody in this church was living a great Christian life, what are we doing? Who are we reaching? You see what I'm saying?
And so we don't want to turn people away by criticizing them or ripping on them. We're going to preach the truth. We're going to preach what's right and wrong. But I'm not going to go to somebody and say and rebuke them to their face, somebody who's a new believer, somebody who's just not been taught or they haven't grown to that level.
And so we need to be long suffering with people. And all it is is pride when you want to beat everybody else down to try to basically make yourself look good.
You ought to be able to talk to people that are not saved. You ought to be able to talk to people that are new believers and you ought not be talking down to them. You ought to be able to talk to them like they're an equal.
It's true. You say, well Pastor Anderson, you're the most judgmental pastor that I've ever met.
Amen.
Hey, wait a minute. Who said that?
But hold on a second though. Hold on a minute. You're right. You're right. I mean I get up and breathe fire and snort and yell and kick and whatever.
And I get mad about sin and I breathe fire about it and I get fired up and I preach hard and I yell and scream and stuff.
But hold on a second. Everybody here who knows me, outside the pulpit, I'm the same outside the pulpit as I am. I don't put on some kind of a facade up here.
But haven't you seen me interact with people that are worldly, that are unsafe? Did I talk down to them?
No. You know, my wife has accused me of talking like someone from the ghetto sometimes when I go out-souling him.
You know what I mean? I mean I've become all things to all men.
Until the ghetto, I became his ghetto. You know, I'm just kidding of course, right?
But I'm just trying to say here, you ought to have patience and long suffering and not just go around trying to prove what you are.
Because let me tell you something, if you are truly a spiritual person, you don't have to go around trying to prove that to everyone.
And sometimes you get around people, listen to me now, whenever I get around people, I call them hyper-spiritual in their lingo, in their talk, in their attitude.
And they start calling so many people brother, I mean they're calling everybody brother.
Hey brother, how you doing? Praise the Lord, God bless you, hallelujah, how you doing?
And they can't even have a normal conversation. You know what I'm talking about? Who knows what I'm talking about?
Put up your head if you know what I'm talking about.
I mean people that just, they're so spiritual that just every other word is hallelujah, praise the Lord.
It's like they're putting on a big show, they're putting on a big sign.
Usually people that are like that, it's because they're not the real thing.
So they lay it on, they lay it on thick, don't they?
You know, people who just lay it on really thick, they have to prove to you how, you know, whatever they are.
You ought to just be a real person, and if you're really a spiritual person and a righteous person,
you won't have to go around proving that to everyone all the time.
Let people think what they're going to think about me.
You know, people may think, oh Pastor Harrison, you don't have that pastoral air about you.
You know, like literally, let me give you an example.
I get on the airplane, I'll talk to somebody, I'll give somebody the gospel, get them saved,
talk to them for two hours, and then when they find out I'm a pastor, they're surprised.
Really? You're a pastor? Wow.
Because I'm not talking down to them, I'm not acting like, well, I'm Father Anderson.
I am the Reverend, you know, the Reverend Stephen L. Anderson.
You know, sit down next to me, my child, in 25B, you know, and let me, you know, it's fine.
But I heard this great, there was this preacher, it was hilarious, I think it was Scott Gray.
This guy was preaching, or he was telling the story in his sermon about how he got on, it was an airplane,
and every once in a while, I don't know if you've ever been on a plane or a train like this,
every once in a while you'll be in one where you're facing other people.
You know what I'm talking about?
It's rare, but I've been on something like this where the seats are facing two different ways,
well, he's sitting next to one guy, and then across from him there's two other guys,
and one of them is a Catholic priest, okay?
So he pulls, and this is a true story, at least he told it was a true story.
Anyway, he pulls out his Bible, his patent, his preacher, and starts reading his Bible,
you know, as I often do on the plane, as a lot of people do.
He pulled out his Bible and started reading it, and the Catholic priest says to him,
excuse me, my son, you know, and he just ignored him.
So he says to him again, you know, excuse me, my son, and he just elbows the guy next to him,
hey, your dad's talking to you.
So then he reached out, Captain, no, I'm talking to you, you know, whatever else, the story.
I don't remember the rest of the story. That was the part that was funny.
But anyway, you know, what does that have to do with the sermon?
You know, wearing the long robes, what they do, just so that everybody knows,
whether it's in the airport, the restaurant, or whatever, you know,
Aum, Father, so and so, you know, the Amish are this way too.
Don't get mad, it's the truth.
You can dress modestly without wearing clothes from 150 years ago.
You know what I mean?
You can dress just as modestly.
You can be clothed from your neck to your ankles if you want to,
and cover every part of skin without looking like you're Amish,
without looking like you're from 150 years ago.
I mean, they have these really weird patterns on the, you know what I'm talking about,
just really weird colors, really weird patterns, really weird cut of clothing,
just for the purpose of standing out.
Just look at me, everybody.
You know, and you can have a mustache on that beard too, Mr. Amish.
You know what I mean?
If you can have a beard, have a mustache too, for crying out loud.
But anyway, all I'm trying to say is it's an attitude,
and again, I'm not just ripping on Amish people,
but I'm saying the Amish people that I've been around were very puffed up.
Oh, you know, you heathen or whatever.
You know, because I'm dressed like a normal person.
You know, and there's nothing wrong with the way I'm dressed.
It's masculine, it's right.
You know, there's nothing wrong with the way that my wife's dressed.
She's dressed feminine, she's dressed modestly,
but she doesn't look like a clown walking down the street.
You know what I mean?
And see, modesty, modesty, the word modest,
actually means that you're not trying to draw attention to yourself.
That's what modest means.
Modesty is humility.
And so if you're dressing in a way just to show everybody how godly you are,
you know, is that really modesty?
You should follow God's principles for clothing.
You should follow what the Bible says about clothing,
but without trying to make a show about it.
It's like when somebody whistles when the plate goes by.
No, I'm just kidding.
I hope you know I'm just teasing you about that.
You know, hey, over here, you know, da da da da da.
He knows something.
I can tell he has a sense of humor, so he knows I'm just kidding.
But the bottom line is, you know, humility is I'm not trying to draw attention to myself.
I'm not trying to lift myself up, okay?
This church is not about me.
You know, if I fell over dead, this church would keep on going.
Because it's not me, it's the Bible.
It's the preaching of God's word.
It's the doctrine.
It's the soul-winning.
I mean, this church would keep on going full speed ahead.
It's not about me, it's not about you.
It's bigger than all of us.
It's about Jesus, okay?
And so we ought to keep that in mind and be humble, long-suffering, meek.
You know, try to help other people.
And if you do ever have to correct someone,
it should be for the purpose of helping them, not tearing them down.
You know, it should be to take the mote out of their eye so that you can help them.
Not just because you like to stick your finger in their eye.
You know, you should be sticking your finger in their eye in order to remove the mote
once you've got the beam out of your own eye,
and you can see clearly to take the mote out of their eye.
It should be done out of love and concern for that person.
And you can tell when somebody's trying to tear you down
or whether they're actually trying to help you because they love you.
I've been rebuked before by people who love me and I'm thankful for it.
But let's keep going. He says here, forbearing one another, verse 13,
that means putting up with one another,
you know, not just being irritated by everybody all the time.
And there are some people in this church that are irritated.
But anyway, forbearing one another and forgiving one another,
if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And so therefore, to make a long story short, Jesus Christ is the example,
is what he's saying here.
If Christ is forgiving, we should be forgiving.
We should look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see how we should live as Christians.
Let's go to Romans, chapter 6, and we'll close with this.
Romans, chapter number 6.
Romans, chapter number 6 says this,
What shall we say then, shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Now, if we continue in sin, will grace abound? Absolutely.
Absolutely it will.
Because he said in verse 20 of chapter 5,
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound.
And so yes, if we continue in sin, we will not lose our salvation
because we have everlasting life, eternal life.
Jesus said, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
But should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Great, then I can just be forgiven of even more.
He said, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin,
for he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieeth no more,
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Here's the bottom line.
If you're saved and you've never been baptized, you need to get baptized right away.
And I'm talking about being baptized scripturally, dunked under water,
not this little sprinkling or whatever.
But to actually be baptized scripturally like Jesus was baptized,
went down in the water, came up out of the water,
because it's a picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And he says the first step to walking in newness of life is to be baptized.
He said baptism is a picture of basically the old Stephen Anderson has to die
in order for me to rise up and walk in newness of life,
to walk in the Spirit, to put on the new man.
You see, lust is what characterizes the old man.
Whether it be evil concupiscence, inordinate affection, uncleanness, fornication,
those things are all, covetousness, they're all driven by lust.
The new man is not trying to gratify the flesh and gratify his lust.
He's trying to help other people.
He's forbearing other people's needs.
He's kind to others.
He's humble, which means he is seems others better than himself.
He's long suffering toward others.
He's patient toward others.
He's forgiving toward others.
That's the difference.
Is it me, me, me, or is it others that matter most?
And when you're committing fornication, you're not thinking about others.
You know what I mean?
When you're lusting, you're not thinking of others.
When you're covetous, you're not thinking of others.
You're thinking about yourself.
And so that's why if you haven't been baptized,
I'm talking about getting baptized after you got saved.
If you got baptized before you got saved, you took a bath.
And I've taken many baths in my life, but that doesn't mean I was being baptized
because a baby doesn't believe on Jesus Christ.
A baby hasn't even made their choice one way or the other.
So a baby's been sprinkled or dipped or dunked or whatever, it doesn't matter.
It's not been properly baptized.
We should be baptized after we get saved
because that's the step toward walking in newness of life.
That's the first step.
If we've been, it says, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into debt
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life, a difference from before we were saved.
He says, knowing, I'm sorry, verse 5,
for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.
Some people have not been planted together in the likeness of his death.
They've not been baptized.
That's what that's referring to.
The likeness.
A likeness is an image or a picture or an illustration.
Baptism is an illustration of the dead girl and resurrection.
In other words, if we haven't been planted in the likeness of his death,
and if we haven't been raised up in the likeness of his resurrection,
he says, how are we going to walk in the likeness of his resurrection?
How are we going to live in the likeness of his resurrection?
You say baptism is not important.
I say it is important.
Because the Bible says if we've been planted in the likeness of his resurrection,
if we've been raised up,
he said then we can live in the likeness of his resurrection.
And your spiritual growth is going to be stunted if you're not baptized.
It's true.
Your spiritual growth is stunted because until you follow that first step of obedience,
it's difficult to take the second step and the third step and the fourth step.
And so you can downplay it and say, well, it doesn't matter.
And look, it's not part of salvation.
You'll go to heaven with or without baptism if you believe on Jesus Christ.
But your spiritual growth will be stunted.
You're going to have a hard time walking in the likeness of his resurrection
if you haven't been planted in baptism,
buried with him in baptism and raised up in the likeness of his resurrection.
It's not as when we baptize people.
What do we say when we baptize people?
We say buried in the likeness of his death and we dunk him under water
and we might say raised in the likeness of his resurrection
or raised again to walk in newness of life.
You know, we might say those type of things when we baptize someone
because we're trying to teach people and show people what baptism represents.
You don't have to be baptized to be saved,
but you do have to be baptized to be obedient and to walk as a Christian
and to walk in newness of life.
That's what the Bible teaches you in Romans 6.
So ask yourself this question on today, Easter Sunday, holiday,
when people do all manner of it.
Is anybody having like a ham dinner today?
Can I come over to your house?
You know, a ham dinner because the Bible says every creature of God is good
and women are supposed to keep silent in the church, by the way.
It's not permitted unto them to speak.
Part of the reason why is because false doctrine comes out of their mouth like right now
because the Bible says every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused
if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer.
If thou, Stephen L. Anderson, put them in remembrance of these things,
thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine.
Whereunto thou is to take?
But avoid clueless questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law
for they are unprofitable and vain.
You see, meat is good whether it's dog, cat, pig, cow, whatever.
I'm going to eat it. I'm a New Testament believer in Jesus Christ
and I'm not going to let somebody come in here and tell me not to eat ham in a Baptist church.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Now let me tell you something.
If somebody's having a ham dinner today, I love it. I want to come over.
In fact, I'm going to have pork in my burrito today because I'm not a Jew.
And by the way, my children aren't circumcised either.
And all God's people said?
Titus wasn't circumcised either.
And all God's people said?
Amen.
And people wanted Titus to be circumcised because they had crept in unawares,
bad people, he said, that were trying to get Titus to be circumcised.
And Paul said, Titus is going to be circumcised over my dead body.
He said, when I was young and foolish, I had Timothy circumcised to please the Judaizers.
And by the way, the Jews are antichrists.
The Bible says, he that denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.
And you're an antichrist if you don't believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.
The Jews today reject that.
I'm not going to follow their Jewish teachings.
I'm not going to follow their Jewish diet that God repealed in Colossians chapter 2,
Colossians chapter 3, Romans 14, 1 Timothy chapter 2.
I could go on and on. I don't even know why I'm talking about this.
But what I was trying to say is, you might be having a ham dinner, an Easter egg hunt,
whatever the case may be, whatever you do for this holiday, you know, is your business.
But let me tell you something.
What this holiday means to me, what I think of on a day like today,
is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Salvation through his resurrection. But I'm not just going to think of a historical fact.
Here's the point of the whole sermon.
I'm not just going to think of a fact that says, Jesus rose again.
And that's why I'm saved. Praise God.
That's the past application of today.
Because I've been saved. I love the D on the end of saved because it's done.
It's past tense. I'm saved.
I'm not being saved. I've done been saved.
And so I'm saved.
But I want to focus today on the present day application of the resurrection,
which is, hey, today, Jesus died with Barry Rose again 2,000 years ago,
but today, I'm going to die to self.
As Paul said, I die daily.
And I'm going to rise up today and walk in newness of life.
I want to live the resurrected Christian life today.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for our church, dear God.
And we thank you for salvation in Jesus Christ.
We thank you that the physical ordinances, the carnal ordinances,
the meats, drinks, divers washings were nailed to the cross with Jesus,
according to Hebrews 9 and 10.
We thank you so much, dear God, that we've been delivered from the physical ordinances.
We don't offer physical sacrifices.
We don't wash our hands before we eat in many cases.
Dear God, thank you for the New Testament in your blood.
And thank you for dying and being buried and rising again for our justification.
We love you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.