Man, the title of my sermon this evening is, Live Like You Are Saved.
Live like you are saved.
The Bible says in verse number 1,
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
You see, a lot of people have this attitude that if you're saved,
you're just automatically going to have this radically transformed life.
And if you don't have this radically transformed life,
well then it must mean that you're not saved.
You know, if you're not out doing all these works,
and just a totally different person.
But in reality, the truth is, we have to make the effort
to actually have that change after we get saved.
We have to put on the new man.
We have to put off the deeds of the flesh.
We have to walk in newness of life by denying self,
and taking up the cross, and following Christ.
That all takes effort.
You see, it's not automatic.
And if it were automatic, you wouldn't have all these passages
where the Apostle Paul is telling you,
Look, you need to do this.
He would just say, Oh, well it's just automatically going to happen.
Just as long as you believe in Christ, it's just going to happen.
And the reason why a lot of people love to emphasize
this radically changed life being automatic,
is because of the fact that sometimes they're
trying to smuggle works into salvation,
and kind of saying like, well, if you're not
doing all these works, and having
all these changes in your life, it means you're not saved,
because you have to believe, and you
have to have those things.
And it becomes like a subtle way, or a not so subtle way,
to sometimes associate works with salvation.
But I think another big reason why
people will sometimes emphasize that, even if they do believe
in salvation by grace through faith,
even if they're not trying to corrupt
the gospel with a workspace salvation,
is because of the fact that they're negative towards soul
winning.
They're down on soul winning.
So if we go out and preach the gospel
to a bunch of people, and some people
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and get saved,
they want to sort of poo-poo that work that
has been done for the Lord by saying,
well, I just don't think that those people actually
got saved, because they didn't have this radically changed
life.
But the reality is that the radically changed life
is not automatic, which is why
I'm preaching a sermon tonight saying,
live like you are saved, because this is not something
that every saved person is going to do.
Unfortunately, a lot of saved people
are living like they're not saved.
They're living like worldly people.
They're living like everyone else.
Instead of following Christ with their life.
I'm preaching to you the same thing
that Paul's preaching in the Colossians,
live like you are saved.
It's great that we're saved.
It's great that we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we need to allow that to transform our lives.
We need to put on the new man, that new creature that
was created in us when we believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ.
We need to walk in the spirit, walk in the new man,
take advantage of the transformative power
of salvation.
Now this chapter, Colossians chapter 3,
is a great chapter to sort of look at your own life
and look at the things here and ask yourself,
if you are living like a Christian,
are you living like you're saved,
or are you just living like everybody else,
or living like the unsaved?
And look, I've known people who got saved,
and their life didn't change at all.
But then like five years later, their life changed.
Or 10 years later, their life changed.
15 years later, their life changed.
And it's not that they got saved five years later.
It's not that they got saved 10 years, 15 years later.
No.
It's just that in that intervening time,
they were just walking in the flesh.
They just weren't putting forth the effort.
They weren't going to church.
They weren't reading their Bible.
They weren't praying.
And so they were feeding their flesh, but not their spirit.
And so of course, the flesh is going to dominate in that life.
But the Bible says, look, if you're risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above.
What does it mean to be risen with Christ?
It means to be saved, because of the fact
that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again.
And when we were unsaved, our spirit was dead.
And the moment we believed on Jesus Christ,
our spirit was resurrected.
Now someday, our body's going to be resurrected.
But this is already past tense, right?
It's already happened, risen, done.
If you be risen with Christ, right?
That already happened when you got saved.
That's talking about the spiritual resurrection,
the spiritual quickening that happened when we believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
We should go through our lives thinking about
and pondering things of eternal value.
We should be thinking about heaven.
We should be thinking about the word of God.
We should be thinking about Jesus Christ sitting
at the right hand of God, and not just going
through life obsessed with the pursuits of this world.
There should be a change in what our priorities are,
what we care about, what we think about,
because we should have affection, zeal,
for the things of God.
God wants us to do this.
He wants us to set our affection on things above,
not on things of others.
Not to just be obsessed with carnal things,
but rather to care about spiritual things.
I remember when I was growing up,
when my dad didn't approve of some friend of ours,
or he didn't approve of a potential boyfriend or someone
for one of his daughters.
This is what my dad, I can remember him saying
like yesterday, he'd say,
that guy doesn't have a spiritual bone in his body.
He would always just call people out
for just not caring about the things of God at all.
Even if they professed Christ, even if they came
to church, that was something he would say,
that guy doesn't have a spiritual bone in his body.
And what he meant by that was like,
I don't see any indication of this guy
giving a rip about the things of God.
Wouldn't it be sad if some parent somewhere said
about you young people, about you teenagers?
I don't think that girl has a spiritual bone in her body.
And you know what, we always repeat what our parents do,
so I'm sure I'm gonna say that
about somebody at some point.
Let it not be you, young people, children, teenagers.
You don't want somebody looking at you and saying,
well, it's funny, I've never seen any indication
of this guy caring about the things of God.
You know, I love my parents.
I'm thankful for the Christian upbringing that I have.
And you know, one thing I could say about my parents
is I never one time doubted that my parents
cared about the things of God.
Like, I knew that they always cared about Christianity.
They always cared about church.
I never felt like, oh, they don't really care.
It's not important to them.
Folks, we should set our affection on the things above,
set our affection on spiritual things.
Let it never be said about us
that we don't have a spiritual bone in our body
because we just never talk about the things of God,
never think about the things of God,
and are just living a carnal life.
He says in verse three, 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 your members which are upon the earth,
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry.
So the idea here is that we're saved,
we have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we've got the new creature,
the spirit that has been resurrected, the new man.
Then we've also got the old man.
But here's the thing about the old man
is that the old man is really just
someone who's not gonna last forever
because he's eventually got to be out of the picture.
He's got to die, right?
So this fleshly carnal Steven Anderson
is just not permanent, right?
This is just, that part of me
might as well already be dead.
It's sort of like someone who's on death row
is kind of just a dead man walking
because their death is so inevitable
that you can almost already think of them
as being dead already.
So the old Steven Anderson doesn't really matter
because his death is so inevitable
that he might as well already be dead.
The only Steven Anderson that really matters
is the new Steven Anderson,
the regenerate Steven Anderson,
the saved Steven Anderson,
the new man, the spiritual,
the inward man, Steven Anderson.
That's the one that matters.
And so what the Bible is saying is,
you're dead, your life is hid with Christ and God,
so mortify your members which are upon the earth.
Mortify means render dead or treat as dead, okay?
Think about like a mortician
is someone who deals with dead people, right?
You know, make, dresses them up
for the funeral or something,
but you know, fixes their hair and things.
We need to reckon the flesh as dead
instead of catering to the flesh
and coddling the flesh and walking in the flesh
and investing in our flesh,
we need to just realize that the flesh doesn't matter
because the flesh is dead already.
And it's really the spiritual man, the new man,
it's our life in Christ that really matters,
which is why we should mortify our members,
members means body parts.
You think of someone being dismembered,
maybe it'll help you understand that definition.
Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth,
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry.
These are things that are part and parcel
of the human condition.
We as human beings, naturally our flesh,
the unregenerate man, the old man
is naturally inclined to commit fornication, right?
It's not that those of us who are saved Christians
and remain pure until we're married,
it's not that we didn't have the inclination
to commit fornication,
it's not that that desire wasn't there
or that inclination wasn't there,
it is that we mortified it.
It's that we said,
hey, we're not gonna give into that temptation,
we are going to mortify that aspect of our personality,
that part of our personality, our flesh, who we are,
that desires those kinds of illicit relationships
with the opposite gender, right?
That wants to commit fornication,
that wants to have sex before you're married,
just to use blunt terms,
that's what we're talking about with fornication.
That part of us had to be rendered as dead,
it had to be reckoned as dead,
we had to squelch that evil concupiscence, right?
That inordinate affection, that desire for uncleanness.
And also covetousness, which is idolatry, right?
Now, literal idolatry has to do
with making little statues and bowing down to them, right?
Or making big statues and bowing down to them.
That is what idolatry literally refers to.
So why does the Bible say covetousness is idolatry?
Because these little statues that people worship
when they commit literal idolatry
are a replacement for God.
And what the Bible is saying is that if you love money,
if you're obsessed with money,
or if you covet other things,
like coveting your neighbor's wife,
or coveting your neighbor's house, or his car,
or his ox, or his ass, or whatever,
if you end up coveting those things,
then what you end up doing is having something else
in your life that takes the supreme position
instead of God.
So instead of God being number one, money is number one.
Instead of God being number one,
you whoring around is number one.
You being an adulterer is number one.
You getting into that house or getting into that car
takes precedence over everything
and it becomes a replacement for God.
You see, the Bible says no man can serve two masters,
for either he will love the one and hate the other,
or else he will hold the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon, right?
Mammon being the God of money.
You can't serve God and mammon.
Mammon becomes a replacement for God.
And that's what it means
when it says covetousness is idolatry.
This is the way people are.
People have human nature that drives them
to commit fornication, adultery, to be covetous,
to always want more, to be super greedy.
I preached a sermon on the camping trip this week.
I was out in Georgia with Pastor Burz's church
and I preached a sermon called
the inherent greediness of man.
And boy, is that true that human beings,
even myself included when it comes to my flesh,
are just inherently greedy.
And here's the thing about that.
A lot of these things are literally
genetically encoded in our DNA.
I mean, a lot of our behavior
is taught to us by our parents or society,
but you'd be shocked how much behavior
is literally encoded in your DNA.
You see, when human beings are born into this world,
they're not just this blank slate.
They pop out of the womb
and they already know how to breastfeed.
Nobody has to teach them how to do that sucking motion.
Right?
And I mean, they're good at it.
Like they're better at it than an older child would be.
I mean, they are just like a machine.
They're better than the breast pump.
They're better than the machine.
Seriously.
I mean, the little birdie's born.
It knows how to fly.
It knows how to eat and do all these things.
The baby might seem pretty helpless,
but yet it still has some behavior
right from the beginning that's already encoded.
But then as it gets older,
other encoded behaviors start to come out
and start to manifest themselves.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes
you'll have kids that act like a relative
that they've never met?
You know what I'm talking about?
They've never been around a certain grandparent,
but then they just start acting like that grandparent.
You say like, what is that?
It's because a lot of our behavior,
a surprising amount of our behavior,
is controlled by our DNA.
It is literally encoded in our genes.
And a lot of our behaviors
are not something that we were taught
or something that we thought about doing,
but it's just something that we just naturally did
because of our genes.
Now, does this mean that people
who come from a family with a lot of bad habits
and a lot of bad attributes,
is that person doomed to follow in their footsteps?
No, because the Holy Spirit and the new creature
actually allow us to transcend the flesh
and be someone totally different
than who we would be just based on our flesh.
Look, we know a lot about science in 2024.
I mean, science has gotten really advanced
and there are a lot more things that we know
than most generations have known.
And so we understand a lot about DNA,
but even without understanding
all the intricacies of genes and human behavior and DNA
and the fact that our behavior's controlled by genes
in so many ways, even without that,
we have the Bible telling us,
hey, the flesh has these inclinations to do these things.
But then if you think about that
from a science perspective,
it jives with the idea
that a lot of these behaviors are built in.
Like for example, they say,
oh, the desire for you to go out and fornicate
is because you're trying to spread your genes,
you're trying to spread your,
but it doesn't matter why.
What matters is that we transcend
those bad attributes of our flesh
and actually be a better person
by living like we're saved,
living like we're risen with Christ,
living according to the new man.
So yeah, our flesh wants to commit fornication.
Our flesh is obsessed with money,
is inherently greedy, can never get enough.
And maybe there are even biological reasons
or biological bases for some of these wrong behaviors,
but we need to transcend those things
through the power of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
And it says in verse six,
for which things sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience, right?
Why is God angry with the wicked every day?
Why will the unsaved spend eternity in hell?
Because of the horrible sins that they commit.
That's what the Bible says here.
That's what the Bible says in the book of Revelation.
But it says in verse seven in which,
in the which he also walked some time
when ye lived in them,
but now ye also put off all these.
Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth.
Look, these are things that are human nature to do,
right?
Human nature is to get angry.
People get angry all the time over the stupidest things.
It's not just one person who's just a really angry guy.
It's kind of human nature in general.
We as Christians need to live like we're saved.
And part of living like we're saved,
it's not just abstaining from fornication
and not being obsessed with money.
You know what else it is?
It's also controlling anger.
Don't go through life an angry person.
Don't be that guy at work who's angry on Monday,
angry on Tuesday, angry on Wednesday.
Hey, have a good attitude.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Walk in the new man.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace.
So put off the anger, put off the wrath,
put off the malice, blasphemy, right?
Why are so many people so blasphemous?
Why do so many comedians get up
and make fun of the Lord, make fun of Jesus Christ,
make fun of the Bible?
Because this is part of the sinful human nature of man.
But we need to live like we're saved
and be reverent toward God.
Somebody posted a stupid comic the other day on Facebook
and it showed a picture of an Islamic whatever,
I don't know, mullah or whatever they're called.
And he said, don't drink any alcohol.
And then it showed a picture of some Jewish rabbi saying,
well, drink alcohol, but just don't drink too much.
That's what the Jewish rabbi was saying.
And then it showed a picture of Jesus.
And when I say a picture of Jesus,
I'm putting that in quotes because of the fact
that there's no such thing as a picture of Jesus.
It's a picture of some random long-haired hippie
that people think is Jesus
with these red glowing eyes and it said,
my blood is literally wine.
You know, so like one religion's telling you not to drink,
one religion's telling you to drink in moderation,
which isn't true because Orthodox Judaism
literally prescribes drunkenness on Purim,
but that's another sermon
that shall be preached at another time.
And then, oh, this religion says this about,
and then Jesus is just like, my blood's literally wine.
It was posted by one of these Protestants
that are just, you know, they just love to drink.
I remember we used to have a reformed,
we used to have friends in our neighborhood
that went to the reformed church
and we literally called it the beer church
when we were growing up.
We're like, oh yeah, they go to the beer church.
That's what me and all my friends called it
because they just are constantly drinking beer
because you know Protestants just love to drink.
Catholics love to drink too.
Baptists don't.
Baptists are teetotalers in general.
Obviously there are Baptists who drink,
but the vast majority of Baptists don't drink.
And here's the thing about that is that,
so this is what I commented.
I said, this is blasphemous.
This is blasphemous because Christ did not say
that his blood is literally an alcoholic beverage.
There's nothing like that in the Bible.
There's nothing even close to that in the Bible.
The closest thing that you could come to this
is that Jesus Christ at the Last Supper
drank the fruit of the vine.
Can somebody please show me where it says wine?
Can somebody please show me where it says wine
at the Last Supper?
Oh, you Baptist, you know, you don't even use real wine.
Ha ha ha ha.
You guys drink grape juice?
Please show me in the Bible
where the word wine is ever even used
about the Last Supper or the Lord's Supper
or Communion or anything like that.
I would love to see it because the Bible actually says
that Jesus drank of the fruit of the vine.
So how is the fruit of the vine
somehow just automatically an alcoholic beverage?
I don't know.
But according to these people,
I guess the Lord Jesus Christ's blood
is just coursing with alcohol.
Isn't that so funny?
Isn't that hilarious?
It's funny because when I told you guys that,
no one laughed.
You know why you didn't laugh?
Because it isn't funny, because it's stupid.
It's stupid.
And you know what?
Blasphemous jokes are never funny.
You know, they're funny to, I guess, people who just,
you know, are, I don't know what's wrong with them.
But I don't see why it's funny to make fun of Jesus,
to make fun of Christ,
to talk about Christ as promoting booze
or promoting alcohol.
It's stupid.
It's foolish.
And so then the guy responds to me.
He says, well, in what way is this blasphemous?
And you know what I answered?
I didn't, because the Bible says,
answer not a fool according to his folly.
Anyone who posts something like that,
and then they're told, dude, this is blasphemous,
they should at that point do a little self-check here,
look at it and say, yeah, I guess this is blasphemous.
A picture, an idolatrous picture of a long-haired Jesus
saying that his blood is,
my blood's literally an alcoholic beverage.
Ha ha, that's why I'm superior to Islam and Judaism.
That's the kind of junk that's out there in this world,
my friend.
It's kind of stupid stuff that people do,
even in the name of Christianity,
let alone secular people out there.
They're just blasphemous people
and just constantly using Jesus as a curse word.
Why?
Right, there's a whole cornucopia of cursing out there,
you know?
If there's not enough American cursing for people,
maybe they could, I don't know,
explore some British curse words,
or explore some Australian curse words,
or resurrect some curse words from the past.
Why are you using Jesus as a curse word?
It's blasphemy!
Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain!
Do not, and you know what else blasphemy is?
It's when you're dragging the Lord Jesus Christ
down into the dirt and bringing him down
to the level of a human or an animal or something.
And obviously I understand the humanity of Christ,
but just dragging him down like he's just one
of the boys or something and not understanding.
Yeah, Jesus Christ is the son of man,
but he's also the son of God.
He's also the Lord of glory.
He's also the creator of the universe.
Have some respect!
Do not be blasphemous!
You know what, I don't think that jokes
that make light of the Lord Jesus Christ are funny.
You know, we need to be really careful with our humor.
If it comes to Jesus and we're joking around
and making Jesus into a clown or something,
Jesus is not a clown.
Don't treat him like a clown.
Take him seriously, have some respect.
Should not make fun of anything
about Christ or the gospel.
You know, we gotta be careful.
And look, I like humor.
I'm not against humor.
I like to joke around.
Anybody who knows me knows that I love to joke around
and have a good time.
You know, my whole family's kinda like that.
But man, Jesus is not supposed to be
the butt of our jokes.
That's blasphemy.
It's disrespectful.
Should honor the Lord, let his name be hallowed.
And then the next thing, filthy communication.
You know, and isn't there that tendency also
for people to tell dirty jokes?
You know, stand-up comedy,
the vast majority of it is inappropriate, right?
I mean, how often can you really just turn on
a worldly stand-up comedian and expect it to be clean?
Virtually never, I mean, unless it's advertised
like this is clean comedy, this is a Christian comedian,
then it's virtually never gonna be clean, right?
You know, and I don't really necessarily know the names
of popular comedians that put out stand-up comedy.
But you know, when I was a kid, I guess I'm thinking
of like, what, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Carrot Top.
You know, I mean, who are the comedians
that are out there now?
George Carlin, and here's the thing about George Carlin.
Blasphemous.
Here's the thing about George Carlin.
Super filthy, like all kinds of sexual references,
perverted references, am I right?
Am I blaspheming George Carlin right now,
or am I telling the truth?
Who else?
Jerry Seinfeld.
Is Bob Saget inappropriate?
I thought he was just the funniest home movies.
So he's got some adult type comedy or whatever?
Dirty comedy, I didn't even know that.
Well, thank goodness, I didn't see that side of him.
Good.
Who else?
I don't know who that is.
Yeah, I mean, but look, I guarantee,
and here's what's funny.
Here's what's funny.
A lot of these guys, they probably have
a little sanitized persona like Bob Saget or whatever,
like, hey, let's look at this dog
fall in the pool or something,
or let's look at this wedding go wrong,
America's Funniest Home Videos.
But then what happens is, but typically when you go
to an actual comedy club or the standup comedy show,
it is like 99% just sexual bathroom humor,
dirty jokes, just blasphemy, just adultery, sodomy.
It's just everything weird because this is why,
because it's the easiest way to get a laugh
is just with shock value, right?
Just kind of shock you and just the super irreverent,
super disrespectful, super filthy, dirty humor and so forth.
That's what the Bible's talking about,
what it says, filthy communication, right?
You know, filthy communication is the dirty jokes
talking about things that should be kept in the bedroom,
that should be kept within a marriage, right?
We are not to talk about those things
outside of that context and get all graphic in detail
about the action that takes place between a man
and a woman who are married, right?
And just go into all this graphic detail.
Even if you're married, you're not supposed to talk
about that stuff outside of your marriage.
You keep that between you and your wife.
You keep that between you and your husband.
You don't go around talking about that
and exchanging stories or talking about, you know,
that's filthy communication.
And if you wanna know what filthy communication is,
just all those names that we just listed
of all these standup comedians,
that's pretty much the definition of filthy communication.
If you're not sure what filthy communication is,
don't do this.
But if you're not sure what filthy communication is,
just turn on a standup comic and just watch them
and then you'll know what filthy communication is.
It's all the dirty jokes and all the smut
and all the blasphemy in these comedians' mouths.
Then the Bible moves, and look,
we're supposed to be different.
Live like you're saved, right?
That means that when you tell a joke,
it better be clean.
Now here's the thing, it's harder to be funny
without appealing to blasphemy and filthy communication.
That's why all these comedians do it,
because it's just an easy laugh.
Ha, ha, ha.
Just say something filthy, it's just an easy laugh.
Well, you know what?
You should never have fun by talking about dirty things.
And if you don't know how to be clean about your humor,
then just don't have humor then,
because we need to live like we're saved,
we need to abstain from blasphemy,
we need to abstain from filthy communication.
Keep it clean.
And you know, when somebody wants to tell me a joke,
depending on who it's coming from,
I often have to ask them, hey, is this gonna be clean?
Because if it's not gonna be clean,
I don't wanna hear it.
Live like you're saved.
Have clean humor, clean conversations,
and treat the Lord with reverence.
Don't be blasphemous.
Because he, oh man, you know, it's no big deal,
we love Christ, we're saved,
but we're just gonna make fun of him a little bit.
You know, now man, be respectful.
And the last thing you should ever yell out
when you hurt yourself is just, you know,
crying out like blankety blank,
and then using the Lord's name.
It's blasphemy.
Look at verse number nine.
It says, lie not one to another,
seeing that you 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.
So look, he started out at the beginning of the chapter
by saying, you know, look, if you're risen with Christ,
then here's the imperative,
mortify your members upon the earth.
Put off the old man, put on the new man.
Then later in the chapter, he's saying,
well, seeing that you have put off the old man,
like I told you to several verses ago,
well then, don't lie to each other, right?
If you're walking in the Spirit,
here's a little self-check.
You gotta be telling the truth.
Lie not one to another, put on the new man.
You've put off the old man with his deeds.
You've 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, verse 11,
circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,
but Christ is all and in all.
Here's another little natural proclivity
that human beings have.
Besides fornication, covetousness, idolatry,
blasphemy, wrath, anger, malice,
filthy communication, lying, right?
Here's another little proclivity that people have.
They tend to be really proud
and arrogant about their nationality.
And they can get really racist
and really malicious toward people
or look down at people, be prideful
about being whatever, you know,
they're white or they're Italian
or they're Spanish or they're Latino pride
or, you know, whatever they are, right?
Black power or whatever, you know?
Or, you know, I'm sure, you know,
Chinese are probably, you know,
racist against Japanese and vice versa.
I don't know, you know, maybe I'm wrong about that,
but I have a feeling that that's the case.
Why?
Why do I think that?
Because it's human nature to be tribal.
But you know, the Bible says
that when it comes to having the renewed mind
and putting on the new man, guess what?
There is neither Greek nor Jew.
There's not this thing of,
oh, we're better because we're Greek.
We're better because we're Jews.
No, man, we are all one in Christ Jesus.
If you put on the new man,
the new man doesn't care whether anyone's a barbarian
or a Scythian because Christ is all
and Christ is in all.
Therefore, we have more fellowship,
more camaraderie with a person of another race
who's in Christ than a person of our own race
who's not in Christ, right?
So I'm a white person, but I'm not like,
oh man, I gotta stick with these other whites.
No, no, I'm gonna stick with the Christians.
I don't care what color they are.
I have more in common with a Christian Black man
than an atheistic white man.
You know, or an Islamic white person.
And you say, are white people Islamic?
You know, there are places in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia where there are white people
in large numbers that are Islamic.
Well, guess what?
I'm not gonna have anything in common with those people.
It's like, well, you know, we're all white, amen.
No, we're not because if you're Muslim,
I'm not part, I don't wanna be in your group.
I don't wanna be unequally yoked together
with a bunch of unbelievers.
I would rather yoke up with God's people,
red, yellow, black, and white.
Who cares?
Why?
Because Christ is all in it all.
But I'm telling you, this is human nature.
Let me tell you something.
Parents can raise their kids not to be racist
and teach them against that,
or even just not even bring it up to them.
And you know what, kids,
they just grow up and they're just racist anyway.
Even if you just teach them not to be racist.
Why?
Because it is human nature.
You're never, folks, you're never gonna get rid of racism.
It's just never gonna go away.
And I'll tell you why.
Because it is human nature.
That's why the Bible's talking about it.
That's why you see it everywhere.
It's not like, oh, you know,
people taught their kid to be, no, no.
You have to teach your kids not to be racist.
And even then, that doesn't even necessarily mean
that they're not gonna be racist
because it's human nature.
Just like we teach our kids not to lie,
does that mean they're never gonna lie?
No, because it's human nature to lie.
What is this chapter teaching?
This chapter is teaching
that if you don't mortify your flesh,
if you don't put off the old man,
if you don't put on the new man,
you know what you're gonna do?
You're gonna have a tendency to do what?
Commit fornication.
To be an idolater or covetous.
You're gonna have that tendency to get blasphemous,
have filthy communication come out of your mouth.
You are going to have a tendency
to be all thinking about how Greek you are
or Jewish you are or Scythian you are
because it's human nature.
Well, guess what?
I got a better word for it, sinful nature.
Here's a word for the human nature, sin nature.
Put off that old man.
Put on the new man
because the new man is renewed in the spirit of his mind
and to him, there is no Greek or Jew to him.
And by the way, a lot of people in our movement
just hate Jews.
But guess what?
You're misinterpreting scripture
and you're misinterpreting the preaching of God's word
that comes across these pulpits if you hate Jews
because we should love Jews and want them to be saved.
Just because we acknowledge the wickedness of this world
and the synagogue of Satan
and the things that the Bible talks about,
that does not mean that we hate Jews
or that we think that the unsaved Jew
is necessarily any different than the unsaved Muslim
or the unsaved Mormon or the unsaved Roman Catholic
or the unsaved Buddhist or the unsaved Hindu, right?
I mean, they're just, they're lost people
and they need to be saved.
And no, Jews are not all reprobates.
And no, the majority of Jews aren't all reprobates.
I don't believe that.
I think that they're some of the most
unreceptive people in the world, but guess what?
Hindus are some of the most unreceptive people do.
Does that mean they're all reprobates?
No, they're just unreceptive, okay?
Certain groups of people are more receptive than others.
But even though they're unreceptive,
we've had Jews get saved at our church.
I've won Jews to Christ out soul winning before.
We've had Jews come to our church
and get saved and baptized and they're no longer Jews.
You know, why?
Because they're not reprobates, okay?
And by the way, you know, Orthodox Judaism
is a very small minority of Jews, by the way.
And the ones with the weird outfits,
like the black outfit,
that's a really small percentage.
That's Hasidic Jews and it's not a majority at all.
And by the way, did you know that, you know,
you see all these Israeli soldiers
and you hear about all these Israeli soldiers
that are in conflict with the Palestinians
and all these different things.
You know, those are not Orthodox Jews
because Orthodox Jews are exempt
from serving in the military in Israel.
So those people aren't just sitting around
reading the Talmud, you know,
where it says that Jesus is in hell
burning an excrement or something
because he's like Balaam or Doeg the Edomite or something.
Okay, you know, how many Jews
are necessarily really fixated on that one point?
You know, we need to follow the teaching
of Colossians chapter three, verse 11
and not be negative toward groups
just based on their ethnicity
or super territorial or tribal about our own ethnicity.
And we need to see the world the way that God sees it
where Christ is all and in all
and that's all that matters.
You know, there's a great dividing line
between human beings, saved and unsaved.
That's the, it's not race, it's not nationality,
it's not ethnicity, it is religion
that is the dividing line in this world
and that's the way God looks at it
and that's the way that we should look at it.
And you know what?
I think that there's even a genetic component to racism
and you know, people might not like me to saying this
but you know, I'm convinced of it and I'll tell you why
because if you study animals, you know what you'll find?
Animals are more likely to help out other animals
that are the same color that they are.
You wanna know why?
Because there's a genetic advantage
to helping out their relatives
because they share a lot of DNA with those relatives
and so they are constantly helping out like animals
because animal sees another animal that looks like it,
it helps it out.
Sees an animal that doesn't look like it,
it doesn't help it out
because it's probably not a relative
and it wants to perpetuate its family's bloodline.
Obviously, animals aren't having this conscious thought
but obviously, this is the way genetics work.
This is the way natural selection works
and so there is a component of this
that is probably even just ingrained in our biology
but you know what, I'm not an animal.
So some animal, the black dog,
doesn't wanna help the yellow dog,
you know what, I don't care because I'm not a dog
and you know what, even if there is a genetic component
to people having just this inherent racism
which I think there probably is a genetic component to it
there's also genes that are telling you
to go out and sleep around.
Your genes are also telling you to eat too much food.
Right?
How many people would say,
well, obesity runs in my family.
Well, it's just that no one runs in your family
but the thing is, no, but it's true,
it's true that obesity runs in the family
because genes control our behavior
and some people do have a tendency
to be an alcoholic genetically,
a tendency to be a glutton genetically,
a tendency to be racist genetically,
a tendency to be a fornicator genetically.
Hey, just listen to your body
and you know what you're gonna end up doing?
Fornication, adultery, gluttony, drunkenness, racism.
If you're just listening to your,
no, listen to the Bible.
Listen to the word of God.
Transcend the sinful flesh.
Don't just listen to your body
and just, you know, it's just nature.
Well, you know what, get a new nature in Christ
and then put on that new man
and that's the answer to the problems
that we face today in our world,
is getting people saved
and then saved Christians walking in spirit.
Look what the Bible says in verse number 12.
Put on therefore as the elect of God,
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.
He's saying, look, I've talked about
all the negative things you should not be doing
if you're gonna live like you're saved.
Here are some positive things
that you should be doing as a saved person.
You should be characterized by mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, right?
Being nice to people, being kind, being helpful,
helping out your fellow man,
not just living your life in a selfish, malicious way,
but rather doing good unto other people
and not doing all these,
because here's the thing,
all these sinful things that we've talked about
that you shouldn't be doing, they're harmful.
They're harmful to yourself and others.
Well, conversely, you need to be kind to others,
love other people, be humble,
don't be all puffed up in pride
because you're so cool.
You know, it always cracks me up
when people are so proud of their ethnicity
because they didn't really do anything like,
like, wow, your ancestors did cool stuff,
but what have you achieved?
You know, you have like some just unemployed dude
telling you about the glory of his ancestors
and it's just like, what?
Because I don't think they'd be very proud
of you right now.
You know, you got some white supremacist
living in his mom's basement or something online,
not out there doing anything, achieving anything,
earning a living or, you know, it's just like,
dude, wow, your ancestors were so cool,
then why do you suck?
What's your excuse?
Because if your ancestors are that cool,
it seems like you'd be cool.
What a dumb thing to be proud of.
You know, first of all, pride is sinful.
We don't need to go around being proud about anything,
but could you at least have the decency
to be proud of your own achievements,
not the achievements of your race?
Hey, look at all the stuff white people invented.
You didn't invent any of that stuff
and if we put you on a desert island,
you couldn't recreate any of it.
You wouldn't be able to create a radio and phone home.
You know, it's like, and by the way,
you know, different nationalities throughout the world
have had various achievements at different times.
You know, to sit there and just attribute,
oh, everything comes from America,
or everything, all the good stuff is from Europe
or Japan or something.
No, because if you study history long enough,
you'll find that pretty much everybody
has made contributions along the way.
But either way, let's say certain nationalities
made more contributions than other.
You know, that's really nothing for you to be proud of
who hasn't invented jack squat.
And I'll be the first to tell you,
I haven't invented anything.
Yeah, America, I didn't do any of that stuff.
I didn't cross the Delaware with George Washington.
I wasn't at Valley Forge.
You know, I didn't invent anything.
Why would you be proud of your ethnicity?
Maybe because you're a loser.
So you have to find some source of pride
so you have to find it in other people.
You know, let's not boast.
You know what the Bible says?
Don't boast in another man's labor.
And you know what else the Bible says?
Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord, right?
You want to be proud of something,
be proud to be part of Christ,
to be part of Christianity.
That's something to get excited about.
But it says humbleness of mind,
not that kind of arrogant pride
that we talked about there with your Jew pride,
Greek pride, barbarian pride, Scythian pride.
Forbearing one another, verse 13,
and forgiving one another,
if any man have a quarrel against any,
even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things, put on charity,
which is the bond of perfectness.
Look, I don't care how right with God you are.
If you're not a loving person,
if you don't have charity, then you're nothing,
according to 1 Corinthians chapter 13,
because the Bible demands us to love and have charity,
and literally says,
though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity, profited me nothing.
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned,
if I have not charity, I am nothing.
And so the Bible says, above all these things,
put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness,
and let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to the which also you were called in one body,
and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And look, this is the verse right here,
verse 17, this is the key verse right here.
Because what are we talking about?
We're talking about living like you're saved.
Live like you are saved.
If you're risen with Christ, then live like it.
Whatsoever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
You know what that tells me?
That tells me that being saved and being a Christian,
those things should actually permeate
every part of our life.
So it's not just something that we do on Sunday.
When we go to work, we take that mentality with us.
We take that Christian mentality with us.
When we go home and spend time with our spouse
and our children or with our parents
or with our siblings, right?
This Christian mentality comes with us everywhere.
Because whatever we do, we do it in the name of Jesus.
Therefore, Christ affects every area of our lives.
We work a little differently than we would
if we weren't saved.
We talk differently than if we weren't saved.
We have relationships differently than if we weren't saved.
We look at money differently.
We look at race differently.
We look at everything differently.
Say, hey, keep religion out of politics.
Keep religion out of, you know, but for the Christian,
it's hard to not let our Christian worldview
permeate every part of our lives
because that's what God said it should do
is that everything we do,
we end up doing it in the name of Jesus.
And consequently, we end up doing it heartily
as unto the Lord.
Look at verse 23.
Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord
and not unto men.
See how this is affecting every part of our lives.
We live like we're saved on Monday.
We live like we're saved on Tuesday.
We live like we're saved on Wednesday.
Why?
We do things from the heart
like we're doing it to the Lord.
We're doing it in the name of Jesus.
And that's our secular job.
That's our studies.
That's our relationships.
That's our bank account.
Just everything we do
has this sort of Christian influence baked in.
Look what the Bible says in verse 18.
Wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands
as it is fit in the Lord.
You say, well, that's not the way our society is.
Well, of course it isn't.
Society is unregenerate.
They're not risen with Christ.
If you be risen with Christ,
you submit to your husband.
If you be risen with Christ, husbands, love your wives.
If you be risen with Christ, husbands,
don't be bitter against them.
If you're risen with Christ, children, obey your parents.
Well, you know,
my friends treat their parents a certain way.
Are they risen with Christ?
Are they saved?
Well, they're not saved.
Well, there you go, that explains it.
Well, no, my friends are saved
and they still disrespect their parents.
Well, you know what?
They need to start living like they're saved
because it's not automatic that you live like you're saved.
You have to deny self.
You have to mortify your members upon this earth.
You must put off the old man and his deeds
and put on the new man.
Fathers, if you be risen with Christ, what does he say?
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger
lest they be discouraged, right?
Don't be a jerk as a parent.
Don't be a jerk as a father.
Don't be a jerk as a mother.
Why?
Because you're a Christian.
Be loving, be good, be kind, be righteous.
Live like you're saved.
Be the best parent you can be.
Be the best wife you can be.
Be the best husband you can be.
Live as Christ's servants.
Obey in all things your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God, right?
You're saved.
Be the best worker on the job.
Let your Christianity shine through every area of your life
where you're a great worker because you love Christ.
Say, well, I don't see what that has to do with my job
because I do a really menial job.
I have a totally secular job.
You know what?
I don't care if you are a pastor of a church
or a missionary or a deacon
or you're in full-time Christian service.
You know what?
There are not two classifications of Christians,
clergy and laity.
At the end of the day, we are all Christians.
We all should let our Christianity
influence the way that we work.
I don't think that a full-time Christian servant
is better than a person with a secular job at all.
You know, I remember in the old IFB,
there would be these altar calls
where young people would surrender their lives
to full-time Christian servants.
I remember talking to young ladies in the old IFB
that would say, well, I've already decided,
I've already made the decision,
I've already dedicated the fact
that I will only marry a full-time Christian servant.
That's ridiculous because you know what?
You don't just pick a person to marry
based on what their job's gonna be, right?
You should pick the person that you wanna marry
and if God wants that person at full-time service, great.
If he doesn't want that person at full-time service,
great, but you know what?
There are a lot of people in full-time Christian service
that are gonna get a lot less rewards than lay people
because the layman that's out doing great works for God
is gonna get rewarded for his great works for God.
And the guy who's in full-time Christian service
that isn't that zealous,
well, it's not like, oh, oh, oh,
at the judgment seat of Christ,
well, you know, full-time Christian servants,
you get in this line over here
and then lay people, you get in this line over here.
There's one line, okay?
And here's the thing,
what does that even mean full-time Christian service?
Because you know what?
If you're out there mowing lawns heartily unto the Lord,
I say you're in full-time Christian service.
You're serving Christ all day long
because when you go out and unclog toilets
and you do it as unto the Lord,
you're in full-time Christian service.
I don't care what, when you're programming computers
and you're doing it heartily as unto the Lord,
I say you're in full-time Christian service.
So that girl needs to marry you, you know,
if that's what she wants to do.
What a silly thing.
I'm only gonna marry a guy
who's in full-time Christian service.
First of all, you shouldn't make those kind of vows anyway
because vows are stupid, right?
It's better just to not even to make a vow.
You know, these odes about what your life is gonna be like.
You don't know what your life is gonna be like.
You know, you're gonna get desperate enough,
you're gonna marry some guy
and he ain't going into full-time Christian service.
What kind of nonsense is that?
Like somehow you're, you know what?
To me, you know why that bothers me so much?
Because it does bother me.
I'm bothered by it.
Let me tell you why it bothers me.
Because it implies that like a guy
who's not going into full-time Christian service,
like he's not as spiritual or something.
He's not as godly or something.
Like look folks, we can't all be pastors.
We can't just be all chiefs and no Indians.
That's not God's plan.
There are a lot of great godly men and women
that are wonderful, righteous, Christian people
serving God from the time that they wake up in the morning
to the time they go to bed at night
and they're never gonna be in the ministry.
Because only a few people are in the ministry, right?
Everybody's got their place in God's plan.
And some guy who has a secular job
is not a second-class Christian.
He's first-class if he's doing it heartily
under the Lord.
And I don't like this attitude that somehow says,
oh well, if you have a secular job,
then well, you know, you're just not on the same level.
Like it's some kind of like a stair-step level
of Christian growth and like, you know,
you grow to these different levels
and then like the next logical step
is like full-time Christian service.
And if you don't go to Bible college,
you know, if you don't go into full-time
Christian service, you know,
like your spiritual growth like got stuck somewhere
or stalled.
I mean, does everybody see what I'm saying?
Because it's kind of like, okay, you get saved,
you get baptized, you start reading your Bible,
you're praying, you're going to church,
you get into soul-winning,
you start waiting to people Christ
and then it's like, okay, next step is like
full-time Christian service and you didn't get there.
You stalled.
That's ridiculous because not everyone is cut out
to be in the ministry full-time.
In fact, the vast majority of people are not cut out.
So it's not like, oh, I'm in the ministry full-time,
that means I'm a black belt.
You're stuck at a purple belt or something.
You didn't get that last stripe on your belt
or whatever.
It's wrong.
It's a wrong mentality.
It's not taught in scripture.
The Bible glorifies the layman who is serving God
with all his heart, even just in his secular duties,
even just in his carpentry or electrical work
or plumbing or driving a truck or whatever it is you do,
driving a forklift, whatever it is you do,
working that machine, working that computer,
whatever it is you do, you're serving God
depending on your attitude.
And then there are all kinds of full-time
Christian service that are just dead weight
and they're not even doing much for Christ anyway.
They're like a drain on the spiritual system.
Oh, but they're in full-time Christian service.
Yes, my daughter will marry you gladly
because you're getting a paycheck.
It doesn't make you a great Christian
and being a plumber doesn't make you a bad Christian.
Being a carpenter doesn't make you
a bad Christian at all.
Whatever you do, you do it heartily as unto the Lord,
not unto men, knowing that of the Lord
ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance
for you serve the Lord Christ.
Don't ever let anybody tell you
that you're not serving Christ
when you are out there doing your secular job
with all your heart and being a good Christian testimony
to the people around you,
to the people you work with and to your customers.
You're shining the light of Christ by doing a great work,
by doing a good job, by being a good testimony.
And even if nobody sees you,
well, if nobody even sees me,
how can I be a good testimony?
You know what, God sees you and God loves it.
To see you down here working your butt off
and saying, you know what, I'm doing this for you, God,
because I'm going to be the best
that I can be for your glory.
But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong
which he hath done.
And there's no respect of persons.
You know, the clergyman doesn't get a pass
because he's clergy, right?
The leaders and public servants,
they don't get a pass because they have some office
or, you know, people who have a lot of money
or donate a lot of money, they don't get a pass.
There's no respect of persons with God.
You know, we all need to be living like we're saved.
Every single one of us needs to put on that new man
and it's not automatic, my friend.
You know, the lordship salvationists
and all the people out there that want to talk about
how soul winning doesn't work and all this nonsense,
you know what, they're wrong
because people get saved all the time
and they live like they're not saved.
They just do.
And look, sometimes I wonder like are these people
even like living in the same planet that I'm living on?
Because I mean, I've been, look,
I've been a Christian my whole life.
I got saved as a six year old boy.
I've been in church my whole life.
I've been a Christian my whole life.
I've been around Christianity my whole life.
I mean, and for most of my life,
I've been pretty into it.
You know, it is my life.
And you know what, I can't even count
how many times I've seen people that I know are saved
as much as you can know anyone's saved
just living like they're not saved.
I mean, it's just like thousands of people all the time.
And in fact, it's rare when God's people
are actually doing everything they're supposed to be doing.
And even I myself am not always doing all the things
I'm supposed to be doing.
You're not doing all the things
you're supposed to be doing.
What are these people talking about?
Oh, well, these people are really sick.
You know, but they just have like this little checklist
like, well, if they're saved,
then they just like go to church
and they don't get super drunk.
And you know, they're like married at least
to one wife at a time and you know, whatever.
Like they have this little minimal checklist.
But if you look at the Bible's checklist,
like it's pretty comprehensive.
I mean, the Bible's checklist is pretty comprehensive.
It's like, you're not even an angry person.
You've put off anger, wrath, malice.
You're not telling dirty jokes.
You're not blasphemous.
You're not lying.
You're not fornicating.
You're not unclean.
You're not, you know, being all proud and racist
and all these, you know, look, it's a whole chapter.
And by the way, you're not just staying married
or marrying one person at a time.
I mean, it says, you're submitting to your husband.
You're loving your wife.
You're not bitter against your wife.
You're obeying your parents.
You're being good to your children
and bringing them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
I mean, look, if you go through the whole
Colossians chapter three, I guarantee you,
every single one of us is gonna find something
on that list and say, I'm struggling with this.
I mean, if we had an assignment where we all took a pen
and said, okay, everybody circle the couple things
on this list that you have the hardest time with.
I know where I'd go and circle some stuff.
You're like, oh, I wouldn't circle anything.
Well, then I'll tell you what you need to circle,
the humbleness of mind part.
I'll circle it for you.
Bring me your Bible.
I'll circle it for you right now.
But I guarantee you that all of us, if we're honest,
would have no issues circling multiple things
in this chapter and saying,
this is what I need to work on.
So then riddle me this.
We're saved, and not only are we saved,
we kind of represent not,
this isn't like the general population of Christianity
in this room tonight.
This isn't just like the average Christian
in the average church.
This is an elite force.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, but seriously, like obviously this church
is a little more serious about the things of God
than the average church.
Is that fair to say?
Is it fair to say,
somebody who goes to Faith Board Baptist Church
is probably not lackadaisical
about the things of God on average,
and that in general, our church probably statistically,
in general, has people that are pretty dedicated,
pretty serious about serving God,
and yet we can all find things on this list
that are not just automatically happening in our lives
that we need to work on.
So if we have to work on these things,
don't you think it's safe to say that everybody does?
If I do, and you do, and he does, and she does,
yeah, we all do,
because guess what, it's not automatic,
because guess what, that's a stupid doctrine.
If it's automatic, this would be a really short chapter.
It would just be like, hey, it's cool you guys are saved.
Isn't it cool that you automatically do the right things?
And then it's just like chapter four.
Right?
Instead of being like, man, get this junk out of your life,
do this, don't do that, change this, fix this,
and look, how many other epistles of Paul
are saying the same thing?
Fix this, fix this, fix this, fix this.
Why don't they just say, get saved?
And it'll all be fixed, because it's not automatic.
And you know what that means?
And look, we all know that doctrine.
If I were to walk around this room
and just like in conversation after church,
everybody in this room virtually would be like,
just like, oh man, people are so wrong
when they try to add works to salvation
or when they try to claim that everybody who saves
is gonna do all these things automatically.
We all get the doctrine.
I would say the vast majority of people in this room
are really solid on that.
Okay, well then, if that's the case,
then now let's take what we understand,
let's put it into practice and say,
hey, therefore, because it's not automatic,
I'm gonna make the effort to put on the new man.
I'm gonna walk in the spirit.
I'm gonna mortify these deeds.
I'm gonna circle some things, maybe not physically,
cause you don't want somebody to find your Bible
and be like, whoa, what are you into?
You know, you don't want, you know,
now I know what you're messed up with, you know,
but circling them mentally saying,
hey, this is what I need to work on.
Spare our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
We thank you so much for the Holy Spirit.
We thank you so much for the new man
that you've created within us, the new creature,
the new Steven Anderson,
the new whatever person's name, Lord.
Please help us to take advantage
of that gift of salvation that you've given us,
not just as our ticket to heaven, but also, Lord,
the overcoming power that we can have right now
to live a godly life.
And Lord, I pray that every single person
who's here would mortify the deeds of the flesh
and would put on the new man and live like they're saved.
And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen.
Amen.