We can put off our old identity. Idolatry is rooted in worship. Our flesh demands attention. Anger and malice and evil speech can go. We can look to the Cross and see our freedom. (Colossians 3:8-15)

Speaker(s): Justin Schaller
Sermon 12984
Date: 2025-08-31
Time: Sun 6:30 pm

 

P. Justin Schaller –

I love that. There he is. I wish I heard that every day when I woke up. There he is! Hey, you want to stand
up and just greet your neighbor? Just say hello. Give him a blessing.
All right. Let’s just open up with prayer. There he is. Let’s just hope we can see Christ tonight in
his Word. Amen. Revive me. Just think when that song was being sung, I was thinking all the
times that the Lord’s revived me. Wow. I mean how many times? Countless, countless times.
Countless times sitting in this chapel. Bible college class with a friend. Listening to the Word on
the way to work. The Lord revives us, doesn’t he? Wow. Restore unto me the joy of my
salvation. How many times has the Lord done that in your life?

Let’s just thank him right now as a church because Christ is the head. Christ is the head and he
has fed us. He has revived us. He has sustained us. And we have joy tonight. And it’s not
because of us. It’s because Christ has just shepherded his sheep all through the decades. Day
after day, he goes, There he is! And I go, Me? He goes, Yeah. You. You’re my sheep and I’m
going to restore you. (Prayer).

So, last week we spoke Colossians chapter 3. We talked about discernment and we talked
about it from the perspective of discerning our own flesh. We know that we have the enemies
that are the world, the devil and then also the flesh. And the flesh is the enemy that is residing
in us day by day.

And I want to just continue on with a few of those verses in Colossians chapter 3. So, if you
want to turn there, we’ll look at vs. 8, vs. 9, vs. 10. I want to get to the good part. I want to just
edify you tonight. But the Lord’s been teaching me just going through this chapter just about
discernment and how I can so easily be tripped up. Like the author of Hebrews said lay aside
the things that can easily trip you up.

And we know that the flesh that’s inside of us is very deceptive. And the Lord wants us to know
that there is a better way for us and to lay aside the old garments of the flesh and put on the
new garments.

I told the church this morning just a little story. When I was growing up, I had a job where just a
buddy and myself had a job parking cars. And you know when you pull into an event and it’s a
large parking lot and you’re always looking for the man in the orange vest and the man in the
orange vest is going to direct you to park in a certain location, but everyone else had a vest, but
I didn’t have a vest. And I was just some skinny teenage kid trying to point cars in the right
direction.

But the funny thing was no one actually took my direction because I didn’t have the right
uniform to be able to have the authority to point people in the right direction. And we know

that uniforms, if you’re a police officer, your uniform means a lot. If you’re a military soldier,
your uniform is going to dictate how people see you. And the outer garments are really a true
reflection of the position that the person has. If it’s a doctor, I don’t want to go into a doctor’s
office and I’m going to get a, you know, a checkup and he rolls in with cut off jean shorts and a
t-shirt thinking, who is this guy? I remember seeing a teacher one time outside of school
wearing normal clothes, and I didn’t know how to respond. My teacher’s wearing sweat pants
right now. The outer garments reflect the position that people have.

And this is what Paul is going to tell us in Colossians 3 that your outer garments that you had before
you were a believer are a reflection of the characteristics of how you lived your life. And in the
early church, when someone became a believer in Christ and they were baptized, they had a
little ceremony that they would do where they would take their old clothes and get rid of them
and they would be presented with new garments. And that was a representation of Colossians
chapter 3, that they took off the old garments of the old man and they were replaced with a
new set of garments.

And Paul starts off this chapter in Colossians 3 in vs. 1 where he gives this theological statement that
you’ve been raised with Christ. If you were raised with Christ, Romans 6, you died with Christ.
That means that your flesh, your old you, everything that was your identity is completely gone.
You are now, he says, seated in heaven with Christ.

So, he says for you to understand that your old identity, your old garments, they are gone away
with Christ and for the first time you now have a liberty to no longer be attached to them. But
now you have these new garments and you need to learn what they are.
And he says to set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth
because your old identity is attached to earthly things. You died and your life is hid with Christ.
So, the question is, how do I set my mind on these heavenly things? How do I set my mind on
knowing what my true identity is so that I can operate in the position of having these outer
garments being shown to the world?

Well, we covered verse 5 last week and Paul says that you need to put to death the members
which are upon the earth. So, you can see that you no longer in verse 2, you’re not setting your
mind – verse 2, the second part – on the things that are upon the earth.

So, he says in verse 5 put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth. So, your
outer garments he is saying is your identity, which was represented in your character how you
lived your life. And we said last week that he gives this list. Just follow this with me and then
we’ll get to vs. 8.

He gives this list where he says fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire, covetousness,
which is idolatry. We said last week that Paul starts off with the sin that is on the inside, which
is fornication. But we know that sin on the outside is not the issue. You got to get to the root.
And Jesus wasn’t here just so that he could take away the disease on the outside, but he
wanted to take it down to the base level of the root. Just like Jesus says, if you look upon a
woman and lust after her, you already committed adultery in your heart. It’s not the outward
action. It all starts in the heart.

So, the outward action is fornication, but like we said last week, it is really stemming from
idolatry. And idolatry is that the self is not worshipping the true and living God and being
submitted to this law and his standard, but rather the self is the one who is its own god and is
living according to is own standard.

And we know that the flesh wants what it wants. And that’s why Paul says that the flesh or if
you’re living in idolatry, worshipping your own self, you will eventually come to the place of
greed, which is you’re taking something that does not belong to you. So, that’s the first list he
gives in vs. 5.

The second list is in vs. 8. And that’s what I want to look at and then get to the good part. But I
think this is good for us to understand because it’s refreshing for us to understand to have
discernment of what this fleshly nature that we’re still bearing with and is still in our mortal
bodies. That this flesh is just our humanness that has not yet been redeemed. And this flesh is
always leaning toward selfishness, rebellion, which is ultimately what God calls sin.

And our spiritual growth is based upon our understanding of what the flesh is and how to
recognize the tendencies so that every single day we can live at the cross and bring our flesh to
the cross because the only way that the flesh can be dealt with not with human wisdom or
knowledge or trying to better itself but rather recognizing what God says about it which is it’s
been placed on the cross.

So, our nature that we have in us is this nature that is always looking to deceive us, to get what
it wants and seek out its own ambition. So, Paul gives us that list which is our verse five which is
our own sin personally. But in vs. 8, now he’s going to talk about the sins of the mouth. And I
find this extremely important for us and interesting.

So, let’s look at vs. 8. But now do you also put them all away? And he starts off now with anger.
And then you can see the last part of verse 8 is speaking out of the mouth. So in vs. 5, he starts
off with the outward and works backwards to the inner. In vs. 8, he starts with the inner and he
works outwards to the mouth.

The first one is anger. Now, this is a fascinating thing because as you see the progression of this,
you’re going to realize that anger is really the root cause of slander, evil speaking, and lying. So,
this section is talking about your speech.

Let’s look at the first one. Anger. And just follow this with me. In the Greek, the word “anger” is
a deep, smoldering, resenting bitterness. Now remember, he’s speaking to Christians and he’s
speaking to me. In my flesh, I have a bitterness, a resentful anger that is brewing. It’s not
necessarily just angry, being angry with people or situations but it’s an anger that is just a result
of sin. We’ve inherited that from Adam. And this anger that we have is underlying all of our
selfish speak or speech. And it’s rooted in our pride and it’s rooted in our self-exaltation.

This section in vs. 8 is connected to vs. 5. Remember vs. 5 ends off that your flesh is serving
itself. It’s idolatry. And at the core of idolatry is that it’s exalting itself above where it should be,
and it wants to be seen and worshipped. Remember, idolatry is always rooted in worship. So, if
the flesh wants to be worshipped it needs other people to worship it.

This is what James says in James 4:1. It also is vengeful. It’s seeking its own justice. Romans 12:19,
“beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather don’t give place unto wrath.” The anger of the flesh
also is Ephesians 4:26. Meaning that people can have anger because of expectations that weren’t
met. Injustices. Anger can come from jealousy and envy. Anger can come from an unforgiving
spirit. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 13 where he says prevent sinful anger and bitterness to take
root. It also can be a lack of self-control. But ultimately anger is rooted in my anger towards
God.

People can have anger about many different things in life and they can find the war that they
can best fit their anger with. But ultimately, our anger is an anger that is against God. My flesh
still has hostility towards God. People might not know that it’s anger towards God. It’s anger
about that issue or that issue. But you have to remember that anger will find some way to be
able to express itself and it’s towards other people. So the first word is anger.

The next one is the word “wrath.” This word is THUMOS, which is a boiling agitation. It’s a
wrath that is a fire, but it could be set ablaze. It’s a wrath that can turn into resentment. And
that resentment will use people as the problem. But again, ultimately that wrath is towards
God.

We don’t understand maybe why we’re so agitated or what we’re even angry about. And that
anger, if it’s not resolved, will turn into bitterness. And the Bible clearly tells us that that
bitterness will turn into a deep, persistent rootlike anger that will never find any justice or any
satisfaction.

This little story. I read a book just about Che Guevara. Maybe some of you know him. The guy
with the little funny hat and he was a revolutionary and he hooked up with Fidel Castro. He’s an
Argentine and he was a communist from an early age. And he just was an angry individual as a
youth and he had no real war to start. So, he just started traveling around different Latin
American countries just trying to find a revolution. And he ended up in Central America. And he
ran into a guy by the name of Fidel Castro. And it wasn’t as though that he wanted to liberate
Cuba. It wasn’t as though that he had any kind of sympathy in one sense toward Fidel Castro
but it was a war that he was ready to wage.

Our anger is always looking for some sort of objective to place itself towards so that it can pour
out its wrath. Hebrews 12:15 says, “Look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many may be defiled.” Interesting thing
about anger is that you are not the victim. Other people are always the victim. But we have to
understand that this bitterness is something that is deep. It’s lingering. It’s a feeling of
resentment or hurt that develops into this anger or offense.

And the Bible warns us again and again, if you live there, it will devour you and it will devour
others. It’s a serious thing, isn’t it? James says our little tongue can say blessings, but it can also
set a fire very quickly. My flesh can do that.

Next word is “malice.” Vs. 8 and this is just something that comes out of the mouth. You have
the anger and then you have this resentment and bitterness and then all of a sudden it sets a
flame and now you have this word. Malice is something that’s coming out of the mouth.
Sometimes you have so much animosity or anger you can’t control your mouth. Next thing you
know that anger is taking control of your lips and out of your mouth starts to come what he
says in vs. 8 which is slander.

What comes out of the mouth is blasphemy. Slander. Now, this is an interesting word as well
because when we slander a person, we have to understand that we’re not just slandering the
person. We’re slandering God. Because that person is created in the image of God. And just like
the devil can’t get up in the face of God right now, who does he come at? He comes at us. He
comes at us not because we’re so important but rather we are representing Christ and
representing God. Therefore, he is going to accuse the brethren day and night.

And what does he accuse them of? But he blasphemes and slanders. This word “blaspheme” is
something that the word in the Greek is blasphemy against people and against God. When I
slander, I slander a person, but I am really slandering God because the root of it is my anger
towards God.

True evil slander is really just the intention to harm someone. Really in the Greek, it’s to harm
their reputation. And it is always coming out of the mouth in a sense that we have concern and we’re telling people because we’re concerned about it. But ultimately is rooted that we want to
harm the person. This is a poor thing. Follow this with me. I’ll just give you two examples.
But in the Bible, we have a plethora of different examples that we can use of people slandering.
But the interesting thing about slandering another person is that the move that you’re doing it
is always hidden. Sometimes you could hear people and they’re speaking and the question
shouldn’t be how can we resolve it. The question should be what are you angry about?

In Daniel 6, do you remember the rulers? They wanted to try to find some sort of fault with
Daniel, but they couldn’t find anything. So, they accuse him of what? Of praying to God. So they
had to find something to try to accuse him. And they framed Daniel. And they were seeming as
though that they were doing it for the right reason. But we know what their true reason was.
What was it?

Jealousy. They had political motivation to do it. They were coming to the king and saying, We’re
trying to do this because you are the king and this guy’s praying to another god. But what was
their true motive? Their true motive was jealousy and envy and malice. Slander is always
disguised as concern for the law or for justice. But it’s actually rooted in hostility and anger.
The Pharisees did the same thing when they came across Christ and they said, This man is
blaspheming. He’s speaking heresies and Jesus always challenged them and said where is the
heresy? They didn’t care about finding the heresy because there wasn’t any but they tried to
use their position and saying we’re trying to keep the law pure and we’re trying to keep Israel
pure and you are blaspheming.

But what was their deep motive? Power and jealousy. It’s always interesting when someone
has an issue with somebody else. It’s usually not the issue. It’s something much lower than that.
The Jews, they had this jealousy and they had pride and they tried to discredit Christ and it was
not over their genuine concern of the truth.

The flesh will always cover its true motives and it will fool us and we can say we’re doing it for
the right reason. But really, we have to check ourselves and we say before I go and open my
mouth, am I pure before God in my motives? Because Paul is saying to the church in Colossae
do not use your bitterness or your hated and think it is right because it’s going to affect other
people. Sin always affects other people.

And then the last one he says is filthy communication which is just low in obscene speech.
Actually the last one is verse 9. Let’s read it. I think this is – I saw this this afternoon and I think
this is so fitting. Just follow this with me and then we’re going to get to the good part. Just stay
with me.

Vs. 8-9. Why does he end off this section where he’s talking about anger and then malice and
then obscene speaking and slander and then he ends it off with lying? Because Jesus said that
the father of all lies is Satan. And the truth will always take a backseat to your true agenda even
if you don’t know what it is.

And we will say and we will do whatever we need if we are operating in the flesh, because we
are idolaters in the flesh and we want people to worship us. It’s self-worship. And what do lies
do? Lies protect the truth of me wanting to be at the center. Lies always do it. What are lies?
Lies are just something that covers up who I truly am.

And this is the amazing thing is that Paul’s writing this not to condemn him, but he’s saying,
Guys, you no longer have to live there anymore. You no longer have to live operating in the
flesh as the motive of being in your day-to-day life. Because we know in Genesis chapter 3 with
Adam and Eve, when they sinned, what was the first thing they did? They lied.
But lying always pushes you away from your relationship with God. Your own flesh will pull you
away from a deeper, personal relationship with Christ because it doesn’t want to submit to
Christ. Like C. S. Lewis said, If you want to know if your proud, just realize when you see pride in
other people. He uses this amazing illustration and picture.

He says, When you’re at a party and you’re in the corner and you see someone else who’s
getting all the attention and you whisper over to your buddy, that guy is so full of himself.
That’s a great indicator that you’re the one that wants to be at the center because pride is
competitive in its nature. If there are no people, there is no pride. But since there are people,
myself, my flesh wants to compete against other people and it will slander them. But it’s really
just showing that I want to be the one where they are.

It’s just like in the workplace with the co-worker who belittles other people’s success. What are
they really, truly trying to hide? They’re trying to hide their own insecurity. The insecure person
who’s jealous of someone else who gets promoted and they tear them down and their
achievements, what are they really doing? They’re trying to hide their own shame and
insecurity.

The person who points out other people’s flaws, those are the people that are insecure and
shamed in themselves, but they don’t say that. They just point to other people so they don’t
have to point to themselves. The flesh is always trying to deflect what it truly is and it puts it on
others. And the problem isn’t others. The problem starts with me.

You know, the gossiping friend who comes around and starts talking about the mistakes and
the appearance and the personal life of other people. It’s just that they have insecurities, shame, guilt, and they don’t want to be found out. So, they take the anger that they feel
towards themselves and what do they do? They put it on other people.
And Jesus is saying, You no longer have to operate that way. You no longer have to live in your
shame and your guilt and your fear of being exposed. Come to me and be fully exposed and I
will relieve you from having to live your life that way any longer.

Because guess what? It’s not that much fun. Being around people that are talking about other
people and me doing the same is not that much fun. It relieves a level of anger and pressure
that’s internal, but it comes back. It seems sweet when it goes down, but I vomit it back up later
on. The flesh is that way.

Have you had anger and then you come in and you put it on other people? It does release the
pressure value for a second, but guess what? It breaks up the family. Sin is something that in
the moment there is a pleasure but the end result is death. The act of judging and gossiping and
slandering is just to protect my own ego because I am naked and I am afraid of being exposed.
So, the short term fix is immediate, but the long-term result is devastation. Adam and Eve, what
do they do? They blame shift. Jacob, what does he do? His motivation, self-interest and deceit.
Peter doesn’t want to be recognized to be a disciple of Christ. What is he operating out of?
Fear. What does he do? What comes out of his mouth? Cursing. What comes out of the mouth
results in where I’m living in my command center. Am I living in my flesh or am I living in the
new life? You guys know that.

Let’s get to the good part. Well, how do I get out of it? And this is a very important thing for us
to know. And I’ve been, I was thinking about this last night. If I have a problem with another
person, the first way I’m going to know that I actually care about restoring that person is if I go
to that person alone. If I open my mouth about another person without talking to that person
yet, that shows where I’m operating from. And the person’s not the problem. I’m the problem.
What does Jesus say? I love this little teaching. Before you go to your brother, take out the
speck from his eye. First observe, observe the plank that’s coming out of your own eye. This is
an amazing thing because for us we can all operate in anger. We can all operate in a place that
we are in the center of self-worship. And that self-worship never brings any kind of life.

It just produces more smoldering and anger and animosity. Almost as though that doesn’t everybody
know how great I am? I’m in this church and no one even pays any attention to me. Do you
know what I could bring? Why isn’t anyone paying attention to me? Right? Can we, have you
felt that? I’ve felt that.

You know what that does? Guess what comes out of it? Anger. Guess what comes from anger?
Evil speech. What comes from that? Slander. What’s slander. Let me go around and tell everybody or maybe just a few close people what the real problem is. Let me tell them. But it’s
never about me wanting to be at the center. It’s all about me wanting to help. Because if I could
come in and help, then we could resolve all the problems.

But you know, the devil deceived a third of the angels. That’s right. Think about this. He came in
and told them, This God you’re serving and we’re serving, you know what? He doesn’t have
your best interest. So, the self which is really rooted in sin and evil and pride and the devil has
the same, will use other people as its own tool to get what it wants. It doesn’t care about other
people. It only cares about itself but it will masquerade itself as being some sort of person that
is trying to help everybody. It’s deceptive.

And we have to be very careful. I have to be careful. We all have to be careful to realize and I
was thinking about this, too. This is off subject. If I’m not submitted to anyone but myself, I’m in
a dangerous place. Because if I’m not submitted under the Word and I’m not submitted to
anybody and I think I can rule myself, my flesh is going to take over and use other people and
I’ll justify it in my own eyes like I’m doing something for everybody.

But let’s get down to the root of it. The root of it is that you want to be at the center and you
want people to see you and you’ll use people to get what you need, which is worship. That
comes off hard, but it’s true. That’s what the Bible teaches us.
And the Bible teaches us and Paul is saying, You are a terrible god. You don’t have to live that
anyway. You live now serving not your flesh, but you’re now serving the true and living God.
Now look at what Paul says. I know that was a little harsh, but you guys with me? It’s true. I’m
just saying it because it’s true that the flesh – we got these guys are fired up right here. I don’t
know about the rest of you guys, but just follow this with me. We’re going to get to the good
part, okay? It’s the truth. I mean, the Lord – my flesh is so deceitful. We all are. And P. Bob
preached a couple years ago and he says, your flesh never changes. Doesn’t matter if you’re
following Christ for 40 years, your flesh is still deceptive.

And you know what deception means? Deception means you don’t know you’re being
deceived. So, if I’m not submitted and there’s no one saying things that are coming to my flesh,
I will never know. That’s why we preach this way because this is what the Bible says and this is
what Paul is saying. There’s a better way.

So, what does he say? Jesus, what do you say to us? So we no longer have to live according to
our flesh. What is it? He says take off the old. Look at vs. 9. You can’t, you can’t have a
relationship with Christ if you’re living in a lie. You just can’t. You can’t. You can’t have a
relationship if you’re hiding something behind your back. And you might not even know what
that thing is. But the Word of God will come in and the Spirit of God will lead you into all truth and you’ll realize, Oh, I’m angry because my flesh wants to be worshipped and no one’s
following that plan.

My flesh thinks it’s a great plan, but no one’s following it. Therefore, I’m angry. He says, Take it
off. It’s a waste of time. Because why? Vs. 10. Put on the new man, meaning the old clothes,
the dirty garments of the characteristics of vs. 5 and vs. 8. Take them off. You no longer have to
live there. Who likes wearing the dirty sweatpants when you got the beautiful tuxedo? I don’t
even like tuxedos, but the beautiful garments. Put on the new garments.

It’s so much more fun. It’s free. It’s peace. It’s liberty. Galatians 5, you are set free. You have liberty
in Christ to no longer have to serve your flesh. The flesh is deceptive. It breaks things down and
it never brings what you are looking for, which is to be fully transparent before the Lord and
Christ says now we can get down to business. You no longer serve yourself. You serve me and
I’m a much better God and I’ll teach you.

And look at what he says in vs. 10. Put on the new man. This is sanctification. How is the new
man renewed? Like we just heard. He’s renewed unto knowledge. Now, a whole other subject.
We could spend a lot of time in that. Renewed in knowledge. Jesus said, How are you going to
be sanctified? You’re only sanctified by the truth. What is truth?

Truth is, Justin, you’re an idolater. No, I’m not. I love people. You love people when they’re
serving you. You love people when you get what you want. You love people from a human
aspect. I’m going to teach you a deeper, deeper love. And you know what that deeper love is?
While you were an idolater, and you were going around slandering and blaspheming and you
were angry with people, but really you were angry with me. That’s the truth.

You were angry with me but look at me now. I’m on a cross and I’m hanging on the cross and
there’s not a word of slander that I’m saying towards you. Romans 8. There is no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. I mean, I could be in my flesh 2 years, 5 years, 10 years,
slandering, dividing, division. This whole thing that could happen and it just rips people apart.
And there is Christ and he’s saying to me, will you just listen to me? I’m not going to condemn
you. That’s your flesh. Your flesh is on the cross. It’s dead.

But can you agree with me that you cannot hear me, follow me, be used by me if you’re still
operating in your own bitterness and anger? But just look at me on the cross. There’s
something better. I mean, thank God this world is so messed up. People are so angry. People
are so filled with themselves. People will never be satisfied with anything in the sense of what
they are trying to fight for. They will never be satisfied. Thank God there’s something better
that Christ is on the cross and he’s not condemning us. But rather, he is saying you are forgiven.
You are forgiven. There is grace for you. That’s what I want to be around. I’m sick of my flesh. I
am just sick of it.

That’s why Paul says in Romans 7 there is an inner man that delights in the things of God. Oh,
man, if I could stay there. But then there’s other little creep and it’s living in my body and when
I get cut off on 695, I get angry. You know why? Because I’m not in control. You know, you’re in
the grocery store. I remember I was in a grocery store with my kids and we didn’t realize but we
kind of cut the line. Maybe we did, but we cut the line. This woman, she was so angry. Oh, they
broke the rules. She got out of the grocery store 15 seconds later than she would have and it
ruined her day. Do you know why? She’s not in control. My flesh wants to be in control.

God says, You’re an ant. You’re not in control of anything. How about the church? Oh, if I was in
control, I could clean this whole thing up. Oh really? I think it took the Son of God to die on a
cross to clean things up. And he didn’t come in and slander. He didn’t come in with filthy
communication. He didn’t come in with the works of the flesh. But he came and he became a
lamb and he served and he put himself on a cross so that you could be free from your flesh.
And Paul says, listen. Don’t go back to the old garments. You have new garments. You got new
ones. And look at what he says in vs. 10. He says, put on the new. And it’s being renewed.
We’re learning. Lord, you’re so gracious to us. We’re learning. Is being renewed unto
knowledge after the image of him that created him.

But look at vs. 12. Well, why should we put on these new garments? I kind of like my old
garments. I like living in my flesh. I got the right to live in my flesh. Look at vs. 12. Look at this
one. Are you God’s elect? Has he chosen you so that you would be in Romans chapter 8 the
same image as Christ? It’s not as though our sanctification is like, Oh, I want to be sanctified,
become more like Christ and live a good life. It’s that before time began, he chose that you
would be the elect so you would put on the same attitudes and garments of Jesus Christ and
reflect them in this world. That’s a serious thing. It’s not some light thing.

He says, You are God’s elect. You are holy and you’re beloved. Now, here are your new
garments. Put on compassion. Put on kindness. Put on lowliness and meekness and
longsuffering. Forbearing one another and look at what he says. Forgiving each other. Doesn’t
that sound a lot better? Oh no, pastor. You don’t know the problems that we got going on.
Forgiving is not going to work. Forgiving is the only thing that’s getting us into eternity. I think it
could work in your relationships. I think there’s a better way.

No, we got to go. We got to try to figure things out. I think God figured it out. It’s called the new
man. And I don’t want to make light. There are problems and situations. But let me just say
this. Galatians chapter 6, if I truly want Spirit filled want to restore a brother, I consider myself
first. Jesus says before you go and give your offering, go and forgive your brother. Before you
go and critique, let me get on the internet and just start pounding away of what I think.

Before I do that, I better take the huge 4X4 beam in my own eye. My flesh has to be crucified.
He gives me the way. That’s always an indicator to me. Am I doing that first? And then he says,
When you go to the cross and you consider yourself first and you say, Lord, is there any evil in
me? He goes, yeah, don’t go to your brother. Your brother’s not the problem. You’re the
problem. I go, No, Lord. I want to restore my brother. And he goes, Yes, he’s offended you. Yes,
you should come to me. Make sure you have a clean conscience and a pure conscience and be
Spirit filled.

And guess what happens when I go to the cross? This is amazing thing. My flesh is angry and I
see right and wrong. Right and wrong. They did this. They did that. Let me go correct it. When I
go to the cross, I go like this. The Son of God died for me. He died for me. He has compassion
for me. Guess what happens? I’m broken. Gal. 6. Now, there’s humility that’s set in. Now when
I go to my brother, what am I going to go with? I’m going with humility because I’ve been
crushed by what Christ has done for me.

And if my brother doesn’t hear me, then I bring two and then I bring it to the church. But is it
not the flesh who is organizing and dictating and judging based upon my own self-worship.
That’s what it is. I’m convinced of it because that’s what the Bible says.

This is liberty and freedom. How about if I have jealousy and anger and greed? Oh, that belongs
to me. I go over here and I look at Christ and I see the wrath of God being poured out on him
and I realize that wrath should be on me. That wrath should send me straight to hell. If I really
truly know who I am and I see the wrath of God being poured out on Christ, what wrath do I
have to give?

I see the wrath of God being – I deserve this, God. The lot and live you gave me. And I see the
wrath and he took away eternal torment and punishment. And I say, Lord, I’m just thankful for
anything that you’ve given me because you’ve given me the best already. You’ve given me the
best. This is not something that we learn early in our life. This is something that we live with.
Paul says daily I go to the cross and I die because when I wake up like we just heard, I go, there
he is! And I go out in the world and I’m operating in the flesh. Just like Samson had power for
years and years and years and then it took a woman to put his head in her lap and she just
rocked that baby to sleep and he woke up and his head was shaved and he woke up and shook
himself and thought everything was the same as it’s always been. The only difference was the
Spirit wasn’t there.

I’m saying this because this is our liberty and our freedom. Let’s just end with this. He says,
You’re God’s elect. You’re chosen. Can you lay aside your grievances and your bitterness?
That’s your old clothing. Look at what he says. When you come to the cross, you see the heart.

Look at the list that he gives us. This is amazing. These are all the characteristics of Christ, of
what he’s shown me.
I look at the cross. I see his compassion. You know, like when someone’s kind to you,
sometimes it catches you off guard. You see Christ hanging there. What is he giving you?
Kindness. And then I see his lowliness, his humility, Lord, you should condemn me. He goes, The
condemnation’s already over. It’s finished, baby. It’s over. I humble myself so I could shows you
kindness.

And then I look at him. I see meekness. I see his longsuffering. I mean, he’s got to be
longsuffering. I mean, is he longsuffering? Oh my gosh. Does he forbear? Does he forgive? And
if you do have a complaint, and you will have a complaint because life is hard. He says in vs. 13,
you will have a complaint. But before you start going out and speaking malice and slander, just
think about this. The Lord forgave you, and do you? If the greatest could forgive, couldn’t the
least forgive?

And then he says in vs. 14, “And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of
perfectness.” And then says, look at this. This is a result of the new clothing. In closing, look at –
I’d rather be in this group. I want to be in this party. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.
Oh, it’s clean. Oh, we’re with Spirit filled believers. None of us deserve anything. We’re all here
by grace and we’re all just feasting on Christ. Guess what’s there? Peace.

When I’m in that party and everyone has their (noise), guess who gets to the top? The alpha.
And we’re all crushed under it. My flesh is angry after that. People that get together because of
anger usually break up pretty shortly after. Let the peace of Christ rule your heart. To the which
also you were called into one body. And then he says just be thankful.
Just be thankful. That’s the party I want to be in. And that’s the party we are in. And if I’m
saying to myself, if I’m in my flesh and we at times are in our flesh, the whole thing, guess
what? I just have to go to the closet. Change my clothes. I just have to go to the cross and look
at Christ. And the Spirit will say, yes.

How do I grieve the Spirit? The flesh is in charge. How do I agree with the Spirit? HOMOLOGOS,
just say the same thing that Christ has already said. It is finished. Your flesh is dead. You no
longer serve it. Live in the liberty that you have been given by Christ.
Wouldn’t it be a bummer to get to heaven and you look back and you go, Oh, those weren’t my
problems. Oh, I could have lived a simpler life. I had – just in closing – I said that five times – I
had a client of mine.

He’s 74 years old. He just got saved recently. And I had a golf lesson with
him the other day and he said, Justin, he goes, I love my pastor. And I said, Really? He said, I
love my pastor the way he preaches the Word. And he said, I love this. Sometimes young believer’s it’s like really refreshing to hear. He’s 74 but he’s a young believer. And he said, My
pastor preached freedom, freedom, the freedom that I have in Christ. And he said after the
sermon, I’m driving home my F-150 down Route 70 and I roll down the windows and I just start
screaming, I’m free!

He said, the pastor said all my sin, everything in my life has been forgiven. He rolled the
windows down and he just started screaming out the windows at 74 years old. I am free. That’s
what I want to, I want to be. Don’t we want to be a part of that? I am free. Amen. Amen.
(Prayer)

 

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