Ron Dunn Podcast - Graveyard Religion

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

What is true religion? How do we know if someone is what they claim to be? Ron Dunn explores how we practice our religion. From the series The Fullness of Christ.

Now, would you open your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3. The book of Colossians chapter 3. And I'm going to read just the first ten verses. Colossians, the third chapter, it's a little book hiding right behind Philippians. A little book with a big message. Verses 1-10. If then you are risen with Christ, keep those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Practice setting your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore,

your members which are upon the earth, such as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, and in the which you also sometime walked in them when you lived in them. But now, but now you also put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, took the communication out of your mouth.

Stop lying 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. I want you to take a little trip with me tonight.

Won't be gone long. Won't miss any of the music. And we'll be back in time to hear Dr. Hoffman, I promise. But I want us to take a little trip. And I want us to go to a little town by the name of Bethany. And when we arrive in this small town, the first thing that we notice is that there's something unusual going on. No boy riding a bicycle up and down blowing

a trumpet, but there's all the commotion going on. Something unusual happening in this normally little sleepy town. And so we asked somebody, we said, what's everybody all thorough about? What's going on? Oh, you must be a visitor. You haven't heard. Well, you know Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. Well, he died a few days ago, and that prophet from Nazareth, Jesus, has just come and rumors are that he's going

out there and he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Isn't that something? And we're all going out there to watch. Well, I know this much. I want to see that too. And so we fall in behind the crowd and after a while we find ourselves with that crowd standing in front of a tomb. And the stone rolled away. Jesus had prayed a very strange prayer, actually. He said, Father,

I'm asking you to do this, but I don't really need to because you and I have already got this settled. I'm just saying this out loud so everybody knows that we're together on this. And after he said that, he said, Lazarus, come forth and everybody had their eyes on the dark mouth of that tomb and you could hear if you listened real carefully some movement and suddenly

Lazarus appears I don't know how he appeared he was wrapped in gray clothes so I've always wondered how he appeared he was wrapped in grave clothes so I've always wondered how he got out of the tomb he either had to hop out or he floated out you know he couldn't walk

in those grave clothes and hopping out seems a little bit irreverent so I just feel like he kind of floated out, you know. And everybody was amazed, and Jesus had loosed him and let him go. And they did, they unwrapped him, and there was Lazarus, dead four days and yet restored to life. And of course, Mary and Martha are beside themselves, they're falling over Lazarus, falling over Jesus, loving them, thanking them. And everybody's so excited.

Everybody's so excited. Everybody wants to get close to Lazarus. Somebody picks up a few scraps of the grave clothes and takes back as a souvenir. And everybody just can't believe this. Jesus has raised this man from the grave. Well, after a while, as people do, they're even tired of that miracle.

And so they begin to drift back to their homes. And Mary and Martha ask Jesus to come back with them. And they would fix him supper and they'd have a little celebration. So Mary and Martha and Jesus start walking down the road towards their house in Bethany. And they've not gone very far until suddenly Martha says, well, where's Lazarus? And Mary says, well, I don't know. He was here just a few minutes ago. And they look back down towards where the tomb was and they saw no sign of him.

And Martha said, well, he must be back there talking with somebody, giving his testimony with something. Mary, you go back there and tell Lazarus, come on home because I'm fixing supper for the Lord. You go back there and tell Lazarus come on home because I'm fixing supper for the Lord. You go back there and tell him. Well I don't think Mary was all that keen on going back to that tomb but she usually did what her sister said.

She got back to that tomb and there was no one there. She looked everywhere. Lazarus was not anywhere to be found. And all of a sudden she heard some movement down in that sepulcher. So she tiptoed over

and cupped her hand and said, Pazra, are you down there? And from within came the damn little answer, I'm here, Mary. She couldn't imagine what in the world Lazarus was doing in that tomb. And so she very cautiously stepped down the stone step into that step ladder.

She stood there for a moment, let her eyes get adjusted to the dark, and when they did, she couldn't believe what she saw. There, there was Lazarus sitting over there on the slab of stone with those old grave clothes, rewrapping those grave clothes back around his box. And Mary couldn't believe what in the world was going on. And she said, Lazarus, what in the world are you doing? Martha sent me after her, and you know how a sister is, and she's going to be mad at both of us if we don't get home right now.

She's fixing supper. What in the world are you doing? And he was sitting there wrapping those gray clothes around his leg. And Lazarus says, well, I guess it does seem strange to you a little bit. I'll try to explain. You know, I spent four days here. Let's say I got here, I thought I couldn't take it, but you get accustomed to things. And after being here four days,

you kind of settle in, you know, and begin to feel at home a little bit. And these grave clothes, I know they're not the latest style, and as a matter of fact, they don't smell too keen, but, you know, I got so used to wearing the grave clothes,

they kind of hit me, you know, and it's like an old easy chair, and I tell you what, I thought I would just stay down here for a while and wear these old gray clothes. And maybe Martha could bring me some meals in here. I'll be out, you know, after a while. But, you know, it's hard to leave.

I just sort of think, Mary can't believe what in the world she's hearing. She's saying, Lazarus, Lazarus, don't you understand? Jesus has raised you back to life. You're no longer dead. You no longer belong in this cemetery. You no longer belong in this tomb. You no longer belong in those grave posts. Lazarus, everything you're doing is inconsistent with the new life that Jesus has given you.

Now, if you know your Bible very well, you will know that there was a point in that story at which I departed from... I didn't depart from the truth. I departed from the fact. Ridiculous, isn't it? Ridiculous. I'm telling you, I bet Lazarus was so glad to get out of there. I bet he was so anxious to get out of those grave clothes, you couldn't see the dust for he's kicking up, trying to get out of that place. I mean, he was gone. That's what you would do. That's natural. That's what anybody would do. Anybody want

to linger around in the grave and wear the shroud a bit longer? Something's wrong with that person. You have to say that's inconsistent with the new life that Jesus has given you. And yet that is exactly what Paul is saying to these Colossians in the third chapter. He says if you then be risen

with Christ, why do you go on living like you do? And living like you are? You need to put off all of these things. Very colorful words here. He says in verse 8 that we're to put off some things.

And in verse 9, we're to put off the old man. And in verse 10, we're to put on the new man. In verse 12, we're to put on therefore. And it's a figure of discarding old and dirty clothes and putting on new clothes.

And what Paul is saying to these Colossians is if you have truly been saved, if you have truly been raised with Christ, then your mind, your affections, your heart ought to be on things that are consistent with that new life. These old things of the old life, those old grave clothes of fornication and covetousness and those old grave clothes of anger and wrath, you no longer wear those. You put those off and you put on the new clothes of Christ's life.

It is just as consistent for some of us to live as we are living and practice the things that we are practicing as it would be for Lazarus to continue living in the tomb from which he had been raised. And this is what Paul is talking about tonight. So I want to talk to you for a little bit on what I call graveyard religion. Graveyard religion. Now Paul is addressing a problem. At Colossae there are some teachers and there's a difference of opinion among scholars as to who these false teachers was and what the false system was, but it's pretty well agreed that there

was something about them Gnostic about it and that there were those who were trying to create an elitist type of Christianity that came because you were introduced to certain secret knowledge and you had seen certain visions and you had gone beyond these other ordinary mere Christians. They were still at the entranceway. They had received Christ. But these had gone on to something greater. And they were trying to complete Christ.

They were trying to complete their faith in something beyond the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what had happened is this, that there had been those who came in that said, you know, it's not enough just to worship Jesus, but you know, there are a lot of beings up there. There are a lot of angels and spirits and there are hierarchies of beings. And some of those things have to be taken into account. And also, you must deny the body. There are certain rules and regulations that you've got to follow if you're going to live for

Christ. You can't just go out here and live any way you want to. What was happening is that these Colossian Christians were being judged and condemned on the basis of things that had absolutely no relevance with the Christian faith. I want to go back to the second chapter for just a moment. And I want to read beginning with verse 16 i'm reading from the williams translation stop letting anyone pass judgment on you in matters of eating and

drinking or in the matter of annual or monthly feasts or sabbath now folks as i read through this i want us to listen very carefully this written about 2 000 years ago but it could have been written today because it's happening in our church today. We are being judged on the basis of false standards. Stop letting people pass judgment on you in matters of eating and drinking or in the matter of annual or monthly feasts or Sabbaths. These were but the shadow of what was coming.

The reality belongs to Christ. Stop letting anyone in gratuitous humility and worship of angels act like an umpire and call you out, for such a one is taking his stand on the mere visions he has seen and is groundlessly conceited over his sensuous mind. Such a person is not continuing in connection with the head

from which the whole body, which supplied and united through its joints and sinews grows with the growth that God produces. If once, through fellowship with Christ, you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belong to the world? Why do you submit to such rules as you must not handle, you must not take, you must not touch, which refer to things that perish in the using in accordance with human rules and teachings. And here is the clicker.

Such practices. Keeping rules and regulations. Observing this day, this feast. Not touching this, not touching that, not handling this. These things, these things, such practices have the outward expression of wisdom. It looks like they're doing a good thing with their self-imposed devotion, their self-humiliation, their torturing of the body. But they are of no value. They only satisfy the lower nature.

Paul said, if we have died with Christ to the world, then we must not allow the traditions of man to bind us and be judged on the basis of those things such as touch not, taste not, handle not. Because you can make all those rules and regulations you want to and I have to confess that when I began in the ministry, when I started in the ministry, I grew up in the kind of church that man, when you got up to preach, you let them have it. I mean, you let them have it.

Both barrels, you preached fire and brimstone down all of them. I remember as a young evangelist, we'd have youth night. Every Saturday night was youth night. And I'd preach on the sins of the youth as if they were different than the others. But I preached on the sins of the youth. And, of course, Samson and Delilah was my church. And at the end of that service I'd give this kind of invitation.

All you young people now who are willing to give up the sins of the youth and of course I'd name them so there'd be no mistake. Drinking, smoking, going to picture shows, playing cards and parking at Fort Smith Reservoir.

All of you young people who will now give up the sins of the youth and come and dedicate your lives to a purity, I want you to stand up and come right now to the front. I tell you, we had great results. I mean, every kid in that building got down there. I mean, what were you going to do? You want to stand back there and let everybody know, boy, I'm not going down there and be sure. I'm going to stand back here and be social.

And so, boy, you know, we'd go away and say, boy, that was a great service. Had 75 kids come tonight and at the altar and yield their lives to a life of purity. Isn't that wonderful? You know how long it lasted? Until the next dance they got invited to. Or until the next time the boy's car pulled up in the Fortuna Reservoir.

You can make all the rules and regulations you want to, but I have news for you. They are of no value whatsoever in overcoming the flesh. They have no power whatsoever. You can make them all you want, but they have no power. As a matter of fact, the truth is, rules and regulations like that, rather than overcoming the flesh and the lower nature,

they feed it. Because, you see, you get this superior attitude. Because we judge people on the basis of what they don't do that we do. Or what they do that we do not do. And so we puff ourselves up and we

say we're the finest Christians around. We know more than anybody else because we are adhering to rules and regulations. I won't go any further into this, but all of this stuff, the superstitions, the days and the moons,

and all that goes on with all of the other touch-not, taste-not, handle stuff, those things just leave the Christian in bondage. And I think that one of the great needs of Christians today is to finally throw off the yoke of legalism. Conforming to somebody else's standards. Living in fear, actually. That's not a life of freedom. That's not a life of freedom. That's a life of bondage. That's a life of fear. Fear that I may cross the line

or that I may say something ever so slight that will cause God to hit me on the head. I never will forget a few years ago in Wichita, Kansas, I was preaching a Bible conference there. Several of us were there for a Bible conference. And a man came up to me after the service one night. He was a pastor, a Baptist pastor in that town.

And he said, I hear you have a series of tapes on wake up to the supernatural about devil and demons and your call. I said, yes, sir, I do. He said, I'd like to have a set of those tapes. I said, fine. He said, how much are they? I said, well, they're $13.

You can tell how long ago that was. They're $30 now. But at that time, they were only $13. I said, $13? Oh, he said, listen, could I write you a check for $12 and owe you a dollar? And I said, well, why?

He said, I don't like to write checks for $13. You know, I should have given him the tapes. I mean, he needed them. If anybody needed them, he needed them. But what I did, I said, I tell you what, write that check for $14. Let me owe you the dollar. And he did. He did. Voted for $14. Folks, is that liberty? Is that freedom? Are we going around today as

so many are appointing ourselves as new heads of the church and we're making this dispensation and we're talking about this. This has to be done. You have to break these curses. You have to be afraid. You don't say the wrong thing. That's not liberty.

That's bondage. I have a friend whose wife went to one of these covered dish luncheons and she walked into the kitchen carrying her culinary contributions and the woman in charge said, Ah, what did you bring?

And she said, I brought deviled eggs. And she flew back her? And she said, I brought deviled eggs. And she flew back her arms and she said, I bind that in the name of Jesus Christ. And she said, well, you can bind it all you want to, but they're still deviled eggs. Paul said, all of these things, they look good.

They are impressive. They really look good. You see somebody humiliating themselves, somebody depriving themselves. Boy, that looks good. It really looks good, but I want to tell you the truth. It doesn't help one bit. It's not worth anything. All it does is contribute to the pride

of self. Well, if you're not going to have rules and regulations in, how are we to live? How are we to overcome these things? Well, that's what he tells us in verse 1 of chapter 3. First of all, you see, in the last verses of chapter 2, he's saying liberty in Christ, Christ-likeness, the Christian life, does not come by rules and regulations and by following the traditions of men. But if you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Practice keeping your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

Thomas Chalmers, years ago, preached a sermon called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. Alexander McLaren tells about it in one of his expositions that Thomas Chalmers, who was normally a very gentle and humane person, was driving his horse and buggy, and there was a friend of his riding along with him and everything was going along just fine and all of a sudden Thomas Chalmers started beating that horse unmercifully with the whip just beating that horse just beating that

horse and there was no reason to do it he couldn't believe that this fellow was doing this there was no reason to do that the horse was doing the was doing great, but he just kept beating that horse. And after a moment, he stopped. And his friend said, I've never seen anything so cruel. Why were you doing that? He said, because I saw something the horse did not see. He said, I saw a snake on the side of the road. And if the horse had seen that snake, he would have bolted and run. I began to whip him. All of his attention was on the whip. And he did not see the snake. It's a simple principle, isn't it?

My mother, when I was in the seventh grade, I had to go to the dentist and have two teeth pulled I was scared to death I knew that they'd give me a shot and I probably wouldn't feel it but the shot was pretty well terrifying too and she said well son I'll tell you what you do

you sit down in that dentist chair and when the dentist comes over and he starts to put that needle in take your thumbnail and press it against your middle finger and just bury it in the flesh. I mean, just really pinch yourself and you'll be so concerned about the pain in your finger, you'll forget about the shot in your jaw. I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that to this day, when I go to the dentist or anywhere and they give me a shot, you find me

doing this just like that. What is it? It's the expulsive power of a new affection. I had some friends once I arrived in their town to start a meeting and the pastor met me at the airport and I said, how are things going? He said, well, they're going fine. We had a close call. I said, what happened? He said, well, our daughter some time ago got involved with a man that we did not really approve of. And we felt like he really wasn't right for her. I said, what did you do?

He said, well, we did what parents do. We told her about it. But he said, when we told her about it, that just seemed to make her that much more determined. I said, well, but what did you do? He said, we introduced her to a better boy and they're getting married next week. The expulsive power of a new affection, the love of the world and the love of the Father cannot remain in the same place. You don't overcome the love of the world by telling people how ugly the world is. It's not all that ugly, folks. You overcome the love of the world by telling us how

beautiful the Father is. It is our love for God that shoves out and pushes out the love of the world. And so, Paul says, instead of submitting yourself to rules and regulations that are not going to do a thing for you except make you proud and selfish, set your mind on things above. Practice putting your mind, your heart, your affection on Jesus and His glory. And when you do that, then what you need to do

is to cast off those old clothes and put on some new ones. And that's what we're going to look at in these few more minutes. You'll notice in verse 5, he says, Put to death, therefore, your members which are up on the earth.

In verse 8, he says, Put off all these. In verse 9, Put off the old man. In verse 10, Put on the new man. In verse 12, Put on, therefore.

Now, I think the sequence here is very important. You have to put off before you put on. You cannot put on the new man. You cannot put on the new clothes of Christ's likeness until you've taken off the old clothes that are not like Christ's. I think the reason some of us feel very uncomfortable trying to act like Christ is because we've got him on over the old man.

I remember some years ago, about midnight or so, I was lounging in some new pajamas that my mother-in-law had given me for Christmas. And so Kay informed me that she needed a few things at the store and would I run up to the 7-Eleven up there a few blocks and pick up two or three things. Well, I didn't see any need in getting out of my pajamas and getting dressed and all that. So what I did is I just took those silk pajama legs and pulled them up high above the knee,

up high here, and then I put on my slacks and I put on a shirt and I went. Now you have to understand in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a lot of these clerks and convenience stores are a little bit nervous about late night customers as you can well imagine. And so I went in and I was just, you know, going up and down the aisle

trying to find what I needed and I noticed this woman behind the counter. Boy, she got to watching me and she'd look at me everywhere I'd go. And she kept looking down at my feet. And I looked down there, and what had happened

is that those silk pajamas had come undone, and they were coming out my pants legs. And I looked like a suspicious character. Now, I want to tell you something. I really felt uncomfortable in those clothes. I really did. And the trouble is, a lot of times you and I, we try to put on acting like Jesus

without ever having put off the old clothes. And no matter how hard you try to dress it up, sooner or later, brother, that old nature is going to peak out. No, first of all, you put on. Put off. And then you put on. Now, there are two lists of things that we're to put off. I like to think of these as the grave clothes. Go to the closet, see what all these old grave clothes are. There's one list in verse 5, we'll call these the sins of desire.

There's another list in verses 8 and 9, we will designate these as sins of disposition. First of all, look at verse 5. Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Now what that simply means is that you have died with Christ. As far as Christ is concerned, as far as you are concerned,

you are dead to this world. Now live like it. Live like you're dead to the world. And you take everything in your life that smacks of the old life and you do away with it. You write death over it. You put it to death. And the idea is you do it right now once and for all. No tapering off.

You just put them to death. And it's an ugly list. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. You can sum those up in two words. Impurity and greed. Impurity and greed. A thought occurred to me some time ago. Has it ever struck you a little strange that when Paul writes to the Galatians, he writes to the Ephesians,

he writes to the Galatians, he writes to the Ephesians, he writes to the Colossians, a lot of times he's telling them to stop committing immorality. Can you think about that for a moment? He's writing to a church of converts. These are Christians. And he's saying, hey, you need to stop your acts of fornication, immorality.

I thought, man, if a person... How do you explain that? Well, you see, these were Gentile pagans. They came out of a pagan society. And the characteristic mark, if you've ever studied much history, you'll know the characteristic mark of a pagan society is the exaltation of immorality. To them, immorality was just as natural as breathing. There was no such thing as chastity among

those people. You would never think of that as being anything wrong. It was as normal to them as anything else. And here are people who were born into that kind of society, born into that kind of culture, and when they got saved, they didn't immediately lose all of those thoughts and lose all of those principles. There had to become an educating process.

And so here's what Paul is saying. He's saying, now, those were things you did when you were out there in the world. What they won't do now, you need to put them to death. Have nothing at all to do with it. I said just a moment ago that pagan mark of a characteristic mark of a pagan society is exaltation of immorality. And if you take that at its face value, you almost have to say that you and I are living today in a pagan society because of the exaltation and normalization of immorality. But let's move on now to verses 8 and 9, to the second list. And these we'll call lists,

the sins of disposition. But now you also put off these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, fear the communication out of your mouth, stop lying one to another. So we'll just look at those. Anger. Anger. What does this word here mean? Anger. What kind of anger?

Several words translate as anger. This word, I believe, can best be translated or understood as anger suppressed. Wrath, the next word, is anger expressed. The first word indicates the kind of anger that doesn't show. You know, boy, you're burning up inside. I mean, you are burning up inside because of what happened, but you don't show, you know? Boy, you're burning up inside. I mean, you are burning up inside because of what happened, but you don't show it. You smile and act just as nice, but inside there's a

volcano erupting inside you. The truth of the matter is, folks, just because we don't show our anger doesn't mean that we have not sinned against God in being angry. That kind anger doesn't mean that we have not sinned against God in being angry. It's that kind of anger that never expresses itself, but cherishes it in its heart. And then it begins to poison the system and grow deeper and deeper. And the next one is wrath. Let me just make

this observation. With the first list, the sins of immorality, Paul started with the fine lack fornication and led back to the desire, evil concupiscence, and inordinate affection. In this list, he reverses the process. He starts with just the desire, the inclination, and carries it out to its logical consequence. So first of all, there is anger suppressed, but you cannot forever suppress that anger. Sooner or later, it's going to get out of control. That's what wrath is. It is anger out of control.

It's the outburst of temper. It's the outburst of temper. I learned something when I was a very young boy. I learned that losing your temper costs you your testimony. I was working for my uncle, my dad, in their service station. And I was a young preacher boy. And the head mechanic there

was a guy just as lost as he could be. And I'd witness to him and witness to him and witness to him, but he didn't care. One day, one of those muggy, humid days in July or August in Fort Smith, Arkansas, I had changed a tire on a car, fixed the flat,

and I had the wheel back on the thing, and I had put the bolts back on it, and then I was trying to get that hubcap on there. And I was having a devil of a time getting that hubcap on there, because you'd beat it in down here, and it'd pop out up here. And so you'd move up here to pop it in here, and it'd pop out back here. And so you'd move up here to pop it in here and it'd pop out back here. And I was sweating and the sweat falling into my eyes and burning my eyes and I was sort of squatting down to do that and I was getting tired and sweaty and I kept trying to pop it in here and it'd pop out there, push it in here, come out of there. And I just lost it. I just lost it. And I took that hubcap and I flung that thing as far as I could

across the wash bay and into the grease rack and felt pretty good. And I looked around and there was my buddy watching me. He only said one word to me. And he said it with a smirk. Preacher, I never had known such condemnation.

Wrath. But notice, it moves on. And from wrath there comes malice. Now malice is a little different than the others. Malice indicates a spiteful attitude, a vicious attitude. It is acting towards another person in such a way as being vicious

and you want the worst thing to happen to them. And you don't mind hearing about bad things happening to them. It bothers you a little bit to hear that they're doing too well. So first of all, you're angry at a person. Then you express that anger. And then there is born in your heart a spiteful attitude towards them. And the next one comes out, blasphemy, slander, blasphemy, slander. All that is, is simply giving somebody an idea that so and so may not be all that he claims to be. Always used to be bothered by the words of

Jesus over in Matthew chapter 5 when he said, if anybody calls another a fool, he's danger of hell fire. Were you that way when you were a kid? Were you scared of that when you were a kid? I was scared to death of that. Boy, I'd read that over there, and it said,

if you call somebody a fool, you're in danger of hell fire. I want to tell you something, boy. I'd call them anything, but I wouldn't call them a fool. Did that scare you? I knew one of these days they were going to flip up and say,

fool, didn't mean it. I was going to go to hell. A friend, John Paul Hundley and I were having a fight in the kitchen. And mom had a big iron pot of cabbage cooking on the stove.

And he and I got into a fight. And he was bigger than me and he always won. But in the process we knocked that big pot of cabbage, all greasy stuff all over the floor. And I wanted to say the meanest thing. I said, you fool!

And boy, it was a long time before I was afraid to go to sleep at night. I thought, boy, I have said something and God's going to send me to hell. But no, that's not what he's talking about. When Jesus warns us against calling somebody a fool, what He's actually doing, I think, is He's warning us against casting any doubt or suspicion on a person's moral character. It's the idea of a moral fool.

A man who is a fool in his morals. And Jesus said, if you say anything like that, if you cast a person into that category, if by the raising of an eyebrow or the winking of an eye or the shrug of the shoulders, you give the indication that somebody may not be

what they seem to be and you don't know for sure, but you're not caring too much of this person anyway. You're a little bit angry at him. You've got a vicious attitude towards him. And so it comes very easily just to let people form the wrong impression. And then comes filter communication.

We'll not go into that. Then he says, stop lying one another. But just let me finish with summing this up. Verses 12 through 14. Could own, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, heart of compassion and kindness and humbleness of mind

and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on love, which is the belt of perfection. Paul says, once you've disrobed the old clothes, then you need to dress up. And here's what the well-dressed Christian wears. He wears a heart filled with compassion. He wears humility of mind.

He wears gentleness and meekness. And perhaps the most attractive thing about him, maybe it's the tie he's wearing, and perhaps the most attractive thing about him, maybe it's the tie he's wearing, the most notable thing about him is this. He is forbearing and he is forgiving. What does it mean to forbear with somebody? It's closely akin to long suffering and patience. But basically it means to hang in there with a friend. Stay by their side. Support them. Prop them up. Stand by them.

You don't like them for what they're doing and it's maddening the way they just seem to be messing up their life. They're so slow in coming along. But you're going to be forbearing. You're going to stick it with them. You're going to stay with them. You're not going to desert them even though they fail. So you stay with them. You stick with them. And what are you doing in the meantime? Well, actually the word is you're gracing them. You're forgiving them. You're just covering it with grace. You're just covering it with grace. You're just covering it with grace. While all of these things they're doing that are so stubborn and irritating to you, and yet at the same time,

you just continue to cover that with grace. You grace them. Paul says this is what the well-dressed Christian lives. I wonder tonight if any of us have any old grave clothes hanging in our closet at home. I hate to throw them all away. You never can tell.

One of them might come back in style someday. I've had a minor victory this week. I've worn an old tie. 25 years old. So out of style. So ugly looking that it's in style now. Listen, you hang on to those old clothes long enough. Oh, I'll never use them.

No. If they're hanging in the closet, you will find an occasion to put them on once in a while. Let's pray together.