Newness of Life

Once again, I want to say good morning, uh, greetings in the name of Jesus.

The 18th of June, 1815—does anyone recognize that date per chance?

It was on that date that there was, uh, probably one of the most decisive battles fought, and that was the Battle of—known as the Battle of Waterloo, where we had Napoleon, who was a French leader that was trying to dominate the world, in a sense. And there was a battle between Napoleon and the, um, the Duke of Wellington, who was English, and I think there was another—maybe some Prussians involved as well. But the battle was fought, and Napoleon was defeated in that. And in those times, they didn't have communication systems like they have today, and so they communicated a lot by semaphores, which was a flag system where they could actually spell out different, uh, different letters.

And so, the story is, at least, I—it's a little hard to verify if this is something that took on legend or not, but they were communicating the news of the battle by a ship. A ship was signaling to someone who was on top of the Winchester Cathedral along the coast of England.

And so they began to spell out the message, and it was W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N, Wellington, D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D, Wellington defeated. And then, as normally happens in London, or is fairly usual, a fog rolled in and the message was obscured. But it was already—that part of the message was already put out, and so a gloom very quickly spread throughout London, and we lost the battle. The battle has been lost. And, uh, but then within a few hours, as the story goes, the fog cleared and the message was sent out again, and it's "Wellington defeated," and then the other words were T-H-E-E-N-E-M-Y.

Wellington defeated the enemy. So all of a sudden the whole thing switched around, and it's—instead of gloom, like the spread of a prairie fire, the joyful news spread across the land and lifted the spirits of the people onto a plain of gratitude and jubilant praise: Wellington defeated the enemy.

So it changed, and I think it was even all the more wonderful for them because of what they'd been thinking about before.

A long—a lot—and many years ago, on a hill, lone and gray, situated without the city gates, the sinless Son of God gave Himself willingly on a death on a cruel cross for the sin of the world. And the prophet Amos had predicted an interesting thing about what would happen during this time. He said, "And it will come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day." Amos 8:9. His prophecy was literally fulfilled, for Luke tells us, "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over the earth until the ninth hour; and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.

As that dense darkness enshrouded the land, obscuring the gaze of man—from the gaze of man the open shame to which the sufferer on the central cross was being submitted—Jesus cried with a loud voice, and then He said, 'Into Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' And He thus died, the darkness deepened for His fearful followers. To them, calvary meant but one thing: J-E-S-U-S-D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D.

Placing His limp, lifeless body in the barred tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the persistent thought of their troubled hearts reiterated its hopeless message: Jesus defeated. During the three days of His entombment, all hell was vibrant with ghoulish glee, for the prince of darkness, Satan, had apparently triumphed over the Son of Righteousness. Did ever a darkness so deep envelop the hearts of God's children as the darkness which whelmed the souls of Jesus' disciples while His body lay in the tomb? We think not. Listen to their dismal dirge. We trusted that it had been He which would have redeemed Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

How unbelieving and undiscerning were His disciples! For as yet they knew not the Scriptures that He must rise again from the dead. Many times Jesus had prophesied to them that He was going to die and be resurrected, "After three days I will rise again," but they either misunderstood or disbelieved what He said.

The three dreary days dragged to their close, then suddenly the darkness lifted. The white radiance of the Lord's Day morning flooded an eastern garden as the gladsome gloom-dispelling news spread: Jesus defeated death.

And it's because of the resurrection that we're here this morning. You know, without the resurrection, everything we would do here this morning would be absolutely futile. After three days, that tomb was empty. And I'd like to turn to John, chapter 20. This is Mary at the tomb.

And just read verses 11 to 15. 11 to 18, actually.

But Mary stood outside by the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain; then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you had carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him, "Rabboni!" which is to say, "Teacher." Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. So here, Mary is in that predicament that we talked about.

It's all over. It's done. And she was there, the tomb was empty, and she's there weeping, and these two angels say, "Why are you weeping?" And then Jesus asked the same question twice here. She was asked, "Why are you weeping?"

You know, imagine the tragedy it would have been if Jesus would have been still in that tomb. The tomb was empty. The empty tomb is a reason for rejoicing. It's not a reason to weep. It's a reason to rejoice.

And when Jesus said her name, that reality of the resurrection became a reality in her life. She all of a sudden realized what it all meant. And I guess that's the question that I would have for us this morning: is the resurrection a reality in my life? Is it a reality in your life? And I'm excited that we can be a participant in that. And I want—before we get into the text this morning—this is Colossians chapter 3, but before we go there, turn to Romans, Romans chapter 6.

And I want to read verses 1 to 11. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we, who died to sin, live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we had been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

For he who has died has been free from sin." Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So in baptism, we're buried with Him in death, and then we participate in that resurrection. We're raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so that we should—He says—so that we should walk in newness of life. And that is the title of the message this morning: newness of life. So what does this newness of life look like? Now we can go to Colossians chapter 3.

I'm going to put my outline on the board just so that we remember it.

Okay. Hopefully that helps us keep it in our minds.

Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 to 7: a new allegiance. I'm going to go ahead and read the first seven verses. So here's where He starts out, and He says, "Okay, so if we're raised with Christ, then certain things will be true. If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them."

So He says that if we're risen with Christ, if we're participating in His resurrection, if the resurrection is a reality in our life, then He says we're to seek the things which are above. We're to set our affections on things that are above and not things on the earth. And so what that signifies is our allegiance changes from earthly to heavenly. We're now part of a different country. We're serving a different leader.

You know, when you want to become a citizen of a country, there are certain requirements that you have to do. And I think one of the things that most countries require you to do would be to swear an oath of allegiance, an oath of loyalty to the country that you want to become a kingdom of. You know, a traitor is a person who pledges loyalty to one country but is really secretly working for another country, for the enemy.

And so we don't want to—we don't want to be a traitor. If we're risen with Christ, then our allegiance shifts to Christ and His kingdom.

Instead of focusing on living for things on this earth, our allegiance shifts to the eternal things. I always appreciated John's illustration here about the throne and the cross in everyone's heart. The old life, in the old life, ourself is on the throne, and Jesus is on the cross. And He calls us to put ourselves on the cross and Jesus on the throne.

And so He says that we're to put to death, which means to kill, these earthly things. The things that the world is—it's part of the world: fornication, indecency, lust, foul cravings, and ruthless greed. All part of the world. And He's calling for mortification, not modification. And I think sometimes we try to sort of arrange our life. We modify things when it really needs to be just put to death.

If these things are still alive and well in a person's life, then it brings to question whether or not that person is risen with Christ.

He says that God's wrath is going to come and be part of the old life and going to judge that. I guess to sum it up, this new allegiance simply means a full surrender to the Lordship of Christ. If you're risen with Christ, then Jesus is going to be put first place in your life.

And if you're not willing to do that, then everything else in this chapter, the things that we—it's not going to function. It's not going to work.

Let's go ahead and read the next eight verses, verses 8 to 15. "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither great nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful."

So the picture here is of a new apparel.

It has the idea of the picture of taking off and putting on and taking off garments.

Another way we could say it is we need to consider the contents of our closet. Consider the contents of our closet. What is it that we're wearing?

I don't know how many of you have ever been doing something where your clothes get really, really dirty.

And then maybe you have to be in public or something. And does it bother you if you're—some people it seems like it doesn't bother. But even if I'm all greasy, I'm at the garage and I'm all greasy and I'm covered, and then I have to go to the store, there's just something about, you know, I just don't look very presentable.

Are we happy just to remain in our dirty, smelly clothes?

Something happened to me. I think I might have shared this here before, about 40 years ago. So I was about Evan's age, maybe Eileen's age, and I was just, for the first time, joining the youth in their activities. And the youth from the Row, there where Alan Martin's house is, and there was a chicken house there. It was a layer house where there were cages. And one of the things he would do, they didn't have—I guess he didn't use a commercial chicken-catching crew. So he invited the youth in to catch these chickens and carry them out to the truck. And afterwards there were pizza and things. So of course you're not in your best apparel there to begin with.

But I was young and a little bit insecure, and I wanted to fit in and make a good impression. At the end of the chicken house, as we went out the door, there was a trench where all the manure from the chickens would end up and was headed out to the pit. And across the trench they had a little board that we were walking across.

And I don't know why, but I was the unfortunate one. As the night went on, that board kept moving a little bit, unbeknownst to us all. And I stepped on the board and it gave way. And I instantly found myself up to my arms in liquid chicken waste.

I had one thought in mind: get out of these clothes. Number one, it smelled terrible. I was so embarrassed. It looked awful. And the thing was that, I mean, what do you do? I didn't have any driver's license and I wouldn't fit to go anywhere anyway. So I ended up in somebody else's bathroom, taking a shower, and then I had to put on somebody else's clothes that were way too small for me. And I just remember I couldn't hardly fit the pants I was supposed to put on. And then I was supposed to go up and enjoy the pizza.

Needless to say, it didn't work out too well. But as I read this over, He says, "There's things we need to take off." And I wonder if we feel that desperation. Like, is it that abhorrent to us, that we just want to take off? And the list of things to put off are things that can easily soil the person who is trying to let Jesus be number one. It's these habits of heart and tongue.

You know, when the slaves were—we read that in Romans where Jesus broke the power of sin. But I understand that in American slavery, when the slaves were freed, they no longer—they were now free. They didn't have to live as slaves.

But many struggled, even in that, to leave that life of slavery behind. That's kind of all they ever knew. Their habits persisted. And some of them found themselves sort of continuing to live as slaves. And I think that's a little bit the way it can be in a Christian life. Without Jesus, we're enslaved. We have no choice.

But Jesus, by the power of the resurrection and the sacrifice that He made, He broke the power of sin. And He sets the captive free. We no longer have to be slaves to sin. And so if we come to Him in repentance, He frees us from the grip of Satan, and we no longer have to serve sin. But sometimes in our fleshly bodies, those habits of the tongue and the heart try to hang on. And those things can soil us and dirty us. And so He's calling on us to change our clothes or our tower, our apparel.

These are the things we're supposed to put off: anger. Hot flashes of temper is what that has the idea of. Hot flashes of temper. Wrath has more the idea of a long, slow-burning, underlying anger that refuses to be pacified. Malice.

Malice is the desire to see someone suffer, especially if they've wronged you or you think they deserve it. Blasphemy. Insulting, slanderous speech, especially towards God. Filthy communication. Impure speech. Untruthful speech. We talked about the truth this morning. He says in verse 9 that we're to lie not.

It's all part of the old man. He says to put on the new man, which is patterned after God Himself.

And we can do that without any kind of cultural barriers that normally would be there.

It's a completely new group of people. It's a new culture with Christ being all and in all. So we're to put off the old things, but we're not to let it there. I recently heard of a story of a lady who was a hoarder, and so her family finally—it is a mental illness. And so her family finally convinced her that she needed to clean out her house. So they came in and completely cleaned her house out. And she had so much clothes and things, they decided they were going to sell them, either to a secondhand store or to yard sale, I'm not sure what.

And they had these clothes out for sale. And who comes along and wants to buy them again but the hoarder? She wanted to come and buy them again. And it's not good enough. I guess the point is it's not good enough to take off the old. We have to—and Jesus said about that—we clean it out and then it can actually come back worse. There's things we need to put on as God's holy people. In verse 12, He says, "Put on as the elect of God, as God's chosen ones, as people who are His chosen people, holy and beloved, tender mercies or bowels of mercies."

Mercy and compassion that actually causes a physical response. I mean, we understand that. Something happens, we get some news or something, and we say it just—all of a sudden it gets us in the pit of our stomach. It actually causes a physical reaction. And I like how the old King James, He says, "Bowels of mercy." We need to have mercy in such a way that it actually—we feel sympathy and empathy so much that we actually feel it physically.

And I've been impressed about how many of these things we need to put on have to do with our relationships one with another. Bowels of mercy. Kindness. Humbleness of mind. Humility. Meekness. Longsuffering.

Verse 13, He says, "Forgiveness and forbearance, just as Christ forgave us." And then, as Paul often does, He says, "And above all else, most importantly, clothe yourself in love, in charity." And I just like to think about love as that one ingredient that makes everything else hold together and work.

And then He says that we're supposed to let God's peace be the umpire, be the person in our life that calls the shots. And we're supposed to be thankful.

And so when we have a decision to make, to let the peace of God rule, is this decision that I'm making, is it making for peace? Peace with God, peace with others, or is it the other way?

And so as we're risen with Christ, our allegiance shifts from ourself to our King. The more we know our King, the more we realize our own uncleanness and our own filthy garments. And the more we put them off and replace them with clean garments that we talked about, then the more we grow into the image of Christ. And the goal is, as He says in Ephesians 4:13, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." So that's the goal. That's the reason we're putting things off and putting things on. Putting off the old, putting on the new so that we can grow more and more into the image of Christ.

So we have a new allegiance. We have new apparel. And now He gives us a new ambition. Verses 16 and 17, "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 heart to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

So here I see that the whole attitude is one of, so Christ is dwelling in us richly. We're teaching, we're admonishing one another, we're encouraging one another. Our ambition is that everything we do, in word or deed, to be doing it in the name of the Lord. Helping each other, encouraging each other, singing together. He includes singing here.

An ambition to make sure that everything we do lines up with God's character. It says, "In His name." We do it in His name. And some of you may have a business card that is part of your postal carrier and it's for business expense under your employer's name. And if we have a responsibility like that, a charge account or something like that, we have the freedom to use it. As long as we're using it to obey and to help the person in whose name it's under.

It really causes us to be careful. So if I have a business card that I work for someone, I'm not going to take that opportunity to go to Lowe's and fill my personal tool cabinet with that. Because number one, it's dishonest. And number two, it's certainly not something you would want to do. And you'd probably lose your job if you did that. So we're always conscious when we pick that card up and we use it. I'm using this, oh yes, it's legitimate because it's helping the business. It's part of it. And I would like to sort of view our lives. Everything that we do, we do in the name of Jesus.

It's under His name. And so does it fit? Does the decision I make today, does it fit with doing things in the name of Jesus? Would I be ashamed? Could I honestly make that claim that what I'm doing here, I can do in Jesus' name? Or is it sort of like are the things we do and is there a disconnect and are we filling our private toolbox?

So if we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, that demonstrates then sort of the last point here, a new authority. And I'm not really going to get into the nitty-gritty of it here, but I just want to read it. And I want you to notice here that if we're risen with Christ, then we also submit to a new authority.

Verse 18, "Wives submit to your own husbands. That is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged. Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Not with eye service as men's pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it hardily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done.

And there is no partiality." So the new authority in our lives, it affects all aspects of our life. It affects the wife's relationship to their husband. It affects a husband's relationship to his wife. It affects the children's relationship to their parents.

It affects how we respond to our employer. All aspects of our life.

It says that whatever we do, we do it hardily. That means with a lot of zeal as to the Lord. And the thing that this chapter ends with is God is observing our lives. He's taking notice.

And so if He's your authority, then you're going to receive the reward of whatever it is, however you respond to that. He says, "Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done. And there is no partiality."

So I guess for you, Evan and Ailee this morning, as new recruits for God's kingdom and then for all of us who have made this commitment, the thing I'd like to encourage you with this morning is, number one, don't be a traitor. You have a new allegiance.

You've made that commitment publicly this morning that, "God, I'm going to serve You all my life." So don't live pretending to be a member of the kingdom and secretly actually aiding and abetting the enemy. They call that treason.

And none of us want to be a traitor. Our allegiance has changed. It's from the eternal and it's to the eternal from the earthly.

Satan was mentioned earlier today with love. He loves that deception where we can so easily become a traitor to the kingdom of God. I'd like you to consider the contents of your closet. Are there things in my life that I really need to strip away? Things that are dirty and smelly and actually bring about disgrace to the kingdom of God?

Are there things that I need to put on? Do I need to be a more gentle person? Do I need to forgive more? Are there things that I need to put on? Thirdly, I'd like you to make it your ambition that whatever you do in word, whatever you say, and whatever you do in deed, do it all to the glory of God.

And sing about it as you do it. And then fourthly, I'd like to encourage you to accept the authority of God in your life. Now it's your parents. You get a job someday. It's going to be your employer.

It might be your schoolteacher. It may be the authority of the church. Accept the authority that God brings into your life and you'll be blessed by it. "Not grudgingly," He says, "but hardily." Do it hardily as unto the Lord.

And the promise that He gives us is that you can receive the inheritance that is laid aside for those who serve the Lord. That crown of life that's waiting for us. The opposite is true. He says that He's also notices if we're a traitor. He also notices if we're not doing what Christ asked us to do. And He says there's no partiality. We're not going to get in based on there's no partiality based on our family line, where we've been born. That's all been wiped away through what Jesus has done. He said there's bond or free, Sithian, that's all been away. There's no partiality. And we're going to be judged on the basis of how we respond as a new creature in Jesus.

And I'm so blessed again by the Spirit of God, which is faithful. I'm so thankful for the resurrection of Jesus, who makes this all possible. I'm thankful that the message this morning is Jesus defeated death. And we can all live. If you then with Christ be risen, seek those things which are above. May God bless you. Does anyone have any comments, anything you would like to share before we close?