Becoming Clothed with Christ

Well, good afternoon, everybody, and also those that are watching this afternoon and those that may be watching in the weeks, months, and sometimes the years ahead. We want to welcome you into the United Church of God's San Diego congregation on a beautiful Sabbath day. I want to share something with you, personal, but this is simply the aspect that I'm going to give a message that I gave several years ago. And it's only been several years ago, but I think it's such an important message that I'm going to give it again.

And I got to thinking that, you say, I think I have heard this somewhere before, and you probably have. And it's like the old saying, you know, where it says that you can put a lipstick on pig, but it's still a pig, no matter what you put on it. So I'm going to change the title. But we're not putting the lipstick on a pig, we're putting the crown on the lamb when it's all said and done, and the lamb is spelled with a capital L.

And I share this, I'm going to share something a little bit out of the book that I'll never write, and that's the story of growing up in Pasadena and working and serving in Pasadena for many years. I remember it was back in probably the very early 1980s, Mr. Herbert Armstrong had come back, he'd been in Tucson for a couple of years due to health, and he came back to Pasadena. And it was an amazing time when he came back to Pasadena, because it's interesting what he centered on again and again and again. The very foundation, nothing way out here, nothing iffy, wiffy, or setting dates, or worrying about this thing out here and trying to identify everything in the future.

It was personal, it was intimate. And it was Friday night Bible study. I was the minister for the auditorium, so I would normally be there to make sure that everything's going alright. And Mr. Armstrong, when he came back, was still very vigorous and giving a number of Bible studies, and he came out as he would, and he sat down and he said, Brethren, I am so excited. He said that I have learned more in my 91st year than I've ever learned before.

I thought, wow, that's quite a statement. And then I thought, because I knew what Mr. Armstrong normally talked about, he'd go right to Genesis 2. He'd go right to Genesis 3. And I began to think that maybe Mr. Armstrong had discovered that there was a third tree, if you remember the story, because he would always go back to the two trees. But he opened up his Bible, and he was so excited, going again over what?

The two trees, and adding more leafs of understanding on those two trees. So I am going to be able to do this. I'm going to give you a new title to this message, but it's a good example to follow. Because, again, having grown up in Pasadena from the time I was in high school, was that Mr.

Armstrong would often say that repetition is the best form of education. And you think about that even through the Scriptures. How often, even in the Old Testament, did God remind us again and again and again that I am your God, and you shall be my people. And we need to be reminded of that, not only what God's responsibility is, but what our responsibilities are as well, because that's what a relationship is about. So once I find my glasses, I'm going to tell you the title of this message, and then we're going to get into it.

And it is simply this, Becoming Clothed in Christ. Becoming Clothed in Christ. I don't know if you've ever thought about it. I was thinking about it this morning, and that is simply this, that I'm becoming increasingly aware that God is a spiritual wardrobe designer. He's a spiritual wardrobe designer. And it's kind of interesting from the Old Testament into the New Testament of what he describes for us to learn and to understand.

And what I'm going to be sharing in this message called, again, Being Clothed in Christ, is I want to kind of take the whole season that we've just been through, which involves two festivals and two holy days. The Passover is a festival. The Days of Unleavened Bread are a festival. The Days of Unleavened Bread have two holy days. If you've never heard that over 50 years in the church, there you go. So you just kind of know what the ruler is as we're going through God's plan of revelation to us. And we recognize that with the Passover is to recognize that it is the story of rescue. It's the story of redemption that God performed with the children of Israel based upon the promise that he had given to Abraham, that his descendants might inherit the land that God was giving him. And so there's a tremendous rescue story. And there's a story of going through the Red Sea and coming up and out on the other side. It's not only the story of the death of the firstborn of Egypt. It's not only the story of the death of a lamb.

But then we recognize that as we go to the next festival, the Days of Unleavened Bread, whereas Passover is—are you with me? As Passover is about death and a glorious death that comes about later on in 31 A.D., as we move into the Days of Unleavened Bread, it's about life. It is about life. And it's about the new life. And that what that lamb did for us, the Lamb of God, that we have a life to live, that once we have that understanding, life can never be the same. And God never tended to be the same. But now let me come back a second. There's a very famous phrase that is found over in Exodus 12 and verse 11. Exodus 12 and verse 11. Why don't we put our noses into it for just a second, because it's going to come back to us at the very end of this message. In Exodus 12 and picking up the thought in verse 11, they were to sit down, they were to have, you know, the blood was supposed to be on the post, and there'd be the lamb, there'd be the Passover meal. Notice what it says. And thus you shall eat it, speaking of the lamb, with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, so shall and you shall eat it in haste, and it is the Lord's Passover. Let's notice something.

There were three things that they were to have. You can say, oh, they didn't really do that. He just kind of meant that, you know, just kind of threw it out there. No, they were to have their sandals on their feet. They were to be girded up and ready to go, because they had a belt holding them together. And they were to have a staff in their hand, because when God acts, He's going to act. And that's why we call that a vigil. We need to be alert. We need to be aware. We need to know what's coming at us. We need to know how to handle it and recognize that God will go before us.

So we notice that God gave them on that Passover evening a spiritual wardrobe.

Here, here, and a staff in their hand. And we'll talk about that a little bit later.

But now we're going to go to the other side of the Red Sea, and I'm saying that metaphorically.

We've gone through the days of Unleavened Bread. We know that by tradition that Israel came out of that Red Sea on that seventh day. When the wind blew from the north, came, cleared that path. And it says that in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 through 4, that Israel went through the Red Sea and was baptized unto Moses. 1 Corinthians 10, 1, 2. And to recognize that, and it says, and then they followed that rock, which is Jesus Christ. That was a type. When you look at context, what Clint just mentioned, that there was a type and there's an anti-type. Moses was a type of Christ. Christ was that greater Moses that would lead us towards the kingdom of God. That was a deliverer. That was a lawgiver. And that was favored by God and would be God's spokesman. And so, even as the people were baptized unto Moses as a type, you and I, as the spiritual Israel of God, both you and Gentile now grafted in together into this one body, we are baptized into Jesus Christ, aren't we? At our baptism. And that's what we're going to be figuring on as we go forward. So once again, stay with the thought and exodus about those. I'm seeing you all have your sandals on today. Okay. We're going to be talking about that at the very end of the message. But again, the title of my message is Becoming Closed in Christ. And we're basically going to center on one major set of scriptures. Would you please join me over in Colossians chapter three. Colossians three. And we're going to pay. We're just going to go through the book of Colossians. I'm going to add a little bit here, a little salt and pepper it with a few other verses. But this is, I feel, God's message to us.

I've looked at this over many years, spoken on it several times. And each time I look at it, I've got to be honest with you. It is utterly fantastically written. It just pops. It just the nouns, the verbs, the action items. We're going to go through that. Remember how Weber always talks about those little small words in the Bible, the power that lies there in. We're going to see all of that. We're going to sit around words. So have your thinking caps on. Stay with me. We're going to get through it together. And let's notice what says it's beginning chapter three, verse one. If then, if what is the if, if you believe that God the Father sent Jesus Christ, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. I'm going to flow through a few verses just to keep the context for a moment. Set, set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth.

Now notice verse three. Wake up, call. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also, also will appear with him in glory. Now that's not only a mouthful, but that is a heartful to understand and to break down and to make sure that our hearts are ready to serve God. Let's just go through this then, these first three or four verses, and see what we've got going on here. It says then, if then you were, notice, watch this, this is the PowerPoint, if you were raised, if you were raised with, not by yourself, not by a witch doctor, not by a doctor, but with Christ. It says, seek those things which are above. So the whole focus is looking up. Over the last three or four years, I've just taken to when I normally write people, I'll say, keep looking up. And up is in all caps with an exclamation mark. I'm not only reminding them, guess who else I'm reminding? Moi, me.

We can get so trapped down here below that we look at everything around, and we begin to drown, because of everything coming at us, rather than recognizing who has called us.

So raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. It says to seek. When you're seeking, let me share this. If I'm just stationary like this, am I seeking? Seeking is a word of projection. It's a word of activity. It is a word of going after something because it's very, very valuable. Here we are in California. When I say a 49er, we're not talking about 1749, we're not talking about 1949, we're talking about a 49er, that 1849. Because people from around the world, not just the eastern coast of America, came to California seeking what? Seeking gold. So seeking is a word of activity.

It doesn't mean it's going to come to you. You've got to put yourself in. And what is the major thing that we are to be seeking? Those that are to, in that sense, become clothed in Christ. Matthew 6, 33, pure and simple. Seek you first, seek, there's that word, boom, seek you first, the kingdom of God. So we're looking out ahead, seeking that kingdom.

But at the same time, the rest of the verse says, and his righteousness. So we come to understand that when we look at Matthew 6, 33, what we're seeking, it's not only about a destination.

It's not only getting to that point, but it's how we get there with his righteousness. Sometimes, I think, over the years when people have withdrawn from the truth that God has given them, they thought that what God was talking about, Matthew 6, 33, was simply a destination.

It's not just a destination. It's a way of traveling. It's not an event in the future.

It's an existence that we live day by day doing these things, actually recognizing that the kingdom of God in that portion has already come to us in this lifetime. Let's keep on going here.

With Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Now, this is incredible. What Paul is saying here very quickly, Christ is risen.

He's not just simply one more dead lamb. He's not simply one more dead duck. He's not simply one more dead martyr for the cause of Judea. Notice again, it says, He is up above. In other words, He is risen. That's where Christ is. And He's sitting down at the right hand of God.

This is what makes Him so special. If Jesus had only died, that would have been incredible, but that would not have been enough. If He only lived a perfect life, which He did, if He had died and sacrificed Himself for the cause, that would have been wonderful.

But beyond that, He rose from the dead, and He rose from the dead during the days of 11 bread.

That's why the days of 11 bread, as it extends from the death experience of the Passover, the days of 11 bread are about life and the new life and being clothed in Christ, and not during just simply those days, because we don't eat love bun, because there's also 11 of heaven that we need to be able to be supping on and eating now and understanding that. And notice it says, where Christ is, understand the five great elements of the ministry of Christ to this point. His life, His death, His resurrection. Other people have been resurrected, right? Am I talking right? Have other people been resurrected? Are we right? Yes. But it says, then, He ascended, number four, He ascended, and number five, He's been exalted. And you notice it says He's at the right hand of God. That means right there. We know what it means, the right hand man. We have the right hand entity of Jesus Christ, who is no less than God.

And notice it says, He is sitting at the right hand of God. The word there, sitting, is incredibly important when we're looking at it. Sitting means the job has been done. The job, in part, has been done. Jot down Hebrews 1 and verse 3. The opening of Hebrews, which is about the magnificence of Jesus Christ compared to all that has gone before, in Hebrews 3, excuse me, second, in Hebrews 3, and picking up the thought in verse 1, notice what, Hebrews 1 verse 3, chapter 1 verse 3, who being in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, yes, that's Passover time, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

When you have done your work for the day, whether you're a homemaker at home, and that can be exhausting, I'm married to one, and or you've been at the job and you've had to deal with this, you had to deal with that, you had to deal with this phone call, you had to deal with this employee, you had to deal with this, and you come home and the day is done, what do you do when you go home? You sit down. The work is done. We need to understand the significance and the magnificence of when He sits down at His Father's right hand in that exultation and being there, that we have the Lamb in place that is there. It's incredible. So then with all that state, it says, set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth. In other words, it is all right to have affection. Affection is a beautiful thing. I'm affected by somebody that I have been living with for 51 years and it never stops. I have affection for my wife.

You should probably listen to this and mad at me now for bringing her up again.

But anyway, there is affection. There is a good affection. But we're going to be warned also about there are bad affections that God has called us out of. For it says, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Now, when we look at that in the Greek thought, that when the Greeks thought of being hidden, they thought of death as being hidden and buried by dirt. Hidden from the living. But when we're talking about hidden with Christ, we're dealing with something much different, that our life is to be hidden in Christ, that we are to be draped in His example, to be draped in His encouragement, to be draped in looking at the choices that He made, that ordinary man makes differently. And it says, and when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will appear with Him in glory. I'd like you to go to Galatians 2 and verse 20 for just a second. Galatians 2 and verse 20 on this one.

In Galatians 2 and verse 20, have you ever tried to find Galatians in the Old Testament? I just tried it and didn't work. Galatians 2 and verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. I am dead.

Is what the apostle Paul is saying. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Christ is not something that you reach out for.

Are you with me? Christ lives in us. That's what the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the Father and Jesus Christ. You say, well, how does that work? Go to Romans 8, 9 through 11, because it speaks of the Spirit of the Father, speaks of the Spirit of the Son, which is united. It dwells in us. That's what allows us to be a temple of that Holy Spirit residing in us, that our heart is the temple. So we have an incredible connection with God the Father through Jesus Christ when we look at this. And it says He lives in me. And then join me if you would in Philippians, another writing of the apostle Paul in the book of Philippians, and picking up the thought in verse 1 and verse 20. Now, notice going back to verse 4, who Christ, who is our life. He's not our hobby. He's not a hobby.

He can't be an occasional visitor. It doesn't work that way. Jesus is not mystery. He is not theory. He's not mystical. He is. And notice what it says in Philippians 1 verse 20, when Paul speaking says this, For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ. Now, that's for chapter 2, but let's go to chapter 1. Pardon me. I thought I had a page in between. Here we go.

Now, that is what I had. That's interesting. Okay. I was actually looking for the verse where it says, For to live for Christ is to live, and to die for Christ is also to live. But let's just stay on with that for a second, then. What is this raising about? I'd like to draw your attention here for a second, if I can find it on my notes. Let's go to Colossians 2. We're still in the book of Colossians.

In Colossians 2, in picking up the thought in verse 9, For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him who is the head of the principality and power.

In him, always identify, talking about context, always identify who is the pronoun talking about?

Is it God the Father? Is it Jesus Christ? Is it their Holy Spirit? What's being talked about here? In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. This is different than what was with ancient Israel from the outside molding the outside of a man. This is from the inside out. That's how the Spirit works. The Spirit of God works from the inside out, and God is doing some heavily heavy duty molding of the inward woman. This kind of circumcision involves everybody, man and woman, this inward spiritual circumcision where God's reach goes into us, begins to shape us, begins to form us, and we're buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together, alive having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Now it begins to crescendo, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them. Here Paul, the Roman citizen, draws upon Rome, and what Rome would do when there was a victory, it was called a triumph. Oftentimes it might be Caesar. Other times Caesar would, waringly, allow the general that had been in the battle have the triumph as the great procession came through Rome. And there might be a German chieftain in shackles. There may be a man from Parthia in shackles, and all behold it, humbled. And here it says there's been a triumph. This is the triumph for you and me. This is the triumph ultimately for all of humanity. Incredible.

And to recognize that. And it's interesting if you want to jot down when you go to Ephesians 4 about verse 7 or 8, where it says, again Paul speaking, the inner Roman coming out of a remember hit, new Rome, new Greek, new Jew, it's simply this, where it says, and Jesus led captivity captive. One of the great verses in scripture, when you understand the meaning, we've all been captive to the death penalty apart from God and why he's in Jesus Christ, our Passover. And through that, later on, matching these words about triumph, that Jesus himself leads that and he, that being called Lucifer, called Satan, is going to lead him captive. That's what we're talking about.

Now, let's go to verse 5. A great verse when you're studying the Bible. Love these words. Therefore, there go, watch this, everybody. You always want to, don't trip over there for, say, oh, everything before it has led up to this big moment. This is what God has done.

Now, what are we supposed to do in turn?

See, that's what a relationship is about. God will always do what only God himself can do.

But then he asked us to do what we ought to do. And yes, with his helping hand and his helping heart, but we have a part of this. We've not been called to be bystanders. We've not been called to be spectators. We have been called to be doers. Let's notice what it says in verse 5. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire, covenants, which is idolatry.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me, first commandment. I am the Lord, your God, not somebody else's God, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of what? The house of bondage. And you shall have no other gods before me. First commandment.

These can be gods to us. It's interesting. Therefore, put to death.

Big statement. What are you wrestling with right now in your life?

That's got you shackled down. That you forgot what the first five verses are about.

And maybe today, after hearing this message, what are you going to do with the therefore?

To put these things out of our life. You know, it says fornication. That can be physical, but it can also be spiritual. You ever thought about that? Not to have fornication. We are already, as Paul says, that we are espoused to Jesus Christ. We are espoused to Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? In the world that Jesus was from, like Mary and Joseph, the parents, when you were betrothed, betrothed, betrothed in our modern language, engaged. It was like marriage.

To be betrothed was already, in a sense, a marriage bonded. You just hadn't had the next part. You were, in a sense, considered husband and wife to a great degree, but you had to wait.

We are espoused to Jesus Christ. When we go off of these things and stay with these things, that's spiritual fornication. We are not being true to our lover above Jesus Christ who gave his life for us. It says, therefore put to death. What is one of the great stories? I'm going to ask you a question for a moment, not only as our congregation, but class. What is one of the great stories out of the Old Testament, where somebody was put to death and there is no Africa Damned? There's, oh, I'm so sorry for what I did.

Take one guess.

It was a young shepherd boy, and he went into the valley of Elath, and he said, you know what you've done, buddy? You have defied the people of God, and you're going down. I have a question for you. This is not hard. Did he go down? No. No. Yeah, he did. Who said no?

Goliath didn't go down? He didn't? He didn't. What'd he do?

I'm asking you. I'm sorry? Oh, no, no. Okay, good.

Now that we've got that covered, is that Goliath goes like a sequoia.

Nine feet of him, tallest human sequoia, goes down. What does David do? Oh, no. This is horrible.

You know, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Giants, they're going to take me to court on this one. No!

He grabbed the sword of the guy that he just put down on the ground. He took that guy's sword, and he cut off his head. Boom!

Howl. Oh, just joking. Okay. Is that how we tackle our lives? When we stop looking up, and we get passionate and affectionate, and turned on by that which is around, that is going to have immediate effect, just like salt. And I've never met anybody that doesn't like salt, and if they don't like salt, they sure like sugar, and if they don't like sugar, they like salt. Oh, no, I don't want to. No, we're into it. Drug. No. We've gone through the Passover, the days of a lump bread. What are you still dealing with in your life? I can only add, don't raise your hand. This is not a...

Not today. No confessionals here, okay? Is that what are you dealing with that you're still holding on to, and have not put to death since Passover? As you pray to God, help me. Question.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons, and I'll add in the 21st century, the daughters of disobedience. The wrath of God. Sometimes this is misunderstood. Like God is likened to do like a sore in Norse mythology, the God of thunderbolts, wrong, wrong, wrong. No, the wrath sometimes there is like God has done everything that he can do, and thus now he's just going to let it go its course until we just have our nose stuck in it so far that may... you know, I've done what I can, so I've sent my son. They've got a Bible, they've heard the word, but I'm just going to have to hold off. Sometimes that's a unique form of wrath, but it's often spoken about in the book of Romans. It says that it's coming upon the son in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Now notice verse 8, but now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. These can both be taken at a physical level, human to human, and also at a spiritual level because they really tie in together. It says to put off. And I looked down here, which was interesting, where it says anger and wrath and malice. And I looked up the word malice. Malice definition is simply this.

This is quite incredible. It's like the mosquito that will not go away on a summer day or summer evening. Malice-ness is malignant viciousness. Malignant viciousness. Have you ever known anybody like that? Have you seen yourself like that? It's just like a cancer. It grows and grows because you haven't given it to God. And that that person that maybe you have that malice towards is a human being just like yourself. I'm not excusing maybe their actions, but we've got a champion. We've got a bigger champion than David. We have the descendant of David. We have the ultimate giant killer that we talked about is knocking off Satan. It has a triumph going on. And notice what says, do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. I want to share something with you. Now we have a situation. Now we're going to have a chapter two out of this one chapter. Now notice what it says here. And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Now notice something very important.

A lot of action going on here because you can't just put off something. You've got to put on something. A very key element of being a follower of Jesus Christ before the Father is to simply recognize this. God cannot operate in a... God is not going to operate in a vacuum. Satan will.

There's a difference here. You've got to put off and you've got to put on. It's not enough to put off. You've got to put on. That's very important. And I think I did this last time, but this... I'm just going to go kind of like this for a second because it's this dramatic what happens. You probably were wondering what this coat was about.

And I know the camera is following me, right? Tammy or John?

The new man. The new look. Something has happened.

Something real. Not just something ethereal. When God speaks of new, He does not speak of new, and you've heard me say this many times, but it makes sense. He's not talking about new and improved. He's not talking about you ladies. You know how you go to the supermarket. You see the new and improved and you look at it. Yeah, it might be new, but it's not improved. And by the way, the box is smaller and the price has gone up. This is not working, right?

God is talking about something that is completely different.

Jesus Christ came that you and I might be a new kind of man, a new kind of woman, a new kind of creation. He's going to give us a new name. We are approaching God, as it says in Hebrews, in a new and a living way. Now, I'm just talking to myself up here, but how many of us have come alive even more? And I know some of us have been in this way of life, 60 years, 50 years, but what did the Passover and what did the Days of Unleavened Bread, which we call the Passover season? Are we just operating on the same walk on this side of the Red Sea, moving towards the land of promise? Or has it been a change? Is there a growth? Is there a building? Is there a development? Are you tackling something that you know is that we're looking around down here rather than looking up that is hindering your witness of Jesus Christ to others, starting in your family, starting in our church family, starting in your office building, starting in whatever you want to call about. So this means to put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of who created him. Let's go to verse 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in all.

He is everything. And that's what we said when we were baptized. Oh, when the minister brought us down into the water, and have you repented of your sins? Have you? And there's so much of this in this chapter. It's so personal. It talks about your. It talks about you. It talks about your action, not some preacher up here from from a lectern. And I'm talking to myself. I mean, this is this is like oxygen in my blood, reading this and recognizing how much I yet need to confront certain things that I might be true to what God has called me to. Where there is none of this, but Christ is all in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, notice what it says here. Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility. Oh, humility, meekness, long suffering. Put on tender mercies, deep, heartfelt, being empathetic. There's a difference between sympathy and empathy.

Getting underneath somebody else's skin and recognizing what they're going through.

And putting it into context where maybe your relationship has been bouncing back and forth with them or poking them, or maybe they've been poking you, but to to understand where another individual is coming from. That's not to excuse the lacks of that individual, but to understand for us how to approach that. During the upcoming general conference, I'm going to be a part of a committee. We're going to be taking questions from the the GCE community. It's going to be on conflict. That'll be interesting. That never happens with the people of God, does it? No.

Just think of Cain and Abel. Just think of the patriarchs. Just think of the judges. Just think of the kings of Israel. Just think of the disciples.

But it's your time now. What they did or what they didn't do is between them and God.

God has a one-on-one relationship with us. And what are we doing? Notice what it says in verse 13, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

Bearing. We have been called to be bearers.

Can somebody tell me who Simon of Cyrene was?

Who is Simon of Cyrene?

I can't hear.

Is that a question or is that an answer? I never know. I mean, Suzanne. Whenever I give a question, she goes, exactly. It's what a Jewish rabbi would do. He'd always put the answer in the question, but it came back as a question. So anyway, Victor, who is Simon of Cyrene?

One who carried Christ's cross on the inside.

One who carried Christ's cross on the inside. Yeah, Simon of Cyrene was called to be a crossbearer. When your dear Messiah and our Lord was stumbling and going to that altar of Golgotha, the Romans called out somebody.

And Simon of Cyrene was a city on the North African coast.

So he was a Jew of the diaspora. And at that moment, and we never know the moment when God is going to call upon us to be a crossbearer, that Simon of Cyrene was selected and he helped Jesus fulfill that assignment as they together called up that pathway on the altar of Golgotha. That, in part, is what you and I have been called to be, to be a crossbearer, to help brothers, to help sisters along. And maybe sometimes even people that we haven't met, even like the good Samaritan.

It says, and why do we do these things? Because we have been forgiven, that we might forgive others.

Verse 14, but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

It doesn't get any better. But to put on love, to put on agape. There's a beautiful verse if you jot it down. I'll let you look at it later. 1 John 3, 1 through 2, where it says, John, after 60 years, it's been almost 50 or 60 years since he's with his Lord, with his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, behold, what manner of love the Father is giving. When in the Greek sense of that, as you get down below the words that are English, it's saying, this is a love that's not from around here. This is not a love that is earthly. It's not earthbound. It's been sent from above. That's why it's called agape. It's outflowing. It's outgoing, concerned for others, away from self, without a string attached, but with a finger pointed up to God, saying, thank you, Father, for allowing me to be your vessel.

Remember what it says in 1 Corinthians 13, where after that beautiful exposition of what love is, it says, these three things remain.

Love, faith, and hope. But I have a question for you.

Which one does Paul say is the greatest?

Are you sure? Absolutely. It's love. It all floats on that faith towards God because he loved us first while we were yet in sin. And notice what it says here, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called into one body. We did not join the ecclesia.

Get over it. We did not join the ecclesia. We were called. We were invited.

God began working with our minds and with our hearts. It says in 1 Corinthians 2 and 9, 10, it says that, you know, I have not seen, neither has ear heard the wonderful things that God has in store for us. It's of God. And it says, if we do that in the peace of God rules in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body. And be thankful. This peace, this shalom, this shalom is not what we think of as peace. When a Jew tells another Jew, he gives him, I just used that term. I'm trying to think. I just finished my next column and I used a term about shalom. But anyway, that shalom, when a Jew greets another Jew, it's like aloha, beginning and ending. You get, for the Jew, you get blessings. You got blessings right at the beginning, you get a blessing at the end. But when the Jew says shalom, it doesn't mean to just have a non-trouble free life. That's not what the blessing is about. Hear me, please. It's saying, it's saying God will provide. Going back to Abram, going back to the mountains of Moriah, God will provide. God will give you the tools. God will be with you. God will be there.

Even as sometimes the Jews were being mounted onto the trains, going to Auschwitz, going to Dachau, going to Buchenwald, I've been to Dachau, I've seen it. The train comes right to the front of the camp that even as those Jews at times would be packed onto those trains, they would be saying, Shema, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord your God is one, and you shall have no other gods. And it goes on, say, to worship that God with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your heart, with all of your strength. It was never broken.

They have a future, don't they? They will have a future in their time and their way.

God will mark the devotion that they had, and guess what? Like Paul Harvey, he'll get to tell them the rest of the story, and they'll also be invited into their family.

Jesus himself had said this love, he says, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples.

If you have love, one for another. It says in verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or do, do everything, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And we could spend two hours talking about what the name of the Lord Jesus means. Just enough right there. The Lord Jesus, Lord is Kurios, or Soder, which means Lord, which means King, which means ruler. And of course, and we have Jesus, which is salvation. Yeshua, Joshua. And to recognize that, giving thanks to God, the Father through him.

You notice what it says, and we're almost done. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom. The word of God is like bread. It's like nourishment to our soul.

But going back to the Old Testament, which I know we've stuck our nose and our heart in a lot over this past month with the Passover, etc., one thing I want to remind you of, that the word is nourishment. But when God fed Israel in the wilderness, and now we're in that wilderness again on this other side of the Red Sea, moving towards the kingdom of God, Israel, how often did Israel have to collect that bread to live? Can somebody help me? I just landed from Mars. What's the lesson? How often? Are you sure? We got, boom, got an answer this time? Yes, okay, thank you.

Daily. Good. He didn't say, ladies, go shopping once a week on Thursday. It was important for them to glean nourishment from God daily to survive. We know about the Friday scenario.

That's exactly what we need to do with the Word of God. We need to imbibe of it. Not one big super meal, you know, when everything, nothing else is going on. But daily, daily, every day, the manna from heaven, of course, Jesus Christ is that Word, but He also had the spoken Word. We have the written Word. We have the Word by those that Jesus actually appeared to, to encourage us in this day and this age. Let's conclude, and I'd like you to join me over in Deuteronomy 29.

In Deuteronomy 29.

It's a great verse.

I'm actually going to pick up in verse four. Are you ready?

Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear to this very day.

And, but this is what I have led you 40 years into the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you. And notice what it says, your sandals have not worn out on your feet. This is remarkable.

Friends, showstopper, 40 years, they never wore out.

What did God tell them to wear on that night of deliverance back in Egypt? You shall wear what? The sandals. They never wore same sandals. 40 years later, hot sand.

God provided. God said to have a belt, a piece of clothing, it did not wear out.

And that was just a type of the greater type. When we are clothed in Jesus Christ, and we are wrapped into his life, we are wrapped into his death, we are wrapped into his resurrection, when we are wrapped in the understanding that he is now a sinner, that he is at the right hand of God, that he has sat down, and he has been exalted, and he is coming back, you can't wear that out.

What does it say in Ephesians 6 about, again, God's spiritual wardrobe? He talks about the buckle, the belt of truth, doesn't he? The belt that holds us up as we march towards our pilgrimage in the kingdom of God. It talks about the feet being shod with the gospel, the good news. And the best news at all is that we are not alone, and that God by his grace allows us to be shrouded with his own son. Tuck this one into your heart. Go deep. I'd like to really encourage you to always remember, every so often, do a self-exam here in Colossians chapter 3, and keep your eyes looking up.