Get You Clothes On Series

Jesus Is Enough - Part 5

"Get Your Clothes On"

Many years ago there was an emperor who was so fond of new clothes that he spent all of his money on them. He did not give himself any concern about his army; he cared nothing about the theater or for driving about in the woods, except for the sake of showing himself off in his new clothes. he had a costume for every hour in the day, and just as they say of a King or an Emperor, "He is in his council chambers," they said of him, "The emperor is in his dressing room."

One day 2 strangers came into to town, they were con men who passed themselves off as master weavers. And they said that they knew how to make the most exquisite clothes. Not only were the colors and patterns uncommonly beautiful, but the clothes were made of stuff that had a peculiar property -- that of being invisible to every person who was unfit for the office he held or who was exceptionally stupid.

"Those must be valuable clothes" thought the emperor, "By wearing them I should be able to discover which of the men in my empire are fit for office... And I will be able to distinguish the wise from the fools. So the emperor paid the 2 scoundrels a handsome sum of money in advance, as they required. Now the 2 men pocketed the money and pretended to be weaving.

As time passed the emperor was getting anxious about his new clothes -- but as he reflected that the clothes reveled those who were unfit or stupid, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to go. So he sent his top aide. Well of course when this aide went to where these men were busy about their weaving, he saw nothing, but not wanting to be judged unfit or stupid -- he said "Oh, it is most elegant and beautiful, what a fine pattern and what fine colors. I will certainly tell the emperor how pleased I am with these fine cloths.

As time passed the emperor sent more aides all of who brought back the same reports.....Finally the day came and the emperor with the help of his stewards after taking off his old clothes, pretended to put on and button his new outfit....

And as he marched down the streets, his attendants were behind him acting as though they were carrying his long train and everyone in the streets was shouting, "What beautiful clothes, how splendid...." though in fact they saw nothing, but they didn’t want to be judged as being unfit or stupid. Until that is, a little child said, "But he has nothing on..."

So, what does this have to do with the book of Colossians.... Last Week -- we studied the first 10 verses of Colossians, remember: "Jesus Is Enough, Therefore Let Go Of The World...."

We talked about the four things we need to do in order to let go of the world. First we said that we need to set our minds and hearts on things above..we need to let thoughts of heaven fill our thoughts...... And then I gave you a picture to help re-enforce the next 2 steps, Picture #1 was - Phinehas - who vividly showed us, that we need to put to death - greed & sexual immorality. Picture #2 was Lazarus taught us that -- we need to remove the grave clothes of old way of life - God’s word says to the Christian, "NOW is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy speech and lies...." And the final step was we need to renew ourselves - HOW? -- by hanging out with God.

And it is good to do that (it is good & right --- to put to death and remove the things that should not be in our life) -- the Bible tells us to do that...BUT Listen, we can’t stop there, because there are also some things that we need to put on.

You see, many times we like the Emperor are deceived.... We buy costly and expensive thread and cloth from the weaver of lies -- who leads us to believe that in Christianity it is enough to simply not do the don’ts... To just remove the old man without ever putting on the new...

And many times we walk through the center of our town, So proud, pompous and self righteous -- wanting everyone to see just how pretty we are (look at all the things, I don’t do), Not knowing that we are walking around naked and that we have been made a fool of by the great deceiver.

You see, it is not enough to just get rid of the bad it, is not enough to just not smoke or chew, or go out with women who do......Because if we only take off the bad, and never get around to putting on the good >>> we are placing ourselves in a very dangerous situation.