Personal Questions…
Are You Wearing Your Best Clothes?
Isaiah 64:6
March 25, 2001
Intro:
A. [Clothes Make a Church]
A Methodist church tried to get a man to attend, but he never did.
"Why don’t you come?" the minister asked, and the man finally admitted it was because he didn’t have proper clothes.
So a member of the congregation took him to a clothing store and got him a nice suit, shirt, tie, and shoes.
But on the following Sunday, he still did not show up.
So the minister visited him again and asked him why he didn’t come.
"When I got dressed up in my new suit," the man explained, "I looked so good I decided to go to the Episcopal church."
B. Today I want to look at the Bible to see what kind of clothes God wants us to wear.
1. Is it suits and ties?
2. Is it skirts and blouses?
3. Or perhaps its something totally unexpected.
4. Are you wearing your best clothes?
C. Isaiah 64:6, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
1. God says that the best things we do are like dirty rags.
2. The Bible says that all of the good deeds we do are like filthy rags.
3. Our best deeds are nothing but filthy rags and yet that is what so many people wear to church every week.
4. Have you lived your life trying to be a good person?
5. Then God says your wearing filthy rags.
6. Is that what you should be wearing when you come to church?
7. Are filthy rags the best you can come up with to come to worship God?
8. Can’t you find anything better in your closet to wear than filthy old rags?
9. But I’ve got some Good News!
10. The Good News is that God wants to give us some nice clothes to wear and they are absolutely free, if we’ll just take ‘em and wear ‘em!
D. Galatians 3:27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
1. The Good News is that if we have been baptized into Christ, we have been clothed with Christ.
2. And being clothed with Christ is the finest suit you’ll ever own—and I guarantee it!
3. I happen to have several suits in my closet, but they cannot compare with the clothes that Christ has given me!
4. I have done a few good deeds in my life, but they are nothing but filthy rags compared to the clothes that Christ has clothed me in!
E. In the past several weeks we have looked at what the Bible says about our high position in Christ.
1. I have said repeatedly that the Christian life is not hard to live—it is impossible to live.
2. And the reason it is impossible to live is because only Christ can live it.
3. Today I want to say that there is no way that we can be a good person and try to live the Christian life on our own by trying to do enough good deeds, because all of our good deeds combined are nothing but filthy rags!
4. Today I want to say that the only way that we can live the Christian life is by being clothed with Christ and letting Him live in us!
5. What is a real Christian?
6. A real Christian is a person who has both put on Christ and has Christ living in Him and loving through Him.
7. We cannot live the Christian life on our own, we must have Christ in us and on us!
8. Today I want to talk about what Christians really are; first…
I. Christians Bear With Others
Ephesians 4:2, Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
A. Paul says that Christians should bear with others…
1. And he tells us how we are to do that.
2. He says we are to be completely humble with others.
3. He says that we are to be gentle with others.
4. He says we are to be patient with others.
5. When someone has a different opinion than ours, we are to be completely humble.
6. When someone has a personality problem that gets on our nerves, we are to be gentle with them.
7. When someone does not seem to be making much progress as a Christian, we are to be patient with them.
8. Now I don’t know about you, but I am not completely humble.
9. I often have a hard time being gentle.
10. And I certainly have a problem with patience.
11. Am I am truly a Christian, or am I a hypocrite?
12. There was a man who went into a restaurant and ordered his steak…
The waitress brought the steak out, the man said, "Thank-you" and the lady went on to the next table.
The man cut into his steak and discovered that it wasn’t done well enough for him and he got angry.
He called the waitress and said, "Come over here! This steak isn’t cooked enough."
The waitress said she’d be happy to take the steak back and have it cooked more.
She brought the steak back, the man cut into it, and it was over-cooked.
The man yelled at the waitress again, "Ma’am this steak is over-cooked now."
What would you say?
Well, the waitress said, "I’d be happy to take the steak away and have another one cooked for you."
So she did, she brought the new steak, the man cut into it, and it was just right.
So he decided to cut into the potato and he found a big black spot in it.
He called the waitress back over and said, "Lady this potato is bad!"
What would you say?
She picked up the potato and mimicked spanking it and said, "Bad, bad, bad!"
She put the potato back down and said, "If you have anymore trouble with it sir, you just let me know!"
13. I’d say she handled that old grump pretty well, wouldn’t you?
14. But I honestly can’t do that very well, can you?
15. But the Bible says that Christians are suppose to Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
16. So how do we do that?
B. Philippians 3:9, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
1. You see it really is impossible for a human to Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
2. The only way we can do that is to have clothed ourselves with Christ and let Him love people through us!
3. You see our righteousness will not get it most of the time.
4. Our trying to be a good person is not going to get it.
5. Our trying to be completely humble and gentle, patient, and bearing with others usually falls short when we do it on our own.
6. But the only way we can bear with others like Christ wants us to, is to let Christ do it THROUGH us!
7. When someone gripes about their food, we tell Christ to love this person through us.
8. Then, you see, we have a righteousness that is not our own, but the righteousness that comes from God.
9. Real Christians bear with others because they have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ; next…
II. Christians Forgive Others
Colossians 3:13, Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
A. Paul says that in addition to bearing with others, we are to forgive them…
1. Now how do I do that?
2. What if I have an ex-spouse who really is putting the screws to me?
3. What if I have a boss that continually treats we like a slave?
4. What if you have a neighbor who has stabbed you in the back?
5. What if there’s someone in your church who says things about you behind your back?
6. How in the world do you forgive someone who does evil things to you?
7. How in the world do you forgive someone who seems to enjoy doing bad things to you?
8. Is forgiveness something that just flows naturally from you?
B. Paul also says in Philippians 1:11 that Christians are to be, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.
1. You see when we have been clothed with Christ, there is fruit that we produce.
2. And just as pear trees don’t bear apples, Christians who have put on Christ don’t bear bad fruit.
3. When we have clothed ourselves with Christ, Christ will bear His fruit.
4. When we have clothed ourselves with Christ, Christ will not bear bad fruit.
5. When we have clothed ourselves with Christ, He will forgive others because that is what He does!
6. When Christ was on the cross, He forgave those who had killed Him.
7. When Christ was on the cross, He forgave those who stabbed Him in the side.
8. When Christ was on the cross, He forgave those who said bad things about Him.
9. So you see if we have clothed ourselves with Christ, He will forgive others because that is what He does!
10. When we have clothed ourselves with Christ, we will bear the fruit of righteousness, because that is what Christ does.
11. Real Christians forgive others because we have been clothed with Christ; next…
III. Christians Love Others
John 13:35, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
A. I keep emphasizing the fact that Jesus has not called us to have warm, gushy feelings such as our society tries to tell us love is.
1. Paul defined the kind of love that Jesus meant in 1 Corinthians 13.
2. Love means that we are patient with others.
3. Love means that we are kind towards others.
4. Love means that we don’t envy others.
5. Love means that we do not boast before others.
6. Love means that we are not proud.
7. Love means that we are not rude.
8. Love means that we are not self-seeking.
9. Love means that we are not easily angered.
10. Love means that we don’t keep a list of someone’s wrongs.
11. That’s the kind of love that Jesus says we are to have for others.
12. Do we have that kind of love for others?
13. Does Somerset church have that kind of love for others?
14. Jesus said that all men would know that we are His disciples if we love one anther.
15. Is that what people see in us?
16. Do they come into this church and say, "Man, those people love one another! Boy do I need to be a part of something like that!’?
17. Is that what people say about Somerset?
18. Well it has to start on an individual level.
19. Do people say that about each of us personally?
20. When someone comes into your home, do they say, "There’s something special in this home?"
21. Do people know that we are Jesus’ disciples by our love?
B. Paul wrote in Romans 5:17, For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
1. We talked about this a few weeks ago.
a. In Adam we all died—spiritually—just as God said would happen if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
b. Adam and Eve thereby severed their relationship with God and they surely did die just as God said even though the Bible says Adam physically lived to the age of 930.
c. And every human who has lived since that time has sinned themselves and have died just as Adam and Eve did (except for Christ).
d. But there is Good News!
e. God had a remedy for man’s spiritual deadness—its life!
f. What do dead people need? (Life!)
g. And with that new life Christ has given us the gift of righteousness!
h. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
2. You see people will know that we are His disciples because He is loving through us!
3. There is nothing special about human love—but there is something special about Christ’s love and when people see Christ’s love IN us, they will know that we are His disciples!
4. Real Christians love others because we have taken the GIFT of Christ’s righteousness with which we can truly love others; next…
IV. Christians Pray For Others
James 5:16, Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
A. A preacher in Ohio named Dick Alexander tells a story about his mother…
1. He said his father was a preacher.
2. And whenever they would have to do certain things, he would ask his mother if they had to do it because his dad was the preacher.
3. His mother would say that no, they didn’t do it because they were the preacher’s family, they did it because they were Christians!
4. Do we pray like we should simply because we are Christians?
B. Did you notice that this verse had righteousness in it?
1. It says, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
2. Are any of us righteous ourselves?
3. Then who is the righteous man who prays prayers that are powerful and effective?
4. It Jesus!
5. Have you ever read the prayers of Jesus in the Bible?
6. Is there any question that His prayers are powerful and effective?
7. Am I righteous? Are my prayers powerful and effective?
8. No, but I have clothed myself with Christ and His prayers THROUGH me are powerful and effective!
9. When Christ prays through me, you can feel the power!
10. Its not my power—its His!
11. And when Christ prays through you, your prayers are powerful and effective!
12. Are we real Christians?
13. Do we pray like we should?
14. Real Christians pray powerfully because we have clothed ourselves with the Righteous One whose prayers are powerful and effective; next…
V. Christians Submit to Others
Ephesians 5:21, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Romans 12:10, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
A. Boy there’s a popular thing today!
1. There’s people out there falling all over themselves in order to put others first.
2. People go to Wal-Mart and keep moving themselves back further in the line in order to let others go in front of them.
3. People start to pull into a parking space and they see someone else who wanted it and they back up and let them have it.
4. Submission is not a popular thing.
5. Honoring others above ourselves is not an easy thing for us.
6. We struggle with it even in the church.
7. Even though we know better, we struggle with it in the church.
8. The church in Corinth struggled with it and listen to what Paul said to them in 1 Corinthians 1:10, I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
9. They put their opinions above the opinions of others, and when they did that it divided the church.
10. When people in the church don’t honor others above themselves, there is division in the church.
11. But Paul says that we are to be perfectly united in mind and thought.
12. How can we be perfectly united, honoring others above ourselves when someone else’s opinion is so vastly different than ours?
13. And I’m going to have to say that we have had a lot of problems with that here at Somerset.
14. We have a very difficult time allowing others’ opinions to pave the way instead of our own.
15. I’ve seen it in several different areas of the church’s ministry and it is becoming a problem.
16. So how do we deal that?
17. When two different people have strong opinions about something how do they honor the other above themself and be perfectly united in mind and thought?
B. In Romans 6:18, You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
1. We can submit to others because we have become slaves to righteousness.
2. We have clothed ourselves with Christ and we have become slaves to His righteousness.
3. Now there are a lot of things that people can be enslaved to.
4. And the great Biblical scholar Bob Dylan was exactly right when he sang that "you’ve gotta serve somebody."
5. If I’m gonna have to serve somebody, I pick Jesus!
6. There are a lot worse things and people to serve than Jesus, aren’t there?
7. So I willingly have clothed myself with Christ and have willingly allowed myself to be His slave.
8. And since I have clothed myself with Christ, Christ submits Himself to others.
9. Christ will never submit Himself in a way that contradicts His Father’s Word, but He will always submit to others and honor others above Himself because that’s who He is.
10. Real Christians submit themselves to others because they have submitted themselves to Christ.
VI. Christians Encourage Others
1 Thessalonians 5:11, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Hebrews 3:13, But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
A. Here’s another thing our world is not good at…
1. Our society says to look out for yourself and let others take care of themselves.
2. Our society kicks people when they are down.
3. And Josh McDowell says that the church is the only outfit he knows that shoots its wounded.
4. That’s a terrible thing to say, but all too often it is true.
5. So how do we encourage others.
6. And especially, how do we encourage people we don’t really like?
B. 1 Corinthians 1:30, It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
1. Jesus is our righteousness.
2. When we are in Christ Jesus, He is our righteousness.
3. Our good deeds are filthy rags.
4. But His good deeds are righteous.
5. And Jesus certainly knows how to lift up troubled souls.
6. Jesus certainly knows how to pick up the down-trodden.
7. And when we put on the righteousness of Christ, He will encourage others through us because that is what He does!
8. Real Christians encourage others because Christ is our righteousness.
VII. Christians Set An Example For Others
1 Timothy 4:12, Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
A. Paul says to set an example for others.
1. And I’m telling you that if you go to church, people watch you.
2. If you go to church, people watch you to see what your life is like.
3. If you gamble, people are going to notice.
4. If you have a foul mouth, people are going to notice.
5. When you go to church, people are going to watch how you act in public.
6. When you go to church, people are going to watch how you treat your wife and kids.
7. And Paul says that we are to set an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.
8. So are you able to always do the right thing so that other Christians learn how to live by watching you.
9. Are you able to always live the way you should so that if a non-believer watched you, they’d know what a real Christian was like?
B. Ephesians 4:22-24, You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
1. Paul says that we are to take off our old self and put on the new self which is created in the righteousness of God.
2. Just like you would change your clothes: you take off the filthy rags and put on the garments of Christ.
3. How do you set an example for others in your own filthy rags—you can’t do it!
4. But if you have clothed yourself with the righteousness of Christ you can set an example for others.
VIII. Christians Have Compassion For the Lost
Luke 19:10, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
1 Peter 4:9, Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
A. The Bible says that we need to have compassion for the lost.
1. Peter says that we are to offer hospitality without grumbling.
2. I wonder how hospitable we are to the new people who come to Somerset.
3. Are we concerned more about their souls than we are our own comfortableness?
4. Are we concerned enough about the souls of others to welcome new comers and show them the love of Christ?
5. Are we concerned enough about the souls of the lost to change the way we do things in order to reach them more effectively?
6. Are we concerned enough about the souls of the lost to change the way we worship in order to reach them more effectively?
7. Are we concerned more about their souls than we are our own comfortableness?
8. Are we here to seek and save the lost?
9. Are we, like the apostle Paul, becoming all things to all men so that by all possible means we might save some. (1 Corinthians 9:22)?
B. 1 Peter 2:24, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1. Peter says Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross.
2. Peter says Christ died so that we might die to our sins.
3. Peter says Christ died so that we would live for righteousness.
4. And certainly righteousness includes the mission for which Christ came to earth: to seek and save the lost.
5. Certainly if we have clothed ourselves with Christ, we will sacrifice our own comfortableness in order to seek and save the lost.
6. That’s what Christ did—He sacrificed big time!
7. He sacrificed His life to seek and save the lost.
8. And if we cloth ourselves with Christ we’ll sacrifice our comfortableness and our opinions and our money and our time and our talents and our hospitality and anything else that we have in order to seek and save the lost because Christ will sacrifice Himself through us in order to reach the lost!
Conclusion:
A. A Christian is someone who has Christ in them and have put on the clothing of Christ…
1. Christians bear with others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
2. Christians forgive others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
3. Christians love others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
4. Christians pray for others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
5. Christians submit to others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
6. Christians encourage others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
7. Christians set an example for others because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
8. Christians have compassion for the lost because we have clothed ourselves with Christ.
B. When I was younger (and skinnier), I played a lot of basketball…
1. I had a lot of hair (actually an afro), so my head sweat a lot.
2. I had knee problems and had to wear braces, so my knees would sweat a lot.
3. I had ankle problems so I wore very supportive high-tops (that were more like boots than sneakers), so my feet would sweat a lot.
4. I wasn’t very tall, so I had to really hustle to make up for my lack of size, and that caused me to sweat a lot.
5. When I got done playing, I would go into the bathroom and peel off my t-shirt and I could just ring the sweat out of it in the toilet.
6. I would unlace my shoes and peel off my sweat-soaked socks and there would be little pieces of sock-fuzz stuck in between my toes.
7. I would take of my sweaty shorts and get into the shower.
8. I would take a nice, long shower and really clean myself up.
9. I used some pretty smelling soap to take away the smell of the sweat.
10. I would use some perfumed shampoos to clean up my hair.
11. And I after I had really gotten cleaned up good, I would get out of the shower and dry off.
12. Then I would bend down and pick up my socks and put them back on.
13. I would put my shorts back on and my sweat-soaked t-shirt.
14. Now I really didn’t do that, but that is what a lot of Christians do.
15. They get themselves cleaned up by being baptized and they put their old filthy rags right back on.
16. Now why would you go to the bother of getting yourself cleaned up, if you were going to put your old filthy rags back on?
17. But that’s exactly what so many people do!
18. They go back to trying to live by their own power.
19. They go back to living by their own good deeds.
20. They go back to living by their own righteousness, which is nothing but filthy rags!
C. Isaiah 64:6, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
1. But listen to what Jesus said in Luke 24:49, I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
2. Have you been clothed with power?
3. Or are you still trying to live by your own power?
4. Have you been clothed with power from on high?
5. Are you wearing your best clothes?
6. Do you need to change your clothes today?
7. What response do you need to make to Him as we stand together and worship this Jesus whom we cloth ourselves with: "Holy and Anointed One."
