Col No.25 The Christian's Wardrobe

And from the 14th verse, Revelation 3 verse 14, and I want you particularly to note verse 18 when we read it. Revelation 3 verse 14, no matter what version of the Bible you've got, join with me in reading this please. He, sorry, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith thee, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold, tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now you will find it helpful to have your Bibles open at the third chapter of Colossians as once more we have recourse to this inspired and highly valuable teaching. You will recall that last week we were looking at the passage contained between the 5th and the 11th verses, and there I ran an analogy from the church of Jesus Christ to that of an academy in which people from a variety of backgrounds, as is indicated in the 11th verse, come.

This academy is made up of an international community who have made a unilateral declaration that they are not going to live like the rest of people in this world, and they give unequivocal reasons for so doing, and the basic one is this, that they want to follow the commandments of God. So you remember that analogy of this Christian academy to which everyone who names the name of Jesus is a member. That place where Jesus is president, where the Saviour, as the 11th verse reminds us, is all and in all.

Now this morning I want to go back to the 9th verse and consider from that verse right through to the 14th, another line of practical teaching which I think will be of great value if you will give an ounce of concentration to what is placed before you. Now if you carefully were listening when I read these verses from the NIV, you would have gathered that on several occasions language is made akin to that of a dressing room, that of a dressing room. Look for example at the 9th verse, and there we're told about the putting off of something, the putting off of the old man, or as the NIV puts it, the taking off of the old self.

Look at the 10th verse will you, and again you get a similar sort of expression but now it's not negative, it's positive. Having put off something you are to put something on. Having put on the new man.

Go to the 12th verse and what do you discover there? Well in the authorised version, put on therefore as the elect of God, or in the NIV, therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness and so on. And then the 14th verse, and above all these things, put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. So you see in no way am I straining scripture this morning by having last week run an analogy of the Christian community to that of a college where Jesus is president, to today looking at the thought of a dressing room, and men and women coming there to exchange one lot of clothing and putting on another lot of clothing.

So I've no apology for suggesting that the message we are going to consider today could well be entitled the Christian's wardrobe. The Christian's wardrobe. Disrobing oneself of one lot of garments and putting on a different group.

Well then, with that in mind, for those of you who take notes and like to have some headings to hang our thoughts on, I want first of all to talk to you about those who come to dress, those who come to dress, and reference to these is made particularly in the 12th verse. And then I want to speak about the dress which is selected, and again you'll find reference in the 12th and overlapping to the 13th verse. And then, lastly, the final garment, the final garment, which is in the 14th verse.

So with that in mind, and I'll repeat those headings so that we'll get them very much at the forefront of our thinking, let's proceed. The Christian's wardrobe. First of all, those who come into the dressing room, those who come to confront that wardrobe and to select certain garments.

Who are these who come to dress? Well, two things stand out from this particular context. The first is that they are those who have got rid of some old, dirty, and smelly clothing. And the second thing is they are those who, for a specific reason, select a more suitable outfit.

There is therefore the thought of the rejection of the old and the selection of the new. Well then, look at the ninth verse once again. The rejection of the old.

Put off the old man with his deeds. I could translate that from the original quite accurately by suggesting that the force is this. Strip off the old man.

What is meant by the old man? Well, the old self. The sort of person that you were before you were confronted with the gospel of Jesus. You remember how Jeremiah talks about all our righteousness being as filthy rags.

And to really understand the gospel, there has got to have come a place, an experience in your life when you disrobed yourself of the old way of living. When you rejected the characteristics that were so often part of your soul, of your personality. Have done with the old gear.

That really is Paul's teaching to the Ephesians when he talks about the Christian soldier. And how one time we used to be children of the night and we used to have gear that was akin to that sort of lifestyle. But now, says the apostle, writing along the same line to the Ephesians as he does to the Colossians here, you've got rid of all that.

You've dumped it. It was smelly. It was horrible.

It wasn't really for you. It did you no service at all. And if you ever thought how often in the Old and in the New Testament, spiritual change, conversion is presented in terms of changing one's dress.

Take for instance the, as time is going there's no occasion to go into the Old Testament, but let's just confine my remarks at the moment to the New. Take the occasion when Jesus set up a parable of the married supper. And there were those who came along and their garments hadn't been changed.

They came not suitably attired. And they were expelled from the feast. And of course we know that when we relate the parable to teaching that we can understand, when we translate the metaphors into spiritual truth, Jesus is there spelling out that no one can enter into heaven unless there's been a change of clothing.

They've got rid of the old gear and they've put on the new. Here's the prodigal. He's out in the far country and he's working with the pigs.

Not the best of animals. If you then want to have a close friendship with someone else, you tend to be rather smelly. And he had got no other clothes.

He'd spent his money. You know, he goes back home and he's in a terrible state. And he sees his dad there looking out towards him.

And when his father sees him, he rushes down the hill, you remember, and he embraces him and he brings him back into the family circle. But he changes his clothes, gets rid of the old gear and he's given something far more suitable. In front of the Christian's wardrobe stand those who have come to dress.

And they have this in common. They've rejected their old garments. They've put them off.

They also have in common this. The selection of the new. Look at the twelfth verse.

It stands out better in the NIV, this particular emphasis. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves. Forget what it tells us to clothe ourselves with for a moment, but unearth the reason why you have got to exercise care.

Therefore, as God's chosen people. Any old dress won't do for a Christian. Certainly not spiritually.

I'm not even too sure that it will do on a literal level either, because I think that we are to conduct ourselves for the honour and for the glory of God. But let that one go just for a moment. On the spiritual level, character is the garment of the soul.

And the outfit of the Christian is to glorify God. Why is a Christian to be so concerned? Well, you see, he doesn't belong to himself anymore. Look how he's described.

This man who's standing before the wardrobe, who's put off, who's stripped away the old things. He's described as elect of God. He's described as holy.

He's described as beloved. This is not an ordinary group of people who, going back to last Sunday morning's meditation, are in the academy of Jesus. These are specially elected.

They were on the roll of the academy before the foundation of the world. They were chosen to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is mind-blowing.

I can't work it out logically myself, but Scripture tells me that this is so, that I am chosen of God. Not only chosen, but holy, made holy by the righteousness of Jesus being transferred to me as was taught so plainly in the second chapter of this epistle. Not only made holy, but beloved by my brother, by my sister who stands in the dressing room with me.

Yes, but it doesn't really mean that. Not directly. Beloved of God.

Here are these people who stand before the wardrobe. They're those who have stripped off the old garments, and they want to find something that's suitable in reference to who they are and who they belong to. I believe that nursing is one of the greatest professions that opens itself up to a woman or a man in these days.

And the first time that the student nurse puts on her uniform, she has a right to have a measure of pride. She's gone into a great calling. Tremendous vocation.

And she takes care. She has to, but you don't need to compel her. She wants to.

She wants to be dressed right in keeping with that lofty calling. When I was in my home city as a lad, we had to wear school uniform. I don't think it's done so much these days.

I think our headmaster took it to an absurd extent when he compelled us to wear a cap. I mean, I was as tall at fourteen as I am now. Can you imagine it with a cap? But nonetheless, there was a degree of pride.

And now I'm going back to the ice ages as far as the youngsters today are concerned, and you don't like the concept of uniform and regularity. Well, we had it whether we liked it or not. I still remember at eleven, if not at fourteen, the pride with which I put on my first blazer.

Put on therefore, not because of your own whim, not because of your own fancy, but because you belong to God as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Clothing, which brings honour to the Lord God Almighty. The Christian's wardrobe, those who come to dress.

What about the dress which is chosen? And if you've ever been abroad, Austria, Spain, Italy, or maybe you couldn't afford to go abroad and you went like Peter Edwards and some of our friends the last couple of weeks to Wales or Scotland. Isn't there a certain characteristic that marks these countries in their national dress? The beauty of the Austrian outfit and of the Scottish outfit with the kilt and so on. You can work out the nationality of a person by the national dress that they are wearing.

Well, here is described for us the outfit of the Christian. The garments, if you like, of a redeemed soul. And it's marvellous just to open the wardrobe and see what's there for you and for me as the elect of God to put on.

Look at the twelfth verse. Put on first of all bowels of mercy. Let's update that expression.

Put on compassion or pity. Isn't that remarkable that this should be the first part of the garment of a saint? Pity. The world is flooded by seas of sorrow.

There are always those who need to have pity shown upon them. And so often we read in the New Testament of the president of the Christian college, of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is always dressed right, that confronted with the needs of men and of women, he had compassion upon them. And as was the case for our teacher, so it must be the experience of the student to adorn yourself with pity, with compassion.

The next word, kindness, needs no updating. You'll grasp it easily, even if you're working from the AV. It's a very interesting word, kindness.

It comes from the first three letters of the word kin. And kin, of course, has got the idea of family, has it not? Kith and kin. And really it refers to that quality that's natural amongst parents and children.

A parent naturally loves, is kind to little Johnny, to little Julie. And if all is working harmoniously in the family relationship, they are kind too. Kindness is inextricably bound up with the family circle.

So if you go to Germany and Holland, I believe that you'll find the word kinders is what is used, or some derivative of that word, just to describe children. They're described in the terms of kin, of kindness. Now, the Christian is not only kind within his little family circle, but amongst the college, amongst the students, amongst the redeemed community.

The kindliness of the Christian, he catches it from the Lord Jesus. It's poured into his heart and it runs over to others. Another aspect of the garment of a saint, the costume of the redeemed.

So Peter says, add to godliness brotherly kindness. Not only these three parts of the dress are put down here, but what also, or rather for the third, what also about humility? Kindness, pity, humbleness of mind. That describes the lowest state of a Christian person, whose reaction to the gospel is not, let me examine it, let me put it through a sieve, but rather, what will you have me to do Lord? Humility.

You know humility is a grace that you'll take to heaven. The angels abase themselves before the throne of God. And as we learned last Thursday evening in the Bible school, it was the opposite characteristic of humility, pride, which led to the expulsion from heaven of Lucifer himself.

That garment you'll never find in the celestial realm, but you'll take humility through to heaven with you. And meekness, power blended with gentleness. Here's the combination of the peaceableness of a dove with the power potential of a lion.

Power under complete control. There was an occasion in the experience of Sir Walter Raleigh, when a young man insulted him, challenged him to a fight, to a duel. And Raleigh wouldn't accept.

The young man spat on his face and Raleigh was further tempted. And he said to the fellow, young man, if I could as easily wipe, have wiped your blood off my conscience as I can wipe this off my face, I would have your life. Power.

He could have reduced that young fellow to a corpse. But power under perfect control, that's meekness. Another aspect, another part of the Christian's dress.

Patience or forbearance. That's meekness stretched out, elongated. Ever thought of elongated meekness before? I bet you never have.

Well, that's the sort of characteristic of disposition that the Christian is to put on. Forgiveness. Forgiveness comes from the word forgive.

Forgiveness comes from the word forgive. And therefore it really has the idea of giving forth something. You've done something against me, let's suggest for a moment.

Perish the thought, but let's just suggest it for a moment. You've done something that I hold against you. And I've every right to be vengeful on the human level.

But instead of that, I take my vengeance and I give it forth. I drop it from my memory. I forgive.

The right to retaliate is there, but I remit it. Now these are the characteristics which should adorn the Christian as he comes before the wardrobe having stripped off the old nature. There's compassion there.

There's kindness. There's humility. There's meekness.

There's patience. There's forgiveness. How wonderful are the garments that the Lord God would have on the people of His choice.

So we've looked at those who come to dress and the dress which is chosen. But will you come down to the fourteenth verse? Because here is the final garment, if you like, the crowning glory. I didn't know whether I dare risk an analogy here to a lady getting dressed.

Maybe it's a wedding and it's mum who's going to be present at her daughter's happy occasion. And mum has carefully selected all the bits and pieces that go to make up her own attire. And then she comes to the other hand.

The crowning glory set everything else off. Or maybe it's dad and it's his tie sets the rest of his apparel off. Well, here we read in the fourteenth verse, and above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness.

I'll take it in the NIV. And over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. Now Paul's not thinking of a twentieth century mother or father preparing for the wedding of their offspring.

No, he's thinking of the old fashioned oriental clothing. And that is bound together by a girdle or a belt. So he's saying, as a broad eastern girdle holds the flowing robes in position and gives needed firmness to the figure as well as order to attire, so love woven of softest fabric keeps all emotions in due place.

Paul is not saying that you need this as opposed to the rest that he's just listed. He said that this is what gives the rest of the articles beauty and firmness and causes them to be bound upon the figure so that it can be admired. Love is so necessary in the Christian disposition of course.

You see, all of those other virtues that I listed, the last part of the dress which I described, they could be exercised without love. You can have pity without love. You could be kind to someone without loving them.

You could be meek, you could be patient, you could forgive, but not necessarily love. But you can't do the reverse of that. You can't have love and not show pity.

You can't have love and not forgive. You can't have love and not be humble. You can't have love and not be meek.

So you see the point, how love is the girdle, the belt that straps together and makes tidy and helps the rest of the virtues to fit on the figure. So very, very carefully. So Paul, in giving us this wonderful practical teaching on the Christian wardrobe, he not only describes the ones who are dressed and the dress which is chosen, but he underlines the final garment and its purpose, the crowning glory of the belt of love.

Have you got the picture? It's an easy one isn't it? Particularly with the analogy run from the wardrobe or to the wardrobe. But there's just one aspect that I kept under my sleeve to this point in our meditation. And it's the way the Apostle Paul has the habit of emphasising what we've got to do about this.

Look at the 10th verse. And have put on the new man. Or try it in the 12th verse.

Put on therefore as the elect of God. Or the 14th verse, actually this is supplied, it's not in the original. Put on charity.

You see, here is something that we've got to do. As he has told us in the 9th verse that we've stripped off the old man, so we have to put on the new. If you got up in the morning and you got rid of your night clothes and you had your shower and your bath and you stood in front of the wardrobe, no matter how long you stood there, the doors aren't going to open and the clothes fly out and adorn you.

There's some activity necessary. So it is with the Christian. All his life in one sense he is putting off the old nature.

This is where the analogy comes to a close. The literal wardrobe. He's constantly stripping himself of those things which he believes brings dishonour to the Lord Jesus.

Those old smelly rags, they have great difficulty in being got off completely. It's like a man who's been drowning and you've taken him out of the sea here, say in Worthing. And one of his great problems is to get off his wet clothes.

It's the same with the old nature. So constantly, each day. Although we're accepted in the sight of God through Jesus as being perfect, we know practically there is the vestige of the old nature.

So constantly we come before the mirror and we strip off those things which bring dishonour to the Lord God. And then we apply ourselves to the putting on of this new dress. I don't choose this and wear it easily.

I'm not naturally the most humble or the most forgiving of people. This is why you see those folks who believe that Christianity is merely turning over a new leaf haven't got an inkling of understanding of what the gospel is all about. Some of us have turned over so many new leaves you'd thought that we'd have been born in a forest.

Until the day came when the gospel message was proclaimed to us and we realised that we had to die to save ourselves and to become alive to God by the infilling of the Spirit as we confessed our sins. And we realised that a new vista opened up, a new wardrobe. And we adorned ourselves with these virtues by the gracious operation of the Spirit of God.

But the old man comes along again and unless we stand in front of that mirror every day and literally look at ourselves we can go out half-clad or with a mixture of the old and of the new. I believe it true to say that I could bring no more practical word to you this morning my friend, no one which will boomerang back from you to myself than this and to ask you to inquire afresh. Are you each day putting on those virtues? They don't come easily, they don't come naturally, but by the grace of God they're there through the outworking of the Spirit who is within you.

Do you remember we read together from Revelation? We did that because we find in that letter addressed to the church at the Laodicea, Jesus speaking and saying in the 18th verse of the third chapter, I counsel thee that thou mayest be rich and have white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. The Lord Jesus Christ and almighty God who sent him into the world to achieve his purposes wants you, wants me to have on the costume of the Lord Jesus Christ and of these gracious virtues, the dress of the Christian soul, that's spelt out here for us. Let's constantly then be stripping off the old and putting on the new and therefore conducting ourselves as those who are the elect of God, made holy through the blood of Jesus and beloved by our Redeemer.

May this meditation on the Christian wardrobe be of help to you all. Father, your word is so apposite. It hits us where we need to be hit most, but it does not win without giving fresh air and new life to the heart of the world.

And new hope, help us to stand before its mirror each day, to strip off the old and to put on the new. And may the practicalities of this meditation be witnessed in its outworking by those with whom we have to deal. For Jesus' sake, amen.