Welcome to Yankee Arnold ministries. Dr. Arnold will be with you in just a moment, but first, we want you to know how much we appreciate your prayers and financial support. You may help this radio ministry by donating online at yankeearnold.com or by mail at Yankee Arnold ministries, 7028 west Waters Avenue, Suite 316, Tampa, Florida, 33634.
Again, that’s 7028 west Waters Avenue, Suite 316, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Feel free to send Dr. Arnold your questions or comments to yankee at yankeearnold.com and he will respond as quickly as possible. Now, here is Dr. Arnold with today’s message.
Well, we’ve been doing some studies in the Book of Colossians. I hope you’re staying with me. I hope you’re learning something.
Now, tonight, it’s going to hit you between the eyes. You’d be surprised how many people leave the church and say, that was just to me, that was just to me. No, I believe it should be for everybody.
I’m hoping that I hit somebody. But the Word of God is for everyone. And the Holy Spirit, He knows what everybody needs.
So there’s a few things we’ll talk about tonight. I want you to be sensitive, be teachable. But anyway, Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3.
Before I start on the portion of the script that I definitely want to cover, I want to give you a warning. It’s always good to give you a warning. The warning that’s mentioned here in chapter 3 is at the end of the chapter.
But I don’t want to wait that long before I tell you what it is. So that while we’re going through it, you’ll keep that warning in your mind. It’s Ruth Binder in verse 25.
Verse 25, you ought to underline this verse in the Bible. You heard me say, yes, salvation is by grace and grace alone. No works, no change in your life, no promising of anything, stopping anything.
It’s just receiving what Christ did for us. But as far as your life goes, serving the Lord, yes, you have an option. You can either yield or rebel.
That’s the only two options you got. And if you rebel against what God tells us to do, well, then he says in verse 25, But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. Let me read that again.
Make sure you underline that in your Bible. You need to know there is going to be consequences to rebellion. God will not force you to obey.
He’ll only make you wish you had of. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of person.
So it doesn’t matter who you are. Can I say, well, Lord, I didn’t serve you for 52 years. You ought to cut me a little slack.
Is that going to work? Well, Peter over here, he’s kind of like in between. And he’s been serving the Lord for a few years, so God will cut him a little slack.
God doesn’t cut slack. Now, he’s patient. He’s long suffered and all that.
He’ll give you time to correct problems. But if you choose not to correct the problem, that is the problem. God is going to be forced to discipline.
So he says, but he that doeth wrong. Okay, now, what is wrong? What is wrong?
I don’t see anything wrong with this, so I don’t see anything wrong with that. Yeah, but you got to look at it from God’s viewpoint. That’s why it’s important to check with the book.
This verse is the same as you would read over there in the book of Galatians in chapter six. You shall reap what you sow. Be it unto you according to your faith.
If you really believe what God says, then you live accordingly and God will bless accordingly. If you don’t believe what God says and you live according to that, then you’re going to be chastened accordingly. You see, a lot of sorrow that we have in life is because of the decisions that we make.
Man, I wish I could start over again and be smart the first time. But I thought, no, I don’t want to go through it again. I’m glad I’m closing on the end part of my life.
When you read these scriptures, it’s giving you a warning about what is right. And if you’ll do what’s right, God will bless. If you don’t do what God says to do, then you know what God’s going to do.
So look at these scriptures in light of this warning. It’s very important. Now, we’ve already talked about, if you then be risen with Christ, then seek those things which are above.
See there in verse 1. Then in verse 2, he says, set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. Now, if you want to know how to love your wife, do that.
Set your affections on things that are above. And if you will seek those things which are above, it’ll make you a better husband. It will make you a better wife.
It’ll make you a better father. It’ll make you a better mom. You see, doing that will help you in every other area of your life.
Because, see, even with the children, they need to see that something is real in their mom and dad’s life. My daughter, she actually believes that her mama and daddy really love the Lord. We’ve convinced her of that.
She’s 51 years old. Took 50 years to convince her. But, you see, kids need to know if what you believe is real to you.
Is it real? And they watch that by seeing you go through all kinds of trials and tribulations. How do you handle it?
What does it take for you to break? Now, when he says, set your affections and so forth on things that are above, does that mean I’m not supposed to love my wife? Not supposed to love my kids?
No, but look at what he says, and put it in balance. Though God sees us there, we have to live here. And if I have to live here, how does he want me to live?
He wants me to live here as though I was the Lord. I’m to live here like I was the Lord. Now, that’s difficult.
I’m supposed to live as though Christ was my total life, and He lives within me. And I am just here loaning Him my body. He bought it and paid for it, but I’m not going to resist it from Him.
I’m going to yield this body to Him, so He can do whatever He wants. So as Christ lives inside of me, in my body, I’m supposed to love my wife the way He would. I’m supposed to love my children the way He would.
You’re supposed to love your husband the way He would. See, Christ liveth in me. He lives inside of you.
You’re just letting Him use your body. That’s why we call it a living sacrifice. I don’t literally take my body and put it on an altar and kill it, burn it up with fire.
It’s a living sacrifice. You surrender all of your desires, whatever you want. Lord, whatever you want me to be, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, I’m Yours, Lord.
That’s all we’re saying. I’m Yours, Lord. I just started listening to the words of it.
Some of them are pretty good. Try me now and see. Try me now and see if I’ll be completely Yours.
That’s even a scary thought. But now look what he says here in verse 12. Verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy and kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and long-suffering.
You see the word holy and beloved, that’s who you are. That’s who you are. You are holy because of what Christ did on the cross for you.
You are one of the beloved. You are his child. Beloved, now are we the sons of God.
Now. Then he says of these tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and suffering or long-suffering. And then he tells us how we’re supposed to do that for others.
You see, the flesh doesn’t do this. The sinful nature we have will not compel us to do this. This is coming from the Lord.
This is what God wants us to do, how he wants us to be. And then he says in verse 13, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, because if you don’t, you’re going to have quarrel. See that?
If any man have quarrel against any, did you know most quarrels are between husband and wife? How in the world can two perfect people have a quarrel? You know, when you saw him, he was perfect, and you saw her, she was perfect.
these two perfect people got married, and then they have quarrels. And then they have, of course, knock down, drag out fights, hollering and yelling and screaming, you know. Is that the will of God?
No. Somebody’s not doing what God wants them to do. Sin always finds a way to flare up and cause you to be ugly and say things you shouldn’t say.
Now, you know that everybody has that sinful nature, and it doesn’t take much to provoke somebody to anger. We know how to master that. We can do it in a spiritual way, but still get it done.
But look at what he says, If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Now, this is how God wants us to live down here. Loving one another, forgiving one another.
As much as possible, live peaceably with all men. And he makes this statement. In verse 14, And above all these things, put on charity.
Love is the bond, the cement that holds everything together. Isn’t it wonderful that in spite of everything in life, you still know God loves you. That knowledge that God loves me, you’d be surprised how much that will pull you through.
Though you don’t understand everything, you know because God loves you, he’s not going to put more upon you than you can bear. It is the glue that holds a family together. It’s the glue that holds the church together.
Love for one another. Today, I hate it when I see the politicians and all is trying to just pull people apart by hatred. Generating hate, provoking the hate, turning people against one another.
That will not unite us together in unity. It will destroy America.
So he says here in verse 15, let the peace of God rule. We’ve often talked about playing different sports, and how that you need somebody to be the umpire. I talked about it when we first started the Book of Colossians.
That everybody needs somebody to call the shots. Somebody to say whether the ball was in or out. Whether he really catch it or did he drop it.
You know, somebody that can make the right call, has good judgment, good discernment, keen eye. Well, there’s somebody that sees everything, and all of his decisions are right. He’s never made a bad call yet, and that’s the Lord.
And so, this one that created the heavens and the earth, he’s the Lord of the world, and he is the head of the church, and he’s over all principalities and power. He has preeminence over everything. Cannot he rule me?
But you see, those things he does without their will. That’s what he does. You and I, he gave us a choice.
Will I let the one who created it all, voluntarily, will I voluntarily submit myself to his rule? And he says, if I will do this, he becomes the umpire in my life, and he says what I should and should not do, or I can and cannot go. What I say and don’t say, how I think.
He determines everything in my life. So he says, if I would let him do this, and I totally rest on his judgment, I will have the peace of God. Let the peace of God rule in your heart.
The reason people don’t have peace is because they don’t want to commit things to God. They want to make the call. And when you get to where you want to make the call and everything about what’s right and what’s wrong, did you know that you make allowances for yourself?
You spread out the boundaries for yourself. You go further than what God wanted you to go. And you’re going to get yourself in trouble sooner or later.
So this is what he says to do. In verse 15, let the peace of God rule in your heart. To the which also ye are called in one body, many members, but one body, and we’re bound together by this mystical union called love.
It’s like a nuclear glue that holds people together. But see, God doesn’t make you love him, and God will not force you to love anybody else. But he says, no, if you’re going to make the decisions on your own, and you want to rule your life, you can do it.
You do not have to yield to God. But you will have to suffer the consequences because in verse 25 again, he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. Now, I believe there will be lost when you get to heaven, but I believe there’s also a loss of this peace of mind that you’ll have now.
Because see, when you don’t do what God wants you to do, you know when you’re rebelling. You know that you’re not yielding to the Lord. Did you know that tortures you in itself?
It robs you of your joy, everything that you want. It takes its toll upon you. Now, look at verse 16.
Now, the word of Christ dwelleth in you richly in all wisdom. Remember that verse we read earlier in chapter 2, verse 3? We’re talking about how that in Christ dwelleth all the…
Well, look at it, verse 3. …in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They’re in Christ, and He wants this wisdom that He has, this treasure. God gave us a treasure chest.
He wants us to look at all the pearls and little jewels and diamonds, all this gold and so forth that we find in the treasure chest. And God says, I’ve got all the wisdom you need for life. It’s all found in His Word.
Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you, because if you really know the Word, and you apply the Word, you’d be surprised what it’s going to do for you personally, what God will do for you, how He’ll use you. Look what He says in verse 16. Teaching and admonishing one another.
You see, you can’t teach the way you ought to, and you can’t admonish one another the way you ought to if you’re not rich in the Word of God. Did you know there’s some of God’s people probably never opened the Bible? They just go from one Sunday to the next.
I can’t make people read the Bible. But sometimes you go so busy, you don’t even have time to relish in what’s been accomplished. You go from one thing and then soon you get that, and then you’re on to something else.
You don’t have the time to savor the moment. Have you been out to a restaurant and you cut a piece of meat and you haven’t had a steak in a long time and you take that first bite and you put it in there, and you squeeze it, all the juices just are flowing all over you. It just tastes so good.
Savoring that bite. Can you taste it? You can almost taste it, can’t you?
You can almost taste it. You’re going to leave here tonight and go get you a steak. But sometimes you just want to slow down and take your time and just savor the moment.
Well, in life, sometimes we don’t get much time to do that. And that’s why when you get older, you see grandpa and grandma sitting there rocking in the chair. You know, they’re just bringing up those memories and relishing some of the things and the grandkids and so on.
Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Now look what he says about this. He says in one another, in Psalms, in hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
You can listen to any music you want to. You can listen to anything you want. You can love all kinds of music.
Go ahead. Nobody can stop you and you know it. I can listen to anything I want to.
It’s not going to affect my salvation. One iota, I want to listen to. If I want to listen to Acid Rock or this and that and the other, I can listen to anything that I want.
It will not affect my salvation. But I believe it will affect my joy. I believe it will affect my service.
I believe it might even affect my service to the Lord. And when I get to heaven, I think it might even affect my rewards. So therefore, there’s some things that I don’t do.
You can do whatever you want to do. See, I can’t legislate to you now. If you were in college, I might.
You go to college, you’ll be surprised. That’s a whole different ball game. Because you come to be disciplined.
When you go to Bible College, you say, I came to be a disciple. Well, the teacher is to teach. And so they teach you and discipline you, whether you like it or not.
I’ve told college kids what to do and what not to do, just to test them to see whether or not, will you obey what I tell you to do? It won’t amount to a hill of beans, but I want to know, are you going to be faithful? Will you yield to my authority?
Even when you don’t like what I’m telling you to do, will you do it? Look what he says here. Singing in your hearts to the Lord.
Now, you need to check your music. If your music is not right and honoring to the Lord. Can you do whatever you want?
You can do whatever you want. But look down at verse 25. He that doeth wrong shall receive of the wrong which he hath done.
does God tell you what kind of music to listen to? Well, listen to it. Look up there.
Look in verse. Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
So, does God’s word tell you? It tells you. Now, you can do whatever you want.
And if you disobey, you pay the price. You don’t know what it’s going to cost you, though. I don’t have a clue.
I’m not God. But whatever you do, do it all for the honor, the glory, the praise of Christ. You say, well, does it say that?
Well, I’m afraid it does. You see it in verse 17. And whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
So, whatever it is, you ought to be able to thank God for that music. Thank God for that message in that song. If you can’t thank God for it, maybe it’s not thinkable.
It’s a new word. Maybe it’s nothing you can thank the Lord for. Maybe you shouldn’t be listening to certain things.
Do you believe that the God wrote this book that says you’re now seated in the heavenlies and since you have been crucified with Christ and risen with Christ and seated in the heavenlies and it says set your affections on things above. Do you think that there is a lot of things on this earth that you might set your affections upon? Could music be one of them?
Is it possible? Did you know that as the music goes, so goes the nation? And as the music goes, so goes the church.
And as the music goes, so goes the home. And as the music goes, so goes the individual. Do you think it’s important what you listen to?
You judge. I’m to be speaking as unto wise individuals that are grown up and mature in the Lord. And you can discern.
You don’t need somebody telling you what you can and cannot do because you can walk with God on your own. Well, remember, everything you violate, you’ll have to have a reason to justify your disobedience. Did you know, as he talks about here, and you’ll see that in verse 18 and 19 and 20, when he gets into individuals, you think about it.
Is it one of the biggest things that people have problem with is yielding to authority? We don’t want somebody telling us what we can and cannot do. Do children have a problem with somebody telling them what they can and cannot do?
Well, do you think it’s possible for wives to have problems with their husband telling them what they can and cannot do? Do you think adult men have a problem with somebody telling them what they can and cannot do? There’s a possibility everybody’s got the same problem.
We want to have our own way. And because we want to have our own way, we have trouble submitting. It means in most cases we want somebody else’s position.
The kids, they want the parents’ position. They want to be the authority. If they don’t see anything wrong with it, it ought to be all right.
Because they don’t see anything wrong with it. I don’t see why I can’t. Okay.
So they want the authority. They’re not satisfied where they are. Is it possible for a wife to want the husband’s position of authority?
I say this in fear and trembling. This is what Paul was talking about. He wasn’t talking about all those people throwing stones at him and, you know, wrecking them.
He was talking about every time he talked about women, he was in fear and trembling. But I think that’s probably why he was in fear and trembling. But is it possible for women to want to usurp the husband’s authority and become the authority?
Do you think that adult men, those that know the Lord, want to usurp authority from God and determine what’s right and wrong for themselves and not God? Isn’t it possible for everybody to be in a place of rebellion? Let me tell you this.
We just had camp and we had, you know, different speakers and everybody doing a lot of different things. But did you know every person in camp, from the kids to the adults, we even had little bitty kids, and they were all little angels. Were they all little angels?
No. Those that worked with them knew that they probably had a few little rebellious kids. So even children want to see how far they can go.
But wasn’t it wonderful to have all of these that worked with those little kids? Did you know at one time probably somebody made this statement, I just love little children? Man, I just hope God lets me work with little children.
That would be the greatest joy in my life just to work with little children. And then you get those little children, and God granted you your request, and there you are. Did you know it wouldn’t take much to say, I wish I’d have never seen these little kids?
Did you know somebody’s always wanted the other? You know, everybody has a responsibility. Did you know that God looks at it this way?
Everybody got a responsibility, and God’s going to reward you in heaven based upon what you did with what you had. But sometimes you don’t do a good job where you are because you’re thinking about what you don’t have. Instead of being thankful for what you do have.
You see, sometimes you marry to that man. But then you’re looking at all those others thinking about, look what I could have had.
This one woman, she told this man, she says, I wouldn’t marry you if I was the last woman on earth. She says, if you’re the last woman on earth, I don’t know if I need you. You’d be surprised how easy it is for us to get bogged down, wanting something you don’t have.
If you are married, there’s a verse for you. If you’re not married, there is a verse for you. Wherever you find yourself, are you faithful where you are with what God’s given to you?
And you can trust that God up there that you know and love and you walk with. He’ll open up doors and He’ll close doors. You just walk with Him and trust Him.
Don’t worry about it.
Is it possible to trust Christ as my Savior without making Him Lord of my life? Is it true that if Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all? Pastor Yankee Arnold has prepared just the right book with answers straight from the Bible.
The book is called Gospel Driven Man and Pastor Yankee wants to send it to you free of charge. Simply write to PastorYankee at Yankee Arnold ministries, 7028 west Waters Avenue, Suite 316 Tampa, Florida, 33634 and request the book or write by email at yankee at yankeearnold.com. That’s yankee at yankeearnold.com.
jesus is coming, so keep looking up.
Thanks for listening to today’s broadcast. We pray that today’s message was a blessing to you and your family. You may help support this radio ministry by donating online at yankeearnold.com or by mail at Yankee Arnold ministries, 7028 west Waters Avenue, Suite 316 Tampa, Florida, 33634.
Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.
