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Now stay tuned to hear about a brand new resource that's coming next month and how you can pre-order your copy today. Have you ever wanted to understand the Bible better but felt overwhelmed by where to begin? In Soaring Above It All, Pastor Skip Heitzig guides you through the big picture of Scripture in short daily devotionals designed to help you better understand God's word. Pre-order your copy of Soaring Above It All today wherever books are sold. Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: There's another area of the wrath of God, the consequential wrath of God. The consequential wrath of God is whatever you sow, you will also reap. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. There is the spiritual law, just like the physical law, what you plant you're going to reap. There are consequences that you will experience due to your choices, even though you're forgiven. There may be consequences that can be experienced.

The fifth and final category is the wrath of God's abandonment described in the book of Romans. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are unseemly. It's when a society or an individual says no to God so long, "I don't want God, I want this." When a society begs for it, God says, "As part of my wrath and judgment against you, I'm going to give you what you say you want, and I am pulling back and not intervening."

All of that is the wrath of God in a nutshell. Back to our verse: because of these things the wrath of God, and think of those five categories, is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Paul is probably thinking of that second category, the eschatological wrath of God in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. You remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, that weird church in Corinth, and he talked about adulterers, fornicators, swindlers, and all these bad people out there in the world. He listed several sins and he said, "And such were some of you." That's your background. That's who you and I were.

The idea here is very much the same: in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these. Now he gives us a second list. The first list was a list of sensual sins back in verse five. Now these are sins of hostility, usually in relationships. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

Any of you were raised in my era when you used to call your dad "the old man"? Do you ever remember that? Back in the 1960s and 70s, we used to say, "You know my old man." We didn't mean my old me, which is what Paul means. We meant my dad, the old man. When Paul uses the old man, he's not speaking about your dad; he's speaking about you. The old you, the old sinful you, the old Skip who I used to be before Christ. I'm to put that off. I'm to put that off just like I reckon myself dead to sin and alive to Christ.

I put off the old man and I put on the new man. I have a new nature in Christ. I have to put one off and put the other on. Take off your grave clothes, put on your grace clothes. Your grave clothes are all this horrible list or both of these lists that we have read. Your grace clothes, that's the new you, new appetites, new desires, new activities that you have experienced since you've come to Christ. Put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

Here is the thing about putting off and putting on. You have to put something away or put something off, take something off before you can put something new on. If you have a job where you work a real smelly job, let's say you work out in the community and you sweat and you are around certain substances so that when you come home everybody in your house goes, "Oh my goodness, dad's home. I can smell it. The door was opened and I got the whiff." You wouldn't go through your door in those clothes and just put new clothes over the old clothes. You would need to put something off before you put something on.

Once you put something off, you should always put something on. Here is what I am getting at. Some Christians have a life of negatives. I don't do this, and I don't do that, and I stopped doing this, and I stopped doing that, and it's all what I don't do. You can't stop there. There are certain things you have to put on that are part of the new nature. Otherwise, you're just doing a spiritual striptease. You're a spiritual nudist. "I don't do this, I don't do that." What do you do? What do you have on? You put on the new man, and that new man is like Jesus. It is, notice in verse 10, renewed in knowledge.

The thing about your new life in Christ is you have to keep renewing it. You have to feed the new man. You're doing that right now. People who don't just come on a weekend but come on a Wednesday are serious about, "It's been a few days. I need to get back together and fellowship with other believers and sing those songs out loud and make that confession, get prayed for, hear the word of God, participate in that." You get renewed in knowledge. Hosea chapter four, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." Second Peter chapter three, "Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." That is how you get renewed. You get renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

Let me give to you your life in a nutshell. First of all, you were formed. Mankind was formed, that's creation. God created us in His own image. He formed you. We were formed in God's image. But then Adam and Eve sinned, that's the fall. After creation, the fall. We were formed, but now humanity is deformed. The image of God is deformed, it's marred.

We were formed, we were deformed. Third phase: transformed. You came to Christ, transformation, change, new nature. Fourth phase: conformed. We are to be conformed to His image. That is an ongoing process just like putting away, putting on, being renewed is a constant process. We put away stuff, we put on other things. Formed, deformed, transformed, conformed.

Renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised—I love this verse—nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian—that was a nomadic tribe of bad reputation—slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. No division in the body of Christ. That's part of the mystery that we talked about in the previous chapter. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jew, Gentile, one body. There is no division: Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free.

Instead of saying, "Well, I'm a Black Christian" or "I'm a Hispanic Christian" or "I'm a white Christian," how about just, "I'm a Christian"? Forget the distinctions, forget the differences. Forget Black Lives Matter or White Lives Matter. They do matter. All lives matter to God. There's no distinction. We're all one in Him. No barriers, the barriers have been taken away. That's why I loved Revelation 5, before the throne of God I saw every tribe, tongue, and people giving praise to God in that chapter.

Therefore, here's another therefore, as the elect of God, or because you have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on—that's part of the wardrobe—tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. Look at all the sins you're to put off. Now we have five garments in your new wardrobe that you are to put on: tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. He says, therefore, as the elect of God, you're picked, you're chosen by God. Book of Ephesians says you were chosen in Him before the foundations of the world. That's election.

Guest (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your support helps reach people every day with biblical truth that brings hope, encouragement, and direction for real life. If you've ever wondered how to stay grounded when our culture is constantly pulling you in different directions, Pastor Skip's study through Colossians is for you. In Expound Colossians, you'll gain a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, why He is completely sufficient for every season of life, and how God's truth gives you confidence to stand firm in your faith. Your generosity helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people around the world to God's word. Request Expound Colossians when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: God elected you, knew you were going to be born, had you in mind before your birth, set up and arranged all of the circumstances for you to hear the gospel, drew you to Himself. You're predestined, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. I've always loved what Spurgeon said about this: "God chose me before I was born and it's a good thing because He never would have picked me after." The truth is, He knew all about Spurgeon before he was born. He knew all about us. We're chosen in Him, the elect of God. What Paul is saying there, he says, therefore as the elect of God or because you're chosen by God, act like you're chosen by God.

Put on these five garments. I'm not going to go through each one. But let me just say this: if you're blessed then get dressed. You're the elect of God, you're blessed. Get dressed. Put these things on. Be intentional about asking God to make you merciful, kind, humble, meek, long-suffering. People sometimes ask me, "What does meek actually mean?" Just break the word, hyphenate the word and you get the definition. Me-ek. That's meek. It's where you get a true appraisal of yourself. It's part and parcel of humility, though it has a different nuance, and long-suffering, putting up with people.

That's the idea in verse 13: bearing with one another, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do also. Meditate on that. Christ forgave you. In the Lord's Prayer, you remember what Jesus said about that? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You know what's interesting about the Lord's Prayer is He says, "In this manner, therefore, pray," and you know the Lord's Prayer follows. But then He circles back and He highlights only one part of the Lord's Prayer.

He gives the Lord's Prayer, but then He circles back and He amplifies just one thing in that prayer that's on His heart. He says, "For if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive yours." That's how important forgiveness is. Because you have been forgiven, you must forgive. As Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Let the peace of God rule. The idea of ruling here in this verse is to arbitrate, to make a call. In a World Series game, there's an umpire who calls balls and strikes, safe, out. Let the peace of God be the umpire in your life. Rule your life. When it comes to the peace of God, there are two elements, two types. There is the objective peace of God, which is a fact. Then there is the subjective peace of God, which is a feeling.

The first one, the objective peace of God, which is a fact: you gave your life to Jesus Christ, war is over, you have peace with God. Until that point, you and God, there's been hostility. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. It was aimed directly at you. When you gave your life to Jesus, you raised the white flag of surrender. You're at peace with God. At the moment you give your life to Christ, I told you that I felt born again. I felt like a brand new person. Not everybody feels that.

In fact, a lot of people said, "I prayed that prayer, I feel nothing. I got nothing." Whether you feel it or not, the fact remains you're at peace with God. You may not feel peaceful because of a number of things that have been going on perhaps in your own life, but the truth is you're not at war with God. You're at peace with God. But even though you're at peace with God, you may not be experiencing the peace of God. The peace of God is subjective and it is a feeling. I did a whole sermon on the peace of God out of Philippians.

It is arrived at when you let go of your anxieties and you trust. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts or rule your hearts. Now the thing about the second part, and that's what we're talking about, let the peace of God rule, be the umpire. Sometimes you need to make a decision and you don't know what is the right way.

You'll hear a lot of Christians say, "I have a peace about this. There's just peace in my heart in this decision. There's just the calm of God, the feeling I feel, I feel this is the Lord." You have to be careful with that feeling because the peace of God needs to be tethered to the Scriptures. You could have a feeling that is untrustworthy just like a person who is at peace with God because they've surrendered to Christ, but they don't feel peaceful. In that case, their feelings aren't telling them the truth.

You might feel a peace about something that isn't necessarily God's will. People might say, "Yeah, you know, I have a peace about divorcing my wife." Why? "Well, I just, I'm tired of her. But it's okay, I've prayed about it and I have a peace about it." I'm going to tell that person your peace isn't telling you the truth. Because if you go by feelings, think of Jonah. Jonah was so peaceful he fell asleep in the boat. If you were to interview Jonah that night when he was running from God, he'd go, "I feel a peace, man."

But it got him and the crew into trouble. If you want a whale of a time, do what your feelings tell you to do. That's why whatever feeling of peace you have has to be tethered to the truth of God. That's why when I have a peace about something, it's good to continue to pray about it, talk to somebody else who will give you an objective, scripturally sound, biblical opinion to see if what you are feeling is indeed factual. But let the peace of God, allow the peace of God, to rule in your hearts to which you were also called in one body and be thankful.

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. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. A good question to ask is, does the word of God dwell in you richly? The word dwell, here's a better translation: let the word of God be at home in your heart. Be so full of the word of God that when people bump you, out comes the word of God. You burp scriptures.

For a lot of believers, the only Bible they get is when they come to church and hear a sermon on Sunday. They're not in the Bible Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; they hear it Sunday, that's it. Well, that's the difference between living in your home and going to a hotel. I dwell in my home and I'd rather be home. I travel, and when I travel I go to a hotel. Hotels are okay, some can be quite nice, but home is better. And when the word of God is at home in your heart, it dwells in you richly.

There's a huge difference between that kind of an individual and somebody who's just a hotel Christian. They get it whenever they hear a sermon. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. I like this part as well: in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. When we are singing corporately, we're doing this. We're teaching each other, we're admonishing, we're encouraging one another. That's why I've told you before, a lot of times I'm sitting up in the front but I like to turn around during worship and watch you worship and hear you worship and receive those words of encouragement.

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name, according to the reputation of, character of—that's the idea of the name of the Lord Jesus—giving thanks to the Father through Him. Also on a practical note, wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Those are fighting words in some households. But if you have a husband who does the next verse, it's going to be quite easy for you to do that verse. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Paul could have written a whole book on marriage. I know people have. But his marriage counsel was very simple: two roles in a household, submission and love. If you love your wife as Christ loved the church, Ephesians chapter five, it's going to be very easy for a wife to want to surrender her will to somebody who loves her with Christ's love like Christ loved the church. I could go into depth, so I should probably wait and unpack this because the thought of all this continues into chapter four. What we will do next time is we will finish the book by beginning in chapter three, verse 18.

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