Colossians chapter three and verse 17 is going to be our text here this evening. And we are going to really put a cap on this section that we've been going through in verses 12 and following here, putting on the new man. We're gonna recap the chapter a little bit tonight, and we're gonna look at this verse 17 as we continue on in this series. So let's look at verse, let's read verse 16 and then verse 17 as well. 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. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." As we have gone through this section here on putting on the new man, We have seen throughout this chapter that there is a putting off of the old garments of sin that takes place at salvation, but that there's also to be this putting on of a new man, a new kind of person, a new kind of living. That is, a garment that is characterized by all the graces that we've looked at that are consistent with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself so the new man is to put on these new garments of compassion and humility and kindness and meekness and long-suffering and forbearance and forgiveness and Then he must put on over top of all that love charity as we've seen in verse 14 But Paul then tells us that there's a few more graces that the believer is going to have to put on an outermost garment that is going to cover over all of these other graces and And these are all imperatives, and there were four of them that we started looking into. We've actually been in this section for quite some time, partly because we went into the series on forgiveness. But these four imperatives, which we've said that makes them a priority, because they're a command. Therefore they're a priority in our life. They must be a priority in our life. It's something that we must focus on. It's something that we must give a great time and a great attention to detail to because they are commands. And we can tell that these are priorities of the heavenly citizen because Paul spends, really spends a good amount of time on each one of these commands. And most people, including us, we can tend to get into a way of life where we allow life to get in the way of the important things, the spiritual aspect of our being. And we can tend to fill our lives with things that leave little room for the stuff that's most important. And so Christians can do this by filling their lives with things and activities that effectively can push God or push God to the side in their life. But our new life in Christ must be characterized by a full devotion and full commitment to Jesus Christ. So Paul has commanded us to put off these clothes, these old ways of living, and he's commanded us to put on these clothes of the new life. So as we've seen in this section, there are four commands, four imperatives that are to control our expression of this new life, who we are in position. There are four commands that are to come out of that. First, in verse 15, there is the peace of God, and we talked about that, and the peace of God, which is to rule, or to be the umpires, to be the decider, the decision maker in our life. Second, we looked at the word of Christ, and the word of Christ is to dwell in our lives, so we're to be controlled by the word of God. And then we looked in verse 15 at an attitude, and we're gonna see this attitude again mentioned tonight, but that is the attitude of thanksgiving. And then last, which we're gonna look at here this evening, the last command, the last imperative is to, there's the name of the Lord Jesus, which is to be glorified. So tonight, we come to this culmination. We come to the conclusion of Paul's general exhortations that he gives to the Colossian church here, that they are to live according to this new nature that they have obtained through their salvation. Paul will then continue his exhortation in the next section with some more narrow and specifically focused things, focused in on particular groups of people within the church, husbands and wives, parents and children, the workers and employers. But tonight we culminate in his general exhortations. So Paul began the chapter, if you want to go back to the beginning of chapter three, Paul begins the chapter by pointing out that there is a radical change that takes place that occurs when a person places their faith in Jesus Christ and becomes a Christian. There is a great change. We call this section Christ's Preeminence Demonstrated by Keeping a Heavenly Mindset. This is verses one through four. So the old self has died, the old self has died with Christ, and the new self has been raised up in newness of life with him. And the result is that the believer here is to set his mind, to set his heart, to set his desires, to set his affections on things above, and to seek after those things instead of those things that are here on the earth. Christians have a wonderful security in Christ. Why? Because our life, as it says in verse four, is hid in Him. And we have a wonderful promise for the future, because when He returns, we will be glorified with Him. Now, the Christian has been redeemed, regenerated, and reconciled by the Lord, and we've seen that here in Colossians. The old patterns of life, the way that we used to live, the way that we used to think, has been changed. This section, we call this section, Christ's preeminence demonstrated by putting to death the works of the flesh. So we demonstrate the preeminence of Christ by keeping a heavenly mindset. And then in verses 5 through 9, we demonstrate Christ's preeminence by putting to death the works of the flesh. But the old man, although he may be dead, the new man has to live in the same old body. the same flesh, the same old mind. And so there's going to be some work that has to take place to break these old, evil, sinful habits that can sneak up on us. And to have our minds transformed, have our minds changed. How? It says that they're renewed by the Word of God. So it is going to take some effort. It's going to take some work for us to put into place these new godly habits that can demonstrate that we actually have a change of nature. And these new godly habits that we put in action show that our nature has changed. Then Paul gives exhortation to the Colossians concerning these Christian virtues in verses 12 through 17. We call this Christ's preeminence demonstrated by putting on the new man. So we have a heavenly mindset. That's where it starts. Then we put off the works of the flesh. And then we put on the new man. And while the non-Christian out there can mimic some of these behaviors at some times, It is only in specific and particular situations that those who are chosen by God, those who are holy, those who are the beloved, have any hope of carrying out all of these with all people. Why? Because only the believer has the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in them, and only the true believer has the Lord Jesus Christ manifesting His life through them. And so this is the only way that any human can have these attitudes that we see here in verses 12 through 14. And it's the only way that they can behave in the manner described with all people, including their enemies. Unsaved people, as I said, they can do some of these things from time to time, but they cannot do them with all people at all times. And we looked at how Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, that the follower of Jesus is to love his enemies, and the follower of Jesus is to even pray for those that persecute and despitefully use them. Even the tax collector could have loved those who loved him. But the believer is to do much more than love those that love him. The believer is to press on, to push further than that. To what? In Matthew 5, at the end of the chapter, it says to be perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. Now, you cannot do that on your own. You cannot do that on your own strength. It must be God who works in you. to do that. As Paul explains in Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus. So what is it? It's ultimately the work of God in our lives, but at the same time we must do our part. We must be involved and make sure that we're not dragging around the old corpse of the old man, of the old way of living. by continuing in the old habits and the old attitudes and the old ways of thinking. And it would seem like if I actually had a physical corpse up here and we were just dragging him around all the time, it's like, ugh. Let's get rid of that. Let's bury that. Let's not drag it around anymore. There's a place six feet under where that should be. We all understand that physically, that dragging around a dead body just for decoration or for whatever purpose, Like, it just, we all get it, right? We get that, everyone gets that, that's bad. Okay, but spiritually, we can just drag around the old way of life, like, oh, I'm gonna revisit that, you know? That old sin that really got me before I was saved, I wanna go back there. Just drag it around a little bit, it's not that bad. We all understand it physically, but it's the same way spiritually, and it's actually even worse. It's even worse. And so it's ultimately this work of God and we're responsible then to put this new man on, to set aside the old way of living and to put on the new man and step forward in obedience and faith in following Jesus Christ. So what are we to put on? Well, we're to put on a heart of compassion, heart of kindness and humility and gentleness and patience and forbearance. But we're to go beyond that and we're to forgive one another in the same manner that Christ has forgiven us. And he is the one that initiated everything, ultimately, to bring about our reconciliation. And we talked about this when it comes to forgiveness, how we understand how much God has forgiven us. And so we are free and we want to forgive others because of how much of a sin debt we have had forgiven ourselves. We go beyond and we love others in the same way that God has loved us, with a sacrificial commitment to the best interest of everyone else. As Pastor Warner was preaching through his message this morning in 3 John, I was thinking about how God has done so much for us. He's given us so many wonderful spiritual blessings. He's given us so many wonderful physical blessings. And how often can we focus on ourself and think about our own needs? And we think about our own physical desires, but we don't think about the physical needs and the physical desires of others. And as he was going through that, my mind was thinking that when you think about the physical needs of other people, that's actually spiritual. Like you're actually doing something spiritual when you consider others, when you consider other people. When you think about yourself, though, and you focus on the needs of yourself, you're actually not doing something spiritual there. focusing on your own needs. So focusing on physical things can actually be spiritual if you're focusing on the right needs and the needs of others. But we see how God has done so much for us, and we're willing to give that and to spread that and share that with other people. God's greatest demonstration of this was Jesus Christ dying as the sin sacrifice in our place to redeem us and offer us the possibility to be adopted into the family of God. And what is the result of that? Well, the result of living out these virtues is that we have the peace of Christ that rules in our hearts. And the way that we think and our view on life is radically changed so that we're actually in harmony with God. And then we allow his word to dwell in us richly. And as we do, we have a greater opportunity to change and to live out these virtues. Why? Because as we dwell on his word, the more we dwell on it, the more we know it, and the more we know what we need to be putting into practice. And it's out of a knowledge of his word applied by the wisdom given by the Holy Spirit that we know right from wrong. And we know the evil that we are to shun and the good that we're to embrace and to hold onto and to cling to. Those without this knowledge walk around in ignorance, thinking that they're doing what is right before God. All the while, in actuality, they live contrary to his word and often even bring shame to his name. And that is why it is important that the believer is actively involved in the body of believers. Why? Because we help one another. It's important. One, that you're a believer, but two, that you're a part of a church, that you're a body part in the church, because we help one another. We help one another to know how to know what God's word says, but also how to apply it and put it into practice. We are to learn it and know it for ourselves, but then we're to minister to one another. We looked at that in verse 16, the teaching and admonishing. We instruct one another in righteousness, and we warn each other against unrighteous attitudes and unrighteous behaviors. And then when the word of Christ richly dwells within you, there will be a proper response, a thankful worship that comes to God in response of who he is and what he has done. And we saw that also there in verse 16, and that is the singing, singing to God. Grateful, wholehearted singing unto him. And that leads us to our final imperative. Okay, that's kind of a summary of chapter three up to this point. And it leads to this final imperative that we see related to the dress of the new man here in verse 17. A culminating statement about all the virtues by which disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ are to live by. Paul gives us kind of an ultimate rule for the inside man. And this rule, if you cover this rule, it will cover all of the rest of them. But it's a very tall order. It's a very tall task. What is that rule? Well, let's read verse 17. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So what is the command here? The command is to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. The verse here begins with a clause that says, and whatsoever ye do in word or in deed. This extends thankful worship beyond just Sunday in church. This extends thankful worship to every single day of the week, no matter what day, no matter what we are doing. For the Christian, there is no division between the sacred or the secular. When you're in church or when you're at work, there's no division. All of our life is to be a sacred devotion of living gratefully, of living thankfully, under what? Under the Lordship of Christ. Now, that's not to say that we don't need to gather on the Lord's Day. We certainly do. We want to be here so we can hear God's word and we want to worship and we want to hear the teaching. But it is to say this, that every aspect, every single aspect of our lives must reflect the joy of salvation as we speak and as we act in a manner consistent with the Lord Jesus Christ. This means having the Word of Christ constantly in your mind, percolating through your mind, and having songs and hymns of praise bubbling to the surface, not just on Sunday, but on Monday, and on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, and every single day of the week. It means living thankfully under the Lordship of Christ while you're at work, or while you're at home playing with your kids, or while you're making dinner, or while you're fixing a clogged toilet, Everything can be done for Him. The assertion here is that whatever it is that we do, whatever it may be, and it could be anything, each of us must continue to make it our consistent habit of doing each of these things in a manner which is consistent with the name of the Lord Jesus. And Paul is very emphatic here. The English word here, whatsoever ye do, is translated from four Greek words. The Greek word pas is the common word for all. And we all know what all means, right? We've probably all heard that expression before. And Paul uses that word. But he also uses a three-word phrase, hotion, in addition to the word all. And it basically means whatever, everything, anything and everything. So Paul here wants us to understand that everything, whatever it may be, everything that we do is bound by this rule. He shows the full extension of his meaning here by saying, then, in word or in deed. You see, that says, and whatsoever you do in word or in deed. And so, whether you are speaking, whether you are writing, whether you are doing, every word, every action must be bound by this rule, that it is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, you can look back, and as we've gone through this chapter, there's been a whole lot of things that we've talked about and said, we're to be doing this, or we're not to be doing this. And that's certainly covered by what Paul says here whatsoever. But it also includes everything that he doesn't say that we know that we should be doing. And so what is this rule that binds all that we say and do? Well, it's that all that we do must be done how? in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then at the same time, what are we doing? Giving thanks to God as we do it. So number one, the name of the Lord. So I'm going to look at this idea here of the name of the Lord Jesus. It says, whatsoever you do, so that includes anything and everything, whatever you do in word or deed, word, attitude, action, all of it, it's all encompassing, Do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? First of all, the name of the Lord encompasses everything that he is and everything that he does, who he is and what he does. It encompasses all of that. When we were baptized, we are baptized, the Bible says, into his name, baptized in the name of. And thus are given his name, publicly taking on, publicly taking the name of Christ. We are identifying with Christ. We are a Christian. And so Paul says that everything we do, whatever it is, whether we speak, whether we think, whether we work, whatever it may be, we are to do all of those things as Christians. as someone who has identified themselves with Christ, as one who bears his name and represents him. We are a representation of Christ. And so Paul uses Jesus' name because here it is much more than just a label used to identify him as a person. This is his name. It's just Jesus' name. That's it. It's more than identification. His name represents his very person. and His nature, and it was very particularly chosen to signify His identity, all that He is and all that He would do. The command here to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus is very similar to the command to pray in Jesus' name. in John chapter 14 and verses 13 and 14. And so just as we are to pray according to Jesus' will in His name, if we are to be confident in receiving what we ask, we see that even in 1 John chapter 5, so in everything that we do in word or in deed, we are to do them in such a way that they would be according to what? According to Jesus' will. And so the things that we communicate to others, the things that we say, the deeds that we do, they're all to be consistent with the way that Jesus communicated and with the way that Jesus did those things and how He lived. Now obviously then, the greater the Word of Christ would richly dwell within you, the easier it's going to be to carry out this command. The greater that our understanding of Jesus is, the greater that our understanding of his commandments are, the greater our ability to then live out these commandments according to what he wants. And that is really the essence of statements by Paul, such as in Galatians 2, verse 20, that Christ lives in him and that the life he was now living in the flesh was lived by the faith of the Son of God. Or in Philippians chapter one in verse 21, where he says, for me to live is Christ. So to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus means that you are pursuing his interests, not your own, but his interests. To do everything according to his standards, to do everything in obedience to his commands, to do everything as his representative. to do everything for His glory, to do everything as a reflection of Him, and to do everything that we do to please Him. That is what it means to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the attitude of fulfilling this command is simply this. I want others to see the Lord Jesus Christ living through me. I want Jesus to manifest his life through me in what I say and what I do. I want my light to so shine before men that they will glorify the Father which is in heaven. Why? Because that light that is shining through me is reflecting the light of Jesus. Now this is a tall order. This is a tall task. It's not gonna be easy. But essentially, God requires us to faithfully represent Christ in all our discussions, in all our conversation, in all of our joking, in what we read, in what we watch, in our fellowship, in our arguments, in our debates, in our compliments, and in our rebukes, in our criticisms, in our every single word. And so if saying it would be an unfaithful representation of the name of Jesus Christ, then we've broken this command to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. So what does God require? He requires us to faithfully represent Christ in every job, in every effort, in every task, in every action, in every plan, in every vacation, whenever we work, whenever we do something entertaining, in business, in all of our decisions. All of our work, all of our actions must meet this requirement, that they faithfully represent our Lord Jesus Christ. And if our doing it would not faithfully represent our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we cannot give thanks to the Father through Jesus Christ as we do it, then we've broken this commandment. This is challenging. It should be challenging to all of us. Am I doing everything, everything in the name of the Lord Jesus? Colossians 3.17 ends with a clause which indicates that while the Colossians continued to make it their habit of doing each and everything in a manner that was consistent with the name of the Lord Jesus, they were also to continue to make it their habit of at the same time giving thanks to God, the Father. And we see in Colossians 1, verses 3-5, and Colossians 2, verse 5, both of those passages affirm that the Colossians were already doing this. They were already a thankful church. And so here Paul indicates that he wanted this Thanksgiving to continue to be an integral part of the Colossians prayer life. Since this verse reveals that they must continue to give thanks to the Father in prayer through the personal intermediate agency of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that there, it says by Him or through Him. Now this is the fifth time that Paul has mentioned the topic in the book of Colossians of Thanksgiving. And it's not going to be his last. There's another time that he mentions it in chapter 4, but we've seen Thanksgiving be a topic in Colossians 1.3, 1.12, 2.7, back in 3 in verse 15, here in verse 17, and then again chapter 4 and in verse number 2. And when we remember where Paul was when he wrote this book and mentioned Thanksgiving six times, it makes the emphasis on Thanksgiving that much more wonderful. Where was he at? I hear some whispers. He was in prison. He was locked up. And you think about all the different things that Paul tells the believers in these epistles. when the ones he wrote from jail the ones he wrote from prison be thankful be joyous be full of joy rejoice in the Lord always all of these wonderful things and when you understand and you think and you know like wow this is coming from a place where humanly speaking there should be no joy there would be no Thanksgiving yet Paul says in everything give thanks Paul does not enumerate what the Colossians here must be giving thanks to the Father for. However, this epistle, in a comparison of other New Testament passages that relate to the church, indicate and tell us that they were to give thanks to the Father for all kinds of different things, a host of different things. I want to take a moment here and just think of all the wonderful spiritual blessings. Well, it won't be all. but some of the wonderful spiritual blessings that we can be thankful for. These are some of the reasons why the Colossians and all Christians today should offer up thanks to the Father. So I'm going to give you a few seconds to just think. Think about a spiritual blessing that you can be thankful for. And then I'm going to give you a list of well over a dozen things that the Colossians and we can be thankful for. Number one, He has delivered us from eternal condemnation through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Isn't it a blessing that we are not condemned any longer? For those who were Jewish, number two, they were delivered from the condemnation from the Mosaic Law. And number three, both the Jew and the Gentile church age believers, we have been delivered from the indwelling sin nature that we've obtained through Adam. And what have we received? We've received forgiveness of our sins, all of our sins, past, present, and future. What a wonderful blessing. We have been delivered from spiritual death. we have been delivered from Satan's power. Before you were saved, Satan, he controlled you. He had a grasp on you. And all you could try and struggle up, whatever effort you could do to try to, oh, I don't wanna be like that, he still had a hold of you. But in salvation, we've been delivered from that. And in our salvation, we've been declared justified by the Father through faith in Jesus Christ. We are also permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit and the Son. And we've all been placed in union with Jesus Christ. And we've been identified with him in his crucifixion, in his death, in his burial, and his resurrection at the moment of justification. And as we think about that, and we think about Jesus Christ rising from the grave, His resurrection on this Resurrection Sunday. We have a hope of future resurrection because of the resurrection of Christ. And we can say, like no other religion, I serve a risen Savior. The Buddhists can't say that. The Muslims can't say that. We can. And we can say it with fervor and vigor because Jesus Christ has risen. And because he's risen, we have hope. We have a future hope, a confident hope of our own resurrection. What a wonderful spiritual blessing. We have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. Is that a blessing? It is. You can conform to the image of Christ. You can be like Christ. You can live and be obedient to His words. We've been sanctified. We've been set apart. We have access to the Father in prayer 24-7, 365 days out of the year. We can go to the Father at any time, at any place, at any location. with any request according to his will. And we have the confidence that he will hear us because of our union and identification with Christ and his death on the cross. And then we get to experience the millennial reign of Christ in the future, as well as the new heavens and the new earth. And there will be experience of great eternal rewards as we experience the wonders and joys of spending eternity in heaven with our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these are some blessings and it's not all encompassing. There's plenty more we could probably come up with. Twice that many. But these are some of the wonderful spiritual blessings that we can be thankful for and that we should be thankful for. And that you can offer up thanksgiving to God for these things. One of the characteristics of a productive prayer life is that of thankfulness. When we offer up prayer to God, we have to be giving thanks to him. That's part of prayer, is giving thanks. Offering up thankfulness to him for all that he is and what he's done for us. We should never forget to thank God in our prayers. And not just, thank you for the food in Jesus' name, amen, but sincere thanksgiving, sincere gratitude, sincere offerings of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for his provision. Our gratitude demonstrates our respect and our appreciation for God's grace, which blesses us without ever earning it, without ever deserving its blessings, yet he gives it to us. Thankfulness to God is one of the genuine marks, one of the genuine signs of true Christian faith. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15 says that, And the refusal to honor God. The choosing to dishonor God and the refusal to give Him thanks, well, that is a mark, according to Romans 1, of an unbeliever. Because it says in Romans 1, verse 21, because that they knew God, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. So the sign of an unbeliever is a person who's unthankful, ungrateful to God for what he has done. So in conclusion, how can you live in such a way so that all that you do is done in the name of the Lord Jesus? Well, apply what we've learned in these lessons in this chapter. One, make sure that you understand actually who Jesus is. Make sure you're saved. Make sure that you've received Jesus Christ. What's that gonna require? It may require some humility. It may require some thoughtful prayer. But make sure you understand who he is. Make sure you understand his character and his work, what he's done. Then, once you've done that, by faith, identify yourself with him. Identify yourself with Jesus, who has redeemed you and who has regenerated you and has reconciled you to God. And as one who is now raised up with Christ, keep seeking after those things which are above. Keep your mind and your thinking and your affections on eternal things, not things here on the earth. Put to death the old habits of the flesh. Put on the virtues of the new man. Strive to have the word of Christ dwelling richly within you. And if all of these things are being done that we've looked at in this section, then you will also be striving to make sure that all that you do in word or deed will be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Why? Because you want to honor him. You want to fulfill his will. And all of this results in what? Thanksgiving to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for your goodness to us. We ask that you'd help us to be challenged. Help us to take these challenging words to heart and to not forget them, but to put them into practice in our lives each and every day as we live for you. In Jesus' name, amen.