Well, once again, as God may
help us, we'll continue our meditation in the Epistle of Paul to the
Colossians and the third chapter. And this evening we'll read verses
12, 13, 14, and 15. So verses 12 to 15 in the third
chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called
in one body, and be ye thankful. Well, we have gracious instruction
here that the Apostle wrote to the Colossians and it was needful
in his day and it surely is needful for us today. And so we see the
Apostle addresses the people of God. He says, put on therefore
as the elect of God. Previously we've been told to
put off those things which were listed as anger, wrath, malice,
blasphemy, filthy communication, out of your mouth, lie not one
to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his
deeds. And now we see the Lord is telling
us the great wonderful truth to put on. Therefore as the children
of God, holy and beloved, And he uses this expression, bowels
of mercies. Bowels, of course, is a word
that we don't really use nowadays, but it really means pity or sympathy. That really means that our heart
should be sympathetic and pitying those who perhaps speak against
us and don't deal with us as we hope they would. Apostle then
gives us this gracious instruction to put on, therefore, and gives
a list, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. And of course it's quite easy
to read a few words like this. But it's often far more difficult
to actually carry them out. But what a blessing it is when
the Holy Spirit of God enables us to do just that. Truly to be sympathetic to people
and to be merciful. You see, sympathy, it says bows
of mercies, with mercy. Well, we're told, the Lord tells
us in Luke's Gospel and the sixth chapter in verse 36, be therefore
merciful. as your Father also is merciful. And I think when the Holy Spirit
shows us the mercy that we have received, surely that should
make us merciful to others and not be judgmental, but to recognize
as that, I think it was Bradford said, there for the grace of
God go I when he saw I think it was a thief or perhaps a murderer
going to the scaffold for his sin. And so how true it is that
we have gracious instruction that we must be merciful, merciful
to people, realising what our Father has been to us. And I'm sure when we have a right
view of this, we realise how greatly God has been favourable
to us. He hasn't cut us off. He's looked
upon us and dealt with us in love. So we should also recognize
this great truth and desire therefore to be merciful and then to be
kind. Kinds to one another. It's very
easy to be critical but here we have a statement to be kind. Kindness is a lovely position
isn't it? We see people don't we being
kind to others and it's a wonderful thing to witness but what a blessing
when we have it in our own hearts to be kind indeed one to another
and then humbleness of mind again that's an important statement
It's not humbleness just to demonstrate to other people how humble we
are. But this is humbleness of our
mind. God sees that. Other people will
see the outworking of it. But it's not to go about and
to boast how humble we are. But it's to be blessed with this
humbleness of mind. great favour that is and then
meekness well it's good isn't it to be meek and again the Lord
Jesus in that last verse in the 11th of Matthew he speaks about
taking his yoke upon us he says take my yoke upon you and learn
of me and then he says for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. So again, we have a glorious
example of the Lord Jesus Christ. What an example there is. We
really have no excuse, do we? To be anything other than meek
one to another. Yet of course, by nature we're
often not like that. And then, long suffering, long
suffering. That means to suffer long. Whatever
the opposition, whatever the difficulty, to suffer long. And again, when Paul wrote to
the Corinthians in the first epistle in chapter 13, he tells
us, charity, which as we know is really love, suffereth long
and is kind. So you and I are to be long-suffering. The Apostle here, he doesn't
beat about the bush, does he, when he's addressing these Colossians?
And we shouldn't today, we should realise the relevance of such
words to us even at this time in our lives. And then he moves
on to verse 13, forbearing one another. We are to bear the infirmities
of the weak. It's a great thing, isn't it?
And not to please ourselves. Sometimes we can become impatient
and think, well, why doesn't Sanso do this or say that or
act in this way? But again, come back to this
great blessing of sympathetic to one another, forbearing one
another. forgiving one another. Again, it's a wonderful list,
isn't it, really, for us to comprehend and to take on board in the day
and age in which we live. some 2,000 years after the Apostle
wrote it and yet so appropriate is today forgiving one another
and again forgiving one another because of the Lord who has by
his grace forgiven us and if we look at ourselves and realise
how sinful we are and how bad we are and how unworthy we are
of being forgiven to think that if we have been forgiven we have
that wonderful blessing and that wonderful example and here we
have then a direction to each one of us and forgiving one another
if any man have a quarrel against any and then he concludes even
as Christ forgave you so also do ye there's no real room for
manoeuvre is there? The Word of God is very clear. We have our wonderful example
in the Saviour. And so He says, As Christ forgave
you, so also do ye. And then He says, And above all
these things put on charity. And again, that can be also translated
as love. And above all these things put
on charity. or love, which is the bond of
perfectness. Again, it's a great blessing,
isn't it? If the Lord gives you and me love one to another, as
we each may have faults, and we often see faults in others,
we don't always see the faults in ourselves, and yet the word
of God encourages us to see the faults in ourselves, which will
make us then sympathetic and pity those perhaps who are not
perhaps doing quite that which we think they should which is
the bond of perfectness love is a bond of perfectness so the
Apostle tells us then as he comes to the conclusion of this little
set of verses and let the peace of God rule in your hearts so
that which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful
well what a great blessing that is isn't it if we are favoured
like that we read together in that chapter in Peter which many
great words of encouragement and instruction in Peter and
in that third chapter and in the fourth verse we read this
but let it be the hidden man of the heart you see again not
something which is demonstrated as it were outside but the hidden
man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, great
price. Well, what a blessing for us
tonight if we are blessed with this wonderful spirit. And as
the apostle wrote to the Ephesians, in the fourth chapter and the
last verse, he says, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. That helps, doesn't it, to sum
up some of these gracious words of instruction and encouragement. to us today in the day and age
in which we live. I'm sure there will be much peace
in the whole Church of God. I'm not fitting any caps here
tonight, as Herbert Dawson would say, but if we take it as a general
situation to realise This is written to the Colossians and
also as we commence our meditation. Put on therefore as the elect
of God, as the children of God, these gracious exhortations and
let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also
ye are called in one body and be thankful. Well may God help
us and instruct us and bless us with these privileges and
these