Alright, brethren, Colossians
3. Christ creates a new man in His
redeemed. By the Spirit, through the hearing
of His faithfulness, creates a new man in His image. And Scripture
tells us God is love. So this image that He creates
in us, this new man in His image, is the love of God. That new
man has the love of God, and so He tells us in that new man,
Christ is all. He's all. The superficial, carnal
differences, that's not what makes us to be different. We
don't put confidence in those things anymore. Christ is all. And he's in all, he's in all
those who are born of him. And he's in all providence, and
he's in all about us, he's with us. And so he tells us now, verse
12, put on, Colossians 3, 12, put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, a complaint 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. Now this is God's
word to each of us in whom Christ dwells, to you in whom Christ
abides. Back in chapter 1, verse 2, he
told us this is written to the saints, those made holy by Christ,
to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ. As the verse
before this says, this is to you in whom Christ is all. Where he dwells, he's all in
you. We're told in this passage to
put on the new man, to put on the new man. Now, the only way
you and I put on the new man is by the Lord Jesus, by the
spirit of our Lord Jesus, by the grace and power of our Lord
Jesus, renewing the new man inwardly, strengthening our new man inwardly,
and making us to put down the old man. We saw this morning
this Holy Spirit wars against our sinful flesh. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.4,
he said, the love of Christ constraineth us. That's his love for us. His love for us constraineth
us in the heart. It's what motivates us, his love
turns us, his love gives us the power, his love constrains us. It's the love of Christ toward
his people. As God's elect, hear the gospel. The Lord Jesus makes his love
for us to be personal. He makes his love for us to be
personal to us, to you. This whole epistle, three or
four years ago, I think four years ago, I preached on this
and I said, I used the personal pronoun you. Because this whole
epistle written to believers, Paul keeps saying you. He said
up in verse one of chapter three, if ye are risen with Christ,
set your affection on things above, where Christ sits on the
right hand of God, for your old man is dead in Christ, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ comes, then you shall
appear with him in glory. So, I preach it this way because
this is what the Lord Jesus is gonna do. He's gonna make it
personal to you. Now, all of the things we just
read that he said to put on have to do with a brother or sister with whom
you have a quarrel. You're talking here about mercies,
not giving somebody what they deserve and showering them with
something they don't deserve, mercies. You're talking about
kindness when you're not treated kind, humbleness of mind, meekness,
suffering long, long suffering. being forbearing, forgiving,
these are all in relation to a brother or sister with whom
you have a complaint, a quarrel, somebody who has sinned, a brother
or sister who has sinned. Maybe they have offended you
greatly, they've sinned against you greatly, but you have a quarrel
with them. When we have a quarrel with a
brother, it's Christ renewing us to hear of his love for us
that constrains us in our heart to put on the new man, to do
these things, he said. It's hearing of his love toward
us, his faithfulness toward us that constrains us in our heart
to put on the new man, to do these things to one another. Now, first of all, and I'm speaking
on the subject of the bond of perfectness. This is my subject,
the bond of perfectness. Now, the Holy Spirit, as you
hear the gospel, just like He did in the first hour, just like
we saw this morning, we were hearing of Christ's faithfulness.
And Christ, in faithfulness, entered into you in spirit. And
He gave you knowledge of what you are in Christ and by Christ. And as we hear the gospel, as
we continue, he keeps entering in and renewing us inwardly to
know that everything we are, we are in Christ. We have it in Christ. It's all
due to the Lord Jesus Christ. For his elect, he makes you know
you are the elect of God. He makes you know this personally.
You're the elect of God. Why? Because before the foundation
of the world, God the Father, by grace, not based on anything
in us, by grace, he chose you where? In Christ Jesus. He blessed you with all spiritual
blessing according as He chose you in Christ. He makes you know
that. Him that are His, He makes you
know you're the elect of God because of Christ. God chose
you in Christ. He makes you know you're holy
in Christ. He says, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy. Where am I holy? I'm holy in
Christ. It's because God chose me in
Christ that I should be holy and without blame before Him
in Christ. And then Christ came and took
up His dwelling in me and made me holy, a new holy man. You're holy. Sanctification began
with the Father choosing you in Christ from among all that
would be born. He separated you in Christ. Christ
perfected us forever by His one offering, by fulfilling the will
of God, the law of God. taking it away and bringing us
under the covenant of grace. By his will, we're sanctified,
and then when he enters in, this new holy man's created, and he
makes you know he's your holiness. It's all in Christ. This is what
the Spirit keeps renewing us, the knowledge we're growing in,
what we are in Christ. It's all due to Christ. The Lord
renews you to know you're beloved of God. The triune God loved
you. before, beloved of God, where? In the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing,
Paul said, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus. And so when we have a quarrel
with a brother, it's this gospel, it's this gospel of God's love
and his faithfulness in Christ making us to know everything
is in Christ It's of Christ, it's for Christ's sake. When
you have a quarrel, it's Him renewing you in this knowledge
that's gonna work these things in your new man, make you humble,
make you be kind, make you forgive, make you forbear, make you long
to suffer, knowing you have nothing because of anything you've ever
done. It's all in Christ, by God's mercy. And secondly, When
we have a quarrel against any of the spirit of the Lord through
this gospel, he renews you to know you had a quarrel against
Christ. He renews you to remember you
had a quarrel against Christ. And what did Christ do for you?
He had a complaint against you. What'd he do for you? Every sinner
comes into this world having a quarrel against the Lord Jesus.
Any sitting here or hearing me right now who do not believe
on Christ, Scripture says your heart is enmity against God.
Oh, but I believe the five points. Anybody can believe the five
points of Calvinism. There's a huge difference from
learning the five points of Calvinism and this love of God that he
creates in the heart. Huge difference. Anybody can
learn the five points. Only God can give the love of
God, create this new man and put his love in that new heart.
He makes you to know personally yourself, you counted Christ
as your enemy. And God counted you as his enemy
because of your sin. He makes you remember this and
renews you to know this. You sinned against Christ. All
your sin, it might have been against somebody else in this
world, but it was against Christ. It was against the triune God.
It remains you to remember, you really and truly counted Christ
as your enemy. You counted God as your enemy
in your corrupt mind. So God had a quarrel with you,
and you had a quarrel with God. This is what the Lord's gonna
make his elect know. He's gonna renew you and make
you know and remember what a sinner you are. And then he's gonna renew you
in knowledge to know that while we hated Christ, while we had
a quarrel against him, while we counted him our enemy, Christ
did all these things for us. That's how he treated us, his
people. He did these things for us. Remember,
scripture says, when we were yet without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. I want you to try to think of
the worst you have ever been offended by somebody. The worst
that somebody has ever offended you and hurt you and betrayed
you, whatever it is, you can't multiply that enough
to make it be what you and me did to Christ and how offensive
we were to him and to God our Father. But use it. Take when you were offended.
Take when you were hurt. And you take that now and you
think about infinitely more than that, that's what I did to God. And what did he do? The Lord
Jesus commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Now think about what that means.
Think about what that means. And he makes you know this personally.
This is how he's gonna grow you. This is how he's gonna make you
put off your old man and put on the new man. The old man,
we saw back up there, the old man wants to do all these things.
The old man wants to be angry, verse eight, and full of wrath
and malice and blasphemy and speak filthy communication. So
that's what our old man wants to do. How's he gonna make you
put that man off and put on this new man? He reminds you personally,
renews you personally, you know, while you hated Christ, while
you sinned against Christ, Christ laid down his life for you. Now think about this now. Here you were, you were the ungodly,
you were guilty, you were without strength. And here is holy God,
God the Father, holy, holy, angry with the wicked who will by no
means clear the guilty. And here you were the guilty,
angry at him, hateful toward him, offended in him, counting
in him your enemy. And here's what Christ did. So
you got these two parties that are totally at odds. What did
Christ do? He stepped in between. And he willingly presented himself
without spot to God. For God to take all the sin of
his people, yours personally, even the sin you commit right
now when you're quarreling with this person you're quarreling
with, he took all your sin. and was made sin for us, that
he might make us the righteousness of God in him. We just don't
know how shameful sin is because we're so accustomed to it. Every
now and then, we'll feel really ashamed of our sins. that Christ
was holy and knew no sin. Do you know how he despised that
shame of being made sin for us? That's the love of Christ. That's
the love, that's the righteousness, the righteous love the law of
God requires for anybody to fulfill it. That's what it's calling
for us to do, to love God and our neighbor as ourselves so
much that we're willing to bear the law's curse for them. And Christ stood in that gap
and then he willingly bore the fury and the hail and the condemnation
that we would have had to bear. He makes us to know this and
renews you to where this comes into your heart in such power
that it just brings you down to your face to just thank Him
and praise Him for loving you so that He stood as you. He represented you. And don't
forget now, not only was it God our Father we were doing all
this towards, it was Him we were doing this to. It would be like
a brother or sister that's just hurting you and condemning you
and sinning and just hurting you whatever way they're doing
it. And you taking all their sin and becoming the guilty one
in their place. That's what he did for us. It
was toward him that we had all this sin and hatred. and he took
our place, he took the place of every chosen child of God,
but he makes you know he did this for you personally. It's
not the letter of the law that's gonna constrain us. I could read
this verse in the letter to you, right here, tell you, put on
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness on seven, and I could just make
you feel so guilty and preach this in a way that I just forced
you to act all humble and act all kind when in your heart none
of that was going on. It's not the letter that's going
to create this. It is the Spirit of Christ Himself
entering in and making you know this in spirit and in truth in
the heart. When we have a quarrel against
any, the Spirit of our Lord renews us to remember, there we were
quarreling against Him, quarreling against God our Father, and here's
what He did. We sinned against Him, yet He
showed us bowels of mercies. Mercies from His inward heart. Just mercies upon mercies upon
mercies He showed us. We were quarreling with Him and
hating Him, and He makes you, renews you to know while you
were doing that, He showed you kindness. Ephesians 2 said, He
saved us and raised us up in Christ that in the ages to come,
He might show His love and His grace towards us in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. We're proud, we're exalting ourselves
when we're quarreling with anybody. We're proud and we're exalting
ourselves. We're showing and declaring how
just we are, and right we are, and holy we are, and this bragging
that we have this righteous indignation. And it's nothing but pride. While
we were doing that toward Christ, he came to us, as the verse says,
in humbleness of mind and meekness. He didn't come lording over us.
He sent the gospel. and came to us and said, come
unto me and you'll find rest for your soul because I'm lowly,
I'm meek. When we are self-righteous and
we're defending ourselves and we were doing all this toward
Christ and our hatred toward Him, and when we're quarreling
with anybody and we're doing all this being self-righteous,
what did Christ do to us? He was long-suffering with us.
That whole time we didn't know Him. That whole time we were
living in direct rebellion against Him. Even now when we sin against
Him. Long-suffering. He renews you to remember why
we were impatient, wrathful toward Him. He was forbearing with us.
And He makes you to know that He forgave us all our sins. He forgave us all our sins. He
comes to His child who He laid down His life for, His child
who He loved from everlasting. He comes to you personally, renews
you inwardly, makes you know all these sins you sinned against
Him. I forgive you all of them. You're completely, totally forgiven. He makes you know. He makes you
know. His charity to you. The word is agape, charity. It is, the meaning is right here
in the verse, is to be bound to another. That's what it is,
bound to them. It's the bond. It's commitment. to be bound, because Christ was
bound to you from everlasting, because God chose a people and
gave them to his son to save. Christ was bound to them, in
love to them, and would not let us perish. He would not. Committed to it, bound to us. And that's why it says, and above
all these things, now that doesn't mean or it doesn't only mean
this, it probably does have this meaning, but when you read above
all these things, consider it like this, at the head of all
these things, as you think of being merciful, at the head of
it, what's constraining it, what's producing it is love. At the
head of forbearance, above it, what's constraining it is love. Above all these things, put on
charity, and this is the meaning, which is the bond of perfectness. Now, let's see what that is. Let's see what scripture says
this is. It's from the word agape. The
meaning is right here, to be bound, to be bound to another. It's love that binds you to the
object of your love. It's commitment. It's unbreakable. It's the love of God in Christ
toward each of His elect personally. God said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. It'll never change, it'll never
diminish, and everybody God loves, He saves. His love is in Christ. It's the love that God creates
in His child, in a sinner, in the new birth, when Christ is
formed in the new man. It's not of us. Kept in the heart
by us, it is all of Christ. But perfectness here means this
love of God creates this bond in us with God our Father in
Christ and with our brethren in Christ. Perfectness means
this is the end to which it brings you, to be bound. to guide the
Father in Christ and to your brethren in Christ. It's the
bond that his love creates. It brings you to this, to this
bond. Now, go with me to 1 John. John is considered the loving
apostle. He's the one that laid upon Christ's
breast, and he's the one that speaks of this love of God more
clearly than any. Now, let's hear what he says.
I'm not going to comment much because this is just clear. 1 John 4, 12. He said, No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love is perfected in us. This is what his love
created in us. It bound us to God our Father
in Christ and to our brethren in Christ. It bound us. Christ
said, by this shall all know that you are my disciples if
you have love one to another. It's not this sentimental, carnal,
gushy thing that religion talks about. This is the love of God,
the love that is of God. It's the love God is. It is agape, it is commitment,
it is to be bound. It's Christ's love to us. It's God who is love being in
the new man that makes you to be bound to him and bound to
your brethren, and it's all in Christ. and by Christ. The true
test, now listen to what I'm gonna say here, and I'm gonna
back this up with scripture. The true test of charity, that
which is gonna manifest it to be the work of God, it's unbreakable. The true test of charity is the
ability to forgive a brother with whom you have a quarrel.
but not only to forgive them, to continue bound to them and
with them. The self-righteous legalists
fall out with each other, or with one of God's saints, and
they will try to save face and say, oh, I forgive you. But by
not continuing committed to one another, not continuing bound
to one another, they manifest they haven't forgiven. It manifests hate. It manifests
murder in the heart. To be unforgiving and break this
bond is to murder in the heart. That's not my word. I'm telling
you God's word, and I'm going to show you this. This is not
of us. It's of God. It's spiritual. It's effectual in the heart.
It's what Christ creates in the new man in spirit and in truth,
and it cannot be faked. and you and me don't get any
glory whatsoever for it. None. This bond of love that
binds us and commits us to Christ and to one another is kept between
brethren by the Spirit renewing us through the hearing of Christ's
faithfulness. And it's by Christ's faithfulness,
by Him renewing you when a brother sinned against you, when you've
sinned, When you've fallen, it's keeping you knowing you have
an advocate with the Father. It's keeping you knowing your
brother, your sister, has an advocate with the Father. Look at 1 John 2, look at verse
1. I see this more clearly than
I think I've ever seen it, that everything John's writing here
is in connection with this love toward one another. Verse John
2, 1, my little children, these things write unto you that you
sin not. And if any man sin, and the word
is when any sin, he's talking about believers here, when we
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours
only, but also for the sins of his people wherever they are
in this world. And hereby, we do know that we
know him. Now connect these two. The first
has to do with faith, knowing you have an advocate, and that
brother or sister that fell and has an advocate, Jesus Christ
the righteous, who has propitiated God, who we offended, who we
had the quarrel with, he propitiated him for his people. He did that
for me when I've sinned, he did it for you when you've sinned,
when we have a quarrel with one another, he makes you remember
He's their advocate, and they're righteous in Him. And then He
says to us, now hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep
His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and
keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth's not
in Him. Now hold your place right here,
and go with me to chapter three, 1 John 3, and let's see what
His commandment to us is. 1 John 3, 23, and this is His
commandment. that we should believe on the
name of his son Jesus Christ. John calls it doing righteousness,
he calls it doing truth because this is how we are righteous
before God. He gives you faith to trust Christ
and God robes you in the righteousness Christ has made his people. So that's the first commandment,
believe on him. And when a brother sins, when
we have a quarrel, he keeps you knowing that brother is righteous
in Christ his advocate. And therefore, he keeps you keeping
this second commandment, here it is, and love one another as
he gave us commandment. And what is this love? What do you do in this love? As the elect of God, holy and
beloved, you put on vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another,
like Christ forgave you. That's what you do. And verse
24 tells us, it's not of us. 1 John 3, 24, he that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. See, this is not of us, it's
by the spirit of Christ being in us that we have faith in him
and that we have this love binding us to him and to one another.
Now go back to 1 John 2, look at verse 3. Again, I'm gonna
read it to you. And hereby we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and
keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth's not
in him. but whoso keepeth his word. You have a quarrel and
yet you continue to forgive as Christ forgiven you. You continue
to be merciful from your inward most heart. You keep being kind
and humble and meek and long-suffering and forbearing. You keep knowing
Christ has provided all for us, that he's our righteousness and
he's our holiness and he's the same for that brother you have
a quarrel with. Verse five. Whoso keepeth his
word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. This is the
bond of perfectness. This is the end to which God's
love has brought you. You didn't do it, he did it.
He did it. Hereby know we that we're in
him. He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also to walk even as he walked. That's what our
text is telling us. You put on bowels of mercies
like Christ put on toward you. You belong suffering and kind
and humble in mind like Christ is to you. You forgive even as
Christ forgave you. This is the image of Christ he's
created in his child. And when he renews you, he keeps
you loving as he loved. Verse seven, brethren, I'm not
writing anything new to you. That's what he said. I'm not
giving you a new commandment. I'm telling you the old commandment
which you had from the beginning. The old commandment's the word
which you had from the beginning. Verse 8, again, a new commandment
I write unto you. It's old, but he keeps it new.
Which thing is true in him and in you? Because the darkness
is past, and the true light now shineth, because you've been
born again. The commandment is believe on Christ and love one
another. It's the same thing he taught
you when he first called you and he keeps teaching you. He
that saith he's in the light and hateth his brother is in
darkness even unto now. That's as clear as it can be,
isn't it? He that loveth his brother abideth
in the light, and there is not occasion of stumbling in it.
But he that hateth his brothers in darkness, and walketh in darkness,
and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded
his eyes. That's why he goes on to say
down there in chapter 2, he says, this bond keeps you together,
and he says, But when men depart, in verse 19, they go out because
they're not of it. They don't have this love binding
together, binding to Christ and binding to one another. They
went out because they're not of us. But you have an unction
from the Holy One, and you know all these things. Now look at
chapter 3 and look at verse 10. I'm just going to read this because
it's so clear right here. I just want you to see this.
1 John 3, 10, in this the children of God are manifest in the children
of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness,
that is, whosoever believeth not on Christ, doesn't have faith
in Christ, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
That's the commandment, believe on Christ and love one another.
He calls it doing righteousness. He that does not believe Christ
and love his brother is not of God, for this is the message
you heard from the beginning. See, it's the same commandment
he told you when he first called you, that we should love one
another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his
brother, and wherefore slew him, because his own works were evil
and his brother's righteous. The only works we're told that
either of these did is that Cain came, and it was a thank offering,
a meat offering. He brought the fruit of the ground,
his best fruit to offer to God, but he didn't bring blood. He
did not believe on Christ. He came in the works of his hand,
and those works were wicked. Same as any of you, if you try
to come to God by the works of your hand, they're wicked works.
And God rejected him. And the only thing we're told
that Abel did is Abel came through faith in Christ. Hebrews says
by faith he offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. He came
in the blood of a substitute, a lamb that died in his place,
and by that he's confessing, I have no way of approaching
holy God except in the righteousness and holiness of my Lord Jesus
Christ, who laid down his life for me. That's the only thing
we're told they did. And because of this, because
Cain's works were wicked and Abel's were righteous, Cain killed
his brother. Now, I bet if you saw these men,
Cain would have appeared outwardly to be much more righteous than
Abel. And I say that because when Christ
walked this earth, they were legalists. He was a legalist.
And the Pharisees were legalists, and Christ told, he said, outwardly,
you appear righteous. But he said, you're a whitewashed
sepulcher. Inside, you're full of dead men's
bones. There's not the love of God in you. There's no faith
in Christ in you. I will be your peer rights, and
I'm sure that's how Cain appeared. But he manifest, I said, this
is the test right here. How we, how, if we're going to
be bound with brethren, here's the test. When trials come, rather
than being bound to Abel and submitting and asking Abel to
give him a better understanding, teach him, what did he do? He
killed Abel. and he manifested that he was
trusting his own works. He came with that thank offering,
but he was trusting in that offering and that sacrifice, in those
works. So God declared that it was evil. A man does not have
to physically murder one of Christ's own to murder him. You don't
have to physically murder anybody. Our Lord said murder's in the
heart. Murder is to be unforgiving and to break this bond. Look
at 1 John 3, 13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the
world hate you. Don't be amazed by it. Verse
14, we know we've passed from death to life because we love
the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him. Hereby, now catch this word right
here. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. Remember how we started this
message? Christ laid down his life for
his people when we were the ungodly. When we were quarreling against
Him, sinning against Him, hating Him, treating Him in every wicked
way we could, He laid down His life for His people. And He forgave
us. He said, that's what we ought
to do to one another. And that's what the love of God
will do. Now listen. Look at 1 John 3, 17. But whoso
hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels with compassion from him, how dwelleth the love
of God in him? My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth." Now you
see that verse 18? The legates will take that verse
and they will murder their brother with that verse. Exalting self
over another. Saying, I'm doing this, you're
not doing this. But you see what our Lord's telling
us here is, this is something only the Spirit of our Lord's
gonna work in us. It's by renewing us inwardly
and keeping you know Christ was merciful to you, long-suffering
to you, forbearing to you, forgave you when you deserved nothing
from Him. And He effectually keeps this
bond in your heart with your brethren by that message of his
faithfulness and by him renewing you in spirit and makes you willing
to lay down your life and Continue loving your brother forgive them
and stay committed to him and if we if we take a verse like
that and we start condemning our brother with it and we start
using these precepts to condemn one another James said Speak
not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges
the law. But if you judge the word, you're
not a doer of the word. If you use this book to condemn
somebody else, you're not doing what the book says. If you take
a verse out of this book and condemn somebody, throw it at
them, read it at them, speak it at them, try to condemn them
with it, you're not doing what the verse says. Here's what Christ keeps you
remembering. There's one lawgiver and he's able to save and to
destroy. And that puts a reverence in
your heart and this love of God in your heart by his grace and
his power to make you know, I'll trust him to him. I'll trust
him to my savior. That's what he said in Romans
14. Who are you to judge another man's servant? My brother is
Christ's servant. Christ made him righteous. Christ
made him holy. Christ is in him. Christ is keeping
him. Christ has forgiven him. And he's done the same for me.
And by his love in your heart, he makes you forgive and believe
him and trust him to make your brother stand. Beloved, look
at 1 John 4, 7. 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, Let us love one another, for
love is of God. We can't fake this, we can't
create this, we can't maintain this, we can't sustain it. This
is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And in this was manifested the
love of God toward us because God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. He sent his son who is the
propitiation for our sin. Beloved, if God after this manner
loved us, we ought also to love one another. after this manner. If He so loved us, that's how
we are to love. Now go back to Colossians 3.12.
Paul said, the love of God, the love of Christ toward us constrains
us in our heart. And our Lord Jesus, when you
have a quarrel, He comes to you and He makes you know, I'm all
your salvation. and he makes you put on as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, 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 you. And above all these things,
the constraint, the motive in all these things is charity,
love, which is the bond that God has brought us to, that He's
created, that He's maturing us in. And you know this? Out of
everything that the Lord gives you and me, and everything He
gives us, God is love. And this is God in you, Christ
in you, that creates this. And of everything He gives you,
this is what will never be taken away from you. Faith one day
is gonna be sight. Hope is gonna be a reality. Now
about a faith, hope, charity, these three. But the greatest
of these is charity. This bond will never be broken
between God and his people in Christ and between brethren and
brethren in Christ because love is of God. It's He did it. It'll never be broken. All right,
brethren, we're going to observe the Lord's Table.