Would you open your Bibles with
me to Colossians chapter three? When I stood here last and preached
to you, I preached on the subject of the character of God's elect
from this passage, Colossians chapter three, verse 12, where
the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, encouraged,
commanded true believers sinners saved by grace, he says, 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, Now, word charity is love, as you know, which is
the bond of perfectness. That's the, it's kind of like
he's saying this is the glue that keeps us together. Love
in the truth, love in Christ. So put on this charity and let
the peace of God rule in your hearts. Spoke of that this morning
from Romans five. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. To the which also you are called
in one body and be ye thankful. We're talking about Thanksgiving. That's to be our lives as sinners
saved by grace, our whole life, not just one day of the year.
Nothing wrong with having Thanksgiving dinner, don't get me wrong, but
that's the whole life of a believer. Grace, love, and gratitude. Verse
16, 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.
That's worship. Worshippers. Verse 17, and whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks. There's that thanksgiving again,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Now, We're going
to talk about the character of God's elect. I want to finish
these scriptures up as far as preaching today. And so whenever
we talk about the character of God's elect, what we're talking
about literally is what characterizes the elect of God. And I mentioned
in the last message how we need to understand, first of all,
who are the elect of God? Who are the chosen ones? Bible
teaches election, there's no denying that if you read the
Bible. And I know that multitudes who
claim to be Christian today deny God's electing grace or they
portray it as God being some kind of a crystal ball gazer
or cosmic astronomer looking down through the telescope of
time. and foreseeing what a particular person would do as far as believing
or not believing or whatever, and then making his choice based
upon that. But first of all, that's not
in the Bible. And secondly, it's contrary to
what the Bible does say. about election. I don't apologize
for election. Somebody says, well, it's not
fair. Well, the Bible's answer to that is in Romans 9. Very
blatantly, Paul says, who do you think you are to reply, to
debate, to argue with God? And he also says that whatever
God does is right. But it also says that our election
of grace is of grace. It's unconditional. It's in Christ. It's not due to anything. that
we do, will do, plan to do. It's not God's response. God's
not some kind of a cosmic chess player up there. He makes His
move, you make your counter move, and then He figures out what
to do from there. No. It's all of God. It's all about
God. So who are the elect of God? Well, here's what the Bible
says about the elect of God. They are sinners saved by grace,
through the blood and righteousness of Christ, redeemed by Him on
the cross, and regenerated, known by their new birth, regenerated
and converted by the Holy Spirit. They believe the gospel. True
believers. I was listening to a message
by an old preacher who's dead now, but he was talking about
election and he didn't like what I believe the Bible preaches
on election. And he was talking about how
Israel, the Jews, are the only ones elect. And he made this
statement. He said, is there anywhere in
the Bible we can go to where God identifies the elect? And
he went back to Deuteronomy chapter six. Well, the Bible does identify
the Jewish nation as God's chosen people. God chose them for a
period of time to work his sovereign providence through for one purpose,
and that's to bring Christ through that nation. But I thought, when
he went there, I said, well, why didn't you go to Colossians
3.12? Where, obviously, the Apostle Paul, as inspired by the Holy
Spirit, is speaking to both Jew and Gentile. And what binds them together? What makes them the election?
Well, what evidences, rather, their election They believe Christ. They believe in the God. They
believe in Christ. They rest in Him. They look to
Him. He is the Lord, their righteousness. We sang about that. Who is your
righteousness? Who is my righteousness? Do we
have the same one? And so that's the elect of God.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He said, I know your election
of God because the gospel came to you, not just in word only,
but in power. In other words, you believed
it. You were brought to faith in Christ. That's the gift of
God. You were brought to repentance of dead works. Yes, the Bible says that God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
what believeth might have everlasting life. So do you believe? That's the issue. You say, well,
I can't believe. I don't know if God chose me.
That's foolish. In fact, you're trying to play
God yourself there. That's not your business. Your
command, your mandate is to believe in Christ. Run to Christ, sinner. There's no other hope for any
of us than to run to Christ and bow to him and submit to him
as the Lord your righteousness. Plead his blood for your salvation. Now you've got no other hope.
Now you go to him. And I know if you do, what does
that mean? That means God's done a wonderful,
marvelous, invincible, powerful work of grace in your heart.
That's what the Bible says. As many as received him, to them
gave he the right to be called the sons of God, who were born
not of bloods, Not because you're a physical Jew or an American
or a Baptist or whatever. Not of the will of the flesh,
that's the works of the flesh. And not of the will of man, not
of your own will. You weren't born again because
you made a decision. The Bible doesn't teach that. And you know what? When they
do believe, when they run to Christ, when they embrace him,
when they believe with the heart unto righteousness, which is
to believe in Christ, and receive him and bow to him and his claims. Who is he? God in human flesh.
What did he do? He died to save his people from
their sin. When you embrace him, that's
the elect of God. And then he says, holy. Put on
therefore as the elect of God, holy. What is it to be holy?
Listen. Every one of God's chosen people,
every sinner saved by God, we ought to be moral, upstanding
citizens, responsible. You men, you ought to be good
husbands, good employers or employees, good fathers, everything. There's no question there. But
that's not what it means to be holy. You know what the word holiness
means? It means separateness, distinctive, distinctness. Now, most people when they look
at the word holy, they think of morally pure. Well, if you
were morally pure, or if I was morally pure, without sin, well,
we certainly would be separate, wouldn't we? I know this, if
you're without sin today in yourself, you're separate from me, Cause
I'm a sinner, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's my story. To God be the glory. So if holiness
has to do, now I know God is morally perfect in himself, isn't
he? And he's holy. But that's what
distinguishes, separates him from anything or anyone else.
And that's what it means here, it means to be separate. You're
separated. And how are we separated? We're
separated unto God by his grace. We're separated unto his truth,
we believe the gospel. And that's what he's, holy brethren,
should we strive to be morally pure? Yes, but that's not our
righteousness before God. Christ is my righteousness before
God, and my best efforts to be pure and holy and moral, my best
efforts will never make me righteous before God. They'll always fall
short. A man asked me one time, he said,
well then how can our worship, our prayers, how can they be
accepted with God? Well, what does the Bible say?
We are accepted in the Beloved. Christ is our mediator, our intercessor,
our advocate. Isn't that right? When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's right. We're washed in His blood. Even
our prayers, or listen, Hebrews 4.14, seeing them we have a great
high priest who is passed into the heavens, literally through
the heavens for us. Let's go to the throne of grace,
let's plead with God, let's beg, let's pray. You remember the
laver, or the altar of incense rather, in the tabernacle, the
smoke going up, the prayers of God's people? And that's a picture
of Christ standing as our intercessor, our advocate. pleading the merits
not of my prayer. Oh, look at how, what a prayer
that Bill Parker prayed today. Wasn't that beautiful, Lord?
Don't you accept, no. Most of my prayers are just pitiful
rambling sometimes. That's why it says in Romans
eight, sometimes we don't have the words to know to pray and
the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Sometimes our prayers are selfish,
aren't they? Why we have to say, God, thy
will be done. But why does God accept such
pitiful prayers, pitiful worship? When you're sitting here, is
your worship perfect day? Does your mind never wander from
anything else? While I'm preaching, while we're
reading the word of God, while we're singing hymns, your mind
ever go anywhere else? Do you know that's sinful? How
does God accept such pitiful works? Through the blood of Jesus
Christ. And there's nothing that God
accepts or blesses except through the merits of his righteousness
alone. Not my person nor my works. So to be holy here is to be distinct.
It's to be separate and then be loved. That's those whom God
loves. That's that agape love. That's
that redeeming love that sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And then he begins here in the
context. Now, he says, listen to these
things. He says, now you who are chosen of God, who have been
separated out by God's grace through the preaching of the
gospel, whom God loves, here's what you do. Put on these characteristics,
these traits, Now whenever we're talking about the character,
the lives, the conduct, Christian living, godliness, we have to
understand something from the very outset. Is that whenever
we're talking about those things in a Christian context, we are
talking about something that is much, much higher than human
religious morality. Every religion of man can make
these claims. He says, put on vows of mercy. That's compassion. You don't
have to be a Christian to give money to charity, to be compassionate
towards people. But Christians ought to be compassionate,
isn't that right? We ought to be compassionate
people. Realizing what we are. Realizing that God has had compassion
upon us, hasn't he? And it's not conditioned on us.
In other words, God didn't have compassion on me because I did
something for him. So whenever we seek to show compassion
towards people, it ought not be because they've done something
for us. It ought to be unconditional. just like God has in us. Should
believers, should the elect of God be characterized by their
compassion? Of course. But compassion of
itself will not identify a true Christian. And here's another thing. None
of these things that we're commanded to strive for in our character
and our conduct, none of them will make us righteous before
God. None of them will earn God's favor for us. We don't earn God's
favor. Everything we have is a gift
of God. And everything we do that's pleasing
to God is the work of God in us through Christ by His Spirit
in His Word. And it's, again, covered by the
blood of Christ. Should I be compassionate? Yes.
Should I try hard? Yes. Am I always compassionate? No. Sometimes I am after my uncompassionate
behavior. Sometimes I react off the cuff,
through the flesh, and then I have to think, I shouldn't have done
that. I shouldn't have acted that way. I shouldn't have said
that. Lord, forgive me. He mentions kindness. Should
we be kind? Of course we should. There's
no argument there. We're not going to debate that,
are we? Does the Bible ever give a believer leave to have a casual
attitude towards any sin? No. We're to be at war with it. Our sins charged, imputed to
Christ is what sent him to the cross. Yeah, right. That's why
he suffered and bled. That's why he died, because of
sin. Our sins, imputed, charged, given
to him. How can we take a hands-off attitude or a casual
attitude for the very thing that brought our Lord such suffering
on our behalf? So yes, we should be a kind people,
kind towards others. I want you to understand, though,
that compassion and kindness does not mean compromising the
truth in order to gain friends and influence people. And I want
you to understand, too, that when we witness for Christ, as
they say, when we tell the truth, the world on the main is going
to see that as uncompassionate and unkind. Did you know that?
Remember over there in Hebrews chapter 12 where he says, follow
peace with all men and holiness. You know what he's saying there?
And he says, without which no man will see the Lord. He's not
saying now try to be the best you can be or you won't see the
Lord. That's not what he's saying there. You gotta look at the
context. He's saying here, we're to be
people of peace. We're not to be brawlers, fighters. But we cannot compromise holiness,
that which separates us from the world. We cannot compromise
the gospel, the truth, and speak peace where there is no peace
in order to get people to like us or to receive us or accept
us. You see what I'm saying? We're to tell the truth. We're
to tell it in love and compassion, but tell the truth. I mentioned
this morning about peace with God. You know, preachers today
will speak peace to people based upon a false ground. There's
all kinds of false grounds. Decisional regeneration, baptism. You say, well, I know I'm saved.
I got baptized when I was 12. Is that the ground of your peace? There's no peace there with God.
You know how peace comes according to the Bible? By the blood of
his cross. God reconciled to his people. He was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing, not charging their
trespasses unto them. That's the non-imputation of
sin. What does that mean? That means sin was imputed to
Christ. What does that mean? If he died for me, his righteousness
is imputed to me. And that's the ground of peace.
He's the king of righteousness who brings peace. He rules with
the scepter of righteousness, brings peace. He's the prince
of peace. It's all in Christ who made peace. You say, well, who do you speak
peace to? Anyone and everyone who's looking unto Jesus as the
author and finisher of their faith. But false preachers, as
Jeremiah's day, they cry peace when there is no peace. And I
told him this morning, I said, you know who the father of that
message was? Well, the title of the message was this. Thou
shalt not surely die. That's Satan's word. So yes, we're to be compassionate,
we're to be kind without compromising the holiness. That which separates
us. Humbleness of mind, that's humility.
I know people in false religion who appear humble and are humble
before men, but they're not humble before God. You know when you're
humble before God? When you see What the psalmist
said in Psalm 130 in verse 3, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? That's when a sinner is convinced
to know that we're depraved, we're wretched, we're sinners
who deserve nothing and have learned nothing from God but
death and damnation. That's right. I'm telling you
right now, if God were to judge me now, based upon my best efforts
to serve Him, if He determined, Bill, I'm going to give you the
blessings of salvation based upon your best, I would get nothing
but death and damnation. I have no other recourse but
to beg for mercy, mercy from God. God be merciful to me, the
sinner. Today now, not when I was 12
and walked an aisle or whatever. I didn't do that. But today, right now, God be merciful. My worthiness, what is my worthiness?
It's not that I'm standing here preaching to you today. My worthiness
is worthy as the lamb that was slain. You see what I'm saying? The Pharisees, Remember what
Paul said of his Jewish physical brethren. He said, I bear them
record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness before God hath not submitted
to the righteousness of God, which in verse four there of
Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. Until you're submitted to Christ
as your only righteousness before God, there's no godly humility. Humbleness of my meekness, he
says in verse 12. You know what meekness is? That's
submission to the truth of God. Somebody says, well, I'm a Christian,
but I don't like that part of the Bible. Well, where's your
meekness? You say, well, I just don't understand
it. Well, that's not the question. That's not the issue. I've told
you about the church marquee that I saw up in West Virginia
one time where it says, God said it, I believe it, that settles
it. That's wrong. It's God said it,
that settles it. Whether you believe it or not.
I hope you believe it. I hope I believe it. But it's
settled before I believe it. My believing it doesn't settle
it. God says it. You say, well, I can't wrap my
mind around all of this book. Well, join the club, folks. This
is the word of God. If God says he saved sinners
one way and one way alone, by his grace, through Christ, and
based upon his righteousness alone, that's the way it is. And it can be no other way. Now
submit. And it's submission to authority.
You know, preachers today, well, preachers always have been egomaniacs. You know the worst thing that
can happen to a preacher? Is when he gains a following.
That's the worst thing that can happen to him. You see, what
I'm saying is this, I hope you all just follow me, I hope you're
following Christ. I love that passage. where the
disciples of John the Baptist, it says, I think it's in John
three, it says, they heard John preach and they followed Jesus. I love that. That's the way it
ought to be. But people are by nature, that's
the way we are. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos.
I follow this, listen, don't follow me. I'll say it this way,
Paul said it this way, follow me as I follow Christ, as I point
you to Christ. I'm not your savior, Christ is. I'm not your righteousness, Christ
is. And then he says longsuffering.
What does that mean? It means to suffer long, it means
to put up with a lot. Really? Amongst brethren, is
there any stopping point? Say, well, now I've had enough.
I don't have to work it. No. 70 times 70, that's what he told
Peter. He said in verse 13 here, forbearing
one another and forgiving one another. Forgiveness. You know,
forgiveness is not an easy thing, is it? Because of our flesh,
you know, we can't just put things out of our mind as if they never
happened. It's a task. It's a warfare. But look at this,
now look at the standard of forgiveness. He says, if any man have a quarrel
against any. Now he's not talking about gospel
issues here. And you need to understand that.
If we do not believe the same gospel, we have no fellowship. You understand that? If we're
not looking to Christ alone for all of our salvation, we have
no fellowship. Our fellowship is based upon
the truth. that we stand on together. And he's gonna deal with that
later on here. But that fellowship that we have is in Christ. Now, if I believe the gospel
and you believe another gospel, now, if you do me wrong, I can
forgive you, and I am to forgive you, but I can have no fellowship
with you. Do you understand that? If an atheist does me wrong,
I'm commanded to forgive him. Isn't that right? But I have
no fellowship with him. So don't get that confused. Well,
that means that, you know, if somebody's preaching a false
gospel over there, I'm to forgive them and act like we're just
brethren? No. No, that's compromise, that's dishonoring to God. Do
you know what you find here is in all of this matter of Christian
character and conduct, you know it's all still about God and
his glory. It's not about you, not about
me, it's all about God. It's his power, it's his grace,
it's his honor. But here's the standard, he says,
if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. Has Christ forgave me? How did
he forgive me? Unconditionally. But in a just
way. That's right, on the basis of
his blood. Verse 14, above all, put all these things, put on
charity, that's the love. Now he's not just talking about
some sappy, emotional, romantic idea of love here. Let's just
all gather around a campfire and sing kumbaya and all that
stuff. That's not what he's talking
about. This is love that first comes from God and is shed abroad
in the hearts of God's people by the Holy Spirit as He reveals
Christ to us. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. This is love in the truth. John
spoke of it in 1 John and 2 John and 3 John. Love in the truth. Love without the truth is dishonoring
to God and damning to the soul. Did you know that? You say, well,
I can have fellowship with that false preacher because I love
him. No, that's selfish love. Did you know that? That's self-love. But this love is love that has
first and foremost in mind the glory of God in Christ. It's
what binds us together. Look at verse 14. He says, which
is the bond of perfectness. That's completeness. This is
the, what he's saying, this is the glue that holds us together. It's not necessarily, you know,
I hope we all like each other. But that's not necessarily the
case here. It's that love of Christ that
binds us together. It's the love of the truth, you
see. And he says it in verse 15, let the peace of God rule
in your heart. What is the peace of God? It's
that peace between God and sinners that comes by virtue of the shed
blood and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
through the gospel of peace. who guides us to the Prince of
Peace, who made peace for us on the cross. God reconciled to me and me reconciled
to God on one ground, His grace that reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the peace that
passes all understanding. That's the peace that rules in
our hearts, our minds, our affections, our will. And he says, to the
witch also you are called in one body and be you thankful.
That's one body of believers. That's one body who believe the
same gospel. United together in truth and
in love. And then he says, be you thankful.
You know what Christian obedience is? Christian living? It's a way of just simply saying,
thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation so
rich and so free. Thank you. Not trying to earn
my way. Not trying to get what I deserve.
Thank you, Lord, for giving me what I haven't earned and what
I haven't deserved. You've given me all of salvation
and all spiritual blessings in Christ. You've given me a righteousness
which I had no part in producing. It's His righteousness in Peter.
Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. That's
worship. That's worshiping in spirit. That's what we're to
do. We're to be characterized as worshipers. We're not closet
Christians. We come together. That's why
we're here today. To worship. To worship God. Not just to socialize. Not just to give our kids something
to do. We're here to hear the word of God. We want to hear
Christ. Listen, I know every believer
here today. You'll walk away here rejoicing if you hear Christ
exalted. in his person and in his finished
work. I know that. Because that's what it's all
about, isn't it? And we'll sing spiritual songs, singing with
grace in our hearts. That's not emotion. That's a
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And he says in verse 17, 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. Let me give you these two things.
Whatever you do in word or deed, talking about in this character,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do it all
for the glory of God, that's what that means. And the glory
of God has to be ensconced in the truth of God, as it is in
Christ. There were preachers who stood
before Christ one time and said, We preached, we cast out demons,
we've done many wonderful works in your name, thinking they were
giving glory to God. But what did Christ say to them?
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. What was the problem? They thought their preaching,
they thought their demon exercising, they thought they were doing
many wonderful works, gained them entrance into God's favor,
into God's glory, into God's heaven. They thought that was
their righteousness before God. And they gave God the credit.
We did it in your name. And Christ said, I never knew
you. You see, our works, our efforts, our character, that's
not our righteousness before God. Christ is. What will you plead when you
stand before God at judgment? The blood of Jesus Christ. The
righteousness of Christ. That's all I've got. And then,
there was another time, he said do it with, in verse 10 he said,
giving thanks to God. You know, there was a guy who
gave thanks to the Lord one time. He said, I thank God that I'm
not like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
like that old publican who steals from people. I fast twice in
the week, I give tithes of all that I, I thank God for that.
You know, he was thanking God for that. He wasn't taking credit
for himself. But what happened? He went away
unjustified. But you remember that old publican,
that's Luke 18, he said, God be merciful, propitious to me
the sinner. I don't have anything to recommend
me unto God, but a propitiation which can be found in Christ.
A righteousness that can be only found in Christ. The grace of
God. You see, it's not just saying,
I thank God, or I'm doing it for the glory. What are you trying
to give God credit for? He may not want credit for that.
It's all in Christ. And my friend, that's the character
of God's elect, right there. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.