I've entitled the message for
tonight, as the elect of God. Put on therefore, as the elect
of God, Colossians chapter three, verses 11 and 12. Now this passage of scripture
sets forth the beauty of the gospel. What it does for people, and
in people. And I hope we'll all be able
to see that by the end of this message. Now, Paul says, put
on therefore as the elect of God. This is what God's elect put
on. This is the clothing they put
on. Notice, it says, put on as the
elect of God, therefore, 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,
a complaint, a legitimate complaint against any, even as Christ forgave
you, So also do ye. Now put on as the elect of God. What an awesome thing to think
about. God chose me. I don't know of anything more
awe-inspiring, more humbling than that. That God chose me. He knew me. He loved me. Isn't that amazing? Put on therefore
as the elect of God. I love the God of election. I love him being that way. It sets forth the supremacy of
his will. You just read it in Hebrews 10,
10, by the which will we are sanctified once for all through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ and election glorifies
the supremacy of his will. Election glorifies the freeness
of his grace. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. I love the elect. We love the elector and we love
the elected. You see, all of God's elect,
by His grace, they love Jesus Christ. And you know, anybody
that loves Jesus Christ, we love, don't we? Put on, therefore,
as the elect of God. And then he uses two words to
describe all of God's elect, holy and beloved. Holy. I'm glad you read that
scripture. By the witch will we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. According, Paul said in Ephesians
4, 1, 4, as he's chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy. Made holy by the spirit
of God in regeneration, actually made a partaker of the divine
nature. Second Thessalonians 2.13 says, we're bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit, actually being made holy by the spirit of God. Now, God's holy. All of God's
people are holy. And that's what Paul calls them.
holy and beloved, beloved of God. To have God love you, that
means He's for you. What more could you ask? He's
for you, beloved of God, beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having
the Lord Jesus Christ to love you, Behold, thou art all fair,
my love. There is no spot in thee. Loving you freely, loving you
sovereignly, but also loving you because you're lovely. He
made you lovely. And you actually bring forth
the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ if you're in him. A beautiful,
spotless, perfect bride. Beloved of God. Now, may we be very careful how
we treat the Lord's people. They're the elect of God. Holy
and beloved. And that's who they really are.
That's how God sees them. I was thinking about this thing
in God's sight. As God sees is the way you really
are, how God sees you. The other stuff, it's just temporary.
Holy and beloved. the elect of God. What a blessed
privilege. Now he says in verse 12, put
on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of
mercies. He's talking about putting these
things on like you put clothing on. You see these things that
he's talking about are not natural to us. They're not natural to
the natural man. They can be counterfeited, but
no natural man possesses any of these things. They're not
natural to us. And he says, put on as the elect
of God, holy and beloved. And I was thinking about this.
How we dress says a lot about us as people. Surely does. How we dress says a lot about
us as people. You can dress provocatively.
You can dress conservatively. You can dress flamboyantly. You
can dress slovenly. How we dress when we come here
is important. It surely is. I don't ever want
to be dressed in such a way as I draw too much attention to
myself one way or the other. And you know, as far as they
make such a big thing now, preachers wearing golf shirts and stuff
like that, just because of that, I just don't like that. I don't
like it at all. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God. holy and beloved. And the first article of clothing
he tells us to put on is bowels of mercies. Put on therefore
as the elect of God, bowels. Now your bowels, that word bowels
in the scripture, you know what your bowels are, but it represents
your deepest passions and emotions. Put on bows, this represents
your passions and affections. Should we not be men and women
who passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ? That's not hard to answer that
question, is it? Should we not love one another
passionately? Christ does. Christ does. What a lover he is to our souls.
I love to sing that hymn that we sing, Jesus lover of my soul. And every time I sing that, I
do so thinking that's amazing. He's a lover of my soul and what
a lover he is. Should we not be passionate in
the preaching of the gospel? Oh, there's no way to preach
the Gospel but passionately. Should we not be passionate the
way we hear the Gospel? I want to come in with a hungering
heart, desiring to hear Christ speak to me. And come in with
a passionate attitude about hearing, not an indifferent attitude,
not a just, here I am, no. I want to come, Lord, speak to
me. Enable the preacher to speak the Gospel. Should we not be
passionate in our defense of the faith? Should we not be passionate
in our love to the lost? He says, put on therefore, as
the elect of God, bowels passionate. And mercies, bowels and mercies. At mercy is compassion. And what
I thought about when I thought about compassion, I thought about
that leper coming to Christ. Scripture says he was full of
leprosy. You would have been revolted at his appearance. And he came to Christ and he
fell at his feet and he worshiped him. The scripture says in Mark's
account, it says, if you will, if you will, you can make me
clean. Now that leper understood everything
somebody needs to understand, didn't he? If you will, he understood
who Christ was, the supremacy of his will. If you will, you
can make me clean. How many times have I prayed
that prayer? Lord, if you will, that's all I got. Lord, if you
will, I'm out of this thing. I can't do anything. Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. And you know what the scripture
says? And Jesus moved with compassion. That's our Redeemer. He looked
at that leper, he was moved with compassion, and he reached forth
his hand, the scripture says, and touched him. And how long
had it been since that fella had felt a human touch? I don't
know, who knows? But he said, I will. Be thou
clean. You see, we have not a high priest
that cannot be touched by the feeling. of our infirmities. Oh, the compassions of Christ.
And Paul says, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, bowels and
mercies, compassions. And the next thing he says to
put on in verse 12 is kindness, kindness. The word actually is
graciousness. Easiness. Somebody that no one
ever feels threatened or judged by. I don't care how morally
reprobate they might be, no one ever ought to be around me or
you and think we're looking down on them and feel morally superior
in any way. No one ought to ever feel that way. That's what a
kind person is. Gracious. and lowly like the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the character of our Lord.
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, forgave you. Kindness, isn't that beautiful?
I want to be a kind man, don't you? Someone who's kind, someone
who people do not feel condemned and judged around. And the next
thing he mentions is to put on as the elect of God in verse
12, look at it, humbleness of mind, humbleness of mind. Now, humility is a right view
of yourself. It's a just estimate of yourself.
And I was thinking about this thing of humility and I, and
you know, I realize, that when we say we're the chief of centers,
if somebody agrees with us, we'll probably get a little bit upset
because people at that time, they're judging, yeah, I agree. If you say that regarding somebody
else, you're saying I'm better than you. And so we would get
a little bit aggravated over that. If I said, if I come out
with my, I'm the chief of centers, and you'd say, yeah, I agree,
you are. But all that aside, let me ask you a question. Do
you really believe that there's anybody in this world that's
worse than you? In your heart, do you believe
that before God, there's anybody that's more sinful than you? I don't have any doubt that all
of God's elect believe themselves to be the very chief of sinners,
the worst person alive. I might not do some of the bad
things other people do, but I know me. I know me better than anybody
else except the Lord. He knows me better than I know
myself, but I know me and I can't. Lord knows whether I'm being
sincere. But I believe myself to be the most sinful man alive. And that's the way all of God's
elect view themselves. And we understand this, this
is what humility is. We understand that we are what
we are by the grace of God. That's what Paul said, by the
grace of God I am what I am. I'm a Christian and I'm a Christian
by the grace of God. I'm justified and I'm justified
by the grace of God. I'm elect and it's because of
the grace of God. I love Christ and that's because
of the grace of God. I realize that. I don't give
myself the credit in any way to any degree. That's what true
humility does. It knows it is what it is by
the grace of God. Who made you to differ from another? And what
do you have that you didn't receive? Who made you to differ? If you're
a believer, you know that it was the Lord who made you to
differ, don't you? You know that. I love that scripture in Exodus
chapter 11, verse 70 says, but against any of the children of
Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast so
that you may know that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. While there's nothing more ugly
than pride and self-importance and self-promotion, how beautiful
is humility? Everybody loves a humble person. They really do. It's just like
it just touched my heart when I said to Gene, when I was talking
to him, I said, you're a beloved man. Oh, how could that be? And boy, that just brings your
heart out to him, doesn't it? That gracious humility. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, humbleness of mind. Got a reason to be humble, don't
we? Surely do. Let's go on reading Colossians
3.12. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, meekness. Meekness is the other side of
humility. It's an attitude toward God that bows to what he sends
because he sent it. And it's to do so without murmuring
and without complaining. You see, whatever God sends my
way, it's right, it's best. I may not understand it, I don't
need to understand it, but I know if God sent it, it's right and
it's best. And there's so many examples
in the scripture of this thing of meekness, but no one was more
meek than David. I brought this up many times
when that Shemai was cursing him. He called him a son of Belial,
a son of wickedness. He said, you're a bloody man.
He was just saying all kinds of terrible things to him. And
Abishai said, you want me to go take his head off? And David
said, no, the Lord said. The Lord told him to say it.
The Lord said, curse David. Now, when somebody curses you,
when someone mistreats you, when someone wrongs you, remember
this, the Lord told him to do it. He's in complete control
of it. And He's doing it for your good
and His glory. And you're to learn something
and benefit in some way from this. And I'm to learn something
and benefit in some way from this. Whatever He sends my way
is right. If He makes me sick, it's right.
If He gives me health, it's right. Whatever He does is right. Like
Eli said, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Now meekness comes from really
believing God is God. You really believe God is sovereign.
And whatever He sends your way is good, right, and just. And
you don't have to be able to bring it all together. You don't
have to understand it all. You know He does. And you rest in
that meekness. Now the next thing he says in
verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, long suffering, long tempered, not soon angry,
not popping off, not easily provoked, not easily offended, but patient,
long suffering, not touchy, not irritable, Now this too is the child of God really believing
that God is sovereign and long-suffering to him. You know, the scripture
says the long-suffering of God is salvation. God is not slack concerning his
promise to usward, as some men count slackness, but as long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish. but that all should
come to repentance. God's long-suffering with me.
He's patient with me. He knows I'm nothing but dust,
and He's gonna bring me to repentance. Now, put on from believing God
is God, believing He's sovereign, that's not just a doctrine, that's
who He is, and we rejoice in it. Put on as the elect of God,
long-suffering. Isn't His clothing beautiful?
Look in verse 13. forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man had a quarrel, a complaint,
a legitimate complaint against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. In verse 14, he says, above all
these things, and this is what we're gonna consider next week,
and I wanna save that for next week, but he says, above all
these things, this is the most important thing to put on, put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Now, we're gonna
consider that next week, but let's consider what he says here.
Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, conduct that will cause
you to forbear one another and forgive one another. If any man
have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also
do ye. Now here's what God's elect do
for bearing one another and forgiving one another. As long as we're in the flesh,
there will be hurt feelings. People are going to hurt your
feelings. And I'm not just talking about unbelievers. I'm talking
about believers as well. It's part of being in the flesh.
We're going to have our feelings hurt. We're going to be misunderstood. There's going to be misunderstandings.
There's going to be injustices. There's going to be being wronged. There's going to be misrepresentations. We'll feel that our rights have
been violated by people who shouldn't have done it and that we've been
wronged and misrepresented. What are we to do? Forbear. Forbear and forgive. Don't seek to retaliate. Don't
seek to defend yourself. Forbear, endure, put up with
one another and forgive. That means put it out of mind
and restore a state of love and fellowship. Forbear and forgive. Now, you and I both will be wronged
and mistreated As I said, not merely by unbelievers, but by
believers. We will be accused of things that are not true.
We will be misrepresented. And here's something to always
remember. We're going to do the same thing.
We're going to misrepresent others. We're going to say things about
others that aren't true. We're going to make false accusations
toward others. I've misrepresented people. Somebody
says, well, I've never done that. Well, I'm glad. I'm glad. I admire
you. I have. I have. Turn with me
for a moment to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Verse
20. For there is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also, take no heed
unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse
thee. For oftentimes also thine own
heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others."
Now, next time you get mad at somebody for cursing you, for
speaking bad at you, for speaking ill regarding you, remember this,
you've done the same thing oftentimes. Now, somebody, if you can say,
well, that doesn't apply to me, I'm happy for you, but I know
sure enough it applies to me, and I believe that We all know
that applies to us as well. I'd like to read you a quote
from a message I've read by Charles Spurgeon. And he was talking
about what he called the top, I don't know how you, I don't
know how you make this judgment regarding somebody, but he says,
this is the finest man in our church. And this was a church
of over 5,000 people, but you know, he said, this is the finest.
And he quoted him as saying this, listen to this, this man, Spurgeon
quotes as saying, he spake against me that which was false. And boy, that hurts when that
happens, doesn't it? He spake against me that which was false. But if he had known me, if he
had known more of me, he might have said something far worse
and had been nearer to the truth. Perhaps my false accuser believed
what he said and thought he was doing a right thing in protesting
what he thought was my fault. At any rate, no one can harm
my character unless I do so myself." Isn't that a good quote? May
the Lord enable us to be that way. Forbearing and forgiving
is the way of God's elect. Now notice what he says in verse
13, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any
man have a quarrel, a legitimate complaint against any, even as
Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Now, if I have a complaint
with anybody, how they've treated me, how they've wronged me, and
all the different things that go through our minds, how I've
been misrepresented and slandered and so on. If someone has treated
you coolly or aloof, and you think, well, what's wrong with
them? Why are they treating me this way? Or if they've been judgmental
and critical of you, how do you handle it? Even as Christ forgave you. There you go. Even as Christ
forgave you, so also do ye. Now note the exalted state of
Christ. Who's the only one who can forgive?
God. The only one who can truly forgive
you of your sins is God. You know, if I forgive you, it
doesn't make any difference if he doesn't. God is the only one
who has the authority to actually forgive sin. And who's the one
who forgave here? Christ. You see, Jesus Christ
is God Almighty with the authority to forgive sin. Boy, I want Him
to forgive my sin, don't you? Even as Christ forgave you, so
do ye. He forgives grievous offenses. I don't know how else to say
it. But when they were nailing Him to a cross, He said, Father,
forgive them. And everybody He prayed for,
the Father forgave. This wasn't some kind of generic
prayer. He was praying for his murderers. Those that he'd chosen
to be saved, but he was praying for those who were driving the
nails in his hands and in his feet. I know that Roman centurion
ended up being saved, because he's the one who said, surely,
this man is the Son of God. He was overseeing all this. Oh,
the grievous offenses that Christ forgives. And the sins he forgives were
unprovoked by him. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, when I get mad at Lynn, it's
because she provoked me. That's what we say. That's what
we think. It's somebody's fault. We were provoked into saying
something hurtful. We were provoked into saying
something ugly. If they wouldn't have treated
us that way, it wouldn't have taken place. We were provoked
to say things we shouldn't say. I'll tell you what, I know this. I provoke people to say things
to me. No doubt, I have provoked them. I have made it to where they
had to say it. I've provoked them. A lot of
the hurtful things that are said are provoked. Now, the Lord never
provoked any of us. He never did anything to provoke
our anger. And yet, He forgives sins that
were totally, 100% our fault. He forgives them. They're grievous
and they are unprovoked. Now, even as Christ forgave you,
so do ye. And the Lord forgives sins that
He has the power to punish. I mean, you think about it, I
mean, he's in a position where he can deal with it. And yet,
he forgives anyway. Now, with us, there's nothing
really we can do about anybody. But he can. And yet, he forgives. Even as Christ forgave you, so
do also ye. And he never forgives in a measured
way. His forgiveness is free. His
forgiveness is full. And His forgiveness is everlasting. When I say His forgiveness is
free, that means there's no conditions that must first be fulfilled.
Isn't that wonderful? I mean, He just forgives. Now,
if I'm forgiven, I'm going to ask for forgiveness. There's
no doubt about that. I'm going to say, Lord, forgive me of my
sins. But let me tell you why I ask for the forgiveness of
sins. Because he forgave me and because he caused me to. If we
confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, the fact that I confess
my sins is due to His faithfulness. He determined that I do it, and
He caused me to do it. And He's just in the forgiveness
of sins. He forgives sins in a way that
honors the very justice of God, and God's holy law is honored.
and there's no conditions that I first have to fulfill. You
know, the word forgive in our text means unconditionally forgive. And the only way he can forgive
me or you is if he does it unconditionally, because you and I don't meet
any conditions that would make him to forgive us. So even as
Christ forgave you, so do also ye unconditionally without waiting
for something to happen. His forgiveness is full. Full
restoration. No holding us off until we get
better. Full restoration. All sin is
forgiven. Past, present, and future. And it's complete and it is irreversible. If you're forgiven, you're forgiven
eternally. You see, your forgiveness was
determined before you were ever born. And Christ is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And your forgiveness
was, you were forgiven before, this is so glorious, before there
was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. The Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Why was He slain? Because of
sin. To put away sin, to forgive sin. His forgiveness is irreversible. For he that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not? What could possibly prevent him
from freely giving us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justified them. I love thinking
of God justifying me. Justification, it's God declaring
me to be just. And if God declares me to be
just, I'm just. The judge never offers you justification. You want to be justified or condemned?
Take your choice. No, it doesn't work that way at all. If God
justifies me, it's because I got no guilt. You see, there are
sins and iniquities I'll remember no more, he said. They've all
been put away. Justified. You see, the forgiveness of Christ
is not like that narrow condescending. You ever been forgiven by somebody
where you were in a condescending way? Yeah, I'll forgive you,
you know, you moron. The forgiveness of Christ is
not that narrow, condescending, difficult, half-hearted, with
strings attached forgiveness that's found among men. It's
full. It's free. It's bottomless. It's boundless. And it's absolute. Now, even as Christ forgave you,
So do ye. I don't care who it is. Even
as Christ forgave you, so do ye. Concerning that one that
you have a justified complaint against, Even as Christ forgave
you, so do ye. Now, Shakespeare was not an inspired
writer, but he never made a better statement, in my opinion, than
this. To err is human. To forgive is divine. And the most godlike thing you
and I can ever do is forgive. The most Christ-like thing you
and I can ever do is forgive. Now may this description describe
us. Put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved. bowels of mercies, passionate
compassion, humbleness, lowliness, 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 here's what we're going to
consider Lord willing next Wednesday. And above all these things, this
is more important than anything else. That gives the significance
of this. Above all these things put on
charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Now that's just
beautiful. Isn't it? Put on therefore as
the elect of God, may the Lord enable us to do, to be this person. Let's pray together.