to remember those who requested
prayer. Fred's had his PICC line put in. He's going next Friday
for his PET scan. And then the 27th, they'll do
the consult on what they're going to do about his, his, uh, his,
uh, Hodgkin's disease. So remember him in your prayers
and, uh, remember the family also, uh, and those doctors,
they'll be able to balance this thing out between his cancer
and his heart. So remember that, uh, remember the others who requested
prayer also. How's rain doing? good and here
and here okay uh... picture him most some grace him
page fourteen wonderful beautiful him and can it be should be And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me? for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be That all my love should die for me? Tis mystery of immortal dyes
Who can explore In vain the firstborn seraph
tries to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all let earth adore. Let angels my eyes inquire. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? He left his Father's throne,
above, so free, so infinite. His grace emptied himself of
all but love and blame for his own chosen race. ? His mercy all immense and free
? ? For Thou, my God, hath found out me ? ? Amazing love, how
can it be ? ? That Thou, my God, shouldst be with me ? Long my prison spirit lay, fast
found in sin. Nature's night, thine I diffuse. I woke, my dungeon flamed with
light. My chains fell off, my heart
was free. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, Now I dread Jesus and all in
Him is mine. Alive in Him by living in and
clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne,
? Gave the crown to Christ my own
? Amazing love, how can it be ? That thou, my God, shouldst
die for me after scripture reading and prayer
we'll sing hymn number 294 in your red hymnal. Colossians chapter
3, if you will, the title of my message is God's elect. I'm going to read verses 1 through
13. My text will be from verses 12
and 13 this morning. It begins with the word if, which
is argumentative, which means since. Since ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, for Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, and not on things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience, into which ye
also walked sometime when ye lived in them. But now ye also
have put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after
the image of him that created him. For there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. put on therefore as the
elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Let us pray. Our Father, we bless you and thank you for
the truth that is the Word of God, that sets forth things as
they are, that teach us, convict us, comfort us, constrain us,
and cause us to look to Christ in all things. We thank you for
the perfect sacrifice that He offered to you, Father, that
you accepted on behalf of your chosen race. And you made it so that he who
was made to be sin, though he knew no sin, did so so that we
might be made the very righteousness of God. In fact, wonder of wonder,
you have made him to be unto us righteousness. The Lord is
our righteousness. We have none of our own. We claim
none of our own. And we're embarrassed by our
own self-righteousness. And we repent of it. but we are
thankful that us standing before you never had anything to do
with our doing or undoing. It had to do with the work of
Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, for those who
are sick and going through trials. Pray for Brother Fred as he's
awaiting these different procedures that he must go through before
he begins treatment. We ask, Lord, you be with him
and Arlene The rest of the families, they minister to him. Father,
we pray you'd be those doctors, give him great skill and understanding.
We continue to pray for deep hearts, for his healing, that
you'd help him, help those who are with him. Pray for ourselves
this morning as we gather, that you might be pleased to give
us understanding. Teach us, admonish us. Speak
to our hearts this morning through your words. cause us to catch
a glimpse of him to whom we're to look to see set our affections
on things above not on things of the earth where Christ is
who sits at the right hand of the father waiting upon him for
when he shall appear we shall appear with him also in glory
help us lord to think on these things and cherish and embrace
them we pray in christ's name amen hymn number 294. Savior like a shepherd lead us
but we need thy tender care in thy pleasant pastures lead us
for our use of Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou has bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou has bought us, Thine we are. We are Thine, do Thou befriend
us. Be the guardian of our way. Keep Thy flock from sin befriend
us. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and simple ? Mercy to relieve us ? Grace to
cleanse and power to free ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ? Herely
let us turn to Thee ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Let us return
to Thee. Early let us do Thy favor. Early let us do Thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior. ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? Thou hast loved us, loved us still ? Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus ? Thou hast loved us, loved us still Stand and stand to receive
the altar this morning, please. One reminder, next Sunday's the
last Sunday of the month. We'll be having the Lord's table
after the morning service and no afternoon service with a great
big awesome dinner. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, our
blessed Jesus. You have loved us with an everlasting
love. This we cannot begin to comprehend.
for we were altogether unlovely, unlovable, ungodly, and unclean. Yet you and your grace and mercy
chose out of this fallen race of ruined humanity a number which
no man can number to show mercy and grace to. Give them the gift
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with him freely give him all
things. Let us return now that which belongs to you. with hearts
full of thanksgiving and praise that you counted us in that great
number and that you made us complete in him. We bless your name in
Christ's name. Amen. Yeah. I invite your attention back
to Colossians chapter 3. In the verses that I read to
you this morning, the first part of the first verse said, Look
to Christ. And after the great number of admonitions that were
given, the last part of verse 13 says, Even as Christ, did it, forgave you, so also
do ye. So the bookends of everything
that's said in between these two things has to do with looking
to and setting our affections on things above and not on things
of the earth. Paul in this context of writing
Colossians, it was one of the books that he wrote that is a
scathing report against law and grace, mixing the law with grace. and that's done or kept from
being done by looking only to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
established that the things of the earth are to be mortified.
He said mortify the deeds which are upon the earth. And we're
to do it not by the power of the flesh because the flesh is
on the earth. The flesh is below, it's not
above. We are to do it through the spirit of setting our affection
on things above and not things of the earth. In these verses he addresses
what it means to put on the new man. In verses 12 and 13, put
on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved vows of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering,
forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do
ye. I admit that the impetus for
this message has been on my mind for a couple of weeks as I've
been reading some Facebook posts by brothers in Christ who I know
to be strong grace believers and preachers who are picking
one element of doctrine or another element of doctrine and are starting
to argue and fight within one another and it's the saddest
thing I've ever seen. I can remember some 45 years ago that if you
found another grace believer, you found the finest thing there
was. And what you talked about was what the Lord had done and
accomplished for you in salvation. And even though you might differ
on one point of one element of doctrine or another, that was
not the issue. If you trusted the merits of
Christ alone for your salvation and you preached that clearly,
you were my close friend and my brother. As I read these words
in Colossian about forgiving, forbearing, they were playing on my mind
because of some of the things I was seeing. The attributes that are declared
in this passage account the effect of looking to Christ and not
the things of the earth. That's made clear in the very
first passage. Don't look at things on earth. Don't spend
your time here with a horizontal view. Look to Christ. Look above. Look above. Terms such as put on suggest
to the natural mind an effort in the flesh, but that's not
an effort in the flesh. The only way to avoid such thinking
is to remember that Paul is still addressing our affection, or
that which we mind, or that which we pay attention to. He's not
speaking only of things that we do, but of the invisible things
of our life, because our life itself is hid. It's hid. Just as He said, therefore, mortify
in verse 5, teaching that this mortification is a product of
looking to Christ in heaven and not to the things of the earth.
So in verse 12, having established that Christ is all, we are told,
therefore, to put on these things, Another principle aspect of this
is declared to the word as. This word states that this is
the manner of life of the believer, the elect. This is the manner of his life,
the tenor of his life. Now we know he may go to the
right or the left, sometimes backwards, sometimes he'll get
static and stand still. But like the great river Mississippi
that begins in Wisconsin, sometimes it goes west, sometimes it goes
east, but the tenor of it is always south, because it's going
to end up in the Gulf of Mexico. And the tenor of a child's life
is what he means when he says, as the elect of God. As the elect
of God. This word states that this is
the manner of life of the believer. They elect those who were chosen
in Christ before the world began. That election was by pure and
free and sovereign grace in its application so that the
praise for it would be for the glory of God's grace according
to Ephesians chapter 1. And part of the paradox of this
life is that the believer is always seeking to realize more
fully what he knows. revealed in Christ to know what
is his already what Paul said to enter into the grace wherein
we stand we stand in it and we desire to enter into it these
things are inward attributes born of an outward and at the
same time are an outward acts born of an inward principle of
the spirit none of these things is put on by giving our attention
to them that's the weird thing You don't put on mercies and
beloved vows and kindness by paying attention or trying to
figure out kindness or mercy. You look to Christ. You trust
Him. These are examples born of looking
at the exemplar for these things, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are
predestinated fruit of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, Abide ye in the vine. I'm the vine and ye are the branches. Without me you can't do anything.
You can do nothing without me. It says you abide in me and I
in you. You do bring forth fruit unto
God. We are his workmanship, he said, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works which God hath foreordained that we should walk
in them. Is there any possibility that the child of God will not
walk in good works? It's ordained. You say, well
what are they? That's the wrong look. That's
the wrong place to look. Like looking at kindness and
mercy to find kindness and mercy will never work. You look to
Christ. That's putting on these things.
Why? Because He is the exemplar of
all these things. He is the one who did all these
things. Set your affection on things
above and not on things there. The manner in which Paul personally
admonishes them to be as the elect assures that they are indeed
the elect. They are the elect. He addresses
them as holy and beloved. These are terms applied to the
elect. This assures us of two things. First, it teaches us
that what they do does not make them what they are. But what they are causes them
to do what they do. They don't do what they do to
be holy. They do what to do because they
are holy. Put on therefore as the elect of God. Secondly, what they are is entirely
the work of the triune Godhead. They are holy, sanctified, righteous,
show mercy and all these things because it's God working in them
to do of His good pleasure. They are accepted in the Beloved
to the praise of the glory of HIS grace, not the praise of
the glory of THEIR ability and works. This wonderful list of
things that become the elect are another way to express the
truth that is declared in verses 1-4 of Setting Your Affections
on Things Above. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies. Kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving
one another. If any have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave
you, so also do you." It's an expression of Christ and the
believer as the believer is in Christ. Since you are in Christ,
set your affection on things above. They are part of that
great law or word written in the heart and mind of those who
come to Christ. which is part of that new covenant spoken first
in Jeremiah 31 and then in Hebrews chapter 10. Those for whom Christ
died by his one sacrifice is perfecting forever according
to Hebrews chapter 10. And each of these things is viewed
rightly. If each of these things is viewed rightly, they first
and foremost inform us of the attributes of Jesus Christ. If
we look at these first off, we see them in Christ. see them
realized and fully realized in Christ he truly and solely only
possesses these things without fault and without sin as attributes
that are intrinsic to his person that's why it says forgive as
Christ did and set your affections on him that's the reason for
it with a believer these things are derived They are not natural
to us. They are gifts of the Spirit
of God. But this in no way diminishes the fact that they are likewise
possessed by every believer. In both cases, these inward principles
are manifest in outward acts. Love not in word only, but in
deed and in truth, John says in 1 John chapter 3. Although
the believer is to exhibit these attributes to all men without
regard as to the race, creed, or former state, it says in verse
11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond of free, Christ is all and in all. And in all. Our Lord's declaration
of these attributes is in no way generic. The context is specific
to the brethren. These are ample instances in
scripture that those who openly oppose the cross are to be left
alone, to be marked out, avoided, and
even refused the cardinal Christian principle of hospitality. Don't
let them come into your house if they don't abide in the doctrine
of Christ, it says. These principles possessed and
exhibited by believers are specific to the brethren because it is
to the brethren that our Lord exhibited these attributes in
the salvation of their souls. That's who got what he did. And
so we ought to act accordingly toward our brethren. Though the believer can save
the soul of no one, if these attributes are truly considered,
their very design is to save or deliver the brethren from
distress. or to relieve them of blame, to forgive them. Bowels of mercies. Speaks of
compassion, of empathizing and sympathizing spirit and such
proposes a need for mercy, presupposes that. Mercies are here plural
because they are the category that is illuminated. Everything
that follows mercies is in somehow a definition of what mercies
are. And are all the acts of compassion,
kindness. My mother used to tell me, and
I've tried to live by this. I still hear a voice in my head.
She's gone on to glory now. She said it don't cost anything
to be kind. don't cost anything to be kind.
And that's true. To be kind to someone. Not to
be ugly and mean. Kindness is mercy exercised in
a benevolent spirit. Humbleness of mind is thinking
low of yourself while highly esteeming your brother. Paul
said that to the Philippian church back in Philippians chapter 2
and equated it to something very, very important. in Philippians Chapter 2. He
said, If there be in therefore any consolation in Christ, that
is being consoled or comforted in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit or bowels of mercies,
which he just spoke of here in Ephesians Chapter, or rather
Colossians Chapter 3. He said, Fulfill ye my joy, that
ye be like-minded, having the same love being of one accord
and one mind now I wonder what that is we'll find out if we
read on he says let nothing be done through strife you remember
in Isaiah chapter 58 our Lord's condemnation of Israel was that
they fasted for strife they did what they did trying to be holy
but they did it to make people upset and mad and question themselves
or vain glory, what's vain glory? Empty glory. Truly not glory
at all. Vain glory. Let nothing be done
that way, but rather in lowliness of mind, that's down looking,
that's what that word means, down looking in your mind, towards
your mind. Let each esteem others better
than themselves. You say that's a tall order,
folks. That's a tall order, but that's
what he said. This mind, being of one mind and one accord. And
he's not talking about the world in general, though this can apply
to how you deal with people every day. Look not every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. Now
he doesn't say don't look to your own things, he says but
also while you're looking at your own things, make sure you
look at the things of others also. now we find out where this
mind originated where the source of this mind is of which mind
actually did this perfectly let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God
who thought it not robbery to be equal with God Now how does
that apply to our brethren? We're like them, and we're equal
with them. We're not better than them, nor
are they better than us, but we're to esteem them better than
us. He made himself of no reputation. He took the lowest seat in the
house. He took upon him the form of a servant to serve people. and was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in the fashion of man, he humbled himself
and became obedient even to the death of the cross. He died for
those he loved. And how does John describe our
love for our brethren? He said, Hereby perceive we the
love of God that he laid down his life for us, and we ought
to lay down our life for the brethren if we love them. This
is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. this mind that was in
Paul he said this mind that I'm talking
about this is the mind of Christ and it says in scripture we have
the mind of Christ meekness is the absence of jealousy and envy
and the true enjoyment of a brother or sister's happiness and success
to enjoy what they have meekness our Lord was meek he said that
He said to those who labored heavy laden, come unto him, and
you give them rest, for he is meek and lowly in heart, and
you shall find rest unto your soul. Meek. Forbearing one another. What does that mean? That's akin
to longsuffering. Longsuffering is patiently bearing
the faults, foibles, and weakness of others, considering first
the weakness of your own vessel. when we have difficulty accepting
someone's weakness it's because we are weak and we are afraid
to admit it for bearing one another is akin
to long-suffering in that it bears up under the burdens of
another but also suggests that the believer does not return
evil with evil or seek revenge for wrongs that are done to his
or his person the last phrase of verse thirteen in our text
speaks to the heart of true forgiveness if any man have a quarrel against
any it doesn't say if someone has a quarrel against you if you're mad at somebody you
have a quarrel against somebody what are you supposed to do?
forgive them wait a minute we're to forgive them? Did God ever quarrel against
us? Were we opposed to Him? Were
we rebels against Him? Did we hate Him? And what did
He do? He forgave us. He forgave us. Even as Christ has forgiven you.
There is no instance where forgiveness is not to be rendered. And that's
hard. But this is the mind of Christ
and this is what the elect do. And the language is clear. Forgiveness
here does not consider someone to be wrong or to have wronged
you, but addresses your anger against a brother, whether found
it or not. The believer is to forgive, period,
end of sentence. Enough said. This does not address
the fact that one forgiven might ever get wind of the fact that
he's been forgiven. I know probably us, we'd like
to go up and say, well, I forgave you, and they'd probably slap
you upside the head and say, what'd you forgive me for? They may never know. We are to forbear and forgive
one another. We are to do so because we have been forgiven
of all our sins. We are to do so in the same manner
which we've been forgiven as Christ has forgiven you. How
did he? Freely. Fully. Forever. That's how he forgave us. We are forgiven having never
sought forgiveness. Did we seek forgiveness? We were
forgiven on the cross of Christ before we was ever born. We were
forgiven before we knew about it. We didn't know we had been
forgiven until someone preached the gospel to us and told us
that we had been forgiven, had been redeemed. We are forgiven though we may
not even seek it now because God has been just in
accepting us in Jesus Christ. We must forgive all things until
we're able to find something for which Christ has not forgiven
us. We can find something for Christ that has not forgiven
us and we don't have to forgive that either. What has he forgiven
us? All things. That's what Paul
said in Acts 13. You have forgiveness through
this man which you can't get under the law. Which ain't in
the law. Forgiveness. All things. All
things. What have I been forgiven of?
Everything I do. have done, will do, and am. That's what I've been forgiven
of. So if you mess up or I mess up or I'm mad at you, what should
I do? I should consider you in Christ and not dig up what has
been forgiven. We must forgive all things as
Christ has forgiven us and until that occurs if there's ever a
time when there's a sin that Christ did not forgive, until
that time occurs, there is no exception to this rule. This
is what the elect of God do. Flat out, this is what they do. I think sometimes, well, maybe
I'm not elect at all. I'm such a sinner. But I tell you, when
I do this, when I do this, when I see Christ, and I look to Him,
see all that he paid for me. Some things are vital to our
understanding. First, these attributes are personal as the elect of
God. That is to say, we can require
them of no one but ourselves. This is what the elect of God do.
You may not look at a brother and judge him because you feel
he is not expressing Christian love and kindness towards you.
You can't do that. It's not about him. It doesn't
say anything about your brother doing anything. If you're one
of the elect of God, this is what you do. You say, well, why?
He says he's elected, he's supposed to. That's none of your business.
That's between him and God. The admonition has nothing to
do with our brethren. Secondly, these acts are acts
of the will. Something you're going to have
to make yourself do. In other words, you're going to have the will
to look to Christ, to look to Him, knowing that that's the
only hope you have of being like you ought to be. Looking to Him,
not looking to yourself. These are acts of the will. We
must do these things in spite, and we will do these things in
spite of circumstance and without exception. We may not feel like
forgiving someone. That is not their problem. That's
our problem. Finally, some feel that this
makes the believer a doormat. Always forgiving and never standing
up and never fighting. I expect if I know you and you
know me that sooner or later we're going to stand up and fight
anyway. We shouldn't, but we will. Finally, some feel that
this makes the believer a doormat. If you have honesty about your
own heart, a doormat would seem like an
impossible and lofty goal, if you had honesty about your own
heart. If you feel like a doormat, then make sure the word on the
doormat says, welcome. You're forgiven here. You're
forgiven here. This is what the elective all
for grace all for grace to do these things lord let me look
to christ and not to myself let me see him who's sitting
at the right hand of the father let me look to him in whom my
life is hidden and put on bowels of mercy and
kindness long-suffering and forgiveness in christ's name amen