Let's hear the Word of God. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love. which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. 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. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks to God the Father through him. Let us pray. God our Father, we are your people and redeemed by grace and we read in your word many things that are our responsibility to do. We thank you, Lord God, that our obedience is not the foundation of our salvation, but that is the obedience of Christ and his work completed on the cross. The Father, as those who have been purchased, you have called us to be conformed to the image of your Son. And as we hear Paul speak, as you moved him along, we pray, Lord, that your Word would be powerful in our lives as we hear what it is that we are to put on, that we might hear and obey by faith, doing that which is acceptable in your sight. In Jesus' name, amen. Most people, perhaps all people to some degree or another, think that as they go through life, they're their own master. They're their own boss. Well, they might recognize they have a job where they have a supervisor who tells them what to do in the workplace. But in a sense, most people, if not all people, to some degree or another, think they're absolutely independent. They do what they want to do. Even at a place where they have a boss at work, they might say, well, I chose to work here and I can quit whenever I want to. Ask just about any you meet and they'll tell you they're free and nobody is going to tell them what to do. They're nobody's slave. Was that what God's word teaches? It's not, is it? Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount. He said no man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one or love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The lie in the garden that Satan put forth to our first parents was That Adam was told, well, you can be God. You don't need God. Eat this plant, eat this fruit, and you can be God to your own self. And what happened in the garden is Adam traded obedience, what could we say, service, even slavery to God for slavery to sin and the devil. Remember how plainly Jesus addressed the religious leaders in his day? He would tell them that their father was the devil. and that they were like him. Mankind's nature is certainly sinful, and apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, all a man can do is sin. He is a slave to sin. There is no other alternative. There's no other reality. Everyone born into the world comes as a slave to sin. And it is Christ who liberates us. Paul speaks of that when he talks about the work of God's grace. He says, the sin no longer has dominion over us. We now belong to the Son. Remember how Paul opened a number of his letters by saying, I'm a slave of Christ. Paul's teaching here in this passage is that we must put off the old man and we must put to death our members. That's what we've covered thus far. But then in the life of the Christian, it doesn't just stop there with putting to death and putting off. We must also put on. Just as the old garment of sin is stripped off, then we must put on a new garment. We strip off by God's grace, the old garment, the foul garment with its works of unrighteousness. And we put on the new garment that is Christ. God clothes us in the righteous garment of Christ living for Christ. And all of that's the work of God's spirit. Remember how we heard this morning that as we're children of the father, we will resemble our father. What we were looking at this morning for first John is very true right here as well. But these things that we're considering this evening are the nature of the man redeemed, that these are fruits that are characteristics and qualities of our Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed God our Father, that we resemble him, that we reflect him in the world. I was thinking about this this past week, and I was remembering the parable that Jesus told about an individual who had a demon, and the demon was cast out. And the demon went away for a while, couldn't find it in the boat. And then he came back and he found a house swept and clean. It was, it was empty. Nobody was there. And so he went out and found seven demons worse than himself and came up and took a residence in that house. And the latter state of that man was worse than the former. The reality is no heart will be vacant. Someone is going to be in resident as the king. It's not just, it's not enough just to rid our heart of wickedness. It must be occupied by that one who can bring forth and bear fruits of righteousness. That's the glory and beauty of the true gospel. God begins and he completes. What he begins, he carries through to completion. Or as the writer in Hebrews says, he is the author and the finisher of our faith. God redeems us in order to sanctify us, to make us holy. Many fail in producing a holy life because they're trying to make themselves presentable to God. They say, well, you know, I know I need to come to God. I know I need to come to Christ, but I need to I need to clean myself up some first. And so they go about trying to sweep out their heart. It's impossibility. You can't sweep out a dead heart. And then they try to live a good life apart. from the Spirit of God, and that too is impossible, and so they're miserable. And so a lot of people spend their lives, as we borrow that phrase from Paul Tripp, just stapling fruit on their lives. They're kind of here and there, and sometimes it seems okay, and then they're back to the old ways, because they're never transformed. Without the rebirth of the Spirit, the new heart from God, that corrupt heart, as Jesus calls in Luke 6, a bad heart, will only produce bad fruit. Sadly, many Christians, even though they've got a new heart, produce very little good fruit. It's very minimal and not much there. And it really comes down to what Paul's saying here. That's largely what the Colossians were concerned about. They recognized that we have this new life in Christ and we want to be holy. We want to become Christ-like. And the process of sanctification is difficult. We're often sanctified through much suffering, hardships, trials, tribulations, and it's hard. And so these these peddlers of another gospel or we're coming in and say, well, we got an alternative for you. We've got an easy path to sanctification. And it was all external and physical, as Paul said, and the very thing that they're imposing was of no value. Chapter two, verse twenty three. And so now Paul's dealing with what is of value and it begins with. putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Something has to die within us. We who are in Christ, we've already been crucified in Christ, dead and buried, we've been raised with Christ. But then there's that process of daily, even as Jesus taught us, taking up our cross and dying to self. And so Paul says, put off We looked at those corrupt things that are the nature of the old man to put them away, put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language from out of your mouth. And we noticed that those are, those are the ways that we respond to others. That happens as we relate in society to others. And as we come to the list of wonderful things Paul lists, they also relate or speak of truths that we bear in society as we interact with others. I want to consider these verses under three main headings. First, only the elect put on Christ. Secondly, the fruit of Christ that a Christian will produce. We're going to look at these fruits, that fruit of Christ that a Christian will produce. And then finally, love as the chief fruit. It's interesting how this coincides with what we were hearing this morning. Again, wonderful providence from God's hand. So we begin with only the elect put on Christ. Notice in verse twelve. Paul, in his typical transitional, he says, therefore, he's been dealing with something, now he's moving on. Therefore, put on. And it's in this context of the previous verse. How did Paul finish up? He says, Christ is all and in all. Christ was the center. Christ was the focal point. Therefore, Paul is calling on the saints to do what they can do because they are in Christ. And notice what he does. He uses three titles to speak of those that he's addressing. Those who have this new life. He refers to them as elect and holy and beloved. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on. And so Paul deals with election as he often does. Paul is not afraid of the doctrine. He's Not shying away from it, he comes to it. And what Paul's saying is God's elect ones, we have an obligation. God has sovereignly chosen us to be his people. And for what purpose? To display his glory. God displays his glory, the whole work of redemption, even the fall of man and the redemption of man. All of it is about displaying the glory of God and particularly the father to display the glory of his son because he loves his son. And so, the son came and did what was necessary to redeem those who were elect. He has redeemed unwashed sinners and transformed them by the power of his grace to be image bearers of the sons of his love. The phrase that we heard back in the first chapter, that we should be image bearers. That's what we're hearing this morning as children of the father, that we should reflect the love of the father to a world that knows nothing of love. And so it is that Paul actually introduced this theme early on back in chapter 1 in verse 10. Paul's prayer was that God would give them the means, the graces, the means of grace, what? That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work. So everything that God does for his own glory, indeed, this process of Christ sanctifying us is that glory would be redounded to God. And so Paul speaks of this electing grace of God as a means to address our Christian obligation. As children of the father, those who have been bought with the blood of Christ, we have an obligation. We often think of keeping the law. That's an obligation. We're not able to keep the law. We weren't able before because we were dead. And the law only thundered at us. But now, as those who are redeemed, we have that obligation to keep the law. And what is the chief summary of the law? Love for God, love for neighbor. And this really deals with the matter of love for neighbor, how we relate to one another. And so Paul calls us the elect of God. God has chosen us for his own glory. But also, he says, we're holy. And this is that usage of holy as being set apart, set apart, different. When we think of God being holy, holy, holy, what scripture is communicating to us is that God is completely other, completely separate, completely distinct. There is no one. There is nothing like unto God. God is holy. And Paul is driving at the point that because we have been redeemed, we're holy. We're set apart for service to God. We're set apart to bring glory to God. Remember Moses' words to Pharaoh? He went and he said, God has sent me. You are to let my people go that they may go forth into the wilderness and serve me. He was speaking of worship and then a life of worship. but particularly to worship him and to live in obedience to God. They were being set apart, called out. They were made distinct for that purpose, to worship God. And so as we bear fruits of righteousness, we are given proof of our election by God and God's love for us. Remember what the scripture says, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, by your fruits, by their fruits, you will know them. And so as the elect We're also called to be holy. But look at how tender it is. Beloved. Beloved. Paul loves that word. It's one of his favorite words to use in his epistles when he's addressing the people of God. It shows up, I believe, in every single letter that Paul writes. Beloved. God is telling us, my love is set upon you. I love you dearly. You're everything to me. It's an infinite love. It's a perfect love. It's an everlasting, eternal love. You're mine. My beloved, as we heard from First John a little later on, actually where we left off, that we love God because he first loved us. We are the beloved of God. And so that's how Paul addresses those saints in Colossae and indeed how we're addressed today as we are thinking or in the midst of this putting off, putting to death and the putting on of Christ. We are the elect. We are the holy and we are the beloved of God. All the resources are at our disposal. We have God's smile and favor and care upon us to be, come, and do what he would have us to be. All three of these titles are used in the Old Testament to speak of Israel. As the commentator Lightfoot points out, now they are taken and they're transferred to the spiritual sons of Abraham. which was the promise that God made to Abraham that he would have a seed, a numerous seed. And it was those who, like Abraham, who believed God and it was counted as righteousness. And so Israel claiming for them that which only was for the spiritual seed of Abraham. Here we see Paul refer in those Old Testament labels, the elect, the holy and the beloved. So then what is our obligation since we've been made partakers of the spirit of God? We're to command it to be engaged in the putting on of Christ. Remember last week we talked about the put off. It's like taking off a garment, stripping it off. And now we have the opposite. It's putting on. And these are the things that we're to put on are the character traits or the qualities, the distinguishing marks of our elder brother, Jesus Christ. And so secondly, let us consider the fruit of Christ that a true Christian will produce. This is not conditional. You might produce, maybe you'll produce. No, a true Christian will produce these things. If you have that new heart, that good heart, you will produce good fruit. And this is just some of it. We find Paul in a number of places describing the various fruits. And so our obligation is to be fruitful. As we noted earlier, all these virtues have to do with our personal relationships. They're all about how we relate to other people. And they're also designed to promote peace and unity in the congregation that is made up of people of all kinds of backgrounds. Remember, Paul gave that list earlier. Greek, Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. This is true. And when we are bearing these fruits, then no matter how diverse and varied the background of the people, they shall love one another and demonstrate these fruits. It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what culture you came from. It doesn't matter what vocation, what kind of job you have. It doesn't matter whether you're young or old, male or female. These things should be in evidence. Well, the first thing that he speaks of is tender mercies. The nature of the word here is that it's a heart full of compassion. What does it look like? What does tender mercies look like? Think of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ as he walked about on the earth, carrying out his earthly ministry. Certainly he was able to do things exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could. Those miracles. But remember, Jesus said that those that are his will do greater works than he did. More numerous is the sense of it. And so as we do what Christ has called us, we are to begin with putting on tender mercies. Jesus is so tender. to broken, sinful people, that we have those wonderful words from the Old Testament. The prophet says of him, a smoking flax, he wouldn't snuff out. You get that picture? Just think of that little, that reed that's just, it's been in the fire, but it's just barely smoking. It'd be so easy just to snuff it out. Jesus is so tender, so compassionate. He would not do that. And the broken, the bruised reed, it's been wounded, it's about to flop over. He would not. Just go ahead and break it off. As a child might be prone to know, it's a tender mercy, tender, compassionate heart in our Redeemer. How do you know if you have this fruit? Well, it's recognized when you consider what is the impulse? How does your heart respond when you encounter suffering? You see people suffering and afflicted, beaten down. How do you respond? We've all seen those commercials on TV where they're trying to get you to send money to children in difficult circumstances in faraway places. And indeed, they have tremendous needs. And what do they do? They play on compassion, care. It's hard for me to imagine, but I can imagine there's people that watch that and just not even concerned at all. Most of us, and particularly for a Christian, when you see needs like that, whether it's in a faraway place, but particularly when it's near hand you. Is there compassion? Are you moved? Do you care? Do you want to do something? That's the nature of tender mercies that we're to put on. It's the heart of Christ in our hearts. Now, the next thing that Paul mentions, he says, put on tender mercies, kindness and humility. I want to take that together as a pair, largely because it deals with how we treat others. How we treat others is based on how we view ourselves in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says kindness, that's something we extend in humility. Kindness is extended from a heart of humility. If I see myself as a great sinner in need of great grace, then I will see other sinners with eyes of grace. And I will speak kindly to them. I will care for them kindly. I will think kindly of them. I will treat them kindly. R.C. Trent says kindness is a beautiful grace, pervading and penetrating the whole nature, mellowing all that would have been harsh. I'll speak from my own experience. I know that when my heart is not humble in the sight of the Lord, if there's sin, and it's not dealt with, my heart becomes harsh, brusque, brisk, rough, abrasive, because I'm not dying to self. Christ is reigning and ruling and governing me. The Spirit, no doubt, is grieved and quenched within me. But when I repent and deal with sin, and Christ is reigning, and the Spirit is at work, and I'm yielded to the Spirit, than those same circumstances or those same people that otherwise I might have been harsh or abrasive with now I'm tender and compassionate and caring and concerned. It's interesting, Augustine or Augustine, if you prefer, his testimony was that it wasn't Ambrose's preaching that first moved him. It wasn't how powerful a preacher Ambrose was and he was that gained Augustine's attention. No, he says, rather, it was his kindness to me. You have to remember that Augustine, at that point, he was a vile sinner, womanizer, drunkard, vile, foul young man in pretty much the respect of what you think young men to be. And it was the kindness of Ambrose that gained Augustine's attention. Without Christ, a sinner will look down on others and trample them underfoot. But a sinner saved by grace should and must indeed view others as better than himself and love them just as they are false in all. Kindness flows from a heart that lives in humility at the feet of Jesus. Let me say that again. Kindness flows from a heart that lives in humility at the feet of Jesus. That only happens when we spend time alone with our glorious Redeemer. That's really the nature of what I was alerting to earlier as I've come to recognize in my own heart. If I'm being offensive and abrasive and brusque with other people, I've not been spending time with the Master. It's impossible for me to reflect Christ, if I'm not with Christ. I've been around long enough to recognize the transformation that takes place when you spend time with people. We sent one of our daughters off to visit her sister. She was gone for months and many weeks, almost a couple of months. And you listen to her on the phone and say, you sound like your sister. She was spending time with her. Where you see couples have been married for years and years and years and have a sweet and wonderful relationship. They talk the same, they think the same, they tend to dress the same. I've even noticed that over years they begin to look alike because they spend so much time with each other. That's so true about us. If we're spending time with a master, if we're spending time alone with Christ, we begin to look and act like Christ. When we're spending true communion with Christ, we will become humble and our lives will display kindness. Others will notice. And so Paul says, put on tender mercies. kindness and humility, and then he says meekness and longsuffering. Once again, I want to take these two together. I love that prayer in Kate Wilkinson's hymn. May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day by his love and power, controlling all I do and say. These two fruits, meekness and longsuffering, can only operate in a heart that lives in humility. Paul's begin there. And such a heart will display the mind of Christ our Savior towards others. Suddenly we're the one who will not snuff out the smoking flax or break off the bruised reed. Paul says meekness, J.B. Lighthood commenting on this describes that as being the opposite of rudeness and harshness. The very things I've described, brisk, harsh, debrasing, this is the very opposite of that, meekness. Whereas longsuffering, that we're joining with it, longsuffering is the opposite to resentment and revenge and wrath. L.H. Marshall helpfully adds meekness as two elements. First, a consideration for others. And secondly, a willingness to waive an undoubted right. Think about often Paul says that. Paul's writing letters to the churches. And they should have cared for Paul. Paul had a right as a minister of the gospel to have his living from the preaching of the gospel, that those who received spiritual blessings and treasures should share of the physical necessities with the apostle Paul. But many times that Paul said, I did not demand. I worked with my own hands. I had a right, he says, but I did not, particularly with the Corinthians. The whole time I was with you, he said, I cared for my own needs and that of my companions. He was a busy man. planting a church, preaching the word, studying, counseling, all that, and also tent making. You see, there's that long-suffering, a willingness to waive an undoubted right. It's one of the reasons that when we send men to do church planting, we support them. We might better understand long-suffering as long-temperedness. Long-temperedness refers to the endurance of wrong and exasperating conduct on the part of others without flying into a rage or passionately desiring vengeance. One of the great ethical qualities of God celebrated in the scripture is what? He's slow to anger. Do we not see long-suffering, long-temperedness in Moses? I was commenting this week to someone that I'm starting to understand Moses. Not that I'm Moses. Certainly not the humble man. Moses was not the godly man. But I'm starting to understand that part of Moses's weakness. We heard it this evening. Isn't that interesting that we should have that? Reading Numbers 20. What happened to Moses? Years he's been leading these people. Obstinate. Difficult. Hard people. And what does God say about Moses? He's the most humble man there is. And we see that display. He's gentle. He's kind. He's long-suffering. All of those things. But he was but a man. And that time when God says, you go speak to the rock, Moses broke and he struck the rock twice. But let us not forget that that was after years. Moses, long suffering, long suffering, long buried with a difficult and an obstinate people. That's the nature of pastoral work. Our brother elders reminded us about shepherding. We're called sheep by our Savior, and sheep are difficult animals to keep. Stubborn, weak, sickly. It's a demanding thing to be a shepherd, and yet our Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, bears with us all. And he calls under-shepherds to bear with all. So these are attributes we should see in our under-shepherds, elders, ministers, but they're also, as Paul says, to be in our lives. The manifestation of Christ put on tender mercies, kindness and humility, meekness and long-suffering. Paul is teaching the saints of Colossae and us that as children of our Father, this fruit is to be an evidence in our life. Kate Wilkinson goes on in her prayer that we sing as a hymn Seeking those things that result in our having such fruit in our lives. We call them the means of grace, that life of daily putting on Christ. He says, May the word of God dwell richly in your heart from hour to hour. May the peace of God my Father rule my life in everything. And may the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the sea. Well, the next thing we find is bearing with one another, verse 13, and forgiveness. And you might have figured out, I'm probably going to take these two together as well. Indeed, I am. They're linked together. Forbearing and forgiving. The second half of the verse, Paul describes the circumstances where these fruits are needing to be used, where they matter the most. Notice where he says, if anyone has a complaint against another. That's where we find out what's in our hearts, isn't it? When someone has a complaint, when we've given offense, when we sinned against someone else. How do we respond? Again, these two are mutual. They go together and they flow both ways, forbearing and forgiving. Again, very clearly that picture of social interaction, interpersonal relationships in the body of Christ. They go back and forth, indeed they are to go back and forth between brothers and sisters in Christ. No one's ever above the need to be forgiven. No one's ever above the need to be forgiven. And none of us are ever above the need to be foreborn. That's that long suffering where we're forbearing, long suffering, enduring one another in our weakness. Is this not the qualities we see in a good mother? Tender, compassionate, understanding, patient, a child up two, three, four times a night, a sick, colicky child. And you care, you're long suffering, you're tender, you're compassionate. It's in some respect a representation, a picture of the Father. It's interesting that Paul, in writing to Thessalonians, he tells him, he says, I was like a mother in your midst, tender and compassionate. So we are called to be. Now, there is most assuredly a connection with these spiritual fruits in the fact that we are all part of one body. Think of how forbearing your body is with your body. Some of you have suffered a lot of physical difficulties. All of us have had those occasions. where one part or another of our anatomy is kicking up a fit or rebelling. My back's doing that right now. You know, the rest of my body doesn't say, you pathetic back. What is your problem? You know, we're done with all this back pain. Why don't you get a life? You know, get it together. You know, we're just gonna leave you at home. We got things to do. That's outrageous. It makes us smile to even think about it, right? We're forbearing with our body, right? We're long-suffering with our body. You know, the rest of the body cares for that part of the body that's hurt, right? That's Paul's point. That's the Holy Spirit's point. Bearing with one another. Forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do. A full and free forgiveness. Paul underscores just how much we've been forgiven. Even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. We are compelled to forgive each other. Remember the parable of the unjust steward that Jesus tells this man owed a debt. Let's think of it in modern terms. Millions of dollars he owes to the master. And it's the day for the debt to be paid. And he's summoned before the master. He can't pay it. And the master is ready to cast him into the debtor's prison because he will not pay his debt and he begs for mercy. Have mercy on me. What does the master do? Compassion and understanding, he forgives the man his debt, this great, massive, unpayable debt. He forgives him. What's that servant do? We call him the ungrateful or unjust servant because he goes out. He's not even off the king's premises. He's out and he meets one of his fellow servants, owes him essentially a few months wages. We'll say $5,000. He says, where's my money? Pay up. You owe me. And the man, likewise, he says, I'm not able. I can't have mercy on me. What would we expect? Long suffering, forbearance. But no, he seizes him. He calls for the sergeant-at-arms, has him cast into the prisoner's prison along with his family. And what happens when the king, the master, hears of it? He summons him before him. He says, you wicked servant. I forgave you much. But Jesus told that parable for our understanding. Who can put a figure on our debt of sin before the Holy God? It's an infinite debt, a debt impossible to pay. The only way that it can be satisfied is for God to send you to hell, to be under his infinite wrath forever. It will never be paid. And yet Christ has satisfied that debt. Christ has paid it. Even if Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Now, Paul's not saying that we wink at sin. Sin must be addressed. And we find elsewhere in Scripture that we have to be involved in a process. Sometimes there's sin. It's of a minor nature, shall we say. All sin is important. All sin deserves God's wrath. But it's the sort of sin you can let love cover it. You move on. Husbands and wives often find that, that we don't go picking on each other about every little sin, every little thing that we do. We're gracious, we're forbearing, but there's some sins that need to be addressed, and Jesus tells us about that in Matthew 18. A sin that requires serious intervention. Because of love, because of compassion, if the person doesn't go on sinning and sinning, they need to be arrested, they need to be warned, they need to be reminded. That's not the way a follower of Christ behaves. Even larger, Catechism 151 tells us some sins are more heinous due to their nature of the sin, the person committing them, the circumstances, or the person who sinned against. It is a greater thing when a father sins against a child than when a child sins against a father because of his years, his maturity, his position as a superior. Paul's not saying those things don't matter, but we are to be forbearing and gracious and forgive. When someone confesses and asks for forgiveness, our hearts should already be ready. I've already forgiven you. Absolutely, I forgive you. Now, we have these fruits of the Spirit at work in our lives. We're supposed to have them put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. These are to be an evidence of our life. Now friends, do not try to bear such glorious fruit on your own. That really is that wonderful picture that Paul Tripp gives us of running down to the market and buying a bushel of the very best apples and coming home and stapling them on that tree in the backyard that never produces any kind of good apples. Such a powerful image. No fruit stapling. This needs to be from the heart. We're called to do that. And friend, if you have a new life in Christ, then this is the fruit you should be seeking in your life. If God's spirit dwells within your heart, this fruit should be born. And it's like I said this morning, we have that ability. We need to exercise it, just like our faith. We need to use our faith to grow. We need to exercise love. We need to exercise forbearance. We need to exercise kindness, long suffering. We need to exercise forgiving. And the only way to do it is that we do it. We offend each other. We sin against each other. And then we have to work through the process of forgiving. That our faith would grow and our ability would grow. Perhaps when you look at your branches, you might say, well, all I see is just a little petite fruit hanging there. I can just barely tell that it's long suffering. Praise God. Be encouraged. Rejoice that that fruit's in your life. And then by the grace of God, fellowshipping with the Spirit, fellowshipping with Christ, Seek to have it grow larger, larger fruits growing on the branches, your life for the praise and the glory of the Lord. Remember, we are saved for God's glory. And let us encourage one another when we see fruit in each other's lives, as maybe you just you happen to catch an exchange and maybe as a parent, you know, with a child, and they did so in a very God honoring way where it was clear that the spirit was helping them say, pull aside, brother, sister, I saw that was praise the Lord. I could really see the Lord working in you. That was great. Or maybe it was some exchange you had with them. They were very Christ-like in it. You say, brother, sister, that was so encouraging. I could really see Christ working in you. I see the fruit of humility. I see the fruit of long-suffering. I see the fruit of patience in your life. And together, we can praise the Lord as we abide in the vine, even Jesus. For he's promised that when we do so, we shall bear much fruit. My friend, if you don't have such fruit in your lives, there's two reasons. There's two reasons. One, you've been wandering away from Jesus. And I've been spending time with the Lord. And I've been alone with the Redeemer. And so you're not reflecting Him. That's why the fruit in your life is maybe almost invisible. But the solution is very simple. Draw near to Him. And He will draw near to you. begin to commune in fellowship with the Lord in private. Sometimes there's sin that has to be confessed. I know that from my own life. You've heard me speak of that. When that is taken away, the blood gates open up. The communion and fellowship of the Father breaks forth and is glorious, and it becomes evident in your lives towards others. The second reason why this fruit's not in your life is because you've never tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Jesus is good. He's very good. He's kind. He's gracious and strong to save. He's able to save even the worst of sinners. Look unto Christ and say, Lord, I am done with trying to staple fruit on my lives. I want the real thing. I want to abide in Christ's word. Give me a heart to repent. Give me a heart to believe. God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Salvation begins with that expression of humility. Well, the third thing we see is certainly not detached from the others. It is related to the others. It undergirds the others, but maybe not in the way that you think. In verse 14, we find that love is the chief fruit, Paul says, but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Now, you'll know in the one another series that we have in the morning, we began with love because All those other things must flow from love, and so we're spending some time there. And here we see Paul underscore the same thing. The chief fruit that should be in our lives, the chief spiritual fruit is love. The love of God manifested in us. I told you before that man nor Satan can counterfeit her faith. Love is impossible. God is love. And apart from God, we cannot love. We love because God first loved us. Without God's love in us, we cannot love another. Jesus tells his disciples that love is how they are distinguished. Love is what marks us out from the world, as we were saying this morning. It sets us apart from the unbelieving man, the man without faith, the man who's still dead in his trespass. It's love. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. It's the chief distinguishing factor. Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you. that you love one another again, verse 14, but above all these things, put on love, be clothed in love, which is to be clothed in Christ. When we have been loved by God and saved by grace through his faith and through faith in him, God's love then binds us together. And this is the point that I was saying, it's not perhaps the way you think. Paul's not saying that love is the glue that brings together tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. That's not the glue that binds all those together. No, it's something more important. It's because we have been loved by God. We have been saved by grace through faith. God's love binds us to Christ Jesus. And therefore, we are bound together. And so, therefore, we should be seeing these fruits in each other's lives, love is the mark that we have been redeemed, that we are redeemed. As I said last week, I believe, in the morning sermon from 1 John 4, that faith and love go together. Paul's point is the same here. Faith and love go together. They're inseparable. William Henderson says it this way, love then is the bond of perfection in the sense that it is that which unites believers, causing them to move forward toward the goal of perfection. In that word in the New Testament, usually perfection means maturity, growing up, maturity. That's the nature of it. Friend, if you do not have the love of Christ, if you don't, if you're not engaged in, if you're not part of this bond of perfection, which is love in the body of Christ, then you don't have Christ. If you don't love, you don't have Christ. That's clearly the whole message of 1 John. You're still dead in your trespasses. Your life is fruitless. But indeed, hear the call of the Lord Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus is not coming to the world condemned to the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So come to him in humility, brokenness, confess your sins, call upon his name and cast your whole being into his care. When you do that, friend, you will be saved from sin and he will make you alive unto himself in salvation. He will call you friend and he will bind you to himself just like a branch is grafted into a vine. That's what he will do. You'll be grafted in the Christ and you begin to bear fruit. If you're one who's grafted into the vine and unproductive, I think we made it clear it's time to get along with the Lord. It's time to draw near to God. It's time to ask Him to search your heart and confess sin. Maybe there's relationships that there's sin that's hindering. You need to take care of those things. One of the things that for the longest time held me off from addressing what I needed to do in my life last year was fear man. They want to go. Afraid of how it might go. We need to fear God more so. If you're being held up from fruitfulness in the Lord Jesus Christ, Because of sin between a brother or sister, go. By faith in Christ, we put to death our members. By faith in Christ, we put off the old man. By faith in Christ, we put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. By faith in Christ, we are forbearing with one another. By faith in Christ, we are ready to forgive one another. Amen. Let us pray. Well, Lord God Almighty, we do pray that you would help us, that we might put on Christ and walk in the newness of life that we have in your Son. And if there be any who hear this that recognize they do not have this fruit or they can't find it as they look throughout their life, Lord, would you draw them? Perhaps it's a wayward child. Would you rescue them from sin? And if indeed they're without Christ, Lord, would you have mercy on them to save them to the uttermost for your glory? In Jesus' name, Amen.