Thank you, David and Eleanor. Let's pray together. Lord God, we praise you that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Oh God, what a Savior we have. We pray, Lord, as we look at your word now for the next few minutes, that you would impress upon us once again just how great our Savior Jesus is. and how much we need him today and every day. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. Well, please open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter three. We'll be focusing in particular on verses 12 through 17 this evening. Occasionally, when I'm away from Tenth, I get asked by somebody, so, How are things going at Tenth? And depending on the type of person I perceive who's asking that question, I may give different kinds of answers. Some people seem to ask that question with what I would consider a poor motivation. They might be looking for me to share with them problems that Tenth is having that they can then share with their friends. You know, there's nothing like talking about other churches. But occasionally, I'll have somebody ask me, oh, 10th, and they'll ask about a particular person who's at 10th, and that always warms my heart because it shows that they care about the church. Because the church, after all, is made up of people, right? It's not programs, it's not buildings, it's not a lot of things which we often think about it being. But the church is the people of God. And we can imagine as we think about this book of Colossians in general, we can imagine Epaphras, who was probably the founder of the church of Colossae, visiting Paul in prison in Rome and Paul, asking Epaphras, so how's it going in Colossae? And we know that Paul wasn't just asking this. But we knew, we know based on all of his letters that he loved the church. He had given his life for the church. And so Epaphras begins speaking to him and he says, well I'm delighted to report that they have a solid faith in Jesus Christ and a love for the saints. I have a few concerns. There's new teaching which has been creeping in. There's kind of a new philosophy mixed with human tradition and spirituality and it's causing confusion in the church. There also seems to be confusion about what it means to be holy. Members of the body there are critical towards one another about what people are eating, whether they're attending all the holy days and festivals. And there seems to be an unhealthy preoccupation with angels, insisting they need to be worshiped. And all of these things are causing division, Paul. And it doesn't take a lot for us to imagine what Paul's response may have been in a word. Well, they need to get into Christ. They need to get into Christ. And that's what the book of Colossians is. It's a book full of gospel medicine. It is a book which is full of Christ. In Colossians chapters one and two, Paul reminds us that we need to remember whose we are in Christ. We belong to God. God has reconciled us to himself through the work of Christ. In other words, we need to get the gospel right. Chapter one, verses 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We belong to Christ. But then in chapters three and four, Paul is teaching us that we need to become who we are in Christ. Christ has to be worked into every corner of our being. Chapter three, verses nine and 10. You have put off the old self, or the old man, with its practices and have put on the new, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. See, the gospel transforms us to be like Christ. We are new creations in Christ. Reminds me very much of the last sentence of the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism which says, because I belong to him, Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. The gospel transforms us. Not only this, but this chapter 3 that we're looking at, it's very clear that Paul is teaching that the church is the primary arena where this transformation takes place. The preponderance of plural you in the chapter and plural verbs, which isn't as apparent in the English translation in the Greek. It's very apparent, it's you, all of you, over and over and over again. And it's speaking to us amidst the problems which occur in the church, our sins and vices and how we deal with one another and how we bear with one another and how we forgive one another. Christ works his graces through us in the fellowship of the church. Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to prayer, the breaking of bread, and the fellowship. Our transformation takes place within the church. We need one another, in other words, to become more like Christ. I'll explain more what that means in a few minutes. And the image that he uses throughout chapter three is of putting off and putting on. We need to put off the old man with its sinful practices and we need to put on the new man. Now I hate to bring up a football illustration after what happened tragically last Sunday, but I'm going to do it anyway. In many ways, all that Philadelphia has to look forward to right now is the draft. Hooray. I don't know if any of you watch the NFL draft. I avoid it like the plague, but I have seen it before. And it's very interesting, they call out the names of the picks and normally what happens is they bring out a jersey of the team that the draftee has belonged to and they present the player with the jersey of the team. At that moment, there is much a part of that team as the 10, 12, 15 year veteran on the team. But it's not until he gets on the field with the team where he is molded and shaped into the eagle that he's supposed to be. And that often involves, if you know anything about football, it involves bumps and bruises. We need to be able to take a certain amount of bumping and bruising from one another. And Paul speaks about that very openly in our passage tonight, we need to bear with one another. We need to forgive one another when we have complaints about the other. So I think there's three things that Paul is wanting us to see as we look at verses 12 through 17, three things which are needed for us to really get into Christ, to put on Christ, to get Christ worked into every part of our church and every part of our beings as individual Christians. First, we need a good dose of gospel meditation. Second, we need to experience Christ's decoration. And thirdly, we need to see that our lives together demonstrate a grateful subjugation. So gospel meditation, Christ's decoration, and a grateful subjugation. So beginning in verse 12, Paul addresses the church as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. You know, often our hymns express in very short phrases what it takes preachers many minutes and sometimes several sermons to explain. And I'm reminded the wonderful verse line from the church's one foundation, from heaven he came and sought her. to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. We are God's chosen ones. See, God has set his sight on us while we were still sinners. Look back with me at Colossians 1 verse 21. God, Paul says, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Those are the objects of God's love. Hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, and now you're set apart to be holy. What has he done? He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. More than that, we've been raised with Christ. We've been crucified with Him and we've been raised with Him. Chapter 3, verse 1. And it's in that light that Paul encourages us to have a heavenly vision. We need to fill our minds with what we're becoming. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. I don't know if you took note of the final verse of the second hymn that we sang tonight. From sorrow, toil and pain and sin we shall be free and perfect love and friendship reign through all eternity. Are you longing for that? I know I am. He wants us to have a heavenly vision. We need to fill our minds with the gospel meditation. We're his chosen ones, but notice he also calls the church beloved. Other places in the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ. Maybe best in Ephesians 5 when talking about husbands and wives. It says, husbands loves your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Christ dresses us in his own righteousness and he wants to present us to the Father without wrinkle. So that leads us to our second thing. First, we need a good dose of gospel meditation. We need to know what God has done for us in Christ. But secondly, we need to experience Christ's decoration. Our first words in verse 12, put on. We have been told in verses three through 11 that we needed to put some things off. We need to replace the evil things, the evil ways in which we walked before with the good things. It's not simply a matter of putting on the new, but we need to replace the old things. We need to get rid of the sins. We need to mortify those things. We need to identify them and take them out of our lives. Romans 13, 14. put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. So these things that he's telling us to put on are new affections, a new dispositions, a Christ-like disposition. And this whole, this language of putting on then, Should remind us of of what happened back in the Garden of Eden What God is doing as he's restoring us from our sin This is a reversal of what happened in Eden what happened when Adam and Eve took and ate of the fruit They realized that they were naked and they they clothed themselves Attempted to close themselves with with leaves that were around them But still they had to hide from God and their sin and shame and hide from one another our works cannot cleanse our guilt. We cannot look to anything inside of ourselves to reconcile ourselves to God. So when Paul tells us we need to put on Christ, We have to recognize that this is the work that he does in and for us. These are graces which he bestows on the church. And if we look at this list of five things, they very much resemble the fruit of the spirit that he teaches us about in Galatians. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. and self-control. These are things which God himself by his spirit works into our lives. Isaiah speaks very beautifully of this gift of righteousness which God bestows, this new clothing which he grants through Christ. Isaiah 61, verse one. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. It's through the gospel and through Christ that God is restoring the image of God in us. So, what do we put on then? Let's look at the list, there's five of them. And they mirror in each case, there's two lists of five things in verses five and eight. There's two lists of five things that we need to put off. And so he gives us five things which we need to put on. The first is compassion. Compassion. In the King James Version, I rather like better, it says bowels, of mercy, bowels of mercy. Compassion needs to be worked into our very bowels, into the very core of our being. Compassion is a disposition of pity and mercy toward those whose lives are hurt or broken. Again, I'm reminded of the hymn or worship the king where it says, your mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend. And of course we notice that these graces which are listed here resemble very much the person of our dear Lord Jesus Christ who was compassionate, Matthew 9, Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Compassion recognizes and understands need and brokenness and responds with pity and mercy. Now as sinners living and fellowshipping with other sinners, we need to recognize our own need and shortcomings as being equal or greater than those around us who may have offended us. and we need to have compassion on one another in this way. We need to see that the Lord has had compassion on us in order for us to have Christ-like compassion for others. And one way we do this is we need to recognize that sin in another person is more dangerous to them eternally than any temporary harm. It is done to us. We need to recognize that someone else's sin, when they sin, that's more a danger to them eternally than whatever temporal pain they may have afflicted on us. Paul in another place talks about our light and momentary afflictions and surely in certain respects he means those afflictions that we receive from one another in the fellowship of the church. That the church is intended to be a safe place where we can walk together and we can put up to some extent with our little foibles and the little things that we repeatedly do, the habits which we haven't broken yet on account of our sin. And we need to have compassion on one another. And then the second thing is kindness, which is a manifestation of goodness, even when it may be undeserved. reminded of Peter's sermon in Caesarea that's recorded for us in Acts 10. He said about Christ, he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. And this is a characteristic of God, isn't it? He's good. He opens his hand and he satisfies the desire of every living thing. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, if you fathers being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him? Christ exhorts us in Luke 6, love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high for he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil. And let's face it, we could be ungrateful to one another, can't we? But even as the Lord has shown us such kindness, even as he has stooped down to our level and showed us kindness, let us be kind to one another. A kind person is not hypocritical either. A kind person is the same in private as in public. It's not just doing our good deeds in front of others. Indeed, Christ cautions us against that. Beware of doing good things in order to be praised by them. Let your good things be done in secret. So we don't do them just to be seen by other people, but goodness and kindness is not hypocritical. One of the highest compliments a brother or sister in Christ can say about us is he or she is exactly the same in church, at home, at work. No hypocrisy. The third thing is humility. Paul sums up in a short phrase in Philippians 2 what this means. Humility is one who considers others more significant than himself. Humility has a realistic picture of the self. We know who we are. We know we're sinners in the sight of God. We know we deserve his wrath. We look at one another graciously and humbly. We seek to emulate our savior who said, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. See, humility is the opposite of pride. First Corinthians 13, love is not arrogant or rude. Proverbs 11.2, when pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. Humility is a kind of wisdom. It's seeing ourselves for who we and what we really are. And it's understanding and sympathizing with the sinners around us and seeing who and what they really are, but having pity on them, having mercy on them, even as Christ has had pity and mercy on us. Humble people also have a teachable spirit and tremble at God's word, Proverbs 15. The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor. Humility is a two-way street. Humility keeps an open ear. If somebody has a criticism of us, it allows us to take that in and to take it seriously and receive the gift of criticism. And let iron sharpen iron. Next is meekness. This is Jesus' own self-description, was it not? Matthew 11, 29, for I am gentle or meek and lowly in heart. Reminded of Proverbs 15, verse one, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Meekness or gentleness is a non-coercive approach to encouraging change. in others' lives. We don't lord it over other people. We don't force them. Meekness does not imply weakness either. Remember Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. The picture is of someone who is strong enough to lift another's burden so that they are not crushed by it or by you in the process. How often has that happened to us when we're hurting, crumbling under the weight of our own sin, and somebody comes in and they want to be helpful, maybe like Job's friends, so-called. And they speak truth to him, or so they think, but they only crush him more. They don't show him mercy, they don't show him meekness, they don't come to him in gentleness and sympathy. and say, Job, this is your fault. No, Christ comes to us in meekness and he comes and he seeks to lift the burden so that it doesn't crush us. 1 Corinthians 13, 5, love does not insist on its own way, does not bully. Then we have patience. Well, patience is really an extension of wisdom. It takes the long view. Does not feel compelled to hurry. It's knowing when and how to speak or act. James 1, 19 and 20. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. I love to read about God's long suffering. We're told in 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient. Now whereas the other four things that we're given are often an attitude towards one another that we need to show towards one another, patience is somewhat of the opposite. When somebody is speaking with us, we need to show patience back to them. Because we're not always in church, And we're not always addressed by somebody who's being all that friendly, are we? But we need to have patience with one another. We need to be soft towards one another. And that leads us to the next thing. We're told that we're to be forbearing with one another. Now this is difficult, and it tests our patience. And sometimes we groan. And it's appropriate to groan because we long for that day that that hymn spoke about. We long for that day where there won't be sighing or pain anymore, there won't be complaining anymore, there won't be sin anymore. We groan. Christ groaned. Luke 9, 41, Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you. We groan. We forbear with one another. Bearing with one another, it's a kind of toleration, and we don't like that word, tolerance. It, in some ways, has taken up a meaning that the scriptures do not intend. We're not to tolerate sin. But we do need to tolerate sinners. And the little sins that we commit, the little ways in which we offend one another, these are the kinds of things that Paul is talking about here. Other places in the scripture teach us that if someone is here in the church and they're doing violence to the gospel, that they need to be singled out, they need to be called out and disciplined. I mean, Paul has, he reserves his strongest words for those who tear apart the gospel with false teaching. He says, let them be emasculated. Let them be anathema, let them be cursed. And it's not speaking about people who bring violence to the body or threaten peace to the body. But there's a process that is in place in our church to take care of these things. We have a system of three courts. We have a local court, the Court of Elders here this session, and we have a court of the Presbytery, and we have a court of the General Assembly, to which complaints and these kinds of things can be taken to when violence is done to the gospel, to the teaching in the church, when violence is done to the body, The Lord has put in place a means that we can take care of these things, a process which is in place. And in each of these cases, discipline is meant to restore the sinner. Restoration is in view. Forgiveness is in view. We need to bear with one another. 1 Corinthians 13, 5, love is not irritable or resentful. Older translations said it does not keep a record of wrongs. We need to develop spiritually thick skin. Don't allow someone else's actions or words to be written in sharpie on your mind and heart. But at the same time, people of God, remember at the same time that anything you say or do in the presence of another person will potentially be written in sharpie on their hearts. So be slow to speak, slow to anger. Let's be forbearing with one another and forgive one another. Ephesians 4, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. The hymn we're going to sing in a few minutes, one there is above all others, written by John Newton, who knew something about what it meant to be forgiven by God, says this. Could we bear from one another what he daily bears from us? Yet this glorious friend and brother loves us, though we treat him thus. Though for good we render ill, He accounts us, brethren, still. And then he tells us we have to put on another layer, an overcoat, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best, tis an ocean vast of blessing, tis a haven sweet, of rest. When we realize the mercy and the compassion and the kindness and the meekness and the patience that has been shown to us in Jesus Christ, we become loving people. Think of the sinful woman in Luke chapter seven, Jesus is eating in the Pharisees' house. The woman comes in, the woman from the city, and anoints Jesus' feet. And they say all around saying if he knew who was touching him, he wouldn't let that person near her. And he says, Simon, I wanna tell you the story. Two people were forgiven debts. One was forgiven a whole lot, the other one just a little. Which one's gonna love him more? Well, it's the one who he forgives the greatest debt. He says, do you see this woman? She has been forgiven much because she loves much. Love elevates these virtues from duty to delight. Psalm 40 speaking prophetically about the Lord Christ and these words are taken up in the book of Hebrews says, I delight to do your will, oh my God. Jesus said, my food is to do the will of my Father in heaven. Love elevates these virtues from duty to delight. Now listen, a good nurse is trained to exercise these kinds of things, compassion and kindness and gentleness and patience, right? With her patience or his patience. But at the end of the day, the nurse can go home. But a loving mother pours on the oil of these graces and then draws the child close. That's what love does. Love draws one another close. Wasn't Jesus like that? He was the one who reached out and touched the leper. Jesus was always close. Love makes our actions lovely and it causes the church to begin to shine with the radiance of Christ. Jesus says, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And being motivated by love helps us face the challenge of doing something we don't feel like doing, or by something we know will cause us pain. Love can help us take that painful step. So we've had gospel meditation, We've had Christ-filled decoration and finally, quickly, a grateful subjugation. Verse 15, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Well, this is rooted in Christ's accomplishment, is it not, Colossians 1, 20 and 21, through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Peace is the umpire, if you will, or the arbitrator in all our relationships within the church. We're to have an eye for peace in all we do. And we should be asking ourselves when we're in a situation, when we're having that difficult conversation, is the conversation that I'm having with this person in front of me, is the purpose of this conversation to drive us towards peace in Christ? Let the peace of Christ rule. Peace is the arbitrator. Peace is the umpire. As we have been reconciled to God, we're to be reconciled to one another. And indeed, we've been called to this in one body. The church is the new humanity in Christ. We've been called to peace, Ephesians 4. I therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. The church is the place where the peace of Christ reigns, where all the prosperity that he intends for us, all of that shalom, all of that transforming power of God which is making us into the likeness of Christ, where all those blessings are meant to come upon us to be planted by the gospel as it's read and preached and watered in our hearts and grown in the theater of the church as we sharpen one another, as we encourage one another in the faith. We can sing with the hymn writer as we did this morning, pardon for sin and a peace that endureth thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Oh, what a gospel this is. What a Savior we have. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you have purchased this great salvation for us. Thank you that we have peace with God and therefore we can have peace one another. Oh God, help us, help us. If we might take down in our hearts everything which would divide us, these dividing walls of hostility, these names which we call one another. Father, help us, Lord God. Help us and let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts today and every day till we see you face to face. We ask in Christ's name, amen.