Our question and answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism tonight is number 58. And the question is, what is required in the Fourth Commandment? And the answer is, the Fourth Commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day and seven to be a holy Sabbath to himself. So the Sabbath is something to be holy. The word holy means to be set apart. We are setting apart a day, just as God did in creation. He calls us to do so now and to make that a day in which we focus on Him, our relationship with Him. And God says there are set times appointed in His Word. We know as we read through the Old Testament, the set time in the Old Testament was the Last day of the week was the Sabbath day and in the New Testament after the resurrection of Christ is rising on the first day, the New Testament has appointed the first day of the week to be the Sabbath day. One of the things that this catechism question does not say In here it says that there are appointed times, but it doesn't say which specifically day it is and I think that the point of that the flexibility is it says expressly one whole day and seven and is to kind of counteract the error of the Seventh-day Adventists or others who were like-minded who thought, no, we have to worship on Saturday, that's the last day of the week, it was the last day of creation, we can do that, and the Westminster divines recognized that God, in his infinite wisdom, when he gave the Ten Commandments, and the Ten Commandments themselves didn't specify the day, the rest of scripture does, for the Old Testament and the New Testament. But this was left open-ended because God knew, even in the day of Moses, that there was going to be a transition that was going to take place in the worship of his people. And so, we now worship on the first day of the week. And it's to be a day, a Sabbath day, which means rest. We rest from the normal activities and to be able to set our focus and our attention on God, who, again, I mentioned earlier our true fulfillment and satisfaction of the rest is Jesus Christ himself. He is our eternal Sabbath, when you read on into Hebrews kind of thing. Now, Pastor Kyle is gonna take us deeper into the bit about the days of the week and the word Sabbath as we go along in the next questions, but that's hopefully sufficient for us for this night. Yeah? I should know this, but what does the word Sabbath mean? Rest, or to cease. That is literally what it means. Although I read in R.C. Sproul's book, he said it meant, I think he said seventh, but that's not what I found. I hate to quibble with R.C. Sproul, but a more literal definition of it is it means rest or to cease from doing something. All right, if you have your Bibles with you, let me invite you to turn to our scripture passage tonight, which is in Colossians chapter three. And while you're looking that up, or before we start reading, give a context in here so if you have your Bibles open, you can see it. begin a little overview of the context in the beginning of chapter three, because we will understand the key verses we're focusing at 15, 16, and 17 best if we see it in context. And so here Paul begins the chapter. He's talking about the fact that we are resurrected in Christ, that we are this new creation, this new being, and we've set our eyes and our hearts and minds on the things that are above, He focused on the fact that we have died to sin. Sin no longer has the power and dominion over us. He recognizes that we are destined for glory, an eternal glory. And so we begin now to be what we will be then. As then, so now, the little saying goes, and so he says, therefore, we're to put off the flesh, we're to put off these worldly old ways of thinking and acting, those sinful ways, and we're to put on the new. which is the righteousness of Christ and to be clothed with His righteousness. And then he comes to, beginning in verse 12, to this specific context of talking about how those realities of our spiritual identity impact our relationships with one another, especially believers. And so that's where we're going to pick up in verse 12, but let's pray before we do that. Lord we thank you for this holy word that you have given to us and not just this written word it is a living word and you have given your holy spirit to us that we might bring this word to life to us so that it's not just ink and paper, but it becomes this living hope and life that feeds and nourishes our hungry souls. We pray that you will do so tonight through this word. Will your spirit open this word to us and with your spirit open our hearts to your word. We ask this in Jesus name, amen. So Colossians 3 beginning verse 12. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all of these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." I forgot to ask you to say I'm sorry. So then these verses are going to be the focus of it, and you'll see in each of these remaining verses a thanksgiving in here. Verse 15, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Friends, the grass withers and the flowers fade, One of these days I'll get the routine down. So here we have, and Paul's trying to take the reality of our identity in Christ and apply it in our relationship with one another. And in verse 14 he talks about how this love of Christ in us should create harmony among us. And then as I mentioned, each of these next verses of 15, 16, and 17 talk about thanksgiving. So there's this connection between our harmony or unity with one another and thanksgiving and experiencing thankfulness. And so that's what we want to look at. And I think each of these three verses, 15, 16, and 17, have a key to help us understand it. And I think it's applicable to us as we come into Thanksgiving because not everybody is looking forward to Thanksgiving. Because what happens at Thanksgiving is some people aren't looking forward to it because they're not going to have any family gatherings and they're going to be off on their own. And maybe some of those are being grateful that they don't have to deal with other people. But there's other of us, our families get together, our friends and relatives get together, and it's not always the most sweet experience that takes place because we have so many different conflicts. Uncle Tom does such and such, and Cousin Susie does such and such, and somebody's obnoxious, and somebody's whatever kind of thing. We have so many, particularly in this culture now, where we have so many things that divide us. Are you vaxxed or are you not vaxxed? Are you Republican or are you Democrat? Are you Baptist or non-Baptist? Whatever kind of thing, it can be a lot of tension. And so my goal tonight in choosing this passage is kind of set before some things that Paul lays out that will help us in the relationships that we have with one another. And of course it's not just in the family and it's not just on Thanksgiving. It's in all of our relationships at work or church here or wherever it is. That's where we want to go. Hopefully there's some help to us. So verse 15, the very first thing I think that Paul is saying to us is that we need to have the right mindset. So verse 15, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. And notice there's this, he begins by saying let. That means we have to make a choice. We have to make a determination about something, about the way that we are going to think and how we understand what life is like and what motivates us and drives us in life. So we make this determination, we let, and what is it that we let happen? The peace of Christ rule in our hearts. Now, you probably know enough from the preaching and teaching you have when the New Testament's talking about peace of Christ, it is primarily talking about not just the relationships that we have with one another, it's talking about the peace that we have with God through Jesus Christ, who he's taken us when we were his enemies, he has reconciled us to himself by dying on the cross to forgive our sins, so now we have peace with God. And if you remember Romans 5, one says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the fruit or the benefit of our salvation. And that's what Paul is talking about here. He wants us to be thinking about the fact that as believers, we have been forgiven our sin even though we were enemies to God, and he has reconciled us to himself. And this peace that we have with God is the foundation of what happens in our relationships with one another. If God has been merciful and gracious to us, if he's been forgiving us, then we are to be forgiving of others. Which he said in verse 13, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. So the mindset that we're to have is that we have been reconciled with God and forgiven by Him, and if we've been the recipients of that blessing, we should be in a position to extend that same grace to the people who are around us. And that this understanding about the peace with Christ, he says, is to rule our hearts. And the word rule is the same word like if you were a referee or to arbitrate something. So this peace of Christ is to be the controlling principle of the way that we think and relate to other people. More than anything else, this is what rules. that we are forgiven people in Jesus Christ and have peace with him. And then we are called, and this peace of Christ, to which indeed you were called in one body. So here's the key. We're not just individuals. We've been called to this by God, into these kinds of relationships, not as individuals, not isolated people, but as a body, and particularly in terms of the body of Christ. And so the way that we think about what happens when we get together is that we're not looking just for ourselves and for what we want and what we need, but we're looking for the welfare of others. It's like a sports team. What's good for one person on the team is good for everybody on the team. And so we're not coming in just self-seeking, we're looking to see what is the welfare for everyone who's there. And if we can have this mindset, of who we are in Christ, what he's done for us, and can then have the attitude extend that to other people to show forgiveness to them, then we have a reason to be thankful because it's the gift of God. We as Christians, this is a radically different view of life than the non-Christians have. Non-Christians don't have this hope of forgiveness. They don't have this foundation on which to build relationships, or try to heal or reconcile relationships. When we were doing our mission work, I remember hearing a missionary who was in China, and he was able to serve in China, in a sense, not as a Christian missionary, but in the hospitality business, because they were looking for people from America to teach the people in China how they can you know, welcome foreigner visitors and things like that. And so he would have the opportunity to teach hospitality. But he told a story about teaching about forgiveness. And he went there in this lesson about how to operate this in relationships. And afterwards he had at least one man come up to him and was just weeping. And he was saying, we've never heard anything like this before. that is so foreign to us. We need to realize, it just kind of stuck in my mind to realize that people outside the body of Christ do not know what this gift is that we've been given to be able to be thankful because of the peace and forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ. And you see it all around us in our generation today. While everything's happening in the news and the politics, one of the main things that's missing and why we have so much trouble getting along and why we're so, you know, cancel culture and so much division is because people don't exercise or understand forgiveness. So here's the mindset. This peace we have with Christ affects the relations, sets the context of how we relate to one another. In verse 16, he talks about having the right practices. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The greatest resource we have is scripture, and the scripture has everything that we need to know in order to relate to other people in the way that we should. It's not going to tell us the details of every specific situation, but the word of God gives us all the principles that we need. And so I just kind of, I sat down and was like thinking through, like, so what are some of those kinds of principles that are there? That vengeance belongs to the Lord, not for us. That we're to turn the other cheek. We're to pray for our enemies. We're to do good to our enemies. We are to go out and seek those who are the lost sheep. We're to be quick to listen and slow to anger. And then you have principles in the Beatitudes, where Jesus said we're to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to be merciful, to be peacemakers. Paul says we're to be angry and not sin. We're not to be people who gossip. So, I mean, that's just a small lift. Here are the principles in scriptures that are to fill, to dwell within us richly. Not in biblical ignorance, but taking the word of God, filling our hearts and minds with that, so that we have these resources on which we can relate to other people. And then we not only know this word, so it would dwell in us, but then we use it. And he gives some examples that we should be teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. so that we take what we have and we communicate it to other people in a humble, not a self-righteous way, but a humble way. And he's saying this to, not just to the leaders of the church, but this is a responsibility that all of us have. And we do it when we get together as individuals. We do it when we're in groups. And he even gives an example of how to do that. Well, first we do it in wisdom, which is the fear of the Lord. and honoring him, it's a kind of expression of worship. But some examples of singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now there's probably a lot of debate about, okay, are those all the same thing? Are all those different things? And I don't know for sure, but I'll go with one of the explanations that I read that perhaps singing psalms are the songs that are found in the Old Testament, that hymns are some of the songs that are found in the New Testament and spiritual songs are everything else. But the point is, And it's very interesting, one of the ways that we can minister to one another, I can see you at the Thanksgiving table now just burst out and singing in the middle of the meal kind of thing as you follow the passage here. We sing, we do minister to one another in song, we learn. You like to play Christian music, you like to listen to it, why? Because it nourishes and feeds our soul, it gives us wisdom and guidance, and it's one of the ways that we can teach the words of Christ. And then we do that with thankfulness in our hearts because of the peace of Christ and the word of Christ. Third thing in verse 17, next key is here, that we need to have the right motive. And that is that we are God-focused. So whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's very convicting, it says, do everything. So there's no exceptions, no excuses. And we love to make excuses for when we fall short of the things that we know that we're supposed to be doing. And we do it in the name of the Lord. We do whatever we're doing, not for our own glory, not for our own self-serving purposes, but in His name. I think that means a number of things. To do something in His name means we would do it as Jesus does. What would Jesus do? That's a very good thought to have out in the process. Okay, if Christ were in this place, how might he be doing it? And I might follow that example. I think to be in his name means we do it as representatives of Christ, as his ambassadors, remembering that the way that we act and the way we respond and what we say to people is when we take on the name of Christ, it's not just about our reputation. People are gonna look at us and say the way that we respond and say, oh, that's what it means to be a Christian. Is that how Jesus would handle this? Is that what Jesus would say? And they're going to look right through us when we take the name of Christ. And we're His ambassadors. We need to think about that when we're processing what to say and how we do. And we do it also in the name of Jesus because we do it in the power of Christ. If we're doing things out of our own power and strength and resources, then we don't have any reason to be thankful. Because we did it ourselves. Why thank God? But if we're doing it in the name of Christ, then the next thing that Paul says, then giving thanks to God the Father through him. Why? Because we're doing it in the spirit of Christ, not out of our own strength and resources. So here's three key points. principles we need to have the right mindset we need that be secure in the knowledge of the peace that we have in Christ and to be extending that peace in the way that we relate to other people knowing that love covers a multitude of sins we need to do it with the right practices taking the Word of God knowing that and applying it into the relationships that we have and doing it not so what we get out of it and it's easier and more comfortable for us but we're doing it to be God-centered and for His glory. So how do you apply that now? I think there's three things that we can take from that. These three kind of keys or principles are first, preventative. If we have the right mindset and we have the word of God in our minds and we are doing things to the God focus, that will keep us from getting into a lot of messes and trouble. because we won't say the things that would not be kind or inappropriate or whatever. So it can be preventative to us, avoid the conflict. Second, it can be diagnostic. If you don't have the harmony that Paul is talking about in the relationships here, then somebody is missing at least one of these three principles. And the problem is, it may be you or me. And so when we're not having harmony in the relationships, then you can go back to this and say, okay, what's my, am I remembering? that I am a forgiven person in Jesus Christ, I've been reconciled with him, God has loved me when I didn't deserve it, and am I having the same mindset that I can extend to other people? Am I functioning according to scripture? Am I applying scriptural principles in this relationship, or am I choosing sinful ways to do things, say things, or the attitudes that I have? And am I being God-centered, God-focused? And chances are, we're going to be off if we're having troubles. Somebody, at least, in the conversation is going to have problems in one of those three areas. And the third thing, it can help us prevent getting into problems. It can help us understand why we're having problems. And third, it can help us get out of problems. because it can be restored. Because now if you know the right way to do things and what the foundations are, how I have these relationships, then I can take a mulligan. I can do a do-over and say, OK, let's start fresh. Process through. Now I need to think in the right way, with the right mindset, with the scripture principles and practices, and with seeking God's glory. Every day is a new day. Every conversation is a new conversation. I can now start again. and these will help to restore relationships. Now, I need to say, it's not always gonna work to restore the relationships. Paul says in Romans 12, 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. And notice he says, as if possible. So it may not happen, and it depends upon you, because you can't change the other person. you can only do your part, but that's all you're responsible for. So, but you can use these truths that Paul gives to us here to help restore the relationship. These are the keys to us. If we could all practice these, we're all going to have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that you give to us and the truth and the transformation that you've made possible in our lives. We want to be able to communicate that to other people. We want to honor you in the things that we say and do and everything as you've called us to. We know we fall short, but Lord, help us to challenge our attitudes and our thought patterns as we go about this week. in every way for that matter, that we might be able to live out these principles in scriptures that you would receive the glory and it would create harmony in the body of Christ and in our families and our workplaces and we might become a light that shines in this world of darkness. We ask this for your glory. Amen.