Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, good evening, beloved church family. It's wonderful to be here with you all here tonight.
[00:00:07] I love you all. My family loves you all. And of course, I always consider this a great honor and privilege anytime that I get to share the word with you. So thank you. Thank you for this.
[00:00:19] Your clothing, what you put on is important.
[00:00:26] It conveys something of the nature of the occasion.
[00:00:32] You see, the occasion dictates what you wear, and you don't want to be improperly dressed.
[00:00:41] For example, when you're on your first date, you don't want to go in a T shirt and shorts.
[00:00:49] Most likely.
[00:00:50] Most likely, that would seem to be unsuitable to the occasion. Unless, of course, you might be going on a hike or to a basketball court for your first date. Then the T shirt and shorts would be perfectly suitable.
[00:01:03] But the point is, the occasion dictates what you wear.
[00:01:09] So the critical question is, what should church members put on or wear whenever they are together, and why?
[00:01:23] That, beloved, brings us to Colossians 3, 12, 14, where Paul is going to answer that question.
[00:01:32] Paul has already told them what they, as a church, should be seeking in chapter three, verses one through four. They should, because they have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, not the things that are of the earth.
[00:01:52] Beloved, our being raised with Christ changes everything about how we are to live.
[00:02:01] It means colossians 3, 5, 11 putting our sins to death, putting off the old self, as Bennett Cox preached last week.
[00:02:12] And so at this point Paul has told us what we're to put off, and now he's going to tell us, okay, what are we to put on in its place?
[00:02:24] Look with me at colossians 3, 12, 14 put on them 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 these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[00:03:02] Our main point this evening is because God chose us, set us apart, and loves us, we should be Christlike to one another.
[00:03:15] Because God chose us, set us apart, and loves us, we should be Christlike to one another.
[00:03:23] And those are actually the two parts of that are going to form our sub points. You can think of them as the why and the what of the text.
[00:03:33] So verse 12A is our first sub point, and it's going to give us the why, why we ought to be Christlike to one another. And that's because God chose us, set us apart and loves us.
[00:03:46] And verses 12b through 14 is our second sub point. And that's going to be the what of the text, what Paul is commanding us to do as a response to that. And that is we should be Christlike to one another.
[00:04:00] So let's jump in. Why should we be Christlike to one another?
[00:04:04] Well, because of the first part of verse 12, 12a. Put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.
[00:04:15] Let's camp out here for a minute.
[00:04:18] You know, it's been said that you could summarize all of Paul's commands to Christians in all of his letters in just one sentence.
[00:04:27] And Brad has actually referred to it the past few weeks.
[00:04:31] Be who you are.
[00:04:35] Be who you are, beloved. Be who you are.
[00:04:40] Do you realize that's what Paul is doing here? That's what he's doing. He's grounding his coming exhortation to them in an objective reality about what God has done on what God has done in their life.
[00:04:55] Do you realize just who you are individually and corporately in God's eyes?
[00:05:04] Let's look at this. The text says you all are chosen of God, literally the elect of God.
[00:05:14] Think about this. The sovereign God of all the universe chose you.
[00:05:19] He set his heart on you and he chose you.
[00:05:23] The world didn't choose you. The world turned its back on you.
[00:05:28] But God chose you.
[00:05:32] He chose you.
[00:05:34] The text says that you're holy.
[00:05:37] Literally, it means to be set apart or consecrated. The idea is that you've been set apart from the things that are impure, to things that are pure and right and holy.
[00:05:53] From the profane things, the things of the earth, to the pure things, the things that are above. You're holy unto the Lord. You've been set apart by God for God.
[00:06:04] And the text says that you all are beloved.
[00:06:08] You are loved by God. You are so loved by God. And listen to this.
[00:06:13] God's love.
[00:06:15] It isn't like our love.
[00:06:17] You see, God's love doesn't vacillate up and down.
[00:06:21] God doesn't get bent out of shape. God doesn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed feeling irritable like we do, and unloving.
[00:06:31] See, unlike us, God's love is infinite and it is unchanging because God himself is infinite and unchanging.
[00:06:41] And what that means for you is that there is more love in God for you than you can possibly imagine.
[00:06:47] You may think to yourself, there's no way that God can love me.
[00:06:51] I'm not lovable. Have you heard what I did this past week.
[00:06:55] There's no way that this God can love me.
[00:06:58] But there's more love in God for you than you can ever possibly imagine.
[00:07:04] Jonathan Edwards says, this God is the fountain of love.
[00:07:08] The sun is the fountain of life.
[00:07:11] It pours forth from the God who is infinite in his love.
[00:07:16] Side note, Nick wanted me to remind you that we actually have textual warrant right here for calling you beloved.
[00:07:25] I wonder if you have a prized possession, an item that you value above all else, like a family heirloom.
[00:07:34] How do you treat that item compared to everything else that you own?
[00:07:39] If you've seen the movie the Sandlot, you may recall a certain baseball that Smalls father owned, one that he would display proudly.
[00:07:49] It would be just another baseball if it weren't for the signature that it bore.
[00:07:54] This baseball was special because it was signed by none other than the Sultan of Swat, the Titan of Terror, the Colossus of Clout, the King of Crash, the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth.
[00:08:11] And what did his father do with the ball?
[00:08:14] He chose it. He set it apart. And he loved it.
[00:08:18] Brothers and sisters, you could say that you all are God's prized possession, lowercase p.
[00:08:26] And the reason that you are God's prized possession, lowercase P, is that because you have been chosen, set apart and loved in God's prized possession, capital P. And that is his only begotten son, Jesus Christ.
[00:08:44] Jesus Christ lived for you, fulfilling the law in your place.
[00:08:51] He died for you, paying the penalty that you deserved. And he was raised from the dead for your justification.
[00:09:00] Friend, if you're here and you might, and you're not, and you don't consider yourself a Christian, this is the greatest news in all the world.
[00:09:07] For God, the Holy One, sent His Son into the world to bear the wrath of God in your place. So that you might not have to know the punishment and guilt of your sin. And so that you may know this love that God has for you, so that you can be made right before God and have faith, fellowship with God, and that's the greatest thing in all the world.
[00:09:31] Would you follow Christ today?
[00:09:34] What is keeping you from turning from your sin and coming to Christ and receiving him by faith?
[00:09:41] If you have questions about what this looks like, reach out to someone here.
[00:09:47] There are many here that would love to talk to you about what it means to follow Jesus.
[00:09:51] Thomas Watson says God keeps an open house for hungry sinners.
[00:09:57] What a blessing.
[00:09:58] The grounding of Paul's imperative for you is that God chose you, set you apart, and loves you. And in Light of that stunning reality, Paul is telling you to do something.
[00:10:09] UBC Paul is telling us to do something.
[00:10:12] What are we to do? And that leads us to our second sub point, the what of the text.
[00:10:17] Starting in verse 12. Put on, then literally wear or dress yourself with as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.
[00:10:26] Put on what?
[00:10:28] Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, 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.
[00:10:43] And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[00:10:51] Brothers and sisters, knowing that God has chosen us, set us apart and loves us completely transforms the way we relate to one another, because that means the person that's sitting next to you right now is also chosen, set apart and loved by God.
[00:11:10] And how would, how does. How does Paul want us to treat such. Such a precious person?
[00:11:18] We're to clothe ourselves with compassion, compassionate hearts. I love the King James Version. Bowels of mercies.
[00:11:27] It means deep compassion. Show deep compassion for one another.
[00:11:35] We're to be kind to one another.
[00:11:37] We're to be humble, not always seeking to get our way, but counting others as greater than ourselves.
[00:11:45] We're to be meek and gentle with one another. We're to be patient with one another and bear with one another. Oh, how quick. We are not to be patient with one another.
[00:11:59] Beloved, don't we want people to be patient with us as the Lord sanctifies us?
[00:12:08] I certainly do.
[00:12:11] And if anyone has a complaint with one another, we're to forgive.
[00:12:14] Why?
[00:12:16] Because the Lord has forgiven us.
[00:12:19] Is there someone here at UBC that you need to forgive and reconcile with?
[00:12:25] Remember our church covenant number six. We will bear patiently with one another, diligently pursuing biblical reconciliation, freely forgiving one another as we've been forgiven in Christ.
[00:12:40] This isn't difficult to understand because God chose us, set us apart and loves us. We're to be Christlike to one another.
[00:12:49] We're to be Christlike to one another. Lastly, look with me at verse 14.
[00:12:53] And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[00:13:00] Your Bible may say, put on love, which is the bond of unity or the bond of perfection. That's a really good literal translation word for word. That word bond communicates the idea of holding things together by way of, like, strong ligaments and tendons.
[00:13:19] So apart from our ligaments and our tendons, our body parts would be all over the place over here, over there, you know, it's our muscle tendons that hold everything together.
[00:13:29] Beloved, this has been.
[00:13:31] This has been a hard season at ubc.
[00:13:36] It has. Let's not sugarcoat it.
[00:13:39] We've all felt. It seems like everywhere we turn, there's disunity, there's splintering, and we seem to be fractured.
[00:13:53] That's not good.
[00:13:55] But this text gives us the remedy, even though we may be fractured.
[00:14:02] Love binds above all else. As if what he's already said isn't enough.
[00:14:11] Put on love.
[00:14:13] Clothe yourself, beloved, in love, which is the bond.
[00:14:19] Last few points of application and closing. Beloved, remember who these people in this room are.
[00:14:25] They are your family, chosen, set apart, and beloved of God along with you.
[00:14:32] And that should change how you relate to all of them.
[00:14:35] That doesn't mean you won't ever disagree on something. That's inevitable. But even in our disagreements with one another as a family, families disagree.
[00:14:45] That's normal. That's family life. But when we disagree, 12B through 14, those characteristics should still characterize us even in our disagreements.
[00:14:57] And also, when was the last time you told one of your brothers or sisters that you love them?
[00:15:06] Hey, I just want you to know that I'm grateful for you, that I love you, that I'm praying for you.
[00:15:13] Maybe try that this week. Maybe take that first spin.
[00:15:17] Can you imagine if that took root in this church in this season, over the coming months? What could God do?
[00:15:29] Francis Schaeffer, in his book the Mark of a Christian, says, this love and the unity it attests to is the mark, the mark Christ gave to Christians to wear before the world.
[00:15:42] Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.
[00:15:51] Beloved, what we wear is important.
[00:15:55] When you are with your brothers and sisters, what are you going to put on?
[00:15:59] This text calls us to put on Christ likeness, not out of mere duty, but as a privilege grounded upon what the Lord has done in all of our lives.
[00:16:15] Because God chose us, set us apart and loves us. Beloved, we are to be Christlike to one another.
[00:16:21] Oh, that the Lord would make us that kind of gospel community.
[00:16:26] Let's pray.
