Union with Christ and Our Unity - Put On

[0:00] Good morning. We'll be turning in your Bible to Colossians chapter 3. Again, we're picking up Colossians chapter 3. Last week we looked at the commands that Paul gave us to put off sins that affected our life and our walk with each other.

[0:20] Today we're going to look at the same passage again. We're going to read verses 1 through 17. But we're going to look today specifically at verses 12 through 17. Colossians chapter 3 starting in verse 1.

[0:35] If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Seek at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

[0:48] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

[1:01] Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these too you once walked when you were living in them.

[1:14] But now you must put them all away. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

[1:32] Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. For Christ is all and in all.

[1:44] Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

[1:58] And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

[2:11] 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 each other in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

[2:28] 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. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for your word, and I thank you for the example and what you've inspired the Apostle Paul to write to this church in Colossae, and for the ability for us, thousands of years later, to read it and be encouraged by it, to be strengthened by it.

[2:57] Lord, I ask that your spirit would apply your word powerfully in our hearts, convict us of our sin, encourage us, give us a desire to serve you, fix our eyes on Christ.

[3:09] Lord, even as we read, I pray that the word of Christ would dwell in our hearts richly. Lord, I ask that your spirit would apply it there, that we would live out of our reality of where we are and who we are in Christ.

[3:22] In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So we're looking really at Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 through 17, and we're looking at this whole idea of putting on.

[3:35] He says, put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Put on these things, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

[3:46] And this is really an application of the prior passage we looked at last week. We were to put off all the old self, put off the sin, put off all these things that affected our relationships. And we alluded to it last week, but we have true unity together as a body.

[4:02] In order for that to work well, we need to put off things and put things on. We need to put things on, we need to do things. There are things in this passage we're commanded to do as Christians. It's rooted in our new identity in Christ.

[4:15] Because we are people in Christ who are dead, buried, raised, and seated with Christ, we're enabled and we're called to put on these Christian virtues. So Paul makes the connection here at the beginning of verse 12.

[4:29] Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. We are God's chosen ones. God calls us holy and beloved.

[4:40] You could also say we're God's elect, we're set apart, and we're loved, we're cherished. This is language that's used in the Old Testament of Israel. God's set apart people, his chosen people, his cherished people.

[4:55] It's true of what the people of God are. The people of God, the church, is chosen, it's holy, and it's loved. Chosen, we've been elected before a time.

[5:10] Saints and holy means God has set us apart. God has made us and named us and cherished and loved. And God calls us to put on these things we're going to look at as a result of our new nature in Christ.

[5:25] As a result of God's love, as a result of what we've seen in verse 1, to fix our eyes on heavenly things because we are with Christ. The union with Christ, our connection with Christ, it's all God's doing.

[5:40] God's the one that's chosen. God's the one that makes us holy. And because of his love, God blesses us in the beloved. Paul summarizes this concept of chosen, beloved, and holy.

[5:55] In Ephesians chapter 1, he says, It's blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

[6:14] In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons to Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved.

[6:28] So the Father chooses us in order that we would be holy and adopts us into his beloved family because of his own love.

[6:39] See, love's an important motivator, we'll see all throughout this passage. We'll see, and we see, that if you're chosen holy and beloved in Christ, there are things you're called to do.

[6:52] There are things you're called to live out as somebody who's loved. God has loved you. God has adopted you if you're a Christian. So live out the Christian life in love for each other.

[7:05] Paul goes on to list a few of the things these chosen, holy, and loved people need to put on. All right, we just read this. This list of five virtues is really a clear and intentional contrast to the sins we saw in verse 8, where Paul says to put off anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk.

[7:42] Those are the sins we're to put off. Those are the sins we're to get rid of because they're evil in the eyes of God. They hinder, hurt, and hamper our relationships with one another.

[7:54] They do, don't they? The sin that we saw last week, it hinders our Christian walk. These sins specifically hurt our relationship with each other as adopted sons and daughters in Christ.

[8:08] So Paul's argument is really to say, get rid of all the sins that are part of your old nature. Get rid of the old self, the nature you got from your father Adam. Get rid of that nature.

[8:18] Put those things off and put on instead the virtues, attitudes of heart, the attributes of a heart that are part of your new nature, your new self, the nature that you get from your new federal head, Christ.

[8:35] It's essentially what Paul is saying in Colossians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. We read this repeatedly as we look through the book of Colossians, because it seems to be Paul's point.

[8:48] He says, as you received Christ Jesus, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

[9:00] So walking in Christ as somebody who is chosen, holy and beloved, we're told to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

[9:15] Did you catch what those virtues are? Did you catch they're not just things that we do? What I mean is these words aren't verbs.

[9:29] Right? The list of things that Paul has given us, they're not verbs. We have any English teachers or homeschool parents in here might want to cover your ears. But can I say to my kids, go kind your brother.

[9:44] Please compassion your mother and carry that laundry basket. We can't say those things. They don't make sense. It sounds weird to say, go kind something. They're not verbs we do.

[9:55] But we can say, go be kind. Go show compassion. Be compassionate. The difference really is that these things that Paul has listed are virtues.

[10:09] They're not discrete actions. They're attitude. They're attitudes of a heart that produce multiple actions. So Paul isn't saying, go be kind.

[10:21] Go be meek. He's telling you to put on an attitude, a heart, a desire of meekness, of patience.

[10:34] We see clearly in the first one, he says, put on a compassionate heart. The NIV translates this verse is, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

[10:54] Clothe yourself with, put these things on. Put them on so that the core of your heart lives out of those things. Put on the things that are the core of what it means to be a Christian.

[11:09] The virtues that reflect what Christ reflects. He says, put on these virtues. Put on the compassionate hearts, the patience, the kindness, so that two things can happen.

[11:21] We put on compassionate hearts and patience, gentleness, meekness. We interpret the way that people interact with us differently.

[11:32] We also interact with people differently. So there's two effects of us living out of a life where we're compassionate, where we're kind. We're meek.

[11:43] We have patience. We interact with people with those virtues. But we also interpret the way that other people interact with us. We change how we interpret their interaction.

[11:58] If you change the core attributes of a heart, take that person's heart and take away the anger and the wrath and the malice, and you replace it with compassion and kindness and humility, that person will become compassionate and kind to people around them.

[12:19] But they'll also interact with people, interpreting things, reading into situations with compassion, kindness, and patience.

[12:31] You see, they really are a bi-direction on the street. When we change our hearts, when Christ changes our hearts, when we put on these virtues of compassion, patience, kindness, we can act with them toward each other.

[12:45] We can also interact with each other and evaluate our interactions with each other in those virtues. For the Christian, all these things, these compassionate hearts, they come as a result or as a fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

[13:06] The Apostle Paul has written this in Galatians chapter 5. He says, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

[13:21] Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This is probably a familiar passage to most of you.

[13:33] In fact, many of you are probably singing the song that you learned it to in your head right now. Similar to our passage in Colossians, Paul is telling the church in Galatia, Stop living the way you used to live.

[13:46] Stop living with those passions and desires that were of the flesh. They got crucified with Christ. They're gone. They shouldn't be something we're living with. He says, Your new self is united to Christ.

[13:58] And now you've got the Holy Spirit. You didn't have the Holy Spirit before, but now you have the Holy Spirit. You now need to live out of your new self. Live out of the Holy Spirit. Live out of those new passions, those new desires the Holy Spirit gives you.

[14:13] If you want Christian unity, true brotherly love for the people in this room, if you want to be people who love each other, then we need the fruit of the Spirit.

[14:23] We need the Spirit to work and empower us. We can't do this without the work of the Spirit. But we also need to do the work of brotherly love.

[14:39] Paul continues in Galatians chapter 5, If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

[14:54] So Paul makes a transition again here in Galatians from, this is what the fruit of the Spirit is. These are all the good things that you get from the Spirit. To now walk in the Spirit in ways that don't harm or affect the relationships you have with each other.

[15:09] This is what Paul does back in Colossians chapter 3. We go from, here's the virtues, heart attitudes, fruit of the Spirit, the put on. And then he moves to here, the actual things, the actual work that we need to do when living out of those fruits.

[15:24] And Paul gives us quite the list of things in Colossians chapter 3, starting in verse 14.

[15:39] Sorry, verse 13. We're called to bear with one another. We're called to forgive one another. Paul tells us to put on love.

[15:52] He says to put on, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. He says, be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

[16:04] Teach. Admonish your wisdom. Sing to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness. Do everything in the name of Jesus and give thanks.

[16:16] Maybe you've noticed, but those are verbs. Those are things that we do. Those are things we're called to do. And for the most part, those are things that are interpersonal. Those are things that we deal with, interacting with each other, talking to each other, in our fellowship, in our communication, in the words we say to each other.

[16:33] Those are interpersonal things. Bearing with one another. Forgiving one another. And the command to put these positive things on is there, and it follows the actions that come out of a heart affected by the word of God.

[16:49] The right heart attitude, the fruit of the spirit we just saw, leads us into the right actions. A good heart produces good fruit.

[17:01] And Paul's list of things that he's shown here can be broken up into two different lists. The first list is things we should interact, or ways we should interact with each other individually.

[17:13] Bearing with one another. Forgiving one another. Parting on love. And then we've got responsibilities that we have in our corporate gathering. Ways we interact with each other as Christians, in a body, gathered together, on the Lord's Day, or throughout the week.

[17:29] These are things that we need to do as people who are Christians. And so Paul says, in chapter 3, verse 13, bear with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

[17:49] So Paul is calling us to bear with one another. To absorb a complaint, right? When someone does something, don't let it get to you.

[18:02] Bear with it. Absorb it. Move on. He says, if one's got a complaint against another, forgive each other. How? How much do we need to forgive each other?

[18:14] To the point that it's the same as Christ. As much as God has forgiven you, you also must forgive each other. So if we wanted a manual for how to interact with each other in the church, if we wanted to understand how do I live best inside of this group of people, Paul lays it out.

[18:36] you've got to complain against somebody, forgive them. Did somebody say the wrong thing? Take your favorite pew or maybe eat all the dessert at potluck? Bear with them.

[18:49] Do you feel stressed by the people around you? Do they just get to you? Do they irk you? Let the peace of Christ be what rules and drives your life.

[19:00] But at the core, at the absolute center of all these things that Paul is pointing out, he says, above all these things, put on love. Put on love.

[19:13] Because love, true love, will allow you to forgive. True love will allow you to bear with difficult people. True love overlooks an offense.

[19:24] Remember what Paul said of these Christians. He called them elect, holy, and loved.

[19:36] And so out of that love that we've governed, we've been given and experienced in Christ, we're called now to put on love and to love others. This is exactly what Jesus said to his disciples in John 13.

[19:51] This is a new commandment I give you. If you love one another just as I have loved, sorry, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

[20:02] By this, all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. Here we have Christ himself right before his own death. He is staring the cross in the face and his command is love each other.

[20:18] And Christ himself loved. How much did he love the people? Around him? He took step after step making his way to the cross so the people around him, people who are just minutes later going to abandon him, he took step after step to the cross so that they could have eternal life.

[20:40] Brothers and sisters, do we have that kind of love? Do we have the same love that Christ has for us? Do you love the other members of Christ's church that he had bought with his own blood?

[20:52] Do you love the people that are in this room? Do you put on love as you walk in the door? Are you happy to serve?

[21:05] Are you happy to be here? Are you happy to worship God with the people that are surrounding you week after week? The testimony to our community is based on our own unity.

[21:20] Christ says people will know that we're Christians for our love for each other. They will know you are my disciples, you have love for one another.

[21:31] Is that your testimony to the community around? Is that the testimony to your neighborhood, to your home, to your workplace? Do people know that you love the people in this church with a different kind of love?

[21:48] Do people know that you love them here? Do people know that you love them and you want to love them the same way that Christ loved his church? Do people know that you're not ashamed of them?

[22:03] Not ashamed to call them brothers? Do people know that you're not going to slander them or talk behind their back? Do you live out the ways that love is shown to you?

[22:16] Do you live out the ways that God has shown love to you? Do you live out the ways that you want love to be shown to you as a person? See, we can be the smartest people. We can be intelligent. We can spout off all kinds of debates in theology.

[22:30] We can say all kinds of words and arguing about our soteriology and ecclesiology and Bible translations and means and moans of baptism and go on and on and on. But without love, it's just noise.

[22:43] It means nothing. That's what Paul is saying to the church in Corinth. He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels but I don't have love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

[22:54] And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

[23:10] And if I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. You can be the most educated, smart, generous person but lacking love, you're nothing.

[23:29] You gain nothing. My heart's desire and the desire of your elders is really that we are a church first and foremost known for our love.

[23:45] Not necessarily first and foremost that we have the right theology or the right confession. That's important and I believe we do have those things. But my desire is that we be known as a church that loves each other, that loves Christ, that loves each other, that loves the sinner that walks in the door that needs to know about Christ.

[24:02] I want and we want Grace Fellowship Church, you and me, to be a light in the community and the surrounding area because we have love for each other.

[24:16] Love that doesn't make any sense. A supernatural, Christ-powered, Holy Spirit love that marks all of our interactions and relationships with each other.

[24:28] Paul shows us ways of that love here in our text. He shows us ways to show love. But Paul continues in chapter 13 with all the ways that we can actually show that love.

[24:40] What does it look like to actually love somebody? Paul says, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.

[24:52] It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

[25:10] These aren't just verses that we say at weddings to show what love is. It's true, sure. Do that. Love your wife, love your husband this way.

[25:21] But Paul is saying as it regards each other, as it regards relationships within the church, love each other, be patient and kind. Don't boast.

[25:32] Don't be arrogant or rude. Defer to others. Don't insist on your own way. Don't be irritable to other people. Don't be resentful. Don't rejoice and be happy when someone messes up.

[25:44] Rejoice in truth. If you want to show love, bear all things like Christ did. Believe all things. Trust each other. Have hope for each other and endure the mess that comes from living alongside other sinners.

[26:03] This brings us to Paul's second grouping of commands. The commands that deal with our interactions. Responsibilities inside the gathered body. Really inside of the church service.

[26:17] Paul says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called and be thankful.

[26:29] 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 heart to God and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

[26:48] So, we see positive commands here in this passage to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Commands to teach and to admonish in wisdom and then commands to sing to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness.

[27:04] These responsibilities really show us the weight of belonging to a body. It shows us the work that's required to make the local church function. We're called to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

[27:19] And that comes from hearing it read and hearing it preached on Sunday and from reading it yourself. But it needs to be heard and absorbed for it to dwell within us deeply and richly.

[27:35] The word of Christ dwelling in our hearts leads us to teaching and admonishing in wisdom. The word of Christ dwells in our hearts richly. We're enabled to teach and admonish in wisdom.

[27:49] Sharing the word of God with each other, encouraging each other with scripture. It's not just the elders that are called to encourage and strengthen and teach. If Christ's word dwells in you richly, you're able to teach and encourage others in the body.

[28:05] We're also called as a body to sing or called to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart. Paul makes a similar command in Ephesians chapter 5 and then ties the singing of the songs in church, the corporate singing of God's people with walking in love.

[28:27] He says in Ephesians 5, 1, Therefore be imitators of God, his beloved children, and walk in love as Christ gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

[28:43] And then in verse 18 and 20, he says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another, singing to one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[29:05] So, you're singing, your worship is to God, you're praising God, but it also encourages and addresses those around you.

[29:19] Let me encourage you, this command is not conditional on your ability. If you can't sing in tune, or you can't sing in parts, or you can't sing at all, the command is still here for you to sing to God, to your brothers and sisters.

[29:36] It may sound terrible, it may be off pitch or out of key, but don't neglect the blessing of singing with those around you in thankfulness.

[29:47] Don't miss the blessing of encouraging other people with your heartfelt praise. If you sit with someone that can't sing, or doesn't sing well, or can't hold a key, it's a perfect time for you to bear with them.

[30:02] Be encouraged by their desire to use their voice to praise God. Which of us here can sing perfectly? I know that I can't. Those who sit in front of me know that I can't either.

[30:16] But the best musician, the best vocalist, can never offer God the praise that he rightly deserves. Nothing we ever offer is going to be truly, perfectly what God deserves.

[30:29] We're calling to offer our best, our good deeds of worship are still tainted by the fall. And we're a body filled with people of different levels of sanctification, people who are different levels of Christ-likeness.

[30:44] It's also filled with sinners with different abilities to sing, but God has redeemed those sinners regardless of your musical ability. So let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

[30:54] Let them sing. Worship God for what he's done. Worship with joy and thanksgiving. Praise the one that saved you and seated you with him in heavenly places.

[31:07] Now it's important to call out these things all happen inside of our corporate gathering. We have commands here to love each other, to hear the word of God, to teach and admonish one another, to sing to one another.

[31:22] And that happens in this building, in this room, every Sunday at 10 o'clock in the morning in English and then 1 o'clock in the afternoon in Spanish. And if you come at 10.30 or 11, you've missed a good part of the singing.

[31:40] You've missed the corporate prayer. You've missed the reading of God's word and perhaps some of the sermon. And if the benediction is given at 10 or 11.20 and you're in your car by 11.22, you've missed the ability to talk to people you've missed the ability to fellowship, to teach and admonish, to love the people around you.

[32:04] Christian, how can you do these things that God's called you to do? How can you live the life that God's called you to do if we're not valuing the church?

[32:15] We're not valuing his people. We're not valuing the means of grace that God's given for us to enjoy him and each other. This isn't legalism.

[32:25] I'm not giving you commands that you can obey to get yourself into heaven. You're not earning your salvation and justification by attending church. You won't get to heaven because you made church attendance a priority.

[32:42] But you do go to church because you've already been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. You've already received heaven. we've been joined with Christ so that when Christ in our life appears, we will appear with him in glory.

[33:02] And not just me, but everybody that are trusting in Christ. All the people who are trusting in Christ will appear with him in glory. These people in this room are people you're going to spend eternity with.

[33:16] They shouldn't be strangers when you get to heaven. let the word of God dwell in you richly. Teach each other. Admonish each other. Sing to each other.

[33:27] Make the time to make gathering with God's people and participating with them an ordinary means of grace we have in our church. Make time to that.

[33:39] Let love for God, let love for your brothers and sisters, be what drives your decisions and your schedule and your free time. not the other way around.

[33:50] Don't let your schedule or your decisions or your free time dictate how much time you spend with God and his people. So as we wrap up, the apostle John has written very much in the book of 1 John about love.

[34:08] And what does it mean for us to walk in love? He wrote in chapter 3, this is a message you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one, and murder his brother.

[34:23] Why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the Lord hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life.

[34:34] We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

[34:48] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our life for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, that closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

[35:07] Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. So really, John is calling us to do the hard work of brotherly love, to do the work that is required to walk in brotherly love.

[35:25] What are ways we can do that? We can be hospitable. We can have people in our homes. We can spend time with other Christians. We can confront sin that we see with other people. We can confront that with humility.

[35:37] And we can confess sin against other people. With humility. We can let God's word dwell in our hearts richly. We can listen to and read and absorb the word of God.

[35:51] We can not live our life in fear. We can go over our life unafraid. We shouldn't be afraid of other Christians. John says in 1 John 4, there's no fear in love.

[36:05] Perfect love casts out fear. We shouldn't be afraid to talk to people who might be a little bit different than us. We can worship and we can sing together as God's people redeemed.

[36:20] In a few minutes at 1145, we're going to have our short Lord's Supper. It's the ability to take and hold in your hand a physical, tangible reminder of Christ's death.

[36:32] We're going to sing songs together, telling of Christ's love and his sacrifice for us. We're going to proclaim the Lord's death again until he comes. After that, we're going to head downstairs, eat and talk.

[36:46] I'm going to ask you, what do you have going on this afternoon? What do you have going on today that's more important than the commands of Christ to love the brothers, to sing together, to participate in the means of grace that are available to you in just a few minutes?

[37:02] I want to point out that the core element of all these things, what Paul says, above all, to put on love.

[37:16] We love each other because of Christ's love for us. We live out of that love. Our individual self has been reconciled, it's been made right with God, we have a new man that's now able to love.

[37:31] We've also been shown the true meaning of love by God in Christ. And we live out of that love by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can only do the hard work of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ by fixing our minds on Christ.

[37:48] We read this passage at the end of last week. The author of Hebrews says, Therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

[38:04] How? By looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joys that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and was seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

[38:19] See, we can't do any of these things perfectly. We often struggle to do them at all, which is why you and I need Jesus.

[38:31] That's why we need his spirit working in us. And that's why this person or people that you may have a grudge with, someone you may struggle with, someone you may have a feeling of disconnect against, that person needs Jesus too.

[38:47] If you want grace and mercy, forgiveness shown to you, if you're overjoyed to receive it from God and happy to praise him and worship him and move with joy when you think about Christ taking your sin away, remember that he too bore the sin of everybody who believes in him.

[39:05] Every Christian that has put their faith in Christ, Christ has borne their sin away. Even those that have sinned against you, Christ has borne their sins. We can't do any of these things that Paul lists out perfectly.

[39:21] We can't be compassionate or kind or humble or meek or patient. perfectly. But Jesus does. Jesus is compassionate.

[39:34] In Matthew 11 to 28, he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus is perfectly kind. Minutes before he was led away for his crucifixion, one of his disciples struck the ear of the high priest.

[39:51] Jesus says, no more of this. And he touched the man's ear, and he healed them. Jesus is humble. Philippians 2, 5 says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

[40:19] Christ was meek. Isaiah 53, 3, 7 says, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

[40:34] Finally, and importantly, he's patient. 2 Peter 3, 9 says, Christ bore our sin.

[40:55] He bore all of our failures to love each other, all of the times that we've broken the laws, broken the commands that we've seen last week, things to put off. He's given us his righteousness.

[41:06] He was the perfectly compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient servant. And then, in love, he turns around and he gives those attributes, that righteousness to us.

[41:22] He gives us his Holy Spirit that teaches us and sanctifies us and allows us to use those attributes, those fruits of the Spirit to become more and more like the Christ who died for us.

[41:35] So let that Savior's word go in you richly. Today, I encourage you to teach and admonish each other about that Christ.

[41:46] Sing to the Lord with a joyful and thankful heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are people who have not loved as you've called us to love.

[42:02] We're people who have not been compassionate or kind. God, we thank you that your Holy Spirit promised to sanctify us and to make us like Christ.

[42:14] Lord, I ask that you help us to do the hard work of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you, Lord, that we don't have to get it perfect because we never would be able to, and that you've sent Christ, the perfect, righteous, Son of God, to live and die in our stead, to give us his righteousness, to make us all united together as one body with Christ.

[42:44] Lord, help us to worship you, help us to fellowship with joy and love for each other. In Jesus' name, amen. I've switched up the song, it's not the song that's in your bulletin, but we're going to sing again, number 347, we sang this last week, we're going to sing The Church Is One Foundation, and I want you again to look at verse 6.