Sermon Sunday March 8, 2009

Second Sunday in Lent

Colossians Chapter 3: 12-17

 Being the Elect of God

Our reading starts with a very difficult Issue for the church of the Colossians. You may remember in past sermons St Paul would write letters to the various churches he set up. One of these churches was the Church of the Colossians.  Paul would write these Epistles or letters to the churches to sometimes correct, scold, fix errors, encourage, or help.  Today Paul is going to give a lesson on how the people in this Church are to act as the elect of God. Possibly there were some problems in the church, quarrels among brothers and sisters, arguments, fights among each other. Whatever the case, Paul addresses these issues in verses 12-17. He starts by telling “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if an man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

Let us start by taking a look at the opening verse, ''Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved" Paul wants us to understand that we are to be as God, that we are His chosen people, we belong to Him.  Paul makes it a point to tell them this so they fully understand that they are chosen of God for a reason, and because of this we are too act accordingly.  Remember the Bible was not written to the non-believer, but to the believer, to God's elect. We will come back To This Later. Paul has now in this verse set the groundwork for the next several verses.

Once Paul tells the people how they are to act he then uses a whole sentence to express something that is very important to God.  He Talks about Charity. He says "but above all things put on charity which is in the bond of perfectness." We find a constant theme in regard to charity in scripture. Charity is not a laughing matter to the Lord.  I would venture to say that a Christian is not a true follower of Christ if he is not charitable. We are told on many occasions in Scripture to feed the poor, clothe and feed those in need.  Protect the widows & orphans. We are told that by doing this we may be helping angels without our knowing.

In verse 15 Paul Continues telling them “and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.” Paul Is telling them, let the peace on God rule, do not worry whether or not you can do these things, but have peace knowing that God can do all these things, if you are in Him and He is in you. How do I know this? Paul tells them when he says, “for you are one body with Him be thankful for this". Don't let your worry cause you pain or strife in your heart. Paul knows the type of worry that comes with trying to do everything on your own. In Romans 7, Paul is In agony over doing those things he hates. He says

“The things, I hate I do, but what I should do I do not. Oh what a retched Man am I.” Paul knows struggle and he wants the people to know there Is peace in the Lord. In Romans 8:1 we are told this. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

I feel that verse 16 is one of the most important verses in Paul’s letter.  “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”  In these sentences Paul tells us to praise God with song. This tells me that God does not hate music that is sung to his Glory.  He encourages us to sing.  Although this is wonderful it is not this I would like you focus on. But it is the first part of this verse that is most important.  “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.”

Whenever the Bible talks of wisdom we find that we do not receive wisdom on our own accord, it does not come about by our worldly searching.

It comes from the study of God's Word, and our obedience to Him.  Paul tells them that we must let Christ, who is the Word, into us and dwell in us richly.  Reading Verses 12 to 14 it occurs to me that these verses along with many other verses in scripture that talk of love, charity, humbleness, forgiveness are used today by many churches to give credibility to what they allow.  They say God is love and we are to have these things in our churches because we are told to have love and mercy.  We are to deal with everyone the same, and have patience with them. We are to forgive everyone their sins as Christ has forgiven us. Be charitable, not judging anyone.  To all this I say AMEN. But brothers and sisters what I am saying is that nothing should ever contradict the Word of God.  And I assure you, these charlatans have done just this.

Please remember, and I said I would come back to this, that this letter is being written to Christians.  To the elect of God.  It is not being written to the unbeliever. We as God’s elect must listen to our righteous God Who cannot go against His nature.  He does not tell us in the Old Testament certain things are sins, then later they are not.  Jesus did not tell the adulterous women to go ahead and. sin Sunday to Friday, but not on the Sabbath day.  He said sin no more.  Are we to role over and play dead allowing false teachers and their doctrine to tell us, God's elect, how to live? NO!  Paul is telling us above all things that God's Word comes first! Never should love ever contradict it.  For churches to allow certain sins to be committed by there own clergy and then to teach the people this is allowed by God, is complete and utter nonsense.  I assure while it is not for me to judge God will judge them accordingly. We are no better in our sins than the next person, but we must continue to teach (not judge) that sin no matter how small, or accepted by the world, is still sin and as the elect of God we cannot Continue wallowing in it.  Paul Closes in V-17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”  Paul tells us; in all we do we are ambassadors For Christ. He is in us and us in Him. As ambassadors we have a certain expectation that we are to follow.  When I was in the Navy was given an overseas Location you had to fit a certain criteria. You would meet with the Commanding officer of your ship or station so they could conduct what Is call an overseas screening to make sure you are going to be a good ambassador of the USA.  Paul then closes with telling us to give all thanks, to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why it is so important that we stand up against those who would tell us not to pray in His name.

In Closing I would like to make a few comments.  Not much has changed in 2000 years.  This message from Paul still has the same implications it did then and as Christians it holds those same implications for us.  It is very important however that we understand we do not do these things in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.   Even if a person lives this way, but does not have belief in the Lord Jesus Christ he will perish as they who live an evil life.  We are told that it is only through Christ that we enter the kingdom of heaven.  Make no mistake; you cannot go to the Father but through Christ.  We have no good works until we first believe in Christ.  All our works are but ashes before the Lord.  It is not until we accept Christ that those good works actually have any meaning. 

We are to act as the elect of God and never contradict the Word of God.  Christ taught love, but a love that never came before God and never took over His Word.  Today many churches teach love as they do grace.  Everyone has it, but it has lost its true meaning.  Paul tells us in Romans that we are now free in the grace of Christ, but this does mean we can go and sin all we want.  The same can be said about Love.  Yes, we must love one another, but when we use that love to bring about new doctrine, new teachings, and a new bible than we have forgotten He Who is our first love.   

Brothers and sisters I implore you to do as Paul tells us today.  Go out into the world with KINDNESS, BE HUMBLE, MEEK, LONG SUFFERING, FORBEAR ONE ANOTHER, QUARREL WITH NO MAN, FORGIVE, AND ABOVE ALL HAVE CHARITY.  Go out into the world with all these things and preach the Word of God, and remember as St. Francis of Assisi said.  Preach the Gospel and sometimes use words.  AMEN