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In chapter 3, verse 12, put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering for bearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body.
And be thankful, Let the word of Christ dwell on 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 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. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger unless they be discouraged.
Servants, obeying all things, your masters according to the flesh, not with I service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of persons.
These verses parallel what we find in Ephesians.
Could we hear the difference in the significance of the the putting off and the putting on?
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Every exhortation that we have flows from that we're given, flows from the position in which we stand before God. So God doesn't ask us something that's not possible. And so it is because we are holy and beloved that he asks us to put on certain things and the general thought and christened them as we put on things to become holy and beloved. But we put these on because we are, and then because we're holy and beloved. I believe there are certain things that are just incompatible with such a nature, and so we're to put them off.
I was thinking more in connection with the difference between what is mentioned in Ephesians putting off and the putting on and in Colossians the putting off and the putting off. There is a difference.
It's good to have to explain.
What is your understanding of it for the very?
My understanding is that.
Using the comparison of the children of Israel.
In Ephesians, that is.
Comparable, or at least the picture of the Israelites.
Is a completed taking of the whole land. It's all.
Completed 13th of Joshua last verses say.
The land they possessed, the whole land, and the land rested from war. I'll take that to be a picture of what we find.
In Ephesians the whole land was taken, the whole all, the revelation of the truth which Paul received.
Is completed from the Lord Jesus in the glory and Ephesians brings out the fact that the whole of the revealed mind of God we have so it's more the having put off it's completed whereas.
Colossians has often been likened to Israel having.
Gone over the Jordan, but resting on the West Bank.
In other words, they were across the Jordan, but they hadn't yet taken the land. And so there is that constant throughout the book of Colossians, a pressing on to the something in comparison with the.
11Th chapter of Joshua The last verse says the land rested from war, but the 13th chapter in the first verse says and the Lord said to Joshua.
And well stricken in years, and there remaineth much land to be possessed, although it seems as if it's a contradiction. But there's no contradiction of the scriptures, And I believe the key is in the possessing the word possessed. So we have we're thankful to have the truth, but in these days that we are together, why we learn the necessity of making it our own.
Of possessing the truth that, I believe, is what Colossians bring before us.
For the meal you mentioned.
Holy and beloved.
But we are also the elect.
I think what you're not agree that speaks of Sovereign Grace?
Be reminded that Sovereign Grace has chosen us.
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In Christ, but then holiness that we have been made.
Wholly Set Apart.
And.
He loves, you know, that's the position we have been brought into, but it's all based on Sovereign Grace. Keep that in mind.
It certainly would help us show these characteristics.
That we are admonished to manifest.
Paul uses the expression.
Putting off and putting on in Romans 13. Let me read the verses.
Romans 13 and verse 11 And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness.
Not in strife and envying.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof seems to be in that last verse. Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ would be analogous to to putting on the new man, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the luster of putting off the old man. At least it's a different way of expressing it.
But it comes out to the same thing we we seem to be able to grasp, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe a little bit better than the new man, which is somewhat of a a difficult expression to get ahold of, but I believe it speaks of Christ.
We see a right thought that.
In Ephesians we are seeing in Christ, and in Colossians it is Christ in US, and it's two of every one of us.
And maybe not the right expression, but twice on us, as our garment would be the practical expression in our life, in our manner of conduct with the one who lives in it by his spirit. So it is detailed, you might say as to.
Put you on the Lord Jesus. But in practical terms, what does it mean? Well, they're already virtues, you might say, that are enumerated in the 12Th verse and so on, which belongs to the Lord Jesus that are produced in us by His Spirit and that should be seen in our life. It's like our garments have seen.
Would that be an acceptable thought?
They did. They did take place in the death of Christ. That is, our old man was crucified with him, as we have in Romans. As a fact that has taken place. But as a practical thing, as you were saying, it isn't always manifested, and I believe the exhortation is that it should be manifested. So he uses the expression in this.
Verse put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, at the practical exhortation.
Just as you might say. Well, you've been given that new garment. Now wear it so everybody can see it.
There wouldn't be an exhortation if there wasn't a need for it. That seems like a rather obvious statement, but we sometimes hear the expression all these things will fall off like feathers. But there is a there is the energy of faith in connection with these things. And I may not always have the bowels of not have the bowels of mercy. Naturally I don't. And so we need to put them on. We need to be in the presence of the Lord and develop the affections of the Lord for His people. It's not something that we should expect.
There's energy of faith in connection with it.
Leprosy is spoken of as in three ways, leprosy in the flesh, and that would be moral evil, like First Corinthians 5 and then leprosy in the head, doctrinal evil, Galatians 5 and leprosy in one's garment. And that seems to speak more of the of the outward character that we display.
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The that which immediately surrounds us.
And our circumstances?
And many of these things have to do with that, don't they?
But there's the expression put off or cast off. That's something that we do.
It doesn't fall off. Hebrews 12 Says lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us. So that's that's the energy of of the Christian himself in in laying aside and setting aside those things that once characterized us in the flesh and then putting on putting on just like you. At the end of the day, you take off your coat and set it aside and you.
Exchange it for some.
More comfortable attire at home and you put on your bed clothes before retiring. And so it's it's a figure just like that, isn't it? We put off and we put on. It's something we do.
I don't know the great, but Mr. Darby has a little note in the connection with it, he says. It's the auras and it's in the state of having done it.
Just as you might say to a person, well, you're a Canadian citizen. Well, use the liberties that you have or act like one who is, but it isn't coming into that by some action. It's already true of you, but in the practical side of it, you're acting and displaying the fact that it is so.
And I believe that's the thought. It is so, so in the in our own translation by.
It's in the.
In the eighth verse. But now he also put off all these. Mr. Darby's translation is having put it off and then in the 10th verse and put on. It's something that has already taken place, but it isn't always displayed practically. And the exhortation is that you don't enter into that state by doing it, but you're in that state by the position you've been brought into through the work of Christ. Your sins forgiven, a new creature in Christ. Jesus standing for God in Christ.
And now act like that. That's why the exhortation comes in and the practical sense, I believe.
I'd like to just ask a question and connection with that a little bit louder, brother. We don't hear very well.
First Peter chapter 4. I'd just like to reconcile what you just did with with first Peter chapter 4.
And.
One and two.
Worth much, then, as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust, and then buffers the will of God like.
Reconcile what we've been here.
Well, in the sense that the flash is used in the first part of the 4th, the first verse of this 4th chapter.
The Lord Jesus had only holy flesh, but he suffered in body. He had a body of flesh and bones as he walked through this world. As our brother has remarked before, he was truly a man. And so, if we might put it in this way, when he said, does Satan Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, he quoted scripture to him. He didn't turn the stones into bread.
And in obedience to His Father's will, he was still hungry. He suffered, and so he suffered in the flesh, but with him it was holy flesh. He only wanted to do His Father's will. If I say no, I might say well, I wish I had yielded, because I'm still hungry, but not so with the Blessed Lord. But I need to arm myself, likely with the same mind that that is, I may have to suffer.
Daniel and his friends had to suffer when they didn't partake of the portion of the King's beat and the wine that they drank. The flesh in the might have wanted to do it never saw in the Lord. But we arm ourselves with that mind, because we have the life of Christ. We say no, and so that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh through the lusts of man. The flesh in me is sinful. Flesh in the Lord it was holy.
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And so I don't know whether I can explain it exactly in any other way. But there is a suffering in the path of obedience. But there is an added suffering with us sometimes the flesh still wants to do the thing, never so with the Lord, He never wanted to do anything but His Father's will, but the same mind.
That we have the life of Christ. We want to be obedient, but we also have the fallen nature.
It's been said that in those verses we have the flesh in three different ways. That is, He suffered in the flesh, that is, he was here in a body of flesh and bones and He. But when we say He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, the flesh in me wants to do what's wrong.
And then it says in the.
End of the second verse, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh.
He doesn't mean in the sinful nature there that he lived the rest of his time in the body.
That's all. We have holy flesh in the Lord Jesus, sinful flesh in us that still wants to do what's wrong. But we also have the physical body, and we are spending our time here in the flesh, that is in these mortal bodies of flesh and bones, flesh and blood.
There is another sense in which flesh is used in Romans when we were in the flesh.
I think that's our position Before we were saved. As sinful creatures we are no longer in that position, but we are in the body and we still have the old nature. And if we deployed the old nature of its desires, the flesh suffers and we do not sin. That's the thought, isn't it? In the second part with us. But the Lord suffered in the flesh.
Never, because he wanted to do anything but his Father's will. But He suffered in the path of obedience. That path of obedience led him to the cross.
Did he suffer, and did he suffered? He felt the crown of thorns. He felt the nails in his hands. He suffered, but with him it was holy flesh. Never any desire but to do his Father's will. But we have the other, shall I say, that sinful flesh within us.
And as long as we live in that this body, it's going to be here. And so the flesh still wants to do what's wrong in me, that is in my flesh. That's the fallen nature to all of no good thing.
In other words, if we are temptation tempted to go and to do something worldly.
If I'm working in the office and somebody they invite us to a party, well, the flesh says in me, go ahead, but the Spirit says don't go. But I don't want to deceive myself into saying, Oh no, the flesh doesn't suffer, the flesh does suffer, but we don't sin.
I think it's, you know, important to bring that out because.
There might be a concept in our mind that we just, so to speak, all into these things.
I'm sorry, my voice is interior. Very rough.
Then we get the proper concept in this that we just don't float into it, you know?
There is this ongoing thing that he that has suffered in the flesh Path ceased from sin. There is suffering in that sense involved, you know. But that's verse two, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust thereof, but to the will of God. So it's very important. It's very important.
I mean the man of the world, he doesn't suffer natural to him as the air he breathes, you might say. But for the Christian, there's an arresting thing, and all of this there are.
So this 12Th verse is really a practical thing. We have done it as far as the truth of God is concerned. The old man came to its end in the death of Christ. Our old man was crucified with him. It came to attend in the death of Christ. That's a doctrine. It's the difference between our standing and our state.
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Are standing before God is perfect. Not only our sins forgiven, but we stand before God in Christ. The righteousness of God in Him, that's our standing. Now we're told to act consistent with that standing that he has put it on. So to put on, I believe in this eighth verse, or indeed in the 12Th verse, rather, is the practical side of it. Let it be manifested in a practical way.
I could use the illustration again. I've got the new clothes. They belong to me now. Put them on and display them in a practical way. I didn't acquire them at the moment I put them on. I might have had them for quite a while. I put them on and saw they're displayed in a practical way in my life. And that's the exhortation. Elected God, holy and beloved. That's her standing. Put it on in a practical way.
Bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.
All these beautiful Christian graces, John Oden, perfection in the light, in Christ, in his blessed pathway and at verse in John's epistle says he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. God doesn't have a lower standard for me as a Christian than to be like his beloved Son, because he's given me the life of Christ. I don't say it's always so, I'm sad to say.
But that is where I've been brought, and that's what he is exhorting me to display, Not to say, well, I I know I make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But a perfect standard. The Lord Jesus, the capacity. Yes, I have a new life and I'm indwelled by the Spirit of God. I have the power God provides for restoration if I fail, but he has equipped me with all that's necessary for the Christian life, so that I should walk in this world as Christ walked.
When it says put on in that sense, it makes you think there's something we should do. That isn't the thought at all. We have these things in Christ by the Spirit of God in us. We don't have to go out and put them on. In that sense, it lets them have their way in US.
Let them be active in our life that support. We already have those things. It's a little bit like second Peter chapter one and we've already had that, but where it says in.
Verse 5. And beside this, that's the four things that are before us besides this having all diligence. Now it does say, add to your faith in this translation, but the better translation is have in your faith. There are already all these things are ours, then they're by faith. But now let them have their action in US. Let them be active in US. Have them.
Actively, that's the thought. It's not add to, I can't do anything.
I can't add any of these to myself. I have them because I have the life of Christ. And so that's the thought. Otherwise you get the idea we're going to do something, we can't do anything. We already have it in US. And I believe it should be have in your faith these things.
Let them be active. Let them have action in you. We have them. And this passage is not like climbing a ladder. You first step into virtue and then you take the next step. Someone has explained This is like a flower that is opening up, and all these things open up at the same time, just like the flower has many leaves. So these things that we should have in our faith, that should manifest themselves because we have faith.
They all unfold at the same time, and I think this isn't any difference here with this passage that these things should all at the same time manifest themselves in the believer. Now who wouldn't be ready to admit that we fall many times short and that's why we need these admonitions and.
I think especially when it comes to.
The things that have to do more with what we manifest in our relationship with one another. Some of these things speak more of an attitude, of a spirit that should characterize us. But then there are other things that we manifest in our relationship with one another. And when you think of forbearance, for instance.
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You know, I've often expressed it this way. The Lord has not put us in the business of changing personalities.
You know, now maybe I'm robbing you the wrong way sometimes, and maybe you robbed me the wrong way that because of your personality traits, but that is the kind of thing we have to for bear with.
Now there are things that become more offensive. You know, where there is the need for forgiveness. Now people might say I'm not going to forgive him unless he asked me to forgive him. Well, this Christian attitude is that the spirit of forgiveness should characterize the believer. And we see that with the Lord Jesus under cross.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That is characteristic of Stephen. You know when he's being stoned.
You know, nobody had asked him to forgive him, you know, but he asked for his enemies. And Paul in Second Timothy, you know, when he could have and rightly expected help from his fellow believers, but he didn't get any comfort from them. He was left alone.
He also is characterized by the spirit of forgiveness towards neglect on the part of believers. Haven't we experienced that sometimes?
In our life, when we went through difficult circumstances, that we have not received the comfort and help that we could rightly expect, and we ourselves have not been the help and the comfort to our fellow believers that we should have been well, that is at that time that the spirit of forgiveness has an opportunity to be manifested in the believers.
Forgiving when we speak of personal trespass. It's very important we all often offend, says James. And we have to remember that you said we rubbed one another wrong. We do. We're German, we're German. I don't want to know all about you, and we all offer the fence. I don't know what the rest of you have, but you got problems.
But you know, we should forgive one another. We shouldn't take offense so quick. There's a lot of thin skinned believers among us. They take offense so quick should do that. We don't judge Moses, you know, take it from the Lord. And you know when the Lord said to Peter and the others, if a man trespass against you and repent, forgive him and if he do it 7 Dimes in the gate and repent 7 Dimes.
Forgive him. And what did the apostles say? Increase our faith, Lord. This is the big order. Increase our faith. I think the Lord said 70 * 7, he says.
You've got a faith as a grain of mustard seed. You can take tell the sick of mine trees up and go into the sea as well. In other words, what seems impossible to us. We've got the faith to do it. And so I believe he got to 70 * 7, didn't he, Lord?
Said seven times. He said no 70 * 7. That's a lot of times to forgive. A brother is the man, you know, if we we can do it, that's the thought, we can do it. We got it. All these attributes are hard. We get these attributes first and then the expectation we have these safety. And you know, I've given this example before, but if you really forgive.
You forget. You forget that's where we all pay. I fail, You know, I say I forgive. That puts a badge on me I haven't forgotten. And it negates everything, doesn't it? We're not talking about things that need to be taken care of in an assembly, not talking about those things. I'm a personal trash bag. And you know, there was in a Sunday school two boys that always were troubled by a third boy who was a Needler, and they beat up on him every now and then. The Sunday school teacher finally stopped it and got the two boys together.
Because I know that he irritates you badly, and he gave him that principle the Lord gave. If he trespassed 70 times, you forgive him 70 times. You know 7 * 7.
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That isn't 74949. Well, the boys agreed. They agreed, but the older boy said. But I'll tell you when we get to 49, you better watch out. Those 490, you better watch out. So that's what we often do, brethren. We get the 490. It's sad, isn't it?
But we, the Lord said Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But that didn't mean that everyone that stood by the cross was forgiven. But there was one person.
That availed himself of that he heard the Lord say that. And he said, We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of his deed, our deeds.
That man, shall I say he received the forgiveness just like ourselves.
God is offering forgiveness to every Sinner of Adam's race. If he'll just come and own, he's a Sinner. When he acknowledges that, then he can say my sins are forgiven because I have received Christ. I'm under the shelter of the blood.
I say that because there is that practical side. So in the trespass offering, the man was not only to bring the sacrifice, but he was also to acknowledge that he had sinned in that thing. And one of the writers said he said we're all very willing to acknowledge that we fail many times, but it's often hard for us to say I failed in that thing, in that thing. When we acknowledge that, then we enjoy it.
Now we're forgiven judicially all our sins the moment we receive Christ.
But there is the governmental forgiveness, and that is only enjoyed as we acknowledge it. If we confess our sins, these faithful and just to forgive us. Our sins, we might say, weren't he sins already forgiven? Judicially, that is, you'll never have to meet God as a judge, yes.
All it says in Acts 1339, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all the believer justified from all things.
For which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. That's judicially that happens when we're saved. There's not one sin on my account, because they were all put away in the blood of Christ, but now in His governmental ways, we need to confess it and own it. And the same I believe in our dealings with one another, that we always ought to carry forgiveness in our hearts, never carry a grudge or bad feeling or anything. But sometimes it's necessary to say.
I'm sorry to be restored and to be restored to the Lord and to one another.
So the man in First Corinthians he was restored, he was brought back, and Paul could say, to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also.
The consequence for a believer in God's government and not forgiving.
Oh, it's that delivered to the tormentors till he has paid all those due unto him. In other words, in the governmental waves of God.
You might even lose the enjoyment of what the Lord has done for you, and that's a terrible expression delivered to the tormentors.
And I don't know of anything more tormenting than to carry an unforgiving spirit toward anybody in the world.
To care that unforgiven spirit is going to make you miserable, perhaps more than the other person, because you carried the unforgiving spirit. The Lord only spoke of the church twice, and first of all on the rock in which it was built, and then in Matthew 18 on how to maintain that if there's an offense between brothers and then this passage that you refer to comes in. But often the obstacle to seeing the restoration of a brother is I make it a matter of personal hurt.
And I don't forgive him rather than seeking to win my brother. And so where it's a matter of personal hurt, it's the glory of man to Passover sin is that the harm I have suffered personally I can forgive and leave that with the Lord. Paul said that to Philemon. And we see that with the Lord and Israel. I was struck by this number 490 because for 490 years they didn't let the land rest. And God government he forgave them year after year after year, but eventually it caught up with them.
And our brother. We may forgive our brother and our spirit, but if he doesn't really judge it, or if I don't judge something in my spirit before the Lord, it'll catch up with me. And so our real object with our brother ought to win him so that that sin doesn't overtake him. But if it's a matter of somebody done me something wrong and I've got to settle that, then it's a hindrance to really seeing the brother restored and to really judge that thing that he's fallen into now in Matthew 18.
00:40:13
At the end of the chapter we have the 10,000.
Talents that are and 100 pence. Debtor I like to suggest that we all are 10,000 talent debtors when it comes to our guilt before God.
And he has forgiven us freely.
Well, 110, we know they work for a penny a day. That wasn't such a tremendous debt. Well, can we not forgive one another when we realize how much we have been forgiven? Now, both of these debtors acknowledged their debt. Now that's an important principle. You know, you cannot really expect forgiveness from God unless you first acknowledge your debt.
But said 100 pence. Debtor also acknowledged hit dead, pleaded for mercy. The 10,000 talent debtor did receive it, but he wouldn't give it and wouldn't grant it to the 100 pence Debtor. Now that is beloved, where we often fall short, we forget what God has done.
For us, and may I say that.
That it's really impossible for us to forget something that has happened.
But we can elect not to remember. Even God doesn't say that he will forget.
Forgetfulness is human weakness, but God has chosen not to remember.
That's beautiful, beloved. He has removed these sins from us as far as the East is from the West. He has cast them into the depths of the sea, and he has chosen not to remember them. And we can ask the Lord for grace to not remember to make a decided effort.
To not remember what anybody has done to us, and an unforgiving spirit destroys the person that is characterized by it.
As if we had been forgiven $600,000 and then we go in exact $1.00 out of this other dollar and it just makes it very ridiculous. But that's really what it is if you have an answer.
And the 600,000 we've been forgotten about?
That same portion where the 490 times.
But I was thinking through Neil was mentioning the government of God and on the phone Lord Jesus said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. They have just finished saying it's bloody enough and on our children. And although you applied it to one man.
Reply to the nation of Israel, so that if we have not forgiven them, then they could never be brought into blessing, and it would have.
Got it All promised because they put because God has promised to bring them back into the land and and he will and they will come there. They will be the head and not the tail and Brian will be the leading place of the world. But in the government of the Jews have suffered over the Senate an awful thing that I said didn't cluster on us and on our children and we suffered without heaven. Could you say the whole nation was forgiven though there's a remnant according to the election of grace.
And so there will be a vast number. In fact, it says in all the land 2/3 will be cut off and die. But a third would remain therein. And that third is, we have it recorded in Zechariah that they they mourn, they say, what are these wounds in my hand? And they mourn and confess their guilt, so that while the Lord had forgiveness, I wouldn't say the whole nation is forgiven, but there is a remnant according to the election of grace. I agree with you. I I judge Francis said as a nation.
Well, you can't say and it has been applied that way.
The city of refuge was opened up to Israel by the Lord making the sin of rejecting and crucifying the Messiah a sin of ignorance. And we find the answer to that prayer when Peter said he did it ignorantly, as also your rulers. And then we find in Hebrews that they have fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus. So it was an opening up of grace to that guilty nation. But the individual had to plead for refuge.
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Just like one who had murdered somebody unintentionally, there were these city 6 cities of refuge and they could flee there and be sheltered from the man's Slayer, you know, from the avenger of blood. And so that is the important point. The grace of God opens up to this guilty nation. But they had individually had to flee for refuge. So when the Lord said father forgive them, they know not what they do.
He says count it Father, as a sin of ignorance, for which there was mercy and forgiveness. The Apostle Paul says mercy was showing me because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, but deliberate premeditated sin there was no forgiveness for So the Lord is saying don't count it that way. Count it as a sin of ignorance. That's the grace of his heart.
It's beautiful to see that extended to the Gentile in Corinthians. Now it says there, which none of the Princess of this world knew, For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glories. So Paul is at word opened up that door of mercy to the Gentile, because Pilate and the Gentiles were had pardoned that, and so door to them they could flee to the city of refuge too, and slipped upon as a sin of ignorance. I'd like to tell a story in connection with what's been said.
Two sisters were talking and the one said to the one sister about another person, don't you remember what she did to you 10 years ago and how she talked to you and all she did? And the first sister said I distinctly remember forgetting that.
In other words, she determined not to remember it. And that's the point that you were making. And that's what God has done. Actually, God doesn't forget anything. He has a perfect memory. Forgetfulness is a human infirmity. But he says I will not remember your sins.
That's that just gives me complete peace knowing he won't remember them.
Well, in Proverbs chapter 26 in connection with the.
August 26th.
1St.
What is fire going through?
Weather is no tail bear, The strike ceasefire has told her to burning poles and wood could fire. So are the contentious man and Kindles right? The birds of a tail bear are in rooms when they go down at the innermost parts of the belly.
Well, there is further wood where no wood is a particle.
The great thing is, is that God has placed this in the assembly that we might learn these lessons. That's the sweet thing about it, isn't it? That he's given it, that he's brought us to his table and there we are. You know, you have one that's a certain temperament and one that's another way, and it's one that's another way again. And he doesn't want us mere theorists about these things. What he's striving for in their lives is reality, reality. And that's why we are where we are. And, you know, someone comes along.
Maybe you say, well, that brother is a little bit legal and he sees things this way, and this one here he's a little bit LAX. But in the great that when you consider that they're there and God has placed them there, it helps us to see our brethren in a whole different light.
All of these things we've been looking at.
There, when he says put off or put on, it's in the heiress tents, which means be in the state of having done it. It's not in the present tense, which means do it every day. We're not to have to put these things on every day. Some fresh decision. Someone does me wrong and I don't have to say, well, should I forgive him? No, I have already.
I'm in the state of having forgiven all the offenses that might be done to me, and that's a different thing. I don't have to make a fresh decision every day whether I'm going.
I'm in the state of having done it. That's the difference between the present tense and the heiress.
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And it's used here. And Darby's note is helpful to help us get a hold of what that means. But it is something that we have put on, we have put on that attitude.
Of mind once, it doesn't have to be repeated, and we are now.
In the state of having done that, and that's the force of what we have before us. So we are those that have been forgiven. I love the bumper sticker that says not perfect, just forgiven. And you can. We can all relate to that. If we are forgiven and we have been forgiven, we are those that forgive.
We are those that forgive and unforgiving Christian is.
An enigma. Here's a man that's been forgiven 10,000 talents and he won't forgive 100 pence. There's something drastically inconsistent with that. There's no no offense that can be done to me, to you, whatever, by whoever. That we can't, that we that we have, we are able to say I can't forgive, that we we can't be in that position. That's a terrible position to be in, to say I can't forgive that sin.
He's forgiven us infinitely more than will ever be called upon to forgive. In fact, our attitude is we forgive, and as soon as the person admits they've done wrong, that forgiveness is immediately extended to them.
It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression, I think it was quoted. Forgive me, I just thought I expressed this thought that I felt for a long time.
If we would apply that scripture, it would settle many petty grievances that we have amongst the Saints of God, because we do not have to take everything up with our brother. We do not have to expect the last parting. You know me apply Matthew 18 if a brother sin against thee, and it certainly applies many times and should be practiced. But that scripture in the Old Testament that is the glory of a man to Passover a transgression would settle many grievances.
That means that we would never even bring it up.
I'm sure you would agree that that is a desirable attitude to be manifested on the part of all of us. Would that not be verse 14 and above? All these things put on love that should read, which is the bond of perfectness. I used to wonder when I came to that verse, How can you exceed all of these other virtues that have been mentioned? But love goes even beyond.
Any of these things that have been mentioned, it goes beyond that. It's the attitude of the heart of love towards.
Everyone that we have to do with it was God's heart, wasn't it?
And it's only See here.
A contrast between Israel and ourselves.
I thought once in Romans 6 and here also in other places.
We've come, as it were, to the place like Israel when they got to Mount Sinai.
When they got there and God gave them the law.
To tell them what they were to do in the future.
But with us we come to this point now we are believers.
And now we want to walk as believers. And he doesn't give us a law to tell us what to do in the future. He calls us to look back.
Like in Romans 6, if you get to that point. And he says now look back and as many as were baptized were buried with Christ.
You and I, we come to this point today.
And we look back to see what has been done for us, about us, with us.
And that determines my walk.
And whenever it tells me you put on vowels of mercy, well.
Or am I going to? Am I going to produce that?
But I'm not.
Kindness.
And my walk for today is measured, as we've heard over and over by that which he has done for me.
Now brother in our meeting said one time something I thought was pretty concise, correct, he says.
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The exhortations of scripture are checkpoints for the believer.
They are not laws.
God didn't make us better lawkeepers.
But when something bothers me, when something I have trouble forgiving someone, that's God checking up on me for my benefit.
And I need to go to him and say, Lord, I have trouble, I don't forgive him or Lord, I don't love that brother alone. I mean because he's detected something in me that God wants me to see and have it out with the Lord Jesus.
So I can go on in peace.
And that love that overrules is the next step. As our brother said, it's beyond those that is. It's not so much it's uncovered in me, something that's not kind, not merciful. But now there's an outgoing.
And his benefit in his behalf, All those things are left behind. All those things that could cause bitterness or anger or I would hold anything against anybody. But now he's over ruling it and flowing over that. He's overflowing it with that which is good for everyone going out in love to all of them.
So it's the the path of life that we have, and kindness is the is the basis of actions, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, not telling me exactly what to do.
But it's putting under my actions.
The character of Christ.
He's undergirding my actions.
With the character of Christ. Well, if I don't have that in a practical sense, I should have it based on what God has done for me.
I need to go to him about it. Otherwise I take these scriptures as law instead of promise. If I look at them as law, I got to come up with this mercy. I've got to come up with this kindness. And if I do, I'm just faking it. But if I see it as promised, no, that's what he he says I'm to be there for. I'm going to go to him because he'll put that. He'll give that to him. He'll fulfill his own word and putting off to me.
Is when you see it in yourself and I see it in me, and we do every day call it what it is.
Don't toy with it.
And putting on is when you recognize that it's not there, and that's what our brethren do for us. Many times they let us know it's not there. If he does something that upsets me, Vince said. Many times nothing will upset me unless it should.
And when it upsets me, I need to go to the Lord about it. And that then is a good detector. It weighs me spiritually, see practically where I am with the Lord, and that's what I see in these things. And if Christ is all and all, I just look up to him.
For the answer to these things.
That's the motive spring we had in the 13th verse forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, I believe the thought is there's strife resulting and that's the thing that really.
Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye now. That's it, you know. Paul in Philippians brings it out too. And a nicely chapter 2.
Again, verse one. Since there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, follows the mercy, same things we've been reading. Fulfill ye my joy. What would fulfill false joy when he's in prison? Pray that I get out. Of course not. No. Here it is that she be like minded having the same love.
One accord.
Of one mind and let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory. Vainglory is simply self. That's all it is self.
That's what causes strike, then, he says. But in low enough mind, let each I'll read the other translation. Esteem other as more excellent than themselves. Look, not every man on his own qualities, but every man also on the qualities of others. Now that's a big order.
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You have to admit, but the next words tell you how. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Always the motive, always the faces of all our contacts. Let this mind be in you. Now can I think of the others as more excellent than myself? I ought to be able to. I know all about myself, sad to say, but I don't know about you, and I can think more accidentally of you than me.
And that's the thought. We can't put ourselves higher than our brethren. We have to confess what we are. But I don't know all about my brethren. I'm thankful I don't. I can think for Excellency of you than myself.
The Lord suffered from having done kindness, and so we as was pointed out, and so it's not wrong to be injured. But the Lord came to give, and so he treated others better than himself. He had nothing bad to think in himself. I believe that we see this in Philemon. Paul came to give and so David went. We were mentioning that the other day David went to an obedience to his father to minister his brethren, so he could seek to reach their reach their conscience and say, is there a cause?
And so we shouldn't ever lend something to somebody that we can't afford to lose. And that's often the course of strife is we're trying to re establish a situation. There's harm done in something, but if we go in good and blessing to our brethren, we may get hurt for it. But if we've done it as unto the Lord, then it's the Lord with whom we have to look.
How is divine love the bond of burpiness in the assembly?
You go to meeting brother and sister to show love. You don't go to find it. That is the bond of perfectness. It's like the little ditty. And I always use it for myself. I went into the world to find friends and I found none. But I went again to be a friend and I found friends everywhere. Fly that to love.
You go to a meeting, Don't expect to find it. The ones that left, they said there's no love there. Why? They were looking for it. They weren't giving it. You go to show love, you'll find it everywhere in your assembly.
Listen, he loves begets love.
First Peter, Chapter 4.
Patrick said the connection of charity is.
First Peter Corn, verse 80. And the Father among yourself for Cherokee shall cover the multitude of Spin.
Last part of that verse is that you have to do with having a forgiving spirit.
Better, Yes. We shouldn't find any pleasure in talking about it. If there is something, even in the assembly, that has to be dealt with, it's something that we ought to feel and say. I could have done that. I was just as bad as that person itself. Love covers the multitude. It's very sad when there has been something and everybody's talking about it and publishing it everywhere. The better we the more we can just deal with it according to the mind and will of God and destruction in His word.
And be done with it, the better. But if we go around and start and talk about it.
That is the spirit of love. We don't do that with our own children. If our children have faults, and they do, we don't like to talk about them. It isn't that we don't feel them, but we don't like to talk about them. Why? Because we love them. And so that should be our attitude with our brethren, shouldn't it? And in that way it covers them. But of course, having to do with God and having things settled according to the mind and will of God, that's maintaining the holiness of God's house, perhaps even the holiness of a family, so that there'd be order maintained in the family.
Or God's glory.
When Noah.
Got drunk.
After the flood.
One of his sons looked on his nakedness.
The other two went backward and covered it.
That's a good illustration of love covering a multitude of sins.
Children, you know better.
Young man, young woman, you know better the failures of your parents than anyone else.
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Be a Shem and a Japheth that goes backwards and covers those.
Things that are unseemly, we all have them. Don't be like Ham that looked upon his father's nakedness brought a curse on his son Canaan.
It's a wonderful verse. Loud covers a multitude of sins, doesn't mean it weeks it winks at sin, doesn't mean that. But it doesn't expose it needlessly. And some of the most shameful things that have happened are things that have been put into writing, exposing.
Either real or fancied sins. I don't know whether they're real or not.
But even if they were.
That's not for us to do.
Matthew 18.
Teaches one thing very plainly, and that is when evil needs to be dealt with, it should be dealt with in the smallest possible circle.
And so somebody sends against you. You tried to restore him between you and yourself. If he does not accept that, take two others with him, with you. If he doesn't listen to them, tell it to the church. And that's not the church universally. That's what Mr. Grant taught and it smashed the grand fellowship to pieces. But it's the local church. You know what happened in the problems that we have experienced. This is one of the things that were done, you know, people.
Circulated things over the whole world.
Well, things are to be dealt with in the smallest possible circle, and that is what we can learn from Matthew 18. Apart from the fact that only the Lord's presence give authority for action in the assembly disciplinary action which we most of the time stress. And that's a good point. His presence gives authority to the Church to deal in his name with evil that comes up.
But we do not often enough mention that we learned that evil should be taken care of in the smallest possible circle. Otherwise we're doing the enemies work and we burdening every soul, even babes in Christ, with things that shamefully occur amongst the Saints. It's doing the devil's work. And no wonder people are scared that's doing Satan's work. Let's not do it, beloved. We can learn from this deal in a small as possible way. There's a principle monarchs that we ought to adapt always to avoid.
Gospel and malicious rumors, which is a terrible thing. Let everything be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses, and if it isn't that way, it's just a rumor. It's just gossip. And if only one says it, don't pass it on, It should be handled right in the assembly by two witnesses at least, and three better. And I believe it's a it's a way we should do things. But to end up on a nicer note, I just would like to go back to Ephesians.
Three, well Ephesians.
About four and justice. Read this.
Verse 30 grieves not the Holy Spirit of God. That's what happens, President. We don't have a forgiving spirit. That's what happens in assembly.
Whereby we are sealed under the day of redemption, Let all bitterness, wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, And being a kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ, I believe for cave you, or for Christ sake hath forgiven you same motive. And that ought to be the Spirit we have, brethren.
Otherwise.
We grieve the Holy Spirit of God and we can aggrieve him even in the breaking of breath. That's why it says let a man examine himself and so let him eat. You carry that grudge to the table and it does breathe the Spirit of God that can quench. Even if I just mentioned that. Make a short account. That's all that means by examining yourself. Keep a short account with God.
That's it.
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1.
That was #1 in the appendix.