Tabor Baptist Church

• Last week we looked at our heavenly place in Jesus Christ
• We looked at a list of sins from our past life that must be put to death
• We must live as new people
• Last week was about what we should put off
• This week it is about what we should put on
• We are given 7 heavenly qualities to put on
• Christianity is not only what you have been saved from, but what you have been saved too
• Christianity is not a moral code
• Christianity says that we cannot keep the law of God, but Jesus Christ has
• It is because we are united to Jesus that we keep the law of God
• It is not us trying
• It is us in Christ overcoming

What to wear

Tender mercies

• Mercy is a tremendous thought
• Not treating others as they ought to be treated
• Tender mercies - there is a lot of feeling, a lot of yearning, a lot of compassion
• If we want to understand what tender mercy is, we look to the Father and to the Son
• Jesus comes amongst us
• He feels what we feel
• He is among a sinful people and yearns that they be saved
• He shows tender mercy to the desperate lady
• He speaks about a Good Samaritan who shows tender mercy
• We are to put on tender mercies

Kindness

• What a difference acts of kindness make to the world
• Example of Albanian Christians welcoming 500'000 Kosovo refugees into their homes
• It is said that 0.5% of the population [the Evangelical Christians] looked after 80% of the refugees

Humility and Meekness

• We are not to seek great things for ourselves
• We are to esteem others more highly than ourselves
• The Roman Centurion bowed to Jesus
• John the Baptist was content to be a nameless voice
• If we are overlooked we are not to worry
• We are to be happy in our work place and in our family
• We are to serve the Lord
• Humility is about who you think about yourself
• Meekness is about gentleness
• Gentleness of Spirit
• Not to respond in anger but
• "A soft answer turns away wrath" Prov 15:1
• Humility and meekness are not to do with 'my rights'
• The Christian says we have no rights apart from to please God
• We are not against human rights but against 'selfish rights'

Long suffering

• We must suffer long
• It is not easy to be patient with someone who continually lets you down
• We shouldn't expect everyone to do things the way that we want to do things
• Are we patient with those who are dithery, who talk much, who act differently?

Bearing with one another

• The church is made up of people from different backgrounds
• In love we withhold our words, we do not judge, we love
• In love we seek to understand
• Lord help us to understand what others are going through
• Is to do with accepting one another

Forgiveness

• We must continually forgive
•  The disciples asked how many times they must forgive others
• God has forgiven us so we must forgive others
• God has forgiven us completely
• We must forgive others completely
• Think of Stephen who was being stoned to death
• We don't sweep sin under the table

Here are 7 graces that we can wear as Christians
Beyond this there is love, which is the bond of perfection

What to enjoy

• The verb goes from "put on" to "let"
• Let the peace of God... (v15)
• Let the word of Christ... (v16)
• Peace of God, Word of Christ and Singing Praises

Peace of God

• Not to be crotchety
• Personal example
• Don't be anxious, let peace rule in our hearts and dominate our souls
• We must decided not to be anxious
• We must pray to God and make our petitions known to God
• The promise is that through this we will have peace (Phil 4:6-7)
• If we are thankful people God's peace will be there
• We are called to peace
• Are we enjoying the peace of God?

Word of Christ

• We need to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly
• We do not need a book for this, we can think and talk about it
• We do have the Bible that we can study
• We should not read the Bible in a cursory way

Singing Praises

• Teaching and admonishing come as we sing spiritual songs
• As we sing the spiritual truths
• As we build each other up
• We do not have time to go into what "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" means
• Psalms refer to the Psalter
• Hymns refer to great verses turned into hymns
• Spiritual songs are contemporary songs written at the time
• We sings songs in truth and grace with all our heart to the Lord
• Our heart must be engaged in worshipping in the Lord 
• Compare Eph 5 and 1 Cor 14
• This is for our edification and the benefit of the church

Who you represent

• All that we do, whatever it is, big or small - it is done in the name of the Lord Jesus
• We are doing it as a representative of Him