Who Are You?

Mother's Day Exposition in Colossians 3

Want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 and hold your place at verse 12. It is of course the day that we celebrate Mother's Day, but I Am not going to deviate from our normal exposition of the text we are going to remain in this text as we have been for the past several months because this is How we choose to teach here we choose to teach verse-by-verse Exposition Lee and if we if we stopped at every time there was a holiday or if we stopped at every time There was a moment of something in the world that we need to discuss then we would never get through any book.

So we want to be consistent in our teaching. So if anyone came today thinking I was going to preach Proverbs 31, I I'm sorry for the disappointments. I realized that is a very common passage to preach on Mother's Day and we have preached it in the past but today we're going to continue on in our study of Colossians and We're going to be looking at this question.

The question of who are you when we hear the question Who are you? We know that this can have a variety of different ways that it can be answered. When we say who are you that can simply be referring to our identity.

I Am Keith Foskey. I am Gary Foskey son. I am Jennifer Foskey's husband. I am the father of Ashley Cody hope JJ faith and Theo. I'm all of those things and that is my identity. But when you say who are you?

You can also be asking a question about someone's character if I say Something to the effect of who is this person and you say well, they are an honest person or they are a upright person or They are a faithful husband or a kind person.

These are all ways that we identify through our character so identity is important and character is Important because both speak to who we are well as we continue in the book of Colossians what we're going to see is Paul has come to a point where he is going to focus on our identity in Christ and our Character, which should flow out of that identity.

He is going to remind us who we are Because of Christ and then he is going to call attention to what we must be Because of who we are in Christ. So he's going to speak both to our identity and to our character.

And I just want to say my original intention was to preach verses 12 through 15. But as is often the case as I was considering how much I have to say I don't think I'm going to get through verse 12 today.

So this will end up being at least two parts and for those who know me well. No one is surprised. There's just too much in the one verse to think that we're going to get through too much and and the next verse is deal With subjects like forbearance and forgiveness and and boy what that's an entire message there.

So we're going to focus mainly on verse 12, but to set the context of the passage. We're going to read from 11 all the way to 17 so that we see in this text what it is. We are learning let us stand together and give honor to God's Word.

Our Identity in Christ in Colossians 3:11-17

Paul begins in verse 11, and he says. Here there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian Scythian slave free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience.

Bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another Forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and 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 one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God 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. Father I thank you for your word. And I pray even now Lord that you would as I seek to give an exposition of your word.

That you would keep me from error. For Lord, I am a fallible man, and I know my propensity for error. I Know how easy it is to veer off into Unnecessary things. I Pray that you would keep me tied to the post of your word.

Keep me focused on the task at hand and open the ears of your people to hear what your word has to say. I pray especially Lord for those who may be here who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ. Today Lord as we discuss the doctrine of election Specifically from this text.

I pray Lord that none would ever see that doctrine as a reason to shy away but rather as a call to come. And Lord that we would understand that the desire to come to Christ does not come from within us, but it comes from above.

And I pray now Lord that you would even now begin working on the hearts of the men and women in this room for the believers Lord to be conformed ever more closely to the image of Christ and for the unbeliever to be challenged by the gospel.

To abandon sin and run to Christ for salvation and it is in his name we pray Amen. We have arrived in the book of Colossians at another point that we would call a therefore moment. And what we mean by a therefore moment is that this is a place in the text where the Apostle puts the word therefore Indicating that what he is about to say is tied at least in part in some way to what was said before this therefore that.

But if you are reading the ESV Which is what I read from today. It is not so obvious. I Don't I didn't bring my iPad. Would you click on the verse 12 for me in verse 12? It says but on then as God's Put on then but on then put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved Compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience.

If you notice the word in this sentence is the word then put on then well. If you're reading from the King James Bible, which Mike would say you ought to be Yeah. It actually uses the word therefore the the Greek word here is the typical word that is translated as therefore, but for some reason the ESV translators decided to translate it as Then the the New American Standard Bible translators translated as so both of these of course.

Indicating a tie back to what was just said so the the tie is still there. It's just not quite as obvious if you're looking for the word. Therefore if you're looking in the ESV or the New American Standard Bible, you won't see it, but it is there in the Greek the word therefore.

Indicating that what we are reading beginning in verse 12 is tied to what was said in the verses before and. That's why I read this morning beginning at verse 11 Paul is actually appealing back to verse 11 when he says put on therefore as God's chosen Ones he's appealing back because he wants us to understand something about our identity.

Look again with me at verse 11. What does verse 11 say? Verse 11 says here there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised Barbarian Scythian slave free, but Christ is all and in all. What is the point of that verse that verse is to point out the fact that though all of us come?

From different backgrounds though all of us come from different Places all of us come with different Historical baggage if you will we all come from different places but when we come to Christ we all come to Christ and Abandon those things because our identity is no longer in those things.

Our identity is in Christ. I Think oftentimes we get focused too much on other things we identify with our country. Certainly, it's it's good to be patriotic certainly it's good to have a certain type of Thankfulness that we're in a country that gives us freedom and things like that and and we can be thankful for those things but oftentimes I think we get very caught up in the identity of Being American even more so than we become.

Our identity is in Christ. So that becomes one way that our identity gets messed up. Another way is it happens often time in our our color? We talk about race there's really no such thing as race race.

There's is one. There's one human race all of us come from Adam and Eve. Therefore there's only one race. But we do get caught up in our color and whether we're white or whether we're black or whether we're brown or or whatever.

We get this this this idea that that should separate us and that should be our identity. And we identify more with our color than we do with our Christ. See the problem. So Paul is saying here. He's saying we're not these things.

You're not Jew and Greek. You're not slave and free. You're not barbarian or Scythian. But Christ is all and in all that is to say we are all in him. Because he is in us and we could go down the line.

We could say the same thing happens for men and women. Some people make a big identity of whether they're male or female and and we go over to Galatians. Which is the parallel passage of this and Paul says in Christ.

There's neither male nor female now that doesn't mean what the modern world means is that we can't tell who's men and women. That's not what that's saying. That's nonsense. That's foolishness. But what it is saying is that whether you come to Christ as a man or whether you come to Christ as a woman when?

You come to Christ the one does not put you on a level of spirituality. That's greater than the other or you do not stand at a higher point at the foot of the cross. But all is level at the foot of the cross.

So we I bend abandon those identities which the world holds is paramount. The world holds is paramount. Your nationality your color your sex. That's how the world wants to identify everyone, but we are identified as Christ in us and we in him therefore.

Therefore. Therefore Put on. Paul begins verse 12 having just said about our identity in Christ. Therefore because we are identified in him put on Christ likeness. Look with me again at verse 12. It's on the board not board screen.

Whatever. It's right there. And he gives us five characteristics of What it means to be Christ like? He says put on therefore if you're in Christ, then these are the things that should characterize you because you're in him compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience and Beloved in my original intention in preparing this message was to preach that.

But something has happened in my soul. I Realized there was three words before it that I just can't get past. Because Paul does choose to remind us yet again of our identity in Christ before He moves on to the characteristics that should mark us as Christians.

Notice the three things that are there that we jump past when I just said it I said put on then. Compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience, but what did I leave out? I left out our identifiers.

You see we're being called to put on compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience five Christlike characteristics. We're being called to put those on because of what is before that and what's before that is your God's chosen Holy and beloved people and so if you want an outline for today's sermon here it is.

It's very simple. We are God's elect. We are God's holy and we are God's beloved people. I tell you if you can't get a sermon out of that you can't preach. But think about what is. Here's the part that just boggles my mind as I was reading and studying this is Paul throws it out there as an aside.

This is not the focus of the passage. This is an Accessory to the passage the passages put on these things compassionate hearts meekness patience Kindness and all of those things that's the focus of the passage but he says the reason why you're putting those things on is because of who you are and Who are you?

You are the elect of God. You are God's holy ones and you are beloved by God. You see the second half of the verse is Absolutely contingent on the first half. The first half tells us who we are. The second half tells us Because of who we are.

What we should be. So today I want to talk about who we are. Who are you in your identity in Christ? Let's look at the first word that Paul says. He says we are the elect toy tooth a ooh. The elect toy tooth a ooh is you are the elect of God.

What is the word elect mean? The word elect means to choose. Every once in a while we get called to the polls and we get called to the polls for what we call an election and what is an election. An Election is where we go together to choose our Representatives to choose our leaders.

We are making a choice. That's why it's called an election. But notice in this that we are not the ones choosing. But God is the one choosing. God is the one who is making the choice in this sentence.

We are chosen. We didn't choose. God chose us. Now in a moment, I'm going to talk about the fact that we actually did make a choice. But it was an enabled choice. It was a it was a empowered choice. We do choose to follow Christ, but we choose him because he first chose us and that's where the order gets out of order in the minds of many people and Yes, if you're here today and you're new and you haven't been among us before.

Yes, you're going to hear things that sound like Calvinism because duh. That's that's literally who we are in our theology. We are Calvinistic. The title of our podcast is conversations with a Calvinist.

It's not conversations with an Arminian. And if you don't know the difference good on you, it's probably better that you don't write off. But the reality is. These things are important because what we are saying is we're defining.

Who we are? We are chosen by God. We are chosen by God not Based upon what we have done. But we are chosen by God based upon his will and pleasure. We are chosen by God. Before time began. You realize before you were born if you are in Christ before you were born God had already set his affection upon you.

Before you were born God had already chosen you to be his. He had already identified you as his own. You say I don't believe that. Well turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1 and go to verse 3.

Excuse me beginning at verse 3 it says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places? Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

That we should be holy and blameless before him. That he chose us when? Before the foundation of the world. That he chose us in Christ before the foundation world, which is interesting. Because this means that God had a plan of redemption.

That he had put in place before he had laid the foundations of the earth and before he had created the world. God had a plan of redemption and God's plan of redemption involved the sending of his son.

Which means that God's plan of redemption was comprehensive. People don't like the word decree. I find that a lot as I engage with folks who have different theological paradigms and different ideas. One of the things that I find is people get very upset when they hear the phrase decree.

We talk a lot about God's decree. The Westminster Confession of Faith says God from all eternity has Decreed whatsoever will come to pass and people say all that sounds awful because the world is full of evil and God has decreed that there be evil.

And You say does that make God evil? No, it does not. Because God is working out his good even in the evil actions of men. God is bringing about his good plan even through evil actions. And if you don't believe that then what was the cross?

The cross was God bringing about the salvation of his people through the evil actions of men. And if you go to the book of Acts it says that the cross was actually predestined by God as the work that he chose to do for the purpose of Saving us through his son.

So God from eternity Has chosen this plan. God from eternity set this in motion and is Providentially working it out. And in that plan you were there. Not physically but in the mind of God. God knew you.

Before there was a you. God knew you before you existed. You say how can God know something that doesn't happen yet? Because God is not bound by time and he's not bound by the limitation of knowledge.

I don't know How many grandchildren I'm going to have. I know how many children I've got. But I don't even know if I'm done. The Lord knows right. Jennifer's not in here right now. But let's say six is what I've got.

I've no idea how many grandchildren that will yield and how many great grandchildren that will yield. I have no idea and I have no idea if I'll be around to see them. I don't know if I'll be around next week.

I might be in glory. Laughing at y 'all is you're not there yet but understand God from all eternity. Knew me. And when we say God knew me. We don't just mean that God knew there was going to be a guy in Jacksonville born at University Hospital.

Eight pounds five and a half ounces. He didn't just know that. But the Bible says when God knows someone That means that he has entered into a relationship. He has set his affections on that one. Because it says for whom he foreknew.

He also predestined. To be conformed to the image of his son and whom he predestined. He what he called. And whom he called he justified and whom he justified he Glorified see. God knew me from eternity and God not only looked down the corridor of time and saw that I was going to receive Jesus.

But God actually chose in eternity that he would set his affection upon me that he would do a work in my heart of Regeneration to give me the ability the desire and the will to follow Christ. Yes. I followed Christ.

I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back. No turning back. Don't be afraid of that Calvinist. It's okay to say I've decided to follow Jesus as long as you understand that your decision to follow Christ was Preceded by God's decision to save you.

Yes, I made a choice. I was 19 years old. I was crying my eyes out on Broward Road in the in the in the cab of my Dodge pickup I had to pull off to the side of the road. I was ugly crying as I was having that moment where God saved my soul, but In eternity God had done a work and made a choice that I knew nothing of.

Because I didn't exist. But in that moment God chose to make himself real to me to make himself known to me and to save me in that moment. Because of what he had chosen because of what he had done. Now I know it's Mother's Day and I promise that's not why I'm asking you to go there but go to Psalm 139 and Folks are thinking because it's Mother's Day because this is the the classic passage on the mother in the womb.

But I want to show you something in Psalm 139 Is by the way If you're not familiar with this passage it is a very powerful passage on the subject of children in the womb and if you are ever having a conversation with someone about the subject of abortion and you want to point out that the child in The womb is known by God and is important and valuable and has dignity in life.

Certainly Psalm 139 does give that that that to us, but it also says something else. Notice what it says beginning at verse 13. Speaking of God it says for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I Praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully Made wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book. This is the part that's important in your book. Were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.

God Had written the days of my life in a book. This is one of the most difficult things I have with those who would oppose. The doctrine of God's providence the doctrine of God's Predestination is this tells us that God has from before we were born determined the days of our life that God from eternity and While I was in the womb knew my life.

He knew when we were going to be born he knew how long we're going to live. He knows the very moment. Our life is going to exit our body and we're going to leave this shell behind. God knows these things and he doesn't just know them.

But he has determined them. Beloved this should not come as a shock to you if you're shocked by what I'm saying today. You haven't been listening. This is what we believe we believe that God chooses these things.

You say well that makes me scared. I don't know if I like that listen understand what we are learning about God is we're learning to trust in him. Because the more we understand that he is the one who fashions our days.

That many are the plans of a man's heart but God directs his steps that the the heart of the king is like water in the hands of the Lord and he turns it whatever way He wills. When we begin to see those things then we can look at the world around us and we can look at all the craziness and all the Madness and all of the things that seem to be out of control and know that nothing is out of control and there is not one rogue Molecule in all of the universe that is outside of the hands of Almighty God and people do not want to hear this.

There are so many objections to the doctrine of election, but before I get to the objections, let me just remind you That this teaching is all over the Bible the word elect is Used over 22 times in the New Testament.

We see it throughout we see such as in Matthew 22 14 says many are called. But few are chosen the word chosen. There's the same word eclectus elect. It's the same word Matthew 24 22 talks about the days being cut short and if the days hadn't been cut short They no one would be saved.

This is referring to The destruction of Jerusalem and it says but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Luke 18 7 says. And God will give justice to his elect. We see this over and over it's it's one of the ways that the Bible Identifies the believer and identifies the believer as the chosen of God as the elect.

Romans 8 33. Who shall bring any charge against who? God's elect. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect. No one because it is God who justifies First Peter 2 9. But you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people of his own Possession.

You are chosen by God. If you were in Christ, you're chosen by God. I I don't know if you have ever read it, but our C Sproul's book chosen by God. We used to keep copies of it. To give away because it is such a wonderful book on this subject.

And if you have issues with understanding election and predestination and understanding these things I recommend it to your reading because it will help you with those things. But understand this the the the all of the objections that we come to often are self-focused and self-motivated like for instance one of the first objections that often comes up when we talk about the doctrine of election is people will say well election if God chooses.

That means God is unfair. Because God should have chosen everyone. Just think for a moment. What we are saying if we say because God chooses that's wrong. God should choose everyone or God must choose everyone.

What does that mean for God's freedom? The God isn't free to choose. We want our freedom to choose we want our free will. But we don't want God to have the freedom to choose. Give you a thought on that very thing thinking of God being unfair and I know this isn't the most pleasant thing to think about.

But if God were fair to each of us and if fairness means God did only what was just for us. What would we deserve? Absolutely, thank you if we all received fairness in the strictest sense of Getting what's right because that's what we think of when fairness is at stake.

We must receive what is right and then we looked at our lives and we compared our lives to the law of God. We would understand that we are all Worthy of only one thing God's eternal unrelenting and Persevering wrath, which will never be abated.

That's what we deserve. And honestly if you if you don't think that you deserve that. It's it's hard to understand how you understand the gospel. Because if we don't understand that we deserve God's wrath, why do we believe that God's salvation?

Matters think of it like this if I were to tell you That your debt has been paid, but you didn't think you had a debt. It wouldn't matter. You have to understand your debt to understand why your debt being paid actually matters so if you don't understand that you actually have from God a Deserved wrath and that wrath has been taken by the Lord Jesus Christ, then that will matter.

This is why amazing grace is amazing. We sing amazing grace. How sweet the sound that what? Saved a what a wretch. I Hear people online sometimes say I hate Calvinistic theology because it's that worm theology.

It makes people think that they're worms. Here's the there's there's the reality where we are. We're worse. We're wretched and we used to know it. We used to sing how wretched we were. Because the more we understand our wretched nature the more we understand the amazingness of grace.

But we've changed it it's amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a good old boy like me. We remove the wretchedness of sin. We remove the deadliness of sin and then we say God must choose everyone.

Because God is obligated because we're worthy. Yeah, we can't think of it that way. If your issue with Calvinistic election or I mean I'm gonna say that if your issue with biblical doctrine of election.

Is that God is unfair? Keep in mind what fairness means fairness means That you would deserve his punishment, but God chosen his mercy to give you grace. Grace, what is grace on? Undeserved merit or favor undeserved salvation.

You see we say we believe in undeserved salvation. We say we believe in undeserved merit. But then you talk about election and people say that's unfair. When you say unfair what you're saying is you deserve something.

When you say it's unfair you're saying that you were worthy of something more than wrath and you weren't. You were not worthy of more than wrath and you got more. If you're in Christ you got everything that you didn't deserve.

If God chooses to pardon He is not obligated to pardon anyone. And if God chooses to pardon those who trust in Christ and Not the rest of the world is he unfair. Not at all. You say well brother Keith that means there's over six billion people in this world and more.

Who will experience the wrath of God? I? Know and I can't fathom it to be honest with you. It's so hard for me to understand, but I don't care whether you're a Calvinist or an Arminian that issue is the same.

Because the vast majority of people in the world don't believe in Jesus. And if your problem with God's wrath is you think that God shouldn't give wrath because God should be fair. Understand he is being fair.

Because everyone is receiving the just reward of what they have done in the body. The Bible says that Not one person will stand before the judgment seat of God and receive unfairness from God. You will either receive from God justice or Mercy.

But you will not receive injustice. No one will receive injustice from God. Election does not make God unfair. Election demonstrates God's mercy, which is undeserved and It is undeserved. Another argument is well if you believe in election that robs man of his free will.

And I don't have an entire sermon to go through the doctrine of free will but let me simply say this. Those who fuss and fight and argue about free will. Calvinist we believe that men are free to make choices.

The problem is outside of Christ our choices are always opposed to him. So we are not saying that men don't make choices, and we're not saying that men don't make legitimate Consequence inducing choices, but what we are saying is that if you are outside of Christ The choice to read to repent and trust in Christ is Beyond your desire because you don't want it the natural man Receives not the things of God.

But they are spiritually discerned meaning the spirit has to be changed. The natural man does not receive the things of God. But here's the one that's the most insidious. And I hear people say this in ignorance, so if you've ever said this and you didn't understand I hope this clarifies it for you someone will say well, I don't believe in election because That means there are people who want to be saved but can't.

I've heard people say that they'll say people there if you believe in election that means Somebody could want to be saved if they're not elect. They can't be saved here is the answer to that very simple conundrum.

The non elect don't want to be saved. They don't want to follow Christ. Now you say, but I know people who are not saved, but they want to be saved they want to go to heaven. Say one is not the other.

Wanting to be saved and wanting to go to heaven are not the same thing. Because this is what people want. People want heaven without God they want salvation without Jesus and they want blessing without holiness.

That's what they want. In fact, that is the that is the ultimate goal of humanism. That is the ultimate goal of the society. Which is opposed to Christ is they want eternal life, but they don't want the God who gives eternal life.

They want salvation but without sacrifice. You ask the average person do you want to go to heaven? Of course, I want to go to heaven. Do you want to trust Christ? Well, what does that mean? Means to acknowledge your sin take up your cross and follow him.

No, thank you. See people want what only God can give. People want the blessing of God. Only God can give the blessing of eternal life. Only God can give salvation. Only God can give those things, but they don't want God.

I've had this debate. I've had this discussion with people when people say no, I know people who are truly seeking after God who truly want God. Yes but as they begin to look at the God of scripture as I begin to see the God who as he truly describes himself they wince and run and hide themselves from him because you see God is holy and just and righteous and That's not the God of the natural man.

That's not the God that people want. People want the God that they can control that is why we are. I do idol makers. John Calvin said we are the human mind is a factory of idols. We make idols because we want gods we can control.

We make idols because we want gods that do what we say and When you make the calf out of your golden earrings and you put the calf on the shelf and you look at the calf and you? Say here is my God who made the God.

You did. Who controls where the God stands you do who controls if the God may speak you do because you're behind it saying What it's gonna say the God of the idol is the puppet and we place upon that God our will and desire.

Like the young girl who told me one time I told my class this morning. I've told this story before my goddess would never Send anyone to hell. Well, of course she wouldn't. Because she doesn't exist. You've created a God in your own mind.

You've established a God of your own making. Because the God who exists is repugnant to you therefore you've made one up on your own and Men have been doing that ever since the beginning. Men have been making their own gods.

Because we don't want the God who is. We want the God who is like us. So again, this is probably not the sermon you expected today, but look again. We are God's chosen God's Elect and God has chosen us by his will and the glory of election.

Is this my friends. Is that salvation is of the Lord? Salvation is something that God does for us. Not something that we do with him. It's not 99 God and 1 me. But it's 100 God. I want you to think about what what what caused you to be saved?