Killing the Sin in Your Life

Colossians 3 is the text that we want to look at I want us to look at this chapter because I'm concerned about this matter of sanctification this is the will of God first Thessalonians says even your sanctification this is the will of God even your sanctification that is God's will for us between our justification and our glorification from the time of your salvation to the time of your entrance into heaven God's will for you is that you be sanctified as I said last time I'm afraid this is a this is a doctrine that though it defines our entire Christian life on earth has been treated with indifference by this current generation of Christians and even preachers but it is of grave concern to the Lord that we be sanctified that means to be separated separated from sin unto God from sin unto holiness we are to be increasingly like Christ we are as we learned last time to live lives that essentially our heavenly lives rather than earthly lives in that they manifest all the virtues that belong to the Lord and the saints in glory so let me read the opening nine verses of Colossians 3 as a setting for what we're going to see today therefore if you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him in glory therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead - immorality impurity passion evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry for it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience and in them you also once walked when you were living in them but now you also put them all aside anger wrath malice slander and abusive speech from your mouth do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him now we saw last time that we are called to live the Risen life that we are to reach the world by leaving the world we are to live lives of seeking verse one the things above verse two setting our minds on things above not on things on the earth now remember that Paul has in this letter in the first two chapters demonstrated powerfully the supremacy and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ he has laid out the realities of his person the glory of his person is God in human flesh he has laid out the realities of his atoning work he has demonstrated that those who are believers in him are complete in him we have in him all that we need to feel adequate we don't need human philosophy we don't need religious ritual we don't need legalism we don't need visions and communications with angels or any other kind of self-denial practices we have all died in Christ and have risen in Christ and we live in newness of life that is who we are we are new creations alive in Christ alive from the dead but as we come to this third chapter it begins with the word therefore and then down in verse five has another therefore this is consistent with how Paul is structures his letters that will inevitably be a section of doctrine at the beginning of the letter in which he lays out truth about us truth about what it means to belong to God in Christ and then at some point you will see the word therefore and the transition takes place from theology to behavior from doctrine to conduct and that's what we find in chapter 3 because of who Christ is and what he's done because of the fact that we are in Christ and complete in him and in him or hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and we are complete in him because of these realities of our life and death in Christ because we have everything we need therefore we need to live consistently with that identity this is who we are and it sets the standard for how we are to live no matter how deep Paul goes in theology no matter how high are his thoughts no matter how sweeping his sort of holy reasoning and logic as he unfolds great doctrine he always comes down off of the mountain of these mysteries of God being explained down into the valley where we live in light of all these glorious truths there's a certain way we are to live to sum it up look down at verse 17 in chapter 3 whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks through him to God the Father everything you do everything you do in Word everything you do indeed should be consistent with your eye in Christ and should be an offering of thanks given to God the Father that's how you are to live your life that's the sum of it all whatever you do word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as an expression also of gratitude to God the Father for what he has done now this means on the positive side that you need to live a heavenly life and that's what we saw in the opening four verses seek the things above set your mind on the things above the things that are heavenly the virtues that belong to the perfect the perfect God and the perfected believers and the holy angels live above the world leave the world to reach the world that was the message last time now reality would tell us that's fine we need to do that we we endeavor to do that we want to live in the heavenlies we we want to live as it were in Christ consciousness we we have died with him we have risen with him we have been seated on the throne with him he is in us and we are in him and we want to live in a heavenly expression of these realities and we were empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit but with all that lofty thinking about living the risen life and living in a heavenly way Paul comes down fast to earthly reality with another therefore in verse 5 if you're going to live the risen life if you're going to leave the world to reach the world you're going to have to deal with what remains on earth of your sinfulness and that requires some very dramatic and consistent practical action and of a strong nature look at verse 5 therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead as dead some translations say kill the members of your earthly body this is not talking about some monastic self castration or flagellation or inflicting some unnatural in wounds or inflictions on your physical body like the ascetics once did this is not about that it's it's it's like what Jesus said in Matthew five when he said in verses 29 and 30 that if your right hand offends you cut it off if your eye offends you pluck it out he's not saying that literally he's not saying it literally do that what he is saying is deal drastically with anything that causes your hand to act in a sinful way or your eye to see in a sinful way deal dramatically with the faculties of your physical body that have a propensity toward sin and that's what he's saying here when he's talking about killing he's talking about killing in the spiritual sense it's Romans 8:13 if you kill the deeds of the sinful nature you will really live if you're going to live this Christian life to the max you've got to be killing the deeds of the sinful nature if you're going to live the Risen life that's the positive side you're gonna have to be killing that which threatens that that which pulls you down into sin we are new creatures on the inside and as Paul said in Romans 7 but we still have remaining flesh on the outside and the members of our body the faculties of our body can be instruments of righteousness or they can be instruments of iniquity but if we are new creatures we want to be sure that they are instruments of righteousness and so we have to be killing the remaining aspects of our flesh that's part of living the Christian life your members of your earthly body are the vehicles through which sin expresses itself and by members he doesn't just mean the physical body he means all your human capacities are still tainted with sin until you are glorified Paul says I'm still a wretched man I do what I don't want to do and don't do what I ought to do Romans 7 with my mind I affirm the law of God is holy just and good and I want to do that but I find another principle in me warring against the law of my mind and I feel like I have a body of death attached to me and and that's a true expression so Paul says look not only on the positive side do you want to reach up for all the virtues that basically define holy living in heaven but you want to remember that you have to deal with the fallenness which still remains in your own life fallenness that will show up through the instrumentation of your human body your mind your speech and your actual conduct those are essentially the instruments in which your fallen flesh will express itself simply unless you are killing it it was John Owen who wrote so much on mortifying the flesh mortifying sin killing sin that is the very heart of the Christian life of victory so we have conflict we are reaching for heaven and all its virtues and at the same time killing what remains of this earth and the members which become instruments of sin now Paul wants to help us with this and this is critical there is a movement today that has an indifference toward sin you could call it antinomianism which means it's sort of a an anti law idea that we have been called into grace and God doesn't care about our sins God loves us Jesus loves us he doesn't care about whether we sinned or not I think it was the Bachelorette who said that this week profound theologian that it doesn't matter what I do jesus loves me anyway that is a very very popular idea of Christianity in our world today the Paul shows us that the Holy Spirit and therefore God himself has a very different perspective we are not to ignore sin we are to be killing sin we are to be considering the members of the earthly body as dead and then to be specific he wants to help us not only with a list of sins that we need to be dealing with but there's a there's a certain pathology here that's very helpful to lists of sins one in verse five you can see it there and the second list down in verses 8 and into verse 9 the first list deals with perverted love and the second list deals with perverted hate the first list deals with what we do the second list deals with what we say the first list is personal the second list is social the first list is how we feel the second list is how we talk so these are two very very important lists that act as instruction for us not an exhaustive list of sins Paul gives many many lists of sins in his letters none of them is intended to be exhaustive some of them are just samples of characteristics sins this is that but it is more because built into these two lists is a certain pathology that will help us greatly in mortifying sin let's look at catalog number 1 in verse 5 therefore consider the members of your earthly body is dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire and greed or covetousness which amounts to idolatry now notice the sequence it starts with evil action immorality and it ends with idolatry so it flows from the action back to the motive that's the pathology are going to see here it flows from the action back to the motive in fact you go back from immorality to impurity to passion to evil desire and to greed and to idolatry now let me just kind of explain how this pathology works the word immorality basically refers to any unlawful sexual act any unlawful sexual act and to make life simple for everybody there's only one lawful sexual act and that is the sexual relationship between a man and a woman who are married that's it that's it so anything other than that is unlawful and falls into the category of immorality I'll say it again god forbids any sexual activity apart from one man and one woman in marriage but we live in a world that has long since ignored that we live in a world where virtually any sexual act between any people of any gender is not only to be accepted but to be basically hailed as an act of personal identity reality and authenticity but God says the only acceptable sexual act is between a man and a woman who are married now this behavior Springs from the next word impurity impurity simply means uncleanness our Lord's words in mark chapter 7 help us maybe to see this in mark 7 and verse 21 what we can start in verse 20 Jesus said that which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles the man so when you see that defiling behavior it's coming from something out something inside the man verse 21 for from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts fornications thefts murders adulteries deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit sensuality Envy slander pride and foolishness all these things proceed from within and defile the man the problem is not outside us it's what it's inside us immorality is the product of evil thoughts sex in behavior is the result of sexually sinful thoughts you control your mind and you control your sexual conduct and remember now Paul is saying this to people essentially who had come to Christ in a pagan world an utterly pagan world in which all kinds of immorality were acceptable having concubines was acceptable having women for no other purpose than sexual fulfillment was fully acceptable pedophilia was acceptable homosexuality was acceptable relations before and outside of marriage with virtually anyone acceptable in the ancient pagan world and in fact much of it was part of their religion there were temple prostitutes associated with false worship to accommodate these freedoms for immoral behavior so Paul is saying something to the pagan world that is frankly stunning the only acceptable sexual behavior at all is that between a man and a woman who are married that's it and if you don't want to fall into immorality then you have to make sure you don't have impure thoughts because if you cultivate impure thoughts if you purposely put yourself in a position to expose yourself to the things that produce impure thoughts you're playing with fire obviously so you go from immoral behavior back to what causes that which is impure thinking and then the next word is passion passion is describing for us something behind impure thoughts it's some rumbling from deep within our nature some almost passive term something that lies latent in us it reflects a deep-seated fire that can easily fan into flame and then behind that is the word evil desire or the term evil desire evil desire reaches down a little bit deeper into what we really are we're susceptible to passion because built into our fallen flesh is evil desired john calls it the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life James 1:14 and 15 says that sin starts down those categories in those catacombs in those deep caverns of lust that's not necessarily something that's stimulated by something we see it's who we are we're getting close to the bottom here people do immoral behaviors because they have immoral thoughts they have immoral thoughts because they have a built-in propensity to be inflamed in the direction of lusts they have those passions because there is an evil desire component inside every human being that's there can't be denying but we're not at the bottom what activates evil desire that inflames passion that leads to impure thoughts and immoral behavior the next word is greed greed now we're getting close to the bottom greed some of your translations might say covetousness it says essentially it's the same word greed or covetousness is the last sin listed in the Ten Commandments the Decalogue but it really is the basic motive of all sin it is the last sin in the Decalogue but it is what is behind all the other sins it is what was behind Satan's fall he was greedy he coveted God's place it is the desire for what isn't yours it is the desire for what is forbidden it is the desire for what is against the will of God it's the desire for something you have no right to you're not entitled to Clio nexia from two words plea on more xane to have the desire to have more than you have it is the absence of contentment it is the opposite of contentment it is the desire to have more and in the case of the fallenness of the human heart it is desire to have more of something you're not entitled to Jesus considered the covetous heart to be the very source from which all evil rose the Greeks defined it as the insatiable desire that can never be satisfied to want what you don't have and the Greeks actually said to satisfy that in the human heart is like trying to fill a bowl with no bottom and this of course is self seeking pride when it is directed toward money it ends up with stealing when it is directed toward Fame it ends up in boasting when it is directed toward worldly success it ends up in selfish ambition when it is directed toward power it ends up in exploitation intimidation and tyranny and when directed toward a physical relationship with someone it ends up in sexual sin it is the desire to have what you don't have it is a lack of contentment it is covetousness listen every sin comes from this the reason you do any sin is because you have decided that you will do what you have no right to do you will take what you have no right to take that's what sin is and Jesus said even in the longing there is sin Matthew 5 if the man looks on a woman to lust after her he's committed adultery in his heart you hear people today say well you know I'm a same-sex attracted person but that's not sinful and in itself in and of itself well of course it is opposite sex attraction is sinful same-sex attraction is sinful because it's a reflection in the heart of longing for what you don't have the right to have so [Music] are we at the bottom with greed and covetousness no the end of verse 5 which amounts to idolatry what is idolatry worshiping someone other than God right what's the top of the Ten Commandments the first one shall have no other gods [Music] so idolatry is the root of all sin that now we're at the bottom of this pathological process idolatry is at the bottom of every sin it's when you stop worshipping God and you decide you're going to worship yourself it's like saying I will not submit to you as my sovereign I want what I want I will be sovereign you're not going to tell me what I can and cannot have I will determine what I can or cannot have mark it though covetousness is the last of the Ten Commandments by definition it is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments to have no other gods especially not you it is self worship it isn't even so much sex worship or money worship or power worship or fame worship it is self worship it is the opposite of this seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added instead of seeking what is righteous and what is the will of God you seek what you want that is idolatry and you have replaced God this is how the pathology of sin works you worship yourself you become greedy then to satisfy yourself you begin to covet what you have no right to that rises out of your evil desire inflames passion begins to circulate in the mind and then shows up in the behavior back in the previous book Paul wrote feegans 5 there is very parallel instruction fusions 5 verse 3 but immorality or any impurity or greed there there's the same words three out of the five and these in the same sequence immorality comes from impurity which comes from greed should never be named among you as is proper among saints these things don't belong to be any part of your life the Lord does care about these things there must be no filthiness silly talk coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks for this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God and let no one deceive you about these things with empty words because of these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience therefore do not be partakers with them for you were formerly darkness but now your light in the Lord walk as children of light and the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth exact same messages Colossians the link is from sexual behavior back to impure thoughts back to inflamed passion back to the deep-seated lusts that are part of our fallenness back to the fact that we are greedy for what we don't have a right to back to the fact that we worship ourselves rather than God so don't be so ridiculous as to say Jesus doesn't care what I do because he loves me it isn't just what you did it's what you think it's who you are and it's blasphemous rebellion against sovereign God so starts with idolatry and ends up in sexual behavior and of course those two come together with everything in between a lot of times in the Old Testament whenever we see idolatry on display many places in the Old Testament we see that sexual immorality was part and parcel of idolatry it is in those very religions of the ancient world and even the modern world so market for what it is sexual sin is the product of idol worship and you're the idol that's the progression the root of your sin is self worship that develops covetousness covenants covetousness rises out of our innate evil desire is flamed into passion creates evil thoughts and ends in immorality so you understand that you have to deal with it at what point well the easiest point to deal with it is at the level where it begins right so you deal with it on the basis of what it is it is idolatry anything that you have no right to that you want is the test of who you worship if you worship God you say no at that point if you worship yourself you say yes at that point and that's what James says lust once because then lust conceives and brings forth sin and ultimately sin brings forth death that is why it is so important listen carefully for you to know that the ability to live the Christian life is not related to somebody giving you a pep talk it is directly related to what you think about God and what you think about yourself and if you have a superficial view of God and an elevated view of yourself you're set up to worship yourself and not God that is what's wrong with all man centered preaching it does no help provides no strength against sin because your strength against sin does not come from feeling good about yourself it comes from feeling terrible about yourself it comes from a broken and contrite heart as we saw in Psalm 51 Isaiah 66 God says Who am i seeking whoever has a broken and a contrite heart and trembles at my word no one could give you anything more powerful than a deep and wide high understanding of God if you are consumed with the glory of God if you are consumed with the truth of Christ if the word concerning Christ dwells in you richly if your theology of God is deep and true you are a true worshipper and sin is dealt with at the very foundation level you are not going to be an idol worshiper who puts yourself in the place of God when you hear people preaching trying to make people feel better this is absolutely antithetical to true sanctification so the Christian needs to be killing the corrupting things and at the base of those corrupting things is idolatry how serious is it to kill sin look at verse 6 it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience the kind of things that we're talking about here immorality impurity passion evil desire greed and idolatry are the sins that damned people to hell forever these are the sins upon which the everlasting wrath of God is spent on the sons of disobedience in other words people are sent to hell forever for these kinds of behaviors why would you engage in them you have been rescued from the wrath of God you have been empowered by the Holy Spirit verse 7 he says in them you also once walked when you were living in them look for two reasons you don't do this one these are the very things that God punishes unbelievers in Hell for forever and you know better because you have lived there before why would you go back why would you go back modern attitude of antinomianism the modern attitude of condoning any kind of sin finds no support from God at all because you are to live out heavenly virtues you are to be mortifying sin all the way down at its core which is idolatry because these are the very things that God pours out eternal wrath on and these are the very things that you were saved from that was your former life 1st Corinthians 6 such were some of you but you are washed verse 11 and you are sanctified there's a second catalog here in verse 8 and 9 catalog 2 is perverted hate there are some things we ought to hate all sin all unrighteousness all that offends God but here is a kind of hate that is directed at people now you also put them all aside anger wrath malice slander and abusive speech from your mouth do not lie to one another that's catalog number two here he begins the opposite way in the first catalogue he began with the deed the Act and went back to the foundational motive here he begins with the motive and moves toward the deed the motive is anger that develops into wrath that releases malice that turns into slander and abuse of speech and lying Paulus is saying look put off verse eight put all aside it's it's a verb used to throw off dirty clothes perhaps it's a picture of the life of early Christians when they were baptized they would come and put off their old outer garment and go into the waters to be baptized than when they came out they would be given a new white robe as a symbol of their being clothed in the righteousness of Christ and Paul is saying you need to lay aside the old lifestyle and in this particular category he's not talking about what we do but what we say the vicious vicious capacity that we have to use our verbal member for violent sin and he looks down at what comes out of the mouth and he goes all the way to where it arises from anger anger or gay deep down smoldering hostility deep down smoldering hostility that too is a product of self worship somebody offended you really and you took it seriously like you were that important you're deep down smoldering anger is idolatry you're worshiping yourself not God it bursts forth in Wrath that is Stu mas that's a blaze of sudden fury you start then with this deep-seated anger that's down in your self worshiping heart and it explodes the Greeks used this word to describe the kind of fire that burned up grass or straw quickly inflamed deep-seated anger explodes in wrath and leads to malice a general term for moral evil it did it's just evil in a broad sense and this has to do with how you speak so it's evil in your heart evil intent that results in slander this is the word for blasphemy and not just God but people defaming people well this is part of our society is it not in my ever lengthening a lifetime there is more slandered going on now than any time I've ever seen in my entire life and it's not just in the culture it's even among quote/unquote evangelicals who are slandering one another over issues like identity racial ethnic distinctions it's it's a terrible terrible expression of the deep-seated anger that is part of our remaining fall fallenness slider then produces abusive speech abusive speech it's not speech to borrow Paul's words in Ephesians where he says in verse 29 of chapter 4 let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth and only such a word as is good to build up according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear but all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice exact same words as we saw in Colossians be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you we should be full of forgiveness not constantly in tithing every one this is unacceptable abusive obscene blasphemous language that blasphemes other people why would we think for a moment that the Lord would be pleased with that no matter what we think justifies it listen to what our Lord said in Matthew 12 you brood of snakes how can you being evil speak what is good for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart the good man brings out his good treasure what is good and the evil man brings out his evil treasure what is evil but I tell you that every careless word that people speak they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned we got to be speaking what is edifying what is comforting what is encouraging what is virtuous what is godly but if there is deep-seated anger smoldering in our hearts a little burst into wrath he'll result in evil which shows up in slander and blasphemy of others and then on top of that verse 9 do not lie to one another lying the truth will take a backseat to our agenda and we will say whatever we need to say to express our anger or our self worship lies lies our protectors of self worship Satan lied in deceiving Eve Adam and Eve lied to God attempting to evade responsibility Cain lied to God about his brother Abraham lied to Sarah sara lied to the Angels Sara lied to the king of Gerar Isaac lied denying Rebekah was his wife Rebecca lied in the conspiracy against Esau you're you're still in the book of Genesis and you got everybody's a liar get me gotten out of Genesis because Satan is the father of lies Paul is horrified that we would be so idolatrous as to live a smoldering anger that unleashes itself on people and justifies itself and even leads to lies to fulfill its agenda well it's horrified of that we must be mortifying those things and you better start all the way down at the bottom with that whole issue of self worship your anger is connected to self worship and it's smolders until something fans it we should be marked even when genuinely offended by forgiveness where is that jesus said 70 times 7 that's how many times you forgive so we are told here in this matter of sanctification to reach up and live with heavenly virtues that that's the upside the downside is to realize then we have to kill the members of our body that still are fleshly and we have to deal with sin at its very foundational point it's very origin which is idolatry how do you control that how do you do that at the lowest level then where idolatry breeds all of this if you are a God worshipper and a Christ worshipper the battle is won [Music] and the more you know about God and the more you know about Christ and the more you love God and the more you love Christ the more you submit gladly say it is simply a manifestation of self worship and rebellion against God see it for what it is deal with at the level you have to deal with it we live in the heavenlies yes but we also have to be realistic about the flesh and Paul calls us to both father again we thank you this morning it's been such a joy and privilege for us to be together to sing and to pray and listen to your word what a high and holy time we've had and Lord if we want to be a sanctified people we want to be so consumed with worshiping you and loving you that we eagerly keep your Commandments we thank you for revealing so much about yourself so much about who you are the glory of your person Father Son Holy Spirit thank you for revealing so much about us and warning us about idolatry the Lord help us to live so conscious of your glory in your majesty that we love you supremely that we love you with all our heart soul mind and strength and if we love you like that there there never will be a replacement for you certainly not us and Lord remind us that sin is always the result of dethroning you and usurping your sovereignty for ourselves this is a violation of the first commandment this certainly is a violation of loving you with all our heart soul mind and strength and if we love you that way we will keep your Commandments we desire to be a heavenly people yes we desire to be focused on all the the holy virtues that are present in heaven at the same time we want to be realistic and be mortifying the flesh at the very ground level cutting cutting it off at the roots by never ever worshipping ourselves lead us in the path of righteousness and holiness for your glory and may we do whatever we do in word or deed all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with gratitude to you our glorious God and Father amen [Music]

Channel: Grace to You

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Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ

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Length: 52min 6sec (3126 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 22 2019