I'm sent to preach God's Word
to you. It does not matter what I think. I'm not sent to preach my Word.
I'm sent to preach God's Word. So I want to show you what God
says in His Word and just try to help us see it and understand
it, comparing Scripture with Scripture. Colossians 3 5 the
Lord says mortify therefore your members which are from the earth
Members refers here to our sin nature the body of sin and its
deeds The body of sin and its deeds and it's listed here verse
5 fornication Uncleanness inordinate affection Evil concupiscence,
those are all sexual sins. And covetousness, and that in
context is desiring another's spouse or partner, which is idolatry. And truly, all sin is idolatry. All sin is worshipping self,
is what it is. for which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Anybody who
meets God rejecting Christ, this is, they will receive the wrath
of God, because this is all a natural man is, is sin. And it says,
into which ye also walked sometime when you lived in them. This
is speaking to believers, God's saints, He said, you walked in
these things for some time when you lived in them, but now you
also put off all these. These are inward, anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one
to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his
deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. Now, for God's saints, Our
old man and his deeds are mortified the same way we were first made
spiritually alive. They're mortified the same way
we were first given faith to believe on Christ. It's by the
spirit of our Lord through the good news, through the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. through his person, the gospel
of his person and the gospel of his works, through that message,
through that word, through that good news, the spirit of God
renews us inwardly in the new man and makes us to mortify the
old man. Now, I'm going to take this and
break this into a few points here to consider. When a sinner
is born again of God, when a sinner is born again of God, Christ
creates in the sinner a new man, a new man, a new spirit. It was
not there before. It's a creation. Christ creates
a new man, a new spirit, a new heart, giving you, this is how
scripture calls it, a new man, a new heart, a new spirit, a
new will, and it's by Christ entering in in spirit. The spirit
of the Lord enters and begins to dwell in us. But when he's
done that, we still have an old man that is sin, an old nature,
an old heart, an old spirit that's sin. It's called the body of
sin in scripture. Look with me at Romans. Hold
your place here and look at Romans 8. And you want to mark Romans
8. We'll come back here. I've got
several things to show you out of this scripture. Romans 8. I'm saying to you, when you're
born again, he creates a new man in you, but you still have
the old body of sin. Okay, look now, Romans 8.10.
This is exactly what he's saying here. right from Nate that wrote
Colossians 3, and one spirit gave him the message, and it's
the same message, both places, because we just got one gospel.
Look here, Romans 8.10, Romans 8.10, he says, if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. The true believer, the true you,
You that believe, the true believer, the true you, is the new man
in you, in which Christ dwells. The new man and Christ are one.
That's why when this body dies, when our flesh dies and we go
back to the grave, we'll be with the Lord immediately because
the new man is the real you and you're one with Christ. And the
reason this new man is life in you, the spirit of Christ is
life in you, is because Christ is righteousness. Sin entered,
when sin entered, when Adam sinned against God and sin entered,
death entered because sin is death. Righteousness, he was
alive before. He was righteous before. He had
never sinned before. But when sin entered, death entered.
Sin and death are equal. Righteousness is life. Christ
said, I'm the life. He is the righteousness. He came
and worked out a righteousness for his people, but he is the
righteousness. And so when Christ is in you,
the Spirit's life because of righteousness, because of Christ
your righteousness being in you. When Christ takes up His dwelling
in you, that's the Spirit of the Lord. He takes up His dwelling
in you. He truly is the righteousness
and the holiness of the new man. Holiness is purity. Righteousness
is being legally just before God. He's the righteousness and
the holiness in His people. That's why in Ephesians 4, He
said when you're born again, He said there's a new man created
in righteousness and true holiness. Because this false, phony stuff
that men act like they're being holy by their works is not true
holiness. But when you're born again of
God and Christ forms this new man, he's created in righteousness
and true holiness. Christ's righteousness and Christ's
holiness. Christ, when he walked this earth,
he truly made all his elect righteous. He made us all righteous by what
he did for us. And in Him, we're perfectly righteous
before God. What does that mean? How righteous
you gotta be. You gotta be as righteous as
God is. Righteousness is being perfect.
It's meaning there's no fault. That's how righteous every one
of God's people are in Christ. Not in something we've done in
Him. That's how holy we are in Him. So, when that happens, when you're
born again, you're no longer in the flesh. The flesh, we're
talking about not this stuff on our body. We're talking about
you're no longer in your sin nature. Before God, how God views
it, you're no longer in your sin nature. You're no longer
simply that body of sins that you were before. Now you're in
the Spirit. You're in the Holy Spirit. And
that's due to Christ dwelling in you, due to you being born
again. Look again now, Romans 8, and look at verse 9. He said,
You're not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that
the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his. But if you have the spirit
of Christ in you, you're not in the flesh anymore. You're
in the spirit. Now, we once walked in these
sinful deeds of our sin nature because we lived in them. That's
all we were. We lived in them. We were nothing
but sin. Everything we thought was sin,
everything we did was sin. And I know men will hear that,
and men will say, well, I don't just go around thinking sin. It takes God to teach us this,
but that truly is all we do when we're dead in sin. All we did
was sin. Your best thought was sin. That's
all it was. It was come from a selfish motive,
it come from a a self-exalting motive, everything about it was
covetous, everything about it was sinful, because that's all
our sin nature is. Now that's, men can't believe
this unless God makes you believe it, but that's so. I'm telling
you, that's so of me, that's so of everybody that God say,
that's so of all men, but it's so of those he saved. We were
only flesh, So that's what he meant back in Colossians 3, 7.
He said, in the witch and all those sin, you also walked sometime
when you lived in them. But now, just like Romans 8,
9 says, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so, be
that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now let me tell you what
that does not mean. And you that know the Lord, that
he's done this for you, you know this is so. That does not mean
we no longer have a sin nature. We do have a sin nature. Nor
does it mean that we no longer sin. We still sin. You know that and I know that. If we didn't sin and we didn't
have a sin nature, our Lord wouldn't be teaching us what Colossians
3 is teaching us. He's telling us to mortify, make
it dead, put it to death. But before God, in reality, as
God sees it, and as Christ has worked it, before God, here's
the good news, you're not in the flesh. You're in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell
in you. Now, but we still have this body
of sin, this old nature of sin, we still have it with us. Every
holy saint, that's been made holy by God, been born again
of God, and has this new holy nature in him, is still a sinner
because you still have an old sin nature, the old man of sin.
Go with me to Romans 7. The same man, a believer, sanctified
by God, made holy and righteous by God, a man who just wrote,
we heard him say, you're not in the flesh, you're in the Spirit,
if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. The same man, as a holy
child of God, wrote this, Romans 7, 19. He said, the good that
I would, the good I want to do, I do not. But the evil which
I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I said
to you, the real you, you that know God, born of God, the real
you is the new man. And that's what he's saying.
It's not the real me that's doing it. It's not the me that's born
of God that's doing it. It's my old sin nature. It's
the old me. I found then a law. This is a
standing rule that will always be as long as we're alive. When
I would do good, evil is present with me. When's the last time
you heard a preacher stand up in a pulpit and make that statement?
I tell you, this one will make it. Anytime I would do good,
evil is present. Evil's mixed with it. Sin is
mixed with it. If I was left going to have to
meet God based on me doing good, I couldn't do it. I go, sin is
mixed with everything I do, evil. And that's so of all God's people.
And God's people say, yes, sir, that's so. Now listen, now here's
our case. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, the new man. I want to do everything God says. I want to please God. I delight
in the gospel. The law is the whole word of
God. I delight in everything God says.
The gospel, the Ten Commandments, And there's a lot more than 10,
in case, for folks who didn't know, there's over 600 commandments.
And we gotta keep them all if we're gonna, we gotta be perfect
in them all. But I delight in all the word
of God in my new man. But I see another law in my members. Again, that's not just these
bodily members. We're talking about this old
man of sin, the old sin nature. I see another law of my members
warring against the law of my mind, the law of my new man,
bringing me into captivity, taking me captive like a prisoner to
the law of sin, which is in my members. This old nature brings
me into captivity. Now hold your place right there
just a minute. till this body returns to the
dust from which God made it. That's gonna be our case. That's
gonna be the case for believers. We're gonna continually have
a warfare between the old man and the new man, continually.
That old man is the body of sin, it's the sin nature, and then
you have a new man. And we're gonna continually have
to treat our old man as a dead thing, mortified, put it to death. We're gonna constantly have to
do that. But catch this next word. Don't miss this next word
in Romans 7, 24. This believer says, a wretched
man that I was. No, he says a wretched man that
I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? When I'm brought into captivity
by this sinner, who's gonna deliver me? I thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. That's who delivers me. So then,
with my mind, my new man, I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh, the law of sin. Now look at Romans 8, and look
at verse 11. Now he had said there, you're
not in the flesh, you're in the spirit if Christ dwells in you.
He said, verse 10, and if Christ be in you, the body's still dead,
you still got your sin nature. Evil's still present when anything
you do because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now watch, but, verse 11, if
the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore
brethren, we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
Don't look to yourself and your flesh for anything. For if you
live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as
are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. but
you receive the spirit of adoption as a child so you can cry, Abba,
Father. Legal folks, self-sanctified
folks, folks who like to preach their works and act like they're
holier than everybody, they love to take a passage like our text
in Colossians 3 and just exalt themselves over everybody. And
the way they do it is by striking fear into the hearts of others. make others feel like they're
guilty failures. They make others look at themselves
and look at their past sins. I've heard messages by legal
preachers that take Colossians 3 and take those sins and just
preach a whole message on just those sins, telling you what
they are and getting just plump scandalous with them. And so
you end up thinking about all your past sins and all your failures
and how you failed and you get guilty and you become terrified
and you become fearful. That's not why God gave us the
Holy Spirit. He didn't give you the spirit
again of bondage to fear. He gave you the spirit of so
you know you're a child of God and you can call to your father
for help. But this came to me Friday night
in the middle of the night. And I want to give it to you.
This is so good. The Lord's not telling us in
our text to look back at ourselves and our sin. He's not telling
us to look at ourselves and he's not telling us to look back at
our past sins. That's not what the text says.
He's teaching us to look to Christ and do it right now. Right now,
look to Christ. Don't look at you, look to Christ.
So you've got an old sin nature. Yeah, you've sinned. I have too. But looking at you and looking
at yourselves, not how this flesh is gonna be made dead. It's not
how it's gonna be mortified. Look to Christ. Look to him now. Look to him always. Now go back
to our text. This word mortify, verse five,
Colossians 3, five, mortify therefore your members which are upon the
earth. Mortify means make dead. It means put it to death. This
is a command from the Lord. It's in the imperative tense.
That's a command from the Lord. And the tense of this word means
it's ongoing and it's active. You're gonna continually have
to do this. And it's never gonna be a one
and done. But always remember this, what
the Lord commands, the Lord himself will be the power to do it. What he commands, he will be
the power to do it. And he will get all the glory
from his child. What did Paul say? He said, he
that raised up Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal
bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Who raised up Christ
from the dead? God the Father did, and the Son
of God did. They're one. He raised himself.
He said, I have power to lay it down. I have power to raise
it up again. And he will quicken your mortal bodies. Legalists
came to the brethren at Galatia. Go to Galatians 5. Legalists
came to the church, the brethren at Galatia. and here's what they
said. Now tell me if you've heard this
message in our day. Here's what legalists said to
them. Tell me if you've heard this today. They came to them
and this is exactly what they said. I'm getting this from Acts.
I can't have you turn to everything because we'll be here forever,
but just let me give you this. In Acts, they came to brethren
who'd been called by God, Gentiles who'd been called by God, given
a new heart by God, Peter said their hearts have been purified
by God, by the Spirit of God. They've been given faith in Christ.
And these legalists came to him and said, that's okay that you
believe on Christ. But now, except you be circumcised
and keep the law, you can't be saved. That's what everybody
in this world is preaching. That's the message of works.
There's only two religions, works and grace. One says it's all
of grace, it's all of God, it's in Christ, and he's everything
we need, and he is salvation. That's the truth. The other message
is works. Every religion in this world,
including 99% of Christianity, is preaching you gotta do something,
you gotta contribute, you gotta do your part to be saved. Most
people are saying, most so-called Christian churches are saying,
It's okay to believe on Christ, but if you don't keep the law
you can't be saved. That is a lie. Listen to this
now. So how is your flesh going to
be mortified so that you don't perish in sin? It's the same
way you first believed the Lord. It's the same way you first were
given life and believed the Lord. How's it gonna happen? It's the
Spirit of the Lord that's gonna mortify your flesh. He's gonna
make you willing to turn from your sin and depart from it,
but it's gonna be the power of the Lord that does it, and you're
gonna know He did it, so you're gonna give Him the glory, and
you're not gonna glory that you did it. Look here, Galatians
5, 17. They were exalting themselves,
telling these brethren, you gotta be saved, through keeping the
law, you can believe Christ, but you gotta do these works.
So they started looking at themselves, their past sin, then they started
looking at others, and it always results in this, they started
abiding and devouring one another. They started accusing one another,
that's what all that legal preaching results in. And here's what Paul
told them. Verse 17, I'm trying to show
you it's gonna be Christ that makes you mortify your flesh.
You're not gonna get the glory, neither am I. Look, Galatians
5, 17. The flesh, your sin nature, lusteth against the Holy Spirit. See the capital S? If your sinful
nature lusts against the Spirit of Christ in you, and the Holy
Spirit of Christ against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other. But here's the good news. So
that your old man of flesh cannot do the things that you would. But if you're led of the Spirit,
you're not under the law. You're not under the law. Now
listen, we can't do what we want to do in our new man. We can't
serve God perfectly and obey Him perfectly like we want to.
We just saw that in Romans 7, because we got a sin nature.
But thank God, by the Spirit of Christ being in His people,
our sin nature can't do the sinful things it would either, because
the Spirit of Christ is going to keep that from happening.
You understand that? We can't do, in our new man,
we'd serve God perfectly if we could, but we can't because we
got a sin nature. But by the spirit of Christ being
in his child, your sin nature would sin as greatly as you could. There's a part of you that believe,
and you know this yourself, there's a part of you that if God took
the restraint off, you'd be as bad as anybody. Father, Spirit
of Christ, you can't do what you would. Your old man can't
do what you would. That's good news, brethren. But
it's the Lord. You see, none of God's saints
want glory. We want Christ to have the glory. And that's what we're being told.
Christ is going to have the glory. He's the one in you that's going
to do this work. You're never going to be able
to say, well, I myself mortified my flesh. No. You're going to be made to know
he's the power. And you're never going to be
able to say, well, I got that over with. It's done. Nope. It's
going to be a warfare as long as we're in this body of death.
The glory goes to God, our Father, through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Paul said, I thank God through Christ Jesus, my Lord. He delivered
me. At the cross, he delivered his
people. He delivered us when we were born again. He gave us
faith to see. He continues to deliver us every
day. And he will continue to deliver
us till he brings us home to glory. and he will not fail. Now, go back with me to Colossians
3, 5. How does he do it? I've showed you this before.
The whole context of Colossians, we've been going through Colossians,
been a little while since we've been here, but we've been going
through it. The whole purpose in Colossians 2, he was telling them that, you
know, Christ has died, he's justified you, he's made you righteous,
you've been born of him, you're joined to him, united to him,
he circumcised you, In the heart, he circumcised you at the cross.
That is, he put off your whole body of sins and death, and you're
righteous in him. And he said to them there in
verse 20, Colossians 2, 20, wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from
the rudiments of the world, the rudiments of the world is the
law in scripture. If you're dead from that, why? Do you act like your life's in
the world? Why, as though living in the
world, are you subject to ordinances? Men were bringing them under,
legal preachers were telling them, don't, you know, don't
touch that, don't eat that, eat this, don't do that, do this
other thing, and tell them all. He said, why are you being brought
under those ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which
are all to perish with the using? He said, it's the commandments
and doctrines of men that are telling you these things. Now
they use the word of God, they'll take a word like mortify the
members of your body, fornication, uncleanness, and they'll preach
that and put it all in your hands, it's all up to you, you can do
it, come on now, rah, rah, let's show everybody how good we are.
That's not what the message is saying. Paul said right before
it, he said that's the doctrines of men. And he said, which things
have indeed a show, it's a vain show of wisdom, It's will worship,
it's false humility, that's what he's saying there, a neglecting
of the body, trying to show people how you just abuse yourself and
don't let yourself sanctify yourself, and you do all these things to
deprive your body of things. and it's not any honor to the
satisfying of the flesh." In other words, he's saying these
things don't mortify your flesh. They are not what's making your
flesh dead by avoiding this drink and that dress and this thing
and the other thing. That's not, he said, it's inflaming
your flesh because that's what an unregenerate religious man. We're all religious by nature. And while we're dead in sins,
an unregenerate religious man likes nothing better than you
to tell him, touch this, don't touch that, don't touch that,
don't eat that, don't drink that, do this, do that, do the other.
Because every man wants to try to be saved by his works. That's
what we got to be saved from. That's what's gotta be mortified
in us. So how does the Lord mortify?
I've told you before this word, verse five, Colossians 3, five,
could be mortified thereby. Because in the context, he's
telling us, here's what happens. Christ is risen, he intercedes
for his people at God's right hand. He sends the gospel to
you. Just like he's done right here
today He sends the Holy Spirit as the gospel being preached
and he quickens you inwardly and he turns you and here's what
he does look at verse 1 class is 3 1 he says in your heart
if you be risen with Christ and Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. That includes you,
that includes your work. Don't look to you, look to Christ,
for you are dead. Died in Christ, died with Christ
at Calvary, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Then shall you also appear with him in glory,
mortified thereby your members which are upon the earth. You
see, the Spirit quickens you. He said the same one that raised
Christ to quicken you, and he quickens you when you hear this
gospel, and he turns you to Christ. And you see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ laid down his life at Calvary's cross, he makes each
one that he saved, he calls you and he makes you to know When
you see him there dying on that cross, and you know, when our
Savior died on that cross, he makes you know, I died on that
cross. My body of sin that God hates,
that body of sin that had to die because I had sinned against
God, died under the justice of God at Calvary, and Christ bore
it in my stead. He bore the justice of God for
me, and when Christ came out of that grave, Every one of his
people came out of that grave and arose and sat down at God's
right hand. He said, you are dead. That whole body of sin is dead. Under the justice of God, before
the all-seeing, all-knowing eye of God, God says, I'm satisfied. My law has been honored. That
man has died in my sight. And he says, and you are Your
life is hid with Christ in God. You are at God's right hand right
now. That's how the flesh is mortified. Listen. Let's see
what Christ works in us and continues to work in us. Concerning you
in whom He dwells, I want you to notice here how the Spirit
of our Lord declares to you what He has already made you do. Listen
to what He says here in verse 9. Colossians 3, 9. He says, You have put off the old man
with his deeds. You have. But by this new work
the Lord did, you have put off the old man with his deeds and
have put on the new man. Who first made you alive? Spiritually,
who made you alive? Who made you repent from trusting
you and all your works? The Spirit of the Lord did. Who
first turned your affection to Christ and made you see Him for
the first time and believe that He truly is all your salvation,
all your righteousness? Who did that? Who gave you the
faith to trust Him for the first time? The Spirit of the Lord
did it. How did he do it? He did it through
this gospel that gives him all the glory. He did it through
this gospel that declares you that man is God, that man is
God, the God-man. He came down to be the high priest
of his people to reconcile us to God and to represent us to
God. And then as the high priest,
he comes and quickens you in your heart and ministers this
balm to you, this healing gospel to you and made you alive. and
robed you in His garment of righteousness, and made you to know and believe
you're righteous and holy in Him by what He's done. He's the
sanctification of His people. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. I know everybody that's here,
you hear me say this all the time, but our visitors hadn't
heard this. Look here at 1 Corinthians 1. Why does God save this way? He's
telling here in verse 21 He said after that in the wisdom of God
the world by their wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe Why look at
verse 29 that no flesh should glory in his presence But of
him are you in Christ? and he quickens you and regenerates
you and made you to be born again and you're born into Christ who
of God is forgiven spiritual discernment of God and Christ
is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, that's holiness
and redemption. So according as it's written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Look at Hebrews
10, look at Hebrews 10. This is how this first happened
to you. He sent this gospel to you, made
you see what He did. We were trying to do the law,
we were trying to keep the law, and look at what the Lord said
in Hebrews 10. Verse seven, then said I, lo,
I come. In the volume of the whole Bible,
it's written of me. This whole book's declaring God's
Son, Christ Jesus. He said, lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. Look at verse 10. He said, I
come to do your will, O God. Verse 10, by the witch will,
we are sanctified, made holy through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all time. Look down here, he said,
every priest stands daily ministering, offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he had perfected forever
them that are sanctified. By that one offering, perfected
forever, he perfected forever his people. How am I gonna be
made to know this? How were you first made to see
him and have your affection set on him? Verse 15, wherefore the
Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. He had said before, this
is a covenant I will make with them after those days. So I put
my law into their heart, my gospel, my covenant of grace, and all
this good news. And in their minds will I write
them. And their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. And
where remission of these is, there's no more offering for
sin. You can stop working to try to please God. He says, therefore,
brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he's consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say, through his flesh, and
having Christ our high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart and true holiness and full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. He's faithful. He did this work. That's how you were first turned
to him. You know how your flesh is going to be mortified? You
know how you're going to be made to treat this body like it's a dead
thing? By him doing the same thing. Him sending you the gospel
and turning you to him by his spirit and making you see you're
perfect in him. Herein is our love made perfect.
What's going to make you have a perfect love in your heart?
What's going to make you cast out that fear and be feared that
you're going to be condemned by God? Herein is our love made
perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because
as he is, as Christ is right there at God's right hand, so
are we in this world. You know, preachers actually
get up and preach that that means that as Christ is, that's how
you act and conduct yourself in this world. That's not what
he's saying. He's saying, What he said in Colossians 3, your
life is in Christ at God's right hand. How is he right now? He's
seated because the work's finished. We're resting in him because
the work's finished. He's righteous right there. I'm
righteous right there in him. He's holy. I'm holy. He's accepted
of God, and you're accepted of God in him. That's what casts
the fear out. As he is, so are we in this world. He declares what's a fact in
our text. Go back here. You have put on
the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him. You have a new man created in
Christ's image. I want to go to Colossians 3.
I want to show you something. I mean 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians
3. I'm done after this. I just want
you to see this. He's going to continue. He the
same way he began he came to you and he renewed your mind
And saved you and he keeps renewing you inwardly While he keeps mortifying
this old man making it die now. Let me show you this Same man
wrote this scripture right here in Colossians 3 at the end there
up for you chapter 4 verse 16 He said he'd been talking about
the old covenant law. It's called the law of sin and
death because it ministers death to you In Colossians 3.16, he
said, when the new heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall
be taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit.
The Lord does this work. Where the spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. Remember Paul said, the law of the spirit
of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Watch this, how'd he do it? We all with open face, beholding
as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. He turns to see God,
the Christ Jesus. We're changed into the same image. A new man was created in the
image of Christ from, now let me tell you what this really
means. I've heard it's butchered. From the glory of the old covenant
law of sin and death. That's the context, go home and
read it. That's what he's been talking about. You turn from,
it had a glory. It's glory was to tell you you're
dead in sin. You turn from the glory of that
law of sin and death to the glory of the Lord Jesus. And it's by
the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord did it. Therefore, seeing we
have this ministry, seeing how he did this, the way he gave
us this ministry, so by the same Spirit, as we have received mercy,
that's how we faint not. How'd he do it? Verse six. 2
Corinthians 4, that for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, not
of us. That's what I'm saying. He's
gonna be the one to do it. We're troubled, but we're not
distressed. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. Why? Verse 10, we're always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's mortification. Christ is always making us die
in our flesh, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body, that we might be renewed inwardly. Look at verse
16. He's saying, this is all while
we don't faint. For which cause? By Christ's
work in this body and spirit we faint not, but though our
outward man perish, the inward man's renewed day by day. He's
saying the same way he made you quit trusting your flesh in the
beginning renewed you in really to see him and trust him That's
the reason you don't faint That's reason you don't stop believing
you keep believing because he keeps making this flesh mortified
and renewing you in really to see him That's why you don't
faint in persecution or distress or wherever however you oppose
He keeps making your old man die and making you see Him and
making your new man live. It's all of the Lord now When
you've been hearing this, have you been thinking about you?
Have you been thinking about, how am I going to mortify this
flesh? How am I going to put my sin away? Have you been thinking
about all your past? You've been thinking about Him,
haven't you? He's turned you to Him, and you've been looking
at Him, and He's been renewing you inwardly in your heart, looking
at Him. That's exactly what I'm talking
about. Next time you feel tempted in any way, you go to this book. And you go to this book and go
to Colossians 3, right here at verse 11, and read this. In this
new man, there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, sithian, bond of free. Nothing about my flesh or anybody
else's flesh, nothing about the outward even matters. Here's
what matters. Christ is all and in all. He's all. What do you need to
be accepted of God? Christ. You need Christ. What else? Nothing else. You
need Christ. What do you need to modify this
flesh? You need Christ. What else? Nothing else. You
need Christ. He's all. He's all. So, put on,
therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy,
kindness, humble, loathsome mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing
one another, forgiving one another. If any have a quarrel against
any, as Christ forgave you, So do you. And above all things,
put on charity, the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule
your heart. Let the peace of God rule your
heart, to the which you're called. You've been called for that purpose,
to trust God and know He's worked peace, and He's gonna keep working
peace, and be thankful. We're gonna observe the Lord's
table. And if you've been called by the Lord, and this is your
hope, if you believe Christ is all, this is his commandment
to you. He says, you take this bread,
and you remember his broken body, and you drink this cup of wine,
remembering his shed blood shed for you, and remember him. That's what he said. This is
for every one of his people to partake in. Brother Adam, Brother
Jeff, we all pass these out.