Let us turn to God's Word in the portion of Holy Scripture we were reading, Colossians chapter 3. I'll read again the first five verses of the chapter. Colossians chapter 3 and reading verses 1 through 5.

If ye then be risen with Christ, 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. for you are dead, and your life is here with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

I want principally to say something with regards to what Paul speaks of here in verse 5. The necessity of the mortification of sin. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. to set the words, as it were, in the context in which the Apostle is declaring this truth here in his letter to the Church at Colossae. You will observe that there's an exhortation in the opening words to seek and to set. He says, doesn't he, Isaiah, to seek those things which are above and that to set their affection on those things that are above and they will heed these words surely because this is the consequence of their union with the Lord Jesus Christ they have a spiritual and an experimental union with Christ as he says in verse 3, you are dead and your life is in with Christ, they are one with Christ and so as Christ is now risen and ascended to heaven so they will be seeking those things and set in their hearts on those things where they will find the Lord Jesus Christ it's quite clear that Verse 3 tells us the reason for the exhortation that he has given in those first two verses of the chapter. For, he says in verse 3, or because, it's because you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God that you will want to do those things to obey that word of instruction and exhortation that he has given to them.

If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

It's interesting what he says there in verse 3. For ye are dead. Of course, our natural condition as we come into this world our state by nature is one in which we're dead in trespasses and in sins Paul can say to the Ephesians you have to quicken brought to life who were dead in trespasses and in sins the great necessity of regeneration the new birth of Lord Jesus himself declares it so plainly in John 3 doesn't he? ye must be born again.

And what is it to be born again? Well, it's to know that resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in the previous chapter, and there at verse 12, you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God. Where does that saving faith come from? It comes as a consequence of that spiritual life, that new birth that has come into the soul.

When we're dead in trespasses and sins, we're in unbelief. If we're brought to true faith, saving faith, justifying faith, there must be that new spiritual life. He says there at verse 13, we are quickened together with Him, quickened with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that same power that was in the resurrection of Christ that has to come into the soul of the sinner when he is born again and born of the Spirit of God. And those words that we have at the end of Ephesians 1 remind us of what that spiritual power is, the exceeding greatness of his power. To us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

But when he uses his expression here in verse 3, dead. He's not speaking of what they were previous to being born again, previous to their regeneration. Strangely, he is describing what they are really as a consequence, as a consequence of being born again. You are dead and your life, he says, is hid with Christ in God.

Literally, you died. when you were born again, there's a sense in which you died, and it's interesting because it's the Greek Aries tense, it indicates a once for all action. In conversion, the believer dies, he dies to this world. That's what he's saying back in verse 20 of the previous chapter. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ, or wherefore ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?

they experienced a new life, a new birth, a spiritual birth and so in that they died to the things of this world and their life, that new life that they have is very much a life that is hidden That's what it says at the end of verse 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God.

And we need to observe very carefully the prepositions that he is using here. It's hid with Christ. It's with Christ. But more than that, it's also in God, he says. What does the Lord Jesus say? I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. neither shall any man pluck them from my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all no man can pluck them out of my father's hand

how this spiritual life is so safe so secure because it's a life that's hidden in God hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ who is of course himself the eternal Son of God and if we're those who Truly, of that new spiritual life and the debt to the things of this world, where will our affections be found? They'll be found on things above, where Christ is, at the right hand of God.

Our conversation, says Paul to the Philippians, our conversation, literally our citizenship, is in heaven. And so, that's the context really in which he goes on to give this further word of instruction and exhortation, a word of commandment really. It's imperative. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.

All this mortification, it will be the outcome, the consequence of them having known that grace of regeneration because they're born again. and because they died to the things of the world and the things of sinful self they will desire to be mortifying the deeds of the body it's all part and parcel of that restoration of man when we go on to see how he continues in the remaining part of the chapter

look at verse 8 he says now you also put off all these things as you mortify them, put them off, have done with them. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth and so forth. And then he goes on, doesn't he, at verse 10, and hath put on the new man. The new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image that created him.

Or when God created man, he made man in his own image, after his own likeness, but that image has been defaced and lost. because Adam sinned and disobeyed God and embraced the lies of the devil and all his descendants are born dead in trespasses and sins but there's to be that restoration the putting after putting on that new man which is renewed in knowledge or that saving knowledge of God in the Lord Jesus Christ that life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

He's speaking then of the restoring of the divine image. It begins in regeneration but he continues. And I want us to consider for a while this morning this aspect of the continuation, this great doctrine really of the mortification of sin.

Mortify therefore. your members which are upon earth and to deal with just two points for a while this morning to say something with regards to the doctrine what mortification is and then to look at the deeds or the practice the practice of mortification let us turn then to the words that we have here at the beginning of this fifth verse in Colossians chapter 3 Mortify. The verb literally means to put to death. That's what mortification is.

And yet, there's surely an apparent contradiction, isn't there? You're putting to death, but it is said, as we have already remarked in verse 3, you are dead. You died. there is an apparent contradiction, there's something of a paradox here they were those who had truly died to the world that 20th verse in the previous chapter wherefore if ye be dead if ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world they died to the world and also in a sense they they die to themselves they're all nature that lovely verse that we have in Galatians 2 and verse 20 I am crucified with Christ says Paul nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me crucified self-crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ Why then, if all that is true, we've died to the world, we see the world for what it is, because we have the grace of God in our hearts, and the world lies in the wicked one. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. We've died to that world. And we've died to our own nature.

Why then, Why then is such an exhortation as this given? Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Well, in trying to answer that question why, we must distinguish two things principally.

First of all, we must understand what the believer's standing is, what the believer's state is. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature he's dead to sin as that sin would damn the man and he's also dead to the law as that law would condemn the man that's his status, that's his standing, he's dead

and Doesn't Paul say it? In very personal terms, in that remarkable 7th chapter in the epistle to the Romans, where he's speaking of himself in a state of grace and you know the chapter, I'm sure you've read the chapter and found much comfort in it many a time. He says there in Romans 7 verse 5, when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter."

What is he saying here? We are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held or as the margin says literally being dead to that wherein we were held. The believer is dead with regards to all the condemning powers of the law of God. That law which is holy, that commandment which is holy and just and good and he's a sinner and yet the law does not condemn him because of his status in the Lord Jesus Christ

he goes on doesn't he to say there in that or previously in that seventh chapter verse four wherefore my brethren you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." Oh, the Apostle is so clear. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but you're under grace.

The believer's standing there. We must understand where he is. He's dead, to sin, is dead to the condemning power of the law because he's been delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ who has come and stood in his very law place and answered all the demands of the law of God for him by the obedience of his life and not only answered all those demands but also answered all that judgment and that punishment that must be visited upon the sinner or the soul that sinneth it shall die and Christ has died and honoured the law in his dying as he honoured it also in his doing, in his life.

The believer's status then is one in which there's no condemnation but then there's the matter of the believer's condition He still has this old nature. And that's what Paul goes on to speak of so clearly in that seventh chapter of the Roman Epistle. O wretched man that I am, he says, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He feels it. He feels what he is in his old nature. He's alive now, you see. to things that he was once so ignorant of when he was on regenerate he has a new nature he's a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord himself says in that third chapter of John where he is speaking of the vital necessity of the new birth that which is born of the flesh is flesh says Christ that which is born of the spirit is spirit how these are so distinguished one from the other so opposite to each other and how the apostle takes up those words of the Lord Jesus when he's writing in the epistle to the Galatians all the flesh lost it against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and ye cannot do the thing that ye would

And that was Paul's great burden in the 7th of Romans, of course. The good that I would I do, not the evil that I would not that I do, he says. When I would do good, evil is present with me.

Interesting, this morning, reading the brief comment in that little book that was only published about a year ago by the Gospel Standard Trust of J.C. Philpott's, trying to think the title of the book now, The Gospel Almanac it's called, The Gospel Almanac, it's just a verse and then maybe a single sentence comment on that verse, it's not a daily portion book in the normal sense, but it's quite provocative, some of the little remarks just one sentence in a comment on the verse or maybe two sentences but this morning interestingly the text when I turned the page was what will you see in the Shunammite? as it were the company of two armies those words from the son of Solomon the Shunammite the spouse of Solomon the bride of Christ what is in the believer? as it were the company of two armies and this is what Paul is so conscious of isn't it as he is writing there to the Galatians how the flesh, the old nature, the old man is lusting against the new man of grace and the new man of grace is resisting and there is this conflict, this warfare in the soul of the sinner and so when we think of the believers condition you see over against his status. He's standing before God. He's died to sin. He's died to the world. He's died to sinful self. He's dead to all the condemning power of the law.

But all his condition, what is his condition? There must be this conflict. And what is the outcome? There must be this determination, this mortifying. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, all that that pertains to the old nature. Oh, what an exhortation.

This evil principle, you see, is never completely eradicated. This evil principle, it never changes. The flesh is always the flesh. and so the believer is having to endure these things throughout his life here upon the earth and longing for that time when he will be absent from the body present with the Lord sin my worst enemy says Isaac Watts isn't it in the hymn sin my worst enemy before shall vex mine eyes and ears no more my inwards foes shall all be slain or Satan break my peace again. That's heaven. That's heaven. That's rest. We were thinking of that rest in heaven only last Thursday evening at the prayer meeting. The words of the apostle there in Hebrews 4 verses 9, 10 and 11.

But here you see there's this awful conflict is necessity to be mortifying, putting to death the deeds of the body and I do like what Paul says at the end of that seventh chapter in Romans he cries out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? and then he answers his own question I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I myself serve the Lord of God but with the flesh the Lord of sin and the emphasis in that final sentence so then with the mind he doesn't just say I serve the Lord of God but he emphasizes the pronoun he says I myself that's the real me The believer isn't a split personality because he has his conflict. The believer is a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the real Paul there, the I myself serving the Lord of God and yet all the flesh lusting against the Spirit.

Well, let us turn in the second place to the actual practice of the mortification. What is it to mortify the deeds of the body? If it has to do with our condition, not with our status, our standing in Christ, but the lives that we're having to live in this present fallen world, what is it to be those who would heed the word of exhortation and the gospel precept really that stands before us in the verse? Well, again, comparing scripture with scripture, go back to what Paul says to the church at Rome in the following 8th chapter, the chapter following chapter 7. He says, if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. That's what he's saying there in Romans 8.13, if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, if ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh you'll live. There's a dependence you see, a dependence upon the Holy Spirit himself. I want to turn to that verse to make sure we've got it right. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify it's through the spirit that you mortify the deeds of the body and ye shall live we need that that continual help that enabling by the Holy Spirit we need to know his gracious workings his sovereign operations as we must know him in regeneration so we must know him continually in mortification we need to learn and to feel our complete dependence upon him.

And how necessary this mortification is, and I want to mention three reasons why it's so necessary. First of all, it's necessary simply because of that sin which always cleaves to the old nature. What we have here in verse 5 is what we might say are the members, the members of the old nature. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. What are the members which are upon the earth? Well he names them, doesn't he? Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. These are members of the All-Nature, just as when we think of our bodies we have feet and legs and arms and hands, they're all members of our body.

And remember the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself in the Gospel. He speaks there in Matthew 18 verse 8, He says, Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life old or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Now the Lord is really teaching exactly the same thing as the Apostle is now teaching to the Colossians. Christ is not teaching self-harm. He's not teaching us to harm ourselves in some foolish fashion. Clearly the teaching is spiritual in its nature. And of course that is brought out so plainly when we come to what the Apostle is saying here. These sins are spiritual sins, aren't they? They're all spiritual sins. And he finishes with covetousness, which is idolatry.

Remember his own experience, as he tells us, back in that seventh chapter of Romans how was it that Paul came to realize how great a sinner he was when he was a Pharisee he imagined he was righteous with regards to the Lord of God he says as much in Philippians 3 touching the righteousness which is of the law blameless he didn't understand the true spiritual nature of the law but he was brought to that He was brought to that and he mentions it in that 7th chapter of Romans verse 7 I had not known sin but by the law I had not known lust except the Lord had said thou shalt not covet but sin taking occasion by the commandment brought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the law sin was dead for I was alive without the law once but when the commandment came to revive and I died he died to all trust in himself he came to see the true nature of the Lord of God in terms of that commandment the tenth commandment thou shalt not covet he saw his heart was full of all concupiscence all evil desire

or the heart of man you serve you can know it the Lord knows it and Paul is making it so clear that what we have to mortify is all this this evil that proceeds from the hearts of men that's the root of it and what is it? It's idolatry, covetousness. Covetousness which is idolatry. We're told aren't we, flee from idolatry. Flee from it. Again, the strength of the words that the Apostle uses when he writes to the Philippians. He speaks of those whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things. Their God is their belly, all they want to do is to satisfy their base lust and desires. These are the things that have to be mortified. It's what we have in our fallen nature, what we are in our fallen nature.

Oh yes, we have a standing in the Lord Jesus Christ, but what of our condition? Are we conscious of what we carry about with us, this body of sin and death? Who shall deliver me, says Paul. How he feels it. The exaltation then is necessary, the practice is to be undertaken because of what cleaves to the old nature.

But then also, secondly, We are to have an eye on the judgment that is yet to come. What does he say? Look at the context. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Now observe the wording here. Why has he put that word therefore in? It's a consequence. Christ is going to appear. Christ is going to return again and the day of judgment will come. And what are we to do in the light of what will yet come to pass? We are to be those who in this life are mortifying the deeds of the body. This is what distinguishes the child of God from the unbeliever.

You see, he mentions all these terrible sins at the end of verse 5, and then he says in verse 6, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Are we, those who are living our lives in the life of that day that is yet to come, are we judging ourselves? Are we desirous to be mortified? these sins are so much bound up with what we are in our fallen nature it's not just what clears to the old man, is it? it's because of that day which will surely come when all the books are opened and we want to be those who have lived as Christians should have lived in this present world.

We're to judge ourselves. We're to judge ourselves. That's the mark of the people of God. As we judge ourselves by the grace of God, by the blessed workings of the Spirit, we will be seeking that these sins are crucified. We really are crucified with Christ, and yet we're living.

And then the third reason why we should be practicing mortification is because of the old way of life. We did once walk in that way, as he says in verse 7, in which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them. We're not to be living in them now. We were living them all together once upon a time. It doesn't mean, of course, that we're not going to be those who on occasions will, alas, wander out of the narrow way, backslide in hearts. But we're not going to be perpetually living in those old ways as was once the case with us.

There's the old life. There's the old life. And again, How we can see these things brought out time and again in the epistles of the Apostle. What a man was this Paul. It was a pattern really, a pattern to them that should hereafter believe. Remember when he writes of the Ephesians there in the second chapter, he reminds them, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience we want nothing to do with that way of the children of disobedience that's where we once were but no more, we're in Christ the old life is gone, there's a new life to be lived they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh in its affections and lusts Paul says to the Galatians and so as we live our lives it's a life of mortification all the time look at 2nd Corinthians and there in chapter 4 verses 10 and 11 always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

That's mortification. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

And what does he go on to say, or what does he say previously? In chapter 1 of 2nd Corinthians, in the 9th verse, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raises the dead. Well, this is the life that the Christian is to live. It's a new life. It's the life of Christ in the soul of a man. Well, that's the wonder of the Christian life. We have to take up our cross daily if we're going to be those who are following the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a new nature. It's a divine nature. We'll partake, as Peter says, of the divine nature, the very life of God in our souls.

It's inevitable then, if we have this new life, that we will be those who are continually mortifying the deeds of the body. And in a sense, you see, we're kept from sinning, because whoever is born of God does not commit sin, does he? His seed remaineth in him. He cannot sin because he's born of God. It's the seed that's in him, it's the divine nature. And surely that divine nature by the gracious workings, the sovereign operations of the Spirit will prevail, must prevail.

Where is the call then that the apostle makes as he addresses the church there at Colossae and of course these New Testament epistles, they don't just belong to these churches that are being addressed, be it at Colossae or Ephesus or the churches of Galatia or the Corinthian church, the church at Rome. These things are all written for our learning, for our instruction.

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry." In a sense, I suppose what we've dealt with, mortification, is very much a negative thing. There's the other side of the coin, as it were. There's the blessed truth of sanctification. That's the more positive aspect. there's not just a putting off as we said at the beginning there's also the putting on and so if the Lord will I want us to go on to consider something more of that putting on later this evening

he goes on doesn't he at verse 8, 9 and 10 now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth lie not one to another seeing that he hath put off the old man and his deeds and hath put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Well, the Lord will consider something of that new man of grace and that blessed truth of his sanctification. when we meet again this evening.

The Lord be pleased to own and bless His truth to us.