morning service with hymn number
27 from your soft-backed hymnal number 27 and let's all stand
together pleading for grace 27 Sovereign ruler, lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. Heaven, earth, and hell I see,
Fulfill all your wise decree. Dares a man resist his Lord,
Stand against the sovereign God? I will bow before your throne,
Seeking grace in Christ your Son. through his blood and righteousness. Lord, I plead with you for grace. If you will, you can, I know. Grace and mercy to me show. Will you, Lord, my soul forgive? Grant this sinner grace to live. I've no other hope but this,
Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. Oh, for mercy now I plead. Grant me, Lord, the grace I need. Turn, oh, turn to me and say,
all your sins are washed away. In my son, your debt is paid. He, for you, the ransom made. Please be seated. Good morning. I know if you are
a sinner, you rejoiced in being able to sing those words we just
sang. The debt's been paid. Law's been silenced. God's satisfied. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. That's such a delight. That's such a joy. It's the only,
as we just sang, it's the only hope. He is the only hope we
have. We're going to be looking at
Colossians chapter three, if you'd like to turn with me there
in your Bibles, Colossians chapter three for our Bible study this
morning. And I've titled this according
to verse five, mortify your members, mortify your members. What does that mean? I've got
an interest in that. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we do come before thy throne of grace, pleading the name,
the righteousness, all our acceptance in thy dear son. We ask, Lord,
that you'd be pleased to send your spirit and power to open
what no man can shut. We pray that you would open your
word Pray that you'd open our understanding. Pray that you'd
open our hearts. Pray, Lord, that you would cause
Christ to be lifted up and cause your children to be drawn to
him in faith. We ask it in his name. Amen. Mortify your members. I've got a sin problem. I need to know what the Lord
means when he speaks of putting to death the deeds of the flesh. That's what this means. Mortify
therefore your members that are upon the earth. These are my
members. This is my body. The Lord says
put it to death. I want to know what that means.
We know that our God is sovereign, no question about it. As we just
sang, He's sovereignly ordained and purposed all things. He is the first cause of all
things. And that creates a great comfort,
a great hope, a great peace in our hearts because we know that
All things work together for good for them that love God and
those that are the called according to his purpose. Our God reigns sovereignly over
the affairs of men. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him, what doest thou? He reigns sovereign over
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. We
don't speak of making Jesus Lord of our lives. Let the religious
make that statement all they want. We know that he is Lord
over our lives. He's Lord over the living and
over the dead. He's not running for office.
He's not pleading with men to let him have his way. He reigns
sovereign. There's great comfort in that
and knowing that the Lord sovereignly uses our sin in order to bring
us back to himself. The old man serves the new man,
and he drives us to Christ. That having been said, we in
no way accuse God for our sin. We bear full responsibility for
our sin. James put it like this, let no
man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God. For God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But we are tempted when we're
drawn away of our own lust. And when lust has conceived,
it bringeth forth sin and sin bringeth forth death. Do not
err, my beloved brethren. That's the Lord's word. So, the
sovereignty of God in no way removes from us the responsibility
for our sin. Now, I want to know what the
Lord is speaking of when he speaks of mortifying my flesh, my members
that are upon the earth, because I need for my old man to be put
to death. I need for him to be, I need
to recognize his condition before God. Paul put it like this in Romans,
he said, where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Now the
long and short of this message is that what you need and what
I need for our sin problem is more grace. That's what we need. We need more grace. The law does
not control sin. Matter of fact, the scripture
says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that the strength of sin is
the law. All the law does is aggravate
sin. We don't control this sin problem
that we have with the law. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
three. Look at verse 22. But the scripture
hath concluded all under sin. Here's our problem. Here's your
problem. Here's my problem. We've got a sin problem. God
is holy. God, His eyes are too pure to
look upon evil. We've got to have this sin problem
taken care of. And the scripture has concluded
that all are under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. So our hope and
our faith is in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our righteousness before God. We have no righteousness outside
of him. Apart from Christ, everything
about us is exposed before God as sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, notice,
Notice the little preposition, by faith of Jesus Christ. It's not your faith in Jesus
Christ. It is the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's my advocate before
the Father. He's the righteous one. He's the one in whom and the
only one in whom you and I are able to have acceptance before
God. That's clear. Clear in the Scriptures. We've got to be found in Him. Not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. But before faith came, before
the Lord blessed us with faith, We were kept under the law. That's
where we were. The law stood in judgment of
us before the Lord enabled us to trust Christ. And if you've
not been enabled by the grace of God to put your hope and your
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness, If
you're still depending on something that you've done or haven't done
for your acceptance before God, if you're still depending on
a decision that you've made or a prayer that you've prayed or
something that you've done to make what Jesus did work for
you, then you're still under the law. You're still under the
law. Before faith came, we were kept
under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. The faith of the Lord Jesus Christ
was a mystery to us. We couldn't see it. We couldn't
believe it. It was foreign to us. We came
into this world believing that we had to do something to earn
favor with God. And until the Lord revealed to
us that there was nothing we could do to earn favor with God,
we continued to try. Wherefore, wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster. Now in the Jewish home, a wealthy
home in particular, would have servants that were assigned to
care for the children. And they were called schoolmasters. And though the children were
heirs of the estate and would one day grow up and become masters
of those servants, the children were instructed by the parents
for their own safety to obey the servants. The servant was
the schoolmaster and the schoolmaster had authority over those children. Now notice it, I hope you have
a copy of God's Word that has the next three words in italics
because they're not there in the original text. It's amazing
to me how much heresy has come as a result of making these three
italicized words scripture. I heard it last night. I heard
a man preaching last night and he was preaching the law. because
he believed that you have to put people under the law in order
for them to see their lawlessness. In order for them to see their
need of a savior, you've got to preach the law. We were under the law as a schoolmaster
not to bring us to Christ. The law doesn't bring us to Christ.
What the Lord's saying here is that there was a time when you
were under the authority of the law, just like those children
were under the authority of the schoolmaster. But now you're
no longer under the authority of the law. You're under the
authority of Christ. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
unto Christ, until Christ. Now you're not under the schoolmaster.
We don't go around preaching the law. Men have the law of
God written on their hearts. Your conscience tells you right
from wrong. You know in your heart of hearts,
you know that there is a God with whom one day you must do. You know that. And you know that
he's holy. And you know that you've got
a problem with him. That's just common knowledge. Thus, the reason for a proliferation
of man-made religion. Every culture, every person's
got some form of religion. What are they trying to do? They're
trying to reconcile themselves with God, knowing that death
cannot be escaped, knowing that I must stand in the presence
of God. What am I going to do? And so, everybody's got a form
of religion. in order to try to, we don't
need to tell men that they're sinners. We don't need to tell
men that they've got a problem with God. The Lord, they know
that. They know that. Believers are
comforted in hearing that they're sinners. They're comforted in
being reminded that Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. Believers are comforted by that.
But you see that the law was not given in order to take us
to Christ. All the Lord's saying here is
that you were under the law. Now you're under Christ. That's
where I want to be. I don't want the law to have
anything to say to me. If the law says anything at all
to me, it's going to say, guilty. I need one who has satisfied
all the demands of God's holy law. One who will stand in my
stead and represent me before God. That's what I'm in need
of. And that's what this passage
is saying. But after faith has come, we are no longer under
the schoolmaster. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. So let's go back to our text
in Colossians chapter 3. This matter of mortifying the flesh, mortifying
the members of our bodies that are upon the earth, putting them
to death. What does that mean? How do we accomplish that? Every
child of God hates their sin. They hate it. If they could,
they would never sin again. They cry, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? They know that they're carrying
a dead corpse on their back, and they long to be rid of it.
Thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus, I am free
so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
What about this sin problem I still have? The law doesn't fix it. The law
only condemns it. And in fact, the law inspires
it. 1 Corinthians 15 says the strength of sin is the law. You want your children to grow up
to be rebellious? Just put them under the law, under the hard
hand and the heavy thumb of the law. Don't show them any grace. Don't show them any mercy. Just
be a strict disciplinarian with your children. Don't show them
any affection. I promise you, when they break
away from you, they will do everything you told them not to do. that the strength of sin is the
law. It only inspires us to be more
rebellious when we're put under that kind of rule. So mortifying the flesh is not
going back to the law. Mortifying your members is not
disciplining yourself, dedicating yourself, being more determined. Paul speaks of that in Romans
chapter 7, when he says, when I would do good, evil is ever
present with me. He said, to will is ever is there,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. I want to
be obedient, but I find this evil principle of sin that's
always with me, this matter of pulling ourselves up and being
more committed and more dedicated and, you know, that doesn't work. It doesn't work. How has it worked
for you? How many times have you determined
that you weren't going to do something? You've just, you've
turned over a new leaf. You've made a fresh dedication. It doesn't work any better than
the law works. Now I want to mortify the members of my body. I want them to be put to death.
What's the means that God has given us to that end? We have to begin in verse one
of Colossians chapter 3. If you then be risen with Christ. Chapter 2 speaks of the Lord
Jesus Christ being the sin-bearer, being our substitute, satisfying
all the demands of God's justice by burying our sins in His body
upon the tree and suffering the wrath of God and the hope of
our salvation is that we were in Him. That's why Paul said,
Oh, that I might know Him, the fellowship of His suffering.
I want to be more convinced by the Spirit of God that when Christ
hung on Calvary's cross and quenched the fire of God's wrath, that
I was in Him. I was in Him. That's my only
hope. That when He was put into the grave, I died in Him. And that when He was risen again,
I was risen in Him. So he says, if you then be risen
with Christ, If this is the hope of your salvation, notice in
verse 11 of our text, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision
nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. In other
words, what we're talking about here applies to every one of
us. It applies to every one of us.
It's not that, you know, we fit the gospel for one person and
then fit it for another person. This is the truth for you and
for me. And look at the last phrase in
that verse. But Christ is all and in all. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affections, set your
mind, set your thoughts. Paul puts it like this in Philippians,
whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are virtuous, whatsoever things are of good report, if
there be any hope. Think on these things. Think
on the Lord Jesus Christ. So set your affections on things
above, not on the things of the earth. Mortify in your body Mortifying
your flesh and keeping your body from indulging itself in the
affections of the flesh are not going to be accomplished by setting
your affections on them, by setting your determination on those things.
So you're not going to discipline yourself into this mortification. For you are dead. But my sin seems so alive and
so powerful in me. How can it be that I'm dead? Because God said so. Because God said so. Faith believes
God. Faith doesn't believe its experiences,
it doesn't believe its feelings, it believes God. Reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. When Christ died, I died in Him. Here's the You see, this matter
of mortifying my members that are upon the earth cannot be
separated. It's directly linked to the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. In a previous chapter,
he says, well, look at verse six of chapter two of Colossians. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. That's what we're
talking about now. We're talking about walking in
Christ. We're talking about getting the evil affections of our members
and our flesh from breaking out In our behavior, that's every
believer's desire. How is it going to be? It's going
to be the same way in which you received Christ Jesus. How did
you receive Him? How did you receive Him? If you
received Him, you received Him the same way I received Him,
every other believer received Him. You received Him as a mercy
beggar. You didn't receive him because of your promises. You
didn't receive him because of your dedication. You didn't receive
him because of your works. You received him as a mercy beggar. And so the Lord says, as you
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Here's the
truth, we never ever get beyond faith. Never. We're talking about
sanctification now. We are justified by faith. We're
sanctified through faith. We never get beyond setting our
affections on things above. We're Christ's seated at the
right hand of God. Never get beyond that. Faith
is the evidence of things hoped for. It's the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The just and the justified
shall live. How am I going to live this life?
Do I need to somehow buffet my body? No, the just shall live
by faith. Faith. Here's the mortification
of the members of our body. It's the same as our justification. It's faith. I don't want to sin. I don't want you to sin. We're
responsible when we sin. And we're sinners. Everything
about us is sinful. How do I keep these evil corruptions that are in my flesh? How do I subdue them? How do
I subdue them? Grace. Grace. For by grace are you saved. I thought that's just talking
about when I got regenerated. Oh, no. No. You see, Ephesians 2, 8, 9 applies
to our whole life. Peter said, to whom coming, we're
always coming to Christ. We come the same way. For by
grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. You don't mortify your members
because you've just, I'm going to do better. I'm going to do
better. Most religious meetings this
morning are nothing more than motivational speeches and pep
talks telling men that they can do better than they have been.
And people leave deceived thinking that they are going to get better,
and they don't. The child of God who knows himself,
it just seems to him that he's getting worse. I'm in more need
of grace now than I've ever needed before in my whole life. Lord,
I don't want these corrupt affections to be manifested in my behavior. I don't want that. You're going
to have to subdue them. And if He does, it won't be by the
arm of flesh. It won't be by the arm of flesh.
It'll be by the Spirit of God. Yeah, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Look at verse 3. For though we
walk in the flesh, that's where we are. We're in this body of
death, walking in this world of sin, Though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war after the flesh. You're not going to put
out the fire of your passions with your determination, with
your dedication. You're not going to do it. You
don't fight fire with fire. If you do, the fire is just going
to get bigger. You don't fight fire with the law. All it's going to do is fuel
the flames. That's all it's going to do. For the weapons of our warfare
are not fleshly, they're not carnal. Now I'm interested in
having, I'm interested in being, what the Ephesians chapter 5
speaks of, the armor of the Lord. I'm interested in that. The breastplate
of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the
spirit, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, and feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel. That's finding myself in Christ. I want to be a faithful soldier,
and I don't want to be sitting against God. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds and casting down imaginations and everything that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If you're like me, you wake up
in the morning, you open your eyes, And immediately you interpret
everything in your life as it relates to you. You are at the
center of your own little universe, are you not? What a dark hole
that is. What a black hole that is. I
mean, if we don't recognize that. You know, the world says you
need to love yourself more. That's my problem. I'm head over
heels in love with myself. And what a black hole it is.
You know, black holes, they tell me the gravity is so strong that
even light sucked into it. And that's the way it is when
we just get consumed with ourselves, isn't it? The light of truth
becomes just sucked into our own little black hole. But that's
what we are. Lord, deliver me. Deliver me. Give me grace to set my affections
on Christ, not on the things of the earth. I don't want to
be a slave to my sin. I don't want to be caught up
in this world. Bring the thoughts into captivity. And every thought If you've got a translation of
God's word that says, to your obedience of Christ, it's a lie. There are some translations that
translate the last phrase in verse five, to your obedience
of Christ. No, it's to the obedience of
Christ. Oh, what a difference. What a
difference. Here's the only hope. Here's
the weapon of our warfare. The weapon of our warfare is
not our determination. It's not our promises. The weapon
of our warfare is the obedience of Christ. It's His faithfulness. Grace is the only power that
will subdue the affections of this flesh and keep us from... Go back with me to our text.
Mortify. Look at verse 4. When Christ,
when Christ who is our life, He is our life. I made mention
of this last Sunday, I think. Don't say, I've heard people
say, well, you know, Jesus is the most important person in
my life. I fear they haven't understood anything if they talk
like that. Christ is my life. Outside of Christ, I have no
life. None whatsoever. I'm completely dead. The only
hope that I have for this old man to be put to death is to
be found in him. The only hope that I have for
eternal life is to be in him. Christ is my life. He's not just
the most, he's not the most important person in my life. As if I can,
you know, just sort of categorize him over here and then everything
about my life is bound up in Christ. When he shall appear, then you
shall also appear with him in glory. Here's the gospel. You see how the first four verses
are necessary in order to understand the next admonition? Mortify
therefore. The word therefore reflects back
on the previous verses. It's only the truth of the gospel
that enables us to mortify the members that are upon the earth.
You see, our new man is completely hid. All the blessings of God
are in the heavenlies in Christ. If I'm in Christ, I'm seated
at the right hand of God right now. Right now. It's the only
hope I have. But here I am stuck on this world
with members of my body that need to be mortified. They need
to be put to death. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto Christ. The obedience of Christ, that's
the weapon of our warfare. It's not a carnal weapon. I'm
not here to pump you up and try to get you to be more dedicated
and try to get you to get control of your sin. I'm here to tell
you, you need Christ. I need Christ. You can't do it. We can't control the passions
of our flesh. They're too strong for us. The
flesh is weak. We just can't do it. Looking to the Lord Jesus Christ,
as you received him, so walk ye in him. Faith. Faith. We never get beyond it. Ever. We're always in need of it. If
you're a child of God, I know you hate your sin. I know you
don't want to sin. And here's what the Lord says,
mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, and
then he names them. Now he's not saying You know, you need
to get control of this sin and that sin. He's talking about
the things of this earth that our flesh would give itself to
if we're not looking to Christ. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry. Oh, these
sins are all in our hearts, aren't they? They're all in our hearts. And the believer's just so afraid
that what's in his heart's gonna break out in his members. For which thing's sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of, that word disobedience is
unbelief. Unbelief. Those who are not able
to look to Christ. Those who are under the law,
these sins are not put away. They're not put away. They haven't
been covered by the blood of Christ. They're unbelievers. In the which you also walk sometime
when you lived in them, But now you also have put off all these
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not to one another seeing that you have put off
the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man. The
new man. Oh, there's the only hope we have.
The only way the old man is going to be controlled is by the new
man. renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him. Lord, grow me in your grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause me to set
my... I've got a sin problem. I can't
control it. Christ is all and in all. Let's take a break. Thank you.