Good morning, brethren. Let's
be turning to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Now, this
chapter is considered by many to be a very practical chapter
of scripture. A very practical chapter. And
in these scriptures, here, they contain exhortations. Exhortations from the Apostle.
Exhortations are things strongly encouraged. These are things
earnestly advised. Being practical means these are
things to use, things to put into practice, things to put
into effect. However, It must be known that
this scripture, these passages here, do not address those that
are spiritually dead. It's speaking to those who are
spiritually alive, made alive by the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't speak to us of how
one is to be saved. The flesh asks and speaks of
when I got saved, what I did to save myself, what I did to
make Christ's death effectual to me. That's how the carnal
man speaks. But this chapter speaks to those
who are saved. for whom Christ has accomplished
their salvation, their redemption. That's how God's people are saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what He has done for us,
not what we have done for Him, and so this is speaking to those
that have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, those that
have been made alive, born again by the Spirit of Christ, who
is given to His people, who has found the lost sheep of Christ,
and revealed the life of Christ in them, given them a new birth
by the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is addressed to
those that have called upon Christ, that have called out to him for
mercy and grace and help in time of need. They're regenerated
through that new birth of the Spirit. And to those that are
alive, These words will not be ignored. They'll not be despised
or put off as meaningless or not for them. They hear these
words and these words are encouraging. Encouraging words to those who
live and who, like Paul, when he said to the Philippians, I
press toward the mark. for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. That's who this is speaking to.
That's who these words are addressed to. Now, the first half of this
chapter, which is what we'll be looking at today, you could
even see it as the first third, and the first third of this chapter,
it largely deals with putting off the old man. Putting off
the old man. recognizing that the works that
are spoken of here are works of the flesh. These are works
of the old man. This is what we did in our flesh
according to the lusts of the flesh, according to the way of
the world under the prince of the power of the air. And the
second half, or the second third, largely deals with putting on
the new man, which we'll see in a future time, putting on
the new man. Now, if I was to enter a swimming
race, if you were going to enter a race to swim, would you go
to that race wearing your street clothes? Would you go to that
race wearing blue jeans and a big shirt or a sweatshirt? No, you
wouldn't. Because if you were to swim with
those clothes on, you would be way down. They would fill up
with water. They get heavy. They drag against you in the
water. They bring you down. They make
it much more difficult to swim and to finish the race in a timely
manner. you won't do it. So you would
put those off and you would put on swimwear. Swimwear that made
you to glide through that water, to swim easy, to swim fast, to
swim without resistance. And so we put off the old, the
street clothes, and we put on swimwear for that thing. Well,
similarly, we're putting off the old man, which drags us down,
weighs us down, is beset with sin, and troubles us. Just gives us great grief and
shame and sorrow when we live in the flesh. We'd rather live
to Christ. We look to Christ. We believe
Christ. We wanna follow him. We wanna hear him and follow
him. And so these words are addressed
to us. Now, good scripture, as we get
started, a good scripture, turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews
chapter 12. It's a little bit further back
in your Bible. Hebrews 12, and we'll look at verse one and the
beginning of verse two. Here, the Apostle Paul says,
wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. lay aside those things which
cause you to stumble. You that are alive under Christ,
you know those things that cause you to stumble, those things
that trouble you. You know those things that that
make it so you don't want to read, that you're afraid to pray,
you don't think you can pray, those things that cause you grief
and sorrow and put your mind on yourself and your own shame
rather than thinking of your brethren and praying for them
and serving the Lord, put aside those things, he says. Those
things are weighing you down. Put those things aside. Lay them aside. And he says,
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And so the verses that
we're looking at today in Colossians 3 are about putting off the old
man of flesh. Now, this is not something that
we do by fleshly means. This is not something that we
have the strength nor the will to do in the flesh. This is not
a fleshly work. Men love religious ceremony. They love carnal things because
they can lay their hands on those things and think, by doing this,
by keeping the law of Moses, by doing this religious ceremony,
by getting circumcised, by doing these things, they feel like
they're doing something to contribute to their salvation. They feel
like they're getting themselves better and better and more holy
by the works that they do. But the Lord teaches us that
we cannot do these things by the strength nor the will of
the flesh. These works of the flesh are
not removed by ceremony. They're not removed by our fortitude
and our strong will to never do those things again. We learn
quickly that our words are very hollow. They're very short-lived. We fall very quickly, and we're
brought to shame and humility that try to do these things in
the flesh. Paul said it this way when he was writing to the
Galatians in 3.3, said, Having begun in the spirit, are ye now
made perfect by the flesh? Can you now put away the sin
of your flesh? Having begun in the spirit, can
you now put away the sin of this flesh by the works of your flesh? by reforming yourself, by doing
a better job than what you did before? No, we can't do that. We can't do that. It's a gracious
work of God by His Spirit, working in His people, doing this for
His people. In the new man, which is born
of the seed of Christ, we learn our need of Christ. As we look to put off the old
man, we learn our need of Christ. We learn our need of the grace
of God. Now, one of the most complete
verses in shutting down man's pride is found in John chapter
one, verse 12 and 13. I'll read it to you. We think
that man who thinks that he contributes something to salvation, something
to what only Christ does for us, is John chapter one, verse
12 and 13. where John writes, but as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name. What the apostle
is teaching us there in that verse, is that those who receive
Christ and those who believe Christ and look to Him for all
their salvation, they receive Him and believe Him because God
has given them power to become sons of God. It's the resulting
fruit of the life of Christ in us. We receive Christ and believe
Him because of what our God has done for us graciously in Christ. Verse 13 says, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. Were born of God by his grace. So this chapter is written to
those born of God. Now it says in Colossians 3 verse
1, and what I want to point out here, because we're going to
look at verse 1 and then verse 10, we're looking at these bookends,
seeing how Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. We're
looking at the bookends that first we are redeemed by Christ
and we are born again by the Spirit of God. And that's, we
are held, we are delivered from death by the grace of our God
in Christ. What he has done, not what we
have done. So verse one says, if ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Now, if you are risen with Christ,
that means that you died with Christ. That means you were with
him when he was crucified on the tree as the sin bearer of
his people, bearing the sins of his people in his own body
to put away our sins, to pay the debt of our sin, to make
satisfaction unto God and an atonement for our sins, a covering
for our sins. We died with him and we are dead
to the law, dead to sin, dead to the body of death. the body of sin. We're dead to
those things. It has no more bearing on us. We now are Christ. If we're raised
with Christ, we died with Christ. Just as we read in Romans 6,
6 and 7, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Well, Christ is the one who accomplished
this redemption. He's the one that did this for
us. This is why we rejoice in him. and glory in His name, and
glory in Him who laid down His life for me, a sinner, a wretched
sinner who cannot save himself, a wretched sinner who cannot
please God, who needs the grace of God. Christ did this gracious
work for sinners, for sinners. And all sinners rejoice in Him
for what He's done for them. Acts 2.24 says, whom God hath
raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was
not possible that he should be holden by it. We can't break
free of the arms, the grip of death. We can't deliver ourselves.
It pains us at the time of death to lose our loved ones because
they can't deliver them from death. We can't deliver them
from death. But Christ could not be held
by death. And that's our hope in Him that
He has justified us and in Him we have eternal life so that
when He returns we shall be raised again. And He's given us even
now the earnest, the down payment of our inheritance, His Spirit
whereby we know Him and hear Him and receive Him and His words
and believe Him and look for His appearing. Seeking Him, looking
after Him, And so he gives his redeemed life from himself because
he himself is life. John said this way, he is that
eternal life which was with the father and was manifested unto
us. So Christ who is our life gives
us now all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. We have all the spiritual blessings
of God for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his Holy Spirit, by whom
we are born again, formed after the image of Christ, that new
man born of the seed of Christ. And Paul asserts it this way,
look down at Colossians 3.10, here's the other bookend, that
we have put on the new man. That's that new birth, that creation
of Christ in you. That new man which is renewed
in the knowledge after the image of him that created it. This is the creation of God who
does this glorious work of salvation in the sinner, for the sinner.
Apart from many works that we do, apart from what we bring,
Christ has done it all for us in obtaining our redemption and
the forgiveness of sins. And he's given us his spirit
so that we know him, we're alive unto him. So that's who's being
addressed here, those that are made alive with Christ, they're
risen with Christ, they live, they're born again by his spirit. And so he's asserting works of
putting off the works of the flesh. And he tells us these
are works accomplished in us by grace. Before we get into
those verses, I just want to emphasize this is all by the
grace of our God. In fact, if you look down at
verse 11, Colossians 3, 11, he says, he shows, this is a breakdown
showing us that there's nothing in us that accomplishes this
salvation for us. It's not us, it's according to
the gracious will of God who chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Verse 11, where there is neither
Greek nor Jew. That is, it's not a matter of
nationality. It doesn't matter what nationality
or race you are. God doesn't love one race above
another race. He doesn't put one race above
another. Whether you're Jew or Gentile, God has his people scattered
across the world. Scattered throughout the people.
Just like he said to Abraham that your seed will be like the
dust and like the stars. That speaks of the multitude
of them and also dust and stars are scattered over the whole
earth. Scattered over the whole earth, that's the people of God.
Then he says it's not circumcision nor uncircumcision. It's not
about religious ceremonies that you or I do or don't do. It's
not according to the rudiments of the world that we grew up
in. what religion we came up in before Christ. That's not
what God looks to. He's not looking to the things
you did to try and save yourself. They didn't help us at all. In
fact, oftentimes we see how religion is a cause for stumbling, causing
people to stumble, because now they can't hear Christ. They
don't think that they need Christ because they're religious, and
they think that's their salvation. That's not our salvation. Christ
is our salvation. It's not barbarian or Scythian,
meaning it's not a matter of your education level, the culture
that you have. It's not a matter of your class
or your stature in this life. You could be rich or you could
be poor. Our God has his people in all different levels of society. It's not whether you're bond
nor free. There were some who were slaves.
There were some who were free men that Christ saved and delivered
from death. There was only Cyphrus and there
was Philemon. One was a slave and one was a
rich man. And Christ saved them both. And he says, because there's
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And
that's what he means when he says, for Christ is all in all. There's one Savior, one Savior
for the whole world. That is, there's one Savior,
one salvation that God has given to save his people scattered
throughout the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, look to
Him, the servant of God whom He sent to save His people from
their sins. And He accomplished that work
gloriously in them. And so, these things couch the
new man, what Christ has done. Not what we've done, but what
He has done. This is what couches our salvation. Now, speaking to that new man,
Born of grace, Paul says down in Colossians 3.5, mortify therefore
your members which are upon the earth. Now that word therefore
means that it's written because of something that came before
it. It's there for a reason. Verse three, Colossians 3.3,
this is what comes before. Paul said, ye are dead and your
life is hid with Christ in God. In other words, we are entirely
dependent on the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one in whom we live. And he's speaking, therefore,
saying, you that live by Christ, you that live in Christ, in whom
Christ dwells in your hearts by faith, you that are his, mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some
time when ye lived in them." And so These things are the lifestyle
of the disobedient. This is what the disobedient
do. This is what they do who have
no knowledge of Christ. This is how man lives, what he
does freely and thinks nothing of it. This is what he does to
satisfy his flesh, walking according to the course of this world.
But this is not how believers are to walk. We did walk in these
things, but this is not how we are to continue walking and living. And the fact that Paul is addressing
this tells us that these things are yet present in our flesh. Not in the new man, born of Christ,
because he cannot sin. But these things are yet present
in this flesh. The affections and the lusts,
they're all present in us. They're in this flesh. They can
be found. Paul found this to be so in Romans
7. Now you can see this in Romans
7 verse 22 through 24. He confesses, I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, after that new man born of God
in me. I delight in the law, that law
of faith written on my heart and on my mind. I delight in
that law. I delight in the things of God.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. so that I'm confronted by the
fact that I'm tempted with these things. These things rise up,
often at the most inconvenient times. These things show themselves
and rear their head, the lusts and the passions of the flesh
that seeks what it seeks because it wants it. These things are
present in our flesh. And Paul's saying, I see these
things. They're warring against that law of my mind, that law
written on our hearts and on our minds by the Spirit of God.
They make war against it. And he confesses, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Though we're born again, though
we're alive in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ our Savior,
and we rejoice in the things of our God revealed to us in
Christ, this body of flesh is a body of death. It is yet corrupt. It is yet vile. It is yet sinful. We see these things in our members. It's why Peter said to the brethren,
saying, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. They're
warring in you, don't do those things, he's saying. They're
there, they're present in us, but don't do those things. Now the Lord keeps showing us
that the only way to put away these works is by the Lord Jesus
Christ, so that Paul adds in verse 25, Romans 7.25, saying,
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. In other words, the sin is still
present and this flesh is not going to be any help to you.
It's not going to add or contribute anything to your salvation. It's
only going to seek to weigh you down. That's all it does. It's like wearing blue jeans
and a sweatshirt and trying to swim a race. It's not going to
happen. You're going to be slow and bogged
down. Now, why does God use these words? Why does he say this to
us when we can't do these things in our flesh? Well, remember,
the Lord does all things for our good. These things are written
here for our good. They're to grow us in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How so? How is this good? How does this grow me in the
grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, when
he's saying things to me that are yet present in my flesh,
yet weigh me down, yet trouble me? How do these things grow
me in grace and knowledge? Because putting off the old man,
and abstaining from these lusts and passions in the flesh, it
quickly shows me how utterly insufficient I am, how sinful
I am, how weak I am, how unable I am to save myself. And we see
in the scriptures, and we see it in our own hearts as well,
how arrogant, how proud, how much we think we can do until
we learn you can't do it. Christ teaches all his sheep
that without me ye can do nothing and we learned that we're brought
to see we're humbled under the hand of our God who shows us
you can't do it you can't do it by yourself you can't even
do it you need my grace, you need Christ. And it humbles us,
it bows the knee, it puts us on our face in the dust, crying
out, Lord, forgive me, save me. And it humbles us so that then
we become gentle with our brethren. And we're kinder to them and
loving to them. And we forgive them even as we,
for Christ's sake, have been forgiven by the Father. And we're
made gentle because we see I can't do it. I'm troubled by my own
flesh. Perhaps my brethren are going through a difficult time.
Let me not be angry. Let me not lash out at them,
but pray, but pray for them. And Lord, help me remembering
what I am in this flesh. And so hearing these things and
abstaining from these things, we quickly see, I don't have
it in me. I don't have the strength for
this. Lord, I need your grace. And we learn how when we do those
things, just how shameful, how ashamed we feel, how awful we
feel, how we stop doing those things that we were doing. And
we're not praying for our brethren. Now we're praying for ourselves
because we're troubled and we're afraid and we're We bring these
things on us, a war against the soul. And the Lord teaches us
that. So that as we grow in Christ,
we don't want to do those things. I don't want to stop, but when
I'm studying the word of God, I'm thinking of you brethren.
And I don't want to be troubled by my own sin. That's not good
or profitable for you, just as it's not good or profitable for
me. And so I pray, Lord, help me, keep me, turn me from the
lusts and the passions of this flesh because of your sheep. They're your sheep, Lord. Help
me to serve them, to love them. And that's how, what he does
for us as we see, Lord, you have a blessed people. whom I love,
and I want to see them grow, and them blessed, and them profited
in what you've done for them. And so he does that, he works
that in our hearts. And so that's why he says this. That's why he has to show us,
Lord save me, save me by Christ. Then Paul continues in verse
eight and nine. But now ye also put off all these
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your
mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. All right,
the beginnings of those are sins of the heart. They're in our
heart. The other ones are what comes out of the heart through
the mouth, all right, the things that we say and do. It's a heart
work, brethren. These are works of the flesh,
right? When you read Galatians 5 where Paul talks of the works
of the flesh, he lists all these and even more. It's how man lives
in this world, how he lives according to the course of this world,
how he gets the things. People get angry, they put on
a show and they show they're angry so they get their way or
they have another way that they manipulate people or get things
that they want. They do all these fleshly things
instead of praying. and being patient and just speaking
to people, speaking kindly and gently with one another. And
so by the Spirit, we look to Christ, who is our life. By the Spirit, we pray to Him
and we ask Him for help and for grace because we cannot do this. We can't put to death our fleshly
members by this flesh because the flesh wants no part of it.
The flesh wants to keep doing what the flesh loves doing. but
the spirit in us groans with prayers and cries that cannot
be uttered and intercedes for us graciously. So Paul's been
exhorting the believers in Colossae, showing how Christ has given
them life in himself, telling them, don't practice these things.
This is what the world does, don't practice these things.
But it's of grace and it's of faith, looking to Him, believing
Him, asking Him, Lord, grow me in the grace and knowledge of
my Lord and Savior. Show me these things. Deliver me from these
things. And I'll close back in Romans
6, verse 11 through 14. Paul, speaking of Christ, putting
to death this body of sin, he adds, Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for ye are not under the law, that is, under the law
of Moses, but under grace. And so it's all of grace. Seek
him for, don't be indifferent to its presence there, It's meant
to bring you to your knees, to cry out to God for mercy and
grace and help. And to show you your need of
Christ evermore. And to be merciful and kind to
your brethren as well. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. Lord, we thank you for this word.
We confess that we can't do it. We see the strength and the power
of sin warring in our flesh, warring in our members. But Lord,
we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the redemption
that is in Christ and your spirit, which gives us life to see our
need of Christ, to see that salvation is all of grace. And Lord, we
look to You to help us. We look to You to deliver us
from the lusts and passions of this flesh, to abstain from them
and to put them off, that we may walk in faith, being led
of our Savior, being led of the Spirit, rejoicing in the light
and the fellowship that we have with our God and our brethren
in Christ. It's in His name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren, we'll be
dismissed for 15 minutes. Come back at 11.