Colossians chapter 3, we looked
at the first four verses last Sunday and we're going to pick
up with verse 5 today, but let's begin reading in verse 1 and
we'll read down to verse 10. Colossians 3 beginning in verse
1 it says, 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 hid 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, for which
things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience,
in the which you also walked some time when you lived in them,
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 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. Now let's take a minute and just
really understand what our Lord is saying to us here through
his apostle. I just want to clarify what Paul
just wrote to us here. Verse five, he said, mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth. Mortify means
kill, slay, destroy the strength of, that's what it means. Mortify
your members, that means the parts of your body, the things
that make up you, the specific things that particularly make
up the character and being of you, like fornication. That's what he said. The things
that make up, and I'm a you, I'm included in you, but he said
fornication. What is fornication? Fornication
is the physical union of a man and a woman outside of the covenant
of marriage. That's what it is. God said you
better not do it, so you better not do it. The word translates harlotry. It translates adultery. And to be very clear on what
this entails, hold your place right here and turn to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew 5, look with me at verse
27. You have heard that it was said
by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. Our Lord
said, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman
to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in
his heart." Do we see what the Lord said there? He said, you
know it was written in the law, don't commit adultery. But He
said, Let me explain the depths of that and the fullness of that.
Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed
adultery with her. Fornication does not stop with
physical deeds. It goes all the way into the
depths of the mind and the heart and the desire. Our Lord said
if it's within the covenant of marriage, the bed is undefiled. But if a man looks on a woman
who's not his wife, or if a woman looks on a man who is not her
husband, then he or she has committed fornication with that person
in the eyes of God. What happens in deed is only
the result of what begins in the heart. That's always the
case. Whatever we do, it started in the heart. If it happens in
the heart, it is a done deal in the eyes of God. It's a done
deal. Whether it ever manifests itself
in deeds or not, it's a done deal. So what this means is,
if those kinds of thoughts enter our minds, then we cannot go
around telling everybody and we cannot say to ourselves, I'm
not a fornicator. If thoughts like that enter our
minds, we are fornicators. And Paul said, kill that, kill
that, in deed and in the mind. That's what he's saying. Now,
just bear with me for a minute here, okay? Go with me back to
Colossians 3. Verse 5. He said, "...mortify therefore
your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness."
That means vile living, impure morals, impure motives. He said, kill that. Kill that. The next one he mentioned is
inordinate affection. That means a passionate lashing
out, a short fuse, flying off at the handle. Paul said, put
that away, squash that, just kill that. Verse five, he said,
evil concupiscence, that is a lusting for what is forbidden. Whether
that's some body or something, all right? It's a longing desire
for what you should not have, what is forbidden to you. He
went on to say, and covetousness, which is idolatry. The definition
of the word covetousness is greed. A greedy desire to have more.
I want more. I want more. I have whatever
it is, money, prestige, fame, power. I want more. I want more
and I'll give myself to have more. Paul said that's idolatry.
Verse 6 says, For which things sake? All the things he just
mentioned there, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh
on the children of disobedience. It's those very things that brings
God's wrath on man, on the children of disobedience. That's the reason
why. It's the very sin we live out
and carry out. We're doing it. And it matters. We'll find that out on the day
of judgment. Verse 7, in the which you also walked some time
when you lived in them. You used to live in those things,
those bad thoughts and bad deeds and all of those inner feelings
and everything that was going. He said, you used to live in
that. Verse 8, he said, but now you also put off all these anger,
That's hatred and murder in the heart. That's what anger is.
Verse eight, he said, wrath. That's what hatred and murder
in the heart produces. That's what comes out. He said,
malice. That is a desire to harm. That's wanting ill will to come
to a particular person. That's having somebody who you
want that person to fall. You want to see that person be
brought down. You want to see them go down.
Verse 8, he said, blasphemy, that is slandering a person's
character. That's trying to injure a person's
character in front of somebody else. Vilifying a person, it
says. Making a person out to be a villain.
Verse eight says, filthy communication out of your mouth. That means
filthy communication out of your mouth. Cursing, that's what it
means. Obscene speech. Verse 9, he said,
lie not one to another. Stop lying. Stop lying. There's no excuse for it. Stop
lying. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds. Now, it is a really good thing
that we have all put that stuff away. That's a really good thing. I am so thankful that we do not
fall into any of those categories. Because if we did, we would be
sinners against God. And we would be worthy of His
anger and His wrath and His judgment and His condemnation to come
on us. If we were like that, We would
be sinners standing before a holy and just God. Aren't you so glad
that's not us? Now, for anybody who does not
know, I'm being facetious. I'm being sarcastic, okay? That is us. That is me. That is you. Paul is exhorting
us to do this. Our Lord does not write with
trickery. He doesn't say unnecessary words. He does not. Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to tell us to do those things, and I'm going
to tell you why in just a minute. But the same man who wrote this
wrote Romans 7. And if you're not familiar with
Romans 7, this is basically what he's saying. He is going through
this, Romans 7, over and over saying, I am such a sinner. That's what he's saying. Paul,
God's apostle. I am such a sinner. This is what
he said in Romans 7. I want to stop sinning. I do. I want so desperately to
stop sinning. but I can't. It's mixed with everything I
do. It is mixed with everything I do. This same man right here
in 1 Timothy 1.15, he said, I am the greatest sinner that has
ever walked in the face of this earth. He did not say, I was the cheap
sinner. He said, I am. I am. I am the chief sinner. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And to be very
clear on this, all do sin and come short of the glory of God. All do. Any excuse for that?
Any excuse for us? No. No. We're sinners against
God. If any man or woman thinks that
he or she has the ability to put off sin from this flesh,
put it off. Just be done with it. That's
it. I'm done with sin. If any man or woman thinks that,
he or she is lying to himself or herself. Let me show you that
in 1 John 1. Turn with me over to 1 John 1. Verse John 1. Verse 8. It says, If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Do we see that? If we say that
we have no sin, we're lying to ourselves, we're deceiving ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we say, oh no, I've overcome
sin. Yeah, now there was a time that
I used to be a sinner, but I've overcome it. I've put my sin
away. He said, we're liars. We're lying to ourselves. That's
a sin. He said, don't lie. Verse 10 right here. He said,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar because God
said all have sinned. We make him a liar. And His Word
is not in us. We cannot put off the old man
of sin to the point that we're done with sin. We just cannot
do that. Then here's the question. Why
would Paul tell us to do that? Why would that even be his legitimate
instruction? It is legitimate instruction. Why would that be His instruction
to us? Here's the reason why. If you
look right here at 1 John 1, the end of verse 7 says, the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Verse
9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now,
if we confess our sins, it's only because He revealed them
to us through His Word. That's the only reason. It's
only because He put fear in us. And it's only because He showed
us where our cleansing is. And it's only because He gave
us a heart to cry out and confess what we are and begging for mercy
and grace and forgiveness. So if we do that, it's only because
He did it in us and He caused us to respond to His work. And
He gets the glory and He gets the credit. We are not saved by us putting
away our sins. We're saved by Christ putting
away our sins. We're not saved by us creating
a new man in here. Well, you need to create a new
man in there. We're not saved by us creating a new man in here.
We're saved by Christ creating a new man in here. Paul is not
telling us to strive to kill our sinful deeds and put off
the old man of our sinful flesh for the purpose of creating holiness
and salvation in us. That cannot be done by us. That
just cannot be done. Paul is telling us to put off
the old man, try to put off the deeds of the old man for two
reasons. Number one, it's because we love
God. And we have a heart, we want
to be like Him. We'll never be like Him until
we're done with His flesh and with Him in glory. But we desire
to more and more be conformed into His image. We want to do
things that are pleasing to Him. We want to obey Him. What motivates
a child of God to obey these things? Love. He first loved
us, and therefore we love Him. And we know that from our earthly
relationships. If you have a parent who you
love or a spouse who you love, you want to do things that are
pleasing to that person. You don't want to disobey that
person. He loved us, therefore we love him. But the second reason
is this, and we need to know this. We honestly need to know
this. This is a reality and it needs
to be taught. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. Just like a loving father chastens
his child. If we don't understand this,
we will live a life of chastening. We'll be saying, what's wrong
with me? Well, how come it always goes so harshly for me? How come it
always, what's, why me? Why this? Why that? If we don't
understand this, we will live a life of chastening. I have
rules, I have demands, I have a level of obedience and a level
of respect that I expect out of my children in my home. And I don't have that so that
they can be my children. It's not conditional for them
to be my children. Because they are my children,
These are my demands. These are my commands to my children. I don't lay them on anybody else's
children, my children. And for them to blatantly disobey
me, it will not cause them to not be my children anymore. If
they disobey me, they won't lose their childhoodness. I'm sure that's a word. But they will bring my chastening
on them. My countenance will fall and they will bring my chastening
on them. We're not saved by the works
of the law. We're not saved at all by the
works of the law, but when we blatantly disregard the commandments
of our Lord with no conscience to it, just none whatsoever,
No effort to restrain what we know is open rebellion towards
him. We need to expect chastening
to come. We just shouldn't be shocked
if chastening comes. If we live, and that means just
continue in honestly open fornication. Two people just decide, well,
we're just going to live together, we're going to get an apartment
together, we're going to this, we're going to that, which, whatever. We're
all sinners anyway. There was a fellow I knew years
and years ago and he just, bless his heart, he pushed the envelope
and his famous line was, I'm just a sinner anyway. Well, if
we just continue living in that and we belong to him, he is going
to chasing us over that. He just is. If we, with no conscience about
it, no regard for God, no regard for His glory, no regard for
His witness, if we continue in vile living, whatever just feels
like vile living, no morals, He is going to chasten us over
that. If we don't get our short fuse,
our flying off the handle, our lashing out under control, He
is going to chasten us over that. We're not going to lose our salvation,
and the reason is because we're not saved by our works. We're
saved by His grace. We are not being kept by our
good deeds and our good morals. Now, if you want to stay with
God and stay saved, you've got to have good morals. We're not
being kept by good deeds and good morals. We're being kept
by the blood of the Son of God. But because we're being kept,
because we do belong to Him, He will chasten us in His love. He will. If we don't apply some
restraint to what is forbidden to us, we know it's forbidden
to us. If we don't apply some restraint,
He may let us have it and expose our lust for it, forbidden lust
for it. If the idolatry of our greed
puts Him on the back burner, if I want something so badly,
it ends up putting Him on the back burner, He will chasten
us for that. If I will not let go of what
He wants me to let go of, He will break my hand. He will prove to me my will is
going to be done. It is going to be done. Jonah,
the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah didn't do it. Did he lose his salvation? No.
But God dealt with him. If we don't get over anger, if
we don't get over wrath, If we are just bent, if we just stay
in a place where we just want someone to fall. I just, I don't
care, I want that person to fall. If it's our mission to just slander
and ruin the character of particular people. If there's no conscience
toward filth flying out of our mouth. If all we do is lie, we just
lie. God is going to deal with us.
He's going to deal with it. Doesn't God love us? Yes. Therefore, he will deal with
us. I love my children, therefore
I will deal with them. If they want my countenance to
fall on them, all they have to do is lie to me. That's all they
have to do. If they want my chastening to
come down quickly, all they have to do is one of them hurt the
other one. That's all they have to do. That's how our relationship is
with the Lord our God. Let's not be fooled into thinking
that just because our works play no role in our salvation, they
don't play a role in our standing in our relationship with him,
whether he smiles on us or frowns on us. Paul said, put off the
old man. Let's all ask the Lord to help
us and teach us what it is to put off the old man. Now, I'm
done, but this is the critical part, all right? This is the
critical part. What does it mean to put off
the old man? How do we do that? Go with me
back to Colossians 3. If we desire to do this at all,
this is the critical part, okay? Colossians 3, Paul said, put
off. Have you ever put somebody off?
Or have you ever been put off by somebody? When you put somebody
off, you put them on the back burner. You know how it is in
business or in who knows what. You put somebody off. You put
them out of sight, out of mind. You don't focus on them. You
ignore them. That's what you're doing. You're
ignoring them. It's not that they're gone. You're just not
giving them your attention. Paul said, put off the old man.
Put him out of sight, out of mind. Don't focus on him. Don't
give your attention to him. Ignore him. Now, here's a question.
How do we do that? This is the only answer. If any of this is convicting,
if any of this is depressing, if any of this causes you to
need help with this, like it does me, here's the answer. How
do we put off the old man? Only answer, by looking to Christ. by looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith in Christ, just steadfastly
looking to Christ is the only hope we have of ignoring the
old man. It's the only hope. If you look
at verse 9, Paul said, "...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." The image of him looking to Christ. How do we put off the old man?
Looking to Christ. How do we put on the new man?
Well, you do it by straightening up and flying right and making
sure that you're good to your, no, no, no. By looking to Christ. That's the answer. Looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ. If there's any hope of us being
led in and walking in and living in any kind of right way at all,
then we're going to have to be looking to Christ. We're going
to have to have faith in Christ. We're going to have to cast our
all on Christ. Good works are not our Sanctification,
it's not our holiness. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ is our holiness. Good works is not the evidence
of salvation. I'd love for that one to really
sink in. Because everybody thinks it is. And it looks like it is,
but it's not. Good works is not the evidence
of salvation. Will salvation bring the accompaniment
of good works? Yes, it will. But it's not the
evidence. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
casting your all on Him, Him being your only hope of surviving
the judgment of God for your sin. That is the evidence of salvation.
So if we're going to have any help in this regard, we're going
to have to look to Him. We'll have to look to Him. Don't
look to the flesh. Don't do this. I gotta put this
old man off. I gotta put the new man on. Don't
do that. Do this. I gotta put this old
man off. I gotta put the new man on. He's
the new man. Christ in us is the hope of glory.
We're going to have to look to Him only by looking to Christ. All right. Now, in just a moment,
we're going to have a message on what is it to look to Christ.
If we're going to have any help and any hope of putting off the
old man and putting on the new man, we're going to have to look
to Christ. In just a minute, we're going
to find out what does that mean? What is it to look to Christ?
All right. You're dismissed.