This morning is an earlier article
written by a man by the name of Arthur Pink. And he titles
his article, Ignorance. Mr. Pink writes, there is no
greater proof that a man is ignorant of the truth, savingly and a
stranger to Christ experimentally, than for spiritual pride to reign
in his heart. In Habakkuk 2 verses 4 we read
this, Behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright
in him. Mr. Peat goes on to write, The
graceless Pharisees, blind to the real character and purpose
of the law, prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that
I am not as other men. While the penitent publican,
seeing himself in the light of God, dared not lift up his eyes
to heaven, but smote upon his breast the seat of his spiritual
leprosy and cried, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. See, the proud
religionists of Christ's day explained, behold, we see in
John 9.41. But the psalmist prayed this,
open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of
thy law. Thousands of deluded people who
profess to be Christians pratt about their consecration victories
and attainments. But the Apostle Paul said this. In Philippians 3.13, I count
not myself to have apprehended. That means to have learned. Some of you may recall Pastor Gene had mentioned that
he had never been to Bible college. When he told Henry Mahan that,
Henry Mahan said, you've got it better than any of the rest
of us. You don't have to unlearn all
the stupidity that they teach in those colleges. And for 20
years, I sat under the ministry of Pastor Gene Harmon, and I
am thankful that my Lord brought that man here to preach Christ
and Him crucified every time he stood up in the pulpit. I was reminded about something
I said recently in a letter. One who wrote me a letter. He started his letter by talking
about ignorance as bliss. What a foolish concept. Sometimes being learned in the
world gives you ignorance of spirituality. I'd like to ask
you to turn once again to the book of Colossians, chapter 3.
And while you're turning there, allow me to read from 2 Corinthians
13.5, where it says, examine yourselves whether ye be in the
faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? We've been in the book of Colossians
now, considering this letter the Apostle Paul wrote, which
begins with a build-up, built with an encouragement. Look over at verses 21 through
23 of chapter 1. Paul has been writing to these
saints at Colossians, giving them encouragement. Or in other
words, like Pastor Gene would say to me, John, keep on keeping
on. Stick to the faith that you've
heard. Stick to the faith that has been blessing you all this
time. In verses 21 we read, "...and you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your own mind by wicked works, yet now hath
He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight." if
ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard." Even then, so soon after the
death of our Savior, men who were ordained before the world
was, as we read in the book of Jude, and many other places,
Peter, warning us of men wolves in sheep's clothing. We all have
heard that one happen to you. Men who are dressed in white
raiment, meaning that they stand before other people dressed in
what they say is Jesus, but it's nothing more than something that
they have put on. How many people are going into
churches today, this very moment, right now, looking to that one
who's standing in the pulpit as being a representative of
Christ and all he can talk about is a Jesus who has no power.
A Jesus who is waiting for you to do something. Even then, in this day when Paul
is writing this letter, there were men who were a day
before the world creeping in beginning to mix the fables of
men. Well, yeah, you have to believe
in Jesus, but you also have to walk more righteously. You have
to start becoming more sanctified, more set apart. It's called progressive
sanctification. They had that then as they do
now. It's the same untruth Our sanctification is
in Christ. I almost said it. You know that,
don't you? The truck driver almost came
out of me there. Folks, it's the same stuff that
men make up to fit their own needs. People don't come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I know because there was a day when
none of us did either. None of us were looking for Christ,
just as Levi was not looking for the Lord Jesus when He passed
by Matthew. And the Lord said to that Matthew,
come, follow Me. The power of God. There's power
in the blood. If your hope and your faith and
your trust is not in that power, in that blood, in the One, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who hung on that cross and died for us, then
your trust is worthless. Men, we're beginning to mix fables
of mankind, of the man's thoughts with grace, even back then. And
I'm here to tell you this morning that grace and works cannot mix. The moment you start to think
that one little bit of works has to go with grace, then you
have missed the whole thing of grace. Grace is unmerited favor. That means that you can't earn
it, you can't do anything to help it. It comes to you by mercy
and by the grace of God and Him alone. It's either all of grace or you
have no true hope. Is your hope in the Lord of glory?
Is your trust in Him and His works alone? Or are we looking
to something in the flesh that we might be leaning on? Oh, can you see how much better a
person I am today than I was then? Can you see how I don't
smoke anymore? Can you see how I don't do this?
You put whatever you want in there. If you're trying to mix
that in with the grace of God, you've destroyed His grace. The beggar over there that I
just talked about in that article, he wasn't standing up saying,
look at how much better I am today. No, that was a Pharisee. He was down on his knees as we
should always come approaching our Lord and Savior. Down on
our knees, the knees of our heart, Crying out for Him, Lord, I know
You had mercy on me a moment ago. Have mercy on me now, too. Don't stop having mercy on me.
But here's His promise. If I'm alive, if you belong to
Him, He will never ever leave you nor forsake you. That's a
promise of God. I know that sometimes we seem
that that promise is a far off, especially when we're going through
a heavy trial. Folks, trials bring us closer
to the Lord. They remind us of the weaknesses
of the flesh, especially things that we can't do anything about,
cancer. Our doctors try hard, don't they? Sometimes hard just
isn't good enough, though. Are we looking to something in
the flesh that we might be leaning on a crutch or a little something
that we can say is mine. There was a time in every one
of our lives that we trusted in something other than the Lord
of Glory. We trusted in our own flesh. We trusted in luck. We trusted in Mother Nature.
The world is full of self-help people who pump you up with self-motivation. Have you ever been to one of
those motivational Seminars. Kathy and I were in Amway at
one time. I don't know if some of you may
not remember what that was. You sell soap. And in order to
sell soap, the guy who figured it all out said, if I can just
get more people to sell soap for me, I'll be a millionaire.
Well, he turned out to be a billionaire. And he would invite you, come
to this meeting. Come to this meeting. I went
to one of those meetings, and I went out and bought a Cadillac
afterwards. Broke as could be. Six broken toes and a cast on
my foot, and I was out of work. And I went out and bought a Cadillac,
thinking, I can do this. Boy, they sure had John, sucker,
whew, wheeled him right in. What do you think causes people
to do that? Their desire to be something
better than that they are. It's natural to our flesh to
be better than what we think we are. It's part of what we
call pride. They would say things like, you
can be a millionaire too, you can turn your life around, you
can do it. But in the words of the true and living God, we read
this, and you, in Ephesians 2.1, now next it says, hath He quickened?
Let's take that out, because those were actually added later.
And let's read it this way. And you who were dead in trespasses
and sins, wherein times 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,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past. Every
one of us. have walked at one time or another
in this world in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of our flesh. That's what pride is. It's the
desire of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by
nature children of wrath, even as others. All come into this
world dead spiritually, One must be born again to know and receive
spiritual gifts in heaven, and all heavenly gifts come from
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. In Ephesians
1-3 we read it this way, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. And that includes That includes our walk before
Him. It's so easy to forget who is
the author and the finisher of our faith. It's so easy to forget who is
the author and the finisher of our belief. It is so easy to
forget who is the author and the finisher of our trust. It
does not take but a moment and we turn back to trusting our
flesh and what we do as proof of our salvation. Again, see
how much better I am today? I don't know of a true child of
God who can go out and say, see how much better I am today? Because
if you're a true child of God, you know you're not any better
today than you were when you walked into this world, or crawled
in, or came out of your mother's womb. One thing a true child
of God has revealed to them is that our flesh is sin. And we will walk in this flesh
until the Lord takes us out of this earth. We have no righteousness of our
own. All come into this world spiritually
dead. One must be born again to know
and receive the spiritual gifts of heaven. We must be reminded. I'm convinced. Completely convinced. I gave a recommendation not too
long ago to listen to a message by Kevin Thacker on the 17th
of February titled, My Grace is Sufficient. And I'm convinced
that our Lord brings trials into our life for that very reason. so that we would be reminded
of the weakness of the flesh and turn to the only strength
there is and that's the strength in our Savior. And after listening
to that message, I'm serious, I was in tears asking
for my Lord for more trials. Lord, help me get through the
trial I'm in right now, because we're all in one way or another
right now. If it's not within the flesh of this body that we're
dealing with, it's in the world around us. Help me get through
this one, but don't leave me there alone afterwards to come
and bring more. Keep me on my knees turning to
You, Lord. Because that's how I know He
loves me. Oh, what it is to understand
the depths of His love. And oh, what it'll be when the
day comes when we understand it fully. It's not us. It's not us. We have no confidence
in this flesh that you see before you. If you're a child of God,
you have no confidence in the flesh. If you do, He'll bring
a way to take it away from you. Salvation from beginning to end
is of the Lord. We are saved in the One who came
down from heaven. Heaven came down and glory filled
my soul. Heaven came down through His
Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. Heaven came down through His
Word and touched the heart of His child. That's what it is to hear the
Word of God and say, that made more sense than anything I've
ever seen, than anything I've ever heard. There's more truth
in that than anything I've ever heard out there in the world
anywhere. We are saved by the One who came
down from heaven. We are saved by His righteousness. He walked this earth perfectly.
He was God in the flesh. He is God in the flesh. There's
power in that blood. To say that the Lord Jesus Christ
died for every soul is to say that His blood had no power. I like a God with power. I thank the Lord that I'm not
calling something else God that has no power, because I would
have. I'd have been right there in
that same boat, and so would every one of us. Our sins were laid upon Him.
His blood washed away all of our iniquities. His death is
our death. His defeat of death is also our
defeat. He arose and sits at the right
hand of the Father, wielding His power according to His own
wishes, and we sit in heavenly places in Him. That's what it
says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 7, I think it is. And here's what we're going to
get to in our verses here in Colossians today. As a result
of all that I just mentioned, As a result of His grace to us,
we will walk differently. What do you mean, John? What do you mean, we'll walk
differently? Do you remember a time when You
walked according to the ways of this world. I made a decision. I did this. I did that. Remember a time when it was all
you? When the Lord Jesus Christ breaks your heart of you, when
God Almighty comes and takes out that stony heart that says,
I will not have that one to rule over me and he gives you a heart
that willingly bows to him. So I can't walk that way anymore. You walk the same way that publican
who was kneeled down on his face in the ground bowing to the very
one who rules all things, and it becomes apparent in your life. I remember when my children said,
you're not the dad I knew last year. What happened to you? How
come you're not sitting in front of the TV, watching TV, playing,
watching football on Sunday afternoon, getting drunk with me like you
used to? What do you mean you can't get
on your Harley and ride with us this week? Well, you've got
to go to church? Why? Didn't watch Good Enough? I've had that said to me. No,
it's not. I need to hear it again. I need
to be there again next Sunday. I need to be there for Friday
night Bible study. I am so thankful that my wife
said, why aren't you going to Bible study on Friday night?
You're right, Kathy. Why aren't we? Let's go. And
we started going. It was a long way. I had this excuse in me.
Well, it's a long ways up to rescue. I just got off work.
And then I started looking into the Word of God, and He began
to bless me more and more with His Son, my Savior. I began to
see His love for me more and more. I grew in grace and in
the knowledge of God. And that's what coming to services
and hearing the gospel preached does. We grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Savior. We walk differently than we used
to. I quit cheating on my taxes. Why? Because he who first loved me,
I have come to love. Because he who gave himself for
me, for every lie that I gave to the government for taxes.
Gave his life for me because he loved me. Because he loved
each and every one of his people. Because of his love for us, we
love him and walk differently. Brother Kevin made a statement
yesterday that rings so true. I was talking with him on the
phone. He's a military man, you know, a Marine. And he goes,
have you ever heard of the military sending a bunch of guys out to
war and not teaching them how to go about it? Here's your guns. Here's your bullets. Now go do
it. No, we haven't. There's instructions with how
to go to war, and folks, that's what we are in. We're in a war.
We are in a war between our flesh and our spirit. Our spirit wants
and desires now, desires that it never had before, desires
to please our Lord and Savior. To trust in Him more and more. It's our nature to say this,
what shall we do to be saved? What shall we do? Isn't there
something I've got to do to be saved? Isn't there something
I have to do to prove that I'm a saved person now? There's got
to be something. I've got to walk down the aisle.
I've got to get in the baptismal. Something. There's got to be
something I can do, right? That's our nature. No. There's nothing you can do. The
sin will remain in your flesh until the day the Lord takes
us out of this body of death. That's what's so great about
having a Savior who established a righteousness for us. Because
we know we can't get away from the sin that's in this flesh.
Don't tell me you walk out a door and all of a sudden have a thought
and go, oh, what did I do that for? What did I think that for?
Why did I think that? Because we're in the flesh. You can do nothing when it comes
to salvation, but once the Lord has done a good work in you,
we read this in Philippians 1.6, being confident, Paul says, of
this very thing, that He, God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ,
which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let's begin
at verses 5 of Colossians chapter 3, reading through verse 10. We've got to get there. Mortify. That means put to death. That
means push down. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetedness which is idolatry. For which
thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on children of disobedience,
in the which ye 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 ye 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." My title this morning is The New Man. This new man that
is in us. In 2 Corinthians 5.17 we read
this, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. We're talking in Bible study.
Peter's been preaching to those who witnessed A lame man, a man
who was lame from his mother's womb, walk for the first time
ever. They knew who this man was. They
had seen him on the porch of Solomon begging for alms for
all of these years, and all of a sudden, this man who had no
strength in his legs was jumping up and down and praising the
Lord in the temple. And they tried to give Peter
and John all the credit for it. What have you men done to this
guy? What miracle have you performed
on this one? And he said, no, no, no, it wasn't us. It was
in the faith of Jesus Christ that this man was saved. Repent,
Peter went on to say. Repent, that means to turn from. Turn from those things. But not
just these things listed here, it's turned from the knowledge
that we once had, the knowledge of ignorance, not knowing who
the Lord Jesus was, turned from what we thought we had in the
flesh at one time to the only thing that we can turn to, and
that's the power of God. Turn to Him. A new man. What is this new man Paul is
speaking of? Well, he begins by telling us
that there is no difference between bloodlines. Look at verse 11.
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision, nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Sathenian, bond, nor free, but Christ is all and in
all." The children of God throughout all of time are the spiritual
Israel. There are those in today's world
who believe that Christ is going to return. He's going to come
on back here and he's going to set up a temple and a throne
over here in Israel, in Jerusalem. It's some kind of eschatology
theory, and I don't know where they get it from. I've read their
scriptures, and I don't believe it's so at all. The Lord Jesus
Christ sits on His throne right now. God has exalted His Son
for what He has done onto the throne of glory. All glory belongs
to Him. All power in heaven and earth
belong to Him. He's not coming back here to
exercise any power. He's exercising His power right
now. That's the God that I trust in. That's the God I look to
for hope. Was Adam circumcised? No. You know, Israel had to be all
circumcised, right? Was Abel circumcised? No. What
about Noah? No, God had not made that pact
with the people yet, had he? I believe Abraham was the first
one to be circumcised. Are you going to tell me Adam
wasn't a child of God? He taught his son Abel all about the sacrifice. God taught Adam, Adam taught
his son Abel. He tried to teach Cain too, but
Cain wasn't born of God. Noah, and eight people on the
ark, all were saved children of God,
yet they were not circumcised. In Romans 2 verses 28 we read
this, 28 and 29, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
But he, the child of God, is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Read with me, if you would, verses
12 through 16 of Colossians chapter 3. Put on, therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, also also do ye. And above all
these things, put on charity, love." That's what that means,
charity. which is the bond of perfectness, unity. And let the
peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called
in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. The very man whom the Holy Spirit
led to write those words, those verses knew the weaknesses of
the flesh as well as anyone could. Many like to guess what Paul's
thorn in his side was when he went to the Lord three times
and said, please remove this thorn from my side. Try to ponder up whatever you
want. It doesn't matter. Whatever it was, it brought Him
to the Lord. Lord, please remove this. How
often have we gone to our Lord and Savior and said, Lord, please
remove this sin that keeps besetting me in my mind. Lord, please remove
this anger that may arise in my heart. This jealousy that
arises in my heart. Whatever it is you want to put
in there. Paul had a thorn in his side.
Turn if you would to Romans chapter 7. Mark your place in Colossians.
We'll come back to it in a moment. Turn over to the 7th chapter
of Romans if you would. I won't be much longer. Look with me, if you would, at
Romans 7.14-25. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, writes Paul. Remember, my statement was Paul
knows more about the weaknesses of our flesh, yet he writes us
encouraging us to walk worthily of the Lord Jesus. For we know that the law is spiritual,
But I am carnal, sold under sin. When Adam sinned, all of mankind
fell into sin. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sin. Sold under sin, as it says in
verse 14. For that which I do, writes Paul,
I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. You see what I mean? The very
man who wrote those encouraging words for us to walk as children
of God understands that we can't. Oh, our desire is to. When you were a child, did you
not desire to do everything that pleased your mother and father?
And look at us, we grew up. Roger understands. We grew up. Verse 16, If then I do that which
I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I do not, but
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me." You see the law? You see the war that Paul is
describing here? Do you feel that war in yourself? Our Lord has conquered that war
for us. Let's continue on. I find in a law that when I do
good, evil is present with me, but a delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Here's the desire that we have.
We want to put away the sin of this flesh, but there is only
one who has done it permanently. Perfectly, and that is our Lord
and Savior. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, after the inward spirit. But I see another law,
in verse 23, in my members, in my body, in my flesh, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, he says, This is quite a while after God
saved Paul. Oh, wretched man that I am. We never get off of our knees
over in the corner, pounding on our chest. Lord, have mercy on me. Oh, wretched
man that we are. Deliver me from the body of this
death. 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. And here comes the good
news. There is therefore in verse 1
of 8, no condemnation, no charge for that sin to them which are
in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it is weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
People accuse this message of being a message of lawlessness,
antinomianism. That's just a really big word
that means it's okay to go out and do whatever you want and
that's not the case at all. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth. mortified, put to death, those
very things. But folks, we have an advocate. We have one who is standing before
the judgment seat, the one who is the judgment seat, saying,
I know. I know he's trying the best he
can, but I did it perfectly for him. I did it perfectly for all of
my children. Therefore, there is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. We do serve a law. It's called
the law of love. Because He first loved me, I
love to do His law. Galatians 5.14, we read this,
for all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even this, thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Because our Lord first loved
us, we love Him, we love His ways, and we fight the good fight. Now look at verse 17 of our text
and I'll bring this to a close. Colossians chapter 3 verse 17. And whatsoever ye do, in word
or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him. I encourage you to go on and
finish this letter that Paul wrote to the Colossians in deep
personal prayer. Asking for personal strength
in your daily walk. Strength to trust in Him. Strength
to fight the war with this flesh. Strength to remember He has won
the battle for us. Confess your sins unto Him, for
He is faithful to forgive you of your sins. Lord keep you. Please stand.