Get through all of them. I mean
the first 11 verses. We went through verses 1 through
4. We've dealt with verse 11 many, many times. Just a wonderful
verse, Christ is all. Let's read it all together. 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. You're dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, 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 or desires, covetousness, which
is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh
on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked sometime
when ye 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, God, that created
him. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all and in all. It begins this way, if you
then be risen with Christ, seek those things above. Set your
affection, your heart, your mind, your desires on things above.
And he goes on to tell us to mortify or suppress these evil
desires. And he ends by saying, Christ
is all. He's all. If Christ is all, that
means everything else is really nothing at all, right? Ecclesiastes begins that way
and ends that way, doesn't it? Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher.
All flesh, all things, are vanity. It doesn't fulfill, doesn't make
you happy, it doesn't, it lies, they lie to us. And these are
the things that Satan, our adversary, uses against us that our flesh
desires. And so this is talking about
suppressing, mortifying the members. And I'm glad our young people
are here. So glad. I'm glad I'm here. I teach these things, I preach
these things because it's God's Word. And I want to preach it
and teach it exactly the way he says it. I can't imagine a
true child of God. Well, it's not possible. No true
child of God can say, I don't want to hear that. Don't tell
me what to do. An obedient son of God says to
his father, tell me what to do. I don't know what to do, and
I can't do it. Help me. Our Lord was an obedient
son, wasn't he? I want to be just like him. And that's why God saves his
people. That's why God saves his people
unto good work. Somebody says, you're preaching
good work. Well, okay. But not for salvation. I'm going
to say this one time. I'm not going to say it again.
This is not about establishing a righteousness or good works
to make you accepted by God, but it's what... God saves people
from sin, To take it out of them and make them worth something. Make them like Christ. That's
what salvation is all about. Make them like Christ. I'll tell you this. I love good
works. I hate bad works. Don't you? I've got enough bad
works in me. I want them all gone. And I don't
have enough good works. So whatever it takes, Lord, please.
All right? Enough said about that. Let's
look at it like God's Word says. And all the epistles are the
gospel, the gospel, the gospel, and then it applies it. It applies
the gospel. The chaplain and I were just
talking about that. Every epistle is the gospel, the gospel, the
gospel, and then it takes that gospel and applies it and says,
now this is what God saved you to do for His glory. All right. Verse 1, if you be
risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, or Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God, risen with Christ, crucified
with Christ, buried with Christ. We want that old man gone. Don't we? Only a regenerated,
born again person can say that. And I want to rise, I want to
be raised to walk in newness of life. I've had about all of
that old man that I can stand. I want him gone. So, alright, he says, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affection, your heart, your mind on things above,
where Christ is. Not on things of the earth. Set
your affection, your mind. People love their free will. They love what they think is
free will. They love to be able to make
their own choices and all that, okay? You can't tell people what
to do. They don't want you to tell them
what to do, okay? I want to do it. And most people
do what they want to do, don't they? That's exactly right. We
do exactly what we want to do. If we set our mind, here's the
thing, if we set our mind, our heart on something, we'll go
after it and we'll do whatever it takes to get it. Isn't that
right? If there's something you want, alright, he says, set your
mind, set your heart on things above. I can't, I can't, no, without
him, and let me say this, and I might have to say this ten
times. Without him, we can do nothing. Zero. We can't set our
heart, our mind, or we can't resist one temptation without
Him. Not one. But, it says, I can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me, right? Paul the Apostle was
a man of like passions, like as we are. He was not above sin. He's just a man saved by grace. He didn't have special powers.
He had the same Holy Spirit, right? The same Word. I keep
my body in subjection. Isn't it? You've read it. Lest
in preaching to others I myself become a castaway. He's not bragging
on himself. He's not saying this is what
I do. He said by the grace of God I am what I am. And I can
do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And let
me say this, this is why the Lord tells us, pray without ceasing. Don't stop. Don't stop because
you're going to need His strength, His power in all these things. Because without Him, you can't
do one of them. You can't resist one thing. Are
you with me? You know it's up. We know it's
up. They said in verse 3, you're
dead. Your life is hid with Christ in God. You're dead. You're dead.
You're dead. You're dead. Remember Noah and
his family in that ark? That's a good picture of being
dead to the world. They were in that ark. Paul one
time said, I'm crucified with Christ. Crucified to the world.
The world's crucified to me. Noah and his family were in that
ark. And by entering that ark, what they were saying was, I'm leaving this world, I don't
need this world. I got everything I need in this
ark. Food, rain, shelter. And I'm done, the world's perishing.
I want to be with God's people in Christ, in that ark. That's
what you do when you come to Christ. And the world said the
same thing about Noah. That fool, look at him in there.
We're out here enjoying ourselves. Not for long. Noah, you're an absolute fool,
you have to Christ's sake. And we're going to see who the
fool is. Very shortly. So, set your fix. Things above. Christ did. You're dead. Crucified with Christ, and we're
as good as dead, dying, aren't we? Young people can't enter
into this. When I was, you know, I remember
being 15, 16, 20 years old, I thought I got my whole life ahead of
me. Well, where'd it go? It's pretty much behind me now. It's like a sleep. You don't
think of those things when you're a child, you know. Oh, my. It goes back quickly, too quickly,
doesn't it? You're dead. You're dead and dying. Your life
is hid with Christ and God. Don't you love that? That denotes
the secrecy of it. Even we can't see the Kingdom
of God. We can't see God, can't see Christ. We can't... The new man, we have
a hard time seeing the new man, but he's there. He's there. You wouldn't want to be here.
Right? Brother John Sheasley, Jr., back there, came
in this morning and said, a big sigh. I said, I'm glad to be
here. I said, I'm glad, I'm glad. Because
there was a time I wouldn't be anywhere but here. What's that? I said, a new man. A new man. He says in verse 4, and it denotes
the safety of it too. You're here with Christ and God.
You're in the ark. I can't see it, but you are.
Isn't that wonderful? And verse 4, when Christ, our
life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. And I can't rightly speak on
that because our eyes, ears, we haven't seen or heard enter
into our hearts fully. what God had prepared for them
that loved him. And we're going to say when it's
all over, what could have possibly interested
me in that pit? Why did I want to stay in that
slime pit? Look. All right, verse 5, mortified
therefore. your members which are upon the
earth. Read on verses 5 and 6. Mortify
your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, lusts, passion, evil, concupiscence, desires,
covetousness, which is, idolatry. That is listed right along with
Fornication is a covetousness. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience? Do you know
how many times Paul says that? He says, let no man deceive you
with vain words. For these things sake the wrath
of God cometh on... God's going to burn this world
up because it's filthy. That's why. It's filthy. Like
Sodom. Now, Paul deals with these things,
the Word of God, I should say. The Word of God deals with these
things over and over and over. He lists these things over and
over again. That warns us and tells us to
suppress these things and fortify our memory, doesn't it? Over
and over and over and over. Why? Because we've got this flesh
to contend with. We've got this old man in us
and he will never be any better. Never be any better. We got a
new man that created an image of Christ who loves holiness
and righteousness and godliness and the things above and his
affection set on things above. But the old man's affection will
always be on base things, evil things, corrupt things, vile
things, like worms. I told you about those worms
I had. I had a big worm farm. Worms only live on dead things. Worms don't live, don't eat live
things. They eat dead things. Dead flesh. They go after it. They love darkness. I'd take the lid off that worm
farm and some of them would be at the top and they'd scurry
right back down into the dirt. Don't like light. Hate light. Hate
life. Love death. That's worms. That's this old man in us. He feeds on Sin. So, and my pastor used to say
this, feed the old man, I mean feed the new man and starve the
old man. Don't provide things for the old man, starve him.
Feed the new man. How? What we're doing right now.
The sincere milk of the word that we might grow thereby. Well, he lists these things like
fornication. That is, and these are teenagers,
they've heard things in this time, they need to hear it from
this pulpit. Any sexual activity outside of
marriage, the Lord forbids it and calls it evil. And the consequences
of it can be horrible, terrible. There are consequences. Fornication. sexual activity outside of marriage. God created a man and a woman
to be married, and then he said the bed is undefiled and clean. And that's the only way. And
God forbids any, male and female, forbids any kind of sexual activity
outside of a man and a woman in marriage. He forbids it. He
warns us over and over again. I don't have to, I'm not going
to apologize for that. It's fair warning and it's good. It's good. Good counsel by our
Lord. Not counsel, it's command. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, lust. You know, the Lord has created
these desires in male and female. And it's good. If He didn't,
nobody, male and female, would kill each other off. But it created
these desires, and they're good, and they're wholesome, okay?
But if these desires are just animal passions, just trying
to get rid of these desires, that's animalistic, that's lust. It needs to be love. It has to
be in the context of love, or else it's just... You know better
than a dog or a horse, right? They don't have any love for
one another, do they? They don't get married. Well,
God has created man and woman in a wholesome relationship,
Adam and Eve. First thing he told them was
multiply. And sin came in and just Corrupted
it all, didn't it? And now man, by nature, is no
better. He's worse than an animal. Animals,
male and male, animals don't do that. Female, female, animals
don't do that. Right? That's how bad sin is. Do we need this? Now more than
ever, this place, is, wow, this world, could it get any worse?
We thought that 60s and 70s, that's when, you know, the floodgate
was open, my generation, hippie generation, free love, you know.
Man, it opened the floodgate. And they thought, could it get
any worse? Yes, it has. It's more widespread. Anything
goes. And here's the sad thing is,
everybody says, this is normal. This is okay. It's not okay. God's going to destroy this planet
because it's vile. And such were some of you. But God. Plucked like a worm. I used to
visit those worms. Woke up at night thinking about
worms. Anyway, I'd go down there every now and then, I'd pick
one of them out. I would. I'd say, boy, if only I could
just get through to you. If only I could turn you into
a butterfly, free you from that darkness, from that pit. Well,
that's what Christ does for His people. They have to be born
again, a new creature. Covetousness. Who doesn't have
a problem with that? He tells us to be content with
such things as we have. He said, above all, be thankful
that you belong to the Lord, that you have Him, that He's
all you need. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
have a place to lay His head. He had one coat on His back,
one pair of shoes, and He was the happiest man on earth. What does that tell you? And
He chose to live like that. clearly showing us that true
happiness is God. Not things. They don't satisfy. Well, let me turn with me very
quickly to Romans 12. Look at a few passages with me. Romans 12. See, God's will for
His people. So the Kingdom of Heaven is not
meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy
Spirit, a union with God, with Christ. If Christ is our life,
then set your affection on Him and suppress, ask God the strength
to suppress these appetites seem to rule us. Romans 12 verses
1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies, living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God. Holy like Chase the Virgin for
Him. It's a reasonable service. Verse
2, Be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. What is God's will? Well, here
it is. Listen carefully. Here's God's
will. That you believe Christ. That you believe on Him. That
you believe Him and that you be like Him. That you believe
Him and you be like Him. That's God's will. Look at 1
Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4. Look at that. It clearly tells us what God's
will is for His people. The carnal mind is not subject
to this. It can be, but God's people are,
and do, and will. First Thessalonians 4 verse 1. Furthermore then, brethren, we
beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as
you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God
so you would abound more and more. You know what commandments
we gave you by the Lord Jesus, but this is the will of God,
your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication
and that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel,
that's your body, in sanctification and honor. Is that what it said?
You like that? I sure do. What I hate is that
I'm so averse to that. That's what I hate. There's nothing
wrong with that. That's everything right and true
and just and pure and holy. That's the way I want to be.
Well, this is God's will, okay? And the flesh is weak. Here's
our problem. The flesh is weak. The Spirit
is willing. The flesh is weak. Paul kept saying, pray without
ceasing, pray without ceasing. Our Lord said men ought always
to pray, always to pray, always to pray. Keep on. Because our
flesh is weak and our adversary is strong. And we have no power
against him but Christ himself, the Spirit of God. And Titus,
I was going to have you turn to Titus that tells us what the
grace of God teaches. and how God's people should be
zealous of good work. And we are, but we've got this
flesh to deal with. My, my, my, my. Look at verse
7 in our text, Colossians 3 verse 7. In the which ye also walked
some time when ye lived in them. You remember Romans 6, it says,
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Read Romans 6 for yourself. You've
read it. He talks about, you know, you
were enslaved by these things before. They didn't bother you. It's what you went after. He
said, but now, I had a new man. And so he tells us over and over
again in Romans 6, yield. Yield to who? Yield your members
to righteousness. Yield to God. Yield to His Word. Yield. What does that mean? Submit
yourself, but don't yield to the flesh. He says that over
and over again. Don't yield. It's easy to yield. You know, it's easy to just give
up. What's the use in trying? Oh,
don't do that. Don't do that. Submit yourself to the Word of
God. And it'll be well with you. Don't
yield to the flesh. Don't do it. He said, but what? Call on the Lord. He said He's
a very present help in times of trouble. Anybody need this besides me?
Everybody does. So He says, you used to live
in those things, walked in them. But now, verse 8, put off also
these things. also put off all these things.
And the first three things are sins of the heart, and the next
three are the mouth. Now I get on the inside, not
just outward sins of the flesh, but the inside,
the heart, put off all these, anger. James said, be you angry? Well,
don't sin. We all get angry, don't we? We really have no reason ever
to be angry about anything. Huh? God's the first cause of
all things. Isn't that right? Hmm. Unless it's angry at, like David
said, those that hate God and those that blaspheme His name.
Well, that's a perfect hatred. Anger? Wrath, that's anger unleashed. That's letting your anger give
vent. Does anybody beside me just want
to pummel somebody? Maybe women can't enter into
that, but men can, can't they? Don't do it. It doesn't help
a thing. It hurts. Our Lord said, turn
the other cheek. Malice. Malice. I'm going to
get you for that. Or malice is, I hope something
bad happens to that neighbor of mine. She's so... I don't like her. I hope something...
I hope she dies. Oh no. Don't do that. Say, I
hope the Lord saves her. Pray for her. Pray for them to
despitefully use you. Isn't that what Christ did? Oh,
man. Aren't you glad he had mercy
on you? Should have killed us. They didn't. Malice. Blasphemy. God's name. I hear God's people every now
and then. Oh, Lordy. Good Lord willing, the creek
don't rise. Don't do that. Don't do that. Fear his name. Don't ever use
his name. God will not hold them guiltless
that takes his name in vain. Don't do it. Filthy communication
out of your mouth. Suggestive talk and all that.
You know what it does? It feeds this flesh. It does. And things happen, you know,
little suggestive things and little innuendos and all that,
and they happen and our flesh thinks of something and you make
a statement. If that comes out of your mouth,
this is the mouth. Instead of watch over your tongue,
bite your tongue. Don't say that. It doesn't do
anybody any good. It feeds that old man. It just
feeds it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Lie not one to another. Verse 9. Lie not one to another,
seeing you put off the old man with his deed. The old saying
is, honesty is the best policy. No, that's not right. It's the
only policy. This is not saying confess all
your sins to one another. We shouldn't confess one sin
to another. That feeds the flesh. Don't do it. Confess your faults,
but you don't have to bring up things. Forget it. But this means
being open, honest, straightforward in all your dealings. Live in
such a way you have nothing to hide. Right? Nothing to hide. You hide
things and you're real secretive because there's some guilt there.
Right? There's some guilt there. Don't
live like that. Somebody was worried years ago
about them tapping our phones. Go ahead. Who cares? Or, you know, Alexa
is watching all of us. Fine. You're fine. You don't live in
such a way. So what? Our Lord lived before God and
man and the devils. He said, somebody convince me
of sin. Wouldn't you love that? We'll
never be like that, but I sure want to be. And that's my whole
heart's desire. I want to be just like Him. Now, is that a wrong desire?
Anything less than that is. Lord, take this old man and just
be done with him. Let me be done with him. They
asked Spurgeon one time, if you could have anything, anything,
one wish, if you have anything, what would it be? He said that
I'd never sin again. Because it's the source of all
our troubles, all our relationships, troubles, everything. Everything. Our Lord didn't have
any troubles. He took our troubles. You know
that? He took our troubles. He didn't
have worries or fears or doubts or trying to impress anybody
or anything. our troubles on himself. He troubled
himself with our troubles. We put him, and this is mortification. Now here you go. Now he ended
with it. There's only one way to truly
suppress these things. It's by seeing Jesus Christ hanging
on that cross because of what you did. Everything. That's why he hung
there. Would it not give you great guilt
and fear to think that somebody you love would see your thoughts
or know your thoughts or your actions or whatever, and it would
greatly disappoint them and hurt them. Wouldn't that hurt them?
Wouldn't you hate for somebody to think that? Thou, God, seest
me. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. It's like I didn't even care
what I did to you. That will truly suppress us. Joseph, and here's good counsel,
here's the command, like Joseph, run. Just run. He told young Timothy,
flee, youthful lust, fight, follow. Flee, follow, fight. Joseph,
run. Joseph, you know, was wrongly
accused, master's wife. He said, I can't do this to my
master. I can't do this. He's been so good to me. I can't
do this to him. So she kept pressing him at her.
What did he do? He ran. Ran. Where'd he run to? He's a man. He's tempted. Huh?
Where'd he run to? He ran home to his closet. Lord,
help me, please. Now, he says, in Christ, aren't
you glad there's no Greek or Jew circumcision, uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, and even no male or female? But Christ is all. Christ is
all our righteousness. Christ is all our sanctification.
Christ is all our acceptance with God. Christ is all our redemption
and in mortification, He's all. He's the only one that can do
this. So we call on Him. And for your
comfort, let me end it with this. Let me end it with this, for
my comfort. Paul said, I'm confident that
He that hath begun a good work in you, He will perform it. He'll finish it. And David said this, he said,
this is my hope, this is my plea, this is my confidence, this is
my assurance, this is my comfort. He says, the Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me. He will. Okay. I hope that's a help.