Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Colossians chapter
three, beginning with verse five, Colossians chapter three, verse
five. And I'm gonna talk about a subject
that maybe you haven't thought of before, very biblical subject. It's called the mortification
of sin. mortification, to mortify sin. Now, that word mortification,
mortify, means to put to death, put to death, the putting to
death of sin. And it's where the Apostle Paul
writes here in verse five, and all of what he's giving, an encouragement
to the people of God, to believers to fight sin and the goal in
fighting sin is to put it to death but he says in verse five,
mortify therefore your members which are up on the earth and
then he lists things like fornication that's sexual immorality uncleanness,
inordinate affection evil concupiscence, that's the word, we don't use
that word today, but it's the equivalent to lust, unlawful
desires. He says covetousness, which is
idolatry, that's the desire for things in such a way that you
become consumed with them. like the desire for money, that
if that's all your life is about, then that's idolatry in essence. It takes you away from seeking
the Lord, from serving God, from worshiping Him. And he says in
verse six, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the
children of disobedience, verse seven, in the which you also
walked sometime when you lived in them." So what he's talking
about there is the believers struggle with sin, the warfare
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, against the flesh, the Holy Spirit
who indwells every believer and inspires us to fight sin, not
to give in to it. Now, we need to be careful when
we deal with a subject like this because, first of all, we have
to stay within the context of Scripture. Whenever it talks
about mortification here, what is Paul talking about? Well,
keep within the context. Don't take it out of its context
and then try to build some kind of a doctrine on it without understanding
what he's saying. because there's another passage
of scripture we'll look at where he talks about mortifying, mortification,
that the word means the same in its essence, but he's talking
about something different there. But here he's talking about the
believer's goal, the sinner saved by grace, his goal is to fight
sin and his desire is that sin be put to death. Now, there's
something here that you need to understand. When God saves
a sinner by his grace through the blood of Jesus Christ, by
the blood of Jesus Christ, When God brings a sinner into his
fellowship, that person is still a sinner, but he or she is a
sinner saved by grace. And that will never change. A sinner saved by grace. We sing
a hymn at our church. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.
This is my story. To God be the glory, I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. Only two types of people that
walk this earth. Sinners lost in their sins, sinners
saved by grace. And that's it. The only sinless
perfection that God's people can claim at present is our legal
perfection in Christ. Now, Paul had spoken of that
in Colossians chapter three. I dealt with that last week on
the subject, risen with Christ. Look at verse one again of Colossians
chapter three. He says, if you then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God, And that's when Christ is
making intercession for his people, that's what he does, on the basis
of his cross work. his death, burial, resurrection,
as the surety and substitute of his people. And then he says
in verse two, set your affections, your mind, your heart, on things
above, not on things on the earth. And then he says in verse three,
now, remember what mortifying means, to put to death, but look
at verse three. He says, for you are dead, And
your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our
life, verse four, shall appear, then shall you also appear with
Him in glory. You're already dead. Now, we
looked at that over in the book of Romans, chapter six. He that is dead is freed from
sin. The word freed there means justified. And what that's talking about
is the believers' union with Christ legally. You may have
heard the term forensics, forensically, objectively. In other words,
Christ stands as my representative. If I'm a believer, then I can
know this. Now an unbeliever cannot claim
this now. You have to be brought to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works to make this claim. Because
this is for believers. those who believe in Christ and
rest in Him. This is not for all without exception.
Any unbeliever who claims these blessings is just fooling himself. But here's it, if you're a believer
in Christ, if you've been brought to faith in Christ and repentance
of sin, repentance of dead works, to the obedience of grace and
faith, then here's what we can claim biblically according to
God's word. Christ is my representative. I don't stand before God on my
own. If I did, I'm dead, I'm gone,
I'm condemned. I must have one to stand for
me, to represent me. One whom God appointed, one who
is willing to do so, and one who is able to do so, and that's
Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, not
only is Christ my representative, He's my surety. And you know
what a surety is? A surety is one who becomes responsible
to pay the debt of another. And that's what Christ was made
before the foundation of the world as God chose His people
According to His electing grace, not because of anything that
we would do or decide. God didn't look down through
a telescope of time. That's not scriptural. That's
just preachers trying to soft-soap and try to defend the Word of
God and they shouldn't do it. God chose a people to save and
gave them to Christ and He made Christ their surety. He put all
the responsibility of their sin debt. That's what sin is. There's
a word in the New Testament for sin that means debt. In other words, they owe a debt
to God's justice. That's what sin does, it runs
up a debt. Well, that debt of God's elect
was placed upon Christ as their surety. And Christ willingly
agreed to be their surety. And in so doing, he willingly
promised and engaged himself, obligated himself to do what
was necessary to pay the debt. And so then he became the substitute
of his people. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. Why did he have to give his life?
Because that's the debt. Sin demands death. The wages
of sin is death. So Christ had to die. And in
order to pay that debt, he had to become incarnate. He had to
become man, in essence. God in human flesh. Emmanuel,
God with us. And he had to keep the law. He
had to be made under the law, Galatians 4 says, to redeem them
that were under the law. The law condemned us. But you
see, Christ was my surety. And basically, it condemned Him
in my place. That's why he had to keep the
law. That's why he had to suffer, to bleed, to die, to be buried. And he arose again as my surety,
my representative surety and substitute, because righteousness
had been established by him. My sin debt was imputed, charged,
accounted to him as my surety, and his righteousness is imputed,
accounted, charged to me for my justification. So you see
there, Christ is my representative, surety and substitute, so that
I stand before God perfect, righteous, not in myself, but in Christ. I've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now, when Paul writes here in
Colossians 3 in verse 3, for you are dead, what he means is
you're dead to sin, you're dead to the law. The law cannot condemn
you because of sin. If you're in Christ now, evidence
by belief in Him. This wasn't brought about by
your believing in Him, this is only evidence by your believing
in Him. And so, you stand in Him, perfect. I have a righteousness, Before
God, that equals the demands of His perfection, His perfect
requirement, His law and justice. I didn't work it. I didn't have
anything to do with it. If I had worked it or had anything
to do with it, it would be flawed. It would be sinful. It's all
Christ. So I'm dead to the law, I'm dead
to sin in Christ. But now in myself as a sinner
saved by grace, as a born again person, as a spiritual person,
I still have the remaining presence, the remaining influence, and
the remaining contamination of Christ. the flesh of sin. And my friend, it is a daily
warfare. It never lets up. Somebody asked
me one time, says, when does the warfare get easier? I said,
I don't believe it gets easier. I believe as we grow older and
we grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ, it gets harder. You
may be dealing, we may be dealing with different issues with our
bodies. You know, he says here in verse
five, mortified therefore your members which are upon the earth.
And then he lists what he's talking about. Fornication, fight sexual
immorality, not to be made righteous before God, not to earn your
way to heaven, but because you're already dead in Christ. Fight
uncleanness, that is anything that is unclean in the sight
of God, what God calls unclean. Fight inordinate affection, any
affection you have that is not proper, that is not natural,
that is not honoring to God and honoring to your body. Fight
evil concupiscence, unlawful desires. We all have unlawful
desires. We can't help it. And I know
there are people who talk about, well, I'm finally reached sinless
perfection in myself. They're lying to themselves.
You know something? If you were sinlessly perfect
in yourself, I can tell you something right now, you'd never get sick,
you wouldn't grow older, you wouldn't die. Sin, listen, aging
of the body, Sickness. There are the consequences of
sin, even for a believer. Now, believers, there's a difference
between believers and unbelievers in that area. When we die in
this body, we live forever in the Lord, and we'll have a new
body, a spiritual body. But right now, we're fighting
a warfare. That's why we're told to put
on the whole armor of God. that we might fight. That's what
believers are, you see. So we still have this. Romans
chapter 8 and verse 10 says this, the body is dead because of sin. Now what body is he talking about?
He's not talking about the church, the body of the church, because
the church is alive under God. The body is dead because of sin
is talking about this human fleshly physical body. that houses our
spirits. And it's dead because of sin.
This body is dying. We're not gonna live forever.
If we're believers, we're not gonna live forever in this body.
But it goes on there in Romans chapter 10 to say this, the body
is dead because of sin, but the spirit, and that's the Holy Spirit
there, is life because of righteousness. Now whose righteousness, by whose
righteousness does the Holy Spirit give life? It's Christ's righteousness
imputed to me. I'm legally dead to all sin,
but I am not physically dead to all sin. I still have to put
up with, but sin cannot condemn me. Sin cannot bring me into
alienation from God. God will not charge me with my
sins. And what he's saying here in
Colossians 3 and verse 5, he's begin talking about, he says,
now, it's basically this, on this ground with this hope, of
salvation conditioned on Christ and based on His righteousness
imputed alone, based upon the fact that you cannot be condemned,
you cannot be separated from God. Now from that motivation
of grace and love and gratitude, fight sin. Fight the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit. Fight fornication, fight uncleanness,
fight inordinate affection, fight evil concupiscence, unlawful
lust, and fight covetousness, which is idolatry. And remember
this, look at verse six again. He says, for which things sake
the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in
the which, verse seven, you also walk sometime when you lived
in them. You've got to consider something. The sins that believers
are commanded to fight and to put to death, that's our goal,
even though we won't attain that goal in this life. Somebody asked
me one time, said, well, if we can't attain the goal, why fight
it? Because of the glory of God. Because of gratitude to God.
Because God commands it. That's why. Because it's honoring
to God. because it is an evidence of
the spiritual warfare within us. You see, believers are brought
by the Holy Spirit to love God, to love Christ, to follow Him.
They have been given a desire to be like Christ. I wanna follow
Him. I wanna honor Him. It's not to
earn my way into God's favor. It's not to earn my rewards in
heaven. That's not gospel. It's not to
make myself righteous by my efforts. One day, I'm already righteous
in Christ based on His righteousness imputed, and that's my whole
salvation. But I'm not righteous in myself.
I still fall short in every way. Even the good things that I try
to do fall short of righteousness. I'm in total, listen, my salvation,
it started by grace, it stays by grace, and it'll end up with
grace. If God ever gave me what I deserve
or what I've earned, it would be damnation and eternal death. And that's at my best. But you
see, God saves his people by grace And grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now
from that vantage point, from that foundation, fight sin. You understand that? Now one
day, I will be delivered from the body of this death. Paul
wrote about that in Romans 7. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death, or this body of
death? So one day I'll be perfect in myself, but I'll have a new
body. Not on this earth, you see, I'll have a new body. And
I'll inhabit the new earth, new heavens and the new earth. Well,
he says you've got to remember that the very things that a believer
is to fight, are the very things that bring the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience. Now, a child of disobedience,
children of disobedience, you know who that's talking about?
That's talking about unbelievers. That's what he's talking about.
And the wrath of God is God's justice against all sinners to
whom sin is charged. Do you understand that? What
is the wrath of God? The Bible says over in the book
of John, chapter three and verse 36, that he that hath the son
hath life, or in verse 36, it talks about how that the wrath
of God abides upon all who do not believe. That's talking about
people who go through their life and die in unbelief. And the
wrath of God is God's damnation of them justly because of their
sin. Well, if you're a believer, if
I'm a believer, I've been delivered from that. It cannot condemn
me. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again
and is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. So these
things bring the wrath of God. And he says in verse seven, you
used to walk in unbelief, in that, but you've been delivered
from it by the grace of God. God, now again, when I say you,
I'm not talking about everybody without exception. I'm talking
about believers, those who believe in Christ as he's identified
in the scriptures. And so he says, now fight sin.
Now that's mortification as a goal, but let me show you something
else. Over in the book of Romans, In chapter eight, he talks about
this. The word mortify is used again. And he says in verse 13 of Romans
eight, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. Now,
to live after the flesh is to live in disobedience. It's to
live in unbelief, not fighting the sins of the flesh, not fighting
the warfare of the spirit in the flesh. It's an unbeliever,
an unregenerate person. But if you through the Spirit,
that's the Holy Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live. Now there he's talking about
mortification as something that is a done deal in the past. Well,
what's he talking about there? You know what he's talking about
there in Romans 8? He's talking about repentance of dead works. Before God saves His people by
nature, we all believe that salvation is conditioned in some way, to
some degree, at some stage, on ourselves. We believe we make
the difference. And it's either by our works,
or our efforts, our decisions, That's what free willism today
teaches, that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, now
you make the difference, you seal the deal. That's not what
the scripture teaches, that's conditional salvation, that's
not grace, that's works. Somebody said, well, you just
have to believe and that's not a work. Well, you make it a work.
If you make it the condition you must do, something you must
do out of your own self in order to be saved, you make it a work.
But whatever work it is, whether it's faith, faith plus repentance,
faith plus repentance, and obedience or perseverance, whatever, we
all believe that by nature. Until God brings us to see that
we're sinners and can do nothing to recommend us unto God. That
if God left us to ourselves, we would be totally, totally
against Him. Somebody said, well, we all have
a choice. Yeah, but by nature, if left to our own wills, we'll
make the wrong choice. That's what the Bible teaches,
all right? And so we believe that until
we're brought by the Holy Spirit in the new birth under the preaching
of the gospel to see the reality of who God is, of who we are
in our depravity and sin and who Christ is. And once God brings
us to believe in Christ, you know what we do? All the deeds
and all the decisions that we thought recommended us unto God,
that we thought were so special and good, we put them to death
in repentance. We repent of that. We mortify
that. You see? We mortify those deeds. We put them on the cross. That's
part of my sinfulness that Christ died for. and I put it to death. I repent of dead works, the book
of Hebrews says. All the works that I thought
were special, that I thought recommended me unto God, all
that which man highly esteems, you remember Luke 16, 15, that
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God. All that I thought brought me
a favor with God before Christ, before knowing Christ and His
blood and righteousness, that's dead works. That's fruit unto
death. And I mortify that in repentance.
Now that's what a believer does when he comes to Christ. That's
what God the Holy Spirit brings, God's elect, the redeemed to
come to believe when they come to Christ. They turn to Christ
and they turn away from self and self-righteousness. They
mortify the deeds of the body. But then the continual mortification
that Paul's talking about over here in Colossians chapter three
is a lifetime thing as far as life here on this earth. Verse
five of Colossians three. Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth. And then look at verse eight.
He says, but now you also put off all these. That's what he's
talking, put them off. Anger, wrath, malice, that's
hatred, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Put them off. He says, lie not unto them, don't
lie. seeing that you have put off
the old man with his deeds. Now, in the next message, I'm
gonna deal with this issue of the old man and the new man and
all of that, okay? But what he's saying is fight
sin. And don't fight it in a legal
way. Why does a legalist fight sin? He fights sin because he's
afraid of hell. because he's afraid that if he
doesn't do what he's supposed to do, he won't earn God's blessings
and God's salvation. That's legalism. And then don't
fight it as a mercenary. What's a mercenary? A mercenary
is a hired soldier. He's in the service of his master
because he's getting paid for it. Don't fight it as a mercenary. Don't fight it as a leader. Fight
it as a willing, loving, bond-servant of Christ, whose debt has already
been paid, whose righteousness is already in heaven, in Christ,
imputed to you. That righteousness, which is
perfect, cannot be contaminated. See, I can still be contaminated,
but my righteousness before God cannot be contaminated because
my righteousness is Christ. He's the Lord my righteousness,
now mortify the deeds of the body. Okay, I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-EAGER. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterrofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.