Consider Your Body as Dead to Sin

Transcript

GR 985
Consider Your Body as Dead to Sin
9/28/1997
Colossians 3:5-7
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Colossians and the third chapter in our study together today.  There is a clear emphasis that runs through Scripture, particularly as we study the New Testament epistles.  The heart of that emphasis is that God in love and mercy has provided salvation in Jesus Christ.  And that salvation, which paid in full the penalty for our sin, which is death, provides for cleansing and forgiveness.  The penalty for sin is death.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  And that salvation not only provides forgiveness from sin, total cleansing that makes us as white as snow as Isaiah says, but it also provides for new life which transforms the way we live.  So the Christians are not only forgiven their sins, but Christians are now made new and are living lives free from the domination and power of sin over them.

Leave a marker in Colossians, and back up to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and look at verse 14.  “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.”  We have studied in Colossians that when we believed in Jesus Christ we were identified with Him in death.  We died with Him.  “And He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”  And you see it not only paid the penalty for my sin, but it gave me new life.  A life that is not my own, but it is not the life of Christ lived in and through me.  So verse 17 says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  That’s the change, the transformation that God’s salvation has brought about.

Now as you come back to Colossians chapter 3, Paul is turning his attention with chapter 3 from its emphasis on the doctrine and theology of the death of Christ and our identification with Him in His death and resurrection, to an emphasis on the living out of this truth in our daily lives, having the life of Christ manifest in and through us in all that we do.  The first four verses of chapter 3 provided a transition into this emphasis focusing on those, as verse 1 began, who have been raised up with Christ.

All of this is done, verse 4, in the context of recognizing that Jesus Christ is coming again.  And when He comes in the fullness of His glory, we shall be revealed and manifested with Him before all creation as His children, glorified by His grace as the culmination of our salvation.  And this truth regarding the coming of Christ is to shape and transform us in our walk today.  We are to live in light of where we are going.  One of the tragedies taking place in the Church today is an abandoning of an emphasis on the Word, is an abandoning of an emphasis on the coming again of Jesus Christ.  We say, well, we don’t want to get all caught up in eschatology and future things.  We want to just live today.  But you understand that one of the prime factors in living a life that is pleasing to God is having your life focused on the coming again of Jesus Christ and knowing that when He comes, we will be revealed in Him in glory.

You have to turn to another passage with me, Titus chapter 2.  And look at verse 11.  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us [here is what we learn from the grace of God] to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”  That is the focus, and that is a purifying hope.  First John 3:3 says, “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  Look at verse 14 of Titus 2 still:  “Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”  You see that transforming work of God in grace is to set us free, but not so we can just now sit back and let go and let God, just wait for heaven.  No:  to look eagerly for His coming and relentlessly pursue a life that manifests the new life we have in Christ, expecting the time when that transformation process will be brought to completion, glorification in His presence.

Come back to Colossians chapter 3.  Paul is ready with verse 5 to pick up an emphasis that is negative.  There is a positive element to it, but the basic thrust is negative.  Here are things that must not be part of your life as one who has been redeemed in Christ.  Certain things have no place in the life of a child of God.  It would include everything that is contrary to the character of Christ and in conflict with His will.  And Paul is going to give some examples.  And in doing this, he will be telling how we are to live.  And really, verses 5 through 11 will focus on those things which are not to be characteristic of us.  Then in verses 12 to 17 he will focus on those things which are to be characteristic of us before he focuses in on specific areas or specific people, like wives and husbands and children and fathers and slaves and masters.

Sin, unpopular subject even in the evangelical church today.  We are acclimated to the idea people don’t want to hear the negative.  They don’t want to be told they are sinners.  They don’t come to church to get dumped on and go away feeling dirty and guilty and a failure, which is another way of saying they don’t want to hear what God has to say.  It interests me that here Paul wants to focus in on the life that is to characterize the child of God, and he begins with a negative.  But keep in mind the positive element of this negative.  I am greatly encouraged to know that these things do not have to be, in fact must not be part of my life as a child of God.  The salvation that God has brought to the life is so powerful, so complete that it sets us free from sin so that I am enabled to live a life pleasing to Him.  But it does not absolve me from the responsibility to apply every ounce of my energy and strength in the grace of God to live a holy and godly life.

You will note verse 5 says “therefore.”  He is building on what he just said in the first four verses of chapter 3, which really pull together what he has developed in the first two chapters regarding the reconciling work of Christ in salvation through His death and resurrection and our identification with Him through faith which has brought about our salvation.  Therefore, in light of the fact that you have died to sin and been raised with Christ in newness of life and are living in light of His return in glory and your manifestation in glory with Him, “therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

“Consider the members of your earthly body as dead.”  That is not the best translation of the verb here.  It is an imperative, a command.  And it literally says put to death the members of your earthly body.  It is a command to do something, to put to death the members of your earthly body.  Now we have already died with Christ spiritually.  We have been identified with Him in His death and His burial and His resurrection.  This command is to implement this truth in the way we live in the physical realm.  In other words, I am to use no part of my physical body for sinful activity.  I am not to be involved in sin.  Not with my hands, my eyes, my ears, my feet and so on.  I put my physical body to death.  What are we doing?  I am going to live out my theology.  I died with Christ.  I am a new person.  So now I use this body in light of what I am in Christ, not what I used to be.

Come to Romans and see where God says basically the same thing as He is saying in Colossians.  Romans chapter 8, look at verse 12.  “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”  You see, in the marvelous work of our salvation, God made us new in Christ and then provided His Spirit to take up residence within us so that now we live empowered and enabled and controlled by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.  And one who is still living under the control and domination of the flesh has never been set free by the power of God’s salvation.  Don’t be deceived.  The Word of God is true.  Verse 13: “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.”  You are still under the condemnation and judgement of sin, which is death.  It is verse 14:  “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”  Don’t delude yourself thinking, oh, I am just a carnal Christian.  A Christian is one who is being led by the Spirit of God; the non-Christian is being led by the flesh.

That statement at the end of verse 13 parallels our Colossians statement.  “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body.”  In other words, I am acting on my body.  I am not allowing my body to be used for sinful purposes.  That is not a strength I have in and of myself.  But I am required to exercise my will in submitting to the Spirit so His power can enable me to live in the freedom that God has provided.

Back in Romans chapter 6 verse 11.  “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  And there is the word consider.  Colossians had translated a different verb.  It means put to death.  Here is the word consider, reckon it to be true, that you are dead to sin.  The same basic point.  “But alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.”   You note - I don’t have to have sin dominate or control me, if I have been born again.  In fact, I am commanded not to have sin exercise its authority in my life.   So that is a negative, but I am greatly encouraged by the positive truth that undergirds that.  It is never in any situation true of me as God’s child that I couldn’t help it, that the passion, the sin was too strong.  “I couldn’t help myself.”  I am not to go on presenting the members of my body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.  That’s the thing we are talking about.  Our bodily parts are not to be used for sinful activities.  But I present them to God to be used for righteousness.

Sometimes our children, when they do something wrong, speaking particularly of a young child says, “I couldn’t help myself.  I couldn’t help it.”  Or if they are with friends, “they made me do it.”  And invariably as parents, what do we say?  “You didn’t have to do what you did.”  Now, we’re not saying there wasn’t pressure to do the wrong thing.  We’re not even saying that there wasn’t a desire and an allurement to do the wrong thing.  What we are saying is that they didn’t have to.  Well, in God’s family that truth is all the more true.  I never have to sin.  Any time I sin with my tongue, with my eyes, with my hands, whatever, it was because I wanted to sin.  The pleasure that that sin held out to me was strong enough on that occasion that I would rather indulge in the enjoyment of that sin for a season than forgo that momentary pleasure for the satisfaction of pleasing my God.   It’s always the case.

We’ve built up with the thinking of the world, that everybody is a victim and no one can help themselves.  That has so permeated our thinking in the church today that we think we are being empathetic and understanding and helpful when we put our arm around a Christian who is in sin and say, “we understand, it is hard for us all.  Sometimes you just can’t help yourself.”  What they really need to hear is, “in the power of God you don’t have to do that and it was wrong you did it.  If you are truly born again, it was a rejection of the provision of God for you to avoid it when you indulged in it.”  I don’t like it to be that clear, because that means my sin is my sin and it’s nothing more, nothing less than my willful rebellion and rejection of God’s will for me so that I can indulge in pleasure for a time. That makes my sin ugly.  I would like to dress it up a little bit so that you could all sympathize with me.  And maybe after two years of counseling I could have victory over this sin.

Back to Colossians chapter 3.  The command is clear.  Put to death the members of your earthly body when it comes to involving yourself in sin.  What do you mean by sin?  Paul is going to give five examples.  Then he is going to give some support.  Then he is going to give five more examples.   And in verse 9 he will give a command again: don’t lie to one another.  You see the process.  And none of these lists will be complete.  But they give you a sampling of the kinds of things that he is talking about, the things he is concerned about this church at this particular time.

Consider the members of your earthly body as dead. Put them to death, as involving immorality.  This word immorality, porneia--we’re familiar with it in English.  The Greek word is porneia.   We have it in words like pornography, pornographic. Graphos is the Greek word for writing.  Pornos for sexual wrong.   Pornography is sexual writing with sexual pictures.  It’s all kind of sexual immorality.  Adultery, fornication, all kinds of sexual deviation are included in this word.  A New Testament commentator, William Barkley, who was so familiar with the Greek of the New Testament world and the New Testament world itself, wrote, “In the ancient world, relationships before marriage and outside marriage brought no shame and were the normal and accepted practice.  The ancient world regarded the sexual appetite as a thing to be gratified and not to be controlled.”  We sometimes get the idea that our day is more decadent that any other time in history.  But our day is a reflection to a large extent of what it was like in New Testament times, only maybe not quite that bad.   In New Testament times they didn’t regard sexual activity outside of marriage as something shameful or bad or wrong.  Sex was just one of the body appetites, and you satisfied it like you do the other appetites for food or whatever.  Now we’re seeing a change within our limited time, within our own country perhaps, on the attitude toward morals and sexual behavior.  But what we see is fallen mankind becoming more brazen and open again in this particular context with their sexual activity.  So people think nothing of going on TV or being interviewed in a magazine or on radio acknowledging that they have had children and, “no, we’re not married and don’t have any intention of getting married.  But we just live together.”  There is an openness and a shamelessness about it.  Now as we see in a little bit, that ought not to surprise us as believers regarding the unbelieving world.  But what we have to be careful is that the thinking and behavior of unregenerate people does not shape our thinking so that we think that this is not so sinful anymore either.  As a believer I am to regard my physical body as dead regarding sexual immorality.  It’s something I cannot and will not indulge in.

Back up to I Cor. 6.  There are repeated warnings given in the Scripture about sexual misconduct.  The Corinthian church had problems with it, and they thought they were becoming more magnanimous and had grown up enough that they could tolerate sexual immorality.  Sort of where the Church is today, non-judgmental, understanding.  In I Cor. Chapter 6, look at verse 15.  “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”   We studied this in the first two chapters of Colossians, that when you believe in Christ you become identified with Him spiritually.  You become a member of His body.  He is the head of the body.  “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?  May it never be!”  That intense expression, such a thought, completely repulsive.  For you see, I am brought into a relationship of permanence with Christ.

One of the ugliest things about sin is what Paul is bringing out here.  That relationship I have with Christ is permanent and unending.  I abide in Him.  He abides in me.  Now I go and join myself in an immoral relationship while I am joined in a relationship with Christ.  How repulsive and defiling is such sin.  “Or do you no know that one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her?  For He says, ‘the two shall become one flesh.’  But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  Sin becomes very ugly.  We like to think, I leave my relationship with Christ at the door.  Then I run off over here, indulge in the pleasures of sin, then run back and tell the Lord, “I’m sorry, let’s get back together again.”  You understand, He never leaves me.  I never break off that relationship for a moment.  Now all of a sudden sexual sin becomes very ugly for the child of God.  That I who have a relationship of oneness with Christ would now be joined in a relationship of oneness in an immoral setting.  How defiling can that be!  Flee immorality!

Verse 19.  “Or do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body.”  I don’t belong to myself anymore.  This is His.

Back up to I Cor. Chapter 5.  I want you to note a distinction here.  Verse 9.  This is the context of an immoral situation that was taking place at the church in Corinth.  The church at Corinth was just tolerating it.  The man was involved in immorality, and they were just overlooking it like most churches do today when one of their members are involved in immorality.  They just ignore it.  The local radio station mentioned us as an example a couple of weeks ago on the air of homosexual bashing because we had exercised discipline on someone guilty of such sin.  And we get intimidated and afraid, the world’s going to view us as judgmental and harsh and unloving and unkind.  Paul condemns the Corinthian church for not dealing with it.


Verse 9 of I Cor. 5.  “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people.”  There’s our word.  Porneia.  “I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.”  You know, the Scripture assumes the godless, sinful conduct of unregenerate people.  I tell you, so much of what is coming out from professing Christians today, I see more amazement on their part that the world is sinful than I see concern that the church is sinful.  “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother [anyone who is called a Christian] if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler...not even to eat with such a one.”  You cut off your association with anyone who would profess to be a believer and live like the world.  What do I have to do with judging outsiders?  Like Paul says, you misunderstand.  I’m not telling you to not have anything to do with immoral people who are not Christians.  Where are you going to go in the world?  

We get concerned, I don’t like to work in the world.  You know those people are unbelievers and they are immoral and covetous.   So what do you expect?  As you will see in a moment, Paul is going to say, “what were you before you were saved?”  But Paul says, “I don’t have anything to do with judging outsiders.”  I think the church ought to quit trying to reform the world.  We ought to quit trying to reform the United States, trying to get unredeemed people to bring their conduct into conformity with the Word of God.  There’s no blessing promised from God for that.  What do we have to do with judging the unbeliever?  Now we proclaim sin as sin.  But I’m not trying to get the unbeliever to stop being immoral.  If he stops being immoral, he is still going to hell.  There are people in this city who have never been unfaithful to their husband or wife and are on their way to an eternal hell.  So what are we trying to reform conduct for?  What do I have to do with judging outsiders?  Do you not judge those who are within the church?

Our responsibility is, remove the wicked man from among yourselves.  We ought not to tolerate sin within the body of Christ.  That is a denial of the work of Christ.  That must be disciplined.  And when it’s not, it spreads.  So the church decides, oh, well, if we discipline this person then people might quit coming and certain families would leave the church.   You know what happens in your own family.  You’ve got four kids, one of them does something wrong and I decide, I don’t want to discipline them, I don’t feel like being harsh today.  Pretty soon, what, it spreads among the other kids.  They are all doing the wrong thing.  That’s what happened in the church. Church discipline has gone out the window so the wrong thing is acceptable.

Besides, it’s more important that we have a large group with more people coming than that we have a pure church.  We have just totally lost our way biblically on this.  God’s standard of morality has not changed.  Just jot down, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3.  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.”  Do you want to know the will of God?  Abstain from sexual immorality.  That is for His people.  Their sanctification - for those who have experienced His salvation.

Come back to Colossians.  The next word relates to the first one, so we don’t have to spend as much time on it.  Immorality, impurity.  Joined together, as a pair of words, immorality, impurity.  It denotes impurity of all kinds.  1 Thessalonians 4:7 says, “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.”  All kinds of defiling activity, particularly in the sexual area in the context here.  The next word is passion, another Greek word that we carry over into English.  Pathos - healing, passion.  It has to do with passions that control us and dominate us.  These kinds of things are accepted by the world.  They are addictions.  Well, the Bible says, sin in addictive in the sense that it is enslaving.  That is a point of agreement.  From there on we go totally different ways.

The Bible says the solution for the enslavement to sin is: you have to die.  The world says you have to be counseled.  Or, we just have to make it acceptable behavior.  I mean, your passions make you want to have sex with someone you are not married to, well, let’s remove any of the restraints on that and then you won’t feel guilty for doing it.  Passions, controlled by passions.  You know, in Christ we have been set free, so now I consider my body as dead to being controlled by my passions.  And the next word goes with this, evil desires.  It is the desires of our fallen sinful nature.  We’ll say more about this in our next study.  But it’s being under the control of your sinful desires, the word evil.  Kaken, an ugly word, kaken, those perverted desires.  Again, I get concerned because we change the terminology, and we’ve talked about this so many times you are tired of hearing of it.  But cheer up, I’m tired of preaching about it.  It’s what we have to do, because its in the Scripture.  You know we change the terminology from drunk to being an alcoholic.  So if you’re a drunk, you’re responsible.  You’re guilty.  You’re an alcoholic, what can you do?  It’s in your genes.  Well let me tell you, sin is in your genes because you are a descendant of Adam.  And from him you’ve got sinful genes that control you and evil desires control us.

I read an article in one of the news magazines this week, two pages devoted to homosexual practice, and talking about the fact that they’re almost throwing off all constraint again.  They’d interview people, supposedly educated people of our day, who were talking about how much unprotected sex they have been indulging in.  One man openly says, and they have him identified by name and where he works, that I try to be involved in unprotected sex at least three times a week, more if I can.  No shame.  They talk about, it’s even become a goal now in the homosexual community to see if you cannot become infected with the HIV virus.  The concern of the article is that it is going to lead to an explosion of AIDS and so forth.  You know what the problem is:  people consumed by passion and evil desire.  But you know what?  When you died with Christ you were set free.  You were made new; you were indwelt by the Spirit.  Now you can live differently.  Does that mean there will be no desire?  Paul wouldn’t have had to give a command if it was all gone.  The old man has had his power broken; he’s not been removed.  We’re going to talk about this in our next study because there are some differences in some Bible teachers today, so come back next week.  We don’t have to be controlled by our passion or evil desires.  That encourages me.  When those desires, that I would like to think would not even come to mind, come, I know in Christ, I do not have to follow them.  I have been set free.

You see the solution.  He also mentions with this, greed.  The word covetousness.  The word translated “greed” is a compound word.  It is literally a desire to have more.  And it is a broad word.  The Old Testament uses it of sexual activity as well as greed for coveting everything, because you are not to covet your neighbor’s wife as well as possessions that he has.  Greed - now we get into the sexual area because we just talked about sexual things.  We are not to covet and desire for those things which do not properly belong to us nor should not be part of our life.  But it is broader than just sexual activity.   And greed is idolatry.  Greed is wanting what you shouldn’t have.  Greed is wanting to have more, an insatiable desire for what you don’t have.  You know it drives the world in which we live.  We wring our hands and say, oh, the materialism of our day.  Well, what has the world ever lived in but materialism?  What has the world ever had but a material world?  And what drives you in a material world but more of the material things?  We act like this is something strange.  Oh my!  How unusual this day in which we live.  We need to open our eyes and read the Scripture.  That is the unregenerate being’s world.  Greed.  And greed is idolatry because greed puts something in the place of the one true and living God.  What I really desire and long for is a bigger and better house, a more important job, nicer clothes, financial security, ease and comfort.  The things associated with this life and this world are what dominate me.

Back up to Luke chapter 12 verse 15.  Jesus is speaking.  “Then He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’ ”  See, there has to be a detachment from this world and the things of this world.  Now note: greed is not necessarily identified with having much.  Someone may have much and not be greedy.  Someone may have very little and be very greedy.  So be careful.  I like to shift these kinds of sins to you and not to me and say, well, I hope so and so is listening to this because he shouldn’t be living in that big house.  Well, the issue is, should I be living in the house I am living in?  I can’t tell you what house you should live in, but I’d better be sure before God what house I should be living in, or whatever area you want to use for an example.

Paul is an example of living properly. Look at back just before Colossians, the book of Philippians.  The opposite of covetousness is contentment, being content with what you have, being content in Christ and what you have in Him.  So the other things are supercilious.  Whether I have them or don’t have them is not a big issue.  Now, it is easy to say that.  It is less easy to live it.  Look at Philippians chapter 4 verse 11.  Paul has just been the recipient of some material gifts.  He says in verse 11 of Philippians 4 after thanking them, “not that I speak from want.”  I am thanking you and telling you, you did the right thing, but I don’t want you to think I need it.  “For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”  My sufficiency is in Christ.  That is all I need.  That’s enough.  You know, there is a liberating detachment that is to characterize us as believers.

So if the Lord said to you, “I want you to leave your job, to leave your nice home, move over here, be My representative in this area and you are only going to make a portion of what you make.  It will be enough to provide food and clothing and shelter.”  You say, “Well, wait a minute God, what about my retirement?  Lord, what about my security?”  Paul said it doesn’t matter.  Whatever the Lord wants from me, He’s got.  I am content if I have more than enough.  I am content if I don’t have enough, because my contentment is not in things, in possessions, circumstances.  My contentment is in Him.  He is my sufficiency.  And He is always sufficient.  So I am glad you sent me the material things you did, but don’t misunderstand it.  I don’t need them.  But it was good for you, you sent them.  And he writes that under the inspiration of the Spirit.  I would say, Lord, I need to learn about this contentment issue.  Lord, it is easy for me to talk about being content in my prosperity.  Lord, I need to be content in You.

You know the sins we are talking about are not so distant from this church.  Some of you are sitting here listening to me and you are involved in immorality, and you know it and you think you’ve got it hidden.  But the eyes of the Lord run to and fro on the face of the earth observing both the evil and the good.  We have all kinds of excuses for our sin.  And my situation is different.  We have people in this congregation who are mired in debt because somehow the world has gotten into them.  I am not talking to those who got into trouble and then got saved.  They have certain consequences they have to deal with.  I am talking about Christians who have thought, well, once I get this it will be alright.  Once I get this it will be alright.  Once I get this it will be alright.  And now somehow there are those of us who would say, well, my bank statement is good and I am not involved in immorality.  Well, I say, well, am I really a covetous person.  What is my life oriented around?  Do I really say I have a life that is focused on the Lord and He absorbs me?  And if you followed me for a week and looked at my life, looked at the devotion of my life and time?  I would say it looks pretty much like the world.  I would say you are just as much in pursuit of what the world offers as the world is on the pursuit of what the world offers.

What Paul was saying is, we have to put our physical body to death regarding these things.  Our times are to be filled with the things of Christ and His character and His will.  And we are to be on the pursuit of those things.  Other things, they are there.  Sometimes the Lord gives me more, sometimes less.  Sometimes He gives to some people a lot.  Others he gives less.  Paul said that is fine.  You never find Paul saying, you know it is not right, I am an apostle and you have a lot and I don’t have anything.   He does rebuke those who are misusing what they have, some of those kind of things.  We need to be careful.  You know, as a church there is pressure on us.  Are we really living out of the flow of the world?  Have we become so identified with the world we are so much like the world you have to look carefully to find out how those people are different?   We don’t like to stick out, we are like our kids.  We talk about peer pressure.  You know that is not unique to adolescents, that is not unique to teenagers, that is not unique to. . . we all have peer pressure.  Do I want to drive up to church in that clunker?  Leaking oil, on the new parking lot?  And park next to their brand new car? Do I want to invite them over to my house to sit on our ragged couch when they have got such a nice couch?  What does it matter?  I don’t mean going around and flaunting, I am poor and you are not, I live lower than you do, I must be more godly.  That is not what we are talking about.  We are talking about a true godly character produced in us.

Come back to Colossians, verse 6.  Two things given to help motivate us.  Number one is in verse 6, number two is in verse 7.  Number one, verse 6:  “For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.”  Another unpopular subject.  You know, when you stop talking about sin, you also stop talking about the wrath of God.  And of course if you are not going to talk about sin, why would you talk about the wrath of God?  Because apart from sin there is no wrath.  And that is why we don’t like to hear about sin, I don’t want to hear about wrath.  But the wrath of God, the orga of God, is a reality and, you understand, these sins bring the wrath of God.  We have been delivered from them and so been delivered from the wrath which is to come.  But the wrath of God is real.

Let me just read you a couple of verses.  You can jot them down but we won’t turn there for time.  Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4: “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”  You know it is always in the news, some public figure who was indulging in sin and finally got exposed.  People scratch their heads and say, what was he thinking about?  Did he think he could really get away with this indefinitely?  Yes.  We don’t think about judgment.  We don’t think about consequences.  There is nobody here who is involved in immorality who thinks, how embarrassing and shameful it will be if I am exposed.  We just go on.  People indulge in immorality and fornication and what, they don’t think, you know some day the God of this world is going to judge me.  It is just not part of their thinking.  That is one of the diluting things of sin.  You know.  It is like getting a shot that numbs you.  You go to the dentist and he gives you shot, then he starts drilling.  He says, do you feel anything?  No.  Well, he is still drilling a hole in my tooth, but I am sort of numb to it.  We put off the concept of judgment.  We put it out of our mind.  What ought to motivate me is I have been delivered from this.  I would go back and indulge in those things that God views so serious, He will send men and women to an eternal hell for judgment?

Let me read you Revelation 21:8, “For the cowardly [note the collection of things here] and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” which is eternal hell.  “Oh, I don’t believe in a God like that.”  Well, that is the true and living God.  He will judge sin.  His wrath will fall.  I should be so thankful for God’s deliverance that I find those sins repulsive, but you know, there is pleasure in sin for a season and that is how it always comes to me.  Look how attractive, look how enjoyable.  No one will ever know, you will enjoy it, it will be delightful.  And there is an element of truth in that.  Somebody shoots up with a drug, heroin or something.  Ah, euphoria.  Wow.  They don’t look five years down the road.  No, we as believers need to be careful.  I must put to death this body as regards to sin.

Second reason.  First was those are the very things that bring the wrath of God, will bring the wrath of God, the very things from which we have been delivered.  “In them you also once walked, when you were living in them.”  That is where I have been delivered from.  Why would I go back there?  Aren’t you amazed sometimes when have exposure personally, or through a news article or something, who was delivered from a vile condition and you find out then they went back?  You say, why would they do that?  I mean, somebody that has been free from drugs or drunkenness for three years and then one day they just decide, you know I am going to go back, I am going to try it again.  You say, why would they do that?  That is where we are, that is where I used to live.  I walked there, that is where I had my life.  I have been delivered from that, why would I go back?  You know that is a reminder, we don’t look at the world and say, oh, I just can’t stand to be around these filthy people.  Don’t I ever change my attitude that sin is filthy?  I look at them and say, how could they do that?  They are repulsive.  I used to live there, that doesn’t mean I did everything that is listed, but I was just as sinful.  I never committed adultery.  Was I ever covetous?  Was I ever lustful?  Did I ever lie? My character was the same.  I may have manifested my vile character with different sins than some.  The issue is the same.  I lived there.  You walked there.  You were living in them.

You understand, that’s what a person is, apart from the transforming power of God’s salvation.  That’s why the Church needs to sweep out all these things it’s trying to do with the world and focus in on the Gospel truth, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  The world needs salvation, not reformation.  “Oh boy, if we could only turn our nation around.  Wouldn’t it be neat.  We will get the Supreme Court to pass some laws and clean up the schools and stop abortion.”  Now how does that change unregenerate hearts?  It does make life easier.  The drunk stops drinking because he went to Alcoholics Anonymous.  That helps his family.  He is no closer to heaven than he was when he was a drunk in the gutter.  You understand.  Oh yeah, we know that.  The only thing that changes a life permanently and powerfully is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We formerly lived there.

I am going to read you a couple of verses before we pray.  Ephesians 2:3.  “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”  1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 to 11.  “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”  You understand that.  If this is the preface of your life, you are not on your way to glory.  We praise God for verse 11.  “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”  Praise God for a salvation that is so powerful.  I am not what I used to be.  I am not what I am going to be completely yet.  But don’t tell me this is what I am.  This is what I was.  I have been made new in Christ.  One more set of verses.  1 Peter chapter 4 verse 3.  “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desires of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolaters.  In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you.”  You know what the basic thing is?  When your life is transformed by the power of God’s salvation, many of your old family and friends don’t say, oh, it is wonderful that you have been changed.  They don’t like it.  They malign you.  The slander you.  They say things against you.  Why?  The presence of righteousness is convicting to the ungodly.  They liked the old you better.  But they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

The purpose of this church is not to try to get you to reform your life.  The purpose of this church, number one, is to proclaim to you the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ.  He came and died because the penalty for sin is death.  You cannot be washed clean, you cannot be set free in any other way but by turning from your sin and believing in Him as your Savior.  When you do, you are forgiven, cleansed and made new.  And the Spirit of God takes up residence within you.  The second purpose of this church is to proclaim God’s sanctification, that you, by His grace and power, can now live a holy and godly life.  Not only can you do that, you are obligated and required by the sovereign God who saved you to do it.  And we are to be involved in one another’s lives, in the ministry of the Word and the exercising of our gifts and the disciplining of the body, to be part of that process that God is using to bring the individual and the church corporately to the perfection that is His in Christ, the fullness of which is manifest when He is manifest in His glory.  May God use us with that end in view until He comes.  Let’s pray together.

Thank You, Lord, for a salvation that is so powerful and so complete that it takes wretched, vile, lost sinners, lifts them from that miry clay and sets them free, makes them new.  Lord, may we who have been redeemed not forget from what we have been redeemed.  We become confident and proud as though we were better than others, as though dabbling in sin was not awful and ugly and defiling.  Lord we remember that we have been delivered from those things.  The time passed in them was more than sufficient.  Lord, we derived no profit from those things.  May they be ugly.  May we see them as they really are.  Lord, I pray for those who are assembled here today who do not know You, who perhaps are living relatively clean lives but are just as defiled in heart as the worst sinner.  Lord, I pray for those who are here who are involved in sins that no one else knows about.  Lord, if they do not know You, I pray that this might be a day of salvation.  Lord, for those who are here who do not truly belong to You but have been ensnared by the deceitfulness of sin, may they take hold of the glorious truth of liberty and freedom in Christ.  Lord, I pray for all of us that we would honestly evaluate our lives.  Lord, may even today we reflect over the past week and see if the characteristic of our lives has been minds filled with desires to be like Christ, lives given with the exercise of our time and our ability and the use of our possessions in the pursuit of godliness.  May we be willing to make whatever adjustments necessary to bring us to proper alignment with the mind of Christ.  And we pray in His name, amen.