This Is How We Must Live

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Colossians chapter three. We’ll be in verses 5 to 11 today. Last week, we discussed the foundation of a godly life. If you missed that sermon, you need to go back and listen to it. It relates directly to the message today. We talked about a mind that was set on heavenly things. A mind that is not set on earthly things, but set on heavenly things, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Let me read to you Colossians 3:1-4.

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

This is Paul writing to believers. He's writing to believers that he had never met. This church that was planted by Epaphras. Probably around 60/62 AD, somewhere in there. Roughly 30 years after the Lord ascended. Paul's ministry is in full swing, people are getting saved, and they're going back to where they live. And Epaphras, became the church planter, the pastor of this congregation, and Paul is writing to them, and encouraging them to live with a heavenly mindset. This heavenly mindset is based on something significant, something that is set, something that is a foundation that doesn't change.

This heavenly mindset is based on having been raised with Christ, you see that in verse one. That is the foundation for the rest of, not only the section today, but through the rest of the book, even through chapter four. At salvation we are raised to a new life in Christ. We are given a new purpose, we are given a new outlook. We cannot be the same, we cannot live the same, because Christ has affected us. His grace has come into us and changed us. And the picture that we see from chapter two is that we have died with Christ. And now we've been raised to this new life. And Paul is simply encouraging them to live this new life that they have in Christ. Our purpose is to live for Jesus Christ. As a Christian, we are to set our minds on God and to think about heavenly things. And yet, how do we do that?

Last week was a little bit nonconcrete. This week – if you were if you were hoping for a little bit more concrete, a little bit more things to actually do – this sermon might be for you. But it is “the put-off section.” That is the things that we must put aside. So, it's “a big boy sermon.” It's not a soft jello-type of thing. This might hit some of you like a ton of bricks, but God sovereignly brought you here today. So that's what we all needed, right? So, Colossians 3:5-11 is “the put off section,” it is what we were like before Christ, how we lived. But some of are were still living that way. So, there's an encouragement to continue to put those things off. And Colossians 3:12-17 is what we would call “the put-on section.” Those are the things that we must do. So, if you get burdened by Colossians 3:5-11, just skip ahead, take a little breather, read Colossians 3:12-17, and you'll feel better.

Since we have the heavenly mindset though, this is what we must do. We just sang about God's holiness. And we are called his chosen ones. And this is how we must live. Look in Colossians 3:5. This will be out of the ESV and if you need a Bible, there's one nearby under a seat I'm sure. And if you need a Bible, you can have that one.

Colossians 3:5–11
"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."

Colossians 3:5-11 is an exhortation to the mortification of sin. Mortification, to mortify something, is to put it to death, put it to death. It's an urging, it's a call, an appeal to us. Put to death seems kind of dramatic, doesn’t it? Why so serious? We obviously know Christ died to pay for sin. But, in our lives, why so serious? Well, Matthew Henry notes, “Sin hinders our affections for heavenly things.” You feeling a little dull lately? Like your spiritual vigor is just on coast or in neutral? Sin hinders our affections for heavenly things. They must be cultivated. Sin must be put away, put to death. As you’re aware, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you,” is a common phrase and I find much truth in that. You can't walk in the ways of sin and expect not to be affected by it. The filth of sin affects anyone who engages in it. Paul knows how stifling this is to the Christian mind and the Christian life.

So, Colossians 3:5 says, put [it] to death, “Put to death…what is earthly in you…” In other words, there is a heavenly mindset, a heavenly goal, a heavenly purpose. But there's an earthly mindset, and an earthly way of life, and you must leave this old life behind. Most people live in this life, and then wonder why they're feeling like life is a gigantic anchor on them and their hearts. And their joy just eludes them. Put it to death! This is not a new subject for the church. This is not just some new preaching. Obviously, Paul's writing about it, he thought it was important.

In 1656 a brilliant theologian, John Owen, wrote a book called, “The Mortification of Sin.” If you have never read that, you should. You should read it. It is a masterful work on the subject. It searches the heart, it flays it open, and it just lays to bear what we're doing and how we're living. And yet it doesn't just leave us there. It wraps it all up, and ties it together, and brings hope through the grace of God. Listen to how this this book affected one of the greatest biographers of our day – Christian biographers – Ian Hamilton. He said this, “The first time I read Owen on mortification, I sat on the bus weeping. And the recurring thought was this man knows my heart. It was as if layers were being peeled away. It was uncomfortable reading. But it didn't leave me crushed and despairing. There was grace woven into the detailed exposition (really of Romans 8:13). Powerful, heart-searching, and convicting. But at the same time, Owen never leaves you bereft, he always leaves you with the awareness that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.”

Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Praise God for his truth! As point number one, this may be the most obvious point I've ever exposited:

1. “To live a renewed life, we must fight against sin.”

“To live a renewed life, we must fight against sin.” And it is the renewed life that you want. So, if you want to live as God intends, then Colossians 3:5, “Put to death therefore [right?] what is earthly in you…” You can't walk in the mud without getting muddy. So, we stay out of it, we put it away, we don't even dabble in them. If you play in the mud, you'll get dirty. Anyone with children knows this. And when it's raining, and wet, and muddy outside that children desire to go out and splash in it and ruin your nice, new white carpet that you were warned never to get with little children. Yet you got it anyway.

Remember, when Christ who is your life appears, you will appear with him in glory! You're going to be with Christ! Because we have right been raised with Christ, we put these things to death. This may be a little bit much if you have taken sin lightly in your life or listened to watered-down expositions. But I pray it is a balm to your soul. I pray it gives strength to your bones. The first thing to put to death is sexual immorality. That's the word porneia in Greek. Sound familiar? Sleeping around, put it off. Don't engage in it. Pornography, get rid of it. Nothing else has damaged the mental mind in marriage more than pornography. We can't act like it doesn't exist or like maybe it just affects somebody else or some other church. How could we fill our minds with these things and expect to be holy, to have communion with a holy God?

Yes, your sin is paid for, it's completely atoned for, the wrath of God is no longer on your head. But still it destroys your affections for the God whom you love and we must put it off. And pornography entangles men, it entangles women alike. Solomon writes about the man who seeks out sexual immorality.

Proverbs 7:21–23
"21 With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
22 All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
23 till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life."

If you are into pornography or illicit relationships, it doesn't start there, it starts in the mind, it starts in the heart. And what we cultivate in the heart and the mind is going to reveal itself in your life and how you treat others, and what you think about women. If you're into these kinds of things, I want to challenge you to not just think about doing something about it some other day. Do something about it today. Confess it, men, to your spouse today. Children, teenagers, young adults, if you're into this, confess it to your parents. And if you don't have a godly parent, come see one of the elders. James 5:16, “…confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed…” If you want to live the renewed life, we have to do something about it. We have to allow the grace of God, by the Holy Spirit of God, to allow us to live the Spirit-filled life. I told you this was not going to be a jello-sermon.

Confession draws us closer to God. Do you want to be closer to God? Confession draws us closer to God. You will know today if you want to be closer to God. Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may…” have what? Just guilt? That we may just be looked down on? Like, “Wow, I can't believe you're in that sin.” Wives, if your husband confesses something to you today, you need to show him grace. Because when we go to the throne of God, that's what we receive. It says [Hebrews 4:16], “…that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Many marriages and men think they will never ever get through this thing. Ever! They hide it. It affects every ounce of their life, all day long. And such things should not even be spoken of among the people of God.

He goes on [Colossians 3:5], “impurity.” That's a normal word for anything that is unholy or dirty. “Passion,” that is like Romans 1:26, dishonorable passion, it's lust. Any kind of physical or mental desire contrary to God's design: put it to death! Stop feeding your sin! “Evil desire.” All of these have a root understanding in desire. So, he just says, “evil desire.” A desire is a longing. It's like a man crawling out of a desert who wants a glass of water. And instead of getting that nice glass of water, he just stuffs sand into his mouth. And he's like, “Oh, why is life so difficult?” And he just keeps eating sand. Cut it out! Have some water. Start thinking with a godly mindset, Colossians 3:1-4.

“Covetousness.” It's a strong desire for what others have. We call this envy, envy. And it doesn't mean you never buy a new shirt, and you need to wear a shirt with holes in it. Right? Because “Boy, I can't covet a new one.” That's not what it's talking about. It's an unholy desire to get something you don't have, and God hasn't given to you. And so, you envy those who do have it. If you ever wondered, that's what drives the marketing of the world, is envy. “which is idolatry.” Idolatry is worshiping something other than God. It's the conclusion in the book of First John. [1 John 5:21] “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Like, “He hasn’t mentioned idols in the whole book yet? What's he talking about?” Well, he lists about 70 characteristics of a godly person and concludes with, “keep yourselves from idols.” Sin becomes an idol in our life. It becomes what we adore. It becomes what we long for. And don't worry, there are other things in the list to be revealed yet in this passage. So, if we haven't hit yours yet, I'm sure it's on the way. Matthew Henry again says, “Covetousness is spiritual idolatry, giving our love for God to the world.” We just willingly handed over. Some people covet physical things which supplants Christ in their lives. And they wonder why they're drowning. You need some water. You're in the desert. There is a way out. His name is Jesus.

Others covet the praise of men. They desire the approval of others instead of God. Pastors, elders, any kind of leader deals with this. When you get finished, you want to be praised. “Ah, that was a great sermon. I loved it! You just made me squirm the whole time. Thank you, Pastor Dave.” I know how these sermons land. And if I talk to you afterwards and it's just convicting. Just know, it's convicting me all week. I spent way more time than just an hour thinking about these things. It's crushing, but it's only crushing if you want to ignore the help God provides. It's only damaging if all you see is your sin, and you want it. But you're rejecting everything God gives, everything he's done. He says, “I can forgive you of those things, I can take the burden off of you.”

Sometimes we confuse the praise of God with the praise of others. We should of course be sensitive to our dear brothers and sisters who are dealing with the things in these passages. To pray for them, to help their minds get fixed on Christ and Christ alone. For them to think about God and what he thinks, above and beyond anyone else. To not dismiss sin like, “Oh, I don't deal with that. I've never had a lustful thought in my life.” Then you're already dead. Sometimes coveting the praise of others can show up as pride: “I'm good” or “I got it together.” You can spot this person because they're always talking about who? Themselves. Like, no one on earth has ever gone through what they've gone through. Don't get this confused with the person who's truly crushed in spirit, crying out for help. We need to wrap our arms around that person and sustain them with God's Word. And point them to the Spirit of God and allow them to get beyond the crushing sins of their lives that they just can't see a way out of. And you lend them a hand and you pull them up by the power of God and his Word to a new, renewed life.

So, we should not confuse the person who is crushed with a person who is prideful; nor the person who is immature. We should pray for them, ask God to strengthen them. Ask God to give us the forbearance that we need to deal with them as we help them and they claw and they fight back. And they turn their problems on you. And it's in those moments that we know if we are living by the grace that God provides or if we are merely playing games and trying to live with just a mere veneer of holiness. You might be thinking, “How could I ever bear up under such commands? I'm neck deep in my sin and no one knows. I feel I have no life in me. And this passage is just making it worse.” Well let me remind you, you've been raised with Christ. You have died and your life is hidden with Christ. There is no “just you, by yourself.” You have the very strength of God to live! When we appear with him in glory, we don't need to be dragging the suitcase of sin with us. We can leave those behind. That's the old man, that's the old life. That's not who you are. Paul says we should stop living like it is. Get off the gerbil wheel, always tiring you out but going nowhere. Instead, seek the things that are above and fight. Stand up for the glory of God. Stand up for the holiness of God in your life. Don't just play dead.

Fight for God's image to be renewed in you, through the knowledge of God. Romans chapter five tells us that when we're in these situations, when it seems like sin has increased, and that all we can see, and all we can do is just be in the trespasses of sin. It says that the law came in to increase the trespass, in other words, to make it very clear, very plain. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more! So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness. Leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not just a mental state of mind that frees from sin, it is the righteousness of Christ.

Have we not seen in Scripture where people were about to be crushed and God saved them? Can we think of times where God did that? Throughout the Old Testament? When King David, when his son was about to take over, and he's left with killing his son and keeping the kingdom, or leaving the kingdom, which God gave him, and flee. And while he's on the way, there's this guy running on the hilltop, cursing him and throwing stones at him, that any one of the archers could take out, like that. And he says, “No. Maybe what he says has some merit.” Did not God even then save David and the people?

Or when Moses and the 2 million people he's called to shepherd go, “Why are we following this guy? We traded in the glory of Egypt for a bunch of sand. This is a bad deal. Let's get rid of this guy.” And his own family rises up against him. Ever had family come against you? Well, Moses’s own family, his sister. Moses was saved by God. And God changed their hearts. Peter sinking into the water. You think, “Well, if I could just talk to Jesus, I mean, I'd be good. It's all this I can't see him stuff. And I just got to pray. And I'm so distracted. And if I could just see Jesus, I'd make the right decision.” Peter, seeing Jesus, gets out of the boat, walks on water. Right? That's pretty good. Not bad. But then he gets scared of the water – Jesus, who's walking on it, created. (I don't think I would have made it out of the boat, by the way. So, he's probably way beyond us.) But as he's sinking, Jesus didn't go, “Well, see you later.” Right? “Down you go, anybody else want to get out of the boat?” No, he helps him. He saves him. Why? Because God is a compassionate God. God is a loving God. And in our sin, his compassion remains, his love remains. His kindness remains. And we need to remember the character of God and the nature of God, especially when we are rejecting him. Knowing that while we were sinners, he saved us. And while we're trying to be sanctified, it's his truth that sanctifies us. He still wants us to be saved, he wants us to be holy, he wants us to grow.

Paul reminds them in Colossians 3:6, “On account of these [things], the wrath of God is coming.” They will be paid for one way or the other. [Colossians 3:7] “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.” Pastors like to share with other pastors what's going on at their church. Epaphras shared with Paul what's happening there, and who these people were, and the struggles they were going against. It’s nothing new. Paul was ministering to the Corinthians as well. “In these you” what? “You…once walked.” We're not going to achieve sinless perfection here on Earth. But don’t use that as an excuse to sin. You've died to sin, you have risen with Christ. That's what that means. You've died to sin. The baptism, the picture of being buried and raised to new life. It has no grip on you. You have to want to sin, to sin. Whereas before, it was just, that's what you were all about. Now in Christ, you have the ability to live for Jesus Christ, to choose to walk by the power of the Holy Spirit. So that your life can be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit.

You say, “I was just born this way, I'm born rude and I'm going to die rude.” No, you need to be born again. We can't just hold on to, “Well, it's just who I am.” When you've died and your life is hidden with Christ [Colossians 3:3]. It's not who you are anymore. This is truly a transforming section of Scripture. Where you don't have to think that the sin which entangles you is going to always keep you down. When Jesus had this statement declared of him, when John the Baptist says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That wasn't like some trick like, “Well, not really.” It's a powerful truth.

The second list though, is found in verses eight to nine, there's more. This is the start. Colossians 3:8-9, “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.” It’s talking about a practice, something that’s a way of life. Something you try and do as a pattern, something you engage in willfully. Put off these “practices.” It's not talking about something that is characteristic of you for a time, and you repent the way you should, and you confess your sin the way you should, and you live for Christ the way you should. And though you're still sinful, that's the normal Christian practice.

This is simply practicing and living as an angry person all the time. Or a person with slander all the time. It's just cutting other people down. Anger, though, normally destroys the one who is angry, not the object of your anger. It's kind of the lie of human anger. We think, “Oh, I'm angry. I'm righteously angry over sin.” It’s possible, not probable. Put anger away. God can take care of things. Wrath. You say, “Oh, there you go. Unlike anger, I know God is wrathful. God’s a wrathful God, so I can be wrathful too.” Only if you have perfect justice and have never sinned. Otherwise, put it away. Malice, think anger plus wrath. Malice, it’s just this heightened anger. It's this purposeful, thought-out vengeance to carry out on somebody. I'm just going to unleash without restraint at all. That's malice. It gives full vent to wickedness.

Or slander. Slander is really when the immature unleash their verbal anger on somebody. So, it's immaturity combined with ungodly speech, that's slander. Obscene talk, rampant in our day. Have you ever heard somebody say, “Well, where's it say not to cuss?” You ever heard that? I have about a zillion times. Just try this passage, that'll work. There's others. When your boss tells a lewd joke, are you laughing at it? Because it's uncomfortable to make your boss uncomfortable, right? Yeah, been there done that. You might even ask them to consider honoring the Lord. Now that's a courageous Christian.

Colossians 3:9, lying. One commentator says, “Lying destroys faith and friendship.” You see the picture being drawn here, right? It's like, why would anyone want to live that way? And yet we need to be reminded to put these things off. John 8:44, speaking of Satan, “…[he] does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” There’s no more clear way to say, if lying is a practice of your life, who your father is. This is why we must mortify sin, mortify it. Are we then to go and proclaim and preach the gospel, as we act like Satan is our father? That's the weight of what Paul is saying here. We must not breathe life into our sin. Walking around with a couple of 45 pound plates on, just trying to brush your teeth gets hard. If you’re just bearing the extra weight, anything becomes difficult. But why not be free from those things? Why not? Why not live a life that's renewed? Why not live a free life? Why not put those things off? Why carry them around? Why engage in them? Why let those things continue to putrefy our insides?

There are many practical reasons for this. One, you'll be a more joyful person. You will have great happiness in your life. Why? Because God, who is our life, is what our focus is. You'll have more love for Jesus. You'll have better relationships. Your heart will be more healthy. You will be more useful to the kingdom. You won't live under a burden of sin. You will be free from that weight. Your conscience will be clean. Do you want to go through an entire year, an entire day, an entire week or month whatever, with a clean conscience? Not sin-free but when you sin you ask God to forgive you of that sin. I don't have a closet with skeletons in it, it's just empty. It's just, what you see is what you get. You have this godly outlook on life that draws other people to you. Because you point people to Jesus, because that's just who you are.

Colossians 3:9-10 says, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” This is still the first point, you're doing good. These verses are where counseling breaks down. If you've ever been counseled to get beyond a sin, and it didn't work, you're stuck in these two verses. You have not put off the old self with its practices. That's where counseling, biblical counseling, godly counseling, with Jesus who has defeated sin. That's where it breaks down. We have decided, purposefully, not to do what God has called us to do because we love some kind of sin more than we love what Jesus has commanded us to do. This is where you're at. You have not put on the new self. You have determined, “In this one area, I am not going to be renewed. I do not want to be renewed in this area.” That's where counseling breaks down.

Because this verse says that some “have put on the new self, which is being renewed.” There is progress being made, not stuck in the mud. And that's where I want to live. I don't know about you, but that's where I want to live. I want to keep being renewed. I don't want to get stuck. I don't want to be stagnant. I don't want to think I've arrived. I want to continue to grow by the grace of God. John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; [for] your word is truth.” The truth of God leads to sanctification. Here you see it being described as, “being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” The goal is to be renewed in the likeness of Christ. That sounds pretty good.

So, we must humbly submit everything about us to Jesus Christ. And point number two is important. And this is found in verse 11. It's very important. Point number two is:

2. “To remember that others are in the same fight to kill sin.”

We have to remember this, Colossians 3:11, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” We tend to forget that others are in the same fight against sin. And we forget that when they sin against us. We're here, as ambassadors for Christ, not ambassadors for our own image. We're here as ambassadors for the image of God in us. That should come through us for the benefit of others, not just our own benefit. It's a great benefit to us. The image of God that renews us in the knowledge of his truth, by the power of his Spirit, that's a great benefit to us. But it should also be a great benefit to others. And Paul is reminding us here, that we're all in the same boat.

Some people know they're a mess, and struggle in certain areas. And with them we cry, and we pray, and we trust God, and we walk hand-in-hand, and we never give up. We never stop walking arm-in-arm with people, we don't ever do that. Other people, though, are blind to their sin and they gush their sin all over us. Right? You can probably think of a time when you've done that, personally, to someone else. And you can hear yourself saying it and it's like your eyes get big, like, “Wow! That's coming out of my mouth. Where did this come from?” So, we need to remember.

Greek and Jew, those were opposites of each other. Barbarian. Barbarian has come to mean like a big ogre with a club or something. But barbarian normally just meant a foreigner, someone else. Someone not from your civilized society. They were from an uncultured society. That's where the word comes from. It just simply means like, “We are much, much better, much more cultured, much more civilized over here, and they're from another city. So, they must not be something like us. They must be a barbarian.” That's where the word comes from. They were ignorant of our ways. So, they were something else. Paul says, “Yeah, those people. They also need Christ.” The Scythian – mentioned only here in the New Testament – known for brutal pillaging. They were the worst of the worst. The foreigners who would come in, ransack, murder, kill, pillage, and leave – that's them. They need Jesus too.

Slave and the free. Listen, if someone is angry with you, and has malice towards you, we just simply must forgive them as Christ did. That's the next section, Colossians 3:12-17. And we'll talk about that more next week, and how to do that, next week. That is a fortress against the sin of others against us. Forgiveness. But Christ is all in all. A society is called to the same process as we are, all of society. To put off the old man and put on the new. Israel and Hamas: put off the old man, put on the new. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian: put off the old man, put on the new. Climate-changing-carbon-watchers and diesel-fuel-lovers: put off the old man, put on the new. Middle-aged white man, dark-skinned black man: put off the old, put on the new. Asian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, English, French: all need Jesus Christ.

We need to remember, as Paul reminds us here, to be praying for the renewal of all mankind, not just ourselves. For this is the will of the Lord. Living in this way, in this renewed life, to put these things off, to pray for the benefit of others. Living in this way is so freeing, it's so fulfilling. It reminds us that Christ is our life. He, himself. Christ is our life. We're just passing through. Won't you pursue the renewed life in Jesus Christ? Let's pray.

Father God, there may be some people here who need to do some heavy confessing today. Lord, I pray that you would forgive my sins. I know I'm saved already, Lord, but relationally my sin keeps me in a state of spiritual disrepair, it breaks communion with you.

Lord, I like everyone else here, wants to live the renewed Christian life and I pray you would give us that courage today to do so. To put off these things that you have reminded us to put away. And to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. Right now, I just ask that if you don't know Jesus, that you confess your sin to him. And ask him for forgiveness. And he will by no means cast you out. And you will be saved. For those of us who are saved, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, for the Day of redemption. Let us pray and ask God to help us to put these things away that we might live for Jesus. Let's take a moment and do that right now.

Father, we beg your courage and your mercy on us. We beg your grace on us. We pray that you would help us to live with renewed minds, hearts, and lives – for your glory. Amen.