This morning, we looked at Colossians three verses one through four. I would like to take us back to Colossians chapter three. Lord willing, in our time tonight, I'd like to cover verses five through eleven. If you recall this morning, we looked at chasing after Christ. You have an incredible relationship with Jesus Christ because of the cross. With that relationship, Come responsibilities, you ought to be seeking him and thinking on him, giving your mind to him. Until the day you are revealed with him at the when he does appear as well. Those are the three realities we must know to chase after Christ. Well, verses five through 11 present Paul's continual flow of thought. Let me read the passage here tonight. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things say the wrath of God comes or is coming on the children of disobedience. In the which you also walk some time when you lived in them, but now you also put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is either Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all. And in all the next few minutes, I'd like to preach on this subject, cutting off carnality father in heaven. In Jesus name, I pray that you would help as we look at this passage of Scripture. If you would open the eyes of our heart, we would understand it. We would understand and believe that the things that we need to cut out of our life by your grace, by your enablement in Jesus name. Again, I ask this. Amen. What if I told you tonight that your body was riddled with cancerous tumors? These tumors were found all throughout your body and they were greatly attacking all the systems of your body, attacking your nervous system, attacking your endocrine system, attacking your immune system, your respiratory system. Not only were these tumors attacking your body, but they were greatly affecting your motor skills. They were affecting your ability to put cognitive thoughts together, affecting how you think. They were slowly killing you from the inside, yet they were growing more aggressive by the hour. And you found out of this, and so what you did is you took yourself to the doctor, you went to a specialist, and after examining the things and the going wrong in your body, the specialist says to you, this is serious. You have significant tumors all throughout your body, and there's just one prescription that I have for you. If you want to live, there's one thing you have to do. You have got to be aggressive with these cancer tumors. You've got to get them out. We've got to go in. We've got to be invasive. We've got to cut them out. We've got to kill them. We must remove them. Either you kill the tumors or they will kill you. What are you going to do? Would you look at the specialist and say, oh, Doc, you're just an alarmist. I've had them now for a few weeks. I'll be OK a little bit longer. I'll take care of it in the future when there's a more convenient time. Take care of it when I get a little older. Would you say I'll just grow out of them? I'm sure my body's strong. I will overtake them. No, you wouldn't do that. You would say, that's it. Here's my body. Take me now. Knock me out. Cut them out. Do whatever is necessary. If I have to miss work, I have to miss work. But do what you need to do to remove these things, do the necessary procedure to cut out tumors in my body. I want you to view the Apostle Paul as your spiritual specialist tonight. As we look at this passage, he is speaking authoritatively on behalf of Jesus Christ. And he says in this passage, in effect, you have spiritual tumors. that are slowly killing you and are growing more aggressive as the day they are attacking every part of your mind, attacking every part of your heart. They are attacking your soul. They are not biological tumors, but they are far more deadly. Of course, he is describing in the passage we read. the sin nature that thrives still within us. You see, we learned this morning that at salvation, sin's penalty was eradicated, but sin's presence is still remaining. That indwelling sin nature, it still affects us. But now, because of the new birth, because Jesus lives within you and you live in Jesus, you have the power to cut off these sinful tumors, you have the power to restrain sin. And the glorious truth is Jesus makes all the difference in dealing with sin. He always has and he always will. And our specialist, Paul, has but one prescription for the sinful fleshly tumors that are riddled through our sin nature. One prescription. Are you ready for it? Here it is. Kill it. Kill them. Before they kill you. You say, where does he say that? Look at verse number five, the first word is the word mortify. Now, when you and I see the word mortify, we think of humiliation. I went today and I had lunch and I ate and I didn't realize I had food stuck in my teeth. I had green stuff and I had an entire conversation with people and I came to the church tonight and I went to go brush my teeth and there was green stuff in my teeth. I was mortified. That's not what this word is talking about. You don't humiliate. The tumors, you don't humiliate the sinful flesh. No, this isn't humiliation. This is homicide. This is taking the mortality out of. It is killing it. It is being a killer. Did you know the Bible tells you to be a killer? Within certain parameters, of course. But he says here, be a killer, a killer of what? Mortify your members. Members, what are you talking about? The members are every part of your body, your mind and your heart. But he further clarifies that he says your members, which are on the earth, in other words, put to death what is earthly in you. If something is displeasing to Christ, kill it. If something is distracting you from Christ, remove it, kill it. Get rid of it. Mortify it. Cut off carnality. Now maybe you say, I don't know exactly what carnality is. Carnality means a life lived to please the natural flesh. The carnal nature. Living life to please your flesh. Paul would write in Romans 8, 6, to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Your your mind of carnality or your life living for the flesh is going to choke and kill your effectiveness and your blessing from God. In fact, Paul would go on to say in Romans 8, 13, if you live after the flesh, you will die. It will kill you. But if you through the Spirit do kill the deeds of the body, you will live. Kill it before it kills you. Your spiritual life will thrive and be alive if you are a killer of your carnality. But if not, carnality will kill your testimony. It will kill your effectiveness. It will kill your ministry for Jesus. We all need the Holy Spirit to equip us and enable us to, by his grace, kill the indwelling sin and the desires of indwelling sin in our life. And you need Jesus for that. But here's the good news. Jesus already killed sin. Because he lives in you, you can kill sin in your life. In Colossians 3, 5 through 11, Paul provides two awful lists of carnally minded sins the believer must cut off. And we've already read this and perhaps you're sitting here thinking, oh, these are not nice lists. They are not. And I realize we have younger ears in here. I know that. So. Be thinking as we go along, we'll be careful, but we will look at some of these things here. The first list is in verses five through seven. If you want to write it down, Paul says, cut off sensual sins. He lists several here. As you look at verse number five, he says, mortify, therefore, I like the word therefore, because it tells you to stop and reread what you just read. What we just read is you have in a relationship with Jesus and because of this relationship with Jesus Christ, you must keep killing off carnality by his grace. And he begins on this list of sensual sins. The first one he mentions here in our text is fornication. And I've written the these are these are Andy Gleiser definitions, OK, of what these are. As you look at them and you can you can read them, but fornication would be sexual immorality before marriage, during marriage or after marriage. It is using your body immorally to please yourself outside of God's design. We read in First Corinthians, chapter 10, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do. Do those things to the glory of God. The act of love between a husband and a wife is designed to glorify God, to please him, to honor him, to exalt him. Therefore, we must approach physical intimacy in marriage with this mindset. It must please God. It must glorify him. Therefore, I will engage in it when God says I may, with whom God says I may and why God says. You see, Jesus Christ makes a difference even in this area. You read the Bible and we see that Christ makes a difference on when these when physical intimacy takes place in marriage only. Hebrews 13, for marriage is honorable in all. The bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Sometimes you can hear this in our culture on the television even. But we love each other. Does Jesus make a difference or not? Oh, but others are doing it in my in my in my college. Others are doing it in my school. Others are doing it at the workplace. Or here's a popular one. But we're engaged. We're going to be married anyway. Does Jesus make a difference in this area or does he not kill off these things by God's grace? He also says with whom you do this. And of course, it is with your spouse only husband and wife. Exodus 2014. You shall not commit adultery just as there should be no immorality before marriage. So God decrees no immorality during marriage. That means no heterosexual or homosexual immorality before or outside of marriage. Is Jesus making a difference or not? The Bible also talks about why. To love your spouse and to create children who will one day glorify Jesus Christ, you can read in First Corinthians, chapter seven, all about that. It is for the comfort and joy of husband and wife, as well as God making it possible to have children. You see, God has decreed in the Bible exactly how and when and with whom. But when Paul says cut off fornication, he's talking about stepping around God's method. How do you kill off this aspect of carnality? Well, the Bible tells us two ways of staying and avoid first Thessalonians, four, three talks about abstaining. My children are. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification that you should abstain. From immorality. Fornication. But not only that, he talks about avoiding in 1 Corinthians 6, 18, these two little words, flee fornication. Do you know what that means? It literally means run away from it. That may mean in a very real practical way that you take the legs that God has given you, the mobility God has given you, and you physically remove yourself from the temptation of fornication. Flee it. Run from it, kill it before it kills you. You hear a lot today about why why we should not engage immorality because somebody could get pregnant. I guess that's true, but that's not a good enough reason. A public school counselor can tell you that. Does Jesus make a difference or somebody else says you could get a disease? Well, I'm sure you probably could. But again, where is Jesus in that? Or someone else says, young people, I hear this one a lot. Young people, your dad will kill you. Probably. But again, a guidance counselor in a public school can tell a kid that. Where does Jesus fit in on this? Where does the gospel fit on this? You take Joseph in the Bible. Here he was away from home. Potiphar's wife comes and wants to be immoral with him. And what does he say? No, I will not do this great wickedness and sin against God. Dad didn't work. Dad thought he was dead. He certainly wasn't going to be getting pregnant. And the chance of disease, very minimal, but he did not use any one of those big three reasons to abstain. He went to the reason. I have a relationship with God. And if I do this, it will be a sin against him. Kill it. Before it kills you, that's the first in this list of sensual sins, he moves on to say uncleanness next, you can translate this word as impurity, it is not so much the act of immorality, but it is the attitude. This is immorality in the mind. This is pornography, whether it be print or digital or movies, or as my one of my friends calls it, audio pornography, the music that promotes this. This is an individual who knows how to turn this is a Christian who knows how to turn the most wholesome statement into an opportunity to make an immoral reference. And Paul calls us by the spirit of God to kill impurity, eliminate it from your life, because if you do not, it will kill you. The third one is in order and affection. And the fourth one is evil concupiscence. These are two very closely related in order and affection is excessive passion and drive for immorality. In other words, so eager for it, you will do whatever it takes to get it. You will lie in order to Get it. You will pay in order to bring it into your life. Then he talks about evil concupiscence. These are evil desires in the realm of immorality. You are so driven for this type of immoral pleasure that it turns you on to hurt someone physically or even emotionally. Evil concupiscence. Paul calls us by the spirit, kill it, because if you do not kill it, it will kill you. Then he goes on to talk about covetousness, which is idolatry. But this is connected with the four previous ones. When he talks about covetousness, literally this is greed or to have more. When an individual, when you or I indulge in any type of form of immorality outside of what God has decreed, we are saying this. God does not satisfy. Jesus does not satisfy me. His purity for my life does not satisfy. My marriage does not satisfy. Christ does not satisfy. I want more. And that greenness in our spirit is nothing more than idolatry. You and I are bowing down to the shrine of ourselves. And when we engage in immorality, we are saying this is my God. One thing we're trying, Bryn and I are trying to teach our children, maybe trying to learn ourselves, but whenever our children say these three words, I don't want, we say, hold it. you're an idolater. I don't want what you want. I want what I want. That is idolatry. We are saying to Jesus, I don't want what you have given me. I want more. I want immorality. We are idolaters. And Paul calls us to keep killing off our idolatry, removing it, restraining it, abstaining from it, eliminating it, running from it. Why? He gives two reasons in this passage, one in verse six and one in verse seven. Why should you kill off carnality? and sensuality in your life. Look at verse six. Here's the first reason for which things sake these this list I just read to you, the wrath of God is coming on the children of disobedience. Let's understand what verse six is talking about. The children of disobedience. These are unbelievers. These are not Christians. We talked about the wrath of God. This is the eternal wrath of God poured out in the lake of fire. This is the final judgment of unbelievers. And when Paul says for which thing's sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience, he is saying this, and I wrote it down so I would not be misunderstood. People who die without Jesus Christ will forever burn for immorality and idolatry. In other words, they will Pay for their sins because they lived lives for themselves. They said, God, I don't want your gospel. I will not repent of my sin. I don't want your gospel. And there, by their own testimony, God and their own rejection, God will send them. To hell. For their idolatrous, immoral heart. But here is Paul's point. Why, if that is true for the lost, why would a believer in Jesus Christ glory in the very same things for which an unbeliever will suffer God's eternal wrath? That is the first reason we should abstain from it. Why would we glory in that which others will forever burn? There's a second reason to abstain from it. It's in verse number seven in the which you also walk sometime when you lived in them. The second reason to cut out sensual sins is you have Jesus now. It makes sense for a lost individual to indulge in fantasies and to chase after immorality. It makes sense. They don't know God. They're seeking satisfaction in sin. But it doesn't make sense for a believer. You have found That for which your heart was longing. You found Jesus. He found you. You have him in you. You are in him. You know Christ. He makes a difference. You have this incredible relationship with him. You were dead, but now you're alive. You're dead to sin's penalty. You're dead to sin's power. It doesn't make any sense for us to do that. You have the power of new birth pulsing through you. That's why you can keep killing it all. Maybe tonight I'm speaking to one you are in bondage to some area of immorality or idolatry. Can I remind you? Jesus. Is the lamb of God. Who takes away sin. He took away your sin before salvation. He takes away your sin after salvation. You come back to the blood of Jesus Christ tonight and you say, I have been wrong. And by God's grace, God, forgive me and give me the ability to aggressively kill sensuality before it kills me and my family. Cut off sensual sins. That's the first list. But there is a second list we see in verses eight through 11. It is number two, cut off social sins. Would you look at verse number eight? He says, but now you also put off all these. In other words, you must put all of these away, not just the sensual, but now the social. You used to be away from Jesus, but now you have a relationship with Jesus. And then he says, put off these things like taking off filthy and soiled clothes removed from you and put these things off. I enjoy going to Mexican restaurants to eat. I really do. But there is something that always comes with you when you go to a Mexican restaurant. The smell of the Mexican restaurant lingers in your clothes, invades your clothes. Several weeks ago, we went out to to eat my family on the Sunday morning. We went to to go eat Mexican food, which love got done eating it. We went home and to take the church clothes off. I took a nap that afternoon. What a glorious right to have. And then I woke up, get ready to come back to church that evening. And I went to grab the same shirt I wore that morning and I started putting on Whoa, the smell just about knocked me over. And I said, I am not wearing this. And I took off the soiled, awful clothes. And I put them away and I put on clean clothes. That is the point here. Take these off. Remove them. What are all these? Sins against other people. These are social sins, relational sins. The first one he talks about here in this list is anger. This is a deep, smoldering resentment. And bitterness, speaking to somebody here tonight, and you have been hurt badly by somebody else. And you have not been able to let it go. You've been hurt badly by somebody you once trusted, and it may have been years ago. You were hurt by dad. You were hurt by a stepdad, maybe by mom or by a teacher. You were hurt by a former pastor, a friend. A cousin. A brother or a brother in Christ. And as you sit there, you say, but you don't understand, they did something inexcusable. I know they may have done something inexcusable, they may have done something of what you might think is unforgivable, something illegal or something criminal to you. Or to somebody you love. They have offended you, they have hurt you, they have sinned against you. And you have come to the point in your life where you have become fixated on hating them and resenting them and wishing them pain. And Paul's exhortation to you and me is simply this, kill your anger because it's killing you. You may say, but what they did to me was wrong and sinful and needs to be punished. Do you think Jesus doesn't know that? By the way, if anyone sins against you, it is going to be dealt with by Jesus Christ. He will deal with it. The Bible says in Romans 12, verse 19, Dearly beloved, Christians, beloved, avenge not yourselves. Don't take it on yourself to get even with those who have hurt you or others, but rather give place to wrath. It is written vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. I love Second Timothy 414, for it talks about the Apostle Paul. Do you know that there was a man named Alexander the Coppersmith who did something terrible to Paul? What did he do, Pastor Andy? I don't know. Paul doesn't say. Isn't that instructive? He doesn't say, oh, now let me tell you about, let me tell you about Alexander the Coppersmith. Let me create a Facebook page where I can get support and other people can talk about him. He doesn't say that. He doesn't post it on his blog. He doesn't get with other disgruntled people who also have issues with anger. And we all stoke the flames together. No. What does he say? Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord will reward him. And then he moved on. Some of you haven't moved on. It's it's it's in there, it's that resentment just inside. Often during the wintertime when when it's cold outside and you have a fire that has been built in your fireplace outside camping or something like that, and the fire begins to die, get low and then you just see the glowing embers just beneath it, right? That's anger. Kill it, remove it before it kills you, because if you don't, And it gets a little bit of oxygen in that smoldering fire. What's going to happen? It's going to explode back into flames. And that's the second one. Wrath. If anger is a smoldering resentment, wrath is sudden rage. It is having an explosive temper. Wrath is like throwing a stick of dynamite that leaves nothing but carnage. This is the slamming of doors, the yelling, the throwing things, the pitching of fit, the hitting others, the punching of walls. A few years back, I went to go visit a teenager who had been to our church a couple of times, and I wanted to have an opportunity to give him the gospel and I went there and his mom was there and invited me in. And I sat down with this boy, a teenage boy, and we had a great talk. I went to the entire gospel playing with him there in the living room. And at that point, he wasn't ready to trust the Lord as a savior. But when we got done, we were having a good conversation. He said, hey, Pastor, anyone come see my room? You know, I thought. No, not really. I don't care what your room looks like. It's probably a mess. And it was, you know, but I said, sure, sure. Let's go see your room. And so we walked into his room and it was kind of tiny and it was a mess. It's a teenager, you understand. And so we walked into his room. I just sit down on my bed. I said, OK, I sat down then I turn around, look at the door and there were three holes in the door. I looked at him and I looked and pointed at the hole because, oh, I'm sorry, sometimes I just get so frustrated I punch the door. I thought, well, I've seen your room and I can I'm ready to go now. I hope you you you like me. But no question for you. Are there holes in your house anywhere? Is there an emotional hole in your child or your spouse? Because your dynamite has been thrown in there and it has blown up. Are there things that are broken in your house? Do your kids walk on eggshells when dad comes home from work? Mom, are you constantly on the warpath? You're always frustrated and just the slightest little thing makes you explode. Maybe you say, well, I'm not usually like that, I don't mean what I say. What is in your heart is what comes out. This is not a personality issue, it is a sin issue that needs to be cut off. Ecclesiastes 7 9. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Solomon called you and me a fool. When we get irritated and lash out. Oh, we hold it in, we're at work. When we get home, the people we love the most, we explode all over them. Kill it. It's killing you. It's killing your family. The third one he talks about is malice. This is ill will and viciousness directed toward an individual. A better or not a better word, but another word would be animosity. This is just good old badness. This is a vicious nature bent on doing harm to somebody else. I want you to suffer and I will use it from my words. I will use it from my actions. Even if you sit here tonight and you say, praise God, I don't explode. You don't consider yourself a violent person. Understand that all violence starts from a malicious heart. Malice, therefore, feeds blasphemy. The next word. This is the word for slander. This is to injure someone with your words. It is to kill with your tongue. When we talk about blasphemy, we often think about to God. It is killing the character of God when you blaspheme him. But when you kill the character of somebody else, that's called slander. Slander and blasphemy are the same thing. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 18, 21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof. If you love to build up people with your tongue, you will enjoy the fruit of that in your own life. But if you are constantly cutting and slandering others and talking bad about others, you too will reap what you sow and you will enjoy the fruit of that. Maybe I'm speaking to a young a young lady here. You have started a false rumor to get back at somebody. Or to a young man, you have been mocking or belittling another person, you make fun of others. Can I tell you this, that if you if when you're with a group of your friends here at church or whatever or at work and when you're together, you're always mocking and making fun of other people. Can I tell you when you're not with them, they're doing the same thing to you? I'm speaking to somebody else. You have been critical of your parents. You have been critical of your pastor, you've been critical of a teacher, critical of a friend, and therefore you have this desire to kill someone's testimony or to kill their reputation or to kill their character or to help other people know how bad they are or what they're not doing right. And you take it upon yourself to do that. Guess what? It's going to kill you. Even if you sit here tonight and you say, well, people are mean to me, nobody likes me, you are slandering other people because that is a lie. Here in this church, in this local church, there are people all over who like you. So stop slandering them. Go back to the cross and realize you are worthy of the death of Christ. Stop talking bad about others who don't like you. And should treat you better. Slander, blasphemy, kill it before it kills you. Then he talks about filthy communication out of your mouth. Another way of putting this is shameful speech. This is obscenity. Profanity. Vulgarity. Can I ask you, what do you text? What do you say on your phone or type on your phone or type on your computer that you would never say in person? If we were to pull your phone right now and go to the text messages, what would they say? Can I tell you this? What is on your phone right now is your heart. I've heard one man say we should stop calling this thing Facebook, Facebook and call it heart book. Because what is in our heart is what we put online. And for a lot of Christians, it's filthy communication, profanity, obscenity or vulgarity. Jesus said in Matthew 12, 34, O generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things out of the abundance of your heart? The mouth speaks. Your tongue always tells the truth. So what happens when I lie? Your tongue is telling the truth that you're a liar. Whatever is in your heart is going to come out in your tongue and what you type. So kill it. If it's sinful or it will kill you. And then he finishes this list with the phrase, why not one to another? When he says one to another, he's talking about Christians. So stop lying to other believers. What teacher have you lied to? What spouse have you lied to? What boss have you lied to? What parent have you lied to? Oh, you didn't lie. You just gave enough information so they would come to a conclusion you wanted them to come to. You are a liar. And so am I. We exaggerate, we manipulate, we divert attention, we are vague, unclear, and we carefully craft an answer before we sin just in case we get caught. We already have our lie ready to go. Cut off the cancerous tumors of lying, filthy communication, bitterness, malice, wrath and anger. Why? It's not who you are. You are in Christ, you have a relationship with Jesus. that carry with it significant responsibilities. As you look at the end of verse 9, he says, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds and you have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge. Regeneration after the image of him that created him. You are not what you used to be. You are becoming more and more in the image of Jesus Christ. You are a new person. You have the new birth at work in you. This world should see a difference in you that Jesus makes. Let me tell you, the world does this stuff. They should see a difference in God's people. They should see you are becoming more like Jesus. And then as you get to verse 11, he talks about there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or circum... are uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. It means this. It doesn't matter your race. It doesn't matter your religious background. It doesn't matter your culture. It doesn't matter your education or your family. Jesus is making a difference in every area of your life. That's the great thing about Jesus. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. He transcends it all. And he knows how to transform every culture. every race, every religious background into the image of himself. And he closes out in verse 11 when he says Christ is all and in all that should be your testimony for the Christian. Jesus is in everything you do and he is everything to you. And therefore, if he is everything to you, You will, by his grace, be cutting off carnality, kill it before it kills you. But you can. Because Jesus already killed sin and he's in you and you're in him. Father in heaven. In the name of Jesus. Thank you. That we have the ability, the marvelous ability by the power of the new birth to restrain our flesh, to kill off these areas in our life. Father in heaven, I know, I know, I know these areas are true in my life and they will kill me and they will kill us. I ask that we would take preventative steps now and restrain it and remove them and remove the areas of these temptations. Father, when we do fall and we know consequences come, may we run back to the blood of Jesus and say, oh, God, again, take away the stain of my sin. And I pray for my dear friends and my family in Christ here tonight that you would cause us to get some things out of our life that has been in for a while now. Amen.