We turn once again this morning to the epistle to the Colossians and chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And we'll read from verse 8. Now ye also put off all of 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. The apostle is spelling out here the biblical doctrine of sanctification. And what is sanctification but the work of God's grace whereby sinners are purified and enabled to live wholly in this world. Now a vital part, as we have seen, of sanctification is mortification. And it is specifically mentioned there in verse 5, mortify. therefore your members which are upon the earth. Mortification is the gradual removal of the corruption and the pollution of our human nature. And it is accompanied by what we call vivification. Mortification is putting to death, vivification is bringing to life. And Paul will go on in verse 12 to speak of vivification. Put on, therefore, not only put off in mortification, but put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, and so on. Vivification is the gradual development of the new life. in consecration and in obedience. But in this section that is before us this morning, we are still dealing with the negative, with mortification, putting to death those sins which belong to our old nature and still vex us in this life. Now, one or two further things can be said about mortification. It is a divine work, and so we read that we mortify the flesh by the spirit. Romans 8 and verse 13. And it is God who, in Micah 7, subdues our iniquities. Although that is true, that it is a divine work, we are agents in this work of progressive sanctification, helped by God, helped by His Spirit. But we are agents to deal with sin in our lives. And therefore, in the fifth verse, it is written to believers, mortify, therefore your members which are upon the earth and the list of sins is given. It's not that God does everything and we have no part to play. God initiates this great work but we cooperate with God in answering to God's word and the motions of his spirit and we seek to deal with sin. Having these promises beloved, 2 Corinthians chapter 7, let us perfect holiness, that's written to believers, let us perfect holiness in the fear of God. Now, secondly, the subject on which the work of mortification is done. is original sin. The old man, as it's sometimes called. The corruption which we have known by nature. The nature in which we were born, therefore is it called the old man. The nature we inherited from Adam. the nature which is thoroughly sinful. And in the New Testament it's referred to sometimes as fleshly lusts or the law of sin in our members. And this old nature within us is not obliterated when we are converted. It remains and it causes us problems as it tries ever and again to dominate us once it did. And it tries to incite us to our old sins. And tries to move us to live the kind of life we lived prior to conversion. Stirring us up all the time to the commission of sin. That's what we have to deal with. That's why we've got to be severe on it. And that's why the Bible word for it is mortify. It must be put down. It must be destroyed. Because otherwise the effects will be very serious indeed for the person. Now thirdly, a new nature has been wrought in us. God has done a new thing and he is made a change and he has imparted new principles in us, contrary to the old ones, new desires which are contrary to the old desires. If we call the old nature the flesh, which is a biblical term for it, the new nature is called the spirit. It's wrought by the Holy Spirit and it's something which is spiritual. in its essence. Often it is referred to as the new man. And so there are two forces at work in the believer. There is the old nature moving us to sin. There is the new nature moving us to holiness. And Paul says in Galatians 5 that These two are contrary, each to the other. And so there is a war going on within the believer. The war is not in the unbeliever, because he only has one nature, which moves him to sin, always, forever. But the Christian has something wrought in him which rises up and opposes the old nature, strives against the old nature, contradicts the old nature, repels the old nature, and seeks to thwart the old nature. This is the new man. And it is because God has worked in us what is well-pleasing in his sight, both to will and to do that which is pleasing to him. The fourth thing I would say is that this is absolutely necessary, that mortification takes place because this is the outworking of our salvation. You remember how the angel said prior to the birth of Christ, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's the prerogative of Christ. Arthur Pink says in his commentary, it doesn't say he will save his people in their sins, but he will save his people from their sins. He saves them, of course, from the guilt of their sins when they have forgiveness, but he saves them from the power of their sins when he sanctifies them and enables them to sanctify themselves and overcome through faith. And this is the distinguishing mark of the believer. This is what separates saints from sinners. Everyone that names the name of Christ departs from iniquity. And so those who know the Lord are as he was in this world. And they seek not only to receive him as Savior and as Lord, but as an example. And therefore they are under the gospel precept, be ye holy, for I am holy. Only the Lord's people answer that command. And so there are two people, two groups of people in this world. There are those who have one nature and it dominates them and they are the sinners of mankind. Nothing whatsoever in any way hinders them from their course or diverts them from it. Their nature is all controlling. They live a godless life. They live a wicked life in this world. And then there is the other group. And they have two natures. Yes, they have to wrestle with the old, the way they were, the way they thought and spake and acted. And the old nature would love to have all that back again. But God has worked in them. in parting country principles, whereas the old says, sin. The new says, be holy. The old says, live for pleasure. The new says, live for God. The old says, enjoy the earth. The new says, seek the things which are above. And so, This distinguishes those who are truly gracious from those who are not. Fifthly, there is a powerful obligation upon us. And the greatest obligation perhaps is this, that Christ has died. not only that we might be forgiven, but that we might be purified. Many see that as the significance of what happened on the cross when the soldier thrust in his spear and forthwith came there out blood and water. Now whatever the physical significance of that is, it's not for us to go into this morning, Symbolically, the blood represented forgiveness, the water represented sanctity or sanctification. Christ is of sin the double cure, cleansing us from its guilt, blood, and power, water. So we are obliged to seek this mortification. Sixthly, we must see the all importance of it for our soul's sake. Now I came across in the week reading one of the most helpful of the Puritans, a man called Thomas Brooks. And he was dealing with this in part. And he gave an illustration. It's quite a memorable one. It is said that when Sennacherib's army was destroyed, Sennacherib inquired why God so favored the Jews. And he was told that it was because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Now, Sennacherib had two sons. And in his perversity, he decided that if he suffered them to come to death, if he sacrificed them, then God's favor would be turned toward him. And so he shared that with others, that he would put to death his two sons. But the story has it that the two sons heard of his intention. And they rose up and slew their father, being more willing to kill than be killed. And Brooks applies it in this way. Oh, friends, he says, you must kill or be killed. If you are not the death of your beloved sins, your beloved sins will be the death and ruin of you. Well, how shall we then, How shall we mortify our sins? We can reflect upon the obnoxiousness of those sins, the exceeding sinfulness of those sins. And that will give us the right spirit in which to deal with them. Secondly, we must resolve to oppose our sins. Psalm 39.1, I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. So he resolves before God not to allow sin to have free course in his life. We must beware of all occasions which might give sin an entrance or a liberty. If we have a weakness in any particular area, then we must be careful where we go. If we are easily incited to passion, we must be very careful what we look upon and see. If we are weak and subject to influence, we must be careful how conversation goes with unbelieving people and ungodly people. We must pray lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil. We must keep watching ourselves all the time. Keep thy heart with all diligence. We must seek God's strength and bring in his supplies by the Spirit For we, by the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh. We need more of the Holy Spirit of God. And we must look to the Lord Jesus Christ, keep our eyes upon Him, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Now, all this is true. And last week we looked at some sins which we particularly must mortify. They are listed for us in verse 5, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, These were what I called personal sins. And they are summed up as relating to immorality, uncleanness. And certainly we have to deal with that. And I don't intend to go over that ground again because we move to the new list. which is given to us in verse 8. These now are not personal sins as before, but what may be called social sins. That is, sins which arise from connection with others. Sins which affect relationships with other people. But now ye also put off all these, Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lie not one to another. Just a comment or two upon the words, first of all, in this list. Anger. What we mean by that is vicious anger. Anger that is unspiritual. Anger that becomes outward rage because we can become hasty in our spirit. We can react badly and we can show our displeasure by what we say. That's a sin in our relationships with others. Wrath. Wrath is obviously similar to anger, but it's the outburst of anger. It is something which reveals real animosity, perhaps revenge, Anger is bad enough, but when it becomes wrath, it is beyond control. Malice. This is something which settles. First of all, there may be disapproval and displeasure, anger, then it can erupt in wrath, and then it becomes a grudge. a prejudice which causes a breakdown of relationships and of friendships. Blasphemy. Now we use that word generally with reference to God where it is understood to be speech which is offensive to God. Here it's used with reference to men. It means abusive speech, slanderous speech, perhaps speech that leads to defamation of character, filthy communication. Speaking to or of others in a disgraceful way. We might say foul abuse of others. And then lie not. Now you'll notice there in verse nine, it's lie not one to another. The previous sins can be in ordinary relationships in the world, but here's a sin that is often peculiar to the church. Nevertheless, is a social sin, distorting the truth and causing others hurt by that. Now it's, It's obvious that the earlier list was intensely personal, uncleanness, impurity. This list is mainly social. It concerns our relationships with other people in the world and in the church. and particularly how we speak to one another and how we speak of one another. Of course, these things often shouldn't be among Christian people, but they often are. And nothing is more grievous And to hear things said, even in the church, which we know is not true, said about someone that we know it's not true. And if you suffer at the end of that kind of abuse, you'll know that it is extremely vexing and it can be very, very distressing indeed. Now, these sins also are to be mortified. And the question before us this morning is how can we put off these sins? How can we overcome these tendencies to fracture relationships, to end friendships, to make enemies because of the way we speak. And I want to give you some, what the Puritans would call advices or directives, just how we might deal with these things. The first thing I would say is that we are to make sure that our heart is in a gracious state, because out of the heart of man proceeds everything, even the words that are spoken. Ecclesiastes 10, 12 says, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. How so? Because he has grace in his heart. And we need to make sure that first of all we have a gracious heart and is a changed heart, a holy heart. And secondly, that we keep that heart in a good state. Keep thy heart with all diligence. Don't allow it to deteriorate. Don't allow it to become the source of sin. And the best way to keep that heart is every day to commit it to God and to renew your covenant with God. My son, he says, give me thine heart. We need to do that as a daily response. The second thing I would say in dealing with this particular list of sins is to guard your speech. Just now I referred to Psalm 39, verse 1. I said, I will take heed to my tongue. There is another verse in Proverbs 30, verse 32. And it says this, if thou hast done foolishly, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. Guard it. And make sure you don't increase your sins by speaking further to your shame and to your neighbor's hurt. Sometimes we don't guard our speech. The first thing that comes into our mind is uttered with our lips. And it should all pass through the sieve of discretion and judgment before such words are spoken. Guard your heart. Third thing I would say in dealing with this is whatever you do, never pour out everything which is in your mind or within your heart. We need to exercise prudence, and we need to exercise caution. Scripture speaks, Proverbs 15, verse 23, a word spoken in season, how good it is. Sometimes we say things And those things are not in season. They're not appropriate at this present time. But out it slips. And once it's out, it's out. And little can be done about it. The fourth thing I would say is provide yourself in your heart with godly matter and then speak accordingly. The Lord Jesus in Isaiah 50 is said to have had the tongue of the learned that he may speak a word in season to him that is weary. The meaning is that he had knowledge And out of that knowledge he spoke. And what he spoke was always worth hearing. Because it proceeded from understanding. So must it be with us. The more of the word of God you can store up in your hearts, the better it will be, because when you give vent to these things, out of your mouth, it'll be the good matter of your heart that will come forth. Everything will be touched with the scripture which you've hidden in your heart. So it's a great means of mortification of the sins of the lips, the sins of the mouth, Fifthly, I would say, think before you speak. Let what you say be premeditated. The preparation of the heart, Proverbs 16, 1, and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. The heart needs to be prepared before the tongue expresses anything. The preacher in Ecclesiastes, we are told that he sought out well-chosen words. When you deal with a subject like this, almost inevitable that as you speak, you think of people from the past, perhaps who are sad examples of what you're speaking of. I can remember years ago, a lady I knew, she had many excellent qualities, but one quality she didn't have was due care of how she spoke. And sometimes other church members would come to me and say, oh, so-and-so, she said this to me. I'm really upset by it. And it wasn't just one case, but often a number of people would complain of how this dear lady had a very sharp tongue. She always reminded me of the words of Martin Luther when he said, I wish women would silently pray the Lord's Prayer before they open their mouth. Now he wasn't just referring to women, let me hasten to that, because men can be as great offenders. But it would help, wouldn't it? I know it's not always possible, but if we silently prayed the Lord's Prayer, as Luther suggests, before we spoke, we probably wouldn't speak wrongly. We do need to think before we speak and think what effect what we are inclined to say is going to have upon the other person. Is it going to aggravate existing problems? Is it going to make things worse than they are? If so, it may be better unsaid. Sixthly, Be very careful not to pass on what you do not know is true. So much damage can be done by that. I suppose sometimes pastors can be affected by this. Somebody says something against the pastor. He did this. He said this. And it's passed on sometimes to others. And a man's reputation can be left in tatters because of what is untrue. What was a lie in the first place, but it was passed on by people who should have known better. Thou shalt not raise a false report. Exodus 23 and verse 1. I had occasion about two years ago. I heard what somebody had said and it very much upset me. And I decided the only way to handle this was as graciously I could to confront the person. And I did. And I said, I'm told that you've said that I did this, or I said this. And this particular individual was tremendously embarrassed. that I'd actually brought it into the open. The outcome of that conversation was that he said to me, well, I don't remember saying it in the first place. I knew he had from witnesses. I don't remember saying it, but if I did, it was wrong of me. And I apologize for it. And so the thing was brought to an end. Sometimes that's necessary. But we must be very careful that we don't pass on what we don't know is true. Seventhly, consider in what you say that it could have a very adverse effect upon others. The person to whom you're speaking may be evil communications, corrupt good manners. It may have an awful effect upon that person. Maybe he's a young Christian or she's a young Christian. They hear you speak. in such an unspiritual way that you've corrupted them. You've stumbled them, fended them. And if that's relayed to others, then others will be upset. And they could even take you as an example of the way to to deal with things, the way to speak, and so the corruption is even more prevalent. Eighthly, the tongue is called our glory. Psalm 57 and verse eight. supposed to be the most excellent part of us, distinguishes us from the beasts, doesn't it? That we're able to communicate in a verbal way with one another. We're able to glorify God. We're able to help our fellow men. And if it's our most excellent part, that we may speak to the glory of God and to the comfort of others. Don't debase it by making it the subject of sin. Ninthly, in order to deal with this, always remember that God is the unseen listener to what you say. Psalm 139 verse 4 has David saying, there is not a word in my tongue, O Lord, but thou knowest it altogether. We can, sadly, say wrong things about another Christian. Sometimes we cover it with a false piety. Like, don't pass it on to anybody, but I just thought you ought to know. However we excuse what we say, God heard what you said. Later you may deny that you ever said it, like the person to whom I referred. I can't remember saying that. It's convenient how our memories fail us when we are confronted with what we have evidently said. But God is no fool. He heard it. He doesn't forget it. Surely we should be ashamed to say what is going to undermine fellowship and confidence and happiness for no other reason than that God heard it. And tenthly and lastly, remember that we shall be held accountable for all that we have said. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 and verse 36, Jesus said, every idle word that men speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. every idle word. The fact that at the judgment seat of Christ the Lord will call to remembrance the wrong things we have said is a restraint to us provided by the Holy Ghost. Be careful, or my lips what you say. Well, says Paul, put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man. Instead of uncleanness, as to personal sins, put it off. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And as to social sins, which have bearing on others and undermine fellowship, put them off. Let your speech be always with grace, as become Christians. It's a tremendously important subject. Our tongues See what matter a little thing can live. Your words are potent. They can hurt. They can end a friendship. They can undermine the peace and the unity of the church. Mortify the sins of the heart and mortify the sins of your lips. And so live with God and live in peace with one another. And the God of peace shall be with you.