Let's turn once more to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And I'll be reading here from verse 5. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Amen. Imitation of someone whom we love is instinctive. And all that's difficult in obedience becomes much easier by the power of love. It's true in our families, and it's true in the spiritual world as well. Becoming like one we admire is delightful. And in Jesus Christ, we find that the far-off ideal of holiness and purity, of heart and of speech, comes very near to us and becomes very real to us. in the person of our best friend. And so the beginning of all true holiness is our communion with Jesus Christ. Our motive, verse four, is that Christ is our life. The root of the death of all evil within us lies in the death of Christ, which we share. Verse three, you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Back in chapter two, we read Paul's condemnation of the asceticism, the false asceticism, which was beginning to infect the church. Back in chapter two, verse 23, he said that these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and the neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. So along comes Christianity, preaching a pure and sublime morality But it explicitly avoids asceticism. It explicitly avoids this extreme self-denial and giving up of material comfort. He says these aren't of any value. Here, Paul gives the true antidote to the sins of the flesh. Paul proclaims that what asceticism could not do, in that it was weak in the flesh, union with Jesus Christ does. In his death and risen life, it subdues and kills sin in the flesh. And that slaying of our sin is just the outworking then of that revolution of heart, which is already taking place. Now, that revolution that we're talking about is not a bloodless revolution, however, we read in our passage today, verse five, we we read these words, therefore, put to death. your members, which are on the earth, the old translation, I like mortify. Therefore, that language, that very language of slaying sin tells us something. It tells us that it's not going to be pleasant and it's not going to be easy. This command that Paul gives us to kill our own members. expresses the painfulness of the process before us. Now imagine, if you will, that a man is hard at work on a machine. And he's working and somehow his fingers get drawn into the massive rollers. And in another minute, he's going to be a mashed potato. He's going to be mashed into a shapeless, bloody mess. So what does he do? Well, He takes the axe, and he lays off his own wrist. You think it takes a nerf to do that? You bet. It's not easy. It's not pleasant. But you see, the man knows if his hand is allowed to go in the way it's going, it's going to kill him. The only alternative is that to a horrible death. So the man does it quickly, forcefully, willingly, because he knows that it's his life. You guys I'm sure remember hearing about the story of Aaron Ralston, that young hiker whose arm was trapped by an 800 pound boulder some before last. You guys remember hearing about that story? Everybody thought about that one. After five days out there, trapped in the wilderness, nobody coming, he realizes the only way in which he's going to live. So he calmly broke his bones and his arm, one at a time, and he cut himself loose with his pocket knife to the forearm, put to death his own members. But that wasn't the ugliest part, by the way. The ugliest part was when the news media recovered the story, they amputated his Christian testimony from the press conferences and the press reports. A few papers told the story. The Detroit Free Press headline read, Gutsy Hiker Guided by Faith. The Toronto Sun reported, Will to Live and a Prayer Set Man Free. But the Associated Press headline that you probably saw said, Climber used technical know-how to escape. And this, you see, is the main trouble that I have when I try to counsel with people or preach to people about how to put sin to death. They say, give me the technical know-how. Give me the secret. Give me the magic formula. Bing, bing, boom. Sin's gone. If you could just tell me how, I would gladly leave my persistent sin. I've tried accountability. I've tried asceticism and these extreme measures. It doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. What do you expect? Paul says it doesn't work. What's going to induce a man to cut off his own arm? Do you really think that there's a technique that's going to make the difference in that? I mean, the fact is nothing will help you Put to death your own members except this teaching. Nothing will help you except for union with Christ. I wish I could tell you that the Bible gives you a technique, but you notice time and time again when this is discussed, it does not. It says, 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. There is no technical know-how that will ever induce me to do what I will gladly do from this motive. I see my Lord Jesus Christ and I see my sin putting Him to death. And then I see it pulling me down to death, too. And that's the only technical knowledge I need. That's the only technical knowledge that will ever induce me or anyone else to cut off my own member, to take up my cross daily and follow Him. And this is the critical order which Paul gives in his letters. This is why the chapter three begins with. Therefore, we have the section on the Christian faith in life, the Christian theology, and then it ends chapter three. Therefore, the section begins with Christian character. And therefore, it's the two halves together, as it does in Ephesians and Romans and so forth, and that therefore word, you see, protects us against two opposite errors. On the one hand, some people are just impatient with preaching about holiness. They're impatient when sanctification is mentioned. And they say, you know, Dave, you've got to preach the gospel. And if you preach the gospel. Then we'll do what we're supposed to do spontaneously, will obey the Lord and holiness will be easy. On the other hand, some people see no connection whatsoever between morality and the Christian faith, and they say, look, spare me the theory. Spare me the theology. Don't have much patience for theology. I'm a practical guy. Just tell me what to do. The only way the sin will ever be mortified is through the truth which is in Christ Jesus. Full stop. The only way that I will put sin to death in my own members is if Paul says here, the truth of Christ is in me. And so, this truth holds the passage together. This whole passage that we're going to be looking at today is held together by this truth, which is my first point to you. You must put to death the evil desires in your heart. You must put to death the evil desires in your heart. When Paul's talking about members, you know, hand and foot, he's using an analogy, right? He's using an analogy in this passage. Putting to death your own members is an analogy that he uses to make the dreadful point, right? In the same way that Jesus speaks in the same language of plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand. Do you know why Paul uses this gruesome language? Paul uses this ugly picture to tell us something about the pain of the process involved. But of course, it's much easier to cut off your hand, isn't it? It's much, much easier to cut off your hand, which is outside you, than to sacrifice the passions and desires which are in you, and very much a part of you. But the love of Jesus Christ gives us the ultimate motive, and the Holy Spirit gives the ultimate power. But even those things don't deaden the pain. They don't deaden your flesh to the pain of the sacrificial knife. Now, we've said several times before that when Paul teaches us about holiness, his emphasis is more positive than negative. Paul is much more concerned about us living to Christ than he is putting the old man to death, and that's where he spends more time and more energy. In theological terms, Paul likes to write about vivification more than mortification. And so Paul tells us, after he says, put off, he always means put on. He doesn't expect us to walk around unclothed. He tells us, put on the new man, to clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. But even that is an important order, isn't it? You have to take off before you put on. Or if you want to change the picture, imagine that the serpent is already entwined around your limbs, OK? Now, you've got to give me a knife sharp enough and strong enough to cut its coils before you tell me to walk. And I want to look today at cutting loose the serpent at the place where he may be the most tightly attached. In this passage, Paul doesn't simply rehearse the Ten Commandments. He doesn't even go after the worst of sins. He takes a very surgical strike approach. He goes after two areas, which I find very interesting. He goes after the evil passions which lead to the sins of sexuality, and he goes after the evil passions which lead to the sins of the tongue. Now, as a pastor, I find that extremely interesting. Because whenever I speak to men's groups, you know what sins they're struggling with most? Category number one, the passions which lead to sins of sensuality. And whenever I speak to women, you know what sins they're struggling with the most? Category number two, passions which lead to sins of the tongue. And I just find that very interesting. The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there's no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Now, I say that just as my own observation as a pastor. There's nothing in this passage which would lead me to believe that Paul has men and women in mind. And I'm not going to impose it on the passage because I find no evidence of that. But I just am saying I strongly suspect that the reason Paul chooses of all things these two areas in this letter is that he is laying his finger on them precisely because he's a pastor. And in his pastoral experience, this is where men and women need the most exhortation. However, it's my own opinion on the passage as a pastor. I'm going to treat this even handedly and generally applying it to both as Paul does. The first thing Paul deals with here is this. You must put to death the evil desires which lead to sins. of sexuality, you must put to death the evil desires which lead to sins of sexuality. Verse five, therefore, put to death your members. Which are on the earth. Paul's a particular pastor likes to give details fornication. uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in. Further evidence that the more things change, the more they stay the same in the world, the apostle Paul is like the jailer at the prison door with the role of those condemned in his hand. And he stands there and reads out the names of those who are about to have their sentence carried out. It's a very ugly list. But Paul speaks very plainly, you notice, so that there won't be any mistaking of the culprits. You'll notice that the list is arranged so that it starts with the evil act and then goes on to the more subtle and inward evil desires. The list kind of goes upstream, if you would, from the mouth of the roaring river back to the trickling head. It goes from the deed to the desire. So first on the lineup then in this lineup is fornication, a word which gets snickers these days. People hardly know what this word means anymore. I bet you won't forget the Greek word if I give it to you. Pornia. It's the word in Greek for every kind of extramarital sexual activity. It's much broader than adultery. Adultery assumes that at least one of the people is married. It includes sodomy, bestiality. It's the broadest word for sexual immorality of all kinds. Any act, not just intercourse. And so when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 that fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God, don't be deceived, he goes on to specify the people that are included. Neither fornicators nor idolaters, referring to the common worship at the time, where you go down and see the temple prostitute, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, so forth, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were you. Such were some of you. And it's amazing how people will deceive themselves in this matter when he says time and time again, don't be deceived. Fornicators are not inheriting the kingdom because of these things. Well, verse six in our in our text, chapter three, verse six, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. So, Paul, First on the list is sexually immoral activity. But now he goes from activity to some of the shadier, shadier characters in the lineup. Next here in the lineup is uncleanness, another very general word, even more general, which would include things like looks and words of moral impurity. These sins are more subtle and they clearly come before any actual act. takes place, Paul going upstream. Next on the lineup is passion, just the ordinary word for passion, but I think the NIV captures the sense of the word pretty well with the L word. Somebody want to help me? Lust. Okay, followed by the even more general phrase evil desire, that is the desire for evil or the source of all evil deeds. including all the lusts and longings which give rise to the sins he lists. And the last one on the list is covetousness. An old word, but a good word. Because covetousness is not exactly the same thing as greed. As you have in the NIV, New American Standard, New Living. What does the ESV have, please? Covetousness. I knew I liked that translation. Excellent translation. Well, my point is, Greed would be the desire for more and more. Covetousness is your desire for what belongs to somebody else. Greed is your desire for things you may have. You can be greedy for money. Can you have money? Sure. Greed is your desire for things you may have. Covetousness is your desire for things you may not have. And so the Tenth Commandment, for example, forbids coveting not simply your neighbor's house, but coveting your neighbor's wife, which is why it's on the list, which is why I prefer the older word covetousness. Covetousness generally, is the desire for what or for whom, for whom the Lord has not given you. The desire to have what or whom the Lord has not given you. And therefore, covetousness is idolatry. It's God or covetousness. As though this needed application, I'd like to say both to men and women, that the sins of sensuality very clearly begin in the heart. The order of the passage, the teaching of the word of God, all convinced me that battle is won or lost in the heart. You will never do anything for real that you have not done a thousand times in the heart. So categorically, to men specifically, I do not believe that internet filters or accountability or other techniques will be the key to your victory. They may be of some profit, but the only thing that will ever, ever control your behavior is your heart. If you're going to stop porneia, you've got to go upstream. You've got to stop evil desire and coveting who and what the Lord has not given. Although I've had more grace than other men in the area of the Internet, I guarantee that it's not because of my filter. It's my desire not to desire what's there. You need that desire. The battle is not over your actions. The actions reveal the heart. And that's why all the behaviorism techniques, all the, what do they say, technical knowledge, fails. Your problem is the problem of desire. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Dr. Kravindam, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. If you don't fix the problem there, no amount of restraint is ever going to help. Women, you next. If you've seen Titanic, I hope you haven't, but if you have, you have been lied to. You've been told that instant sex will buy you sacrificial love. It's not true. You've been told that a one-night fling can become the highlight of your life. And you've been told that the glory of old age comes from the evil sins of your youth. That's not true. That's why the world pressures women to dress in ways that cause men to covet you. That's the pressure. that men should covet your body. Christian ladies, the scripture exhorts you rather to dress modestly, and especially so in the assembly. And I just tell you honestly here, one man, what worldly men would probably not even notice, unfortunately, Christian men will struggle not to notice. And you know why? Not because we're worse My wife's granddaddy could tell you the first time that he saw a woman's ankle. And you know why, right? Because you didn't see ankles in his day. In his day, he wasn't used to seeing them. Now, the fact is, Christian men aren't used to seeing the midriff and the cleavage and all the stuff that the guys of the world probably wouldn't even notice. Skintight clothing. Fact is, Christian men come in here and they see it. It's like granddaddy seeing a woman's ankle. And so the word of God says, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly. Get that? Especially in the assemblies with the context of 1 Timothy 2. Modestly and discreetly. all of you put to death coveting who, whom and what God has not given you. That's the source. Mortify that desire, desire not to desire. And that desire will cut off a whole bunch of things. I mean, my life's cut out. I just rated our movies, cut out most prime time TV. Are you saying? No, no. Just saying. You cut out that desire, you see how many things are lopped off, including the actions. I was interested to read recently in a book that my father-in-law gave to all of his kids. I'm thankful for a father-in-law who gives such a book to his kids. Sex outside of marriage is portrayed 13 times more than sex in marriage on primetime TV. Now isn't that interesting? And everything turns out wonderful also in 30 minutes. Not a reality. That's a lie. And the same book also interestingly says only 7% of those TV executives even attend church. Now, I could paraphrase Paul, but don't let that evil company, ABC, CBS, don't let evil company corrupt good habits by putting those desires into your heart. That's where the battle is. Mortify the evil desires, mortify, put to death your members which are on the earth. Next, starting in verse eight, mortify the evil desires which lead to sins of the tongue. You must mortify the evil desires which lead to sins of the tongue. Verse eight. But now you yourselves are to put up all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with his deeds. We now move to a different category. We move from sins which are more acceptable to sins which are more acceptable. And yet, I think which are more deadly to people. I say that because, you know, sexual sins will ruin a soul and ruin a marriage, ruin a family, but they will seldom ruin a church. They will seldom make you lose your job. They will seldom even take your closest friendships away. But the sins of anger, the sins of the tongue can do all those things and more. Now, these sins actually do have something in common, the sins of sexuality and the sins of the tongue have something in common, right? I mean, they both proceed from a pronounced lack of self-control. They're very similar in this way, but they differ in each other in that one is less acceptable among Christians and one is more acceptable, but both are totally unacceptable in the sight of God. You'll notice that Paul in this list goes in the opposite direction. common rhetorical device in Greek, switches it around. He goes now in this list, starting from the heart and he ends at the deed, or in this case, the word. Let's look at the lineup here. The list begins with anger and wrath. And there's no way you can tell in translation, at least any translation I read, that the first word is the word for constant burning anger, perpetual or a state of anger. The second is for anger that boils up and subsides. Maybe we say in English, the difference between being angry and having an angry temper. The next on the lineup is malice, sometimes translated hatefulness or ill will. One very interesting dictionary I read said that it meant wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws. wickedness, that is not ashamed to break laws, no self righteous, self justifying. That's the idea, dispositions of the heart. Now, out of these dispositions of the heart, as Jesus says, the mouth speaks. I have next blasphemy, which is not very helpful. I mean, the Greek word is blasphemy and it's the word Well, you know what it means. Usually it's used with God as the object, of course, when we think of blasphemy. But obviously here it means not speaking ill of God in context, as most of you have in your translations. It's speaking ill of men. And so while it's a The same word in the original, the translation you have, probably more accurately to your mind anyway, would say slander or railing or insult, which makes it clear that men are the ones being blasphemed. Next comes filthy language, or the NAS has, I think, a good nuance, abusive speech. Because in context, it means not just swearing to yourself, it means abusing other people with your speech. And finally, verse nine, outright lying to one another, very self-explanatory. And the danger to the church here is connected. It's not missed on these sins. Verse 10, you put on the new man, renewed in knowledge, created in him where there is neither Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. Christ is all and in all a reference to the church. So once again, this case in the more natural order, we can trace what comes out from what's inside. Now, men. Sometimes evil speaking is called by us plain speaking. I'm a plain spoken man. I tell it like it is. I don't whitewash it. I don't sugarcoat it. I'd rather say it like this than not say it at all. Plain spoken, man, that's me. That's a false dichotomy. You're supposed to speak the truth. Yes. In what? Love. OK, so you can't say one or the other. False dichotomy. In fact, if you have to choose one or the other, it's probably best, like your mom told you, Not to say anything at all. If you haven't actually opened your mouth yet, you haven't sinned yet. So, still okay. But the truth is, you're simply justifying why your sinful mouth is overflowing from your sinful heart and trying to make it sound like a virtue. Women, don't think you can say Whatever you like to say about people just because you start the sentence with, bless his little heart. I've heard the sweetest gals say the worst things after they said that. And don't excuse yourself and say, you know, I just have a hot temper. Well, exactly. That's the problem. You see, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And all the malice and slander and railing and lies about people won't stop until that temper is dealt with. It's the matter of the heart. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. If the heart is full of evil, no amount of biting your tongue or watching your words or not making telephone calls or whatever is going to suffice. All of you. One writer I thought had a very interesting comment on this made me think. Andrew McLaren, on the whole, this catalog brings out the importance to be attached to sins of speech, which are ranked here as parallel lines with the grossest forms of animal passion. Again, more acceptable, but more deadly. So don't look down on people in category number one if you're in category number two. And don't look down on category number two people if you're in category number one. You all must put to death not only the wicked love that produces sinful, passionate deeds. You have to mortify the wicked hate which produces sinful, passionate words. Okay? You need to kill the wicked love which results in sexuality, and the wicked hate, which results in sinful words. And then in both word and deed, we will be, verse 10, renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created us. In conclusion, someone will ask me, well, do you really need to have the doctrine of Christ to lay down then such obvious elementary moral commands. I mean, there's this high doctrine of Christ in Colossians, second only probably to Hebrews in the great doctrine of Christ. And that doesn't sort of fall to the ground as starts talking about words and such crude things as that. I mean, these verses don't tell me anything I don't already know. Somebody even will say to me, what do I need Christianity for if all it tells me to do is this stuff? What I already know is wrong. Oh, my friend, no doubt you already know right from wrong. I mean, God made you. He put that in you. You don't need the Bible for that. These moral commandments, you're right, these are obvious, elementary. But keeping Now, that's a different story. And with respect to keeping, Christianity does two things, which nothing else does. First, it gives the gift of forgiveness for the death of Christ to take away your sin. And second, it gives the gift of the spirit of a new heart and a new spirit within you, which is a verse. Which will put to death. The evil in there. It puts the old to death and makes you into the image of your creator, Jesus Christ. Who gives you life forevermore and therefore the gospel makes it actually possible makes it actual for all of his children to actually put ourselves, our members to death, to actually slay our old selves and to put on the new life, which will throw off the old, like the spring leaves push off last year's old brown ones. You know, virtually all moral teachers from the beginning have agreed on these commandments. You've heard today, everybody's agreed that these are printed on the conscience. In capital letters, everybody who has any conscience can read them written on their conscience. The reading is easy. The keeping. Now, the keeping is hard. And that's why you need a savior. And the gospel doesn't just republish these old precepts. It gives forgiveness. And it gives power. To die to ourselves and to live to Christ, it's like cutting off your arm. This love to a savior and this power from spirit Will make our arms wield the knife To put to death even our own members, even though there is beloved to us as Isaac was to Jacob If anyone believes that Christ has died for him and that he lives in him Then and not till then Will he be able to free himself from the crushing machine which is going to take the life out of him? And so he's given us his spirit to live in us. And so I close with these words to everyone. If you live according to the flesh, You will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. Let's pray. Our Father, we know that the law is holy and the commandment is holy, just and good. And yet, when we look into our hearts, we despair and we say, who will free us from this body of death? Who can deliver us from such corruption? And in your gospel, we pray and praise you now. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We thank you for such a savior from sin, and we thank you for such a spirit within. It was given us such life forevermore. Amen.