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Sermon
Colossians

Extreme Measures And Extraordinary Grace

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August 6, 2023
Colossians 3:5-11
Ben Katterson
Pastor for Middle School & Families

Killing Sin & Holiness

Identity in Christ

Sanctification & Growth

Transcript

0:14I love worshiping with you all. It is a joy and privilege. Good morning. My name is uh, Ben Catterson. I have the honor of being one of the pastors here. Uh, it's a joy. I pastor with middle school students and families and let's get right to it. Let's pray. I need you. Oh, I need you, Lord, every hour, this hour, but also my hours at home when I'm alone. We need you. Would you come and minister this morning? It's your word we're looking at. Would you help us to understand it rightly so that we may live rightly and love you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Imagine, if you will, that once upon a time, a wicked and ruthless pirate sailed under the skull and crossbones.

1:22He led a group of worthless and vile rebels who plundered and pillaged through the seas. They were violent, immoral, and miserable fellows. But then amid a clash of arms with the forces of that kingdom, this wicked pirate was captured against all expectation. The strong benevolent king took pity on him and at great personal cost, chose to pardon his treason and grant him an entirely new life. A transformation occurred. He was enfolded into the king service given a royal uniform and his old pirate attire was thrown overboard. He received training as a soldier and sailor relinquished his old ways.

2:17He was now a king's man folded into a band of brothers with the other men at arms. His life trajectory underwent a total transformation. His pirate ways were decisively put away from him as he lived in wonder at the unexpected pardon of his king. This morning Paul tells us that for the believer in Christ and even deeper and more miraculous transformation has taken place. If you recall the beginning of this chapter, chapter three, Paul has just reminded the colossian believers that their identity, their true position, has been radically changed in Christ. And the argument of this text that we're looking at this morning tells us that the new identity we have in Christ is so extraordinary that it also produces an extreme response to our old, sinful way of life.

3:30God's grace in Jesus is so powerful that sanctification can't be a matter of worldly self-made works. It is heavenly an overflow of a new life given to us in Christ. So the main point that I see this morning in this text is put off sin because you have put on Christ, put off sin because you have put on Christ the glorious new identity we have in Christ. Move us to take serious measures to put sin to death. Here's our outline. Verse five through nine. Give three imperatives for a new life in Christ. And verse 10 and 11, provide three reasons for these serious measures. So because of our new life in Christ, here are three imperatives.

4:33Number one, kill sexual sin. That's verse five through seven. Number two, put off relational sin. That's verse eight. Number three, stop lying. That's verse nine. So look with me at verse five, kill sexual sin. Verse five, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. The word therefore links us to the transformation described in verses one through four. If you have been raised with Christ and you have been, if you have died, and if your life is hidden with Christ in God and it is, if it is true that when Christ appears you will appear with him in glory and it is true, then there's something to do with the earthly things down here put to death what is earthly in you. Therefore, this morning, draw your swords as we consider what the old sinful pattern of life requires.

5:56Paul lists here five earthly things that need to be actively removed from our lives in Christ, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Paul will give us a glorious list of things to put on with our new man later in the chapter, but that is a sermon for Pastor Stephen Lee next weekend. These terms here in verse five are somewhat overlapping in their meaning, referring to, referring to all manner of sexual activity, desire or perversion Outside of God's design, adultery, fornication, masturbation, or other impure sexual gratification must be put to death, lusting, glances, thoughts and impure indulgence of images or ideas.

6:59The word passion in this list refers to an ungodly sensual craving, a far cry from the passion or deep desire for God's glory that we refer to in the mission statement printed on this wall. Evil desire and covetousness are seeking after what is contrary to God's order. These sins belong to our old self. They are utterly unfit for our new identity in Jesus. And so we are to take the strongest measures to be rid of them. The sexual sin described in these verses distort God's plan and gift of sex within marriage. Earlier this year in our Proverbs sermon series, Brian Lichty preached powerfully about the goodness of God's gift of sex within marriage as well as the dangers of disregarding God's ways in this area.

8:01And I commend these mess messages to you for more in-depth discussion on these matters. So if these earthly sins are no longer fitting for us in Christ, what are we to do with them? For those who have been transformed, Paul provides a powerful paradigm for fighting sin. Consider these three extreme measures. Number one, go to war. Put them to death. Don't befriend sin, don't tolerate, and make space for it. This is Defcon one. Our new life compels us to final decisive, cutting off of sin as Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount. If your right eye or right hand cause you to sin, cut it off, gouge it out, throw it away. Matthew five verse 30.

8:57We don't make peace treaties with sin, we put them to death. Number two, battle for your heart. The war zone is deeper than an external conformity to rules. Paul calls us to a battle against indwelling sin of sexual immorality and all its wicked cousins in our hearts. To fight effectively, we seek to love what God loves and hate what he hates. So remember, Colossians three, two. We gain ground when we set our minds on things that are above. The mind is the supply train for the war zone of our hearts. Number three, name the sin. Paul names this sin. It's not a vague struggle. I'm struggling. One of our tools is to call sin what God calls it.

9:58God forgive my sexual immorality. Confess your sins to God, name them. Part of repentance is bringing your sin to God in truthful confession and receiving his forgiveness and cleansing in the wounds of Jesus. As far as strategy, do what you must. Romans eight 13 tells us that this is a life and death struggle that we face with the power of God's holy spirit. If you, by the spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you will live battle with all the resources God has provided to you against the things that God hates. Next in verse six, Paul gives a reason why we must put these things to death. Verse six, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming on account of these means.

11:02The result of sexual sin and idolatry is God's almighty wrath. The God hates sin and his wrath is coming. The stakes are high. If you know that you are guilty and facing the holy, righteous, and good wrath of God this morning, know that the punishment that you deserve can be diverted onto a willing substitute. Colossians two 14 says that your record of debt with its legal demands can be set aside, nailed to the cross. Christ made atonement for those who trust in him, but the atonement of Jesus is not a free pass for sin. Paul references God's wrath here partly to show that if you are not at war with your sin, you may be under his wrath.

12:07Flee from sin, flee to Christ. Do not trifle with sin. Galatians 5 24 tells us that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Shall we sin that Grace May abound? May it never be. If you have been transformed by extraordinary grace, then take up the weapons of warfare to kill sexual sin. If you need help, the body of Christ is one of God's provisions for you. Talk with someone in your small group. Pray with someone here at the end of the service. Reach out to our counseling department. We want to strengthen one another's hands for this good fight. Let's read verse seven. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them.

13:19Now we see that we are very like the pirate in our story. We're not a different kind of person from those who are still entrenched in sin. Doug Mu helps to give this sense of this verse. You yourselves, were committing just these sins at one time. When you are living in the world where such things are typically done, we all walked and lived perpetually in the old fleshly man. Our guilt and sin and the just judgment of God was hanging over us like a cloud. This is true even for those of you who have grown up in a Christian home or ha or who have externally conformed to rules for your whole life.

14:12Our old identity was worthy of God's wrath because of our sin. So 0.1, kill sexual sin. Now let's look at 0.2. Put off relational sin. Let's read verse eight. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene. Talk from your mouth. Once we were under God's wrath, but now is contrasting two different times then and now. What happened? A transformation. Let's review the beautiful transformation that Paul has already described in this letter chapter one, verse five and six, the word of truth king to you and you understood it. Chapter one, verse 13 and 14. God, the Father delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you to the kingdom of his beloved son. Chapter one, verse 20.

15:20There is now peace between you and the Father, not wrath by the blood of the cross of Jesus. Chapter one, verse 20, 21 and 22, we who once were alienated hostile in mind doing evil deeds, Jesus has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. Chapter two verse 12. We were buried with Jesus. Chapter two 14. We were raised with Jesus made alive God nailing our sins to the cross. Chapter two 19. Now we hold fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together. Literally united grows with a growth that is from God. What a transformation. Let's go back to verse eight. But now you must put them all away.

16:19This is the second imperative in this section. Stop, lay aside, put away the the n i V says, rid yourselves of all such things as these, the word put away is the same word that the writer to the Hebrews uses when he tells us to lay aside weights and sins and run with endurance. Fly for the finish line. Leave these behind. Anger can be a chronic seething, annoyance or frustration. Wrath or rage can be passionate. Outbursts leave judgment and wrath to the one who is just and righteous, malice, literally wickedness or evil. Desire which carries the venom of spite and a desire for harm, slander, abusive language against God. It's blasphemy. It gets man, it's slander.

17:27See the progression, anger erupts and raffle. Harm or slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Filthy, shameful words, harming each other with barbs, wounding and leaving an infection. Anger tells us that we sense injustice, both Psalm four and Ephesians four tell us to be angry and not sin. However, Psalm 37 tells us that anger and wrath tend to towards evil. Why pride, selfishness, self-pity. Latch on like leeches. Strip yourself of anger, lay it down. How well as the people of God here are three things to consider. One emotions are not our master. God is we cannot escape emotions, but we should seek to submit them even our emotions to God.

18:41Emotions are powerful tools given to us to use according to righteousness, and we can test our emotions against the word of God when our emotions are off track. Set your minds on things that are above the clearest evidence of anger or the gateway to its expression is the tongue. Put away obscene talk from your mouth, guard your mouth and open your ears. James one 19 through 20 says, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man. It does not produce the righteousness of God. Number three, if you sense injustice and trust yourself to God, his justice is perfect, unblemished and so much more potent than yours. Let's review quickly. The main point, if you recall, put off sin because you have put on Christ the new identity we have in Christ moves us to put sin to death.

20:03We've seen one kill sexual sin. We see number two, put off relational sin. Now number three, do not lie. Paul gives us the third imperative here. Do not lie to one another. This is a one item list. Don't lie. It's very interesting. In the Greek it says literally do not lie to one another. This is a very straightforward and simple command like he knows me. But Paul supports this with rich reasons. The reasons not to lie to one another and to kill sexual sin and to put anger away are threefold. In this case, Paul doesn't motivate us by terrors of God's wrath, but with a transformation we have a new identity. In verse nine, B through 10, we have a new community in verse 11 A, and we have a new passion, galactically glorious and soul satisfying in verse 11 B. So let's look at reason one, our new identity. Let's read verse nine and 10.

21:34Do 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, you have put off the old man or the worn out man, the old self like a garment, lying, anger, sexual immorality, idolatry, well what you used to love. But after taking off the old man, you have put on like a garment, the new self, the new man. These are both references to clothing. It's the same word in other places like Matthew six. Jesus says, don't be worried about clothing what you'll put on or in Matthew 27 where they strip Jesus of his robe. Same word.

22:35So what garment did we take off the old self? Paul helps us in Romans six, six. He says, we know that our old self was crucified with Jesus in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. When we trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, our old self joins with Christ and is crucified on the cross. We are united with him in his death. The garments of our old self we take off with Paul tells us it's practices. If you have taken off the old man, don't act like him anymore. So we've taken off the old man and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

23:35Galatians 3 27 says, as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Paul is using analogies to help us understand the doctrine of union with Christ. And this union is not merely individual, it's corporate. If in Ephesians four, Paul tells us that we, we are being built up until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We are growing together into one man Christ. We've taken off the old self a decaying and broken thing and are putting on the new self, which verse 10 says, it's being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

24:48Second Corinthians four 16 says, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, our new self is being renewed in knowledge. Every time you turn to God in his word and seek him, wake up in the morning and go after him, your knowledge of him is being renewed. And this new man is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator, the image of its creator. That hearkens all the way back to Genesis. Genesis 1 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him. Male and female, he created them. We were made in God's image, but sin hindered our ability to know God.

25:51But as we put on the new man, the new self that changes. Second Corinthians five 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come in Christ. We are a new creation. We are being built up, renewed in knowledge after the image or the pattern of our savior. We have put him on and are putting him on day by day.

26:34Two Corinthians three 18 says it like this, and we all with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. Or you become what you behold. So we put on Christ like clothing. This new attire renews our minds. Putting it on begins a gradual and ongoing transformation into his likeness. So don't be who you were. Be who you are. No butterfly ever reverts to inching along a twig or attempts to squeeze back into the husk of its cocoon. Like our redemption story at the beginning, we take off our pirate clothes and have put on the uniform of a new identity. So reason number one, to put these sins away, we have a new identity.

27:46Now let's look at reason number two, our new community. Verse 11. Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, cian, slave free. But Christ is awe and in awe. And verse 11, what does he mean by here? Well, where is it that a group of people have put off the old self and have put on Jesus Christ and are being renewed and sanctified, growing more like their savior daily, the church, God's kingdom people a blood bought community. Paul tells us that in the church the following distinctions exist, but there's no separation between them. They are included in the new humanity, not excluded.

28:49Greek and Jew or Gentile and God's old covenant people both included in the new humanity, circumcised and uncircumcised. The sign of the covenant no longer separates the Jewish nation of Israel from the rest of the world. Barbarian, cian. These are two extreme examples of uncircumcised. Barbarian is a linguistic or cultural inferiority. Cian adds savagery to that slave free. A fundamental social separation which Paul dashes to pieces socially, different culturally, different linguistically, different ethnically, different racially included like this. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice.

30:13Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb all there. They're all there. The application here can be to go serve Jesus in other cultures and hear that call may it be this morning. However, in this immediate context, all of us, every one of us should hear the call to put a sin, a body of chaste and holy people. Not angry but joyful. Not lying, but rejoicing in the truth filled with the spirit of God will cross the bounds of cian and slave and win the world. Now let's look at reason number three for putting away sin a new passion.

31:12Christ is all. And in all, what does that mean? Let me read for you. Uh, back a couple chapters. Chapter one, verse 15 to 20, take note of the word all. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him. And for him. He is before all things. And in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, literally all things he might be preeminent for in Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

32:33There's a passion for the ages. Christ is preeminent. He is the sovereign, the savior. The blood of his cross has made peace. We are joined with Ians slave and free brought together any true reconciliation happens in Christ and by his cross. Here is what Christ is all and in all means, as best as I can understand it, as Jesus was the blazing center and glorious maker and sustainer of all creation. So he is of the new creation, not just a new humanity, but a new heavens and a new earth for the believer. Our meals, our hobbies, our joys and sorrows, our life and breath. All things are in him and are about him. And if they aren't, I'm done with them.

33:39Christ indwells and transforms his people. This is the power for living the way he commanded for putting these sins to death. Jesus is in me and in you. This is how He's, Paul says it in Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work it out for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So in conclusion, put off sin because you have put on Christ. There was once a time when we were under the wrath of God because of our rebellion. According to this text, we were lost in sin and enslaved to our passions, hating one another, lying. But now a transformation has occurred.

34:50We are now subjects of a different king. Our king bids us and enables us to fight against what we now hate. And this battle is chiefly won in being firmly established in your kingdom identity, community, and passion. Lord, by the, by the strength of my volume, I can't make anything happen. It's the power of your spirit. It's your word. Would you be our all in all? Would you be our passion? You are our identity. You are what we are growing up into as a community. You are our greatest joy, our passion, our love. Let us by your spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh. In Jesus name. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Colossians 3:5-11

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