Live Not By Lies - Col. 3:5-11

Good morning

Guests, welcome

Grateful for Ron last week - Clear, competent, careful

Aug. 18th Reminder - As go the men of the local church, so goes the local church

As men, it is our responsibility to set the pace in our homes and in our church

Well let’s open our Bibles to Colossians Ch. 3

1974 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Russian Dissident

Here is the thesis of his argument:

“We find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal non-participation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!”

Now, this is not a political sermon, but Solzhenitsyn’s words are just as relevant for us in the church.

We are constantly in danger of the lies of the world holding power over us when we listen and follow them.

There are lies about how we should live, what we should want, what is right and wrong, and it is all based in the me-centered worldview that we have talked about before.

They promise to fulfill us, they promise to liberate us, they promise to give us what we desire

[Hook] And I am concerned for us today that we have participated in the lies of the world, thinking they would deliver what they promised, but instead we are left empty and confused.

The church in general has gone along with the lies of our cultural about our way of living, we have believed the lies that cultural has told us about love, and following your heart, and living according to what you want.

We have stopped listening to the truth of God’s word about what life is supposed to be like and have made room for sin in our lives because the broader culture says it is fine.

We make excuses and reframe how we talk about our sin so that we reduce its severity and normalize its existence because the world says that is what we should do

And so those who claim the name of Christ look nothing like him, live nothing like him, and point the world away from him.

And that is a real risk for us today - believing the world, following the world, and looking just like the world

And the solution, the way to return to living in the truth is a non-participation in the lies of the world.

The Apostle Paul is going to expose these lies that we embrace in the church and he is going to help us to see what is necessary to not live by lies but instead to live in the truth.

So let’s give these words our full attention, as hard as they may be to hear…

[Colossians 3:5-11]

Big Idea: Because my identity is in Christ, I must not live a lie.

Paul has made the point multiple times that if you follow Jesus by faith, if you have trusted in him for the forgiveness of your sins and you are submitted to his way for you life, then the old you has been put to death.

Look back at v. 3 - “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

This means that who you are is not defined by the world, but by Christ

And your way of life should be lived in accordance with who you are!

Not how you define you, but how God defines you through your new life in Christ!

The truth that we need is that the best life we could ever hope for is a life that is lived according to what God says

And when we reject that, when we embrace other ideas, when we fix our eyes on things of the world, we live, not according to the truth, but according to a lie.

But if my identity is in Christ, I must live according to the truth and not participate in the lies of the world.

[Bridge] So the question before us is: How can I avoid living a lie? How can I know that I am living in the truth of Christ?

3 truths that must be true of us if we are to live in the truth and not live lies…

I am living in the truth when:

I am honest about my sin (5-8)

The unforgivable sin today is to call someone’s way of life sin.

At best we talk about shame as if our actions are insignificant and the only problem is how we feel about them

We dilute the significance of the action and magnify the personal feelings around them as if to say you can do all of the same things but just don’t feel bad about them anymore.

But we must not believe that lie - We need to be honest about our sin!

But Paul pulls no punches in v. 5-8 when he confronts the sins that are so common in our lives.

And we need to heed his warning

He says, “Put to death therefore what is earthy in you.”

The actual syntax of that verse is helpful - Lit. “Therefore, Put to death what is from the earth in your body parts”

Body part imagery - You have made it at home in your body and it doesn’t belong there

So what what does it look like when we have made earthly things at home in our bodies?

He gives us a list - We could unpack, but I don’t think that is his intention here. There is something that ties all of these together that he is highlighting by giving us this particular list

Sexual immorality - The actual word is an umbrella term that is used to refer to any sexual misconduct or thought pattern (alone or with others) that is outside of the marriage relationship of 1 man and 1 woman

Impurity - The embracing of distortions of God’s design

Passion - Unrestrained, insatiable need for satisfaction

Evil Desire - Desiring something for self that is forbidden

Covetousness/Idolatry - A desire for more, never being satisfied

So what do these all have in common? They are all internal states of mind that alter how I see the world.

Sexual immorality is a distortion of the purpose and place of intimacy.

Impurity is a twisting of God’s design and making good things profane

Passion is the opposite of self control

Evil desire is wanting what I shouldn’t want and not wanting what I should

Covetousness is a worship of gain, rather than a worship of God, which is why it is idolatry.

And when my inner reality is distorted, then I know I have embraced the lies of the world.

Listen, friends - Just because things are a certain way doesn’t mean they should be that way

Just because these states of mind are common around us does not mean they should be common in us.

But all too often they are common in us, because we believed the lies around us.

And because they are inner issues, because they are deep in my heart, it is easy to ignore them, hide them, or excuse them.

We write off our greed as ambition.

We know that co-worker is married but we explain why the work flirting is actually okay

We are consumed with thoughts of other people and our attraction to them but just write off as if the thoughts are harmless

We have issues of addiction and blame our past trauma or failed relationships for the addiction

We covet what other people have, wishing we had that job or that house or that spouse, thinking that the issues in our lives are because we married the wrong person or took the wrong job

There is no shortage of ways that we explain away the presence of sin in our hearts.

Are there external realities and factors that contribute to the way that life is? Yes, but what we must not do is ignore the reality of sin in our lives that is contributing to the way things are.

But while it is common for us to make excuses for them, notice: Paul does not make excuses for them

He says, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming”

God takes it seriously, he doesn’t see it as a small things

Friends, when we ignore, hide, or excuse the reality of sin in our hearts we have believed the lie that matters of the heart are no big deal - But Paul is telling us it is actually the biggest deal!

Now, if you are in Christ, if you have trusted him by faith, there is no condemnation and you are spared from God’s wrath

[Brief Gospel call]

Now, what Paul is not saying is, “Whoa, Christian, you might be in danger of losing your salvation”

That is not what he is saying

What Paul is saying is that it is completely backwards to be in Christ and then embrace the things that Christ saved you from!

And even though you are spared from God’s wrath if you are in Christ, it does not mean that you are insulated from the consequences of embracing lies!

Your hidden sins will be your undoing!

Your adulterous thoughts will wreck your marriage

Your hidden greed will ruin your relationships

Your desire for worldly gain will compromise your character.

We must be honest about our sin

What in your life is hidden deep in your heart that you make excuses for? That you justify? That you blame others for?

You have to be honest about it

“In these you too once walked, when you were living in them” - Those things used to be true of you, but your life is hidden with Christ in God - Your identity is in him, not the world.

So you cannot live like those things are part of you anymore!

But when you make room in your heart for the lies of the world, when you make room in your heart for the inner sins that are so easy to hide and so easy to explain away, it will manifest itself in your outer words and actions.

Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”

We must not miss that Paul is highlighting the sins that come out of us right after highlighting the sins that are living inside of us

You do what you do and you say what you say because you think what you think.

I am just going to ask point blank: What does what you say and what you do reveal about what is in your heart?

Do you get angry often?

Do you take out your anger on others with your words?

Do you say hurtful things?

Do you gossip and talk bad about others?

Do you try to make others look bad by what you say about them?

Do you make inappropriate jokes for shock value?

Paul is saying, “If you do those things, it is because you have a deeper issue in your heart that you have been hiding and now it is coming out of your mouth.”

Christ follower, when you excuse, ignore, or hide sinful realities in your heart

You will see the effect through what you do and say.

You will not look like Christ, you will look like the world.

But when we are honest about our sin, we can say “I am no longer going to let the lie rule in me.”

And we can repent.

Repentance is a word that we don’t often define - So let me do that here

To repent is to literally change your mind and go in a different direction.

It is to say, “I used to make excuses for my desires, my lusts, my anger, my gossip, but now I see that they must go! I am not okay with them anymore!”

I cannot explain it away - I cannot make excuses for it

God takes it seriously, so we take it seriously.

So what does it look like to take it seriously?

Beginning of v. 5 - “Put it to death”

Christ died to set you free from the bondage of sin.

If we have listened to the lies of the world and have made room in our hearts for all kinds of sin, it is time that we are honest with ourselves about our sin, call it what it is, confess it, repent of it, take it outside, and kill it.

If we don’t, it will be our undoing as a church family.

If you don’t it will be the undoing of your life, your marriage, your relationships with your kids, and it will be the undoing of your witness for Christ.

This is why John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

Have you made excuses for your sin and given it a home in your heart? How is that going for you?

I am sure at this point has started to turn on you and you are realizing it is not a welcome guest.

It is time to be honest and kill your sin

Get it out of your heart, get it out of your home, get it out of your life.

And when we are honest about our sin, we can take the necessary steps to confess, repent, and remove it from our lives.

It might be hard, it might require you to have some hard conversations and make some hard decisions

But it is necessary.

Be killing sin… Or it will be killing you.

Stop making excuses for it - Walk in the truth by being honest about your sin.

Second, I am living in the truth when… I am consistent in my life (9-10)

Paul moves in v. 9 to make a larger point - It would almost seem like he is just addressing another sin after the list in v. 8, but what he is actually doing is summarizing the point he made in v. 5-8.

He says, “Do not lie to one another”

If you follow Jesus by faith and claim to belong to him and his people and yet you allow sin to take up residence in your heart and work itself out in your life, then you are living a lie.

Paul is saying, “Don’t live a lie as a church family”

Don’t claim Christ and then not live like him.

Live consistently - If you are in Christ, live like you are in Christ

Now, to make this point, Paul does something that will take a moment to unpack, but once we see it, it should make sense.

He says, “…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.”

Now that “put off/put on” language is actually the language that is used to talk about changing clothes

So what does this have to do with living consistently in the truth?

Let’s remember back to Genesis 1-3

Gen. 1 - God made mankind in his image, male and female, both were the image

Reflect God in such a way that all creation would know they belonged to him

But then in Gen. 3, they rebel against God’s command, their eyes are opened and they knew they were naked. They sewed fig leaves to make clothes to cover their shame, but they are cast out of God’s presence

And what follows is an utter devolving of human society, people living in rebellion against God more and more and more

Living in the same rebellion, wearing the same shame

It is as if all of humanity carried with them the clothes of the fall - Those human made, feeble attempts to cover shame while living in the same rebellion.

And throughout all of the Old Testament, we just long for someone who will not be disobedient and rebellious like the first Adam, but will live in perfect obedience

And Jesus Christ, living in human flesh, lived sinless obedience, but took on our sin on the cross, thus taking on the penalty of sin and giving us the gift of righteousness

And though we were once clothed with sin and shame, we are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ

So Paul, knowing all of this, uses this clothing language to make a very vivid point:

When you believe the lies of the world and live like the world, you are putting those old clothes back on.

If you are in Christ, you are clothed in the righteousness that Christ achieved for you, but when you embrace the lies of the world and start living for what the world promises, you are putting the old clothes back on and adopting the practices that went along with them.

But that is not how God clothed you - You have taken off the old garment of the old self and have put on the righteousness of Christ!

So why would you return to what all of creation throughout all time has longed to take off?

And you might say, “But I don’t feel like I am clothed in righteousness - I still sin and I still fail daily.”

I know - That’s why Paul says what he says next

“being renewed after the image of its creator”

We were made to reflect God, and when you are in Christ and have been remade, you are being changed to look more and more like him.

[Sanctification] - As I embrace my identity in Christ, I will change to look more and more like Christ.

this is what the Bible calls “Sanctification”, the process of being made more like Christ

It is a process - Though the power sin and death were conquered on the cross and through Christ’s resurrection, the presence of sin continues

Positionally, Christ has justified you, you are clothed in his righteousness

but progressively you are being changed, you are being renewed to look more and more like Jesus.

And when I know that my identity is in Christ, and my position before him is justified, then I can know that he will continue to grow me, even if sin is still present in my life.

Listen, friends: The mark of a Christian is not that he no longer sins, but that he no longer approves of his sin and instead he desires to leave it.

To be consistent in life does not mean that you are perfect - It means that you no longer wear the old clothes of sin and rebellion, but that you see your identity in Christ and live like it, clothed in righteousness as you grow in obedience.

When you sin, you repent, recognizing that it is not what God intends for your life

When you are tempted, you flee the temptation

When you fall, you confess it and return to God.

Church family, stop putting those old clothes back on - Live consistently in the truth, that God’s way is better, that Christ accomplished all that was necessary for you to be made new, and that he has given you everything you need for life and godliness.

And when we desire to live consistently, not living the lie of hypocrisy, but desiring to look more and more like Jesus, we can know that we are living in the truth.

So, I am living in the truth when I am honest about my sin, when I am consistent in my life, and lastly…

I am living in the truth when… I am genuine toward others (11)

If walking in truth starts with being honest with what is inside, then it would be foolish to make our interactions with one another about what is on the outside…

Right? If the most important reality in the Christian life is that we are renewed from within so that it changes the way that we live, then the most ignorant thing that we could do is make the Christian life about external distinctions.

However, Our current cultural mood is one that makes external markers of identity the most important thing about us.

And when we do that, we actually reduce being human down to the superficial, not the genuine.

Now, I want to make sure you hear what I am saying here:

I am not saying diversity doesn’t matter

Diversity is a God-honoring reality, that Scripture highlights multiple times

But the reason Scripture highlights diversity, the reason diversity is God-honoring is because God is transforming people from every nation tribe and tongue

He is applying the same salvation, in spite of differences, rather than making differences as the basis for salvation.

[ARE YOU TRACKING WITH ME?]

It is the inner transformation of all types of people that is glorifies God, not the mere presence of differences.

In Colossae, they were making the presence of differences more important than the inner transformation, dividing groups based on their racial identities or gender identities, class identities

And Paul’s correction for them is just as important for us today

Colossians 3:11 “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

The point he is making is this: If Christ is supreme as we saw in ch. 1 and if Christ is sufficient as we saw in ch. 2, and if being in Christ means that you belong to him, then there is no other way of evaluating someone than according to Christ.

It is superficial to say that because someone is this ethnicity or that ethnicity or male or female or poor or rich or democrat or republican, it is superficial to make that more important than if they know Christ.

He is all - He is the thing that matters - There is no other metric by which to measure another person.

If you and I both have Christ, then even if we are different in every external way possible, we are one in Christ.

And if we do not share Christ in common, then even if we are identical in every external way possible, we are not one.

Paul is saying: Christ is all, so he is the only dividing line

He is in all - Anyone who has Christ, has the same fullness of Christ

This is not a statement of God being in everything, like new age Spirituality might teach

It is also not a statement about Jesus being in every person, regardless of what they believe, as universalism teaches

Paul is saying that Christ is equally in all people who believe - Their class, race, gender, or any other superficial category does not change the extent and reality of the indwelling of Christ in all who believe.

So what is Paul’s point?

He is saying, because following Christ is a matter of the heart and living consistently with that, we must never make external identities more important than our shared identity in Christ.

To put it another way: When churches allow cultural issues that magnify race, gender, and other external identities to be what they make church all about, Paul is saying you can know that they have allowed the world to come live inside their church.

May it never be - May we be genuine toward others, knowing that Christ is what matters in how we relate to one another.

May we appreciate the things that make us different and diverse, but may those things never become more important to us than Christ changing us from the inside first.

[Conclusion]

There are many ways that you can live by the lies of the world.

You can make excuses for your sin

You can claim the name of Jesus all the while living like the world

You can by superficial by making outside appearances more important than inward realities.

But when:

We are honest about our sin

Consistent in our lives

And genuine toward one another

We will be living in the truth because our identity is in Christ.

pray

[Corporate Confession]

But if we are being honest, we all live by lies somewhere - We have all made excuses for sin, lived inconsistently, or made external appearances more important than Christ.

The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5:13–14 “But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

So we are going to take a few minutes in a time of confession and repentance as a church.

If you sense the Spirit of God convicting you of sin that you have hidden or that you have made excuses for, I am going to ask you to respond to that leading by confessing that sin to him, asking for his forgiveness, and asking him to help you to change your mind about your sin.

And I am going to ask that we make this a time of corporate confession - That we do this together.

So in your seat, posture yourself however you need to - You may feel like you need to turn around and kneel. You may be making excuses for sin with the person sitting next to you or your hidden sins have impacted them and you need to ask their forgiveness and pray with them.

Whatever you sense God leading you do as you confess and repent, do it

We are not a people without hope. In fact, it is through Jesus, by his grace within us, by his work on our behalf, that we can know that sin does not have to define us - He defines us

And so I want you to hear these words from John Owen, the 17th century puritan

“Set your faith on Christ for the killing of your sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and you will die a conqueror; yes, you will, through the good providence of God, live to see your sinful desires dead at your feet.” John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

The only way that we can hope for our sin to be dead at our feet is if we will kneel at Jesus’ feet, confessing our sin, repenting of our ways, and depending on his grace.