HOW TO LIVE AS DEAD MEN

HOW TO LIVE AS DEAD MEN Colossians 3:5-11 March 10,  2002 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory More than 800 years before the writing of this text, the prophet Isaiah had an open vision of the Lord, high and lifted up in the Temple. Perhaps the prime thing the Lord wanted him to notice were the six Seraphim calling out to one another "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." (Isaiah 6:3) As far as I know there is no other place in the pages of scripture where a single attribute of God is emphasized in triplicate. When Hebrews wanted to emphasize something as important, they didn't enter a command for bold print or underlining. They repeated the important-twice meant this is very important and thrice meant, "Stop the presses, don't miss this story!" I take this triplicate praise to mean that the holiness of God is very important in the heavenly perspective. And it is likewise important for us to emulate this holiness in our lives. Three times in the book of Leviticus this phrase appears: "Be holy, because I am holy."(webmasters note: Leviticus 11:44, 11:45, 19:2, 20:7) When the apostle Peter wanted to exhort the Christians concerning their behavior as witnesses in this world, he said, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" (1 Peter 1:15-16) I want to bring to our attention three principles and a practical plan this morning. God wants a holy people to populate this world-a people dedicated to Him, living out lives of holiness as a witness to what He is like. And, brothers and sisters, it DOES make a difference how you live. Three principles and a practical plan… Three Principles 1. The principle of death. Paul has already emphasized the truth that the Christian is DEAD. That is, he has died to his former way of life, his old nature and his life of bondage to the law of sin and death. In fact, our whole premise for living is the fact that we have died to the old man of the flesh. In essence Paul is saying to each of us, "You're a man…now LIVE like it!" Did you know that dead snakes can bite? Dead snakes bit five of thirty-five snakebite victims admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, AR. Toxicologists there reported that in a nine-month period, their records showed that 15% of snakebite victims had been bitten by snakes that were actually dead. Twenty-one year old, Justin Cuff, for example, was bitten by the decapitated head of a rattlesnake. He ended up losing part of his right index finger. The fact is, we have an old nature that we determined to put to death, but, quite frankly, we may bring it back to life whenever we want to. In our text today, the apostle urges believers to continue to put to death the things of the old nature. Don't let them have a life of their own. "You died; now live like it!" One theologian called this the indicative of faith (You are dead to the old nature), and the imperative of ethics (You must put the old nature to death). 2. The principle of the new nature. In the text before us Paul will command Christians to 'put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (vs 5) and "rid yourselves of all such things…" (vs 8) But this is not a cosmetic change. We watched the new movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella last week. She abandons her old rags, dresses in the beautiful dress provided for her and goes to the ball. Ours is not just a dress-up, though. We have been given a new nature. If you have to borrow from fantasy, forget Cinderella and think of the prince who has become an ugly frog, then is kissed by a lovely maiden and becomes a handsome prince again. Now, imagine the handsome prince still hopping around and croaking like a frog. That is the incongruity of Christians who have died to their old way of life still living in those ways. If you're sharp, and have been following the flow of this course of study in Colossians, maybe you picked up on what seems to be a contradiction. Paul finished up chapter two by denouncing a religion that is based on rules. (See 2:20-23) Now he begins to teach how we ought to live-basically saying there are some things that you ought to do and others that you ought NOT to do. The heading for this section in my NIV Bible reads, "Rules for Holy Living." Is he being inconsistent? Is Christianity a system of rules, do's & don'ts, or isn't it? Be very careful that you understand this principle of the new nature. Because "…you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…" (vs 3), you are different. You, Christian, have the ability to conquer the things of the flesh. Before you died with Christ, you were incapable of holy living. But now, being in Christ, and having Christ's Spirit in you, you ARE able to conquer the flesh. That doesn't mean you always do or always will, but you CAN. That is why I want to spend some time on what I think will be a powerful practical teaching in just a moment. There is the principle of the spiritual death and the principle of the new nature. One more… 3. The principle of living between the then and the not yet. Since you have given your life to Christ and become a Christ-follower, you have been saved by the grace of Christ, indwelt by His Spirit, and given a glorious hope of an eternal future with God. But you still live in a fallen and sin-filled world. And you still carry around an old sin nature that has been declared dead, but can still bite you with its carnal venom. Quite simply, you are not out of the woods yet. You are saved by God's mercy and grace, your ultimate deliverance is certain, and God will not fail you by letting you fall; but He has called you to live out this new life in the NOW, between the THEN of your old life and the NOT YET of the glory that is coming. During this short window of time, which we call life, God has called us to live lives that are holy, like He is holy. To help us get that done, He has given us His Spirit. We must learn to be life-changingly grateful for this gift of the Holy Spirit in us. His indwelling Spirit gives us everything we need in our battle with the world, the flesh and the devil. You did not earn this precious possession, and you can never repay God for what He did for you. He remade you and empowered you with His spiritual life. Be thankful. There is a "Dennis the Menace" cartoon that I love. Dennis is called the menace because he is constantly making miserable the life of his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. This particular cartoon shows Dennis and his little friend Joey leaving Mrs. Wilson's house, their hands full of cookies. Joey says, "I wonder what we did to deserve this." Dennis answers with philosophical, fi not theological, precision: "Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice, but because she's nice!" Now what I would like to do is bring a practical word on how to win over the tiger of the flesh. I want to let the Word of God be a real practical help for us in the real battlefield. Because all this theory of having the power to overcome our sin natures is well and good, but what do you do when you are in the trenches, facing your most feared temptations? What do you do when you are in the battle face to face with your strongest tendencies to sin? How do you find victory in the secret place of decision when it's just you and your flesh in the ring? I'm talking about the times of quiet desperation when you are all alone, just you, your carnal urgings and the devil. Doing Battle with the Flesh Tiger 1. Preliminaries to remember: 1. Christ is your victor-you are not. Jesus has paid the debt of your sin, given you forgiveness and hope. He died that you could live-abundantly. If overcoming this temptation or problem of carnality is up to you, you lose. But if by faith you allow the Lord Jesus, through His Spirit in you, to master the problem, He can, and He will. The real issue is not, "Can I overcome problem", but "Do I love Him?" You cannot perform the surgery necessary to disable the flesh, but He can. The Christian life is no "do-it-yourself, make-yourself-right" religion. It is a religion of the heart in which all you can do is yeild yourself to the love and lordship and transforming power of Christ, and then He does it. All He demands of us is our sincere "Yes". 2. You have already "died" to the law of sin and death; you buried the 'old you' and have already determined to live by faith in Jesus (not you). You and the Lord have acknowledged that you cannot live victoriously apart from Him. So your only responsibility is to decide in faith to keep the dead man in his grave. 3. That means you must reckon yourself dead to sin and let the Spirit of Jesus fight the battle. If you try to take charge you eclipse the Spirit's involvement. You're 'dead', so live like it! If you have the Spirit of Jesus in your life, you don't have to make a thousand decisions a day about whether to do this or not to do that. You have only to make one major decision, and keep deciding that same thing-will I trust the Lord and live for Him? It really is a "yes or no" decision. During a flight on a commercial airline, the flight attendant asked a passenger if he would like dinner. The passenger asked, "What are my choices?" The flight attendant answered, "Your choices are YES or NO. 2. Engage the solution (not the problem) 1. You are confronted with your carnality. It could be for you a temptation to steal, or to lie, to fornicate, to slander someone or to continue in some lustful thought fantasy. Now you have to make a choice-will I choose to trust Him and live for Him, or will I choose to not trust Him and not live for Him? ▪ Notice (this is important): you are not choosing whether or not you will steal or lie or fornicate or slander or lust. You are choosing whether or not you love Him, whether or not you will trust in Him. It is not your power to overcome; it is His power. All you can do is act in faith to decide to trust Him. And that is enough, because He can! ▪ Remember, it is not your power to overcome the flesh. But it is your choice whether or not to avail yourself of His power at the moment. Bottom line: it is His power and your 'yes'. Your sinful nature, aided by the devil's sincere hope that you fall into sin, is very strong at this point. But God is stronger. "…the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." ( 1 John 4:4) Never underestimate the power of the flesh to draw you away from God. Someone once said, "Every package from hell comes disguised as ecstasy." You must not try to decide to be strong-you must decide to love God. 2. The next step is actually engaging the decision to trust in His power to help you. This is that critical point at which you decide for victory or defeat. Here is how that is done: ▪ Firmly resolve that living for Jesus is what you want. Any hesitation here leads to certain defeat. If you are not totally committed to serve Him, then He is not Lord in your life. Timing is absolutely important. You cannot agree to put off this decision-you must make it now. Realize that you are not deciding when you will live for Jesus, but if you will live for Him. And it must be now. ▪ Lean into Him in prayer and tell Him you love Him and are thankful that He is willing and faithful and strong enough to handle it for you. He knows you do not want to pray right now-He understands how hard it is, but he wants you to do it anyway. You don't need the perfect words-sometimes all you can do is scream. So scream! His Spirit is perfectly adequate to translate that scream into the will of God ( Romans 8:26). Sometimes all you can muster is a groan of wishing you could choose for God. Good enough! Tell Him that. Not long ago I was sharing the Lord with a man who admitted to me that he wanted to believe in Jesus-he really did-but he just couldn't. I had the sure confidence that that was his first step of faith, and the Lord would bring Him the rest of the way. ▪ Be honest with Him that you know you are unable, that in and of yourself you are struggling with the matter, but that you have chosen to obey His Spirit, however imperfectly. Ask Him to honor that decision. If necessary, call a close brother or sister to pray for you. "…Confess your faults one to another and pray for each other so that you may be healed." ( James 5:16) ▪ Whatever it takes, get yourself into prayer and the Word. I know what you are thinking, "Yeah, right, like that's the first thing I want to do when I'm lusting!" But you've already done the most important thing-you've decided for Him. Now prove your commitment to Him by drawing fully on His power. Stay in prayer and the Word until you are absorbed in Him (you may be drawn into further study, worship or meditation). Stay there and you will soon realize the temptation has passed, swallowed up by your love for God. You have changed your clothes and once again put on the new self. 3. Closure 1. Thank Him, and go about doing what you are supposed to be doing. As you go keep praising the Lord for what He has done for you! Don't look back at the temptation lest you be drawn into it again. Just stay focused on Him. 2. Avoid exposure to the temptation that first drew you in. You can't beat the tiger, but you can stay out of his cage! Try to remember what brought you into contact with that temptation so you can side step it next time and not get so close to the flame. Don't be like the person who says he is unable to stay on his diet. When you ask him, "When do you find it hardest?" He replies: "I do pretty well until I go to Baskin Robbins, order a hot fudge sundae, dip out a big spoonful and hold it up in front of my lips. Man is temptation tough!" 3. Exult in the Lord and His power to deliver you. He is glorified in the praise of those whom He saves from the enemy. Jesus once spoke of the nature of His mission, using the words of Isaiah: "…He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…to release the oppressed…" ( Luke 4:18) Bringing you victory over the enemy of your soul is why He came, why He died, why He sent His Spirit into your redeemed heart. So praise Him for His good work! Specifically: ▪ Meditate on His good and powerful work in your life. Make it the focal point of your devotions for a few days. David said, "I will meditate on all your wonderful works." ( Psalm 145:5) ▪ Testify about what He has done for you. There are at least two audiences who need to hear from you: 1) someone else who is facing a tough time dealing with the flesh, and 2) the person you called and asked for prayer support. Take every opportunity to share how faithful the Lord is when you turn to Him in faith. ▪ Worship Him. Carry your memory and meditation about His victory in your life with you all the time. If you will be mindful of His daily deliverance it will make your Sunday worship experience easier and more meaningful. I wonder sometimes if those times when worship doesn't seem fulfilling isn't when we have just failed to remember the times He has been faithful? Or maybe it's because we just haven't ever experienced His victory! What a shame, if that is true! And here we are, blaming a less-than-exciting corporate worship experience on the worship team, or the music, or the sound system, or the song selection… Maybe that's a sermon for another day-how to have an absolutely extravagant time of praise and worship with an elderly organist, a couple of 16th century hymns, a broken microphone and a lousy song leader. Conclusion Here is what makes a vibrant Christian life: experiencing God's presence and power on a daily basis where it really matters-as dead men with a new nature in the trenches of holy living between the "then" and the "not yet". Do you need a new start today? The first step is a new heart. If you are not a Christian, I tell you on the authority of God's Word, you have no power to live a holy life pleasing to God. Come to Jesus-He completely saves. Let Him give you forgiveness of your sins and the precious gift of the indwelling Spirit of His power. Christian, are you stuck in spiritual anemia? Are you a victor over your old dead carnal nature, or a victim of it? Jesus is your deliverer. I want to suggest that if you need a new start today, you come to the front of the auditorium this morning and receive intercessory prayer. Have a brother or sister agree with you in prayer for God's power for deliverance from your addiction, your weakness, your pet sin, your rebellious ways.   [Back to Top]