Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Last week we began looking at Colossians 3:5-11 and focused on verses 5-6.

We talked about putting to death those things that are earthly inside of each of us.

We talked about the fact that since our minds are to be set upon the things above, because of our relationship with Jesus, that we are to take steps of obedience.

Steps that put to death the desire the earthly things within you.

These steps are a process.

It is not a once and done sort of deal.

New life marks a starting point for every believer.

New life is not a result of successful daily battle with temptation.

New life though does bring the desire to have that battle.

I would like you to think with me if you can to your the time when you placed your faith in Christ.

Maybe you have a specific day or time or place.

Maybe you don’t remember the exact day or place because of your age.

Either way, it is important because for the believer it marks the beginning of new life.

It marks a rebirth.

It marks a time when you made a commitment to follow Jesus.

It marks the beginning of God’s work of sanctification in your life.

It also ought to mark a time of repentance.

To repent is to change direction, to feel regret, to change your mind.

It is much more than remorse though.

Simply feeling bad alone is not true repentance.

As I was moving snow this week I have been listening to some sermons, one of my favorites to listen to is Alistair Begg - he put it this was

repentance is not simply something that begins our Christian experience, but genuine biblical repentance is to be the hallmark of all that Christian living really means.

Genuine biblical repentance does not only happen at conversion.

Genuine biblical repentance is not saying God I’m sorry and then turning around and doing the same thing again.

Sure it may be part of the process for a time but there has to be more.

This is in large part is what we have been looking at here in Colossians.

We have seen this modeled in our text here.

We are made aware of this through the different metaphors that Paul uses.

We have clear pictures of dying to our old way of life, and rising into the new.

In chapter 3 here we see the picture of putting off the old, and putting on the new.

We will never, on this side of heaven be completely free from inclination to sin.

What we do find though is that through our life in Jesus, if it is genuine, a desire to be obedient to Him introduces us to more difficult battles than we have experienced up to this point in our lives.

We find each and every day a need to engage in biblical repentance.

We must keep this in mind as we continue in chapter 3.

True biblical repentance is an ongoing process when Christ is all in our lives.

We are called to repent because Christ is all.

Read Col. 3:5-11

In these you once walked.

V. 7

The Christian life, the Christian walk, our relationship with Jesus is a process.

It is a process where were are brought from unrepentant sinner, to a person who sees their true need for Jesus.

To be brought from death to life.

From sinful acts to righteous ones.

This is where we begin in verse 7.

Through this verse Paul was reminding the Colossian believers that they were once people who were condemned to suffer the wrath that was mentioned in verse 6 because of their sinful lifestyles.

A very literal translation of this verse reads in which also you all walked formerly, when you were living in these.

These referred to in verse 7 can refer to both the list in verse 5 and verse 8.

The idea here is that before Christ, these vices ruled your life.

Vices such as these lists make the image of God indiscernible in a person.

Verse 5, Paul called on the hearers of this to make a decisive break with the sinful tendencies that they have carried with them into their Christian lives.

For some of us this is easy to see, we came to Christ at a later stage in life so can see and remember those things that we once walked.

For some of us though, that have grown up in Christian homes and placed our faith in Jesus at an early age, this is more difficult to see.

We may think perhaps that we don’t have that much sin that we bring with us into our Christian life.

When in reality the Christian who places his faith in Christ at an early age is no different the Christian who comes later in their life.

Sin is equally as bad, some though is more outwardly visible than others.

That is, I believe why Paul gives the lists that he does.

They show both outward actions and inward thoughts.

Sexual immorality and impurity are often though of as outward, as are slander and obscene talk in verse 8.

But passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, and malice are often inward thoughts or feelings.

The main point of this though is the verb to walk and to live.

In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

Paul is showing a snapshot in time of their lives.

He is reminding them of the way they used to be.

Not in a sense of drudging up old long dead forgiven sins, but as to say, you are not this way anymore, are you?

If you are placing your minds on the things above, you will have moved on from these things.

You will be putting to death that which is earthly in you.

Paul also indicates that God’s wrath is redemptive in intention.

When we compare sin to cancer, we realize that we hate the cancer and not the person with the cancer.

God hates sin, not the sinner.

Paul’s reminder to the Colossians that they “used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived” (3:7) reveals that such behavior does not automatically bring wrathful damnation (see Eph. 2:3).

God wishes to redeem us from our sinful destructive ways and allows us to go our own way in the hopes that our eventual wretchedness will cause us to wake up.

That is the purpose of repentance, to change direction, because Christ is all and He resides in you.

Paul continues his call with another imperative in verse 8

In vv.

6–7 Paul underscores how vital it is for Christians to deal with sin in their lives by reminding us (1) that sinful behavior is a hallmark of our past life that we have left behind; and (2) that God’s wrath falls on people who engage in such behavior.

These verses therefore support the two calls to put away sin that frame them: “put to death …” (v.

5); “you must rid yourselves …” (v.

8).

The verb here put away means to literally rid yourself, put away, lay down, take off these things.

This verb here gives the picture of taking off clothes and in the context specifically dirty clothes.

The dirty clothes referenced in this verse is an anger that does not subside, wrath, rage or fury, malice, or an ill will that perverts moral principles from their desired good purpose to evil, slander or blasphemy, abusive words that damage a person, and lewd or obscene speech.

What we are to do is to put off these things.

Remove them from our person.

Don’t allow them on our body.

And specifically in verse 8 here Paul is stating that Christians should avoid unnecessarily critical and abusive speech.

Anger, wrath, and malice can all lead to slanderous and obscene talk.

The purpose here is not to single out some specific sins but to show the attitude of anger and ill will towards others that leads to hasty, hurtful, nasty speech.

This is important because of Jesus teaching in Matt.

15.

The concern is not as much the speech as it is the heart of the person.

If these things are proceed from the mouth, one must question what it is that is the heart.

True repentance is evidence of a changed heart.

Although some may try to fake this evidence.

Do not lie to one another.

I believe Paul is saying here, put off these things, and do not do so in a false manner.

Don’t do it to fit in.

Don’t do it to be a part of the Christian crowd.

Put off these things because of Christ living in you, because your mind is focused on the things above.

Again we are talking about genuine repentance.

A genuine change of direction.

Grow in Christian Character.