2022-1-16, Christ Above All, We Must renounce Sin in our Lives. Colossians 3:5-11
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Colossians is Paul’s letter to a church he’s never been to which is struggling with encroaching heresy. They face the temptation to diminish Christ and His work.
Paul’s counter to the heresies is to exalt Christ and the gospel.
This includes saying no to the propositions of the heresies and to live like Christ is above all and the gospel matters most.
Last week Pastor Tim preached 3:1-4 and encouraged to keep heaven in view as you live on earth.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Paul point is that since you are redeemed by Christ, live according to His kingdom instead of according to the ways of the world.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Today, we are going to see that this will has practical implications for our lives.
As whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ.
We must renounce sin in our lives.
Paul uses strong language:
col 3:5 “5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
He says that because our lives are hidden in Jesus Christ, worldly in us needs to be put to death.
Something earthly in me
Earthly- Here it refers to the result of that horrible episode that happened in Eden when the serpent lured Adam and Eve away from God and His ways and to the things which counter God.
In that day, something wretched was born into us which constantly draws us away from God’s righteous ways and toward wicked things outside of God’s will.
Sin lives in us is like the Symbiotes Venom lived in Eddie Brock. If you recall, Spiderman’s arch-enemy is a fictional alien species that bonds with a host (Brock) and compels that person to pursue his darkest desires and wants.
Similarly sin lives in us and deceives us to want evil things. In pursuit of these things, we twist and pervert what God set declared good and right. All the while we rationalize our wickedness as righteousness.
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
This sin in us is a parasite. It leads us to death and God’s judgment on us.
All of us are born with this sin parasite, but...
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus came from heaven to earth and never was infected with sin. Through His death on the cross, He made away for us to be cleared of sin.
He cancelled our sin debt on the cross.
As Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ is drawing sin out of us.
Here, Paul calls on Christians to join God in this cleansing process. Paul charges us to apply our wills and God’s power provided to us to purge sin from our lives. We are to seek and destroy everything that is earthly within us.
Specifically, Paul says,
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire- each one of these terms refer to the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of sensuality.
Let me as clear as I possibly can here.
God, in His Word, says they only relationship where sexual thoughts, attitudes, and actions may reside is that of a husband and wife, that is man and woman bound before God in a lifetime covenant of holy marriage.
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
and...
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
and...
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Jesus believed in Genesis 1-3 and affirmed Genesis as history...
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
This is the Word of God.
Nevertheless, our culture and sin in us currently accosts us with the deception that other expressions of sexuality are permissible. But all that happens is a perversion of what God has clearly stated. All the while sin compels us to ratioalize these deviations from what God has called right.
Variuos forms of fornication:
Woman with woman
Man with man
Man with woman before marriage
Man believing he is a woman
Woman believing she is a man
The attempt to describe gender as non-binary
Entertaining sensual fantasies
Viewing pornography and sex scenes in movies (voyerism)
Prostitution
Adultery
Serial adultery (divorcing one and marrying another outside of the few biblical exceptions)
Polygamy
Polyandry
and many many more.
Believe me, I hate even speaking of these things,
12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
But I feel I need to speak these and give clarity lest we think they are okay.
These are the things Paul speaks of when he says...
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Paul explains...
6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
It is en vogue for the entertainment industry, public schools, governments, and even churches to condone what Scripture clearly calls sin.
In fact, Canada just recently outlawed sermons like this morning’s in which a preacher might suggest that deviation from God’s created order is sin.
But think about it, all this does is promote a false teaching that will not stand at the judgment.
Paul says such actions will face the wrath of God
Even worse, the churches which preach that sexual deviation is acceptable in the eyes of God preach blasphemy. They mock the cross by encouraging that people live in the sins for which Jesus died on the cross. It encourages the deception that sin is not sin.
I think the Word of God is exceptionally clear on this.
Now I want to talk to you. The likelihood is that many here are caught up in one of these sexual deviations and sins.
You have a choice to make this morning. You need to decide if you believe God and the promises He has made for you.
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
This says that God’s ways are good and we will thrive if we follow them.
This means for us that God has something better for us than what those sexual deviations have to offer.
This means that God has incredible and eternal blessings in store for you if you will forfeit your hearts desire to live in sexual deviancy and submit to the Lordship of Christ and only-
-Live in sexual intimacy with your spouse fully devoted to Christ.
-Live in holy singlehood, fully devoted to Christ (which Paul says is awesome).
Yes, I understand that this means giving up what you think will make you happy. It is indeed in contradiction to what the culture is shouting. This is a simple choice that is hard to make.
Story of woman who confessed to being in a relationship with another woman. She was struggling with this because she knew God has said it is wrong. But she said she felt very loved. As lovingly as I could, I told her God would not bless something He has called out of bounds, but that He had something wonderful to give her if she would leave it. Sadly, she decided not to. She chose to trust sin in her rather than God. She will face judgment for her choice.
If you choose to trust God, being hidden in Christ, then it means you need to confess sexual deviancy as sin and turn from it.
As Paul told the Colossian Christians...
7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Friends, we must join the Holy Spirit in rooting out sin from us.
We need to kill it. We need to put it away. We need to turn to God.
There are many other things that sin in us leads us to think and do.
Covetousness, which is discontent with what God’s given you and longing for the material wealth of others. Paul calls that idolatry (3:5)
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
All of these need to be left behind, because God has something better for us. We need to trust Him.
He wants to give us life in Himself, like what we had in Eden.
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
This is the path for all of us. No matter your sin, no matter your race, no matter your story, the life worth living is found hidden in Christ, being conformed to His holiness.
Will you trust God today.
Oh, Christian- are you being lured away like the Colossians were and following the philosophies of the culture. To you I ask, who is your Lord?
If it’s Christ, you need to trust and obey. You need to repent.
I need to tell you something that you’re not going to like, you need to disclose your sexual sin to a fellow believer if you want to be free of it.
This brings it into the light and God will use the saints to help you leave sin from your life. If you don’t, you’ll probably be slave to that sin your whole life. But you want to be healed. Thus...
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
There is sweet freedom in the promise of
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is the same for all the other sins Paul mentions.
Not-yet believers. You might be thinking, “I came to the wrong church this morning!” No you didn’t. God brought you here so you can be free. But freedom only comes through surrender to Jesus Christ. I want to provide an opportunity to you to come and start the conversation of what it means to follow Christ and be saved.
Scripture calls this part of us the flesh. It is sin alive in us.
It’s like a parasite that bends us to it’s will.
The word for in you refers to a part of you