Dead to Sin — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:01 Introduction and text

Good morning. I've never seen so many people excited to leave as I stand up to talk. I always feel totally inadequate speaking, especially after last week. I don't know if you you were here last week but brother Ray gave a what I thought was a fantastic message on being hidden with Christ and not only that but we had special music and I did not get a chance to thank them last week Jordan, Deanna and Heather thought that was a beautiful song. It's just lovely and I thought about it for days after that.

I also thought how you're going to be disappointed that there's no special music today. I thought about about asking, Denzel Boss and George Limpert to come up here and help me rap about how salvation is by grace alone, but I couldn't think of the lyrics. Scripture passage this morning comes from the third chapter of the book of Colossians and today we're going to try and get through verses five to 11. If time permits. I promise we'll be done by noon because I don't know about you but for me after 12:00 the stomach starts to grumble and it's hard to focus.

I promise we'll get done by noon. We're going to start in Colossians chapter three beginning in verse five Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed which is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to one another since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

Here there is no Greek or Jew circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free but Christ is all and in all. Now this is an interesting passage because at least in my version of the Bible, the fourth word of verse five, Colossians three five, the fourth war... Word is therefore. And whenever I see the word therefore in the Bible, think, well, the author must be referencing something that he just said earlier. Otherwise, why would he say therefore?

What is this therefore in therefore? So we look back a little particularly at the very beginning of chapter three. Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. So that's the motivation for the passage that we have before us today.

Therefore, because we are dead. Now we got three points in the message today. So if you are the kind of person who likes to write things down, you could write down three words that will help you remember what we said this morning. And then if you forget everything else I said, you can remember these three words. But these three words are one, mortify.

Mortify. We are supposed to be dead to sin, so the first word is mortify. The second word is unify. These all end with phi. That helps you remember.

Unify is the second word. Unify. We're supposed to be united with Christ. So we have mortify, unify and the last one is close. I didn't think of this one till I was in the shower this morning.

Satisfy. Christ is to be our all in all and it is him alone. He alone satisfies. So we have mortify, unify, satisfy. I thought I would have you all chant that back to me but I hate that kind of thing.

So instead we're just going to pray and ask God's blessing on the message. Father, we are so grateful to be in your presence this morning. Just to have the freedom to study your word. I just pray Lord that you would speak to our hearts today. Lord if there's anything I say that is not of you I just pray that it would be quickly forgotten and I pray that your spirit would come to indwell us this morning and draw each of us closer to you in the name of our savior Jesus we pray.

5:01 Why put to death earthly nature? Dead to sin

Now you might be wondering, like I was wondering the other day, what does it mean to be dead to sin? How can I be dead? How can I be dead to sin? I'm right here. I'm living.

I'm breathing. And I still am occasionally sinning. And so in what sense is the apostle talking about being dead to sin? I think that this is Paul's statement of what it means to be a Christian. And that is that if you are a Christian, you are united to Christ both in his death and in his resurrection.

We are converted in such a way that the convictions and the impulses I have, my affections, those things, my passions, those things which make me me are supposed to die. It's like when Paul met Christ on the Damascus Road. There was at one time a Paul who loved this world more than he loved Jesus. But the minute he met Christ, that Paul died. And a new Paul, a new apostle, one who loves Christ and believes trust in Christ and honors Christ, that was the man who was born that day.

The old man died, the new man is born. And that's what it means I think to become a Christian. So in this passage today, which could easily be read as just a list of do's and don'ts. Don't do this, do this, don't do this, that sort of thing. I think Paul is trying to tell us what it's like to be a Christian.

Not just to become a Christian, but to be a Christian. We're supposed to act like some kind of a death has actually happened. The moment you become a Christian, God declares you dead to sin. But the living out of that reality is the daily life of the Christian. This is a case of what some people call already but not yet.

Already but not yet. You are already saved. You are already declared dead to sin if you are a believer in Christ. Already, God has declared you to be righteous in his sight. Now that's a wonderful thought.

Already. It's like Ray spoke last week. Already, we are considered hidden with Christ for eternity. But we continue to live in this world. Now this the problem.

Right? This is at least the problem that I have. God has already declared me dead to sin, but I'm still living in this world. I am not yet glorified. I am not yet living in heaven.

And my heart has not yet been purified of sin. So I'm already dead to sin, but I'm not yet experiencing that in a complete way. And so this is why the Apostle Paul says to us in verse five, put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. Now this is a long list of bad things and this is what the bible calls, starts with an s, sin. Sin. That's what the bible calls sin. Right?

This is sin. Now what is sin? Sin is that thing which separates us from God. If we go back to verse one of this chapter, verse one of chapter three. Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above.

Sin is what keeps me from doing that. I'm supposed to set my heart on things above. How can I set my heart on things above? On good, on holy, on pure things if I'm continually giving in to sin? I'll read you a quote from a man named Matthew Henry.

You say to me, who is Matthew Henry? Well, he was a famous old dead guy. And he said, it is necessary for us to mortify our sins because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. That's right. They will kill us.

So here's the question. Are we killing our sins or do we allow our sins to kill us? Paul says, don't mess around with these things. The wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived.

Well, now you might say to me, sometimes I still walk in these ways. Well, so do I. And Paul says, knock it off. The wrath of God is coming. Remember, we are declared dead to sin judicially.

10:16 Christians declared dead to sin, act like it

Do not lie to one another since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self. Now what does this mean? Here we have take off the old self and put on the new self. If you are sitting here this morning and you are a follower of Jesus, hey, there's good news. Your old self is dead.

Your old self is dead. And now we are to rid ourselves of all of these sins. And you to me, now now listen, I can't stop sinning. I can't stop entirely. I cannot be a 100% sin free.

And that's probably true. You you probably can't. I know I can't. I don't know. There might be...

I don't know. Maybe there would be people out there who would say that they are sin free. I would like to meet such a person. I know I am not. And you say, how is it then if I'm declared dead to sin and Paul says, rid yourself of these things, how can I do it?

I can't stop sinning entirely. That is the result of living in a fallen world. We're living in a fallen world. And until we get to heaven, we're always gonna have some sin left in our day to day lives. This is because, as I learned a long time ago, not only are we people who commit sins, but we are people who are born prone to sin.

Now if you don't believe that, there's a couple little tests you could do to see if human beings are born prone to sin. We are sinful by our very nature. One of them would be to take two very small children and set them in a room and put one toy between them and just see what happens. And if they are not if they are not born prone to sin, then their natural inclination will be to share and love and have a good time. But I've seen this happen.

That's not what occurs. They fight. They are born prone to sin. And if you don't wanna conduct that experiment, then all you have to do is become a middle school math teacher. And you will find that people are born prone to sin.

Sin. Nobody has to teach us to be bad. Isn't that weird? Badness comes naturally. You have to teach your kids to be good.

But who teaches their kids to be bad? I taught my son to be bad. That's why he's bad. No. It's not why he's bad.

Nobody does that. But he's bad anyway. It's because we're born prone to sin. Job thirty four thirty two. Where I have sinned, I shall do so no longer.

It says somewhere else in there, for I know that in me lives no good thing. Every man, woman, and child born after Adam is prone to sin and will probably never stop sinning entirely this side of heaven. But that is no excuse. That is no excuse. I mean, that really work in any other area of life.

Well, mister Edwards, I cannot get a 100% a plus on this math exam, so I'm not even gonna try. May as well just get all the questions wrong. Well, that's kinda dumb. Who would do that? Right?

I can't get them all right. You know, I cannot be... I will confess this to you, now having been married a little over a year. I will confess that I cannot be a perfect husband to my wife. I wish I could.

And through God's strength, I think I will get a little better at it each day. But I cannot be perfect in my love for Meghan. So why even try? Right? No.

Of course not. I'm not gonna say that. Especially not if I want Sunday dinner today. I'm not gonna say that. No.

So so the apostle... I don't think the apostle is saying that in order to please God, in order to be a real Christian, you have to never sin. Right? It's not about works anyway. But what we're trying to say is principle remains in you even though judicially, legally, God has declared us to be dead to sin.

We're supposed to live like this free of sin because of who we really are in Christ. And who are we? If we're sitting here as believers this morning, what is our standing before God? This is our part where we're talking about being unified to Christ. The death of our old selves and the beginning of our new life are decisive past acts of God in our lives.

It has already happened. But this does not mean we live perfect lives immediately. This is why we're told in verse five to put to death our earthly nature and then later in verse 10, we are told that we are going to be renewed in the image of our creator. We are being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of one who created us. We're becoming in our behavior what we already are by a supernatural act of God.

The supernatural act of God has already happened. It's who you really are. Now we're supposed to become like that in behavior. That was, John Piper, in case you wanna look that up. Sometimes when I quote people, the first time I quote somebody, I say the name of the person who who said it.

As Matthew Henry once said. And then after I've used the quote a few times, I just start to say, as a man once said... And then finally, after a few years have passed, I just start off, as I've always said, we are becoming in our behavior what we already are by a supernatural act of God at our conversion. Conversion. Or as my grandfather told me last week, little Abe, he said...

17:02 Work out what God has worked in

It is a scary thing to live in this world as a Christian. But this is why we're told to put to death these things of our old nature because God has already declared us to be dead to sin, crucified with Christ and resurrected as a new creation. In God's sight, we are already renewed because we are united with His Son. But the world doesn't make it easy to live as we ought to. Some of these sins listed in this passage, anger, rage, slander, filthy language, these are part of our old selves, the part that God has declared legally dead, but it's the part which I indulge occasionally from time to time.

You could think of these things as like the armor of the world. Now if you were here for Vacation Bible School a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about putting on the armor of God. And I wore this silly little silver helmet on my head and marched around with a sword. Said, kids you got to put on the armor of God. But I read this passage and I say, you know, the world actually gives us some things that we could wear to protect ourselves from other human beings.

To sort of shield ourselves from other people who we ought to love and care for. Anger is like my defense mechanism against these people. Malice, sort of a premeditated hatred against people who I ought to love. Bad language, that's what I use when my tongue really ought to be a fountain of blessing. Slander is our way of protecting ourselves by spreading lies about other people.

This is what the world gives us. It shields us from risks. It isolates our hearts from one another and the world tries to convince us that if we let our guard down we're going to get hurt. And to some extent that is true. I know there are people here this morning who have been hurt and it only takes one hurt to reach out for that armor that the world gives us.

Little by little we start to build up these walls between ourselves and our fellow human beings. Walls of anger and slander and little by little our hearts grow cold. But people who are declared to be dead to sin are not supposed to live like that. We're supposed to throw away the armor of the world, put on the armor of God. But then, of course, we have more than just the world against us.

We have Satan himself. Now there's some confusion about Satan in the world these days, but we know as believers that Satan is very real. This is not some fairytale creature that we use to scare children. But Satan is a very real being. And I'll tell you one thing, if you are a Christian, Satan is frustrated because your eternal destiny is already secure.

He is frustrated because as Ray said last week, you are already hidden with Christ for eternity and that part is not going to change. And so this is what Satan does, at least in my own life. Knowing that he cannot pluck me out of the hand of Christ, he's gonna do the next best thing and that is to keep me so focused on myself and even on my own sin that I am ineffective as a believer in this world. There's a little story I will share with you. It is probably not true, but I have no idea.

It's a little story. I thought it was pretty good. Once upon a time, there was a little boy and a little girl and they went to their grandmother's farm to visit her for a few days. And the first afternoon, a little boy is out in the backyard with his slingshot and he accidentally kills one of his grandmother's geese. A little boy feels bad about this, but not so bad that he's willing to confess that sin.

So he takes the goose and he hides it in the wood pile. And he just hopes that nobody saw him do this. Well, sure enough, as it always happens between brothers and sisters, sister saw him do this. And so that evening, grandma Sally says, oh, you know what? I think Johnny thought that he would do the dishes tonight.

And so she whispers in her brother's ear, remember the goose. And Johnny is not happy about this, but he does the dishes anyway. And the next day, grandma comes to Sally and grandma says, Sally, why don't you come out and help me weed the garden? And Sally says, you know, I heard Johnny was really interested in weeding the garden today. And she whispers in Johnny's ear, remember the goose.

And Johnny says, okay, I'll go weed the garden. And this goes on for a while until finally Johnny can't take it anymore. Johnny comes to grandma and says, grandma, I have to confess. I'm so sorry. I took my slingshot and I killed one of your geese.

And grandma says, yeah, I know. I saw you do it out the back window. And I forgave you because I love you. I was just interested to see how long you would let Sally continue to make you a slave. I thought that's a pretty good story about what Satan tries to do with me.

These sins, these bad things, I've already been declared dead to them and yet the devil still tries to make me a slave to sin. We have this heavenly father who loves us, who forgives us, who declares us pure and clean and washed in the blood of Christ. But we let Satan make slaves out of us all the same. Verse 10, and put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Here we find we're not only supposed to put off the old man, the old ways, the old sins, we're supposed to put on something new.

24:02 Renewed in knowledge of the Creator

The grace of God is working upon my will and upon my affection by renewing our understanding of what it means to be like Christ. If you don't have the knowledge of what it is to be Christ like, how can you be renewed? Knowledge is not popular these days. Even among the Christian church, knowledge and the study of Scripture is not wildly popular. There is a long history of anti...

I don't know how to call it. Not anti academic but the fact that it's easier to trust my emotions for salvation than it is to study the Word of God. And the result of that is something which a wise man once called sloppy agape. So agape is the word for love. And we want to love each other as Christians, but we don't want sloppy agape.

Right? Sloppy agape is the result of emotionalism. We're supposed to be renewed by a knowledge of our Creator. So we should think of ourselves as dead to everything except for Christ and focus our attention on him as the satisfaction of our souls. We should find in the fellowship with Jesus and the study of his word such satisfaction that we could echo the psalmist.

Here's a couple for you to read later. Psalm 16 verse two, I say to the Lord thou art my Lord. I have no good apart from thee. And Psalm 73, who have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon the earth that I desire besides thee.

My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Or like the old hymn that we sometimes sing. Jesus is all the world to me. My life, my joy, my all. What does it mean to be in the image of the one true creator?

Turn with me to the book of Philippians for a minute. Philippians chapter two. This is a passage that I I have probably read this passage 20 times, maybe more. And each time I've read it, I've come away thinking, what a beautiful description of what Christ did for us. And then I read it the other day, and I realized that there is a little instruction at the beginning of this passage.

This is Philippians two beginning in verse five. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And he continues. And by about that point, I've started to think, this is just beautiful.

A great description of what Christ did for us. And that is very true. But I've already forgotten how verse five starts. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Are you kidding me?

My attitude is supposed to be the same as Christ Jesus? So we are to make ourselves as nothing. We are to take on the nature of a servant. We are to humble ourselves and we are to be obedient even if that means obedience to death. That's what it means for our attitude to be the same as Christ Jesus.

How do you become renewed in the knowledge of the creator? Begin to adopt that attitude in our daily walk. This is not just a passage to read and say, how lovely it is that Christ did all this for us. Although it is lovely. But also to say, that's supposed to be my attitude as well in this world.

So that's why we're told in Colossians what it means to live in a way so that our attitude is that of Christ Jesus. To rid ourselves of anger and filthy language, malice, slander, immorality, lust, greed. We take off the old self and its practices. We put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of our creator. Verse 11.

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all. If we're being renewed in the image of Christ and these differences between us, which occur because of nationality or circumstances of life, those are supposed to disappear. Now the world is very good separating people. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper and you will see ways in which the world separates us as human beings. And in fact, I hate to say it, but I think we all know it is true.

Sometimes the church is very good at separating us as well. And yet, we have this verse that says, there is no Greek or Jew. Christ is all and in all. It is the duty of each person to be holy, just that is as it is the privilege of each person to receive God's grace. Christ came to tear down these walls that we could all stand before God on the same level.

And we are united to Christ. So why do we hate? Why do we despise? Why do I avoid people? Why do we distort the truth?

Because all of us from time to time are weak and fearful. Sometimes we are insecure or proud or we're angry. And the fact of the matter is we just sometimes do not find the deep peace that is supposed to come from a life of fellowship with Jesus. To be united to Christ means we are to be like minded in spirit and in love. So we look not only to our own interests, which I am very good at, looking to my own interests.

31:15 Christ satisfies, our all in all

I think this is where we get to the heart of what it means to be saved. That when we die to sin, Christ is supposed to move in. Let's turn back just a couple pages in our Bibles to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter two and verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ is the Christian's all. His only Lord and Savior, all is hope, all is happiness. And for those of us who are saved, he is all in all, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is all things to us.

So are we able to say that I need something besides earthly happiness? I want an inheritance not made with hands eternal in the heavens? Or are we making this world our all? I will tell you this. If we are making this world our all, we are in very sorry shape.

But other people are great at making religion their all. Some people are very big into religion. They go to church every Sunday. They believe they are good people and that because of that, they will be accepted by God on the day of judgment. But they are making external religion their all in all.

They are resting on the letter of the law, ignoring and caring nothing for the spirit. If I have found Christ, I have found everything. You say, but my faith is so weak. It doesn't matter. Christ is your all.

You say, I don't feel sufficient guilt over my sins. You know, there are some people who think that in order to be saved, they have to feel enough guilt over sin. All of us are going to repent of sin, but not everybody gets dragged to the cross under the terror of hellfire because... And don't don't misunderstand me. But it's not our feelings that save us.

Salvation is not some emotional response. What is it that saves us? Christ. Christ is to be our all in all. Eight minutes.

Here we go. Once I heard this terrible but cute little saying. Sometimes sometimes the cutest sayings are the worst sayings. Here's how this one goes. Do your best and leave to Christ the rest.

And that that that's cute right there. Do your best and leave to Christ the rest. I hope that that person was not talking about salvation or your eternal security because what can I do for Christ that is not sinful? How can I do anything for him? In the act of salvation, Christ is all in all.

And when we face these very these very real dangers of life in our day to day lives, Christ is to be all in all. So do we become overwhelmed by the troubles of this world? Does it keep us up at night? Do I rush into the arms of a friendly government to provide for me? Or do I allow Christ to be all in my daily walk?

Now, so I'm in graduate school and I have to read all these articles. And, one of the articles they gave us to read this past semester had to do with trust. It was this poll. They surveyed thousands of people and they asked these people, who or what do you trust? And then there was a list of several choices.

The number one response, thousands of people took this poll. Who do they trust most? CNN News. 46% of the respondents put that down as what they trust most. Number two, the pope.

26%. They trust the pope most. And then there were these other choices. Dead last with 3% was God. There is some problem there.

Christ is to be our all in all, not CNN news. But maybe that's why we tend to seek shelter and comfort everywhere except in the arms of Christ. Couple of weeks ago, you might have seen this, couple of weeks ago, there was a man by the name of Nick Wallenda. Are you familiar with that name? Walked across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope.

37:11 Grab for the wire, reach for Christ

And the man has a good testimony. You could look him up. The man has... He's got a good testimony. But he did an interview before doing this high wire act in which he was asked, how dangerous do you think this is going to be?

And I thought his response was insightful. It is dangerous, of course, but I have been doing this for a long time. Ever since I was young, I have been taught to grab for the wire when I fall. Now it is second nature. The great thing about gravity is that it always pulls you down.

And I have always been taught to grab for the wire. And I can hang on that wire for forty five minutes, even an hour if I need to. Oh, that's amazing. And that is dangerous. There's no doubt about that.

He lost his grandfather and an uncle in separate high wire incidents. But Nick knows to grab for the wire. I thought, that's kinda like how it should be in the life of a Christian. We should automatically grab for Jesus. When we fall, we should reach out for the Lord.

And if we could teach our children that from an early age, what else would they have to fear? If God is for us, who could be against us? But it has to become that second nature, when you fall, to reach out for Christ. He is to be our all in all. We shouldn't need to live in this cowardly fear of the world.

We can engage. We can go out there. And when we fall, we can reach for Christ. There was a dark and fearful night when Jesus was in the garden and when he sweat as it were great drops of blood. Nobody came to bear the load that had been laid upon him.

Well there was an angel who came to minister unto him but not to take away the burden. And the cup was put into his hands and he said father must I drink this? Is there any other way? And the father... Well, if Christ did not drink, sinners could not be saved.

And so Christ takes the cup and he drinks it to the very dregs. And when he hung upon the cross on Calvary, when his feet were pierced, when from his heads, his hands, hands, his feet, sorrow and love flowed mingled down. There was nobody to help him. He was all in the work of salvation and Christ is to be all in these daily struggles with sin as well. Because I know I cannot rid myself of any such things as these apart from the cross.

There is no death for sin except in the death of Christ. Sometimes, I will confess this to you, I get very low and Satan comes and tells me that I am not a child of God and that I just better give up because all is lost, that my sins are too great. And I say to Satan that he is a great coward to come and mess with such a fragile person as myself. And I tell him of the blood of Christ because Satan cannot stand the sight of the blood. And he leaves off tempting me.

He who is faithful, he also will do it. Let's pray. Father thank you for the blood of your dear son who bore our sins on the cross and who rose again defeating death once for all and forever. And Lord we look forward to that day when we will stand before you and sing with the thousands of other voices worthy is the lamb who was slain. We ask for your strength, for your abiding love this day and every day.

Apply these words of scripture to our hearts. Renew us even more in the image of Jesus Christ whose name we pray. Amen.

Dead to Sin — Colossians 3

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Dead to Sin — Colossians 3

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