Our second scripture reading in the text for tonight is found in the book of Colossians chapter three. We're reading verses one through 11 of Colossians chapter three. "'If then,' better translated, "'since then you were raised with Christ, "'seek those things which are above, "'where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. "'Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, "'for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all." Let's pray. Father, we look to you and call upon you to teach us tonight from your word by your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would show us the glory of the Redeemer, our Savior, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we just pray for your blessing, your word tonight to all those that are here. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Special welcome to those from Teen Challenge. Looking forward to meeting some of you guys after the service. And just letting you know that the technical difficulties are not normal. We do normally have a piano player. We do normally pretty much smooth service. But nonetheless, you're here by God's design. There's no accidents, and God has obviously a word from his word for you to hear tonight, and so be assured of that. In this section of Colossians, the Apostle Paul telling the church there, the Colossian church, which he had never visited, but wrote to, this letter, that they were in Christ and that their blessings were in Christ. He starts with Christ in verse chapter three there, verse one through four, and ends getting them to focus back on Christ. because all our blessings are in Christ. And none of what he commands us to do here in verses five through 10, or especially five through seven, we can do apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's really, really important for you to know. We're in a battle as Christians, Christian warfare, you've heard the term, battling using the weapons of our warfare, which are not flesh and blood, but they're spiritual. putting the whole armor of God on, and we're in a battle with sin. Sin has a definition. It's lawlessness, it's breaking the commandments of God, not the commandments of men, but the commandments of God, and sin is serious. You can see how the apostle Paul writes, he says, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. The wrath of God, God is, angry with sin and he, whether it's in the unsaved sinner or even in our own hearts, which it is, and so he not escapes that. We're not gonna, if we're in Christ, certainly we are not subject to the wrath of God, but he hates our sin and we should hate it as well. fighting, putting to death, or positive actions, which we are commanded to do. It's not the Holy Spirit who's commanded to do them, although we cannot do them apart from the Holy Spirit. And it's put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. And if we have the Spirit of God, which is a very definition of being a Christian, all Christians have the Holy Spirit. As Pastor Dan preached this morning, we do have the Spirit, and by that same Spirit and looking to Christ, we can put to death kill sin. But not only can we, but we must. You see the language here that the Apostle Paul uses. It's in the command that we're to put to death, wherever we find it, these sins that reside in our in ourselves. He says, death your members which are on earth. And there the members referring to even our body parts that are used for sin, our eyes, our minds, our hands, our feet going off into sin. We use these things that influence. You see sin has has an influence on all parts of us. And it's key for us to know that if we're in Christ, if you're in Christ tonight, you are no longer a slave to sin, but are set free in order to obey God. In one of the key sections in scripture is Romans chapter six. Some there. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not, or God forbid. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him. Through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should be, we should walk in the newness of life. It's speaking about our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have been saved, and I don't know the condition, spiritual condition of any of you here tonight, Most of you, I would be very encouraged that you are saved and in Christ. And therefore, this is true of you, that we can have the strength and the power to do this, but only in and through Christ by the Holy Spirit. He says, for if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly also we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. In other words, we're not what we were. We've died to the power and slavery to sin, and we've been raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus. So now we know our life is different, it's changed. Our new creation goes on to say, knowing this, that the old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Apart from Christ, the Bible teaches us that we're in slavery. Slavery to our sins. We think we're free, but we can't escape. Sin says jump, and we jump. Sin is in control no matter what we think. We think that we can master it, we think we can clean up our act, we think we can buy the strength of the flesh, pull ourselves out of sins, but they truly have a grip on us. Our whole mind is darkened, our wills are affected, our heart is hard to the gospel, to Christ, and we cannot set ourselves free. No more than a true slave would be able to set himself free. We do what slave dictates, and we're also slaves of Satan. The Bible says that we're in his dominion, under his control, and we're in a pitiful state. before but in Christ he says for he who is sorry for he who has died has been freed from sin the son shall make you free you shall be free indeed Christ sets us free not to do as we please and therefore sin as we please but to live unto God unto righteousness now we can do it. We not only desire which God puts in us, he gives us both the will and the power to do what God commands us to do. And so we, in Christ, have a great blessing and privilege. He goes on to say, now if you died with Christ, we believe that we should also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon or consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness." The same word that we read in Colossians chapter 3, where he speaks about the members. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth. Here again, it's used in Roman chapter 6. the hands, the feet, the eyes, the mind, given over to sin, using them no longer to serve sin, but now that we've been freed and we don't have to anymore, we use them in the service of God unto righteousness. Like he says, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. And that's what we are. We're alive spiritually from the dead. Bible teaches that we're dead in trespasses and sins. Physically alive, yes, but like zombies. No real true life, no spiritual life. Walking around, living, breathing, sinning every day, but yet dead spiritually. And we can't change ourselves. You can't change yourself. You can't make yourself a new creation. You can't die with Christ on your own. You can't be raised in newness of life on your own. It has to be from above. It's the new birth, being born again, being alive from the dead, where sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under the grace. What a freedom we have, and yet what responsibility we have. Tonight I'm just gonna look at some particulars about what Paul commands us to put together, to put to death, putting to death by the Spirit these sins, these particular sins that Paul highlights here. This is not an exhaustive list. There are many lists in scriptures about what sin is. And again, basically it's lawlessness or breaking God's commandments, Romans 1. We get a big list. Being filled with all unrighteousness. These are things that when people do not retain the knowledge of God, they reject the truth of God. God gives people, sinners, over to their sin. And this is part of his temporal judgment. He says, God gave them over to mind, to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, and at the top of the list here is similar to what Paul writes, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, their whispers, backbites, haters of God, violent, Proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, discerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. And he says, knowing that the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do they do the same, but they also approve of those who practice them. And that mirrors what Paul's word here. He says, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedient. These particular sins, they're serious. God hates them. We're to fight against them, but we can't fight apart. Lord Jesus Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the help of Christ. Particularly, he highlights sexual sin. It's a big deal and it's a topic that is important for us to see. Paul says he describes sexual sin in detail here. Fornication. What is fornication? Fornication is is adultery, it's homosexuality, male or female, it's any sex outside of marriage. You see God ordained marriage and God invented human sexuality. It's not man's design, it's God's design to be within the confines and beautiful within the marriage union and only in that. So anything outside of that is sin. And of course, if you're married and then you have sexual relations with someone who's not your spouse, you're committing adultery. It does include that. Anything before marriage or outside of marriage, bestiality, which is a horrible sin but mentioned in scripture, self-gratification, incest, any kind of pedophilia, anything that is outside of the sacred union between one man, monogamous marriage, one man and one woman in the marriage bed. Paul says in Hebrews 13.4, marriage is honorable. among all, and the bed," speaking about the sexual union in the marriage bed between a man and a woman, the bed is undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. You see the wrath because of these sins, the wrath of God is coming upon this world in general and sinners. And there may be temporal judgments that are just come because of God's temporal judgment, but the worst judgment is the wrath of God coming upon this world and sinners. and that will fall upon anyone and everyone who is outside of Christ. You see, the wrath of God is a real thing. It's that wrath, that punishment that fell upon the Lamb of God at Calvary. It was poured out upon Him. If you want a true view, if we want a true view of sin and our sin, Look at what happened to the beloved Son of God, who is the innocent, sinless Lamb of God. God the Father poured his wrath out upon Christ, and we can't even imagine the full weight of that, more than the torture, more than the spitting and the pulling of his beard and the crown of thorns and the lashings, more than the nails being driven into his hands, more than suffering in the hot sun without quenching his thirst, more than that, for three hours, of darkness on that cross, the wrath of God, the punishment deserved for every one of Christ's people was poured out upon him. That's the wrath of God that will be poured out upon this world, upon sinners in this world, upon everyone who stands before God because of sin. But there is a way of escape and only one, and that's by hiding, by coming to, by repenting of your sins and fleeing to Christ. to hide yourself spiritually in him, to avoid that wrath of God. But sin here is serious and described. Fornication, uncleanness. Well, you might wonder what uncleanness is. Well, it's not dirtiness, not taking a bath or shower or something like that. It's the defilement of sin again. It has all these words here have to do with sexual sin. So uncleanness, physically and moral uncleanness, impurity in thought. and actions. Sin defiles. It involves anything that excites the mind, the heart to impurity. Anything that excites that. And one of the biggest things, the word actually, the word for fornication is pornea. We get our words pornography and that we're all familiar with pornography and pornographic. That's where it comes from, those things. can be looked at and can incite the mind and the body to these unclean things of sexual sin. Again, the pure, beautiful sexual pleasure that's intended for our good within the confines of marriage is good and pleasing to God and something to be enjoyed in the marriage bed, but only there. Everything else is unclean. Passions, what's that? And you see there's a progression here. You have the outright sins, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, all those horrible sins. And then it's thought Paul works his way back to the roots of these sins, where they begin. The Bible tells us that it doesn't begin with the physical act. It begins a long time before that with the look of the eye and the lust in the heart. That's what Jesus said. You have heard that it said of those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks had a woman to lust for, has already committed adultery with her. His heart, and that's where the sins proceed from. See, an unregenerated person, somebody who's not born again, the sin is a slave to sin, the heart is from where those sins come out of. Jesus said in Mark 7, 21 and 23, for from within, at the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, Fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile a man. That's where it begins. It's not the outward act where it begins, but it begins with the heart, the passions. Here, Paul moves on to passions. It's that inordinate desire. We have passion. Passions for good things is okay. Some people have passion for sports. They like sports. It's their passion. Or they like to fish. They have a passion for fishing. But this is an unclean, a sinful passion because sin works on our emotions. We don't do anything basically that we really don't want to do. That's why when the Holy Spirit works in the heart to change our minds and our hearts about how we think of sin. Sin is evil and it's wicked. That's what the Bible says. The world says Just do your thing. You know, don't judge other people as long as you're not hurting anybody. All those things. God says it's evil. It deserves his wrath. And he says that these things are wrong. David in Psalm 51 says, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be proved just when you speak and blameless when you judge. David is acknowledging that his sin is primarily against God. Now it's David, King David, sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned against the nation of Israel. But he first and foremost, as he acknowledges here, sinned against God. Our sins. The remaining sin that's in us, even believers, is evil and against God. And it helps us to see it that way. That's why we would desire to kill it. So passions are what we really desire to do and is a progression. It comes from the heart. and we crave sexual immorality. This is why pornography is so bad because it feeds this and it becomes desensitized to it and it produces those acts and makes them easier to do. Most people do not only watch or look. Moves on to action that because it stirs up the passions become passionate about sinning even again even in the believer and then finally evil desires Evil desires. God gives desire as a good thing, right? To desire good things is a gift of God. A husband desires his wife, and the wife desires her husband in marriage. That's a good desire. But this is termed, Paul says, evil desires. Again, relating back to the sexual sin. taking something good and working it for evil. And again, the source of it is the heart, the heart of man. Ephesians 4, 17 and 20, he says, this I say therefore, testify the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feelings have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, But you have not so learned Christ and we certainly if we are in Christ born again. We haven't learned Christ this way and again because of these things the wrath of God is coming and So what is the motive? And these sins are highlighted here by Paul for a reason. It's because they're so dangerous. In the list, the many lists of sins in scripture, I just read the one from Romans. There's lists in Galatians chapter five. He again mentions fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, sorcery, idolatry, hatred. It goes on, but here these are being highlighted. They're mentioned in other places, but they're being highlighted here in Colossians for a good reason. If we're in a spiritual battle, if we're at war with sin, which is what we are if we're in Christ, we're at war with sin. are enemies and spiritual enemies, world, the flesh, and the devil, then these sins, these sexual sins are like the real bad enemies, like the Taliban and ISIS, and Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea all put together. They're dangerous enemies, and if you're a soldier in a battle, your goal is not to give a flower to your enemy, walk over to him and say, peace brother, here, here's a flower. No, your job is to kill your enemy in a war. And so that's what we're to do with sin. We're to kill it. It's dangerous, and especially sexual sin has a grip on so many, even Christians, even in the Christian church. It's prevalent, but it shouldn't be. Paul warns believers in In 1 Corinthians 6, he says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not say neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists will inherit the kingdom of God. It's serious sin, it's taking people to hell. The wrath of God is poured out upon those, God hates those sins and will judge those sins. He says, but, and such were some of you in the church. There are people who were all those things, many, many, maybe many of those things, but they're not anymore. That's the hope in the gospel and hope in Christ is for freedom. from slavery to sin, to pornography, to sexual immorality, you can be set free by killing sin and hating sin, all sin, not just sexual sin, but it has to be all sin, lying, anger, malice, all those sins that are mentioned in scripture. So we're in a battle, we're in a war, we have to take the fight to the enemy, but depending on Christ alone. Paul gives some ammunition here in verses six. Starting at verse six, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. We're meant to remind ourselves that this is serious and people will be judged and cast into hell because of these sins. Right? The sin is Paul didn't want them to be deceived, even though he gives them the hope He says, such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord. You're not that anymore. But look what's happening to the world. They're slaves to these sins. They deserve the wrath of God. And he says that, again, this is ammunition for us to use in the war in our own hearts and minds to think of scripture. He says, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. We were once slaves to sin, right? That's where we walked. That's where we lived. It was true in my life. It's true in yours if you're here tonight and you're born again. You're a saved sinner. Sinner saved by the grace of God. You've been washed. You've been sanctified. You've been justified in the name of the Lord. Why would you go back? Why would you live as if you were an unbeliever? It should be a powerful argument. We're no longer that. We're now knew in Christ and should be able to put off. He says, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all cleanliness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talk nor coarse jesting, nor which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of God." Apostle Paul is clear there. He says, for you and 1 Peter 4.1-5, he says, we have spent enough time in the past, in our lifetimes, doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelry, drinking parties, abominable idolatries. In regard to these things, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. They will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. So serious sins, God's remedies, are to use scripture and fortify our resolve, fortify our hatred for sin by the grace of God. And it's only by the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, that we can be fortified. And the Gospel, we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves over and over again, reminding ourselves that we're not saved by killing sin, we're saved by the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're fully and freely justified. This is our sanctification. Putting to death sin is part of our sanctification. And if you're here tonight apart from Christ, you can't even do a little bit. You can reform your life, you can put away some sins, but you know what happens when you put away the sins that really bother you and have a grip on you? Other sins come and take its place and become again, because you've never been set free. The key is being in Christ and set free now to live to God, no longer slaves of sin, but slaves of righteousness, married to Christ and loving Him. Sexual sin is so dangerous it destroys marriages. It destroys the conscience. It sears the conscience. A believer who's continuing in sexual sin can't have close communion with Christ. Your conscience is bothered. In an unbeliever, your past feeling, it doesn't bother your conscience because you'll justify it as long as you don't get caught. And most of the sexual sin is done in private and we think nobody can see. But who sees? God. Always. He sees the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And that's why, again, it's so dangerous. It destroys marriages. It destroys and defiles your conscience. It destroys ministries. People who have been godly preachers and ministers, ministry leaders, have been disqualified from the ministry because of sexual sin. There's other sins as well, but that's a big one that disqualifies people from the ministry, destroys the body both physically and affects the church. That kind of sin can affect the whole church. That's why Paul said, put that man who had his father's mother, wife, was having sexual relations with her, he says, put him out because a little leaven leavened the whole lump. In other words, it affects not only our physical bodies, which it does at times, but even the body of Christ, how that can affect. So it's bad. And the weapons again are the Christ by his Holy Spirit and overwhelming ourselves with the word of God, especially if we're fighting sexual sin, those scriptures that speak against it. That's what we have to have in our minds and hearts and memories. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does outside his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. And now here's the argument. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in argument number one. If you're in Christ, you're indwell by the Holy Spirit and to commit sexual sin defiles that home where the Holy Spirit lives. That's argument number one. The second argument is who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. Why? Can't I do with myself what I please, especially with my own body and with my own thoughts, and who's it gonna hurt, looking at something on the computer? No, for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. What price are we bought with? The precious blood of Christ. The precious, precious blood of Christ. So we're temples of the Holy Spirit, not to defile that temple. We are bought, blood-bought by Christ. Powerful motives. So these and many other scriptures that speak about Sexual immorality, he says in 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 through 7, this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passionate lusts like the Gentiles who do not know God. See, those verses, they can arm us. They're like putting on armor. They can work in the mind through the Holy Spirit, and so carry them around. This is a great battle. We need to memorize those scriptures, carry them around, fortify, overwhelm our consciences with those words about that particularly dangerous sin that no one should take advantage of or defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the avenger of all such as we have forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness. If you're here tonight apart from Christ, you need Christ. You need the gospel to set you free. You need Christ to set you free. He's the only one who can do that. And a prayer I would encourage you to make is two prayers. First, show me myself. Show me my sin, Lord. Read the Bible. Listen to sermons. And pray, cry out to God, show me my real self, my real heart, because only God can do that, only God can open our eyes spiritually and show us who we truly are before a holy God. And the second prayer is show me Christ. Because we're called to repent, to turn away from sin, but not just repent, but turn and look to Christ and Christ alone. He's the only one that can set us free from these sins and all other sins. So I'd encourage you tonight in the battle. I'm a fellow soldier with you in the battle against sin, against sexual sin, against all sin. This is still in our hearts and we have to fight against it. So we need to cling to Christ and to be close to Christ and to be filled with his spirit in order to win the battle and to kill, actually kill, put to death the deeds of the body. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you that it doesn't cut corners or cover things up with vague language. We're thankful that you call sin, sin, what it is, in all its disgusting forms and categories. We're thankful that though we were slaves to sin, you have set us free to live a holy life and a life that's pleasing to you father we pray that you'd help us in this battle we help us the day by day to be killing sin to have victories here and there and and father we we pray that we would you would protect us from falling into these sins and in flagrant ways and outward ways. Father, we just pray that you would bless. And in your mercy and love, would you be calling sinners to Christ, the only hope, the only refuge, the only rock of ages where we can flee and hide our souls. And Father, we pray for your glory and that you'd bless your word. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.