back to index2015-10-25 Put to Death All That is Earthly in You
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Pastor Peter and I go way, way, way back, high school years, and like 20 pounds ago. 00:00:23.280 |
And actually, Esther, his wife, discipled my wife, and they're both school teachers. 00:00:30.600 |
And now, like the next generation of Shins and Kims are hanging out together. 00:00:34.000 |
Like Faith and Elizabeth are like Facebook friends and Kakao friends, and they hang out. 00:00:40.840 |
And then like a year ago, Peter and I played Zachary and Jeremy in two-on-two basketball. 00:00:45.440 |
I don't know if they're here today, but the older generation won. 00:00:49.320 |
I don't know if they let us win or not, but it doesn't matter. 00:00:58.400 |
I'm going to be one and O, and that'll be the end of it. 00:01:05.120 |
If you open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3, and we just have one verse. 00:01:14.280 |
Do you guys usually stand for the reading of God's Word? 00:01:25.960 |
"Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, 00:01:32.560 |
evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." 00:01:37.280 |
Sovereign, holy, gracious, loving Father, we come to you now, and we ask for your help. 00:01:44.440 |
For we know and believe that you have said that unless the watchman builds, the watchman 00:01:50.840 |
watches in vain, unless you build, the builder builds in vain. 00:01:54.640 |
And so all of our study, all of our efforts to understand your truth and apply it to our 00:01:59.240 |
lives are all in vain without the assistance, the empowerment, and the help of your Holy 00:02:08.520 |
So we pray that you would fill us with your Spirit, that you would lead us by your Spirit, 00:02:14.240 |
that we would walk in step and be led by your Spirit, and so that you will receive all the 00:02:19.240 |
glory for our time together and all the fruit that is produced in time. 00:02:25.700 |
So therefore, Lord, we again commit this hour to you as we study and as we listen, but our 00:02:32.400 |
hearts are praying, our hearts are looking to you, and that you might go before us. 00:02:38.680 |
And Lord, open our eyes to see the wonderful things that are in your law. 00:02:47.240 |
Well, I distinctly remember I was about 20 years old, a year old in the faith. 00:02:56.320 |
I had a few open Sundays, so I went out to E.V. 00:02:59.360 |
Free Fullerton, pastored then by Charles Swindoll. 00:03:09.400 |
And he was a godly man, a faithful expositor, so I went to his church and was encouraged 00:03:17.920 |
Afterwards, I went to the bookstore and I wanted to buy like a souvenir sermon from 00:03:23.120 |
the church, so I went to the tape section and asked to buy a sermon tape. 00:03:36.080 |
Before CDs and MP3s, there was a thing called a cassette tape. 00:03:40.440 |
It was like a rectangular plastic thing that had wheels and you put it in your car. 00:03:47.920 |
You had to fast forward and rewind to get to the right part of the song or the sermon 00:03:53.160 |
and you would listen and eventually it would wear out and you had to buy another one. 00:03:58.000 |
So I asked a lady to buy a sermon tape and she asked me, "Which sermon do you want?" 00:04:03.880 |
And I said, "I don't have a particular sermon in mind. 00:04:11.480 |
She looked at me and she went to the back and she brought out a sermon for me to purchase 00:04:16.280 |
and I looked at the tape and the sermon title was "Plea for Sexual Purity" from Psalm 51. 00:04:33.040 |
And I kind of blushed and she was like, "Oh no, I'm not pointing you out or anything." 00:04:39.400 |
But she just was blessed by this sermon and she thought I would be helped by it as a young 00:04:47.200 |
If you can do the math to see how old I am today, that was over 25 years ago. 00:04:52.160 |
And I listened to that sermon many times and it's been very helpful to me. 00:04:58.440 |
And as an older woman, a godly woman, she knew by her life what kind of challenges I 00:05:06.200 |
would face as a young man trying to walk in Christ, to mature as a godly man, to grow 00:05:25.840 |
He tempted himself and he committed adultery and he was ensnared in his sin to a degree 00:05:32.000 |
where he had Bathsheba's husband Uriah murdered. 00:05:36.640 |
And Uriah was not just any old soldier in his army. 00:05:43.160 |
When David was hiding from King Saul in the wilderness of Ein Gedi, God sent many young 00:05:50.200 |
men to fight with and fight for David and one of the men that God sent was Uriah. 00:05:57.160 |
So Uriah was a long term friend, fellow soldier in David's army and David betrayed Uriah, 00:06:06.000 |
had him murdered because he slept with Bathsheba, his wife. 00:06:13.600 |
And from that point on he was never the same again. 00:06:18.440 |
King David's life was marred from that point on. 00:06:21.900 |
He became a shell of himself, a man who had entered into the army of God by fighting the 00:06:29.000 |
giant Goliath and defeating him with a stone and a sling, was reduced to a man who was 00:06:37.140 |
running away from his kingdom, Jerusalem, barefooted, being cursed by Shammai and overthrown 00:06:48.400 |
All because of what happened on that faithful evening when he committed this heinous sin. 00:06:57.760 |
Apostle Paul understands the importance of this issue in the Christian life. 00:07:04.760 |
That if we want to grow as a believer, if we want to be effective ministers of Christ, 00:07:13.000 |
if we want to be evangelists and missionaries, before we try to fight the war out there, 00:07:18.960 |
we must be engaged and overcome and be victorious in the battle within. 00:07:25.280 |
The front lines of spiritual warfare is not out there in the world. 00:07:34.120 |
The front lines of spiritual warfare is in our hearts. 00:07:44.680 |
So we must experience private victory if we want to experience victory in the world. 00:07:55.000 |
Paul is saying that sin is not outside coming in. 00:08:11.200 |
That is the truth that the Pharisees could not receive. 00:08:19.360 |
Sin was in society, in the culture, in the world. 00:08:23.400 |
And they were pure and they were holy, godly, righteous, biblical. 00:08:28.080 |
And so they were committed to obeying the Bible as a way of maintaining their righteousness. 00:08:33.840 |
And one of the key commands they obeyed was dietary laws. 00:08:39.320 |
And Jesus said in Mark 7, sin is not outside. 00:08:43.480 |
What goes inside of you does not make you unclean. 00:08:47.520 |
What makes you unclean is what flows out from your heart. 00:08:52.120 |
And out of your heart comes all sexual sin, immorality, impurity, malice, jealousy, hatred, 00:09:08.240 |
And the following metaphor, illustration that Christ gave was if your right eye causes you 00:09:16.480 |
If your left hand causes you to sin, cut it off. 00:09:20.040 |
Because it's better for you to enter heaven maimed than for you to go to hell as a whole 00:09:28.560 |
So Christ called his disciples to take a radical approach towards all sin. 00:09:35.280 |
But the problem is that our eyes are not the source of sin. 00:09:46.040 |
It's the means by which we sin against others. 00:10:14.160 |
And we can't cut out the heart because it's the source of our physical life. 00:10:23.240 |
Therefore, the predicament that you and I are in is that we are sinners. 00:10:32.000 |
We will be sinners until our death or the return of Christ. 00:10:38.800 |
But we must not approach our flesh with an idea of truce, with an idea of negotiating 00:10:47.480 |
with our flesh and finding out some way of compromise where we can win-win. 00:10:56.360 |
You know, I'll let you have some areas of my life. 00:11:02.240 |
No, that is not acceptable because sin wants to be killing you. 00:11:08.080 |
Sin has only one agenda, one objective, one focus. 00:11:13.360 |
And that is to undermine your Christian faith, to shipwreck you, lead you astray, and to 00:11:22.920 |
That's why Pastor John Owen said, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." 00:11:30.400 |
Here the Apostle Paul said to us, "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you." 00:11:37.680 |
The only acceptable mindset towards what is fleshly in us, earthly in us, the flesh is 00:12:06.160 |
You must try to mortify it, make a corpse out of it. 00:12:10.680 |
Now, there is some conflict here because if you go to Colossians chapter 2 verse 12, Paul 00:12:21.360 |
just told us that we were buried with him in baptism. 00:12:26.200 |
That we are crucified, that we have died, that we have been buried with Jesus in our 00:12:33.880 |
Not only that, in chapter 3 verse 3, it says, "You have died." 00:12:42.960 |
Paul, you tell us we're dead and now you're telling us to put to death? 00:12:52.240 |
To illustrate this, I must appeal, I must go to Korean cuisine. 00:12:58.440 |
I am Korean American and an area of my life where I'm very Korean is my love for Korean 00:13:08.360 |
Thai food, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, they're all right there. 00:13:13.480 |
But when I'm really hungry, nothing hits the spot like Korean food. 00:13:19.640 |
But even though I love Korean food, there is three dishes that's difficult for me. 00:13:29.480 |
One of them I eat and two of them, one of them I tried, I will not eat again. 00:13:36.040 |
The one that I eat for a while, I couldn't eat for a while. 00:13:39.840 |
When I was in high school, I used to eat a lot and I stopped for a few years. 00:13:47.520 |
When I was in high school, I remember eating it with my family and loving every bit of 00:13:54.080 |
You know, the bone, you would chew on it, get every piece of the meat, drink the soup. 00:14:02.160 |
And then one day in college, somebody told me that this is oxtail soup. 00:14:08.280 |
I don't know, I'm just like slow, I'm just eating. 00:14:11.480 |
I'm slurping so I don't hear what they're saying. 00:14:15.200 |
So I'm like, wait a minute, this is a tail of an ox? 00:14:28.320 |
Who's the first Korean guy that looked at an ox and said, man, that tail. 00:14:34.160 |
Let's try to cook this tail in a soup and eat it. 00:14:38.040 |
And I understand Korea back in the day was a poor country, so they had to eat every part 00:14:45.240 |
We can have the prime rib, we can have the sirloin, the rib eye, we don't have to eat 00:14:52.960 |
So for several years, I just could not do it. 00:14:56.720 |
And then one moment of weakness, you know, like in my college years, I gave in and started 00:15:01.760 |
eating and I just tried to erase the picture of that poor cow without the tail. 00:15:10.200 |
The second cuisine that I tried once and I will not eat again is gopchang, pig intestine. 00:15:35.120 |
They live in their own, you know what I'm talking about. 00:15:39.080 |
So they consider pigs such dirty animals, you're not to eat pork. 00:15:44.040 |
Well Koreans not only eat pork, they want to eat, they eat the intestines of a pork. 00:15:55.120 |
So when you guys eat gopchang, you know what you're eating. 00:15:59.640 |
My friend ordered gopchang and he's grilling it on the grill and I'm like, oh man, that 00:16:06.440 |
It's touching my, you know, like Hawaiian steak. 00:16:32.600 |
The third cuisine that I will not eat is live octopus. 00:16:36.920 |
Did you guys hear, did you guys see this in Andrew Zeran in Bizarre Foods? 00:16:41.560 |
Korean, you go to a Korean restaurant, they serve Korean octopus, live octopus, and they 00:16:47.800 |
And instead of like frying it or grilling it or boiling it or baking it or doing something 00:16:55.680 |
And so the Koreans get that octopus and they dip it in gochujang, of course, right? 00:17:03.200 |
And as they're chewing, the tentacles are all moving, like sucking on the mouth and 00:17:09.000 |
And you have to chew it finely because if you don't, as it's going down your throat, 00:17:18.440 |
And I'm like, oh my goodness, that is not something that I want to, I don't want to 00:17:25.080 |
But that is the picture of our Christian life and the flesh. 00:17:30.280 |
Think of the live octopus next time you think about the flesh. 00:17:38.840 |
You can't like glue it back together and say, oh, it's a flesh wound. 00:17:49.000 |
No amount of like CPR or like whatever is going to help that octopus. 00:18:04.480 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:18:13.440 |
Our sins were crucified on the cross and every believer was crucified with Jesus on the cross. 00:18:26.200 |
We cannot lose what God has given to us once for all. 00:18:29.640 |
Yet at the same time, practically, functionally, in real time, the flesh is alive and well 00:18:36.480 |
in your life and my life, waging guerrilla warfare and has power, has strength, has great 00:18:44.960 |
influence to tempt us and to cause us, lead us to sin. 00:18:52.680 |
And the kinds of sins we're talking about is not like minor sins where the flesh is 00:19:00.520 |
so weak it could only tempt us to sin like small white lies. 00:19:04.760 |
No, the kinds of sins that Paul is talking about in verse five, he lists them sexual 00:19:11.440 |
immorality, pornea, general war, word for fornication, all illicit sexual sin, impurity, 00:19:20.640 |
like uncleanness, passion, it's pathos, evil desire, cacos epithemia, evil lusts. 00:19:30.960 |
We're in our flesh, there's all these lusts that rage against us, wanting us to pursue 00:19:38.120 |
these sinful things, covetousness, which is idolatry. 00:19:46.720 |
Look to death therefore what is earthly in you and we could, Pastor Peter's preaching 00:19:52.160 |
through Romans, you'll get there in Romans 7 and Paul says it is a law that when I want 00:19:57.920 |
to do what is right, sin is right there inside of me. 00:20:08.320 |
I cannot hide from these base impulses of the heart. 00:20:12.440 |
They are right there and it's very foolish for us to think that we can somehow contain 00:20:21.120 |
and control sin by way of some human or earthly measures. 00:20:27.240 |
We were reminded of this truth just a few months ago and I mentioned his name. 00:20:41.040 |
I am no way, I hope not demeaning him but we all heard of Josh Duggar, right? 00:20:48.320 |
And so Josh Duggar is the oldest son of the Duggars. 00:20:50.800 |
You know, you guys are shocked that we have six kids and it is pretty shocking, right? 00:20:55.800 |
We actually own, we drive around a church van, a 12-seater, right? 00:21:02.160 |
We had a, you know, a Honda Odyssey, a 7-seater and there was no seat for me, right? 00:21:15.960 |
Like I am by myself, listening to sports radio and my wife is like, you know, with the seven 00:21:22.320 |
But, so we actually bought like a huge van, a 12-seater and so one of the families that 00:21:31.200 |
They had 19 kids growing up in Arkansas and though they were, they had a TV show, they 00:21:38.040 |
didn't own a television, they didn't watch TV or movies, they didn't have internet access. 00:21:46.600 |
So their kids grew up like little house in the prairie, right? 00:21:50.920 |
So they actually went to this amusement park and they saw this like display of how people 00:21:56.440 |
in the West dressed like 100 years ago and it was comical because the way people dress 00:22:01.960 |
100 years ago and the Duggars were very similar. 00:22:04.520 |
It was like they were going back and forth in their dress, their modest clothing was 00:22:11.800 |
That's how conservative, biblical, they were homeschooled, house churches. 00:22:17.960 |
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are godly believers, trained their kids in the Lord and their first 00:22:25.040 |
kid, you always do your best job in the first kid, right? 00:22:28.880 |
All the first borns, you get all the pressure, all the standard and your parents burn out. 00:22:33.400 |
Like our sixth, she is like out of control because we're just too tired to train her, 00:22:41.280 |
But the first is where your full focus goes to in parenting and yet Josh Duggar became 00:22:48.000 |
this leader, like a politician, a family values man and it turned out he had two accounts 00:22:54.320 |
in Ashley Madison, repeatedly committed adultery against his wife and it all came out in a 00:23:05.400 |
And that's a vivid reminder that yeah, you can take your family to a compound, cut off 00:23:13.880 |
all internet, cable, radio, secular music, secular influences, raise them in homeschooling. 00:23:22.480 |
I'm not going down to homeschooling, we homeschool, but you do all of that and to think that you 00:23:37.360 |
Paul says here that put to death what is earthly in you, it is inside of you right now and 00:23:49.040 |
if you deny that reality, that is to your own detriment. 00:23:56.160 |
I think most men would humbly acknowledge the reality of these temptations of the first 00:24:01.360 |
four, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire. 00:24:07.160 |
And I have counseled so many couples where the guy was caught with pornography and the 00:24:14.600 |
wife is all like grieving and sad or the guy committed adultery and I'm counseling them 00:24:21.120 |
both and the guy just feels so, so awful and at the same time the wife is just angry. 00:24:34.480 |
She is condemning the husband, understandably to some degree, but for a lot of women, it's 00:24:39.920 |
hard for women to understand, guys, what's wrong with you guys? 00:24:44.680 |
You know, some women's response to this is like, just stop it. 00:25:08.400 |
Control yourself and turn away what is so difficult. 00:25:11.760 |
And one of the temptations for women, whether in the family or in the church, is to become 00:25:17.080 |
very proud and judgmental and self-righteous because they see the flesh powerfully at work 00:25:24.600 |
in the lives of men and really making them passive, making them just passive and carnal 00:25:36.200 |
I really think this is the mental health issue of our generation. 00:25:41.440 |
The previous generation was smoking for decades. 00:25:45.120 |
People didn't know the harmful effects of smoking. 00:25:47.840 |
And in fact, in the 50s, you had anxiety or insomnia. 00:25:52.200 |
Doctors would actually prescribe cigarettes as a way of helping you cope with anxiety 00:25:59.440 |
because they didn't know the carcinogens that was in tobacco smoke and how harmful it would 00:26:05.320 |
And only later did we find out, oh, it was an epidemic. 00:26:09.600 |
The cancer-causing agents of cigarette smoke is such that now we realize how harmful it 00:26:16.160 |
Well, I believe in 10, 20, 30 years from now, if not already, we'll look back and we'll 00:26:19.840 |
see that addiction to pornography is an epidemic. 00:26:24.960 |
It is the root cause of insomnia, social anxiety, depression, bipolar, all these psychological 00:26:33.160 |
terms, all these men becoming passive and shallow and self-centered and not being active 00:26:40.960 |
spiritually and not being leaders is tied to their shame and guilt over this hidden 00:26:49.960 |
It's the first time in human history that this has occurred. 00:26:53.360 |
Or pornography is pervasive, is ubiquitous, right? 00:26:59.440 |
It's two buttons, two pushes away on the internet and it goes with you on your smartphone wherever 00:27:06.040 |
And I think it's coming to understanding how an epidemic it is in the lives of so many 00:27:17.080 |
And women have a hard time understanding this and they can become very judgmental and frustrated. 00:27:27.960 |
I have some commentaries to back me up on this, but I can't say here with 100%, but 00:27:33.600 |
I think there is some aspect where Paul made this list and the first four is dealing generally 00:27:41.840 |
Not absolutely, no, but generally men struggle with the first four, but he included the last 00:27:47.160 |
one for the female believers of the Church of Colossae, which is covetousness. 00:27:56.200 |
Now not absolutely, but generally covetousness is a temptation and a vice that women struggle 00:28:26.520 |
We don't notice each other's like, I don't know, biceps. 00:28:35.480 |
But women, not absolutely, not every woman, but generally women are so relational, they're 00:28:46.040 |
They're constantly noticing other women's eyebrows. 00:28:54.160 |
They notice their personality and their relationships and their godliness, and they're constantly 00:29:04.880 |
Comparing other people's success and ability. 00:29:06.760 |
And men struggle with too, but generally more so with women. 00:29:18.880 |
Someone said it is a sin that nobody talks about. 00:29:22.040 |
Another pastor said it is called the mother of all sins. 00:29:25.120 |
It is a deceptive sin, unsatiable sin, all-consuming sin. 00:29:30.680 |
Immorality, we know, we struggle, we know it is sin, but covetousness is so deep and 00:29:36.280 |
dark and hidden, and many are unaware that this is the root issue, the core issue of 00:29:47.120 |
It is an uncontrollable sin, sin that keeps growing, and Paul referred to this sin as 00:29:54.360 |
the sin that he could not conquer in Romans 7. 00:29:57.760 |
When God said, "Do not covet," there was a converse effect in his life where all these 00:30:12.680 |
Paul is not referring to all five vices here. 00:30:20.880 |
This is breaking of the most important command, which is, "You shall have no other gods above 00:30:28.640 |
This is a violation of the greatest command, which is, "You shall love the Lord your God 00:30:33.960 |
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." 00:30:37.320 |
This is actually displacing God from His rightful place as one we worship, and worshiping, adoring, 00:30:46.480 |
pursuing, delighting in something else, it is idolatry. 00:30:51.360 |
DeMart Loyd-Jones said, "Idolatry is anything that you and I tend to set up as the big thing, 00:30:58.400 |
the central thing in our lives about which we think and dream, the thing that engages 00:31:03.720 |
our imagination, the thing that we live for, the thing that gives us the biggest thrill. 00:31:09.680 |
If it is anything other than God, it is idolatry." 00:31:14.800 |
Luther said, "Whatever your heart clings to and relies on, that is your lowercase God." 00:31:21.720 |
Tim Keller said, "An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, 'If 00:31:27.800 |
I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning. 00:31:38.200 |
There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps 00:31:48.160 |
Idol is, "If I have that, then I'll be happy. 00:32:11.360 |
Women, if I were to say to you, "Just stop it. 00:32:38.840 |
Can you just turn the switch and turn it off and not covet? 00:32:42.720 |
No, you'll say, "Pastor James, it is a brokenness that is in me that goes so deep that I fight 00:32:50.760 |
and fight and fight, and it is a constant struggle." 00:33:01.520 |
The flesh is not a simple sin that we can overcome easily. 00:33:10.200 |
So the million dollar question is, "How do we put to death all that is earthly in us? 00:33:23.560 |
You starve the flesh and you feed the spirit." 00:33:28.080 |
I'm not saying this is absolutely wrong or it's unadvisable. 00:33:31.920 |
There are helpful things here where people say, "Don't watch movies. 00:33:43.280 |
You become dramatic when you watch Korean drama. 00:34:08.040 |
And I would say, Galatians 3.3, is that how you are saved? 00:34:24.800 |
Is that how you receive the Spirit of God and have your sins forgiven? 00:34:28.440 |
By avoiding sinful places and going to places that were holy and righteous? 00:34:34.600 |
Is that how God worked this miracle of regeneration in your heart by the works of the flesh? 00:34:43.840 |
You receive the Spirit by faith and are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:34:53.840 |
We began by faith and we are to continue by faith and not by works. 00:35:01.160 |
To think that we start with Christ and we continue reliance on our flesh. 00:35:12.800 |
Some would say you mortify the flesh by some ecstatic experience. 00:35:17.240 |
Through some Gnostic, esoteric, spiritual encounter with the Holy Spirit. 00:35:23.280 |
Where you go to the highest point of the mountain and you wrestle with Satan. 00:35:27.560 |
You yell at him and rebuke him for days on end. 00:35:31.400 |
And afterwards, an angel visits you or a special man or woman prays for you and anoints you. 00:35:37.840 |
And you receive this anointing and from that point on you experience victory to victory. 00:35:42.720 |
You're an overcomer and you have risen above the fleshly impulses of the heart. 00:35:55.240 |
And I would say, "No, that is not it at all." 00:35:59.720 |
Some would say that the way you overcome the flesh is by way of theology. 00:36:06.200 |
Going to seminary, learning Greek and Hebrew, reading Bonson, reading Van Til, reading these 00:36:16.600 |
So if you immerse yourself with all these truths and become biblical, become conservative, 00:36:24.360 |
become faithful to the Bible, then you will overcome the flesh. 00:36:39.000 |
Nathan, if he says, "You sinner," David will say, "Give me your head and it's over." 00:36:45.080 |
So Nathan goes to David very wisely and he says, "King David, I have a story to tell 00:36:55.000 |
There's these two men and one man is rich and he's got thousands of animals as part 00:37:04.080 |
He only has one ewe lamb and this lamb is so precious to him that he's considered a 00:37:09.400 |
part of his family, like his own daughter," it says in 2 Samuel 12. 00:37:13.880 |
"Well, the rich man had a visitor and instead of sacrificing one of his animals, he stole 00:37:21.560 |
that one ewe lamb from that poor man and had it slaughtered for his traveling friend." 00:37:32.640 |
David is so angry and his response is, "That man must repay the poor man fourfold of the 00:37:45.400 |
If you steal from someone, you must recompense, right? 00:37:49.600 |
You must pay a penalty four times what you stole. 00:37:54.160 |
But then David also said, "That man deserves to die. 00:38:11.160 |
The ewe lamb was like a daughter, but it was still an animal. 00:38:27.480 |
Commentator said, "Derek Kinder, it's compensatory zeal." 00:38:32.480 |
So when you feel David was in sin for a year, he knew what he had done. 00:38:40.480 |
He was so ashamed, so guilt-ridden, he was so afraid somebody might find out that when 00:38:45.160 |
this came about, he compensated by being overly righteous. 00:39:03.200 |
You committed adultery and you killed a human being. 00:39:06.120 |
You killed your loyal friend, Uriah, and you covered this up. 00:39:15.560 |
People that struggle with sin, private, hidden, constitutional guilt and shame, they cover 00:39:21.920 |
up their compensatory zeal by being overly righteous, overly conservative, overly traditional, 00:39:30.520 |
and demonizing the other side, and making a mountain out of molehill, and judging and 00:39:35.960 |
condemning, and casting down verdicts of condemnation, pointing fingers as a way of covering up their 00:39:50.200 |
And this happens by way of theology, by way of ministering in the church, serving the 00:39:58.480 |
For many, it is all a way of covering up their sin. 00:40:02.280 |
And they think because they are so immersed in good works, because they are so righteous 00:40:07.920 |
and biblical, somehow their flesh is mortified. 00:40:20.440 |
I'm not saying all of that is wrong in of itself, but what does the Bible say? 00:40:25.800 |
Here verse 5 tells us how we are to mortify the flesh. 00:40:37.280 |
This is how you put to death whatever is earthly in you. 00:40:41.640 |
The way to mortify the flesh is found in verses 1 through 4. 00:40:46.680 |
1 through 4, put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly in you. 00:40:55.560 |
Colossians 3, 1 through 4, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that 00:41:01.220 |
are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 00:41:04.960 |
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have 00:41:08.360 |
died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 00:41:11.160 |
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." 00:41:17.720 |
Verse 1, "If then you have been raised with Christ." 00:41:29.460 |
If you are not a Christian, the reason the flesh is alive and well is because the flesh 00:41:37.200 |
The reason you privately in the hidden places of your life are powerless against the flesh 00:41:43.920 |
is because you are still a foreigner, an alien to Christ's salvation. 00:42:01.960 |
That also has a secondary reference to believers. 00:42:06.360 |
Where some believers, they're Christians, and yet they are immature baby Christians. 00:42:12.240 |
They are still trusting in Jesus who is either still on the cross, there's no cross here, 00:42:19.000 |
okay, still hanging on the cross, or he's still buried. 00:42:23.820 |
So their functional faith, their real time faith is not the risen Christ. 00:42:29.160 |
They are still grieving, they are still mourning, they are depressed, they are downtrodden 00:42:35.360 |
because the Jesus that they worship is still being crucified or is in the grave. 00:42:43.000 |
No, the orthodox faith is Christ died and was risen and right now he is alive. 00:43:01.080 |
The Jesus that you and I believers believe in and worship is alive right now. 00:43:08.000 |
And not only that believers, we have risen with him. 00:43:11.380 |
We have experienced the power of his resurrection in our Christian lives. 00:43:17.220 |
For some believers, they're still looking for Jesus in the grave, in the cemetery. 00:43:24.580 |
If that is you, then you need to receive the risen Christ. 00:43:28.720 |
You need to believe in the resurrected Christ. 00:43:32.240 |
Christ that is alive now through the spirit in our hearts. 00:43:36.240 |
And you must also experience being raised with him in the power of his resurrection. 00:43:41.800 |
Now if that is you, you are a believer and you have been raised, you have conviction, 00:43:46.640 |
you have assurance, you have been struck by gospel lightning, you have experienced the 00:43:51.200 |
power of resurrection, if that is the case, then now you are ready to mortify the flesh. 00:44:01.520 |
You seek the things that are above and you set your mind on things that are above. 00:44:07.440 |
You seek and you set on things above, not what's inside and not what's below. 00:44:14.640 |
Guys, if you live your Christian lives looking inward, then you will be very depressed, very 00:44:23.400 |
discouraged, you will be dejected, you will burn out, you will lose heart. 00:44:28.320 |
You have a short Christian life ahead of you if you live your Christian life looking at 00:44:32.600 |
yourself or if you live your Christian life looking at the world and how fallen it is, 00:44:42.040 |
No, the way to mortify the flesh is not by looking in, not by looking at others, not 00:44:49.120 |
No, the way to live the Christian life is by looking up, to seek and to fix your mind 00:44:58.600 |
It says here, seek the things that are above where Christ is. 00:45:08.000 |
He is the way through faith in Him by which we mortify the flesh and look at the posture 00:45:14.760 |
Christ is in heaven and He is seated at the right hand of God. 00:45:21.040 |
The high priest when he went into the Holy of Holies had a no, he had no chair. 00:45:28.520 |
Because the Israelites are continually sinning and the blood of animals have no power for 00:45:36.640 |
Therefore he has to every year offer sacrifices of animals and shed blood that had no power 00:45:47.680 |
But Jesus when He went down to the most holy place in heaven, it's the presence of God. 00:46:00.880 |
He went down to cross, He shed His blood once and for all and He cried out to tell us, "Die, 00:46:15.800 |
We are in Christ, we are saved, we are forgiven, past, present and future. 00:46:30.240 |
And so seeing Him tells us that our salvation cannot be taken away. 00:46:35.920 |
No matter how much I sin, no matter how much you fall away, we cannot exhaust God's love 00:46:54.800 |
He is seated at the place of greatest authority, at the right hand of God. 00:47:00.160 |
And what is He doing at the right hand of the Father? 00:47:03.040 |
Hebrews 7.25 and Romans 8.34 says that Jesus always lives to intercede for us. 00:47:12.120 |
That right now, Jesus is praying for you by name. 00:47:17.120 |
He's praying for you in your struggle against sin, in your struggle against temptation, 00:47:23.840 |
in your moments of the dark night of the soul. 00:47:26.400 |
Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the Creator, the Sovereign Ruler of all universe 00:47:34.840 |
And just as Moses prayed for Joshua and when Moses prayed, Joshua was victorious to show 00:47:42.600 |
But Moses was a man, he got tired and when his arms were lowered, Joshua would lose. 00:47:48.480 |
So men came alongside Moses to prop up his arms so that Joshua would be victorious. 00:48:00.960 |
He is never uncaring where He stops praying for you and me. 00:48:05.120 |
His eyes are always upon us and He's praying to the Father for us. 00:48:12.680 |
You see that, you believe that and you understand that your fight against the flesh is not dependent 00:48:20.720 |
But it's dependent upon Jesus who is praying for you because victory is the Lord and He 00:48:29.680 |
And He's praying to the Father not from far away but with His right hand. 00:48:34.760 |
To the degree you believe that and that faith makes it a reality in your heart, to that 00:48:44.040 |
You are making the flesh powerless in your life. 00:48:47.920 |
Thirdly, we mortify the flesh, verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with 00:49:07.920 |
The gospel says, the Bible says you are dead. 00:49:12.160 |
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things yet unseen. 00:49:16.520 |
Faith is not touching, not experiencing, not feeling. 00:49:20.360 |
Faith is believing in the promises of the Bible and the Bible says we are dead. 00:49:29.120 |
And not only that, we are hidden with Christ in God. 00:49:36.240 |
And when God sees us, He does not see our sins. 00:49:42.840 |
He doesn't see the reason for guilt, the reason for shame. 00:49:52.480 |
All He sees is the perfect righteousness of Jesus. 00:49:56.960 |
Luther equated with how dung covered in white snow. 00:50:02.480 |
Or similar Eustace at Pecator, simultaneously justified and sinful. 00:50:07.800 |
We are sinners, we will be sinners until Christ returns or we die. 00:50:12.600 |
But the gospel says when we are abiding in Him, simply trusting in Him, believing in 00:50:18.160 |
Him, being filled with the Spirit, we are covered in His righteousness. 00:50:22.320 |
Where when God sees us, all He ever says is, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. 00:50:32.040 |
In God's sight, we have perfect spiritual GPA. 00:51:02.480 |
The degree you believe that, that God loves you and His love is unchanged for you because 00:51:16.520 |
Flesh will have less power and influence over your life. 00:51:23.120 |
You load your conscience with shame and guilt. 00:51:29.480 |
Momentarily, you'll experience some kind of like growth against sin, but long term, it'll 00:51:40.200 |
It'll propel you towards sexual sin or propel you towards covetousness because the burden 00:51:47.240 |
of guilt and shame to find respite from that agony, you will find yourself going to cisterns 00:52:00.720 |
And the final way that you mortify the flesh is verse four. 00:52:04.540 |
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 00:52:18.560 |
He says nothing can stop you from appearing in glory before Jesus. 00:52:30.680 |
Maybe about three years ago, I was at 24 Hour Fitness playing ball with some guys and I 00:52:35.720 |
think I played one on one with a guy and I lost. 00:52:47.400 |
I'm better, but the only difference is he's younger. 00:52:54.120 |
I lost my first four steps, so I'm holding on to my fifth step. 00:52:59.320 |
And as I was sitting there kind of like, "Oh man, how could I lose to that guy? 00:53:03.280 |
And I realized, man, in my athletic skills, I've hit the peak and I'm on the downward, 00:53:11.120 |
And so I'm like, I don't even know how to run anymore. 00:53:24.720 |
And I realized, man, I'm not as smart as I was. 00:53:27.720 |
I was never very smart, but I'm not as smart as anymore. 00:53:34.000 |
And so my academic intelligent peak is behind me. 00:53:38.280 |
And I realized, man, in every area of my life, I was funnier before. 00:53:51.240 |
Except in one area, I have not yet hit my peak. 00:54:06.160 |
I will keep going up and I will one day be perfect. 00:54:21.120 |
Tell your parents, "Calculus doesn't matter." 00:54:22.120 |
The only thing that's important is our godliness. 00:54:25.680 |
And the only thing that matters, if you're a believer, will never stop growing to the 00:54:39.620 |
We will be the version of ourselves that God intended. 00:54:43.120 |
The person without the anxiety, without depression, without self-absorption, without pride, without 00:54:50.600 |
ego, without anger, without self-righteousness, without covetousness, without sexual sin. 00:54:56.560 |
We'll be that person freed from all the vices of our flesh and we will be in glory with 00:55:10.120 |
That is not because you fast a certain number of days. 00:55:14.000 |
That is because that is God's promise that he wrote with the blood of his son and he 00:55:22.880 |
Nothing can stop believers from glory, from heaven, and from absolute righteousness. 00:55:32.160 |
To the degree you believe that, to the degree the flesh will no longer have power over you. 00:55:41.040 |
The flesh will lose its influence, its grip upon your heart and you will escape the bondages 00:55:48.680 |
of sin and you will experience God's kingdom here and now. 00:55:56.400 |
There's got to be at least one person who says, "Pastor James, I agree with what you're 00:56:01.360 |
saying but I've been, I'm so enslaved by this sin. 00:56:08.160 |
I'm so ashamed, whether it's sexual sin or covetousness or other sins that I really don't 00:56:16.520 |
I have a hard time believing you, believing the Bible. 00:56:26.240 |
I want to set my mind on things that are above. 00:56:28.440 |
I want to seek the things that are above but I can't even lift my head." 00:56:36.520 |
Turn with me to Psalm chapter 3 and this is God's word to you, if that is your heart this 00:56:46.880 |
Psalm chapter 3, verse 3, "But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter 00:57:02.640 |
That is how beautiful, amazing, that is how gracious, kind our Lord is. 00:57:10.120 |
When we can't even lift our heads, He's the one who lifts our heads so that we might behold 00:57:16.560 |
Where just like that woman caught in adultery in John chapter 7, where she's surrounded 00:57:21.280 |
by her accusers with stones waiting to enact the capital punishment and Jesus says, "Has 00:57:31.120 |
She's the only one who has the right and authority to condemn her because He said, "Whoever 00:57:36.240 |
is without sin cast off her stone, they all left." 00:57:42.600 |
Jesus lifted her head and said, "Has no one condemned you and neither do I condemn you." 00:57:51.320 |
He lifts your head and tells you, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who 00:58:00.320 |
Christ came not to condemn sinners but rescue sinners, to forgive sinners. 00:58:10.840 |
If you're righteous, then you spurn His love. 00:58:13.960 |
Jesus came not for the righteous but for the sinful. 00:58:20.400 |
And if you are a sinner before a holy God today, then experience Him lifting your head 00:58:26.960 |
that you might behold the one who loves you unconditionally so that through that love 00:58:37.160 |
you will put to death all that is earthly in you. 00:58:45.760 |
Lord, there are times where we are so gripped with the base, hidden, dark sins of our hearts 00:59:04.480 |
that we lose our way and we lose sight of the cross. 00:59:12.960 |
And in those moments our hearts are filled with horror and fear and we feel like it is 00:59:19.640 |
a thousand mile journey to get back to the cross. 00:59:25.760 |
But the reality is we are one step away from being at the foot of Calvary. 00:59:40.040 |
And as the prodigal son's father ran to him, You run towards us a thousand mile distance 00:59:46.320 |
in a split second if we just turn to You and look up. 00:59:52.320 |
So Lord, no matter the state of our lives, may You find hearts that are humble and broken 00:59:58.520 |
who will turn away from efforts of the flesh to overcome the flesh. 01:00:06.520 |
And now turn to the Spirit, turn to Christ, turn to Your love and in You find the power, 01:00:14.720 |
the beauty, the glory, the love to continue what You have begun in our lives knowing that 01:00:24.760 |
Father may You lift many heads this morning and that way lift many hearts.