Pastor Peter and I go way, way, way back, high school years, and like 20 pounds ago. Same height, both of us from high school. That hasn't changed. And we grew together in the Lord. He actually led me to Christ in 1989. He discipled me. We lived together and ministered together.

And actually, Esther, his wife, discipled my wife, and they're both school teachers. It's like uncanny. It's crazy. And now, like the next generation of Shins and Kims are hanging out together. Like Faith and Elizabeth are like Facebook friends and Kakao friends, and they hang out. And then like a year ago, Peter and I played Zachary and Jeremy in two-on-two basketball.

I don't know if they're here today, but the older generation won. I don't know if they let us win or not, but it doesn't matter. We still won. And I'm never going to play them again. I'll just leave it at that. I'm going to be one and O, and that'll be the end of it.

But it's a joy to be with all of you. All of that was nothing. It was just fluff. If you open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3, and we just have one verse. Whole sermon on one verse. Chapter 3, verse 5. Do you guys usually stand for the reading of God's Word?

Or what do you guys usually do? No? Okay. Okay, that's fine. You guys relax. I'll just read up here. Colossians 3, 5. "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Sovereign, holy, gracious, loving Father, we come to you now, and we ask for your help.

For we know and believe that you have said that unless the watchman builds, the watchman watches in vain, unless you build, the builder builds in vain. And so all of our study, all of our efforts to understand your truth and apply it to our lives are all in vain without the assistance, the empowerment, and the help of your Holy Spirit, the paraclete, our counselor.

So we pray that you would fill us with your Spirit, that you would lead us by your Spirit, that we would walk in step and be led by your Spirit, and so that you will receive all the glory for our time together and all the fruit that is produced in time.

So therefore, Lord, we again commit this hour to you as we study and as we listen, but our hearts are praying, our hearts are looking to you, and that you might go before us. And Lord, open our eyes to see the wonderful things that are in your law. We thank you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Well, I distinctly remember I was about 20 years old, a year old in the faith. I had a few open Sundays, so I went out to E.V. Free Fullerton, pastored then by Charles Swindoll. You guys know Charles Swindoll? Okay, good. Some of you guys know Charles Swindoll. And he was a godly man, a faithful expositor, so I went to his church and was encouraged by the service and the sermon.

Afterwards, I went to the bookstore and I wanted to buy like a souvenir sermon from the church, so I went to the tape section and asked to buy a sermon tape. You guys know what cassette tapes are? What are you guys talking about? What are you talking about? Before CDs and MP3s, there was a thing called a cassette tape.

It was like a rectangular plastic thing that had wheels and you put it in your car. You had to fast forward and rewind to get to the right part of the song or the sermon and you would listen and eventually it would wear out and you had to buy another one.

So I asked a lady to buy a sermon tape and she asked me, "Which sermon do you want?" And I said, "I don't have a particular sermon in mind. Can you pick one for me?" It was an older lady in her 60s. She looked at me and she went to the back and she brought out a sermon for me to purchase and I looked at the tape and the sermon title was "Plea for Sexual Purity" from Psalm 51.

And I looked at her and said, "Really? That obvious? What are you trying to say?" And I kind of blushed and she was like, "Oh no, I'm not pointing you out or anything." But she just was blessed by this sermon and she thought I would be helped by it as a young man.

Well that was 25 years ago. If you can do the math to see how old I am today, that was over 25 years ago. And I listened to that sermon many times and it's been very helpful to me. And as an older woman, a godly woman, she knew by her life what kind of challenges I would face as a young man trying to walk in Christ, to mature as a godly man, to grow in my faith.

You guys all know Psalm 51. You guys know 2 Samuel chapter 12. David was tempted by Bathsheba. He tempted himself and he committed adultery and he was ensnared in his sin to a degree where he had Bathsheba's husband Uriah murdered. And Uriah was not just any old soldier in his army.

Uriah was one of the mighty men of David. When David was hiding from King Saul in the wilderness of Ein Gedi, God sent many young men to fight with and fight for David and one of the men that God sent was Uriah. So Uriah was a long term friend, fellow soldier in David's army and David betrayed Uriah, had him murdered because he slept with Bathsheba, his wife.

And from that point on he was never the same again. King David's life was marred from that point on. He became a shell of himself, a man who had entered into the army of God by fighting the giant Goliath and defeating him with a stone and a sling, was reduced to a man who was running away from his kingdom, Jerusalem, barefooted, being cursed by Shammai and overthrown by his son.

All because of what happened on that faithful evening when he committed this heinous sin. Apostle Paul understands the importance of this issue in the Christian life. That if we want to grow as a believer, if we want to be effective ministers of Christ, if we want to be evangelists and missionaries, before we try to fight the war out there, we must be engaged and overcome and be victorious in the battle within.

The front lines of spiritual warfare is not out there in the world. It's not in Hollywood. It's not in Washington DC. The front lines of spiritual warfare is in our hearts. Is right here inside of us. So we must experience private victory if we want to experience victory in the world.

Paul is saying that sin is not outside coming in. Sin is inside coming out. That is what the Pharisees could not accept. That is the truth that the Pharisees could not receive. For them, sin was outside. Sin was in the Gentile world. Sin was in society, in the culture, in the world.

And they were pure and they were holy, godly, righteous, biblical. And so they were committed to obeying the Bible as a way of maintaining their righteousness. And one of the key commands they obeyed was dietary laws. And Jesus said in Mark 7, sin is not outside. What goes inside of you does not make you unclean.

What makes you unclean is what flows out from your heart. And out of your heart comes all sexual sin, immorality, impurity, malice, jealousy, hatred, anger, slander. Sin is in our hearts coming out. And the following metaphor, illustration that Christ gave was if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.

If your left hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Because it's better for you to enter heaven maimed than for you to go to hell as a whole person. So Christ called his disciples to take a radical approach towards all sin. But the problem is that our eyes are not the source of sin.

It's the means by which we sin. Our mouth is not the source of sin. It's the means by which we sin against others. My right hand doesn't cause me to sin. My right hand is the means by which I sin. Right? Where does sin come from? If it was my right hand, it'd be easy.

Just cut it off and the issue is solved. But the problem is sin is in our hearts. Sin is coming out. And we can't cut out the heart because it's the source of our physical life. Not the heart. We cannot live. Therefore, the predicament that you and I are in is that we are sinners.

We will be sinners until our death or the return of Christ. But we must not approach our flesh with an idea of truce, with an idea of negotiating with our flesh and finding out some way of compromise where we can win-win. Right? Flesh, I'll let you win. You know, I'll let you have some areas of my life.

Let me have some areas of my life. And we can both have what we want. No, that is not acceptable because sin wants to be killing you. Sin has only one agenda, one objective, one focus. And that is to undermine your Christian faith, to shipwreck you, lead you astray, and to mar your Christian testimony.

That's why Pastor John Owen said, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." Here the Apostle Paul said to us, "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you." The only acceptable mindset towards what is fleshly in us, earthly in us, the flesh is mortification. The Greek word is nekros.

Make a corpse out of your flesh. Right? Go for the jugular vein. Don't try to live with sin. Don't compromise with sin. Do not negotiate with sin. No, you must seek to put it to death. You must try to mortify it, make a corpse out of it. Now, there is some conflict here because if you go to Colossians chapter 2 verse 12, Paul just told us that we were buried with him in baptism.

That we are crucified, that we have died, that we have been buried with Jesus in our spirit baptism. Not only that, in chapter 3 verse 3, it says, "You have died." Verse 3, "For you have died." Paul, you tell us we're dead and now you're telling us to put to death?

How are we to understand this? To illustrate this, I must appeal, I must go to Korean cuisine. I am Korean American and an area of my life where I'm very Korean is my love for Korean food. I love all Asian food. Thai food, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, they're all right there.

But when I'm really hungry, nothing hits the spot like Korean food. But even though I love Korean food, there is three dishes that's difficult for me. One of them I eat and two of them, one of them I tried, I will not eat again. And the third one, I will not even try.

The one that I eat for a while, I couldn't eat for a while. When I was in high school, I used to eat a lot and I stopped for a few years. It's a ggori gomtang, an oxtail soup. Oxtail soup. When I was in high school, I remember eating it with my family and loving every bit of it.

You know, the bone, you would chew on it, get every piece of the meat, drink the soup. And I just loved ggori gomtang, oxtail soup. And then one day in college, somebody told me that this is oxtail soup. And I never connected the dots. I don't know, I'm just like slow, I'm just eating.

I'm slurping so I don't hear what they're saying. But I heard it's oxtail. So I'm like, wait a minute, this is a tail of an ox? And I look at it and it's round. And I think of an ox and it's a tail. And I'm like, oh my goodness, that's gross.

Right? Who's the first Korean guy that looked at an ox and said, man, that tail. Let's try to cook this tail in a soup and eat it. And I understand Korea back in the day was a poor country, so they had to eat every part of the tail, the part of the cow.

But we're not poor anymore. We can have the prime rib, we can have the sirloin, the rib eye, we don't have to eat the tail. Why are we doing this? So for several years, I just could not do it. And then one moment of weakness, you know, like in my college years, I gave in and started eating and I just tried to erase the picture of that poor cow without the tail.

And it was so good. The second cuisine that I tried once and I will not eat again is gopchang, pig intestine. Some of you guys are like, what? That's the best thing again. Right? We're a billion people in the world. Their religion says don't eat pigs. Why? Because they're filthy animals.

Right? They live in their own excrement. They live in their own, you know what I'm talking about. So they consider pigs such dirty animals, you're not to eat pork. Well Koreans not only eat pork, they want to eat, they eat the intestines of a pork. Intestines of a pork.

You guys understand what I'm saying, right? So when you guys eat gopchang, you know what you're eating. So I had a Korean barbecue about a year ago. My friend ordered gopchang and he's grilling it on the grill and I'm like, oh man, that thing's touching my, you know, chadolbaegi.

It's touching my, you know, like Hawaiian steak. And it's like popping, right? It's got like, you know, it's just popping. It's over, it's like greasy. And he said, try it. I said, all right. I'm going to add up. I tried a piece. It was okay. It was decent. It was okay.

Maybe good. But it's not like pig intestine good. Right? So I'm like, I'm never eating that again. That story's too long. The third cuisine that I will not eat is live octopus. Did you guys hear, did you guys see this in Andrew Zeran in Bizarre Foods? Korean, you go to a Korean restaurant, they serve Korean octopus, live octopus, and they cut it up.

And instead of like frying it or grilling it or boiling it or baking it or doing something with it, they serve it raw. And it's moving. And so the Koreans get that octopus and they dip it in gochujang, of course, right? And they put it in their mouth. And as they're chewing, the tentacles are all moving, like sucking on the mouth and the outside.

And you have to chew it finely because if you don't, as it's going down your throat, it'll stick to your throat. It could be like hazardous to you. And I'm like, oh my goodness, that is not something that I want to, I don't want to eat anything that's still moving.

But that is the picture of our Christian life and the flesh. Think of the live octopus next time you think about the flesh. That octopus is dead. It's cut up. It's moving, but it's dead. You can't like glue it back together and say, oh, it's a flesh wound. It'll be all right, octopus.

I'm going to feed you and give you water. You'll be okay. No, no, no. No amount of like CPR or like whatever is going to help that octopus. It's dead, but it's moving. And that is a picture of our flesh. We have been crucified. Galatians 2 20. I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I have been buried with him. Christ was crucified on the cross. Our sins were crucified on the cross and every believer was crucified with Jesus on the cross. We are dead and raised with Christ. It cannot be undone.

We cannot lose what God has given to us once for all. Yet at the same time, practically, functionally, in real time, the flesh is alive and well in your life and my life, waging guerrilla warfare and has power, has strength, has great influence to tempt us and to cause us, lead us to sin.

And the kinds of sins we're talking about is not like minor sins where the flesh is so weak it could only tempt us to sin like small white lies. No, the kinds of sins that Paul is talking about in verse five, he lists them sexual immorality, pornea, general war, word for fornication, all illicit sexual sin, impurity, like uncleanness, passion, it's pathos, evil desire, cacos epithemia, evil lusts.

We're in our flesh, there's all these lusts that rage against us, wanting us to pursue these sinful things, covetousness, which is idolatry. Paul is saying this is in you, right? Look to death therefore what is earthly in you and we could, Pastor Peter's preaching through Romans, you'll get there in Romans 7 and Paul says it is a law that when I want to do what is right, sin is right there inside of me.

I cannot run from my flesh. I cannot hide from my flesh. I cannot hide from these base impulses of the heart. They are right there and it's very foolish for us to think that we can somehow contain and control sin by way of some human or earthly measures. We were reminded of this truth just a few months ago and I mentioned his name.

I am not condemning this man. He is, I believe, a brother in Christ. I am a greater sinner before God than him. I am no way, I hope not demeaning him but we all heard of Josh Duggar, right? And so Josh Duggar is the oldest son of the Duggars.

You know, you guys are shocked that we have six kids and it is pretty shocking, right? We actually own, we drive around a church van, a 12-seater, right? We had a, you know, a Honda Odyssey, a 7-seater and there was no seat for me, right? I was like, kind of like discouraged.

I was like sad. I was like, there is no chair for daddy. So I had to drive in a separate car. But after a few months, I actually liked it. Like I am by myself, listening to sports radio and my wife is like, you know, with the seven kids.

But, so we actually bought like a huge van, a 12-seater and so one of the families that we looked up to were the Duggars. They had 19 kids growing up in Arkansas and though they were, they had a TV show, they didn't own a television, they didn't watch TV or movies, they didn't have internet access.

So their kids grew up like little house in the prairie, right? So they actually went to this amusement park and they saw this like display of how people in the West dressed like 100 years ago and it was comical because the way people dress 100 years ago and the Duggars were very similar.

It was like they were going back and forth in their dress, their modest clothing was eerily similar. That's how conservative, biblical, they were homeschooled, house churches. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are godly believers, trained their kids in the Lord and their first kid, you always do your best job in the first kid, right?

All the first borns, you get all the pressure, all the standard and your parents burn out. Like our sixth, she is like out of control because we're just too tired to train her, teach her, discipline her. But the first is where your full focus goes to in parenting and yet Josh Duggar became this leader, like a politician, a family values man and it turned out he had two accounts in Ashley Madison, repeatedly committed adultery against his wife and it all came out in a sort of detail on the internet.

And that's a vivid reminder that yeah, you can take your family to a compound, cut off all internet, cable, radio, secular music, secular influences, raise them in homeschooling. I'm not going down to homeschooling, we homeschool, but you do all of that and to think that you are safe from sin is, is foolishness.

Paul says here that put to death what is earthly in you, it is inside of you right now and if you deny that reality, that is to your own detriment. I think most men would humbly acknowledge the reality of these temptations of the first four, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire.

And I have counseled so many couples where the guy was caught with pornography and the wife is all like grieving and sad or the guy committed adultery and I'm counseling them both and the guy just feels so, so awful and at the same time the wife is just angry.

She is condemning the husband, understandably to some degree, but for a lot of women, it's hard for women to understand, guys, what's wrong with you guys? All right? You know, some women's response to this is like, just stop it. Get a hold of yourself. What is wrong with you?

You guys are dogs. You guys are like monsters. Why do you have so little self-control? What is so difficult here? Right? Just a little bit of discipline, just stop. Control yourself and turn away what is so difficult. And one of the temptations for women, whether in the family or in the church, is to become very proud and judgmental and self-righteous because they see the flesh powerfully at work in the lives of men and really making them passive, making them just passive and carnal and worldly and they cannot understand it.

I really think this is the mental health issue of our generation. The previous generation was smoking for decades. People didn't know the harmful effects of smoking. And in fact, in the 50s, you had anxiety or insomnia. Doctors would actually prescribe cigarettes as a way of helping you cope with anxiety because they didn't know the carcinogens that was in tobacco smoke and how harmful it would be.

And only later did we find out, oh, it was an epidemic. The cancer-causing agents of cigarette smoke is such that now we realize how harmful it is. Well, I believe in 10, 20, 30 years from now, if not already, we'll look back and we'll see that addiction to pornography is an epidemic.

It is the root cause of insomnia, social anxiety, depression, bipolar, all these psychological terms, all these men becoming passive and shallow and self-centered and not being active spiritually and not being leaders is tied to their shame and guilt over this hidden sin. And it's the pervasiveness of pornography. It's the first time in human history that this has occurred.

Or pornography is pervasive, is ubiquitous, right? It's everywhere. It's two buttons, two pushes away on the internet and it goes with you on your smartphone wherever you go. And I think it's coming to understanding how an epidemic it is in the lives of so many people. And women have a hard time understanding this and they can become very judgmental and frustrated.

Here's a little pastoral homiletics. I have some commentaries to back me up on this, but I can't say here with 100%, but I think there is some aspect where Paul made this list and the first four is dealing generally with men. Not absolutely, no, but generally men struggle with the first four, but he included the last one for the female believers of the Church of Colossae, which is covetousness.

Now not absolutely, but generally covetousness is a temptation and a vice that women struggle with. Not so much with men. Like men, I don't covet his shirt. I don't notice that hairstyle. Man, I wish my hair was like that. Like oh, his body figure. Wow, that's a nice body figure.

Guys usually don't. We dress for ourselves. We dress for comfort. We don't notice each other's like, I don't know, biceps. Maybe some of you do, but I don't. But women, not absolutely, not every woman, but generally women are so relational, they're constantly comparing themselves with others. They're constantly noticing other women's eyebrows.

They notice their hair color. They notice their personality and their relationships and their godliness, and they're constantly comparing themselves with others. Comparing other people's success and ability. And men struggle with too, but generally more so with women. This is, as Paul says, it's earthly. It's sin. Someone said it is a sin that nobody talks about.

Another pastor said it is called the mother of all sins. It is a deceptive sin, unsatiable sin, all-consuming sin. It is a hidden sin. Immorality, we know, we struggle, we know it is sin, but covetousness is so deep and dark and hidden, and many are unaware that this is the root issue, the core issue of sin in their lives.

It is an uncontrollable sin, sin that keeps growing, and Paul referred to this sin as the sin that he could not conquer in Romans 7. When God said, "Do not covet," there was a converse effect in his life where all these covetous desires rose within him. And Paul calls it idolatry.

Paul is not referring to all five vices here. He's referring to covetousness. This is idolatry. This is breaking of the most important command, which is, "You shall have no other gods above me." This is a violation of the greatest command, which is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." This is actually displacing God from His rightful place as one we worship, and worshiping, adoring, pursuing, delighting in something else, it is idolatry.

DeMart Loyd-Jones said, "Idolatry is anything that you and I tend to set up as the big thing, the central thing in our lives about which we think and dream, the thing that engages our imagination, the thing that we live for, the thing that gives us the biggest thrill. If it is anything other than God, it is idolatry." Luther said, "Whatever your heart clings to and relies on, that is your lowercase God." Tim Keller said, "An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, 'If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning.

Then I'll know I have value. Then I'll feel significant and secure.'" There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship. Idol is, "If I have that, then I'll be happy. Then I'll be content. Then I'll be secure. Then I will feel beautiful.

Then I can have peace and joy." And that is idolatry. That is a grievous sin against God. Women, if I were to say to you, "Just stop it. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Stop being so idolatrous. Stop coveting. Stop looking at others. What's wrong with you?" Would that resonate with you?

Would that be helpful to you? Can you just turn the switch and turn it off and not covet? No, you'll say, "Pastor James, it is a brokenness that is in me that goes so deep that I fight and fight and fight, and it is a constant struggle." So just as it is with men, it is with women.

The flesh is not a simple sin that we can overcome easily. So the million dollar question is, "How do we put to death all that is earthly in us? How do we make a corpse out of the flesh?" Some will say, "You starve the flesh. You starve the flesh and you feed the spirit." Now, understand me.

I'm not saying this is absolutely wrong or it's unadvisable. There are helpful things here where people say, "Don't watch movies. Don't listen to K-pop. K-pop is a source of the flesh. Don't listen to... Don't watch Korean drama. You become dramatic when you watch Korean drama. Don't hang out with worldly friends.

Don't go to Fashion Island. That's where all the covetousness resides. Avoid these places. Instead, come to church. Read the Bible. Pray. Listen to sermons. Listen to praise music. Starve the flesh and feed the spirit. That's how you mortify the flesh. And I would say, Galatians 3.3, is that how you are saved?

Is that how you receive the Holy Spirit? By starving your flesh? By fasting? By praying for weeks on end? Is that how you receive the Spirit of God and have your sins forgiven? By avoiding sinful places and going to places that were holy and righteous? Is that how God worked this miracle of regeneration in your heart by the works of the flesh?

And Paul says 10,000 times, "No! You receive the Spirit by faith and are you now being perfected by the flesh? May it never be!" No! We began by faith and we are to continue by faith and not by works. To think that we start with Christ and we continue reliance on our flesh.

To Paul, that is not Orthodox Christianity. Some would say you mortify the flesh by some ecstatic experience. Through some Gnostic, esoteric, spiritual encounter with the Holy Spirit. Where you go to the highest point of the mountain and you wrestle with Satan. You yell at him and rebuke him for days on end.

And afterwards, an angel visits you or a special man or woman prays for you and anoints you. And you receive this anointing and from that point on you experience victory to victory. You're an overcomer and you have risen above the fleshly impulses of the heart. And you become an overcomer.

That's how you grow as a Christian. And I would say, "No, that is not it at all." Some would say that the way you overcome the flesh is by way of theology. Going to seminary, learning Greek and Hebrew, reading Bonson, reading Van Til, reading these esoteric French Christian philosophers.

So if you immerse yourself with all these truths and become biblical, become conservative, become faithful to the Bible, then you will overcome the flesh. I have some time here. Remember when Nathan rebuked David? And Nathan's smart. Nathan, if he says, "You sinner," David will say, "Give me your head and it's over." So Nathan goes to David very wisely and he says, "King David, I have a story to tell you about what's happened in our nation." And David says, "What?

There's these two men and one man is rich and he's got thousands of animals as part of his property. Another man is poor. He only has one ewe lamb and this lamb is so precious to him that he's considered a part of his family, like his own daughter," it says in 2 Samuel 12.

"Well, the rich man had a visitor and instead of sacrificing one of his animals, he stole that one ewe lamb from that poor man and had it slaughtered for his traveling friend." And David is incensed. David is so angry and his response is, "That man must repay the poor man fourfold of the value of that ewe lamb." Where did he get this from?

This is from the Mosaic Law. If you steal from someone, you must recompense, right? You must pay a penalty four times what you stole. But then David also said, "That man deserves to die. That man deserves to die." What? David, he didn't kill the man. He didn't kill his daughter.

Are you misunderstanding? The ewe lamb was like a daughter, but it was still an animal. So he just stole property. David says, "That man deserves to die." Wow, why so strong? Why so harsh? Commentator said, "Derek Kinder, it's compensatory zeal." So when you feel David was in sin for a year, he knew what he had done.

He was so ashamed, so guilt-ridden, he was so afraid somebody might find out that when this came about, he compensated by being overly righteous. This is so wrong. This is an incredible injustice. This man deserves to die for killing a lamb? David, you are the man. You didn't just kill a lamb.

You committed adultery and you killed a human being. You killed your loyal friend, Uriah, and you covered this up. You are the man. Do you deserve to die? People that struggle with sin, private, hidden, constitutional guilt and shame, they cover up their compensatory zeal by being overly righteous, overly conservative, overly traditional, and demonizing the other side, and making a mountain out of molehill, and judging and condemning, and casting down verdicts of condemnation, pointing fingers as a way of covering up their guilt, their shame, and their sins.

And this happens by way of theology, by way of ministering in the church, serving the church or other good works. For many, it is all a way of covering up their sin. And they think because they are so immersed in good works, because they are so righteous and biblical, somehow their flesh is mortified.

I would say, let's be biblical here. Let's go back to the Bible. I'm not saying all of that is wrong in of itself, but what does the Bible say? Here verse 5 tells us how we are to mortify the flesh. Put to death, therefore. Therefore, put to death. This is how you put to death whatever is earthly in you.

The way to mortify the flesh is found in verses 1 through 4. 1 through 4, put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly in you. This is how we mortify the flesh. Colossians 3, 1 through 4, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Verse 1, "If then you have been raised with Christ." That is an important qualifier.

Are you a believer? Are you a Christian? If you are not a Christian, the reason the flesh is alive and well is because the flesh is alive and well. The reason you privately in the hidden places of your life are powerless against the flesh is because you are still a foreigner, an alien to Christ's salvation.

You are still completely in the flesh. So could it be that you are not in Christ? That's the qualifier. "If then you have been raised with Christ." That also has a secondary reference to believers. Where some believers, they're Christians, and yet they are immature baby Christians. They are still trusting in Jesus who is either still on the cross, there's no cross here, okay, still hanging on the cross, or he's still buried.

So their functional faith, their real time faith is not the risen Christ. They are still grieving, they are still mourning, they are depressed, they are downtrodden because the Jesus that they worship is still being crucified or is in the grave. No, the orthodox faith is Christ died and was risen and right now he is alive.

He is not in the grave. He is not a fading memory. He is not an ancient historical figure. He is not dead. The Jesus that you and I believers believe in and worship is alive right now. And not only that believers, we have risen with him. We have experienced the power of his resurrection in our Christian lives.

For some believers, they're still looking for Jesus in the grave, in the cemetery. If that is you, then you need to receive the risen Christ. You need to believe in the resurrected Christ. Christ that is alive now through the spirit in our hearts. And you must also experience being raised with him in the power of his resurrection.

Now if that is you, you are a believer and you have been raised, you have conviction, you have assurance, you have been struck by gospel lightning, you have experienced the power of resurrection, if that is the case, then now you are ready to mortify the flesh. What is the first way you mortify the flesh?

This is a general one. You seek the things that are above and you set your mind on things that are above. You seek and you set on things above, not what's inside and not what's below. Guys, if you live your Christian lives looking inward, then you will be very depressed, very discouraged, you will be dejected, you will burn out, you will lose heart.

You have a short Christian life ahead of you if you live your Christian life looking at yourself or if you live your Christian life looking at the world and how fallen it is, how corrupt, how sinful it is. No, the way to mortify the flesh is not by looking in, not by looking at others, not by looking at me.

No, the way to live the Christian life is by looking up, to seek and to fix your mind on above and who is there? It says here, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Jesus is in heaven. He is our hope. He is the way through faith in Him by which we mortify the flesh and look at the posture of Jesus.

Christ is in heaven and He is seated at the right hand of God. He is seated. The high priest when he went into the Holy of Holies had a no, he had no chair. He's working, he's tirelessly working. Why? Because the Israelites are continually sinning and the blood of animals have no power for remission of sin, Hebrews 7.

Therefore he has to every year offer sacrifices of animals and shed blood that had no power to forgive us of our sins. But Jesus when He went down to the most holy place in heaven, it's the presence of God. What did He do? He sat down. Why? Because His work is done.

He went down to cross, He shed His blood once and for all and He cried out to tell us, "Die, it is finished. Our salvation is secure." Once and for all. We are in Christ, we are saved, we are forgiven, past, present and future. He doesn't have to keep dying for us.

He doesn't have to keep bleeding for us. He died once for all and He is seated. And so seeing Him tells us that our salvation cannot be taken away. No matter how much I sin, no matter how much you fall away, we cannot exhaust God's love that is in the Gospel.

We cannot sin our way out of God's grace. Why? Because the work is complete. He is seated at the place of greatest authority, at the right hand of God. And what is He doing at the right hand of the Father? Hebrews 7.25 and Romans 8.34 says that Jesus always lives to intercede for us.

That right now, Jesus is praying for you by name. He's praying for you in your struggle against sin, in your struggle against temptation, in your moments of the dark night of the soul. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the Creator, the Sovereign Ruler of all universe and He is praying for you.

And just as Moses prayed for Joshua and when Moses prayed, Joshua was victorious to show that victory is the Lord. But Moses was a man, he got tired and when his arms were lowered, Joshua would lose. So men came alongside Moses to prop up his arms so that Joshua would be victorious.

But Jesus never grows tired. He never slumbers. He is never uncaring where He stops praying for you and me. His eyes are always upon us and He's praying to the Father for us. You see that, you believe that and you understand that your fight against the flesh is not dependent upon you.

But it's dependent upon Jesus who is praying for you because victory is the Lord and He can never, He never tires. And He's praying to the Father not from far away but with His right hand. To the degree you believe that and that faith makes it a reality in your heart, to that degree you are mortifying the flesh.

You are making the flesh powerless in your life. Thirdly, we mortify the flesh, verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Do you believe this? That you are dead? That the flesh speaks to you? It seems powerful, seems effectual. The gospel says, the Bible says you are dead.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things yet unseen. Faith is not touching, not experiencing, not feeling. Faith is believing in the promises of the Bible and the Bible says we are dead. The flesh is dead. And not only that, we are hidden with Christ in God.

We are covered with His righteousness. And when God sees us, He does not see our sins. He doesn't see the reason for guilt, the reason for shame. He doesn't see any spot or blemish. He doesn't see anything wrong with us. All He sees is the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

Luther equated with how dung covered in white snow. Or similar Eustace at Pecator, simultaneously justified and sinful. We are sinners, we will be sinners until Christ returns or we die. But the gospel says when we are abiding in Him, simply trusting in Him, believing in Him, being filled with the Spirit, we are covered in His righteousness.

Where when God sees us, all He ever says is, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. In God's sight, we have perfect spiritual GPA. You know, spiritual SAT, we scored perfect. We've never sinned against Him. We've never wronged Him. We've never doubted Him. We never went astray in God's sight.

We are righteous. He delights over us. He sings before our presence. Why? Because we are covered in Christ. The degree you believe that, that God loves you and His love is unchanged for you because of Christ, not because of you. To that degree, you're mortifying the flesh. Flesh will have less power and influence over your life.

You load your heart with guilt. You load your conscience with shame and guilt. Momentarily, you will overcome sin. Momentarily, you'll experience some kind of like growth against sin, but long term, it'll so discourage you. It'll propel you towards sexual sin or propel you towards covetousness because the burden of guilt and shame to find respite from that agony, you will find yourself going to cisterns that do not hold water.

You are covered. You're hidden with Christ in God. And the final way that you mortify the flesh is verse four. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. This is a promise of Christ. This is the promise of God. He says nothing can stop you from appearing in glory before Jesus.

Nothing. Maybe about three years ago, I was at 24 Hour Fitness playing ball with some guys and I think I played one on one with a guy and I lost. I'm better than that guy. In my humble estimation, I'm better. I'm better, but the only difference is he's younger.

He's thinner and younger and he didn't lose. I lost my first four steps, so I'm holding on to my fifth step. That's all it is. And as I was sitting there kind of like, "Oh man, how could I lose to that guy? I'm better." And I realized, man, in my athletic skills, I've hit the peak and I'm on the downward, I'm on the decline.

And so I'm like, I don't even know how to run anymore. I can't even squat. I can't even sit down on the floor. My body is breaking down. So it's sad. My athletic peak is behind me. And I realized, man, I'm not as smart as I was. I was never very smart, but I'm not as smart as anymore.

I'm forgetting things. And so my academic intelligent peak is behind me. And I realized, man, in every area of my life, I was funnier before. Right? I mean, everything in my life. I hit my peak, I'm on the downward decline. I'm like, "Man, that's sad. It's kind of depressing." Except in one area, I have not yet hit my peak.

I am still ascending. And what is that? It's the only thing that's important. It's my sanctification. It's my faith. Right? I will keep going up and I will one day be perfect. I will be holy. I'll be righteous. Now, who cares about basketball? Who cares about humor? Who cares about if you know calculus?

Right? Does that matter? Tell your parents, "Calculus doesn't matter." The only thing that's important is our godliness. And the only thing that matters, if you're a believer, will never stop growing to the point where we will be in glory. We will be like him, 1 John 2.2. We will be righteous, without sin.

We will be the version of ourselves that God intended. The person without the anxiety, without depression, without self-absorption, without pride, without ego, without anger, without self-righteousness, without covetousness, without sexual sin. We'll be that person freed from all the vices of our flesh and we will be in glory with Christ forever.

And that is not because we do something. That is not because you fast a certain number of days. No. That is because that is God's promise that he wrote with the blood of his son and he will do it. Nothing can stop believers from glory, from heaven, and from absolute righteousness.

To the degree you believe that, to the degree the flesh will no longer have power over you. The flesh will lose its influence, its grip upon your heart and you will escape the bondages of sin and you will experience God's kingdom here and now. There's got to be at least one person who says, "Pastor James, I agree with what you're saying but I've been, I'm so enslaved by this sin.

I'm so ashamed, whether it's sexual sin or covetousness or other sins that I really don't have hope. I have a hard time believing you, believing the Bible. I'm so despondent and discouraged. I've lost heart. I've burnt out. I want to look up. I want to set my mind on things that are above.

I want to seek the things that are above but I can't even lift my head." I'll close with Psalm chapter 3. Turn with me to Psalm chapter 3 and this is God's word to you, if that is your heart this morning. Psalm chapter 3, verse 3, "But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head." That is how beautiful, amazing, that is how gracious, kind our Lord is.

He even lifts our heads. When we can't even lift our heads, He's the one who lifts our heads so that we might behold His glory. Where just like that woman caught in adultery in John chapter 7, where she's surrounded by her accusers with stones waiting to enact the capital punishment and Jesus says, "Has no one condemned you?" She's the only one who has the right and authority to condemn her because He said, "Whoever is without sin cast off her stone, they all left." She could not lift her head.

Jesus lifted her head and said, "Has no one condemned you and neither do I condemn you." He lifts your head and tells you, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Christ came not to condemn sinners but rescue sinners, to forgive sinners. Jesus only loves sinners.

If you're righteous, then you spurn His love. Jesus came not for the righteous but for the sinful. And if you are a sinner before a holy God today, then experience Him lifting your head that you might behold the one who loves you unconditionally so that through that love you will put to death all that is earthly in you.

Let's pray. Lord, there are times where we are so gripped with the base, hidden, dark sins of our hearts that we lose our way and we lose sight of the cross. And in those moments our hearts are filled with horror and fear and we feel like it is a thousand mile journey to get back to the cross.

But the reality is we are one step away from being at the foot of Calvary. That when we turn to You, You run toward us. That swift are the footsteps of mercy. And as the prodigal son's father ran to him, You run towards us a thousand mile distance in a split second if we just turn to You and look up.

So Lord, no matter the state of our lives, may You find hearts that are humble and broken who will turn away from efforts of the flesh to overcome the flesh. And now turn to the Spirit, turn to Christ, turn to Your love and in You find the power, the beauty, the glory, the love to continue what You have begun in our lives knowing that You will do it.

Father may You lift many heads this morning and that way lift many hearts. Lord, we love You, we thank You. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. (chiming)