We trust that as we wait together upon
the Lord, he will not only illumine the
sacred page to us, but at the same
time kindle an inspiration within our hearts to
be obedient to what his word tells us.
As I closed my book before coming down
to the service tonight, I found that I
was having to ask myself the question whether
I was prepared to obey the very challenging
passage that comes before us tonight in the
epistle to the Colossians.
And I'm quite sure that you too will
feel something of the keen edge of challenge
that comes here.
We can only avoid the challenge of scripture
by avoiding scripture itself, or by just skimming
the surface of things and not allowing the
truth to challenge us in a frontal, wholehearted
way.
May the Lord save us from that tonight.
Now I would like to read again verses
5 to 11 in chapter 3.
We are proceeding from where we were this
morning.
I hope none of you who were with
us in the morning hour will feel that
this is too much of a diet from
the epistle to the Colossians.
In one way, perhaps it's a good thing
to follow the theme through morning and evening.
Well, that is what is on my heart
this evening, and I want to share it
with you.
Now let us come then to verse 5,
and I'm reading from the New International Version.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires,
and greed which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is
coming upon the children of disobedience, it says
at the bottom of the page.
You used to walk in these ways in
the life you once lived, but now you
must rid yourselves of all such things as
these.
These, of course, only being examples.
Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy communication or
filthy language from your lips.
Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge in the
image of its creator.
Here there is no Greek nor Jew, circumcised
or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but
Christ is all and is in all.
May the Lord help us to see the
thrust of this very challenging passage of his
word.
Now, with these words, we pass from the
exposition of the general principles that we were
enunciating this morning to the matter of their
very personal and intimate application to our individual
lives.
Scripture does this without announcing it and does
it regularly.
There are certain passages of scripture, certain passages
in these epistles, and they're actually dealing with
large, big principles.
There's very little immediate application.
But you move on, follow the argument through,
and before you go very far you will
find that the apostles, by the Spirit of
God, will then come to a point where
they turn the whole thing upon you as
the reader or upon those who listen to
the exposition of such a word.
And that's what we have tonight.
And therefore, I have to forewarn you, this
is not a very easy sort of service.
If you and I have consciences that are
in any way in tune, if you and
I have a functioning conscience tonight, we are
going to be uncomfortable as we look at
this.
And if you're not prepared for that, it
might be even best for you to go
out and have a good walk in the
fresh air.
It would be far better than sit under
the word of God and not be prepared
to walk in the light of it.
Now, in order to try to bring out
the essence of what we have in these
verses, I think we confine ourselves to two
main things.
And I would divide them in this way.
First of all, we have here certain categorical
imperatives, commands of God through his apostle by
his word and by the Spirit.
Categorical imperatives.
And then we have, as it were, standing
in the background and in the forefront, both
alike, the Christian incentives the incentives that are
given us to obey the commands as required
of us in these words.
Now, these then are the two things.
And whether I'm speaking of the one, the
other must be very much in our minds,
or whether we speak of the second, the
first must be in our minds.
We shall first look at the Christian imperatives
that we have here.
There are two all-important commands issued here
to every person in Christ yesterday, today, and
at any time in the future until Christ
returns.
Any man, any woman in Christ is addressed
here.
So if you're a Christian, you are addressed
here, I am addressed here.
It's a word for me, it's a word
for you, it's a word for all men
and women in Christ.
Two commands.
Let's look at them in turn.
Now, verse 5, in chapter 3.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature.
Put to death.
Those of you who are reading the King
James Version, and perhaps it is the best
at this point.
Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the
earth.
And the Revised Standard Version puts it like
this.
Put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly in
you.
Now, let's look at the solemn action that
is envisaged here.
Now, we're not playing here.
This is not a nice talk.
This is not a nice piece of scripture.
This is not the kind of scripture that
you choose when you're in a fun atmosphere.
This is serious Christianity.
Here we see reflected the sobriety of a
man who wants to see Christians living consistently
with their calling.
Who wants to see the followers of Christ
living in a manner that is consistent with
the one they follow.
Who wants to see our our condition in
life approximating our calling in Christ.
The solemn action envisaged, then, is coming before
us, whatever version we may have, in these
words.
Mortify.
Put to death.
And that's not a very appealing language.
However you think of it, there is something
here that's going to hurt everybody.
You can't put anything to death without hurt.
Without feeling it.
The strong Greek verb used here, translated put
to death or mortify, refers to what can
hardly be described as less than painful.
It aims at the paralysis of our earthly
nature in such a way that we we
can hardly expect it to gain its fullness
of strength again.
When once we've obeyed this injunction, we would
expect the earthly nature, to use the language
of the of the NIV, we would expect
it to have lost its power.
Or it's still there.
You don't lose it.
You don't get rid of it.
But somehow or other, its backbone is broken.
The verb used here does not have quite
the same meaning as one which you find
in a somewhat similar context in Romans.
In Romans 6.11, Paul bids the Romans,
count yourselves or reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin.
Now it's the same theme, it's the theme
of sanctification, of dying to sin and of
being alive and responsive to God.
It's the same general subject that is dealt
with, but the words are different.
Now there in Romans, the word is logizomai,
from which we have our English word logistics,
and many other words that are related to
it.
And it is it is really an attitude
of mind to reckon upon something.
If you reckon that you have a thousand,
shall I say ten thousand dollars in your
checking account, will you draw up to ten
thousand dollars?
If you reckon you have them there.
But if you don't reckon you've got the
money there and you're wise, you wouldn't do
that kind of thing.
You reckon yourself to be dead.
It's something largely in the mind and in
the will.
But the word that we have here is
a different one.
The word here, the verb here in Colossians
3.5, used in the active mood, does
not so much refer to a mental attitude
but to a moral action that requires a
strong and a steady heart and a determined
will.
Put to death as Abram took his son
Isaac with the intention on Moriah, if God
should will it, of slaying his dearly beloved
son.
So must you and I be prepared to
take that which is carnal and fleshly and
condemned of God.
We must be prepared to take it anywhere
God requires of us and put it to
death.
This is not comfortable Christianity.
Now the action called for, of course, is
complementary to what was earlier said to be
true of every believer.
And I'd like you to notice this, especially
young Christians here who want to be clear
about the doctrine of sanctification.
You see, some people have said Paul is
really going off at a tangent here.
God does all this because earlier on it
says, if you're in Christ, you have died
in Christ.
So if you've died in Christ, period.
There's nothing more for you to do.
Well that's not how the apostle reasons.
If you're in Christ, when Christ died, you
died.
Now because you died in Christ, die in
actual experience.
Because of your oneness with Christ in his
death.
Because of your fellowship with the one who
was able to lay down his life on
the cross.
Because of his life in you and your
union with him.
Now do this to your old nature.
You have the same thought really, the same
principle.
In another part of scripture, in Philippians, where
Paul says, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, because it is God who
is at work within you, both to will
and to do of his good pleasure.
You do it because God is active within
you, urging you to do it and enabling
you to do it, creating the desire and
giving the enabling.
So sanctification becomes a matter of working with
God.
In justification, a sinner does nothing to be
saved.
Not the labors of my hand can fulfill
thy law's demands.
Not even the tears that we can cry
and pour into a bottle, as it were.
They count nothing.
We can do nothing.
The epistle to the Romans is as clear
as that.
We are justified doing nothing.
There is nothing we can do to make
ourselves right with God.
It is all of grace.
It is all his gift.
It is all by faith, not of works,
lest any man should boast.
But in sanctification, we are workers together with
God.
He works in us, creating the desire and
giving us the capacity.
And because he does that and commends us
in scripture, we, obeying scripture and the inward
impulse of the spirit, work out our own
salvation with fear and trembling.
But now, what are the objects of this
act?
Well, here again, we've got something which is
very difficult to take in and to apply
honestly.
The King James Version brings this out very
clearly when it translates, mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth.
And then it gives us a list.
Clearly the apostle is not literally asking us
to lop off our feet or our hands
or our ears or our arms for that
matter.
That would be simply to incapacitate us for
anything in this world and to make us
dependent upon other people.
Paul didn't do that.
Jesus didn't do that.
He didn't cut off his arms.
None of the early Christians were told to
do anything of that kind, so you mustn't
take this too literally.
As if it meant, look, become completely amputated
so that there is nothing but a torso.
You may wonder why I'm saying this.
There are people who have sincerely believed that
that's what was meant here, but I'm not
going after them tonight.
No, Paul proceeds to explain what he had
in mind when he identifies the members with
the peculiar sins to which they are prone.
Earlier on, the word that he uses is
strictly put to death, mortify your members, and
that might refer to the hand, the arm,
the leg, the ear, or whatever.
But then when he comes to explain what
they really are, he relates them very intimately
with certain sins, and these are the sins.
Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed,
which is idolatry.
What he commands is a mortification of our
members so that they no longer produce the
kind of sins they once did.
F.
Bruce is a very good and very relevant
point at this stage.
In his commentary on Colossians, he says this.
In Romans 7, 23, Paul speaks of the
law of sin and death in my members.
Romans 7, 23.
Here in Colossians 3, 5, he goes further,
and he practically identifies the reader's members, hands,
arms, etc., with the sins which they were
formerly the instruments.
But what he is really thinking of is
the practices and the attitudes to which his
readers' bodily activity and strength had been devoted
in the old life.
Christian consistency requires all of us who have
died in Christ, historically and representatively in Christ,
to live in a manner that expresses that
attitude towards sin in our daily living.
Paul puts it like this in Romans 8,
13.
It's the same truth.
For if you live according to the sinful
nature, you will die.
But if by the Spirit you put to
death the misdeeds of the body, you will
live.
This is the way of life everlasting.
It is to know the life of Christ
active in our souls, enabling us to do
what God in his word requires of us
to do, and in obedience to our Lord,
doing it.
A specific sense which Paul relates to the
wrongful use of our bodily parts is then
given us.
I just want to say a word about
these because I think it is important to
be very specific.
Paul gives us an example here.
We can be too general in these things.
There is a danger in being specific because
somebody may say, well, he doesn't mention my
particular sin there, and so there's nothing there
for me.
Now, that's the danger of being specific, and
that's the danger of the preacher in the
pulpit using an illustration which may apply to
somebody in the congregation, and 99 other people
can say, well, that's got nothing to do
with me.
Nevertheless, it is necessary for us to see
an illustration of the kind of thing Paul
has in mind.
What are you thinking of, Paul, when you
tell us to put to death, to mortify
our members?
Here he says, sexual immorality and impurity.
The first word may have a wider connotation
at times, but its main pointer is unquestionably
to sexual misdeeds of any kind, pornaya, from
which we have our English word pornography.
Together, these two words embody the exact opposite
of what is meant by the word chastity.
I shall say no more about it than
that.
Put the two together, and they represent that
which is the exact antithesis of the word
chastity.
You and I are to put our members
to death.
Is he asking us to put our hands
to death, or any other member of the
body?
Not quite, but what he is asking us
to do is not to allow them to
be the agents of sin, such as in
the case of sexual immorality and impurity.
In the ancient pagan world as in our
day, sexual relations outside of marriage were deemed
normal and proper.
The Christian ethic cut right across that and
challenged the ancient as it challenges the modern
world to mortify the deeds of the body,
to reckon us dead, no, to slay.
There are no times when charity requires us
to act at the expense of chastity.
Next, he speaks of lust and evil desires.
Now, it seems that Paul is thinking in
pairs in these two cases, lust and evil
desires.
Again, taken together, these two evils refer to
that within us which always yearns for forbidden
things.
We're not necessarily confined to the realm of
sex here.
You can think of other areas of life,
other areas of behavior.
Whether that applies to food, to drink, to
clothing, or any other aspect of behavior, lust
and evil desire will always want to rebel
against the revealed will of God and want
to go beyond it.
Says Paul, mortify, put to death, any instrument,
any aspect of your body, physical or otherwise,
that would be the means of aiding and
abetting such a notion and of implementing such
a sin.
Then he goes on to this and he
brings out something here which always shocked me
when I came to understand what it meant.
And greed, which is idolatry.
I guess in our Western world, our Western
society, we do not really acknowledge greed for
the wretched thing it is.
If someone comes into our congregation whom we
know has been committing immorality, pornia, be it
sexual sin or whatever, we have a sense
of repulsion.
We sometimes welcome greedy men and women with
open arms.
Brothers and sisters, greed is one of the
most heinous sins in scripture.
Greed which is idolatry.
In the Greek word for greed, pleionexia, there
are two words wedded together to convey one
thought.
Pleion means more and the end of it
comes from the verb echain, to have.
So that what the word really means is
to have more.
What then is greed?
This.
It's the desire to have more and more
and more and more and more and more
and live.
The Greeks used to say about the sin
of greed that you can as easily satisfy
it as you can fill a bucket with
a hole in the bottom.
It is insatiable greed.
A man wants something, he gets it.
If he's got greed, he wants more of
it.
He can never say stop, he can never
say enough, neither can she if she's a
lady.
It's like a cancer of the soul.
We don't know what to do with it.
It just eats us, it devours us and
we cannot say I've got enough of this
or I've got adequate of that.
I can never say now that's sufficient, I
want more.
That's greed.
Now Paul adds, you notice, that such a
desire is idolatry.
And some of you may be asking how
on earth is greed idolatry?
Idolatry means idolatry means worshipping a god.
What on earth has that got to do
with greed?
Well, it means this, the transition of thought
is as simple as can be.
You see, when I want more and more
and more and more and more of anything,
it means that thing, whatever it is, has
assumed a place in my life which only
God should occupy.
It's become my god.
That's why some people live to eat.
Their god is their belly, says Paul.
Now we don't talk as frankly as that
today.
And you wouldn't say a man weight more
than is good for him all the time.
Your belly is your god, would you?
No, no.
But it can be so.
There are people who just dress to show
off.
There is a greed that appertains to the
ego.
I want to be the first to wear
this dress or to, you know, don't let
me enlarge.
And the apostle tells us, be very careful
as you walk along that route because it's
the root of root of idolatry.
You are actually worshipping something and it is
only God who should occupy such a place
of preeminence in your life and in your
thinking.
The apostle affirms it then as a categorical
imperative that men and women in Christ should
effectively put a stop to these sins involving
our bodies that belong to God.
Now the second imperative is be
rid of, or that we rid ourselves of
such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy
language.
That's verse eight, by the way.
Now notice the movement of thought here and
with it the progressive challenge to anybody with
a conscience.
Be rid of, apotheste, throw something away.
You've discovered, you've discovered some dirt or a
viper on your clothing and you take it
off and you throw it away.
You don't want it back again.
Now that's the idea.
Cast it from you as a deliberate, decisive
act.
Get rid of it.
And there is passion behind that command.
Don't toy with it, don't trifle with it,
but just get rid of it.
Evidently the action envisaged by the word translated,
rid yourselves then is closely related to the
idea of mortification or of putting to death,
which we were looking at in verse five.
Perhaps it is meant to focus our gaze,
however, more definitely upon the act of renunciation.
The act of renunciation as such, it is
a graphic portrayal of an obligatory Christian duty.
Cast it away.
Now the objects of the action, rid yourselves,
is again fivefold.
Five sins were mentioned in chapter five.
Five issues are brought before us in verse
eight.
If you ask me, what's the difference between
between them?
Well, I suppose we could put it like
this.
Whereas the first list in verse five had
to do with qualities that describe men as
they are in themselves, sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, things that go on
in within our own hearts.
This second list in verse eight describes men
more in terms of relationships.
If you ask me, what's the difference between
between them?
Well, I suppose we could put it like
this.
Whereas the first list in verse five had
to do with qualities that describe men as
they are in themselves, sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, things that go on
in within our own hearts.
This second list in verse eight describes men
more in terms of relationships.
You listen to them.
Anger.
You're angry with somebody.
Rage.
Well, this is another kind of anger, as
we shall see in a moment, but it
always envisages somebody else.
It's a matter of relationship.
Malice.
Relationship.
Slander.
Relationship.
Filthy language.
Somebody's listening.
They all involve our relationships with people.
And herein, of course, is a very important
lesson.
Sin affects not only the condition of our
souls within ourselves, but sin has spoiled our
relationships.
Sin severs us from other people.
Sin separates us.
Sin spoils the best relationship that you may
have upon earth.
Allow sin to come in and the thing
will turn sour.
And let's look at this list very briefly.
Anger and rage.
These two again seem to be spoken as
a doublet coming very closely together.
The former of these two, translated anger in
the NIV, refers to a settled indignation.
Now, you've noticed this.
There are some people, they're always angry.
Constantly angry.
It's like an ever-smouldering fire.
It's there in the background.
Doesn't often blaze up, but it's always there.
It's an undercurrent.
Perhaps consideration for what others think may keep
it under.
A little bit of willpower will keep it
under.
It doesn't always show itself, but it's there.
Now, the next word stands out by sheer
contrast to that.
Thummus, the word for rage in the NIV,
it points more to the kind of anger
that actually breaks out in a flaming fire.
You didn't expect it, but suddenly there was
something said and there was a whoosh, and
you could hear the flames lapping up the
tinder.
You can have anger lying dormant in your
soul for years, just waiting the opportunity for
expression.
Or you can have anger breaking out and
you upset everybody and everything momentarily, and then
perhaps you're able to try, by the grace
of God, to put things right.
There are two kinds.
Paul says we've got to get rid of
both of them.
They must be put off.
Put right off.
The same goes for malice.
Now, this has reference to a vicious frame
of mind and heart.
A frame of mind and heart which plans
evil for other people under the very guise
of friendship.
It points to a kind of mental perversity
that is epitomized in the J.R. Ewing.
Or am I only addressing a section of
the congregation when I say that?
Who can be plotting and planning something hideously
tragic for someone whilst showing the smile of
an angel on his face?
The next word is, in Greek, blasphemia, and
it's best translated here as slander.
In English, the word blasphemy generally refers to
defiant irreverence expressed towards God and God alone.
But in Greek, it also involves a like
irreverence and unholy attitude towards man, and it
is largely towards man here.
God's creature.
Then there is filthy language.
This is obscene.
Whether it is about someone not present with
us or whether it is directed to someone
in the company, it matters not.
It is obscene.
It should never have been said.
The suggestion should never have been made.
This ought not to be, says Paul.
What are we to do with it?
Put it off.
It is essential to consistent Christianity to be
rid of these things.
All these unkindred evils were just a throw
away from us as we would shake off
a viper to repeat that has found its
way onto the sleeve of our coat or
whatever.
Now, whenever I read these words, you know,
I'm reminded of a domestic scene.
Junior is but a babe, a little toddler,
old enough to have shoes on his feet.
And the shoes that I can see come
to my mind have a little buckle in
the front and two straps buckle the shoes
together in the front.
The things he delighted to do at night,
but among the things he delighted to do
was this.
The moment the buckle was undone, it's to
kick his shoes off.
Now, you've never done that.
Of course, we're too sedate and too sophisticated.
You don't kick your shoes off.
But somehow or other, it seemed to be
a stage in his development, the awareness that
the thing had been unbuckled and that he
could kick it off.
Now, it's not a good thing to let
a child to do, perhaps because the shoe
may land here, there or anywhere.
But you see, it had been unbuckled and
he could kick it off.
A man in Christ is a man whose
sin has been broken in the backbone, or
to change the metaphor, the buckle has been
loosed, so that Paul addresses Christian men and
women, old and young, mature and immature, and
he says, kick them off.
If you're in Christ, dead, risen, ascended, and
you will come with him in the glories
of heaven, you are a man or a
woman who, by the grace of the same
God and the indwelling of the living Christ,
you are capable of doing this.
Now, my friends, you and I stand condemned
here, if this is true.
There are so many things which, by the
grace of God, due to our position in
Christ, we are capable of doing, which we
have never seriously set about to do.
I was terribly challenged not all that long
ago, when, after discussing a matter of serious
temptation with a young person, I was going
home in the car and the question came
to me, could you overcome that temptation?
And then a second question, if you are
not guilty of doing what that young person
is doing, is it simply because you're older
and your passions may not be quite what
they were when you were younger?
Or is it simply a matter of age
that you can overcome?
Or is it because you are more entrenched
in God in Christ?
Brothers and sisters, I think that the greatest
tragedy in our churches is this, sometimes the
only way people get over the power of
sin is by getting old.
And the only victory over temptation is the
victory of the old age.
They have other temptations, don't forget.
But there are some that are only overcome
by age, rather than by grace.
Paul says, the man in Christ, irrespective of
his age, should put off, get rid of,
throw away these things.
Oh, we're doing well tonight.
Now, I won't keep you.
Christian incentives, I'll just mention three.
The first is the one that we were
dwelling upon this morning, and therefore I don't
need to stress it tonight.
The first is, the basic is our union
with Christ.
The Christian is a man in Christ, like
the branches in the vine.
We are so related to him that his
life comes through to us.
And he could speak to the disciples in
these very terms.
Now, don't drive them too far and make
something out of them that our Lord would,
but he spoke of, I in you and
you in me.
I in you and you in me.
There is real communion.
There is real fellowship.
How can we be expected to do these
things?
I'll tell you, because Jesus, who died on
the cross of Calvary, is alive.
He's risen from the dead, and he's alive.
He's ascended.
He sits at the right hand of the
majesty upon high, and he's alive.
And by his spirit is in our hearts.
And because he's alive, I can do all
things through the Christ who strengthens me.
That's the principle.
But if you're not in that vital touch
with Jesus Christ, if you know nothing of
this union with Christ, then all that I've
been talking about is impossible.
You can't ask a tombstone to dance.
The cow did run over the moon in
the little bitty, but you and I can't
just jump over the moon spiritually unless we
are in Christ.
But if you and I are in Christ,
then, too, there are areas to explore.
But even cast a shadow upon the great
explorations in the world of nature, there are
higher heights and greater glories that challenge the
man of God.
Things unseen, things unknown, there are vistas beyond
our imagination.
If I am in union with Jesus Christ
and his life is in me and I
am in him, a second incentive to act
in this way appears in verse six.
Because of these, the list of sins given
in verse five, the wrath of God is
coming.
In some of the older manuscripts, you also
have the other words upon the children of
disobedience.
Well, that's to be understood anyway.
The wrath of God doesn't come upon you
unless you disobey.
These or these things refer back then to
the fivefold expression of our old nature that
we are told to put to death.
These evils are the occasion of arousing the
wrath of God, and hence the second inspiration
or incentive to act in the way Paul
requires us to act, to put to death
certain things and to get rid of them.
Now, the reference to the kindling of the
wrath of God will serve as an inspiration
to obey God's word in one of two
ways.
It depends on your experience.
It depends on your Christian maturity.
For example, at one level of maturity or
immaturity, it may well be that when everything
else has failed to get you or to
get me to obey God's word, the fear
of God may make me do it.
I have no doubt about it.
This is true sometimes.
I know that during the days of the
war when certain things were happening in the
bombings in the city where I was at
that time, there were certain things that I
promised the Lord that I would do, which
I would not have promised had I not
been in danger.
Now, that's a sad comment upon a man's
heart and upon a man's condition, but it
is true.
But the fear of God, it speaks of
immaturity.
All right, all right.
But there are some times, there are some
times in our lives when it is nothing
other than the fear of being judged by
God, of being the object of his disfavor.
Nothing short of it will make us do
what God requires of us.
But this doctrine has another application to the
more mature among us, and that is this.
It's the dread of seeing God displeased.
You know anything of that?
The wrath of God comes upon the children
of disobedience, and I hate to see my
father so displeased as to have to do
the thing he hates to do.
Chastise he will, because he loves us.
But the wrath that causes it and occasions
it so often is a wrath that brings
displeasure and pain to his heart.
Many of you are parents, and if you
are sensitive parents, as I'm sure you are,
you can answer the question before I ask
it.
Who is most hurt when you have to
administer chastisement to your child?
You or the child?
In the case of an all-perfect and
an all-merciful deity, dare I say it
reverently, I believe it hurts him more to
chastise than it does us to receive it.
And there is a place in the Christian
life, there is a place of maturity, where
the real dread of the soul is this,
oh that I cause him pain, oh that
one causes him to be angry, not because
that he will be cross with me, but
because it displeases him.
And if the respect and love of God
does not make us obey his commandments, then
let the fear of him do so.
The genius of the new man we have
put on is its desire to please God
rather than to provoke him, to evoke pleasure
for him rather than pain.
And lastly, a third incentive is stressed in
verse 10, and you have put on the
new self, which has been renewed in knowledge,
in the image of its creator, where there
is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or free,
etc.
Now, I can only refer to this.
To be in life union with Jesus Christ
implies an ongoing work in our hearts, as
we've said already, and that is a work
defined here by a special word and a
most descriptive word, renewal.
In fact, this is a work of renewal
whereby the person in Christ is being made
more and more, increasingly and unceasingly, constantly being
made more and more and more and more
like his God, his creator, in righteousness and
in knowledge.
Do you know an ongoing work of God
in your soul?
Is your life experiencing renewal of life as
the days pass by, of life that is
God-like?
Is the image of God progressing in you
and in me?
This is what God is about in us.
This is what salvation is.
Therefore, because of that, don't stand in God's
way, but get on with him.
Obey him.
Put yourself at his disposal.
Let him get out of the marble the
image that he has planned.
Let him make out of the clay the
vessel that he has chosen.
If God is recharging and renewing you, then
a progressive work is going on day by
day, and the progressive steps or stages will
necessarily be away from the sins mentioned here
and towards the kind of life which recognizes,
to summarize the last verse of the passage,
which recognizes no racial or religious distinctions.
Here there is no Greek nor Jew, circumcision
or uncircumcision, which recognizes no cultural differences, no
barbarian or Scythian, recognizes no social boundaries, no
slave nor free.
Well, what is there here then?
What are the things that matter?
What are the things that count as you
thus grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord, as the image of God
in you becomes more and more evident and
more and more perfect?
What are the things that count?
Well, says Paul, beautifully, Christ is all and
in all.
Christ is all and in all.
What matters?
It's Christ being made and formed in you
and in me, and he having his place
in each one of us.
It's a blessed experience to look around from
this pulpit and see people of different colors,
from different backgrounds and different civilizations, and to
be able to say that's Christ in that
woman, Christ in that man that brings her
here to worship and to sing and to
hear the word of God and to go
out to obey it.
That's what Paul's getting at.
See in your brother Christian, not the color
of his skin or the kind of clothes
he wears or anything like that, see Christ
in him.
That speaks of maturity in you and qualifies
you to begin to minister more even to
an already developing saint.
These sins mentioned here militate against God-likeness
in me and in those that I desire
to help.
God is working for and towards that same
image of himself in you and in me.
If we are in Christ, the appeal of
this remarkable passage, this challenging passage is this,
let the work of God go on.
Not by passively standing and letting him do
what he wants to do, there is an
aspect of that to it, but by actively
becoming involved with God in availing ourselves of
the disciplines to which his word calls us
and trusting him to fulfill the promises that
he himself has given us and going on
with him through thick or thin.
To his name be the glory.
Let us pray.
Most gracious Father, knowing ourselves a little, we
are especially grateful that you have inspired the
scriptures so that they do speak to us
despite our calloused consciences and our sometimes
dubious capacity to understand, even positively to misrepresent.
We thank you for the spirit and we
thank you for the truth.
We thank you that you are our teacher
and we pray that as we gathered within
these walls tonight, come to you now in
the closing moments of this service to thank
you for speaking to us from this very
challenging world.
We pray that you will give us the
courage to see these categorical imperatives as the
imperatives, the commands they are, not try to
whittle them down into something less.
Not try to prostitute the truth to our
own ends, but rather to come to terms
with what the word says, to confess our
sins and our weaknesses and then to turn
with a whole heart to seek your grace
to help us to obey.
Spirit of God, fall afresh upon us at
the end of this earthly Sabbath day.
Quench the sin within, quell the fears, quicken
all the work of grace and perfect in
us what you have begun.
For we ask it through Christ our Lord.
Amen.