I invite you this evening to turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 3, if you're using the Pew Bible that is found on page 1169. We're going to consider tonight from Colossians 3 verses 5 down to 11, we're going to begin our reading, however, at verse 1 of chapter 3, just for context. Colossians 3, beginning at verse 1. 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. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. in these you too once walked when you were living in them but now you must put them all away anger wrath malice slander and obscene talk from your mouth do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator here there is not greek and jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian scathian slave free but christ is all and in all well i titled this sermon in the bulletin a new identity a new identity but to be honest with you i really don't think that that title does justice to what paul is speaking of here a new identity doesn't capture what Paul is saying, especially in light of the way the idea of identity is used today. See, people make much of identity today, don't they? We see in all kinds of ways within our society people claiming various identities. And if they claim certain identity, then in light of that group that they identify with, they live according to the expectations of that group. Now, how about Christians? Is there an expected way that Christians ought to live? There absolutely is, right? But that's really not the reason why we live the way that we do as Christians. As Christians, we live the way we do not only because we have been given a new identity, but more significantly, we've been given new lives. And that's what Paul is speaking of here really when we think about it. He speaks of a new life that has been given to us as Christians. You see, if you claim the name of Jesus Christ, if you are a Christian, then you have indeed been given a new life. The old is gone. The new has come. And this new life has an effect on the way that we live our lives. So we don't just live our lives because we identify with this new life. We live the way we do because that is our life. And so we consider tonight the new life we live as Christians. And we consider three things in this text with that in mind. First, the serious action of this new life the serious action second the serious perspective for this life and finally the serious change of this life the serious action the serious perspective and the serious change Paul begins this verse by saying put to death therefore let me ask you have you ever put anything to death? Unless maybe you're a hunter or maybe a fisherman, the idea of killing anything may itself sound offensive to you. Times have changed today, haven't they? Given today's modern sensibilities, the idea of putting anything to death can be offensive to us. The death penalty today is frowned upon. There's a growing disdain towards slaughtering animals even for the sake of food and even if we are meat eaters right many today don't want to even begin to think about the process in which food or meat gets into our grocery stores we're we're content with simply buying cooking and eating but Paul's call here is to put something to death and so this might sound like a drastic call it might sound like an exaggerated call or an exaggerated way of Paul saying something in order to show us the seriousness of what he's saying here. And it's true, this is a serious, serious call to action for Christians. Now, there are other passages that speak similar to the seriousness of how we are to act in regards to sin. If you remember, Jesus says in Matthew 5, If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Jesus then essentially repeats those same words later in Matthew 18 when he's again speaking of sin. And then in Matthew 16 he says, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. These words may be so familiar to us that they've kind of lost their seriousness. But for first century people who were familiar with the horrendous nature of the crucifixion, this would have been a shocking and serious statement for them to hear. Now Paul also issues similar serious calls in other passages in the Bible. In passages from Romans, Galatians, and both 1st and 2nd Corinthians. And when you put these passages all together, what do you think is being communicated to us? The seriousness of the action that we are called to as Christians who have been given new lives in Christ. See, sin is not something to be toyed with. Sin is not something to be ignored. Sin is not something that a Christian can expect to just simply go away. Remaining sin in the life of God's people must be dealt with. It must be killed. And that's why Paul says here what he says, Put to death what is earthly in you. Let me ask you, how serious do you take remaining sin in your life? And notice I didn't say how serious do you take the remaining sin of other people in your life. See, this passage and other passages like it are meant to cause us to reflect on how serious we take our own sin. R.C. Sproul was of the opinion that Christians don't take sin serious enough. He once wrote, I think what is basic of our thinking regarding sin is the idea that sin is not a serious thing. Not really. Some sins may be indeed serious, but in general, we think of our sin in terms of sin as being a peccadillo, little inconsequential, boys will be boys type of thing. However, in the smallest sin, nothing less than cosmic treason is involved. If I steal a piece of bread, he says, if I exceed the speed limit, if I say one unkind word towards my brother or sister, all that's involved in that act is very, very serious indeed. In my slightest sin, where I exalt myself above my creator and seek to have lordship over my brother or sister, I'm contributing to the whole cosmic complex of rebelliousness against God. When I sin, I'm challenging the authority, the dignity, the holiness, the power of God. It's an act of cosmic rebellion. It's an act of cosmic treason. I'm setting up myself as a law unto myself, and that is serious business, R.C. says. You see, the seriousness of sin is not found in the type of sins that we might involve ourselves in. The seriousness of sin is found in the nature of sin. It's contrary to God. It's rebellion against God. It's contrary to a good, kind, loving, faithful creator. And that's why we must take sin serious. All sin. There's no inconsequential sin. They're all significant. They're all treasonous to God. And all sin is in fact so significant that each and every sinful act would require the sacrificial death of the Son of God to atone for such sin. That's how we know that all sin is serious. Each and every instance of sin would require the sacrificial death of Christ. Because all sin is an offense to God. It's a breaking of His commands. And those transgressions require atonement. They require payment, restitution. See, Christian, our sin is a great offense. And that great offense requires reparation, payment to make that offense right to God. But we know that we ourselves cannot make such payment, can we? We ourselves cannot make right the wrongs that we have done. So now, as those who have been made right by the work of Christ, who paid that payment for us, how should we view sin? How should we take it as serious as it is to Him? And taking sin serious means that we are actively putting it to death in our lives. It's taking each and every sin serious and realizing that this is the fact for each and every one of us. You see, this call, this command to action here is not just a general command that Paul is laying out. This command applies and speaks to each and every Christian. Every male and female who claim the name of Christ is expected to kill sin in their lives. We see this when Paul uses the word therefore here. The word therefore that he uses in verse 1 links what Paul has already said with what he says here. He speaks of everyone who has experienced rebirth. Everyone who has been born anew in Jesus Christ. If you remember, he says up in verses 1 to 5, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is. Set your mind on those things, for you've died to what is earthly in you. In those verses, he tells us how to live this new life. And just as he's addressing each and every Christian there, he's addressing each and every Christian now, here in our text before us. This is a call and expectation for us all. If you're a Christian, whether you're a hunter, fisherman, housewife, we are expected to be killing sin in our lives. You know, as Christians, we have a number of expectations that we place upon each other, right? Many of which are not even required by Scripture. Scripture doesn't require us to read John Calvin's Institutes. Scripture doesn't require us all to be theologians. But Scripture does expect us to put to death remaining sin in our lives. For a Christian, we're expected to be about that business. There's no way around it. This is the call to action for every Christian. And really, to be honest, this shouldn't be all that surprising. You see, given what Paul has already said in verses 1 through 5, where he speaks of Christians having died in Christ. It should be no surprise that now when referring to sin that remains in us, Paul calls us to put that sin to death. So let me ask you, how much time and energy do you give to this serious call to action? And if we aren't giving time and energy to it, why aren't we? Why aren't we? It was Jonathan Owen who famously said, be killing sin or it will be killing you. Such an insightful statement, isn't it? Be killing sin or it will be killing you. Another reason to kill sin is because if we don't kill sin, it will kill us. See, there's no neutral ground in regards to sin. We're either killing it or it is killing us. And that's why Paul so pointedly states here, put it to death. Put it to death. Now, Paul doesn't just give us a serious call to action here, but he also provides us with a serious perspective on remaining sin for the Christian. And that's our second point tonight. Paul says here, put to death what is earthly in you the language of earthly should be familiar to us it's language he's already used right we heard that in verses one through four where he contrasts things above heavenly things things where christ is seated with things below or things on earth things that we have died to and so he uses this language of earthly here see paul uses different language at different time to describe the same thing sin he speaks of the flesh at times he speaks of the body here he speaks of what is earthy or earthly all of which is in reference to sin so what is it that we are called to kill we're called to kill sin and so in doing that paul presents us two sets of sins here in this passage the first list is found in the second half of verse five sexual immorality impurity passions evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry the second list is found in verse 8 anger wrath malice slander and obscene talk from your mouth do not lie to one another now to be sure paul is not trying to be comprehensive with these lists here he's not trying to include each and every sin what paul is doing here is he's giving us a serious perspective on sin he presents us with two lists here. The first have to do with internal sins, or sins in and of the heart, while the second list is that of external sins, sins displayed through outward behavior. And so let's consider the first set, internal sins. He begins the first list with the phrase sexual immorality. The term that he uses here is from the Greek word pornea, and that is the word from which we get our English word pornography. Now, I use the term because in it, in the term pornea, you hear the idea of sexual immorality. That's exactly what the term refers to. Now, although sexual immorality often refers to particular immoral acts, it doesn't necessarily have to. Sexual immorality is of the nature that it can occur in the heart of a person. It can be an internal sin right along the lines of when jesus says everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart that's sexual immorality and that's why when we refer to lust we often do so with the connotation of it being sexual the second sin that is mentioned here is that of impurity impurity and what we begin to see through this second sin and the following ones the ones that follow is that this list here that paul presents us with is somewhat connected you see these these sins flow one from another sexual immorality flows from impurity impurity is born from passion passion from evil desires and so forth and so forth now with this understanding in mind it would be the last sin that Paul lists here that he would say gives rise to those that precede it the last sin is that of the sin of idolatry idolatry is a foundational sin in this sense it's a sin of the heart that gives rise to many other forms of sin idolatry gives rise to covetousness covetousness gives rise to evil desire evil desire to passion and passion to impurity and finally sexual immorality with this in mind i think that last sin it really doesn't matter whether it's internal or external it is produced from a progression of sin which comes from sinful thoughts urges desires impulses of the heart this is a serious perspective that paul presents us with here and this is obviously right in line with what james says and describes in james 1 where he says each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by what his own desire then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin and so paul is presenting us here with a serious perspective on how to deal with sin. Instead of focusing on each and every instance of this progression, it would make sense for us to focus on the source, the foundational sin of idolatry. Now the kind of idolatry that Paul is speaking of here is not the kind that refers to little wooden or stone statues. The idolatry that Paul is speaking of here is the idolatry of the self. It's the idolatry of making ourselves our god i've said it before and i'll continue to say it the heart of sinfulness is living for ourselves so that when you covet you covet in order to please yourself and when sexual immorality arises in our hearts it's about pleasing ourselves this is exactly what jesus says if any man this is why he says if any man would come after me he must deny himself take up his cross and follow me crucify the self killing sin is about denying the self killing sin is about denying that mentality and perspective that everything is about us all of our time all of our energy, our goals, our plans, our lives, even the people that are in our lives, our friends, our family, even our church. See, when we live for ourselves, it's impossible for us to live for God and for others. And this is exactly what Ephesians 2 kind of describes, doesn't it? When we were dead in our sins and transgressions, we once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desire of the body and mind. This is the progress of the self, which every Christian is called to take ever so serious and to put to death. As one commentator said, the very hiddenness of these sins only serves to accentuate the radical action for which Paul calls in order to deal with these sins. See, I think too often we think that if we can simply keep our sins out of the public eye then we're doing all right too often we think as long as no one knows about our sins no one sees them we're doing all right but you see friend no one may know or see about your secret sin but as we heard last week god does god does your good loving gracious and merciful god is fully aware of each and every hidden sin of your heart nothing escapes his all-knowing eye and he calls us to take sin serious to put sin to death in light of what he has done for us in jesus christ in light of us being his children now let's be even more realistic if this sinful progression is going on in our hearts and in our minds it won't be long before these sins that are stewing in us internally rear their ugly head won't be long before they're displayed, shown in our actions and how we relate and interact with others. And that's why Paul brings up this second list that he has here, the list of anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying. Obviously, these sins flow from a heart that is living for itself and when such a person bumps into others which is obviously inevitably going to happen what comes out of their heart sinful acts such as these just as luke records christ saying the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart see when we live for ourselves it's so easy to struggle living with others right it's other it's easy to see others as in opposition towards to us when we live for ourselves we quickly realize that others don't live for us in fact others too struggle to live for themselves and therefore it's easy for us to grow angry, wrathful, malicious towards each other. And that attitude and opposition easily leads a person to be hostile towards others, particularly in their speech and what they say. Slander, obscene talk, lies, gossip. We're all familiar with the children's proverb, right? sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. We all know that proverb is not true. If you've ever been on the receiving end of such slander, obscene talk, lies, gossip, you know how harmful such speech can be. This kind of interaction with others doesn't just occur out in the world either, does it? It doesn't just occur out in our cars as we're driving on the highway this kind of speech this kind of interaction occurs in our schools and our families and yes even in our churches paul's writing here about relationships within the church and you see maybe right now there's something like this brewing in our church we're living in a time of unity within the body of christ here at escondido urc where we live in a time of relative peace but at any moment that peace and unity can be challenged with such talk such attitudes towards each other and maybe you're tempted to participate in such interaction. If that's true, friend, I'm not going to simply tell you to stop it. I'm not simply going to tell you to put it to an end. I'm going to use the words of scripture. Kill it. Kill it. Put it to death. Put such sin and what is earthly in you to death. Do not give in to such sin. Put it to death. And if you find it difficult, because you really do believe that you have truly been wronged and that those who have wronged you deserve to be treated in such a way, then I remind you, friend, of Christ. I remind you of the Lord Jesus Christ who endured injury and insults, injustice and slander for your sake, for the sake of you and your sin. We're not called to put to death sin in our lives because people are deserving of being treated better. We're called to put to death sin in our lives because of what Christ has done for us. because while we were enemies with god he gave us christ he gave us his only begotten son who lived and died and redeemed us from our sins and trust yourself to him identify with him look to him trust in him for your salvation and trust in him with the offenses that you have to endure at the hands and mouths of others see in very real sense this is what paul is talking about in this passage he's being very very practical here he's referring to sins that can destroy a person that can destroy a family that can destroy the church i'm sure the church at colossi like every church had its issues its problems its divisions we've read of some of them right false teachers had arisen in this church. Do you notice how Paul addresses these issues? He doesn't personally address those false teachers. He addresses their teaching throughout this book. He essentially speaks the truth in love. Paul does what he calls Christians to do in Ephesians 4. Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another be angry and do not sin don't let the sun go down in your anger give no opportunity to the devil let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth but only such that is good for building up and fits the occasion that you may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the holy spirit of god by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, clamor, slander be put away with you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. See, in Ephesians, just as here in Colossians, Paul has real life issues in mind. He's not being theoretical here. but however real those issues may be there's a proper way of dealing with them within the house of god and that's what paul's main concern is here about sin in regards to the house of god the family of god brothers and sisters in christ and that's why he ends this verse the way that he does. Paul not only calls Christians to serious action, he not only presents us with a serious perspective on sin, but he presents us with the serious change of the new life that has been given to us. Paul says at the end of verse 7, in these sins you too once walked when you were living in them but now something has changed right christians have experienced real and true genuine change we are no longer people who live for ourselves we are no longer people who live with ourselves at the center of our lives we've been transformed transformed and transferred from light to darkness from death to life from the old to the new we've been given that new life and paul goes on to say at the end of verse 9 seeing that you have put on the old self with its practices or put have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator as i said much has been made of a person's identity today people identify with all kinds of things from sports teams to orientations to you name it but at the center of those identities are the self living for the self people identify with what they desire with what they covet with what they want that's what they make into their God. The idolatry of the self. But that's no longer true for us as Christians, is it? With the new life given to us, we no longer live with identifying with ourselves. We deny the self. We crucify the self. And we follow Christ and we now identify with him. See, Paul here is using language of clothing, right? He's using language of clothing to speak of the fundamental new reality for the Christian. The Bible makes much of the idea of clothing. All the way back to the time of Adam and Eve, where God clothed them with animal skins. And he did that to cover their guilt and their shame. And it was symbolic of their sin being covered and their sin being atoned for. This idea is further picked up and captured when the Bible speaks of Christians being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Paul picks up on this language to say, Look, Christians, you've taken off the old garments of your former life, garments of guilt, shame, sin, and death. That is what you once were. That is what you once identified with. But now you've been renewed in Christ. and you've put on new clothing you've been redressed with righteousness his righteousness the perfect spotless righteousness of the lamb of god we heard this morning about the prodigal son didn't we and how the father waited for the prodigal son and when the son came what did that father do he put on a robe covering the filthy garments of that son's shame and guilt and sin. The prodigal son was given a new beginning, wasn't he? And that clothing reflected that new beginning. In the same way, we as Christians have been given a new beginning. Clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we are new creations. And we must now identify with that new creation and live in light of our new life. Because the truth is, as Paul says here, we're not only redress in the righteousness of Christ, but we're being made more and more into the image of our creator. Paul's already said who that is. In chapter one, he says Christ, the preeminent one, creator of all things. See, at the heart of putting off and putting on is christ being made more and more in the image of christ we are christians followers of jesus christ we live for him and through his spirit he is making us more and more like him because by his spirit he lives and dwells in us ultimately paul here is speaking of a new humanity new people god's very own people and what does this new humanity look like it looks like us us here tonight people who wrestle and strive with denying our sin and putting it to death and putting on compassionate hearts as paul will go on to say kindness and humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and forgiving one another as christ has forgiven us this is why we kill sin because we are no longer people who revel in our sin we revel in christ we're new people god's very own possession and this new humanity really does look like us dutch mexican asian middle eastern black white and everything in between those old distinctions that divided us and caused strife between us those are no longer primary for us as christians we identify now with christ because of the new life that has been given to us and in christ there really is no greek or jew circumcised uncircumcised barbarian or scathian slave or free but christ is all and in all that's what is primary for us jesus christ because as the hymn goes he is our light he is our strength he is our song in christ alone do we find our life brothers and sisters this is our new life in christ a life of action a life where we are called to kill sin to deny sin to put it to death a life that also points and gives us a perspective on sin to take it serious to kill it at its root the idolatry of self and finally to realize that our former life is gone. It's over. We're no longer those people. We are now in Christ, and He is indeed all and in all. Let's pray. Lord, we give You thanks and praise for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for His atoning work on the cross, which saves us from our sin. And we thank You, Lord, that You have so graciously also given us your Spirit to dwell in us. To empower us and strengthen us to do the necessary work of killing sin, the remaining sin in our lives. Father, make each of us to take such a call serious. Make each of us to be sensitive to the sin that so easily entangles and ensnares us. Father, Father, give us eyes and hearts that magnify Christ. May He indeed be all in all in our hearts. We pray this in His name. Amen.