The Christian Life - Sanctification

When you take this whole concept of the Christian life and how to live it, we are to focus on above, not of the members of the earth.  We are to seek those things above because our life is hid in Christ, in God.

We are to put off the old and realize we are dead to that.  Mortify it by faith.  Put on the new with all of those things that we have in Christ.  We take those by faith. 

Our attitude should be towards one another, forgiving and loving and being thankful to God.  That is the Christian life.

It's not about certain ways to worship.  It's not about false humility.  It's not about a list of do's and don'ts.  It's about Christ.

The Christian life is impossible for us.  Jesus is the only one who can do it.  We are to rely on Him.  He does it in and through us.

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Speaker 0:02

Well, good morning again, everyone. Make sure I get this on there right. We're going to be in the book of Colossians. And I'll hit a few passages in chapter two before we get into chapter three this morning. It's good to be here with you all. This is one of those sermons that are really, to me, really fun to do. Has everything to do with the Christian life, our what we call our sanctification. So that's what we'll be getting into this morning. Before I even get started, though, let's let's go to the Lord in prayer. And Father, thank you for this time that we can come together freely and worship you, that we can make our requests known, that we can get into your Word and proclaim truth and apply it to our lives, live it out. So thank you just for the opportunity to be here. So, Lord, I do ask that we would have attentive minds and hearts to study these things out and understand just all that you've done for us and how we are supposed to live our lives. So, Father, thank you for all that you've done in Jesus' name. Amen.

Speaker 1:11

Well, in the book of Colossians, chapter two, remember last week we hit on a few of these things. And like I said, it's really about how do we live the Christian life? What is our sanctification? What is that like? How do we go about these things? And if you remember in chapter 2, the Apostle Paul warned against three different areas, three different areas. And I'll start at verse 16. Chapter 2, verse 16, it says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of holy days or of new moons or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. So don't be led away. Some people will say the real way you live the Christian life is, well, you attend these certain services, you know, all the holy days or service, you know, new moons or whatever it is. You just attend, you just go there, you just do these things, and that's the Christian life. No, those were just a shadow of Christ. Don't let that take you away. And he goes on to say let no man beguile or deceive you in your reward, of your reward in voluntary humility, worshiping of angels, introducing you to those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, not holding the head, which is Christ, from which all the body and joints band together, having nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increases with the increase of God.

Speaker 2:40

So the next warning is don't let people try to get you into this false sense of humility to say, well, God is so great and we are so nothing, so little, that we can't even approach God. We can't worship him. What he did, his sacrifice, wasn't good enough so that we can enter into the holy of holies or anything like that. We just need to worship angels and things like that. Says, no, they're leading you astray. That is not the Christian life. Verse 20 says, Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of this world, why though as you living in the world that you're subjects to its ordinance? Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things indeed have a show of wisdom in the will-worship of humility, neglecting of the body, and not in any honoring of the satisfying of the flesh.

Speaker 3:40

So the third thing he says is the Christian life isn't a bunch of rules of do's and don'ts. That's not it. That is not after Christ. Oh, it might look good on the outside, but that's not what it's about. So that brings us into chapter 3. If then you be risen with Christ, and this is how we would generally term this is since you've been risen. Let me give you a little demonstration here. Verse, remember chapter 2, verse 20, where it says, if you be dead, and then in chapter 3, verse 3 it says, for you are dead. In other words, if this is true, it's not saying, well, I'm not sure if it's true or not. It's saying, it's true, so then this is an example. I hear you're going fishing, right? Oh, well, if you're gonna go fishing, you need to call me. I'm not questioning if you're going fishing or not going fishing. I'm saying, if you're going fishing, give me a call. I want to go with. All right? Same thing. He's not saying if you be risen, like, well, maybe you are, maybe you aren't. It's if you're risen, seek those things which are above. Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. You're gonna see Paul contrast a lot of things here. There's things in heaven, there, there's things on earth. Okay? He says, seek out those things, for you're dead and your life is hid with Christ. So seek and your life is hid. You have these contrast concepts and ideas that are pretty interesting here.

Speaker 5:17

When Christ, verse 4, who is our life, shall appear, then you shall appear with him in glory. So what is he getting at here? He says, You're dead, but you're alive. Your life is hid in Christ with God. That's where your life is. So therefore, you should set your affections. Now, typically when we think of affections, we think of something like an emotional attachment. That's not what this word is trying to convey. This word literally means our thinking, our mindset. Set your thinking on things above. Remember in Romans chapter 12, where he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind by thinking differently. This is what this concept is. To not think of the old, not think of the earthly things, not think of that, not yielding yourself to your flesh, but think of things above, where your life is. This is your source. For you're dead, your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, he's talking about when he comes back, the second coming, then you shall appear with him in glory. So when you look back, you realize I'm dead. There's my old self. That is not me anymore. My new self is placed in Christ in heavenly places. I'm setting my thinking on that so that I can live the life God's called me to live, so when he comes back and we are all with him, we can share in that glory. So you look back, that's my old life, it's done, it's over. I'm not going to revive it, I'm going to leave it dead, I'm going to live the life he's called me to live. I'm looking ahead, looking to the future. I call that starting at the cheese. If you know the mouse puzzle, where it's this maze, and in the center there's a nice thing of cheese, and on the outside is the mouse, and the mouse has to go through the maze and try to get to the cheese. Well, if you if you start at the cheese and go backwards, it's easier. I don't know if you've ever done that with puzzles before, but maze puzzles, you start where you're supposed to end and you go backwards. Well, think of that in your Christian life. Where do you want to end up when you're standing before the Lord? Do you want to be there and say, you know, uh I lived a faithful life. I did what you called me to do. I relied on you. I had a life of faith. If that's where you want to end, then each and every decision is going to help you at that point or take away from that. If that's how you want to end, then start by living that life today. So focus on that. Our life is hid with Christ in God, and when he comes back, he is our life, we will appear with him in glory.

Speaker 8:18

Verse 5 then says, mortify, therefore, it means it's put to death the members which are upon the earth. So now you have this contrast. Our life is in Christ in heavenly places, but our members are on this earth. And he gives a list of those: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affections, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So he's talking about our old self. He's saying, Mortify, put those things there, put to death, take that by faith that it's that you're dead to it. In fact, let's go to Romans chapter six. Paul expands on these truths in Romans chapter six, and we'll hit on that. I'll start verse one through six, and then we'll skip up to verse 12. Paul writes to the church at Rome and he asks the question, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, our old life is dead, live any longer therein? Know ye not there's so many of us which were baptized into Jesus, were baptized into his death? Therefore, in other words, we've been placed into Christ, so when he died, we died. We've been buried with him by baptism into his death, that as like Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life, the resurrected life. For we have been planted together in his likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Speaker 10:17

So Romans chapter 6, Paul starts to go into that. He says, You've been placed into Christ, you've been immersed in him, so when he died, you died. When he was buried, you were buried. When He rose, you rose, so that we can walk in newness of life, that we should not serve sin. Verse 12, he says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey the lust thereof. Neither yield your members. Here's that concept of our members being on this earth. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourself unto God, as though you are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, you are under grace. So Paul says, Your members you have to make a decision and who you yield it. You yield it to your old self, or you yield it to what we call the new man. One or the other. One is a sin unto death, one is righteousness. It's one or the other.

Speaker 11:33

So let's go back to Colossians chapter three, and we'll look at some of these. It says, mortify, put to death, you've been dead. So you do that by taking it by faith. Some people might say, Well, I don't feel like I'm dead to sin. Well, it's not a feeling, it's a fact. There's a difference. There's all kinds of things that we may not feel, but our fact, I don't feel like it's raining outside. It's raining outside. My feeling doesn't affect the fact. Okay? I may not feel that God loves me. The fact is, God loves me. He loves us all. So much he sent his Son to die for our sins. We may not feel like Christ was crucified for us, but he was crucified for us. See, our feelings do not change fact. So we are dead to sin. He says, so mortify, you take that by faith, your members which are upon the earth, and then He gives a list, fornication, the word pornea, where we get our word porn from. And he says, you're dead to that. Don't go down that path. Uncleanness, this is impure motives. You see, a lot of people can go through and do the right things, but their motives are wrong. They're doing it for a selfish reason. Uncleanness, impure motives. Inordinate affections. That means depraved in vile passions. And we could go into Romans chapter one and see the downgrade of man when they don't recognize God as the creator, God gives them over to vile affections, rejecting God, going further down in their depravity, evil concupiscence, desiring forbidden lusts, going down the path even further. Covetousness, which is idolatry. Now, when I first read this, I had to kind of think of covetousness, I understand that, that's desiring, being greedy, just wanting more and more and more, never being satisfied, but it says, which is idolatry. And when I picture idolatry, I get the picture, you know, of people bowing down to some little statue or idol that they made or bought or something like that. That's how I view idolatry. So, how did these two? The Bible's clear and I know the Bible's right, and my thinking's got to change. So, how is covetousness, idolatry? Well, when you start thinking about it, you're saying, Christ, everything that you did for me by dying on the cross, by sending your spirit, by blessing me with all things that pertain to life and godliness, giving me all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, that is not enough. I need something more to satisfy me. I need something else to make me whole. That's bowing down to something other than Christ. Saying, you're not sufficient, you're not good enough, I need something else. Goes on to say, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. That's who you were, in which you also walked sometimes when you lived in them. That that used to be how we were. We're not that's not who we are anymore. That's not our identity. If you've trusted in Christ, you are a new creation, new creature. So how do how do we go about this? Because you might be thinking, well, I I know it's wrong, but I can't help it. I I still have those desires. What do we do? Well, do you remember this? There was an old commercial a while ago. This guy, he's in like a kind of like a locker room, and he is buttoning up his dress shirt, and he's put gonna get ready to put his tie on and everything. The phone rings, and he hits the speaker button, and goes, and he hears this lady's voice says, uh, hey honey, uh, I'm at the mall. Are you still at the club? And he says, Yes. And he says, Well, I was well, I was at the mall that there's this really nice fur coat, and it's a thousand dollars. And he says, Well, if you like it, go ahead and get it. And he goes, Oh, really? Well, uh, and honey, I stopped at the Mercedes dealership on the way, and they've got a brand new model, and it's it's $120,000. And he says, Well, at that price, go ahead, make sure you get all the options. And she's like, Well, really? Well, and and honey, the the the house that we looked at last year, it's back on the market, and they're asking $1.5 million. And he says, Well, why don't you put in an offer of $1.4? And he's getting his tie all put on in his suit coat. And she says, Oh, oh, that's great, honey. I I love you. I'll talk to you later. He says, Yep, bye. And he puts his coat on and he gets done, and he grabs the phone, he says, Does anyone know whose phone this is? That's not it wasn't for him. See, when those when those calls come, those desires, don't answer them. It's not yours. It's not who you are. That's that's your old self. You're dead to that. That is not who you are. It doesn't matter if it's fornication, uncleanness, in order. It doesn't matter. That's not who you are. That's your old self. You're dead to that. You take that by faith. That's why I think it's so important to understand what faith is. Faith is relying on someone or something that they've done something or will do something for you. Okay? It's a it's a reliance on truth. And the Bible says we are dead to that, so you mortify that by taking it by faith. That is not who I am. He says, verse 8, but now you also put off all these things anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. That's my old self. That's not who I am. Sometimes I look at this and I think, yeah, that's that's a great order to put things in. Uh first Paul hits them with uh fornication, uncleanness, in order to infection, all of these things. And the people are probably, you know, sometimes, you know, you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yipes is the one that got hit. Sometimes those people that that get hit by these things, uh, they can get angry, uh violent emotion, uh, hurt, heated anger. They they start to see, they get all red. They don't, don't tell me that I can't do that. Don't tell me that that's wrong or that's sin. And says, oh yeah, by the way, this is also the old man. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, slander, start talking bad about people, uh, not just God, but uh in the wrong sense, making up lies. Filthy communication, foul or obscene speech. That's our old self. That's not who we are in Christ. We we put that off. That is not who I am. Verse 10 says, and have put on the new man. It's not just putting off, that's who I I used to be, that's not who I am now, but put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. He says, it doesn't matter your background, if you were a Greek or a Jew, it doesn't matter if you had a ritual performed on you, doesn't matter if you're barbarian, doesn't matter, bond or it doesn't matter. You've been placed into Christ, you have all these things. So you put on, therefore, as the elective God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. It doesn't say try to be like that. It doesn't say, don't do this and do this. That's the do's and don'ts. You take it by faith that I'm dead to it. Christ did all the work. You take it by faith that he's given me all these things, he did all the work. You're relying on what he has done. Can you imagine uh if someone someday you got a call from a lawyer and they said, hey, uh there's this, you had an old relative that you probably never knew, uh, but they knew who you were and they left you an inheritance. You have this huge warehouse and it's full of stuff. Would you be a little bit curious of what's in it? I mean, it's a warehouse, right? Could be classic cars, could be fishing boats, could be sewing supplies. Who knows what's in there? I'd be wanting to go, well, that's wonderful. Where's it at? I want to go check it out. I want to see what's in there. Well, you've got a bigger inheritance in some warehouse. Your inheritance, you have everything in Christ. He says, So put these things on, realize what you have, bowels of mercy. That's your innermost being of wanting to see good for other people, the bowels of mercy. It goes on to say kindness, kindness, moral goodness, integrity, humbleness of uh humbleness of mind, humbleness of mind. Now, when I look that up, it literally says, a deep sense of one's moral littleness. In other words, I understand that in and of myself I'm nothing, that I need to rely on Christ for everything. In fact, the Apostle Paul goes into that more in detail. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. It's funny, through the years I have heard people talk about trying to be a strong Christian, and that can be very misleading. Like you just need to go out there and give it all you've got. Work on it. Try your best. Don't give up, and so on and so forth. But look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'll start at verse 7. Paul says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations that were given to me, a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it depart from me. So Paul had this problem that he didn't like. It was really bothering him, and people uh try to guess on what it was, and I think he made it specifically uh obscure. Um, a thorn in the flesh, something that is bothering you and irritating you in there all the time. Uh for some people it can be one thing, for other people it can be another thing. Uh, but regardless, uh, he wants God take this away. You ever pray like that? Oh, I've I struggle with this. God, just just take it away. Just take it away. Well, Paul did that three times. Verse 9, he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. What is Jesus saying to him? He's saying, Paul, when you realize how weak you are, that's when you rely on me, and my strength is made perfect in your weakness. My grace is sufficient. I don't necessarily take every problem out of your life, everything that you struggle with out of your life. But when you have a problem, when there's something you struggle with, you realize my grace is sufficient for that. I don't have to necessarily take it away, you're dead to it. Most gladly, Paul goes on to say that most gladly, therefore, would I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on me. What is he doing? He has this deep sense of his moral littleness. He goes, I would I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. How do we become a strong Christian? Realizing how weak we are in relying on Him, taking it by faith. Relying on Him. Go back to Colossians chapter three. So you're dead to sin, put off those things, seek the things that are above, put on the bottles of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. I think the modern-day equivalent with that, put up with them. Put up with people, forgive them. Now look what it says about forgiving. It says, forbearing one another, if any man have a quarrel against you, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Did you deserve Christ to forgive you? No. Not at all. If we deserve it, it's not forgiveness. It's not forgiveness. We deserve it. But isn't that how we try to, you know, we think all the way back from when we were little kids, how we think. I remember one time my brother and I we were in Indiana visiting an uncle. My parents were there, and my brother and I were probably, I don't know, probably around like Asher and Carter's age. And just, you know, growing up on a farm, we had all kinds of stuff to do, and now we're in more of a subdivision, kind of bored out of our skull. So we get in my uncle's garage, just look around, see what we can do, and we found tennis rackets and golf balls. So, what do you do with tennis rackets and golf balls? Well, you see how high you can knock those things up in the air. Here come my little cousin waddling out there. Guess what happened with the golf ball? Come right down on his right on his melon. Just dunk. You could just hear that dunk. We start promising, we'll do this, just don't go tell anyone, you know, we'll do this for you, we'll do that. Didn't matter. He squalled right back and we got in trouble. But isn't that what we try to do? I could I can make it up somehow. I I can do something to get out of it. I can make all of these promises. No, that's not how we come to Christ. Come to Christ realizing there's nothing I can do. I've sinned, I deserve everything that you give me, Lord. And yet in his grace, he forgave me. And that's how we're supposed to forgive others. They don't deserve it. And above all these things, put on charity. This is uh agape, agape love, or what we usually consider unconditional love. Here it talks about, which is the bond of perfectioness or perfectness. The bond of perfectness or moral spiritual perfection. Well, who has that? Only God. And he's created this new man in his own image. And when we take that by faith, uh it becomes manifested in our life. If we don't take that by faith, we're back with the old man. And what comes out of that? All of this other stuff, fornication and uncleanness and all of that. And so we go, oh, well, that doesn't look good, so I need to try harder. That's what I would call a Christian mortician, trying to take something that's dead and make it alive. No, we are to mortify, realize that that is dead, that's not who I am. This is who I am in Christ. And I take that by faith, relying on what He's done for me. And then it manifests these things in my life. It says, Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which you also are called in one body, and be ye thankful. So we can forgive one another, we can come together as a body of believers, and then we can have the peace of God ruling in our hearts, knowing that He has done everything needed to do for us to live the life he's called us to live. We take those things by faith, we encourage others to do the same, that is the body of Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, and emolishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. There's a lot in that verse. One, let the word of Christ, let God's word dwell in us richly, reading it, understanding it, meditating on it, memorizing it, all of these things. Let it dwell in you richly, so that you can teach others, admonish others, one another. And we do it in Psalms. I love this psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, I know what the Psalms are, that's scripture, right? And then hymns. Well, I know what hymns are today. I don't know what necessarily hymns were back then. Spiritual songs, I know what spiritual songs are today. I don't necessarily know what they were back then, but what I do see is a variety. I do see there's a variety here, and he says, Do that, singing these things with grace in your heart to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. So whatever we do, we're doing it in His name. We're taking on His name, we're doing it in His name. When I drove bus, they gave you this badge identity thing, had some kind of computer chip in it, and you'd put it around your neck or stick it in your pocket, and then when you went up to uh the school or the garage, there's a little thing there that you would put out and it would scan it, and then the door would unlock and you could go in and have access. Now, if I tried my driver's license, nothing's gonna happen. Well, the only thing that mattered is it was part of a different of the Tome Area School District, right? And as long as it's part of that, if I'm coming in that name, the door opens up. In other words, it says we're doing everything in the name of the Lord. He's given us access into the heavenly places where we have all things that pertain to Christ. We are going in his name. We are his ambassadors, we're his representatives on this earth, we're to do all things in his name, giving thanks to God, the Father, by him. So when you when you take this whole concept of the Christian life and how to live it, we are to focus on above, not on the members of the earth. We're to seek those things because our life is hid in Christ with God. We're to put off the old, realize that we're dead to that, mortify it by faith, put on the new. All these wonderful things we have in the Christ, we take those by faith, and our attitude should be towards one another, forgiving and love, being thankful to God. That is the Christian life. It's not about uh certain ways to worship, it's not about false humility, it's not about a list of do's and don'ts. It's about Christ. The Christian life is impossible for us. Jesus is the only one that can do it. And we rely on him. He does it in and through us. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time that you've given us to come together to worship and to make our request known, to get into your word. And so, Lord, I do ask that each and every day we would be focusing on things above, that we'd be relying on you, that when that sin nature our flesh calls, that we would not pick up the phone, we would not answer it, we would realize that that's not who we are. We're dead to that. We're alive unto you. So, Father, I do ask that we would continue to walk by faith in you in Jesus' name. Amen. To be willing to stand with us.