Seek the Things Above: Put Off the Old
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Transcript
Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
you for this opportunity to come and worship in song and to study your word on this first day of the week, Lord. We remember your resurrection, Lord. You rose from the dead. You ascended on high. You're at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace, God's riches at Christ's expense, heavy-duty stuff, Lord. We thank you.
The Son full could be stowed upon us, that unmerited favor, and for that mercy, not giving us what we deserve, Lord. You shed blood on the cross, Lord, for us. And as you rose from the dead and to the disciples and various ones, some 500 for your resurrection, some 40 days, and Acts chapter 1, 9 through 11, and how the disciples went out there, saw you, and they steadfast gaze lay as you raised up into the sky. You shall return. We thank you, Lord Jesus.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for this opportunity to come out to this lost world, Lord, this lost world.
Would you stand here this morning in this first service, that you would search our hearts, Lord Jesus, that you would help us look to you, because you're doing a work in each of our hearts, Lord, and work of your Holy Spirit in each of our hearts, Lord. Help us be honest with you, Lord, as we rejoice, as we pray, have concerns, as we look at this world and feel very, maybe discouraged sometimes. But, Lord, know that this place isn't our home. We know, Lord, as we see all that's going on, it looks like everybody, you know, it's all just such a mess, but we must keep in mind you're going to return, and you want us to be busy about your work, looking to you, trusting in you, warts and all.
When we feel down, you're still there. When we feel up, you're always there. It's not based on our feelings. It's based on faith in you, Lord Jesus. We thank you in Jesus' name, and we ask that you amongst us this morning, in Jesus' name. Amen? The Lord bless you all.
If you could begin to locate your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.
Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. As always, the things going on on the left-hand side of your bulletin, but quite a few things going on here in the middle of your bulletin. A reminder that tomorrow night, we'll have Kamal Saleem here, and it should be a great time. I was messaging with Brad last night.
He spoke there Friday or Saturday. I can't remember which one, but he just gave rave reviews for what he had to share. So come join us for that tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock right here. And then a reminder that this coming Wednesday is our worship night. So come join us for an evening of worship. Ladies, we have an event coming up on the 3rd. All the details are right there.
And that little QR code is how you can go on and register. If you have any questions, you can talk to my wife, talk to Aaron after between services. A reminder that there's a conference coming up in Johnson County, August 1st through the 3rd. That's coming pretty quick. Free conference. You just have to provide your own lodging. And then also we have a baptism coming up August the 11th.
We'll be doing a little picnic before that. The baptism is going to be on the 3rd. It's going to be at the public pool at 7 o'clock. And then we'll do a little picnic before that, probably around 5 or 530 right across the street at the park there and have a great time together. And then fellows, we have a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday in the agape room.
So take note of that. And then a little word from Teresa Moore. If you are one of the ladies that has signed up to have just a study put back on the table back there, she would like for me to remind you, to pick those up because there's a good number of them piling up back there from some folks that aren't picking those up. So ladies, you might just look back there and make sure that maybe you accidentally signed up and you forgot or some such thing like that.
So, so take a look at that and make sure that you get those picked up. Those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 14, Psalm 14. And for this particular portion of the, of this service, we will be using the new American standard Bible just so that we all sound the same.
If you did not bring a copy of the new American standard, no problem. There should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 14, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's word, I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with pastor Allen and the even versus Psalm 14 for the choir director, a Psalm of David, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
They are corrupt. They have committed adultery. Abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside together. They have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one to all the workers of wickedness, not know who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the
Lord. There they are in great dread. For God is with the righteous generation. You would put to shame the council of the afflicted, but the Lord is his refuge and read verse seven with me. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores his captive people. Jacob will rejoice. Israel will be glad and father. We do praise you that you are our refuge Lord.
We don't want to be like the foolish, but we want to find our refuge in you. And so father, we do that this morning, even with all of the political and social upheaval taking place in our nation, we are in a completely perfectly safe spot as we find our refuge in you. He who finds his shelter in the secret place of the most high will hide under the shadow of the almighty. And so Lord, we find that in you today and Lord, we lift up our service to you and pray that you would be with the word as it goes out.
Overflow me, with your gifts of teaching and all of us, Lord, as your people with the gift of hearing in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three. Today we come to part two in our series of seeking the things above. Again, in chapter one of Colossians, Paul put our eyes back upon Jesus in chapter two of Colossians.
He warned us to not be, to not be deceived by the philosophies of the world that have humanity at the center instead of Jesus at the center that focus on man and don't focus us upon Christ. And now in chapter three, he has started to tell us that we are to seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father, because ultimately what we are to seek is Christ. Those things that are above. And we said that in chapter three, there were three things, he was going to talk to us about seeking the things that are above.
We covered the first one last week, which is that we are to set our minds on things above three. Come to the second one today. And that is that we are to put off the old. We are to put off the old. And so starting in verse five of chapter three, it says this, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and greed, which amounts to idolatry for it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them, you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self,
who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian, Scythian slave and free. But Christ is all and in all. Now, as we look at this aspect of putting off the old, again, there's three things he's going to tell us. He's going to tell us to consider it dead.
He's going to tell us to put it off. And then third, he is going to remind us who you are. So we'll start with the first one. Consider it dead. Again, starting in verse five, it says this. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry in verse five. He gives us two things.
He first of all, gives us the action. The second thing he gives us is the members. So let's look at the action. He says, consider the members of your earthly body as dead. Consider them dead. That phrase in the new American standard, I don't feel like carries the weight that it carries in some of the other translations, nor does it carry the weight that it should carry.
I want to read it to you in a couple of different translations, other, translations, phrase it. Therefore put to death the earthly members of your body. I love the way the amplified Bible put it. Deprive it of power. Deprive it of power. The idea is that in principle, our earthly members, the sinful part of ourself has died. We have been united with Christ in his death and united with him in his resurrection.
Therefore we have died to the old man. We have died to the old man. Therefore we have died to the old man. We have died to the things of sin. We have died to our earthly members, but now our position has to be put into action on a daily basis. Our position needs to be put into action on a daily basis. And the way that we put our position into action is that we start to put these things to death.
Now, this is a really strong word that's used here, a really strong word that's used for considering or putting, these things to death. One of the commentators I read put it kind of like this. They said, imagine if you will, that you are at work in a factory and as you're working in a factory, your hand gets caught in a machine and it begins to pull you in and it will continue to pull you in until your entire body is devoured. Unless you take swift and decisive action to cut off your hand for the salvation of the rest of your body.
They said, that's the idea of the power that, that verb carries with it. Now don't worry. In just a moment, I'm going to remind us that dismemberment is not what's included here, right? Like I don't want anybody coming back next week, missing a limb because you were like, don't worry, Ryan, I have cut off the earthly members of my body. That's not what it's saying to do,
but that is the weight that that phrase carries. And it carries that kind of weight because the Gnostics that Paul was dealing with in the area of Colossi taught that it did not matter what you did with your, with your earthly body. It did not matter how you lived in your physical realm because the physical, the material, the earthly is all evil. What really matters is your soul.
And as long as your soul is safe, then you can do whatever you want to with the rest of your body because it is simply something that needs to be satisfied. It's amazing how those philosophies still kind of go around today. Would you agree? And so he says, therefore you must cut it off. De-private, of power. Romans chapter six puts it like this. Stop presenting yourself with the obedience of a slave to your earthly members,
which lead to sin. It is an, it is a once for all action that requires a continuous decision on our part. Therefore put to death your earthly members. The second phrase I'll point out to you is exactly what it says. The members of your earthly body, because we should figure out what those are. These are, uh, as it is translated by the, uh, Kenneth Weiss translation,
the physical members so far as they are employed in the service of sin. Let me read that to you again. I thought that was a great definition. Our physical members so far as they are employed in the service of sin. In other words, put to death those things that like to send inside of you. Let me read to you what the, uh, amplified Bible says. The evil longings of your earthly body with its sensual self centered instinct,
the evil longings of your earthly body with its sensual self centered instincts. In other words, if it causes you to sin, cut it off. Jesus gave that exact example when he was talking with his disciples, he said, if your right hand causes, you to sin, you should cut it off because it's better to go into heaven maimed than to go into hell with a whole body. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out because it is better to go into heaven maimed than to go into hell with a body that is complete.
And the idea is this. If it causes you to sin, you need to cut it out of your life and you need to take swift, decisive action about it. Then it needs to be in every, every fabric of who you are. When things cause sin, cut them off. He says, therefore consider the earthly members of your body as dead. And then he goes on to list some of these members. He gives us five of them.
He lists immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. So let's go through that list of things that he gives to us. The first thing that he tells us that we need to put to death as in our members is sexual immorality. In the new American standard, it simply labels it as immorality, but that's the idea that's given to us. It's the same Greek word and the great Greek word that choose there,
as you probably know, because it's been mentioned before is the Greek word pornea, which is where we get our word pornography from. And this word is a all encompassing, encompassing word when it comes to sexual immorality. As a matter of fact, if you look it up in the dictionary and the Greek dictionary, it tells you that it carries with it the idea of any form of immorality that goes outside of the bonds of marriage between one man and one woman. The idea is that it's anything that goes along with those things.
Therefore, most of what takes place in our society today should be put to death. Most of the things that are happening in our world today need to be put to death. And because Christians aren't putting it to death, the rest of the world doesn't think that they need to put it to death. You can't blame me for what's going on in the real world, really, because the standard keeps getting a little bit, a little bit wider.
Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that the standard gets a little bit wider and it's one thing when it takes place in the world, but it's another thing when it takes place in church. I was listening to the radio the other day and it was talking about a furry con conference. Now, when you first hear that phrase, furry con, you think, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my entire life, that there are people that run around identifying as different kinds of animals.
And we've all heard the stories, whether they're legends, whether they're real about, about kids identifying as furries and all these kinds of things. It really is a real thing in our world today. And what I was shocked by is when I think of a conference called furry con, I just think of a bunch of people running around wearing cat ears and tails being absolutely ridiculous in the things that they do. Would you agree that that's a pretty good picture in our minds of what takes place?
That's not the half of what takes place because they went on to talk about the sexual immorality that took place at this furry con conference. You see all of these things of identity. We have to understand that they deal with immorality and they excuse immorality. My wife was telling me about somebody that she follows on Instagram who ended up at one of these pride parades, didn't intend to, but ended up at a, a pride parade in San Francisco.
And they said, we can't repeat on Instagram what took place there because we'll be shut down because that's what's going on in our world today. Now listen, that paints a bleak picture for our world. Therefore, the church should be separate. We should live lives that are separate from the rest of the world. And purity should be what signifies the church. Purity should be what signifies us.
Why? Because our God is pure. Our God is holy. Therefore, holiness should be what signifies my life. Therefore, we have to cut off sexual immorality. And listen, that's a hard thing to do. I was listening to Joe Foch teach about this, and this was quite a few years back now. And he was talking about the fact that you can't turn on a football game without seeing a lot of commercials that you don't want to watch.
Because there's a lot. I just, he goes, I loved what he said. He goes, I want to watch grown men brutalize each other while they wear pads on a playing field. I want to watch grown men brutalize each other while they wear pads on a playing field. I don't want to watch a Victoria's Secret commercial. Right? But that's the world that we live in right now. If you're not careful,
everything in the world pops up in front of you. And you've got to hurry up and change the channel. We don't have cable in our house, but we do have a Hulu subscription. And it's just the cheapest subscription you can possibly get. It's not live, but there's still commercials, which BT dubs. I don't want to get into how frustrated I am that I pay for a Netflix subscription and there's commercials.
That's going to come when we get to, to covetousness. Right? Um, but, but, but all these commercials, you're going, my kid is watching this right now and my show won't play. The show they're watching right now won't play unless I let this commercial play. So we have to mute it and say, Hey, talk to us for a minute because of all the things going on in the world.
And we have to start looking and going, what needs to go? What needs to no longer be a part of our lives because we are to cut off sexual immorality. Because he tells us put to death the members of your earthly body. The first of which is immorality. Number two is impurity. Impurity is a little bit more of a generic term, but it deals more with immorality and thought and word immorality and thought and word.
While sexual immorality covers a larger base, this deals with the more generic base of what we think about, and the things that we say. And can we all remember the fact that sin always starts where sin always starts in the mind. It starts as a thought. Therefore we are to put to death impurity. And I say that because we can sometimes listen. I worked on job sites for years.
I worked around construction guys for years and I always heard the exact same thing. It's okay. If I look, I'm not going to act on it. It's okay. If I look, I'm not going to do anything about it. And, and all I could think is, but we're to put to death impurity, which deals with our thoughts, but it also deals with our speech. It deals with our words because we've all sat around and heard that one joke,
right? We've all sat around and heard that thing that causes us to think like we maybe shouldn't. And it's not just men that have to deal with this because 50 shades of gray was not written for men. And we have to know these things because, because impurity is something that we have to put to death because the way that we think and the way that we talk will ultimately impact the way that we act.
And so he says, put these things to death, immorality, impurity. The third one he gives us is passion, which in its definition means a strong unbridled lust. And the fourth one is evil desire, which is an intense or a violent craving. Now we'll get to the fifth one in just a minute, but I want to point out something to you. I want to point out to you the fact that the first four of those things that he tells us that we are to put to death and not mess around with at all,
all have at their base some form of sexual sin. Did you notice that all four of those have that same root at their base? And I think that that should tell us something about one of the greatest issues that culture has faced. Listen from the word go. Everybody likes to think that this, this generation that we live in is somehow unique, that this generation that we live in is somehow worse.
Is our access greater? Maybe. But remember part of the worship that they took part in, in the city of, or in the, the cities of the Roman empire usually involves some form of immorality. So is it more available today? Maybe, maybe not. This is something we've always dealt with. And I say that because I think sometimes in the culture we live in today, we can excuse aspects of sin,
because we say it's just so much harder in the day and age in which we live. But listen, even if that's true, that it's harder in the day and age in which we live, how much more seriously do we need to take this imperative that we are to put these things to death? Because it is ruining our culture. It is ruining marriages. It is ruining kids. And it's happening at an alarming rate.
And if we, as the church don't stand up and say, this is the difference we're going to make because we're going to be pure. Then it's really hard for us to give out the gospel to a world that is lost in impurity. Amen. And so he tells us, he says, put to death your earthly members. And then he comes to number five and number five. I think it's pretty, it's pretty hard because number five is and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. Some of your translations may use the word covetousness there. The idea behind that word is a greedy desire to have more. Now, I think that this encapsulates not only the first four that he's talking about, because we all know that once you give in to sin, you just keep wanting more. But it also has to do, it has to do with the fact that Paul lived in a materialistic society.
And quite frankly, we live in a materialistic society. After all, we live in a material world. And unfortunately, sometimes I am a material guy. Okay. So I didn't throw a girl in on that. Sometimes I use the, but it's 2024. I can't say that anymore. Right. I got to say, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a material dude. Right. And that's the world that we live in. And that's the world that Paul lived in because all of us always want more.
And when did we start wanting more in the garden? Right. You ever noticed we go back to that same spot a lot. You know why? Because that's where it all began because Adam and Eve had what every tree they could possibly eat from. And if I know God, there were more than five, right? There was probably more than they could ever imagine. But where were they hanging out next to the tree?
They weren't supposed to have. Why? Because they just wanted more. You can be like God. And in today's world, you can be your own God. And so he says, you also have to put to death covetousness. I read a great book at one point in time. It's been a long time since I've read it, but it's called, it's by our Kent Hughes. It's called set apart, calling a worldly church to a godly life.
Fantastic read. And one of the things that he points out is materialism. And he wrote this shortly after it was mid two thousands. And, and if you, if you remember when, uh, when the bombings happened in 2001, uh, when the world, which BT dubs, I was at side note. Um, I was at a, a training this week at fellowship of Christian athletes up in Kansas city. It's fantastic.
People from 26 different States, all of us with the same goal. We just want to reach kids for Christ, right? So I'm at a table and there's me. The guy next to me is about 10 or 15 years older than I am. He's a pastor too. Another young man over here. Who's probably like 32, 33. And then these three kids that are 22, they're all fresh out of college. And we were talking about things that happen in life and when they were born.
And, and of course, nine 11 is a big part of my testimony and what God did in me. Like it is a lot of us because that was a pretty shocking time. And, and one of them goes, I was born two days after that. And I was like, that's dumb, right? Like how, how did that happen? What on earth? Anyway, I felt really old. That's, that has nothing to do with my study,
but I remember after, after the bombing happened in 2001, the world trade centers got hit. What happened to the economy? Right? Because nobody wanted to go out. We were all just in such shock. And so do you remember what G-Dub came out and said? He, I wish I could do a sweet G-Dub impression, but I can't, I'll work on it a little bit more. So if this ever comes up again,
I can, I can give a good G-Dub impression, right? But, but he told us, you need to go out and spend money. You need to go and inject money into the economy. You guys remember him saying that? I remember this speech and saying like, do your patriotic duty by going shopping. To which every woman in America went, I'm gonna do it. Right? They were all just like,
let's do this thing. Doing my, I remember I was, a lady came back, came back at lunchtime and, and I said, what'd you do for lunch? And she goes, I served my country. Right? And that's kind of our mentality in the United States of America is we just want more. Like, I don't, I don't care what I have. I care what else I can have. Right? Because we live in this kind of,
our economy is almost kind of built on covetousness right now. Advertising is built upon covetousness, but it's that greedy desire for more. But I want to point out what he calls covetousness. He calls it idolatry. And I loved what a couple of the different translations had to say. I think this is the Kenneth Weiss translation. It says covetousness, which is idolatry because it is the worship of the things of this world.
It is the worship, the worship of the things of this world. Now, I bet you never thought about it that way. Maybe you have, but a lot of times we think, no, it's just because I kind of need something new. I need a little retail therapy or you name the thing, right? But what it can kind of become in our lives is, is the worship of the things of this world. And then the amplified Bible put the icing on the cake here when it says,
because it replaces your devotion to God with a devotion to things. And so he says, as believers in Jesus Christ, those who have been united with him in his death and now united with him in his resurrection live, like you've been united with him in his death and put to death your earthly members, the immorality, the impurity, the passion, the evil desire and the covetousness. Why those what it says in verse six for it is because of these things that the wrath of God, the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. Why?
Because these are the things that are bringing the wrath of God. Now we have to understand when he talks about the wrath of God, we need to look at it maybe a handful of different ways. First of all, when we live according to these things, we suffer the natural consequences that go with it, right? Like, like some people living on this side of eternity, maybe they're going, well, I've not seen the wrath of God, but they are suffering the natural consequences of living like that.
And so that's one aspect where we see the wrath, the wrath of God coming upon the sons of disobedience is with those natural consequences. But the second thing that we see is those eternal consequences that if, that if your life is lived according to that, then it's really hard to say that your life is lived according to Christ. And there are eternal consequences with that. But we also have to remember that God's wrath is going to be poured out on this unbelieving world.
As a matter of fact, one of the signs of the end times is that people will willfully forget that God destroyed the earth once with a flood and judgment. And, and that he's going to destroy it a second time with fire, that he is going to come. We call it the tribulational period when God pours out his wrath upon the earth. And because of these things, the wrath of God is coming.
And who's it coming upon? The sons of disobedience. I absolutely loved the way the amplified Bible described the sons of disobedience. Matter of fact, I was sitting in a coffee shop studying and I, I stopped the girl behind the counter who I know is a believer. And I said, I just have to read you this because it's so good. This is what it says. The sons of disobedience,
those who fail to listen and routinely and obstinately disregard God's precepts. Isn't that a great definition for disobedience? Let me read it to you again. Those who fail to listen and who routinely and obstinately disregard God's precepts. In other words, you don't listen to what he has to say. And when you do, you don't do it. You don't do it on purpose.
You don't do it on purpose because you just want to do what you want to do because of these things. The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. But then I want you to notice what it says in verse seven. And in them, you also once walked when you were living in them and them. You once walked. It's important for us to remember that there's two things.
I think are really important to remember about that. The first thing that's important to remember about the fact that in those things we once walked is that it prevents us from living in them. It prevents us from ever looking down on other people. One of the issues that we can have as believers in Jesus Christ, those who have been set free from past sins, is that we now start looking at other people in their sins and going, how can they do that?
Like we look at the gross perversion that goes on in the world around us. And instead of looking at those people that give into that and say they need Jesus, we look at them and say, wow, how disgusting they are. Instead of looking and saying, I used to be just like that. I was never that bad. You're right. You were worse because you were probably self-righteous in the way that you did it in them.
You once walked and we can't look down on other people. We can't look at the world around us and say, they're so gross. They can't have Jesus because if he can save me, he can save anyone. Right? And so we can't, we can't look down on other people because of their sins. But it also is a good reminder that all of those things should always be in the past tense for us.
Right? They should always be in the past. That's who I once was. So it shouldn't be who I am now. That's who I used to be. Let's not let it Mark who I am now because that's not who I am now. And so the first thing he tells us is to consider it dead. The second thing he tells us is to put it off. Notice what it says. But now you also put them all aside. Anger,
wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices. He says, put it off. Once again, he's going to give us the action and then the description of what we do with the action. And the action is that we are to put these things aside. The idea behind that phrase in the Greek is to take them off like an old set of clothes.
I'm always reminded of the fact that when I worked construction, my wife really appreciated me taking a good shower, right? Probably more than now than, or probably more than she does now when I come home from the office and I've not been sweating all day. But, but I will never forget coming in from, uh, I was working at, uh, um, Miriam visitors Bureau and we were doing kind of a, an interesting little path that involved crushed granite. And so what you would do is you would pour out the crushed granite.
You would put a certain amount of water on it. So that it would begin to harden. And so by the time you were done sweating, spraying water and shoveling crushed granite, guess what was all over you crushed granite that was now stuck to you. And it was all over my clothing. I just, I just had a red tent all over me. And I walked in and my wife said, do not come near me.
Go take a shower, right? Because I needed to take off those old clothes and get, get rid of them. Now I didn't get rid of them. I washed them, but I will say I used to keep a separate hamper for all those old clothes so that it didn't get all that junk all over my wife's very nice clothing that she taught in. But that's the idea that's being presented to us.
We just came out of the old. And so let's get rid of all of the old clothing. Take off all that garbage next week. He's going to tell us what to put on. But for this week, we're just talking about what to take off all of this old stuff, strip it off like old clothing. And again, when you want, to go in somewhere nice and you're wearing all that old dirty clothing,
what's all you can think, man, I'd better change my clothes. I'd better get cleaned up. And so that's what he tells us that we need to do. Now, what does he tell us to take off? What are the old suit of clothes that we're supposed to take off? Well, again, a lot of attitudes that lead back to a lack of love. So let's look at this list. The first thing that he tells us is that we,
that we are to put off is that we are, to put off anger were to put off anger. That word anger means a habitual revengeful anger. The idea behind this word is anger as a settled disposition. In other words, that's the personality that you have. Have you ever been around somebody that is just by nature, a very angry person, and you feel like their fuse is so short that all it takes is,
you know, a little spark and it sets that thing off. That's kind of the idea that's being talked about here is that we are to put off that, that revengeful settled disposition of anger that you are not to live your life. Just kind of angry all the time. Right. I worked with a couple of guys like this and it was almost like what constantly came out of their mouth was kind of a grumbling sound.
You ever been around anybody like that? That, that even when they sit in, I call it stew, right? They just kind of sit and think about things. They kind of, and you're like, what, I'm sorry, what'd you say? Like I worked with a guy like that and I'd be like, what, what'd you say? Well, I didn't say anything, but he literally would kind of grumble while he would,
while he would sit there because he was just kind of an angry individual, right? He's kind of an angry man. And that usually brought about a lot of wrath in his life, which we'll get to in just a second. But, but that anger a lot of times symbolizes the people of the world. Enough bad things happen to you in life. Enough of this world apart from Christ begins to wear on you.
And as that begins, to wear on you, there's just a settled disposition of anger. And that's the very opposite of who we're supposed to be. Love, joy, and peace are what are to constantly flow from us. Therefore we are to put off anger. And I do have a question for you that I really want you to think about because these are the sins that we don't always think are that big of a deal,
right? Like we kind of think these, these aren't a major situation in life. I mean, yeah, I probably shouldn't be angry, but, but it's not like it's a big deal, but he still tells us that we're to put off anger. We're to put things off. And so I have a question for you. Do you have an anger problem? Are you a person who seems to, to fly off the handle pretty easy?
It may be that you have that settled disposition of anger, maybe something deep, even in your life. And you need to put that attitude off. Like it's an old set of clothing. Every time you see it pop up, you said, that's not what I can take part in anymore because that's not who I'm supposed to be. And so he says, put off anger. Anger. The second thing that he tells us that we are to put off is wrath.
Wrath. Now wrath is a similar word, but it's just a little bit different. The word anger speaks of a settled disposition. The word wrath speaks of a violent outburst. In other words, the type of person who constantly flies off the handle and everything you ever, you ever been around somebody like that, that every time you tell them something, you're like, dude,
just chill, man. Like that's not that big of a deal. And they're like ready to go to, ready to go to war over every single little thing that they hear because they just outburst all the time. And you almost get to a point, especially if it's somebody that you're close to where you just don't tell them things anymore. Like, like I'm just not going to tell you what goes on in the world anymore because,
because you're going to fly off the handle and I'm going to have to try to chill you out a little bit. And that's, and that's just not good. Right? Maybe you're that person. Maybe you're that person that people now tiptoe around because they know if anything happens, if the wrong thing is said, if the wrong, if the wrong attitude seems to come out, you're going to fly off the handle and start screaming at them.
And so we're to put off that wrath, those violent fits of anger. The third thing he tells us that we're to put off is malice. Now I struggled to figure out what malice actually meant. And so I looked it up and it said, it means maligning speech. And so, you know what my next thought was? What's maligning speech, right? And I hate when they define something with a word.
I also don't know the definition. So I looked that up. The word maligning means to be spiteful. Now that makes sense to me, right? Put off spiteful sort of speech, maligning speech. In other words, don't be spiteful towards other people. We all, we've all seen it happen. Listen, a lot of us have done it. You ever been in a situation where they say, don't do this.
And you just really don't like the person. So you look at them right in the eye. And you, you do that, right? Just out of spite. I didn't even want to until you said not to. That's the idea. Get rid of all malice. Don't be that kind of a person. Number four, he says, get rid of all slander. The word slander. And even in some of your translations, it may say blasphemy.
If you're reading the old King James, I think, but the idea is blasphemous speech, but it's not blasphemous speech about God. It's blasphemous speech about other people. Let me put it to you in a language that I think we all understand. Don't talk bad about people. Don't slander people with the words that you say. Now, I think this is a really important one for us to pay attention to.
Given what's coming up in our country, what's coming up in our country, an election is coming up in our country. And we already saw something tragic happen yesterday. And that should never take place. But there is zero room for violence. On any side of any aisle of any political discourse whatsoever. There should be a, a modicum of respect of kindness of gentleness and of self-control.
And listen, I don't care which candidate you like right now. They both need to hear that. They both need to hear that there should not be slanderous speech. And over the next few months, all of you are going to start talking about the candidate that you do and don't like. And when you talk about the candidate that you do like, you will do it in a kind and generous sort of way,
excusing graciously every mistake that they may have in their life. But when you talk about the other candidate, you will slander them. No, that's what it is. I've done it. I'm guilty of it, right? I have laughed at so many memes over the last few weeks.
I'm guilty. Okay. That's all I'll say. We should not be those people. We should be the people who are always giving grace, who our speech is always seasoned with grace. And so if you are a person who slanders and listen, this goes outside of political candidates. This is that person at work that you don't like and who gets under every bit of your nerves every day of your ding dong life,
right? Don't slander them. Don't go around telling everybody how bad they are. This means the person in church that sometimes, kind of irritates you. Don't go around and slander them. This means your family member who everybody knows is X, Y, and Z. And oh my gosh, and you get involved in that conversation. And pretty soon you just, you just keep talking bad about them.
And by the time it's all said and done, you're kind of like, yep, that was wrong. I should not have taken part in all of that. Put aside, take off like an old suit of clothing, that slander. I say that because the words that come out of our mouth affect the witness that we have in our lives. He says, put aside slander. And then number five, he tells us to put aside abusive speech.
Now, Ryan, I thought slander and abusive speech are the same thing. They are not. Let me define abusive speech for you. Vulgar, filthy, obscene, or profane speech. I always have people come to me and they say, what does it say in the Bible that you're not supposed to use swear words? And like, well, this is one of the many places where it says that those are the things that should not come out of your mouth.
Abusive speech, profane speech. Now listen, we've all been there. We've all had that moment where we hit the tipping point and something comes out of our mouth and you just want to pull it back in. But as a general rule, profane, obscene, filthy talk should not come out of our mouths. Again, there is nothing that looks worse on a child of God. There is nothing that sounds worse on a child of God than profane,
filthy, and obscene speech. There will be nothing. There will be very few things that will cause people to say, I thought you were a Christian more than if you talk just like they do. I think it was a testimony about Tony Dungy. If I remember correctly, and one of his players said, you can't get him to say a bad word. And that's a guy that's in a locker room with filthy mouth men every single day of his life.
Because he had made a decision to put aside profane speech. And then number six, he tells us, and do not lie to one another. Do not lie to one another. Interestingly enough, the tense of the verb there is that we, we are to stop doing something that is currently going on. In other words, it's something that's very natural to us. Stop doing it. Whether it's my fish was this big,
or the story is a little bit greater than it used to be, or the story is a little bit worse than it used to be. Put away lying. Don't lie to one another. And so he tells us, number one, that we are to consider it dead. Number two, that we are to put it off. And number three, he tells us, remember who you are. Middle of verse nine. Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices
and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him. Since you have laid aside the old self. Again, why do I currently put these things to death? Why do I? Why do I currently put these things aside? Because my position in Christ is that I have laid aside the old self. That's who I am. It's my position in Christ.
It's the position that I live with who I, who I was is who I was before Christ. That's my old man. Therefore I put it to death. I lay it aside because once and for all, it has been laid aside in my life. I think, one of the greatest things that we can do as believers in Jesus Christ is to continually remind ourselves of our position as believers of our position as
believers in Jesus Christ. Because if I forget my position, it's a whole lot easier to slip into the wrong place. It's a whole lot easier to slip into the wrong things. And so he says, you have laid aside the old self who you were before Christ, because that is the positional, the truth. And what have we done? We have put on the new self. We have put on the new self.
The new self is who we now are in Christ. And again, it's the position that we have made brand new in him. Don't act like you're not brand new. And he says, and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created, what is this new self doing? Well, first of all, this new self is being renewed in knowledge,
renewed in the way that we think renewed in the knowledge of who we are renewed in the knowledge of who God is and renewed in the knowledge of how God wants us to live. We have laid aside the old self. We have put on the new self and we are continually being renewed. Again, I'll continue to point it out over and over again, as often as I possibly can. Again,
that's the importance of the word of God in your life is the word of God is what continually renews your mind, but we are not only being renewed in our knowledge, but we are being renewed into the image of the one who created us. In other words, positionally speaking, I'm as much like Christ as I can possibly be because I was united with him in his resurrection. Practically speaking, I'm learning to look a little bit more like him every single day. Every single day.
I'm looking a little bit more like him. And how am I doing that by every day putting to death, putting off the old as I am renewed in knowledge. And as I am renewed in knowledge, notice what he says next verse 11, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian Scythian, Scythian slave and free, but Christ is all and in all you are one because of this renewal, you are one in Christ. There are no longer distinctions.
He gives us a list of distinctions there in each of those distinctions that he gives to us were the greatest dividing barriers between humanity and the Roman world. At that point in time, they are religious in nature. They are political in nature. They are educational. They are educational in nature. They are economic in nature. And these are some of the greatest divisions that,
that, that took place. Of course, Greek and Jew is nationality circumcised and uncircumcised is religious. Barbarians were those who could not speak Greek. Scythians were those who were learned. That's the educational slave and free. You know, one of the beautiful things, and I think it's FF Bruce and his commentary on Colossians that pointed it out. Do you realize that one of the great,
equalizers in the Roman world was the gospel because it brought slaves and free on the same level. It puts slaves and free on the same playing field. And there's a couple of different stories. I think they're in Fox's book of martyrs. One of them was a girl named Blandina. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. B-L-A-N-D-I-N-A. And she was forced to stand before her accusers and face death.
And while she stood before her accusers, as a little slave girl to face death, her owner took her hand and face death with her. Because even though Blandina was a slave and her owner was free, they were united in Christ and they faced death together because in Christ, we are one. And again, I don't think we can continue to overstate this. It's impossible to, because right now, if I was to, just look at church culture alone, right?
Let's just take church culture. How much division is there in church culture? Oh my gosh. Right? Like one of the things you have to determine when you go to something like, like what I went to this week is that, that you're not going to bring up tons of doctrinal differences. We're going to make sure Jesus is at the center, but I guarantee I have a different opinion on eschatology than probably a lot of the people that I sat around.
I have a different opinion on the Holy spirit than a lot of the people that I sat around. I have a different, um, you know, opinion, on, uh, the gifts of the Holy spirit than the people that I sat around, but that's okay because we still had one, one common factor, one common truth. And that's that we believe in the Jesus of the Bible and that the only way to heaven is through the Jesus of the Bible. And the only way that we can truly reach a culture that surround us is with the truth of the gospel, with the word of God at its center and Jesus as its captain.
And we all knew that. And so in church culture today, we are divided over all of those things. We have denominational divisions. We have doctrinal, doctrinal divisions. Do you believe in Calvinism? Do you believe in Arminianism? Do you believe in the gifts for today? Do you believe in cessation? Are you reformed? Are you progressive? You name all the things and there's all these divisions and we forget that at the heart of it,
all is supposed to be one thing and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus is supposed to be at the heart of all of it because quite frankly, if we are all seeking him with all of our heart through his word, being surrendered to his word, he'll deal with all of the other differences. I've watched it happen over and over again, but now we get out. Outside of just the church culture and we look at our world and what is our world divided by a shorter list would be what our world is not divided by, right?
Like that would be the short list to keep because our world is divided over everything again, particularly over what's coming up in November. And we have to remember as brothers and sisters in Christ, we may have different opinions on political candidates. You can't be a Christian. If you like this candidate, both sides of the aisle will say that I promise.
Because if you like this candidate, I would venture to say that a good number of us in here are pretty conservative and we know who we're going to vote for. And we think that if you like the other guy, how can you be a Christian? Can I just go ahead and tell you that there's people on the other side of the aisle that feel the exact same way about you? And we have to put our differences aside and realize that if we will all just seek Jesus, that if he will be at the center, he will deal with the fact that conservatives are not right on everything and liberals are right on very few things.
Right? Hope you noticed that. He'll deal with all that because Christ is all and in all. And in Christ, there are no more divisions. And so we have to stop viewing our world through all of the divisions, except for one. You're either in Christ or you're not in Christ. And if you're in Christ, I'm going to love you like a brother or sister. And if you're not in Christ,
I'm going to do everything I can to bring you to Jesus. Amen. Brothers and sisters, if we are to live as God, God has called for us to live. We need to seek those things that are above. And if we're going to seek those things that are above number one, we have to set our mind on things above number two. We have to put off the old. You guys stand with me again.
I hope to see all of you tomorrow night to hear what Kamal has to say. And hopefully we're all going to be here for a worship night this week and praying that the Lord moves through both of those things. Father, we come before you and I thank you for the time we've had in your word this morning and pray that. You would continue to grow us in you. Draw us near to you and Lord,
help us to see those areas where the old still has a hold on us or where the old still likes to set up camp and dwell here. And Lord, would you help us to put to death the things that need put to death and to put off the things that need put off so that we can live as we already are in you brand new in Christ. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Be blessed.
Praise you for that. And we thank you for doing just as you promised. Of course, you wouldn't do anything but what you promised Lord as you sent told us you wouldn't leave us as orphans. You'd send that Holy Spirit, Lord, your Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in your ways. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Lord bless you all.
Have a good week.