WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.780 Hamish, one of our elders, is going to come read for us as we read from the New Testament, 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.900 from the book of Colossians, Paul's letter, chapter 3, verses 5 to 11. 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:16.960 Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:25.640 evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:33.060 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:42.100 anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, 00:00:42.579 --> 00:00:48.260 seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, 00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:54.500 which is being renewed in knowledge, after the image of its creator. 00:00:55.640 --> 00:01:04.819 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:12.120 free, but Christ is all and in all. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:20.379 We started a new series last week called Practicing the Christian Life, and so the hope is to do this 00:01:20.379 --> 00:01:28.899 every January for about a month, and that's to look at one of Paul's lists. So Paul has these lists all 00:01:28.899 --> 00:01:33.939 throughout his letters more than six times, where they're focused entirely on how to change, 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:38.560 and so he gives you ethics, he gives you commands, he gives you all sorts of thoughts about what it 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:43.060 means to change, to become more like Jesus. And so I hope to do one of these every January. 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:49.219 And so this month we're doing Colossians 3, which is one of the foundational lists of how to change. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:54.280 And so there's a Christian word for this, a Bible word for this, and that's the word sanctification, 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:59.700 which means to become more and more like God. And so the idea here is that the best change, 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:04.879 the change that we really need, that every human really needs, is to become more like God. 00:02:05.240 --> 00:02:10.420 So integrity, the character of God. And so when Christmas came, when the incarnation came, 00:02:10.419 --> 00:02:15.000 we see that what it really looks like to look like God is found in looking like Jesus, 00:02:15.579 --> 00:02:21.099 that he shows you the character, the integrity, the fruit of the Spirit lived out in the Gospels. 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.679 And so that's the change that we all need. It's the most important kind of change. 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:30.659 It's to say that the spiritual matters more than anything else. So you can get a gym membership 00:02:30.659 --> 00:02:35.639 this year and change physically, and that's good. You can learn a language and change intellectually, 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.299 and that's a great thing. I wish I knew more than one. 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:44.420 But the change, the most important change we actually need, every human is made to be conformed, 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:49.680 to become like Jesus. And so that's the focus of these lists, and so that's what we're looking at. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:54.500 So this week, verses 5 to 11, we looked at verses 1 to 4 last week. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:03:00.460 We're going to see here the depth of the change that's needed first. 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:07.500 First, there's a depth to the change we need, and then the reason, the intellectual reason, 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:13.840 perhaps, of that change, and then how we can do it. So another way that we can seek it today. 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:18.319 So let's think about it. First, the depth of the change that we need. 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:25.659 How deep, another way to say it is, how deep does this problem go in us that we need change from? 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:33.120 So Paul says here in verse 5, put to death. Now, this is a clear command, put to death, 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:39.439 but I think the translation is a little soft because it's good, it's true, it's right, 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:47.240 but it's the word, the Greek word uses the prefix necro. So in medical terminology, you doctors, 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:53.319 you nurses, you know this necrology, the study of dead tissue. It's corpse language. 00:03:53.319 --> 00:04:02.979 So verse 5 says, kill, kill. So the King James Version, the old version of the English Bible says, 00:04:03.519 --> 00:04:13.199 mortify, make dead, make it a corpse. That's the word that he uses here. He's saying something extreme. 00:04:13.359 --> 00:04:21.300 He's saying, I want to be able to metaphorically walk and step over the dead bodies of my vices. 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:29.000 I want them to be a corpse. I want to step over the dead bodies of my gossipy words and my judgmentalism 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:35.180 and my rage and my impatience and my lust and my money hunger. I want to be able to step over those 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:42.860 dead bodies. And then he says, put to death, make like a corpse these things in you. Put to death, 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:48.560 the word he uses is the earthly. Now, is he saying that the things you need to put to death are 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:53.579 the physical life, the things of the physical life? And that's not at all what he means. He's 00:04:53.579 --> 00:04:57.860 not saying here, he's going to list the very first one is sexual immorality, but he's not saying sex is 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:03.840 evil. He's not saying don't participate in society or don't watch movies or something like that. Like 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:09.000 that's the earthly. No, not at all. The earthly here for Paul, when you read across Paul, you realize 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:19.279 that what he means by the word earthly is over desire or just the generic word lust for things 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:28.379 in this world more than God. So the earthliness in us, the earthliness in us is when we want things 00:05:28.379 --> 00:05:33.240 in this world on earth, the horizontal, more than we want the vertical, more than we want God. 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:38.060 That's earthly. That's what he means by it here. It's a deep, look, it's a, here's an example. It's a 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:44.139 deep longing for a boyfriend or a girlfriend far more than you want God. It's a deep longing for 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:51.100 the fulfillment of sexual lust far more than you want God. It's a deep longing for success and money 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:57.019 hunger and financial security far above your want of God. That's, that's what he means by earthly here. 00:05:57.019 --> 00:06:05.439 And so that means that he is talking about the depth of this problem, the depth, the deeps of this 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:13.859 problem. And you can see that by looking at the list he gives you in verse five. So kill, make dead, 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:21.079 make corpses out of loving things in this physical earthly life more than you love God. And look at this 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:26.819 list. The first one is sexual immorality. And then it's impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, 00:06:26.819 --> 00:06:33.980 which is idolatry. Now there is only one action you can perform in all of this list, and that's 00:06:33.980 --> 00:06:39.860 sexual immorality. That's a, that's an outward action. It's pornea, this, this word that we get, 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:47.000 the, the modern word. And the rest of these are not actions. You know, he's talking here about 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:53.680 something deep. And he's saying that you can commit sexual immorality as a reference to any act of sex 00:06:53.680 --> 00:07:00.160 outside of the covenant, covenant bonds of marriage. But after that, he says, he gives you a list of 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:05.579 what's going on deeper, like impurity. And he's telling you why that happens. He's giving you one 00:07:05.579 --> 00:07:12.300 example, sins of the hand, sins of the eyes, sins, sins of physicality. But he's saying, but the rest, 00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:18.280 impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry. He's saying, look, the issue doesn't begin 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:24.000 there with sexual immorality. It's way deeper than that. So why? Well, it's because of impurity. 00:07:24.119 --> 00:07:30.139 Impurity is not an action. Impurity is a condition. It's a disease. He's saying sexual immorality 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:35.519 sometimes happens because, because we have impure desire. We want things in this life more than we 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:41.439 want God. And then he goes on from there and he says, uh, passion. That's a word for broken desires. 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:47.879 And then the very next word is evil desire. These are synonyms, evil desire. The old King James uses 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:55.300 the word here for inordinate. He's translated inordinate desire, a disorder desire. You're 00:07:55.300 --> 00:08:01.180 wanting things, you're wanting good things, but you're wanting them way too much more than you want 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:07.659 God himself. And so he talks, he uses the last two covetousness and idolatry. They're just synonyms. 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:15.120 Idolatry is the catch all word for this deep problem of misplaced desire. What is idolatry? 00:08:15.200 --> 00:08:21.840 What is covetousness? It's wanting things in this life far, far more than you want God, than you love 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:28.879 God, than you have affection for God. He's saying that we have a desire issue that sexual immorality 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:34.860 or greed or whatever gossipy words that they're, they don't start there. James, Jesus's brother wrote 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:39.320 his book, the book of James and made this so clear. They don't, they don't ever start there. They start 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:44.560 in the depths of the soul, these desires, and then they're given birth in the hands and the eyes and 00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:48.740 the actions in this world. And so he's saying that we've got a deep, deep problem that we've got to 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:56.100 deal, deal with. You can, here's an example. You can, um, you can be envious of someone and you can look 00:08:56.100 --> 00:09:01.720 at their life and you can say, boy, I really, you don't, you would never say this out loud. You 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:08.019 probably don't even say it to yourself, but deep down there's a desire where you think that is the 00:09:08.019 --> 00:09:14.460 life I wish I had. And in it, you may never act on it. You may never say a bad word about them, 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:18.480 but there's a sinful desire. There's a broken desire deep down at the bottom of your soul 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:25.560 that is creating total discontentment. And it's called covetousness. It's wanting what other people 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:30.100 have that you don't have, that God has not given you right now. And Paul's saying that is what's earthly. 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:36.860 Desire, disorder, desire, misplaced and broken desires is what's earthly. Now let me apply this. 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:42.040 It's, it's, we've been applying it. It's a command. So it starts as application. That's the beautiful 00:09:42.040 --> 00:09:46.560 thing about this passage. It's application from the get go, kill the, kill what's earthly in you. 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:53.379 But let me apply it a little more. First, first of all, do you see what this passage is saying? 00:09:53.379 --> 00:10:01.779 Um, last week we looked at verse one to four and verse one to four said, talk, talking to Christians 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:07.139 said, if you're a believer today, if you follow Jesus Christ and you look to him for forgiveness, 00:10:07.139 --> 00:10:14.860 you, you in the first century died on the cross with him. As he died, your sins, your guilt, 00:10:14.980 --> 00:10:21.360 your disordered desires, dead, paid for that day. If you're a Christian, you were raised with Christ. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:25.560 That's already happened. That's all past tense. And so Paul is, you put verses one to four and 00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:31.460 verse five to 11 together. And Paul is saying that if you're a Christian, um, you're an emerald in 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:36.720 God's sight. You're a diamond already in the eyes of the father. You're forgiven. You're cleansed. 00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:43.000 Your sins are no more, you know, it's, it's not that you were forgiven back then. It's that Jesus 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:48.620 Christ continues to be your intercessor and mediator, that you have a holistic savior, a savior that never 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:53.860 stops mediating. And that means the sins that you commit today, this morning, the selfish desire 00:10:53.860 --> 00:10:58.720 that you're already struggling with today. Jesus Christ right now is saying the debt is paid. 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:07.799 And verse five to 11, and Paul says, and you, me, you're cleansed, you're forgiven, and you're full 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:14.200 of evil desires at the same time. Boy, let me say that that is the source of mental health 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:25.120 in this life. To be able to say, I'm safe, I'm cleansed, I'm forgiven, and nothing will ever 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:34.800 change that before God. And I'm a mess, full of selfish desire, full of evil desire, incapable of 00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:41.240 terrible things. At the very same time, that is the source of mental health as we talk about mental 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:48.360 health in the modern world. Look, it's, you're, you're 100% justified and forgiven, and you are a 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:54.940 big sinner, total mess at the very same time. And that is contra everything that the contemporary 00:11:54.940 --> 00:12:01.039 culture wants to say about the source of finding happiness in this life. What we're taught in the 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:05.680 contemporary world, I love to listen to a podcast called Modern Wisdom, and there's a lot of good 00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:09.580 wisdom in it about how to sleep better, and how to be more productive, and how to get your life back 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:15.100 on track. And I learn a ton from it, and I'm always helped by it. But it's almost inevitable that every 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:20.100 time at the end of the podcast, the expert says, you know what, the real issue is, you've got to say 00:12:20.100 --> 00:12:24.660 to yourself, you're a good person. You've got to say it. You've got to say over and over again to 00:12:24.660 --> 00:12:31.840 yourself, you're a good person until you believe it. And Paul comes and says, boy, the modern says, 00:12:32.540 --> 00:12:37.280 say to yourself, I'm a good person. But every person in the pre-modern world, every person even 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:42.199 a couple generations ago knew that that was not true, that that's not true, that that's not the 00:12:42.199 --> 00:12:46.819 real source of health. Look, you don't even have to go to the Christians to know this. Friedrich 00:12:46.819 --> 00:12:51.019 Nietzsche, one of the greatest philosophers of world history and atheist, this is what he said. He said, 00:12:51.379 --> 00:12:56.959 most people act decent and respectable on the outside only because they're afraid of punishment. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:06.200 And Carl Jung, he said, the best of us know that there is a shadow, an ugly part to ourselves, 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:12.580 and we try to banish it down to the unconscious realm to forget about it. And even Freud, what did 00:13:12.580 --> 00:13:17.500 Freud say? Freud said, there is a battle between conflicting personalities in our depths. We have 00:13:17.500 --> 00:13:24.100 almost, and that is why the deep part of us, we have almost zero control over our emotions. 00:13:24.100 --> 00:13:29.600 Look, Christianity offers you liberation, and the liberation is to be able to say, 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:38.879 I'm 100% forgiven and cleansed and loved by God the Father, and I have a lot of evil desire in my 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:46.700 life. A big mess. Now, that means that the problem is so deep in us that some of us have to come today 00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:54.000 and realize that maybe we are hiding from the depths of who we really are. What did Luther 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:59.639 say? He said, we're justified yet sinner. Those two things have to go together in this life. Justified 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:07.899 yet sinner. But we can hide from that reality by our goodness. We can hide. We can seek self-salvation 00:14:07.899 --> 00:14:13.720 and pretend that that is not the case. Here's how it works. We can say to ourselves, 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:22.320 you know, I don't commit adultery. I don't steal. I'm a respectable, decent person who even listens to 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:29.100 hymns on Spotify sometimes throughout the week, right? And that, that line is incredibly earthly. 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:39.379 It's incredibly earthly because you're saying, you're saying, I think I live, I'm saved because I'm a good 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:46.480 person. I, you know, I, I, I'm justified and I'm, I don't really have evil desire. I don't really 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:51.439 struggle in the bottom of myself with who, with, with utter selfishness. There's a wonderful short 00:14:51.439 --> 00:14:58.580 story. Wonderful. That's relative. It's hard to read actually by Flannery O'Connor. It's called 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:05.879 Revelation. And in it, she writes a story of this woman named Mrs. Turpin. And Mrs. Turpin, 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:12.039 it says in the story that she thinks she's one of the good ones. Flannery uses words like she, 00:15:12.179 --> 00:15:17.379 she's got her act together. And on the outside, Mrs. Turpin says, you know, I'm even, I'm even 00:15:17.379 --> 00:15:22.519 wrinkle free physically on, on the outside and on the inside, I've got my act together. 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:26.439 She, she loves the fact that she's got a good relationship with her husband. 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:34.299 She keeps her farm in pristine order. She sings gospel songs while she works. And then in the story, 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:42.179 one day, Mrs. Turpin is accosted by a stranger in a waiting room. And the stranger comes up to her 00:15:42.179 --> 00:15:49.159 and says, quote, and only Flannery O'Connor could, could say it like this, quote, you are a warthog 00:15:49.159 --> 00:15:55.759 from hell. That is what the stranger says to Mrs. Turpin. And Mrs. Turpin in disbelief says that a good, 00:15:55.899 --> 00:16:00.939 in disbelief, a good Christian woman such as herself could, could never be associated with anyone 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:08.680 from the likes of hell. And she says this, I break my back to the bone every day working. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.340 I do good for the church. I break my back every day working hard and I do good for the church. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.520 And one literary reviewer writes this, Ms. Turpin has the appearance of goodness. 00:16:20.180 --> 00:16:25.020 But as you read the story, the reader knows she is full of the pride of superiority. 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:32.460 She thinks she is better than every single person she meets. She's seeking self-salvation. She measures 00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:38.579 herself against others. She thinks her salvation is found in her superiority. She's created her own 00:16:38.579 --> 00:16:43.620 system of merit. She has credited others with moral value points. And here's how she measures. 00:16:44.579 --> 00:16:52.039 Her moral value system is based on socioeconomic status, ethnicity, education, and visibly good 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:57.339 behavior. And so, of course, in her own system, she ranks well. But in God's system, where she has 00:16:57.339 --> 00:17:05.240 exalted herself as a judge, she is empty. She has evil desire, earthly desire, because she believes in 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:13.180 her own superiority. Her superiority, her goodness, is her salvation. She's incredibly earthly, right? 00:17:13.940 --> 00:17:19.059 Now, self-salvation is evil desire. It's when God is not your functional Lord. Your decency 00:17:19.059 --> 00:17:24.799 is your functional Lord. Your respectability is your functional Lord. Your theological knowledge 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:30.839 is your functional Lord. Your quiet time in the morning is your functional Lord. 00:17:32.419 --> 00:17:37.019 Your exalted position over the political group that you could never be a part of, the bad guys, 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:43.240 that is your functional Lord. And Paul comes to here and says, you've not yet applied the gospel, 00:17:43.659 --> 00:17:47.799 the reality to who you really are, justified yet center at the very same time. And so, 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:56.819 let me move on by saying this. To be able to say, I'm clean, I'm forgiven, God loves me no matter what, 00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:05.159 and I'm a terrible mess on the inside. Boy, that is liberation. And it's liberation that works like 00:18:05.159 --> 00:18:11.619 this. You are free in that to never look out at anybody in this world and say, those are the bad guys. 00:18:12.519 --> 00:18:15.259 We're the good guys in here. Those are the bad guys out there in the city. 00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:22.200 And at the end of this passage in verse 11, Paul says, there is no Jew, no Greek. There's no 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:26.879 distinction here. Scythian, slave, free person. He says, before the gospel, everybody's equal, 00:18:27.539 --> 00:18:33.619 lacking, and even in Christ, equally corrupt, equally struggling. You can never say the good 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:38.379 guys are in here. The bad guys are out there. The other freedom it gives you is this. In Psalm 32, 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:48.000 David says, when I pretended like I was a good person, my bones wasted away. When I pretended 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:54.420 that I didn't struggle with sin all the time, it was like my bones were rotting from the inside out. 00:18:54.800 --> 00:19:02.820 But then he says, but when I confess my sins and I knew God had forgiven me, my shoulders were able 00:19:02.819 --> 00:19:09.200 to drop. You know, freedom came into my life. The ability to say, I'm a sinner. The ability, 00:19:09.339 --> 00:19:14.399 the freedom to say, I am a terrible mess and I'm capable of terrible things, even as a Christian, 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:21.919 that is liberation. It's liberation. Why? Because the ability to confess before God and before others 00:19:21.919 --> 00:19:27.619 is what keeps you, is what keeps you growing. One of the greatest dangers we can face, 00:19:27.619 --> 00:19:35.339 one of the greatest dangers we can face is to be unwilling to confess our sins. If we hide, 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:43.939 they grow. They grow and they grow. Secondly, briefly, sidestep, the reason for change. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:52.059 Why should we care about this? Why should we care about this? Paul implicitly talks here about the 00:19:52.059 --> 00:19:58.240 reason for change. And Paul's speaking here to Christians, but if you're not a Christian today, 00:19:59.259 --> 00:20:03.720 especially would love for you to think about this with me for a moment. There's a presupposition in 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:10.099 this passage. And the presupposition is that there is such a thing as evil. There is such a thing as 00:20:10.099 --> 00:20:15.720 greediness. There is such a thing as lust. There is such a thing as sexual immorality. So this is a 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:22.180 list of sins. And Paul is assuming something. He's presupposing something, and that's that there is 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:28.620 such a thing as objective moral norms in this world. That there is morality that stands bigger than our 00:20:28.620 --> 00:20:34.200 emotions. That stands bigger than just the way society feels about right and wrong. That there 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:40.339 really is such a thing as right and wrong. And I just want to ask you, I just want to say to you that 00:20:40.339 --> 00:20:47.859 that reality is a major, major reason why you should believe in God and why you should be willing to 00:20:47.859 --> 00:20:53.459 come and ask forgiveness to God. Because there really is such a thing as absolute norms or morality 00:20:53.459 --> 00:20:59.480 that stands bigger than you, bigger than all of us. Sometimes people visit here to St. Columbus and 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:06.919 they're invited, or maybe you've come in today off the Royal Mile because of our location. You're not a 00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:11.580 Christian. You're exploring Christianity. You're thinking about it. And we love that. That's so 00:21:11.580 --> 00:21:20.519 good. I may it never stop. But sometimes I'm able to get to meet with somebody that's wrestling with 00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:26.860 stuff we talk about here. And sometimes people say, I can see why my friend invited me. I can see why 00:21:26.860 --> 00:21:34.740 people like this, but it's just not my thing. And sometimes I'd like to say to them, I'd like to say 00:21:34.740 --> 00:21:40.039 to you maybe if that's what you're thinking today. I understand that, the subjective peace that you're 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:43.259 looking for. You know, what you're saying is you've come and you've looked for an emotional peace in 00:21:43.259 --> 00:21:47.740 your life. And I get that. And you've not yet found it in this space for whatever reason. 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:52.259 Sometimes the Christians don't find it in this space for whatever reason, right? 00:21:53.180 --> 00:21:56.779 But what I want to ask is about not just the subjective, but what about the objective? 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:03.220 Does God exist? Is there such a thing as moral normativity? And what is your standing before him? 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:08.539 So are you able and willing today to get up out of your feelings for a moment and ask, 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:14.339 is there such a thing as moral norms by which these lists are written? Is there such a thing as sexual 00:22:14.339 --> 00:22:20.500 sin? Is there such a thing as greed? Do you believe in that? And if you do, if you do, if you're willing 00:22:20.500 --> 00:22:26.660 to say, I do think actually there's something wrong that no matter what society we're in, what culture 00:22:26.660 --> 00:22:30.819 we're in, what time period we're in, every single one of us can look at it every single time and say, 00:22:30.819 --> 00:22:36.240 that should not happen, that is wrong, that is evil, that is unjust, then you're presupposing, 00:22:36.399 --> 00:22:43.639 here's the reason, the intellectual part, you're presupposing belief in God. You're presupposing that 00:22:43.639 --> 00:22:50.700 God exists because there can be no absolute moral norms by which you think you should change unless 00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:57.939 there is an absolute person giving absolute moral norms. Otherwise, all normativity is subjective. 00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:02.720 It's nothing but our emotions and our feelings and our society collectively agreeing on it. 00:23:03.340 --> 00:23:07.279 And if that's the case, you can never look at another culture and say what they do is wrong 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:13.840 because they've all agreed on it. But if you think there is a justice that's bigger, if you think that 00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:21.180 there is a reason for having an international court that judges all nations in some way, how could it be 00:23:21.180 --> 00:23:27.420 unless there is a justice, a moral normativity that stands bigger than my feelings? And if you believe 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:34.420 that, and I bet you do, if you believe that, then you're presupposing belief in God. You can't believe 00:23:34.420 --> 00:23:40.880 in that. Do you have the courage to say that? There's a theologian in the States, famous story, 00:23:41.299 --> 00:23:46.519 where he was riding on the train from New York to Philadelphia. And on the train ride, 00:23:46.519 --> 00:23:56.279 he saw a little girl sitting on her mom's lap. And at one point, as little kids do, she got very upset 00:23:56.279 --> 00:24:04.359 and she reached up and she slapped her mom in the face. And the theologian wrote a book around that 00:24:04.359 --> 00:24:12.920 event. And he said, that is the condition of humanity. You see, if you say verse six, boy, 00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:17.560 we don't like verse six, verse six says, on account of these sins, the wrath of God is coming. But look, 00:24:17.620 --> 00:24:23.240 if you say, I don't think it's fair, I don't think it's just that God could come and judge me based on 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:27.740 my lustful thoughts. It's just what harm am I doing to anybody? It's just my lustful thoughts. 00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:32.560 It does no harm to anyone. It's not fair. It's not just that God would be my judge. 00:24:32.980 --> 00:24:35.320 Then what have you done? You've sat on God's knee. 00:24:36.860 --> 00:24:42.600 You've assumed there is such a thing as justice, a normativity that stands bigger than you. 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:49.460 In order to then slap God in the face with it. There can be no objective justice unless there's 00:24:49.460 --> 00:24:55.200 an objective justice giver, one who is absolute, that gives absolute justice to the world, 00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:01.800 right? You presuppose that which you reject. Would you consider that today? And understand that if you 00:25:01.800 --> 00:25:06.640 believe in any sort of moral normativity bigger than society, you are presupposing God's existence. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:12.120 And you are realizing you need to change. You need help. You need something outside of yourself. 00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:18.280 I think the truth, I think, is that we all know. We all look at our conscience. We all feel the weight 00:25:18.280 --> 00:25:24.000 of guilt. We all know that we are not the people we were made to be. We all know that. So finally, 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:29.840 thirdly, not only the reason for change, but here also, how can you do it? The way to change. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:38.319 So Paul says here, kill these things in your life. Sexual immorality and impurity and passion and lying 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:47.279 and greed. He says, rid yourself of these things here in this passage. And he's talking here about 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:52.619 this old word, the King James. I'll bring it up again. The King James uses the word to mortify, 00:25:52.740 --> 00:25:57.959 mortification. Kill these sins in your life. He's talking to Christians, to be sure, 00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:04.279 but he's talking to everybody too. And the way he's talking to everybody today is that in verse 10, 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:10.900 it says, you've already put off the old self and you've put on the new clothing. It's a clothing 00:26:10.900 --> 00:26:16.519 metaphor. And if you read that language in the light of all of Paul, what you realize is what he's saying 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:22.460 is it has already happened. If you're a Christian, it can happen for you. If you're not a Christian, 00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:30.680 that God can come and take the dirty clothes off your back of your guilt. Take the misdeeds dark, 00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:36.720 the evil desires, the covetousness, the idolatry off you, the filth off you, the dirty rags of clothing 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:43.819 that you wear and will put on you new clothing. And the reason that that's possible is because in the 00:26:43.819 --> 00:26:50.019 middle of human history, Jesus Christ came, the son of God became a human, and he put your dirty, 00:26:50.019 --> 00:26:57.339 he, he, look, here's how it works. God, the son came and took your dirty clothes off you and he 00:26:57.339 --> 00:27:03.839 didn't throw them in the rubbish bin. He put them on. That's how the gospel works. Jesus Christ put your 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:09.619 filth on. He wore it like clothing, your evil desires, the ones that you're still struggling with 00:27:09.619 --> 00:27:17.839 today. He wore it and he died for it. He died in it, not guilty of it, innocent, but yet wearing it 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:26.119 for you so that today he can put on fresh clothes for you. He can robe you in beauty and white. He 00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:29.519 can say you're an emerald, you're a diamond. In the eyes of God the Father, you're cleansed, 00:27:29.579 --> 00:27:35.379 you're forgiven forever. That will never change. And this is what makes Christianity so unique. 00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:42.539 That is the basis for mortification. That's the reason for change. It's not so that you can get new 00:27:42.539 --> 00:27:47.659 clothing. It's because God gives it to you in the gospel. He gives you the forgiveness that you can 00:27:47.659 --> 00:27:54.879 never earn. And so, lastly, as we close, verse 10, the language here is passive. He says, 00:27:55.899 --> 00:28:02.500 if you've taken off, if Jesus has taken off of you the dirt and put onto you his clothing, his beauty, 00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:10.240 then you are, you need to be, you are being renewed day by day. So, listen to that language with me for 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:16.620 just a minute or two. It's passive language. You are being renewed day by day. This is Holy Spirit 00:28:16.620 --> 00:28:22.799 talk. This is how Paul talks about the Holy Spirit. And here's the tricky bit. What he's saying is, 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:29.079 when you come to Jesus, you don't just get to change at a whim. This is why it's so hard. 00:28:29.859 --> 00:28:36.759 The Holy Spirit has to do this. The Holy Spirit has to mortify your sins. And you cannot control the 00:28:36.759 --> 00:28:42.799 Holy Spirit. And you need the Holy Spirit to come into your life and to keep changing you and renewing 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:47.200 you. You are being renewed. It's the work of the Spirit. And it goes at different speeds and different 00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:53.700 paces for different people. But then he says, and kill these things, and rid yourself of these things, 00:28:54.099 --> 00:29:00.240 and you should be walking over the dead bodies of your sins. You see that? He's saying it's passive, 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:06.440 but it's active. It's the work of the Spirit, but you've got to do it. You've got to seek it. You've 00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:11.539 got to chase it. You've got to long for it. And next week, come back next week, because next week, 00:29:11.740 --> 00:29:18.819 as we combine this passage with verses 12 to 14, the positive side, I'll give you John Owens. I'm 00:29:18.819 --> 00:29:24.039 going to whittle them down. Don't worry. But John Owens' nine ways to do this. But there won't be nine, 00:29:24.039 --> 00:29:30.139 but it will be underneath the three. Okay. John Owens' nine ways to do this. That's the very 00:29:30.139 --> 00:29:35.899 practical. But look, I just want to give you the one, as we close, the one, the key to Christian 00:29:35.899 --> 00:29:41.019 change, the key that makes Christianity different than everything else on offer in the world. 00:29:42.099 --> 00:29:48.240 Gospel change, what is it? It's that you're already forgiven. You're already cleansed. 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:55.539 And so to seek this, to get rid of these things, what has to happen? You've got to be smitten. 00:29:56.920 --> 00:30:05.720 You've got to be enthralled. You've got to be driven. You've got to experience the beauty 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:11.880 over and over and over again of the love of Jesus Christ for you in the gospel. 00:30:12.940 --> 00:30:16.880 That's the key to Christian change. You never graduate from the gospel. Instead, 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:22.440 the key to Christian change, to mortification, to killing these sins in your life, these passions, 00:30:22.700 --> 00:30:29.520 lust, greed, whatever it may be, the key is to be over and over and over again smitten, 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:38.760 to fall in love with Jesus Christ constantly. That's the key. You've already got the forgiveness. 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:43.840 You've already got it. But what you've got to do to change, remember what's the depth? The depth 00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:48.720 is evil desire. It's something down in the bottom of the soul. The only way to beat it is to get better 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:55.000 desires. Thomas Chalmers, you need an expulsive power in your life of new affection, greater affection. 00:30:55.500 --> 00:31:01.480 You need to be smitten, struck by the beauty and love of God for you in your life. And so that just 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:08.399 let me get 100% practical here. Sometimes you've got to sit around or as you're working, as you're 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:14.040 washing dishes, whatever you're doing in your life, and you've got to think and ponder and meditate 00:31:14.040 --> 00:31:21.380 on the love of God for you at the cross until you believe it. And sometimes you won't start out 00:31:21.380 --> 00:31:26.060 believing it. Do you ever struggle reading the scriptures? Do you ever struggle in your quiet time? 00:31:26.100 --> 00:31:32.120 Do you ever struggle in prayer to feel anything? Well, what it's saying is you've got to seek that renewal 00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:38.219 by saying it and saying it and saying it and focusing on the love of Christ for you and seeing 00:31:38.219 --> 00:31:45.839 the depth of your problem and looking at the cross through the eyes of faith until you're struck, 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:50.579 until you're smitten, until you're afflicted, until you believe it. That's the depth of change, 00:31:50.659 --> 00:31:56.219 a greater affection, a better desire than the desires of your sin. And so I'll give you this experience in 00:31:56.220 --> 00:32:02.039 two people. And this is the last word. Blaise Pascal, we quoted him a month ago, but it's perfect 00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:07.960 to say again. Blaise Pascal was already a Christian, but the night of fire, this happened to him. 00:32:08.220 --> 00:32:14.559 Mortification, how does it come? He talked about the, he experienced the immediate presence of the 00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:19.539 Holy Spirit as he meditated on the cross. And this is what he wrote down. We found this sewed into 00:32:19.539 --> 00:32:25.319 Blaise Pascal's pockets and his jacket that he wore every day after his death. He's the great 18th 00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:32.259 century philosopher, mathematician, invented the calculator. The year of grace, 1654, Monday the 00:32:32.259 --> 00:32:40.019 23rd of November, half past 10 until midnight, fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, 00:32:40.179 --> 00:32:45.779 not the God of the philosophers. Pascal was a philosopher, one of the greats, but not the God 00:32:45.779 --> 00:32:49.000 of the philosophers, not the God of the learned. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, 00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:57.500 certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ, my God and your God, joy, joy, joy, 00:32:57.940 --> 00:33:05.640 tears of joy. I departed from him. I left him. I fled from him. I renounced him. I crucified him. 00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:11.819 Let me never be separated from him. He is only kept securely by the way taught in the gospel. 00:33:12.759 --> 00:33:18.039 Renunciation, total and sweet, complete submission to Jesus Christ. May I never forget this. 00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:26.480 John Donne. John Donne, one of the master poets of the English tradition, early 1600s, 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:34.319 he lived a crazy life, crazy life he lived. He had sins of youth, as they say. And John Donne 00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:42.180 became a Christian and he wrote poetry about God. And he writes about, he writes this, he writes about 00:33:42.180 --> 00:33:49.340 a world of failed lovers, sexual pleasure, my wit, my hope, my success, my plan for fame, my money. 00:33:49.660 --> 00:33:57.980 And he prayed this, oh God, seal, seal this bill, stamp this bill of my divorce to all these faint loves 00:33:57.980 --> 00:34:07.000 from my youth. Batter my heart, three-person God for you. Knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend me, 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:14.539 that I may rise and stand. Overthrow me and bend your power to break me, burn me, and make me new. 00:34:15.300 --> 00:34:22.380 Divorce me from these enemies. Untie or break that knot again and again. Take me to you. Imprison me, 00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:30.159 for I, except you enthrall me, never will be free. You got to say, Jesus, every day, 00:34:30.159 --> 00:34:36.839 lest you enthrall me. If you do not imprison me, enthrall me with your love, I will not be free. 00:34:38.119 --> 00:34:47.559 Let us pray. Father, enthrall us with the love of Christ as the basis of change. Mortify, kill the 00:34:47.559 --> 00:34:54.239 sins we struggle with. We want to step over the bodies, the corpses of our gossip and our lust 00:34:54.239 --> 00:35:01.939 and our addictions and our impatience and our rage problem and our money hunger and our greed 00:35:01.939 --> 00:35:08.359 and our love for our success far more than love for you and our boredom with the Bible, 00:35:08.599 --> 00:35:14.439 our boredom with you. We want to step over these things as if they're dead and we know today, Lord. 00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:22.420 Lord, that's not us apart from being enthralled by Jesus' love for us. Give it to us afresh, Lord, 00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:28.179 we pray. As we sing right now, as we sing right now, give this to us afresh that we would love, 00:35:28.539 --> 00:35:34.159 we would be so taken by your love for us. Greater affections we desire, and we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:35:34.760 --> 00:35:34.960 Amen.