4/28/19 - Col. 3:5-11 - "The Old Man"

[0:00] Let's enter into chapter 3, starting in verse 5 together. And we're excited to enter his word this morning. And we're going to pick up the section which is so closely tied in with verse 1 through 4, which we spoke on last week.

[0:19] Chapter 5, we'll get into some specifics of what he's speaking about here. Verse 5 says, Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self and its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.

[1:09] Verse 11 concludes, Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free.

[1:21] But Christ is all and in all. In England, I believe it's a story that is told of a different century, a different time period, which explains what's at stake here.

[1:42] There was once a man in England who had a problem. And at this time, revolving this problem, there was a penalty for this issue that was going on.

[1:57] This man had a problem with pickpocketing people. And at this time, in England, the penalty for being caught pickpocketing, you know, like going to people's, make sure we're on the same track here, was to cut your hand off.

[2:19] And so, obviously, this man going out, he obviously gets caught pickpocketing. And, you know, unbeknownst to him, the penalty after figuring that out, he gets his hand cut off.

[2:35] Now, with one hand only, months go by and this man hits the streets again and thinking, you know, he would shape up after that. He's caught again, pickpocketing with the hand that he has left.

[2:51] So, with the just penalty at that time, they cut off the other man's hand. So, he's left with no hands. You would think, surely, that this would get to this guy, this guy would totally shape up after this.

[3:08] He has received the penalty, has no hands. Months later, he's caught pickpocketing again. But with his teeth. There's a problem with this man, which neither linked to his hands, any limbs whatsoever, but was a problem that was severely indicated within the condition of his heart.

[3:36] That regardless of what limbs he had remaining or the issues of, you know, using his teeth, and I don't know how that went for him, and I don't know what the just penalty of that was, but what we're pointed to in that situation in England is that regardless of our external extremities, we can do as Jesus even indicated, if our one eye causes us to less, pluck it out.

[4:09] But still, even if we do that, we're missing it because it's an issue dealing with the heart. We're going to take this in bite-sized chunks this morning.

[4:19] I have three points. This is a typical Baptist preacher with three points. And we're going to be searching our hearts with the first point of putting away idolatry between verse 5 through 7.

[4:34] And then we're going to be looking at this vice list that contains a whole slew of sinful desires, which we just read about. And this vice list is actually unique, and we're going to see why that's unique in our first point.

[4:48] The second thing we're going to speak about today is searching our lives and putting off lies between verse 8 and 10. The second vice list is also unique in content.

[5:01] It also lists a catalog of sinful things in our lives relating to speech and violence, which is exposed and expressed within our community here.

[5:16] And then the final thing we're going to be speaking about, which is obviously the theme of this entire book in Colossians, is Christ's supremacy over all of our identity.

[5:27] That he is the source of that. There's a natural harmony in which all these two lists lie, dealing with the heart. And when all are in good working order, if the first list is in good working order, the second list is going to match up in unison as well.

[5:49] So let's go into verse 5 through 7 in the first point. Searching our hearts, putting away idolatry. Verse 5 speaks, Now, I just want to just take a pause from the text and just talk about the things that were going on in this church in Colossae.

[6:32] Because there were false teachings, there was obviously a need for this book. And if we focus on what this means today, we could actually miss some interesting little things. It came out in our small group that we had in Poland this past week.

[6:46] And Paul subtly combats the false teachings in a pun-like manner. Like, you know how you make a pun?

[6:59] I can't come up with any good puns. I should have prepared a couple. But, you know, just pun-like statements where the false teachers might actually read this text in verse 5 through 7 and say, Amen!

[7:13] That's what we're talking about. Because they were focused on legalism so heavily, and they would probably agree with Paul on this.

[7:25] If we trace back to verses 1 through 4, when we were talking about seeking things that are above and things like that, the false teachers, there's also false teachers who were trying to get into, like, this depth of, like, the spiritual unknowns, the mystical unknowns of the Spirit.

[7:46] And so when Paul says, seek things above, they would probably also say, Amen! That's what we're trying to do. But Paul qualifies all of his statements back to Christ, which even last week, he said, seek things that are above where Christ is seated.

[8:06] And we're not just looking after angels, we're not looking after little spiritual experiences, we're looking for Christ. And we got into that heavy last week. And we come to a vice list here, which contains this catalog of sinful desires, which is rooted within our hearts.

[8:25] It replaces Christ as the sole source of our worship. And this list, this exhaustive list, honestly, we could probably spend a whole day talking about each one of these items individually, and still have a lot to talk about because of the content within this list and how culturally relevant it is today in our society today.

[8:48] But this list points to sins of one's heart. So for our note takers today, this first vice list is the sins of one's heart. You ever go really fast down a road?

[9:03] Or like you're going down like a hilly bumpy road? We're going to go down a hilly bumpy road right now. So, you know, they got those handles on the car that, you know, they're like, you know, you grab onto when you're about to enter into something, you know, unknown.

[9:19] Hold on. Because we're going to go into this text, into some deep things. If we have young ears here, we are going to get real, and we're going to keep it real with Scripture here today.

[9:31] And we're not going to be reserved in what Scripture speaks. We get into several heart issues in five different manners. So hold on with us as we cruise through this.

[9:44] The first one is sexual immorality. This word actually means porneia. It's sexual acts that are morally objectable, especially related to prostitution.

[9:57] And I'm going to come back to a couple, but I just want to cruise through this. The heart issue two is impurity. And this is, or immorality, understood as dirty and impure, especially used of sexual sins.

[10:17] And this word, impurity, is actually wider and more subtle than that of physical immorality. Relating to, like, our thought life, impurity.

[10:28] Something related to our thought life. The heart issue three is passion, or also known as lust in some translations.

[10:39] A lustful passion, a strong feeling and emotion. Interestingly enough, when I studied this word of passion, the root word of it is actually suffer, which actually, I think, brings to light what's actually being spoken about, a passion that you suffer for.

[10:58] Something that makes you suffer when you need something. The heart issue four is evil desires. And similar to passion, it's morally bad, self-indulging craving, which displaces proper affections for God.

[11:13] And heart issue five, covetousness, greediness, the excessive and immoderate desire of acquiring more and more, seeking completion or a certain level of fulfillment in life.

[11:30] It's a state of utter discontentness. So take a deep breath. We just cruised through the list, but I'm going to go back to one that I think is prominent that we need to address and define today, especially in our culture, is sexual immorality.

[11:47] And sexual immorality, as Scripture puts it, is listed multiple times in the Bible related to different various sexual acts. One of them being in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1.

[12:01] It describes sexual immorality as incest, a relationship between a son and a father, or however you want to mix and match. 1 Corinthians 5, 1 says, it is actually reported, Paul is talking to the Corinthian church, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, the church of Corinth, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans.

[12:28] For a man has his father's wife, his son, to a father's wife. Sexual immorality, as Scripture puts it, is also in terms of homosexuality.

[12:42] In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses this in the church of Corinth as well, in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 10. It says, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

[12:56] Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[13:13] And we see sexual immorality as being also the improper usage of our bodies. In 1 Corinthians, again, I love 1 Corinthians, it just hits everything in 1 Corinthians.

[13:28] 1 Corinthians 6, 13, and then also in verse 18, Paul says to the church, Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, and God will do away with both of them.

[13:39] However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. He says in verse 18, Flee sexual immorality.

[13:50] Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. And going back to our Sermon on the Mount series, we see that sexual immorality is actually a grounds of divorce, that Jesus speaks on.

[14:10] Jesus says, But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery.

[14:25] And it's interesting, the word idolatry in this passage. I know I kind of felt like academic and like, but I really think to draw the meaning of what's being spoken here, we really need to kind of pause, take a brief pause and moment to really investigate the roots of these words.

[14:43] And when you investigate the roots of these words, you see that he mentions idolatry, and this is actually significant in this passage, because a concluding explanatory phrase, which is idolatry, this actually summarizes for the church all of which the catalog of all those sins stem from, which is a source of idolatry in one way or another.

[15:12] And we're not completely separated as a church from this. I want you to understand, too, that the Bible, God's word tells us that we're all wrong to a certain level or not.

[15:28] Sexually immorality or if we're lying or if we've committed murder in our minds or in our hearts of adultery. You know, it's just malicious.

[15:42] But God's word tells us we're wrong, that the wages of sin is death, that unrepentant rebellion means judgment, that our rescue required the cursed death of His Son, which we celebrated last week, the resurrection.

[16:00] So we all have a certain state of sin. We're not saying that we are holy people, we are above all of this, but it's saying that we're just one beggar who actually found bread and we're just trying to tell other beggars how to get food.

[16:13] it is just a matter of the severity of sin and undoubtless sin. Which I think is why Paul goes on to instruct the church of Colossae.

[16:28] On account of these, this list, on the account of this list, the wrath of God is coming and the wrath of God is the outworking of God's righteousness towards sin.

[16:39] All of which must be handled by, as he states in verse 5, put to death, therefore. it is an act of literally killing within our own being.

[16:57] Not saying that this is warrant killing somebody who's caught in an act of sin. That is not what the Bible is saying here. But literally, internally killing what is not of God.

[17:09] It's a violent metaphor which expresses pain and effort on our part. But it also indicates who would say this about a sin list like this.

[17:24] Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. And this list continues. This list is severe. There's a man, a theologian, Alexander McLaren, who said, it is far easier to cut off the hand, which we spoke about this morning, which after all is not me, than to sacrifice passions and desires which, though they may be my worst self, are myself.

[17:55] But this is actually a hard thing to do. And in today's society, I think we can compare that we're not, we're not so far away from the influence of the world in our Christian lives.

[18:13] And even the church today is influenced by the world one way or another. As David Platt mentions that we don't know where the church ends and the world begins. We don't know where the world ends and the church begins.

[18:26] There's such a foggy line and there's many ideas of church that aren't rooted in Scripture. And this would be a very difficult message for some churches, I believe, to actually have with a church and a congregation.

[18:42] Thinking about TV and things that were broadcasted on TV back in, I would even argue, back in the 60s or 70s at the beginning of the love revolution in culture, if we trace back even, maybe even at that time, but definitely back in the 30s or 40s, if you watched TV back then, you would not see anything that's shown on the television today.

[19:10] That the culture has almost brought about even in our minds and how we're raising our families to be desensitized to the weight of the severity of things in this list.

[19:24] That we turn on the television and boom, there's a Victoria's Secret commercial with girls walking down a catwalk in lingerie and I have to protect my son.

[19:38] Oh, look out there, there's a fire truck or something like that trying to protect my son from being a victim of this desensitization that this culture is influencing in our minds and in our daily lives.

[19:52] This culture and the world has been at battle for our morality. That all of a sudden a message like this that Scripture speaks of very point blank, black and white, what's truth and what's false, that all of a sudden I'm standing on stage as a bigot.

[20:14] That I'm speaking a message of hate towards another individual. This culture has become comfortable with immorality.

[20:28] And the mention of covetousness at the end of this section is actually highly significant covetousness, which is idolatry. Because it lists that common denominator in which each of those vices that are found in this list, this first vice list, are all intimately associated with.

[20:49] And it talks about the sensual desires. Now covetousness is not just merely the desire of possessing more than another person has, but it's having a desire to have more than we ought to have.

[21:03] Specifically regarding to anything that belongs to someone else. And the interesting thing about covetousness, which is idolatry, is that it is very broad and it stretches far, church.

[21:18] That it not only speaks into the reason for sexual passions that are immoral, but also mental fantasies.

[21:30] And I'm not just talking about sexual fantasies, I'm talking about like fantasies of just having an idolatry of wanting to always go on vacation because, man, we can't relax where we're at unless we go on vacation.

[21:44] Idolatry. If we focus on things like that, mental fantasies of trying to get away is the same act that we're talking about here. Covetousness is very broad and it stretches far into sexual passions, mental fantasies, and also materialism, as you can imagine, you know, with money and things like that.

[22:03] And all of which resort from a discontented heart. You see the common denominator, church, between sexual passions, this yearning, and a strange yearning for vacation.

[22:16] It's a discontented heart, which is the worship of a false lowercase g, God. We need to look not so far in the text to understand how we must respond to such sensuality and materialism.

[22:34] We must slay this, church. We must put to death these things. Regardless of the pain the sacrifice that it entails, there is cost involved in this.

[22:54] The second point this morning as we cruise along in the text today is in verse 8. It says, but now you must put away all, put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

[23:11] Do not lie to one another seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on a new self which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator.

[23:22] The second vice list here as point two states of searching our lives and putting off these lies, searching our lives and putting off these lies.

[23:33] We see this vice list here which is unique as well because containing a catalog of sins as well relating to speech and violence exposed within the Christian community and this list points to the bad fruits that interrupts the harmonious life within God's people gathered here even today.

[23:55] And this vice list is also ended with an explanatory thought which links back to all, which ties everything together within a common denominator.

[24:09] It says, do not lie to one another. The same way Paul just used idolatry linking back to the vice list there, he's saying here, do not lie to one another, which is tying a common denominator with this list as well.

[24:23] So we see several things here. We see a fruit issue. We're going to call them fruit issues. I know, it's very painful. Fruit issue one, which is anger.

[24:38] It's an intense feeling which does not subside often manifested to an epic scale, anger. The emotion of mental agitation, displeasure, and fury.

[24:51] It's like sap in a tree on a hot day which swells its trunk and its branches until they're about to burst. It's an anger that Paul is addressing. The fruit issue two is wrath, also in some translations as in rage.

[25:09] And this is anger boiling over, anger expressed through fury that normally subsides quickly, not being compared to God's wrath because God's wrath is a totally different level of anger and not what we're speaking about here.

[25:26] We'll probably discuss that more in small groups about the difference between God's wrath and what he's addressing here. Fruit issue three is malice, which is literally, this word literally means depravity, which indicates moral corruption, wickedness, evil, the perverting of virtue and moral principles from their purposes to evil ends.

[25:50] Malice, it plans evil and rejoices when misery falls on another person. Malice, malice plans evil and rejoices when misery falls on another person.

[26:04] And the fruit issue four, which is slander, which literally means blasphemy, is abusive words that are falsely spoken, which in turn damage a person's reputation.

[26:21] And it's an issue that is even prevalent among all these issues, are prevalent among many congregations, not just the church in Colossae, but churches gathered this morning all across the world.

[26:34] But I want to talk about slander. 1 Timothy 6, 2-5, I think speaks very great on what we're speaking about here.

[26:52] Which 1 Timothy 6, 2-5 says, teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

[27:09] Now just pause here. Like puffs up, I mean this is like similar language and unique to what Paul is addressing also with Colossians. And as you study Paul's writing, you'll see a lot of common denominators.

[27:20] He addresses homosexuality and immorality a lot in his letters. But continuing in this section in 1 Timothy 6, he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

[27:52] That there could be people out there that are false teachers that have maliciousness about them and towards other people. That it might seem as if they're taking advantage of people, saying that they're deprived of a certain knowledge and a certain level of godliness.

[28:12] But it's slander. There's no other way. It's dissension. It's creating evil suspicions. It's creating dissension. And continuing back in Colossians with the fruit issue five, which is obscene talk, which literally means filthy language, profanity, lewd speech.

[28:32] we've just received a second vice list, which is unique. Because summarizing this list in particular is a rooted common denominator of lying to one another, being dishonest with one another.

[28:52] The concluding explanatory phrase in this passage, just like idolatry and covetousness, was in the last vice list. In this section, it's do not lie to one another.

[29:05] And this summarizes for the church all of which each catalog of sins stems from. And the problem which makes this list so severe and dangerous, and why Paul needs to address it, is because of the common theme, which is rooted in dissension and division.

[29:25] It is literally an expression which divides a united body, which its ends is to bring division. It is anti-Christ, and it is the bad free produced from a heart which is actually still in need of circumcision.

[29:45] If you think about it for a minute this morning, think about this. Deceitfulness is completely anti-Christ. Deceitfulness is completely anti-Christ.

[29:57] It is a sin against God, against the church, and against love. Deceitfulness. Lying to one another. Ananias and Sapphira can attest to this very thing in the New Testament in the book of Acts, who they were deceitful to the apostles of how much they were giving.

[30:21] And what happened to them? They were actually put to death based on this deceitfulness. If this occurs within our family here, it must be called out, it has to be identified in our body, in our congregation, in our church family.

[30:37] It must be addressed. Because if it is not dealt with immediately, as soon as it pops its ugly head within our midst, it spreads like a toxic.

[30:52] But instead, as Ephesians 4.25 says, we must be a church yoked with this. He says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

[31:09] A great church demands great transparency, church. church. It is a distinguished community, and in our terminology here at Youngstown Metro Church, is a church family.

[31:24] This brings about a different dynamic that when we see something wrong, we address things. We're endeavoring together as a united body, because we know the implications that Ephesians even 4.25 says, that let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

[31:45] There is a unique unity within the church of God. So the difference is if we stand back for a minute from these two vice lists, between the issues dealing with our heart and immorality, the sensuality, things like that, and if we also stand back and look at the vice list, which Paul speaks about regarding our speech, we see there's two different manners of which each list needs to be dealt with.

[32:14] The first vice list is keyed in with the first verse in verse 5. It says, put to death. That's how we deal with the first vice list. We have to kill it. It can have no life whatsoever in the church.

[32:29] And then the second vice list is actually unique because the second vice list in verse, in verse, let's see here.

[32:41] Oh, verse 8. I'm so sorry. I had like a mental pause. Verse 8, it says, but now you must put them all away. That there's a putting off of the second vice list.

[32:54] That's how we handle this. Because the prevalency and our sinful nature is actually going to be drawn towards the second vice list more commonly than not.

[33:07] To put to death, to kill as the first vice list, it's to stop the activity through lethal determination, church. These things must be stopped. It has to be dealt with as the Holy Spirit instills within the circumcision of our hearts.

[33:21] The second vice list we must put off, we must disarm, we must take off and strip off. We must leave any certain state of condition conceived of as being on removal.

[33:33] Like, it's kind of like removing of clothing. Take off this and put this on. And we're going to get into that a lot next week. It's actually verse 10 foreshadows as we continue in Colossians.

[33:45] Verse 10 foreshadows next week in what we're going to be speaking about, which says in verse 10, put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of the creator.

[34:00] And the framework of this new creation, having our lives hidden with Christ and God, which we spoke about last week, that our lives are hidden with Christ and God. It's built upon the constructs of righteousness, of righteous living, a heart which is given a new nature, and a life of which is given a new identity, completely brand new because of what Christ did.

[34:27] And that which we put on, we dress with. It is a physical endeavor, it's an act of our will that we must be endeavoring in a renewal daily. And what we're talking about here is actually a theological Christianese term called sanctification.

[34:45] Let's see that this identity is being renewed and it will daily, throughout this life, daily putting on this identity and stripping away the vice list of the second list.

[34:57] Christ. And by the act of the will and the power of the Holy Spirit, we become daily reestablished with new mercies every day. I woke up today and I saw, or yesterday, and I saw the sunrise.

[35:08] Imagine that in Ohio. I see the sunrise for once. It's not just some dreary, dark, gray day. And the thought of just what this passage was speaking about, of waking up and feeling the new mercies of God every day that's being renewed.

[35:29] It's a knowledge, as this verse talks about, after the image of our creator, that he's making all things new every day. Which points us to point three, as we wrap up our time this morning.

[35:46] I don't know how long I've gone, but I told my wife last night, I was like, man, we might be going a little bit long. Verse 11. Which is Christ's supremacy over this identity.

[36:01] It says here, in verse 11, turn with me, here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all.

[36:15] This last verse points us to almost the significance of the mystery. Remember when Pastor Brad was up here teaching, when I was like crazy sick and stuff?

[36:27] He talked about this mystery that is being revealed at this time. Paul was talking about a mystery that has been hidden for ages. This is actually the significance of that mystery being revealed, which links back to Colossians 2.

[36:41] 2. And this ushered in the redemption of not only a selected group of the Jews, which were God's people through the Old Testament. He provided for the Jews.

[36:51] they were just chosen people. But it opens up the salvation for also the Gentiles. This is the mystery that is being revealed at this time in Colossians. It is a culturally restricted statement to nationalistic and socialistic distinguishing.

[37:08] It brings destruction of racial barriers by mentioning of Greek and Jew. Racial barriers. barriers. It talks about the destruction of religious barriers, circumcised and uncircumcised.

[37:22] It talks about the destruction of cultural barriers, which we can go into a whole rabbit trail of that, but the point is it breaks cultural barriers between barbarian and Scythian, and the destruction finally of social barriers between a slave and those free.

[37:40] And of course, Christians in that day and today still hold ethnic identities. We still have ethnic identities. We have many Napoleons, you know, joining us today. They're Napoleon. I mean, yeah, we're one in Christ, but we're still who we're created to be with different heritage, different heritages, with different identities, different cultures, different things that are unique about us, that reveal the beautiful glory of God.

[38:05] We still have roles like male and female. We see the Bible's listed with this. This doesn't, this doesn't throw away the baby with the bathwater. Galatians 3, 28, actually talks about there's neither male nor female, which isn't talking about the elimination of such roles, but actually the significance of them related to and regard to salvation.

[38:27] That they're not, it doesn't matter these things, Jew, Gentile, slave, free, we're all in Christ. That Christ is supreme, as the book of Colossians has a theme. He's supreme over our identities.

[38:38] So as we come to a close today, we spent a great deal of time, and I, I know we're, we're kind of like dwelling in this past life, and I want us to do that today.

[38:55] Because scripture is obviously calling us to do this. Some churches would call this religion, you know, of, of, of focusing on who we used to be. But Paul is reminding the Colossian church of who they used to be as well.

[39:12] And this is important. So we spent a great deal of time dealing with this old man nature, this old woman. And today, for some of those, this might be a good reminder of where we came from and what we were a victim of with sin.

[39:30] For others, this might be actually a wake-up call. To truly embrace who we are, I believe that we must remember who we used to be. To truly embrace who we have become in Christ, we have to remember who we used to be and what we were saved from.

[39:51] And the root of these four expressions of sensuality, of covetousness, which is idolatry. This is beyond marital infidelity between a married man and a married woman committing a sexual act with somebody else.

[40:08] This is even beyond that. But for us today, we can also be reminded of the dangers of even pornography that can leak into the church, that can be a vice, that can pull us away, that can corrupt our minds.

[40:26] And which pornography, in which it specifically reduces a created being in the form of an image that reduces this created being that's created in the image of our creator as well, reduces that person to a tool for self- fulfillment, for self- gratification.

[40:47] Whatever the object, quote, object is, within the vice church, it could be money, it could be porn, it could be fame, it could be a social status that we're trying to obtain, which is covetousness.

[41:04] It's all rooted in the same act of idolatry, worship of a false, lowercase g, God. And this is rooted in a loss of contentment in Christ, so that when we start to crave other things that satisfy our longing hearts, sexual desires reach the depth within a human being and a soul's craving.

[41:27] It really does. Sex is huge and very important within marriage, a covenant renewal within marriage, of giving to one another. But I want to reflect on that, sensuality.

[41:43] If we have deal issues within our congregation today of sensuality, of struggles with these things, we have to put them to death. And it is not easy by any stretch of the imagination.

[41:55] We have to deal with the old man. We cannot live in the old man. We have to live in the new man. I also want to reflect this morning on the second list, which is reflected in the untamed tongue.

[42:09] And the tongue is which supposedly makes that same confession to Christ, the one that declares that Christ is king, and then turns around and causes hostility within the church.

[42:24] And all of a sudden, people who used to be united are all of a sudden in different groups against each other. It's disunity. It's dissension. We have to be on guard of that.

[42:35] We have to protect that unity and the untamed tongue. We're going to see this. We're actually going to close our time today in James 3. But this is a serious issue.

[42:46] The untamed tongue with us today, just as the church in Colossians, if it goes unaddressed, it is a very serious issue. I think many churches, even us, can probably see the results of an untamed tongue.

[43:03] When the church sins against one another, we sin against God. When we come against each other maliciously, with an untamed tongue, through slander, through gossip, whatever it might be, we are sinning against one another, and we're also sinning against God, because God's church is so united with the church.

[43:27] We see that on Paul's road to Damascus. The Lord Jesus saying to Paul, why are you sinning against me that the unity of the church in him is so close?

[43:38] So let us, as a family, church, to put to death and put away, to kill and to put away, to remove anything that is not of him.

[43:55] Lest we appear before him in judgment day, one day, as a complete fraud, saying like, yeah, you were saved and you understood the grace of God, but man, you did not live out the grace of God.

[44:08] You hurt these people in this church. You created dissension and division. Do not want to appear to him on judgment day as a fraud.

[44:20] Let this church be authenticated by a transformed heart, which reverberates throughout our lives, that those who come in contact with us come in contact with Christ, and it's a transparent, obvious unity with the relationships that we have with God.

[44:41] And for now, let us spend a moment in confession today as the team, as the music team, worship team, what am I even talking about, comes up and we finish our time together.

[44:53] Let us spend a moment in confession today. Focus on these vice lists and see where we're at.

[45:04] Because if we can't be, if we're looking, if we're looking at this list and we see something that is presently going on in our lives, we have to put it to death. We have to put it away.

[45:17] But I rejoice with you if we can look at this list and see a person that we used to be that we have put to death, that we have put off. I rejoice with you. Regardless, let us be in confession today.

[45:29] Allow the Lord to search our hearts and to cut away regardless of the pain it involves. Let us respond by putting the things out of our lives which serve as gateway devices in our lives.

[45:42] I'm not calling for illegalism. I'm not saying like, let's go home and throw our TVs out. For some of you, it might mean that, honestly. But I'm not saying that we must do that. Some, it might mean to limit social media because social media has become your God.

[45:57] Taking selfies and trying to make the perfect, perfect angle of a picture. I've seen some crazy situations of, I've seen a lot of pictures.

[46:11] And I know we do this. I even do that. I think if somebody tells me to take a picture of myself, I probably take about at least 10 pictures. I'm like, do I really look like that? I feel so bad for people to have to see that.

[46:26] But honestly, we need to get real church. We have to put to death the things that have the first viseless. We have to put away the things in the second viseless. We have to surge our hearts.

[46:37] We have to make confession today. And we're going to do that. As the worship team continues to play, I'm going to read out of James 3, but let's close our time and focus in on confession and communion as we're going to be embarking in.

[46:52] Thank you.