Imperatives Of The Crucified Life – 2 | Discover the Book Ministries

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Imperatives of the Crucified Life – 2

060312PM

DSS-14

Colossians 3

Transcript

Let’s take our Bibles and open to Galatians 2:20. That’s our first stop on the way to Colossians 3, where we were this morning. As you turn there, I want you to think about the context always of the Scripture. To understand the Bible, you have to understand primarily what God was saying to the people He was writing it to. That really clears up a lot of problems with the Scripture. The first line of interpretation is the primary interpretation is what did God mean as He wrote to those to whom He was writing. It really affects deeply what the depth of our understanding of Scripture.

And this epistle, the Galatians, as well as Ephesians, as well as Colossians, were written to a group of people in an area of Rome called Roman Asia. Doesn’t mean anything to us, but if I said modern-day Türkiye, you would get the idea. So, these were three areas, two cities and one region within what is modern Türkiye. So, that’s interesting, but what does that mean as far as the message, especially as we get to chapter 2 verse 20? Roman Asia, or modern-day Türkiye was the most Roman of the Roman Empire. In fact, even today when you take tours over there, there are more Roman ruins in Türkiye than there are in all of Italy combined. There are more Greek temples in Türkiye than there are in Greece. It was the epicenter of the ancient Roman Empire. It was the most civilized, you might say, other than Rome itself, which was a kind of an island there in Italy. The most Roman, outside of Rome itself, was all of Türkiye. That was the most developed part of the empire. Again, it doesn’t matter. So, you’re saying why the history lesson? As we get to Galatians 2 this evening, I want to describe daily life in the Roman world, why they needed Galatians 2:20.

In Roman Asia, or Türkiye, is also a city that we know from the book of Revelation called Thyatira. That’s a city from Revelation 2 that they excavated completely the whole city and have examined the culture of it, and it gives us probably the clearest insight into what was going on in the time of Paul’s writing from the same region. What was life like? If you want to know what America was like 2000 years in the future, looking back 2000 years, if there’s even life on this Earth, they would love to know what society was like in our time. And that would be captured by some of the local writing. The local writing about Roman Asia is like this, and I’d like to read it to you.

This was the manufacturing hub of the ancient Roman world, this province of Asia. Most workers were members of guilds, they called them. Guilds, like a labor union which we would have today. They would set the price for their labor; they would give their sales areas like we give territories to salespeople. And the people of the ancient Roman world were potters, and dyers, and tanners, and bakers, and metal workers, and textile makers, bronze smith, everything you need for culture and for all that is purchased by culture. And each of them had to be a part in the Roman world of one of these trade unions. So, if you were a professional anything, metal worker or leather worker, like the Apostle Paul was, and other areas and lived in one area, you could not… Now remember, Paul was an itinerant one, but if you lived in a city, you had to join the cooperative guild or trade union. This is what went on from the excavations of this city in Roman Asia. This is what they found. Trade guilds were compulsory. In order to continue in your trade in one city, you had to be a member of the guild. In other words, it was what we would call today, closed shop. You have to be in the union to work there. And so, that was the first element.

The second one, every guild of Roman Asia had a patron god or goddess of the Roman pantheon. Remember, they had the Roman versions of the Greek gods. And so, they each had the god of metal work or the god of whatever, of tanning leather or whatever, and they would start work with paying daily homage to that deity. In other words, your shop had to have, like we would have in some places I know at the auto plants that they have this morning regimen where they do jumping jacks, the Japanese ones in Tennessee. Or maybe they roll the flag up and people sing the national anthem is some opening event at a place. In these guilds, you would offer an offering to the patron god, so that would be immediately offensive to any believer, but it was obligatory at the opening of all meetings of the artisan and craftsmen in their work that you attend. So, if you can imagine, you were assaulted right away if you were a trade person, not a stay-at-home person, but if you went out into the work world, you were assaulted. If you had any kind of skill and were a part of a career-type job, you were assaulted with paganism. But we would say, I don’t believe that and go ahead and do it, and I’m just going to stand here and let you do your thing.

But that isn’t where it ended. There were regular meetings of all the members of the trade guild. And these, Ramsay, the famed nineteenth century archeologist, found the diary, as it were, of a regular monthly meeting of these unions. And what he said is that business would follow. They would talk about their union, then they would have the customary banquet known for in the ancient world, sexual license. Now, listen to his excavation. This is what Ramsay said, on a regular basis, the believers of Roman Asia would be exposed to revelry license intoxication marked by these pagan religious trade societies. The members would lounge on dining couches. Remember, they, like in the Last Supper, you would recline and eat toward the center and your feet would be extended outward, and you’d be leaning in eating out of the middle. So, they’re lying on these couches having their meals as they would have banquets for their guild, and they would be surrounded, Ramsay said, by troops of unclothed dancing and singing slave girls. So, that’s the kind of like the business lunches. Aren’t you glad things are a little different nowadays? That would be unbelievable, but this is what Ramsay continues. He says, this conduct, this dining couch intoxication, the dancing girls would be fatal to all self-restraint of the Spirit. In short, a guild was no place for a Christian, yet quitting the union would be economic suicide. So, Paul is writing to a group of people that when they came to Christ, they were losing something; they could no longer freely operate in the business world. They could no longer freely operate in the manufacturing world. They couldn’t comfortably go through life like they used to go through life because something had changed. Their whole orientation had changed. Their whole outlook on what was going on around them had changed. So, the battle with the flesh would rage every day in all these towns of Roman Asia.

Add to that, when you got off work, the bathhouses. Remember, most people didn’t have indoor plumbing back then. Indoor plumbing was common; you just didn’t have it because the cities were laid out with central plumbing, and you would go for your bath to a bathhouse that the Roman government provided. They provided the wood, and they’d heat the water, and they just, it was a public service. Like we have trash removal; they had bathhouses in the ancient world. And we know that Paul went to these bathhouses because they accused Paul when he got to Thessalonica of being an escaped criminal. And that’s because they saw when he took his bath, they saw his beaten back from being beaten with rods in Philippi. And so, we know that he went to these bathhouses and that they saw him with all the stripes on his back. But these bathhouses in every city where prostitution was normal and considered healthy. In other words, if you didn’t participate in the public different license that they did, they thought there was something wrong with you. Remember how the Scriptures say they thought it’s strange that you do not follow them in their excesses? That’s what’s going on. They’re living in this culture.

Athletic facilities! Okay, so you want to get away from work, and you’d stay away from the baths. How about working out? Athletic facilities, there was such an emphasis placed on the human body that many sports were practiced and competed in total nudity. You know the Greek statues, how they intricately show all the muscles and all the physique? That’s because they worshiped the human body so much so that you showed yours off in public. So, if you can imagine these saints were vexed with the flesh, with temptation and with sin.

Now, let’s listen to Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20. Galatians 2:20. In fact, let’s stand together for the reading of this and then we’ll pray because I love this verse, and you know it by heart, but listen to it. Okay, Galatians 2:20. Paul, writing to these people in Roman Asia, in the province of Galatia. These people that are surrounded at work with dancing girls, that are surrounded at the bathhouse with prostitution forced on them, that they’re surrounded every time they go to the athletic place with public nudity every time. They just are just surrounded by filth. Paul says, I wonder how to make it, you new ones in Christ, I’ll explain my practice. I have been crucified, verse 20 of chapter 2 of Galatians, with Christ. He says, when Christ died on the cross, I was crucified with Him. It is no longer I who live. Now, he says, it’s not me who goes to work with the leather workers. It’s no longer me who merely goes through the marketplace, or by the athletic deals, or to the bathhouse, but Christ lives in me. I’m not going alone to the guild; I’m not going alone to the athletic bathhouse. Wherever I go through life, Christ is living in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me—past tense—and gave Himself for me. Whole different outlook on life. Paul said, it’s not my body, it’s His. It’s not my eyes, it’s His. It’s not my mind, it’s His. And it’s the whole idea of how they operate in a world that’s very parallel to ours today, very parallel. Interesting.

Let’s bow together and ask the Lord to open our hearts to His Word. Father in Heaven, I pray we would understand. How to apply Your Word. We are students of Your Word. We’ve spent our lives studying Your Word, but so often it’s so difficult to actually bring it to pass in our lives. We struggle every day, just like they did. And I pray that through Paul’s simple explanation of how to live crucified every day, how to live, but not us living and us running out of strength and us running out of resistance, but living with not I anymore, but Christ. May that deeply, deeply penetrate our souls, and our wills, and our hearts. And Father, as we do bow before You tonight, we ask not only for You to open our eyes to behold wonderful things from Your Word, but we also ask for You to energize and give great boldness to Your servants. We thank You that 73 precious saints went out last Sunday, and they made many visits in the many teams that go out. But tonight, as they’ve assembled again, representing You, we are supporting them and we ask You, and in our hearts, we cry out to You to give them many open doors, many prepared hearts, much boldness by Your Spirit. Help them to remember the verses, and the outline, and the proper responses to questions that they have been learning in their class in EE and help them as they give out the wonderful words of life. For us who stay, may You stir our hearts and teach us much from Your Word. And for those who go, protect and bless the going forth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

You may be seated. As you’re seated, the battle was won by Christ. The battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil all were defeated at the cross. It’s not something we have to wait for to happen. It’s done. The world, my flesh and yours, and the devil were all defeated. That’s the teaching of the Scripture. What we need to do is believe and act on that truth. But the question always comes, how do we do that regularly? How do you, as you’re scooting through life, trying to keep up with just the endlessness of all that comes upon us, how do you do that?

Two passages explain this truth. The first one is the one before you right now, Galatians 2:20, and that’s the attitude that we need. Then Colossians 3 are the actions that we’re to take. But let’s stop and look at the attitude. We need to repeat, reaffirm, and remember over and over again that the past work of Christ’s death, that’s what Paul’s confessing here, Christ’s death on the cross saved me, and that’s past event keeps me, that’s the present. Paul was emphasizing this. Listen to what he says, and I’m going to read through it again, and I’m going to show you the emphasis of how he speaks. I have been crucified with Christ, verse 20. That’s a past event. That’s what we would call justification. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That’s a present event. That’s what we call sanctification. Do you see how closely they’re tied? The past event, what Christ did justifying me on the cross in the past, is totally tied to the present event of my sanctification, Christ living in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. That’s the present again, explanation of what sanctification, what us going through life more and more conformed to the image of Christ is all about. But look how he ends, who loved me and gave Himself for me. He’s back to the past event again, the justification.

Now, in my mind, I look on this kind of like a sandwich. The past events are the outside; the contents are the present. But it’s held together by these two past events that he opens and closes the twentieth verse, the past work of Christ and the cross secured my salvation. The present work of Christ offers to me sanctification in the present. That’s what He’s presently doing, but it’s totally tied. It opens and closes with looking at the fact that it’s not conditioned on what I do. It’s not conditioned on my output or my input. It’s all based on what Christ has already done. Beautiful way that the Apostle Paul describes this. Everything he ends with in the twentieth first is based on the past, on what is done, and if we really comprehend that, it just makes the whole celebration we’re coming into of the cross of Resurrection Sunday so much more wonderful. Especially when we sit at that seder as we were talking about and think about what Christ accomplished for us coming up. This is a great season to study this.

But how did we get saved? Again, think about that. By trusting, clinging to the truth of Jesus Christ. He took my sins, He stood in my place, He bore my punishment that I deserve, and the guiltless Christ took the guilt that I have and that you have. That’s the whole idea. He gave Himself for me. Who loved me, at the end of this verse, and gave Himself for me. In fact, Paul, this is Paul’s testimony. If you want to hear the short form, in EE you’re supposed to have a long and a short form, Paul’s short form is He loved me and gave Himself for me. That is his fifteen-second, that’s less than fifteen seconds. That’s his five-second testimony. He loved me and gave Himself for me. That’s salvation! And Paul talks about that. The sinless One taking my sin, the holy One taking my wretchedness, and on and on we could all go if we think about what He did.

But did I see Him personally on the cross? No. Did Paul? There’s speculation. Could be that while he was studying under Gamaliel, he might have seen the crucifixion. We don’t know, but we know for sure we didn’t see it. Right? You aren’t 2000 years old, and I’m not either, so we didn’t see the cross. So, how do we believe in that? We believe in it by faith. Whom having not seen we love. And whom though now we see Him not, we rejoice with joy unspeakable. It’s by faith. I believed the truth of God’s Word as a six-year-old. When my mom told me, I just believed. I just didn’t know that anything else could possibly be true, but that, she just told me that’s God’s Word. I believed the truth of God’s Word, and God changed me forever. God changed me. I believe what He did in the past. That’s what salvation, the same way we were saved is the same way we live the rest of our lives. So, we apply that faith in the work of Christ to the rest of our walk. See, most of us really are sure about that salvation thing, but we really struggle with the temptation, and doubts, and fears, and struggles, and going through life.

But Paul says, and now let’s turn to Colossians. On the way to chapter 3, look at Colossians 2:6. I alluded to this last time, but I want, last Sunday, but I want you to see it again. Colossians 2:6. Paul ties these two ideas together of the sanctification/justification idea and the same faith needed. Because I believed the truth of God’s Word and it changed me forever, and the same way I was saved is the way I lived the rest of my life. As Paul says in Colossians 2:6, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. The sanctification is tied to the same faith that we believed in and that He justified us by. There is a wonderful correspondence there. So, apply that faith that you and I have for the work of Christ on the cross and apply it to the rest of our walk.

And the truth is, flesh can’t defeat flesh. My being good for six years wasn’t good enough for God. That’s how old I was before I was saved, six years. I had six years to try my hardest to be good, and I couldn’t accomplish enough to satisfy God, and I had to trust in His satisfaction, His dying in my place, the Lord Jesus Christ. Flesh can’t defeat flesh! Resolves, promises, fighting, striving in our own power can only lead to defeat. So, as we were saved totally trusting in His work, so we walk totally trusting in what He’s already done for us. That’s what Paul’s message is as we get to this third chapter.

Now, why do we even have to consider this? Because if we don’t heed the action we’re supposed to take. Remember, we have this attitude. I’m crucified with Christ. I know all that’s true. I know He died in my place, and I know it’s all done. But if we don’t act upon it, we have this glaring warning. How did we get to all this? We looked at the life of David and the life of Saul. And we saw that David, in spite of his sin, is honored as God’s servant. And we see that Saul is dishonored because his life was loss. And then we go to 1 Corinthians, and the Apostle Paul says, I don’t want to suffer loss. So, it is possible for us to suffer loss. How do we suffer loss? By not taking our responsible action from Colossians 3 and many other passages. Because God has left us with the failed lives of those in the Scripture, Saul as one of the most sobering pictures, as a reminder to us that a raid against us this evening is our old life, our flesh. Galatians, we saw this morning, 5. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit is lusting, and fighting, and striving, and going against our flesh, and the two are contrary to one another.

Now, Colossians 3, we see the action we must take to live the life of killing our flesh, mortifying our flesh, living the crucified life that Jesus Christ offers to us. What we saw this morning is several things. The first imperative is in verse 1. Seek those things which are above. You want to seek things above? You want to have a heavenly perspective on life? Ask the Lord. Say, I know that just as You save me, that You can cause me today to purposely, consciously, through Your power and through the Spirit’s prompting, to seek things that are eternal. I was sharing with you about the caregivers that Bob Nichols talked about that were two Christian ladies that were with his grandmother as she died. They were way out in nowhere where his grandmother lives, and they were not in the big city glitz, and they were not in a highly paid job, but they took care of his grandmother for the glory of God. And you know what the Bible says? You’ll never lose your reward, even giving out cups of water in My name. And so, there’s something about having this heavenly perspective as you leave for work. I mentioned this morning, I used to be a corporate salesman for American Home Products. I would leave my home in Los Angeles and take off to go out and sell wherever I was, downtown or whatever, and I would say, Lord, I know today that I can either choose to be in this rat race of Los Angeles and all this choked freeway and all this money struggle that they’re all in, or I can look for the divine appointments today and really see life the way You see it, how You want me to fit into what You’re doing here today. That’s a conscious choice that we have to ask for.

Secondly, we can set our mind on things above. There are so many distractions. You talk about distractions, everything’s distracting to the ultimate in California. That’s just the ultimate expression of the flesh that I know of. Between there and Vegas, it’s just unbelievable. How do you live? It’s getting that way in Tulsa. Set your mind on things above. Again, you say, Lord, I know I can turn my mind to Your channel because You accomplished that on the cross, the strength.

Then, where we begin this evening is in the fifth verse, and I want you to look at this. This is a systematic routing or decimating the works of the flesh that we have to do in our lives. And what he says is here, I want you to put to death your members that are on the Earth. And what he’s talking about is the Romans 6 idea that every time we yield to temptation, whatever part of us we yield, whether it’s our mind, or our eyes, or our body itself that we have just made that member as an instrument of unrighteousness. So, what he said is every time we let our members be instruments of unrighteousness, we have to put to death. We have to stop that. We have to do radical surgery. We have to kill those evil desires. What are they? Look in your Bibles. In New King James, it says, there are five of them: fornication, number two uncleanness, number three passion, number four evil desire, number five covetousness. The NIV: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed. Same ideas, same words.

Let’s do fornication first. What he says is, number one, fornication and uncleanness must go. Now, who’s he talking to? Remember he wasn’t talking to Tulsans primarily; we’re secondary. He’s talking to people in Roman Asia, people in the highest developed culture of the Roman Empire. Chastity, which is absence of fornication, was a completely new virtue that Christianity brought into the world. That was not really a thought-about thing. You know what their thoughts were? The food is for body, and the body is for food, so the body is for immoral things. We were made to express ourselves. And what’s one of the most delightful ways to express yourself? It’s in the sexual realm. And so, they said, just do it. Christianity brought chastity in the ancient world. Sexual relationships before marriage, outside of marriage, inside of marriage, and with anything that you could possibly think of were normal and accepted. While Paul was writing this epistle to the Colossians, the man that was the president, the emperor, was an openly practicing homosexual sodomite, and he would appear in public. Nero, I’m talking about, he would appear in public with his wife. His wife was a castrated male slave. How gross could you get to show up in public with [Sporus]? This evil representation of all the homosexuality was in the Roman Empire, and yet that’s who was Nero’s consort, and Nero was just flaunting what the culture believed. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not controlled, and the Christian ethic of insisting on chastity regarding the physical relationship between the sexes is something precious and indiscriminate use spoiled it. And it was so bizarre to them that they just thought the Christians were weird. What island did you come from? We don’t know anything about this. Fornication, any sexuality outside of marriage, was condemned by God and not understood by the pagans. And so, Paul had to tell the believers, you cannot go back to the way you were raised and your culture.

And you say, we don’t live like that. Oklahoma’s pretty tame, right? Is it? Why is it that in every church, the number one or number two sin in every single church sin list was always fornication? Because no matter whether it’s publicly known or not, this is always lurking in the background. I know just, we just had the situation with the pastor here in town with his secret life. But what we should think about is, we shouldn’t kid ourselves. There are many people who are covering up this sin in their thoughts or in their secret life, and yet they still talk the talk that everything is okay.

And Paul’s saying, no, no. He brings it out in the open. He tells us that we are to put our physical members in the place of death. Do your eyes cause your trouble? Do you look with the eye of lust? Put those eyes in the place of death and use them as the eyes of Christ to look on Him. That changes things. On and on you go. If it’s not the eyes, if it’s the mind, you say, it is no longer my eyes, it’s no longer my mind, but Christ who lives in me. Now, how do you do that? Again, as we did this morning, because of Christ’s death for my sins, He can now defeat any form of fornication in my life if I ask Him to, if I want Him to. Remember how it says there’s no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will always make a way of escape. See the lit exit sign over there? There’s always the Lord’s very clear way out in every one of these that we’re going to look at: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, covetousness, anger, wrath, and malice, and all the other ones we’re going to see. What do we do? We say, Lord Jesus, right now I want You to kill every immoral desire in my life. You know what? You’ll have to ask Him to do that tomorrow.

And if you’re like St. Augustine, you have to ask it every five minutes. Because St. Augustine, St. Augustine, one of the greatest minds of all, he lived such a Roman life before he got saved that after he got saved, all of his former girlfriends used to chase him, one in particular. And he just was so, so learning this truth that he had to say, Lord Jesus, right now. And he, in his diaries, he’d say that he had to every few moments say, Lord, kill that desire, kill that memory I have. Kill that sight I just saw, as he went by the bathhouse. Kill what I just saw when I went by the athletic fields. Kill what I just saw, the dancing girls while I was at this banquet. He says, those are Your eyes. And you see, it isn’t a once for all I’ve dealt with that. He’s saying we should be constantly putting to death any member.

If our ears get us to sin. In fact, I was just standing in line. I rarely listen to that music. I don’t personally, it doesn’t matter what form it is, I just don’t like this kind of modern music. I just don’t like it at all. And I stood there, and I listened, and I asked Johnny, my son, I said, I was listening, what is that? And he told me what they were saying because they usually say it so fast, and it’s just. And I went, that’s vile. He says, yeah it is. He said, most of you older people can’t really understand what they’re saying. It was totally sexual in nature, and it was wicked. And so, if your ears draw you to sin, you have to say, Lord, kill the immoral desire in my life through my ears, through my eyes, through my mind.

But look at the next one, uncleanness. This word, impurity or uncleanness, the second word in verse 5 includes thoughts, words, looks, gestures, even jokes. Have you ever noticed how many jokes come down? Especially, a lot of the ones that go on, especially with men when they carry on and on, a lot of them get a sexual nature to them. I don’t mean blatantly, I just mean they just go that direction. That’s uncleanness; it’s impurity. And because of Christ’s death for my sins, He can now defeat any form of impurity and uncleanness in my life. And we just say, Lord Jesus, right now, I want You to remove all impurity and filthiness from my heart. Because out of the abundance of the what? Heart. The what speaks? The mouth to tell or repeat an unclean thing. That means it’s lodged here. Actually, it’s here, but it’s more understandable here. It’s in our heart. And so, how do we get it out of there? It’s not by…

You remember when you were little? Did your mother? I used to get my mouth washed out with soap. Ivory soap does not taste good, I learned that. And she’d put it on a washcloth and just about gag me, stick her hand there and pull my tongue and really give it to me. And I didn’t know any obscene talk. I would just talk back to her. But you know what? That didn’t really correct the problem because it wasn’t in my mouth. It was where? In my heart. So how do you get out of your heart? You, before the Lord, based on what He’s already done. Not saying, Lord, I don’t want to do that again, I’m going to stop, I’m going to stop! You say, no, Lord, I know that You, through Your death for me on the cross, have defeated my flesh and the world around’s hold on me, and the devil and his demons that are trying to penetrate my life, and I ask You to remove the impurity and filthiness from my heart. Now, it keeps coming in. It is again, it’s not like you can just get one spraying and the termites are gone for 50 years. They’re constantly coming and attacking, and they’re coming in a lot of unseen ways, and so we have to constantly do that.

Thirdly, passion or lust. Inordinate affection, uncontrolled passion. This third word here in verse 5 is the kind of person who is a slave of his passion. That’s what this word means. It’s different, it’s not the normal word for lust. It’s a little different. Pathos is the word, but it speaks of a slave to whatever passion is there. It’s kind of like someone who really gets into stuff, and they can get into this passion for, inordinately for anything. And he says, watch out for that. And again, because Christ died for us, He can defeat any impurity, and uncleanness, and passion, and lust. And we can just ask Him; I want You to remove that slavery I have in my life to whatever it is. People can get enslaved to anything. I just read in the news that they figure that Americans are going to waste 1.6 billion dollars a day because they’re going to livestream to the computer screen some athletic event that’s going on, and they said that people are going to not be able to resist it. There’s going to, they’re going to be able to watch this competition in basketball or something, and they’re going to be able to see it at work because they can’t stop, and they want to do it. And they said productivity is going to go down. And the Lord says, doesn’t matter what you get enslaved to.

Evil desires. King James, evil concupiscence. Evil desire is a person who is driven by desire for wrong things. And again, we can say, Lord Jesus liberate me from my uncontrolled drive for wrong things, whatever form they are.

And covetousness, and this is more in the realm of where so much of America is. Greed, which is idolatry. This word, pleonexia, is one of the ugliest sins. It’s hard to find a single word to translate. It comes from two Greek words. The first half, pleon, means more. And the second half means to have. More to have is what this word is. The word covetousness in Greek is more to have. More to have of what? It’s the idea of the insatiable desire to have more of whatever we like. It’s been described as a ruthless self-seeking. Therefore, it’s a sin with a wide range. If it’s a desire for money, it would lead to theft. We want money so much.

Did you read about this born-again Christian from Bush’s second floor staff that set his policy that got caught at Target returning stuff that he had, he bought it, took it out to his car, took the receipt, put it in a bag, went and tried to return it? And thousands of dollars! This administrator in our, one of these born-again people that was helping Bush. You know what that is? Pleonexia. Bonnie said, why would anybody ever do that? I said, you ever tried to live in Washington DC? You commute for an hour. It costs hundreds of thousands to buy a house there. You got to have fancy clothes all the time. You work around the clock. You’re eating out all the time. They never, civil pay isn’t enough to afford that! So, this guy got in the trap thinking he needed to earn a little money on the side. He’s returning stuff, if he really did what the cameras caught him doing. He was gripped by pleonexia, this insatiable desire to have more, and it leads to theft.

If it’s the desire for prestige, it leads to evil ambition. If it’s the desire for power, it leads to tyranny. If it’s the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin. Moule, commenting on this said (he’s a commentator), this word is the opposite of desire to give. I was discipling one of the new couples that comes to the church, and they are new in the Lord, and I was meeting in my office and praying with them. And they said, we got to tell you something. He said, you know what? We were raised to love money, and they said, this church is the first time we ever heard about giving money. And the young lady said, the first time I heard that, I was just shocked. Give away money? You don’t give away money, you get it! And so, she said she tried it. She said the first time she gave money in the offering, she said it was the most unbelievable liberation in her heart. And she said now she is a giver. You know why? The flesh is an insatiable desire to get; the Spirit wants to liberate us and give us a desire to give. This word, covetousness, is the opposite of the desire to give. It is opposite of how our flesh wants for us to be giving our time, and our heart, and compassion, and our resources.

So how do we get rid of this covetous greediness? Because of Christ’s death for our sins, He can defeat any form of enslaving passion. We can say, Lord, I want You to liberate me from always wanting more of anything but You. That’s really what this comes down to. We want Christ most: pleasing Him, investing for Him, living for Him, giving to Him. Remember, when you give, we take offerings here regularly. This morning, we had the double offering, the coin and the regular, and when you give to that, you’re not giving to our treasurer. You’re not giving to the elders’ council handling stewardship. You are not giving, certainly, to the pastoral staff. You’re really not even giving to the church. You and I are really giving to Christ. And that changes our attitude of giving. It’s not wondering if they’re going to spend it right, and wondering if they’re going to squander, wondering if they’re going to buy something that I don’t agree with. That care of the money goes with our gift to the Lord who oversees those who spend it. And so, we say, Lord, I want You to liberate me from always wanting more of anything but You. I just give to you.

But look at verse 8 because that’s where the imperatives continue. But now you yourselves are to put off all these. There’s a difference that changed here. Went from mortifying, killing, doing surgical excision, going to the Great Physician, say, cut that, cut that, cut that. To now a different metaphor. He says, put off all these. Paul was saying that there are certain things the Colossians must strip themselves of. The word here is actually the word for undressing or pulling off the clothes. And what he said is it’s something that is a picture from the life of the early Church in the first century Church. Part of the way they baptized people, and we know this from Church history, when a Christian was baptized, they would put off their old clothes and would go down in the water, and when they emerged, they would put on new pure white robes. It’s from Judaism. Today, they’ve excavated, and in fact, they’re finding more and more of them. These mikvaot, these purifying baths that were by the temple in the ancient world. Every temple had a bath place next to it because when you worshiped your god, false or the true living God, you always would wash yourself and clothe yourself with a robe to come before him. See, even in culture is this idea of needing to be clothed with purity to come before a deity. But when the early Church members got baptized, they followed much of Judaism’s baptism for this purifying bath where when you would go into the Temple, you would bathe, clothe yourself with a clean robe and go in. And so, when they got baptized in Christ, they had them come in their old clothes, and they would strip those clothes off them. They’d go into the water and be baptized, and then the church would provide a new fresh robe to put on which was a picture of the old gone and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. So, he uses this word that finds itself in the literature of the early Church.

And he says this, divesting of one kind of life and putting on another is what you are to be doing all the time, not just once. When you get baptized, when you’re confessing your faith in Christ, what are we supposed to be stripping off? He lists them, look in verse 8, anger; wrath, or NIV calls it rage; malice is the third one; blasphemy, the NIV calls it slander; and filthy language out of your mouth. Those are all under this imperative, this imperative of putting off. So, what do we do? We say, because of Christ who died in my place, because of what He accomplished, because I was crucified with Christ, He can now strip off of me anything that grieves or quenches His working in and through me. Now, I want you to think about that. We should ask the Lord right now; I want You to strip off these areas of my life. You struggle with anger? You don’t have to. You can have Christ strip off any unbiblical anger or rage, wrath or malice, or blasphemy or filthy language.

What are those? Let me just go through them. The first one, anger. There are two kinds of anger. There’s biblical anger; there’s positive anger. Jesus was angry. He got mad at the Pharisees because of the hardness of their heart. That’s not sinful to be angry at sin, it’s not sinful, so there is positive anger. The problem is we’re angry over the wrong things. This word orgē is an anger that’s become inveterate. It’s a long-lasting, slow-burning anger that refuses to be pacified, that nurses wrath to keep it warm, like a fire we’re always stoking. You ever met someone like that? Anything can make them mad. The dog can make them mad. The paper can make them mad. They threw the paper in the wrong place, or the paper got wet, or someone ruined something or scraped their car, or they didn’t get their… I just saw someone actually get angry because they said that their coffee wasn’t right. And I thought, you’re mad about coffee? Recently, if you read the news, people kill each other over the strangest things because there is this undealt with orgē, this anger that is constantly fed, and it slowly burns, and then it just comes out. What do we do with that? Because Jesus conquered all those things, we can ask Him to strip off from us that anger.

I have a fireplace. I love my fire. I’m so sad it’s getting 80 outside. I still had it going today, and I thought, oh Lord, is it really spring? That I have to stop burning my fireplace, my wood. I mean, I just, the kids help me. It’s just like campfire time, it’s just fun. Did you know that if you keep working, and you keep pushing those coals together and putting a little more wood on, you can have a 24 hour a day fire in your fireplace? Do you know, a lot of people have anger like that? They just keep feeding it. We have to ask the Lord to strip off our ungodly anger.

This wrath or rage. Anger becomes wrath when we develop an unforgiving spirit. The word thymos is a blaze of sudden anger, which is quickly kindled and just as quickly dies. The Greeks likened it to fire among straw, like weeds or something just goes like that and it’s over. It quickly blazes and just as quickly burns out. For the Christian, both the burst of temper, which is wrath, and the long-lasting anger, which is the first word, both are wrong. There’s some people like that, they just blow up, and it’s all over and they’re just happy, friendly, they spewed out on everybody else. Both are wrong. And because of Christ’s death, He can defeat any form of improper wrath. And we can say, Lord, strip off my outbursts of wrath and rage. Sometimes we don’t want Him to do it because we want to get even, or we want to stay hurt, or we want to stay out of sorts, whatever, with people. It’s us wanting Christ. He’s already defeated our flesh. He’s already defeated the world. He’s already conquered, and He’s already there to set us free.

Malice. The next word, kakia. It’s another interesting word. It means viciousness of mind, literally. It’s all-pervading evil. Someone has said malice is congealed anger. That’s an interesting way to look at it. You take anger and you solidify it, and there you have malice. It’s an anger that’s been nursed along. It’s an anger that tries to get revenge and even try and harm someone else. That’s the vicious side of it. And what Paul is saying is that maliciousness is like an old, dirty, filthy garment. It doesn’t represent Christ, and we can’t strip it off because it’s part of us. See, the idea of this is not, I’m going to resolve it. I’m going to take a deep breath and think of something else. I’m not going to be angry. Yeah, it works 5 seconds, 10 seconds, half hour, who knows? But it’s not what we’re talking about here. This is not biblical change that is just resolved that I’m going to be better. And malice can’t be overcome by anything other than saying, Lord Jesus, right now, strip off my viciousness, my kakia, my malice that I have. You know it, I know it, I know I feed it, I don’t want it, take it away.

Two more. Blasphemy, or NIV puts it slander. Insulting and slanderous speaking in general. When it’s directed against God, it’s blasphemy. Defaming the name of God, not just taking His name in vain, misrepresenting Him, hating Him. Like in the death of a child, how could You do this? That’s a form of blasphemy to be angry at God, and it happens. Sometimes people are overcome with situations. But it’s much more likely, this word blasphemy in the context is slanderous talk against a fellow man, a person, another believer, or anybody in general. And what he’s saying is, don’t slander. And because of Christ’s death, He can strip off slander from us. Just bad-mouthing is the way that my parents used to go. Don’t bad-mouth them, they’d say, don’t tell bad things about them.

And then the last one is filthy language out of your mouth. The word is foul communication. It means abusive speech, filthy speech, obscene speech. And what he’s telling them is, don’t ever let yourself be clothed with these things. Don’t be clothed with anger. That’s a dirty garment. Don’t be clothed with rage. Don’t be clothed with this maliciousness. Don’t be clothed with blasphemy or slander. Don’t have any obscene talk. How do we do that? We say, Lord Jesus, right now, cleanse my mouth and my heart so nothing inside me is filthy, nothing inside me is smoldering, nothing inside me is feeding that anger or that viciousness that I want to harm someone else. It’s so neat when you give vengeance to Lord. Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord; I will recompense. We can never pay people back for what they’ve done to harm us. And God says, I will always execute vengeance My way, My time. Give it to Me. And that’s why Paul could operate. He was so maligned, so harmed, so abused, so treated, and he just gave it to the Lord. But he still suffered. He says, who’s suffered and not been hurt? He goes through his list, but after he felt that, after his heart or his mind or whatever was tainted and became an instrument potentially of, or actually of slander or abuse, he’d say, Lord, I don’t want that member. I don’t want my tongue to respond that way. Do you remember when he was with the high priest, and he said, thou whitewash wall! And they slapped him, and he, when he heard it was a high priest, he says, I didn’t mean to do that. You saw a sanctification in process right there. That high priest was a Christ-dishonoring man, but Paul would not dishonor his position. And we see sanctification at place in his life.

Before we go tonight, I would like to just have you bow with me, and I want to read through this, and if there’s any struggle in our lives with any of these things, let’s deal with it tonight before we go. If there’s a struggle with sexual immorality, either in your mind or reality, with uncleanness and impurity, with passion or lust, with evil desire, with covetousness or greed, with anger, with wrath or rage, with malice, with blasphemy or slander, or with filthy language, let’s do something about it. Let’s bow before the Lord. Listen to these words and then pray with me. Because of Christ’s death for my sins, Christ can now defeat any form of these sins that displease Him and that kill my fellowship with the Lord. Any filthiness in my talk, any anger in my heart, any yielding of my members for sexual immorality, any impurity in my heart that springs out. Lord Jesus, right now, cleanse my mouth, cleanse my heart so that nothing inside of me is filthy, abusive, smoldering, nothing that will cause me to dishonor You. Strip away these filthy garments from my heart. Just take a moment and whatever the Spirit of God has pointed out to you, just affirm that and say, Lord, because of Your death in my place, strip these things off. I don’t want them. I’m a new creature, and You alone can defeat this in my life. And let this be the beginning of a regular fleeing to be crucified, anew and afresh with Christ by letting Him live and reminding ourselves of what He’s already done, so it’s not me trying, but it’s Christ living through me. And Father, teach us the reality of crucified living. Help us this week as we read Your Word to see what You command us. You’ve given us the power through Your Spirit because of Your death by Your grace to accomplish. And let us strip off the old, and as we’ll see next time, consciously clothe ourselves with the new, and we ask this in Jesus’ precious name, amen. God bless you as you go in Christ.

Notes

Paul’s epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians were to people living in Roman Asia which is the area of modern Turkey. In the time of Paul was incredibly Roman.

There are more Greek temples in Turkey than in Greece, and there are more Roman cities in Turkey than there are in all of Italy. This was the epicenter of Roman life in the first and second centuries.

Why the history lesson? As you turn to Galatians 2 this evening let me describe life in the Roman world of the 1st century.

In Roman Asia (Turkey) was also the city we know from Revelation called Thyatira. This city was renowned for its manufacturing and industry. Most workers in Thyatira were members of guilds, much like our labor unions of today. They set prices for labor and sales areas and so on: potters, dyers, tanners, bakers, metal workers, textile makers, bronze smiths, slave dealers, leather workers and the rest had their guilds in this town. History of this period notes three things.

Trade guilds were compulsory; to be employed in a trade was only via the guild. It was a closed shop. Every guild in Thyatira had a patron God or Goddess. Thus, every guild function began with paying homage to that deity by offering–this was the obligatory opening to all meetings which were required to be an artisan/craftsman. Business followed and then the customary banquets known for their sexual freedom. The cost for the Christian was unmistakable.

Ramsay the famed 19th century archaeologist, writes “revelry, license and intoxication marked these pagan religious societies (trade guilds) lounging on dining couches, surrounded by troupes of unclothed, dancing and singing slaves…would be fatal to all self-restraining spirits”. In short, a guild was no place for Christians and yet quitting the union was economic suicide.

So the battle with the flesh raged every day in Thyatira and all the other towns of Roman Asia. Add to this bath houses in every city where prostitution was normal and considered healthy. Athletic facilities where such emphasis was placed on the human body that many sports were practiced and competed in total nudity. These saints were vexed with the flesh, temptation, and sin.

Now listen to Paul’s words to them in Galatians 2:20.

The battle was already won by Christ, the world, my flesh and the Devil were all defeated at the cross–and we just need to believe and act upon that truth! How do we do that more regularly?

Two passages explain this truth. The first the attitude we need, and second the action we need to take. We need to repeat, reaffirm, and remember over and over again that the past work of Christ’s death on the cross saved me and keeps me. Listen to Paul in Galatians 2 as he sets forth the attitude we are to have.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ (past event–justification); it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (present event-sanctification); and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God (present event-sanctification), who loved me and gave Himself for me (past event-justification). NKJV

Notice the sandwich type presentation. The past work of Christ on the cross secured my salvation in the present and offers my sanctification in the present, based on the past work of Christ’s cross.

How did I get saved? By trusting, believing, clinging to the truth that Jesus Christ took my sins, and stood in my place and bore the punishment of God’s wrath I deserved. The guiltless One took my guilt; the sinless One took my sin; the Holy One took my wretchedness and on and on I could go.

But did I see Him there personally? No, it was by what? Yes, faith.

I believed the truth of God’s Word and God changed me forever. The same way we were saved is the same way we live the rest of our lives.

So apply that faith that you and I have for the work of Christ on the cross in our place and apply it now to the rest of our walk.

Flesh can’t defeat flesh. Resolves, promises, fighting and striving in our own power only leads to further defeats–it is only by yielding to the power of the cross. And what is the power of the cross? It is the defeat of death, sin, and Satan that Jesus accomplished once for all time when He died on the cross.

Remember our study of the life of Saul these past few weeks? We saw repeatedly that the downfall of King Saul started with his selective obedience. But his undoing was when he spared Agag. We learned that if we want to waste our lives just be like Saul who kept only the best–of what God hated.

To God the Amalekites were a deadly poison that had to be dealt with; they were emitting dangerous spiritual radiation that would contaminate all that came into contact with them. So when God gave them into Saul’s hand he wasn’t to even spare their livestock – every one and every thing was to be destroyed. But Saul and his men went through that which God hated and saved the best.

1 Samuel 15:32-33 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

Samuel was God’s man, His obedient instrument for that moment—and Samuel’s harsh action towards Agag is an example of how we must deal with the flesh, that old sinful part of us that remains.

Let me repeat the message God has left us from the failed life of King Saul. Saul is a picture of one of God’s servants who suffers loss. Let me underline in your heart and mind this sobering truth–any part of our old life that we spare will come back and slay us and rob us of God’s blessing, fruitfulness, and rewards.

Any part of our flesh (like Agag) that we exempt from mortification will come back with a vengeance and slay us.
All of our flesh (like the Amalekites) always comes to strike us down when we are weakest – and then rob us of our crown.

Now join me in Colossians 3, as we see the action we must take to live the life of killing our flesh, mortifying our flesh—and living the crucified with Christ life!

Now, in simple faith that saved you repeat that to yourself. (Just like my old pastor John MacArthur always used to tell us ‘preach the Gospel to yourself!’) Say something like this:

Even if I do not feel it, understand it, or even at times want it I WILL by faith, believing YOU consider myself dead to sin. Or in times of need, “Lord I operate on what I know is true, you have made me dead to sin.”

When I truly prayed, asking in simple faith for Christ to save me—whether I felt a strong emotional feeling or not, God began His work within me. I started changing from the inside out. The same is true with these imperatives.

Jesus lived—that’s history.
Jesus died—that’s theology.
Jesus died for me and took my sins upon Himself on the Cross—that’s salvation.
Jesus died for me to live through Him—that’s sanctification.
And Christ’s work on Calvary forever gave us the power and authority so we can stop anything that enslaves us and so that we can start anything He asks us to do!

Just as there is nothing we can do before our salvation to make us accepted by God; and there is nothing we can do after our salvation that makes us acceptable to God.

As we were saved only by the accomplishment of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross—so we live each day ‘by faith’ (the same faith by which we were saved). We are always dependent upon Christ’s gracious death upon the cross that saves and keeps us!

Colossians 3 is built around 14 imperative commands. Remember that God never commands me to do what He hasn’t already given me the grace to accomplish by faith through His Spirit!

Let’s walk back through this chapter, see what Paul relates to us from the Lord, and then pause and ASK the Lord to unleash these powerful spiritual qualities in our lives today.

If then you were raised with Christ,seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—I can now seek and do what pleases God. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus today I want You to help me seek things above!]

v. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—I can now turn my mind to the Lord’s channel and really experience Him. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to set my mind on things above!]

v. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:

Paul is saying is, “Put to death every part of your self which is against God and keeps you from fulfilling his will.” He uses the same expression in Romans 8:13: “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” It is exactly the same line of thought as that of Jesus when he demanded that a man should cut off a hand or a foot, or tear out an eye when it was leading him into sin (Matthew 5:29, 30). The Christian must kill self-centeredness and regard as dead all private desires and ambitions. There must be in his life a radical transformation of the will and a radical shift of the center. Anything which would keep him from fully obeying God and fully surrendering to Christ must be brought to the Great Physician to be surgically excised.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—I can now go to my Great Physician and He will surgically removed any tumor of sin that kills my walk with God. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to kill these evil desires in my life.]

1. fornication (NIV sexual immorality):

Fornication and uncleanness must go. Chastity was the one completely new virtue which Christianity brought into the world. In the ancient world sexual relationships before marriage and outside marriage were the normal and accepted practice. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled. The Christian ethic insists on chastity, regarding the physical relationship between the sexes as something so precious that indiscriminate use of it in the end spoils it.

Fornication means “sexual immorality.” Is that your sin today? Let’s not kid ourselves—there are a great many folk who are covering up this sin in their thoughts, or in their secret life, and yet they still talk about being dedicated Christians! Paul brings this right out into the open and tells us that we are to put our physical members in the place of death. Do your eyes cause you trouble? Do you look with the eye of lust? Put those eyes in the place of death, and now use them as the eyes of Christ to look upon Him. That will change things, will it not?

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of fornication in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to kill every immoral desire in my life.]

2. uncleanness (NIV impurity):

This includes thoughts, words, looks, gestures, and the jokes we tell.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of impurity and uncleanness in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to remove all impurity and filthiness from my heart.]

3. passion (NIV lust):

This KJV inordinate affection means “uncontrolled passion or lust.” passion a kind of person who is the slave of his passion (palkos)

[Because you died for me—He can now defeat any form of impurity and uncleanness in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to remove all impurity and filthiness from my heart.]

4. evil desire:

This is KJV evil concupiscence—that means “evil desires.” This is a person who is driven by the desire for the wrong things (epithumia).

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of enslaving passion in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to liberate me from uncontrolled lust in my life.]

5. and covetousness (NIV greed), which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

Pleonexia is one of the ugliest of sins but it is hard to find a single word to translate it. It comes from two Greek words; the first half of the word is from pleon which means more and the second half is from echein which means to have. Pleonexia is basically the insatiable desire to have more.

It has been described as ruthless self-seeking. It is, therefore, a sin with a very wide range. If it is the desire for money, it leads to theft. If it is the desire for prestige, it leads to evil ambition. If it is the desire for power, it leads to sadistic tyranny. If it is the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin. C. F. D. Moule well describes it as “the opposite of the desire to give.”

v. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these:

Paul says that there are certain things of which the Colossians must strip themselves. The word he uses is the word for putting off clothes. There is here a picture from the life of the early Christian. When the Christian was baptized, he put off his old clothes when he went down into the water and when he emerged he put on a new and pure white robe. He divested himself of one kind of life and put on another.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now strip off of me anything that grieves or quenches His working in and through me. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to strip off these areas of my life.]

1. anger:

There is a place for anger that is justified. You remember that the Lord Jesus was angry at the Pharisees because of the hardness of their hearts. That is not a sinful anger. The problem is that we become angry over the wrong things. Orge is anger which has become inveterate; it is long-lasting, slow burning anger, which refuses to be pacified and nurses its wrath to keep it warm.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of improper anger in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to strip off my ungodly anger.]

2. wrath (NIV rage):

Anger becomes “wrath” when we develop an unforgiving spirit. thumos is a blaze of sudden anger which is quickly kindled and just as quickly dies. The Greeks likened it to a fire amongst straw, which quickly blazed and just as quickly burned itself out. For the Christian both the burst of temper and the long-lasting anger are alike forbidden.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of improper wrath in my life. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to strip off my outbursts of wrath and rage.]

3. malice:

This is kakia a difficult word to translate, for it really means that viciousness of mind from which all the individual vices spring. It is all-pervading evil. Someone has said that “malice” is congealed anger. It is an anger that has been nursed along. It is an anger that tries to take revenge and get even. Paul says that a Christian is to put that off like an old, dirty, filthy garment. That kind of behavior does not represent Christ.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of malice in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to strip off my viciousness.]

4. blasphemy (NIV slander):

This word is blasphemeia insulting and slanderous speaking in general; when that insulting speech is directed against God, it becomes blasphemy. The first type of blasphemy is to defame the name of God. It is not just taking His name in vain, but it is to misrepresent Him, to hate Him. In this context it is much more likely that what is forbidden is slanderous talk against one’s fellow-men.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of slander in my life.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now I want You to strip off any slander from my mouth.]

5. filthy language out of your mouth:

The word is aischrologia which means foul communication and includes both that which is abusive, filthy, and obscene language.

[Because of Christ’s death for my sins—He can now defeat any form of filthiness in my talk.. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now cleanse my mouth, and my heart so that nothing inside me is filthy so that nothing filthy comes out.]

v. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all:

SALVATION brought a complete change in our personality. We put off the old self and put on the new self, just as the candidate for baptism puts off his old clothes and puts on the new white robe.

Barbarians were those who were not Greeks, those whom we would call heathen today. The Scythian was the worst kind of barbarian. Scythia was north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the area around the Caucasus Mountains. The people who lived there were probably the most barbaric the world has known. You talk about pagan, heathen, brutal, and mean! They would take their enemies and scalp them; then they would use the skull as a cup and drink the blood of their victims out of the skull! I cannot think of anything more heathen than that! Did you know that the ancestors of many of us who have white skin came from that territory? We are called Caucasians after the area where these barbarians lived.

[Because of Christ’s death on the cross—He can now make me live the truth. Close your eyes, look up at the Lord and say, Lord Jesus right now live through me so that I do not live a lie by talking the talk but not living the truth.]