Take it Off! – Colossians 3:8-9

Twentieth message in a verse by verse series through Colossians. This sermon looks at the list of ‘acceptable’ sins that often are a part of our lives that God wants us to deal with.

1. In this passage we transition from the doctrinal section to the practical. This is clear from the frequent commands and exhortations we find laced through the entire chapter.
2. In the first 4 verses, we have seen that the believer’s spiritual lungs are oxygenated in the heavenly places
3. Key phrase: “But now ye also put off all these…”
   • ‘put off’ – means to lay aside (Heb. 12:1)
   • It carries the picture of stripping off an old set of dirty clothes to make way for a new set.
4. The list divides into 3 categories.

Sins of Emotion (Vs. 8a)

1. ‘Anger’
   1. The same anger used to describe God’s righteous wrath (Vs. 6).
   2. It refers to the deep, smouldering anger of heart that desires revenge.
2. ‘Wrath’
   1. Violent outbursts of anger, the quick boiling up of emotion, white-hot anger.
   2. Gromacki: “It is uncontrolled rage expressed through outbursts of temper. Carson claimed that “anger speaks of the settled attitude, while wrath is the passionate outburst.” Pg. 135
   3. Prov. 22:24 “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:”
   4. Prov. 16:32 “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
   5. Illustration: Moses outburst of anger in smiting the rock.
3. Note: These two words cover both types of anger. 1. The anger that smoulders away in the heart unseen. 2. The anger that boils up quickly and is expressed in violent words and actions.
4. ‘Malice’
   1. Ill will for another. i.e. someone who is malicious.
   2. A fruit of anger.
5. Illustrations:
   1. Speaking in a rough, cutting manner.
   2. The silent treatment.
   3. Violent behaviour
   4. Angry countenance (dirty looks, icy stares)

Sins of Communication (Vs. 8b)

1. Blasphemy – i.e. railing on someone or slandering someone’s character.
   1. Toward God.
      1. Using His Name flippantly.
      2. Misrepresenting His character (slander)
   2. Toward Man.
      1. It is probably this point that is most in focus.
      2. Example: Pounding someone with hurtful words.
      3. Example: Assassinating someone else’s character.
2. Filthy Communication – polluted speech
   1. Suggestive & dirty jokes.
   2. Dirty stories.
   3. Loaded sentences with double meanings (e.g. sexual innuendos).
   4. T.V. Talk. Worldly affairs
   5. Toilet talk (e.g. bodily functions)
   6. Swearing. Note: Beware of substitute swearing. I.e. “oh sugar”, “what the heck”, “oh my gosh”, “bull dust”, “I don’t give a dang”
   7. Sordid stories: Eph. 5:11-12 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”
   8. Ephesians 4;29-30 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
   9. Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt…”
   10. Note: We should never hear such things from the pulpit!

Sins of Deception (Vs. 9-11)

The command (9a)

1. Present tense: Stop it and don’t do it!
2. Manifestations:
   1. Deliberate untruths – things that are completely false
   2. Partial truths – mixing truth and error. This is still lying! Often this is to create a favourable impression of oneself. E.g. recounting an incident but leaving out the things you did wrong in order to caste yourself in a good light.
   3. Exaggeration – embellishing the facts to make them more sensational & tantalising. The media is a good example of this.
   4. Hypocrisy – living a lie. Trying to create a favourable impression of oneself that does not reflect their true condition/standing.
3. Illustrations
   1. Satan: John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan is the master deceiver. He is deceptive in his appearances (angel of light). He is deceptive in his words (mixes his poisonous lies with the truth)
   2. Christ: John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Christ is the opposite to Satan and sinful mankind. He is Truth Incarnate! John 1:14 says that Christ is “full of grace and truth.”

The reasons (9b-11)

1. The old man put off (9b)
2. The new man put on (10-11)
   1. Divinely Created (Vs. 10)
      1. ‘new’ – II. Cor. 5:7. There is a distinct difference from the old life.
      2. ‘created’
   2. Progressively Perfected (Vs. 10)
      1. The process: ‘renewed’ – means to make new again.
      2. The means: ‘knowledge’ (See 1:9)
      3. The end: ‘image’ – 2. Cor. 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
   3. Humbly Positioned (Vs. 11)
      1. No Racial Distinction – “Greek nor Jew”
      2. No Religious Distinction – “circumcision nor uncircumcision”
      3. No Cultural Distinction – “Barbarian, Scythian”
      4. No Social Distinction – “bond nor free”
      5. Christ is everything (See 3:4)
      6. Christ indwells all his people

Conclusion

1. Is one or more of these sins a stronghold in your life?
2. Are you cooperating with God’s work of sanctification in your life?

Sermon 20 of 28 in Colossians Series

Sermon Audio Id: 1119162131105