Evening Sermon

May 11, 2008

Mortification

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I might wonder, how many of you have ever heard a sermon on the subject of mortification? Perhaps, even likely, you might not even know what that means. And the reason for that is that we live in a very confused age, an age in which the church, even the reformed church, puts such a high level of tension or even a rigid barrier and tension between the grace of the gospel and the law of God that any reference to the exhortations and duty of the law are immediately judged to be a contradiction of grace.

And so, I have often heard, that not only are we justified by grace but we are also sanctified by grace. And when I hear that, I have to ask, what does that mean? Whether or not I agree depends entirely upon what those words actually mean. Justified by grace means that the grounds upon which we are declared innocent in the courtroom of God is grace. God determines to forgive us our sins and accept us as righteous in his sight, "only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." It is an act of grace. It is a gift of God which we receive by faith alone, passively. That is to say, we do nothing to earn it or contribute nothing to our right to possess it. In justification, God requires nothing of us. We have no duty or obligation as part of our justification. It is his gift.

Sanctification, on the other hand, is not described by our confession as an act of God, but a work of God's grace. So in that sense, yes we are sanctified by grace. It is not a work you accomplish in your own strength, but a work of God in you. A work of God's grace. An ongoing work, which is the difference from the one-time act of justification. Sanctification is not a judicial act or decree, but it is the actual outworking of that power of God in our lives, transforming us.

And here's the difference, they differ, in that God in justification God imputes the righteousness of Christ. He credits to us what Jesus did, perfectly and completely freeing all believers from his vengeance and wrath. Nothing in that actually changes who we are in ourselves, but oh how gloriously it changes our relationship with God. We are transformed from a guilty defendant in his courtroom to a beloved child in his home, a most significant transformation of relationship. But as far as justification goes, there is not yet any moral transformation.

By contrast, in sanctification God infuses grace into us. He puts grace into us, thereby changing us. And with that infusion of grace, he actually enables us to practice righteousness. In justification, sin is pardoned and forgiven. We do nothing. In sanctification, sin is actually subdued as God enables us to obey his law. That's the difference, for sanctification includes that transformation in the actual experiences of our lives. I've been referring to the Larger Catechism Question 77, but let me quote fully the Shorter Catechism, "Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness."

So are we sanctified by grace? If you mean, "Is sanctification a work of God's grace?", yes we are sanctified by grace, the work of God's grace. If you mean, "Do we passively receive a gift?", then the answer is no. We are not passive. We are enabled. God does the enabling. Oh yes, there is the grace. And we are the enabled, enabled by God to do what God commands us to do, and therefore duty bound to obey.

Here's the key to understanding how the Bible addresses Christians, particularly with reference to the law. The Bible addresses us as Christians as those who are enabled by God to obey. The exhortations and commandments of the Bible are addressed to Christians as those who are enabled by God to obey them!

Let me read from our Confession of Faith, chapter 19, Of the Law of God: "Although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly...So as, a man's doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law: and not under grace...Neither are the aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it; the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done."

Beloved, I struggle with all my heart in teaching for you to fully grasp what that means. It's a delicate balance, but a life-changing, essential balance. "The Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done." That's where we are in this book of Colossians, WHAT "the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done."

So what does the law of God require of us who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? What is our duty, that in our sanctification, the Spirit of God will enable us to do freely and cheerfully. We began that transition last week, v.1-3

If you are a Christian, and indeed you are, then "seek those things which are above...Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." That's a command, an exhortation. That's the law, and the law gets very personal and very practical in our text tonight. v.5

We begin with,

I. THE COMMAND TO PUT TO DEATH. So my first question, what is mortification? If you are not familiar with that word, it refers to the process of putting something to death. Mortification is the process of causing something to die. It is a command given to Christians! In it is not an act of God for us, but the work of God in us. As a result, it is your calling and your duty. Mortification.

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

We see immediately,

A. The object of mortification. The members of your body. You are to mortify that which is in you that stirs up sin. Notice immediately that the root of sin is not seen in something outside of your body, something outside of yourself that tempts you to sin. But rather the root of sin, the object of your killing, is your own members. You are to mortify sin in the members of your body.

Jesus gets at that idea with his provocative words,

Mat. 5:29 "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."

Perhaps with a bit more theological definition, consider what Paul says in,

Rom. 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

That is as practical and as personal as it can possibly be. "Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin." The object of this mortification is you, your own body, the members and parts of your body. Those things you use to sin.

So it is that the call of the Christian, in terms of sanctification, is to exercise such control over your own body as to not sin! Personal, practical holiness.

1 Thes. 4:1 "Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit."

Even more personally, Paul writes of himself,

1 Cor. 9:24 "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

So the subject of this mortification is you, yourself, your own body.

And the goal is death.

B. The goal of mortification: death. Put to death. Our text says, "Put to death your members." So what does that mean?

First and foremost, it does NOT mean, be passive and wait until God does something to do. That's all too often the modern doctrine of sanctification. Wait for God to change you. But if you are struggling with sin, the Bible does not say, "Wait patiently until God does something." Rather, the Bible says, "Put it to death." Stop sinning!

1 Cor. 15:34 "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame."

Stop sinning! But wait a minute. Here is where our modern age stumbles, and causes the church to stumble. We think that that command is impossible, that we no ability to do so, and that even to hear that commandment is to fall back under the dominion of the law, contradicting the gospel of grace. So don't ever give that exhortation. That's what the preacher is often told.

And my response is, Scripture commands you to stop sinning! Scripture commands the Christian to put to death the sin that yet remains. And here is the key. It is the connection with what we studied last week in verses 1-3. It is the context. You see,

v.3 "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Or, Gal. 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

So you live by faith, and living by faith, the command of God is, therefore, put sin to death!

Rom. 6:11 "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts."

Don't miss the "therefore" of verse 5. Therefore, on the basis of the fact that you have died with Christ, therefore on the basis of the fact that you have been raised with Christ, put sin to death in the members of your body.

Again, Rom. 6:18 "And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness."

That's the command. And so the question might become, how? And the answer is quite practically, by starving sin out, refusing to feed those impulses that yet find a place within your own heart. But laying siege against the sinful desires of your heart. By avoiding even the appearance of evil, but refusing to stimulate any thoughts or desires that violate God's laws.

And more positively, but studying God's laws, that you might delight in them and consider them to be good and delightful, more precious than gold and sweeter even than honey. And if you wait around, refusing to battle with those things in your life that God calls sin, because you are waiting for God to do something, then you need to start listening to the Bible. Because the God is speaking to you. Stop sinning, he says. Be holy, because I am holy he says. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."

II. LET'S BE SPECIFIC. v.5

Well, so much for merely theoretical speculation. First up on the list, sexual morality. Put to death fornication, a word referring to and identifying any and all sexual activity outside of the bounds and bonds of marriage. Any and all illicit sexual activity apart from marriage.

Heb. 13:4 "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

The marriage bed is to be undefiled, not debased or degraded by a physical relationship that God designed to be a beautiful and honorable and enjoyable representation of the oneness of a man and his wife.

Gen. 2:21 "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

Such a good and glorious thing is this marriage relationship. And ever since the fall men have transformed into debauchery what God created as good and pure.

This is what the Bible says about fornication,

1 Cor. 6:15 "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

Paul broadens his subject with the word translated "uncleanness." Morally unclean. Immoral. Dirty. We don't describe things that way any more in our society, because we have all but lost a sense of the shamefulness of nakedness. We live in an age of immodesty, where little girls are taught to dress immodestly and provocatively from kindergarten, where teenagers, well, I won't even to into to the typical appearances and behavior of the typical teenager. Then there are the adults, engaging in adult entertainment as if it is innocent as long as we keep it from our children. Nonsense. The Bible doesn't assign PG and R ratings for different activities, but defines them as upright or unclean.

People of God, put to death that which is unclean. Put to death any occasion for,

A. Immoral and impure actions. That's what is so wrong with pornography, a scourge upon our day. That's what so wrong with premarital relations. That's what's so wrong with homosexuality, and a host of other related offenses against the purity and holiness of God himself. And that's where the Bible addresses you. As I read,

1 Thes. 4: 3 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God."

That moves to even broader descriptions of verse 5.

B. Evil desires and passions, Not just emotions or feelings, but deeper. Passions, the deep desires of your heart, that come, therefore from the depths of your hearts. Described further with the adjective, evil. Evil desires. Lust, concupiscence, to use the older word. The ardent desire for sensuous and sensual enjoyment. Evil desires and passions.

Beloved, fellow Christians, put those desires and passions to death. That is the call of God. There is this hope and encouragement of the gospel, to be sure, that "you were raised with Christ. "For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Therefore, on that basis, put to death those horrible, sinful, evil desires that still arise out of the remnants of the flesh, the remnants of that old man that still wage war with your soul.

With one more thing in this list to mortify. One more thing to put to death,

C. Covetous greed. Covetousness, in the NKJV. Translated greed in the NASB. It refers to a greedy desire to have more of something, more of anything. Avarice, the insatiable desire for something desired or pleasured. You do not have, so you desire. You have, and you want more. You have much, and you can't get enough.

Idolatry. Can you imagine Paul using such a powerful word. Idols were those golden statues placed upon an alter, before which you bow down in worship. You know, the golden calf in the days of Moses. Now, that was an idol. Idols were those rich and luxurious possessions for which you devoted your life to obtain, something which you in your own mind transformed into a god.

But let's extend that idea with the apostle. Covetous greed is idolatry. So just as surely as we read in the second commandment,

Ex. 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,"

...we also read in the tenth commandment, Ex. 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

That's idolatry. Seeing what someone else has, and wanting it. Seeing what looks good to the eyes and pleasing to the sight, and on that basis, wanting it. The desire of greed, which is what makes television advertisers pay millions and millions of dollars for those endless commercials. The principle is, you see something that appeals to your desires, and you buy it.

So how many of you have never experienced this covetous greed? How many of you can honestly say, "I've been able to do away with that completely!" I doubt that any of you could say that, and neither can I. So the Scripture speaks to us, God speaks to us, "Put to death covetousness, which is idolatry." It is a desire that finds it way all to easily into our own hearts, and the fault lies not with the object to be coveted, but with your heart that covets. Paul speaks of his own struggle,

Rom. 7:7 "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead."

Let me end with the reminder that God does actually enable us to put to death these things. There is, for the Christian, the crucial recognition of the fact that in Christ, by faith in Christ, we become new creatures.

2 Cor. 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

Thus look at how Paul describes,

III. THE TRANSFORMATION OF A CHRISTIAN. v.6-7

First of all, the important and necessary emphasis that,

A. The wrath of God will come upon those who live in wicked disobedience. In verse 6, Paul refers to "the sons of disobedience." That's the description of unbelievers, those who shall receive "the wrath of God." Non-Christians are described as the sons of disobedience. That is their characteristic identity, and the judgment is well-deserved.

But notice well, in writing to Christians, Paul says of that way of life of the non-Christian, "in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them."

In other words, he writes to Christians, and he says to them, "You once lived that way." The obvious implication is, therefore, that now there is a change. A transformation.

B. The life of a Christian is the new life of a new creature. You used to be characterized by those things, and now you have been changed. So great is the power of the gospel. Now, I want you to capture this idea. Paul is not saying to the church, "You are done with all these things and you are not without sin." That's not his encouragement, for remember he has just exhorted them to put sin to death! So the actual, specific sins are still plaguing his audience as they still plague you and me. But the characteristic quality of life is changed. Gradually, to be sure. Still imperfectly, but more and more, as our catechism puts it. "Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness."

So it is a work of God's grace, an ongoing work. And God enables us more and more to die to sin. With one more concluding point. The question of how does God enable us? And here, I believe, we need to be free to say clearly and explicitly, God enables us to put sin to death by the use of exhortations and commands.

You see, for a Christian, the law is no longer the law of death. Rather, the exhortations of the law are the means of grace by which God enables us to stop sinning.

Rom. 6:12 "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

1 Peter 1:13 "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." 17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

1 John 5:2 "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

So people of God, have hope. The hope of the gospel. And hear the exhortations that apply to you as the recipients of that gospel.

v.5 "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, 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."

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