We are continuing our study in the book of Colossians this morning, in this amazing third chapter, and as we begin this morning, I want to just review a bit, go over those verses again as we see our passage in its full context, and remember the foundation that Paul has laid in Colossians 3.1. It says, Since you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 

Well, we talked last week about seeking and setting, seeking those things which are above, the truths of God's words of who we are in Christ and where we reside in Him, that our citizenship is in heaven, from which, Paul writes, from which heaven we eagerly wait for the consummation of all things. We looked at the truths that we are in Christ, that He is in us, that we are seated at the right hand of God in Him, and when He comes again, we will come with Him in glory. 

And we talked about setting our minds in this framework. To set your mind is to see all things earthly and heavenly from God's perspective, to think His thoughts, to perceive all things according to what is true and what is real, according to His Word. Paul highlights these truths in 2 Corinthians 5, that we no longer regard anything or anyone according to the flesh, in an earthly, carnal sense, but that we now see all things in the context of God and His truth and His Word and His promises. 

Now, Paul says, all things are of God. So we are to set our minds in this way, not on the things of the earth, the fleshly perspective, but a heavenly perspective through the lens of truth according to God's salvation plan in Christ. As I was studying this week, a passage kept coming to my mind, and I hope it will illustrate what we're talking about here in our introduction about setting our mind, and it's 2 Corinthians 12, if you'd turn to 2 Corinthians 12 with me at verse 7. 

This is Paul's recounting of being taken up to the third heaven, and the thorn and the flesh. At verse 7 he says, and lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. Three times Paul prayed, please, take this thing away from me, this suffering in the flesh. 

And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. For most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, look at what he says here, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. 

This is a profound insight from Paul, he says I take pleasure in my infirmities. James says something similar, count it all joy when you fall into all kinds of various trials in this life. We're talking about setting our mind, thanking God's thoughts according to truth and resting our hope fully on the grace that is to be revealed, eagerly waiting for the glorious revealing of the sons of God. Our life, our passion is fixed on Christ, on his life manifest through us as we abide in him in the hope of his calling, the adoption of sons that is the fullness of salvation and glorification. 

So what do the scriptures say about these fleshly, earthly things, these trials and tribulations and sufferings and persecutions? Jesus said we are blessed when they persecute us. Paul says he takes pleasure in all these infirmities. James says count it all joy when you fall into various trials. We don't have that in a fleshly perspective, do we? I mean, the man in Adam is spending his entire existence and all his resources to live a life trouble-free. That's his goal, to have pleasure, to have no trouble. 

Let me ask you, when you look at the evangelical church today, what is it focused on? What are they doing? How do they view the various trials and troubles of life? How do you think about these things? What are your thoughts on trials and troubles in your life? It seems to me, as I've thought about this, that one of the main focuses of the church today is to solve your earthly problems. The prerequisite thought is that your infirmities, your sufferings, your persecutions, your trials are a problem, are something undesirable, something we should concentrate our efforts and resources to resolve. 

I think this may be a setting your mind on earthly things, temporal, carnal, fleshly things, not in the sense of sinfulness, but just earthly. And I believe our thinking is upside down on this. Let me give you a little crazy illustration. Let's say I go out and spend the day working on my sawmill. Say I'm sawing some nice cedar boards for my sauna house, and the wind's blowing that cedar dust around, the sawdust, and I'm breathing that stuff into my lungs, what happens? 

Well, that night I wake up and my lungs are full of mucus, and I'm coughing, and maybe I have a stuffy head or a low fever. Now if I go to the doctor, he's going to tell me I have bronchitis and maybe give me a Z-Pak and some cough suppressants. What if my thinking is upside down on this? What I believe to be the problem is actually the cure. You see, my body's producing mucus and a cough and a stuffy nose for the very purpose of getting those irritants, those toxins, out of my lungs that I breathed in. 

But because we believe that the body's cure is actually a disease, we seek to suppress the cough and keep that stuff in there to stop what the body's trying to do to remedy the real issue. What we see as the sickness is actually the cure. I think we often, because we set our minds on earthly things and fleshly concerns, we see trials and sufferings and bad circumstances or persecution or whatever as a problem to be stopped, avoided, resolved. 

But what if these infirmities are actually the very thing that brings us to the place where God can use us, to the end of ourselves, to a point of need and dependence on God? Isn't that what James and Paul are saying? Think about all that Paul suffered, 2 Corinthians 11, the amazing sufferings that he went through.

What's he say concerning this thing, this suffering of Satan buffeting his flesh, this thorn in the flesh? He said, I prayed three times that it might depart from me. What did God say to him? My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. 

To set our minds on earthly things in this illustration is to fret and worry and plead that God would solve our temporal sufferings, our trials, our circumstances, our sicknesses, and the church is so into this as if Jesus came to fix our earthly problems. Certainly the word-faith crowd is into this, Jesus never ever wants you to suffer but rather to be healthy and rich and happy. This is setting your mind on earthly things, isn't it? But to set our mind on heavenly things is to see that it is these very things, these infirmities as Paul calls them, that bring me to a dependence on the grace and power of God. 

I take pleasure in my infirmities. I am well-pleased is what the word means, I am content, he says, in suffering in the circumstances of this world, for when I am weak, when I understand my utter inability apart from Christ and my desperate need for him, then I am strong. Then the power of Christ rests upon me and God's strength and grace and purpose is manifest in my life. I just bring you this illustration to perhaps help you understand what Paul is saying when he says, set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth. Have a heavenly perspective, think God's thoughts. 

Now in Colossians 3, 1 to 4, Paul gives us some heavenly spiritual truths. He says we died, first of all, that's a major truth. You died, that old man and Adam, who you were, controlled and dominated by and dwelling sin, under the bondage of the law and fear of death all your lifetime, was crucified, died, and raised a new man. Now our life, where we live the reality, is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we will appear with him. These are the truths of our salvation, of regeneration, of who we are and what we have in Christ. 

And these truths form the foundation, the foundation, not the whole edifice, but the foundation that is essential, that is necessary for our understanding, our faith, if we're going to see Christ's life lived out through us as God intends for his glory. What we're going to see in the next several verses is a continued context of earthly versus spiritual examples. Look at Colossians 3, 1 again. Since you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked, when? When you lived in them. 

But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and you have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, flavor-free, but Christ is all in all. 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, therefore. Second, a life based in reality. Third, you are a new man. Fourth, renewal is the key. And fifth, Christ is all in all. As we've been discussing, we must keep in mind the therefore at the beginning of verse 5. And this points us to all the truths, the doctrine that Paul's laying down is foundational to our understanding, believing, and therefore living. 

We've seen these truths laid down as a foundation. You died, your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, you will also appear with Him in glory. You have put off the old man. You have put on the new man. You are being renewed in the spirit of your mind according to the new creation truth. These are the truths that form, again, not the entire edifice, but the essential foundation of the Christian life. 

Out of these, as we've said already, Paul exhorts us to seek those things that are above and not the things on the earth and to set our minds, that is, to think God's thoughts, have his perspective from where our life truly exists in Christ with God looking down from heaven waiting for the consummation. Bobby and I were talking about crossing the border in Canada. I was up in Canada a couple weeks ago, and on the way here we were talking about crossing the border. 

And a friend of ours told a story about how they got strip searched and shaken down and all this stuff. But when they asked him his citizenship, he said, Wisconsin. And so we were talking about that, and Bobby said, when they ask you your citizenship, you should have said heaven, right? Well, maybe not if you don't want to spend some time with those guys. But that's our citizenship, is heaven, right? It's like Mitch asked me a question a while back, how long do you think you're going to live? Forever. You're going to live forever, right? Your citizenship is in heaven and you're going to live forever. 

Out of these truths, he exhorts us to set our minds in this frame of thinking. This is reality, my friends. This is truth. This is the foundation. And therefore, he says, therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, and so forth. And all of these graphic terms of verse 5 point to the old man and Adam. He has a covetous desire for more and more which can never be satisfied. He has depraved passions dominating his inner man, and no means to thwart the manifestation of these desires and profligate sensual living consisting of all kinds of illicit sexual sins. 

These are the words Paul uses to set the context of the members of the body where these inner corruptions are worked out in continual sin existing in the sphere of idolatry or self-worship.

This is what we could call in this context the non-example, that which is not consistent with the truths that Paul has laid down. Notice he says that those who will experience God's wrath live in this way. This way in which, note this, verse 7, you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Where do you live now? In heaven, in Christ. When did you act like that? When you lived in them. The key phrase, when you lived in them. You once walked in this way. These things were characteristic of your life in Adam. When you lived in them, in that sphere, in that realm, you no longer live there.

Here's a major point of discernment and biblical study that we need to dive into for a little bit here. Go back to verse 5. The New King James Version says this, which is what I use, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. The translation is put to death your members, okay? If you have the ESV or King James or New King James or many other translations, it reads as a command to do what? To kill, to mortify, what? Your members, right? 

Now there are a lot of problems with these translations in this particular instance. First of all, your members, the members of your body, are neutral throughout the teachings of the New Testament on this subject of the Christian life. In Adam, our inner man was controlled and dominated by indwelling sin. So that through our members, the members of our physical body, sin was manifest continually. We see this in descriptions of the old man in Romans 5, particularly in Romans 7, 14 to 25. 

But now in Christ, we have been made free from the law of sin, Romans 8, 2 and 3. Sin no longer has dominion over us. We have been made free from the controlling power of sin in our members, why? Because we died. That's what Romans 6, 1 to 11 teaches us as well. So what is this command in Colossians 3, 5 to put to death our members? That makes no sense, particularly in this very context of Colossians 3, 1 to 10. 

It's not that our members that die, in any case. It is we, the man in Adam, who were crucified with Christ, died and were buried, and raised to newness of life. Romans 6, 6 says for the express purpose that our body, our members, would no longer be controlled by indwelling sin, in order that the body of sin might be rendered powerless. So is Paul telling us to kill our members? That makes no sense in the light of all scriptures pertaining to these very doctrines. 

First of all, it's not the members of our physical body that die in regeneration. It's our old man, the inner man, controlled by indwelling sin. I died, me, who I was in Adam. And that's the whole point. I died. Look at verse 3 of our text. For you died, and your life is hidden with God. Look at verse 9 of our text. Since you have put off that old man, Arist, one time in the past, when you died, and you have put on the new man, Paul's entire point, the foundational truth that we've seen as essential in this very text, is that I have died, that I have put off the old man, and I have put on the new man. 

So is he, in verse 5, telling me to kill my physical members? I'm thankful that the NASB gets this right. And this is interesting because it's not a textual dispute. I don't want to get too far afield here, but sometimes we have textual disputes between the majority text, King James, New King James, the critical text, ESV, NASB. This is not one of those cases. What we have here is a philosophical difference in translation. 

And you need to be aware of that, that translation committees have philosophies of translation. And what I want you to see and understand and put into practice in your Bible study is to always consider the words of any verse in their context, and the broader context of the chapter, and the book, and the whole of the Scriptures. 

Listen to the translation of the NASB, Colossians 3, 5. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead. This is perfectly consistent with Romans 6, 11. Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul's not telling us in verse 5 that we need to die, that we need to put something to death, that we need to kill our members. 

The definition of the verb used here, according to Thayer, is to deprive of power, okay? So let me ask you, how is it that you deprive of power the sin that still dwells in you that wants to manifest itself through the members of your body? How do you deprive it of power? By reckoning yourself to be dead indeed to sin. By considering yourself as dead, concerning sin, controlling your members. 

And that's the very instruction that Paul's giving us here in verse 5 that fits hand and glove with the context of Colossians 3. You died, you have put off the old man, you have put on the new man. Now consider yourself as dead to sin. Just indulge me for a minute, I want you to look at this verse in whatever translation you have, assuming it's different from the NASB. Mine says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. I'm assuming yours says something similar, mortify, whatever. 

Now listen to the NASB again. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead. How different a meaning is this? How is it that this is taught in so many pulpits? What is the takeaway for the believer? I need to kill my flesh every day. I need to die every day. If I need to kill it, whatever it is, it must be alive and well. 

But the whole point of the entire passage is that you, who you were when you lived in these things at one point in time fully and finally died, a one-time event when you believed Jesus. You died. You don't need to kill anything, whatever that means. I didn't kill me when I believed. What did I do? I believed. God killed me. God regenerated me. 

You need to consider yourself, you need to reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ, you need to believe. You need to believe what God says is true. We must be so careful to study the words in their context and understand them in light of the broader context of the Word of God. And we have to think, think about these things, pray for wisdom, seek understanding, believe what God says. When you lived in them, Paul says. While we were yet sinners, Paul says, right?

My brother and my sister in Christ, in Adam, under the controlling power of indwelling sin, we lived, we moved, we had our being in the earthly sphere. And perpetual and constant sin manifest out through our members. We set our minds on earthly things and we could do no other. We lived in them. But now our life, where we live, is in Christ, hidden with Christ in God. Can you believe this? Where we live, the reality of our existence now is in Christ. 

Look at verse 7 again. In which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them, but now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. That is characteristic of the man in Adam. It is not characteristic of the man in Christ. It's not who you are. Do not lie to one another. Verse 9. Why? Since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man his renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. 

Do not lie to one another. Literally, Paul says, stop lying to one another. And then we see these words, since you have put off the old man and have put on the new man, you're being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. It's a present imperative. Stop lying to one another. Now we could just pass over this, it's always bothered me, why lie, Paul, where do you get that, right? Stop lying to one another. We could just say don't lie, lying's bad, don't do that. 

Or we could go a little deeper, I was reading a word study on this and the author noted it's in the present tense, an imperative command, and he said, the believers in Colossae had carried over from their old life the habit of lying, and Paul is saying this is no longer who you are, stop lying. And that's true. Let me ask you to think a little more about the context of this command. Is Paul just pulling lying out of thin air here? Were they telling big fish tales? Did they have a proclivity in Corinth for saying they liked your new haircut when they really didn't? 

Why lying? Why does Paul tell them stop lying? The key is in the context, we've seen the context from verse 1, what is it? You died. Your life is hidden with Christ and God. You have the confident assurance of full salvation, it is coming. You once walked in the ways of the world, but now you're no longer in Adam, but you are in Christ. And we see the examples of life in Adam, what characterizes those men and women, and we also see the contextual words that follow. You have put off the old man, you have put on the new man, you're being renewed. 

So what were they lying about? Remember they were being influenced by false teachers, right? Epaphras had traveled all the way to Paul in Rome to express his concern about false teachers influencing the believers there. False teaching in the realm of legalism, of gnosticism, of asceticism, and mysticism. Paul says none of these things have any value against the indulgence of the flesh, that is fleshly thinking, fleshly perspective, setting your mind on the things of the earth. 

And these false teachers were teaching that it doesn't matter what we do in the flesh, that there is no sin. Dualism, we see this in 1 John as well. And the Jewish influence was to keep the laws, to keep the Sabbaths, the feast days, to do all those things to accomplish your sanctification. What is Paul saying in verse 9? He's saying, stop lying against the truth. Here's the truth. You died. Your life is hidden in Christ with God. You have put off the old man, you have put on the new man. 

You're now being renewed in the spirit of your mind by truth, so stop lying against the truth. Stop being influenced by false teaching. Stop spreading these lies among the brethren. Set your mind on Christ, on truth, on heavenly things. And my friends, this is precisely what we need in the church today. The wisdom of the world has snuck into the church. Marketing, entertainment, psychology, self-help, self-esteem, false doctrine, the two natures of the believer. 

Your heart is desperately wicked, you're just a sinner saved by grace. The law is still binding on the believer. The moral law of God is your guide to righteousness. God wants you to be healthy and happy and rich. God doesn't want you to have any problems. Jesus came to fix your marriage and your finances and all that ails you in this world. That's the church today. Or how about, you are this, or you are that. Title in the blank, whatever label you want to put on yourself. Your medical condition, your psychological condition defines you, who you are, and therefore how you must live. 

My brothers and sisters, stop lying to each other. Stop lying. You are in Christ. That is who you are, in Christ. This is what defines you. You are in Christ, therefore present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. We must stop lying and start telling the truth in the church. 

Romans 6 is really a parallel passage to Colossians 3. Let's look at Romans 6, but I want to look specifically at verses 12 to 13. 6-11, he says, likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is verse 5 of our text, consider yourself as being dead, reckon yourselves. 

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

I want to lift out this phrase, present yourselves to God. Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. I've pondered these great truths that we're studying for years and years, thinking, studying, setting my mind, seeking the things above, praying for wisdom, seeking knowledge, and I feel that God has given me a fairly good grasp of knowing. What does it mean to know? What does it mean to reckon? I get reckoning knowing I must know the truth, I must know the truth of God's word, study and seek and renew my mind continually to these truths, know them.

And I must reckon, that is, count up the fats, logizomai, right, a mathematical term, balance the sheet, count up the facts, choose to believe, make a volitional choice to believe what God says, what I know from His word as being the truth. 

So I understand know and reckon, but it's the yield or present part that I really struggle to grasp. How does this work out in my life practically? What does it mean to present my members, or to present myself to God? I was studying this word again for this message, to present, and the definitions have mostly to do with showing or making manifest, but there are a couple of definitions I found interesting. One is to place oneself at another's disposal. So this is how it's used in Romans 12, present your body as a living sacrifice to God, to place oneself at another's disposal. 

But one of the main definitions, really the literal meaning of the word, is to stand by, or to stay near. Paul says, present yourself to God. Did you notice that? To God. So we could understand this as placing yourself at God's disposal for His use, His purpose, and I think this is a good understanding, yielding to Him. We can understand this as placing yourself at God's disposal for His use, His purpose, also see in the meaning here to present ourselves, that is, place ourselves next to, standing by, remaining near God. 

Or we could say, abide. Stay with me. Jesus says, abide. Remain with me, right? I'm not trying to take the active part out of this, but I think maybe this articulation's more helpful for me. Know, reckon, abide, remain. Stand by God. Present yourselves, your bodies, your members, to His use, at His disposal. Think His thoughts. And it is He, by His grace and power, that produces His will through our lives. 

It is Jesus who produces the fruit as a branch abides in a vine, right? Because my brothers and my sisters, here's the heart of this text, Jesus is all in all. Where there's neither Greek nor Jew circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, black or white, ADD, no ADD, whatever, okay? Jesus is all in all. We are one in Him. We are in Christ. Christ is all in all. There are no more earthly, fleshly distinctions. 

What's going on in my body and my mind, my unregenerate body and my mind is not the issue. Whatever problems I may have, whatever hand I'm dealt, the issue is I am in Christ. I am a new creation. Christ is all in all. Those who believe are one. And that's what Paul's trying to teach us. It's not about law, it's not about religion, it's not about rules and rituals, it's not about earthly wisdom or higher knowledge or asceticism. It's about Christ. 

I am in Him, He is in me, He's all in all, fully sufficient in every way for my every spiritual need, and only He is able. Without Him I can do nothing, but with Christ who strengthens me I can do all things according to His will. This is what Paul is trying to show us in 2 Corinthians 12 where we started. I didn't want this thorn. I don't like this thing. Take it away from me. God says my grace is sufficient. 

That's an earthly thing. Don't set your mind on that. Look to me. Think like I think. See things like I think. Only He's able. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul says, therefore, when I understood this, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

Therefore I take pleasure, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak then I am strong. All of these things are earthly things, carnal, fleshly, not sin, just earthly. Don't set your mind on the things of the earth. Set your mind on things above. Think God's thoughts. See His perspective. What really matters? Holiness. Fruit. Witness. Self-realization. God's will fulfilled. All that He wants to do. 

How do these things work out in my time here on this earth? When I am weak. When I realize how weak I am, my desperate need for Jesus every day, every moment. And when is this most visceral for me? In trial, in tribulation, in needs, in infirmities, persecutions when I have no answers, no strength of my own and I turn to Him in faith and total dependence and need, then I am made strong by His grace. 

And I see fruit and righteousness and the work of God in my life. Your life is hidden in Christ with God. That is where you live. This is reality. Set your mind on these truths. Have this perspective as you live now in this short time in the world awaiting the great day when Jesus comes from heaven and you come with Him. You're going to come with Him. 

John says, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved now, we are children of God. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful that you keep teaching us these truths. So hard for us to believe sometimes. Help us to go to Your Word, to know what You say, to choose to believe You and to present ourselves for Your use, for Your glory as we abide, as we remain, as we are in You and You are in us. We thank You, we give You praise in Jesus' name. Amen.