This is such a healthy and biblical way to consider pursuing holiness or killing sin in your life, which is kind of the subject of what we're going to talk about today. We just went through our first John series. If you stuck with me through that during Pastor Reagan's sabbatical, it talked about over and over the importance of killing sin, and it's just part of the Christian life. It's something you should desire to do as a Christian. Not perfectly, but it is a thing. We'll unpack a little bit more why it makes no sense to not be slaying our sin if we have indeed agreed with God that our sin is wrong and we have submitted to him as the Lord of our lives. But we will read today what having new life in Christ means and how it affects our walk in this way.
[00:32:55]
Salvation, I've heard the Bible described in this way, broken apart in three parts. First is paradise created, paradise lost, and paradise restored. So paradise created, God created mankind in a perfect relationship with him. Beautiful, beautiful, perfect relationship. This is Genesis 1 and 2. And then you see paradise lost, mankind rebelled against God, breaking the relationship between God and man. God is perfectly just, and he must punish sin. It's in his nature to do so. So the Bible says that the just punishment for sin is death and eternal separation from God for all of eternity. So at this point, the wrath of God is on mankind. For our sin, the wrath of God is on mankind, and we need to be saved from that wrath. But God, while absolutely being perfectly just, God is also merciful and he loves you. And this is where we see paradise restored. God, while we were yet sinners, provided us a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin for us so that we could be reconciled is the word, reconciled to him, that our relationship with God would be restored. And this is why Jesus is so crucial is because without him, we have no hope.
[00:41:29]
It's not that we're any better than anybody or that we're so smart that we get it. It's that God in his miraculous grace has given us understanding, has opened our eyes and given us life to understand what is taking place here. And so Paul here is describing this horrific and sad condition all formerly were in. But what he's getting at is saying, this isn't you. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you are no longer plagued with a darker in mind, hardened heart. You are not stuck in sin. You are not incapable of seeing eternal value. This is not you if you have placed your faith in Jesus.
[00:46:30]
If you have been raised with Christ, or in other words, given new life as you placed your faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, dying the debt that you deserve, paying the sin debt, you are no longer powerless over sin. You have life. That's why we sing, my chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. That's a beautiful statement for those who know they have life, because it is not something we do. We can't shake ourselves out of sin. It is by the power of God that we are overcomers.
[00:47:09]
You cannot work hard enough to free yourself of sin, especially since you're dead in your trespasses and sins before Christ. So we must be raised with Christ. And I will talk about at the end how to do that. But so if you have been raised with Christ, if you have new life through faith in Jesus, then what? Work hard to stop sinning? Not really.
[00:48:09]
Notice how he doesn't say, try really hard to be sinless. So he's about to tell us, he's about to tell us a load of stuff to put to death, sin-wise. That's totally true. So this is an active part. But before he gets to that in verse 5, before he gets to any of that, he starts here. Set your mind on Christ. And this is so key.
[00:48:48]
As long as Barrett's eyes were on his masters, he had the strength to endure the temptation, but the moment his eyes strayed to the temptation itself, he was done for. In the same way, this is a truth that Paul shows us over and over that is so true of the Christian life. When people are struggling with sin, when they are fighting sin in their lives, it's always interesting to me what the typical, is that this mic that's clicking? Okay, so it's always interesting to me how people's response to this is, the first thing they'll say is, are you reading your Bible and praying, right? Which is a good thing to ask, right? That is a good thing to ask, but it's like, I've heard people ask this like almost dismissively, like where it's like, well, are you reading your Bible and praying? I'm like, well, yeah, I am. Well, it's like, are you doing it right though? And it's like, I get so frustrated, you know, I get kind of angry when someone would suggest to me that I wasn't, let's switch to this, the baptism mic.
[00:50:55]
Discipline is good in that with it, we are positioning ourselves to be changed by God through his power and his spirit and his word. But it's more than just checking off a box in the morning, reading a chunk of scripture before you go to work. It's not about making sure you don't have any idle time. It's not about just trying harder to not engage in sin.
[00:54:04]
Just putting covenant eyes on your phone or any of these softwares, accountability software. I have it. I love it. I definitely tell people to get accountability software on your phone. I ain't going down like that. But at the same time, it's not what is going to change your heart. It's not what is going to change your heart. It's not about making sure you don't have idle time or just trying hard enough to not engage in sin.
[00:54:49]
Colossians 2:23 says, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Asceticism, if you don't know, is like an extreme self-discipline-based cult in Paul's day that taught extreme discipline was the path to righteousness. And so working harder has no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So then how do we? So he says, set your minds on things above. Seek the things that are above.
[00:55:13]
The only people who can truly kill their sin are those who are preoccupied with Jesus. J.I. Packer said this, the holiest Christians are not those most concerned about holiness as such, but those whose minds and hearts and goals and purposes and love and hope are most fully focused on our Lord Jesus Christ. As we think about the Lord, as we consider his words, his ways, his greatness, his glory, literally anything about him, the Holy Spirit is at that moment working in our hearts, doing this changing, transforming work that we cannot do ourselves.
[00:56:26]
Are you exhausted? Are you frustrated with the sin that has been plaguing you for far too long? His yoke is easy and his burden is light. You need to go where the power is. You need to go where the power is. Set your mind on things above. Make growing in your understanding of scripture a normal thing in your life. A normal thing.
[00:57:20]
The deeper things, the riches of the knowledge that Paul prays for several times for several different churches, he wants you to be rich in the knowledge of God. He prayed that for everyone in the church, not just their leadership, and so, like, to the idea that that is only reserved, that treasure is only reserved for a select few infuriates me, and it's why, what I love so much about Christianity, where other religions are like, oh, no, we have the answers. You need to listen to us, and Christianity is like, hey, we can help you navigate this. We've, like, spent a lot of time, got a lot of classes on how to read the Bible, but ultimately, like, you need to be interacting with God through this.
[01:00:17]
You have every ability. You have the same Holy Spirit in you that I have in me, and you have every ability to navigate this word of God. Now, if you want to learn how to do word studies and fun stuff like that, I would love to nerd out with you. With that, I'm getting way ahead. I've completely left my notes, but that's totally okay. Go to where the power is. Make growing in your understanding of scripture a normal thing.
[01:01:16]
If you have been raised with Christ, if you have new life, set your mind on the things above where Christ is. Renew your mind with the wisdom and understanding in God's word. As you do so, the Holy Spirit's going to change your heart. Has to change your heart, and this is the path not begrudging submission. I've watched a lot of people really struggle with sin, and I called it white-knuckled obedience. Like, where you're like, oh, I don't want to move, or like, just like, where you're really aggressively trying to hold on to something. But God here is offering you glad-hearted obedience. Glad-hearted obedience. Let him do the heart change. It's not cold, dead religion orthodoxy at that point. It's beautiful relationship where you were changed.
[01:01:50]
Study what you're struggling with. What a concept. Like, what I might suggest is that you set your mind on Christ by studying the remainder of this passage on your own or with your family. Maybe look at the things Paul says to put to death and ask honestly, do any of these things exist in my heart? Do word studies on them. Really unpack. What did he mean by those words?
[01:04:01]
If you want to know how to study or to dive deeper into God's word, don't be intimidated. You don't have to look far to unearth beautiful truths in the pages of God's word. But the depths of the riches to be found in every individual word are limitless for those who are willing to grow in the skill to navigate it.
[01:06:56]
We cannot change ourselves, but rather we are being transformed by the renewal of our mind as we engage with God's word and pray for his spirit to move in us. We are made more and more like him.
[01:07:41]
Maybe you've been stagnant. You haven't felt God change you much lately and you're not sure why. Maybe you've been stuck in sin and no matter how hard you try, you can't stop. Maybe you're losing your motivation. It happens. There's an ebb and flow to this, but what do you do? Set your mind on Christ. Study what you're struggling with. Pour over the pages of scripture and let God speak to you.
[01:08:17]
You would be blown away how literally almost every day God speaks directly into an oddly specific situation I'm going through in a Bible plan, in a Bible in a year plan. Like it's incredible. Like this is legitimate. He does this. In the craziest, most esoteric situations I'm in, God will, I'll open up my Bible into Leviticus 12 and where nobody expects to come up with a great golden nugget. And out of it, I think it was Leviticus 10 where it was about Jesus being our high priest. And then my next part of my reading was John 17 that day where Jesus, with Jesus's high priestly prayer. That was a game. I stayed in, I stayed in Bible study for like an hour and a half just because it was, I had other stuff to do. And it was like incredible. I was needing that specific answer that day. It happens all the time like that.
[01:08:49]
Maybe you need to set your mind or seek the things that are above. The other option is that maybe through all of this, you realize that you do not have eternal life to begin with. You've never personally placed your faith in the work of Jesus for your salvation. If that's something you would like to do, please don't hesitate. I would love to talk you through it either during the last song or after service, no worries. But regardless, don't waste another day in the old self. Don't waste another day chained to a sin that God has already set you free from. You have new and abundant life waiting for you in the things that are above where Christ is.
[01:09:57]
