Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Last week we just discussed higher thoughts.

We talked about thinking heavenward.

The sermon was a very positive one as we considered how we needed to view all of the earthly decisions that we make.

If you recall, we said:

You can only know what direction you are to go if you know the destination in which you are heading.

This week we are coming to a more difficult section of Scripture.

In fact the next couple of weeks are difficult.

Last week, we learned why we need to make certain directional choices - meaning that we learned why we should make decisions with our heavenly destination in mind.

This idea of having higher thoughts and making every decision with eternity and Christ in mind gives us a view of life like being on the open road like in this picture.

Stay focused on the destination and make the right turns and decisions.

This week, we are going to start moving forward and envision ourselves as we are on our trip to our heavenly destination and run into many dangers on the way.

As we see in this next picture - the road isn’t always bright and sunny.

Sometimes it is dangerous.

Waves of temptation and sin attack us as we continue on our destination.

So how do we continue to make the right directional choices in a world full of impurity?

How are we to not only have higher thoughts but also pure thoughts?

Join me as we read God’s Word to find the answers:

Let us pray.

Prayer

Today we are going to two reasons why we should have pure thinking and put to death impurity.

The first is:

I. Believers in Christ Should Put to Death Impurity… Because of God’s Command (5)

There are very few ways to start a sentence off more intensely than with the words put to death!

This is quite a statement.

There is no wiggle room for trying to squeeze something through by rationalizing when you have such a blatantly intense statement.

There is one Greek word for this phrase which means to cease completely, render dead, or to consider as dead.

Dead things don’t move.

They don’t act.

They don’t live.

What Paul is about to talk about is completely killing sin in your life.

The Word Biblical Commentary on Colossians refers to this statement of putting to death as a decisive act which is followed by a permanent attitude.

The word that the Puritans used a lot for this idea was mortification which carries the idea of subduing one’s evil bodily desires.

It is the continuing killing of sin in your life.

John Owen, the great Puritan, once said:

“Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

John Owen (The Mortification of Sin)

The danger that we must watch as we discuss the command to mortify or kill sin is that we might get to the point where we think that we, ourselves, can actually overcome sin.

In the same book Owen addressed this erroneous thinking:

“All other ways of mortification are vain, all helps leave us helpless; it must be done by the Spirit.”

John Owen (The Mortification of Sin)

This putting to death needs to be done by the Holy Spirit.

We must actively take part in this along with the Holy Spirit through obedience to His commands, but we must never feel like we can do it alone.

Before Christ we were slaves to sin.

And without Christ’s help we will continually be overpowered by sin.

Some will take this understanding and object to this idea and state, didn’t you just say last week that you are new creation - the old has gone and the new has come?

F.F. Bruce helps us understand this idea further by stating: - (Christians) exist in two planes so long as mortal life endures.

Spiritually they already belong to the age to come while temporarily they are involved in this present age.”

This tension between the now and the not yet is normal for the believer.

We must embrace it and understand it well.

We are saved by grace through faith.

Our salvation is sure.

We have to look no further than Jesus’ words as He warned his disciples about this tension as well.

John MacArthur also added to this idea by stating that the positional reality in which we live must be worked out through a believer’s practical living.

He also referred to sin as a deposed monarch who no longer reigns, no longer has the power to condemn, but works hard to debilitate and devastate all his former subjects.

As we have already moved into what we are to put to death - namely sin - for the sake of clarity - we see that we are to put to death what is earthly in you.

This means the sins of the flesh.

Some translations actually translate this as put to death the members of your earthly body.

Both of these refer to the sins associated with the flesh.

We are not to hate our body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Although our earthly body is marred by sin, it is still to be used to glorify God.

We must not fall into the error of Gnostics who believe everything material is evil and cannot be used for good.

We are to glorify God with our bodies.

Moving on through this verse we come to 5 different sins that we need to put to death.

Let’s walk through each of these together.

1.

Put to Death Sexual Immorality

The Greek for this is porneia - where we get our word for pornography.

This particular Greek word originally referred to prostitution but by the time of the writing of the New Testament it broadened to include any form of sexual encounter.

I realize that this isn’t the most comfortable subject to discuss.

Many may really shy away from discussing things like this with their children and scoff that I would be so bold as to teach this Scripture to our entire church family.

My friends, I am sad to say that this is likely not news to many of your children.

This subject is infiltrating our entire culture.

Sexual sin is on a trajectory that is working to rival the pagan Greek and Roman cultures.

According to the most recent divorce statistics, 55% of marriages that end in divorce cite the primary reason as infidelity.

We see that over half of divorces are due to sexual sin.

I think that in most conservative evangelical churches, it is largely understood that sexual acts outside of marriage are sinful.

Although it is commonplace to still occur even in these churches, most would cite that they understand the Biblical teachings on such matters.

However, the next sin that we are to put to death is the biggest threat to our churches today.

2. Put to Death Impurity

Impurity is the gateway sin to sexual immorality or committing fornication.

The Greek word here means uncleanness and oftentimes refers more to lustful intent.

Although the first word we discussed is where we get the word for pornography, this term is more in line with the contemporary understanding of pornography.

Impurity mentioned here refers to thoughts that stain one’s mind.

It has destructive power and is oftentimes a secret world in the lives of people.

I hope that we realize the issue in our culture with impurity today.

According to statistics on this from webroot.com and covenanteyes.com,

the porn industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in the US alone.

Every second there are 28,258 users worldwide viewing pornography any any one time.

Daily, around 25% of internet searches, amounting to around 68 billion searches, are related to pornography.

What was once thought to be a disorder limited to men has quickly become a disorder among both men and women with the most recent statistics showing that 1/3 of regular viewers are actually women.

Sadly, even when we try to set safeguards to keep from exposures, recent data suggests that at least 34% of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to explicit content through ads, pop ups, or misdirected links or emails.

I know that was a lot of data to throw at you at once.

I want to give a moment for that to sink in for a bit.

Especially that last part.

34% of those not trying to look at explicit content were exposed to it inadvertently.

Brothers and sisters, our children need our protection here.

According to youthfirstinc.org, the average age that a child sees pornography is 11 years old.

11 years old my friends.

That is the average.

Many are exposed well before this.