Life in the Spirit, Life Against the Flesh (Pt 3)
Colossians 3:1-9
October 14, 2018
Several years after inventing the radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was arrested in Canada for speeding. He’d been caught, ironically enough, by a radar trap. To commemorate this infamous event in his life, he wrote a brief poem about himself:
Pity Sir Robert Watson Watt,
Strange target of a radar plot,
And this with others I could mention,
A victim of his own invention.
But Watt is not the only one who has been caught by his own invention and devices, is he? We also have too often been ensnared and trapped by our own sinful desires and actions and inventions.
How will we get out of the trap of sin? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8 “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (vv. 12-13). So he tells us that if we will walk in the Spirit (which is what much of Romans 8 is about), then we will also mortify (kill) remaining sin in our lives. We’ve said the theme of the passage is this —
To live in the Spirit is to live aggressively against the flesh.
But how will we kill sin? What will that look like? In Colossians 3, Paul gives us a more detailed answer to that question, and it’s that passage that we want to look at this morning.
In this passage we will find five ingredients of a life that is mortifying the flesh.
- Seek God as Your Primary Desire (v. 1)
- Change the Way You Think About God (vv. 2-4)
- Change the Way You Think About Sin (vv. 5-9)
- Identify sin for what it is (vv. 5-8)
- Continually identify both sinful actions and sinful attitudes
- Count the cost of engaging in sin (don’t listen to sin’s sales pitch)
- Stay away from sin and situations that lead you to sin (be aware of the seasons of sin)
- Hate your sin
- Be ignorant about sin
- Consider your new position (v. 9)
- Change the Way You Think About Obedience (vv. 10-14)
- Be Controlled by the Holy Spirit (vv. 15-17)
Download the rest of this sermon on Colossians 3:1-9.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.
Words of Grace 