What is a Christian: By Denunciation

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. Thank you, Lord, for the rain this past week, and thank you, Father, for the safety in getting us all here. Thank you for the opportunity to spend time in your word, and pray, Lord, that you'd open our hearts and minds to behold the beauty of your glorious name.

We thank you, Father, that you allowed us this opportunity to study your word. We are such blessed people to be able to read the words of God and to be able to study them, knowing your plan and your desire for our lives, that we might follow you in obedience. And so, just bless our time together this evening, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Colossians. The book of Colossians, the third chapter. And I wanna read to you the first eight verses of chapter 3, set them in your mind that will set the tone for our time together as we study and ask the question, what is a Christian? Colossians chapter 3, verse number 1, says, therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them, you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self and its evil practices. And having put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him. The question is, what is a Christian? A Christian is known by his decision.

That's Luke 9:23. His decision is to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ. A Christian is known by his definition.

Philippians chapter 3, verse number 3. That we are the marked ones, who worship God in spirit, who glory only in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Thirdly, the Christian is known by description, by his description.

Second Corinthians 5:17. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new.

Fourthly, a Christian is known by his declaration. Matthew 16, verse number 16. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

And last week, we talked about a Christian is known by his dedication. That's Philippians 1, verse number 21. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

The question is, how do you know someone is genuine, authentic, real, true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the only way to know that is to match that life with what the Bible says about Christianity. It's not about someone's opinion or someone's thinking, it's about what God has already said in his word. That's why you always prove what you believe by what the Bible says, because what the Bible says is all that matters.

And so a Christian is very easily distinguished by what the Bible says. Tonight, we will look at another characteristic of the Christian to help you understand that a Christian is known by his denunciation. That is, there are certain things that he denounces.

He denounces the world, he denounces the sin of the world, he denounces the sinful behavior in the world. And yet the paradox about Christianity is that he is in the world, but he is not of the world. Christ, in his high priestly prayer in John 17, said to the Father, I pray that you not take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one while they are in the world.

There is this great paradox that faces the Christian is that he is in the world, but not of the world. And that's because he has been saved out of the world. Therefore, he denounces everything the world stands for.

He denounces the world's sin and all the sinful behavior that goes with the world. That's what Christians do. That's very, very important.

In fact, the Bible says, and the book of Romans, the 12th chapter, very familiar words to us. Paul says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Paul says, based on all that God has done, all the mercies that he's bestowed upon you, you need to be able to present your body as a living sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord, because this is the only logical form of worship. Very important. The only thing logical about your worship is that you present your body as a living sacrifice. And we've told you over the years that you understand a living sacrifice when you look at Genesis chapter 22 and realize that God told Abraham to take his only son, his beloved son Isaac, to a place that he will tell him, which was Mount Moriah, take him up there and sacrifice his son.

Abraham, being obedient, took his son up the mountain, tied him down, was going to sacrifice him, and the angel of the Lord stopped him and said, now I know you fear me. It's not that the Lord didn't know that Abraham feared him. It's just that Abraham needed to know that he feared the Lord, and the Lord knew that he feared him.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice all of his dreams, all of his hopes, all of his aspirations, all of his desires for the sake of obedience to the Lord. His son was the promised son. He had waited 25 years for this son.

And this was the promised beloved son of Abraham and Sarah. And God says, now I want you to take that son that you love, and I want you to sacrifice him unto me. I want you to slay him for my sake.

And Abraham was willing to do that. And if Abraham would have slayed him, if he had not been stopped by the angel of the Lord, Isaac would have been a dead sacrifice. And Abraham would have been the living sacrifice.

Because the living sacrifice is that I'm willing to present everything that I have to God, withhold nothing from him. Paul says in Romans 12, I beseech you, I beg you, based on what God has done, that you now present your body as a living sacrifice. That is, you're willing to crawl up on the altar and sacrifice every aspiration, every dream, every desire that you have for the sake of honoring and glorifying the name of God.

And Paul says that is the only logical thing to do based on the mercies of God. There are everything else you do is illogical, but this is the one thing that's extremely logical, that you're willing to sacrifice everything because of what God has done. And then he says, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable will of the living God.

When you present your body as a living sacrifice, the natural byproduct is that you're not going to be conformed to the things of the world. You're gonna turn your back on the world, and you're gonna be renewed, you're gonna be conformed by renewing your mind to the things of God. This will be pleasing to God.

Said another way, the Bible says these words over in the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. We are the temple of the living God, we the church. Not only is your body a temple of the living God, but the church is a temple of the living God.

Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you.

You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Paul says, the people of God are distinguished by coming out from the world, being separate unto God, because God dwells in them, and they are the temple of the living God. You see, in today's culture, we try to reach the world in the church by reflecting the world.

You can't reach the world by reflecting the world. You can only reach the world by rejecting the world. If you reflect the world in your life, you can't reach them.

But if you reject the world, you can then reach the world because you are holy and separate unto God. You're uniquely different than the world. And God has always called his people to be separate from the world, to be unlike the world.

And that's why the Christian is known by his denunciation. He denounces everything of the world and everything that's a part of the world. In fact, the Bible says, these words in Galatians 1, verse number 4, that Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world.

God died in order for you and I to be delivered from the present evil world in which we exist. We are in the world, but we are not of the world because we've been saved out of the world. Very, very important.

In fact, in Philippians chapter 2, listen to what Paul says. Verse 14, again, familiar verses. Do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you may prove yourselves to be blameless, innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world.

You live in a dark world. And if you grumble and you mumble, then you're just like the people of the world, the darkness in the world. But you wanna appear as lights in the world because the world is a perverse and crooked generation.

And the perverse and crooked generation are known by their mumbling and grumbling and bellyaching and complaining about everything under the sun. But the believer, no, they don't do that because they've come out from the world and they appear as lights in the world because they shine forth the glory of God. Again, note this.

Titus chapter 2. Paul says, verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. The grace of God has appeared to all men and the grace of God is a teaching grace.

And it always teaches the believer to deny ungodliness, to deny worldly lusts, to deny worldly passions so that it might live righteously and godly in this present age. That's how we live our lives. Again, we are in the world but we are not of the world because we denounce everything the world stands for.

Why, because Christ saved us from this present evil world. And we have presented our bodies as living sacrifices because we made the decision to deny ourselves, take up a cross and follow Christ. And when one denies himself, he is denying all of his dreams, all of his hopes, all of his aspirations that are apart from God and says, Lord, I'm gonna take up my cross and I'm gonna follow you because you are my life, you are my dream, you are everything I've longed for and hoped for.

That's the life of the believer. That's what a believer looks like according to what the Bible says. And so Jesus would later say these words in John chapter 15.

He would say in verse number 18, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. That's just a great statement. If the world hates you, know this, it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. You're not of the world, you're in the world but you're not of the world because if you were of the world the world would love you. But because you're not of the world, the world hates you.

In fact, he says this, but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you. The world hates you. The world wants no part of you.

Why? Because you appear as lights in a world of darkness that's crooked and perverse. And what does light do? Light shines in the darkness. And light exposes that which is in the dark and those who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, love to live in the dark.

So when the light shows up, it shines in the dark and exposes the sin of the unbeliever. They don't like that. That's why the world hates you.

So Christ made it very clear, you're not of the world because if you were, the world would love you. But I've chosen you out of the world. I've chosen you for myself.

I've separated you unto myself. I have sanctified you, set you apart for my purposes. This is the life of the believer.

And therefore, when we seek to reach the world with the gospel, we cannot reflect the world. We reject the world. We denounce the world.

We don't wanna associate with anything of the world because it's filled with sin, sinful behavior, sinful attitudes, sinful actions. And the believer wants no part of that even though he's in the world, he is not of the world. Very, very important to understand that.

So when you come to Colossians chapter 3, Paul makes it very clear with these words. Therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, well, how would you be raised up with Christ? Because you died with Christ. So Paul says in Galatians chapter 2, right? Verse number 20, he said, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. And then in Galatians chapter 6, he said these words of verse 14, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Paul says I have died to the world and the world has died to me. Why? Because Christ lives in me. You are in Christ, Christ is in you.

Christ is not a part of the world, so therefore neither are his children a part of the world. And therefore, Paul says, the world has died to me and I've died to the world. So Paul says in chapter 3 of Colossians, verse number 1, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking things above.

Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. In order for you to denounce the things of the world, you must keep seeking the things that are above. You must set your mind, set your affection on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father.

You're always looking above. You're always looking to where Christ is. You're always focused on heaven above.

That's how you could denounce everything below, because you're always focused above. That's why in our study of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon kept talking about living above the sun instead of below the sun. That's the S-U-N, by the way.

When you live below the sun, everything is vain. Everything is empty. But when you live above the sun, then you're able to see things clearly below the sun because your eyes are fixed above.

They're fixed on glory. So the Bible says these words in the book of Philippians, the third chapter, Paul says, verse 17, brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk of whom I have often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

Those who are opposed to the cross of Christ, those who are unbelievers, set their minds on earthly things. As believers, we set our mind on heavenly things. He goes on to say in verse number 20, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself.

The reason we keep looking above is because that's where our home is. That's where our citizenship is. We are aliens and strangers in a foreign land.

But unfortunately, we have made ourselves very accustomed to this land. We kind of love it down here. We kind of appreciate everything that's going on around us down here.

And we have forgotten that our citizenship is not in the United States. Our citizenship is in glory. But we are aliens and strangers in a foreign land.

That's what Peter says over in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse number 9. He says these words. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

You're aliens and strangers down here. And therefore, you are to abstain from the fleshly lusts which are waging war with your soul. You're to denounce all of those things.

Why? You want to keep your behavior excellent, verse 12, among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation. So incredibly important. Remember what Paul said over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4? He said these words.

He said in verse 16, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, those things, well, they are eternal.

Paul says we have this momentary light affliction, and when you read through 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and you read through Paul's epistles, his afflictions were not light. They were pretty heavy, but he saw them as light in comparison to eternity, because he kept looking for those things that are unseen, not the things that are seen. In other words, he kept focused on things above.

He kept seeking those things above. In fact, over in 1 Chronicles 22, verse number 19, he said to Solomon, set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Those were David's words to his son.

Set your heart and your soul to seek the things of God. Paul says, since you've been raised up with Christ, keep on seeking Christ. Keep setting your affection on things above, not on things below.

If we don't do this, we will not denounce the world. We'll accept the things of the world. So in order for us to live a life of denunciation, we must seek those things that are above.

We must set our mind and affections on things above, not on things on the earth. He goes on to say this, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

In other words, Christ is your life. Your life is no longer your own. You've died to self.

The life that you now live, you live because of the power of Christ in you. Christ is your life. That's why you can denounce the world.

Listen, if you cannot denounce the world, if you can't turn your back on the world, if you can't run away from the sin of the world and the sinful behavior of the world, maybe it's because Christ isn't your life. Because if Christ is your life, you set your affections on things above. You keep seeking those things where Christ is seated in the heavenlies.

Once you seek those things above, and what did Christ say in Matthew chapter 6, verse number 33, that we are to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. There's something about the believer that sets his mind and his thoughts and his heart on seeking God and God alone that allows him to denounce the things of the world. And that's where verse number 5 comes in.

All this was introductory up to verse number five. Because in verse number five, he says, therefore, therefore, because you are seeking those things that are above, therefore, because you have set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father, therefore, because you're already doing that, that's your heart's attitude, he says these words, consider the members of your earthly body as dead. Another translation would be this, therefore, kill the members of your body.

Another translation says, therefore, mortify the members of your body. Well, what can that possibly mean? Well, it's a take off from the words of Christ in Matthew 5 where he said, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out. If your right arm offends you, cut it off.

He didn't mean that literally. He meant it dramatically. He meant it drastically, not literally.

He says, take whatever measure is necessary to keep away from sin. Here, Paul is saying, you need to kill the members of your body. You need to commit, as if it were, spiritual suicide.

In other words, you are to kill the members of your body. What are the members of my body? Those things that lead you into sin. And specifically in the context, it's your mind, it's your attitude, your words, and your actions, your conduct.

Okay? So you're gonna deal with the mind, first of all, by studying your affections and your mind on things above. But now when it comes to your conduct and your words, you need to deal with them because those are the members of your body that you need to kill. You need to destroy.

You need to eliminate. And the only way you can separate yourself from those things is if you set your mind on things above and seek Christ who is in the heavenlies. If you're not doing that, you can't separate yourself from those members that lead you into sin.

This is very, very important. This is working at your salvation with fear and trembling, according to Philippians chapter 2. This is how the Christian lives his life.

He denounces, he destroys everything that leads him into sin. And so Paul's gonna give us two lists, two lists. The lists are not inclusive, they don't include every sin, but the lists are very unique because the first list begins with the act and moves backward to the attitude.

The second list begins with the attitude and moves toward the act. Very important to realize that. One moves backwards, one moves forwards because right in the middle is the answer.

And we're gonna show that to you. And so the first list is a personal list. The second list is a relational list.

The first list deals with what I do. The second list deals with what I say. Very, very important.

And so you're gonna ask yourself tonight, am I the kind of individual, the kind of believer, the kind of genuine, authentic, true believer who denounces the things of the world because I wanna separate myself from all sinful behavior, sinful attitudes, sinful activities. This is my aspiration, this is my desire. Remember the Apostle Paul? The things I'm not doing, I should be doing.

And the things I'm doing, I shouldn't be doing. Paul had this wrestling match going on with the members of his body. That's why over in Romans chapter 8, Paul says these words in verse number 13.

He says, since 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 will die. But if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will really live. If you put to death the deeds of the body, if you are involved in spiritual suicide, if you are involved in destroying the members of your body that leads you into sin, you're really gonna live.

In fact, he says earlier in Romans 6, these words. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, verse 12, so that you obey its lust. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.

And your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Other words, sin's not going to master you.

Why? Because you're slaves of God, not slaves of sin. And therefore you obey the master that owns you. And you live a life of obedience.

This is so important. So listen to what Paul says. First list.

He moves, right, from the act to the attitude. So it begins on the outside and moves you to the inside. He says, therefore, because you seek those things that are above, because you set your mind on things above, now you can separate yourself from all those sinful attitudes and sinful behaviors that control the members of your body.

So he says these words. Kill the members of your earthly body as dead. Number one, to immorality. To immorality. This is the act. Porneia is the word.

Immorality is any unlawful act, unlawful sinful act, unlawful sexual act outside the realm of marriage. In fact, there's only one lawful act of sex. Everything else is unlawful.

That's between one man and one woman in the realm of marriage. Everything else is unlawful and is immoral. There's only one that's lawful, and that is the one that's in the realm of marriage between a man and a woman who are married and united together in holy matrimony.

That's the only lawful act of sex there is. Everything else is unlawful. Every act of homosexuality, unlawful. Every sin outside of marriage, unlawful. Every act of pedophilia, unlawful. Every act of bestiality, unlawful.

It's all wrong. And remember, Paul is writing to those in Colossae who lived in a realm where everything about homosexuality, everything about pedophilia was all accepted in the city. So he lived in a realm where all this was accepted, and he's telling the Christians that you need to kill the members of your body beginning with immorality.

Sex, sin outside the realm in which God has made it lawful, that is outside the realm of marriage. Now we talked about this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. When Paul says that this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.

And he goes on and uses the word sanctification three times in those first eight verses of 1 Thessalonians 4. Why? Because we are to live separate lives than the world lives. Uniquely different lives than the world.

This is the will of God, that you abstain, have nothing to do with sexual immorality. So Paul here begins with the act of immorality, and then he moves to the next act, which is impurity. What makes a man commit immorality? Impure thoughts, impurity.

That's why Christ says over in Mark's gospel, the seventh chapter, he says, listen to me all of you and understand, there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. When he had left the crowd and entered the house the disciples questioned him about the parable.

He said to them, are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and it is eliminated. Thus he declared all foods clean. And he was saying, that which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. So Paul is saying, look, you need to kill the members of your body.

Which ones? Immorality, impurity, impure thoughts. Listen, if you're able to control your thoughts, you can control your sex life. If you can't control your thoughts, you cannot control your sex life.

Because immorality stems from impure thoughts. Therefore we are to think in the things that are pure and true and holy and honorable and lovely, Paul says in Philippians chapter 4. That's why we are renewed in the spirit of our mind.

We're not conformed to this world because we're transformed by the renewing of our mind, right? So when our minds feed on the word of God and we think in the things that are true and pure and holy, it keeps us from committing sexual acts of immorality. But the reason man commits sexual acts of immorality is because he has impure thoughts, impurity. Now remember, Paul is moving backwards.

He begins with the act, then tells you what causes the act, impure thoughts. But what causes the impure thoughts? Next word. He says, passion, passion.

Lying beneath all the impure thoughts in the flesh of man are the passions of man. And once those passions are inflamed, he begins to think impure thoughts that lead to immoral acts. And what causes those flames of passion to be ignited? Next word, evil desire.

And the two words are very similar. But it's the evil desire. That's what John says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the sinful pride of life, that's the evil desire.

It's in the deepest caverns of our soul. It's there. And once those evil desires are aroused, they lead to passionate drives.

And those passionate drives lead to impure thoughts. And those impure thoughts lead to immorality. Paul is very explicit.

He explains to you why you commit sex sins. But we as believers, we don't want anything to do with it, but we wanna denounce all those things. So what leads to those evil desires? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride, the sinful pride of life.

In fact, James would say something similar to this in James chapter 1. What does James say? Verse 14, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Later in James, he would say these words in James chapter 4. He says, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? Then he says, you lust and you do not have, so you commit murder.

You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your own pleasures.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Very clear words. So Paul says there's something that causes the evil desire that leads to your passionate drive, which leads to impure thoughts and impure motives, which leads to acts of immorality.

But what is that? Next word. Greed, covetousness, that's the word. Pleonexia, it's a word that the Greeks used of the insatiable desire in the depths of man's soul.

Covetousness, that's what greed is. Covetousness. Now listen very carefully, this is very, very important because it sets the tone for everything in the passage.

The depths of man's soul, why does man sin? Covetousness is the last sin listed in the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. It's not listed last because it's the least, it's listed last because it's the cause of all the previous nine. Man shall not covet.

Why does man murder? He covets. Why does man steal? He covets, he's greedy. Why does man lie? He covets.

Why does man commit adultery? He covets. Why does man have another God when God says, there shall be no other gods before me? It's because covetousness, as he says in the text, is what? Idolatry. At the base of every sin is idolatry.

Self-worship. I want something I cannot have. When I want something I cannot have, I become very, very covetous, I want it.

And what that does is rouse those lustful passions that lead to evil desires, that lead to impure thoughts, that lead to acts of immorality. At the base of every man's nature, the reason man does what he does is because he covets that which he cannot have. This was Satan's sin, right? Satan wanted something he could not have.

What did he want? He wanted the throne of God. He coveted God's throne. He wanted to be worshipped as God is worshipped.

At the base of Satan's sin was idol worship. He worshipped himself. The reason you sin, the reason you commit acts of immorality, the reason you commit any sin at all is because of self-worship.

You believe you deserve something. You believe you should have something. And covetousness is idolatry.

In fact, Paul says these words in Ephesians chapter 3, very similar, I'm sorry, Ephesians 5 verse 3, he says, immorality or any impurity or any greed, same three words of the words that are used in Colossians chapter 3, immorality or impurity or greed must not even be named among you as proper among the saints. Okay, not only do you not let it happen, you can't even name it among you. Don't even mention it.

And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather give you thanks. For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. A covetous man is an idolater.

The reason there are other gods before the one true, that's why Christ came, he said, I came to seek, what? True worshipers, true worshipers, those who worship God in spirit and in truth. I'm looking for people who have no other God before me, no other God besides me. And we think of that as trying to carve some kind of image like they did in ancient times.

Listen, idolatry is not what you carve with your hands, it's what you crave in your heart. That's idolatry, that's self-worship. That's what I want to have.

And pleonexia is a word that, as I said earlier, described by the Greeks of that, it's like having a bowl with no bottom, that when you pour into it, it cannot be filled. The insatiable desire of man's heart, that's what needs to be destroyed, that's what needs to be murdered, that's what needs to be killed, that's what needs to be put away with, that's what needs to be separated from, that's what needs to be denounced. All idolatry, all covetousness, not only does it violate the command of God, but it leads me into all kinds of sinful behavior.

That's why Paul says these words in verse number 6 of chapter 3 of Colossians, he says, for it is because of these things the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them. In other words, this is the way you used to live.

You used to walk this way. This is what characterized your life before Christ was in you and you were in Christ. This is how the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

God damns people to hell because of these kinds of sins. Why? Because at the base of man's heart is that he is a self-worshipper. I know that's hard for some of us to understand, but that is really the true essence of sin.

We are idolaters in the depths of our soul. We think that we need something so bad that we will do everything we can to get it. And once we get to that place of self-worship, it spawns within us the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and it moves us toward evil desires and passionate drives.

It leads us to impure thoughts. It leads us to acts of immorality. That's why Paul begins with the act and drives you all the way back to the heart attitude.

The depths of a man is that he is an idolater. Paul knows this. He understands this.

And so he says, this is what needs to be so denounced, it needs to be destroyed. You could say this is the Christian's, not just his denunciation, this is the Christian's destruction. He is destroying everything that leads to idol worship, that leads to self-worship.

That leads to his prominence. That leads to him being put on display. That leads to his own ego.

He destroys all those things. And then he moves to the second list. Remember, the lists are not inclusive.

They're just a partial list of sins. But here he moves from the attitude and then moves to the act. Why? Because at the base of the attitude of speech is covetousness, is idolatry.

That's why he says these words. He says, but now you also put them all aside. What? Anger.

Anger, that's orgē. That is the bitterness that wells up within us. That's on the inside of man.

And that orgē leads to thymos, the boiling over of my attitude of anger. You know this very well. You hear someone, you know someone, and just the thought of them causes you to be angry on the inside.

And the more someone talks about them, the more you begin to boil over with that kind of anger. It begins because somehow, some way, you are a self-worshipper. You think yourself better than somebody else.

You think that you are high and mighty. You think that you are the cat's meow. You think you're just the best thing that's ever happened.

And how dare someone say something against you so you begin to be angry. The anger leads to boiling over, to thymos, that wrath, and that wrath leads to malice. Malice is vicious thoughts, the vicious attitude that leads to slander, that leads me to slander.

The reason I slander somebody is because there are these vicious thoughts I have about this person that stem from this boiling over of the anger that I have because I think that I'm better than somebody else because I'm a self-worshipper. I'm an idolater. I'm a covetous person.

And the Bible says in the book of James that when you slander your brother, you're really blaspheming the name of God because your brother, James chapter 3, verse number 9, is made in the image of God. So when you slander your brother who's made in the image of God, you're blaspheming God's architect, God's creation. Therefore, you are blaspheming God himself.

And that slander leads to abusive speech, abusive speech, speech that is filled with unrighteousness. Christ would say in Matthew 12, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Good man, out of the goodness of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things.

And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. That's why Paul says, let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth because you see those vicious thoughts lead to slandering your brother, which lead to abusive speech. By the way, if you recall the life of Peter in his denial of the Lord Jesus Christ on the eve of the crucifixion of the Messiah, he denied the Lord three times, right? The Lord prophesied that he would deny him three times over the cockroach.

And the third time that he denied the Lord to this little girl by a fireplace outside the house of Caiaphas, it says that he used filthy, abusive speech. In other words, he began to curse and to swear. And guess what? After that, nobody ever accused him of being a follower of Christ again.

Why? Because people who follow Christ don't use that kind of language. That's why. So he was free from being accused of being a follower of Christ because everybody knows the words that Jesus spoke.

And those who follow Christ would never speak like that. And this is how Peter would get people to stop accusing him of being a follower of Christ, even though he was. He began to curse, he began to swear, using abusive speech because that would stop all accusations against him, and it did.

And that abusive speech leads to lying. Lying. Why do people lie? People lie to protect themselves.

Why do they protect themselves? Because they're idol worshipers. They're self-worshippers. People lie to protect what they wanna protect.

They lie because they wanna preserve something in their lives. They wanna preserve the story. They wanna preserve that which they've tried to get everybody to believe, right? It's a self-protective act.

That's why people lie. Satan is the father of lies, right? So whenever you lie, you align yourself with the father of lies. Why would you wanna do that? Well, the father of lies was an idolater.

And those who lie are self-worshippers. They too are idolaters. So Paul says, as Christians, keep seeking those things that are above, set your mind on things above, and separate yourself from all sinful acts and sinful words.

Because those, the members of your body that will haunt you if you do not kill those members of your body. And what is you are actually killing? You are killing the fact that you, in the depths of your soul, seek to preserve yourself because you worship yourself. Paul says, we're worshipers of God.

When you worship God in spirit and in truth, you don't wanna worship yourself. You wanna worship the true God. You wanna honor the Lord.

You wanna glorify his name. You wanna live for the glory and honor of the Christ. And as long as you're seeking those things that are above and set your affection and mind on things above, you can then effectively separate yourself from those things of the world because it's the world that lives in idolatry, that are covetous, that had this exuberant greed for that which is wrong.

And the believer, he's marked by a denunciation of all those things. Why? Because they worship the king. They wanna honor the Lord.

This is just so important to understand. That's why man-centered preaching is so bad. God-centered preaching gets you focused on God.

And the more you see God, you see his holiness. The more you see his holiness, the more you see your sinfulness. But as long as we keep preaching to man, having man-centered sermons, focused on man-centered things, guess what? Nobody's convicted of their sin because they don't see God.

They just see themselves. And God knows we've got enough problems with that already. We don't need to see any more of ourselves.

We need to see God. When you see God, and his holiness, you see your sinfulness. When you see your sinfulness, you turn and follow the true God and worship him.

A Christian, what is a Christian? A Christian is one who denounces and destroys anything in his life that will move him away from God to be accepted by the world because they wanna live for the glory and honor of their King. Let me pray with you. Father, we thank you for tonight and we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the truth that's there. Our prayer, Father, is that we would live for you. None of us are perfect.

The apostle Paul would wrestle with his own sinful behavior knowing how wrong it was, which makes us so aware of the fact that when we see our sin for what it is, we realize it's an offense to the holy God, our holy God, the one who lives and reigns within our lives. Help us, Lord, to live for you. Help us, Lord, to pursue you.

Set our affections on things above, not on things below. Keep seeking Christ. For, Lord, that is where our life really is.

For you are our life. As we go home tonight, protect us, keep us safe, and may our spiritual pilgrimage be greater tonight and tomorrow than ever before. Because we truly want to honor our King.

In Jesus' name, amen.