The Wrath of God is Coming

Colossians 3:5–11 and the Call to Put Sin to Death

I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians chapter 3 and hold your.

Place at verse 5. Last week I preached Colossians 3, 5 through 11 and I did not finish the message and so I said it was going to end up being a two-parter. Well, as this week has progressed and as my study has increased and as my thoughts have widened and broadened, I have decided it will be a three-parter, at least.

Because today we're going to focus a lot of our attention on verse 6 and verse 7. So as we read through 5 to 11, to maintain the context, I want us to intentionalize our focus on verses 6 and 7. And I'd like for us to ask this question before we read.

In our minds, ask the question, what do you think of when you hear the phrase, the wrath of God? What comes into your mind when you hear the term, the wrath of God? We must know it is one of the most unpopular subjects.

It is one that has been everything but jettisoned from many modern pulpits and the progressive church has abandoned it out of hand. And those who preach it are often referred to in the derogatory sense of being hellfire and brimstone preachers.

Well, today we're going to examine whether or not that is something we ought to consider. Should we run off to those who would soften the wrath of God or should we be confronted with it as a reminder of what we have been saved from if we are in Christ?

Let's stand together and read the text and it says, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.

In these, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its.

Creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all. Father in heaven, I pray that today as we examine this subject of the consequence of sin, I pray oh God that you would first and foremost keep me from error as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error and I don't want to for the sake of your name, for the sake of your people, and for the sake of my own conscience, I pray oh God that you would keep me from error and I pray Lord also that you would open up the hearts of your people to the truth and I pray that your Holy Spirit would be the one who applies this truth to our hearts for without the Holy Spirit this message will have no meaning and no power.

Lord teach us now by your word, we pray in Jesus name, amen. The title of the sermon as I mentioned last week is No Quarter. No quarter as I have previously stated is a military term. It is used when there is no intention of taking anyone captive in a war, giving them a place to sleep or eat or to be put into any type of military prison.

No quarter means you kill everyone. No quarter means no mercy, no pity, show them no grace. When we come to Colossians chapter 3, Paul says a very similar thing in verse 5, he says put to death therefore what is earthly in you.

That word put to death, necrosate, comes from the word necros which means that which is dead and he's literally telling us that when it comes to the sin in our life we ought not be trying to coddle it, we ought not be trying to make friends with it.

We ought not be trying to hide it in our closets or under our beds or in our browsing history but what we ought to do is we ought to kill it. Show sin no quarter is what Paul is saying in this verse. And then as we looked at last week he gives us 12 sins that we can examine as not the only sins that we need to put to death but relative examples, representative examples of sin that is necessary to kill in all of our lives and as I said last week you may deal with different sins than I do.

You may need to put to death things that I don't need to put to death because those things in my life are not the things that I struggle with and so they're already dead in my life but not in your life and vice versa for me there may be things that I have to put to death that you don't struggle with and those things are distinguishable between us.

So Paul gives us a list of relative examples and last week we went all the way down the list we defined what sexual immorality is, what passion is and the word passion there pathos meaning the idea of a wrong or lustful passion.

We talked about evil desire and covetousness, we talked about idolatry and later he gives us another list if you look at verse 8 he gives us the list of anger and wrath and malice and slander and obscene talk and even in verse 9 lying he calls us not to lie to one another so this is what he means in verse 5 when he says put this to death these are the things he's talking about and as I said in our last sermon many people don't believe those things are sins anymore.

You talk about the sin of sexual immorality you'll be laughed at if you say that sex outside of marriage is something that people ought not do. Even Christian people I have heard say well that's just the way the world is pastor.

That's just the way people are pastor and you know what they're happy and they're loving each other. Why have a problem with it. Well the problem is that God has a problem with it. Say well love is love.

That's not true. Someone wants to define love without meaning. That's by the way when you say love is love that's what you're doing. You're giving it no meaning. You're saying it's everything and it's nothing at the same time and we have fallen for it.

We have given over to it. We have been tricked by the culture so much so that we can't even see rights and what's right in front of our face oftentimes because the culture is insidious it pushes the sin out and puts it in front of us in every place that we look.

Whether we're driving down the roads and looking at billboards or whether we're opening up our computer to look at the internet or whether we turn on our television. And even if we have streaming services trying to abandon commercials the commercials are still there.

Saw a commercial just this past week had no idea what the commercial was for all I saw was two men kiss at the end and I think it was some kind of antibiotic. I mean what. Why. Because sin wants quarter sin wants a foothold.

Sin wants to have its place and it's going to dig in. It's going to find where it can make its place. And so last week as I said and I I don't want to repreach last week's sermon. But we need to remember that the reason why we did last week's sermon is to help understand that what the world says is not some what the world says is sinful doesn't matter because the world doesn't get to define sin.

For us to define sin we have to have a standard. The world without God has no standard and therefore has no basis for right and wrong. That is why they have what is called relative morality. Relative morality is the idea if it's right for you it might not be right for me.

Or if it's right for me it might not be right for you. And relative morality is all around the world especially in the academic world because the idea is there's no standard for right or wrong. The standards are relative to individuals and therefore we have ethics which are based on relativity.

And we have morality which is based on relativity. And we see a world that's living in chaos because of it. Who are you to say I'm wrong if I'm living in a situation that's sinful. Who are you to say that I'm wrong if I'm doing this or doing that.

Who are you. I am the captain. I decide I'm the judge. I'm the righteous one. I get to decide what's right for me. And without a standard the world collapses in on itself. So Paul says put it to death.

And as I said last week what I was what I wanted to get to this week was how we put it to death. And that actually comes to us in verses 9 to 11 we're going to get to that. But the problem was as I began to look back at last week's sermon I realized I almost I completely skipped verses 6 and 7 and you know me that dog won't hunt.

I gotta go back because here's the thing that we didn't talk about last week. We talked about sin sexual immorality and passion and lust and all of those things. But you know what we didn't talk about last week.

Really we didn't talk about the consequences of sin. And Paul does. So we will. Paul addresses the consequences of sin. Paul actually lays them out here for us. And we're going to look at two things in this passage today.

The Wrath of God Is Coming on the Sons of Disobedience

One we're going to look actually backwards. Unfortunately because of how I want you to see this we're actually going to look at verse 7 and then verse 6 and the reason why I hope will make sense. Go to verse 7 with me and let me show you what he says.

He just got done listing a set of sins he got done listing five sins. And then one of the sins he defines by another sin he says idolatry or covetousness which is idolatry which makes a list of six. And then he says this.

He says these were once your identity. Notice what verse 7 says in these meaning in these sins these representative sins these representative five things in these you too once walked. Now just for a minute go back to chapter 2.

Look at verse 6. Same book Colossians 2 verse 6 notice what he says. Remember I said I thought this was the thesis of the whole book. Chapter 2 verse 6 notice what he says. He says therefore as you received Christ Jesus as Lord so walk in him.

I think that's Paul's entire thesis. And here's what I mean by that this entire book is based on this idea. We receive Christ by faith. We are to walk in him by faith. We received him as Savior. We should walk in him as Lord.

This is we received him. We should walk in him. And what is the Christian walk. What does that mean. Means our daily life. When you talk about somebody if I ask you I say brother or how's your walk. What am I asking you.

I'm asking how is your walk with the Lord. Right. There's a there's an implicit statement. If I say how's your walk I'm saying how is your walk with Christ. Are you walking with the Lord. Are you stumbling.

Are you running from him like Jonah how's your walk. We know what it means. And when Paul says here just as you receive the Lord so walk in him. That's the actual like I said that's the thrust of the book.

We received him by faith. We are to walk by faith. Now we go back to where we just were back to verse 7 and we see this in these meaning in these sins. You too once walked. Now the word walk there's the same word.

It is in the past tense at this point. But at least it's the same concept. There was a time in your life where Christ was not lovely to you. There was a time in your life where the pursuit of Christ was not your pursuit.

And you might say well I don't remember I've been a Christian for so long. I don't remember my life before that. Well praise the Lord. If you've been a Christian for 10 20 30 50 years praise the Lord.

If the Lord saved you at a young age that's a wonderful thing. But there's no one in the world that can say that. This doesn't apply to them because Paul's talking to all believers when he says in this you too once walked turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2.

We'll see almost the same thing if you go over to Ephesians and chapter 2 now any good Calvinist got this memorized. But just in case you don't Ephesians chapter 2 begins with that very important phrase.

And you were sick. No what does it say. And you were dead by the way if anybody says well I was never. I've always been a Christian. No you haven't. You were dead in what. And your trespasses and sins.

And which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is not work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

That's what you were beloved. Understanding the beauty of the gospel first begins with understanding what you were saved out of understanding the blessing of salvation comes with understanding the curse of damnation.

What you were taken out of Jonathan Edwards and his wonderful sermon which many of you have probably read or listened to someone read. You've never heard Jonathan Edwards preach it because of course he was around before electronic recording devices.

But you maybe have read his sermon entitled sinners in the hands of an angry god and in that sermon. And let me tell you something that sermon is almost universally reviled in English departments around the United States because it's seen as a puritanical farce a time when the Christian preachers were hellfire and brimstone only and all they did was try to scare the hell out of people.

And that's the way they see it. But I want to tell you if you've never read or listened to Jonathan Edwards centers in the hands of an angry god. One of the parts that will stick with you is when he talks about the spider that is on a web over the fireplace.

And he says the thing about the spider on the web over the fireplace is that any moment any moment the the the fire could rise up could could increase and could lick the borders of that web and that web could contract upon itself and drop the spider into the fire and the fire would consume that spider in the flames.

And he says such are some of you who still stand outside of Christ who are like you're standing on the precipice of hell and the the the flames of hell are as they were licking the bottoms of your feet.

And yet you still stay there waiting for the consummation of that fire to overtake you. You are waiting for the judgment of God to encompass you. You are waiting for that and you're not fleeing to the savior.

I say what a dramatic picture. Hell is a dramatic picture and sin is a dramatic reality. And you once walked in that I I think about often I think about the years leading up to my 19th year. Many things happened at my 19th year.

I got married and the Lord saved me. It was a pretty dramatic year in my life growing up so many things happened that my life could have easily have been distinguished. I was telling my kids yesterday we went to a family reunion down in Palatka area uh uh uh Interlochen area.

And while we were going down there we had to go through Middleburg. And while we were driving through Middleburg there's a place every time I go I point to it and I say it was right there where when I was a little boy I was with my mother.

She was driving the car and I was not wearing a seat belt. This is before seat belt laws. Yeah that's how old I am. I predate seat belt loss. And I was riding in the front seat of my mother's truck. It's actually my dad's truck.

He had one of these big bubba trucks with the big tires lifted up and dad loved that. And mom hit the car in front of us so hard that the tires lifted up and landed in the trunk of the car. I remember this very specifically because like a monster truck had hit and landed in the back of the truck.

I went into the windshield with my face so hard that it spider webbed the windshield with my face. Now how easily could that have broken my neck cracked my skull brain bleed. I could have died right there.

And you know I was not injured at all. I had a bruise and a headache. But they examined me sent me home. Amen. By God's grace. I'm still here. But my point is I couldn't I could not be here beloved. Think about your life.

When you were outside of Christ you were walking in these things and the Lord kept you here to bring you to this place today. You are here today. You are hearing the gospel today. And let me say this if you're still here you are crazy.

If you stay in this condition you're out of your mind. If you stay over the pit of the fire of hell and you don't run to the Savior. People say why would you preach a sermon intended to scare people. Because Jesus said we're going to save them by one of two ways.

Either by the loving arms of the Lord or by pointing them to the fires of hell. There's two ways that you're going to come to know the Lord either by the grace and mercy of his kindness or the severity of his judgment.

And if you don't believe God judges. If you believe God is somehow too kind to judge. Then let me just remind you of the days of Noah. Mike said something earlier and during his explanation of Micah he said what was happening in the days of Micah are happening today.

Absolutely in the days of Noah. A lot of the things that are happening in the days of Noah are happening today. You look around you you see the absolute depravity of man on display all around you. And what do you do.

You laugh at it you joke about it. But understand the way that the world is walking is it's walking toward hell. That's what he means here in this passage. When he says in these you two once walked it was your life and your life had one direction and it was hell.

And if that is still your life I plead with you to consider your life consider eternity. But notice now I want you to see verse because in verse seven he says in these two you once walked. But he right before that he says this.

He says on account of these again same thing on account of these sins the wrath of God is coming now. Why does he say the wrath of God is coming and not already here. Because can't we point to things in the world and say we see examples of God's wrath all around us.

We're going to talk about that in a minute. Yes we can. But this specific thing he's referring to is he's talking about the final judgment the final wrath to come now. There is a textual variant here and I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining what that means because quite frankly if you want to know come to the academy class.

That's my sales pitch. No but there's just too much to get into on textual variation on a Sunday morning. I've done sermons on it but that's not my intention today. But there is a phrase that is that is in some manuscripts and not in others.

And this is what that phrase says. It says that on account of these the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. That's what it says in the king James version. That's what it says in what is typically known as the majority text or the byzantine text.

That particular phrase is found in the book of Ephesians. Whether you're looking at the ESV or the king James it doesn't matter. That particular phrase is there and so we have to. We have to consider why or why not it should be here.

The ESV doesn't have it but ultimately what the point is saying is that the wrath that is coming is not coming upon everyone. And that is important to realize the wrath that is coming is coming upon a subset of humanity and humanity can be divided into two halves and it's not halves that maybe that's the wrong term into two categories because I don't believe it's half and half.

I don't believe it's 50 50. Humanity can be divided into two groups. And the two groups the bible talks about all throughout the sheep and the goats. Those who have found the narrow way and those who take the broad way.

Those who build their house upon the rock and those who build their house upon the sand. That's the way the bible describes these two groups. It never gives a third group. It never gives a group for happy churchgoers.

Just understand that. It never gives a group for CEOs Christmas Easter only. That's a group. Right. I go to church on Christmas and Easter and maybe Mother's Day. That's the next hot one that's coming up.

Mother's Day is like the the crown jewel of hallmark holidays for churches because everybody wants to make mama happy and come to church. Right. So we have these holidays people spend at church. There is no middle ground with Christ.

You are either a son of God or you are a son of disobedience. You are either in the category of sheep or you are in the category of goat. And don't bring me the Star Wars mess which says only a Sith deals in absolutes because that ain't true.

Jesus was the one. And if you don't get that then come talk to me later. But the thing is what Jesus said is this. He says you're either with me or you're against me. He said that he said very clearly that there are two types of people in the world those who are following him and those that are not.

And the wrath of God abides upon those who are not in Christ. John 3 36. You don't have to turn there. Many of you probably know it off the top of your head. But this is what it says. It says whoever believes in the son has eternal life and whoever does not obey the son shall not see life.

But the wrath of God remains on him. You understand that you know who Penn Jillette is. No it's not the razor guy. That's Gillette. That's different. Penn Jillette is a magician. Penn and Teller are the group.

And Penn Jillette is a widely known atheist and he has for many years spoken out in his uh private life and on videos and different things about atheism. He's he's even been a speaker at the reason rally which is an atheist convention that happens in Washington DC.

Penn Jillette is a very well-known atheist. But in a very candid interview several years ago he said this. And every Christian needs to hear this. I may post this on on my page just if anybody wants to go watch it.

Because when he said it this should cut you to the quick church. He said this. He said I don't believe in God. I don't believe in Jesus. I don't believe in resurrection he said. But if someone believed that and didn't tell other people about it how much would they have to hate them.

If you believe that there is a way to be saved from death. If you believe that there is a way to have salvation from your sins. And you do believe that wrath is coming on those who don't believe in Jesus how much would you have to hate somebody not to tell them about Jesus.

And that's an atheist who knows more than we do a lot times because a lot of times what we do is we say well I don't want to offend people telling them this truth. I don't want to say anything to anyone about the wrath of God.

Because if I say something to them about the wrath of God it's going to offend them. It's going to turn them off. It's going to make them not want to come to Christ. Well let me tell you a secret they already don't want to come.

To Christ they already don't want to come no one likes to hear what I'm saying and so many people.

Get upset they say you're just a madman hollering into a microphone. Well but understand just the reality of the the reality of what we're dealing with. If this is not true if God does not judge if Jesus is not savior everything we're doing is just for nothing.

All of this is a farce. Paul said that if Jesus does not rise from the dead then then it's all a lie. You understand that you understand that by coming here and sitting here and by affirming with your amens and with your participation and with your singing that you're actually affirming a God who judges.

You're affirming a God of wrath. So I don't like to think of him that way. You don't get to define God by your thoughts and you don't get to determine God's will by your wishes. God is God. And we are not very simply so we were once identified by our sin.

The text tells us and on account of these the wrath of God is coming. The wrath of God is coming. In a few moments we're actually going to read about it. But before we get to that I want to say this if you don't believe in the wrath of God if you're one of those people who for some reason you can't get it in your mind or maybe you just feel like God is too good.

The Reality of God’s Wrath in History and Judgment

John Shelby Spong is a good example. John Shelby Spong was the he was a bishop in the Episcopal church. He was like head over several churches. He was a very big name in the Episcopal church so a leader in the Episcopal church.

And he said judgment and wrath. And all of those things are are not true. That is not what we need to think about. When we think about God all of those things are just wrong. So that may be where you come from that may be the tradition out of which you came that may be the mindset that you have because I'm going to tell you that's the mindset of a of a lot of people.

You go to Walmart you talk to somebody about Jesus. You mentioned the wrath of God. You will see the bristling. You will see the angst. You will see the rejection of that. Everybody wants the blessings of God.

Everybody wants what only God can do. God is the only one who can give healing and and and prosperity and blessing. But they don't want the God who exists. The God who brings judgment upon the evildoer.

And so they bristle against that. And maybe that's you. So I say this. I say where do we see the wrath of God. Well if you believe your Bible you can go all the way back to the beginning. And you can see places where God has allowed not his final wrath but he has allowed moments of his wrath to shine through so that we could get a glimpse of his holiness.

And that holiness cause us to fear. You say are we supposed to fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And how how much have we neutered that. Well that just means reverence. It includes reverence.

But it doesn't just mean reverence. So I don't think I should have to fear God in him. You live and move and have your being in him. Your entire life is bound up. And it is because of his grace and his mercy that you're not crushed like a flea.

Therefore whom else should you fear. Jesus said don't fear the one who can kill the body but fear the one who can throw both body and soul into hell. I talk all the time to people who do not fear God.

And when I try to bring up God's holiness why are you being so judgmental. I'm not being judgmental. I'm pointing you to the one who himself is the judge. God casts Adam and Eve out of the garden an act of judgment.

And we don't know the time period exactly between that and the time of the flood. But between then the wickedness of man's condition had grown to the point to where God showing grace to one man. Noah said build an ark.

Take your animal take your family inside. Take the animals inside. And I will close you in and I will save you. But everyone else is going to experience my wrath. Pastor that's a kid's story. We painted on the walls of our nurseries.

We should not paint it on the walls of our nurseries. Because when we paint it on the walls of our nurseries what we get is a little bathtub toy with a couple of giraffes and elephants heads sticking out of the top.

That's what we think of. And hey I'm guilty. I painted a mural just like that. So I'm there. I was there. But if you study the story of Noah if you study what the wrath of God actually looked like in that event and you actually read it for what it says when it says the the earth itself the waters that were below the earth came up and through the earth and exploded onto the world.

And in that moment every man woman child infant everybody on the earth who was not in that ark received the wrath of God. A watery blanket of wrath covered this earth and the only ones who were saved were in that ark.

So I don't believe that. Well then you might as well take your bible and drop it off on the shelf on your way out. Because if you don't believe that why would you believe any of the rest of it. Well I get to pick and choose what in the bible is true.

Not here. I remember saying I've told this story for a guy sitting on my couch at the house. He he was upset at me for some things that were going on here at the church. And he told me he said because I brought up the what the bible says about God and judgment and things like that.

He said well I don't believe the whole bible. I said well then you're in the wrong church. There are 1 ,500 churches all around Jacksonville. I could throw a stick and hit one. You can find churches that will tell you what you want to hear.

And that don't believe the bible. But this isn't one of them. Yes we believe in a literal Adam and Eve. Yes we believe in a literal Noah and the ark. Yes we believe in a literal Abraham Isaac and Jacob and a literal Sodom and Gomorrah which was literally experiencing the wrath of God when the Lord that was on the earth poured out fire from the Lord in heaven.

And the fire of God rained down upon a city and that city was turned to ash. But understand this beloved that ain't nothing compared to what's coming. That's what I'm trying to get to. Because I could take you down through the things.

I could talk about Nadab and Abihu who experiencing the fire of God's wrath. I can talk about Korah and rebellion against God and how the opening up of the earth swallowed him under. And we could walk through and see the wrath of God over and over.

His brother Mike read about God's wrath on his own people when they were in rebellion sending them into exile. We can read it over and over and over. Again. But all of those are but glimpses. They're like little shutters on a camera that open up for a moment only to let enough light in to capture a picture.

That's not the full wrath.

Of God turn with me to revelation chapter 20. Now don't get too excited I'm not going to talk about the millennium. I want you to go to verse 11 this follows the moment where it says that the devil.

Was thrown into the lake of fire. And then we get to verse 11. It says. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it from his presence. Earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened.

Then another book was opened which is the book of life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done and the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written.

In the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire. I can't imagine it I literally I don't have.

The brain power to consider what that really looks like and what that means. But I know it's true. And notice verse 15. I said a little while ago there's only two categories. I said the two categories of the sheep and the goats.

The two categories are those who build their house on the rock those who build their house in the sand. I said there was two categories. Right here is the real ultimate category. And that is is our name written in the book of life.

For those whose name is written in the book of life this judgment will not touch you. But for those who are not this judgment will not only touch you but it will be your experience forever and ever. It's beyond understanding.

But it is something that we all need to be reminded of that what we are doing here is not playing with trifle things. So often we get so upset in church about things that don't matter we we trifle and focus and and fumble over things that have no eternal value.

This is the most important thing in the world. You can be a brain surgeon. You can be a heart surgeon. You can be a person who is responsible for saving people from cancer. You can be a person who is responsible for saving people from all kinds of different maladies.

You can be a first responder. And all of those things are great. But you know as adam i would tell you it's we're. All we're doing is suspending what's going to happen eventually. Right. Because all a heart surgeon does is keep it going a little longer.

All the first responder does is keep us alive for the next time. Right. Because at some point we're going to face the lord. At some point it's game over. That's right. There's no first responder at the great white throne judgment.

So i ask you today. You say well we didn't talk about putting sin to death. We didn't talk about that. We didn't talk about how to do that. Yes i know we're going to get to that next week. But understand why paul put this section between what he says when he says put your sin to death.

And then he talks about how we do it in verses 9 to 11. The reason why we put he puts it right here is so that we understand the consequence of sin. If you understand that sin is truly your enemy and your sin makes you abominable to a holy god then you will learn to hate it.