The Wrath of God is Coming

Colossians 3 and the Need to Put Sin to Death

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians 3 and hold your place at verse 5. Last week I preached Colossians 3, 5 -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 -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, nekrosate, comes from the word nekros, 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 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? 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 don't want to re-preach 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 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 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 completely skipped verses 6 and 7.

And you know me. That dog won't hunt. I got to 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. 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.

And 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. We received him.

We should walk in him. And what is the Christian walk? What does that mean? It means our daily life. When you talk about somebody, if I ask you, I say, brother or sister, how's your walk? What am I asking you?

I'm asking, how is your walk with the Lord? 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 received 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've always been a Christian. No, you haven't.

You were dead. In what? In your trespasses and sins. In 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 in 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.

Sinners 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 fire could rise up. 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 are standing on the precipice of hell. And 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 are not fleeing to the Savior. So what a dramatic picture.

Hell is a dramatic picture. And sin is a dramatic reality. And you once walked in that. 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 been extinguished. I was telling my kids yesterday. We went to a family reunion down in Palatka area.

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 seatbelt. This was before seatbelt laws. Yeah, that's how old I am. I predate seatbelt laws. 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 bubble 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 it was 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. And by God's grace I'm still here. But my point is 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 too 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 6 because in verse 7 he says in these two you once walked. But 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 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 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 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 church goers.

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 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 are either with me or you are 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 who 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 Jillette. 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 private life and on videos and different things about atheism. He's even been a speaker at the Reason Rally, which is an atheist convention that happens in Washington, D .C.

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 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 of 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 howling into a microphone. But understand just 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 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. John Shelby Spong is a good example.

John Shelby Spong 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 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 lot of people. You go to Walmart, you talk to somebody about Jesus. You mention 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 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 caused us to fear.

You say, are we supposed to fear God? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And 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 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 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 sitting. I've told this story before. A guy sitting on my couch at the house.

He was upset at me for some things that were going on here at the church. And he told me. Because I brought up 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 1500 churches all around Jacksonville. I can 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 can take you down through the things. I can 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 can walk through and see the wrath of God over and over. As 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. 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 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 trifle and focus 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 would tell you. All we are doing is suspending what is going to happen eventually. 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. Because at some point we are going to face the Lord. At some point it's game over. That's right. There is 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 are 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.