Colossians - The True Nature Of The Christian Life

God Centered Theology

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A young man was eager to grow in his Christian life, he got a piece of paper and made a list of all the things he would do for God.

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Certainly a good ambitious thing to do, no doubt. He wrote down the things he would give up, the places he would go to minister, and the areas of ministry he would enter.

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He was excited. He took that list to church and he put it on the altar. Well he thought he would feel joy, but instead he felt empty.

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He went home and started adding to the list. Well, you know, maybe I just don't have the right amount of things on here,

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I have the wrong things. So he added to the list. He wrote down more things he would do and wouldn't do.

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He took the longer list back, put it down on the altar. Lord, I'm committing to do these things for you.

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Still nothing. So he went to a wise old pastor. Why does all the pastors in this story have to be old?

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Nothing against older pastors, but I'm not, I'm a younger pastor, why can't we be wise? It's always the wise older pastor.

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He told him the situation and asked for help. Well the pastor said, son, take a blank sheet of paper.

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Well now we know why, because this pastor has no doubt learned from experience some of the things I'm learning now.

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He says, take a blank sheet of paper, sign your name at the bottom, and then put that on the altar.

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The young man did, and then peace came to his heart. And this is a quote by R.

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B. Ouellette, spelled O -U -E -L -L -E -T -T -E, but pronounced

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Ouellette. Trust me, I checked, because I was going to say that completely different. But it was in one of his books, and I come across it, and I thought this is the perfect example to understand the true nature of the

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Christian life. Taking that blank sheet of paper, signing your name at the bottom, and putting that on the altar.

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Why? Because things that we do, we choose to do, or things that we avoid, putting death to sin, all important things are all part of what we do, but they're not who we are.

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They're a result of who we are. The Christian life is not summed up in what we do, but who we are, which is why he said, put your name on the piece of paper, and then put that on the altar, because Christ died not for part of you.

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He didn't die just to make you do certain things, and not do other certain things.

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He died for you, all of you. Christ is not in the business of getting 50 % of your life.

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He wants 100%. The Christian life, the true nature of the Christian life is all on the altar.

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The true nature of the Christian life is total transformation. Believers in Jesus Christ do not receive or add something new, they become somebody new.

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They become somebody new. We'll see this in a minute, but the terminology in Colossians where it talks about putting off the old self, and putting on the new self.

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It's not that we're already wearing clothes, and then we just put on another layer, and that's our Christian layer of clothes.

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No, you take off the old clothes and put on new. You become something new.

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The key to the story with this young man, what was causing him trouble was he was failing to understand that the

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Christian life, that salvation means total transformation.

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As much as church attendance is important, and obviously a Christian would commit to come to church, a

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Christian would commit to evangelize, and we want to pray, and we involve ourselves in various activities.

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They're all fine and well, but we're not defined by those things.

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As long as this young man was defining his life by what he would do, and things he would give up, he was going to miss it.

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He would never know the true joy and peace of the Christian life, as long as his focus is on legalistic way of approach.

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What are you doing versus what you're not doing? That is why the pastor told him to put his name on that piece of paper, and put that on the altar, because it's symbolic of the fact that for the

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Christian, when Christ died, we died. Fancy theological term, sanctification.

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No doubt you've all heard the term sanctification at some point in your church -going life. It just simply means to set apart, to make holy.

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Well, for the Christian life, and to understand the true nature of the Christian life, sanctification for the

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Christian, there is both a definitional and an experiential aspect to our sanctification and to our transformation.

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So we're going to look at those two things today. Number one, transformation defined.

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Transformation defined. The definitional aspect to our sanctification, we're going to begin, and we will make our way over to Colossians, but to begin with, we're going to start in the book of Galatians.

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And we're going to look at about four or five different passages where this subject is touched on. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, it says,

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I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

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And 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.

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Notice that it says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

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There's only two types of people in the world, saved, lost. Those that are in Adam, those that are in Christ, unregenerate, regenerate.

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Our identity as Christians, our unity as Christians, is not in what we do, but in what we live with who we are, and who we are is alive in Christ.

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What we do as a result of our identity, excuse me, what we do as a result of our identity not definitional to our identity.

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The definition of our identity in Christ is the fact that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us.

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Second Corinthians chapter 5, if you'll turn there with me, famous verse here when talking about salvation, but second

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Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17, it says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creature.

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Behold, the old things have passed away, new things have come. Salvation is not adding something to your life.

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It's not, you know, okay, here, here you were, and to get you what you need to be, we're just going to add a few little things and make you better.

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It's not perfecting what was already there. It's the death of one life and the being raised to spiritual life in Christ.

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You see, when we are born, we are under the sin nature. We're under the condemnation of our sins, and if left to ourselves without the intervening power of the

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Holy Spirit regenerating us, raising us to spiritual life, and we'll place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, we would die in those sins and be condemned and pay for our sins for eternity in hell.

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That old man that is in Adam has to die and be crucified with Christ so that we can live.

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So it's not adding something to our life, it is a literal new creation.

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It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, meaning that what we are is a new creation in Christ, total transformation.

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If you move up just a couple of verses in the passage here in 2 Corinthians 5, looking at verse 14, it says, for the love of God controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.

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When Christ died on the cross, His death, His atonement, the purpose in His death accomplished everything that it was meant to accomplish.

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There will not be one single person that repents of their sin and places their faith and trust in Jesus Christ that won't be saved.

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Every single person that Christ died for, those people that believe in Jesus Christ will be saved, they will be transformed by the power of His blood.

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He died for all so that they who live, notice it says, might no longer live for themselves.

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The summation of the unregenerate lost life is a life of sin, a life for living for self.

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That's why we're called to die to self and live for Christ. The ones that are in Jesus Christ no longer live for themselves.

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If I want to have it Andy's way, God will certainly allow me to do that, but I'll spend eternity in hell.

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The Bible says that every knee will bow to Christ, either in this life in salvation or in the next life in judgment.

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It says they no longer live for themselves, but for Him, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again on their behalf.

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John MacArthur, who's one of my favorite preachers, who just recently celebrated 50 years of preaching.

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I've listened to his first sermon. It's something of the nature of don't play church.

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It really goes in line with what we're trying to bring to life this year, the understanding of who we are as a church and who we are as Christians.

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But it was back in 1969. I was not here yet, Gina wasn't either, that was before our time, but in 1969 he started his church in California, and he's still there.

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With all the short pastoral turnover that occurs in this day and age, I want to be like him. I want to retire here.

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I don't like moving. I move twice in one year. That's not fun. My back can't take it, and my wallet can't take it to pay somebody to do it for me.

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But 50 years of faithful, expositional preaching, pouring in and teaching lives and seeing them transformed,

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I have no idea when my time's going to be up.

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I pray it's a very long time, but however long he gives me, if it's 50 years or whatever,

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I just pray that I'll be as faithful as he is. And I have a quote for him. He said, in regards to 2

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Corinthians 5, 14 through 15, and the understanding that we no longer live for ourselves,

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John MacArthur said, it's not the perfection of one's life, but the direction, not the perfection, but the direction of a life that provides evidence of regeneration.

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We can't judge people's hearts, but we can, this is sort of cliche, but we're quote -unquote fruit inspectors, not that we're going around judging people's fruit and say, oh, your fruit isn't like mine, so you must not be saved.

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We really, to a large degree, need to eradicate a judgmental atmosphere from our

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American Christian churches. It doesn't mean you don't call sin what it is, and it don't mean that you don't have righteous standards and God's Word isn't clear.

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But we sometimes err so far over into judgmental -ville that we don't give people a chance to grow on their own, seek

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Christ on their own, learn from their own mistakes. You've got to balance that, and you can't go to the other extreme that says, it doesn't matter what you do, just go and do whatever you want.

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Avoid extremes. Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle. But he says, it's not that perfection of one's life, so we would not expect perfection, but the direction, turning from sin to righteousness.

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The hallmark of a believer is obedience to Christ, so the key is that the direction of my life is moving towards Christ, no longer towards Satan and sin.

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And you can tell that in a person's life. You know when the direction of their life has changed.

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Moving on to Ephesians chapter 4, and we're still understanding the definitional aspect of our sanctification, but Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 22, it says, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, once and for all a completed act done, the moment of your salvation, the old self, the old nature is done away with, it's crucified with Christ, it's no longer in operation.

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And in reference to that former manner of life, which was being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

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Notice that this new self, the true nature of the Christian life, is a nature and a life that is created by God in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

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And understanding going, moving towards a deeper knowledge of the truth is something we're going to pick up in Colossians in a minute. But this nature is created in righteousness.

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The new self or new nature is not something added or placed on top of the old self, it's a replacement of the old nature.

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So this brings us to Colossians, which is our main text for today, Colossians chapter 3 and verse 9, it says, do not lie to one another since you laid off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed, and notice it says, renewed to a true knowledge,

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Paul using the same terminology in different places, a true knowledge according to the image, and this word translated image is a

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Greek word for when we get the English word icon, icon, the image, of the one,

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Jesus Christ, who created Him. Jesus Christ created our new self,

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Jesus Christ creates our new nature, it is created in the righteousness of Christ, and it is this righteousness and this new nature that we are and have put on, definitionally.

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This is why we say that as we will progress in the Christian life and we'll still struggle with sin, we'll look at this in a moment, nothing about that changes our eternal standing or right standing before God.

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One that is saved, one that has been raised to spiritual life, one that has placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ is eternally secure, eternally transformed, their right standing is never in question, but it is our experiential sanctification that is part of the ongoing

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Christian life, but definitionally we are changed according to the one who created Him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek or Jew, so on and so forth.

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We are made in the likeness of God, and we only have one nature, and there is obviously well intentioned people that say this, so it is not to say that you are intentionally trying to say something wrong,

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I've said this very much my whole life, but part of being in Biblical submission is changing our vocabulary.

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We very commonly say as a Christian cliche, well it is my old nature coming rearing its ugly head, fighting with my new nature, and I've got to put the old nature down, and you know, walk in the new nature, and you know

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I've got these two natures, the Bible doesn't teach that. I'll show you what it does teach in a minute, but it doesn't teach that we have two natures.

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You have one nature, you're either in Adam, unregenerate and lost, or you're in Christ and you've put on the new self, so you're either in the old self or the new self.

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We only have one nature, we are a new creation in Christ and have put off the old self and have put on the new self in salvation.

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So if we don't have two natures, if we only have one nature, and as Christians we have the new nature, why is it that Christians still sin?

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Well I'm glad you asked. Turn to Galatians once more time, Galatians chapter 5, and we're going to understand why it is that Christians struggle with sin if we have a new nature.

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Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16 it says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

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And then here's your answer, look at this closely, it says, For the flesh sets its desire against the

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Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

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The Bible says in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, Without faith it is impossible to please God, therefore in faith in Christ we may not have the ability and the capacity to please

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God. But what gets in the way is not our old nature because it's been done away with, it's our flesh.

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Our flesh, we're a new nature, we're a new creature, but we reside in old bodies.

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We're still in sinful humanness. Our bodies will not be until Christ returns, we will have obviously the resurrection, we'll receive new glorified bodies, and at that point we will be in the perfection of our salvation and our future glorification when we will go on in eternity and serve

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Christ in new bodies and our spirit which is now holy and righteous will match our flesh which will be a glorified, incapable of sin flesh.

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But for the time that we are here in this life, we reside in sinful humanness, we war against the flesh, the

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Spirit of God resides in us and wants us to please God and serve Him, but our flesh wars against that Spirit.

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They're in opposition to each other. The flesh wants what it wants, the Spirit wants what

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God wants, and they're in opposition. It is the flesh that causes this issue.

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It is the flesh that causes this opposition. This is why, my friends, we have a spiritual war.

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You remember the whole series on the spiritual war, putting on the armor of God? Why is that necessary?

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Why do we need armor? It's not that we have two competing natures. We've been transformed.

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It's because our flesh still wars against our new nature. It wars against our spirit.

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Remember Ephesians, the series on the spiritual war? It says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, rulers in high places.

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This is why we do not wrestle against that, but against these powers and it is why we have a spiritual war, because we reside in sinful flesh.

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Our flesh sets its desire against the Spirit. This is why we have difficulty in trial, in doing what our nature, which is in creating

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Christ, wants to do. Our previous nature, the old self, lacked the capacity, the willingness, the desire to please

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God. Our new self has the capacity, it has the desire and the willingness to please

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God, and our flesh will cause us problems, which is why we need, and this is number two, and lastly, we look at our transformation defined, but we look at transformation experienced.

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Transformation experienced. This is why we need daily, ongoing experiential sanctification.

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Basically bring our flesh in line with what our spirit now desires to do, and for this

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I have one last quote this morning from John MacArthur. He said, possession of the new self does not bring the believer new life.

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I'm sorry, I said that wrong. Possession of the new self does bring the believer new life, but not instant spiritual maturity.

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So that's the difference. We possess new life, we possess new spirit, but not instant spiritual maturity.

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The battle against the flesh, he says, will go on throughout this life. It is

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God's plan, according to Colossians 3 .9 -11, to make believers like Jesus Christ.

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We are daily and experientially being sanctified.

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We are to be growing into that true knowledge, growing into greater submission to Christ and His Word.

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When you're first saved, you're a babe in Christ, and depending on what age in life you were saved, you may have had decades, or fortunately if you're a child when you're saved, you can start this process very early, but if you're an adult and you're saved, you've got a whole lifetime of living and serving the flesh, and serving the old nature, and walking in unrighteousness and sin.

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And so it will be more difficult to get that flesh in line with the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, but that's the key to sanctification.

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It's about putting to death, as we looked at in our previous sermons in Colossians, where we picked up in Colossians 3 .5,

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running through today, putting to death our earthly members, putting to death the sin we find in our flesh, where it's about holding up and putting down the flesh, and being in control of our flesh, and putting it into submission to Christ.

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This transformation, this sanctification, the true nature of the

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Christian life has certain characteristics. There's three of them, and I'm going to end by sharing these with you.

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And these three are meant to help you with your day in, day out experiential sanctification, bringing your body and your whole self into greater conformity with Jesus Christ.

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Number one, there are zero distinctions between believers.

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Colossians 3 .11 says, a renewal which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,

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Scythian, slave, and freeman, but Christ is all in all. There are no man -made barriers allowed.

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We hear so much, specifically in politics in our countries, about black and white, and this race, and that race, and this thing, and that thing.

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Man can't overcome racial divides. He can't.

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As much as every politician and everyone that says it, I don't care what side of the spectrum they're on, if they get there and tell you they're going to bring peace to the

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Middle East, they're lying. Man can't bring peace to this world. Man can't bring peace to racial things, and all these other things.

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But there is a people who can. Christ's people, the one in which there's a renewal happening in their life where there are no distinctions, no barriers, no

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Jews, no Greeks, there's no black, there's no white. Our skin color and our culture is a part of who we are, but definitionally it's not who we are in Christ.

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We're all in Christ, and Christ is in all. We can overcome those things because we have the power of Christ living in us.

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One of the things about our experiential sanctification is to reach beyond ourselves, reach beyond our cultures, reach beyond what we look like, and have an all inclusive

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Christianity. Not in terms of theology, but in terms of the barrier, the distinctions.

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There's no distinctions. Someone living in South Africa is just as much a Christian as someone in Russia, as they are in poor

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Virginia. There's certain foundational theological elements that bring us all together, and that's where our true unity lies.

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But man is classic. Man is highly skilled at creating barriers and creating distinctions.

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You hear about it in our news, you know, this group, this income level, this race, that doesn't exist in Christianity.

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When the cross occurred, you know the unique thing about the ground at the cross? It's all level.

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A pastor is no better than anybody else. Your Sunday school teacher is not better than you. The Christian sitting in a pew is no better than any other

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Christian. We're all equal. We're equals among equals, because we all needed the same

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Savior. We were all destined for hell. Black, white, all saved by the same blood.

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Number one, there's zero distinctions. Number two, it is a transformation that is total in scope.

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You can't hold anything back. All is on the table. You remember the story at the beginning with the piece of paper?

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He had a piece of paper and all the things he was going to do. He said, son, write your name on a blank piece of paper and lay that on the altar.

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If there's any part in your life you say, well, I'm perfectly fine with Christ meddling and working over here, but this part over here, that's me.

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I'm keeping that for myself. Christ can't touch that. If that's your mission, you might need to check your heart.

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You might need to check up on your salvation. Something's wrong, because the new nature will be total in scope. You'll want to submit all you are.

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Everything that we have, everything that we are is by the grace of God. Therefore, everything that we have and everything that we are should be submitted to God.

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Nothing held back. That's true for a Christian and for a church. All is on the table.

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Everything submitted. We're all under the authority of Scripture. We're all total in scope to be transformed from the inside out.

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And then number three, it takes effort and humble submission. It is a denial of self and not a promotion of self.

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It is a very hard thing to do to humble our flesh. We're such a prideful people.

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And this certainly doesn't mean America is evil and horrible, but American culture tends to promote this.

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Be anything you want to be. Take life by the horns. Go out there and do it.

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There's an element of truth, an element to that that's okay. But if you so dominate with self and promote self at the expense of what

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Christ is wanting to do, you're in error. You're sinning. This experiential transformation is about effort and humble submission.

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You've got to be committed. You've got to show up. You've got to come.

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I'm not even talking about church. I'm talking about show up in your life. Get up every morning.

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Not just the ones when you feel like it. Because believe me, the days when you don't feel like it are going to outnumber the days when you do feel like it.

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It is not what we do when times are easy, but what we do when it's at their hardest that produces the greatest amount of growth.

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That's why we will not wait until we think that everything's great.

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We're going to strike while the iron is hot. And we're going to say, Lord, we see what's happening.

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We see what's happening around us. We see what the newsman says or this person says.

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In those times of darkness, Christ's light shines the brightest. And you don't have to wait for a pastor.

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You have the same spirit indwelling you, the same spirit that wants to transform you.

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What it's going to take, if you literally want to come by here one day and do this, we'll open the doors for you.

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But you've got to take a piece of paper, put your name on it, and whether literally or figuratively, put it on the altar.

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And like I said, I'm here all week. I'll walk over here with you. You can do it if you want to. That's what it's going to take.

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Everything you have, everything you are is not only by the grace of God, but it is to be turned around and humbly submitted to God.

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Because my friends, that is the true nature of the Christian life and is the true essence of the nature that you currently possess as Christians.