Worship and the Mortification of Sin

About this sermon

Introduction: How often do you connect your personal battle against sin with the matter of worship? When you think about a particular sin that you’re battling. When you identify what one might call a besetting sin, a stubborn sin, one that you have struggled with for a long time. How often do you think about that issue as a worship issue? How often do you think about worship as the way in which progressive sanctification takes place? Or to say it another way: What IS the relationship between worship and personal holiness? And if you wonder why, or how, I would suggest such a close relationship between worship and the battle against sin, I think the verse that we just read will provide the answer. PAUL HAS STATED WHAT IS and WHAT SHOULD BE IN VERSES 1-4. NOW PAUL IS STATING WHAT WE MUST DO BECAUSE OF THAT. WHAT IS What is CURRENT AND FIXED reality for the believer is stated in verses 1-4. And exhortations regarding that reality are interwoven with the statement of reality. The believer has been raised with Christ. The believer has died and his or her life is now hidden with Christ in God. This reality has both positional and experiential aspects. As a result, when Christ – WHO IS OUR LIFE – appears, we will appear with Him in glory. That’s a fixed future reality. New life, new standing, new future. WHAT SHOULD BE THESE REALITIES IN THE REALM OF PRESENT SALVATION AND FUTURE SALVATION, dictate that we must live differently right now. IT INFORMS WHAT WE SEEK – THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE. OUR EFFORTS, OUR ENERGIES, OUR ASPIRATIONS, ARE HEAVENLY FOCUSED. IT INFORMS WHERE ARE MINDS ARE OCCUPIED – A HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE NOT AN EARTHLY ONE. A Christ focused perspective, since He is our life, and He is in Heaven. IT INFORMS THE COURSE OF OUR LIVES IT INFORMS THE FOCUS OF OUR LIVES AND ALL OF THIS MUST BE CHOSEN Our new life means a new way of living is now possible, and yet must be chosen. That new way of living is in some respect inevitable, and yet it must be chosen. THE SEEKING ISN’T AUTOMATIC – I MUST SEEK. THE RIGHT FOCUS ISN’T AUTOMATIC – I MUST SET MY MIND THERE. And then, in light of that — in light of what is true, and AS I AM PRACTICING what should result from that reality — now Paul talks about what the believer must do regarding sin. He gives us what we frequently find in the New Testament — a sin list. He gives a command regarding that sin list — whatever is on that sin list MUST BE PUT TO DEATH. And he gives a warning regarding that sin list. THE WRATH OF GOD IS COMING BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS. THIS IS NOT THE LAST LIST. He’s not going to stop with this sin list. He talks about other things later and compares the new life to a change of clothes that belongs to the new man. But what I find intriguing, and easy to overlook, is how he constructs this first sin list, what he ends the sin list with, and how he describes that particular sin. He has just exhorted us to set our minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth (vs.2), and then we are commanded to put to death what is earthly in us. Douglas Moo – “… this “putting to death” of sin is not only demanded by our incorporation into Christ; it is also empowered and effected by it. Union with Christ, because it puts us in a new relationship to sin and brings us into the sphere of the Spirit’s power, will impact the way we live. Ultimately, then, the imperative “put to death” in this verse must be viewed as a call to respond to, and cooperate with, the transformative power that is already operative within us.”

Topics

• Repentance
• Worship