Introduction:
• The Apostle Paul has made a perfect case to the church in Colosse, why Jesus Christ is preeminent above all. He has dealt with
faith, doctrine, and salvation. In chapter 2 Paul addressed the enemy that was attacking the church, but encouraged the saints to
hold tightly to Christ, for He was their ally who would never let them down.
• In chapter three and four is where the “rubber meets the road” in the Christian life. How it looks in the life of a human who is
walking close to Christ, and in whose life Christ is number 1.
• 3:5, the first word is “THEREFORE”, telling us to read the previous verses. Last week we saw that Paul tells the church that their
foundation and purpose is to live like Christ, seeing that they have died to Christ, are hidden in Christ, and long for Christ’s return.
With those facts shown, it is time for Paul to focus on the most vile, dirty, four letter word the world has ever known, SINS.
• God saved us from sin, but that does not lessen our responsibility to kill sin and reject sin from our lives. It is true that Christians
have a new nature, but as one preacher put it, “Christ changed our lives, now we must change our lifestyle (of course of God’s
power within us). Paul first’s focuses on the negative/dress that Christians struggle to keep from wearing. Ill: Parents
responsibility to clothe our kids, and kids who struggle to wear it.
• Two truths about a Christian and the sinful wardrobe
Proposition: When we daily put on Christ and wear Him openly, then it promotes true unity and fellowship within the church.
I. Christ is All You Need To Believe In.
II. Christ is All You Need to Stand For.
III. Christ is All I Need to Live For. (key 3:17)
A. Say No to the Dress.
1. Take those clothes and burn them! (3:5-7)
* “Therefore (because of who you are in Christ) put to death” = annilation!
a. Because they show too much skin. (5)
• Sin is fleshly, it invites us to exalts ourselves over God. Sin is all about bringing attention to us.
• Paul lists five key sins that are sexual in their nature =self-gratifing sins. He ends by calling covetousness
idolatry. We are not content to please God with our bodies, so we use them to gratify the flesh.
• Sin distorts God’s intentions for our bodies and sexuality.
b. Because they invite unwanted sentence. (6)
• A life of sin will bring God’s judgment if not dealt with properly. Romans 1:18 (for lost); 2 Cor. 5:9-11 (saved)
c. Because they are out of style. (7)
• Ill: Old year book pictures; clothes out of style.
• “in which you once walked” Paul is pointing to the past lives of those who make up the church. 1 Cor. 6:9-11.
The old clothes are not in style any more, because you are a new creature in Christ.
2. Those clothes do not look good on you. (3:8-11)
• “Put off” or “Put on” is language used in getting dressed. Next week we will look at what a Christian is to wear; but
before we can get new clothes on we must take off the old.
a. Because it cannibalizes your good character. (8-9)
• Paul now lists six sins that are sins of our speech and attitudes. Sins that when left unchecked not only
displease Christ but destroy Christian unity.
• Anger & wrath are the negative emotions and visible outburst of those emotions. Malice is ill will, deliberate,
vicious intentions of harming another. Slander is defamation of one’s character. Filthy language is obscene or
abusive speech.
• Nothing breaks down a community more than lying and dishonesty
• The first list of sins are usually spoken against by Christians, and yet the second list of sins are usually
embraced as weakness. Dr. G Campbell Morgan called them “the sins in good standing”.
b. Because it causes you not to look like Christ. (10)
• “you have put on the new man….according to the image of Him”
• “your new man has a renewed mind…according to the image of Him” Romans 12:2 – “and be transformed by
the renewing of your mind”
• Ill: “like father like son” or “Following in his father’s footsteps” Sin makes you look more like the devil then it
does your adopting Father in heaven.
c. Because it creates disunity in the church. (9,11)
• No nationalities, religious labels, cultural issues, economic and political status, and even sexes (male & female
in Gal. 3:28) should come between the pursuit of holy living and unity in the body of believers.
• False teachers love to divide, group, sort, and assign; Christ has made us free not to be bound by rules and
regulations, but free to pursue loving Christ with all our hearts, and to love each other as well; and it this is
going to grow we must flee sin in our lives.
• When we are close with Christ we will be close to the church.
Conclusion: Ill: My crabgrass experience and their root system.
• The root of sin lies so deep in all of us that they cannot wholly be eradicated, even from the heart of the redeemed.” It is an on-
going mission/warfare in the life of a Christian.
• The old way of life is to be decisively challenged and changed! The idea that I am saved and now I clean and all the bad is out of
my system, is wrong. A Christian, as they are walking close to Christ and develop a hatred for sin, they will see how difficult it is to
destroy sin in one’s life. It is a life-long battle. I must take a butcher knife to those sins and leave no prisoners. I must replace
that sin will clothes that make me look like Christ.
