Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. The deep desire for acceptance has lured even sincere believers into sin. Let's continue the study of Colossians, explaining that for the Christian, that victory over temptation depends on how you think. Now, immorality is not something that we face once in a while or frequently, but it is an issue that we have to deal with every day. When you pick up the average magazine, there are the evidences of immorality.
You watch the average television program and it's either going to be all through the program or it's going to be spotted in there somewhere. Wherever we turn, there is the problem of immorality. And so Paul says, as you look at these, I want you to notice he mentions five sins in this fifth verse. He says, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
I want you to see something else about this list, and that is where he begins. He begins with the outward manifestation of it. That is the act of immorality. And then he works backward from the manifestation to the motivation of it. He says, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which is the source of it all, which amounts to idolatry. I want you to think about something in the Old Testament.
Usually what happened when you had idolatry, you had sensuality or immorality. And it's interesting as you begin to look in the scriptures, turn, if you will, to Numbers chapter 25. Numbers chapter 25, and then we're going to turn to 1 Kings in a moment. I want you to see these two passages, because throughout the Old Testament, God's people got in trouble, and God made his most pronounced warnings against idolatry. But I want to show you how shrewd Satan was to involve the people of God in idolatry and how he did it.
Chapter 25 of Numbers, verses one and two. While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot. They began to become immoral with the daughters of Moab. That is, these were pagans. For they invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Look, if you will, in 1 Kings chapter 14. And this is one that's a little bit more evident. 1 Kings chapter 14.
Listen to what he says. Verse 22, and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done with the sins which they committed. For they also built for themselves high places. Now, the high places were these big mounds where they would build altars where they worshipped their other gods. For they also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree. And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land.
They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. Now, how many times have you read in the Old Testament about the god Baal? Baal this and Baal that, and why in the world would the people of God want to worship Baal?
I'll tell you why. Because Baal worship allowed for prostitution. It wasn't Baal that they were really attracted to. It was what the god Baal offered those who worshipped Baal. And that is all kinds of license to involve themselves in all kinds of immorality. So what would happen? The people of God, the nation of Israel, they would flock to these pagans, worship their gods.
Why? Because their gods allowed immorality as a way of life. God says thou shall not commit adultery. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife.
God's law was very stern, very clear, because God wanted to protect the family. What in the world would happen in any kind of a society where there was no longer any laws about marriage? Anybody could marry anybody's many people, have any kind of relationship they wanted. You'd have nothing but absolute disaster. There would be no faith, no faithfulness, no commitment, no joy, no love. None of the things that those who are married prize above everything else in life. My friend, God didn't limit sex to marriage partners in order to keep us from having fun, but to protect us from destroying ourselves.
And secondly, in order that you and I may enjoy to the fullest the very best of God's blessings. And this is what he's saying. He says put these things to death because they don't fit who you are. And all through the Old Testament you find idolatry and immorality going together. Now it isn't just in ancient days because it's true today. Listen, when a person involves themselves in immorality, they are expressing a covetous, greedy desire at the expense of someone else.
It doesn't make any difference. Listen, whether two people are consenting or not, the effect is going to be the same, devastating on both persons. These people who are always given the excuse, well, we're just two consenting adults. They may be two consenting adults, but they are both rebelling against God, being covetous toward one another. And what has happened is that sex has become the idol in their life. They are committing the sin of idolatry. You cannot separate sexual immorality from idolatry because it is an expression of the worship of the human body. Why in the world would anybody walk the streets and desire and pay to get involved with anybody in an immoral fashion, knowing that their life is in danger because they have given themselves over to it? Because sex in the body has become their idol. It is the dominating force in their life.
They are driven. And here's what I want you to remember. When you get to that point and you step over the line, you lose all control in the driver's seat of your life. You become the victim dominated by sexual desire immorality. That is the danger of crossing the line. You say, well, I'm not going to cross the line.
You never know when you're going to cross the line. And the more truth you and I know, the more responsible we are before Almighty God. He says, put these things to death.
Why? Because God knows these things that he's referring to here will indeed do what? Will destroy us. You see, the truth is God wants the very best for every one of us. And because we jump ahead of God and try to get our needs and our desires met before he does, we think, well, Lord, I can't wait. Is God the kind of God who would put you in a situation where you really can't wait?
Yes, you can. Now, what I want us to move from all of this as he describes the problem, and that is what is the provision God has made for us to be able to live our lives in a sensual, sexual, immoral society and yet live above all of that? Well, there are two things primarily, and we've spent the first two chapters of Colossians talking about them. Our provision for living above all that, first of all, comes in a person. And that person is Jesus Christ.
Remember what he said? That Jesus Christ is what? Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead. That is, all of God is in Christ in the human body. He likewise said that you and I are complete in Christ.
He says that our hope of life here and our hope of life hereafter is to be found in Christ. That is, it is Christ, Christ, Christ. Christ makes us complete. Christ fills us. It is Christ living within us. Every single believer has the Holy Spirit living within him and her. And the truth is that we have the power of the Spirit of God that enables us to overcome sin. Go back to Colossians chapter 1 for a moment and look, if you will, in verse 29. Paul says, and for this purpose also our labor is striving according to his power which mightily works within us. That is, all of us have the power of the Holy Spirit working within us.
Now think about this. When a person says, oh, I just can't help myself. You mean you can't help yourself with the Almighty God himself living on the inside of you?
The Holy Spirit living on the inside of you? Listen, it isn't that we can't help ourselves. We don't want to.
But here's the situation. God isn't going to make you want to do what's right. He makes provision for us to do what's right, but he's not going to make us want to do what's right.
We have to want to do what's right. We're talking about the person of Christ, but I want to move from the person to the position. Now listen carefully. You remember the whole sermon on our position in Christ, let me remind you quickly. Romans chapter 6 tells us, when Jesus died, every single believer has been crucified. That is, when you were saved, you and I died to the old life. God executed the old self. He says we were buried in him, that is Christ in us and we in Christ. Now we have risen to walk in resurrection power, indwelling us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Now sin no longer reigns within our life. Sin can no longer master us and dominate us if we choose not to let it do so, because now we have the supernatural power of God living and reigning within us.
Why? It is our position. Now here's the difference. Our position is, spiritually, we're dead to all immorality. Our condition on the other hand is, we are not dead to it unless we choose to be dead to it.
Now here's the difference. Positionally, theologically, we have died to all of that. Conditionally, in our daily walk, we have to choose daily to live out what is spiritually true in our position. Our position crucified to it. Our condition, making choices. That's why Paul said, I die daily. I die to what?
He says, I put to death daily those things in my life that would keep me from walking holy and godly before the Lord Jesus Christ. We do have a responsibility. We cannot say we have no responsibility. We have responsibility, but what I want you to see is, the provision has been made.
That's why we can't say, oh, I couldn't help myself. Christ Jesus living within you through the power of the Holy Spirit, releasing his supernatural power in every single circumstance, because the believer is to respond to life on the basis of who we are in Christ. That is, we are sufficient and adequate to meet every situation, not because of our human strength, but because of who we are in him and who he is in us. Now, what in the world does he mean when he says, put it to death? Well, let's look at what he refers to when he talks about the members of the body.
Look, if you will. He says in verse five, therefore, consider the members of your body as dead. And in the Greek, it is an aristactive imperative, which in essence is saying, here's what he says. He says, put to death.
It is a command. He says, put to death. Therefore, put to death the members of your earthly body. Well, now, does God want us to kill ourselves?
No. He's not talking about harming the body, but rather to put to death those thoughts when cultivated, when nourished, when fed, will lead the physical body to become involved in all types of immorality. So this is what he's referring to when he speaks of your earthly body. Now, notice he says, put it to death. What in the world does he mean by putting it to death? The truth is, Jesus said, positionally, you and I have been crucified. We've died to it. That is the mind of God.
He says he put us to death to immorality. But now, if that's my position, what is my condition? My condition may be that I am constantly barraged by temptation. So if my position is that I'm clean in the eyes of God, what is my condition? My condition then becomes my responsibility to do what? To respond to the temptation on the basis of my position of having Christ in me to make me adequate.
My condition is the result of my response to temptation based on who I am. Now, if I choose to be disobedient to God and to become involved, then what happens? I sin against God and then I begin to flirt and to skirt around over here with who I am no longer in the eyes of God.
That doesn't fit us anymore. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. The Bible says you and I have been washed in the blood of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and dwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ.
God the Father is living in you and me and therefore that doesn't fit us any longer. What he's simply saying is this. You have the power. Listen to this. You have the power within you. It is your will. Sin no longer reigns in your life. Look if you will in Romans chapter 6. He says in Romans chapter 6 verse 6, Knowing this, that our old self, that is who you were before you were saved, was crucified with him that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Look at verse 7. For he who has died, what?
Died to their old life, been saved by the grace of God, become a new creation in Christ, what? Is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Then he says in verse 11, he uses a different Greek word to say the same thing like put to death.
Look if you will in verse 11. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust.
He would never have said that if it were not true. He says stop letting sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lust. Do not go on presenting the members of your body, whether it's your eyes or whatever it might be, to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves, your body to God, as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness. Notice, he says, instruments of righteousness, instruments of sin.
We have a choice. So it all boils down to this. The way to deal with immorality is to respond to the temptation of immorality on the basis of who you are in Christ Jesus, a new creation. Who he is in you making you absolutely sufficient for all things. Responding to temptation on the basis of that. Recognizing that your position is secure in Christ.
And that then our only responsibility is to respond properly, which each one of us who is a believer has the power to do. We put to death those thoughts that come through our mind. Now you may not be able to stop something from coming through your mind. You open a magazine that you think is a good magazine and there's a half nude person on the page. Well you can either sit there or stand there and look at that or you can turn the page. When you turn the page what you've done is you've put it to death. Let's say that you are in a situation where you are being highly tempted morally. And I mean you are at the point of knowing I'm not sure that you can control yourself. And you're in a situation where your passionate desires are almost uncontrollable.
And you're rationalizing with God or whatever you may be doing. All of a sudden there's this terrible crash. Glass blows somewhere. And here's somebody screaming. And you open the window and there's been an automobile accident right outside of where you are. Here's somebody lying in the street and somebody in the automobile screaming and there's fire in the engine. What would happen? Your mind would suddenly move 180 degrees from sexual passionate evil desire to a condition that grabs your attention.
And makes you want to run and save somebody from burning to death. Now what in the world happened? You had a change of mind. What changed your mind?
Something grabbed your attention. The truth is that God has given every single one of us the power to put to death any thought and every thought that does not fit his will for our life. And we can turn it off and turn around if we choose to do it. Now listen. Every single one of us I guarantee you is going to be tempted soon after this message.
I can assure you that you're going to be tempted. Now you can do one of two things. Remember this. You can do one of two things. You can embrace the thought or you have the power to put it to death at that very moment. And the best way to do that is to start praising the Lord Jesus Christ and call the name of Jesus. Jesus I want to thank you that I don't have to be a part of that.
I praise you for who you are in me. Put it to death. Kill the thought. You have the power to put it out. Now if you, listen, if you embrace the thought you get the consequences of embracing immoral thoughts. The body gets involved. The emotions become involved. The body gets involved. And the fruit of immorality in the mind is that the body gets involved. When he said put it to death that's exactly what he meant.
And the reason I say that again is because here's what I want you to watch for. Whether you open a magazine, whether you turn on the television, whether you see somebody or in your office or whatever you're doing, whatever the situation is, the next time you're tempted, remember this, in that split second you've got two choices. Embrace it or put it to death. If you embrace it you lower yourself to the world standard. If you put it to death you walk as God intended you to walk. And remember what he said about you? You're a person of notable excellence in the eyes of God.
You're one of his children. That stuff doesn't fit who we are. Now remember you've got two choices. You can embrace it or you can put it to death. Put it to death he said. The wrath of God's coming. That's what you used to be.
But now you're somebody precious in the eyes of God. Thank you for listening to part two of Dealing with Immorality. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
