Putting Sin to Death

Let's begin in scripture in Colossians chapter 3, verses 5-7. "Put to death, therefore, whatever is in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires, and covetousness which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming. And these you too once walked when you were living in them." Now if you can turn in your Bibles over to our, calling our principal text where we will spend most of our time this evening, this morning. Joshua chapter 10. Let's still look at an Old Testament example of the hard and long difficult work that is putting sin to death.

In Old Testament story you may not be familiar with Joshua chapter 10 verses 15 and I'll read through 27. It's a good portion of scripture but I think you'll see why it's important to read it. "So Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp of Gilgal. These five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave of Makeda. And it was told to Joshua the five kings who had been found hidden in the cave at Makeda. Joshua said, "Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and set men by it to guard them. But do not stay there yourselves. Pursue your enemies. Attack their rear guard.

Do not let them enter their cities for the Lord your God has given them into your hand." Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with a great blow until they were wiped out. And when the remnant that remained of them had entered into the fortified cities, then all the people returned saved to Joshua in the camp of Makeda, not a man who had just found them. Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me from the cave." And they did so. They brought those five kings out to him from the cave.

The king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth, the king of Laxchis, and the king of Eglon. When they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, "Come near me. Put your feet on the necks of these kings." Then they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight." And afterward, Joshua struck them and put them to death. And he hanged them on five trees.

And they hung them on the trees until evening. But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves. And they sent large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remained to this very day. Let's go to the word of prayer. Father God, at first glance we may not see the treasure trove, the truth that lie in these passages.

Lord, as your children called out of Egypt, wandered in the wilderness, crossed the River Jordan and began to take battles with Jericho and Ai, eventually, Lord, they find themselves here in the midst of a miraculous work, a long and difficult work, but one that informs the church, that blesses us. And at our core, we are in great need today that you would fight against sin in our lives. So please bless us, O Lord, as we seek to learn from this Old Testament story of what it means to utterly defeat sin in our life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

The title this morning is "Putting Sin to Death." My introduction will really come out of the first point. There's five things that I want you to see this morning. It's "Putting Sin to Death." We're going to look at an Old Testament story as a metaphor for what it means to utterly and completely destroy sin in your life. We're going to see what God's will is out of Colossians 3. And many of you have been attending a small group Bible study. You'll notice this is our passage that we've been in and out of Colossians in 3. And I used this story to set up to our small group.

Those in my small group had something of a sneak peek, but I wanted to take this. It's really been moving upon my heart recently. I feel there is a greater message needed for the church. We'll move on to God's world. We'll look at God's wrath, God's waiting, and God's winning. So let's look at the first point. This will be our introduction to Colossians 3, 5, and 7. And I'll say, beyond that, that it is God's will for you to destroy sin utterly and completely in your life. And this is a commandment, and God commands us, just as Brother Chris recently said in his last message Sunday, He commands us to go and to make disciples.

Yet, when Brother Chris is in the Philippines, he knows he cannot make disciples unless God first makes them. And it is the same thing in our spiritual life, that we must be holy. Yet we cannot be holy, apart from an ongoing work with God. Let's read our first text, Colossians 3, 5, and 7. Let's read it again. Put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, covenants-ness, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

Well, I've been teaching my small group, and I've been mentioning this just about every time I teach, and every time I preach, two things that we need to learn, and I want you to write these down if you're taking notes. We've been learning about our positional sanctification. Positional sanctification. That's sort of a big church work. What does it mean? It means that when Jesus died on the cross, because of his blood, you as a believer in Christ who've been born again are considered holy. That is your position. When the Father looks at you, he sees the blood of Jesus.

If you have been born again and regenerated by the power of the Spirit, when you came to faith in Christ, in repentance and faith, the Lord gave you a new birth, you repented, you believed, and you're a new creation. The Father looks upon you and sees you as Christ. That is the believer. That is your position. Another word that you might want to write down is imputed. Holiness. I-M-P-U-T-E-D. So what that means is this is God's holiness, Christ's holiness imputed upon you. It is your position. But that is not where the work ends. Actually, that is where the work just begins. Then we enter into progressive sanctification.

And God commands us to be holy. Now this is not speaking of our positional holiness, imputed holiness. This is imparted. Not imputed, but imparted holiness. Now this word, imparted, let me explain what it means. You know the word? You're writing it down. I-M-P-A-R-T-E-D. Impart. So that means is, as we live out Colossians 3, 5 through 7, we become aggressively more like Christ. We put sin to death. Therefore, we become more like Jesus. And this is where the rubber meets the road. You can say this is getting down to brass tacks. Christianity. This is what really, really matters.

In Colossians 3, 5 and 7 where we say put to death whatever is hurting in you. This is a very long, arduous task. So we need the New Testament for this. We need Colossians 3 for this. You can think of 5 idolatrous kings that we're going to see in the Old Testament. Before we get there, Joshua, I want us to look at these 5 idolatrous kings in the New Testament. I just think that's neat. That we're going to look at 5 Old Testament pagan kings who are God-heirs, who fought against God. And a good place to begin are these 5 kings that have set up resonance in this world. Look in Colossians 3 if you would. The first king.

The first king is sexual immorality. You say how can we tell if a person has been born again? Is the king of sexual immorality on the throne of your life? If you're actively ongoing, engaging, if the practice of your life is one of sexual immorality, well then the Lord has not set up shop. That king has not been deposed. The second king of this world is impurity. These are every impure motive. This could be you church attender who come every single Sunday with impure motives. I love that Jared mentioned Judas. He had a great philanthropic work of caring for the poor and the needy. But the king of his life was impurity. He had impure motives.

He would even scold Jesus and scold the woman who broke the alabaster box and wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. He would even scold Jesus because of his impurity. What about passion? I don't know if you have a temper. But I have seen the evil king of temper absolutely ruin the witness of professing Christians. Church all the time. But when the matters of family came up, you would see a bitterness in their face and anger in their face. And this idolatrous king rules their life. The real Christian has got to put this to death even as Christ put him to death. What about evil desires? He goes very closely with the last king which is covetousness.

And all five of these evil worldly kings are under the heading of idolatry. No matter how much church attendance, no matter how many mission trips, even reading the Bible, if these lower case G gods are on the throne, they are king. The second point I want us to see, we know it's God's will to put these kings to death. But let's look at the world. This is God's world and I love that Jared is saying this is my father's world. Although the wrong seems also strong, he is the ruler yet. That's my favorite line, I think just about any him. Because we look around in our world and we see so much brokenness.

Just this week, you look at the news, you see brokenness. Not just brokenness in the news, not just brokenness as we get the 24/7 news cycle pushed to our phone. We can't get away from the brokenness. But look in your own family at the brokenness. First we must see that this is God's world. Let's do this if we can. Let's read in Joshua. Let's turn there. And let's look at the world. Joshua chapter 10 verse 15. So Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal. So I'll give you just a little text before I break this down some more. But this is the Canaan land conquest. The Israelites have left Egypt.

They spent 40 years in the wilderness. Moses has passed away. Joshua has taken the realm, taken the reigns. He's at the helm. They cross the Jordan River. They have military battles. And the Lord has instructed them to completely wipe out everyone in every city. And before we look at this and we say, "That seems so cruel, God. That seems so harsh." To go to Jericho and to wipe out every woman, every man, every soldier, and even the children. But we have to see correctly what the purpose of this military conquest is. This was more than God giving his children land.

In fact, God even postponed this Canaan land conquest so that these pagan people, their sin would multiply. And when it reached its full measure, he was ready to judge them. So the Israelites are not just moving in and killing off individuals and taking over their military, taking over their land, taking their crops and their clusters of grapes and their walled cities. The Lord and his vengeance is complete. If you go back and look, you just read the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Sometimes we understand why those laws are in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

But at the very end of Leviticus it says, "On this reason, the Lord judged the nations that you overthrew." The reason why Israel was told to take over these countries is that they, these nations, represented hatred of God. When you look at these five Amorite kings, we should look at the world. We should look at enemies of God. So let's read Joshua chapter 10 and verse 15 through 17. So Joshua returned and all Israel with them. They had just had a major military victory. The Lord actually caused the sun to stay in the sky. The scripture said there's been no day like it before or since.

And when the army went to flight, the Lord rained hailstones upon them. So that's the setting. And they were coming back to the camp. So Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal. These five kings fled and they hid themselves in the cave at Nikita. And it was told to Joshua the five kings had been found hidden in the cave. So these five kings represent the world. They represent the sin-dominating, polytheistic, sexually perverse, morally debased world that is anti-Christ. We've learned from Brother Chris that the world is anti-Christian. It is anti-Christ. When you say, "What is the world?" Turn on the TV.

As soon as church is over, grab your phone. If you get news, push to your phone. Open it up. If you look at Fox News, you're looking at the world. When you look at MSN, you're looking at the world. When you're looking at Twitter, the news that comes to you, if you get Twitter, you're looking at the world. Even on Facebook, you're getting the world. Anywhere you look, and everywhere you look, you're getting the world. But if I can just sum it up, 1 John 2 16 tells us what the world is.

"For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life." Other translations say, "The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, and everything, the boasting of what he has and does." This is not from the Father, but this is from the world. So you might want to say these five kings that we see, they're held up in a cave. Now, these are good generals, aren't they? Good generals. I say that facetiously. Their men just got rowdy. The Lord literally caused the Son to stay in the day.

Now, there's a lot of commentators who say, "This was a lunar eclipse." Or, "This was a solar eclipse." Or, "This was a comet." Well, Scripture says, right after you read this, there's been no day like this before or since. So if you're either going to believe the Bible or you're not going to believe the Bible, there's been no day like this. I believe the Lord held the sun in the sky. And he did that so that his army could defeat the enemy kings. Now, if you think these are Amorites, but there are five different Amorite kings, so they're all together. We can think of them as part of an idolatrous brotherhood.

And they're engaged in these horribly pagan activities as a lifestyle for culture. And their men die. The Lord actually finished off the army of hailstones. The Lord destroyed more men with hailstones than the Hebrews did with their swords. And so these kings think they're going to run away from the God who fell hailstones upon their army and held the sun in the sky. So they find a nice, cozy place to hide. Warren Wiersby says that this cave, which was meant to be a hiding place, became a prison and would soon be a tomb. I would quote that verse, that quote a couple more times before the sermon is over. But we see the world, God's world.

And let's look at number three, God's wrath. Let's look at verse 18. And Joshua said, "Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and set men by it to guard them." See, the kings were hiding in a cave, but there were no stones in front of them. They were just hiding in a cave. And when they were found, Joshua is told and he says, goes to examine, he says, "Great. Now we've got more work to do. So lock them in." If we see this, God then has these kings right where he wants them. A few sub-points here that I want you to note. First sub-point. I want you to know that God hates sin. God hates sin.

That goes without saying, but it's important to say that these kings not just represented evil kingdoms and evil men. They were evil. And God was angry with them. He had been waiting over 400 years just to punish them. He was very, very angry. So when Joshua sees them and orders stones, in the words of Matthew Henry, the comfortable hiding place became a prison. And if God hates sin, and he hates sin so much, he hates sin in your life. He absolutely hates sin in your life. And I would say that you're actually at war with God if you are not hiding with him to kill sin in your life. I want to read one passage for you.

I would challenge you to go back and study this this week. This is in Joshua chapter 10, earlier in verse 11. This wraps up the passage. These are the Amorites running away. "And as they fled before Israel while they were going down the ascent of Beth-Haron, the Lord threw down large hailstones from heaven on them, from Aska as and they died. There were more who died because of hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword." I want you to think about that as I read that last verse. "There were more who died because of hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword." So let me just sum something up for you.

Sanctification is a process that God is in charge of. In every bad habit that you get rid of, and every sin you take out of your life, the Lord has to take three out for you. Yes, you need to actively run these sins down. But you also need to have great dependence on the Lord. Now let's get the picture. The Lord threw Joshua's leadership. These kings are in the cave. Joshua orders stones over the mouth of the cave. And then he puts guards and he says, "We're going to leave them here. And then we're going to go run down the rest of the army that's fleeing." That leads us to our fourth point here. God's waiting. We see God's will.

We see the world. God's world. We see God's wrath. He's fighting with sin. He's angry with sin. But we will also see God's waiting. Let's read Joshua, chapter 10, verses 19 through 20. "Do not stay there yourself. Put your enemies, attack, pursue your enemies, and attack their rear guard. Do not let them enter their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hands." "So when Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with a great blow, until they were wiped out, and when the remnant that remained of them had entered into the fortified city." So here I want you to see that Joshua has sealed the enemy kings into their stone tomb.

And he gives his soldiers instructions to chase down this fleeing army. And there's three kinds of waiting that I want you to see here. In verse 19, this is an active waiting. This is an active waiting. There are two guards who are guarding the king. These represent God holding strongholds of sin until they're dealt with. And God sends, Joshua sends the rest of the army to flee. Now what would happen if this army could flee? They would go into garrisons, they would go into cities, and they would basically wait it out. I don't know if you have been to a walled city.

I was fortunate enough to see a walled city when I went to Spain, to see a city from the 1200s, 1300s, 1500s. They had this wall that was literally nine feet wide, or nine feet thick, and about twelve feet high. It's made out of stones. The cities were built like this, and they had stores, and they would just try to wait, and wait, and wait. And they would have enough food to be there sometimes for a year. And so if you were going to have to chase, you were going to have to wait. And so this was supposed to be a quick conquest.

So Joshua says, "Let the kings wait, and I want you to go chase down these enemies." I want you to see that Joshua was on a path of complete obedience. All of these Amorites had to be destroyed, every single one. This was God's judgment. And if you have sin in your life that is lingering, you can't let it linger. So that which was meant to be prolonged would not be prolonged. This was an active waiting. I want you to think about this for a second. I want to give you an illustration from my time at the World War II Museum. I saw film footage of these Japanese instructional videos.

They were told, as after Hitler surrendered, the Japanese did not want to surrender. And I saw film footage, and I saw pictures of instructional videos. And there were actually women going through a self-defense class. They had long bayonets and sticks and broom handles, and they were instructed to fight against the invading American armies. And they were told to fight to the death. Every citizen in all those cities were instructed when the United States Army invades fight to the death. I saw the archival footage. I saw the newsreels. And eventually, as you know, they did surrender. But that left an impression upon me. Sin will not surrender.

If there is sin in your life, it will not go away. In fact, it will only fester and it will only grow. And it will fight to the death. And every sin is important. And every Amorite that was running away from Joshua's army needed to be defeated. So while those Amorite kings were in their stone prison, there was more work to do. And I want you to think for a second about your conversion. Have you ever heard of a person's testimony of defeating sin in their life after their conversion? Usually those like this. You know, after I was saved, there were some sins that fell off the back. They fell off and they fell away immediately.

But there were some things I had to really fight with. And that's a picture of the Hebrew soldiers chasing down these enemy warriors. And sometimes there are big, strong-hold sins that are locked in the cave. And God says, "This area in your life is so big that temper, this issue is so big." We're not going to deal with it right now. You have Amorite soldiers to run down. I want to ask you a question. Are you chasing sin down this morning? Are there certain sins in your life after your conversion that seem to be putting up a pretty good fight? This was an act of waiting, but this was also a fearful waiting.

I want us to think about these kings in the cave. This was a fearful waiting. You know that they were on death row. The minute that stone, those stones were placed over the mouth of that cave, their days were totally numbered. The scripture tells us that these death row kings waited for their judgment. And sin also waits for judgment in our life. 1 Corinthians 15, 25. "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." It's not only a fearful waiting. Sin should be terrified of Christ in your life. Sin and Satan's work that would want to kill and destroy you ought to be fearfully scared. The work of Christ in your life.

There's also a heavenly waiting. Christ waits at the right hand of the Father. He is actively working through his spirit. Psalms 1, 10, 1. The Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." The last point that I want you to see this morning is God's winning. After the Hebrews chased down all those Amorites, they returned and they opened the mouth of the cave, and Joshua brings the kings out. And let's read in verse 22.

"And Joshua said, 'Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out to me from the cave.' And they did so, and brought those five kings out to him from the cave." The king of Jerusalem. Now this was, you may not know this, but Jerusalem was a pagan city. Before it was the city of David, it was a pagan city. So the king of Jerusalem was one of these five kings. So the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth, the king of Laxchis, the king of Eglon. "And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel.

And he said to the chiefs of the men of war, who had gone out with him, 'Come near me, put your feet on the necks of these kings.' Then they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, 'Do not be afraid or dismayed, be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.' And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees. And they hung on trees to lead me. At the time of going down the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees, and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves.

They set large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this day." A few sub points here. I have one, that sin has a judge, in verse 22. I want you to know that sin has a judge. For these kings, this was their appointed day. I'll read this quote by Matthew Henry once again. "That which was thought, they thought would have been their shelter, was made their prison first, and then their grave." Let me read the end of the quote. "So shall we be disappointed in that which we flee to from God." I love that quote. If you think about it, if there's anything you're running away from God, and you're seeking refuge.

If you're seeking refuge in anything other than God. Now, you have lived long enough to know people who have ran to things other than God. Right now, you know someone who has run to drugs. They're running from God to a shelter of drugs. They are running from God to a shelter of alcohol. Some people are running from God to a shelter in their selves, in their own attitudes. Some of you know individuals who are running from God, and they're running to a false shelter of idolatry. And anything that you are running from God to, will eventually be a prison and a grave. Because sin has a judge. Let's look at verse 24.

"And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel." I'm going to quote Borne Wiersby. "Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ." Now, what that means is he's a representative of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Anything that Joshua does, you can see as being a figure of speech for Christ. Joshua was a walking parable. Joshua was a walking parable. And so when he calls his soldiers to put their feet on the necks of these kings, this is a picture of Christ calling his children and his church to put their foot on the neck of sin. This is an act of humiliation. This is an act of total and utter defeat.

In this day, for a king to be on the ground was humiliating in and of itself. That would not have happened. To have an opposing judge place the king on the ground, to this day you know that the foot in Middle Eastern countries is considered unclean. They were not shoes, they walked in sandals. One of the greatest insults in the Middle Eastern world is to wave your shoes. In fact, you might remember George W. Bush was president. There was a person who took off their shoe and threw it at President Bush. This was in the Arab world the most tremendously insulting gesture anyone could do. This is worse.

This is taking a king who sat in a palace on a throne and puts them on the ground. And takes a symbol of unplenliness and puts it on the neck, which is their lifeblood. This is not just utter victory, this is shame. Now again, let's take a look at this and see the symbolism we should not deny. Jesus crushed the power of sin. In fact, Jesus utterly shamed and humiliated sin on the cross. There was no reason why sin should live in the life of a believer when Jesus went through such a great cause to put it to shame. Listen to what Warren Wiersby says.

Joshua called for his officers to put their feet on the necks of kings, symbolic not only of the past victory, but also the victory of the Lord who gave his people. The cross is a sign that you can defeat your temper. The cross is a sign that you can defeat every vice in purity. This is a sign that there is no reason why sexual immorality should live on in the life of someone past their conversion. Period. And every stronghold that's taken down in your life is proof that Jesus will take you all the way to the promised land. Let's look at other places of scripture. You can write these down and go look at them this week. Psalms 76-12.

"Who cuts off the spirit of the princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth." This is the Lord. This is the Lord God. This was not Joshua's foot on the king. This was the Lord's foot on the necks of the king. And he was cutting off their spirit. He was demoralizing them. And more importantly, this is what Jesus does to sin. In the New Testament, take Romans 16-20. "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Believer, the Lord commands you to place your foot on set. He commands you to place your foot.

As I was reading over this, I was actually listening to the Bible while I was walking at work. I had been studying Colossians 3. You know, if you pray scripture, the Lord will correct your hermeneutics. That means the Lord will show you how to apply scripture once you pray scripture. And I was asking the Lord to place his foot on certain sin attitudes in my heart and life. And it was as if the Lord and the Holy Spirit said, "Go back and read the text." This is not Joshua's foot at first. He tells his commanding officers to put their foot on the neck. And this is this interesting. The Lord commands us to put our foot.

We can only put our foot on sin because he crushed Satan. And this is God winning the battle for us. You can also think of a passage like Psalm 18-40. This will be our song in glory. "You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed." Psalm 18-40. I've got to be honest, this is my favorite part of the text. Let's read this and I'll close. Joshua 10-26-27. "And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees.

They hung on the trees till evening, but at the time of going down the sun Joshua commanded, and they took him down from the trees and threw them into the cave, where they had hidden themselves. They set large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this day." Old Testament says the curse is anyone who is hung on the tree. And I want you to think of something as we close. The Lord Jesus hates sin so much that he became sin. You do realize that Jesus was hung on the tree for you. You do realize that it was not just these kings hung on a tree, it was Christ who was made a curse for your sin and my sin.

Notice it's not insignificant that these kings were held up until sundown, and then they're taken down from where they placed in the cave. The stone is rolled over the mouth of the cave. Friend, let me tell you, Jesus became the curse. The perfect sacrificial lamb became cursed. He acted as if he became all the sin these kings ever committed. All the sin you ever committed, he became that sin and was crushed, yet he remained holy. And before sundown, Jesus was taken off the cross and he was placed in the borrowed tomb, just as the kings remained in the tomb today. Jesus, however, rose and he left those sins in the grave.

I want you to know that your king is victorious. There's no reason why you can't get victory over any sin in your life. Close the way we began in Colossians 3, verses 5 through 7, put to death therefore. Why therefore? Because Jesus was one with your sin. He became cursed on the tree. He was placed into the cave and he rose victorious over sin and over hell and over the grave. Therefore, put to death whatever is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, thoughts and action, impure motives, passion, evil desires, cognizance. Verse 6, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming." He needs you to once walk when you are living in them.