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Sermons and messages from Pastor Jason White and others at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, TX
So I don't know what your wardrobe is really like. How
you
dress yourself every single day. I can get a taste of it, maybe this morning. And you all look really nice, and you're all dressed up for church today, and that's great. I see a few of you who even have some Christian T shirts on that I've seen. And of course, when we say that the T shirts aren't necessarily Christian T shirts, they're just a t shirt, but they have something associated with Christianity on them. And maybe those of you who aren't wearing them today, you have one or multiple of those, something with a verse on it, or something that kind of helps point Jesus to other people, to Jesus or reminds you of something you think is important when it comes to the Christian life. Maybe you have a T shirt that's somewhere along these lines, or you've seen someone wearing it. It's based on John, chapter three, verse 30, and the he here is, of course, a reference to Jesus, for those of it who were a little bit mathematically challenged, that's a greater than symbol there. And so, and then there's the the me. And so this is saying that Jesus is greater than me. The verse says He must increase and I must decrease in the he is talking about Jesus. And so we've taken this to just represent this in some way that it's a reminder that he should be greater than us. Now, there's other T shirts that are just like it, and this one is saying the exact same thing, but it's just a little bit different, right? It's got the arrow he is should be greater and increase, and me, I will have to decrease. It's got the exact same verse here. And you know, this one's really interesting. It's for all the math nerds out there, those of you who love your your X and Y axes, right? And so you've got the little chart up here that tells you the red line is Jesus and the the black is yourself. And most of the time, we would think of ourselves as being important and lifting ourselves up and and Jesus maybe isn't as important as us. We don't think and, and as long as he's increasing, though, and we're decreasing it at some point in time, we're going to cross paths and we're going to be on the right trajectory, and then Jesus is going to have increased and be greater, you know, than us. Maybe have a T shirt like this. Maybe you've seen people wearing a t shirt similar to this. If not, maybe you've used this verse in your own life to declare that this is what the Christian life is about. It's about less self and more of Jesus. This is the philosophy that we are to live by. I am bad, Jesus is good, so I need to learn to decrease since I'm bad and increase Jesus in my life since he's good. The only problem with that is that that's not what that verse means. This is the series that we've been in all summer looking at verses that get taken out of context. And oftentimes we've seem to believe that they mean one thing and that they apply to our lives this way, when, in fact, when you look at the context, we see again they mean something really different and applied to our lives in a different way. And so let me just show you what I mean with this particular verse. Here, that verse was John the Baptist, a quote from John the Baptist. And the apostle John wrote that in John chapter three. But here in John chapter one, he tells us and teaches us who John the Baptist was, what it is that he came to do. And so this is written in chapter one, starting in verse six, the apostle John says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, the light there was a reference to what he had talked about as far as Jesus in the first five verses. So he came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe he himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. So John the Baptist was created and born into this world for this purpose, to serve as a witness to the light to Jesus. He came to prepare the way for him. Now, if John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, then what had to happen? His earthly ministry had to start before Jesus's earthly ministry. He came to prepare the way for Jesus. So he had to go before Jesus in order to do that. And so that's what happened. John increased his presence in front of people. He increased his ministry before Jesus. Began to do so. But we all know that if that's your role and. That Jesus would come at some point, that there would come a point in time when his role would take a back seat to Jesus's role, because he wasn't the light. He came as only a witness to the light. And so when the lights came to shine, time came to shine. Guess who was going to decrease? John the Baptist right? That's what this verse is talking about. And you see it as we look at the immediate context now, so he reminded us who he was. Now, this is right before our verse, John, chapter three, verse 30. You back up a few verses in 26 and it says, And they, who is they? They were John the Baptist disciples. He had disciples that followed him and learned from him. They His disciples came and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, who is he Jesus? Right? Jesus is who he's talking about. He Jesus who is with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness. That's what you came to do. You were bearing witness to him. Look, they said he is baptizing, and all
the people are going to him. They're
not going to us anymore, John, would you look at that? They're getting all of the attention.
So what does John the Baptist say? What we read earlier, right? I mean, he says a little more. First, he says, John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. Had to go out there before him to prepare the way. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete to have gone before and prepared the way for him. So now, as a result of that, he Jesus must increase his earthly ministry, now make his presence more known, and I must decrease. I'll step into the background, and my earthly ministry will decrease. John was not saying this as the philosophy for the way to live the Christian life. He was simply making a statement about how his ministry was now going to begin to decrease, and Jesus's ministry was now going to be able to increase. He was not saying, hey, write this on a t shirt one day, so that all people will live by that. He was just making an announcement about what's going to happen right then, 2000 years ago, in those next few days, weeks and years to come. But even though we can see the context of that now, we see well, that verse may not directly apply to each and every one of us today. A lot of us, though, will point to something that Jesus said, Okay, Pastor Jason, I see that John the Baptist said that. I see what you're saying in context. Now that's not a great use of those words when he was saying it in this particular context, but I seem to remember Jesus saying something that, when you look at that, says something similar. And if Jesus said it, then maybe, even though we're using this a little bit out of context, what he's still getting at is really true for us, and it's okay to be wearing the T shirts and talking like those. The reference to the verse that I'm talking about is Matthew chapter 16, verse 24 where Jesus says to His disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. So we see some of the things that Jesus says here, right we see this language right here, where he says, deny themselves. If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself. And so we think of that is, I must what decrease. That's what John the Baptist was kind of saying in that moment, and we're putting it in those terms, sir, I must decrease. I've gotta deny myself. I've gotta take up my cross. What does it mean to take up your cross? Well, the cross is an instrument of death, right? And so I've gotta die in order to be your disciple. And need to decrease. I need to I need to kill myself off less of me. I've got to decrease. And there's got to be more of Jesus in order to be his disciple. A lot of times, whenever you see someone quoting and using this verse, you may hear them just continue to use that phrase and say, this is the way to live the Christian life. We are to die to self. We die to self. We deny ourselves once again, what we think then based on this is I am bad. I'm bad. That's why I need to die. Jesus is good, so I need to decrease. Again he needs to increase. But I will say again that that's also not what that verse means when we look at it in context, and along with what everything else is said in the New Testament about this after the death, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit, resurrection of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit. So I want to look at the immediate context. Then we'll look at what the rest of the New Testament says about this very thing. The immediate context is here. So we quoted Matthew 1624, this is just a couple of verses before that, and here's what Matthew says. He says, From that time on, from what time on? Well, if you went back and read a few verses before this, you would see that this is one of those climactic moments in Jesus's ministry. He spending time with His disciples. He says, hey guys who? Who do people say that I am and they're like, oh, so and so and so and so and so. And they go, Wait a minute, but who do? Who do you say that I am? And it's when Simon, Peter steps up and says, You're the You're the Messiah, you're the Christ, you're the Son of the living God. And Peter got it right. And it was this climactic moment, and this this beautiful thing that happened, and it was true, right? And he declares these things over Peter as a result of him saying. And then from that time, once that declaration was made, and he got that right, Jesus then began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elder elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised again. Peter took Him aside, we're told, and began to rebuke him. Never Lord. He says This shall never happen to you, right? Peter couldn't stand that this would happen to him, because he had just declared that he was the Messiah. He was the Christ. He was the one that was going to come and rule and reign and kick out the Romans and put the Israelite nation back in charge, and it was going to be a time of victory. So how can you die if You're the Messiah, and this is what it is that you've come to do. And so he makes these comments, and then Jesus responds to him, which is in the context that we also find our verse. Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then Jesus said to His disciples, after all this, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. So what we see is that Jesus says, take up your cross in the context of trying to teach and tell his disciples that he is going to die on the cross himself, and they're trying to say, no, no, no, no, no, that's not going to happen. He was trying to tell them about this is why He came. I mean, this is the central event that would take place throughout all of time to forgive people of their sins and to reconcile them into a relationship with God and Peter saying, No, this isn't going to happen, because he had in mind human concerns, we are told from the verse, the human concerns of authority, we've got to have you in power, we've got to kick out the Romans. We've got to do all of these kinds of things. And Jesus attributes this saying to Satan, that Satan is at work in him in this way, saying you do not have in mind the things of God. This has to happen. Peter, I have to die. It has to be this way for people to be reconciled to God. And by the way, Peter, you must also die if you're going to be reconciled to God, I've got to die, and you've got to die in order to be reconciled to God. What
do you mean, Jesus?
Why do I have to die? Can't you just go to the cross now? Well, the simple answer to this is that he had to kill off who we were, who all people were in Adam, we see that the apostle Paul talks about this on the other side of the cross, and using this language over and over again. He says, For as in Adam, all die. So in Christ, he uses this language, all will be made alive. The apostle Paul recognizes and says it here and in a number of places. He's writing to the church at Corinth, right here, New Covenant believers after the death, resurrection and ascending of the Holy Spirit. He's writing to these people who have put their faith and trust. In Jesus, and he's talking about how
there's really
only two kinds of people in this world, those who are in Adam or those who are in Christ. This is it. And all those in Adam died, they're cut off from the Lord, but all those in Christ have been reconciled to God and made alive and have eternal life in him. Paul makes it clear, not here, but in I mean kind of here, but even more clear in other places, that we're all born in Adam, that we're all born in this situation, and that we're all spiritually dead, and we will all remain cut off from him because of that sin and that sin nature. Listen to this in Romans, chapter five, verse 12, he says, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people because all sinned. Who's the one man that he's talking about here, right through Adam. Adam and Eve, of course, were the first people that were created. They were in the garden. They were with God. They were in a spiritual union with Him. They were living with him as their source, communing and talking with him. At the moment sin entered the world. There was death that entered the world. Through sin, a spiritual death. They were cut off from God. They even had to be physically removed from the garden, because they could not be in a relationship with the Lord any longer. And because of that, and we're all come from Adam, then that sin is passed down to us. We all inherit a sin
nature.
We all have a sin nature. We're born into this world with a sin nature. We're separated from God with that sin nature. In that sin nature, having it, we don't see very long for it to start producing what sins we have, a sin nature, and that sin nature produces sins in our life. We can see that as early as one or two years old, sometimes when we already start talking back to our parents and telling them no, not going to do those things, but we see it in all of our lives, the lying, the gossiping, the backstabbing, the performance to try to compete and one up one another all the time, the lust that we deal with. And here's the thing about the sin nature and all of those sins that we see popping up in our lives. You could watch all the YouTube videos that you could find on how to deal with whatever your sin struggle is. You could read all the self help books in the world that you could find about whatever your sin struggle is, but none of them are going to help you overcome your sin ultimately, because none of them get to the root of the problem. Sin. Nature is what produces sins. Those will not help cut it off at the root. They're all kind of surface level things that will help diminish it for a while, but then they keep coming back. So annoying, right? It's kind of like those weeds in your yard, right? Those weeds just pop up and they're ugly and nobody likes them, and you want them to be gone. And every now and then you start to go, I'm going to do something about it, and you start running around, and you pick them up, and you pick them up, and you think you've got them all, but sometimes you don't get them all the way at the root. Now it looks like they're gone. You don't see them in the moment, and you took care, you showed those weeds, right? But then all of a sudden, a few days later, or a few weeks later, they begin to pop up again, because you never got to the root. And the same thing is true with sin. You can read all about it. You can above all the techniques to stop lying and stop lusting and doing whatever you want to, and they might diminish for a while. It's going to look like you licked it and they're gone and all of those things, but all of a sudden they're going to begin to surface again, just like the weeds do, because the root was not taken care of. What's the root the sin nature. There's no amount of techniques that can kill nature. You're just trying to get by with managing sin at that point. And so that is what God has to do with each one of us. He has to kill off our sin nature. He has to kill off who you were in Adam. He had to do it. It had to be done. That's the only way it could be done. And so that's what he does. That's what he does through Jesus, whenever we receive His grace by faith. So after Jesus' death, after his resurrection, after the sending of the Holy Spirit, the New Testament, writers are now writing to churches in these different. Areas, people who had received His grace to make sure they understood what had happened to them and how this whole Christian life works for them now. Well, what did they say? Was there any language there about you've got to die, you've got to die to self, you must decrease, and he must increase, right? Well, no, here's what the Apostle Paul actually said in the same letter that we're reading right now, verse three of chapter six, he says, or don't you know?
In other words,
don't you guys know this? Yet this is important. You've got to understand this. This is so pivotal to understand if you're going to live the Christian life. Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with Him through His baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. He goes on in verse five, for we know watch this that our old self was crucified with him. Why is this important? Think about Matthew 1624,
what do we say? Deny
self, kill self, die, die, die. We know that the old self was crucified with Him, so that the body ruled by sin. What does that sound like? Sin, nature. I mean, if you're ruled by something, then we're not talking about a bad habit. We're talking about it's at your nature. It's at the core. It rules over you so that that might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Nature equals slaves, right? Because what anyone who has died, has been set free from sin. You've been set free from your sin nature. The apostle Paul says, Don't you know this. This is so important. You've got to know this to be able to live the Christian life that you died, the old self died, the one that was in Adam is dead. Jesus killed that person off. He got rid of the root of the problem our sin nature, so that he could free you from the bondage of sin. This isn't the only place that the writers made sure that people knew that the church at Galatians Paul talked about it in a personal way. I Paul is saying, have been crucified. Have been past tense with Christ. I don't need to die. I have died. I've been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me again. Who we talking about? The old self, the one that was in Adam, the one that had a sin nature, that person has died, have been crucified. It's already happened. He says. He says it this way in the or to the church at Colossae. Some of you may remember this first one. We went through our series this spring, and Colossians. Watch this. Here's our language again, your whole self, again, deny the self, die to self. But watch this, your whole self, which self, the one that was ruled by the flesh, was put off. Was killed off when? When would that happen? When we were circumcised by Christ, the circumcision of your heart of stone that was talked about in Ezekiel, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him, through your faith. It was through faith. Wasn't your work. It was in the working of God. He does the work of salvation. You receive it by faith. He killed you off. You didn't do it through your YouTube videos. You didn't do it through your how to technique, or any of those things. Jesus, God had to kill that person off who raised him from the dead. When you were dead, in your sins, when you were spiritually dead, and you had that sin nature, you were in Adam and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, your heart, God made you alive with Christ. You're now a new creation. You're no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. One more. These are all what Paul had written to different churches. Here's what Peter wrote about this as well. In second, Peter one four, he says, and because of his glory, God's glory, he's talking about God's glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises. Says that what enable you to share in His divine nature? What an incredible statement. The one who was in Adam, who had a sin nature, you could not share in the divine nature with a holy and a perfect God. But if he killed that person off, if he killed the old you, the old self, your sin nature, the one in Adam off, and now you're in Christ, then you actually share in His divine nature, in your spiritual union with Him. How many of you would describe yourself that way? That's what the Bible says about you. You have a new spiritual DNA. I'm not divine, I'm not God, but I share in the divine nature at the very core of my being. I share in it. Somehow I've become a new creation in Christ and so here's my question. I guess when we look at all of these things, here's here's what it really boils down to, guys, if the old you has already died and you've already become a new self, then why would you need to die to self? Why would you need to deny your self? Why would you need to decrease if there's a new you all ready? You wouldn't, right? I mean, you wouldn't need to do that. You don't, and that's why the Apostle Paul never tells New Covenant Christian believers to die instead. You know what he says. Count yourselves as those who are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ, Jesus. This is Romans six. This is where he just said, Don't you know, don't you know, you've died the old Jew, the one in Adam, the sin nature has been cut off. So since that's actually true of you, then here's what you do. Count yourselves as actually being dead to sin, because you're not always going to feel like that. You're going to have the urge to still sometimes sin in your life. Sometimes you are going to step out and do those things, and you're going to think that that's not true about you. But I'm telling you what is true about you. So count it to be true that you are dead to sin, that it does not have any power over you, that you are not a slave to it any longer, that you have a choice, that you don't have to keep going and doing it because it's no longer part of who you are. So
count yourselves dead to it. But also the second part of that is then count yourself alive to God in Christ, Jesus. So here's the thing, I guess, another way of just putting it to keep helping you think about it in different ways. One thing I'm trying to say here is self, then, is not a dirty word. If you're in Christ, and we're talking about the new self, right, you are not an obstacle to God, and that is what die to self. Theology would have you believe that is what he must increase and I must decrease. Theology will lead you to believe that self is a dirty word, that that's not who you are, right, that you're an obstacle to God. But listen, you were an obstacle to God. Self was a dirty word. At one point in your life, you were in Adam, and those things were true, but they are no longer true in your life. Now you're no longer in Adam, but you're in Christ. So here's the thing, your new self comes from this spiritual union with Christ. Here's what's true about you. Your new self is holy, your new self is righteous, your new self is loving, your new self is joyful, your new self is peaceful, your new self is patient, your new self is kind, your new self is good, your new self is faithful, your new self is gentle and your new self is full of self control. That's what's true about you, because those are the fruit of the Spirit, and you're in union with the Spirit. Your Spirit plus the Holy Spirit, are in union to become this new creation, to become who you now are in Christ. So that's what is true of you. So why would you want to die to all of that. Why would you want to decrease any of that? That's who you are. We don't want to follow that kind of theology. What we need to do then is to understand more about the new creation, that we have become the new US, that we've become the new person that we are in Christ, and to learn how to live out of the new self we've become. Rather than trying to kill off someone that Jesus says, I've already killed off, that would lead to a frustrating experience, but if we follow what he says, Paul says here, this is our application to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. In Christ, Jesus, that's when things become alive. That's when we start to enjoy the Christian life. That's when we begin to see his life being expressed through us in ways that make eternal impact in this world. And we see that fruit come out, the love and the joy and the peace and the patience and the kindness and the goodness and the faithfulness and the gentleness and the self control. So let's be about that. Let's not be about trying to kill ourselves off, but really count ourselves as having already been killed off and become new creations and that were no longer obstacles to God, but he's at work in us and through us. We just need to renew our minds to that truth over and over and over again. Let's pray you.