Biblical Cauterization

Colossians 3:5-11

You’re about to get married and your wedding day is coming up. You’ve planned your flowers, reception, outfit; you’ve sent out invitations. You’re excited. Then you discover you have a digitate wart on your nose. You’ve become a Disney witch. What are you going to do?

Your fiancé(e) loves you. He or she is betrothed to you. Nothing will change their love. Positionally you’re safe. But what are you going to do? You’d want to remove the wart for them - so that at the wedding, that blemish, imperfection, and ugliness will be gone. You won’t be more acceptable to your fiancé(e), but you would be more beautiful. You removed it out of love.

And who wants warts anyway? They’re ugly, painful, grow quickly, and are contagious. You have common warts, flat warts, digitate warts, plantar warts, and mosaic warts. They’re foreign and contagious - caused by viruses. Definition - “A wart is a small, rough tumor, typically on hands and feet, that resembles a cauliflower.” Tumors spread and hinder normal cell growth.

The treatment for warts is cauterization - to burn it and cut it off. A tool with a thin, needle-like hot tip is put on your wart. The skin cells are killed by the heat which burns them. The wart becomes charred. Then it can be cut or easily peeled off. And because it’s contagious, when we cauterize it, it’s not only for our sake but for others.

Sin is like that. If you don’t deal with sin, it will spread and grow. Sin undealt with becomes emboldened, flagrant. It boasts itself. It’s contagious too. Others will be emboldened to sin, if sin is not dealt with. Sin is ugly, it prevents spiritual growth. It must be put to death and removed. But we don’t put to death sin or remove it because we want salvation. We’re already positionally in heaven. We just need to think like we’re in heaven, so we hate sin enough to remove it.

There are two parts to this spiritual medical report. Firstly, diagnosing the sins that affect Christians. Secondly, part 1 of the treatment - cauterizing the sins.

Firstly, diagnosing the sins that affect Christians. Just like there are many kinds of warts, there are many categories of sins. Paul lists 2 of them in verses 5-9 - the sins of sensuality and the sins of fraternity. And like warts, these sins are embarrassing and difficult to name. Who wants to admit them? But if you don’t admit or diagnose them, you can’t remove them. I know it’s easier to speak about respectable sins like pride or covetousness. But I must deal with these sins here. So firstly, the first category - the sins of sensuality. Verse 5 says, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Paul is telling the Colossians to mortify - or to put to death - these kinds of sins. The first word on the list is fornication. The word is the Greek word porneia - it speaks of any kind of sexual sin. For example, adultery. Matthew 5:32 says – “…whosoever shall put away his wife, [except for] fornication, causeth her to commit adultery…” But fornication need not be physical. Jesus said (Matthew 5:28) - “…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust…hath committed adultery…in his heart.”

Paul had 7 lists of sins in his epistles. And in 5 of them, porneia is the first sin listed. 1 Corinthians 5:11 - “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.”

This tells us that sexual sins is one of the most common sins in the Bible. It’s one of the most common sins of humanity. We hear of the world’s oldest profession - why? Because this sin is as old as time. Therefore, we should not be surprised to know that Christians struggle with it. 1 Corinthians 5:1 says, “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you.” This is something we have to admit. It’s not something we close our eyes to and pretend it’s not there.

I know there are children here. But we live in such a world of sin that this is accessible wherever you go. Primary school children talk about it. I want you all to know, as you already do, that just as Paul spoke plainly about them, we should not shy away from speaking about them. Many of you may struggle with such sensual thoughts, pornography, and even adultery and fornication. To admit it, is not to excuse it. Pornography and dating apps which are more than dating apps lead to premarital sex and self-gratification.

And we must mourn. Paul tells us to put them to death in verse 5. If you’re a Christian, these things aren’t open to you. They are dangerous. Paul continues to speak of the sins of sensuality in Colossians 3:5. He describes their anatomy - how these sin works. After fornication, you have the words - uncleanness, inordinate affection, and concupiscence. Some say this is a progression of sin. And we may very well see it.

Uncleanness refers to impurity or impure thoughts. Sinful desires. But unless we stop the unclean thought, it progresses. We stoke it. We entertain sinful desires. Ephesians 4:19 says, “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Uncleanness if accompanied by greediness or covetousness in Colossians 3:5, will lead to lasciviousness. This word in Ephesians 4:19 where it says “…given themselves over unto lasciviousness;” this word has the same connotation as “inordinate affections” in Colossians 3:5. If we don’t stop unclean desires, then our minds will fantasize.

When we keep thinking about it, having evil passions, we will finally act out our desires. Verse 5 lists evil concupiscence. After thinking, we gratify and fulfill our desires lusts. In Romans 13:14, the Greek word for concupiscence is translated as lust - “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts…” Or in the ESV - “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” When we don’t stop thinking, we will fulfill it.

This is how we all fulfill our sins of sensuality. And while an illustration of sensual sins would be more accurate, it may not be so appropriate here. But this anatomy of sin is applicable to any sin. Let’s take the sin of gluttony. Take your favorite dish - laksa perhaps. It’s not good for you, but you love it. You love Katong Laksa. You crave for it. That’s like uncleanness. But you think about the thick and rich kuah, the fragrance of the daun kesum, the bouncy shrimp, the slightly undercooked taugeh, and the lingering taste of the hum. You start to salivate. But you keep thinking. That’s like lasciviousness. And it becomes too much for you to bear, your stomach is growling, you lao nuah; then you pick up your phone and you order Grabfood. And when it comes, you finally eat it, slurping the noodles, swallowing the gravy, chewing the hum - that’s concupiscence. Is it any wonder why Paul calls this covetousness idolatry?

Now, while there’s nothing wrong with laksa - there’s something wrong with fornication and sensuality. The problem is this - once you’ve had a taste of giving into your flesh, and not mortifying it, the next time you give into sin will be easier - until it becomes a pattern of life. The sins of sensuality are deadly.

But they aren’t the only deadly sins. The second category of sins is that of fraternity. Verses 8-9 say what they did - “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”

Paul mentions them because they were common in church. Paul had to deal with disagreements between two odious and sensitive women in Philippi; he had to deal with the factions in the Corinthian church. The early church had issues between Greek and Hebrew speaking widows. And here, Paul makes clear these issues were in church. Verse 9 - he told them not to lie to one another. Verse 11 - he said Christ was in all of them - their differences shouldn’t divide them. Unfortunately, they did. In verse 11, Greeks, Jews, Barbarians, Scythians or the uncivilized are specifically mentioned. Why? Remember, there were Jewish legalists in the church. Perhaps they took digs at others - so unspiritual, so uncultured, don’t keep the laws of God. They got outraged with one another, they gossiped. Sometimes Christians, in the name of zeal or other motivations, do the meanest things to their own brothers and sisters. And this tells us one thing sobering - the sins of fraternity are just as bad as the sins of sensuality.

There were sins of the heart. Anger here refers to impulsive anger. God is angry, but has a patient anger. This anger is one characterized by a quick taking of offense. Are you quick to get angry or outraged? And this is closely related to wrath and malice. Wrath speaks about an anger that desires punishment and judgment. And malice means ill will toward another, including the desire to injure and get revenge. And you can see the anatomy of sin here too - if anger is not halted, it grows and will result in a wrath and ill-will, which leads to a vengeful malice.

Tokyo police a number of years back, arrested a man who was upset his application to graduate school was rejected 20 years ago. Since that day he has averaged 10 prank calls a night - between 8 pm and 2 am - to the professor he blamed. Those 14 years of prank calls totaled to over 50,000 calls. Anger, wrath, malice. Christians who are angry can ghost, snub, or hound one another. Christians do the meanest things to one another.

Next, the sins of the mouth. And whatever proceeds from the mouth comes from the heart. Blasphemy refers refers to slanderous speech - and the most common is gossip. “Did you know so and so is guilty of adultery?” Filthy communication refers to foul speech. Lying is telling an untruth or half a truth. “I heard she met him on Tinder. It may or may not be true, but you never know what people do with their phones.” The religious Pharisees were guilty of this - they riled up the people against Jesus - they said he cast out demons by the power of the devil; that he was a drunkard; and Jesus said of them in John 8:44 - “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning…there is no truth in him…he is a liar, and the father of it.”

What sins against the ninth commandment are you guilty of? Do you lie? Slander and backbite? Do you aggravate smaller faults? Do you unnecessarily discover people’s weaknesses or raise false rumors? “Oh, but I tell the truth!” But do you do so unseasonably or maliciously to a wrong end? Perhaps you misconstrue intentions! Would Christians do these things? Is the sky blue? Which is why Paul had to tell them to put to death and to put off these sins.

Paul’s treatment plan consists of two parts. We will look at the first part today and the second part next Lord’s Day. He tells them to remove the sins by putting them to death and by putting them off. Following our illustration, we could call it a spiritual cauterization.

In verses 5, 8, and 9, we see 2 procedures to get rid of these sins. The first procedure is to mortify. This means to put to death. A wart is cauterized by sending electrical heat to destroy it. Sounds radical. Yes. A surgeon must kill a tumor - by surgery, by chemotherapy, or by radiotherapy. Sometimes, a radical response is the only correct one. Why? Because verse 6 says, God’s wrath comes on the children of disobedience.

And if we are no longer the children of disobedience, if our position is in heaven, if we are on the right hand of God together with Christ, if we are new creatures, if we are dead to sin, if we are made alive in Christ, if we are saved, we should not walk in them.

Now, mortification is a proof of salvation. Just as you would burn off that wart for your wedding day for your fiancé(e), we put to death sin for our Christ our bridegroom at the Great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And we know that holiness and perfection are not immediate; they are progressive - we are daily being sanctified. We may not be perfect in doing it, but we must struggle against the flesh. A person who has no desire to mortify might not be a child of God. Romans 8:13 – “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

What about the sins of sensuality do you need to mortify? Paul doesn't merely describe the sins and leave them. He describes what we must do with them. If computers in your rooms cause you to sin, take them out of your rooms. Maybe you need to leave your handphones outside. That lady or fella you’ve been secretly seeing, stop it now. Delete the number. Block it! Confess your sins one to another. That Netflix show you’re watching or wicked song you’re listening to that cause lasciviousness? Stop watching. Stop listening. Those friends who urge you to give into worldliness are not friends. Put to death. Not your friends - but your sinful desires. Do not give that spiritual wart a chance to grow more. It’ll consume you. It won’t end well. What happened to King David? He didn’t go to war, he stayed on the roof at a time when women take their baths, he saw, he took, she got pregnant. He lied and tried to arrange her husband to sleep with her. When that didn’t work, he got him killed. When sin is not stopped, it will progress. You know this to be true. It was not like this a year ago - you’ve progressed deeper into sin.

Why are you giving power to the very things that Christ has freed you from? I want to quote from a pastor and his wife. She was a former adult star. I don’t say this to be sensational or salacious. But they know the danger. She said when she first became a Christian - “I battled with a lot of lustful thoughts. I battled with the temptations of wanting to go back…So if a lustful thought would play through my mind, I would instantly say, “I rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus, I am not going to think like that. Father, I’m sorry that I allowed that thought in my mind. Please forgive me for thinking that way and purify my mind, Lord. Help me not to think like that anymore.” She battled it. She no longer has hundreds of thousands of impure and lustful thoughts on a daily basis. “If you practice this long enough, those thoughts don’t come into your mind as much or maybe not at all.” He said, “Don’t wait a day to cast it down. Don’t wait a week to cast it down. Cast it down right away, immediately. What you allow you permit to grow. Lust is eventually going to turn into adultery, lust might eventually turn into you doing something that is not in alignment to your character…that is why it’s so imperative that every single day, when these thoughts come, because they're going to come, cast the thought down right away.”

The second procedure we see in verses 8 and 9. We must put off. But now, put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy. Why? You have put off the old man with his deeds. The old has gone, the new has come. The word “put off” means to cast away from oneself. It’s like taking off dirty clothes and flinging it to the laundry. Jesus spoke of this radical amputation in Matthew 5.

If your arm causes you to sin - cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin - pluck it out. And we know Jesus was speaking metaphorically. Stop thinking, stop dwelling - put the breaks on your sinful thoughts. Put off the anger and the bad behavior. Don’t justify it. Don’t ever say that God created me as an emotional person, as if that justifies your outbursts - learn to put away and to control ourselves. Don’t ever say - to get rid of my anger, I need to vent. Wrong answer - venting is sinful. The answer to anger is not to vent, it is to surrender it to God. We must count ourselves dead to this kind of living - we need to put off disobedience.

Come face to face with what you are. Are you a slanderer? Admit it. Stop your nasty speech. Have you listened to and acted upon slander? Admit it and resolve to put it off. Do you speak the truth unseasonably out of zeal, as if zeal absolves you? As if you’re more spiritual just because you air your mind? Put off whatever anger you think you have. It has no place in a spiritual heart. Do you not find ironic the Pharisees who claimed to be holy had a vengeful and murderous anger against Jesus?

But why should you mortify and put off? Because these sins make you, who are accepted by Christ, ugly. Verse 5 says, “mortify therefore.” Meaning, the reasons for mortifying are found in verse 4 - “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore…” We put to death our sins because one glorious day we will see him. How inglorious it would be, if Christ, who is our life, when he appears for his bride, we are living in sin, growing our warts. Do you love Jesus who has died for you? Mortify your sins.

And why should you be angry with one another? Why should you lie to one another? Verses 10-11 - we are renewed in Christ - why are keeping our old sins? And in this new life, we are part of a fraternity of people - we are no better than anyone else. If you are truly holy, you would know how unholy you have been. Your brother who struggles with holiness, needs your help and compassion, not just your sternness. The legalist doesn’t need your ridicule, but your understanding of his weakness. Your sister who may be zealous to the point of being intrusive, she needs your patience and appreciation and not your gossip. Christ is in all of his people. He lives in us. Put off malice.

What must we cauterize? What sins of sensuality have a grip over your lives? What sins of community are we guilty of? Must you put off unjust judgment? You are risen on high with Christ. These are not options for you. Look to the gentle Jesus, who touched the prostitute, who spoke kindly to the woman caught in adultery, who conversed with the woman at the well, who takes us unfaithful people and makes us his bride. He makes us clean. Look to Jesus, who had no malice, who is the truth, the way, the life, who died to take away every idle word that you have spoken. Would you today, resolve to put these things away for Christ? May the Lord help us.

1. Diagnosing the Sins that Affect Christians

A. The Anatomy of the Sins of Sensuality

B. The Anatomy of the Sins of Fraternity

2. The Treatment Plan Part 1 - Cauterizing the Sins

A. Mortify

B. Put Off

C. Reasons for the Treatment