[Sunday School] Ephesians 8

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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

What verse was that? This is uh we're gonna we're in Ephesians chapter 4 17 through 32. I'll read that for us and we can get started. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity, but that is not the way you learn Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth in Jesus is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give you give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. So the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul has laid out the indicatives, the things that God has done for us. He talks about our old, the old man, the condition that we were in before Christ, before we were in Christ. And now he's beginning to go a little bit deeper into how we are to live according to who our new identity is in Christ. So he shares with us here now this I say, and testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. What is futility?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Uselessness. Uselessness.

SPEAKER_06 3:00

Maybe deadness also. Deadness. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_14 3:07

Right.

SPEAKER_06 3:08

That one may.

SPEAKER_12 3:12

Well, that's what those notes are in there for.

unknown 3:16

Destined for failure, basically.

SPEAKER_13 3:19

Futile. Futile is destined for failure. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that. Futile is destined for failure.

SPEAKER_07 3:30

Destined for failure. Vanity.

SPEAKER_08 3:33

Yeah, I was gonna say we we talked about this yesterday, but the what came to mind to me was a f was Ecclesiastic. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity, all but a fleeting breath. Um it's it's pointless. It's it's it's uh it's useel useless. It's but you know, it's here today, gone tomorrow.

SPEAKER_07 3:57

Right. So Paul is is pointing out the futility of the minds of the Gentiles. He goes on in 18, it says they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and have been have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. So we see here, Paul is is laying out what happens to the minds. What the reason the hardness of heart is because they had they have no knowledge of God, and we see in Romans chapter 1. Let's look at Romans chapter 1 as a parallel. It's uh from God's perspective, that this is what Paul is talking about in Roman in Ephesians chapter 4, in Romans chapter 1, verse 21. Let's see here. He says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the Creator rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. So we notice that God gave them up. God gave them up in Romans chapter 1 because they did not honor him. But in uh Ephesians chapter 4, verse 19, we see that they have become callous and have given themselves up. Where else do we see this this language where hearts are hardened, God has hardened hearts, and then we have hardened our own hearts.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

Pharaoh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 6:20

Saul. Yeah, the entire Old Testament. That's what I was going to say. For those doing the DBR, the entire Old Testament.

SPEAKER_08 6:30

Right. Now, here we have N 18 when the you know, this a description of the Gentiles and who they are in terms of the futility of their minds, but this language here, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Where have we heard this before?

SPEAKER_07 6:54

A few pages and a half.

SPEAKER_08 6:56

Yeah, just a few chapters before, right? That's how Ephesians 2 starts. Yeah. Right? That that um remember that oh wait, we're what we're chapter 2, verse 1. I was right, I was right. Yeah, yeah. Don't question me, Anna. Come on. All right. And were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. And the uh we get in chapter 4, we get being darkened, being alienated, um, and then and then our hardened hearts, but also we we understand that um Paul's now referring to, you know, is this not you know no longer us, right? Because Paul's now referring to us in the new in the new life, the new self, as we'll get to, um, as we'll get to later on. But it's uh I I find it important for me to not forget that this was me. Yeah. Um isn't just other people, this was me as well.

SPEAKER_07 8:14

I think that's what Paul is stressing throughout this whole the whole book is that if we don't remember who we were, not the things that we did, but the condition that we were in apart from Christ, if we don't remember that, that that memory, we need to remember who we were before Christ. So because the motivational power of gratitude is what helps us live a Christian life. There's a link between that memory, and he we'll get to some more of that in a minute. He he lays that out.

SPEAKER_08 8:51

In in verse 19, when it says they have become callous, what's the danger in becoming callous to our own desire to our desires, to um, you know, our wisdom, you know, even even as Christians, what's the because I feel like there is a certainly a danger when if there's maybe a particular sin in our lives and we don't call it out for what it is, and then we just let it fester. Um and that can grow and linger and linger and linger, and then ultimately I think we can become blind to it.

SPEAKER_12 9:28

Yeah. That's the problem with putting it off. Yeah. And no longer, you no longer feel it.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Not listening to the cosmic shop. To me, no sensitivity to it.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:42

Uh to me, it's like the opposite, all the characteristics that will that you will be susceptible to uh in being stick-necked and greedy, and it's the opposite of the fruit of the spirit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the characteristics of the fruit of the spirit.

SPEAKER_12 10:02

Well, actually, what it is is you quit listening to the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_07 10:06

Yeah. Well, before before the Holy Spirit comes in, they they don't they don't have a desire to know or acknowledge God as God, because that's what Romans tells us, Romans chapter 1, is that you know, if they if they were to acknowledge God, the knowledge that He has revealed of Himself in nature, they would they know they would be accountable to Him.

SPEAKER_12 10:32

Well that was the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came and went and wasn't with them continuously. And so that's why the concept of the people they couldn't realize what's what's happening.

SPEAKER_10 10:49

They didn't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came and interacted with them, but they did not have a relationship, and it wasn't obviously Jesus that that gave us that relationship.

SPEAKER_12 11:01

At least that's the way I think it's because we have the Holy Spirit. Right, it's why you become it's that Holy Spirit tapping you on the shoulder, you know, saying, hey, I don't think that's quite right.

SPEAKER_07 11:12

And he has restored the mind has been renewed, and the conscience is renewed to be sensitive to the fact that God has written the law on our hearts. We have a different disposition, and we're gonna of mind, we're gonna get to that in just a minute. But one of the things with uh 20, you know, don't want to get we'll come back to 21, but 22 helps us to understand what this this um futility of the mind is. It's um verse 22, put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life, and it is corrupt through deceitful desires. So the people, those who are apart apart from Christ, they're living and functioning and having desires and you know raising families and living life, but they have no place for God in their minds and their they in their thoughts. And it's those deceitful desires, the fact that they have pushed him out, and the knowledge, this these deceitful desires have corrupted them, they become corrupt.

SPEAKER_09 12:26

I I think of the old Bob Dillon song, You Gotta Serve Somebody. Yeah. And you're gonna have some serve Christ or you can serve the desires, the sinful desires of your heart.

SPEAKER_08 12:35

Right. You can choose Bob Dylan. I I I I would prefer Louis Burkhoff when he says uh man is incurably religious. But you can have Bob Dylan. You put those two largest together. He is right.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

He is right. He is right.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

There is some good wisdom in this. Some of it.

SPEAKER_08 12:58

Um so the the futility of the mind, being calloused, um, being greedy, practic uh greedy to practice every impurity, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, um, hardness of heart, all of this, Paul says in verse 20, that this is not the way you learned Christ. Um what was some of the earliest, well one of the earliest heresies that we know throughout scripture, or throughout the New Testament. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Pharisees? Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 13:32

But like post-Christ, like you know, post-the institution.

SPEAKER_09 13:36

Well, in Galatians, it was the works righteousness and Judaism came in. Yeah, right. Especially at the Church of Galatia. Yeah. Uh guess that we're saved by both grace and works righteousness. Right.

SPEAKER_08 13:48

Trying to bring back back uh circumcision. Right. Yeah, that's the whole point of Galatians, right? Yeah. Galatians 5, verse 6, that you know, therefore neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Um one of one of the key groups in in the New Testament, especially, um, that came about was the Gnostics. Yeah. Gnosticism. Gnosticism being this kind of secret secret knowledge.

SPEAKER_09 14:14

Now they came in a bit after Paul, I think. I think around the second century, late first century, second century.

SPEAKER_12 14:21

Well, I think that's when her actually came in with strength, but it actually was in the beginning. Beginning in the Senior Pong. This is the early part of it.

SPEAKER_08 14:30

Yeah, it was like same thing with that in like Arianism, you know, very very early on. But Gnosticism kind of had this idea that you know the body, nothing with the body mattered.

SPEAKER_07 14:40

Yeah. Um it was corrupt, and uh the only thing that could save them is their reason, through reason and and the use of their mind.

SPEAKER_08 14:49

Yeah. And and here part of it is Paul's kind of push, I think, in some ways pushing back against this this thinking of um this this wisdom that they have claimed to accredit to themselves has actually um led them to futility. And uh and to because the body they think is wasteful, they can just do whatever they want with their body.

SPEAKER_07 15:15

Think of the structure here uh and what he's this verse 20, but but that that is not the way you learn Christ. So this is the only place that anybody is aware of that this the phrase to learn somebody is used in Greek. Nobody's aware of it. And it's it's an odd way to say to learn a person and not say, well, you this is not how you learned about. But they're actually, he's saying we have learned Christ, and we have not learned Christ by through the futility of our minds or through the darkened understanding or being alienated from the life of God, but he's saying there's some there's some weightiness to that. What is that we're learning a person? And how do we learn a person? How did we learn Christ?

SPEAKER_13 16:19

Is there a deeper meaning than just the plain get to know, I guess? The Holy Spirit, right?

SPEAKER_12 16:28

In terms of the thing is is we think we just we learned Christ. No, Christ learned us, He was there, we just recognized it.

SPEAKER_07 16:37

Yeah, and that's what he's getting at, I believe, is that we are so connected to Christ, we are united with him.

SPEAKER_12 16:45

Yeah, we think we went, you know, I I keep telling, you know, I accepted Christ went. No, oh that's when Christ got my attention. Yeah, it's it's not it wasn't me, it was him.

SPEAKER_08 16:57

Right. You talk about the deeper meaning in like verse 20, verse 21, verse 21 talks about you heard about him, learning, and really the Greek is really you. Well, verse 21, you you heard him speak.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

He's unfolding it within you. Yeah, within you, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:13

Yeah. And that makes me think of uh J.I. Packer. One of the first books that I read when I became reformed was Knowing God. Oh, great book. Great book. Phenomenal book.

SPEAKER_09 17:24

If you haven't read that book, I have to admit I like that book even more than any RC Scrub book I've read. Watch it. I mean, yeah, knowing God's books.

SPEAKER_08 17:41

And I think it's chapter one, right? I think it's chapter one where he talks about the difference to know God versus to know about God. There's a difference. Yeah, there's a big difference. The atheists can know plenty of things about God. Even the demon, the demons know things about God.

SPEAKER_10 17:58

Satan knows that who God is and that God is God. But they don't know fear.

SPEAKER_08 18:04

Right. So to so that what's the deeper meaning there then? To know God versus to know about him? What what what what translates you from knowing about to knowing him? It's a relationship.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

It's the marriage, the wedding, the knowing your husband, knowing Christ. It's that intimacy.

SPEAKER_07 18:25

Yeah. The thing about it too, that stands out to me, we heard him. You know, Christ talks about the good shepherd in John 10. They will hear my voice and they will follow me. So when we hear the word of God preached, Christ is speaking to us through his word. So we actually hear him. Yeah. We hear him. We don't hear about him, we hear from him, and we are taught in him.

SPEAKER_08 18:54

Yeah, I think it was, I think we missed it, but there in 21, when it says that you have heard about him, really the Greek doesn't have the about him. It doesn't have the about.

SPEAKER_07 19:06

It says you learn, you heard him, you heard him.

SPEAKER_13 19:11

So we we have heard from Christ Himself through his kind of like a child growing up at home at a home and just not by just disregarding their parents. They know their parents, they've been taught by their parents, but they have just no regard for the what they were taught.

SPEAKER_08 19:34

Yeah. Yeah. And and on the positive end of that, it's the it's I think children or or with their parents, or maybe disciple er with disciplee, a lot of times it's not like, oh, you told me this one specific thing, and that changed my life forever. It was like, no, I just watched you, heard you, saw you from a from from you know, kind of bird's eye view, a fly on the wall. And and and throughout that process led me to where I am now, sort of deal. And here it's like you've heard him, not just like you've you know, you've you've you did a seminar, you know, a seminary course and you learned a bunch of stuff and you took the exam and you and you got a B plus on it, but that you but you came to you came to know uh this person and have like we said earlier, a relationship.

SPEAKER_09 20:29

Yeah, I I think Paul's countering in well in ancient Greece there was a saying, know thyself. Yeah. And I think Paul's turning that know God, and um it's it's just not when it's knowing thyself, it's I don't know, have a relationship with yourself, but come to grips with who who you are and know who who you are, and Paul's flipping that know God, know about God, and we do have a relationship with God. It's more than just book knowledge, yeah, it's uh you know the analogy, you know, Christ is the groom, we're the bride, or God's our heavenly father, and we can come into his presence crowd of a father. That's it implies an intimate relationship.

SPEAKER_07 21:15

Yeah, well, and before we come to Christ, our minds are futile. I mean, they're not working as they were designed to work. The um, and we see that in in uh chapter 20 and verse 23, excuse me, he says to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Think about that. The spirit of your minds.

SPEAKER_09 21:40

Speaking of RC Sproul, his radio program was called that renewing your mind. Renewing your mind.

SPEAKER_08 21:50

It's not a capital S, right?

SPEAKER_07 21:52

No, it's not a capital S. No. It's um lowercase. So another another way we We can think about the spirit of your mind is a disposition of the mind. What is the mind before Christ? What is it set on? It has no desire or reference point. It can, it can't put Christ first. So we need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. That disposition need has to be changed. We need to be regenerated so that we can receive the truth of Christ, the truth from Christ.

SPEAKER_08 22:39

Romans 5. Oh, I'm sorry, Romans 8, 5 through 6. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. Futility. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. That disposition this position, Derek Thomas once said, you know, where where does your mind go to? It's drifting, you're out walking. Where does your mind go? And um and I hope for all of us, and I pray for all of us, I'm gonna pray for myself that my mind would always drift to the things of the Lord and to his goodness and to his mercies. And um I can't say that it does every time, but I wish it did. And I know you know that.

SPEAKER_07 23:33

That's why the scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 5 in verse 10, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

SPEAKER_08 23:44

So here in verse 22, though, verse 22, 23, 24, we get this language of the new self, the old self versus the new. Put off the old self and put on the new. And in verse 24, to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. And I think part of what's we should just sit in that is that that's indeed the new self that we have been given. Um I think a lot of times we we we like to focus on Romans 7, this battle between that we still continue to have between the spirit and the flesh. For what I want to do, I can't, but with the very thing I hate, I continue to do. Oh, what a wretched man I am. Who will save me from this body of death? But we are also been given a new self, uh uh in this, you know, spiritually, in that uh that is in the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

SPEAKER_07 24:52

Um We see the what's motivating the the new man versus the old man. Deceitful desires are corrupt in the old man, but when we've been re recreated in Christ, we true righteousness and holiness of God is what is is motivating us, yeah, moving us.

SPEAKER_08 25:13

Yeah, those desires, you know, we have a we have a new first love. And that new first love is is the things of God. Um and not not our own not our own you know foolish ways. Um because of this, Paul wants us to put away falsehood in verse 25.

SPEAKER_07 25:37

Let's look at one other thing right quick. Um sorry, I jumped ahead. No, no, no. 20 verse 22 and um 24, they're talking about to put off your old self and put on the new self. In the parallel passage in Colossians chapter 3, verse 9, this has already taken place. And uh many many commentators believe that the the to put off and put on is that it we have been given a new identity in Christ. That's putting the old, he has done this far. So if we look at Colossians 3, 9 and 10, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge, in knowledge after the image of its creator. So this is something that that when we have been when we were made alive in Christ, the old man is dead. We have a new identity, the new man is in Christ, and we're we have to the reason he's given us this is so that we can conduct ourselves in a way that those benefits that we've received that and that we have in Christ, this unity with one another, as we're about to see in verse 25, is that the unity is created by Christ and the Holy Spirit, and we are to walk in this manner so that we do not grieve the Holy Spirit as we get we'll get to a little bit later.

SPEAKER_08 27:12

This also makes you think of like when it when I hear put on, the new self, I hear you know, put on clothes, you know, kind of you know, kind of you know, a clothing type of, you know, I guess I don't know if it's the right way to say a clothing type of language, but I Isaiah 61.10 is what comes to mind to me when uh it says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels. And the uh now we have this imagery of being clothed with the true righteousness, which is the which are the garments of salvation to Christ being being poured out onto us. Right.

SPEAKER_05 28:06

And it's just above there in Colossians 3, verse 3 and 4, or starting to, I guess. Set your mind. So you're putting on, you're setting your mind on things that are above. You've died, your life is hidden with Christ and God. Yeah. But um Christ who is your life. Christ is our life. That's all we that's all we have, is it's like your old self, your old identity. Like that stuff is futile, futile. Oh, this is who I am. No, Christ is who you are. Right. You need to live up to that identity with with his only with his help.

SPEAKER_11 28:45

Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, good luck.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

Yeah, so do it, right. It's only him, yeah, his righteousness, and us.

SPEAKER_12 28:52

I say for the Lord. No, the Lord is already ahead. It's him working his righteousness. That's what I recognize that the Lord within my light.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

We're still uh we still have our bodies currently fading as they are.

SPEAKER_07 29:06

But uh and that's another scripture. The outer man is wasting away, but the inner man is being renewed day by day.

SPEAKER_10 29:13

Has anybody landed at Ben Gurin Airport, Israel?

SPEAKER_08 29:17

No.

SPEAKER_10 29:17

So when you get off the airplane, there's a there's a part, as soon as you get off the plane, you get through customs, whatever. Actually, yeah, as soon as you're through customs, there's kind of a section off to the side that devout Jews will put the phlactory, the box on their forehead, yeah, and then they'll wrap this this black tape on their arms, which has scripture on it. Yeah, I've done that. Okay, yeah. Though I know we don't, I know works is not how we get saved. I get that. But I kind of wish that we had reminders like that. Because it's kind of putting on the new self. That's the Jewish version of it, right? Because they don't have the Holy Spirit. Um I kind of wish we had that, because it's just such a reminder that that that we need to turn towards God. That's my tattoo. Yeah, like Christian robes. Christian robes, we'll wear robes. Yeah, we do we should wear robes every day. You wanna you want to order some for us?

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Or yeah, order some for us. Okay, yeah, yeah. Literally, that is heuristic. I'm a Christian, talk to me about it. Could you make it make sure it's cashmere? As a young Christian. Cash, that'd be nice.

SPEAKER_13 30:22

When I was a kid, I would put yeah, I would write the pin on my hand to remind me on the day when I was like just a kid, young Christian. Like, I should remember.

SPEAKER_08 30:32

Yeah, a lot of people have you know wristbands, you know. You always see those WWJD wristbands. Or people would just write on their hands. Well, we got tattoos. That's the original palm pilot. Yeah, the original pom pilot.

SPEAKER_05 30:45

It is like you know, putting off the old self, putting on, you know, putting to death. Yeah. Um, you know, yeah, the clashes three, five. Put to death what is worth the immorality, impurity, passion. Don't don't give yourself over to those. God will give you over to them.

SPEAKER_09 31:01

Yep. That's a constant thing throughout our whole life. Yeah. Constant. Sanctification is a lifelong process. Yeah. Speaking, I was gonna, you brought up, you know, the old man is dead. Is the old man completely dead? Because we still have a sin nature, even as Christians. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 31:21

Well, you have died.

SPEAKER_09 31:23

You have died. Yeah, but our sin nature is still there telling us to sin.

SPEAKER_10 31:27

I think that the positionally, positionally versus the way I see that is over experience. The complete person that I was before is dead, and now there's just a less sinful person there.

SPEAKER_09 31:42

It's undead in a way.

SPEAKER_13 31:46

I had the Bible study leader. I don't know where she got the imagery from, but she always talked about the snow covered downhill. We are snow covered, we look beautiful from the outside, but the core is still done. We still have it.

SPEAKER_09 32:00

Well, don't you really think about it?

SPEAKER_05 32:01

We were dead in our city. So we were dead before. And now just our all life is dead.

SPEAKER_07 32:07

That's the reason for the language of constant reminder and being renewed in our minds because like what we're alive for us from. Now we can be alive, and now we can. And we have the mind of Christ, in fact.

SPEAKER_05 32:22

We just have to watch it now.

SPEAKER_11 32:24

It's unfortunate that the spirit doesn't just kill our free will. That would have been my easy.

SPEAKER_07 32:31

But you gotta think about when it comes to free will, that's going back to that disposition of mind. The disposition of the mind, we're gonna choose what makes us happy every time.

SPEAKER_08 32:47

Yeah, the will is free. It is free. And then we can make choices, but the only choice we want to make is the one that's it's apart from Christ, we are enslaved to sin.

SPEAKER_09 32:56

Yeah. Yeah. So the will isn't completely free, in that, you know, apart from Christ, we have our minds are calloused.

SPEAKER_08 33:04

Going to what you said earlier, a text that comes to mind to me is Matthew 22, the parable of the wedding feast. The parable of the wedding feast, the king, the king's son is married, it's gonna have a host a big old party, invites all these people that no one shows. He tells the people, hey, go find out, go find these people. They're supposed to be at this party. Well, he sends out his his top servants, and some of them they they don't come back, they will go to their work. Some of them are even captured and they're killed. And then the king's like, fine, just find anyone. Find anyone. And bring them in. Bring them in. But to bring them in, you gotta have the right garment on, right? Because then someone tried to sneak in and he goes, Where's your wedding garment? He had nothing to say. And in that day, it says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the the the imagery is that there's a part of the imagery in that we we have been clothed, and yet inwardly we're still being renewed.

SPEAKER_09 33:59

Yeah, we're still going through uh we need the Holy Spirit within us. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_12 34:02

Yeah, like for instance, Paul in Romans 7. You know, yeah. He hates this guy that he is, even you go through all of that rigor that this is not what I want. Yeah, this is what I am. Right.

SPEAKER_08 34:15

Who will save me from this body of death? Praise be to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Um okay, so then we get into verse 25. Putting away falsehood. Uh this this this this first point following these first seven, eight verses, is putting away falsehood and instead preaching the truth to our neighbors.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Um, is that wondering meaning my Christian neighbor or my neighbor?

SPEAKER_07 34:53

First, I mean I think he narrows it down for us there. It's with the body of Christ because we are for we are members one of another. So he gives us five uh things to put off and to put on the the the negative and the positive, and most of them there he gives us the motivation or the reason why.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

That first one, 26, be angry. I've lived so much of my adult life, when I look back at it now, I'm just like, duh. But to be angry at all was sinful. It's only like later in life I realized, no, be angry, don't sin in it. Yeah, yeah. But so much of my adult life, I was just always so careful that never got or put myself down a lot if I got angry. I don't know, but that was a lie that Satan got into me at an early age in my teens. And I thank goodness.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

Some things are worthy of your anger. Like Jesus got angry in the temple.

SPEAKER_10 35:55

Yeah, but God gets angry with me every day.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

But I see it now as I say, wow, that was one of those whys that as a Christian I was believing.

SPEAKER_05 36:09

Yeah, that's probably scripture to help read our own words.

SPEAKER_08 36:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:13

That's PCA church.

SPEAKER_08 36:16

That's what that is uh certainly I think a lot of times a misconception for all of us in our throughout our Christian journeys is you know, if I'm angry at any point in time, that has to be wrong. And what should I not be angry? Should I not be angry about about my sin? You gotta finish reading that verse. Right. Right. Should I not be angry about my sin? And you you you learn to think, and then you you come to understand scriptures like this, um, and to to not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.

SPEAKER_12 36:57

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_08 36:59

Yeah, it doesn't tell them not to be angry. Yeah. Don't let it get too. So then, Travis, what are we doing what should we what should we be angry about? Or should we be angry about anything?

SPEAKER_12 37:08

We should be angry about anything that God made. Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 37:15

Right.

SPEAKER_12 37:16

There's so much trust stuff around us, and we say we like it. No, we shouldn't. Yeah. See someone steal from an innocent party.

SPEAKER_05 37:27

That's it's it's wrong. Yeah. I I if I steal at the time.

SPEAKER_11 37:38

Yeah, let's let your anger bring something good, not something bad. Yeah.

unknown 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

Don't hold on to it. I mean, it says don't let the sun go down on your anger.

SPEAKER_08 37:49

Yeah, anger can quickly turn into resentment, into bitterness. Yeah. I'll probably get angry when I'm driving home today. That's probably you know, that's someone you know, doesn't use a blanker.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

I mean, we are all you know naturally self-centered, and oh that person cut me off. Yeah. Or I was driving home from work the other day, and it's uh coming out of the hospital. I have a green arrow turning left. Someone has a clear red light. Yeah, because I have a green arrow. So I pumped at him in my anger, and then he gave me a little gesture, you know. I was right, you were wrong, and you're mad at me. I was like, I started singing, like it's like rotation going on.

SPEAKER_08 38:44

Nice deep breath, roll the window down, get some somewhat fresh air. It is a Tennessee thing, by the way. What's that?

SPEAKER_10 38:52

If you have a green arrow, uh opposing traffic will just turn right and just take your lane. Yeah, yeah. That's a Tennessee thing. That's illegal that you see it everywhere.

SPEAKER_08 39:02

I don't know. Should we have a Sunday school class on road rage? I think we just have next Sunday school class is on road rage. But just on left turn arrays. I will not be teaching that. I will not be teaching that just on left turn arrows only.

SPEAKER_10 39:18

That's great.

SPEAKER_05 39:19

But it's just, yeah, that that feeling of yeah, be angry. But don't, yeah, don't seep in it. Don't you know like talk and get it over with. I have heard a lot of I don't know if it's like crocheting, and like something's gonna wait till the morning, and I I don't know. It just is like no, it's pretty clear, you know. Do your best to not clear, don't let the sun go, you know. Don't don't steep in it overnight. At least talk to God about it and you know, ask for Him to help you because at least be praying about it.

SPEAKER_08 39:52

For those that are married, how has that impacted your marriage in both positive and in negative ways? As someone who's not, yeah.

SPEAKER_13 40:00

I mean, there is where where you would are talking about there are the times where you're just so upset about how our conversation went down that you kind of need time to see it from a different perspective. So there is a degree of sleeping on it actually helps you.

SPEAKER_09 40:20

Sleeping on it, yeah. You don't want to sometimes before you send an email, you might want to wait a day to let things calm down. Sleeping on it.

SPEAKER_11 40:32

Think of what the emperor said to Luke. Give in to your to your anger. He wants you to do that because he knows that's gonna lead somewhere bad. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 40:46

I understand how much we can. I understand. I understand the translation. I I watched episode three last week, so I just hear the listen to the emperor. Does he mean Pharaoh?

SPEAKER_09 41:06

Or the or Nero or Augustine, nothing. Caesar, yeah. Yes, Caesar. That's funny. Calute.

SPEAKER_08 41:15

No, don't go to the dark side. You're already there. So we've seen to not put away falsehood, but to speak truth to one another. We've seen to not to be angry and to but yet to not sin. Um and now let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let the thief no longer steal. Well I would love the thief to no longer steal. Yeah. I would love for the government not to steal. I would love for the government not to steal from me, but they do.

SPEAKER_09 42:01

And pay and use that money to pay people not to work.

SPEAKER_08 42:04

Exactly. I've corrupted this. We'll get into that. That's another Sunday school class as well.

SPEAKER_07 42:11

Yes, another Sunday school class, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 42:13

The uh how does this how do we apply this? Like I you know, that's something that's that's interesting. Which one? Is this our climbing?

SPEAKER_03 42:27

No, yes, I'll take it. If you have a habit that you shouldn't be having, repent. Get it right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 42:39

What was your point on on the thing?

SPEAKER_13 42:41

I was saying, is the thief maybe the old self? It's not a different the thief is not Jill, it's my old self. That I have to, it says, let the thief no longer steal. So my old self shouldn't continue in the sin. It's not talking about what I should do about Jill's sin. It's talking reminding if that's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_07 43:03

He's he's speak I think he is speaking to those who take something from others that doesn't belong to them. Or he's talking about the ones that are um idle and not working because you know they're the reason they're stealing is because they don't have, they don't have, they haven't made any money to take care of themselves. But we as Christians, we need to be able to, we need to work so that we can give to those who are in need, so that we have something to give to those who are in need.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

And that's part of I mean it goes to what he said earlier in the book that we are his workmanship created, you know, for doing good works. It's one of the ways in which we show the love of God.

SPEAKER_14 43:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 43:53

The the entire Bible tells us that we need to work. I mean, God. God starts out creating and then resting. He's working. And I I think I would agree with that. That that working is it's more important than just being able to provide for yourself. It does more than just pay for the rent and pay for food. God wants us to work. And we work when we were helping other people. Right.

unknown 44:26

That's the key word.

SPEAKER_12 44:30

We can still work. My trouble is I work like in Bangladesh, which is a Muslim country. You know, I have to realize where they are. And in that particular country, if you become it's illegal to convert someone. To change their family religion. Because if you want to change your family religion, you personally have to go to the courthouse and take out an affidavit that you're changing your religion. I mean this this really puts it I would be arrested if I tried to convert somebody. And living in that environment, you learn to live with it. But you also learn that the person who's changed that religion, you know, I like to say, you know, I I had a revival over there that we had 20 people who went through a full year of Bible study. And we had them on the compound and we gave them all the celebration and we spent a whole day with them. But at the end of the day, not one of them accepted Christ as their Savior or Prophecy. And truthfully, I had it out with the Lord that night. You know, I want to come back to State and say, you know, we saw all of these people saved. But the God told me very clearly that night. I mean, that's one of the things. When he spoke to me, I can't tell you how audible it was, but he said, that's not your job. Your job is to tell, and you told. Yeah, you uh conversion is his job, not mine. Yeah. Yeah. So I I feel good when I have told somebody. Now, whether they accept it or not, that's that's not for me.

SPEAKER_08 46:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 46:24

That's for them. You know, if they want to act on it, and and in that particular country, 90% of some, probably every one of those became a Christian. But they would not confess it in public. You know, because they know they would be oppressed.

SPEAKER_11 46:41

Yeah. So they would they would hear you preach and they would not do anything except in their heart they would accept it, and then they would go do this affidavit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 46:50

Because they they well, I particularly I saw this young man with uh with a baby on his shoulder, and and uh he was telling me that he worked in, they have what they call a sweet shop over there, which is yogurt like sweet, it's pure sugar, right? Um I I can't take it, but but he worked in a sweet shop. But when he became declared himself as a Christian, he immediately got the permit because no Muslim is going to eat anything but a Christian touch. And and I'm just talking with him and I told him I had to pray for him. And he says, You don't need to, my God will take care of me. And I but I did follow up on him and found out he did get a job working in a well in a brickyard, which you have from sweet shop to sweatshop. No, no. In the country of Bangladesh is in a villy, uh valley where there is absolutely no rocks. And you can't make concrete without rocks. And so they make bricks, and then they break the bricks into rocks. They literally make rocks so they can make concrete. So there's a lot of brickyards in the country, which which you have to hire people to literally break the rocks up and make the rocks.

SPEAKER_08 48:18

Yeah. That speaks to the your like what what we're talking about, and that this new self is not just an outwardly thing, but ultimately through the spirit, through the work of the spirit, it's it's happening inwardly more and more. And um as as we as we wrap up these last four verses, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Um that building up as well, that makes you know that goes back to uh uh chapter 4, verse 12, when he's talking about the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. And now it's not just it's not just the leaders, the teachers, the prophets, it's it's it's us. It's the body of Christ building up one another. And um and then verse verse 30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. What what quickly, what do we thoughts on why we would grieve the Holy Spirit what you're referring to?

SPEAKER_07 49:27

I think that's pointed directly to verse 29. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, because that can cause division. We want to build up, we don't want to divide. What the Holy Spirit has given us is unity, and Paul is telling us that we are called to walk in a manner that does not divide because we are united in Christ.

SPEAKER_08 49:57

31, 32, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, and instead be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God has in Christ forgave you. That tender-heartedness, going back to where it talks about being calloused, two completely different the old versus the new, and all of that because of what Christ has done. Right. Um it's a perfect way to end it in that forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven us. And um, we do all these things out of not out of our own desires, but out of what God has done in the end through us and for our sake. Um so um, all right, y'all. Well, let's pray and uh we'll get prepared for for morning service. Um Lord, we give you thanks for this day, for the Lord's day, Lord, that you have set apart for us to worship you, uh to enjoy uh breaking bread with brothers and sisters and and your son. Lord, we give you thanks for your son. Lord, we give you thanks that while we were still sinners here, Jesus Christ died for us, purchased us with his blood. We give you thanks for the Holy Spirit, Lord, who is the sealer, who is the guarantee of our salvation. Lord, who makes our prayers pleasing to your ears. Lord, we um we praise you for the fact that we now have a new self, not an old self, whose whose thoughts and deeds of the heart are only evil all the time, but um a heart that is now um has a new first love, first love toward you. Lord, as we continue throughout this study of Ephesians, um set our minds and our hearts on the things above, not on the things here. Um set our minds on the things of the Spirit, that we may um be image bearers of you and and of your son, and that we may be renewed uh by our by the spirit of our minds. Lord, as we head into worship, um we just pray for uh I believe Pastor Kenny, who's preaching this morning, um, and or whoever's preaching this morning that it would uh that you would use them as a vessel to preach your word, Lord, uh through through the preaching of your word, through the partaking of the sacraments, or that you would be glorified, that you would be worshipped in everything that we do. We pray all this in your son's holy and precious name. Amen.