WEBVTT 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:32.240 My friends, this is a little different. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:40.960 I not only get the privilege this morning of singing with you all, but I also get the privilege of opening the Word of God with you this morning. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:46.719 So, if you would please open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:53.039 Before we do that, I know we've prayed like four times already this morning. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:54.320 I need to pray again. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:55.439 Would you join me? 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:56.799 Let's pray. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:08.560 Father God, as we come to your word, we ask humbly that by your grace and in your mercy you would reveal to us the truth that is in Jesus. 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:23.920 And Lord, we ask that the words that I speak today would bring glory to your name, to the end that the meditations of all of our hearts honor you as Lord and love you as our Father. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:26.480 Thank you, Father. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:27.439 Amen. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:34.719 Again, if you could open with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:47.280 Some of you will remember, those of you with super memories, if you can reach all the way back to the beginning of the school year in September, Pastor Jason led us in a series he called The Blueprint for the Church. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:51.280 It was through the first 16 verses of Ephesians chapter 4. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:54.079 I will let you in on a little inside baseball. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:00.640 Behind the curtain, I was assigned verses 17 through 24 sometime in August. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:08.800 And that is our text for this morning. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:13.039 Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 24. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:19.280 Before we get there, I'd like to notice with you what Paul does in those first 16 verses. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:22.319 He gives us positive instructions there. 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:23.520 Do this. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:25.439 Strive for peace. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:27.599 Love one another. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:28.400 Work together. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:33.280 Use your gifts for the sake of the body until it builds itself up in love. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:33.759 Right? 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.759 That's where it ends in verse 16. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:46.639 Here in verse 17, Paul switches from the positive instructions to the negative instructions, from the do's to the don'ts, from the thou shalt's to the thou shalt not. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:59.120 But have no fear, my friends, for wherever God speaks, there is grace upon grace, both when he says yes and as we shall see when he says no. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:12.000 So beginning in verse 17, 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. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:24.560 He's writing a letter to a bunch of Ephesian Gentiles, and he tells them not to walk as Gentiles. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:27.360 It's a little tongue-in-cheek, it seems to me. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:34.800 There's no doubt these Ephesians know exactly what Paul is talking about when he says, don't walk like the Gentiles walk. 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:36.400 Because that was them. 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:38.639 They walked like that. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.919 They know exactly what he's talking about, but we don't. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:44.479 And so in God's grace, he tells us more. 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.639 And he says, do not walk like them in the futility of their minds. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:56.560 Futility, it means vain and pointless and meaningless. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:03:58.719 Resistance is futile. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:00.800 You're not going to succeed. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:02.479 Try as hard as you want. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:03.520 You're not going to get there. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:08.240 It's like they're beating their heads against a brick wall, hoping it's going to fall down. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.439 They're doing that in their minds. 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:13.039 That's what Paul says. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:25.920 Another way to put it is that all of their thoughts, everything their mind thinks, is meaningless, empty, void, fluffy nonsense. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:29.759 Well, what sorts of thoughts are we talking about, Paul? 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:34.560 Or better, what kind of mind thinks meaningless thoughts? 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:36.560 Look to your Bibles, Paul tells us. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:50.319 Verse 18, 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. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.040 Oh, my friends, we could spend our entire morning just in that verse. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.439 There's so much there, but we must move quickly. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.480 What does it mean to be darkened in the understanding? 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:03.680 Romans 1, right? 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:13.600 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:19.920 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.560 So they are without excuse. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:37.759 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. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:43.040 You see, it's this ignorance about the things that are most important. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:51.600 They don't know about God, and they don't want to know about God, because they already know enough, so that they don't want to know, right? 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:54.480 They're darkened in their understanding. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:59.439 It's a willful ignorance about the things that are most important. 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:04.480 Because of that, they are alienated from the life of God. 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:13.360 Godliness, the life of God, godly living, is completely foreign to these Gentiles of whom Paul speaks. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:16.240 They know exactly what he's talking about. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:17.199 Remember? 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:21.920 The apostle says as much in chapter 2, verse 12 of this book. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:36.560 Remember that you, my Ephesian Gentile friends, were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:43.519 What Paul is telling us here is not some new teaching on Christian living. 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:46.560 They already know this. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:57.600 This is a loving and gentle confrontation from the heart of a pastor to his people who know what it means to walk like a Gentile. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.079 Why are they alienated? 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:06.560 Paul says, because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of hearts. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:12.399 Because these Gentiles love the darkness rather than the light, they suppress the truth and the righteousness. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:20.319 Because their minds are futile and darkened, God casts them out from his presence, just like he did Adam and Eve, just like he does with sin. 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:24.720 So they're alienated because they've been cast out. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.639 Because their hearts are hard. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.920 And a hard heart is something that our Lord hates. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:42.800 It's this lack of sensitivity to wickedness, a numbness, and inability to tell right from wrong. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:47.680 A living heart is soft and it beats and it feels. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:54.480 A hard heart is cold and stony, unmoving, and dead. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:07:59.199 Mark chapter 3. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:00.639 Turn there with me if you'd like. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.079 But keep a finger in Ephesians. 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:03.120 That's where we're living. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:05.040 Mark chapter 3. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:12.959 There's a man in the synagogue on the Sabbath day with a withered hand in Mark chapter 3. 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:26.639 And all the people there on the Sabbath day are watching Jesus to see, Mark says, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:31.759 And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, Come here. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:43.679 And he said to all of them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:47.600 But they were silent. 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:54.559 Have you ever caught a child doing something they're not supposed to be doing? 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:56.080 And they know it? 00:08:56.639 --> 00:08:57.279 Yeah? 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.600 When you call them out for it, they just stand there silently. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:03.679 There's two ways they do it, right? 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:09.519 There's sometimes a little boy or girl who knows what they've done is wrong, and they stare at the ground and their shoulders are slooped. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:14.320 They're overcome with shame because they've already repented in their hearts. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.159 They know what they did was wrong. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.399 They know they've disobeyed you or hurt somebody else. 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:27.200 What that kid needs is a hug and a conversation about why sometimes they do the things we know we aren't supposed to do. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:36.240 But more commonly, and I think more of us are familiar with this, is the kid who crosses his arms and froze his eyebrows and somehow stares at that spot of wall right past your elbow. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:38.320 He won't look up at your eyes. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:49.840 He'll stare through the wall before he looks at you because all he wants is for you to just go away and leave him alone so he can keep doing the thing he knows he wasn't supposed to be doing in the first place. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:53.519 There's no repentance in that heart yet. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.360 What that heart needs is a confrontation. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:06.080 And that's exactly what our Lord does with these Pharisees who are acting like stubborn children. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:07.919 Verse 5. 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:16.240 And Jesus looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:18.240 You see where we're going here? 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:22.639 And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:27.279 And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:37.440 Verse 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:45.039 A man's hand was just healed, and all they care about is that they got shown up on their turf. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:52.799 They got proven wrong, and they respond with anger and hardness of heart to destroy the one who taught them something about love. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:11:04.720 And such hardness of hearts characterizes the Gentiles who don't know God, just like it did the Pharisees who did not know God. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:10.639 You see, here in Ephesians 4, there's this cycle that Paul's laying out for us. 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:32.879 A hard heart leads to ignorance about the things of God, which leads to being further away from God and godly living and more alienation, which leads to more darkness, which leads to more hardness of heart and more ignorance and more alienation, and it goes and it goes and it goes and on and on and on, further away from God towards eternal judgment. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:38.480 The Gentiles go in darkness and in hardness of heart. 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:42.799 And now we turn to verse 19. 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:49.679 In verse 18, in that sequence, Paul tells us what a futile mind is like. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:55.200 Here in verse 19, Paul begins to show us what they do. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:12:00.720 What is somebody who has no love in their heart, is ignorant of the things of God? 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:02.879 How do they live? 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:15.759 Paul says, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:21.759 They have given themselves up, completely handed themselves over. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:27.919 Matthew uses this exact same phrase to describe what Judas did to Jesus. 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:29.039 Right? 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:32.399 He handed him over, completely betrayed him. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.080 Do with this what you will, it means nothing to me. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:43.360 And that's what we and all of our friends who've yet to know Christ. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:46.720 That's what we've done to ourselves. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:49.200 We've given ourselves up. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.360 We've handed ourselves over. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:54.480 We've betrayed ourselves. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:57.919 And to what? 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:02.639 Into sensuality. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:08.879 In English, that word comes from our word for senses, right? 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:11.600 What you can smell, taste, see, hear, and touch. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.279 Physical things, bodily things, earthly things. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:37.600 The word is used all over your New Testament, but honestly, the best place to understand what it means is right here in Ephesians 4, when Paul tells us exactly what he means by sensuality, when he says they are greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:42.399 This greed doesn't just mean wanting money. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:44.159 We know that, right? 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:50.240 But rather, this greed is that insatiable can't ever get enough hunger. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.639 It's that thing you can never get off your mind. 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.759 You look forward to it as the days and the weeks drag on. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.240 You catch yourself daydreaming about it, right? 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:04.799 If I could just get 20 minutes by myself, it's not always wrong. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:06.720 Sometimes it is. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:08.639 I think we all know that. 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:13.279 Addicts are this kind of greedy after their chosen poison, right? 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:15.200 Man, I can I just need a drink. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:24.159 But really, my friends, we are all greedy after so many things. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:32.000 Beautifully, Jesus felt this feeling. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:37.200 This insatiable hunger, this craving. 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:54.159 In Luke chapter 22, Christ says to his disciples, I have earnestly desired, it's the same word in the Greek, I have been greedy to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:01.440 The man's about to be betrayed, handed over, mocked, beaten, and crucified, and he knows it. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:14.720 And yet he can't get off his mind because he's looking forward to it and craving it so strongly, the moment when he could say, This is my blood poured out for you. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:26.720 Oh Father God, may we hunger and thirst after such beautiful things as your son did. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:32.720 What are these Gentiles? 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:37.679 Bleak and darkened in their godlessness and hardened hearts. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:39.759 What are they hungering for? 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:42.639 The text continues, right? 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.120 They are greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:54.320 These Gentiles, they want things, they hunger and crave after things that are not clean. 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:07.200 They want things that are defiled and dirty and unfit for common use, rotten eggs, spoiled milk, forbidden fruit. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:23.279 They want dying, decaying, rotting, meaningless, vain and empty things that pertain to the senses, that are physical, that are sensual. 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:30.159 Their hearts burn with desire for sensual things that they ought not to want. 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.480 And make no mistake, my friend. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:41.039 These Ephesians know exactly what Paul is talking about. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:44.320 And so do we. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:48.720 That the grace of God was bought by the blood of the Lamb. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.400 And that God no longer alienates you. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:54.880 Right? 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.960 He sent His Son here. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.119 We didn't have to clean ourselves up to go to Him. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:05.519 The God who alienated was the God who initiates. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.839 Well, we were all in that cycle of sin. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:13.359 Further and further away from God we went. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:18.720 And then just like that, God stopped it and He brought us near by the blood of Christ. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:22.000 And we don't have to be alienated anymore. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:27.279 The cycle of sin has been broken by the blood of the Lamb. 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:30.319 And that is the good news. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:33.759 That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:38.640 You don't have to be a Gentile anymore. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:40.640 There's a way. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:45.920 And if you believe in Jesus, this is what you believe. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:50.480 But Paul does not stop there, though he could. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:52.160 There's enough there. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:55.680 Paul tells us more about our old lives. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:00.880 He says that they are being corrupted through deceitful desires. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.720 This corruption, the verb is still going. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:09.279 Your old self is wasting away. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:14.799 The old you, the you you don't want to be anymore, the you that nags at you. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:17.759 It's breaking down. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.319 It is seeing destruction. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.200 Because that's what sin does. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:29.359 And Paul says that that's happening through these deceitful desires. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:31.440 What are these desires? 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:34.480 They're the ones Jesus taught us about in the parable of the sower, right? 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:36.400 They're desires that choke out the word. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:41.119 They're those things that, the riches of the concerns of life. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:46.480 They draw us away, they lure, they trap, they bait and switch, they promise joy, they don't deliver. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:50.160 They're those physical, earthly, temporal things. 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:57.759 Those empty, vain, meaningless, worthy things that are being corrupted. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:06.559 Paul uses this word for desires in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, a very familiar passage. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:11.519 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:17.200 For this is the will of God, your sanctification. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:37.920 That you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, desires, not in the passion of desire like the Gentiles who do not know God. 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:41.279 Just like our text for today. 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:42.240 Do you see it? 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:44.079 Saying the same thing. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:45.680 I hope it's becoming clear. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:50.880 Paul is calling us to walk like people who know Jesus. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:55.359 Don't be like the Gentiles. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:59.279 Be like people who know the living God. 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:04.160 But just how exactly do we do that? 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:07.519 How do we put off our old Gentile self? 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:09.920 What are we supposed to do, Paul? 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:15.119 He's already told us, right, in verses 1 through 16, those positive instructions. 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:16.640 He says, do this. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:21.519 Love each other and strive for unity and harmony with one another in the spirit. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:24.480 The question isn't, what do we do? 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:30.000 We know what we're supposed to do, just like these Ephesians knew what they were supposed to do. 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:32.000 The question is, how? 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:42.960 How can self can such selfish and self-satisfying and self-absorbed Gentiles like me and you and us? 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:47.519 How can we walk in newness of life? 00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:57.039 To be renewed in the spirit of your minds. 00:23:57.359 --> 00:23:58.640 Verse 23. 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:14.720 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. 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:26.799 Those two words for spirit and mind refer to some of the deepest parts of the human being, and saying them together is like saying, in the soul of your soul, and the very spirit of your mind. 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:35.599 And the point of that is just saying, it's on the inside, and the way you feel, and the way you think, and the things you want. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:41.759 Be different there, be changed there, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:43.359 Jesus taught us this too. 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.640 It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:53.119 But what comes out of the mouth and what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:57.200 For out of the heart come evil thoughts. 00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:02.559 Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:07.359 These are what defile a person, Christ says. 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:14.079 And Paul, with Christ, is calling us to be renewed there, to be changed there. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:25.279 What you do and what you say flows out from your mouth, hands, and feet after it's risen up from within your cold, darkened, ignorant, unbelieving Gentile heart. 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:26.319 Right? 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:32.319 But that is not the way you learned Christ. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:33.599 That's not you anymore. 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:35.039 It doesn't have to be. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:37.839 That's not you anymore. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:44.640 And we need a change that comes there, from the very center of who we are. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:54.079 And we do this by putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:58.720 And we put it on the same way we put off the old. 00:25:59.119 --> 00:25:59.599 Right? 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:09.759 When you come to Christ, when you see the cross, when you realize that you can be changed and there is forgiveness for your sins, and you become poor in spirit, and you mourn. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:17.839 Salvation then is a matter of repentance and confession and trusting yourself to Christ. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:26.400 In the same way, putting on the new self is a matter of confessing that the new self is good. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:28.799 Pray. 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:34.640 You pray and you ask God to help you put on Christ-likeness. 00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:37.119 And then you do it. 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:39.359 Hear me now. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:42.880 It's not the doing of things that transforms you. 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:46.079 You can't fake it. 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:54.240 But that doesn't mean we're to avoid doing the things we know are right because we're afraid we might be faking. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:57.200 I can't leave it alone. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:08.480 If you fear you're faking, if you're afraid you're faking, if you doubt your own motivation in doing what's right, then you already know, my friends, what the right reason is to do the right things. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:10.000 You already know. 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:17.440 Right, for example, say you don't know if you should be baptized because you you don't want to do it just because it'll please your parents. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:25.039 Then you already know right then in that moment that there's a better reason to be baptized than that. 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:28.960 And you only want to be baptized if it's for that reason. 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:30.880 That's where your heart is. 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:39.279 So pray, confess right then, God, I'm afraid that I'm doing this because I've because I care more about my parents than you. 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:43.759 Help me, Lord, to do this out of love for you. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:45.759 And then go. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:54.160 Don't let the fear of faking, the temptation to unbelief freeze you. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:57.279 We know how to do what is right. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:02.000 We were created for good works before the foundation of the world. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:12.160 The same is true of everything, guys, of prayer, of singing in church, studying your Bible in a coffee shop. 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:17.039 If you're wondering, oh man, am I just doing this because I want to be seen by other people? 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:25.119 Pray right then and confess it, and then do the things you ought to do while confessing the reasons why you ought to do them. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:31.039 And in so doing, you put on the new self that looks like God. 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:47.200 Notice, it doesn't say the new self mustered together after the likeness of God, or the new self worked out after the likeness of God, or the new self beaten into submission after the likeness of God. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:50.880 No, God by his spirit says created. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:55.759 It's God who creates the new you. 00:28:57.839 --> 00:28:58.640 Not you. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:03.119 And he creates it such that it looks like him. 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:08.240 He's making us like him. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:11.440 What more could we ask? 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:13.680 What more could we ask? 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:26.720 The truth of Jesus, my friends, is that our old self, corrupted and corrupting, according to the empty desires in which the Gentiles walk, can be put off. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:30.079 Remember, that's not the way you learned Christ. 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:32.880 You don't have to be that way anymore. 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:59.039 But in Christ, the creator of all the earth created a new self for you that you can now put on here, today, right this minute, tomorrow, when you wake up at work, at the dining room table, in your workplace, in your schools, your hearts, in the very spirit of your minds. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:08.799 We, you and me, and us and all who believe in the good news of Jesus Christ can be made new. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:18.319 Because we are people who have heard and were taught the truths of Jesus. 00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:27.359 And people who really know the good news of Jesus Christ don't walk like Gentiles walk. 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:35.440 But we will walk in the newness of life and true godly righteousness and holiness. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:41.680 And it is that righteousness and holiness that we confess is good when we do what is right. 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:52.799 And so the way to grow, the way to grow is to know more about that righteousness and holiness of God. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:31:03.440 To be so caught up and enamored with the beauty of God most high that you know what you're supposed to look like and you can strive after it. 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:08.400 So, my friends, meditate and pray and reflect and study and seek. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:11.119 Seek the righteousness of God. 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:16.319 Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:21.759 So let's do that now together. 00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:24.319 Let's reflect on who our God is. 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:36.319 Our God, the God, in his stunning power and might created the world and everything in it. 00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:39.759 He showed grace to Adam and Eve when they fell. 00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:41.440 He could have killed them right then. 00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:43.359 That's what he said would happen. 00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:46.640 There was grace even at the foot of the tree. 00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:52.880 He called Abraham out of Ur to make a people who would walk before him. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:57.279 He rescued that people from the depths of oppression and slavery. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:03.599 He guided them by the hand through the wilderness, providing for them with food and water and bread and birds. 00:32:03.759 --> 00:32:06.079 He gave to them a land of promise. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.599 These slaves who had never had a home. 00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:12.480 He gave a country all their own. 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:16.720 He gave them wealth and power and security. 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:27.279 And all of this our God did, despite the constant bickering and nagging and complaining of his people. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.759 Even despite their outright idolatrous rebellion. 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:34.240 They've been saved by the very hand of God. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.440 The pillar of fire is in front of them, and they want to go back to Egypt. 00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:48.160 Even then, even then, he saved them again and again and again. 00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:54.480 He raised up for them judges and kings and prophets to save and to guide them. 00:32:54.720 --> 00:33:05.200 In his righteousness, he sent them away into Babylon in exile, but in his great love, he brought them back before their elders had even forgotten what the temple looked like. 00:33:08.319 --> 00:34:08.559 That gracious and loving and patient and merciful, holy and righteous God of all the earth, who cannot turn a blind eye to sin that destroys and corrupts through its evil desires, yet in his great love, he laid on himself, on his very own Son, all of the iniquity of the world, taking away our guilt and shame and raising us up to new life in Christ, that through the cross we might put off our old selves and be renewed in the very spirit of our minds, that we might be able to love and live just as the living God does in true righteousness and holiness. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:12.159 Let's pray. 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:25.360 Oh God, we are astounded when we recall your greatness in all the earth. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:33.519 Father, we remember you and we see here your goodness on display. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:47.119 Thank you, Father, for the gift of new life through the cross of your Son, that he rose from the dead to everlasting life, that we could rise with him. 00:34:48.239 --> 00:34:50.400 Thank you, Father, for Jesus. 00:34:50.800 --> 00:35:01.519 We pray this week as we go home to our families, to our workplaces, that we would glorify you in the way we live. 00:35:03.280 --> 00:35:07.280 Thank you, God, for all that you have given. 00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:12.159 That concludes the sermon from faith evangelical free church. 00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:19.119 Our mission is to declare the word of commandment and disciple believers into the movement from the words of Jesus.