Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Amen.
[00:00:02] If you would turn in your Bibles To Ephesians chapter 4, you're looking at verses 25 through the end of the chapter and it's on the screen behind me if you need it.
[00:00:19] But let's read Ephesians 5. And. Did I put it on the slides? I did not. Did I? Okay, so. So you guys, it's not behind me. If you have your Bible, turn there or listen closely. Okay, so Ephesians chapter 4, verses 25 through 32.
[00:00:37] Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. For we are members one of another.
[00:00:46] Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
[00:00:53] 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.
[00:01:03] 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 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 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. Let's pray.
[00:01:32] God, indeed, we thank you for forgiveness in Christ. And we thank you for the righteousness of Christ, God, that you not only removed our sin from us, but you have clothed us in his righteousness. And we just again, we stand before you as dearly loved children as those clothed before you in the righteousness of Christ, and ask that you would teach our hearts to live this new life, to put off the old Lord. This passage is super practical. Would you meet us where we're at? Would you address us in our sin where we have been ignoring you? And would you call us to living out your righteousness that you have given to us in Christ, and it's in his name we pray. Amen.
[00:02:12] Okay, so I've been accused of trying to re preach last week's sermon before. I'm not going to do that, Steve.
[00:02:19] I have learned. But we do need to review a little bit because last week's passage is foundational for this week's. But last week, in verses 17 through 24, Paul tells us that we should be regularly putting off the old man that is characterized by ignorance of God, hardness of heart towards him, sensuality and impurity. In a word, sin and we're to put on the new man.
[00:02:52] And I prefer the translation when it says man and not self, because I think he's referring to the old man being who you are in Adam, who you are according to your sinful nature that we are born with. And the new man being the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
[00:03:09] He is the new man and we are in Christ. And so we're to put on that identity of being in Christ. And this new man is characterized by truth and righteousness and holiness. And in a word, it's characterized by Christlikeness.
[00:03:27] When he says put off and put on, I think he's.
[00:03:30] I like to think of it in terms of dirty clothes.
[00:03:33] You know, a long, hard. Think of a long, hard day working in manual labor. And after you take a shower, you don't put those dirty clothes back on. If you do, that's kind of silly. Maybe that's all you have to put on. But ideally, you're not putting your dirty clothes back on, your sweaty, drenched, stinky clothes. You're not putting those back on after you have cleaned, cleaned yourself as well.
[00:03:58] You cannot simply put the new clothes on top of the old clothes.
[00:04:04] You can't just mask the old that is there. You can't just mask the dirty clothes by putting on new clothes because you still stink.
[00:04:14] So we're to put off and to put on. And so, simply speaking, note that growth and godliness includes a. Both.
[00:04:23] Both a putting off of the old man and a putting on of the new man. And I love that picture in Zechariah 3. It gives us a beautiful picture of what this looks like. You know, Joshua is clothed in these. It says filthy garments in the esv. But as you look into that word, these are soiled, excrementious garments.
[00:04:46] I didn't practice that word, but if it sounds gross, it is. Okay, so that's the kind of garments that he is clothed in.
[00:04:55] And he is rightly being accused by Satan. He does not deserve to stand in the presence of God. Right. But the angel of the Lord, the pre incarnate Christ, says, remove the filthy garments from him, and he is clothed in pure vestments, which is a picture of being, you know, imputed with the righteousness of Christ, of being clothed in garments that makes him fit to stand before the King of Kings. And how does this happen again? It is a work of God first and foremost to save us. Amen.
[00:05:31] God must transform us. You must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God.
[00:05:37] But then in Philippians 2, it tells us that we are to work out our salvation, that we are to learn to live according to the position that we've been given in Christ. We're supposed to make progress according to that position.
[00:05:53] And the primary way we go about this is to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, of learning God and His ways. And the analogy that he comes to here in chapter 5, verse 1 is.
[00:06:05] I've already alluded to it a number of times, but we're to be imitators of God as beloved children. We as children of God, who have this secure relationship with the Father, right? The Father is not kicking us out because we're disobeying, right? He is committed to us, in covenant with us, and he is committed to growing us up to be like His Son. I think Matt is preaching next week, so I'm preaching your passage too, but not really not going to do that. But I wanted to allude that, just give us some context there.
[00:06:38] But then what he comes to here in verses 25 through 32 are examples of godly living. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all that it means to live out the righteousness of Christ, but he's giving examples illustrating to us what it looks like to put off and to put on the new man.
[00:07:03] And so you can discern this pattern, and you can use this pattern to apply it to other areas of your. Of your life, where you need to put off the old and put on the new. But there's this pattern of put off this and put on this. And then he gives a reason why.
[00:07:20] And it is kind of God to give us a reason why he does not have to do that, you know, and even in, you know, in your immaturity, sometimes you need to learn to simply obey without knowing why. My children are the two youngest, are at the point where they can't completely understand why. They just need to know that they can trust me.
[00:07:42] But God does speak to our intelligence. He wants us to think and to consider and to discern.
[00:07:49] Romans 12:2.
[00:07:51] Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is a good the path of God.
[00:07:59] So it's a participation. We're participating with him in love. We're participating with him in our growth. And we are to take ownership of our growth. So the first example he gives of putting off and putting on is to put off lying and deceiving.
[00:08:17] He says again in verse 25, I'll read it to you, since it's not on the screen. But having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor. For we are members one of another.
[00:08:30] Satan is the father of lies.
[00:08:34] And our culture is one that is endemic with lying. Our media lies to us all the time.
[00:08:43] Advertisers lie to us and say, if you buy this product, then all these women will be after you just because you use this particular brand of dish soap. I mean, some of these are ridiculous, right?
[00:08:57] Our government lies to us regularly.
[00:09:00] We have the Epstein files sitting on the desk. We don't have the Epstein files. We don't know what you're talking about. You guys made that up or the Democrats made that up. I mean, there's just lying all around us. Right? Okay, but that it is not supposed to be so among us. We are to put on speaking the truth. We're to put on honesty, integrity. Integrity being, you know, you're not living one way with one group of people or and living another way. When you're in private, there's to be a wholeness to your living. There's, there's could be a consistency.
[00:09:34] You are speaking the truth both with your words and with your actions.
[00:09:40] And he says the reason why is that what did he say is here for? We are members one of another. And so that tells us here you should speak the truth out in the world as well. Not just in the church. But his primary focus here is the local body. We need one another to speak the truth to one another.
[00:10:00] So the reason why that he gives is that the body needs its members to speak the truth one another for it to function properly and healthily.
[00:10:10] Just think about this with a simple analogy. If you're hand touches something hot, you need your hand to tell your brain to pull back. Right? You need accurate messages being conveyed so that you can live in a healthy way. And so what does this look like for us? How does this apply? If you are hurting or in need, say so that the other members of the body may care for you.
[00:10:39] If you have reason for thanksgiving of the grace of God in your life, rejoice that we might rejoice with you. Let it out. And if your brother is in sin, you need to tell him that he may be healed, that the body may be healed. We need to confront the sin in the body, that the infection may not spread, so to speak. And so we're to put off falsehood, put on truth, because the body needs this for its healthy functioning.
[00:11:09] The second thing that he says that we're to put off and put on, he actually leads with the positive in this case. And he says be Angry and then the negative, and do not sin.
[00:11:21] And he's quoting here from Psalm 4. And what this tells us is that there is a way to be angry in righteousness.
[00:11:31] So you can go and give us those points there. We're to put on a righteous anger that is marked by love and self control.
[00:11:42] And maybe this is a difficult idea for some of you to swallow because you've experienced so much hurtful, sinful, unchecked anger that does need to be put off.
[00:11:53] But in terms of righteous anger, just consider Christ. Consider Jesus protecting those who were being abused and taken advantage of when he overturned the tables in the temple that was in the court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles were being kept from the only section of the temple that they had access to. And Jesus being zealous for God's house, he said this. You know, he quotes, I believe it's from a Isaiah or one of the Psalms, just saying, my house is to be a house of prayer for all nations and not a den of thieves.
[00:12:32] And so there is a place for righteous anger that we see in Christ.
[00:12:37] John Stott says this. He says there is a great need in the contemporary world for more Christian anger in the face of blatant evil. We should be indignant, not tolerant, angry, not apathetic. If God hates sin, his people should hate it too.
[00:12:56] If evil arouses his anger, it should arouse ours also.
[00:13:02] We should be angry about unborn babies being murdered in the womb en masse. We should be angry about children being abused physically and sexually.
[00:13:15] We should be angry about human trafficking. We should be angry about false teaching that destroys churches. We should be angry about complacency. We should be angry about these things and yet not sin.
[00:13:29] Okay, so righteous anger is marked by love, by protecting the vulnerable, and it's marked by self control.
[00:13:38] And so sinful anger is an unchecked anger. Anger even in what may begin as righteous anger can quickly become a matter of pride and a matter of losing control.
[00:13:55] And so our anger must be checked and it must be channeled in righteousness, not left unchecked, to grow into a destructive rage.
[00:14:04] And we know far too many examples of that, whether in our own lives or in our culture. But Jesus says if you are angry with another, that you're guilty of murder.
[00:14:19] So it's very serious. And we need the Lord most definitely to lead us in righteousness and give us self control by his spirit there.
[00:14:28] So the reason why we're to put off this unchecked anger and put on righteous anger is that sinful, unchecked anger gives opportunity for destructive demonic influence.
[00:14:40] He says here, give no opportunity. He says, do not let the sun go down in your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. What's he saying here?
[00:14:53] Is he saying that the devil may have opportunity to manipulate your dreams even, or stir something in your heart?
[00:15:03] I don't know, honestly. But I will tell you this. There are times when I have gone to bed stressed, and what do I do? I wake up stressed.
[00:15:11] You can identify with that. You go to bed anxious, and you wake up anxious. You're still mulling over those things.
[00:15:17] And I don't know completely how the subconscious works while you're sleeping, but I do know it says to deal with your anger before you go to sleep. Okay? As he's quoting here from Psalm 4, Psalm 4. 4, it says, Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. So anger.
[00:15:40] Chip Ingram, in his book, his series on overcoming emotions that destroy. I know some of you with my Life matters are very familiar with that text, with that work.
[00:15:50] Does some helpful work there in showing how anger is a secondary emotion that kind of serves as, like your car dashboard that tells you that something's going on under the hood and it's really something that's hiding other emotions that you need to deal with. You need to deal with these things before the Lord. I'll give you a few examples from Chip Ingram. One is anger is a secondary emotion that is covering over hurt from unmet emotional needs.
[00:16:22] Just one example of that in scripture is Joseph's brothers.
[00:16:27] Joseph's brothers.
[00:16:29] They saw their dad's favoritism towards Joseph and they were angry because their dad had let them down. They felt unloved and unspecial and unimportant. They felt rejected and jealous and sad. In a word, they felt hurt. Okay? But they were angry in an unchecked, sinful way. And their anger led them to as good as murdering Joseph and selling him into slavery as well. Your anger may be covering for frustration from unmet expectations. How often in our marriages have we gotten angry because we expected.
[00:17:11] You know, she expected me to do the dishes, and I was expecting this. And of course it's not. Okay. Yes. Sorry, I should stop.
[00:17:19] But we all.
[00:17:21] I all. We have unmet expectations that we need to verbalize. Right? We need to. And we need to acknowledge those.
[00:17:30] You shouldn't make up illustrations on the spot, note to self, or you might receive anger.
[00:17:39] I know. I know you're not, but I'm scared. So as well, anger may cover for a threat to yourself or even your self esteem, just in a word, insecurity, that maybe you know as you're angry because you're protecting something that's vulnerable, maybe you're protecting your character has been attacked and you're angry over that, or your pride feels attacked, maybe your family or your values are under attack.
[00:18:06] And so we're to ponder on our beds, if you will. We are to consider those things and to take those things before the Lord. You know, I mentioned Joseph's brothers as a negative example. But a positive example of dealing with anger would be all throughout the Psalms, of going to God over these wicked men who are chasing me and slandering me and trying to do me harm, and dealing with that before the Lord and remembering his promises and receiving his consolations.
[00:18:37] We are to ponder those things before the Lord, to take those things before the Lord. And I take this very practically. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Deal with it before you go to sleep, okay?
[00:18:51] The third thing that he mentions here is in the matter of productivity or the absence of it, he says we're to put off theft of all kinds.
[00:19:03] Theft of all kinds.
[00:19:04] So everything from outright stealing to stealing of ideas, taking credit for someone else's work, stealing your employer's time by not giving a full day's work, stealing from God when we take things that are his to enjoy and trying to enjoy them outside the bounds that he has marked off for us. In that. I remember as a young man just being struck by that and realizing that, you know, I was trying to enjoy, you know, the gift of relation between a man and a woman outside of marriage. That is a beautiful gift that God gives. You guys can say amen if you want to, but it is to be enjoyed within the bounds that he has prescribed.
[00:19:53] Just to illustrate how prevalent theft is in our culture, these are some figures from 2013, which doesn't account for inflation, which is another form of theft, by the way.
[00:20:09] But in 2013, there was this. The American Psychological association had this symposium on employee theft, and they did this breakdown of the $8 billion a year in inventory shortages for department and chain stores, and of that $8 billion in inventory shortages, 10% were due to clerical error, 30% were due to shoplifting, and 60% was due to theft by employees.
[00:20:42] So we had to put that off. It should not be so among us. And what are we to put on? We're to put on honest, hard work. And the word here for labor means working to the point of exhaustion.
[00:20:57] Let us remember that work is good, that it is something that God gave to mankind before the fall. He gave work to Adam that he would work the garden and keep it. And we're to be partners with God in our work.
[00:21:12] You should see your work as that, whether it's your work in formal employment or your work at home. Whatever manner of service we are to work, to go to work with God in serving our fellow man.
[00:21:27] And so the reason why that he gives is that honest hard work contributes to human flourishing and it puts capital in your hands with which you can turn around and bless others in terms of contributing to human flourishing, brothers and sisters, you need to connect your work to the people that it serves.
[00:21:47] If you work for Duke Energy, thank you for keeping the lights on. I use that electricity every day.
[00:21:53] Dale Ball, you work for City of Roxboro Water Department. Thank you, brother. I'm not in the city, but I'm on city water. And I appreciate you because I use that water every day. You know, for me, I work at State Employees Credit Union. I have not always loved working at State Employers Credit union, but there was a shift in me when I realized, hey, I play an important role in helping people to improve their financial lives.
[00:22:20] And we can say our finances are a big source of stress, are they not? It's a big part of our lives, like it or not. And so being able to guide people in that, being able to help them with that person after person, I get to contribute to the flourishing of this community and praise God for that as well. Your work creates capital. It puts money and goods in your hand that you can then use to bless others. And notice how this shift, I hope this is a shift in your thinking. We tend to think of work as something I have to do in order to do the things I want to do.
[00:22:57] But how does Paul portray work? Here you're working for the sake of others, you're working for the sake of human flourishing and you're working for the sake that you might have some, some capital that you can turn around and meet others needs with. And praise God that we get to be his hands and feet in meeting others needs.
[00:23:17] So work creates capital, stealing deprives. It should not be so among us.
[00:23:24] And then the next section is. Next verse is talking about putting on encouraging speech. He says in verse 20:29, 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. When he says the word corrupting, there it's that you could translate that word as rotten or putrid or filthy. It's a word that's used of decaying fish.
[00:23:53] Okay. There's this emphasis on decay, spreading conversation that.
[00:23:59] That runs others down and delights in their weaknesses.
[00:24:06] Gossip, if you will. We should not speak disparaging speech. It should not be so among us. But instead, we're to put off that degrading talk and we're to put on fitting up, building speech, just as we've looked at recently in Ephesians 4, 15, 16.
[00:24:25] We are to speak the truth in love, that we might build up the body, that we might help this body to grow.
[00:24:34] I'll give you.
[00:24:35] Brett gave this to us a couple weeks ago. But our former pastor, Johnny Smith at Clement Baptist used to give a threefold test for things that you say.
[00:24:45] So this threefold filter, number one, is it true?
[00:24:50] Number two, does it need to be said?
[00:24:53] And number three, can it be said in love? And such a filter should guard our mouths. And the reason why is that when we speak the truth with love, we serve as vessels of the Lord's grace to others.
[00:25:09] And what a blessing that is. We get to meet others physical needs and we get to meet their spiritual and emotional needs and to build them up, to help grow them up to maturity, to grow them in their confidence of the Lord.
[00:25:24] It was said of the Scottish minister Alexander White that all his geese became swans, that he spoke so well of his people that he exalted them with his speech.
[00:25:40] Eliphaz said of Job, in Job four, he says, job, your words have upheld him who is stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
[00:25:51] Such should be our words. And our words do have great power to tear down or to build up, and we should put on up building, encouraging speech toward one another.
[00:26:03] And the final thing that we are to put off is vengeful attitudes and ill will.
[00:26:11] He gives a list here of five things that we're to put off and then adds a six. He says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. And those first five all have to do with vengeance.
[00:26:37] You know, let me just review all five of them. So bitterness is a callous heart that harbors past resentment.
[00:26:46] We're to put that away.
[00:26:48] We're to forgive.
[00:26:49] We're to put away wrath and anger. It's unclear whether he's using those as synonyms, but I think probably there's a distinction between wrath being passionate outburst of anger and anger. Here Being seething animosity, we're to put that away.
[00:27:05] Clamor is people shouting back and forth in a quarrel. Put that away.
[00:27:10] Slander is any kind of speech that is defamatory or abusive.
[00:27:15] Gossip is in that category. We should not tear others down with our words, whether they're present with us or absent from us.
[00:27:24] There may be a progression here from this internal disposition of bitterness to this outward speech of slander. But I think there's an emphasis here on this comprehensive nature, comprehensive manner in which these sinful dispositions are to be put off and avoided. And then malice is just simply being mean spirited, vicious in your attitude and disposition. And again, you've heard me say this again and again. It should not be so among us, but instead we are to put on Christlike compassion and mercy toward one one another. He says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted.
[00:28:02] Which literally, by the way, means healthy intestines.
[00:28:08] The ancient way of speaking about compassion, it says, you know, the literal it says of Jesus is that he yearned in his bowels for someone, but that means is he had compassion again and again. So, so guys have healthy intestines towards one another, okay?
[00:28:28] But we're to have that put on that compassion towards one another, and we are to forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. You guys know Jesus parable in Matthew 18 of the unforgiving servant who the king was calling people to account. And this one servant owed him 10,000 talents. And a talent is 20 years worth of wages, so 200,000 years worth of work, okay? He owed that much to the king. And that is a picture of the great debt that we owe to God for our sin.
[00:29:07] And that king graciously, surprisingly, amazingly forgives it all.
[00:29:15] And then that wicked servant goes to his neighbor and, and says, hey, you owe me 100 denarii, which is 20 weeks worth of wages, okay? So that's, you know, what, almost half a year. That's a lot of money, right?
[00:29:30] But compared to what we have been forgiven, we should find it easy not to say it's not ever difficult because it's 20 weeks worth of wages, right? It may be a big offense in the scheme of things that has been committed to you, but in the grand scheme of things, compared to what Christ has forgiven us, we should forgive others and we should be simply kind. We should be pleasant and gracious and good and compassionate towards one another. And the reason why is that the Holy Spirit may be pleased and not grieved over attitudes and actions that are unfitting for a Child of God. And a bit of a side sermon here as he says, the Holy Spirit is grieved. The Holy Spirit is a person.
[00:30:21] The Holy Spirit, one of my pet peeves is here. And I know it's just sort of a natural thing, but to hear the Holy Spirit called it.
[00:30:28] I know that we do the same thing with babies, and we say, let me hold it, right? But it's, you know, let us speak properly. And the Holy Spirit is a person.
[00:30:37] He is one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, and He is God. And so he. And as God, he is grieved.
[00:30:46] When we sin, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So, looking forward there to the final day of salvation or the final day of judgment.
[00:31:04] In a word, we're to live as we are. We're to live as the children of God. That we are parents, it grieves us, does it not, when we see our children fighting to see them loving a toy more than they love one another, or as they become adults, to be just completely divided from one another, it grieves the parent's heart.
[00:31:33] Now, I think I got this from Brett, but I have started asking my children, which do you love more, this Barbie doll or your sister?
[00:31:45] Barbie doll.
[00:31:47] No, no, no, no. That's the wrong answer. Your sister is more important than this doll that I could quickly throw in the trash. And I'm wanting to right now. Right. So your sister is more important, your brothers and sisters, more important than whatever else that you're fighting over.
[00:32:08] On the positive side, 3 John 4, verse 4 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. It delights God, the Holy Spirit when we are walking in the truth, when we are walking in unity and love towards one another.
[00:32:25] David Guzik quotes Charles Spurgeon in saying that the Holy Spirit's grief is not of a petty, oversensitive nature.
[00:32:34] Spurgeon says, the Holy Spirit is grieved with us mainly for our own sakes, for he knows what misery sin will cost us. He reads our sorrows in our sins. He grieves over us because he sees how much chastisement we incur and how much communion we lose.
[00:32:55] And so let us not grieve the Holy Spirit, but delight him by putting on the righteousness of Christ.
[00:33:02] And so, as a closing challenge, as children of the Father, we should pursue growth in godliness with intentionality, confidence, and a constant, humble attitude of repentance.
[00:33:19] We've said this Many times, and it is no burden to say it again. But you do not drift into holiness, okay? You don't get there just by accident. Instead, the opposite picture is given in Hebrews 2:1 that says, Be careful lest you drift away from these things. That our sin nature naturally carries us away into sin, into unrighteousness. But we must intentionally partner with God, participate with him in our growth. We are to own our growth and to pursue it with intentionality and vigor. And we're to pursue it with confidence.
[00:34:01] Again. I've told you this story many times. There's no burden for me to tell it to you again. But when I was just as you know, I had gotten to know Christina, wanted to marry her, was thinking, God, can you be so gracious as to allow me to become the husband of this woman and to pursue her?
[00:34:25] And we had started connecting, talking.
[00:34:29] We agreed that when we got back to mainland China, where we were serving at the time, that we would continue to see one another.
[00:34:36] And we had a layover in Hong Kong. I'm laying in the bed that morning and all this condemnation starts washing over me because of my. My past with sexual sin.
[00:34:48] And I just felt condemned. And just hearing this sort of inner voice that you are not worthy of this. Who do you think you are that you could pursue a woman like this and think that you could be the godly man that she needs and that she deserves? Who do you think you are to think that you could be a Christ like husband to her?
[00:35:10] And I know there was a spiritual battle going on in me then, and the Holy Spirit was bringing these verses to mind. And I'm just thumbing through. I knew it was Paul, one of Paul's letters. And I find it in Philippians 3 in Philippians 3 says this. It says, beloved, gosh, I know this. And my brain.
[00:35:32] Let's just. Yes, Philippians 3. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 3.
[00:35:42] Yes. Okay. Philippians 3:13.
[00:35:47] He says, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And so forgetting what lies behind, that old man is behind. He is buried in the grave. Okay? So forgetting the old man that lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. What lies ahead for you, believer? Christ likeness.
[00:36:23] First John 3, 2 says this, Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears When Jesus comes back, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. So we will be glorified, we will be made like Christ. The next verse, First John 3, 3 says, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
[00:36:50] As you have this confidence that you will be made like Christ, that has a way of purifying you and giving you courage to press forward in Christ likeness and knowing it's going to happen, you can advance in Christ likeness. So pursue growth in godliness with that confidence that you will be made like Christ.
[00:37:12] But when you are convicted of sin, and perhaps you have been by any of these things tonight, we are to repent. And to repent means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of action. The simplest way I've seen it explained is simply to talk. Turn around. If you have been pursuing falsehood, then turn around and pursue the truth. If you have been carried away by unchecked anger, then turn around and put on righteous anger, self control. If you have been carried away in degrading speech of your neighbor, your brothers and sisters, then turn around and put on encouragement. Put on upbuilding speech in as much as you are, you know, Stop thinking of sin as a good thing. Stop heading down that path and thinking that sin is what satisfies and repent and turn around and take up your cross. Deny yourself and follow Jesus and see his ways as true and righteous and good, and walk in those.
[00:38:14] But let us remember the cross, that on the cross, whether it be falsehood, whether it be degrading speech, whether it be any of these vengeful attitudes or ill will, Christ has paid for those things on the cross.
[00:38:29] Praise God for that. So let us come to Christ on the cross, seeing that he has paid it all and he has buried the old man, and by faith in him our sin is judged, it is completely paid for, and our sin can be dealt with and we can live a new life in Christ by the power of the Spirit.
[00:38:49] Let's pray, God, for any who are convicted. I pray, Father, that even now that they would do business with you, that they would invite you in to search and to examine their hearts.
[00:39:04] God, whether it's an issue that we've discussed here tonight or some other Lord God, we are sinners and we confess that we deserve condemnation. We deserve your judgment and your wrath, your righteous anger toward our sin.
[00:39:18] But God, we thank you for Christ on the cross who paid for everything, and we thank you for your resurrection. We thank you for the Holy Spirit, God we thank you that Jesus is ascended to your right hand and intercedes for us there. God, we thank you for the promise that we will become like him and we will enjoy eternity with no sin ever again. God, we love you and we look forward to that day and say, hasten that day. God, may we worship looking forward to that day, even now it's in Christ's name we pray.
[00:39:45] Amen.
