Turn back to Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians chapter 4, and I told
those of you who were not here earlier, Paul Mayhem will be
here Thursday. I'm going to go and conduct my
dad's funeral this week, so I won't be here. So Paul will be here,
and come out and give God's man a hearing, and you pray for me. Ephesians chapter four, and one
other thing, I keep forgetting this. After we sing the first
hymnal, let's sit down on the second one from now on. Let's
just, after we sing that first one, after that we'll sit and
sing. All right, the lesson here is
just as important, the message is just as important as the first
three chapters. What we received in the first
three chapters, the foundation of faith, The Doctrine of Grace,
now it's the Walk of Grace. It's the Walk of Grace. That'd
be a good title for it, wouldn't it? The Walk of Grace. Sometimes I get the title when
I start preaching. But I titled this, You Have Not
So Learned Christ. That's what Paul tells them,
You Have Not So Learned Christ. Now he says in verse 17, this
I say therefore, therefore, he's reaching back to all that He
has said, all that He's written. Because of all that He's written
and in light of all heavenly blessings being given to us in
Christ before the foundation of the world, seeing that Jesus
Christ has died for us, He has cleansed us by His blood, we
have through Him even the forgiveness of sins, we are sealed with the
Holy Spirit, We are saved by grace alone, born of God. Because
of this, I testify in the Lord, or I testify in the presence
of Christ. Take this seriously, is what
he's saying. Take this very seriously. Just as serious as you did the
first chapter. You take this seriously. Paul
has the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ with him. This is
not a Pharisee speaking, but one who has tasted of the Lord
and found him to be gracious. This is one who received all
his teachings from the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is why we take
it very seriously. This is from the Lord. And he
says here in verse 17, that you henceforth, from this time forth,
from this time forward, walk not. That's the tenor of your
life. This is your life. Your walk is your life. Walk
not as other Gentiles walk. in the vanity of their mind.
He starts with the mind. I can't tell you how important
it is to protect your mind. Protect what goes into it. Protect
what you hear. Protect it. Keep it. What Paul is going to do here
is give them and us the will of God for our daily lives. This is the will of God for the
body of Christ upon this earth. Remember, we are the body of
Christ. And this is the Lord's will for His body in walking
on this earth. And another reason He gives this
to us and to take this seriously is not only that we are the body
of Christ, we are the representative of Christ on this earth, is this,
that you're sealed with the Holy Spirit and don't grieve Him.
You can grieve the Holy Spirit. He says don't grieve Him by your
walk. All right, now let's get into
this. First thing I want to deal with is why believers cannot
live as others do who believe not. Why we cannot walk as others
walk. And Paul gives us these reasons.
Well, the first reason is this. You are not the same as those
who believe not. You used to be, but you're not
no more. You were dead, he says. You were
dead in trespasses and sins. You were. You're not now. You're
not now. You are different. That's what
he's saying. Now, listen to this. Paul is
not teaching that we are trying to be something different. He's
teaching that we are something different. We are different. That's what he's saying. The
unbeliever lives according to the flesh, the dictates of the
flesh. That's what he shows us in chapter
2. The believer lives after the Spirit. We live after the Spirit
of God that indwells us. Look over in Romans chapter 8. Paul puts this so plainly and
simply in Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter Hey, let me get there. Now listen,
I'm going to read the first 14 verses. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent in his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,
the Spirit of God. You notice that's a capital S,
we walk after the Spirit of God. For they that are after the flesh,
they do mind Their mind is consumed with the flesh. They do mind
the things of the flesh, the dictates of the flesh. But they
that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to
be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. There's no such thing as a carnally minded
Christian. To be carnally minded is death.
Now Paul did say to the Corinthians, you act like a bunch of carnal
men. He's not saying you are, he said you act like it. when
he writes to the Corinthians in that infant church in Christ. But to be carnally minded, he
says, is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
you don't walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that
the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. And if Christ be in you, that
body of flesh is dead, it doesn't control you, it's not the King. At one time it was the king,
it dominated your thoughts, your mind. The body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But
if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, it shall also
quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh to live
after the flesh, we are debtors to the grace of God, aren't we?
For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. That's why he's saying here,
that's why we can't walk after the flesh, we walk after the
Spirit, because you're not of the flesh. The unbeliever lives
after the dictates of the flesh, the believer lives after the
leadership and power of the Holy Spirit. The unbeliever lives
in the vanity, he walks in the vanity of his mind. That's what
he does, he starts in the mind. The believer has a new mind.
He's spiritually minded. You mind the things of the spirit.
Now in verses 17 through 19, Paul brings before us the life,
the results, the results of the mind. The mind of the unbeliever,
here's what it produces. Here's what it produces. You
see, it starts with the mind. It starts with the vanity, he
says, the vanity of their mind. They have futile minds. Things
of no real value. They put value on things that
have no value. They put value on real, they
want to just be happy all the time. That's not possible. And the
happy all the time, that they think is immaterial things. It's
in the things that they can buy, that money can buy. Money can't
buy happiness. It can't do it. It might buy
some temporal fleshly joy for a while. There's pleasure in
sin for a season, but every season has its end. There's pleasure
in sin for a season, but that season is over with after a while.
But they walk in the vanity of their mind, the futility of their
mind, things that are not real valued, they walk after power,
they walk after riches, they walk after pleasure, and these
things wind up empty. They're like soap bubbles. They
burst. Short-lived. Haven't you found
pleasure and happiness to be short-lived on this earth? In
the flesh. When I was growing up, before
I knew the gospel, before I knew the Lord, I would enjoy something
and I wish I could enjoy it again and it was gone. And it was gone. And it brought no real joy. It
brought no real joy. Here's what the natural mind
wants. It wants a life that's void of trouble, has plenty of
money. That's why they play the lottery.
You play the lottery so you don't have to work. And you can play
all the time. That's exactly why you play it. Someone said to me they'd like
to win it one time that they could, you know, help the gospel
more. No, you won't. No, you won't. I guarantee you won't give any
more income in percentage-wise. You won't give any more than
you do now. That majority will be spent on a bigger house, you
know, two or three cars that you don't need, and it'll be
spent on a lifestyle. It will. It will, because it'll
get you. It'll get a hold of you. It's
one thing when God gives you the grace to handle money, but
it's another thing when money handles you. Big difference. But the natural man, he wants
these things. He wants that happiness, that plenty of money, that good
health. Everything has to do with this life. I want God to
forgive me. I want to grow in grace and in
knowledge of Christ. I want to know that when I come
to die, that all is well with my soul. And that's what's important. It is well with my soul. That's
what I want to know. That's what I want to experience.
These are other things the Lord will give me along the way. And
He gives us their condition, that is their moral condition,
because of their mind, because of the state of the mind. He says here in verse 18, having
the understanding darkened. Their understanding is darkened.
Their understanding of God, their understanding of life, their
understanding of Christ, their understanding of sin, it's darkened. It's like if I turned all the
lights out in here, and it was nighttime out there, and I turned
all the lights out, you wouldn't be able to see anything in front
of you. You wouldn't see it. It's not until the light is turned
on that you can say, I see, I see. And Paul was saying the life
that you lived and the life that those whom you knew and grew
up with, the life that they lived is a life of darkness. It's darkness. That's why your children don't
understand you when God saves a parent. Kids, I don't, like
I said, my mom and dad, I thought they were just, I thought they
were just cruel. They didn't let me go to dances,
parties, and I wanted to go to parties, you know. I wanted to
party all the time. But I thank God he gave me a
father and a mother that didn't let me do that. It made me mad. But you know, listen, I've learned,
I told my boys this one, they probably don't remember it, but
I said, you don't have to love me, but you're going to have
to respect me. I'm responsible for you. And I'm looking out
for you. And you don't get it till you
get older and you have your own. Having the understanding darkened. Sin has darkened their understanding
and our understanding before grace. By birth, everyone has
no spiritual knowledge of God. We are born, and this is a tough
word, this is a defensive word, ignorant. But I was ignorant. I was ignorant. Ignorant of God, ignorant of
truth, ignorant of my real self, ignorant. Their understanding
darkened. Now listen, if the understanding
of the mind is darkened, guess what? Everything about your life
is going to be darkened. Everything is going to be darkness.
Everything. God said over in the Psalms,
you thought I was altogether like yourselves. You think I'm
like you. That's how you think of me. And our Lord said, if the light
in you be darkness, how great is that darkness. That light
in you is darkness. How great, how great is that
darkness. God is not in, not the God of
the Bible. He's not in their thoughts. They're ignorant of
Him. They have a God of their imagination.
And when we have a God of our imagination, guess what kind
of God we whittle out? One just like us. You can't whittle
Him out like anybody else, you don't know. You whittle Him out
like you think. This is how I think it ought
to be, and that's how you whittle God out. Well, the Bible tells
us who He is. God is who He is. I am who I
am. I mean, you can go out there and, you know, somebody who doesn't
know me can go out there and say, John Chapman is six foot
tall, and you know immediately he's lying. I'm 6'2". And that's an even bigger lie. No. You see what darkness does? Now the person they told that,
they would be totally ignorant, wouldn't they? I'll never forget
this. Jason played Babe Ruth. Jason played Babe Ruth. He was
a good ball player. He could hit it out of the park.
But there was a man, two men standing there when he was up
to bat, And he was about the size he is now, at 13. 14, didn't grow any more like
me. I was born this way. But there
was two guys standing there, and they said, boy, I'd like
to see his dad. I thought, boy, you'd be disappointed.
I stand right behind him. I was standing right behind him,
and I thought, you'd be disappointed. They was expecting a dad six
foot four or something. No. You see what I'm talking
about? Ignorance, the importance of
truth. It's important I tell the truth.
Ignorance, and listen, let me get back here. Having the understanding
darkened, and here's what it leads to. Here's what this darkened
mind leads to. Being alienated from the life
of God. The ignorance and the darkness that's in everyone by
nature, alienates them from the life of God. God doesn't alienate
anybody from his life. They do. They do. I'm reading the truth to you.
I'm reading the Bible to you. And to turn and walk away from
it, you just alienated yourself from the life of God. You walked
away from it. Christ said, the words that I speak, they're a
spirit and they are life. Don't walk away from it. But
listen here, they're alienated, cut off. They're cut off from
the life of God, how? From the ignorance that's in
them. Because of the blindness, listen here, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them. Because of the blindness. Look
over in my, you might have this in your margin, I have it in
mine, because of the hardness of their heart. There's so much
hardness there, it's like you've got a barrier. And if God doesn't
send it in power, you'll walk away from it, and I will too.
I will too. Ignorance leads to alienation.
People are willfully blind. People see not because they don't
want to see. Christ said, you will not come to me that you
might have life. We have a will problem. Our will is not to come. Aren't you glad that salvation
is of grace and that God's not leaving it up to you? I'm going
to make that very clear at my dad's funeral. We are saved by the will of God.
Not this Armenian if Jesus wants to save you, if you will. Well,
he and I both have a problem. He and I both have a problem.
I don't want to come to him and I ain't going to let him save
me and he can't save me if I don't let him. Now we got a conundrum going
on. No, we don't. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Blindness, willful blindness
leads to hardness. Then he says here in verse 19,
who being past feeling. He's talking here about moral
Your moral compass is broken. They walked among a bunch of
immoral people like we do today. Actually, you can just stamp
America on this page right here. You can stamp America right here.
This is where we're at in our country today. It's one of the
most immoral countries on this earth. Past feeling, your moral
compass is broken. It's broken. That's what Paul's
telling them. that your friends that you grew
up with, their morals are broken. They have calloused their conscience
that God gave them. Their conscience is a preacher.
I read that in somebody's bulletin. I think it was Donny Bell's bulletin. Their conscience is a preacher.
It screams out to you right and wrong. And you've just ignored
it. And in ignoring it and ignoring
it, you've calloused it. As Paul said, you sear it as
with a hot iron. You don't feel what's right and
wrong no more. Well, if it doesn't hurt anybody. I heard a man say
this the other day in the store to another person. He said, well,
if you don't get caught, it's not wrong. That's America today. He says,
if you don't get caught, it's not wrong. Well, if God said
it's wrong, it's wrong, whether you get caught or not. And secondly,
you just got caught. God caught you. You're caught
and you don't even know it. That's the dumbest, that's the
worst place to be in. That's the worst, to be caught
and not know it. Be deceived, be deceived and not know it.
Well, if you're deceived, you wouldn't know it, would you?
That's what deceived is. But being past feelings. And
here's what happens. They've given themselves over
to lasciviousness. This is immoral conduct. This is homosexuality. That's
exactly what he's talking about. You've given yourselves over
to this. This is what happens when God
leaves someone alone. Lord, don't leave me alone. Save me from myself. Save me
from my sins because the people he's describing here was me at
one time. It was me. Your past feeling, that's dangerous. That's dangerous. You know one
of the worst, I've learned this because I've used it a lot. I
don't care. That's one of the worst statements
you can make. I don't care. That's becoming
past feelings. when you don't care no more.
You don't say that about your children, do you? Well, I don't
care about you no more. I don't care what you think.
Well, I do care what they think. I do. It's not going to change my principles,
my conduct and discipline of them. It's not going to change
that. But I do care. But their past feeling given
over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness and greediness. To work it. To work it. Their past feeling, their sin
has calloused the heart, the conscious, moral judgment's gone.
Reprobates, you know what that is? That's voided judgment. You
can't make the right moral judgment anymore. given over to depraved
desires. But then listen, verse 20, but
you have not so learned Christ. There's a difference between
you now and them. There's a real difference. There's a living
difference. You don't get that kind of life
from Christ. You don't get that kind of life
from grace. And what he's going to describe here now is for the
body of Christ. It's the walk of grace for the
body of Christ on this earth. But you have not so learned Christ. Being a believer is not learning
different precepts or just to live by different precepts. Being
a believer is learning of a person. I can't express that enough.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I like to do word studies
when I preach because it helps me in preaching. But I try to
be careful of this because everybody wants to go back to the Greeks
where they were lost. They were lost. I'll tell you
where I want to go back to, Jesus Christ. Lord, and I ask this,
and you ask this, in your prayers, ask this, Lord, show me yourself. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. Show me your glory. You know where the glory of God
is seen? You know where it's seen? Paul said, in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's where the glory of God
is seen. You have not so learned of this
person, Jesus Christ. You have not so learned of Him.
And I want to tell you this, learning of Christ never leads
to sin. Learning of grace in Christ never leads to sin. Jesus
Christ is a subject lesson, Jesus Christ is a holy lesson. And
it's more than grasping truths, it's grasping Him. Oh, that I
might know Him. The more you know Him, the better
your walk will be. The more you grow in grace and
in knowledge of Him. You know it doesn't say grow in grace. Grow
in grace and in knowledge, they go together. Now here in verse
21. If so be that you have heard
Him and been taught by Him. Do you notice the phrasing of
that? If so be you heard Him. If you heard the Lord, He's the
teacher here. He's the teacher here this morning.
If anyone here is truly instructed spiritually, Jesus Christ is
your teacher. I'm the vessel. I'm the clay pot he's using.
But he's the teacher. He's the teacher and he's the
lesson. Have you heard him? Are you hearing him this morning?
I hope you do. I hope I do. If so be you've heard him, not
just about him, not just some facts about him, but you finally
heard him. taught by Him as a truth, as the truth is in Jesus. We
learn the truth. You know how we learn the truth?
You know how you really learn the truth? Through the truth. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. We learn the truth through the truth. Christ is
the truth, as the truth is nowhere else but in Jesus Christ. You won't find it in commentaries,
although there's some good commentaries, and I read them. A few, not many,
but I read them. But you're not going to learn
the truth there. You're going to learn the truth in Christ. I learn the truth. Listen, I read the Bible. I read
the Bible, I reckon, every day. But apart from Jesus Christ,
I'm not going to learn anything. I'm not going to learn anything.
He's the key of knowledge. He is. If so be you've heard him and
have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put
off, that word put off here means deny, that you deny your former
life. You don't, you remember Lot's
wife. God brought life out of Sodom
and brought, God brought Lot out of Sodom and his family.
Told him to get out of there. And Lot's wife looked back. That doesn't, listen, that doesn't
mean God killed her because she turned around. Her heart was
still in Sodom. Her heart was back there. Her
heart was back there. You know, I was invited to a
high school reunion. This is me. This is me. I said,
I don't want to go there. I don't want to go there and
see who's doing what and who's doing who. I don't want to see that.
That doesn't matter to me no more. My friends are you. My family's you. This is me. I have no desire to reach back
and find those old acquaintances. I'm not being mean. I'm just
saying my interest is not there no more. It's not there no more. See who's living and who's dead?
God knows. My interest is you. It's God's
family. I mean, how long would a conversation
last between me and those who walk after the flesh? How long
is that conversation gonna last? Well, good weather today, isn't
it? I love the, it's just beautiful
outside today. Well, what you been doing? I know what they've been doing.
Been up to no good. Everybody believes now it's up
to no good, I tell you. Deny your former life, the old
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. We're not used to denying ourselves,
are we? I mean, our appetite's strong.
And I learned, I know I've learned, it took me a while to learn it,
but I learned that my health is directly tied to what I eat. So is our spiritual health. I'm
telling you the truth. Our spiritual health is tied
to our spiritual diet. If most of what we watch and
look and listen at through the week is of the world, if that's
mostly it, that's what we're feeding that old man. And that's
what Paul's saying here. That's what he's saying. Your
former life. Don't feed the old man. He's too strong for you.
There's a reason why they say don't feed the bears. Sooner
or later when you try to stop it, it's going to eat you up.
You're going to become the food. That old nature, that old man
is deceitful. There's nothing wrong with this.
It's just so innocent looking. That's what Eve thought. That's
what Satan made Eve think. Oh, he said, if you eat of that,
you'll not die, you'll not die, you'll be like God. You'll be
as God. Let me tell you something, I
told somebody this yesterday. There's nothing wrong with wanting
to be like God. I want to be holy, do you? I want to love
like God loves. Here's the difference. There's
a difference between being like God and being God. Man wants
to be God. I'll be my own. What's that?
Is it Invictus? I'll be the master of my own
fate? That's being God. I'll be the one who makes the
decisions. I'll be the one. That's what
Satan wanted. Satan didn't want to be like God. He wanted to
be God. If you'll fall down and worship me, that's wanting to
be God. There's nothing wrong with, there's
nothing wrong. I told this person, I said, there's
absolutely nothing wrong with loving your neighbor as much
as you love Jesus Christ. Just don't love him more. You
love your children as much as you love Christ. You just don't
love him more. You don't love him more. You deny that old man that's
filled with that deceitful lust. The old nature promises pleasure,
but it eventually brings shame. The old nature promises freedom,
but it eventually brings bondage. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. But listen to what Paul says
here in verse 23. Now, I'll move through this. And be renewed in the Spirit
of your mind. See, Paul keeps going back to
the mind. This is all related to the mind. You're spiritually
minded. You have the mind of the Spirit. Be renewed constantly. This is constantly. Be constantly
renewed in the way you think. You know, we ought to think more
and more of our Lord now than we did when we began. We ought
to think more and more of things above than we did when we began.
And listen, that you put on the new man, feed the new man, feed
him. Feed him, like you're doing right
now, that's what's happening, you're feeding the new man. Feed
him by reading the word, feed him by prayer, feed him by sitting
under the gospel, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Wherefore put it away lying, put away lying. Now he's not
talking here about lying to one another. You know, we're not going around
lying to each other. He's talking here about to put away lying
and speak every man the truth. Look back in verse 14, 14 and
15. This will explain it. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together, compacted by
that which every joint supplies. according to the effects of working
in the measure of every part, making increase of the body into
edifying of itself in love. But speak the truth. That's why
he's saying, speak the truth with one another. Speak the truth. Tell the truth to one another.
Speak the gospel to one another. For we are members of one another.
You don't lie to yourself, do you? Someone gave this example. It'd be like my eyes lying to
my feet. There's a snake laying in the road and he says, no,
they're not. Don't pay attention to that. You don't lie to yourself. My eyes said to the feet, don't
go there. Don't go there. That's what he means. Speak to
one another like that. Encourage one another like that in truth.
In truth. And then he says in verse 26,
Be angry and sin not. He's not sinning against anger.
I mean, he's not telling us not to be angry. We're made... God's angry with the wicked every
day. But he says in one place, Be angry and sin not. Let not
the sun go down on your wrath. I looked this up. Sun sets at
648. At 648, drop it. At 648, whatever you're angry
about, drop it. And don't get up in the morning and pick it
back up. That's what he's saying. Be angry, but sin not. You know,
you can be angry at our government right now. You can be angry at
the immorality, at the things, the laws that our government's
passed. You can be angry at that, but don't sin. Don't go out there and do something
sinful against it. Be careful. Take it before the Lord. You
know, I can be angry with sin and that, but he says sin not. Henry said this, I got this one
from Henry, he said, you can be angry against the principles
that our government is setting up, but you're not angry with
the authority, that position, that position of authority, because
it's of God. And God will correct it in time,
He'll correct it when it's served His purpose. And listen, in verse
27, the devil a place. Don't give him a place. There
in verse 27. And the first way we give him
a place is how? Anger. See, we get angry in our minds.
We're angry at something. That begins in the mind. Every
action begins with a thought, which begins in the mind. And
the devil takes advantage of that. He'll cause you to sin. He'll cause you to use that for
an evil purpose. He said, don't you let the devil get a hold
of that. Don't give him a reason for it. And verse 28, and still
no more. There's a whole bunch of, God
saves thieves too, you know. Don't steal. We all do. Oh, that get your attention?
Every person in this room is stolen. You ever steal time from
your employer? I had a guy work for me. He used
to get behind the machine and talk on his phone. He'd hide
from me. Now if I told him he was stealing,
he would deny it. We still have time. You ever
pick a pencil up from work that's not yours and just take it home
and keep it? You know how strict God's law is. That's how strict
God's law is. God's people, here's what he's
saying, God's people are honest people. Henry said this one time,
he said, honest people don't go to hell. They don't go to
hell. Because God saved them. That's
why they're honest. To steal no more, be honest with
God and men. And listen, in verse 29, our
words must match our calling, our action. Let no corrupt communications
come out of your mouth. Don't use your mouth for godly
talk and to speak grace and to speak words in season, to speak
a word in season. Your words edify, build up or
break down. Let grace pour from your lips
like it did your masters. And grieve not the Holy Spirit.
Bad language, speaking or conduct, anger out of control. You know
the Holy Spirit is very real, He's very God and He has feelings.
He has feelings. It makes me very uncomfortable.
It makes me very uncomfortable. And me and my brother one time,
we went to play golf together. I know I'm taking a little long
here, but we went to play golf together at one place. And they
stuck us with two guys. They had to be a foursome because
it was crowded. And boy, those guys right off
the bat, he hit the first ball and they were mad because they
messed up. They started cussing. Started
cussing. Me and James were like, oh, no,
it's going to be long. And they just started cussing
and carry on. And I thought, you know, I told
James, I said, we shouldn't take bad golf so serious. I said,
they're no good at it. It just keeps them mad. But they
was cussing and carrying on. Well, we got about third, fourth
hole. We had to say something. Had to say something. I was miserable. You and I are sealed with the
Holy Spirit. He's with us continually. For me to speak out of anger,
that's uncomfortable for him. That's very real, that's very
real. And we need to read scriptures like this so it keeps that before
us in our attention. I don't wanna run with those
people that carry on like that. And then I look in the mirror,
I look in the mirror, and I say, John, don't you be like that,
because you're sealed with God, God the Holy Spirit. And let
all bitterness, bitterness, these are all sins of the flesh, put
a watch on your tongue. Bite your own tongue before it
bites someone else's. Bite your own tongue first. And
be kind one to another, tender hearted. This is how you treat
one another. This is how Christ treats us. And forgive one another
as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Christ is the motive
for everything we do. He's the motive. I'm not looking
at a particular commandment and say, well, I've got to do this.
No. The very character of Christ is my motive. I want to be conformed
to that. You have not so learned Christ.