Book of Ephesians. We'll begin there in chapter
2. Our text is going to be in chapter 4 today. Verses 17-24. Put off the old man and put on
the new for unity. That's why we're to do it. There's
some songs written, bluegrass songs written. I just, I love
them. I can't get them out of my head and it's horrible wording.
It's as if someone got these verses and read them and they
said, this is what to do. This is what to do. It's not
what's already been done. It's what, what to do. You gotta, you have to have an
understanding of, of what's happened before we, we get to this point.
That's why Paul wrote the first three chapters. lay that foundation
of Christ in us. My children, if they're acting
up and they're in service and whispering back and forth and
passing notes and making a ruckus, I would correct that. Straighten
up. Remember who you are and whose
you are, who you represent sitting here. I would correct that. But
there has to be an understanding that they're my children. Whether
they do that or not, corrections need or not, they're still my
children. If I was to walk up to a random child and say, knock
it off! That child wouldn't know what
to do, would it? It'd probably be a mad parent at me, too. There's
to be an understanding of what happened. So, Paul tells us there
in chapter 1 of the will and purpose of God. God the Father
purposed to save a people, to put them in Christ, to make them
just exactly like He is. Holy. Holy, without blame, unreprovable,
before Him in love. That's why He did it. His great
love wherewith He loved us. Christ came and He purchased
those people. His blood paid the atonement. God the Holy Spirit abounds toward
His people and seals them in that promise, in that covenant
of grace, and convicts our heart and gives us life in that new
man, that new birth, and teaches what we were, Christ has accomplished
His righteousness and that He's accomplished all. And then we're
reminded again there in chapter 2, verse 1, and you have He quickened,
you that He's given life to, who were dead in trespasses and
sins. We walked according to this world. We were come from
our mother's womb just like everybody else. We were kids in kindergarten
running around causing trouble just like everybody else. Teenagers,
young adults, Before the Lord came to us, did it work in our hearts, we're
just like everybody else, just like any other child of Adam.
There was no difference. There was no difference. We walked
according to the course of this world. Now, whether that looked
kind of good or that looked kind of bad, we're going to get through
this, our text today, and right about the time our nose was high
in the air, if it rained, we'd drown. There's just a quick word. And isn't that all it takes from
a loving father? I can look at my children and make them cry.
I can say one word, a snap of a finger. Through God the Holy Spirit,
using Paul, we're given these words. But it says there, we
were just like everybody else in chapter 2, verse 4, but God,
who maketh thee to differ, but God, who is rich in mercy for
His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in
sin, hath He quickened us together
with Christ. Made one with Christ. Unified
with Christ. Paul goes on in chapter 3 to
pray for those brethren at Ephesus and pray for us. We'll be strengthened
in Him. That we grow in Christ. Grow
in understanding. Grow in knowledge. Then he comes
in chapter 4. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you were called. What's that? The knowledge of
Christ. Salvation that's of our Lord. An understanding of who
He is. Walk worthy, according to that.
And I flinch, too, at the responsibility of the believer. Our response to His ability.
We have to know His ability first, don't we? Those children are
mine, and nothing can change that. My blood flows through
them. But I tell them, you better act like you're my children.
Better walk worthy of your last name. And so Paul reminds us,
after this knowledge is given, this knowledge is laid, of what
Christ has done for us, the debt of gratitude we have for Him.
He is our motivation, His love towards us. The debt of gratitude
we have for this glorious salvation. It's unremarkable. I can't remark
on it. I can't say enough about it.
We can't describe it. With an understanding of that,
walk worthy of your vocation. We need to do this for unity.
He says in chapter 4, verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We're in this one body. This whole family of believers
is a body. and the walk that we're given,
this new man that we're to put on in this world that we walk
in, it's for the benefit of the whole body. I broke my pinky
toe one time, and you know my left shoe still wears different
than my right shoe on the bottom. It wears funny. You don't think
a pinky toe is that important until you hurt it, and then your
whole body's off. How does that thing get nourishment?
How did it heal? It had to go through the mouth.
The hand had to feed the mouth. The eye had to see the food.
The stomach had to process. Kidneys had to work. Every bit
of it, fitly framed together, compacted, as he says, for the
benefit of the whole, for the benefit of all of us. That's
our motivation. That's why we are to put off this old man and
put on the new. We're to be used of Christ to
edify our brethren in love. What a privilege. Isn't that
right? What a privilege. Spurgeon said that. He said,
on this earth, we can comfort a crying brother or sister. We
can mourn with them. We can weep with them. When this
life is over, that'll never happen again. There'll be no more tears. There'll be no more pain. No
more sorrow. What a great privilege it is to be unified with brethren. Not to be separated from them.
Not to be cast off by yourself. They ain't get no nutrients.
They ain't get no blood flow. No warming love there, but to
be unified, to be knit together. And what a great responsibility. People say, well, God is love.
And they just walk around bouncing and happy, right? There's a responsibility
that comes with love. I love my family. I have a responsibility
of love to my family. We love Christ. We see Him, what
He's done for us. We love our brethren. We believe
Christ, love the brethren. We have a responsibility to love
our brethren. And that's a privilege, but it's a responsibility. So
we get here to our text, verse 17. Here's where Paul begins
to tell us how we are to edify one another. Gives us some steps
here. Ephesians 4, verse 17. This I
say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk
not as other Gentiles walk. Don't conform to this ungodly
world that's all around us. Don't walk according to that.
How do those other Gentiles walk? How is it that they walk? Well,
they walk the same way we once walked. It's no different. The way this flesh wants to walk.
It says there in verse 17, "...in the vanity of their mind." What's
the vanity of the natural mind? What's our vain thoughts? Every
one of us is turned away from God, and we seek security in
the things that's all around us. Ooh, if I can just get my
house paid off. That's a vain thought of mine.
If I could just get that job, if I could just do this, if I
could just do that, I have some security. That's just in this
world. If I could just memorize the
books of the Bible, if I could know where they all were, if
I could memorize the Ten Commandments, Get some scriptures in my head.
I'll be alright. Anything I can grab a hold of.
That's vanity of my mind thinking I'm capable of doing anything
that the Lord didn't empower me to do. It's vain. He told
Jeremiah, I said, for my people have committed two evils. Two
evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters. They've turned away from God.
into vainness, vanity. And they've hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can't hold no water. This is a really good
illustration for us. You drive up and down these roads
and there are cisterns all around. They don't catch rain water,
but we've got big water tanks by every house. That's what our natural man does
and it's vanity. We turn from God who provides
all things for us and we say, you know what, we'll catch our
own water. We'll keep our own water. And the Lord says, your
cisterns are broken. They ain't gonna hold no water.
Cracked all to pieces. It's vanity. Let's turn over
Psalm 39. Here's what the psalmist prayed, and I hope we can pray
it too. Psalm 39, begin in verse four. Lord, make me to know mine end
and the measure of my days, for it is that I may know how frail
I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand breath, and mine age is nothing before thee. I finally
got some years under my belt. I know a little something. Growing
up, it's a hand breath. That's from pinky to thumb. In the space of eternity, in
time, that's how long my life is. Lord, make me to know that.
Anything my hand touches has no worth in it. Barely every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Pause on that. Think about it. At our very best,
vanity. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Surely they are disquieted. That
means they're just in a commotion. They're just fervently working
all around them. Oh, got to do something. Working hard. Hamster on a wheel,
just spinning it. And we're doing that in vain.
He helpeth, heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather
them. Try to find something good, pile
it up. We don't even know what it's for. God says this is how we walked
in times past, every one of us. But he says, henceforth, walk
not as other unbelievers walk in the vanity of their minds.
This is what every one of us did. It's what I did. It's what
you did if you know Him. And that's what you're doing
if you don't know Him. I'm not thanking you all. And the Lord
says, henceforth, knowing Christ, knowing what He's done for us,
don't do that anymore. Don't spin your wheels no more. So that's how we want to walk.
Now why do we walk that way? Why do unbelievers, those outside
of Christ, why do they still walk this way? Again, our text,
Ephesians 4, verse 18. Having the understanding darken. The natural man is pretty smart
in natural things. We have so many advances in this
society and ultrasounds and nanotechnology and medical. My mind always goes
there. Look at all the medical advances
we have. Look at cars we have. We understand some things. We
know how to surf. know how to work around here. But when it
comes to God and understanding Him and how God saves, understandings
darken. Understanding what righteousness
is, what true holiness is, what sanctification is, what being
set apart is. It's a work of God. To understand that, the
natural man's mind's been darkened. Told Isaiah, he feedeth on ashes
and deceiveth, and his deceived heart hath turned him aside,
that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in
my right hand? We're feeding on ashes. You go
to an old campfire looking for food. You think there's meat
there, and you're just eating burnt wood. That would be foolish,
wouldn't it? That's what the Lord says we're
doing. Our understanding's been darkened.
So we see how it always goes to the mind, to the understanding,
to the inside. It's not the outward walk. It's
what's on the inside. That's where that outward walk
begins. It's in that vain mind and that darkened understanding.
That's where our outside comes from. God puts a new man in us,
a new heart, a new mind, and then things start changing on
the outside. You can see that I saw pictures, I never noticed
this before, my sister brought it to my attention. A year before
my dad passed away, you can tell in his look in the pictures how
he changed. We didn't know it, but he started
looking a little weaker. But someone that's healthy, if
he was to have a kidney transplant or heart transplant or something
like that, the outside changes because the inside changes, doesn't
it? If the inside's going down and dying and decaying, the outside's
going to change. If the inside's renewed, if it's
made healthy again, the outside's going to show it, isn't it? That's
our walk. God is the one who made us to
differ. exercising our spiritual minds
and some doing of ours, He made us to differ. God has shined
into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How is my inner man going to
be strengthened? God has to shine His light and the knowledge of
Christ and understanding of Him into me, into my new man. Then
we'll be renewed. Look over in Ephesians 5, one
page. Verse 7, with this knowledge, Ephesians 5, 7, Be not ye therefore
partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye
are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. You
are my children, is what he's saying. Act like it. You know
these things. You've been taught these things.
The Lord's revealed this in your heart. His work of salvation
took place in you. Walk in the light. Don't be unequally
yoked. Don't sit down and say, oh, this
is my Arminian brethren. These are my Catholic brethren.
You know different. You've had light shed in your
heart to know who Christ is. Walk in the light. Now there
in Ephesians 4, what's the result of walking that way that the
old man did? This flesh does. It says in verse 18, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them
because of the blindness of their heart. Being alienated means
to be separated, to be estranged from that darkness that's in
our vain thoughts. It's in this natural man. It
separates us from God. Paul said in Romans 8, but ye
are not in the flesh. That's scary, isn't it? I don't
want to be separated from the Lord. I don't want to be alienated
from Him. He has me caused to worry. But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Christ dwells in His
people. Do you have an understanding
of Him? This is how God saves people. Christ is righteousness. He is holiness. God is love. He loved His people and made
them just like His Son. Do you understand that? If you
have an understanding of that, and that's your hope, Christ
dwells in you. He puts that new man, that incorruptible
seed in you to have that understanding, to have that belief, to have
that peace. You who are born of God, you
now have spiritual life. You're given His grace, you're
given His faith, and you're given His holiness. by God dwelling in you. But those
unregenerate people, the unconverted, the sinners that walk in this
world just as we were, are no different. They're alienated
from the life of God. They're separated from that fountain
of life. They've turned from Him and they've made their own
cisterns. Without Christ, without hope, and without God in the
world, that's all they have. They have no guide to direct
them. They have no comfort in that
joy of faith that He gives and that joy of holiness that He
gives. They're striving for something, fervently running around, hamsters
on a wheel trying to do something, trying to please God. They don't
want such a life and they don't approve of you who trust in Him
alone. They don't approve of that life.
It says, "...through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts." Now we fell in Adam, yes. That's
where there's sin in the garden. That's where it was imputed to
us. But we willingly, in this old flesh, we willingly turn
from the Lord. We willingly run from that life.
We want to remain that way. And people always talk about
man's will. Oh, you've got a free will. You've got a free will
to sin. It's bound to its nature, isn't
it? We have a sin nature. Peter said, "...knowing this
first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking
after their own lusts, for their own sense of pride, to satisfy
themselves in saying, where is the promise of His coming? For
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of creation." Ain't nothing changed. There's
a cross coming. They're scoffing at it. They're scoffing at the
Gospel. They're scoffing at His return. For this they are willingly ignorant
of that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water." They're ignorant
of the Lord. Willingly. Willingly ignorant. Willingly turned from Him. People
say, well, that's not my truth. It's popular nowadays, isn't
it? Scoffers after their own lusts. That's your truth. I have my truth. Christ said,
and you will not come to me that you might be saved. You cling
to your truth instead of Christ's truth, don't you? He said, this
is condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. You can say that in joy. Did
you know that? I was thinking about that earlier.
I could get up here and preach through Hosea 4 on. That's some rough stuff there.
That's some hard chapters. Condemning sin. But that's joy.
That's who I am. To call somebody a sinner and
say, that's all we are by birth. There's nothing else you can
do. That's your nature. Unless Christ does a work in
you. For those that Christ has done a work in, that's not bad
news, is it? That's life eternal. That's the gospel. That's the
good news. He saved a people. I want to be speaking the truth
in love. I want to tell you that joyfully
and in love. But there's some that will hear
this message, some may be sitting here today, and they've got their
mind made up. They'll say, I will not have
this. I won't listen to it. It's just some other guy talking.
He's saying the same words everybody else has said. It don't do me
no good. They've got their mind made up. They won't look up the
scriptures. They won't listen to the messages again when they
get home. They won't study the Word of God. You know what that
is? That's being alienated from God.
You're alienating yourselves willingly from the Lord. I don't
have anything to do with it. Just plug your ears up. I don't
want to hear it. Solomon said in Proverbs 17,
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom,
seeing he hath no heart to it? A man that wants wisdom, they
have to spend and be spent to get it. They have to spend and
be spent to get it. Now how does that apply to us?
Do we see that in our regular life? If you want to get in shape,
you've got to spend some time in the gym. You've got to spend
some time in the kitchen knowing what to eat. If you want to get
an education, you've got to spend some time in a book. You're going
to spend some money. It's going to take some effort.
If you want to get a trade, you're going to have to learn the trade.
There will be some effort put forth. What does the Lord say?
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. Seek the Kingdom of God. We've been given the knowledge
and understanding of Him. You'll have a desire to seek
Him, to look for Him. Search these things out. Search
the Scriptures. Look us up, what I tell you.
Don't just take my word for it. Search the Scriptures. Make sure
what I'm saying is the truth. Look for it. But there's no difference between
those that don't and us, is there? I was exactly the same way. Spent
my whole life doing the same thing. Seeing what God's done
freely for us. And He's revealed that in our
hearts. Revealed Christ in our hearts. God says, henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk. Now here's what I pray is not
the case with anyone here. What's the other result of this?
Walking in our vanities, walking in our darkness. So there's Ephesians
4, 19. Who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. A sinner who is past feeling,
they've reached the point of no return. I just don't have
any feeling for it. I'm numb. Don't care. The past
feeling, you've reached the point of no return, they've had their
conscience seared with the hot iron. It's hardened. It's scarred over. The longer
a sinner goes on in rebellion against God, the less they have
a feeling towards it. Do you remember when he was a
little child? I remember being four or five years old, and I
lied to my mom and dad, and I wept. I cried. I was still a sinner. I come forth from that woman
speaking lies. There was no difference. I was deserving of eternal damnation. But I had a more tender heart,
didn't I? And as I got older, I was in
college, I lied to my mom. And you know what? It didn't
hurt nowhere near as bad as it did when I was a little kid.
Why? That feeling was going away,
wasn't it? I was almost past feeling, getting calloused, being
alienated from that. The heart becomes more hardened,
the more sin and heartache we experience. The more we feed
that old man, the harder it gets, the stronger it gets. That's what Paul was speaking
of there in Romans 1. Because when they knew God, they glorified
Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. It
goes on in verse 28, chapter 1 says, and even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, I don't even want
to hear about him. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do
the things which were not convenient. That was man's free will. I don't
have nothing to do with God. Don't want to hear of him. And
the Lord said, go ahead. Go on to your reprobation. When
this happens, he says there in verse 19, who have given themselves
over, have given themselves over fully, to what? Unto lasciviousness. That's a license to sin. Sensuality. Anything that feels good, do
it. If that's what you like doing, go ahead and do it. That's lasciviousness. We got that on sneakers, don't
we? Just do it. You want to eat that, eat it.
You want to do this, do it. Go ahead. Gives them over fully
to work all uncleanness. That's homosexuality, fornication,
adultery, abortion. All kinds of lusts imaginable.
That's what the natural heart wants. Desires those things. And this doesn't happen to a
person. overnight. It doesn't happen to a family
overnight. It doesn't happen to a whole nation overnight. It happens gradually, doesn't
it? As it goes on, as these things become law in our country, what
do we say? Oh, we finally won. We got away
from God. We call that liberty, don't we?
Oh, now we got freedom. Now we love, don't we? That's how wicked our mind is. and become desensitized to all
the sin until the point you get where you don't feel. You're
just numb to everything. Now before, there was some sense
of sin, some sense of guilt. But now they've lost all that.
Now they commit sin with pleasure and they boast of it. They openly
declare it to everyone on the street. And they give themselves
over with greediness, it says. They desire more. That's a thing
in our day, Instagram stars. The fake rich people go out and
they rent cars to take pictures so other people think better
of them. Lady got her hair done, some surgery done, and hired
photographers and didn't get famous, and she sued the people
that did the work to her. We can laugh at that and scoff
at that now, okay? Well, it's my children. That's
normal, past feeling. We need to pray for our nation.
We need to pray for our young people as they come up in this
world. It says in verse 20, but ye have not so learned Christ. I told you we would get our nose
so high up in the air we're going to drown if it rains, right? That's horrible people they're
talking about, isn't it? Those people just out living in sin
and living underneath bridges and filth and oh, it's just horrible. These people attend churches.
They've heard of someone named Christ. You walk up and down
these streets, have you ever heard of God? Of course I've heard of
God. You ever heard of Jesus Christ? Oh yeah, I've heard of
Him. He's over there as a virgin and 33 years or something. They'll have something to say.
They've learned something. It's not just the wicked people
walking up and down the streets. It's people in religion too.
Just as we were. Just as I was. But ye have not
so learned Christ. if so be that ye have heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus." The truth
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has taught us who believe
to walk differently. It says there, you have not so
learned Christ. It doesn't say you've not so
learned about Christ. It doesn't say about him. It says you've learned him, his
person, who he is, what he came to accomplish, what he did accomplish.
It's not merely learning the doctrine of Christ. It's not
merely learning about those precepts. It's about learning Him. Learning
that person. You know, if you learn a person,
you learn a family member, a husband or a wife, and you see a letter
written by them, you could get a good idea if they wrote it
or not. It might look like they're handwriting, but you say, I know
them. That's not them. How could you know that? Are
you the expert? I am, because I've learned them. I know them. Do we understand every word in
the Scriptures? Of course we don't. But we understand
Him. We've been given a knowledge
of Christ. Now we have some disarmament. That's where our disarmament
comes from, is the knowledge of Christ. We learn Him, who He is. And
it says we have heard of Christ. We discern His voice. We'd be in a crowd of people
and everybody's saying, Hey, and I could say, Hey, real loud,
and them four there would hear me. They know my voice, don't
they? Not that we audibly hear the
voice of the Lord, but we hear His words, don't we? I hear whenever
I get low, I get afraid, scared, and I tremble, and He says, fear
not. Has He spoke that to our hearts?
Not just to our eyes that we read it, to our ears that someone
said it to us, but has He spoken in our hearts, fear not, I'm
with thee. Have we heard of Him? And if we're taught by Him? Has
Christ breathed into my heart so that I feel something of how
shameful it really is to sin? Is that carrying around in this
body of death with me, the dying of Christ? He had to pay for
my sins with His body. Do I just go and sin however
I want to? Am I going to do what I want? No, you're brought into
remembrance of Him. Our pure minds are stirred up.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and said what? Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
ye have of God, and that you are not your own? For you are
bought with a price. What was that price? If I'm the
Lord, if I'm an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ, what
was the price that bought me, that adopted me into His family? The blood of my Savior. I don't own me. I'm not a self-made
man. Owned by Him. And all this is, we hear of Him,
we learn of Him. The truth is in Christ. If you
want to know the true God, people say, I want to know God. You
need to learn Christ. I want to know about salvation.
You need to learn Christ. I want to know all Gospel truth.
I want to understand Revelations. I want to know things that's
going to happen. You need to learn Christ. Learn Him. I want to know the true path
in this life. I want to know how to walk in this world. Look
to Him. Learn of Him. What has Christ taught us? He taught us not to walk henceforth
as other Gentiles walk, but to put on Christ and walk as Christ
walked. He says there in verse 22, Ephesians
4.22, that you put off concerning the
former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according
to deceitful lust. The change is not changing the
old man. Do you know that? Don't clean up the old man. Don't
polish the old man. Don't strengthen the old man.
Put it off. Get rid of it. This old flesh
is corrupt according to deceitful lust. That's all we have. And
it will always be so. But every day, put it off. They
said, you've got two dogs, a good one and a bad one. Which one
is going to win? The one you feed. Which one is
going to grow stronger? The one you feed. Put it off.
Don't feed it. Don't feed into it. Don't make
no provision to support it, just suppress it. Pray that the Lord
suppresses it in you. And Christ has taught us there
in verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You
know, all of our problems begin in my mind. That's the most dangerous
journey you can ever take, is a wandering mind. You don't know
where you're going to end up. It can be bad. Our walk is determined
greatly by what we fill our mind with. So fill it with the Spirit
of God. Fill it with good things. Fill
it with edifying things, shouldn't we? The Philippians 4 says, Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there
be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Think on these things. You know
what putting that old man off is? Is this governor going to
get recalled? Who rigged the election? That's
going to title a message that's going to get a lot of clicks
on YouTube, won't it? I know who did. It was God's sovereign
will what happened. What's going to happen with the
schools? Put off the old man. Do we know that the Lord controls
everything underneath this sun and beyond the sun and the sun
itself? Of course he does. Think on pure
things. Think on Holy things. It says in Ephesians 5, 19, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart unto the Lord. Remember that
first love. Remember who saved you. Look
to Him. Dwell on Him. And Christ has
also taught us here, verse 24, that you put on the new man,
which is after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. There's no righteousness in that
old man. There's no righteousness in this world. There's no holiness
in it. Where is it at? In the new man that He gives.
The new man that's made like Him. The Lord our righteousness. That's the name He is called
and that's the name She shall be called. be your last name,
declaring forevermore, Christ is my righteousness. Put on that
new man. Put that man on. I mean with this, you've heard
many faithful preachers say that man is not justified before God
by our works. That's the truth. Nothing we
do justifies us before the Lord. Only Christ's blood does. Only
His purchase does. It's God that justifies. It's
Christ that died. He's risen again. He makes intercession
for us. But our character and our conduct
are important. How a believer walks in this
world is important. So put off that old man. Put
on the new. Put on Christ. And remember that
in context. What context is Paul talking
about? That's for unity of the body, isn't it? He's given us
this instruction, this admonition for unity of the brethren to
fitly frame us together. I need it, and you all are faithful.
I'm thankful for you. We have to cover. This is a text
we're reading. I ain't picking on nobody. There's
times I get down, times I get worried, and there's not a one
of you all that haven't come to me and said, boy, this is
the Lord's will, isn't it? He's loved us. Isn't that something
to think about? That's edifying to me. And I pray I'm that way
to you. Whenever this old man we can't
get rid of because we live in it, it wears on me. And the things
this world wear on you, I hope I can come to you and say, remember
Christ who saved us? We've heard of Him. We've learned
of Him. Put Him on. Put on that new man. That'd be
a comfort. If you know Him, that's a comfort.
But how many times have I got to be told to do that? I'm like
a child. I must be like a child in the
Kingdom of God. We must be told constantly, over
and over in this life, look to Him. Trust Him. Believe on Him. And walk as children that are
in life. Look into His life. Amen. Let's
pray together.