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Voddie Baucham - The Mind of Christ in the Church Session 2 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Well as we continue to explore this theme of the
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Speaker 1: mind of Christ. I want to look this morning in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Ephesians. If you have your Bible's with you,
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Speaker 1: open them to Ephesians chapter four. And on last night
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Speaker 1: we talked about the mind of Christ. Try to introduce
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Speaker 1: the idea in relation to the way we learn to
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Speaker 1: think God's thoughts after him and how Christianity is not
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Speaker 1: about mere moralism. It's not about us seeing Christ as
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Speaker 1: a mere example to be followed. Jesus didn't come so
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Speaker 1: that we could have an example and become more moral people,
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Speaker 1: so so not legalism. It is not about us keeping
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Speaker 1: the law and earning God's favor through our keeping of
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Speaker 1: the law. The law is good, the law is righteous,
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Speaker 1: the law is holy, but we no man is justified
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Speaker 1: by keeping the law because we cannot keep the law perfectly.
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Speaker 1: But Christianity is about us being redeemed through the person
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Speaker 1: and work of Christ, transformed as a result of that,
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Speaker 1: and conformed to the very image of Christ. And it
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Speaker 1: is that transformation. It is that process of being conformed
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Speaker 1: that we refer to as sanctification that makes us more
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Speaker 1: holy and more righteous and more like Christs. That takes
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Speaker 1: place through the entirety of our Christian life, whereby we
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Speaker 1: are more and more conformed. Now, this is in contrast
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Speaker 1: to the way many of us have been taught to
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Speaker 1: think about Christianity. Many of us think about Christianity in
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Speaker 1: this sort of magical way. And so Christianity happens when
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Speaker 1: we come to faith. And then when we come to faith,
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Speaker 1: somehow there's this channel that's opened up between us and
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Speaker 1: the heavenlys and we have access to immediate knowledge. Now,
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Speaker 1: immediate in the theological sense doesn't mean right now. Immediate
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Speaker 1: means without a mediator. We don't need a mediator, we
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Speaker 1: don't need the scriptures. We just need to become more
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Speaker 1: and more in tune with this heavenly frequency. And the
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Speaker 1: more godly people are the people who somehow have learned
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Speaker 1: to become more in tune with this heavenly frequency. So
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Speaker 1: what we need is not the scriptures. We just need
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Speaker 1: somehow to have a breakthrough. We need somehow to be
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Speaker 1: able to get more in touch and more in tune
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Speaker 1: with this heavenly frequency. Folks, that's paganism. That's not Christianity.
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Speaker 1: That's paganism. And it's the way a massive number of
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Speaker 1: Christians think about the Christian life that somehow what we
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Speaker 1: need is more immediate contact. Somehow what we need is
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Speaker 1: to become more attuned spiritually so that as we walk
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Speaker 1: through our life we hear that voice more clearly, that
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Speaker 1: voice that says this way, not that way, the voice
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Speaker 1: that says this one, not that one. And if we
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Speaker 1: get really, really in tuned, that that voice will even
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Speaker 1: give us words of knowledge for other people. Sorry, the
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Speaker 1: voice just told me to tell you again. That's paganism.
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Speaker 1: That's the way Eastern mysticism views our relationship with the divine,
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Speaker 1: until ultimately we become part of the divine. That's not
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Speaker 1: biblical Christianity, and unfortunately for many of us, we've got
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Speaker 1: at least a bit of that mixed in with our orthodoxy,
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Speaker 1: and so we think that there's somehow some magic bullet
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Speaker 1: that we need to have access to so that we
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Speaker 1: can have this experience as well. And that's just not
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Speaker 1: how it works. What we have to develop the mind
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Speaker 1: of Christ, and that's not a magical event that we
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Speaker 1: can somehow hasten by opening up a special channel to
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Speaker 1: the heavenly realm. Let's look at what the scriptures teach
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Speaker 1: about this process of sanctification and the mind of Christ Ephesians,
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Speaker 1: Chapter four, beginning of verse seventeen. And as we read this,
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Speaker 1: I want you to pay attention and see the emphasis
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen through twenty four. Now this I say and
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Speaker 1: testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk
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Speaker 1: as the gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
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Speaker 1: They are darkening, their understanding, alienated from the life of
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Speaker 1: God because of the ignorance that is in them due
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Speaker 1: to the hardness of their hearts. Please don't miss the
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Speaker 1: emphasis here. Their minds, their understanding, their ignorance. By the way,
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Speaker 1: the hardness of their hearts, that's not talking about the
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Speaker 1: muscle in the center of your chest that pumps blood.
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Speaker 1: It's a reference to their wills. So their minds, their ignorance,
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Speaker 1: their understanding. Again, these terms are very clear. This is
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Speaker 1: about our thinking. But that is not the way verse
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Speaker 1: twenty You fell in love with Christ, not what your
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Speaker 1: text says, is it. That is not the way you
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Speaker 1: learned Christ. How about that? So we've got mind understanding, ignorance,
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Speaker 1: And now we've got learned twenty one, Assuming that you
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Speaker 1: have heard about Him and were taught in him as
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Speaker 1: the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self,
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Speaker 1: which belongs to your former manner of life and is
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Speaker 1: corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the
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Speaker 1: spirit of your let's say it together, minds, and to
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Speaker 1: put on the new self created after the likeness of God,
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Speaker 1: in true righteousness and holiness. Put on the new Man.
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Speaker 1: Put on the new Man. That is a wonderful way
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Speaker 1: to think about the process of sanctification. We are putting
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Speaker 1: on the new Man. And that's what I want us
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Speaker 1: to understand here this morning. I want us to get
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Speaker 1: the significance of this. And first we understand the significance
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Speaker 1: of this by understanding the old man. Go back to
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen. This I say and testify in the Lord
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Speaker 1: that you must no longer walk as the gentiles do
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Speaker 1: in the futility of their minds. There's a command. Remember
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Speaker 1: we talked to them last night about indicatives and imperatives
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Speaker 1: and how they're inseparable in New Testament teaching, inseparable in
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Speaker 1: the epistles. When we have the indicatives or when we
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Speaker 1: have imperatives, right, imperatives tell us something to do. We
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Speaker 1: need to always look for the indicatives that tell us
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Speaker 1: why and how they're to be done. For those of
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Speaker 1: you who weren't here last night, an indicative statement would
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Speaker 1: be these are flowers. That's an indicative statement. I'm indicating
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Speaker 1: what something is. An imperative statement would be smell the flowers,
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Speaker 1: which maybe why I sneezed up here last night, but anyway,
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Speaker 1: that would be an imperative telling you something to do. Right,
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Speaker 1: And we have those statements in the scriptures, indicative statements
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Speaker 1: and imperative statements. And it's important to put those two
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Speaker 1: things together. Why Because the indicative statements give us a
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Speaker 1: picture of what God has accomplished on our behalf through
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Speaker 1: the person and work of Christ. Who we are as
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Speaker 1: a result of what God has accomplished on our behalf
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Speaker 1: through the person and work of Christ. That's what the
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Speaker 1: indicatives give us. And then there are imperatives. The imperatives
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Speaker 1: tell us what we have been enabled and empowered to
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Speaker 1: do as a direct result of what God has accomplished
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Speaker 1: in our lives through the person and work of Christ.
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Speaker 1: You notice the common denominator there, the person and work
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Speaker 1: of Christ. That's the common denominator. So it's not this
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Speaker 1: picture that many of us have of justification. Right, we're justified,
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Speaker 1: we're declared righteous. The judge bangs down as gabbled, the
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Speaker 1: declaration has made you're righteous. And we believe that that's
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Speaker 1: my grace. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Saved by grace,
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Speaker 1: justified by grace. Bang. But many of us believe that
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Speaker 1: sanctification is by law, that grace is over here, and
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Speaker 1: grace did its job, and grace sits down and takes
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Speaker 1: the rest. But now you and your flesh go grab
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Speaker 1: the law and make you holy. When we read, we
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Speaker 1: read indicatives and imperatives. In fact, in the Book of Ephesians,
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Speaker 1: the first three chapters of the book is all indicatives,
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Speaker 1: and then it splits in the middle. Look at three
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Speaker 1: twenty and twenty one. Again, no imperatives. In the first
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Speaker 1: half of the Book of Ephesians. We're not told to
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Speaker 1: do anything. In the first half of the Book of Ephesians,
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Speaker 1: we're just told who we are in the first half
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Speaker 1: verse twenty three to twenty. Now to him who is
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Speaker 1: able to do far more abundantly than all we can
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Speaker 1: ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
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Speaker 1: to him be glory in the Church and in Christ, Jesus,
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Speaker 1: throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. That's a duxology.
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Speaker 1: You got a doxology and an amen. That means he
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Speaker 1: just finished something. He just came to the end of something.
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Speaker 1: Chapter four, Verse one I. Therefore, the therefore is the
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Speaker 1: beginning of something. So the end of chapter three lets
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Speaker 1: us know that something ended. In the beginning of chapter
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Speaker 1: four lets us know that something has begun. In the
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Speaker 1: first three chapters, there are zero imperatives. You are told
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Speaker 1: to do nothing. In the first half of the Book
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Speaker 1: of Ephesians. You were just told who you are in Christ,
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Speaker 1: who you are because of what Christ has accomplished. That
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Speaker 1: you cannot accomplish. Who you are because of what has
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Speaker 1: been done for you and given to you through the
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Speaker 1: person and work of Christ. That's it. That's all. Then
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Speaker 1: in the second half we get imperatives. But watch this,
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Speaker 1: in the second half we don't just get imperatives. We
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Speaker 1: get imperatives and indicatives. So if the first half is
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Speaker 1: all indicatives and the second half is indicatives and imperatives,
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Speaker 1: what's more important indicatives or imperatives. Indicatives indicatives, that's why
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Speaker 1: you have them. In both halves. And then whenever we
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Speaker 1: find the imperatives of scripture, whenever we see something like
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Speaker 1: this verse seventeen, This I say and testify in the
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Speaker 1: Lord that you must no longer walk as the gentiles
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Speaker 1: do and the utility of their minds. That's an imperative,
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Speaker 1: that's a command. You better believe that there's some indicatives
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Speaker 1: that are going to come along right with it, in
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Speaker 1: order to explain to us how we've been enabled and
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Speaker 1: empowered to do this. And it's not by your flash.
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Speaker 1: But first look at this, look at what we This
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Speaker 1: I say in the Lord, This I say, and testifying
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Speaker 1: the Lord that you must no longer walk as the
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Speaker 1: gentiles do in the futility of their minds. When he
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Speaker 1: refers to the gentiles here, he's referring to sinners. He's
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Speaker 1: referring to people who have not been redeemed. He's referring
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Speaker 1: to people who are not in Christ. And he's saying
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Speaker 1: that the difference between you and them, in a large
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Speaker 1: part is in your minds. Now, he's not saying that
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Speaker 1: it's not an issue of sin, it's not an issue
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Speaker 1: of your spiritual relationship with God. He's talking about something
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Speaker 1: different here, he's talking about where all of that comes from,
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Speaker 1: talking about what is acting with our sin nature in
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Speaker 1: order to bring us to a place where we not
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Speaker 1: only engage in sin, but we love sin, and we
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Speaker 1: know sin, and it's all we know. We're intimately acquainted
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Speaker 1: with sin, and it's where we're comfortable. It's our happy place.
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Speaker 1: A clude to this is found earlier in the book
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Speaker 1: in chapter two, very familiar passage. Look at Phesians two,
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Speaker 1: beginning of verse one, and I bet we're going to
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Speaker 1: see something that you probably hadn't paid attention to before
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Speaker 1: we read. And you were dead in the trespasses and
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Speaker 1: sins in which you once walked, following the course of
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Speaker 1: this world, following the prince of the power of the air.
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Speaker 1: So we have the world, and now we have the devil,
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Speaker 1: the spirit that is now at work in the sons
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Speaker 1: of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the
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Speaker 1: passions of our flesh. So now we got the world,
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Speaker 1: we got the devil, and we got the flesh. Okay,
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Speaker 1: but watch this carrying out the desires of the body,
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Speaker 1: and what else? Tell the truth? You never paid attention
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Speaker 1: to that part before, did you? The desires of your body?
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Speaker 1: And of your mind. And then in chapter four, don't
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Speaker 1: walk like the gentiles do. Right, he's talking about the
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Speaker 1: futility of their minds. H And we're about nature, children
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Speaker 1: of wrath, like the rest of mankind. So that's who
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Speaker 1: we were. You have to understand that it works like this.
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Speaker 1: We are all falling in Adam, and we inherit from
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Speaker 1: Adam a sin nature, and refer to that sin nature
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Speaker 1: as our flesh. And by the way, your mind is
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Speaker 1: a part of that. It's a part of who you are.
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Speaker 1: It's a part of your flesh. So here we are
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Speaker 1: with our sinful flesh and our sinful minds. And what
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Speaker 1: does that look like? This second London Baptist Confession, the
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Speaker 1: sixteen eighty nine Confession, Chapter six on the Fall of Man,
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Speaker 1: paragraph four. From this original corruption, that's original sin that
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Speaker 1: we inherit from Adam, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled,
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Speaker 1: and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to
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Speaker 1: all evil. To proceed all actual transgressions our sins flow
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Speaker 1: from our sin nature. That's where we start. Look at
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Speaker 1: another passage of scripture. Look at Romans chapter eight. Look
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Speaker 1: at Romans chapter eight, beginning at verse five, And again
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Speaker 1: we're going to see that word again, that word that
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Speaker 1: we can just ignore so much. Romans Chapter eight, beginning
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Speaker 1: verse five. For those who live according to the flesh,
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Speaker 1: set their what minds on the things of the flesh.
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Speaker 1: For those who live according to the Spirit, set their
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Speaker 1: minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set
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Speaker 1: the mind on the flesh is death. But to set
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Speaker 1: the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For
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Speaker 1: the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile
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Speaker 1: to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: it cannot. That mind cannot submit to God's law. Those
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Speaker 1: who are in the flesh can not please God. Let
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Speaker 1: me read the statement from the confession again. From this
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Speaker 1: original corruption, our original sin, that we inherit from Adam,
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Speaker 1: whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to
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Speaker 1: all good and wholly inclined to all evil, precede all
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Speaker 1: actual transgressions. That's who we are apart from Christ. We're sinners,
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Speaker 1: dead in our trespass and sins. But how do we,
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Speaker 1: as people who are dead to the righteousness of God,
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Speaker 1: dead in our trespasses and sins, how do we how
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Speaker 1: do we walk around our zombies because we're we're walking
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Speaker 1: around and we're doing stuff. Back in Ephesians two, in
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Speaker 1: which you once walked following the course of this world.
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Speaker 1: There's a number of ways that the New Testament uses
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Speaker 1: the word world the cosmos. One use of that word
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Speaker 1: is this earth. One use of that word is all
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Speaker 1: of the universe. Another use of that word is that
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Speaker 1: system that is set up in direct opposition to God.
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Speaker 1: And that's the way it's being used here, that system
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Speaker 1: that is set up in direct opposition to God. So
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Speaker 1: our flesh, our minds indisposed towards righteousness. We are born
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Speaker 1: in sin, shaped in iniquity, that's our flesh in our minds,
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Speaker 1: but we're born into a world that is opposed to
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Speaker 1: our God. This world teaches us what to think, when
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Speaker 1: to think, how to think. This world tells us what
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Speaker 1: is good and right and true and beautiful. And this
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Speaker 1: world is very successful and very conniving because what this
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Speaker 1: world does is it brings us very close to the
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Speaker 1: actual truth, so that we're comforted. So that we're comforted,
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Speaker 1: but it's all we know, it's all we love, it's
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Speaker 1: what we yearn for. We learn the rules of this
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Speaker 1: world because this world says that there are things that
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Speaker 1: are right and there are things that are wrong, and
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Speaker 1: we operate in accordance with the rules of this world.
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Speaker 1: And this world rewards us when we are right according
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Speaker 1: to its rules, and this world punishes us when we
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Speaker 1: are wrong according to its rules. But make no mistake,
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Speaker 1: it's attached to our flesh, and it is in opposition
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Speaker 1: to God. So, for example, the world gives us marriage,
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Speaker 1: the world gives us sex, reproduction. But what the world
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Speaker 1: does is the world divorces it from this biblical ideal
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Speaker 1: of marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and
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Speaker 1: one woman, that is a picture of the covenant relationship
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Speaker 1: between Christ and his church, and the world gives us
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Speaker 1: this picture, and the picture that the world gives us
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Speaker 1: has nothing to do with that, and has everything to
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Speaker 1: do with the gratification of our flesh. And then the
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Speaker 1: world takes another step, and not only does it give
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Speaker 1: us this picture that is the very close facsimile, but
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Speaker 1: then it actually makes us opposed to the genuine thing.
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Speaker 1: And so our marriage is seen as oppressive, monogamy is
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Speaker 1: seen as unnatural, reproduction is seen as optional. That's the
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Speaker 1: world that we live in, utterly opposed to God. The
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Speaker 1: world that we live in has people actually believing that
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Speaker 1: they are righteous when they give personhood to a mountain
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Speaker 1: but refuse to give personhood to an unborn child in
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Speaker 1: the womb. Yeah, I went there. It's irrelevant if we're
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Speaker 1: willing to fight where the action is not, we need
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Speaker 1: to go to war right where the action is. And
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Speaker 1: when there's an assault on the image of God in
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Speaker 1: the womb and people have the audacity to refuse personhood
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Speaker 1: to an unborn child but give personhood to a mountain
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Speaker 1: and an act of idolatry, that's where we fight. You see,
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Speaker 1: this is what the world does, and it's all we know.
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Speaker 1: And there are people out there who feel like they
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Speaker 1: are right and righteous in doing these things. Not only that,
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Speaker 1: but that those who would oppose them are unrighteous, narrow minded,
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Speaker 1: and bigoted. Then there's the devil. We get so worried
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Speaker 1: about the devil. Listen, the devil don't have to worry
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Speaker 1: about you. Why because the world and your flesh do
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Speaker 1: just fine with you. Amen, somebody, he don't nothing to
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Speaker 1: worry about you, But make no mistake about it. He's
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Speaker 1: the prince of the power of the air. So go
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Speaker 1: back to our text. Armed with this, Let's come back
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Speaker 1: to our text iph Heesians four seventeen. This I say
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Speaker 1: and testify in the Lord that you must no longer
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Speaker 1: walk as the gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
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Speaker 1: So your sinful flesh lives in this sinful world under
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Speaker 1: the authority of the Prince, of the power of the air.
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Speaker 1: It teaches you what to think, when to think, how
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Speaker 1: to think, why to think. It's all you know, and
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Speaker 1: it's what you love, and you believe it loves you.
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Speaker 1: Then the Gospel comes and you're liberated from that. The
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Speaker 1: scales are removed from your eyes. You flee to Christ
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Speaker 1: in repentance and faith. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. You're justified,
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Speaker 1: declared righteous, You're a child of God. You're adopted into
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Speaker 1: the family of God. But guess what, Your flesh is
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Speaker 1: not dead yet. And for the rest of your Christian life,
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Speaker 1: it's an ongoing process of continuing to identify those areas
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Speaker 1: where your flesh needs to be mortified, those areas where
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Speaker 1: your flesh needs to continually be put to death, those
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Speaker 1: areas where your flesh and your mind have lied to
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Speaker 1: you about what is good and what is true. And
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Speaker 1: what is beautiful? And over and over again that must
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Speaker 1: be confronted verse eighteen. They are darkened in their understanding,
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Speaker 1: alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance
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Speaker 1: that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
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Speaker 1: That is who you were, that is where you were.
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Speaker 1: You have to recognize this if you don't. If you don't,
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Speaker 1: that will be misery, because our natural assumption is that
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Speaker 1: we're good people. I remember when I first heard the Gospel.
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Speaker 1: For those of you who know me and know about
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Speaker 1: my story, you know I wasn't raised in a Christian home.
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Speaker 1: I wasn't raised around Christianity. I was raised by a
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Speaker 1: single teenage Buddhist mother in Los Angeles, California. Never heard
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Speaker 1: the Gospel until I got to university, and I remember
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Speaker 1: Steve Morgan was the guy who shared the Gospel with me.
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Speaker 1: Steve came and he talked to me, and one of
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Speaker 1: the things he said to me that has just absolutely
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Speaker 1: stayed with me. As Steve asked me first if I
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Speaker 1: thought I would go to heaven when I died, And
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Speaker 1: of course I said yes, And he said, how sure
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Speaker 1: are you? And I said, I don't know, you know,
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Speaker 1: I'm I was a good dude, man, I'm I'm you know,
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Speaker 1: I'm I'm not perfect, but you know I'm better than most.
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Speaker 1: And he looked at me and he said, what if
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Speaker 1: I can give you the other five? And it just
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Speaker 1: floored me. I didn't even know how to think about that.
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Speaker 1: But what he was getting at is the fact that,
29:46
Speaker 1: as lost, sinful people, this world has convinced us that
29:53
Speaker 1: we know what is good, what is true, what is beautiful.
29:59
Speaker 1: It has conditioned us in a very particular way, and
30:06
Speaker 1: we have no idea how far and how deep that
30:12
Speaker 1: conditioning has gone. We're callous. You've given ourselves up to sensuality.
30:22
Speaker 1: We're greedy to practice every kind of impurity, and we
30:32
Speaker 1: don't know it, we don't see it. But look at
30:40
Speaker 1: the next verse, verse twenty. But that is not the
30:45
Speaker 1: way you learned Christ. It's not the same, assuming that
30:58
Speaker 1: you have heard about Him and we're taught in Him
31:01
Speaker 1: as the truth is in Jesus. There you go, how
31:07
Speaker 1: do we know? I mean, if this is true, how
31:13
Speaker 1: do we know if we've been living in the matrix?
31:18
Speaker 1: Y'all seen that movie? Right? Don't act like you haven't
31:21
Speaker 1: seen that movie. Don't act like you're so pure and
31:24
Speaker 1: you so holy that you don't know anything about the matrix,
31:27
Speaker 1: the red pill and the blue pill. And you know,
31:34
Speaker 1: by the way, there are a lot of biblical theological
31:36
Speaker 1: overtones in that movie, not all correct, but there are
31:43
Speaker 1: a lot of theological and biblical overtones in that movie,
31:48
Speaker 1: some wonderful pictures of some spiritual realities, not least of
31:55
Speaker 1: which is this idea that people have no idea that
31:58
Speaker 1: they're living in a world that is not real. They're
32:02
Speaker 1: living in a world that is not true. They're living
32:05
Speaker 1: in a world that's not beautiful. They're living in a
32:07
Speaker 1: world that that's not good from a moral, biblical theological perspective.
32:13
Speaker 1: And when we come to faith in Christ, the scales
32:17
Speaker 1: are removed from our eyes and we learn that the
32:20
Speaker 1: truth is and not not out there somewhere, but the
32:24
Speaker 1: truth is in Jesus. The truth is in Christ. He
32:36
Speaker 1: is the Way, He is the Truth, He is the Life.
32:40
Speaker 1: No one comes to the Father but by him. Not
32:42
Speaker 1: only does no one come to the Father but by him,
32:44
Speaker 1: But but but nobody knows genuinely what is righteous, but
32:51
Speaker 1: by him, genuinely what is beautiful? But by him genuinely
32:57
Speaker 1: what is good? But by him, so he says, that's
33:05
Speaker 1: not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you've heard
33:11
Speaker 1: about him and we're taught in him, as the truth
33:14
Speaker 1: is in Jesus. Notice heard about him and we're taught
33:19
Speaker 1: in him. These things are essential. You need to unlearn
33:29
Speaker 1: some things and relearn some things. Verse twenty two. Here's
33:35
Speaker 1: the crux to put off your old self, which belongs
33:39
Speaker 1: to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
33:43
Speaker 1: deceitful desires. That's step number one, putting off the old self,
33:52
Speaker 1: which we won't do unless we're made aware that there
33:57
Speaker 1: is an old self. Think about this in a worldview sense.
34:07
Speaker 1: There are practices that we have that we hold true,
34:12
Speaker 1: that we hold dear because we've been taught them, and
34:19
Speaker 1: we believe them because it's all we know and it's
34:21
Speaker 1: all we've seen. This problem happens oftentimes in marriage, where
34:29
Speaker 1: two people come together and both of them are absolutely
34:32
Speaker 1: sure that they know what marriage is. They're absolutely sure
34:36
Speaker 1: they know what marriage is supposed to be. They're absolutely
34:39
Speaker 1: certain that they know what a husband is supposed to
34:41
Speaker 1: be and what a wife is supposed to be, and
34:43
Speaker 1: then they get married. If you can't say amen, you
34:48
Speaker 1: ought to say out and one of the things that
34:52
Speaker 1: marriage does early on is it causes you to realize
34:58
Speaker 1: that you were assuming that there was agreement about what
35:02
Speaker 1: marriage is. You were assuming that there was agreement about
35:06
Speaker 1: what a husband is and what a wife is. You
35:09
Speaker 1: may have even talked about some of these things, and
35:11
Speaker 1: you assumed that the words that you were using meant
35:15
Speaker 1: the same thing when they used them as they did
35:19
Speaker 1: when you use them. Now you're married, and you're realized, oh, wait,
35:23
Speaker 1: that's what you meant. And there is this clash that
35:31
Speaker 1: is ultimately a clash of world views. So what do
35:34
Speaker 1: you do? Well? The world would have you think that
35:39
Speaker 1: what you need to do is you need to sit
35:41
Speaker 1: down and somehow negotiate a path forward that accommodates both
35:45
Speaker 1: of those world views. No. No Verse twenty two. To
35:53
Speaker 1: put off your old self, which belongs to your former
35:56
Speaker 1: manner of life, and it's corrupt through deceitful desires. What
36:03
Speaker 1: you need to do is examine your worldview through the
36:08
Speaker 1: lens of the truth. That is Jesus. I don't hold
36:16
Speaker 1: on to something because it's what my family has always done.
36:20
Speaker 1: I don't hold on to something because it's what my
36:23
Speaker 1: culture has always done. The truth is in Jesus, I
36:28
Speaker 1: recognize that I have an old self that is corrupt
36:32
Speaker 1: through deceitful desires. I'm comfortable with my old self, and
36:39
Speaker 1: sanctification requires that I recognize that part of my old
36:44
Speaker 1: self is at war with the truth that is in Jesus.
36:56
Speaker 1: So I put off the old self. I nail it
37:05
Speaker 1: to the cross with Christ and beloved. This is one
37:11
Speaker 1: of the hardest things in the world because it's all
37:21
Speaker 1: we know and it's what we love. It's comfortable, it's
37:29
Speaker 1: become a sense of pride for us. My family and
37:35
Speaker 1: I dealt with this as many of you may understand
37:40
Speaker 1: when for the last decade we lived and served in
37:45
Speaker 1: Lusaka in Zambia, and if living in Zambia and South
37:51
Speaker 1: Central Africa, if it taught me anything, it taught me
37:54
Speaker 1: I am not an African, Amen, somebody not. I love
38:03
Speaker 1: my African brethren, Amen, I'm not an African. I'm just not.
38:10
Speaker 1: That's not my culture, that's not my worldview. But here's
38:15
Speaker 1: what happens when you leave from your culture. What happens
38:20
Speaker 1: is you find yourself in another culture that has other
38:26
Speaker 1: convictions and commitments that are different than your own. And
38:30
Speaker 1: you've got a couple of choices. Either we can do
38:35
Speaker 1: what the world does and we can say, well, all
38:37
Speaker 1: cultures are equally valid and all cultures should be equally respected,
38:43
Speaker 1: or we can say the truth is in Jesus and
38:48
Speaker 1: he is the lord of every culture. And I need
38:52
Speaker 1: to examine my own culture because there's some assumptions that
38:56
Speaker 1: I'm now realizing I operate from, and I need to
38:59
Speaker 1: operate to evaluate this culture because I'm seeing some of
39:03
Speaker 1: our assumptions that they're operating from. And as we evaluate them,
39:08
Speaker 1: our job is to put off the old self, which
39:11
Speaker 1: belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt
39:14
Speaker 1: through deceitful desires. Some of those things are just different,
39:23
Speaker 1: this food, that food, but not all of them. Some
39:32
Speaker 1: of them go to heart of truth, beauty and goodness
39:37
Speaker 1: and righteousness. And our answer as Christians can never be
39:47
Speaker 1: cultures are just neutral. I have to put my own
39:54
Speaker 1: culture on a chopping block and say that Christ be true.
40:00
Speaker 1: I never met a liar. I have to recognize the
40:06
Speaker 1: need to put off the old self. The illustration I
40:19
Speaker 1: used was marriage, and I've often told this story because
40:24
Speaker 1: it was so poignant for me. But I remember when
40:29
Speaker 1: Bridgette and I had our first major fight. I don't
40:34
Speaker 1: remember what it was about, but I'll never forget the aftermath.
40:41
Speaker 1: We're sitting in different sides of this little, tiny apartment
40:44
Speaker 1: that we had, and both of us were grieving, And
40:48
Speaker 1: the reason that we were grieving is because we thought
40:51
Speaker 1: that our relationship was essentially over. Like why would we
40:56
Speaker 1: think that, Well, because last two generations, both sides of
40:59
Speaker 1: our family, us, our siblings, our cousins, our parents and
41:05
Speaker 1: their siblings, last two generations, both sides of our families,
41:08
Speaker 1: twenty five marriages, twenty two divorces, We didn't know what
41:16
Speaker 1: reconciliation looked like. By the way, that's three marriages that
41:20
Speaker 1: stayed together, right. One of them was ours, another ended
41:27
Speaker 1: in a premature death, and another raised one child that
41:32
Speaker 1: was the product of an adult affair. That was our legacy.
41:44
Speaker 1: So in a way we had an advantage because neither
41:50
Speaker 1: of us, neither of us assumed that we brought into
41:54
Speaker 1: this the pristine, perfect picture of marriage, and we both
42:01
Speaker 1: knew that we needed to put off the old self.
42:06
Speaker 1: As a relateds who are thinking about marriage, this is
42:16
Speaker 1: true in every area and aspect of your life. Our
42:23
Speaker 1: thinking about marriage and family are thinking about masculinity. And femininity,
42:28
Speaker 1: are thinking about law, politics, art, education, are thinking about
42:36
Speaker 1: every aspect of our lives. We must put off the
42:44
Speaker 1: old self, which belongs to our former manner of life
42:50
Speaker 1: and is corrupt through deceitful desires Verse twenty three. And
42:54
Speaker 1: to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. I
42:58
Speaker 1: love that, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
43:08
Speaker 1: because it sounds kind of esoteric, right, put off the
43:10
Speaker 1: old self? Okay, great, I get that. I know I
43:14
Speaker 1: need to do that. But how do I do that?
43:17
Speaker 1: By the way, Romans twelve comes in here again. Romans
43:21
Speaker 1: twelve to one. Do not be conformed to the pattern
43:25
Speaker 1: of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
43:30
Speaker 1: your That word is all over the New Testament, folks,
43:39
Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of your minds. So and
43:47
Speaker 1: to put on the new self. That's how we put
43:53
Speaker 1: on the new self. In other words, we recognize that
44:00
Speaker 1: our sinful flesh and our minds have been taught what
44:04
Speaker 1: to think, when to think, why to think in a
44:07
Speaker 1: sinful world. We come to faith in Christ. We're a
44:15
Speaker 1: new creature. But this new creature is being conformed to
44:21
Speaker 1: the image of Christ. And what we need to be
44:25
Speaker 1: conformed to the image of Christ. Is not to somehow
44:28
Speaker 1: continue to switch the radio frequency until we get plugged
44:32
Speaker 1: in and then information just gets dumped it. No, no, no, no no,
44:35
Speaker 1: He says, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.
44:39
Speaker 1: This is an ongoing process. Be renewed in the spirit
44:42
Speaker 1: of your minds. Folks, why do you think we go
44:44
Speaker 1: to church every week? Why you could have just been
44:52
Speaker 1: once a year. Why why over and over and over again?
45:03
Speaker 1: Why do we need the Gospel repeated to us over
45:06
Speaker 1: and over and over again. Why do we need to
45:09
Speaker 1: be called to repentance and faith over and over and
45:12
Speaker 1: over again. Why do we need to feast on the
45:14
Speaker 1: Word of God over and over and over again. Why
45:17
Speaker 1: do we need to go before the Lord in prayer
45:20
Speaker 1: over and over and over again. Because you're being renewed.
45:25
Speaker 1: You're being renewed. Your mind is being renewed. You're learning
45:29
Speaker 1: to think Christ's thoughts after him over and over and
45:41
Speaker 1: over again. Those vestiges of your old life are being
45:45
Speaker 1: confronted and they're being chiseled off. Some of them come
45:53
Speaker 1: off easy, some of them need jackhammer. Some of them.
46:07
Speaker 1: You know, it's like the doctor sometimes tells us this
46:16
Speaker 1: you won't die from, but you'll die with. In other words,
46:22
Speaker 1: this thing is not going to be what kills you,
46:25
Speaker 1: but it's going to be with you. And for some
46:32
Speaker 1: people that's the case. For all people, that's the case
46:36
Speaker 1: with something, because we don't reach sinless perfection in this life,
46:48
Speaker 1: but were continually renewed in the spirit of our minds.
46:54
Speaker 1: This is what discipleship is all about, folks, being renewed
46:58
Speaker 1: in the spirit of your minds. This is what the
47:02
Speaker 1: ordinary means of grace are all about. This is why
47:05
Speaker 1: we need the ordinary means of grace in our life.
47:08
Speaker 1: This is why we need the Word of God. This
47:10
Speaker 1: is why we need prayer. This is why we need
47:12
Speaker 1: the Lord's Supper. This is why we need to see.
47:15
Speaker 1: You're right, we hear the Word, we see the Word
47:18
Speaker 1: and baptism in the Lord's Supper, we sing the Word,
47:23
Speaker 1: we pray the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
47:30
Speaker 1: by the Word of Christ. So do you now see
47:38
Speaker 1: how sinister it is that there's this version of Christianity that,
47:43
Speaker 1: instead of saying you need the mediation of the Word
47:48
Speaker 1: of God in your life, you need to be conformed continually.
47:55
Speaker 1: You need to be washed with the water of the word.
47:57
Speaker 1: Does that sound familiar if he's in chapter five? You
48:00
Speaker 1: need the ordinary means of grace over and over and
48:02
Speaker 1: over again, because this is gonna conform you to the
48:04
Speaker 1: image of Christ over your life. You see how sinister
48:07
Speaker 1: it is. As some people say, no, no, no, no, no, no,
48:09
Speaker 1: no no no. What you need is to just get
48:11
Speaker 1: zapped so you get on the right frequency and then
48:13
Speaker 1: you hear stuff. It's the exact opposite of what it's true.
48:24
Speaker 1: Can you imagine becoming Christian is referred to as being
48:28
Speaker 1: born again? It's being born again. Can you imagine if
48:34
Speaker 1: we treat it being born the first time like that
48:39
Speaker 1: you're born. We're not gonna teach you anything. We're not
48:47
Speaker 1: gonna give you educational toys. We're not gonna give you
48:50
Speaker 1: any kind of schooling. We're not gonna teach you your alphabet.
48:53
Speaker 1: We're not gonna teach you any of that. We're just
48:55
Speaker 1: gonna hope that somehow you get connected to the right
48:58
Speaker 1: frequency so that you can learn how. Come on now,
49:08
Speaker 1: when we're born again, and folks, if Jesus grew and
49:19
Speaker 1: wisdom and knowledge and in favor with God and men,
49:25
Speaker 1: what makes us think. We don't need to grow in
49:33
Speaker 1: wisdom and in knowledge. We renewed the spirit of your minds,
49:43
Speaker 1: learned to think God's thoughts after him. Submit yourself to
49:54
Speaker 1: the work of the Spirit in your life, one of
50:02
Speaker 1: whose primary job is to help you to know the
50:09
Speaker 1: truth last verse twenty four. And to put on the
50:20
Speaker 1: new self. And here's your indicative created after the likeness
50:28
Speaker 1: of God, in true righteousness and holiness. The new self
50:33
Speaker 1: that we're putting on is created after the likeness of God,
50:38
Speaker 1: in true righteousness and holiness. Remember indicatives and imperatives. How
50:47
Speaker 1: is it? Why is it that we are able to
50:49
Speaker 1: put on this new self? Because we are actually in Christ. Behold,
50:57
Speaker 1: if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
51:00
Speaker 1: Old things have passed away, new things have come. You
51:03
Speaker 1: are actually in Christ. This new self is created. You
51:08
Speaker 1: don't create it. It was created by God after the
51:13
Speaker 1: likeness of God and in true righteousness and holiness. How
51:19
Speaker 1: is it that I can actually put on righteousness and
51:22
Speaker 1: put on holiness? Because your new self is created by
51:29
Speaker 1: God in true righteousness and true holiness. That's who you are.
51:35
Speaker 1: That's who you are. That is the only way that
51:42
Speaker 1: you can identify and put off the old self because
51:48
Speaker 1: you're a new creature. By the way, does this not
51:52
Speaker 1: give new meaning to Jesus' words? And hen come to
51:57
Speaker 1: bring peace but a sword? Right, man's enemies are going
52:01
Speaker 1: to be in his own household. Listen to me. When
52:08
Speaker 1: I walked away, when you walked away from aspects of
52:13
Speaker 1: your old life and your old culture, it wasn't people
52:17
Speaker 1: out there who got upset. Heymen, who really gets upset?
52:25
Speaker 1: People in your family? Oh, you think you're better than us? Now? No?
52:34
Speaker 1: I don't. Actually, I finally know I'm not. That's why
52:39
Speaker 1: I needed a savior who saved me and rescued me
52:43
Speaker 1: from my sin. I don't think I'm better than you,
52:51
Speaker 1: or you're just walking away from your culture now, or
52:55
Speaker 1: you're just walking away from you're just walking away from
52:58
Speaker 1: filling the blank now. When my book fault Lines came
53:02
Speaker 1: out and I'm addressing critical race theory, Black American Christians,
53:14
Speaker 1: not all, but many called me everything but a child
53:19
Speaker 1: of God. I was Uncle Tom, a coon, a sellout,
53:26
Speaker 1: a boot liquor, a house nigger. What do all of
53:38
Speaker 1: those things mean? All of those things mean you are
53:41
Speaker 1: not holding firm to your culture and your heritage. You're
53:47
Speaker 1: denying who you really are. Newsflash. Who I really am
53:52
Speaker 1: is in Christ. That's not automatic, and it's not easy because,
54:06
Speaker 1: believe it or not. I kind of like it when
54:09
Speaker 1: people like me. A lot of people don't believe that.
54:15
Speaker 1: A lot of people think, well, of course he does
54:17
Speaker 1: stuff like that because he doesn't care. No I do.
54:21
Speaker 1: I do. I don't like it when people say and
54:24
Speaker 1: write nasty things about me. I'm not fueled by that.
54:33
Speaker 1: I'm hurt by it. I don't like it when I'm
54:37
Speaker 1: alienated from people. I don't like that. I don't like
54:44
Speaker 1: it when churches and institutions won't allow me to come
54:49
Speaker 1: and preach the Word because the positions that I hold
54:54
Speaker 1: that are in line with Scripture. I don't wake up
55:02
Speaker 1: in the morning saying, Okay, who can I alienate today?
55:15
Speaker 1: The new self is created after the likeness of God,
55:21
Speaker 1: true righteousness, true holiness. That's the reason there's any hope
55:29
Speaker 1: whatsoever that this can be done. Why do we know
55:38
Speaker 1: that we can put off the old self? Because the
55:40
Speaker 1: old self is inconsistent with the new self that's been
55:44
Speaker 1: created in true righteousness and true holiness. So by God's grace,
55:49
Speaker 1: we can put off the old self. We can identify
55:51
Speaker 1: the old self, we can put off the old self.
55:52
Speaker 1: How do we know that we can put on the
55:54
Speaker 1: new self? Because the new self is real. The new
55:58
Speaker 1: self is Us and It's and true righteousness and true holiness.
56:06
Speaker 1: And by God's Spirit we are being conformed to the
56:10
Speaker 1: very image of Christ. This is what it means to
56:16
Speaker 1: put on the new man, to put on the mind
56:22
Speaker 1: of Christ. My prayer is that as we continue over
56:28
Speaker 1: the course of this weekend, that God would grant us
56:32
Speaker 1: grace to do just that. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we
56:43
Speaker 1: do thank you and praise you for making us new
56:48
Speaker 1: creatures in Christ. Grant by your grace that we might
56:56
Speaker 1: walk in this newness of life. Grant that we might
57:04
Speaker 1: pursue the holiness and righteousness that is ours in Christ.
57:16
Speaker 1: Grant that we might delight in the righteous law of
57:21
Speaker 1: God as only those created and true righteousness and holiness can.
57:33
Speaker 1: Grant that we might take every thought captive to the
57:37
Speaker 1: obedience of Christ, as only those who have been made
57:45
Speaker 1: new can. And Grant that as we do so, we
57:51
Speaker 1: would be more like Christ today than yesterday, and more
57:55
Speaker 1: tomorrow than today. And ask in Christ's name and for
58:01
Speaker 1: his sake. Amen, I mean before we go, I was
58:07
Speaker 1: told before the message to say a couple of words
58:11
Speaker 1: to you about the African Christian University, and part of
58:15
Speaker 1: the money that's raised here this weekend is going to ACU.
58:18
Speaker 1: The African Christian University is the school of my family
58:21
Speaker 1: and I went to Lusaka to help establish ten years ago,
58:26
Speaker 1: and it is a classical Christian liberal arts university in Lusaka, Zambia,
58:32
Speaker 1: the capital city of Lusaka. It's a school established by
58:36
Speaker 1: the Reformed Baptist Churches of Zambia, offering degrees in agriculture,
58:42
Speaker 1: of business, education and theology, but really equipping young men
58:49
Speaker 1: and young women with Biblical worldview in all areas of life,
58:56
Speaker 1: and particularly in these disciplines, so that the culture can
59:00
Speaker 1: be impacted by believers who do the very things that
59:04
Speaker 1: we're talking about here in their professions, whether that be
59:10
Speaker 1: in pastoral ministry for those theology students, or agriculture science,
59:16
Speaker 1: or in education or in business or any other degrees
59:21
Speaker 1: that the Lord would would would bring about. So I
59:26
Speaker 1: commend this work to you. We committed to going to
59:29
Speaker 1: Lusaka for three to five years and we ended up
59:32
Speaker 1: there for almost ten and just in December moved from
59:37
Speaker 1: there back to the US. It was time for us
59:42
Speaker 1: to do that, but we love ACU and encourage you
59:48
Speaker 1: to learn more about ACU and to give to support
59:52
Speaker 1: a CU as well. Thank you.