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Voddie Baucham - The Peace That Comes from Trusting God Completely · 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 Bibles with you,
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Speaker 1: open them to Ephesians chapter 4. 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: It's also 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 no man is justified by
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Speaker 1: 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 Christ. It is
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Speaker 1: a process that takes place through the entirety of our
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Speaker 1: Christian life whereby we are more and more conformed. Now
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Speaker 1: this is in contrast to the way many of us
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Speaker 1: have been taught to think about Christianity. Many of us
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Speaker 1: think about Christianity in this sort of magical way. And
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Speaker 1: so Christianity happens when we come to faith. And then
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Speaker 1: when we come to faith, somehow there's this, this channel
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Speaker 1: that's opened up between us and the heavenlies. And we
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Speaker 1: have access to immediate knowledge. Now, immediate in the theological
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Speaker 1: sense doesn't mean right now. Immediate means without a mediator.
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Speaker 1: We don't need a mediator. We don't need the scriptures.
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Speaker 1: We just need to become more and more in tune
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Speaker 1: with this heavenly frequency. And the more godly people are
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Speaker 1: the people who somehow have learned to become more in
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Speaker 1: tune with this heavenly frequency. So what we need is
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Speaker 1: not the scriptures. We just need somehow to have a breakthrough.
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Speaker 1: We need somehow to be able to get more in
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Speaker 1: touch and more in tune with this heavenly frequency. Folks,
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Speaker 1: that's paganism. That's not Christianity. That's paganism. And it's the
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Speaker 1: way a massive number of Christians think about the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: That somehow what we need is more immediate contact. Somehow
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Speaker 1: what we need is to become more attuned spiritually so
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Speaker 1: that as we walk through our life, we hear that
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Speaker 1: voice more clearly. That voice that says this way, not
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Speaker 1: that way. That voice that says this one, not that one.
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Speaker 1: And if we get really, really in tuned, that voice
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Speaker 1: will even give us words of knowledge for other people. Sorry,
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Speaker 1: the 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. We have to develop the mindset And
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Speaker 1: that's not a magical event that we can somehow hasten
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Speaker 1: by opening up a special channel to the heavenly realm.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at what the scriptures teach about this process
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Speaker 1: of sanctification and the mind of Christ. Ephesians chapter 4,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse 17. And as we read this, I
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Speaker 1: want you to pay attention and see the emphasis. Verse
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Speaker 1: 17 through 24. Now this I say and testify in
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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. They are
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Speaker 1: darkened in their understanding. alienated from the life of God
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Speaker 1: because of the ignorance that is in them due to
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Speaker 1: the hardness of their hearts. Please don't miss the emphasis here.
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Speaker 1: Their minds, their understanding, their ignorance. By the way, the
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Speaker 1: hardness of their hearts, that's not talking about the muscle
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Speaker 1: in the center of your chest that pumps blood. It's
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Speaker 1: 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 20,
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Speaker 1: you fell in love with Christ. Not what your text says,
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Speaker 1: is it? That is not the way you learned Christ.
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Speaker 1: How about that? So we've got mind, understanding, ignorance, and
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Speaker 1: now we've got learn. 21, assuming that you have heard
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Speaker 1: about him and were taught in him as the truth
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Speaker 1: is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which
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Speaker 1: belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt
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Speaker 1: through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit
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Speaker 1: of your, let's say it together, minds, and to put
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Speaker 1: 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. That's what I want us to
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Speaker 1: understand here this morning. I want us to get the
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Speaker 1: significance of this. First, we understand the significance of this
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Speaker 1: by understanding the old man. Go back to verse 17.
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Speaker 1: This I say and testify in the Lord, that you
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Speaker 1: must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the
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Speaker 1: futility of their minds. There's a command. Remember we talked
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Speaker 1: on last night about indicatives and imperatives. and how they're
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Speaker 1: inseparable in New Testament teaching, inseparable in the epistles. When
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Speaker 1: we have the indicatives or when we have imperatives, imperatives
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Speaker 1: tell us something to do. We need to always look
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Speaker 1: for the indicatives that tell us why and how they're
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Speaker 1: to be done. For those of you who weren't here
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Speaker 1: last night, an indicative statement would be, these are flowers.
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Speaker 1: That's an indicative statement. I'm indicating what something is. An
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Speaker 1: imperative statement would be, smell the flowers, which may be
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Speaker 1: why I sneezed up here last night. But anyway, that
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Speaker 1: 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 in On our behalf,
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Speaker 1: through the person and work of Christ. Who we are
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Speaker 1: as a result of what God has accomplished on our
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Speaker 1: behalf through the person and work of Christ. That's what
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Speaker 1: the indicatives give us. And then there are imperatives. The
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Speaker 1: imperatives tell us what we have been enabled and empowered
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Speaker 1: to do as a direct result of what God has
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Speaker 1: accomplished in our lives. through the person of God. and
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Speaker 1: work of Christ. You notice the common denominator there, the
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Speaker 1: person and work of Christ. That's the common denominator. So
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Speaker 1: it's not this picture that many of us have of justification, right?
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Speaker 1: We're justified. We're declared righteous. The judge bangs down his gavel.
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Speaker 1: The declaration is made. You're a righteous person. And we
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Speaker 1: believe that that's my grace. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Saved by grace. Justified by grace. Bang. But many of
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Speaker 1: us believe that sanctification is by law. That grace is
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Speaker 1: over here and grace did its job and grace sits
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Speaker 1: down and takes a rest. But now you and your
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Speaker 1: flesh go grab the law and make you holy. When
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Speaker 1: we read, we read indicatives and imperatives. In fact, in
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Speaker 1: the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters of the
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Speaker 1: book is all indicatives. And then it splits in the middle.
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Speaker 1: Look at 3, 20 and 21. Again, no imperatives in
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Speaker 1: the first half of the book of Ephesians. We're not
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Speaker 1: told to do anything in the first half of the
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Speaker 1: book of Ephesians. We're just told who we are. In
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Speaker 1: the first half. Verse 20, 320. Now to him who
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Speaker 1: is able to do far more abundantly than all we
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Speaker 1: can ask or think according to the power at work
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Speaker 1: within us. To him be glory in the church and
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Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.
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Speaker 1: That's a doxology. You got a doxology and an amen.
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Speaker 1: That means he just finished something. He just came to
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Speaker 1: the end of something. Chapter 4, verse 1, I therefore.
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Speaker 1: The therefore is the beginning of something. So the end
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Speaker 1: of chapter 3 lets us know that something ended. And
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Speaker 1: the beginning of chapter 4 lets us know that something
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Speaker 1: has begun. In the first three chapters, there are zero imperatives.
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Speaker 1: You are told to do nothing in the first half
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Speaker 1: of the book of Ephesians. You are just told who
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Speaker 1: you are in Christ. who you are because of what
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Speaker 1: Christ has accomplished that you could not accomplish, who you
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Speaker 1: are because of what has been done for you and
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Speaker 1: given to you through the person and work of Christ.
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Speaker 1: That's it. That's all. Then in the second half, we
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Speaker 1: get imperatives, but watch this. In the second half, we
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Speaker 1: don't just get imperatives. We get imperatives and indicatives. So
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Speaker 1: if the first half is all indicatives and the second
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Speaker 1: half is indicatives and imperatives, What's more important, indicatives or imperatives? Indicatives. Indicatives.
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Speaker 1: That's why you have them in both halves. And then
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Speaker 1: whenever we find the imperatives of scripture, whenever we see
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Speaker 1: something like this, verse 17, this I say and testify
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Speaker 1: in the Lord that you must no longer walk as
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. That's
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Speaker 1: an imperative. That's a command. You better believe that there's
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Speaker 1: some indicatives that are going to come along right with
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Speaker 1: it in order to explain to us how we've been
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Speaker 1: enabled and empowered to do this. And it's not by
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Speaker 1: your flesh. But first, look at this. 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: When he refers to the Gentiles here, he's referring to sinners.
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Speaker 1: He's referring to people who have not been redeemed. He's
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Speaker 1: referring to people who are not in Christ. And he's
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Speaker 1: saying that the difference between you and them, in large part,
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Speaker 1: is in your minds. Now, he's not saying that it's
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Speaker 1: not an issue of sin. It's not an issue of
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Speaker 1: your spiritual relationship with God. He's talking about something different here.
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Speaker 1: He's talking about where all of that comes from. He's
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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 clue to this is found earlier in the book.
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Speaker 1: In chapter 2. Very familiar passage. Look at Ephesians 2.
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Speaker 1: Beginning at verse 1. 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
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Speaker 1: body and of your mind. And then in chapter 4,
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Speaker 1: don't walk like the Gentiles do, right? He's talking about
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Speaker 1: the futility of their minds. And we're by 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 it works like this.
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Speaker 1: We're all fallen in Adam. And we inherit from Adam
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Speaker 1: a sin nature. And refer to that sin nature as
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Speaker 1: our flesh. And by the way, your mind is a
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Speaker 1: 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? Listen to this. Second London Baptist Confession.
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Speaker 1: The 1689 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, do 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 8. Look
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Speaker 1: at Romans chapter 8. Beginning at verse 5. 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 just ignore so much. Romans chapter 8 beginning verse 5.
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Speaker 1: For those who live according to the flesh set their what?
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Speaker 1: Minds on the things of the flesh. For those who
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Speaker 1: live according to the spirit set their minds on things
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Speaker 1: of the spirit. For to set the mind on the
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Speaker 1: flesh is death but to set the mind on the
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Speaker 1: spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is
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Speaker 1: set on the flesh is hostile to God for it
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Speaker 1: does not submit to God's law. Indeed it can not.
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Speaker 1: That mind cannot submit to God's law. Those who are
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Speaker 1: in the flesh can not please God. Let me read
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Speaker 1: the statement from the confession again. From this original corruption,
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Speaker 1: our original sin that we inherited from Adam, whereby we
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Speaker 1: are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good,
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Speaker 1: and wholly inclined to all evil, precede all actual transgressions.
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Speaker 1: That's who we are apart from Christ. We're sinners. Dead
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Speaker 1: in our trespasses and sins. But how do we as
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Speaker 1: people who are dead to the righteousness of God, dead
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Speaker 1: in our trespasses and sins, How do we walk around?
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Speaker 1: Are we zombies? Because we're walking around and we're doing stuff.
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Speaker 1: Back in Ephesians 2, in which you once walked following
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Speaker 1: the course of this world. There's a number of ways
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Speaker 1: that the New Testament uses the word world. The cosmos.
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Speaker 1: One way use of that word is this earth one
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Speaker 1: use of that word is all of the universe another
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Speaker 1: use of that word is that system that is set
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Speaker 1: up in direct opposition to God and that's the way
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Speaker 1: it's being used here that system that is set up
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Speaker 1: in direct opposition to God so Our flesh, our minds,
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Speaker 1: indisposed toward righteousness. We are born in sin, shaped in iniquity.
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Speaker 1: That's our flesh and our minds. But we're born into
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Speaker 1: a world that is opposed to our God. This world
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Speaker 1: teaches us what to think, when to think, how to think.
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Speaker 1: This world tells us what is good and right and
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Speaker 1: true and beautiful. And this world is very successful and
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Speaker 1: very conniving because what this world does is it brings
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Speaker 1: us very close to the actual truth so that we're comforted.
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Speaker 1: So that we're comforted. But it's all we know. It's
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Speaker 1: all we love. It's what we yearn for. We learn
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Speaker 1: the rules of this world. Because this world says that
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Speaker 1: there are things that are right and there are things
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Speaker 1: that are wrong. And we operate in accordance with the
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Speaker 1: rules of this world. And this world rewards us when
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Speaker 1: we are right according to its rules. And this world
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Speaker 1: punishes us when we are wrong according to its rules.
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Speaker 1: But make no mistake. It's attached to our flesh and
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Speaker 1: it is in opposition to God. So for example, the
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Speaker 1: world gives us marriage. The world gives us sex, reproduction.
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Speaker 1: But what the world does is the world divorces it
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Speaker 1: from this biblical ideal of marriage as a covenant relationship
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Speaker 1: between one man and one woman. That is a picture
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Speaker 1: of the covenant relationship between Christ and His church. And
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Speaker 1: the world gives us this picture and the picture that
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Speaker 1: the world gives us has nothing to do with that
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Speaker 1: and has everything to do with the gratification of our flesh.
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Speaker 1: And then the world takes another step and not only
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Speaker 1: does it give us this picture that is the very
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Speaker 1: close facsimile But then it actually makes us opposed to
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Speaker 1: the genuine thing. And so now marriage is seen as oppressive.
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Speaker 1: Monogamy is seen as unnatural. Reproduction is seen as optional.
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Speaker 1: That's the world that we live in. Utterly opposed to God.
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Speaker 1: The world that we live in has people actually believing
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Speaker 1: that 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: in 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 doesn'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 doesn't have 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. Ephesians 4, 17. 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. So,
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Speaker 1: your sinful flesh lives in this sinful world under the
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Speaker 1: 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 18. 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: there 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, this 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, 95%. You know,
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Speaker 1: I'm a good dude, man. I'm, you know, I'm not perfect,
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Speaker 1: but you know, I'm better than most. And he looked
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Speaker 1: at me and he said, what if I can give
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Speaker 1: you the other five? And it just floored me. I
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Speaker 1: didn't even know how to think about that. But what
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Speaker 1: he was getting at is the fact that as lost
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Speaker 1: sinful people, this world has convinced us that we know
29:12
Speaker 1: what is good, what is true, What is beautiful? It
29:17
Speaker 1: has conditioned us in a very particular way. And we
29:24
Speaker 1: have no idea how far and how deep that conditioning
29:31
Speaker 1: has gone. We're callous. We've given ourselves up to sensuality.
29:39
Speaker 1: We're greedy to practice every kind of impurity. And we
29:50
Speaker 1: don't know it. We don't see it. But look at
29:57
Speaker 1: the next verse, verse 28. But that is not the
30:02
Speaker 1: way you learned Christ. It's not the same. Assuming that
30:15
Speaker 1: you have heard about him and were taught in him
30:18
Speaker 1: as the truth is in Jesus. There you go. How
30:24
Speaker 1: do we know? I mean, if this is true, how
30:29
Speaker 1: do we know? If we've been living in the matrix,
30:35
Speaker 1: y'all seen that movie, right? Don't act like you haven't
30:38
Speaker 1: seen that movie. Don't act like you're so pure and
30:40
Speaker 1: you're so holy that you don't know anything about the matrix.
30:44
Speaker 1: The red pill and the blue pill and yeah, you know.
30:50
Speaker 1: By the way, there are a lot of biblical theological
30:53
Speaker 1: overtones in that movie. Not all correct. but there are
31:00
Speaker 1: a lot of theological and biblical overtones in that movie.
31:04
Speaker 1: Some wonderful pictures of some spiritual realities, not least of
31:11
Speaker 1: which is this idea that people have no idea that
31:14
Speaker 1: they're living in a world that is not real. They're
31:18
Speaker 1: living in a world that is not true. They're living
31:21
Speaker 1: in a world that's not beautiful. They're living in a
31:23
Speaker 1: world that's not good from a moral, biblical, theological perspective.
31:29
Speaker 1: And when we come to faith in Christ, the scales
31:32
Speaker 1: are removed from our eyes. And we learn that the
31:35
Speaker 1: truth is not out there somewhere, but the truth is
31:40
Speaker 1: in Jesus. The truth is in Christ. He is the way,
31:52
Speaker 1: he is the truth, he is the life. No one
31:55
Speaker 1: comes to the Father but by him. Not only does
31:57
Speaker 1: no one come to the Father but by him, but
32:00
Speaker 1: nobody knows genuinely what is righteous but by him. Genuinely
32:09
Speaker 1: what is beautiful but by him. Genuinely what is good
32:13
Speaker 1: but by him. So he says that's not the way
32:20
Speaker 1: you learned Christ. assuming that you've heard about him and
32:26
Speaker 1: were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Notice,
32:32
Speaker 1: heard about him and were taught in him. These things
32:39
Speaker 1: are essential. You need to unlearn some things and relearn
32:45
Speaker 1: some things. Verse 22, here's the crux. To put off
32:51
Speaker 1: your old self, which belongs to your former manner of
32:54
Speaker 1: life And is corrupt through deceitful desires. That's step number one.
33:03
Speaker 1: Putting out the old self. Which we won't do. Unless
33:08
Speaker 1: we're made aware. That there is an old self. Think
33:16
Speaker 1: about this in a worldview sense. There are practices that
33:22
Speaker 1: we have. That we. hold true, that we hold dear
33:27
Speaker 1: because we've been taught them. And we believe them because
33:33
Speaker 1: it's all we know and it's all we've seen. This
33:37
Speaker 1: problem happens oftentimes in marriage where two people come together
33:43
Speaker 1: and both of them are absolutely sure that they know
33:46
Speaker 1: what marriage is. They're absolutely sure they know what marriage
33:50
Speaker 1: is supposed to be. They're absolutely certain that they know
33:53
Speaker 1: what a husband is supposed to be and what a
33:54
Speaker 1: wife is supposed to be. And then they get married.
33:59
Speaker 1: If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch.
34:03
Speaker 1: And one of the things that marriage does early on
34:08
Speaker 1: is it causes you to realize that you were assuming
34:12
Speaker 1: that there was agreement about what marriage is. You were
34:16
Speaker 1: assuming that there was agreement about what a husband is
34:19
Speaker 1: and what a wife is. You may have even talked
34:21
Speaker 1: about some of these things and you assumed that the
34:24
Speaker 1: words that you were using meant the same thing when
34:28
Speaker 1: they used them as they did when you used them.
34:32
Speaker 1: Now you're married and you realize, oh wait, that's what
34:35
Speaker 1: you meant? And there is this clash that is ultimately
34:43
Speaker 1: a clash of worldviews. So what do you do? Well,
34:49
Speaker 1: the world would have you think that what you need
34:51
Speaker 1: to do is you need to sit down and somehow
34:53
Speaker 1: negotiate a path forward that accommodates both of those worldviews. No. No.
35:02
Speaker 1: Verse 22. To put off your old self, which belongs
35:07
Speaker 1: to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
35:11
Speaker 1: deceitful desires. What you need to do is examine your
35:17
Speaker 1: worldview through the lens of the truth that is Jesus.
35:26
Speaker 1: I don't hold on to something because it's what my
35:28
Speaker 1: family has always done. I don't hold on to something
35:33
Speaker 1: because it's what my culture has always done. The truth
35:37
Speaker 1: is in Jesus. I recognize that I have an old
35:41
Speaker 1: self that is corrupt through deceitful desires. I'm comfortable with
35:46
Speaker 1: my old self. And sanctification requires that I recognize that
35:53
Speaker 1: part of my old self is at war with the
35:57
Speaker 1: truth that is in Jesus. So I put off the
36:07
Speaker 1: old self. I nail it to the cross with Christ.
36:20
Speaker 1: And beloved, this is one of the hardest things in
36:22
Speaker 1: the world. Because it's all we know and it's what
36:31
Speaker 1: we love. It's comfortable. It's comfortable. It's become a sense
36:39
Speaker 1: of pride for us. My family and I dealt with this,
36:46
Speaker 1: as many of you may understand, when for the last decade,
36:52
Speaker 1: we lived and served in Lusaka, Zambia. And if living
36:59
Speaker 1: in Zambia, in South Central Africa, if it taught me anything,
37:02
Speaker 1: it taught me I am not an African. Amen, somebody.
37:10
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not. I love my African brethren. Amen.
37:16
Speaker 1: I'm not an African. I'm just not. That's not my culture.
37:20
Speaker 1: That's not my worldview. But here's what happens when you
37:25
Speaker 1: leave from your culture. What happens is you find yourself
37:31
Speaker 1: in another culture that has other convictions and commitments that
37:36
Speaker 1: are different than your own. And you got a couple
37:39
Speaker 1: of choices. Either we can do what the world does
37:44
Speaker 1: and we can say, well, all cultures are equally valid.
37:48
Speaker 1: And all cultures should be equally respected. Or we can
37:52
Speaker 1: say the truth is in Jesus. And he is the
37:57
Speaker 1: Lord of every culture. And I need to examine my
38:01
Speaker 1: own culture because there's some assumptions that I'm now realizing
38:05
Speaker 1: I operate from. And I need to operate to evaluate
38:08
Speaker 1: this culture first. Because I'm seeing some assumptions that they're
38:13
Speaker 1: operating from. And as we evaluate them, our job is
38:17
Speaker 1: to put off the old self, which belongs to your
38:19
Speaker 1: former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
38:27
Speaker 1: Some of those things are just different. This food, that food.
38:34
Speaker 1: But not all of them. Some of them go to
38:40
Speaker 1: the heart of truth, beauty, goodness, and righteousness. And our
38:48
Speaker 1: answer as Christians can never be. Cultures are just neutral.
38:59
Speaker 1: I have to put my own culture on a chopping
39:01
Speaker 1: block and say, let Christ be true and never man
39:07
Speaker 1: a liar. I have to recognize the need to put
39:14
Speaker 1: off the old self. The illustration I used was marriage,
39:26
Speaker 1: and I've often told this story. It's so poignant for me,
39:33
Speaker 1: but I remember when Bridget and I had our first
39:37
Speaker 1: major fight. I don't remember what it was about, but
39:43
Speaker 1: I'll never forget the aftermath. We're sitting in different sides
39:48
Speaker 1: of this little tiny apartment that we had, and both
39:51
Speaker 1: of us were grieving. Grieving. And the reason that we
39:54
Speaker 1: were grieving is because we thought that our relationship was
39:58
Speaker 1: essentially over. Why would we think that? Well, because last
40:03
Speaker 1: two generations, both sides of our family, us, our siblings,
40:08
Speaker 1: our cousins, our parents and their siblings, last two generations,
40:12
Speaker 1: both sides of our families, 25 marriages, 22 divorces. We
40:20
Speaker 1: didn't know what reconciliation looked like. By the way, that's
40:24
Speaker 1: three marriages that stayed together, right? One of them was ours.
40:29
Speaker 1: Another ended in a premature death. And another raised one
40:35
Speaker 1: child that was the product of an adulterous affair. That
40:41
Speaker 1: was our legacy. So in a way, we had an
40:51
Speaker 1: advantage here. Because neither of us assumed that we brought
40:58
Speaker 1: into this the pristine, perfect picture of marriage. And we
41:05
Speaker 1: both knew that we needed to put off the old
41:09
Speaker 1: self as it related to our thinking about marriage. This
41:20
Speaker 1: is true in every area and aspect of your life.
41:26
Speaker 1: our thinking about marriage and family, our thinking about masculinity
41:30
Speaker 1: and femininity, our thinking about law, politics, art, education, our
41:38
Speaker 1: thinking about every aspect of our lives. We must put
41:47
Speaker 1: off the old self, which belongs to our former manner
41:51
Speaker 1: of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. Verse 23 says,
41:57
Speaker 1: And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.
42:00
Speaker 1: I love that. To be renewed in the spirit of
42:07
Speaker 1: your minds. Because it sounds kind of esoteric, right? Put
42:13
Speaker 1: off the old self. Okay, great. I get that. I
42:16
Speaker 1: know I need to do that. But how do I
42:18
Speaker 1: do that? By the way, Romans 12 comes in here again.
42:23
Speaker 1: Romans 12.1. Do not be conformed to the pattern of
42:27
Speaker 1: this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your...
42:35
Speaker 1: That word is all over the New Testament, folks. Be
42:41
Speaker 1: transformed by the renewing of your minds. So, and to
42:49
Speaker 1: put on the new self. That's how we put on
42:55
Speaker 1: the new self. In other words, we recognize that our
43:02
Speaker 1: sinful flesh and our minds have been taught what to think,
43:06
Speaker 1: when to think, why to think in a sinful world.
43:11
Speaker 1: We come to faith in Christ. We're a new creature.
43:19
Speaker 1: But this new creature is being conformed to the image
43:22
Speaker 1: of Christ. And what we need to be conformed to
43:27
Speaker 1: the image of Christ is not to somehow continue to
43:31
Speaker 1: switch the radio frequency until we get plugged in and
43:34
Speaker 1: then information just gets dumped. No, no, no, no, no.
43:36
Speaker 1: He says to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.
43:40
Speaker 1: This is an ongoing process. Be renewed in the spirit
43:43
Speaker 1: of your minds. Folks, why do you think we go
43:45
Speaker 1: to church every week? Why? You could have just been
43:53
Speaker 1: once a year. Why? Why? Why over and over and
44:01
Speaker 1: over again? Why do we need the gospel repeated to
44:05
Speaker 1: us over and over and over again? Why do we
44:09
Speaker 1: need to be called to repentance and faith over and
44:11
Speaker 1: over and over again? Why do we need to feast
44:14
Speaker 1: on the word of God over and over and over again?
44:17
Speaker 1: Why do we need to go before the Lord in
44:19
Speaker 1: prayer over and over and over again? Because you're being renewed.
44:25
Speaker 1: You're being renewed. Your mind is being renewed. You're learning
44:29
Speaker 1: to think Christ's thoughts after him. Over and over and
44:40
Speaker 1: over again, those vestiges of your old life are being confronted.
44:48
Speaker 1: And they're being chiseled off. Some of them go off easy.
44:54
Speaker 1: Some of them need a jackhammer. Some of them, you know,
45:07
Speaker 1: it's like the doctor sometimes tells us, this you won't
45:15
Speaker 1: die from, but you'll die with. In other words, This
45:21
Speaker 1: thing is not going to be what kills you, but
45:26
Speaker 1: it's going to be with you. And for some people,
45:32
Speaker 1: that's the case. For all people, that's the case with
45:35
Speaker 1: something because we don't reach sinless perfection in this life.
45:47
Speaker 1: But we're continually renewed in the spirit of our minds
45:52
Speaker 1: This is what discipleship is all about, folks. Being renewed
45:56
Speaker 1: in the spirit of your minds. This is what the
46:00
Speaker 1: ordinary means of grace are all about. This is why
46:03
Speaker 1: we need the ordinary means of grace in our life.
46:06
Speaker 1: This is why we need the word of God. This
46:08
Speaker 1: is why we need prayer. This is why we need
46:10
Speaker 1: the Lord's Supper. This is why we need to see.
46:14
Speaker 1: We hear the word. We see the word in baptism
46:16
Speaker 1: in the Lord's Supper. We sing the word. We pray
46:22
Speaker 1: the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
46:28
Speaker 1: word of Christ. So do you now see how sinister
46:36
Speaker 1: it is that there's this version of Christianity that instead
46:41
Speaker 1: of saying you need the mediation of the word of
46:45
Speaker 1: God in your life, you need to be conformed continually.
46:52
Speaker 1: You need to be washed with the water of the word.
46:54
Speaker 1: Does that sound familiar? Ephesians chapter five. You need the
46:58
Speaker 1: ordinary means of grace over and over and over again
47:00
Speaker 1: because this is going to conform you to the image
47:01
Speaker 1: of Christ over your life. You see how sinister it
47:04
Speaker 1: is that some people say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
47:06
Speaker 1: What you need is to just get zapped so you
47:08
Speaker 1: get on the right frequency and then you hear stuff.
47:12
Speaker 1: It's the exact opposite of what is true. Can you
47:21
Speaker 1: imagine becoming Christian is referred to as being born again.
47:27
Speaker 1: It's being born again. Can you imagine if we treated
47:31
Speaker 1: being born the first time like that? You're born. We're
47:36
Speaker 1: not going to teach you anything. We're not going to
47:43
Speaker 1: give you educational toys. We're not going to give you
47:47
Speaker 1: any kind of schooling. We're not going to teach you
47:48
Speaker 1: your alphabet. We're not going to teach you any of that.
47:51
Speaker 1: We're just going to hope that somehow you get connected
47:53
Speaker 1: to the right frequency so that you can learn how
47:55
Speaker 1: to look. Come on now. when we're born again. And folks,
48:11
Speaker 1: if Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge and in favor
48:17
Speaker 1: with God and men, what makes us think we don't
48:22
Speaker 1: need to grow in wisdom and in knowledge? We renewed
48:33
Speaker 1: the spirit of your mind. Learn to think God's thoughts
48:40
Speaker 1: after him. Submit yourself to the work of the spirit
48:50
Speaker 1: in your life. One of whose primary job It's to
49:03
Speaker 1: help you to know the truth. Last. Verse 24. And
49:14
Speaker 1: to put on the new self. And here's your indicative.
49:20
Speaker 1: created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and
49:25
Speaker 1: holiness the new self that we're putting on is created
49:30
Speaker 1: after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness
49:34
Speaker 1: remember indicatives and imperatives How is it, why is it
49:42
Speaker 1: that we are able to put on this new self?
49:45
Speaker 1: Because we are actually in Christ. Behold, if any man
49:50
Speaker 1: is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things
49:53
Speaker 1: have passed away. New things have come. You are actually
49:57
Speaker 1: in Christ. This new self is created. You don't create it.
50:03
Speaker 1: It was created by God after the likeness of God
50:08
Speaker 1: and in true righteousness and holiness. How is it that
50:13
Speaker 1: I can actually put on righteousness and put on holiness?
50:17
Speaker 1: Because your new self is created by God in true
50:23
Speaker 1: righteousness and true holiness. That's who you are. That's who
50:28
Speaker 1: you are. That is the only way that you can
50:35
Speaker 1: identify and put off the old self. Because you're a
50:41
Speaker 1: new creature. By the way, does this not give new
50:45
Speaker 1: meaning to Jesus' words? I didn't come to bring peace,
50:50
Speaker 1: but a sword. Right? Man's enemies are going to be
50:53
Speaker 1: in his own household. Listen to me. When I walked away,
51:02
Speaker 1: when you walked away from aspects of your old life
51:06
Speaker 1: and your old culture... It wasn't people out there who
51:10
Speaker 1: got upset. Amen. Who really gets upset? People in your family. Oh,
51:20
Speaker 1: you think you're better than us now. No, I don't actually.
51:28
Speaker 1: I finally know I'm not. That's why I needed a
51:31
Speaker 1: savior who saved me and rescued me from my sin.
51:35
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm better than you. Or are you
51:42
Speaker 1: just walking away from your culture now? Or are you
51:48
Speaker 1: just walking away from filling the blank now? When my
51:53
Speaker 1: book Fault Lines came out and I'm addressing critical race theory,
52:01
Speaker 1: black American Christians, not all, but many, called me everything
52:09
Speaker 1: but a child of God. I was Uncle Tom, a coon,
52:16
Speaker 1: a sellout, a bootlicker, a house nigger. What do all
52:28
Speaker 1: of those things mean? All of those things mean you
52:31
Speaker 1: are not holding firm to your culture and your heritage.
52:37
Speaker 1: You're denying who you really are. Newsflash, who I really
52:42
Speaker 1: am is in Christ. That's not automatic and it's not easy.
52:55
Speaker 1: Because believe it or not, I kind of like it
52:59
Speaker 1: when people like me. A lot of people don't believe that.
53:05
Speaker 1: A lot of people think, well, of course, he does
53:07
Speaker 1: stuff like that because he doesn't care. No, I do.
53:11
Speaker 1: I do. I don't like it when people say and
53:14
Speaker 1: write nasty things about me. I'm not fueled by that.
53:22
Speaker 1: I'm hurt by it. I don't like it when I'm
53:27
Speaker 1: alienated from people. I don't like that. I don't like
53:33
Speaker 1: it when churches and institutions won't allow me to come
53:38
Speaker 1: and preach the word because of positions that I hold
53:42
Speaker 1: that are in line with scripture. I don't wake up
53:50
Speaker 1: in the morning saying, okay, Who can I alienate today?
54:04
Speaker 1: The new self is created after the likeness of God,
54:09
Speaker 1: true righteousness, true holiness. That's the reason there's any hope
54:17
Speaker 1: whatsoever that this can be done. Why do we know
54:26
Speaker 1: that we can put off the old self? Because the
54:28
Speaker 1: old self is inconsistent with the new self that's been
54:32
Speaker 1: created in true righteousness and true holiness. So by God's grace,
54:37
Speaker 1: we can put off the old self. We can identify
54:38
Speaker 1: the old self. We can put off the old self.
54:40
Speaker 1: How do we know that we can put on the
54:41
Speaker 1: new self? Because the new self is real. The new
54:45
Speaker 1: self is us. And it's created in true righteousness and
54:49
Speaker 1: true holiness. And by God's spirit, we are being conformed
54:57
Speaker 1: to the very image of Christ. This is what it
55:03
Speaker 1: means to put on the new man. To put on
55:08
Speaker 1: the mind of Christ. My prayer is that as we
55:15
Speaker 1: continue over the course of this weekend, that God would
55:18
Speaker 1: grant us grace to do just that. Amen? Let's pray. Father,
55:29
Speaker 1: we do thank you and praise you for making us
55:34
Speaker 1: new creatures in Christ. Grant by your grace that we
55:42
Speaker 1: might walk in this newness of life. Grant that we
55:50
Speaker 1: might pursue the holiness and righteousness that is ours. Grant
56:02
Speaker 1: that we might delight in the righteous law of God
56:09
Speaker 1: as only those created in true righteousness and holiness can.
56:19
Speaker 1: Grant that we might take every thought captive to the
56:23
Speaker 1: obedience of Christ. as only those who have been made
56:31
Speaker 1: new can. And grant that as we do so, we
56:37
Speaker 1: would be more like Christ today than yesterday and more
56:40
Speaker 1: tomorrow than today. This we pray and ask in Christ's
56:46
Speaker 1: name and for his sake. Amen. Before we go, I
56:52
Speaker 1: was told before the message to say a couple of
56:55
Speaker 1: words to you about the African Christian University and Part
57:00
Speaker 1: of the money that's raised here this weekend is going
57:02
Speaker 1: to ACU. The African Christian University is a school that
57:05
Speaker 1: my family and I went to Lusaka to help establish
57:09
Speaker 1: 10 years ago. And it is a classical Christian liberal
57:14
Speaker 1: arts university in Lusaka, Zambia, the capital city of Lusaka.
57:18
Speaker 1: It's a school established by the Reformed Baptist churches of Zambia.
57:24
Speaker 1: They're offering degrees in agriculture, business education, and theology. but
57:31
Speaker 1: really equipping young men and young women with biblical worldview
57:38
Speaker 1: in all areas of life and particularly in these disciplines
57:43
Speaker 1: so that the culture can be impacted by believers who
57:47
Speaker 1: do the very things that we're talking about here in
57:51
Speaker 1: their professions, whether that be in pastoral ministry for those
57:56
Speaker 1: theology students or agriculture science or in education or in
58:02
Speaker 1: business or any other degrees that the Lord would bring
58:07
Speaker 1: about so I commend this work to you we committed
58:12
Speaker 1: to going to Lusaka for three to five years and
58:15
Speaker 1: we ended up there for almost ten and just in
58:19
Speaker 1: December moved from there back to the U.S. it was
58:23
Speaker 1: time for us to do that but We love ACU
58:30
Speaker 1: and encourage you to learn more about ACU and to
58:35
Speaker 1: give to support ACU as well. Thank you.