[0:00] Well, good job everybody on that. Once in a while, that's just what happens as long as we have a pianist that travels, traveling pianist, until we raise up another.
[0:25] Oh, why did you do that? Okay, there's a lizard right there. Samuel. Yeah, some of these over here are going to be paralyzed.
[0:39] Hey, Russ, could you give me a glass of water, please? Thank you. This is our version of, what's that guy's name, Steve Irwin or something?
[0:51] Yeah. Come on, bud. He'll take off.
[1:05] There he is. He's out on this side now. Oh, he's going back up. Nobody's watching. All right, well, while we're working on that, find in your Bibles Ephesians chapter 4.
[1:25] He's good. Good job. Don't worry. Carlo, let us know if he's back.
[1:39] If you see Doreen or Carlo taking off, you'll know. All right, so we're in Ephesians chapter 4. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy the time off of work as well as just seeing some of your family.
[1:56] And I enjoyed playing a little bit of flag football or two-hand touch, as it were. And there was a few people injured.
[2:08] Thankfully, it wasn't me this time. We always, I don't know how long ago it started. We were getting guys together Thursday morning and playing Turkey Bowl.
[2:19] And it always went pretty well until one year I ended up with my arm in a sling from a sprain in my shoulder or something.
[2:30] And then another guy got a pretty heavy-duty concussion from Samuel's forehead, drilling him in the face. And then everybody mocked us for being too old and got to quit doing that stuff.
[2:44] But can't help it. It's just fun. So I was happy to be able to get out and do that. I hope you all enjoyed more than just eating. I hope you enjoyed something from that day and more holidays are coming.
[2:57] I think from what Carla said, or from what Andrea Wells said, that Jason Wells came in town for a brief visit. And he's heading back to Ohio today. I thought he'd be here in church this morning, but it turns out he's taken off.
[3:10] But I know he'll be back around here shortly. The Pfeffers are traveling. Also in Tennessee. And something just eluded me.
[3:23] Along those lines. Oh well. All right. Let's get into the Bible. Ephesians chapter 4. We were coming through in the 20s. And what I'll do is just kind of rehash a little bit about the doctrine of this passage.
[3:37] How important it is. The teaching to understand of the two natures of the believer. The old man and the new man. And so in verses 22, 3 and 4 you see this put off the old man and put on the new man.
[3:49] And this is a doctrine that the apostle Paul introduces. It is not taught in the law of Moses.
[4:01] It is not even a thought throughout the Old Testament and through the Jews and their wanderings through the wilderness and coming into the land and their kings and their judges, prophets, any of that. This is totally off their radar.
[4:12] They have no concept of this. This is not something that even was taught. It may be alluded to but not taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospels. There may be some ways to look at it and kind of imply or apply something he said to this.
[4:31] But as far as teaching a doctrine, it is the apostle Paul that introduces this. It's something that's new. It's for the body of Christ. It's not for Israel. It's not something of that Jew-Gentile separation Old Testament at all.
[4:45] And so for today, there's something different that's going on. And what's going on is that when you take Jesus Christ as your Savior, God comes and dwells inside of you. And inside of you, he doesn't want to dwell in that carnal, wicked, corrupt nature.
[5:00] He wants to make an entirely holy compartment inside of you. And that's where he's going to dwell. And so he, we mentioned this last week, didn't even read it, but from Colossians chapter 2, he cuts apart, he circumcises or cuts away your soul from your sinful flesh.
[5:19] And now he dwells in your soul, in the new man. And that soul is given eternal life. And that soul is granted the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's been imputed to him, but not to the old man.
[5:32] So people need to understand this so much because when you don't understand this fight, you don't know if you're surely eternally saved and secure.
[5:44] And the reason is because you don't feel like you're saved sometimes. You feel like you're wicked. And sometimes you are wicked. But Paul says it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
[5:55] He said sin that is in my flesh. And so understanding these two natures, that you've got two creatures inside of you fighting for dominion of your life.
[6:06] Understanding that will help you as you walk and try to please God. And it will also help you when you fall. Understanding that I didn't lose my salvation. I just gave in to my carnal flesh.
[6:17] I gave it what it wanted. And it can help you to just get your mind renewed. Get it right. Get right with God. And get back up and walk in the spirit. And ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The reason that people aren't sure that they're saved and have no assurance of these things is because their flesh is not saved.
[6:34] The old man is not saved. He's never been saved. He's never going to be saved. God did not save the old man. He made a new man. A new creature. And that one is given eternal life.
[6:47] So when you walk in the flesh, of course you don't feel saved. Of course you're not sure if you're saved. Of course you question things and doubt things. Because that's all the earmarks of the old man.
[6:59] Alright, so let's start in verse 22 and move forward. That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
[7:11] And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Remember in verse 23 there's a renewal that goes on. And it's in the spirit of your mind.
[7:22] And your mind doesn't just get totally washed, pure and clean now that you're saved. There's a battle that goes on up there. And I showed you from Romans that it's the carnal mind.
[7:37] Or the, I forget the other term that he used back there. I lost it last week. I lost it this week. But it's a mind thing where the control box is of who's going to live.
[7:49] The old man or the new man. You ever hear the illustration of the two dogs? That there's a sinful dog and a holy dog. And that you can, that they're both, that's you.
[8:02] That's what's going on inside of you. But you can only feed one. There's only one dog dish. And if you feed the old man, he's going to be strong. But if you'll starve him and the lust of the flesh.
[8:12] And you'll feed the new man the scriptures and the word of God and prayer and walk with him. You're going to strengthen that inner man. And he's going to have dominion. And you only have one leash. One of them has to be on the leash at all times.
[8:25] All right, going on to verse 25. Now we get into some examples. Some practical application of this very thing. And the first case was lying. And he showed us in verse 25, So lying is a work of the flesh.
[8:45] It's the old man. That's how he reacts. He wants to get out of danger. Or he wants to keep himself looking good. So he lies. He tells things that are not true.
[8:56] But the new man speaks the truth. And so Paul just gives us an example that we're all very familiar with. The old man needs to be put away.
[9:07] So putting away lying. In verse 26, we read through here, Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. And I brought up a thought.
[9:17] I'm not going to get into it. Of why in the world is the devil brought up into this conversation. He absolutely has a connection to the old man. And we'll just leave it at that.
[9:28] Now another example here, Much like lying, Verse 28, Let him that stole steal no more. But rather let him labor, Working with his hands the thing which is good, That he may give to him that need it.
[9:41] So another application of putting on the new man Is if you're a thief, If you've stolen, Used your hands to steal, That's the old man. That's him trying to do what he wants.
[9:52] Get what he wants. And have no regard for what's right or wrong. And the teaching is put him off. If you're a thief, Then steal no more. But rather, Those hands are not made to take, But rather to give.
[10:06] And so look in verse 28, He says, Working with his hands the thing which is good. Why? That he may give. That he may give to him that need it. And so the old man's a taker. And the new man's a giver.
[10:17] And that's a truth That here is just being applied directly to stealing. To taking things that don't belong to you. But it's a principle that goes far beyond that.
[10:27] The old man's a taker. The new man's a giver. And in that new man is a spirit that has a different heart. And he'll give. And he'll, In the Proverbs, He'll give liberally.
[10:39] And it'll return unto him. So let him that stole steal no more. There's another great application Of how to, Everyday life, Of how not to sin, But how to do what's right.
[10:50] You remember that you're created unto good works. In Christ Jesus. Stealing is not a good work. And so when you take something, Or that's true, Whether it's physically hiding it in your pocket.
[11:02] Like, Like Samuel tells me every time he works at Vons. He tells me of somebody who goes in and steals and walks out. And nothing happens to him. By the cart full sometimes. Whether it's physically stealing, Or it's something that's, Not, More of an abstract.
[11:20] Time. At work. Or, There's another application I'm thinking of, I won't really talk about. But, Things that are, Can be taken.
[11:33] And the thing is, You're supposed to work with your hands a thing which is good. God created those hands for good works. We're to maintain good works. And we read that in Titus the other week as well.
[11:44] Moving on to verse 29. Another application. Another application of taking, Putting off the old man. And notice this is negative first. Would you notice that? Let no corrupt communication.
[11:56] Verse 28 talked about him that stole. It was putting away lying. It deals, And the anger. It deals with the negatives first. Your Bible will put the negative out in front of you and say, Don't do this.
[12:10] And then come behind and say, Okay, now let's fill it with this. And the man, The mentality, The philosophy of man is completely backwards. It always is.
[12:21] Man says, Just promote positive behavior. Reinforce positive things. And the children won't do the bad things. We just put the positive in front of you all the time.
[12:32] And you're going to gravitate toward that. Is that true at all? No. Does God know what he's doing? Yes. The word of God puts the negative and says, You don't.
[12:43] When God comes, Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments, Were they all things like saying, You should do good. You should help each other.
[12:55] None of that. It was, Thou shalt not. Over and over and over and over again. Man needs to know the parameters. He needs to know what's wrong and what's right.
[13:06] You start with what's wrong. You tell them what they don't do. Negative first. That's the biblical way. That's God's way. It's the right way. And then it follows by saying, Then this is what you should do.
[13:18] Once you understand what's wrong and where the line is, Then you can instruct in righteousness. Verse 29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Old man, put that off.
[13:31] But that which is good, new man, To the use of edifying, That it may minister grace unto the hearers. There's a very heavily violated command.
[13:44] It is a command in verse 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. We're saved. We've been saved for a long time. We live and work in the world. And we're around it all the time.
[13:55] So we let a little corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths. But we're not going to be really bad. And it's okay to just let a little out. For some reason, that seems like it's okay.
[14:07] Look at chapter 5. He rails on this a little harder with your speech. Chapter 5, verse 4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, Which are not convenient, But rather giving of thanks.
[14:21] Those are the things that come out of your mouth. In verse 29, it was something that's going to be good. What should come out of your mouth is something that's going to be able to use it to edify, To help, to strengthen and reinforce truth.
[14:35] To minister grace unto the hearers. Look at Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4 on your speech. Colossians chapter 4.
[14:53] The command is let no corrupt communication. You know how I know that's the old man? Because in chapter 4 and verse 22, The old man is corrupt, According to the deceitful lusts.
[15:05] That's the old man. He's corrupt. And so when he gets to have his way, Corrupt communication proceeds out. But in Colossians chapter 4, Take a look at verse number 6.
[15:17] Let your speech be always with grace. Always. Seasoned with salt. That you may know how you ought to answer every man. No corrupt communication.
[15:31] God doesn't allow it. You may allow it a little bit. You may stretch the line. And how do you know where the line is? And what's off limits? And what's out of balance?
[15:44] I would say that your conscience will indicate pretty quickly, Interiorly, In your mind, The spirit of God inside will just prick you right away.
[15:55] And if you tell it, It's okay. Because the company I keep, They don't mind it. And it's not harming me. And I'm not. And if you allow it, You allow it. You allow it. And the conscience will start to get quieter and quieter and quieter.
[16:09] And the Lord won't deal with you about that anymore. And before you know it, And I know this because I've done this. I've been around people that had some filthy mouths, And then some middle of the road.
[16:21] And I just decided I could lean that way a little bit. It's not so bad. Until I got a little slap in the mouth from the Lord about it, From them.
[16:32] And I realized, I'm starting to fit in with this corrupt crowd, With the way they speak. And I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to be a light. I'm supposed to shine in front of them.
[16:43] Not be dark like them. And God rebuked me for that. And this is a verse of scripture that it's, I try. To not let corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth.
[16:54] I have a friend. And he's a, I won't tell you much about him, But he's a good guy. He really is. Better than me in a lot of ways. But whenever I'm around him, He always pushes the line.
[17:09] With jokes. With things that just, I think, I'm not, I would never say that. I try not to. I feel like I need to stay kind of more down the middle. And he pushes it all the time.
[17:20] And sometimes I feel a little convicted. Like, I don't think it's right for me. I don't think it's right for him either. But, I'm not his God. But one thing I know is, When I hear it, It kind of, It burns a little.
[17:32] It makes me say, No. That's not right. That's not for me. And so, I'll stick with what the Lord deals with my heart about here. And I trust you will too. That let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
[17:44] What happens when it does proceed out of your mouth? Well, Make it right. Make it right. Right away. If possible. Verse 29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, But that which is good to the use of edifying, That may minister grace unto the hearers.
[18:01] Another application follows. Verse 30, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, Whereby ye are sealed into the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, And wrath, And anger, And clamor, And evil speaking, Be put away.
[18:15] Put away. The old man. Put off the old man. Be put away from you, With all malice. So there's the negative first. All of these are works of the flesh.
[18:26] And, Then put on the new man. Verse 32, And be ye kind one. To another. Tender hearted. Forgiving one another. Even as God, For Christ's sake, Hath forgiven you.
[18:38] Now there's some heavy, Some beautiful dynamite doctrine in this passage. But the practical teaching of this old man, New man, Is pretty, I think pretty clear. There's certain works of the flesh, And they're to be put away.
[18:52] They're to be put away. You don't get to entertain them, And say, Well, It's just, It's okay, Because they did that to me. You're going to stand before, The throne of a holy God, And justify yourself, When he told you, This is what's wrong, This is what's right, And you're going to say, But they, They said that, They did that, They kept pushing me.
[19:12] You're not going to get away with it with God. You're going to have to go to the Bible, And you're going to have to reason with him, And determine, Are you submitting to the word of God, In all matters, In all points, Or are you allowing yourself some leeway, Because of the circumstance, And I'm not trying to be hard on anybody here, I'm just putting it out there, That we're all in this together, And we all have a carnal nature, Who is ungodly, And is corrupt, And it's our job, To follow the scriptures, And put them off, At every turn, Put them off, Put them off, And bring in, That righteousness, That God's created us in, Remember that in verse 24, Righteousness, And true holiness, That's the, That's the new man in you, So whether it's your speech, Or whether it's your, What do you want to call that verse 31, Your attitude, Or your emotions, The wrath, The anger, The clamor, The evil speaking, The malice, Bitterness, Put it away, And in turn,
[20:14] Be kind, Be forgiving, Be tender hearted, Now the doctrine in here, Number one, Is from verse 30, That it says, The Holy Spirit of God, Whereby ye are sealed, Unto the day of redemption, Thank God for that, The word of God teaches, That if we're saved, That we are sealed, By God's spirit, Until a day, A future day, Now come back to chapter 2, We saw this in chapter 2, It's worded a little bit differently, Look at chapter 2, Verse 13 and 14, And this is you trusting in Christ, And being sealed, Verse 13, In whom ye also trusted, After that ye heard the word of truth, The gospel of your salvation, In whom also after that ye believed, Ye were sealed, With that Holy Spirit of promise, What's the promise?
[21:06] Which is the earnest of our inheritance, Until the redemption of the purchased possession, Under the praise of his glory, God promises, And the promise is, There's a token of the promise, That he is going to keep you, For eternity, As his own, And that he's going to give, There's the promise, He's going to give to you, This body of flesh, That's standing here, This dirt ball of sin and flesh, He is going to take that soul, And fit it into a new body, A body that's eternal, A body that's glorified, A body that he calls redeemed, And in that, He calls that the adoption of sons, He's going to adopt you, As his son, Be conformed to the image of his son, Romans chapter 8, And the promise is, I'm going to give you my spirit, Until I make that good, And so inside your body, Is the spirit, The Holy Spirit of God, Residing in this body of flesh,
[22:08] Until, The redemption, The redemption of the purchased possession, Until your body is redeemed, And glorified like his, Now in Ephesians chapter 4, He said you're sealed, Until the day of redemption, So it's not some process, That you work into, There's a future day, And if we ran the references, This day is referred to as, The day of Christ, It's got a few different terms, As a matter of fact, But we call it the rapture, And we pull that from, From the thought of what it is, As a catching up, And that's what the word rapture means, And so when, First Corinthians 4, First Thessalonians 4, Describes us being caught away, But first Corinthians 15, Describes us being changed, In a moment, In the twinkling of an eye, That body gets changed, We receive an incorruptible body, The one that God pledged, That he would give us, And so, We're not to grieve the Holy Spirit,
[23:09] He's in us, With all these works of the flesh, This Holy Spirit, Is whereby we are sealed, Unto the day of redemption, Now, It's very important, That you know this, I believe, That you understand, This future day, The word day, Underline it, Put it in your mind, In your heart, Memorize it, Understand, You're not sealed, Until you sin, And you're not sealed, Until you turn your back on God, Or until you get, So far from the Lord, That you say, I just don't know, If I believe anymore, It doesn't matter, If you believe or not, Look at, Well, Don't look at it, We'll not get anywhere today, 2 Timothy chapter, Sorry, 2, If we believe not, He abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself, Yeah, 2 Timothy 2 verse 13, You worry about somebody, Who stops believing, There it is, You're sealed, The sealing has taken place, God did the sealing, And I showed you that,
[24:10] When we came across this, Back in chapter 2, Back in 1 Corinthians, So there's some doctrine, In verse 30, To tack on, And to know, And to just, Plug in your mind, That you're sealed, By God, It's eternal, This little, Once saved, Always saved, Little catch phrase, It's real, It's not a Bible phrase, But it's real, It's eternal security, It's a sealing, Until a future day, When Christ returns, And my body's changed, If I could lose that seal, Then God's not very strong, If I could lose my salvation, Then it wasn't a free gift, Of eternal life, Eternal life, It was only temporary, And I'm not going to charge God, With any folly, Or lie, I'm just going to believe his book, And so regardless of myself, And my sin, And my position, And my faithfulness, And my devotion, In regards of any of that, I have been sealed by God, By receiving his son, The gospel of my salvation,
[25:11] And when I received that, When I believed, In whom also after that ye believed, Ye were sealed, With that Holy Spirit of promise, The promise is still good, So there's more doctrine, The final verse here says, Be kind one to another, Tender hearted, Forgiving one another, Even as God, For Christ's sake, Hath forgiven you, And if you don't have those three words, For Christ's sake, And you don't understand that, Then what you're going to be tempted to do, Is just to do what men do, And apply their salvation, Or their security, To their life, To their dedication, To their Christian life, And when they sin, Now they're not so sure they're saved, God didn't forgive you, Because you meant it, God didn't forgive you, Of all your sins, Because you deserved it, Or because you repented, Of all of them, God forgave you, Of your sins, According to the Bible, For Christ's sake, You don't deserve, To have your sins forgiven, No little prayer to God,
[26:13] For forgiveness, Deserves the forgiveness, No, No, I'm giving you everything, Deserves your forgiveness, Of all of your sins, Go ahead, And try your best, You're not even going to come close, To what you deserve, God's not going to forgive you, Just because you mean it, He'll forgive you, For one reason, For one person's sake, His son, The righteousness of his son, The holy son of God, That bled and died, For your sin, That took the wrath, That drank the cup, That suffered for sins, He'll forgive you for his sake, God, I'm a sinner, And I want your forgiveness, If there's no Jesus Christ, In the picture, You don't get my forgiveness, You don't deserve it, But I'm calling on you, Please, You're calling on me today, But you weren't yesterday, And in two weeks from now, You'll be right back in your filth, God's not going to give you, His forgiveness, But then there's Jesus Christ,
[27:14] And the Lord Jesus Christ, Stands in as our advocate, The Lord Jesus Christ says, I bled and I died for that one, And for that one, And for that one, And if you'll take Jesus Christ, As your savior, That's the one, That's where you get in, On eternal life, That's where you get in, On the forgiveness, Now, There's the doctrine, That God's forgiven you, Past tense, Hath forgiven you, That's a state, That is, Or that's a standing, In Jesus Christ, You have a position, Of forgiven, Look at Colossians chapter 2, Here's another, Bible doctrine, We need to get, And believe, Is that the forgiveness, Of your sins, Today, And tomorrow, Is not dependent, Upon your performance, For Jesus Christ, Or your faithfulness, To him, When the blood, Is applied to your soul, It washes you,
[28:15] Paul says, Ye are washed, Ye are justified, But ye are sanctified, And that's a position, You have, Verse number, 13 says, You being dead, In your sins, And the uncircumcision, Of your flesh, Hath he quickened, Together with him, Having forgiven you, All, Trespasses, All of them, Well that's just, The bad ones, No all of them, That's just the ones, That I did when I was little, No, All of them, What about the future, What about the future, Do you really think, That a future sin, Can affect your salvation, When this salvation, Covers everything, From the past, Think God could wash away, 40 years of sins, But not cover the next week, Where do you, Where do we get this idea, That well, Now that I'm saved, From here forward, I have to do these things, Well it's just, Just carnality, It's just the mind of man, Trying to add something, Trying to rationalize,
[29:16] What, It makes sense, To think that way, But it's not scriptural, And stop thinking, Start reading, And believing, What the word of God says, Christ hath forgiven you, And he's forgiven you, All trespasses, And in him, You are complete, Colossians 2, Look at verse 9, If you didn't turn away, You're complete in him, Not most of the way, You just finish it up for him, This is something, You need to understand, And believe, Your sins are forgiven, They're taken away, Alright, So there's doctrine, In this passage, In Ephesians 4, There's eternal security, That is we're sealed, Into the day of redemption, You can't lose it, There's forgiveness, And it's for Christ's sake, You can't, Get around that, If you have Jesus Christ, You're good, You're done, And there was something else, So, Oh, Yeah, Here's a good, Let me find this, Come back to Matthew 6, And this is a great point,
[30:19] I think we covered this in Matthew, As a matter of fact, But let's, Let's hit it again, In case you weren't here, Matthew chapter 6, This is a good point here to make, To show right, Right division in the Bible, Rightly dividing the word of truth, When you don't understand that concept, Here's a good example, To help you get it, What Jesus Christ taught, Back when he walked the earth, With his disciples, Was different, Than what the apostle Paul, Is teaching to believers in Christ today, Does that mean that Jesus is wrong?
[30:52] No, Does that mean Paul's wrong? No, It means we need to make a division, And decide, Which side of this do we follow? So Matthew chapter 6, And this is the famous, Lord's prayer, As they call it, In verses 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, So, Just notice this part of this prayer, Verse 12, Jesus teaching his disciples to pray, Verse 12, And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors, He's praying to God, Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors, He's not talking about money, Because you don't, God doesn't forgive you, Money that you owe him, It's your wrong doing, Your trespasses, Verse 14, Here it is explained, And this is interesting, After this Lord's prayer, He only explains, Verse 12, Verse 14 and 15, For if we forgive men, Their trespasses, Your heavenly father, Will also forgive you,
[31:52] But, If ye forgive not men, Their trespasses, Neither will your father, Forgive your trespasses, Have you ever heard somebody, Preach that, And try to put that on you, That if you're not forgiving, And if you're bitter, God's not for hearing you, He's not forgiving you, That's bad doctrine, Bad teaching for today, This is a prayer, For the Jewish disciples of Christ, Before any reference, To Calvary has ever been made, They have no concept, Of any of this, And what does Paul say about it, He says, Be ye kind, One to another, Tender hearted, Forgiving one another, Why?
[32:35] Even as God, For Christ's sake, Hath forgiven you, So let's compare the two, The one says, Forgive, In order to be forgiven, If you forgive men, Their trespasses, Your father will forgive you, If you don't, He won't, So in order to get God, To forgive you, You have to forgive everybody, Down here, That's the one teaching, From Matthew 6, The other teaching says, Forgive, Because you are forgiven, By God, There's a difference in that, You consider your sin, Against God, And it stacks up so high, And then my brother, Or my sister, Sinned against me, Compare the two, I have no business, Holding any grudge, Against them, When God forgave me, All of my sin, And so the teaching is, You forgive, Because you're forgiven, That's why believers, Should be able to forgive, And be tender hearted, One to another, And put away the clamor, And the wrath, And the anger, Because we've been forgiven, By God, He put away his anger,
[33:35] Toward our sin, Because of Jesus Christ, So we forgive one another, Because Christ hath forgiven us, That's a, That's a division in your Bible, And you don't need to go to Matthew 6, And you need to try to apply that, To people today, Alright, Let's move forward a little bit, Into chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, And there's a therefore, In verse 1, Which connects back, To the previous line of thinking, In verse 1, Says be ye therefore, Followers of God, Not imitators, Like some of the new Bibles say, It says followers, Of God, As dear children, And walk in love, As Christ also hath, Loved us, And hath given himself, For us an offering, And a sacrifice to God, For a sweet smelling savor, So we've been called, To follow God, As dear children,
[34:35] How do children follow, Well look at chapter 6, In verse 1, Here's a good example, They submit, And they obey, Children, Obey your parents, In the Lord, For this is right, Honor thy father and mother, And so forth, What's a child do, Does he obey, Does he obey, If it makes sense to him, Does he obey, If you're going to reward me, No, He's just told, Just obey, That's it, And the verse, That we started with, In chapter 5, Be followers of God, As dear children, You obey, You submit to what he says, You don't ask questions, His way is right, That takes faith, Just like a child, Has in their parents, It takes faith, You believe, They're telling you the truth, That their way is right, That they know, What they're talking about, And then you get a little older, And you start to think, They don't know, What they're talking about, Sadly, And the trick's on you, Chapter 5, Verse 1, Be therefore followers of God, As dear children,
[35:36] And walk in love, That's the word he uses, Doesn't say mercy, Doesn't say grace, He says love, Doesn't say peace, Doesn't say light, Walk in love, Walk in love, What kind of love, Well, Here's the example, As Christ, Also hath loved us, How did he do that, And hath given himself, For an offering, And a sacrifice to God, So that's, That's sacrificial love, Through and through, Walk in love, Christ humbled himself, And became obedient unto death, Even the death of the Christ, That's sacrificial love, That's walking in love, Humble, Sacrificing, Giving of themselves, Walk in love, It's not selfish, It's not puffed up, It's not me first, It's not you follow me, It's, Giving, Giving, Giving, Humble, Down, Lowly, Be followers of God,
[36:37] As dear children, And walk in love, As Christ also hath loved us, And hath given himself for us, As an offering, And a sacrifice to God, For a sweet smelling savor, And so as I said earlier, God accepts his son, God accepts the sacrifice, Of his son, I have to stop there, There's a point I want to make, About the soul here, Being the real you, That he has given himself, For us an offering, The bible says, That he made his soul, An offering for sin, And for Isaiah 53, And so maybe we'll pick that up, Next week, We're about out of time, For the sunny school hour, So more practical teaching, From Ephesians, As we've turned from this, Kind of futuristic doctrine, For the body of Christ, In the beginning, And now it turns into, Just your everyday walk, And putting off, And putting on, Forgiveness, And a, A graceful spirit, And walking in love, And whatever you do, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit,
[37:37] Of God, So we'll pick it up there, Next week, Lord willing, And in chapter number five, Let's take a break.