What shall I wear? Sanctification

[0:00] I'm going to put a question to you and to illustrate this truth, I'm going to do it in a somewhat lighthearted way, but that's not to negate the solemn and serious nature of this subject.

[0:13] ! Because this question is actually a serious question. This is the question, what shall I wear?

[0:25] What shall I wear? It's an important question. We get up every morning and we decide what we will wear and we put on some clothes.

[0:36] Now, I did happen to see someone recently walking in the shops, actually these local shops, and she still had her pyjamas on.

[0:48] Maybe she didn't quite get the concept that when you get up, you do actually put clothes on. But normally, we do have a set of clothes we put on as we start the new day.

[1:00] Now, I'm going to illustrate a concept here of a Bible truth. The Bible tells us about how we wear. We put on a kind of clothing.

[1:14] Now, I had kind of hopes that we'd have a mannequin or something to clothe here. It's actually talking about the kind of man that we are. In the case of a woman, the kind of woman that you are.

[1:25] But it shows how we are living. How we are to live. So, this morning, we covered off on the topic of how can we be converted.

[1:36] We looked at God's work of salvation. That's the starting point. That is what happens when we are converted. We are born again. We're made brand new.

[1:47] And the point is, of salvation, God does not do some kind of patch-up job. We do not need reformation. We need regeneration.

[1:59] Amen? God doesn't kind of patch us up and put us back out there again. He actually totally rebuilds us. He regenerates us.

[2:10] He makes us a new person. Because really, let's face it, sin has destroyed God's image that he wants for us. We need repair.

[2:21] Actually, we're beyond repair. We need a total rebuild. You know, you get that with a vehicle sometimes, don't you? They've got to tear it back to the bare bones and rebuild it again.

[2:31] And really, in a way, we must have a total extreme makeover. That's salvation, really, isn't it? In fact, you have to die and to be raised anew. To be raised up to new life.

[2:42] There has to be a putting to death and a coming alive again. And this work of salvation, it's renewal. It's one. And what we're talking about tonight is also, it follows on from salvation, is the Bible concept of sanctification.

[3:00] Sanctification. Sanctification means, in other words, personal holiness. This is what we're talking about today. And just get that showing there.

[3:14] Yeah. It's about a new life. That is really salvation. That we leave the old life, we have the new life.

[3:26] We're born again. And it follows on the other Bible truth of sanctification, which is personal holiness. And this is one of the greatest things that has happened and is happening to the believer in Christ, to every believer.

[3:44] It begins at the moment of conversion, that we are declared holy, made holy. We're declared saints. I'm not waiting for the Pope to call me a saint, because the Lord Jesus has made me a saint.

[3:58] And you that believe are saints of God. Save people. And the word saint, it means holy one. So there's a sense where you're made holy at conversion.

[4:11] Then there's the follow-on of a progressive, continuous work of sanctification, of a setting apart and a setting unto God. A setting apart from sin and a setting apart unto God.

[4:25] And we read of this work of God here in Ephesians 4. You've got your Bibles here. Ephesians 4 and from verse 22. And I'm underlining some words here that will put the message across tonight, what I'm endeavouring to communicate here.

[4:50] Ephesians 4.22, it says this, that you put off concerning the former conversation or way of life, the former conduct, the former behaviour.

[5:01] Put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lust. It's saying there there's a putting off, a getting rid of some stuff.

[5:13] And then it goes on to tell of renewal. It says this in verse 23 and 24, it says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on.

[5:24] So there's a putting off. And it goes on to say there's a putting on of the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Note again, it says of a getting rid, a putting off, a putting away.

[5:37] The same word is putting off in the next verse, verse 25, where it says, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.

[5:55] Just repeat those verses again. Put off the old conversation, the old way of living, the old man, which is corrupt, according to deceitful lust. Put on the new man, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, and put away, put off, same word, put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.

[6:28] This casting off is a command for us, a putting off, a casting off, or putting away, same word underlying these various translated words.

[6:41] This same word is used here of the stoning of Stephen. And we know when Stephen was stoned, they had a group of men who threw the stones to kill Stephen, and it says that they laid down their clothes at Saul's feet.

[6:58] That is Acts 7, 58. As they cast him, Stephen, out of the city, and they stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet.

[7:10] His name was Saul. You can imagine, okay, we're going to stone this man, we're going to kill him, we're going to pick up these stones. Maybe it was the heat of the day. Okay, I'm going to pull my sleeves up.

[7:24] Here you go, Saul, look after my coat. They were ready to kill Stephen. A sense of the casting of the way. That they had on, their clothes, they cast them away.

[7:40] And it's also used here, the same word where it says, put off or put away, lay down. It's the same word here in Hebrews chapter 12. And it tells us of that running race, of the Christian race, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

[7:56] And the writer of Hebrews says this, wherefore we're surrounded, we're compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. You know, we're in this kind of amphitheater kind of context.

[8:08] There's all these people around us as we're running this race. And he says, lay aside. Lay aside. Get rid of it again. Lay it aside. Lay aside every way. We're ready to run.

[8:20] You know, on your marks. Get set. Go. We don't want anything to weigh us down. Lay aside every way. Jack is going to get a bit crumpled after this message.

[8:35] I probably should leave it off. Let us lay aside every way. The point I'm making here, I'm not meaning to make light of this, but there's a sense there's some things to get rid of, right? Some things to get rid of.

[8:45] If you want to run a race with perseverance, with patience, that is set before us, the sense of I'm through with this. I don't want to wear this heavy extra clothing.

[8:56] I want to strip down to be ready to run this race and to run it well. And so I don't need any extra encumbrance to slow me down. You see these athletes where, you know, they wear the minimum of necessary clothing to run that race with perseverance.

[9:22] On the racetrack, we say, I don't want to be encumbered with this. I'm going to lay this down. I won't wear this. It's also used in James where it says this same word is used again.

[9:33] It tells us this in James 1.21. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. And what that means is a superabundance of evil.

[9:43] You could put it that way. It's the sense of filthiness, of this overflowing evil, this badness, this naughtiness. And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

[9:56] So God, again, is saying it here. He's saying lay it apart. He's saying lay it aside. Put it off. And the same thing here we see of, as Peter writes, same kind of sentiment here in 1 Peter 2 verse 1.

[10:11] It says this. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile. Malice talks of anger. Guile talks of deceitfulness, of lying, of being untruthful.

[10:22] Lay aside all hypocrisies, all envies, all evil speakings. So notice there's a whole lot of stuff to get rid of here. Now, I must confess I've got a problem in that I do like to hoard things.

[10:36] You know, I've got things to do with jobs I had 30 years ago that I just don't know. The certificates and courses I've done and training I've done and books I've bought to do with my job that I'm never going to read again or use again.

[10:50] But it's just got some kind of, there's a sentimental kind of attraction to it. And I've got boxes and boxes of these things at home. And so I've got a problem of hoarding things, not throwing things away.

[11:01] But there are some things, and there's some things here that we read off. There's some things that we definitely need to throw out. They're not good for us. There's things in our lives that are not good for us.

[11:12] Can you agree with that? The Lord Jesus makes us brand new men and women. And when we get saved, he gives us a new way of thinking. He gives us a new tongue, a new heart.

[11:24] He gives us new appetites, new aspirations, new motivations. And I believe when a man gets saved, when a woman gets saved, that he gives us a will to get rid of some things.

[11:36] Some things we know it's displeasing to God. And we had a wonderful testimony from our sister on Thursday night, saying how God helped her to drop some things. You know, sometimes things hang on to us.

[11:48] It takes a while for them to drop off. Habits, you know, appetites and desires that are not good for us. Sometimes, as a Christian, we still have trouble with that.

[12:00] It doesn't negate that we're a Christian. It's just the things we've got to get rid of. That's sanctification or personal holiness. And so notice here that it talks about, if you like, two kinds of garments.

[12:12] Two kinds of garments. So now to illustrate this, I'm going to use some sort of an object lesson here to try to put this to you. That really there is the old man and there is the new man.

[12:27] And they are like two garments. Two sets of clothes that we can wear. And really it's like there's two different worlds here. Worlds that are poles apart.

[12:40] That we can live in. And as a Christian too. We still live in a sinful world. And there's still sinful things that can hang on to us. And we've got to... God helping us get rid of those things.

[12:51] So there is an old man and there is a new man. And these two men are different. Really they're opposites. They're contrary to one another. And so we see this, for example, in Galatians 5 verse 17.

[13:04] Where it says, For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other. So that you cannot do the things that you would.

[13:17] There's the carnal mind. And where the flesh is in control of this man. And the mind is inclined to set itself to evil.

[13:28] And we see Galatians 5 verse 16. It says, Walk not. Walk in the spirit. And you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

[13:39] So there's this kind of fighting, this contrariness, this contradiction, this opposition of flesh and spirit. God's saying, Walk in the spirit. You shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

[13:52] Friends, the old man must die. That's what it comes down to. It's actually not good for us when the old man, the old flesh, as in the old person that we were before we were saved, when he keeps showing up.

[14:08] And it's almost like when you go somewhere and you're in some group and you think someone shows up that you really don't really want there.

[14:19] Someone at your gathering and you think, Oh, this face shows up that you weren't expecting. Who invited him here? Now, I've got to confess, I'm embarrassed when the old Andrew Craig shows up.

[14:34] I really don't like that guy. He's not a nice man. I don't like him at all. And I don't want to hang around him. You don't want to know him.

[14:46] He has to die. Friends, doesn't he? The old Andrew Craig has to die. And we could say that of ourselves. The old man has to die.

[14:59] And that's true for all of us. We're really honest tonight. Now, in ancient Rome, there was this custom where they forced the murderer to wear the corpse of his victim. If you killed someone and they caught you, they'd hang the victim around your neck.

[15:16] Tie him to you with ropes. And as he, the body of the carcass of this man that you killed, starts to decay and the flies come and it starts to rot and stink, the death that the murderer was tied to ate away at him and drained him of his life.

[15:39] Friends, the old man must die. He's like that. That's what the old man is. He should die and we shouldn't want him to hang around. We don't want to hang around him. We must consciously put him to the death.

[15:51] And that's what it says here in, again, a like scripture is Colossians 3, verse 5, where it says, we should mortify. Now, the word mortify, you know, the man who looks after you when you're in the funeral parlor, when the hospital's finished with you, the hospital morgue has finished with you, they send you to the mortician.

[16:16] He deals in death. And this mort means death. And so it's saying here, put yourself to death. Put your members to death that are upon the earth.

[16:27] And it goes on and gives us a whole big long list here. And it says fornication, uncleanness. And it reads further, inordinate affection, which means lust.

[16:38] Evil conspicience, which means evil desires. Poverousness, which means greed. Which is idolatry. And so the Bible gives us these big long lists on occasion of such things as this.

[16:50] The Bible tells us that we can have a new mind. But it's saying we've got to get rid of some of this stuff here. What does it say? It says put it to death. Mortify.

[17:02] Mortify. Put it to death. Put it to death. Put to death fornication. Put to death uncleanness. Put to death inordinate lust, affections, inordinate desires, covetousness.

[17:17] They have to be killed. And it's telling you and me, friends, as a Christian, we need to kind of grasp this concept. Yeah, I'm saved. But there's this sense where the old man is still.

[17:29] And every so often he pops up his ugly head and he shows up and thinks, oh, who invited him here? I thought he was gone. He shows up in the sense that you might be living your life and suddenly that old nature, that evil, that sinful nature, that does the wrong and doesn't do the right, that you've got to battle that man.

[17:54] And the Bible says put him off, sling him off, sling off the old and put on the new. So you can picture it as you would a change of your garment. So to demonstrate this, I've got some items here.

[18:06] And we've been talking about the old man and to put off the old man.

[18:17] And it's got a sense of remove it like you would some clothing, right? And so we've seen here some of the things that we've talked about. I've got the wrong one.

[18:29] Some of the things we've talked about tonight. See, this old man, this old clothing that we're clothed with, the old man is corrupt, deceitful lust.

[18:43] This old man has got lying. This old man has got every weight and the sin that does so easily beset. There's more.

[18:53] All filthiness, superabundance of evil, all malice, all guile, hypocrisies, envies, all evil speaking, lust of the flesh, fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil desires, greediness, the works of the darkness.

[19:15] Some of these we'll get to actually. Rioting, drunkenness, immorality, sensuality, strife, envying, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying to another.

[19:34] And actually, this garment is actually pretty gross. Because you can smell it from there, yeah. I've tried washing it, but I just can't get it clean.

[19:48] No, there's a sense of all our righteousnesses. It's filthy. This is filthy. Why would you want to put it on? Friends, as a Christian, why would you want to wear such a garment?

[20:03] It's filthy. Oh. Filthiness of our righteousness, as filthy rags. And, of course, the sense of that is the grossest thing you could think of.

[20:15] Really, it's just gross. Grosses you out, doesn't it? So that's something. What should we do with it? Put it off. Lay it aside.

[20:27] Friends, sometimes what trouble is we... Oh. I'm so familiar with this. You know, I'm so familiar with this. It's what I'm used to.

[20:38] It's just me. It's just how I am. It's what I like, you know. It feels good. Do it. No. God says don't. If you hear the Spirit, it says put it off.

[20:52] Cast it off. Ask God to help you to get rid of it. In contrast, put on. Put on the new man.

[21:04] Here's some good things to put on. Amen. Amen. I'm not saying put on as in pretend, but put on as in a garment, right? We say put on that we should be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

[21:16] That's a good thing, isn't it? Don't you want that? Created in righteousness. That's a good thing. Created in true holiness. Speaking the truth.

[21:29] People can actually believe what you say. You're honest. You receive with meekness the engrafted word. Oh, doesn't that do you good?

[21:40] Receive that word. Engrafted. Implanted. Walk in the Spirit. Don't you want to know the Holy Spirit? And walk in his ways of truth and life.

[21:52] The armour of light. Oh, yes. I want to have that, don't you? The armour of light. To be a soldier of Christ. To walk honestly. He goes on.

[22:02] To be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. That tops it off, doesn't it? To be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. Power from on high. We'll talk about that a bit later.

[22:13] Humbleness of mind. Meekness. Long-suffering. Forbearing. Don't you want to be a forbearing person? That's something, that's a blessed gift, isn't it? To be forbearing, especially with some people.

[22:27] Forgiving. Isn't that a good thing? Forgiving. Charity. To have love. God's love. God's kind of love. To be renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him.

[22:42] Have a heart of compassion and kindness. To be partakers of the divine nature. Have righteousness. Faith. Peace.

[22:54] And fellowship. Don't miss that too. Because fellowship is part of the new man. That we want to be with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The Bible says to put that on, to have that.

[23:06] The Bible says watch and pray. To be prayerful. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For God to work in you both to will and to do.

[23:16] His good pleasure. Friends, these are things you want to put on and keep on. Don't you? Don't you want that? Don't you want the new man? I'm going to look a bit odd now.

[23:30] But this is what we should want, isn't it? Friends, these are the things that we should want to have. It's saying here in Romans 13, 12. It's saying that the night is fast spent and the day is at hand.

[23:50] Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armour of light. I should have made this a really bright, brilliant coat to wear.

[24:02] Sling off that old man. Friends, I know I'm being a little bit, there's a bit of levity here, a bit of lightheartedness, but there's truth here. This is truth. I hope you remember this.

[24:15] To put on the new man. And it goes on as some of these verses, some of these qualities that we talked about before. On verse 13, Thruitt talks about, let us walk honestly as in the day.

[24:27] Not in rioting and drunkenness. Not in chambering, which means immorality. Not in wantonness, which means like sensuality. We're not led by our senses.

[24:38] We're led by the Spirit. Amen? Not in strife and envying. These are things of the old man. They're things to get rid of, brothers and sisters, in your sanctification, in your walk with God.

[24:50] And we see it reads on, further it says, but put ye on, as I say, this is the ultimate. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we say, all these references where it says put on, you could translate it, as it's elsewhere translated, be clothed with.

[25:09] This is the point. This is what I'm trying to demonstrate here. To be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the ultimate, isn't it? Elsewhere it reads, to be clothed with humility.

[25:20] What are you wearing? It's important. Very important. Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

[25:31] Now this is who the new man is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That he would so clothe you and fill you, overflow you. That it's Jesus in you. That's living out through you.

[25:43] And this new man that you are is born of the Spirit of God. Spirit controlled. It's the same word that's used as the promise that was given in Luke 24, of the promise of the Holy Spirit to come.

[25:57] As we read in Luke 24, from verse 49, it says, It's the same word again.

[26:16] Be clothed with. So, friends, the power that we need comes from heaven. It comes from on high. We're clothed with a power that's beyond our own natural power.

[26:28] Our own selfish man-made power. It must be the power from on high. In other words, the Holy Spirit power. And this theme is repeated again and again. As I say, we could labor it, you could check your concordance, and have a look at these words where it says, Put off, put on.

[26:45] Think about these things. It's a repeated theme. And as a Christian, there's some things, friends, there's things. Just think about this. There's some of this that I'm wearing. Is that me?

[26:57] You're a Christian. You're a saved man. You're a saved woman. But there's some things, Oh, yeah, I've got a bit of a problem with, I know someone told me this, they have a problem with, I don't think, they don't strike me as an angry person.

[27:10] But someone said to me, Yeah, I've got a problem with anger. Just press my buttons, and you'll see. Malice.

[27:22] You know, just hateful. People that just like to, Oh, did you see what she was wearing? What, did you see what he said? Do you see how they looked at me? You know, it's kind of this, Oh, I just want to pick on everybody around me.

[27:36] You know, picky people, you know, filthy communication. You shouldn't have said that one. Friends, we all have these things, don't we? The things that we've got to struggle against, the things we've got to put off.

[27:51] Put it off. That's the point here tonight. And rather, put on the good things that God wants for you to have. We see, verse 9, it goes on, lie not one to another.

[28:04] You've put off the old man with his deeds. Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him, that created him. Don't you want to be more like him?

[28:16] It'll be more like him. And the good news is, it's a continual thing.

[28:27] You might say, preacher, look, I know I've totally blown it. I just, I blow it every day. I just mess up badly. I'm just, foul up all the time. There's hope.

[28:38] Because it's saying this word here, which is renewed, it's a continual process. It's not like you suddenly arrive, and you've got it all together, and you just wear the good stuff, and never wear the bad stuff.

[28:50] There's a renewing. It's a sense of a renewal. It's a continual thing. And so, there's always hope for us, as believers, that we can continue to grow. God's gracious, isn't he?

[29:02] That he always gives us extra patience. He's long-suffering towards us. It says, verse 12 here of Colossians 3, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy.

[29:15] So, that's kind of deep, deep word there. It's too, and that, you know, if I could use the colloquial, your guts, you know, really, it's the very innards of you.

[29:28] God cares about you from the inside out, the very fibre, the very core of your being, and he wants that to be a heart of compassion. He wants mercies there. He wants mercies in your insides, to be merciful, to have kindness and humility, meekness and long-suffering.

[29:45] Again, as we talked about before, forbearing one another. Some people are put into your life to be sandpaper, aren't they? Just to be, oh, yes, God has given me grace.

[29:58] With that one again. The sense where you forbear with one another. You forgive one another. When you've got a quarrel, you forgive as Christ. And it says, put on charity, put on God's love, bond of perfectness.

[30:11] Now, please know, just tonight, as we kind of reflect on these things, we cannot reform the old man. As I said before, I've tried and tried.

[30:22] It just stinks. It just stinks. Filthy rags, even the best bits. The righteousness of this old man, it's filthy, it's rotten, vile. It cannot be renewed.

[30:35] The old man cannot be renewed. The old fleshly man has to die. He has to die. He has to be put to death. And so we have to cast off the old clothes.

[30:46] So, I know Julie likes to say to me, you're using all this kind of illustrative language, but not really explaining what you mean. So, I hope I'm not, I'm not missing the point here by trying to talk in these symbolic ways.

[30:58] But the sense that the old clothes have to be cast off. We have to be re-clothed. In other words, we have to know God's cleaning of us.

[31:10] We have to know God's righteousness. Our righteousnesses, all of them are as filthy rags. No washing of these things will help. They're stained, forever stained, deeply stained.

[31:24] You can't fix up these old rags. You might take them to the dry cleaner, to the seamstress. They're just beyond repair. You have to throw them out. And as much as you might cherish them, as much as, well, that, look, I'm always used to using that filthy communication.

[31:41] It just comes out. God can help you with that. God can help you get the victory with that. The uncleanness, you know, the lust of the flesh, the sensuality.

[31:57] Maybe it's, you feel like that's just so much a part of you that, oh, there's just no chance of me changing that. It's just who I am. God can do that work.

[32:08] He can help. He can work away. He can chip away. He can give you the victory. One step at a time, that continual working of God's spirit upon you. Don't try to repair the old man.

[32:21] Don't try to reform yourself by turning over a new leaf. Ask for God's great help. Ask for God's strength. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't even try to please God in the flesh.

[32:35] How do we get this new man, this new mind? We have to ask God to clean us through his word. He says that you are clean through the word that I've spoken unto you. We can be, as it says, partakers of the divine nature.

[32:50] And that's something amazing, isn't it? Really. That he would offer his divine nature to us. That he would extend his love such that we can be taking part in that which is of his very nature.

[33:07] And we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. Another thing is, fellowship is critical to help us to grow.

[33:18] It says to get rid of these things, the old things, the youthful lust. It says to follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace. And with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Fellowship matters.

[33:29] It's important. We should want to be with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Get amongst Christians who are fair dinkum. Get amongst Christians who love the Lord. Get amongst Christians who want to call upon him out of a pure heart.

[33:43] Who want to worship him. A right. And when we're amongst Christians, sometimes we actually can benefit from a bit of discourse, a bit of healthy kind of interchange, where the iron sharpens the iron.

[33:57] You know, there's a sense where we sharpen each other and we can strengthen each other spiritually. So I'm coming to wrapping up here. So consider this question again.

[34:09] What will you wear? What will you wear? Will it be the old man? Oh, nothing. I want to sit near you if you're wearing that.

[34:20] It's filthy. It's filthy rags. It's vile. It's the old fleshly, foul man. Or will it be the new man?

[34:32] The armour of light. Will it be that you're clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's just so filling you, that he's exuding through your pores of your skin, that that can be so real for you.

[34:43] And we see, there's many scriptures, and I didn't write this one down on the view here, but Galatians 5, we see this great contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.

[34:55] And you can read them for yourself there, but again, it's all of this stuff. It tells us all of this stuff again. I didn't write all of these down on this coat here. It says the works of the flesh.

[35:05] This is the works of the old man, right? They're manifest, adultery, fornication, uncleanness. Lasciviousness, which is, again, that immorality of idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.

[35:28] It's the old nature. It's the old man, right? And he says, this should be avoided. Then it says, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

[35:46] And it says this, it says, they that are Christ, have crucified the flesh, and the affections and lusts. Here's a really important point to note here, is, how do we get rid of the old man?

[36:00] Has to be crucified. Has to die. You know, got to get the nails out. That's what we have to do to him.

[36:15] The old Andrew Craig. Every time he shows his ugly face, we've got to get rid of him. We've got to kill him. We've got to not let sin reign in our mortal body. The old man must die.

[36:27] And friends, that's for all of us here tonight. Our Lord calls us to deny ourself, to crucify our flesh. Make holiness your lifelong pursuit. And knowing that it's continual, and it's progressive, and it's not until the ultimate day that you see his face, that you'll be really holy, as he is holy.

[36:49] But consecrate your will to the will of God. Say, actually, I don't want that old nature anymore. I don't want that old man anymore. The old ways anymore. God helping me, I'm going to get victory.

[36:59] I'm going to crucify, die daily, kill him daily, take up my cross daily, deny my flesh, myself daily, and ask for God's spirit to empower you, to fill you, to be endued, to be clothed with the Holy Spirit from on high.

[37:16] And he will enable you to have that Christian character as you yield to his spirit. So friends, godliness is something you can grow in. There is hope. You know, I'm not presenting to you something that's out of reach and not achievable.

[37:29] Of course, we know this side of heaven, I don't believe we can have it in absolute measure. But there's something to aspire to, to yearn for, to strive unto, to want to be godly, to aspire to be godly, to grow to be godly, to watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

[37:50] The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak. And I know there's some here that are telling me they're praying.

[38:01] And I thank God for that. We need people praying. I know there's people saying they're praying while I'm preaching. I thank God for that. I need that. We all need prayer. We all need to pray for one another. And so prayer is a key.

[38:13] Here's another key that one preacher of old said. This was Wesley. He said this. It's quite an interesting concept. If you can just consider this one.

[38:25] Now, Wesley described sanctification or personal holiness. He called this holiness, love excluding sin. So love expelling sin.

[38:36] So in other words, rather than dwelling on so much the removal of sin, to dwell on the positive infilling of God's love.

[38:46] The more and more we know of Jesus, the more and more Jesus has of us, the more and more Jesus fills us, the more and more we want him, we seek after him, we aspire to being like him, to being Christ-like.

[39:01] When his love fills us, then the other stuff will less attract us. The other stuff will drop away. And when love fills the heart, sin is thereby expelled.

[39:15] For sin is the opposite of God's love, isn't it? And so this is what Wesley said to quote, it is nothing higher and nothing lower than this, loving God with all the heart and soul, and our neighbour as ourselves.

[39:29] And the more we fall in love with our Lord Jesus, the more we love our Lord as our master and God, and great King, the more we love Jesus, then the less and less we'll love sin and want to do anything that would interrupt our love relationship with him.

[39:47] So friends, just to close in this last scripture here, Paul says this in Philippians, he says, And this sense of working out, it's got the sense of keep working on it.

[40:18] Keep working. Keep on working. God is keeping on working in you, and you're working out. Oh, sorry, the working out is our keeping working out. It's our working out, our living out.

[40:32] Not that we're saved by our works, but our salvation works. That's the point. God energises us, he empowers us to do his will. Not our own will, not the will of this old man here and all these foul things.

[40:48] We don't want them in our life. We don't want that. We don't want that. We want to kill this man. We don't want to kill him.

[40:58] We want to get the nails out. That's what we want to do with the old man. We want to cast him off, cast him away, put him off. We want to put on the new man.

[41:10] Put on the new man. Friends, this is the, I pray that you'll get this point here and think, how can I make this, you know, what's this preacher on about tonight? Just this, all of this carry on here tonight, but talking about putting on, putting on, and just again, just to, to reflect on these things.

[41:29] love, peace, prayer, righteousness, humility, meekness, love, compassion, walking in the spirit, receiving the word, wanting to be amongst those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, wanting to work out my salvation, wanting to be a partaker of the divine nature, wanting to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, wanting to speak the truth, that this will want, this is what we want.

[41:57] We want to be like this. We want to be like Jesus. We want to be more like him. We don't want to let go of this. We want to put it on. We want to wear it. We want to wear the armor of light.

[42:07] Keep on wearing it, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, the Bible says that he can energize us. He can empower us to do his will. And he can affect that in us.

[42:20] The question is, and this is a question we should daily reflect on, I put to you, what are you going to wear? Are you going to put the old man on?

[42:32] No. Try to see, try to recognize, yeah, that's the old nature. No, I don't do that anymore. No, I'm not, I don't want that anymore. And when we foul up, Lord, forgive me, I've gone back to the old way, and I pray, forgive me, take it away from me.

[42:49] I don't want that in my life anymore. Let me put on the new man, who's renewed in holiness, the new man, that's walking in righteousness, the new man, that's walking in the spirit.

[43:00] And every day of your life, you can make this conscious decision. Yes, that's what I want. I want to be like him. I want to make that conscious decision. So what are you going to wear?

[43:11] Choose wisely. Choose wisely. God will help you. This is not to condemn you. You might think, well, that's not achievable. God works in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.

[43:26] Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you that you enable such weak vessels as we, that we can know something of heaven, in our walk, in our life, in our heart, in our mind.

[43:38] Lord God, we thank you that we can put off, as it were, that clothing, that nature, that way of the old life, of sin, of flesh.

[43:51] And as we are born again, we can know that victory, day by day, as we walk, more like you want us to, Lord, to be clothed with your spirit, to be clothed with Lord Jesus Christ.

[44:04] Lord, pray, make that a reality in each heart and life, here today, that we will consciously make that consideration, what am I going to wear, and what am I not going to wear.

[44:18] And Lord, we pray, especially if there's any here present, yet to trust you, that really it starts with that new birth. We cannot reform our character, we have to be saved.

[44:29] Yet as saved men and women, we can know your enabling and empowerment, to walk in your truth. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' precious name.