Well, we turn then our attention to Ephesians 5 and verses 3 through 6. As we do so, I'm reminded of what Jude said in his epistle that he said, when I gave all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you to urge you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. And so he had a task he would gladly have set himself to of writing concerning the common salvation, but yet through necessity, there was something else that he needed to address. And that, he says, was through certain ungodly men crept in, ordained to condemnation, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. And so the shepherd needs to be faithful. And when the wolf approaches the flock, he needs to take up the rod and drive the wolf away. He needs to warn the sheep. And this is what the apostle Paul also is doing. If we lived in a vacuum and we had no spiritual enemies and we had no corruption within, then such things might not be necessary, but they are necessary. And the apostle discerned that there were some, as he says in verse six, there were some who were sounding out vain words that had a tendency to deceive his dear Ephesians. And so he writes in the way that he does. I can only say that these verses contain sharp words against sin, sharp words against both the detestableness and the danger of common sins. And I think sharp is an important adjective. The word of God does have a sharpness to it. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. And we need the sharpness of the word of God. And sadly to say, that's something that's missing mostly from the pulpit today. There's not this element of sharpness in the preaching of the word of God, in reproving sin and warning against it. And now by all means, may God save us from the pulpit descending into mere scolding. But nonetheless, we need to tell you today that God has sharp words that need to come home with forcefulness to your hearts and consciences about the detestableness and danger of sins of which the seeds are resident in your heart and which are all around you in the world. They're praised and approved of in the world. There are those in the church who are speaking vain words to try to tell you that these things are no big deal, that the wrath of God will not come for them, et cetera. So we need this word of God today. We want to consider firstly, sharp words about the detestableness of common sins. And secondly, sharp words about the danger of common sins. Those two headings. First of all, God tells us about the detestableness. of common sins. He, in our passage, he names certain common sins. The Apostle, as we read his words, we can tell that he's approaching this whole matter with a certain amount of holy reluctance. He says, verse 12, it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret and Truth be told, I think any preacher will say, you know, I'd rather, if I had the option, I'd rather not even have to speak to these things. However, after verse 12, he says, all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. So the light of the word shining like the sunbeam upon the dunghill, the beam of light itself is not defiled. There's nothing, ignoble about the light beam, although it does expose something that is shameful. And so there are, well, there's two sets of things that the Lord, he names, he calls sins by their names. And he gives us two trios of unclean things that he calls out here in his word. There's a first trio of things that God calls out in verse three. These are things that are not so much as to be named. And so God names the things that are not so much as to be named. That is, he gives them their proper names and names them with detestation. And they're not to be named otherwise than with detestation. What are the things that must not be named among saints? One of them is fornication. This is, it's a word that is, there's related words and the original verse three uses one of this group of words, which describes a certain action or behavior It can apply broadly to various acts of uncleanness, but especially it does apply to uncleanness between people who are married. And this is something that the world counts lightly of. But God tells us that it's not even to be named among saints. There is a word related here in verse three. He names the behavior or action, which is called fornication. And then there are related words, which refer to the person who lives in this sin. And so there's both a feminine and a masculine term. that refer to the person who lives in this sin of fornication. The feminine word that refers to the person who lives in this sin is not used in our passage, but that word denotes a whore. The masculine word that describes the person who lives in this sin is used in verse five, where it is translated whoremonger. From this, we need to understand that God calls sins by their names. We would rather not if left to ourselves, even speak of it. But we need to understand that what the world miscalls, God calls by its proper name. So we will commonly hear people of the world speaking lightly of this particular sin, but we need to think God's thoughts after him, and we need to understand For instance, that where a man is cohabiting with a woman he is not married to, he is using that woman as a whore. God says, fornication is not to be named among you. He says, next, all uncleanness. This still involves the same category as he forbids by the previous term. But now he also adds the word all. That denotes to us that there's a whole category of things. that are related to what I've just been speaking about, and all the things in this category are forbidden to be so much as named among saints. All the things that entertain this particular sin in the thoughts, all the things by way of temptation, or by way of tending unto this sin are all forbidden to us. Our Lord Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, you know that he addresses and he says, you've heard that it was said, thou shalt not commit adultery. I say to you, whosoever looketh on a woman to lust for her hath committed adultery with her in his heart. He goes on to say that if your right eye offends you, causes you to stumble, pluck it out. Your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. He speaks after he's addressed this area. Well, as he's addressing this area, he speaks about the eye and the hand. This indicates to us that unclean looking and unclean touching are forbidden, cut them off. This area, it's an indication to us of where we're at spiritually. If you are overrun by this kind of thing in your life or even in your thoughts, If this sin has dominion over your thoughts, it's calling the shots about what you think about and what you desire. You need to understand that you're yet in your sins. You need to repent and you need to come to God in Christ who receives such. He says to you in his gospel, that repentance and remission of sins to be preached to you in his name, remission of all kinds of sins, sins of deepest die, if you will repent. It's an indication also to the Christian of how he's doing spiritually. So take stock of yourself. Do unclean thoughts, are they increasing Are they more frequent than they used to be? Do you go through a day and there have been some unclean glances that you have allowed yourself in the course of that day? Well, you need to do business with the Lord about that. It's like the canary in the mine. If you're seeing uncleanness in your heart, in your look, Then the end of that day comes. You need to humble yourself before God. You need to confess that you've sinned against him. You need to cry to him for mercy. You need to not only now, I said it's like the canary in the mind. You need to not only confess, I committed this sin, forgive me and cleanse me, but you also need to think more broadly. If unclean thoughts and glances, if they've become more frequent, you need to ask, why is my entire frame of heart so lukewarm? If this kind of thing is becoming common with you, it's an indication that your frame of heart towards God is wrong. You're in a state of spiritual decline and you need not just stop the instance of this sin, it's an indicator sin. that's telling you that you need a renovation, a renewal, a recovery from a whole condition of being distant from God that you've fallen into. you need to then ask things like, how is it going in the secret place? Am I doing business with God by daily secret prayer? Have I slackened off from that? You need to look at everything and return onto the Lord. The Lord says that fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you. And perhaps now, if you've been sitting comfortably for the past few minutes, you'll need to take your turn of coming underneath of God's word. We understand, even by the light of a natural conscience to an extent until it's seared and suppressed, that there's something unclean about the things I've just been talking to you about, that there's something not right. There's something debasing about these types of sins. But what is harder to see is that covetousness needs to be put in the same category with these things. Not that God's giving us three things. He's not giving us an exhaustive list. He's giving us kind of bellwether sense, indicator sense about where things lie between us and God. And one of these is covetousness. And you know that Saul of Tarsus, he was a very upright man. He was, as the law, he was blameless. But there was something he didn't see. There was that iceberg under the surface that was piercing the hull of his ship, and that was covetousness. It was the law of God that came and shone upon his heart and showed him the sinfulness of his covetousness. And covetousness, it pollutes the soul. So we understand fornication and uncleanness, they pollute the body. In those sins that I was just speaking about, there's a kind of, there's an unholy joining or union, but it's the same with covetousness. It's just a union of a different kind. In covetousness, the soul tries to marry itself to the earth. And, you know, anything you could want, if it's, you know, it's a house, well, it's made of, wood from trees that grew out of the earth. Or if you want to store up silver and gold, what is gold except a refined form of earth? It's literally dug out of the earth. So covetousness sets the soul upon all these things that have to do with the earth, on getting them, keeping them, spending them, showing them off. And when the soul is bent upon covetousness, it's like the soul is trying to unite itself with the earth, join itself with earth. And that's an unholy union because the soul is made for God. And one soul is worth more than the whole world. What shall a profit a man if he gained the whole world but lose his soul? And so the soul is actually debased. It's brought below where it should be. If it is setting its desires upon the things of the earth, rather than gratefully receiving and using the things of the earth as it pursues God, because God is the only satisfying portion of the soul. This is the first trio of things that the apostle tells us is forbidden. And how far must we keep from these sins? He says, let it not be once named among you. And I've already pointed out that To name them, we may do so if there's call for it, we may do so in order to reprove them, so long as we call the sins by the names that God gives them, and if we are doing so with detestation. It's not the literal or bare naming of the sin that's forbidden, but rather either the casual naming of them or else the naming of them with love and affection. This mirrors something that God says in the Old Testament. One place is in Deuteronomy chapter 12. He's telling the people, You're coming into a land where pagans have been living and God is judging the pagans because of all their idolatry. When you come into the land, you know, zero tolerance for idolatry. You need to cut down their groves and burn their altars. and about the names of their gods, he says, you're to destroy their names out of the land. And so the Christian needs to deal with his corruptions exactly the same way as Israel was supposed to deal with the idols that the Canaanites had left behind. Zero tolerance, they're not even to be named. And that's because God is jealous of his glory. And To name these sins in an affectionate way, it's like naming your old master. You know, the servant, he leaves the service of the old master, he comes into the service of the new master, and he's talking about the old master and saying, things were so good under the old master. That provokes God's jealousy, and it challenges and provokes him to sin. because it defaces his glory. Also, we are not to name them because the very mention of these things can prove to be a snare. And when we're talking about these sins, what is the way that people are ensnared into these sins? We underestimate, I think, the way that words can ensnare into these sins, but Proverbs 7 shows that to us. It shows us the strange woman and it talks about her speech, that her speech was smoother than oil and so on. And she spoke to the young man. So don't be so naive as to think that words don't ensnare. They do ensnare. And so these things are not so much as to be named. And so you are not to name them in a casual way, but you are also not to sit and passively let them be named unto you. in a casual or a tempting way. So for instance, shows wherein, well, maybe they don't, you know, go to the vile extent of showing these sins being performed, but where they're named, it's the matter of laughter, it's casual, it's being normalized like drip, drip, drip, whether it's the naming of fornication and uncleanness, whether it is just talking about greed is good, you need to cut that off. You need to shut it down. You need to not sit there and passively let these sins be named to you. Don't kid yourself that it won't ensnare you. There are certain things in news stories, and we wanna know what's going on in the world, but there are certain things they put in news stories that they have no business putting in news stories. There are certain things you don't need to know and that you should see what's coming. Oh, they're about to talk about this thing that should have been kept hidden in darkness. I'm gonna skip that. We need to arm ourselves in these things, biographies and memoirs. can, well, they can be very interesting. They can inform us, we can learn about history, but just because something happened isn't necessarily a reason to read about it and to get it into our minds. Let them not so much as be named among you, he says, as becometh saints. We love the pastoral way that the apostle deals with us under the chief shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. He could have simply said, you know, here's a list of things that are very bad. Don't do them. Don't even let them be named. He could have gone on with his list, like rapid fire machine gun, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Here are all the really bad things. But he gives us three things, three indicator sins, if you will, He says, keep so far from them that they're not even named among you. And now he gives us a little encouragement. We need that, I think. I sense you have a sense of that. He tells us the reason why we need to keep so far from these sins that they're not even named, which is remember who you are. You're saints. You are God's holy ones. Think about what God has done for you. that think about God the Father in the foreknowledge of election. Here in this epistle, there's quite a bit about election. It's right there upfront in this epistle that when God shows you, he predestined you that you should be holy and blameless before him. Just think of how the Ephesians needed that and how you need that. Because here these Ephesians were and they'd been saved out of their pagan environment. These are the kind of people who they had valuable magic scrolls and they burned their magic scrolls. You know, the environment that they lived in is like the environment that we live in. And they might've been tempted at times to think, well, how is it even possible to aim at such a high standard of holiness? Well, that aiming at holiness is rooted first of all, in God himself. And in an eternal God who is not swayed by times, and who set his eternal purpose on having these Ephesians to be his people and to bring them in the last to be perfectly holy and blameless before him. And you need, if you're going at all to succeed, in what I've been telling you about. You need to keep your sight on that. So I'm trying to be very concrete and helpful to you and telling you to cut off watching shows where fornication is casually named. That's pretty concrete. But in order to do that concrete thing, you need to remember the God of election. And you need to think, It's actually the path of liberty and freedom to be set free from this entangling thing, which is going to hinder me from pressing towards the mark that God has called me to. We need to strive for holiness, but yet not at all in a legal manner, as if God were narrow hearted, or as if, you know, we needed to achieve a certain level of holiness and unto being justified. We're very prone to think that way, as soon as the idea of holiness comes into our mind, but we need to get that out of our mind. We need to think, I'm going to behave as becomes a saint. I'm going to meditate on my identity. God has chosen me to holiness. What a thought that is to dawn upon the mind. Because he's chosen me, then I will be holy. I will keep far from sin. Then we think upon Jesus Christ. And when I was lying in my blood, when I was filthy and unclean, He laid down His pure and holy life for me to redeem me out of the cesspool, to buy me out from underneath of the dominion of sin. And the Father and the Son have given forth the gift of the Holy Spirit to indwell me, to bring that blood of Christ and to sprinkle it upon my heart and conscience. And all this makes the Christian begin to rejoice. It makes the Christian begin to think of holiness, not as all this, you know, dreadful demand of an austere God that I can never possibly make happy. But rather, the Christian says, He's made me a saint. Let me walk as becomes a saint in a manner, if we can say so, a Christian is like that. woman of Deuteronomy 21. She belongs to one of the distant nations. Israel comes and captures the nation. There's an Israelite man. He sees the woman. He wants to marry her. So what does she have to do? Well, it says she has to shave her head, pair her nails, and she has to change her raiment, and she has to take a full month to bewail her father and mother. So she has to count the cost and she has to think all of that, my former life, it's gone. Give it a whole month to sink in. She mourns for a month, but then she has a new life. Now she's grafted into the Israel of God. Now she is near to God. She is part of the Commonwealth of Israel. She has access to come and know God as her God. All of that former thing is gone. So the Christian needs to think this way. God has taken off my vile raiment of captivity. He has clothed me in white linen. Let me therefore walk in such a way as I may keep my garment clean. There's a second trio also of common sins that God tells us to put away. They come in verse four. They have to do with our words and The fact that they have to do with our words may not be immediately evident from the first term, filthiness, but the other two, foolish talking or jesting, and then the contrast to these, giving of thanks, indicates the whole idea of verse four has to do with our words, our speech. So God forbids us as Christians to have filthy speech. And the word here has to do with, it's related to a word that has to do with shame. So we are not to have speech that is shameful. And truth be told, our tongue is our glory. And what a debasement it would be for us to have our glory, our tongue turned into shame. This is related to what I've been saying before, fornication and all uncleanness need to be put away. Positively speaking, we may say the Christian should maintain a kind of decency and modesty in his speech. Also, the Lord forbids to us foolish talking. And what a wide field that is. we could meditate repeatedly on the book of Proverbs to learn what is foolish talking, what is wise speaking. Some categories would be this. Boastful talking is foolish talking. Let another praise thee and not thine own mouth. Proverbs 27, two. Hasty talking is foolish talking. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words, there is more hope of a fool than of him. Speaking before you have fought, that's foolish talking, presumptuous. talking like James talks about the men who say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city. We will spend a year there will buy and sell and will grow rich, but you don't know what will happen tomorrow promising more than you can ever deliver. and not giving place to the sovereignty of God. That's foolish talking, ignorant talking, saying things you don't even know, talking out of the vanity and emptiness of your mind. That's foolish. There's a vanity to the fallen mind of man. And Job, we know that he, Job was under tremendous pressure. He lost his children. He lost all that he possessed. He was surrounded by men who spoke hard words to him. But yet he confesses in the end, the ignorance of his words. Job 42, therefore have I uttered that I understood not. In many cases, It's the way of wisdom to say, well, upon reflection, I don't really know about that, so I'd better not say. Flattering speech is foolish speech. It's, of course, you can have friends that way, or at least those who seem like friends or temporarily have friends, but a man who flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet, Proverbs 29. just to tell people smooth things all the time is not true charity. Argumentative speech is foolish talking. I know that there's a good sense for the word argument. You can make an argument to establish the truth, et cetera. But I'm talking about quarrelsome kind of speech. just getting into fights about things or even enjoying conflicts and fighting and wrangling about things. Proverbs 18, a fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for a beating. And perhaps most challenging of all, what is foolish talking? Idle words are foolish talking. That is words that just have no purpose. And chapter four, verse 29, we saw that what proceeds out of our mouth should be good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So words that just, don't have value or do anyone any good. They don't inform about truth. They don't extol the praiseworthiness of God. They don't help you get done an honest task or something. Well, idle words are foolish talking. And then there's the third of this corrupt trio, which is jesting. as a thing that Paul says is not convenient, it's out of place, it's not suitable for Christians to talk in any of these three ways. To speak about what's obscene in filthiness, nor to speak about what is foolish, nor, he says, should the Christian's speech be characterized by jesting. This is a word that the older authors, the classical Greek authors used to describe, perhaps you would say, wittiness. And sometimes they used it positively as a good quality of a speaker. If we break down the words. into this word, into its components, that's sometimes helpful. Of course, we understand some of our words in English, two words get joined together and then they take on a life of their own. But in any case, if we get right back down to the components of this word, it refers to something that is well-turned, a kind of, what would you say, a fluidity in speaking, a wittiness. Now, when it comes to this third term here, jesting, I want to tell you that there are two extremes that we need to avoid. So here's the first extreme. When God says that jesting is not convenient for the speech of a Christian, he is not saying that he forbids all and any kind of words that are pleasant. He's not telling us that we are forbidden to have moments in our lives that are more lighthearted because in Ecclesiastes 10, he says that a feast is made for laughter. And that's the blessing of God. There are many sorrows in life. He does give us some occasions that are more lighthearted and we can make full enjoyment of those with a good conscience. God is not saying that it is wrong to ever say anything that induces someone to laugh. We can find examples even in our own church. There was a ruling elder named David Dixon. He said that in speaking to people, Sometimes the best way to open the fissures of the human heart is through a little touch of humor. In other words, there's things going on inside of all of us. Sometimes it's hard to break the ice and to talk about what's really going on. And so he was saying a beneficial use of humor can be to kind of Help someone be at ease in order to talk about what's really going on. It can be used in a way that's charitable. So on the one hand, we need to deny that extreme. God is not laying a straight jacket on you to where you can ever be light or pleasant in your conversation. Praise his name. There's another extreme as well. and I think it's more common today, this other extreme. We've been missing something in the church. We have missed this whole idea of gravity in our speech. In fact, it's so rife that it's not just Christians who are trying to act like buffoons, but it's ministers too, who try to be jokesters and comedians. And they even do it in the pulpit. This should be a clear indication to us and sad indication of a state of decline in the church. We've lost gravity. It appears that the modern church is so uncomfortable with this particular matter that it's even affecting our Bible translations. So in the English Standard Version, instead of jesting, it says crude joking. In the New King James Version, it says coarse jesting. In other words, Some translations are adding a word like crude or like course that appears to reflect the view that the only thing that God is concerned about is that when you're joking that it not be an unclean joke. But this idea is can't be derived from the original word. The Greek word that's used here does not imply any limitation to where it only applies to the kind of joking that's crude or unclean or that violates the seventh commandment. The word itself is broader than that. And after all, it would be kind of redundant anyways, after he's already said to put away filthiness for him to again, say no crude jesting. What God is teaching us is that Christian speech should be sober and grave. Elements of humor should be used in a way that's moderate. They are the sauce of Christian conversation and they are not the meat. Elements of humor should be used in a way that are charitable. Notice that when it comes to the whole matter of jesting, a lot of times jesting is cutting someone else down. Whereas our speech should always be in charity, always to edify and never to belittle and cut people. Elements of humor should also be seasonable. We should not sing songs to a heavy heart. We should always be circumspect in our speech as to what are the, what's the occasion? What's the situation? Is someone deeply grieving in my presence? And is that really what they need for me to fall into jesting? Now this whole matter, I think it's not a matter where I'm going to stand here and tell you if six times in a day you make a comment that makes someone laugh, that's too much. I'm not gonna, it's hard to lay down rules. I have no interest in doing that. This is more of a matter where wisdom needs to rule the day. And God gives us in his word, he gives us what we call wisdom literature for this very reason, to help us understand things like circumspection and the due proportion and weight to be given to different things in our speech. So Ecclesiastes 7 will be helpful to you to think about this. The first six verses of Ecclesiastes 7. A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. So the big picture is we all need to die. Priority number one is to make it to the end. That's why it says the day of death is better than the day of one's birth. Make it to the end with a good name, which is better than precious ointment. Think about everything in light of that, dying well. And it will be more helpful to you to prepare to die well, we more often need to go to the house of mourning than we need to go to the house of feasting. We're more prone to be carried away with light things and to forget the end and to forget our mortality. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. There's something to think about too. Better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. We need rebukes and our brethren need rebukes. And if we cast our heart and mind and behavior into a mold of being buffoons and jokesters, then we're incapacitated out of the gate from giving people the life-giving reproofs and also from taking them because then we'll be very prone to just laugh them off. The last thing there in Ecclesiastes 7 is a picture. Maybe it's a picture that will stay with you. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. And in a way, we all enjoy making people laugh. I've already told you, it's not unlawful to make someone laugh. But what if the person that you're provoking to laughter is a fool? And what if he's a fool who's burning up and he's burning up and laughing all along the way? There's people around us going to hell. And the last thing that they need us to do is to make them laugh. Think of that image of thorns crackling and burning up under a pot. You know, we have dry leaves, perhaps. It's been raining, but dry. You might think of dry leaves in your yard, how fast they burn up. They make a whooshing, they make a roaring. So think of those dried out thorns. They're under a pot. They make a big noise and flash when they catch on fire. But the only thing that's left is ashes. And they don't help heat the pot up at all. The crackling, of thorns under a pot. We need to have fervent burning spirits for God. And foolish laughter will never help heat the pot up. These are matters of wisdom for us to ponder. May the Lord give help to do so. There's a second corrupt trio that the apostle has told us that we must stay away from. It has to do with our speech, filthiness, foolish talking, or jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Once again, we see the pastoral wisdom of the apostle. And, That's my desire to be pastoral with you as well. I'm trying to speak as plainly as I can today, but I have no interest in crushing you. And it's a good moment then to be thinking about what should we be doing instead? Here in Ephesians, the apostles telling us, put off the old man. And he tells us, put on the new man. So here's what you should put on. giving of thanks. Weren't we singing that in Psalm 50 before? That whoso offers thanksgiving glorifies me. It's a very simple thing, but it's also a very rare thing to give sincere, hearty, and warm thanksgiving to God. I had remembered I went and confirmed this in my memory, that there was a man named Robin Williams who died about 10 years ago. Maybe you remember him. Some people said he was the funniest man in the world. He died by murdering himself about eight years ago. And after he murdered himself, there was a whole bunch of public lamentation He was hailed as if a great hero, the president of our nation commented on him and said to the effect that he freely shared his immeasurable talent with those who needed it most. Notice how almost divine attributes are being given to this man. that he is the benefactor of the world and of the needy through his generosity. His talent is immeasurable, was immeasurable. It has divine qualities almost, infinite, immeasurable talent. Another comment was, the world has become darker as if, well, here's the light of the world that has been taken away. to give us godly perspective on this sort of thing. That's the only reason that I mentioned that. Everyone takes us very seriously. But the Christian, you know, I have good news for you, Christian. You don't need to have immeasurable talent in order to have speech that is pleasing to God. and that is beneficial and helpful to the people around you. Sometimes if someone has a, you know, they have a winsome personality or they have a ready wit, we say, you know, they light up the room when they come in, even claims have been made for the man I was just mentioning, you know, basically lighting up the world. Well, you don't need to be the most clever person that ever walked the face of the earth. Here's what God wants you to do. He wants you to be thankful, and he wants you to express your thankfulness with your words. You could be very simple and unsophisticated, but a simple and thankful Christian is worth more in God's sight than the man whom I just mentioned. And you can do more good to your neighbors. You can edify people. There is truly a place for cheering people up. There is truly a place for cheering up people who are discouraged. And the best thing about that is you do not need to tap in to some secret fountain of infinite talent. What you need to do is to be sincerely grateful to a God who is good. Here's what the Christian should be cultivating in his speech. Thankfulness. In order to have thankfulness, perfuming your speech, you need to meditate upon how you are not worthy of the least of God's mercies. When we're swollen with a sense of, you know, I deserve so much good, then we tend to be, we complain about things because they're not exactly the way we want it. But the heart that is broken and contrite before God, even the smallest thing. I had a night's sleep last night, and the Lord has fed us yet again, and here we are again in God's house. Simple things. bring joy to the heart that is lowly. To cultivate thankfulness, you should be cultivating a sense and assurance of the love of God to you personally. That should be the aim and pursuit of every Christian. It's something that Paul experienced when he spoke of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, for me. And I fear that we allow gloomy doubts and fears to get in the way too much of a sense and assurance of God's love, or else we let unrepented sin lie there and fester, and that will wreck your assurance. But repent of your sins and look to the promises of God. Turn your face towards the sun, as it were, Know the love of God in Christ and then whatever befalls you, you'll be saying, I'm thankful for this. How do we cultivate thankful speech? Observe the providence of God. Hopefully I'll say more to you about that this afternoon. Notice what's happening to you. Notice the timing of the things that happen to you. Notice the interrelationship and the harmony of things that happen to you and think, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, that are the called according to his purpose. God is always busy and active every day. And there's something to notice if we have but our eyes open. Notice answered prayer. Cultivate in yourself a sense that God has been so good to me that I can't possibly thank him sufficiently myself with my lisping and stammering tongue. And so therefore I'm going to enlist others also to thank God with me. I'm going to tell them of how good God has been to me. Cultivate thankfulness. by doing verse 19. The apostle comes back to that, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Well, beloved, we've been before the Lord and under his word today. He's spoken to us of putting off and of why we are to do that as become a saint. He's told us of what to put off from our speech and also what we are to put on, which is namely thankfulness. The Lord's given us much to think about. Maybe it's maybe it's best with the time to conclude here and as the Lord wills come back later. to this passage. Amen. Well, would would you stand with me then as we pray? Oh Lord, our God and our Father in heaven, we do. Come before thy presence and. We bow to the thou art God and. Thou art the only wise God. And we, Lord, are so much in need of being instructed. We thank Thee, O God, that the entrance of Thy words gives light, makes wise who simple are. And would Thou give us light, O God, even light in a dark world, for Thy Son has said that He is the light of the world. Help us, O Lord, to follow Him and not walk in darkness, but to have the light of life, Bring forth, O Lord, fruitful meditations and fruitful practice. Help us to put off the old and to put on that which is new. Help us to put off to the end that we might put on, to be walking as saints and to be practicing thankfulness. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.