forget. I've gathered that I don't remember things like I used to. I'm not even old enough to say that, but it's still a problem nonetheless. But you'll have to forgive me. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. We was at a church one time up in Arkansas, and I was sitting next to Leah in Sunday school. She looked over at me. I was writing something down, and she said, dear goodness, don't write anything else down. We got too much. We got to get Turn with me tonight, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter number 5. We're going to read several verses here, but we are not, don't worry, we are not going to deal with all of these verses. I know we've got Lord's Supper here in just a minute, so I want to be brief to get out of the way to get to that. Ephesians chapter number 5, beginning in verse number 22, the scripture says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. that he might sanctify and cleanse you with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Let's pray and then we'll get into this tonight. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you for your goodness, your grace, your mercy. We thank you for the songs we were able to sing tonight. Lord, now as we come to the instruction of your word. Lord, I pray that you'd speak to everyone of our hearts. Lord, I pray that you'd use the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would bless our time together, even around the Lord's Supper table, that you'd receive all the honor and glory from it. And we'll thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to draw your attention to verse number 26 and 27 where the Apostle Paul said that he might sanctify and cleanse it, talking about the church, with the washing of water by the Word. that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. I wanna deal with this thought washed by the word, washed by the word. We've, and this was not my intention of creating a series out of these thoughts, but here we are. We've been looking the last couple of Sunday nights that we've had together of, as I've called it, God's picture book. Some different ways that God has illustrated the practical working of his work in the life of his people. I don't know about you, but I'm glad that I've got a Bible. I'm glad that I've got a Bible that I can read. I'm glad that I've got a Bible, with the help of God, that I can understand, because if it wasn't for God, I couldn't understand none of it. But I'm glad that I've got a Bible, and it's given to us to help us along, that it has a practical reality in our lives, and we've looked at how some of these illustrations or pictures of the Word, in the Word, and we looked at how that Jeremiah described the Word of God as fire, shut up in his bones, and he was weary with forbearing, and he could not stay, and how that that spoke to us concerning an idea of faithfulness. We've looked at how in Hebrews chapter number four that the writer of Hebrews describes the word of God as a sword that divides asunder soul and spirit, joints and marrow, that it is a discerner of the intents and the purposes of the thoughts and the intents or purposes of the heart and how that spoke to us concerning the idea of self-examination and asking ourselves if we truly placed our faith in Christ. And if we have, then when it comes to what we're doing as believers, we ask ourselves why we're doing it. Well, tonight as we consider one of these, another one of these pictures, if you will, we find that the Apostle Paul describes the work of the Word of God as water. Specifically, the washing of water. Most of us have got electric washing machines now. You hit a button, you close the lid, and you don't think about it no more until it goes off. Or in our case, we probably need to fix our washing machine. That thing makes so much racket, it sounds like there's gonna be a rocket ship come out of the ceiling. So anyway, long gone are the days of tubs and hard washing boards aren't the enclosed lines. I'll be honest with you, I ain't too sad about that. I mean, there ain't no part of me wants to have to go through all of the effort of wadding that thing up, pushing it on that washing board, and then hanging it up and hoping it don't rain. We understand what it means, the imagery of the labor that it would take to wash something. This is emphasizing to us what the Word of God calls sanctification. Sanctification. It's speaking to us, as you read verse number 26 and 27, it is speaking to us concerning an idea of purity, cleanliness. Again, we would call that sanctification. Now, the Church of Ephesus, the Book of Ephesus, if we're Ephesians, if we're going to understand These couple of verses, we've got to lay a little bit of foundation. You'll remember that the city of Ephesus is described to us in Acts, specifically Acts chapter 18, 19, and 20. Those three chapters at different points in those chapters. I'll give you these references. You can go back and read them later. You find the city of Ephesus mentioned in Acts chapter 18, verse 18. Acts chapter number 19, verse 1 through 8. Acts chapter 19, verse 23 through 41. Acts chapter number 20, verse number 13 to verse number 38. That would have typically taken me about a month and a half to give to you, but I just gave it to you in about 30 seconds. You're welcome. It's describing for us the city of Ephesus as a whole, how the Apostle Paul goes there on his missionary journey, the first one in Acts chapter 18, and he leaves Priscilla and Aquila, and they further along, these saints that have believed the gospel, and how that he goes back later in chapter 19, again as he's making this round trip, on this missionary journey, he asked them if they ever received the Holy Ghost, and they say, we ain't never heard of the Holy Ghost. And he says, he explains the truth to them, they believe, they're baptized, and then it says that it was evidenced by the speaking of tongues. One of the only tongues, speaking in tongues is mentioned in the New Testament. You got a few other tongues, but that's one of the last tongues, if not the last tongue, if I remember correctly. It's the reality that God birthed what we know as the Church of Ephesus. Later in chapter number 19 of the book of Acts, there's an uproar in the city by a silversmith who was known for making the images and the statues that were a part of the worship in the temple of Diana. He gets mad about it because people start getting saved. They're not going to the temple of Diana no more, so he's losing money. So he gets mad about it, and he starts making a big ol' fuss in the city, and everybody stands and declares how great Diana was. And there's this big ol' uproar, and that eventually Paul and his entourage, they have to leave. Well, they come back to the city of Ephesus in Acts 20, and he encourages the brethren that ravening wolves are going to come in. He spends quite a long time, if you read it from the first time it's mentioned until Acts chapter number 20, he spends anywhere from three to three and a half years in the city of Ephesus. He's there for a long time, instructing them and laboring with them in the Word of God and we have We have what we know as the Book of Ephesians, another letter, more writing to the Church of Ephesus outside of what we read in Acts 18, 19, and 20. I was doing a little bit of background reading, and the Bible that's in front of me is produced by Thomas Nelson. It's a study Bible, and they're all a little different. And in each one of the books of the Bible, it gives you a little bit of a background. And as I was reading across that this afternoon, it's kind of funny because they said, well, there's some argue and debate whether or not this was written at the Church of Ephesus. And the very last sentence of their description, I wanted to read it to you. It was funny. They said this, that the epistle is directly addressed to the Ephesians. It is. He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus. Boy, that was hard. That kind of sums up the argument and debate, doesn't it, about who this was talking to? Well, as you and I, if we were to read the book of Ephesians, and if you're not familiar with it, I know, I think I say this about everything, if you're not familiar with it, you ought to be, because it's a really good one. If you want to know some of the deep doctrines of the Word of God, and some of the depths of what it means to be saved, How all of it works, especially from God's perspective, you ought to go read the book of Ephesians. There's going to be some stuff in there that, I'll just be honest with you, I don't have answers to. I'll tell you like I always tell you. God said what he meant, and he meant what he said. You got any questions, you can go ask Roger Waite about it, and he'll sort it out for you. Since I've got a deal with the Song of Solomon, he's got a deal with Ephesians. So, it's turnabout's fair play, I suppose. First three chapters of the book of Ephesians, it deals with spiritual blessings in Christ. looks at it from God's perspective in chapter one, it looks at it as it pertains to the grace of God in chapter two, and it looks at it from the perspective of the revelation of the gospel in chapter number three, and all of it is centered around the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Well, just like a lot of the New Testament epistles, the first three chapters deal with doctrine, and the last three chapters, four, five, and six, deal with practice. The application of that doctrine. I alliterated it for you people that care about that. I'm probably the only one, but I wrote it down, so I'm gonna give it to you. Chapter one through three deals with the spiritual blessings in Christ. Chapter four through six deals with serving believers in church. If you got a better alliteration than that, I'll take it and use it next time. Practical. Again, I'm glad the Bible's practical, aren't you? I appreciate doctrine and theology and teaching. It's important and it has its place in church. But the reality of the thing is that if our doctrine, what we believe and why we believe it and all of those kinds of things, if it does not affect the way that we live our lives on Monday morning, then it really don't matter a whole lot. Does it? So it is with this idea of sanctification, or as the Apostle Paul would describe it, being washed by the water of the Word. Now, I want you to consider with me a few thoughts. I've only got three, so we'll move quick. Number one, I want you to notice the placement of these couple of verses. Verse number 26 and 27. What is the context of these? Well, again, it's a part of the section of the book of Ephesians that is practical and it comes immediately on the heels of Verse number 18 of this same chapter. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. The word filled, it literally means to be controlled by. One preacher described it, he said, go fill a cup up that's got the bottom kicked out of it. It ain't never gonna happen, is it? It's impossible. If you were to take a strainer, or some people in other places call it a colander, it's the same thing. and you were to fill that thing with water, it ain't gonna happen, is it? It's never, but it's gonna make a real clean vessel on it to be controlled by the Spirit of God. We understand that the Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity, that He indwells us as believers. If you've been around on Wednesday nights, we've covered some of that. But again, the Spirit of God has a practical application, a practical role if you will, in our lives as believers, and it is that we be filled with, we be controlled by the Spirit. Well, how's that work, preacher? Well, you be controlled by the word of God. We hadn't got to it yet, we will one day, but Colossians chapter number three tells us that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly. The word dwell means to take up residence, to move in. Now, I don't know of any of y'all looking at me and y'all seeing the inside of my house. Ain't none of us got a big enough house. If somebody moved in and we didn't know about it, we wouldn't figure it out eventually. Right? I mean, that's the reality. If somebody took up residence with us that wasn't there before, we'd know about it. So it is with the Word of God. It takes up residence inside of us. If the Spirit of God moves in, yes, in the indwelling of the Spirit, but we start submitting ourselves to the Word of God, and it starts taking up room in our hearts and lives, and it starts molding us and making us and shaping us and working on us, you'll never guess what's going to happen. It's going to show up. It's going to show up in the way I live. It's going to show up in the way that you live. The placement of this is immediately after being filled with the Spirit. The placement of this is also, if you were to consider verse number 21, 22, and 24, it immediately follows this idea of submission. The phrase in verse number 21, submitting yourselves. The same phrase in verse number 22, submitting yourselves. And the same phrase in verse number 24, subject unto. It is the same Greek word that carries the idea of, you never guess it, submission. Right? That's simple, that's plain, that's quick. But this entire passage, the passage that this is a part of, it is dealing with marriage. Marriage. You remember that old show, Love and Marriage Go Together Like a Horse and Carriage? I think that's how it goes. Something like that. Paul is giving in this section, and even in chapter number six, he's giving some very clear exhortations concerning marriage. That a husband, here's your marriage advice for the week, that a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's what it says. That a wife is to be subject unto or to submit to her husband. That's what it says. Now, I've known people, you've known people. You got a wife that tries to serve God and you got a husband that don't. So what do you do in that? You submit to him where you can and then you submit to Christ above all else. You didn't know you was getting marriage counseling tonight, did you? Here's the emphasis of this, though. Here's your advice, dear husband, and this applies to me. If I want my wife to submit to me, I ought to try loving her like Christ loved the church. Ma'am, if you want your husband to love you the way Christ loved the church, you might ought to try submitting to him. Goes both ways, doesn't it? The husband is to sacrificially love, and the wife is to submit out of love. Sacrifice and submit. Now, as we consider, in a broad sense, I know this is a long way around, the marriage relationship, we all understand it, that are married, that it ain't always rainbow sunshine, cupcakes and daffodils. Me and Leah never argue, ever, ever. We have intense fellowship. Just as our marriage relationship can be hindered so our relationship with Christ can be hindered. Paul is telling the church of Ephesus, he is using the relationship between a husband and a wife to picture the relationship between Christ and his church. One of the descriptions of the church, and I think Brother Roger mentioned it this morning in Sunday School opening, was that Christ is the bridegroom and the church as a whole is the bride. There's three applications. There's the building, the body, and the bride. And Paul is using that illustration that we are wedded to Christ. And so, I don't know anybody in here that's married that don't want to have a good marriage. that don't want to have, I would hope, a godly marriage and have a good relationship with your spouse. Well, if those things are true in our marriages, how much more should that be true in our relationship with Christ? Just as those relationships can be hindered, so can our relationship with Christ because of sin. Because of sin. One person said to us, it was somebody that was far older and wiser than me. God did not give us marriage to make us happy. He gave us marriage to make us holy. Think about it. We are happy. I hope you are in your marriage. If you ain't, that's another conversation for another day, I suppose. But if you're thinking about it, If I'm the husband that I'm supposed to be, it's forcing me to draw closer to Christ, right? And if you're the wife that you're supposed to be, you are going to have to draw closer to Christ than you are. The answer to that is yeah, that's right. So it is with our relationship with Christ as a person, as a church. There should not be anything that hinders our relationship. If God has given us marriage in that sense to make us holy, and this text is emphasizing again, verse number 26 and 27 is emphasizing the reality that Christ is making his church perfect. We call it sanctification. You've seen the placement of this. We see number two, the power. Paul gives us two words that describe the power of the word of God as a washing machine. if you will. He uses the word sanctify in verse number 26, and he uses the word cleanse. The word sanctify, it means to separate, to consecrate, to be holy. The word cleanse, it means to purge or to purify. It carries the idea of to cleanse leprosy. I ain't never known anybody that had leprosy, so I'll give you another definition that made good sense to me. To clean utensils. To clean utensils. I've got a really bad habit. I've got lots of bad habits and lots of OCD problems. I'm real bad to take things out of the dishwasher, and before I put them in the drawer, I look at it. I just do it. It's terrible. And it can't have spots on it. It's a thing, especially with silverware, because you can see everything. I don't know. I've got problems. Maybe that's why we ain't got no forks. I probably threw them all away. It's probably what happened. To clean utensils. To make something clean is the idea. Both of these words remind us of biblical truth. What is it? Just as it was that God's people should be sanctified, that they should be separate, it's true with the church. You think about Old Testament Israel. They were to be different than everybody else around them. I think there was, of the entirety of the law, if you count the judicial law, ceremonial law, and the moral law, there was 632 different commands, if I counted right. If it ain't 632, it's 600 and something, a bunch, a whole lot more than I want to deal with. They couldn't eat this, they couldn't eat that, they couldn't shave their beard. They couldn't mix their fabric. I mean, on and on and on. I don't know about you, but you see somebody walking around in sackcloth, and you ever had one of them old wool blankets that was so stinking itchy that you couldn't do nothing but scratch yourself like you had fleas? That sounds miserable to me. Boy, if that's all you had to put on to wear clothes, you'd be looking funny, walking around scratching yourself all the time. You'd look awful different, wouldn't you? They were to be different in their worship. They were to be different in how they treated each other. They were to be different in the way in who they were in their heart. Everything about Israel was to be. They were to be, if you will, as a nation and as a people, the image bearers of God. Peter would describe them, describe the people of God as a peculiar people. Zealous of good works. We call peculiar. We sometimes use the word weird. In our modern vernacular, you've met some weird people and so have I. They different. They don't fit the mold. They don't act the way everybody acts. They don't talk the way everybody talks. They don't go where everybody goes. They're different. So should it be with a people and with individuals that are being sanctified. So should it be with the church of God. Separate, sanctified. This word, cleanse, it illustrates for us not only that the people of God should be different, but it also points to the reality that God sent Christ to pay for our sin. Now, this word, cleanse, if you were to look at it and study it and read about it, it is used to explain the Old Testament. Here's a really big word that I can't spell. Expiation. The Old Testament teaching of expiation. There's another word that's often associated, you find these two, you might be familiar with these, propitiation and atonement. You ever heard those before? That's the idea. Again, that our sin, if you think about it in the Old Testament economy, that we're familiar with the day of atonement, how that once a year they would make a sacrifice for the sin of the people. and how that before the sacrifice was made, the priest had to sacrifice for his sin first. He would take the sin of the sacrifice or the sin of the people, how they would sacrifice, and it pleased God for a year. And every year, they did this over and over and over and over again. and the idea of atonement being that the price was paid. Simple definition of the word. The word propitiation means to please. So you put the two words together, God was pleased by the price being paid. Pretty simple, right? Well, we understand then that the Old Testament sacrificial system, the blood of bulls, goats, lambs, turtle doves, all the rest of it, it never permanently took away sin. That was never the design. It was to point to the Lamb of God, which was to come. Okay, and Paul is reminding these believers in Ephesus that it was God's design for them that they be different than the world. I talked about that a little bit this morning. He also reminds them that it was God's design for them and to remind them that when Christ came, he came the first time as the Lamb of God to take away their sin. You find the teaching of expiation, atonement, propitiation, to use words we may be familiar with. You find it in Exodus 22 and Exodus 24. We ain't got time to read all these, but you find Moses instituting the practice. You find it in Leviticus chapter number 16 about the sacrifice of the day of atonement in Leviticus chapter number 16. And you find all of it fulfilled You remember we were in Hebrews four last week? Sure you do, I remember everything you say, preacher. Hebrews chapter number nine, the writer of Hebrews uses that same illustration in Exodus 22, 24, Leviticus 16, and he points to the reality of the finished work of Jesus Christ. When Moses goes to make those sacrifices, he had to sprinkle blood everywhere. all over every piece of furniture, all the instruments. Why? Because it had come in contact with sin. He had to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. He used, the writer of Hebrews uses that illustration to say, and if you go read it, start in verse number 12 of Hebrews chapter number nine, just start reading down, and you'll see he uses that illustration that Christ, he wasn't like the Old Testament priest. He didn't have to enter into the Holy of Holies to make sacrifice for himself, but rather he gave himself as the sacrifice. and he shed his blood. And it goes on to say, it uses a really important phrase. It uses the phrase eternal redemption. Boy, that's a good phrase. That Christ accomplished eternal redemption for his people, all of those that would believe. He didn't die to have to die again. It's not that he's got to die over and over and over and over and over and over again every time we sin. He died once for all. He died to pay for our past sin, our present sin, and even our future sin. And as one black preacher said, even the sins you thought about committing. Paul is telling the church of Emphasis that Christ has the ability to forgive their sin. Okay, that was a really long way around the neighborhood. You ready? What does that have to do with the Bible being like water? Well, if it wasn't for the Bible, we wouldn't know anything about sin, would we? The book of Galatians describes it as a schoolmaster, the law, as a schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. The law is another word for the word of God. The Old Testament uses the word law in the place of the declaration, the word of God. And how it is the word of God, the law, the Bible, that tells us that we are sinners, that tells us that we're guilty. It's the Word of God that describes our relationship to sin. What do you mean? Well, in Romans chapter number eight, Paul would tell the church at Rome that they are to mortify the deeds of the flesh. He would tell in Galatians chapter number five, verse number 24, that they which are Christ have crucified the flesh. He would tell the church of Colossae, we hadn't got there yet, but we will, in Colossians three and verse five, that they are to mortify your members. That gives us a snapshot, if you will, of what should be a believer's, my relationship to sin and your relationship to sin. It should be dead unto us. Right? We should be dead unto sin and alive unto God. That we ought to be, here's the personal responsibility, we ought to be mortifying the deeds of our flesh. That means literally to put it to death, to kill it. We ought to be regularly, actively crucifying our flesh. We ought to be regularly, actively putting to death the members of our body. Jesus gives a really good illustration of this in Matthew's gospel. He said, if your right eye offends you, rip it out. If your right hand offends you, cut it off. If your foot offends you, cut it off. He's not saying walk around with one eyeball, one hand, and one foot. But he's saying if what you're looking at, what you're doing, and where you're going is a hindrance unto you, he said it was better that you enter into life, man, than to enter into hellfire with all of your members. We understand the illustration there. I don't know how else to say it, but say it like this. If we say and testify to the reality that Jesus Christ died for my sin, I'm dead to my old life, and I'm now alive in Jesus Christ, then we ought to live like it. But here's the truth. Here's the truth. We don't, do we? We don't. The old Proverbs tell us the dog returns to his vomit. That's true, isn't it? So it is with a believer. We get set free from our sin and we return right back to it. Let me ask you tonight, what's your relationship to sin like? What's your relationship to sin like? One of the kings of Israel, I can't remember the guy, it starts with J. If you can remember it, tell me. Stop me and tell me what it is, because I cannot remember it. But you read one of the kings of Israel, he was a young man, and I think his name was, I think it was J.E., but I may have the name wrong. That dude was absolutely crazy. You ever read the Bible, and you're like, man, I'd like to meet that guy. If I got the right guy's name, if it ain't that guy, it's somebody. That dude's so full of God, want to do something for God, he gets mad at all the false prophets and all the priests and all the pagan idolatry going on. He says, we are done with this. He starts digging up people's bones and setting them on fire. Sounds like a good time to me. Probably because there's fire involved. Those people, those priests, those prophets, those places of worship, They all involve sin, didn't they? And it was his desire that sin be eradicated from the nation of Israel. That same desire should live inside of me and should live inside of you. That the sin that I'm guilty of, that the sin that you're guilty of, out of our lives, gone, done away with. You ever feel like, you ever feel like, and I'm just gonna ask a real personal question. I don't really expect a response, but I'm gonna ask it. You ever feel like you fail more than you succeed at this thing of hating your sin? Probably so. Here's the good news. Our salvation is permanent, but our sanctification is progressive. We ain't perfect. I ain't perfect. On this side of eternity, we are not going to arrive at a place where we are completely without sin. But oh, we ought to go sharpen our axes and get to hacking down at the roots of some sins that live in us. The idea of sanctification is that we are being made like Christ. We're being made like Christ. Boy, it don't always feel like it, does it? But by and by, slowly but surely, one of these days, this thing is going to come to an end and we're going to look and we're going to be just like Him. Perfect, righteous, holy. Notice it is He, it is Christ that sanctifies. It is Christ that separates His people from the world. It is Christ that cleanses, that takes away the sin of His people. And that it is He, Christ, who will present to Himself, in verse number 27, a glorious church, not having spot, nor wrinkle, or a blemish, or any such thing. A glorious church. You ever think about heaven? You ever think about heaven? I don't mean you get to go see grandma and some people think dogs go to heaven. I don't buy it, but who knows? I'm not talking about going to see loved ones or any of that kind of stuff. And have you ever thought about the scenes of heaven that the Word of God gives us? You've got angels, you've got cherubims, you've got seraphims, you've got all these beings worshiping God in perfection. You've got the glorified Christ that is perfect. But yet, Ephesians 5, 27 says that one day there is going to be a glorious church present in heaven. Say what? You know why that's amazing to me? Because I'm a part of that thing. And I know me. And boy, I got a long way to go. Oh, but there's coming a day where we will not have We will not have a stain. We will not be defiled. We will be without wrinkle or blemish or disfigurement. We will be holy. That's physically pure and morally blameless. That we will be faultless. We will be unblameable. Brother Paul would tell us, there's a day when corruption is going to put on incorruption. when mortality is gonna put on immortality, where this body of flesh is gonna fade away, and we're gonna have a glorious body, like unto our Savior, that we will be with Him, and yea, like Him. That's a good day, isn't it? Here's the truth. I'm a long way from that day. I'm a long way away from being perfect. I dare say if he's honest, so are you. But I'm glad we've got a promise. He's still working on us, isn't he? Y'all remember Brother Harold Smith that was here back in April, wasn't it? He preached a message and made that message into a book called, A Book Like No Other. And he's talking about the Bible. I listened to the sermon and read the book. It was the same as the sermon, but whatever. In this message, he just makes the point, we've got a book like no other. Guess what? We've got a book like no other. When I read it and I say, oh, this is what I'm supposed to be, Boy, I'm missing it. What do I do? Lord, forgive me, help me. Be merciful unto me. Work this into me. By and by, that's exactly what he does. Over and over and over. Me and Brother Roger's talking about it, even reading through Song of Solomon. Read that thing over and over again. It's amazing. You read the same thing over and over again. The meaning hadn't changed. God said what he meant. He meant what he said. Boy, my understanding of it sure does. It starts working on me. It starts working in me. Let me ask you, can you look back over your life and see a change? I'm not asking you to do anything. Here's what happens. Can I just be plain? I'm going to whether you want me to or not. A lot of people that go to a lot of churches, like our church, you hear people get up and you testify and they talk about this horrible life of sin and drugs and alcohol and they list off all these terrible things that they did and how that God saved them and they don't do any of this stuff no more. Right? Thank God for that. But there's other people sitting on them same pews that ain't never lived that kind of life and they sit there and they think to themselves, well, my testimony don't sound nothing like that. My life hadn't changed like that. I hadn't been a drunk that quit drinking or a drug abuser that quit doing drugs or a fornicator that quit fornicating or whatever. The progress, the sanctification in you may not look like the sanctification in somebody else. The sanctification in me may not look like it does in you. But we can rest in this reality He's working on me just like He's working on you. And by and by, He's gonna knock everything away from me. Boy, it may hurt sometimes. It may be hard. We may stumble. We may fall. We may return back to it again and again and again. But thank God He's merciful and He's not left us to ourselves. We are being sanctified. We are being made like Christ. And He does it through the washing of His Word. He does it through the washing of His Word. I'm glad, no matter how far into sin we get, no matter how dirty we may get, It's not too far that God can't reach us where we are. I appreciate that reality. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this evening. Thank you for your goodness, your grace, your mercy. Lord, thank you for the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would help every one of us from these truths. Lord, thank you that you're working on us, that you're working in us, that often when we look at ourselves, if we're honest, We don't see anything good. But Lord, when we look at you, we see nothing but good. And thank you, Lord, that you're working in us, that by and by, we're gonna be like you. Lord, I pray that you would help every one of us to be actively pursuing after holiness, righteousness, and crucifying the sin that often lives in us. Lord, help us to see our sin the way that you do. But Lord, even in it, help us to see Christ, that loved us and died for us in. Lord, I pray now over this time of the Lord's Supper, pray you bless it in Jesus' name, amen.