Please turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four. And as we continue our series in the book of Ephesians, we come to verses 17 through, excuse me, through 21. 17 through 21 of Ephesians chapter four. The apostle in this fourth chapter has come to the imperative or the command. And in the first part of the chapter, he talks about a Christian unity. And now in this section here, he talks about the practical holiness lived out in the Christian life. And that's what he begins here in verse 17. So let's read 17 through 21 in Ephesians chapter This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. Father in heaven, we pray, oh holy God, would you bless this word to our hearts. Oh God, give me strength of body and mind and speech, Lord God, to speak clearly and plainly Accurately, Lord God, in light. Hear the Holy Spirit through the Word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So this chapter began in verse 1 with the command to, you see it in verse 1 of Ephesians 4, to walk worthy of the vocation. To walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you have been called. And now in verse 17, we are told that we are not, it's put in the negative, we are not to walk as Gentiles, or it means unbelievers. The apostle is obviously using the word walk metaphorically, or he's using the word walk in place of the word that we might use for lifestyle, or how we live in our day-to-day life as Christians. In 2 Timothy 1-9, we are given a description of how God has called us to live. It says, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. The people of God have been called unto holiness, or called unto separation from the world. Or the Christian is not to live as do the unbelievers. Do you see that? Paul is telling us through his apostolic authority, that there must be this clear distinction between us who have faith in Christ and the unbelievers. And this new lifestyle of the Christian begins in the heart. I think we can see that in verse 2. It says, "...with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another, in love." This holy life that God has called His people to begins as we've been over a couple of weeks ago, but it's worth going over again. It begins with a lowly disposition. We can have all the T's crossed and I's dotted as far as our doctrine goes and as far as our outward performance. But if we have not been and are not being humble, we haven't even arrived at first faith in our sanctification. And this Christ-like humility produces a unity among God's people, as the first part of this chapter teaches and as we have been learning over the past several sermons. And that brings us to this section in verse 17, or we must understand that the Christian is called unto a holy life. And a holy life is a separated life. So in the first part of the chapter we were called to unity, now we're being called to separation. Most in the evangelical world today go too far in one direction or the other. Most go too far by teaching that people can be saved without fruit, or that someone can be saved and live in unrepented sin and it doesn't matter because they're saved and going to heaven anyways. This is unequivocally false. It is unequivocally false. Look in Hebrews chapter 12. There's a verse there. that we should be familiar with after the apostle talks about the chastisement of the Lord and doing its work in his people. He then mentioned this in verse number 14. He says, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now some may argue that he's talking about imputed righteousness there. Certainly it's true that we won't see the Lord unless we have an imputed righteousness. But clearly, if you read the chapter, the apostle is addressing the personal character and the personal behavior of the Christian. And that without this holiness, without this separated life unto the Lord, What does it say? You will not, I will not see the Lord. We will not enter heaven. We've been called unto a holy life for those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have done so by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, or we have been born again, or we have been given this new life and have been made new creatures. And now by the power of the Holy Spirit, the people of God have been brought into identification or brought into union with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection in Romans chapter 6. And at the end of that short discourse at the beginning of Romans 6, in verse 14, the apostle, by the power of the Spirit, makes this statement, statement of fact, that this is true of every person who is truly born again. Romans 6 14, for sin shall not, sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Sin, mark it down Sin does not dominate the Christian because we have been given this new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if my life looks exactly like my unconverted neighbor, I can be assured that I am not saved. But on the opposite side of the spectrum, there are those who erroneously and heretically teach the doctrine that is called entire or complete sanctification, or that Christians are perfect, or that Christians do not sin. This is just as bad as the other way. Just as bad as teaching that people can live in sin, and who cares? It's the fact that people teach that Christians do not sin. And if that's the case, then what do you do with 1 John 1? If you wanted to look there in 1 John 1, In verse number 8, the Apostle clearly addresses this issue. And it's interesting that the people that teach perfectionism will get many of their texts from 1 John and twist them. But here in 1 John 1.8 it says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. John uses five, you can count them, five first-person plural pronouns in the present tense in the 18 words of this verse to describe sin as it relates to the Christian, where he emphatically includes himself. The words we, ourselves, and us without question include, the person who's speaking, right? So it could read, if I say that I have no sin, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me. That's John speaking, the apostle, who, without a doubt, is a Christian. Many times in the Bible, Christians are told to properly deal with sin in their lives. And we have real-life examples in the Bible of Christians, even apostles, who sin. and prophets in the Old Testament who sinned. This does not mean that Christians carelessly live in sin, as I just went over, but it does mean that we will have this, as some call it, the old man still clings to us until we die. And only then, when we meet the Lord, will we be completely and forever separated from sin. So our first admonishment in our Christian walk or sanctification in Ephesians 4 was unto unity in the church. And now second, we are admonished unto separation from the world. We are not to walk or live as unbelievers. And so I have, as you can see on the outline of the back of your bulletin, I have three aspects of Christian holiness as it relates to worldliness. You have the command to live separated from the world in 17a. We have the corruption of the world described in 17b through 19. And we have the cure for worldliness in verses 20 through 21. So let's begin with the command to live separate from the world in 17a. It says, this say I therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. There are two types of Gentiles spoken of in this chapter, the converted and the unconverted. And so the Gentiles who were not Christians and the converted Gentiles were being commanded not to walk or to live as unconverted Gentiles. or just unconverted people, we could say. This command is prefaced with the words, you see it there, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord, where Paul is again reminding them, and by default reminding us, that he is speaking upon the authority given to him directly from Jesus Christ himself. He wants us to feel the gravity of what he is about to say that this is no small matter, but the validity or the genuineness of our salvation depends upon what he is about to say. And we need to sit up and take note that how we walk or our personal holiness displays what kind of Christian we are. at its very fundamental part, are we true or counterfeit? Again, this does not mean that Christians are sinless. But it does mean that Christians will sin less. Or sin will not have the same grip on us that we had when we were unconverted, or even when 10 years ago. We're in this progression in Romans chapter 6 again. You see Romans chapter 6 and verse number 22. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. We have been made free from the penalty of sin once and for all by the Lord Jesus taking that penalty upon himself on the cross. We are being made free from the power of sin by the word of God and the Holy Spirit causing the love of Christ to abound in our hearts, thereby sin is lost and is losing its appeal, or we are able to overcome temptation For all temptation, all sin begins where? It begins in the heart, in what we want. And ultimately, when we meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, and we will be set free from the very presence of sin, for sin will have no part of us. Because when we see him, we shall be like him. And this is our final salvation, or what we call glorification. We have been set free from the penalty of sin. We are being made free from the power of sin. That's where we're at today. We're being made free from the power of sin, and we will be made free from the very presence of sin in the future when we meet Christ. But for now, in the time between when we are born again and when we arrive in glory, sin is being overcome, or we are being set apart unto a life of progressive holiness, or we are in the process of sanctification, or we are growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as Peter said, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. However, I find it insightful and very instructional that our command unto holiness, it starts you'll notice in the negative. You see the word not. And I'll get more into that when we get to our third heading, but for now, we are told to walk not as other Gentiles, or walk not as those in the world. And the most commonly known passage that addresses this issue, you'll find in 1 John, back to 1 John again, 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2, I'm sure most or at least some of you are familiar with this passage, was the first book I ever read. The first Christian book I ever read was Love Not the World by Watchman Nee when I was in 11th grade. And he dealt with this passage. And there in 1 John 2, 15 through 17, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." To not love the world is a command. It's a command. It's not something optional. And that is something that automatically happens when we are born again. In context, in 1 John 2, the world doesn't mean, obviously, the globe or the earth itself, but it means the whole world system. And I know I'm overlapping my first and second heading here, but I think it's appropriate. It's the whole world system. the financial or monetary system and materialistic aspect of the world, the values and principles and philosophy of the world, the ego and reputation that men seek in the world, the entertainment and pleasure and luxury that the world offers, the man-centeredness of the carnal man's worldview, or he cannot be motivated beyond what benefits himself or his fellow man. The societal and political systems are included in the world. In 1 Corinthians 4, there in verse number four, the scripture says, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But there you see the word God. God with a small g. And it's Satan, because for this time God has given him more slack on his leash. And Satan blinds the minds of the unconverted because they cannot see beyond what is natural, or they cannot see beyond their need and want for money and material possessions. They are concerned with the morals and values of this world, which are in opposition to what God values. And even though some of the world's values may be good and may be in some way aligned with God's law, ultimately those values and principles are for what? They're for the glory of man, to the exclusion of the glory of God. I mean, God is like excluded. You can see it in entertainment. I hope you don't watch too much of it, but TV programs and movies, they just totally eliminate God for the most part. God's not even there in their mindset. And men seek comfort and entertainment and pleasure and prestige by advancing in this world system. But we have been called out of the world system, even though we live in the world. We are not called to live as recluses or hermits, right? We have jobs. We own things. We have interaction with people in the world. That is not wrong. But we are not to love the world, or find our security here, or find our hope in this world. Our hope is in another world. It's in Christ's kingdom. We are not of this world. We are in the world, as they say, but not of the world. We are in the world or not of the world, or we are not participants in its sin. As we just read in 1 John 2, anyone who loves this world does not love God. Isn't that what it says? The world system and Jesus Christ's everlasting kingdom are diametrically opposed. or this world system and Christ's kingdom are irreconcilably opposed, or they cannot be brought together. We either love God or we love this world. There is no third option. This is a command that we do not live as unbelievers. when that leads us to our second heading. Well, what is the world in more particular? We went through some of that already. But let's look at verses 17-19, and look at this further description, which is my second heading, the corruption of the world described. And there in the second part of 17, in verse 18, it says, As other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. The world is corrupt and wicked because of the people who occupy the world are corrupt and wicked, which includes all of us at one time, right? Or all of us have were not saved, among whom we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath," in Ephesians 2.2. People say that they are sinful because they live in a sinful world. Right? That's backwards. The world is sinful because the people that live in it are sinful. And the world is the collective wickedness of every human on earth that is outside of Christ. And our wicked hearts call out to the wickedness in the world. The wickedness exists because that's what people buy, right? That's what they're interested in. As we read a few minutes ago in 1 John 2, he describes the world as the lust of the flesh. the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the lust of the flesh or the passions of the heart, like greed and sexual lust and covetousness. And so the political and social status in the world is driven by money, while the advertising and entertainment world are driven by sexual lust predominantly. And covetousness is multiplied a thousand times over You drive from one place to another and you see these big stores everywhere, more and more, because that's what people want. It's covetousness. It is filled in the human heart. And the more the unregenerate heart gets, guess what? The more it wants. Like they ask the richest man in the world, how much is enough money? Do you know what his answer was? Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. That's all I want. And when you get that, what do you want? You want a little bit more. And usually once you get that, you'll want a lot more. Men think that when they get to a certain level in their income that they'll be satisfied. Oh, no. No, no. Once you hit 60, 80, 100,000, you're suddenly thinking about 200,000 and how you can get to that goal next year. Then when you hit that, suddenly you want more and more and your heart can't be filled. It's worldly, it's all around us. How many people only consider worldliness as going to the bar and getting drunk? or buying a prostitute or living in some kind of sexual sin. Certainly those things are worldliness and they must be rejected by the people of God most definitely. But if worldliness is the monetary system, it's being wrapped up in the fact that I want more, in the covetousness of my heart, in the good side of the system, as we might say. And the side that you might look at and say, well, those are good moral people, but yet their motive is still what? Self and the promotion of man instead of the glory of God. It's worldliness. We are not to walk in it. Those who walk in this world walk in the vanity of their mind, the text says. The word vanity means futility or emptiness. And it is a reference to the idolatry of the Gentile world. And oh, were they idolaters there in Ephesus. You might remember in Acts 18 and 19 when the apostle Paul went to Ephesus, and then in chapter 19 there was this huge uproar that a group of men had stirred up because Paul was stealing their idol-making business. And in verse 34 of Acts 19, it says, but when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, great is Diana of Ephesus. Oh, can we imagine being in the middle of this tumult of thousands of people chanting and screaming to their goddess? These people were intensely idolatrous. And we really don't understand this in our culture. But in that culture, their idolatry was woven into every part of their culture. And for someone to break away from it, they were ostracized or shunned from the community. And many of the Christians were unable to work and were disowned by their families, and they lost many or some of their possessions. We saw this when we were down in Mexico just a couple of months ago. How people there, when they get born again and they leave their false religion, their false idolatrous religion, they suffer for it. One woman was beat up by her husband while we were there because she hadn't come to one of the meetings. This is a horrifying thing that people are idolatrous. in the same type of situation here, but we should recognize that we do live in idolatrous culture. Except in our culture, people idolize money and fame and sports and political parties and many other things. And verse 18 says, having the understanding darkened. The understanding, it goes from dark to darker. It's darkened in Romans chapter 1. look there with me, we'll look at a few texts there in Romans 1. A couple of us went over this yesterday, but there in Romans chapter 1, and let's look at a larger section there, 19 through 23, Romans 1, 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish art was darkened. Perfecting themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. All men know that there is a God and that there is a coming judgment. I believe that verse 19 that we just read in Romans 1 is a reference to the conscience spoken of in Romans chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15. That every man's conscience is active That's where we go after them when we're evangelizing. We go after the conscience and telling them that they are accountable to God. And in verse 20, the creation is shouting to all men that God is eternal, all-powerful, and sovereign. But because of the corruption of the heart, men refuse in their rebellion to give God the honor due to His name. And their wicked hearts become unthankful when God has provided all things that are good and is worthy to be thanked. And they digress into vain imaginations, similar to what we just read in Ephesians 4. Vain imaginations or empty, self-glorifying thoughts that increase the darkness that word darkness can also be translated as hardness. The darkness or hardness of the unregenerate heart. And the more they learn, the greater their foolishness becomes. In verse 22, and they change the eternal and infinite God into something corruptible or finite. And this is the downfall of every individual and the downfall of every civilization. They are without excuse because their conscience and creation is preaching to them about God every day. And they refuse to listen because they want to be their own God. They say, without Christ, we want to be our own God. And we do not want God to rule over us. And in our man-centered thinking, our minds grow darker. Or we are, without being born again, we make creation, what is created into a God. You see that in verse 25 in Romans chapter 1, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Changing God and worshiping the creation. And then good becomes evil, and evil becomes good, as we see in much of the world today. In verse 19 of Ephesians 4 we read, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with all greediness. Or in Romans 1.28, if you're still in Romans 1, And even as they do not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not. They are so sinful that men will even destroy their own bodies to gratify their wicked pleasure. And as people push God away and they continually insist upon their own way, which is the certainly what Paul is talking about in Romans 1, God at a certain point gives them over to reprobation. You see that word reprobate in verse 28, where Paul says that their conscience is seared with a hot iron in 2 Timothy 4. Or their conscience has become so callous that it can feel no guilt or shame of sin. And they are doomed in this condition. We don't know who they are. We don't know who the reprobate are. But the world is filled with reprobates or with people who can never turn to Christ because of the extreme hardness of their heart. And such would we all be. We would all be in that condition except for God's grace, except for his kindness that he has turned us. Which brings us to our third heading. First, we have the command, that every Christian is commanded to be separate from the Gentiles, to be separate from the world. Second, we have the corruption of the world, that is, the corruption of humanity, increased by each other. And then third, we have the cure, the cure for worldliness, in verses 20 through 21. but ye have not so learned Christ," in verse 20, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. So that language is a little difficult, I think, but let's work through it. I think it's pretty clear, though, what he's saying, that the cure for our attachment to this world is to learn Christ, as verse 20 says. But what does it mean to learn Christ? We must first learn the doctrines that teach us about Jesus Christ. Many are led into deception and are still attached to this world because they don't understand, or their understanding is still darkened, as it says in verse 18, and their hearts are darkened to the glory of Jesus Christ. They think the Bible is about something else other than that. Do you see that? Many know much about the Bible, but if we don't know much about what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ, then we will remain unconverted while continuing the dangerous part to look like Christians in certain ways. These are they who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof," Paul describes them, where they are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The Bible speaks about Jesus Christ on every page. You listen to some people and they come up with the most cockamamie doctrines that are damning. And you wonder, how are they coming up with that? And I'm telling you, The first reason it happens is because Christ is not at the center of their theology. Man centers. We must be well-grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ or else everything that we believe can lead us to deception. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, for there is no way to heaven, no truth, or no life outside of Jesus Christ. We learned of His humanity, that He was fully God. Oh, I'm sorry, His humanity, that He was fully man, and yet born of a virgin. We learned of His divinity, that He is God, equally eternal and infinite with His Father and the Holy Spirit. We have learned of His substitutionary atonement on the cross, or that all the wrath of God was poured out upon Christ when He hung on the cross. for all the sin of all those who believe. We have learned of his resurrection, that Jesus Christ bodily came forth from the grave by the power of the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by his own power, the Bible says. The Bible says all three rose Christ from the dead. And by his resurrection, he has conquered death. Or as he said himself in John 11, he is the resurrection and life. or death could not hold Him because all life resides in Christ. We have learned of His ascension, or Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and has this seated position at His Father's right hand as Lord and sovereign King over all, whose kingdom has no end in scope and eternity. And we have learned Christ and that He is coming back, and that He will return in great wrath, destroying the wicked. And at the same time, He will gather His people unto Himself, and He will forever rule and reign from His everlasting throne in Jerusalem, even David's throne, and the new heaven and the new earth. And this is our hope and confident expectation Any preacher that promises you hope in this world is selling you a bridge, just to let you know, if you know what I mean. The hope we have is in Christ's eternal kingdom. What hope it is, is it not? We were taught of Christ. It says in verse 21, it sounds The language sounds a little strange, that we were taught of Christ and we were taught by Jesus Christ, or we have learned Christ and that we have been taught by Him, in verse 21. We have heard His voice through the Bible. We've heard His voice through the Bible. Or John 10, 27, the Lord Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. Or it was Jesus Christ who first pursued us. It was Christ who pursued us and called us. And then we were able to repent and believe what he called us to the praise and glory of his name. Or the Lord Jesus Christ said that no man comes to me unless the Father brought him. Or about Matthew chapter 11 in verse number 27, Matthew 11, 27. After Christ pronounces those great woes on the cities there, he follows it up in verse 27 and says, all things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. the Son reveals the Father. To whom? To whomsoever He wills. It's His grace. The Lord Jesus has revealed God to us as the Scripture has become alive in our hearts by His sovereign grace. Our hearts were darkened and dead, but now by the power of Christ speaking to us through the Scripture, we have become enlightened to the truth of His glory and made spiritually alive. And now Christ is our life, or we have been declared holy in heaven because he is holy, or we are clothed with his righteousness. And if that is true, we are becoming more holy on earth because Christ is in us. And again, he is holy. We were born the first time with a direct connection to this world and the wickedness of its system as we contributed to its accumulation of evil. But when we were born again, we now have a direct connection to Christ and our attachment to this world must be severed or cut off. John Calvin said, he whose life differs not from that of the unbelievers, has learned nothing of Christ, for the knowledge of Christ cannot be separated from the mortification of the flesh." Oh, there is a negative side to this. He said, unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. Sorry to report to you, but taking up your cross is not a pleasant thing. It's very arduous, it's very difficult. Look with me in Romans chapter 8 in conclusion. In Romans chapter 8 in verses 11 through 13. There at the end of 7 and all through chapter 8, Paul is dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life. And there in verse 11 through 13, but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, right, to live after the flesh. Don't live after the Gentiles. We are not debtors to the flesh, for if you live after the flesh, he shall die. But if through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Live everlastingly and die everlastingly if we live after the flesh. Oh, there is a positive side and a negative side. We have been raised to new life, to worship and adore and love our Lord Jesus. That is the positive side. And if that is true, If that is true, we will be motivated and empowered to mortify the deeds of the body. To mortify the deeds of the body, or kill sin, or not to feed the flesh, to make, as the Scripture says, no provision for the flesh. I've counseled young men at times, and they tell me the sins that they've fallen into, and I asked them their behavior that led up to that sin, and I said, well, of course you fell into that sin. Smash your phone and throw it in the trash can if you look at pornography on it. Right? Mortify the deeds of the body. Cut off all opportunity for your flesh to sin. Jesus said what? cut off your hand, pluck out your eye, if that's what it takes. Because this is serious. Mortification is not a walk down the sidewalk whistling. Mortification of sin, as it talks about in Colossians 3, here in Romans 8, the word picture is Samuel, when he took the sword of Saul, and he hacked Agag to pieces. Picture the man of God and what he has to do to his sin. He has to be that violent toward his sin. If not, you're done. Your sin will overtake you. No doubt about it. Your sin will take you over because your sin is violently pursuing you. And you must violently fight against it. Because we love the Lord Jesus Christ, because we worship Him, because we adore Him, we are willing to kill sin and not to live as the Gentiles live, as our text says. The Christian is in a mortal or deadly battle against sin, and we must fight with everything that is in us. But it will never work if we are not fighting because we love and worship the Lord Jesus. Think of a soldier going out to war, and he doesn't love his country and love his family. What kind of fighter is he going to be? Not much. He goes and fights because he loves his country. He loves his family. And he wants to defend the honor of it. And therefore, if we love our Lord Jesus, we will fight against sin. We will fight against sin. Oh, we have also, though, been taught by him, our text says, by Christ. And I would think that it means there's several plausible ways that this could be interpreted in verse 21, but I would I think it's interpreted that we know Him and we are taught by Him experientially. We know Christ's loving touch. Have you ever been in a trial and it feels like the whole world is coming down upon you? And there is Christ, sweeter than He's ever been. This is where Christ meets his people. We know his loving touch, and we have seen something of the splendor of his majesty. We have trembled at the sight of his awesome sovereignty, and we have fell down in worship in contemplation of his all-encompassing power and wisdom and holiness. We have learned of Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, in verse 21. And our lives can never be the same. Our lives can never be the same. The command to live separate from the world or to not live as the Gentiles is based upon the Kirin. For now we live in and for another kingdom. We live in and for another kingdom. We once lived for the kingdom of this world. We once lived for the kingdom of this world, whether on the good side or on the bad side. There's no way around it. When we were unconverted, we lived for the kingdom of this world, but now we live for the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. revealed to us and its glory has left us in awe. We say, Lord, whatever it takes, I'll make no provision for the flesh. If it means metaphorically plucking out my eye, then I have to take that step to mortify the deeds of the flesh. This is not optional. Thereby we flee from worldliness. We are separate from the world. It's not easy. You walk out the door, there's the world, right? It's here. It's in our face. It's everywhere we go. You're not in battle against it. It certainly is in battle against you because it's ran, as we read in 2 Corinthians 4, by the God of this world, who is Satan, who God has allowed through this time to run this whole system that you see around us, this whole world system. In 1 John 5, 19, it says, the whole world lieth in wickedness, that the whole world lies under the sway, it could be translated, under the sway of the wicked one. But except for those who are in Christ, for those who know him, for those who have been taught of him, and those who have been taught, as we read in Ephesians 4, those who have been taught by him, taught by him. we know the experience of Christ. The question is, what is Christ doing in my life today? One man said, if my testimony is from yesterday, it's a day late. You see what he's saying? That we have real interaction with Christ today through learning his word. And hearing him speak this scripture, he's more and more exalted in our minds. And thus, we are more and more abased or made low before him. And we are brought to this place of worship and total allegiance to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. People at work can see it. Not because we walk around with our nose up in the air, right? No, because they see the humility of Christ in us. They see that you don't talk about your coworkers like they do. You don't participate in the gospel. You don't talk bad about the boss as the other people do. They see that. Your neighbors see it. We're living testimonies of Christ for the glory of his name because we live in this consistent worship of him and thereby we are separated from the world. We are not like the world. They are living for a totally different motive. Their motive is self and what they can get for themselves and their own families and everyone else that they can do whatever they can do for. But the motive of the believer is to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, is to live for him. Whether I eat or whether I drink, the apostle said, We do it to the glory of God. And what he meant by eating and drinking, in the very most mundane things, in the most common things that we do, in tying my shoes, I want to do it for the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If God has done that work in our hearts, we'll be willing to cut off the world and not live as the Gentiles live, as it says in our text, are not to live as unbelievers in the pride of life. We live in humility, the humility of Christ. We can say, it's okay if someone wrongs me. We read it in 1 Corinthians this morning, the group of us that were praying together. In 1 Corinthians, was it chapter 6? Paul is rebuking the Corinthians, saying, just take the wrong! Why are you going to court with your brother, he tells them? Just take the wrong. Christ took the wrong for us when he deserved none of it. And oh, how that ought to affect us when someone wrongs us, we can say. It's okay. I don't have to get retribution. I don't have to be rebayed because I have a Savior. who took the wrong for me, and we are committed to Him and glorifying Him, and thereby we are separate from the world. We live not as the Gentiles. In the name of God, in the name of Jesus, in the name of our Father, by His grace, amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your holy word. Oh God, thank you that our Lord Jesus died for us. He took the wrong for us, but he deserved none of it. We deserved it all. Lord Jesus, you took it on yourself. You did not think you were getting ripped off, Lord. You did it in a humble and meek spirit, Lord. Put that humble and meek spirit in us, Lord God. Please work in our hearts in a mighty way. sole allegiance to Jesus Christ. And might we not live as the world, make no provision for the flesh. Oh, Lord, how can we do that? It's impossible, Lord. You must do it in us. You must do it in us, Lord. We are reliant upon you. Might we make no provision of the flesh that our Lord Jesus Christ magnified. Lord, send us forth today in the power of the Holy and the source of the love of Christ in our hearts.