Well, I'm glad to be back with you all here at Heritage Baptist, and I appreciate you putting up with me. My charge today is to describe and to engage you to participate in the battle for the church. And I'm going to tell you that that's a four pronged battle that we face. It's a battle against the influence of the world, which we heard a little bit about yesterday. It's a battle within the flock, which we heard a little bit about yesterday. And it's a battle against the flesh, which we heard a little bit about yesterday. And it's a battle for godliness. Now, in each area of the battle, the key to success is 12 steps. No, it's not. The key to the battle is being renewed in your mind on the truth of God. Second Corinthians 3, 4 and 5 says we have this kind of confidence towards God through Christ. It is not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. See, Paul is talking about being ministers of the new covenant. which is the foundation of being equipped to win this four-pronged battle. We do not fight with carnal weapons. We renew our minds. We understand that whatever skill, whatever passion, whatever competence we have, it's not that which comes from ourselves. It's that which God has given us. And as you look at the local body of saints, you will be reminded that the scripture says that the spirit of God has put y'all here as it pleased him. And he has gifted each one of y'all. Not to satisfy yourselves, but to serve one another. Okay, so we're supposed to engage in a spiritual battle for the church. But I've got to stop before I get to our text, which is going to be Ephesians 4, if you want to turn there. And while you're turning there, I've got to ask the question, what is the church? People use this term all over the place in many ways. And is what they call the church worth fighting for? It's common for people to talk about going to church. filling up the church, or pointing out, look at that beautiful church. Any student of the Bible will know that buildings are not the church. This confusion is intentional. The state church of England went out of its way to forbid the translation of the Greek word ekklesia. The Geneva Bible came up with using the word church in 1560. And when the King James Bible was being translated, he commanded the translators, do not interpret that word, but use the old ecclesiastical words, church. Now why would a state church guy who was trying to build himself up separate from Rome, because you know, that's what he was doing. State church gets their membership based on geography. Kind of like public schools in the U.S. And you don't have to believe anything. You just have to know you belong because of where you were born and where you live. It doesn't comport with the state church for its people to know. that what Jesus and what God and what the Holy Spirit are describing when you see that word in your English Bible, it's not some nebulous word church that can mean a location. It is the gathered ones, the called out ones. The older English Bibles used congregation. They didn't use the word church, they used congregation. Now you think about all the times you use the word church, put assembly or congregation in there, understanding it's the assembly of saints, right? It's that congregation. It's a different mindset than just say, let's go to church, let's do church. That doesn't make sense. That's what I want you to press upon you. If you're going to be in a battle for something, know what it is you're fighting for. If the church is just this building, it ain't worth fighting for. The body of Christ. We've heard about, you can't have peace with God unless you have faith in Christ. Unless His blood was shed on your account. You don't know him. You don't have his love. He can't be your father. But if. If your sins have been atoned for, you are part of his body and your brothers and sisters in the faith. They are worth fighting for. We must run in such a way as to win the prize. This is the battle that the author of Hebrews, which was not Paul, but that's not discussion here. We must run in such a way to win the prize, knowing that the Lord has already won the war. Do you have that kind of confidence in God? He has won the war. When Christ was raised from the dead, the grave was overthrown. Satan was put on notice. He was defeated. The strong man has been bound and we are sons of liberty. Is that true in your soul? Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to look at the first six verses as the battle against the world. Ephesians 4, the first six verses, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received with all humility and gentleness and patience, accepting one another in love. Diligently, diligently keeping the unity of the spirit with the peace that binds us. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to one hope at your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. This chapter opens with a prisoner of the Lord urging us to walk rightly before God and man. Humility, good gentleness and patience. Do you find these characteristics prized by the world? Do the politicians and the other business leaders that men look up to, are they humble? Are they gentle? Are they patient? These things ought to characterize the saints of God, allowing us to accept one another as we have been accepted in Christ. It's contrary to the world's call of tolerance. See, they don't want to accept anybody. They just want to tolerate you if you will affirm what they believe and how they act. You look around the nation, you'll see countless congregations of professing Christians who approve of that which God calls an abomination. After decades of seeker-sensitive activity in which local assemblies were taught to look, act, and taught like the world in order to attract people of the world, they became just like the world. The hard sayings get smoothed out and people get comfortable in their sin. And those people ended up gaining such an influence that they ran the local church. And the Southern Baptist convention is reaping the whirlwind that it has sown. But the high calling of this short paragraph is to realize the headship of every local assembly of saints and of every child of God does not depend on circumstance. He does not depend on the arm of man. Even in one, even one in prison can be faithful in his work. Paul was in prison when he wrote this book. We at community Baptist and Elmendorf, we've got an active prison ministry. And one of the prisoners that we have a relationship with is in jail in California. And he gets like a lot of prisoners gets teased about getting released through parole. That never happens. And he got converted while he's in prison. And man, he is engaged with the word of God and with the prisoners showing them the glory of God and the son of man, and he can't get out of jail. And he, he tries, he writes letters. He's trying to be content like Paul learned and be faithful. Like Paul demonstrated. He was. And see, we can't pin our hopes on the temporal blessings. We may or may not have name. They ain't sinful. It ain't sinful to have air conditioning. But we can't pin our hopes on the building that ain't the church while we're thankful to God for having this building. Heard an Anglican tell a Baptist years ago, you guys call this your sanctuary. Well, you know, if you look at what that word means, I tell you, my sanctuary is in heaven where Christ is. This is a rain shelter. That's what this is. Man, I like that Anglican brother. One author said this. In Ephesians 4, this text we looked at, you find the same combination as you find in 2 Corinthians 13, 14. It's a creedal formulation expressed in term of the distinguishable activities of the triune God. The basis for Christian unity is the one God. We heard a little bit about that in the previous lesson. The one body is the work of the one spirit by whom we also live our present eschatological existence in one hope since the spirit is the down payment on our inheritance. All of this has been made possible for us by our one Lord in whom we have one faith and to which faith all have been given witness through one baptism. The source of all these realities is the one God himself who is, as the scripture says, above all and through all and in all. See, the battle for the world, against the world rather, is the battle for our identity. We cannot have the impact on the fallen world that we are called to have if we are transformed into what the world cherishes. You can't be a good father if you always give your small child what he wants. You know what he needs better than he does. So it is with our heavenly father. He knows better what we need than the world does. In many ways, the world seeks to tear us loose from the moorings of the rock, which is Christ. And we're not called to wage war against the world with carnal weapons. And this is another failing of the state church. They, they look around and they see people who don't see things the way they do. And they go to the court. and they haul them before the judge. This happened in the colonies. The Dutch people, you read in school how the Dutch people, they got tired of being persecuted in Europe by the state church over there, and so they came to the colonies. And you know what they did? In New England, they set up state church. And you know what they did? They persecuted Baptists who didn't see things the way they did. The world When you marry an institution that God gave the world, the state, with an institution that God created for His people, the local assembly of saints, you are... What did that guy say last night? You got one corduroy leg and one denim leg on your pants? It's not supposed to be. So, we'll go on. And I'm not going to go through every verse, but we're going to start at verse 11 and look through verse 16, the battle within the flock. Cause y'all may not know this, but things aren't always peaches and cream in the local assembly. Verse 11, and he personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the training of the saints and the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ fullness. Then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching by human cunning with cleverness and the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head Christ from him. The whole body fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper work working of each individual part. It would be a shame for us to have schisms and party spirits within a congregation, but it's a very real problem that we have to deal with. It's a very real problem that Heritage Baptist is still recovering from. It's nothing that you can simply wink at and pretend that it's all going to be okay. Now we can all disagree or some of us can disagree on all kinds of different things. What's the proper interpretation of end times? Well, you know, that's not the gospel, so can we have a debate on that but not divide over that? we can have some disagreement about who is all Israel. You know, Romans 11, 26, all Israel is going to be saved. Who's that talking about? OK, let's have some debate about that. Maybe we can inform and sharpen understanding. But should you divide over that? I say no. So there are provision that has been made in our account to love each other biblically in spite of the friction that we have with our preferences. The problem for you and me is we tend to magnify things that are not primary. And that causes friction where it should not to. Cling to the gospel without retreat. Defend your core doctrines from scripture and learn to keep opinions quiet in order to keep the peace. See, the enemy is going to use any angle to disrupt and divide us. He don't care that we have disagreements, he wants those to prosper and proliferate. All too often, these divisions are nothing more than a product of personal ambition. I believe this, and I want my way to be the way we go. This is anathema to the biblical call to think of others more highly than oneself and to seek understanding and unity rather than to divide over lesser things. Notice how Paul expresses this. He says, the one God and Father who is above all and through all and in all has personally given some men as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor teachers. These men are called by God to serve the people of God, the body of Christ, by training them for the work that God has laid out for us in scripture. See, it's been described by many folks that the church is not a cruise ship, it's a battleship. You see, the elders are not simply the cruise directors. They are the front line that are supposed to equip the people to do the work of the ministry. Each person in the local assembly is brought to maturity in unity and faith, growing in the grace of knowledge of Jesus Christ by all of us working together to build one another up. You know, Paul is a qualified elder. James is a qualified elder. These men are not the sole equipers because they are not all knowing in themselves. And everybody here has got a part to play, and all of us should be engaged and provoked by others to play our part. God has called you out of darkness and translated you into the kingdom of his glorious light to serve one another, to help build up the body to the maturity, not comparing one man to another. No, it says measured by Christ's fullness. When you look at Christ and see you ain't what you're supposed to be, your response ought to be one of humble repentance, joy at being found in Him, and a desire to be grown up and to seek brothers and sisters who will help you grow up to maturity as measured by Christ's fullness. Now, we cannot be like Christ in this age. We ain't never going to be like him in a lot of ways, but we will be like him a whole lot more when he comes a second time. And I won't get into end times today. If we keep this focus on Christ's fullness to behold the glory of God in Christ, this will keep us focused on the goal so that we run this race, we fight this battle with purpose. You know, I was in the army and I know that when you go to war, you get a mission statement and the first thing in there is objective. Why are you going to war? What's this battle about? We've got to have that in front of us as Christians, individually and corporately. You have the enemy you have to tangle with. He's in the world out there. You've got yourself as you affect others in the body of Christ that you've got to engage with. When Peter backslid into Judaism, Paul rebuked him in front of the brothers that were gathered with him. Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy because he was eating with the Gentiles. He was enjoying bacon and all the other good foods that if received with Thanksgiving, they're supposed to be good for us. And when the Jews came up from James's church, he backtracked a little bit. He started eating kosher and kind of looking down his nose at them boys that was eating pork. And Paul came up to him and said, look at the rest of the Jews have joined in your hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was carried away. But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas, that's Peter in front of everybody. If you who are a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? I want what's mine and you got to behave like I want you to. This is not how you learned Christ, it is said in another place. Disunity is unthinkable to the apostle who knew that God would be profaned if this secondary issue. He would say to the Corinthian church, do not destroy a brother by what you eat. You got weak brothers, you got strong brothers. Do not use your liberty to cause a brother to stumble. And there's a two-edged sword here that he's talking about. Be careful that you understand that by your actions and by your words you can profane the name of Yahweh and you will study the scriptures and find out that that is always and everywhere condemned. We ought never give anybody cause to profane the name of God. God's way of dealing with fighting within his people is always found in his written word. It's not Dr. Phil or Oprah can tell us how to deal with one another. The goal for heritage Baptist and for every other assembly of saints is to speak the truth in love, growing in every way into Christ, into Christ, because from him, the body is fit together and nurtured in love so that every part works properly. You can't. You can't think rightly about the part you play in the local assembly of saints if you do not ponder this great mystery that you have been made a member of Christ's body so that you would be full and so that the local assembly would be full. How do you work to make that body complete? If you are apathetic, you're in sin. You ought to be actively engaged in looking, how can I serve these people? How can I help this brother or sister? God has given you something. It may be prayer. It may be money. It may be energy. It may be ability to teach. Are you using that to bring blessings to others in Heritage Baptist or wherever you call home? None of us is to envy the role another plays. None of us has looked down on another who plays a lesser role. And for the sake of time, I'm going to skip some things I was going to say. So you can thank me there that lunch won't have to wait too long. See, Paul said to the Romans, He said in Romans 15, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It ain't on you. This is all God. My brothers, I am convinced that about you, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that the gift I am bringing to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. And by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you. Apostles needed refreshing and encouragement from ordinary Christians. Paul Washer said at a conference years ago, there are no great men of God. There are only weak men greatly used by a great and holy God. You can be thankful to God for men who have served well and from whom you've benefited, but don't think too highly of them. There is one God who has worked through him and made him competent. It ain't from himself. We have to be careful that we do not fall into the pit of being disciples of another man and calling somebody else father when there is only one who is our spiritual father. Every member of the body is needed if the body is to function properly. and for the body to function properly and for us not to be like children who are tossed about. You know somebody who's young in the faith is like a three-year-old and they will believe anything. When my son, he was older than three, Joan was out somewhere and we were watching a movie. We turned it on after it started. It was an old sci-fi movie called Mission to Mars. And it was presented as a documentary. and we were watching, I like cheap sci-fi, and all of a sudden my genius son said, Dad, is this real? And instantly my sinful nature evoked itself and said, yeah, that's why we're watching it. It's a news report of what's actually happening. We're going to Mars. And so we watched the whole movie. And every time the president was shown on TV and Brad, who knew the president was, he was going to the bathroom or getting something to eat. It was God's providence that he didn't see any of those giveaways. And so they were fixing to land on Mars, and Joan comes home from whatever she was doing, and the kids tell her, mama, mama, look, we're going, and she just drops her purse, and she goes to the back of the house to change clothes, says, your dad's been lying to you again. And you know how it says in the book of Daniel when those people were saying the Jew boys were not worshiping the God and the visage of King Nebuchadnezzar's face changed? That's what happened to my kids. They looked at me and the visage on their face changed. And it was not one of rapt awe about what was happening. It was one of realized anger at the deception that had been pushed upon them. And they jumped on me and they beat me near to death. We can deceive people if we want to. It's not our call. There are people who stand behind pulpits around this country and they tell people lies. Paul Washer said, Joe Loewstein is not the problem. The problem is Joe Loewstein is God's judgment on those people who want their ears tickled. The third point, the battle against our flesh, we'll look at verses 17 through 24. Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord. This is a man who knew where his authority came from, his confidence came from. I say this and testify in the Lord. You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God and because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you learned about the Messiah, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, because the truth is in Jesus. You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires. You are being renewed in the spirit of your minds. You put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. The battle against our flesh is what Paul is describing here in one sense. And the biggest problem with sin is it's got I in the middle of it. You may have heard that in a song. That's why I heard that. We can run away from others. We can hide sin from others, but self will always have to face The sin that's in the middle. David said his sin was ever before his face. We can't hide from it because nothing is hidden from God. And if you're his child, he will put that right in front of your eyes, just like we're supposed to have the word of God right in front of our eyes, because that sin that we hold to gets in the way of us seeing him correctly through the word. We ought to be one who cry out for repentance whenever He shows us that sin that we cling to so dearly. It's a clear danger sign when a child of God runs from God rather than to God in repentance for sin. Because if you are His child, He will never throw you out. And if you have one that will not throw you out, and you're in trouble, should you run to Him? Or should you run away from Him? To whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? Those who are not reunited to Christ, they're not reconciled to God through Christ. Look how they're called out. They're callous, they're promiscuous, they're impure, they're insatiable, corrupt, and deceitful. That's who you were before you came to know Jesus. Look how Paul describes those people with those who are in Christ. They have learned of him. They are renewed in the spirit of their minds. They are sporting something better than nice clothes. They have a new self, a new man, a new creature, which is after Christ likeness after God's likeness and righteousness and purity of the truth. And the truth, this passage tells us, the truth is Christ Jesus. That's who we are to pursue. Paul says, don't be childish in your thinking, but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking. That's first Corinthians 14, 20. Our first parents became adult in regards to evil and childish in their thinking, believing they should be like God. Sober minded thinking about ourselves being innocent of evil is the call of God for you and me. This keeps us from being vulnerable to the sinful desires of the flesh, which caused so much grief to the local assembly of saints. You are called to be wise as serpents. Be wise in the way of the world, the scripture says. Why? So you won't be deceived and tossed about by cunning, deceitful men. but be like innocent towards evil. Why? Because a man who's not innocent towards evil is a man who thinks he can handle it. And you cannot tame your sin any more than you can tame a rattlesnake. And you ought to be childlike. Children are afraid of rattlesnakes. You and I ought to be afraid of sin. A man who's wise in his own eyes, he thinks he can handle it. I'm all that. I'm good. God help us. There's a book I just read by a Pentecostal guy named Gordon Fee. I can't imagine by what he wrote in this book that they didn't throw him out. He wrote this book, Paul, the spirit and the people of God. He describes this battle between the spirit and the flesh pointing to the conflict in Galatians 517, which says the flesh desires what is against the spirit and the spirit desires what is against the flesh. These two are opposed to each other so that you don't do what you want. He says that Paul would not have his focus on our internal struggle as Western psychologists advise us to do. Look into yourself. and see what's going on. What childhood memories scarred you so badly that caused you to do the things you're doing today? This is not how the Apostle, commissioned by Christ, taught by Christ, would have us think. Paul would, Fee says, Paul was a Psalms 19 kind of guy. Psalms 19, I'll read some highlights of it, starts out focused on God and it stays focused on God. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour out speech. Night after night, they communicate knowledge. The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one's life. We read about being renewed in this passage. The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy. making the inexperienced wise, the precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad. The command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. Your servant is warned by them. There is great reward in keeping them who preserve, who perceives his unintentional sins. Cleanse me from my hidden faults, your servant from willful sins. Do not let them rule over me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. And this song, David is a man who doesn't want to be deceived by sins, hidden or willful. He wants, he pleads with God to cleanse him of those sins, to not let them rule over him. As he, this is what sin wants to do. It wants to rule over you. It wants to rule over mankind individually and corporately. The solution is to take sin seriously, but not try to manage it or kill it yourself, because you must look to God for cleansing. You must look to God for fellowship with him and with one another, such that your minds are filled with the glory of God in creation and in his written word preserved for us. Second Corinthians 5, 14 to 17. Lunch might get cold. Go this way, 2 Corinthians 5, 14 through 17. For Christ's love compels us since we have reached this conclusion. If one died for all, then all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, no longer live for themselves, but for the one, but live for the one who died for them and was raised. From now on then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way, even God. if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away and look, new things have come. Fee says, the death and resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit have changed everything. One of the, let me finish the quote, the former order of things is described in terms of flesh, that is basically a self-centered, creature-oriented point of view, which has caused the Corinthians to regard Paul as he had formerly regarded Christ in a human way, weak and therefore not God. Before Paul got yanked off his high horse, Christ was not God in his eyes. He knew him in a human way. The flesh perceives things from the old age point of view where value and significance lie in power, influence, wealth, and wisdom." End of quote. This eschatological view should have us rightly seeing that we did walk according to the flesh before our redemption, but now we walk according to the spirit. Romans 8 verses 5 through 8. The problem with looking only to the old covenant saints is that The last part of Hebrews 11 verses 39 and 40 says that they did not possess everything. They were not made complete until This happened. What was this? It was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The giving of the spirit, the spirit would come upon and sit on and rest on saints in the old covenant, but the spirit was not given to live within until Pentecost. Something had to be done. The Christ had to be sacrificed. We still live in a world that walks according to the flesh and we can act out in the flesh. Paul talks about this. You can act out in the flesh, but you're warned in scripture to guard against this. Paul says, walk in the spirit and you shall not carry out the desire of the flesh. You don't, you tired of carrying out the desire of your flesh. Consider him walk in the spirit and look not to yourself for competence, We are who are in Christ live between the ages. We're already in the kingdom of God, but the deeds of the flesh will not be wiped out in our lives completely until the consummation of all things. When the Lord Jesus comes a second time. And the Bible says that when he comes a second time, he's not going to come to deal with sin. He'd been there, done that got the marks, right? When he comes a second time, Hebrews nine says, he's going to gather those who eagerly await him. You can't be at peace with your sinful desires and eagerly await the coming of Christ. So you must focus your eyes on Him, and then you will eagerly await Him. Alright, quickly I'm going to look at the last and the most important topic. You know, you can fight against the world, You can fight against the divisions within the local assembly, and you can fight against the flesh. But the last part is the most important part. You have to battle for unity, purity, and fidelity. Ephesians 4, 25 through 32. Since you put away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor. because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down in your anger and don't give the devil an opportunity. The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only that which is good for building up someone in need. As the brother said yesterday, our primary focus is not to tear down. It is right here is to build up someone in need so that it gives grace to those who hear and don't grieve God's Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. All bitterness, anger, wrath, shouting, and slander must be removed from you along with all malice and be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Boom. So we don't fight against evil. That's not the only fight that we have. We fight for that which is good, that which is honorable. Paul wrote, if there be anything of good report, any virtue, any praise, think on these things. Why? Because that brother was saying, lift you up to see God when you read Deuteronomy. We must be encouraging ourselves and others to look up to Christ from where our help comes in the heavens if we're going to fight for those things which are pleasing to Him. In stereo terms, I used to be a stereo dude when I was younger. You've got a signal-to-noise ratio that you measure. It's music to trash, basically. And if it's in the 92 to 95 percent rate, you've got a good piece of equipment. Signal-to-noise ratio. It's called high fidelity. It's before Wi-Fi, we had hi-fi. The recording You get a high-fidelity recording. The recording sounds like the actual performance. It's got high-fidelity. That's what that term means. If we claim Christ as our own, there ought to be high-fidelity as we reflect Him in our daily lives. If we're not high-fi regarding Christ Jesus, we are full of hypocrisy. God help us. because that's an easy place for us to all stumble. This victory over sin requires the ongoing struggle to lay aside every weight and sin that so easily entangles us. Why did the author of Hebrews say sin and weight easily entangles us? Ain't I supposed to be a Christian whom sin doesn't so easily entangle me? Your competence is not in yourself. In yourself, you will fall to sin. And we all have moments where we neglect God and we step out in our own strength and sin just jumps out knowing that you are vulnerable. Paul says, stop lying. Put away lying. Stop it. Speak the truth to each other. Does it strike you odd that a Christian needs to be told to stop lying? You know how easy it is to tell a lie? One that your brain might trick you into thinking ain't really a lie. This is why a man should never answer his wife when she says, does this dress make me look fat? There is no way out of that. You don't want to lie. You don't want to die. So you keep your mouth shut. You don't want to cause division. Honey, you always look good. We've been married almost 45 years. She ain't killed me yet. You have to learn how to talk things. Paul gets practical. The union we have with Christ as individuals and as a local assembly, this is the basis for working out these practical things that Paul talks about in this passage. Because of this union with Christ, because that's in whom our competence comes, we can behave and speak as those who have the spirit. So much of the teaching in scripture about how to live in context of life within a community of saints. You can't really walk as a Christian if you don't have brothers and sisters that you interact with. A friend of mine years ago said it's easy for you to love the saints when all your saints that you've got in mind are those persecuted brothers in Indonesia. This is a lie. You don't know that you love anybody unless you spend enough time with them to know that you don't agree in everything. And you love one another rightly in God's sight in spite of the fact that you don't agree on everything. I'm not a fan of the Grams, but Ruth Graham in an interview one time said, do you and Billy agree on everything? And she said, Lord, no. If we did, one of us would be unnecessary. God doesn't put man and wife together so they agree in everything. He puts them together so they might complete one another. That conveys the idea that there's something missing from the one and the other. And that's the way it is in the local assembly of saints. That's why the Bible says the Spirit of God put you here and gifted you to serve here. This is all about the unity of being in Christ. The unity of being in Christ. You can be angry, but do not sin. Anger at unrighteousness is a good thing. You don't want to wink at, you don't want to coddle sin or unrighteousness. But we're in no position to pronounce final judgment on even the worst sinner. Those early Christians, when they were told that Saul was now a Christian, they were kind of reluctant to believe it. Lord. And I said, Lord, we, we know this man. He he's been killing your people. Yeah, but say, so were some of you that man would later, right? So we ought to know that if God could save me, if God could save any of you, he can save that fellow that you don't think very highly of as well. Paul says you should work for your bread. See, honest work. You may not have the job of your dreams, but honest work is honorable in the sight of God. It's provision for the worker and for sharing with those in need. You don't get money just to consume it on your own lust. This teaching of the gleaning laws in the Old Covenant shows us that God made provision for us when we were in our greatest need. It's not for the food that they gleaned from the field. It's for the food that Christ provided to nourish our souls. Paul said able-bodied people that didn't work shouldn't eat. So. Hmm. Welfare, big problem, but not going to talk about that. Paul said that those who are foolish, they speak filthy, unprofitable, noxious and nauseous. Everything that is sinful. indecent words, they're angry, proud, haughty, and arrogant. They lie. All of these types of behaviors, they tear down. They tear down and reveal a sinful attitude of the one who's speaking them. If you go behind somebody's back and talk bad about them, if you keep book about people so that you can tell somebody what so-and-so did, you're in a category of people that Paul would call wicked. That's not how we do. Paul would write to the Corinthians, love keeps no record of wrongs. Our goal is to build one another up, and all of us are in need of grace if we can submit to the spirit who gives us life. If we submit to him, the one who sealed us, then we can be used by him to build one another up, knowing that y'all will build me up as I try to build you up, just like Paul was looking to be refreshed by the Romans as he was trying to go there to refresh them. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as God also forgave you in Christ. This is the foundation for everything that Paul's taught before in this chapter. You have been forgiven in Christ. Do you realize the cost? Do you realize the grace that was given you? How can you not be kind and compassionate to these people that God has put you together with? All right, I'm going to close with a couple of exhortations from scripture. I'm going to go to Romans 15. I'm going to first, I'm going to go to Romans 12, two things from Romans. I want you to hear this is the mind of God. This is the mind of Christ for you, for everybody in a local assembly of saints, Romans 12, nine through 10. Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil. Cling to what is good. Show family affection one to another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do you look at your brothers and sisters in Christ that way? Flip over to Romans 15. Romans 15, 5 through 7. Now may the God who gives life, endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another according to the command of Christ Jesus so that you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice. God doesn't say you better man up and get to work. He says you want to be useful. to the saints in your local assembly, look to God. He gives life. He gives confidence. He gives endurance. He gives encouragement so that you can live in harmony with one another. If we are saved individually, right? There ain't no group plan for salvation, but you are saved to live in community with one another. We are to serve one another within the local assembly, thinking more highly of others than we do ourself. We are to do all to the glory of God in Christ, worshiping him and serving one another in word and deed until Christ comes again. If Christ is the object of our faith, then he ought to be the object of our life. And if you want to live in the local assembly, if you want the church to survive the warfare that we're called to, you ought to be filled with the desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the one who gives life to that which is dead, who called you out of darkness and translated you into kingdom of his glorious light. This one, He will work out in you. He will will and equip you to do what pleases Him. So, your goal is to be a student of the Word so that you can be a servant of the Lord in and amongst His people. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you have not left us to ourselves and you've instructed us over and over again through your written record so that we would not be confused. Has God said, Lord, you have spoken clearly how we are to walk. Help us help these dear children here at Heritage Baptist. Help them to walk in love towards one another. True love, as you have outlined in your word. that they may be built up in it by their love for one another, the whole wicked world here in Lake Charles would know that these people are yours. Let us be mindful of who we serve. In Christ's name I pray, amen.