The snow comes from you like every good and perfect gift which comes from above, from the Father of lights with whom there is no variance or shadow of turning. Lord, we thank you that James goes on to say that the greatest gift that you give us is the new birth through the Word. And we pray, Lord, that you would do so again this morning. Lord, as the Gospel of Christ is preached and unpacked and applied, Lord, that you would be working by the Spirit. And Lord, that you would grant us eyes to see, as we just sang, and ears to hear, and Lord, even hearts to receive and embrace and to cherish and to do your good will. Lord, help me now, as Paul said, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And Holy Spirit, oh, how we need you to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of mystery. hidden for ages in God who created all things. Would you show us, Lord, how this mystery is revealed to us in Christ by the Spirit. Help us as a church to grasp, Lord, your plan for us as the body of Christ. Oh, would you make us holy. Would you conform us into the image of Christ as we've seen the last couple of weeks, we ask. Would you save your left even this morning. Oh, that you might say to those wallowing in their blood, live. Oh, that you might speak as you did in Ezekiel 37, that dry bones might not only form together, but be granted life and breath by the Spirit of God. Help us, Lord, now to focus and to think, to meditate, and to love the Word of God. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. This is our last week in this section of Ephesians 4, 20 to 24. And we'll get practical next week. But the reason why I've been slowing down is if you look in verse 25, it says, having put off or having put away. And so I still want us to get the theology lest we become legalists. There's a lot of people who tire themselves over and over and over and over, trying to do something they're not able to do. They're trying to put away things they have no power to do. And so we need to understand the power that has been granted us in Christ before we start living out these precepts and these commands that Paul is going to delineate in verses 25 and following. Oh, a new one. Can I get a clean cup next time? So last week we looked at the fancy term called definitive sanctification. And that's the once-for-all setting apart of God for His people, where God breaks into our lives, and we're dead in our sins, and He sanctifies us, or He sets us apart. He takes us out of the realm of Adam and sin and death, and He draws us and transfers us and transports us into the realm of Christ and His Kingdom, which is characterized by life and righteousness. And in Christ, now, we have the ability to do what God commands. We saw that in the old realm, in Adam, we could not obey, we could not put off, and we could not put on. So we needed this once for all definitive setting apart, this once for all definitive sanctification where God puts off the old man, puts off the old Adam, and God in Christ puts on the new man. And that's the language of Romans 5. There's an old man and a new man. And everybody in Romans 5 is born in Adam. Everybody by nature is the old man. And the old man can't help but do old man things. The old man is an old man and does old man stuff. No matter how hard he tries to live godly in Christ, he can't because he's not in Christ. God must do a change. He must do a once for all transfer. But as someone asked last week, he said, What about our holiness? If God has made us holy, should we just not do anything? And that's the language of Romans 5 going into Romans 6, that salvation is of grace, that God does this. He takes us out of Adam and puts us into Christ. Shall we sin then that grace might abound? And God says, May it ever be. God forbid. And then he unpacks for us in Romans 6 how this definitive sanctification that God's setting us apart actually leads to true holiness. And we're going to look at Romans 6 this morning. But I want us to understand the order is crucial. That we cannot set ourselves apart for holiness until God has set us apart for holiness. We need to be sanctified before we can be sanctified. You got that? Because a lot of people think that to become a Christian means we need to clean ourselves up, we need to make ourselves holy, we need to do religious things. And that's like watching a train, the caboose try to pull the engine, it doesn't work that way. It's the engine that pulls the caboose. And the engine is the definitive sanctifying work of God Almighty in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, Christ is our sanctification. 1 Peter 1 says that the Spirit sanctifies us once for all. So the power to live a holy life comes from the power God gives us in setting us apart. But we do want to look at what it looks like to live a holy life. It's not enough just to think about a holy life. God commands us in 1 Peter to be holy, even as He has made us holy. is crucial. God sets us apart, now we set ourselves apart. The language of Philippians 2, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. I remember hearing this from Warren Wiersbe. Work out what God has worked in. You can't work out what God hasn't worked in. But if God has worked something in, it must be worked out. Okay, so there's the two errors. Some people say, grace, grace, grace, I've been set apart by God. But they never work out what apparently has been worked in. And so if you're not working out, something has probably not been worked in. That's the one error. The other error is that, I've got to work, I've got to work, I've got to work. And they wear themselves out and they become embittered against religion. And they say that the Christian life is impossible. And it is, apart from God's sanctifying work in us. We cannot live a life set apart to God until we have been set apart by God. Very simple. If you've not been set apart by God, you can't live to God. And that's why we preach the Gospel, because we're going to see how God sets us apart. Why do we need to be set apart first? Why definitive sanctification before progressive sanctification? Why must God initiate this? Because we've learned that in Adam, or by nature, Ephesians 2 says what? We're dead. We're dead in the realm of Adam. We're dead in the realm of transgressions and sins. That is, we're dead to spiritual things. And God's commands are spiritual. The law in Romans 7 is spiritual. Dead man can't do the spiritual law. It's impossible. That's why you need the spirit of Romans 8. Why can't you clean yourself up? Why can't you pull yourself up by the bootstraps? Why can you not become a Christian on your own doing? Because you're dead. Dead people don't raise themselves. In chapter 4, verse 18, he says, we're alienated from God's life. This is another way of saying you're dead. God says you need to do these things. These commands are living, but you can't do living commands while you're dead. So those of us who are in Adam, those of us who are the old man are alienated from God's life-giving power. We have no ability to do the things that please Him. That's why sometimes parents get exasperated. They're frustrated their kids are not living godly lives. It's because they've forgotten the kids need to be born again. The kids need to be set apart. We're expecting them to do things that they can't do. And we're getting mad at A dog for barking like a dog. Romans 6 says that not only are we dead to sin, but we're slaves to it. It reigns over us. We cannot not sin. All we can do is sin in Adam. No matter how hard we try, we can't stop sinning. We can't put off the old man. No matter how hard we try, our heart is corrupt. And we're slaves to sin. And when sin says jump, We will eventually say, how high? Maybe in public we'll put on the airs that we are not slaves of sin. But Romans 6 says, those who are in and out of are slaves to sin and under its dominion. Romans 8 says that we cannot, we have no ability to submit to God's law. Even if we did, we couldn't. Romans 8 says we don't want to, and even if we could, we can't. Why? Because Romans 5 teaches us that sin and death reign in all those who are in Adam. Reign. It's the language of king. All those in Adam have a heart that are ruled by sin and death. And they walk in the domain, in the kingdom of darkness and death and sin. Theology is important, isn't it? As long as we are in Adam, No amount of religiosity can make us saints. Does anybody know that the word saint is the same root as the word sanctify? It's the same word as being set apart. But that's why Paul starts his letters off, to the saints who are in Ephesus. He doesn't say to people who are, no, to people who are set apart. Unless you're set apart, you can't live holy. All of Paul's commands are useless if you're not a Christian. And you're going to burn yourself out trying to be what you're not. No amount of good works will set us apart. This is the divine initiative of God, which is why we should be a people of prayer. You can try and you can try and you can try, but you can't. And I thought of the illustration given in one of C.S. Lewis' books, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And it's this picture of a spoiled little brat, this British boy named Eustace. And if you've watched the movie, he just irritates you. He's just so haughty, he's so arrogant, he's annoying. And these children... What's the last name of something he's... peasanties, they can't stand this boy. And the reason why they can't stand him is because he's a picture of the old man. And as they're going, Eustace leaves them and he finds some treasure. And he puts on this bracelet which becomes, I think, a symbol or a figure of rain or something lording it over him. And so the thing he wanted the most ensnared him and became his greatest Lord and he turned into a dragon and after a while the scenes progress and then Eustace comes back and Dread who's the traitor the second oldest boy not Peter Edmund I don't know why my brains not working and Edmund sees in the distance this shadowy figure coming in, but it's not big enough to be a dragon, but it's too small to be Lucy. And what comes to him is Eustace. And he says, what in the world happened? You were a dragon. And Eustace gives him his testimony. Anybody remember the testimony? Eustace sees Aslan. And Aslan says, you need to get washed. You need to jump in to the water. But first we need to take something off. We need to put something off before you jump in. And by the way, the waters, I think, are a picture of baptism. And before this baptism takes place, Aslan says, you need to get undressed. You need to put yourself off Eustace. So Eustace starts scratching himself, and he thinks he does a good job, and he looks, and there's this old, scaly, serpentine skin. And as he's about to go into the water, he looks in the reflection, and he sees what? A dragon still. And so he tries harder, and he scratches deeper, and he takes off another layer of dragon skin, and yet he's still a dragon. And he does it a third time, and he's still a dragon. And he realizes, no matter how hard I scratch, no matter how hard I claw, I'm a dragon by nature. I can't change myself. But what happens? He hears Aslan, and Eustace says, I don't know if he spoke, but it seemed like he spoke. And in the movie, the lion roars. And Eustace is changed from a dragon to a little boy. And guess what? That thing is broken, isn't it? The thing that once offered him joy and peace had led him to the grave. That's like the song we sing. I once was lost in darkest night and thought I knew my way. The life, the things that promised joy and peace had led me to the grave. And so Aslan broke this power of reigning sin. He destroyed that love for things of the world. And then he jumps into the water and it didn't feel good. It hurt not only having his skin ripped off by Aslan, but he said he was so sensitive that when he went into the water it felt different, but he came out alive. That's a picture of salvation. That we cannot sanctify ourselves, we cannot claw ourselves enough to make us holy, we cannot try hard enough to get rid of all of these nasty habits that are so naturally ingrained into our hearts. We need, as it were, for Aslan to speak into our lives and to set us free. That's the language of Romans 6, isn't it? Edmund, are you used to this story? Was a slave. And it just kept cutting in and it was irritating him. And no matter what he tried, he couldn't get that chain off. He couldn't. That's why we need to understand, people can't save themselves. Only God and Christ can save them. God must initiate sanctification. God must be the one who puts off the serpentine skin. He must do so once for all. And the beautiful thing is that even Edmund notices right away that Eustace is not only outwardly different, but inwardly he's different. He's not so annoying. He still has some tendencies that need to be worked out. But as you read the story, it makes it very clear that Eustace is never the same again. And at the very end of the story, as you read the last page, it talks about what happens to the characters and it talks about Eustace. And it said that even his mom noticed something was different. He still had some little irritating habits, but he had been fundamentally irrevocably changed from the inside. And as the story progresses, we start to see Eustace changing on the outside as well. The first thing he does when he meets Edmund is he apologizes. This is evidence of being made new. This is the evidence of having the old man put off and the new man put on. Things are different. Did Edmund become perfect? No, not Edmund. Eustace become perfect? No. But he became new. And all of those old habits that used to dominate him could now be shut off. All those annoying things that used to frustrate the three and kids could be put away. God puts off the old man, God puts on the new man. Adam is put off, Christ is put on. We're no longer slaves to sin and death when we're in Christ. We're slaves to Him and to righteousness. As Colossians says, those who are in Christ have once for all been delivered from the domain of darkness, and the domain of sin, and been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. Okay, so that's the review of last week. That's definitive sanctification. We need God to initiate work in us. And He initiates this work by the Gospel. Right? How does God set us apart? By the gospel. We hear the gospel, we believe the gospel. Okay? We're definitively set apart. That's good. How do we now progressively set ourselves apart? By the gospel. It's the same thing. The same thing that God uses to set us apart is the very same means that we use to set ourselves apart. We heard Aslan in the gospel and we were set apart. And as it were, Eustis continues to hear Aslan in the Gospel, and is changed from the inside out. So, when we are set apart from Adam into Christ, God gives us the ability now to set ourselves apart. This is the language of Ezekiel 36. Do you remember it last week? What did God promise in the New Covenant? He promises people a new heart. And that when He gave them a new heart, their idols would no longer have the power they once swayed over their lives. Remember in Jeremiah 31? Giving a spiritual law to unspiritual people is futile. They can't. They can't carry it out no matter how hard they try. God needs to write it on their hearts. They need to be set apart. They need a new heart. And that's what God promises. In Ezekiel 36, God promises to give His people a new heart. And so when God sets us apart and gives us a new heart, not only are we able to live a holy life, we want to. To me, that's one of the greatest signs and indicators that someone has been set apart by God, is their desire now is to set themselves apart for God. Do you hate sin? Do you want more of Christ's life? Do you want more of Christ's image born? If so, then you have been set apart. If salvation for you is nothing more than a tickle of hell, you're probably not born again. You've probably never been set apart definitively by God. But if God has given you a new heart, not only are you able, but you want to live a new life. We are willing and we are able. to live as God's new creations in Christ. Paul says, the old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And now that the new has come, he says, those who are new are no longer to live for themselves, but are to live for the one who died for their sakes and rose again. That's 2 Corinthians 5, 13 and 17. This is what Paul tells us in Romans 6. Those who have been set apart by God are to set themselves apart for God. I would love to go there, but read Romans 6. God set you apart. Why in the world are you living as if you're not? Baptism is a beautiful picture of what God does in our definitive sanctification, but baptism is also a beautiful picture of what we should go back to for our progressive sanctification. The image that came to my head is imagine Tony is living in sin. Is it hard to imagine, Nancy? But pretend I catch him. I would say to him, Tony, I baptized you in the presence of God and in the presence of that church. What in the world are you doing? Do you not remember that your baptism not only shows you and shows the world that God set you apart, but do you not also realize that your baptism shows that God has given you new life and the ability to live godly in Christ? Baptism shows both. It shows what God has done, but it also reminds us of what God is doing. Baptism declares sin's power is broken. Baptism declares not only are we dead to sin, we're alive to righteousness. Baptism says, Tony, God has given you the Holy Spirit so you can live a holy life in Christ. Baptism says that the new man has been put on, so put on the new man. That's why baptism is so important. That's why we take it seriously. Right? And so, that's the beauty of sometimes baptizing. So, say Tony is baptizing Johnny or Tony's baptized Jake. He can pull that trump card on you, Jake. He can say, I baptized you, Jake. Do you not understand all that that entails? That baptism says you're dead to that sin. And that baptism says you can now live the life God calls you to live. Because you're in Christ and you're risen with Him. That's why baptism is so beautiful, isn't it? That's why we don't play games with infant baptism. Infant baptism doesn't teach that kind of stuff. Believer's baptism says, this is the glory of what God in Christ has done, and this is the glory of what God in Christ is doing. Because the new man is on, we are alive to righteousness, Paul says. And thus we are now able to live godly lives in Christ. Please, Christian, don't say, I can't live the life God calls me to. Yes, you can. Unless Romans 6 is a lie. I can't live in righteousness. Well, Romans 6 says you're a slave to it in Christ. So if you're not a slave to righteousness and you can't live to it, the logical deduction is that you're not in Christ. Why can you no longer be forced to sin? Why, as a believer, do you not have to look at porn? Why, as Christians, do you not have to be so nasty to your wife? Because Paul says in Romans 6, verse 14, sin no longer has dominion over you. Back in Paul's day, you did what the king said. Before we met Christ, before we knew Him, or, as Paul says, were known of Him, Sin swayed over our heart. He had a scepter that reigned. And sin said, do this. And we said, yes, Master. Paul says, in Christ we no longer have to say yes to those old sins that characterized the old man. We're no longer in bondage to the cruel task, Master. Do you understand this? Turn to Romans 8. I want to show you some things. Trust me, this links up with Ephesians. This is all the same language of putting off, putting on. Laying aside, putting on. Putting to death, bringing to life. We're no longer slaves to the old man, but God still requires us to live godly. This is why we need God to work first. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's the good news of the gospel, isn't it? Not only that the penalty of sin is taken away in Christ, but we're going to see that the power of sin is also taken away in Christ. Romans 8.1 is glorious, but so is Romans 8.2 and 3. Okay? Sin no longer condemns you. The guilt is gone. Christ has destroyed in your life the penalty of sin. He bore the wrath for your sin. But Paul doesn't stop there, because he's writing to a church that needs to become more and more holy. And so flowing out of this definitive sanctification, Paul says, now begin to work in your progressive sanctification. For the law of the Spirit that gives life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. And so what is he saying? In Romans 5, all those who are in Adam are slaves in the realm of sin and death. Sin and death rules. But Christ has set us free from that, hasn't He? He has given us the Spirit. The Spirit sets us free from sin and death. For God has done... That's why I said definitive sanctification comes first. God has done what we can't. For God has done what the law, which is good, weakened by the flesh could not do. Can the flesh keep the law? No. All the law can do for the flesh is tell it that it can't. The law reveals sin. The flesh can't keep the law. This is why we have to preach the gospel, lest our kids become little legalists and think that they're good little Christians because they're doing things. No, they can't. In the flesh they're weak and unable to do what God demands. But, by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, Christ comes as the true Adam, the one who is perfectly obedient. He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, or a sin offering, He condemns sin in the flesh. And when Christ condemned sin in the flesh, all those who are in Him had their sin condemned in the flesh. Do you see that? It's confusing, but that's the language of union with Christ. When Christ died for sin and to sin, those who are in Him died to their sin as well. But until you're in Christ, you're not dead to sin. Christ alone is dead to sin. So until you are in Christ, you will never be dead to sin. See the importance of that? I know it's thick theological stuff. We're getting practical in a couple moments. Why did Christ condemn sin in the flesh? Verse 4. Here it is. Here it is. In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in him. That's not what Paul says. It might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, because the flesh is dead. Roman six. But rather, we walk according to the spirit. The new man walks in the Spirit, the old man walks in the flesh. Christ came to definitively destroy the old man. And to give us the new man. Why? So we could live holy lives. That God not only predestined us to be holy and blameless before Him in love, but He gave us the Spirit who gives us a new heart that enables us in this life to walk wholly and blamelessly before God in love. You can actually live that way. Why? Because of what Christ did on the cross. Christ destroyed, yes, the penalty of sin, but the Gospel also says He destroyed the power of it over your lives. And one day, the Gospel will destroy the presence of sin from us when we're given the Gospel promise of our new body, which Paul says in Romans 8, is the fulfillment of our adoption. This is the power of the Gospel. It gets rid of the penalty that looms over us and would send us to hell. But it also destroys the power that used to compel us to sin. No longer, Paul says, you in Christ, in the power of the Spirit, can actually live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. But not until then. Which is why we always preach Christ. Because only Christ can set you free to do that. That's what Ezekiel 36 says. He would give his people a new heart. He would take out the heart of stone, and he would give people a heart of flesh. And I want you to understand the imagery that Ezekiel is using here. He doesn't say that he gives us a perfected heart, but he does give us a new heart. And if I have a stone here, I can't mold it, I can't press it, it won't conform to any external stimuli. It's unmoldable, it's immalleable. And so that's what God is saying. If your heart is of stone, it doesn't matter what we try to do, it can't change. Your heart can't change. You can't change yourself because you have a heart of stone. No matter what you try to do, you can't change. A stone is not capable of that fundamental spiritual change. That's the problem of being in Christ, in Adam. And so God says, I'm going to take that stony heart out, I'm going to put a fleshly one in. And unlike a stone, flesh is malleable. If you buy a roast at the store, a good one, you can make it fit into various containers. You can mold it. It's malleable. That's what God promises His people. He gives us a new heart that is capable of change. Before you could not be holy, but He has given you a new heart. Though not perfected, He has given you a new heart that is capable of change. Do you believe that? You don't have to be where you are. As a Christian, you're not stuck. The gospel is a gospel of new beginnings and fresh starts. And this is the language of Paul Treppe. He says, so no matter how deep my struggle is, hear this, the organic spiritual nature of my heart has been changed by Christ. In Adam, heart of stone. In Christ, heart of flesh. That which was unchangeable has become changeable by His grace. You can change, He says. You can change. You can change. That's the gospel. You can actually change now. He says this, I wouldn't be a pastor, I wouldn't be giving conferences if I didn't believe that. What good would it be for me to keep saying, here's what God says, if you could never do it. But because God takes the initiative in definitive sanctification, in God setting you apart into Christ, giving you a new heart, writing it on your heart, the laws, you can actually change now. Which is why Paul is not a legalist to say, do these things. You can, so do them. He says, what good would it be to give people all kinds of lofty spiritual principles which are nothing more than a self-defeating exercise in spiritualistic self-delusion. That would be cruel for me, to tell a stone to change its shape. But if you're in Christ, I can say, this is what God says, and He has given you everything in Christ Jesus for life and godliness. That's what Peter says. The reality is that in Christ our hearts have been made different by Christ, and that means that real, lasting, personal, fundamental transformation is actually a livable reality for the believer. None of this talk, I can't change. I know it smacks of legalism, but it's biblical. You can change because God has given you a new heart if you're in Christ. This is the power of the Gospel. You don't need to believe that, Christian, you are stuck, trapped, paralyzed, or anything else, because you believe in the Gospel now. Real heart change is actually possible. Addictions can be broken, because Romans 6 is true. It's a fight, but real change is actually possible. Because God has put off, laid aside, killed the old man once for all. Now we can put off the old man. Because God has put on Christ, we can put on Christ. Do you understand that? Until Aslan speaks life and light into our darkness and death, we can't. But if he has, we can. Eustace could change. Eustace could hold his tongue. Eustace could not be so annoying. Yes, he comes on, he says, yes, my arms are knobbly and they're not as gloriously powerful as Caspian's, but they're still new arms. You can change, believer. So now the question is, Now that we've been, or if we've been set apart, if we're Christians, let's say, if we're in Christ, what does it look like? to become set apart. How do we put on? How do we put off? Because Paul is saying in Ephesians 4, not only does God put off and God put on, Paul is commanding the believers now to put off and to put on. That's the gospel too. The gospel is that God puts off the old and God puts on the new. But the gospel is also you put off the old after you've been saved. You put on the new after you've been saved. Paul is commanding them to put off their old selves, and Paul is commanding them to put Christ on. I thought God did. He has. Now you can. Otherwise, Ephesians 4.25 makes no sense. Since this has been put off, put on speaking the truth. So when you're tempted to gossip, Put off gossip, put on truth. When you're tempted to love money, put off selfishness, put on generosity. I can't! Yes, you can! If you're in Christ. Because God has killed the old man who was a slave. to gossip. God in Christ has killed the old man who was slave to selfishness. God in Christ has killed the old man who was a slave to anger, and wrath, and bitterness, and clamor, and slander. All those things in Ephesians 4 we're dead to the power of, so put them off. Go back to Ephesians 4 and then we'll close. Okay, I want to just read the text for you. Okay? So they're not walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, they're imitating, as it were, not Christ, but the Gentiles, walking in the futility of their minds. Those who are blind spiritually, and those who are alienated from God's life. So they're resembling the Gentiles. He says, that's not the gospel. The gospel says God has made you fundamentally different. The gospel says He's given you a new heart. But the gospel doesn't only give you indicatives, the gospel gives you imperatives. Everyone know the difference? An indicative is a truth. It's a reality. You're in Christ. The old man is dead. The new man is alive. That's a truth. And the Gospel says, in light of that, do these things. So Paul says, in verse 20, I'm assuming that you've heard about Christ and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus. This is what he says you need to do. You need to put off your old man, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is being corrupted through deceitful desires. And you need to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and you need to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in righteousness and holiness of truth. This is what it looks like now, to live as a Christian community. Putting off, putting on. Putting off all those things that characterize the old Ryan, and putting on all those new things that characterize Christ. How do you do that? It's the middle of the sandwich. Okay? Verse 22, put off. Verse 24, put on. But what's the secret? Well, it's verse 23. And I know you get tired of hearing the same old, same old, same old. But God repeatedly in His Bible says, the way that we are to be transformed is through the Word and the Spirit. It's very simple, isn't it? How do we know what is old Ryan and how do we know what is new Ryan? We need a standard. So when I get angry, I get into the Bible and the Bible says, anger is old Ryan. Put it off. It says that gentleness and patience in Ephesians 4 is the new rhyme. Put it on. It's very simple. I need to be renewed in the spirit of my mind. This is how change comes about. Jesus says, sanctify them by thy word. By thy truth. Thy word is truth. So God sets us apart when He saves us, when we hear the Gospel. And you, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, when you believed, that's how God sets us apart. However, God continues the setting apart process through the same Word. The Word that sets us apart, sets us apart. The Word that sets us apart once for all, sets us apart day by day. So Paul says, if you want to learn what it means to put off and to put on, get into the word of God. Paul says in chapter four that we were set apart when we learned Christ and were taught in him. So now we are to set ourselves apart by continuing to learn Christ. I'm assuming you've learned Christ and were taught the truth in him. So learn Christ and learn the truth in Him. Some more. In chapter 5 of Ephesians, go there. Husbands, love your wives. Yes, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. To what? To set her apart. To sanctify her. How does Christ sanctify her? Once for all through the Word, day by day. Right? Look at the language. That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her past, by the washing of the water with the Word. So that He might present the Church to Himself, in the same language of chapter 1, blameless, without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. Christ wants a glorious Church. How does Christ cleanse His Church? By the washing of the water of the Word, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Very simple. If I'm stinky, I need to have a bath. I need to wash myself and get rid of the filth. That's what the church needs to do. Yes, Christ has cleansed us, as He said in John 13, but we still need our feet washed like Peter. We still need to have that cleansing day by day. Chapter 6, that we win the battle against Satan and his minions. How? By putting on. the gospel, putting on the whole armor of God. So now, day by day, we arm ourselves prayerfully by putting the gospel on. This is what Paul means in Romans 13, 14, when he says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. So how do you live not like the world? Put on Christ. How do you put on Christ? How do you put on the armor? Prayerfully in the Spirit. This is why it's good to memorize Scripture. So what Paul means in Galatians 5, when he says, walk in the Spirit, that you don't gratify the desires of the flesh. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? It means to be following where the Spirit leads, and the Spirit leads us by the Word. Romans 8, 13, Paul says, "...put to death, mortified the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit." How do you do that? With the truth of the Gospel. The Spirit puts to death the old man, as it were, day by day. What is the weapon of the Spirit in Ephesians 6? It's the sword, which is the Word of God. Okay, you're going to feel like I'm spanking, but I can't emphasize this enough. We've got to get into the Word and to wash ourselves, because the Spirit has no weapon. It's like a sculpting tool. Here's the image of Christ. And the Spirit is the one who sculpts us, right? God gives us the clay once for all, yes, but now the Spirit is going to conform us day by day into this image of Christ, into this bust of the beautiful picture of Christ. But that Spirit can't take this lump of clay and make us into the image of Christ unless He has a tool, and that tool is the Word of God. The Spirit takes the Word, He puts to death, He puts off, He lays aside, but He also puts on the truths of Christ. The Spirit shows us what is true righteousness and holiness by showing us the true righteousness and holiness of God in the Word. Otherwise, I'm just defining it whatever I want. And by the end of my life, I don't look like Christ because I've never been transformed into the image of Christ by the Spirit through the Word. Are you reading the Bible every day? Don't think I'm getting legalistic. I love you too much to let you waste your life. Are you immersing yourself in it? Are you washing yourself? It's not enough just to rant tizzo. It's not a sprinkling that will cleanse you. You need to be washed in the Word. This is how we are empowered. The Spirit empowers us through the Gospel to put off. This is why Paul prays, I pray that God may grant you to be strengthened through His Spirit in your inner man. We need God to give us strength by the Spirit, to do the impossible, to live holy and blameless before Him in love. The Spirit, through the Word, makes us outwardly what God has made us inwardly. Is that a shudder moment, Matt, or not? Kind of. The Spirit, through the Word, transforms us outwardly what Christ has made us inwardly. We'll go there later. The spirit then takes the gospel and he withers and weakens the old man. He's dead, but there's still these ruts and the spirit takes the word and he destroys those ruts. And the spirit also takes the gospel and bears fruit. So how do you live a righteous life in Christ? This is the words of D. A. Carson. We live a Spirit-powered, Gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort. Paul doesn't list all four of those here, but he says that we do need the Spirit, and we do need the Gospel. You, being renewed, present tense. It's not just a Sunday thing. You need to be being renewed, verse 24 or verse 23. Be being renewed in the Spirit of your minds. Paul might not be alluding to the Holy Spirit, but I think he is alluding to it there. The Spirit of your minds, the NLT says, by the Spirit transform your minds. The Spirit is the secret, but the Spirit needs the Word. The Spirit works in our life as we wash ourselves with the Word, as we believe. This will take effort. Definitive sanctification, all of God's work. To Him alone be the glory for now and forever. Amen. However, Our progressive sanctification requires our effort. It's not let go and let God. That's what the Keswick theology used to think. Just sit around and do nothing, God will change you. That's not what the Bible teaches. Work out your own salvation. You put off, you put on. Let's close with Colossians 3. It's right after Philippians. Let me read verses 1 to 10. Because Paul teaches the exact same thing here. He teaches definitive sanctification, how that flows into progressive sanctification. If then, you have been raised with Christ, if the old man has been put off and the new man has been put on, seek, be seeking, present tense, the things that are above. Before you couldn't, now you can. Now seek them. How do you seek the things that are above? Do you look up into the sky like the believers in Acts 1? Paul said to keep seeking the things that are above. It must mean clouds. This is weird sanctification. You seek the things above by getting into the Word. When you read about Him who is enthroned above in Ephesians 1. You read about who you are in Christ. Seek the things that are above where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. He is Lord. Set your minds on things that are above. Not on things that are on earth. So he says, you've been raised, Roman 6th language, the old is dead, the new has come. You can now do these things, so do them. Paul's not asking them, he's commanding them. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Why? For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. See how the word exposes the old man? If you're living in adultery, the Bible says that's inconsistent with Christ, so put him off. All these sins the Bible reveals to us are inconsistent with who we are as Christians in Christ. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming. And these two, you once walked when you were living in them. But now, you must put them all away. Put them off. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, an obscene talk from your mouth. Are you in Christ? The Bible says, by the power of God, put them off. Because you can. Do not lie to one another. Gossiping. Seeing that what? You have put off. See it? You've put off. God has put off. You're new. You don't have to. So don't live like it. You've put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new self, which is, present tense, being renewed in what? In knowledge, after the image of its creator. That's the exact same language of Ephesians 4. This is who you are. Now be who you are. How do you know who you are? Get into the Word. Wash yourself with the knowledge of who Christ is. How do you know what image you're being made into? Look to who Christ is. James 1 says that we're born again, that God fathers us by the Word. And then James says, continue to receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your soul. I'm already saved! James is talking about not only the word saving us or setting us apart once for all. James is talking about that self-same word which continues to set us apart. Receive with meekness. Why? Because you're all bickering. Be slow to speak. Quick to hear. Why? Because that's who you are in Christ now. Receive this word with meekness. Because God can use it. to save your soul. God can use it to sculpt you into the image of Christ. So that's the message that Paul is going to say in Ephesians 4. Before he gets into all the fancy gospel imperatives, he reminds them of the gospel indicative. This is who Christ made you. He has given you all the power you need. Now live like it. You're not a defeated Christian. I know the Charismatics talk about the victorious Christian life all the time. It's because it's actually in the Bible. You can actually become more and more and more holy. Otherwise God would be unfair to say, be holy as I am holy. That would be unfair of Him, wouldn't it? But in Christ you can become progressively holy. You can progressively set yourself apart. So are you struggling with sin? Get into the Word. Pray in the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 6 says, and put on the Gospel. Put on Christ. Because when you put Christ on, you make no provision for the flesh. Bonhoeffer says this, that the Christian life is not trying to not do things, the Christian life is doing things. And I was thinking about it. If I'm witnessing, I'm not thinking about porn. I've never thought about porn when I'm witnessing to somebody. When I'm serving somebody for the glory of Christ, I'm not thinking about all these stupid things. And so as I'm actively putting Christ on, by logical consequence, the old man is being put off. That's what Bonhoeffer says. Quit trying to put things off so much as just put Christ on, Romans 13, 14. Right? If this glass had no water in it, but there's a whole bunch of gross yuckies in there, the way to get them out is, I can't reach, my finger can't get in there. How can I get them out? Fill it up with water, they'll float to the top and they'll be gone. That's what you do with sin. Fill yourself with the water of Christ and it will eventually dilute and get rid of all that murky old man sin ruts that still seek to try to have an influence in your life. Get in the Word and believe it. Spirit-powered, gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort. Becoming holy is not easy. You have to fight for it. You have to believe the gospel. Putting on the gospel is not just putting... it's believing it. Believing I am righteous, therefore I can live righteous. Believing that I am set apart, now I can be holy. The gospel declares those things. So let's put them on. I always pray that as I'm preaching that God would definitively sanctify His elect, His people. How does God set you apart? How does God set apart our children? Through the Gospel. Are we preaching the Gospel to people? Preach the Gospel. Just the way Eustace was transformed by the word of Aslan, so people can be transformed once for all, irrevocably, by the Word, the message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the message, the Gospel of Christ. Salvation comes when they hear the Gospel. But for those of us who have believed it, how does God transform us? By the same faith in the Gospel that set us apart. Very simple. You're set apart here and here by faith in the Gospel of Christ. Father, we thank you for the Word. We pray as we get now into the particulars of Paul's commands that we would let the engine of your definitive sanctification pull the caboose of our progressive sanctification. That we would understand that it's only the Spirit who works in us and alongside us, Lord, that makes us into the image of Christ. Help us to remember that of God we are in Christ who has become for us sanctification. O God, would You sanctify us by Your Word? Those of us who are not Christians, would You take Your Word and change them? For those of us who are Christians, would You take Your Word and change us? We pray that You, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that You may give us the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of You. And that in giving us this wisdom, You might continue to enlighten the eyes of our heart and transform us from one degree of glory to another, to the image of Christ. We pray that as we are washed in the water of the Word, that You would make us more like Christ. That we would realize that You show us how to put off the old man, how to put on the new man, in the Word, but you also give us the power to by your Spirit. O Lord, we thank you, and we ask now that the Spirit would grant us to be strengthened with power in our inner being, that we might be filled with the fullness of God. Now to you, Father, who are able to do abundantly more than we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us, to you be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.