Open up your Bibles, please, to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, and we're going to look at together verses 17 through 32. Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 17 to 32. The word of the Lord says, 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. that ye put off concerning the former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which is after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And may the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his holy word. Last Lord's Day, you could say we turned a corner in this letter to the early church in Ephesus. which Paul, after having labored to clearly communicate to them the correct and orthodox understanding of salvation and also the unity that is vital to the moving forward of the church, he began with verse 17 to enter into a very specific focus upon the life and the practice of the Christians in the church at Ephesus. A focus which we all observed last week in the introduction that he continues throughout the remainder of the letter. So now he's come to a point in this letter to this early church where he wants to really hunker down and teach them what it means to live life in the kingdom, the one true kingdom that they have been engrafted into with the Jews, the believing Jews that is, and move forward as a church. Life in the kingdom. in Paul's opening instructions about living life as a disciple. There were certain things that we as Christians, he pointed out for us in our examination of verses 17 through 19, that we are relentlessly to have a prohibition against, and that is walking as the unregenerate. That's what we looked at last week. There are particular manifestations of what it means to walk as the unregenerate. which are never to be minimized amongst ourselves as the church of Christ, but rather to be treated with firmness and yet compassion as we have learned from the example of Jesus Christ himself. Last week, Paul very clearly began to unfold this particular truth of living life in the kingdom. This truth of the aspect of the gospel that sadly in our day and age, either A, is greatly minimized, this aspect of the gospel to live differently, or B, it is altogether sadly ignored, Or C, it may be lifted up and proclaimed with much zeal and force, however, not accompanied with practical biblical instruction. The truth to which I'm referring to is found in verse 17, how to walk, how to walk. Now last week we considered in verses 17 and 19 with some detail of what sort of mind or what sort of worldview underlies the lifestyle of the unregenerate that we are never to walk in and never minimize and never accept. But today we're going to see in a contrast, while we look at just verses 20 to 24, that Jesus teaches us not to walk like them, but to live differently. And for our second heading in verses 22 to 24, we're gonna learn something about how sanctification works. This process of going from as we observed last week, a Gentile who used to walk like the unregenerate to that who, after being taught by Christ, no longer walks like the unregenerate. And so we're going to look at two headings today as we approach our text, verses 20 and 21. Jesus himself teaches us to live different than the unregenerate. And in verses 22 to 24, focus our considerations upon some particular aspects of what's called sanctification. Let's look a little bit here together at verse 20 to begin our time. But ye have not so learned Christ. Here in verse 20, Paul is drawing this very sharp contrast. Do you see it? But ye, you, to make it crystal clear, and evident of how utterly inconsistent it is for a person who bears the name of Christian to defile themselves by thinking and living in the ways of the other Gentiles. But ye." It's utterly inconsistent. You are different. You are not them. But ye. As we discussed last week, the unregenerate are controlled by a dark and in a vain mind. Verses 17 through 19, which is void of any love, which is void of any compass or openness to what verse 18 called the life of God with all of its fruits, all of its promises, all of its experienced blessings. but rather they yield themselves over to base lusts and desires which rule their lives. But ye, Christians, Paul's saying in a stark contrast, have not been taught that way by Christ. For Jesus teaches us, does he not, to renounce our former natural dispositions. We looked at it last week when Paul says, walk not as other Gentiles, he was well aware that they used to be Gentiles. He was well aware that they had the same fallen, depraved, natural dispositions that their unregenerate neighbors in society had. But Jesus teaches us to renounce those former natural dispositions. Those natural dispositions, which we are all disposed to prior to our conversion, which permitted and excused and justified our conscience to blissfully revel in whatever thoughts and actions that our depraved natures could imagine. Jesus teaches us to renounce that, but ye. Now certainly we admit that there may have been some aspects in our pre-conversion life as unregenerate Gentiles, where there was restraining grace, or what we commonly call common grace, that was at work and perhaps at different degrees in our lives. Some of us weren't as bad as we could have been. But nonetheless, oh, how it is true that anyone who has been taught by Christ can look back with great shame and regret to their former lifestyle, their former way of thinking, their former way of practices that Christ has called them to forsake and to give up. They can look back with regret and shame. No matter of what degree of an unregenerate Gentile you were, when Christ calls you, when Christ teaches you, You look back at that old life and you know, I must forsake it. But ye, but ye have not so learned in Christ. Christ commands us all who he has taught to now go and sin no more. That is, of course, as Paul's next words you see in verse 21 implies, you have indeed been taught by Christ. Look at your Bibles, verse 21. It says, If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. Referring back to my introduction, in some cases, there are churches that present a gospel that really requires very little changing of one's lifestyle. Very little by way of holiness, which would differentiate them as a Christian from their unregenerate family, friends, neighbors, what have you. There are churches that propagate such a gospel as this. Such ministries, I'm convinced are falsely, promoting that if you become too distinct from your unconverted neighbors or co-workers, well, you're not going to be able to be a valuable witness to them for the gospel. And even worse, your chaste and holy life of trying to grow in the image of Christ is going to put other people off that aren't converted. And thus the gospel, the culture that's developed in such churches and their way of how to become a Christian, it simply entails you making an easy decision along with a commitment to their brand of Christianity and ministry, but never really comes with an exhortation that Paul is laying forth today to put to death, to put off the old man in pursuit of godliness and holiness. Beloved, this sort of gospel that is foreign to Paul's gospel, I believe it illustrates for us in those Christian cultures, if you would allow me that term, to show us that they have a great distrust of the power of the gospel. They have a great minimizing of the power of the witness of the church and the practice, the true practice of her faith. It illustrates a starved and a superficial knowledge of the genuine truth, which the text says today is in Jesus. The truth that Jesus teaches his people, which causes them to naturally and organically want to leave and forbid that which they formerly believed and practiced. the truth in verse 21 that is quote unquote in Jesus, is that which is revealed not by flesh and blood, but rather the truth which is taught through Christ's Spirit and by which God's witness comes to crash down like a hammer upon one's former state of ignorance and blindness. When someone is taught by Christ, and they're taught the truth of Christ, they can no longer claim ignorance and blindness. If they've truly been taught by Christ, His truth comes like a sledgehammer and smashes to pieces all of their former excuses and justifications. Then upon their conversion, the individual is taught this truth in Jesus. This truth is very large. It's not this, Jesus loves me, wants to be my friend, brother. The truth that's being described here by Paul is multi-layered, multi-faceted. It's so beautiful and it's as complex, but yet it's so understandable. It's the truth of salvation. It's the truth which then leads to the step of fullness and an understanding of the God who created you, which we learned about in Sunday school class. It's the truth of myself as a fallen and found and a depraved, blood-soaked state of my sins, and I need forgiveness of sins. This is the truth, if one has been taught by Christ and Jesus. that produces this renunciation of all the natural dispositions that I formerly had. I hate them. truth about history and all of its meaning. The truth of Jesus is the truth about all of life, a purpose in life, the relationships, the meaning of those relationships, truth about the existence of myself, of heaven, of hell, of judgment. That is really truth and Jesus is the truth about every single important aspect of life that the human existence and experience can think of. This is the truth that is encompassed in the person, the gospel, the work of Jesus. if indeed you have been taught that truth. We were once blind, the Bible clearly teaches us, before this truth come to us, like our fellow unregenerate Gentile neighbors. But when Jesus through his spirit comes to teach us, he opens our eyes and we can see and what a blessed thing it is to see, right? The world says that ignorance is bliss. The Christian says, no, truth is bliss. Although the truth is hard, although the truth at times is uncomfortable because now it adds a layer of accountability and a layer of responsibility, a layer of duty, a layer of work in my life. Oh, who in here today who has been taught by Jesus, the truth of everything I just said, won't ever go back to the bliss of ignorance. Amen. Jesus alluded to this blessing of being able to see when he was with his disciples in Luke 10, 22. He said, all things are delivered to me of my father. And no man knoweth who the son is but the father, and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal him. And then he turned to his disciples, the text says privately, blessed are the eyes which see these things. Blessed are the eyes that can see these truths. Jesus teaches, Jesus enables us to see his truth. And this truth which is and taught by Jesus namely, boils down to this one primary thing that Paul's trying to stress here for us today, that we who were once in darkness and now granted the truth are to live differently than we lived before. Recall Zacchaeus, his class with Jesus that he got taught. Recall Matthew, the tax collector, the former conniving tax collector, cheater, Zacchaeus fell in that lot too. Remember what happened to him when he was taught by Jesus. Remember Mary, the evil, demonic, possessed woman, and how and what happened to her when she was taught by Jesus. Look all throughout the New Testament and we see these lessons that Jesus teaches, the lame, the poor, the crippled, the unclean. When they are taught by Jesus, they're changed. They're changed. And oh, they're changed for the better. This, you see, is the lesson that Jesus teaches us in our calling to follow Him, to move forward after conversion in the renunciation of all of that which sets itself up against the knowledge of God, 2 Corinthians 10.5. And beloved, this demolishing of all things, which sets themselves up against the obedience of Christ, It begins not with the reforming of other family members or friends in our circles, nor does this demolishing of all things that sets themselves up against the obedience of Christ, which must be put to death, nor does it begin with the restructuring of academic institutions or political institutions, although that may occur. That which we have learned of Christ is fundamentally and very plainly described now in verses 22-24. The demolishing and the mortification of what the scripture calls the old man. The flesh. The old self. John Calvin once said, those whose lives differ not from that of unbelievers in their thinking and their practicing. has learned nothing of Christ. For the knowledge of Christ can never be separated from the mortification of the old man. Where there is no will, Calvin's saying, to renunciate and kill the old self and allow him to unrestrictedly rule one's life without any remorse, any regret, any challenge. There is all the reason to question whether or not the person is truly learned of Christ. Because coming with a true learning of Christ, a true conversion, is wrought within a Christian organically a natural war that will begin. He will hate, she will hate those things she formerly thought, he formerly did, and he will begin by God's grace to seek the mortification of such things. Does it happen in his time? Absolutely not. Does it happen in her timetable? Absolutely not. But there is an unrelentless dedication to putting to death all of that which sets itself up against the knowledge and obedience to Christ in a Christian's life. This is why, beloved, The story, the parable of Pilgrim's Progress has been so wonderfully accepted by the Christian church ever since the 16th century, because it portrays this reality that Paul is teaching us and that I'm preaching and teaching you today. He comes with the burden on his back. He's freed of the burden. And then what happens along the way? He's constantly finding himself in different interactions with manifestations of his flesh, manifestations of the world, and manifestations of Satan. These three great enemies of the Christian. Paul begins in verse 22 as we move forward in our message to begin to teach these early Christians about a doctrine that is commonly called sanctification. When we talk of Christians' sanctification, biblically we mean two things. We mean that there is a positional sanctification. And listen to the witness of Scripture talking about this sort of sanctification. This putting to death the old man and walking in the new. This leaving the immaturity of conversion infancy and beginning to grow in maturity and consistency in the faith. This is sanctification. Positionally speaking, we're all 100% sanctified. Not by a continual progression of maturing. No, by a legislative judicial pardoning of God. by the works and the merits of the blood of Christ upon every believer. This comes through in 1 Corinthians 6.11, where the Bible says, Paul here inspired writing this, such were some of you, but ye, hear that contrast again, it's in all of his epistles, this contrast, we are to look, to live, and to be different, beloved. but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. How? By the Spirit of our God. How are you sanctified? How are you justified? Not by a big progression of things of growing, things of that nature. No, by the Spirit of God. It's a work of a sovereign God. This is what he's largely expounded in chapters one through three. You see, we have positionally been set aside from all the rest of humanity, particularly for one purpose, not to have our best life now, but for God's redemptive purposes. So newsflash to the Christian parents in the church, on those days when those kids feel like they're going to push you over the cliff of insanity, Remember, you have been brought into the kingdom of Christ, positionally sanctified and set apart, not for your adventure-seeking life that you think is going to fulfill voids that you have. No, you've been placed in that kingdom with those children, with that spouse, with that family for God's redemptive purposes. Positionally, that's why I've been sanctified. so that I can be the salt and light wherever He has called me to serve. In addition to positional sanctification and getting more to where the rubber meets the road of what we're at in our text today, scripture also presents a concept of ongoing and progressive sanctification. So there's positional sanctification, which is already done, guys, for God's glory and for His purposes in your life. He has marked you, He has called you, He has taught you, and now live for His glory. But there's also what Paul is describing here today, progressive sanctification. Whereby, little by little, He actually aids us in becoming holy. Not perfectly sinless, But indeed, He does enable us more and more in holiness in contrast to our former state. So there is a degree of change over time. While it never will reach the point where one can arrive, I don't know, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years as a Christian and look back and say, boy, that was a rough road, but I finally have arrived and I'm completely sinless. No. But after 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, whatever years, you should be able to, if God is faithful to his promises, look at someone and they have, you can see the contours of the life where there has been a progression in their sanctification. There has been a noticeable difference where they are killing the old man. They are serious about putting off the old man and walking in the newness of life by the power and by the strength of God who taught them and called them. There are several scriptures I could go to, but I'm just going to give you one. Philippians 1.6. Being confident, Paul says, of this very thing. When Paul says he's confident of something, beloved, your ears are to perk up because it means you ought to be confident in it. If Paul's confident in it, he can trust in this promise. If he can trust in this truth that he's about to share, oh, how the more we should to look to this objective truth and promise. instead of our own subjective feelings. He said, being confident of this very thing, Philippians 1, 6, that he, referring to 1 Corinthians 6, 11, the Spirit of God, he that has begun a good work in you will perform, in the Greek meaning perfect, he will bring it to an end until the day of Jesus Christ. There's the promise of God to all of those who he has truly taught. I will perfect you. I will give you increments of enablement to move forward in your walk. In other words, the Holy Spirit will assuredly convict and the Holy Spirit of God will assuredly compel us to grow into more mature disciples and thus a further imitation resembling the character of our master, which he exemplified. If you are at a place in your sanctification where you are not convicted and you feel no compelling, Either A, here's a new flash. You have never been taught by Christ. Or B, there is such a thing. Paul experienced it. Job definitely experienced it. You're in a ditch of spiritual depression, backsliddenness, or apathy. And oh, how my heart goes out to you. Oh, how I find myself in those places at times. And I come to the fount of Christ's forgiveness. I come back to his holy sacrament, the supper, and I'm reminded, oh, he has saved me. He has put me on a new path. Yes, Christ, you have died for me. Yes, you have positionally sanctified me for a purpose. Shrug off the doubts, shrug off all the complacency and get back in the fight. God's promises are true and sure. He will convict. He will compel. He will perfect. Now, while the first concept of positional sanctification would have been clear to these Christians in Ephesus because of what Paul so carefully articulated in chapters one through three relating to their salvation and justification, he now wants to help them. He now wants to help them with what he himself understood as being a born-again Christian, which is this, that as a Christian, there is yet remaining in them, in himself, something that he describes as the old man. You see that in the text. This old man, which resists the Jesus's lordship, it resists his lordship and actually entertains the very things which Christ called the new man to forbid and forsake. He's wanting them to understand as you're moving forward, I understand, because I'm a born-again Christian, that you still have an old man in you that actually is going to try to control you and entertain you with ideas, very strongly at times, to accept and to live and to believe in ways that Jesus has called you and you know he has called you to forsake. Listen how this comes through, this idea of this old man and this existence within the Christian in Romans chapter seven, another epistle that Paul, this pastoral pen wrote to the church. In verse 19 of chapter seven, he said, for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil, which I would not do, that I do. You hear that concept of the old man and this internal struggle. But listen to what he says later on in that chapter, verses 23 and 24. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. There's the new nature. There's the born again nature. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." And listen to his expression of this gut-wrenching battle that takes place in a Christian's life. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Paul wants to be free from it. You don't hear someone that's just settled down and happy and complacent with the sin in his life, with the old man in his life. No, you hear a man who wants the old man dead. He wants to be freed from that flesh. That's the expression of someone who's been taught by Christ. You see, because sin does in fact remain in what Paul's saying, the flesh, the old man, we will, you will find that there are times when you will desire to do wrong. However, because God has also made us his children, as described in chapters one through three, we also have a new man, a new nature that wants to please God and wants to obey God. Paul, in this letter, to some other early Christians in Rome is spelling out the reality, which now he's expressing here in Ephesus. We as Bornican Christians, those who are taught by Christ, possess two distinct natures. The old nature in verse 22, which you see, it describes as that which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And the new nature in verse 24, which is described that after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now in the Greek there, the righteousness and the true holiness, the righteousness part is the aspect of the second table of the moral law of God. When you look at the Greek, he carries with him the idea that this is the righteousness of upright conduct. We've been created in the new nature, who loves and desires those things. The true holiness isn't perfection, but it's talking about pure and true worship to God, the first table of the Ten Commandments. And this is the new birth that happens, Levi, when someone's taught by Christ. All of a sudden, this person wants to worship God and reverence Him in their life. They want to come to the house of God and to lift up their voices and to pray to God. And then also, they know they really, truly desire, want to do that, which would please Him. It is because of this reality of the two natures that there is now a call to war and conflict in the Christian's life. As I mentioned before, prior to conversion, the old nature dominated the Christian's life, former life, and ruled everything unchallenged, unmet. However, having been taught by Christ, the new nature, the awakened nature, is compelled to wage war in an unrelenting battle against the former old man and will not have any real rest and peace in this life. News flash hoary heads who are battle wearied, perhaps to a point to where you're ready to give up on some areas of sanctification in your life. You are never guaranteed complete rest. in the work of sanctification in this life. That will only come when, as Paul said, you are delivered from this body once and for all. But praise be to God, there is spiritual rest, young lady. Knowing that I have positionally been sanctified, knowing that Christ will surely never allow me to let go of the plow and go astray in my own way, Well, of course, there's certain aspects of rest and peace. But you, like Paul, will till you are free from this encasement we call the flesh, called to war, called to war. This idea and concept of a perpetual struggle between the spirit and the flesh, it's not for little boys, Mark. It's not for, you know, little girls, sister. It's for mature God called Christ saved disciples. And this perpetual spirit and flesh struggle is mentioned by Paul in another letter. When he writes to the Galatians and he says in Galatians 5, 17, the last, the last, the last, the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Why? Because they're contrary to one another in this one person. So that you cannot do the things that you would. That's what I love about Paul. He's so real about the Christian life, and he gives practical advice. He doesn't shout off from the housetops, you know, the mud huts there, holiness, holiness, holiness, but doesn't help him to explain why they want to sin so bad too. He's navigating with them how sanctification works. This active involvement of the individual Christian and his new nature in the fight is what's being brought into focus beginning with verse 22 when Paul instructs them, ye, ye put off. Earlier, when I was clarifying what it meant to be positionally sanctified, I cited Philippians 1.6 to simply demonstrate that just as positional sanctification is an entire work of God's spirit, so is our ongoing and progressive sanctification. And there's another text that I would want to go to to demonstrate that this ongoing progressive sanctification is fundamentally at the base of work of God. It's in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, where Paul says at the closing of that letter to them in a prayer, he says, may the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. The Greek carries with the idea completely in all respects. May God sanctify you wholly. He knows it has to begin with God. He looks to God to wholly and completely mature this Christian. And I pray God, he continues to say, your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so thus it is totally reasonable to pray and to seek God to do that which we have no power in and of our own natural strength to do, which is to kill sin, which sometimes we love so much. Do you still cry out to God? Have you given up crying out to God? We learn of this idea that it has to begin with God and salvation and moving forward in our maturity, we have to come to Him again and again and again to help us and to grow us in the truths that He's calling us to live in. Now, while we readily acknowledge, listen carefully, to the witness and the testimony that God receives all the glory in this active role of sanctification. In our progressive sanctification, we come back to our text here in verse 22 and 24 with a very direct exhortation Paul gives to the original audience. Do you see that? He says, you put off, put ye off, put ye on. And so then at this point, church, we have to acknowledge that Paul is demanding that also we do something as well. Here we learn of our participation in the work of sanctification described as putting off and putting on. This is where the rubber really meets the road, is it not? God requires us, those who have been granted a new nature, to cooperate with His Holy Spirit in this process of sanctification. This means we as born-again Christians have to actually work. And sometimes work very, very hard. At what? At breaking, stopping, killing sinful habits. That's what a lot of times they are. They're sinful, disgusting, sometimes habits in the sight of God that have carried over from our former life into our new one. And instead of waging war, we're coddling them. This is exactly why in the New Testament, it is so full of instructions to us as Christ Church about how we're to live and how we're to be separated from the unregenerate thinking and living. The truth is, however, that over and over again, we are going to want to sin, and we will sometimes want to sin very badly. Perhaps someone's going to do something that makes you angry, and you're going to want to take revenge, and you're going to want to do it real bad. Oh, you're not going to let them get away with that. You're going to hold onto that grudge, and you like holding onto that grudge. Or perhaps, Someone confides into you as a brother and sister a secret about something in their life. That's something they don't want no one else to know. And you just want to tell somebody. You just want others to know that imperfection about that other person, which everybody else thinks is really good. And you want to fall into the sin of gossip. And of course, there's going to be those things that the world constantly is shouting at you to do. that you believe will bring you satisfaction even though you know in your mind God's law forbids it. And let's just be honest, you're gonna want to do it. There's something in you that is compelled, almost controlling you in a very strong way, emanating from within, not from without, that wants to do those things. With all that admitted, the putting off and the putting on which Paul is describing here is practically applied in this way. While at times, church, the old nature feels so strongly that we have to choose sin, we must put that old man off, meaning we must put him to death. He must be starved, not doing the sin which he, the old man, wants to do. If we have any hope of growing in sanctification, he must be told no. Over and over again, we will have to tell ourselves, if you stop telling yourselves, begin to remind and tell yourselves again this day in this message, old man, no, no, no, no matter what it takes, no. I am taught by Christ. You will not rule me. You will not control me. Christ will give me victory in life and I will find satisfaction and blessing in Christ. Beloved, don't any of us dare sit back with some twisted, unbiblical view of God's sovereignty and blame our lack of growth and maturity in the faith and sanctification on our precious Heavenly Father while we ourselves are unwilling to do what Paul called himself to do, and that is discipline my body and make it my slave. And elsewhere he says, and even though all things may be lawful for me, I will abstain from them because I know in this fight they're not beneficial. Don't we dare try to blame and accuse our father for not taking away our sin. And if any of us were honest, I ask to raise of a hand, you've thought that thought. God, I hate this. Why don't you just take it away? It's not my fault God made me this way. You hear it all the time. And it's even more prominent, surprisingly, so in Reformed churches who exalt the sovereignty of God. You see, it's that mistake of amplifying one truth. in minimizing another truth instead of allowing all of scripture to inform us in how we live as Christians. Beloved, God has given us means that we are to use to grow in sanctification, means which have as their end goal, listen to this, the capital promise and distinguishing blessing of the covenant of grace. It's the capital promise. Those who are heavy, those who are weary and have a heavy yoke, come to me and my burden is light. It's the chief promise that God gives, that Christ gives through his gospel to come and find rest in him. Abraham Booth, an old particular Baptist minister once said, this is the precious fruit of redemption by the blood of Jesus. And thus, we are to make full use of all the gifts and means of grace that he gives us to aid us in our sanctification, his word, his sacraments, connection with his church, connection with his covenant family, inviting others, trusted friends, mature Christian friends, perhaps who have walked in certain areas of sanctification where we need work, not putting up a privacy fence against them, but actually inviting them in to walk with us and help us. These are all part of the life of God in verse 18. Now, prior to concluding today's message, it's important that we not miss in our closing moments one vital element in this whole consideration of putting off the old man and putting him to death. And that is what you see in verse 23. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now, this phrase, being renewed, is only found one time, and it's right here in the New Testament. And it carries with it the concept of being spiritually transformed, to take on a new mind or have your mind totally renovated. And it's closely related to the activities that are mentioned over in Romans 12.2 and Titus 3.5 where the Holy Spirit is described as renewing our minds or renewing us. And the Greek word translated mind carries with it the idea of our faculty of intellect and understanding. Elsewhere, mind could be connected with the seat of our consciousness, and it's dealt with in terms of salvation. We looked at that a couple times when we were looking at chapters one through three. But here, properly understood, it's talking about the faculty of our intellect and our understanding, the faculty of our judgment and our discernment. And so, Paul's saying, you have to be, if you're serious about this putting off of the old man, renewing the faculty of your judging, your understanding in your mind. That's got to be renovated. In other words, you don't get the privilege as someone who's been taught by Christ, the luxury of now beginning a war and not having to be prepared in further trade for the war. You're constantly learning, you're constantly renewing, you're constantly reforming what you previously thought about all things, all things. Thus, we can safely conclude that an important and a vital part of your personal sanctification is the complete transforming of your intellect, your understanding and judgment. And this can only be accomplished by reading and studying God's word. Beloved, you know this to be true. Today, when I get up here and study the Greek and look at the different contexts and the structure of the passage, this cannot be your only feeding of God's word on this one day. You yourself have to renew your mind with the help of the Holy Spirit and the means of grace he's given you with his word that he has blessed you with. Going back to talking about in the first message about the people in Africa, many of which don't even have Bibles. No wonder they're led astray by this guy is proclaiming to be the true Jesus. And for all the filthy Lugar that it brings him. This can be only accomplished by reading and study God's word. And as you do this, the Holy Spirit will begin the gradual process of renewing your mind into that which will aid you and putting off and putting on the new man. The renewing of the mind anchors us back to a closing thought that's so profoundly important in any discussion about sanctification. We need God's spirit. And here's the beautiful reality to keep us balanced. He has given us his spirit, and he has given us his word, and he's given us one another. So if there's any of you in here today that have been in the trenches of this warfare, it's called spiritual warfare, wanting to put off the old man, put on the new, and you have been defeated again and again and again and again, don't give up. And if you were taught by Christ, you never will give up. You will continue to seek the throne of grace. You will continue to seek the means of grace which God has given you through his local church in order to kill this old man to where he does not rule with dominance in your old life. Let us close with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we, Lord, bow before you now at your throne of grace, your throne of pardoning and mercy. And oh God, we humbly worship and thank thee. We thank you, oh God, that as Paul writes in Romans chapter five, that while we were yet sinners, enemies against you, Christ, Christ died for our sins. And thus, Lord, we worship your gospel. We worship you. We worship all aspects of the gospel, namely Christ as the center in chief of that gospel, the blessed promises that are accompanied with his judicially sanctifying us legally from all condemnation and wrath. And oh, God, we come to you, Lord, with empty hands, acknowledging that if any call Lord, to work and battle, we look to you and we ask you who has taught us, who has instructed us, who has opened our eyes to see the truths of these things. Oh, that as David cried and David prayed, oh, that you would never forsake us nor leave us. God, let us never have such a haughty, prideful theology. to where we can pompously in lasciviousness sin and not be grieved by that sin. God, I pray, break where bones need to be broken and restore where bones need to be healed. Keep us balanced, oh God, keep us, we pray, centered in Christ as we move forward in these messages which relate to the truth of sanctification. We bless you, God, and we thank you in the name of Jesus, amen.