Putting Off The Old & Putting On The New - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

Ephesians four beginning in verse 25. This is what the word of God says. Therefore, having put away all falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. And Lord, whether it's something so straightforward or something so beautifully complex to our understanding and brings us to a place of worship with rich theology, Regardless of where we find ourselves on a weekly basis, we pray that your voice would be heard, and we ask, God, that even in the simple things, we would sense the weightiness of your holiness, and we would sense the charge from your own heart for us to imitate the one who saved us. And so, Lord, in this moment, we pray that as we just finished worshiping you in song, that we would do so now with our attention, and that we would give you, Lord, our our minds.

We would give you our our hearts open to what you have to say. And so, Lord, show us the things that need to change. Show us the things that need to be removed, and show us the things that need to be added. Lord, we long as a people who have been redeemed to imitate the one who redeemed us, and we know that it comes down to the finest details of our lives, and we give you praise that you give us the power to fulfill it. And so, Lord, speak.

Father, we pray speak for your servants are listening. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Last week, we discussed the Lord's exhortation through the apostle Paul towards believers of how they ought to live as a result of faith in the gospel.

We are a people who believe that God has saved us by his grace, and that there is nothing that we can do to attain salvation because Jesus paid it all as we just sang about. But we have to also understand that this grace goes deeper than just saving us from hell. It's a grace that saves us from sin. And it's a grace according to Titus two eleven. It's a grace that teaches us something.

It teaches us to forsake worldliness, and it teaches us to live soberly and righteously in godly lives, when? In heaven, in this present world. And so, we discuss about Paul is telling believers that you ought to behave in a certain way because of your belief. It comes to that. There's a consequence to this grace that is tangibly seen by other people, and is tangibly recognized by your very own self.

And he sums it up to this, really. He says, don't live like a non believer. Don't live like a gentile. Another way of saying somebody who is a pagan, somebody who does not believe in the true and living God, don't live like a gentile because of this faith that you have, because of this grace. And he gives this sharp and sobering command and reminder, really.

In verse 20, he says, that is not the way you learn Christ. This this is said after he explains how a gentile thinks and how a gentile generally lives his life, giving himself over to sensuality and all these different things. And he says, listen, believers. That's not how you learned Christ. You did not learn about a Christ who lives unholy.

You did not learn about a Christ who even sinned. But more importantly, you did not learn a Christ that teaches you that if he enters into your life, that you can live, like, however you want. That you can live in your sin. That you can live like the world. He says, no.

That is not what grace is about. That is not what the gospel produces in you. But this Christian pilgrimage, as we're all on, this exile. Right? This is more than just not behaving like the world.

It's not just about forsaking sinful habits. It's about adopting new ones. It's not just about not doing something. It's about not doing something and replacing it with something else. So the idea of us walking in Christ is found in verse 22.

Put off your old self, and we talked about that. But it's not just put on off your old self. It's verse 24. Put on the new self. So put off something else, and put on something new.

And we discussed again last week what that generally looks like when we say put off the old self. But what does it mean to put on the new self? What does that look like? How do I imitate that? How do I reflect that?

Well, he tells us here in verse 24, put on the new self. This new self looks like something. It's created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. To simplify it, to put on the new self is to be like God. Be like God.

And the act of putting on the new self is a daily pursuit of being recreated into the very one who created you. A daily pursuit, a daily ambition. And he's saying here, it looks like something very specific. Remember in Genesis one twenty six, when God says, let us create man in our likeness? That likeness, we know this, because of the fall, was warped because of the vicious distortion that comes as a result of sin.

But because of our union in Christ, this is so profound, because of our union with Christ, we are now in the process of being restored into that likeness to its fullness, which makes being a Christian so much more than just a belief. It's so much more profound when you become a follower of Jesus Christ. Because we know that being a believer is knowing Christ, but knowing Christ is more than just being reconciled to God. Knowing Christ is also being restored in his image. Knowing Christ is more than just going somewhere after this world.

It's also an invitation to become like the one who created this world. Knowing Christ is more than just beholding the beauty of the Lord on a daily basis. It's also becoming the character of this Lord on a daily basis. And so when we look at verse 24, it is a charge to every believer, no matter what context of life they find themselves in, to make it their main ambition in this life to imitate him. To imitate him.

And so even before we move on, you gotta ask yourself this question this morning, is that even an ambition in my life? Is there anything within me as a believer that says, you know, I believe in him, and I love him, and I worship him, but I want to be like him. I want to be like him in every way possible, Every stitch of my existence to be a reflection. Because this charge here says, you and I on a daily basis should seek a growing in righteousness and an evermore glowing of his holiness. That's the pursuit of the believer.

That's the pursuit of a true Christian, to say, I believe in him, but I wanna become like him. And that sounds really good in theory. It sounds really desirable even, even after an inspiring message. Right? But the Holy Spirit does not leave us without detailed instruction.

Why? Because this becoming, this putting on of the new self, this reflection of the master is not an automatic result of being saved. It's not. It's not something that happens instantaneous. What happens when we get saved is that we get a new set of heart desires, we get a new power to fulfill them, but it requires, hear me, your participation.

It requires your participation. And so what happens here? What happens when we put on the new self? What does it look like? It looks like a practical process, a practical and continuous self examination of myself in every area of my life to make sure that I am reflecting the one I follow.

It is a daily elimination of old habits and a daily exercise of a holy practice. Yet, it is not void of the divine enablement to make it possible. So this putting on and putting off the new self that happens on a daily basis is the elimination of certain habits that are according to our sinful nature and a exercise of new habits according to the standard of the word of God. That's what it looks like. Welcome to the world of sanctification.

And it requires our participation with his divine enablement to make it possible. When you think of a spiritual Christian, what do you think about? Just think about it right now. What comes to mind when you think that's a person that imitates Christ? That's a person that puts on the new self?

That's a person that reflects the righteousness and holiness of God? What do you think about? Somebody that preaches every week faithfully on the streets. Somebody that fast once a week and prays four hours a day. Somebody that knows scripture, that knows the language of the bible no more than English language.

What comes to mind when you think of a spiritual believer? Because God has something in mind, and it might shock you this morning of what comes to mind for God when he thinks about a person that puts on the new self that pursues a life of reflecting him. And our duty this morning is to be renewed in our thinking to understand what this looks like. All those things that I just mentioned, those are wonderful things. Those are wonderful things.

But it is very possible to practice those things in a hollow manner in such a way that it does not affect you in the things that we're just about to read right now. What does it mean to put on the new self? Well, verse 25 says, therefore So that's a continuous word there. Because of what I just said about putting on the new self, this is what the new self looks like. This is what it looks like to pursue Christ and to imitate him as you clothe yourself with him.

These are what the garments of the new self are. The first one is, if you are to be a people that imitate him, if you are to be a people that put off and put on the new, you are a person who knows how to speak truth. You are an individual that strives to be truthful in speech at all times, having put away falsehood, put away lying, put away exaggeration, Put away all these different things, and let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. Now who does he have in mind when he says neighbor? Believers.

For we are members one of another. So it's obvious we know this, don't lie and speak the truth. But just reading this verse, I thought to myself even, how do Christians, or how would Christians, or where are the pitfalls that Christians find themselves in when they lie to other Christians? Now, this command does not mean that you can be false with non believers, but he's speaking to the community of Christians, and he's saying, listen, in your daily walk with one another, as you walk together in this walk, speak truth. But what are some ways that people can fall into lying?

We know the obvious way of just blatantly lying, but there are different ways too that kind of can be justified and and don't seem so harmful. In Acts chapter four, at the end of it, verse 36, we read of a man named Joseph, who was called Barnabas. And he was a Levite, and there was great need in the church, and this man sold his property and gave his goods. Gave the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles. And it was a genuine act of worship.

It was a genuine sacrifice. It was something that went and was received well by the church. Apparently, there is no disruption, and the apostles and the leaders obviously affirmed of it. But then something happens in the very next chapter with a couple that attempted to do the same thing, but ended up experiencing different results. Ananias and Sapphira.

So they come on the scene, and there must be a connection between Acts four thirty six and Acts five verse one. There was something that they saw with Barnabas that inspired him to do it, and it wasn't a good sense of inspiration. Perhaps Barnabas received praise from the elders. Perhaps the others received them well. Per perhaps he received a specific amount of attention that did something in their hearts to say, Hey, let's do the same thing, but let's do it in a different way.

Let's give the appearance that we give everything, but in reality, we've kept some for ourselves. Let's show everybody how sacrificial we are. Let's show everybody how spiritual we are, but let's let's not show them that, in fact, we have we have something else at home. Specific amount. And don't do that to somebody who's been walking with Jesus for three years.

Don't do that to one of the 12 apostles, because the Holy Spirit reveals to Peter that they are lying, and that they're putting on a show, and that they've kept something behind. And it seems as though as though the greed is obvious, as though they did not care about the needs of others, but they had selfish gain. You see an emphasis through the Holy Spirit in Peter about lying. You lied not to men, but to God. You know how Christians can lie today to other Christians, giving a false appearance of spirituality, giving a false appearance of spirituality?

There are people who, because of their own agenda, just like Ananias and Sapphira, perhaps they are fishing for the praise of man, or maybe they're looking for the pity of man. You know, there are people that want pity. There are people that want attention. And they will do whatever it takes to get there. And so there are some people that, because they don't think there's enough spice in their testimony of how they came to Christ, they'll just add a little bit of a flavor, so that there's a greater story to tell about how they came into union with Christ.

Or perhaps because they just wanna seem spiritual, they'll come up with stories of how God has used them, and God has not really used them to that capacity. If you think this is not true, there are people who are ministers that will perhaps come up with stories for monetary gain to show how anointed and how powerful they are. Right? And how many of us can testify that people have even used the name of Christ himself to try to advance an agenda or to get out of a situation? It's the whole idea of taking the Lord's name in vain.

It's lying. It's lying when somebody says, oh, Christ told me this, or God showed me this. And underneath all of that is a personal agenda to get into something or to get out of something because they know that Christians, as lovable as they are, can even be sometimes naive, especially in the early stages of their walk with Christ, to believe anything or to not discern something simply because somebody put the label on it, God told me so. Personally, I probably have seen more damage done to a genuine believer by somebody else who has invoked the name of God to say something into that person's life that has not been true than anything else. That haunts people.

I'm not talking about sensing something genuinely from the Lord where God depots I'm just talking about people who purposely take the name of God and associate it with a deliberate lie to advance something or to get out of something. And sometimes people do this flippantly. They mix God's voice with their voice and they say, God told me, so you don't have to do a certain response. But don't do that. Don't do that.

We can give a false appearance of spirituality. Speaking Christianese and knowing how to talk in here, but we talk completely different outside. Praying in a certain way and and and trying to give a certain persona, try to display something that's just not true. And guess what? God does not want that.

He's not very fond of that. He made such a statement with Ananias and Sapphira at the beginning of the church saying, I don't want this in my body. I don't want these things. And so he kills them, takes them off the scene. How else can believers lie to other believers than the obvious, other than the obvious blatant lies?

We lie when we don't we don't keep our word. We lie when we don't keep our word. If there is any yes or any I'll do it that should not be doubted by one, it is when a believer says those words. There should not be a moment of doubt when a believer says yes, or when a believer says no, or when a believer says I'll do it, or a believer says I can't do it. There should not be a fraction of doubt in our mind when a Christian says those things.

And so the new self, putting on the new self, is also understanding that your word, your word carries much importance in the kingdom. Your word carries much weight when it comes to relationship with one another. And we can lie by saying something and not keeping up to that vow. Why is that important? Because we're imitating someone.

We're imitating God. Now just imagine this with me. Can you imagine if God if God was inconsistent with his word? Think with me for a moment. Think of the God that you worship.

Think of the God that in which you put all your faith and trust in, the stability that you sense because of who he is. Imagine that God in his promises to us, in his vows and all the covenants that he's made, imagine in light of all those things, we also read about a God who is inconsistent with his commitments. Imagine we serve a God that does not keep up his word, that changes his mind because of his mood one day. How would you relate to such a God? He's a faithful God.

For thousands of years, he says, I will never flood this world and destroy all flesh by water. Imagine he changes his mind one day. I mean, he's kept it for and he will always keep it for thousands of years. But imagine you read this and you discover there's there's a God here that says one thing, but in the next chapter he does something else, and there's no there's no evidence why he just kind of does it because he's just in a different mood today. That would be terrifying.

There'd be no sense of security. There'd be no sense of harmony. There'd be no genuine relationship. In the same light, you and I, the same way we sense secure, and we we can sense we can be reliable and and and rely on him rather, we should be able to give off that same sense to other people in our lives. That when we say something, people can trust in it.

That it's not wavering. That it's constant. When you say it, you'll do it. Listen, this is very practical. It's gonna get even more practical, but I think this is very important because more than anything today, we have so many definitions, and so many books, and so what we need more than anything is a demonstration of what this thing is.

Of what it means to believe it. And it gets to the nitty gritty things, really. It gets to the nitty gritty things, so when you say something, you'll do it. That goes a long way. You can preach up a storm, but if you can't keep your word, you've tarnished your testimony.

Speak truth to one another. Why? Because you're members of one another. He gives a reason. You're members of one another.

Can you imagine if one of your body parts lie to the rest of your body? Can you imagine the chaos? Can you imagine the confusion in that body? The disharmony? Can you imagine if you put your your hand on something hot and it does not tell you that's hot?

You're burning your fingers off? In the same way, there would be destruction to the body if we develop a habit of not speaking truth. If we are inconsistent with our word, if we display a false sense of spirituality, if we bring the name of God into things that we should not bring him into. Speak true to one another, because you are members of one another. But it doesn't it doesn't stop there.

A person who puts on the new self, a person that clothes himself with the garment of Christ, is a person who speaks the truth, but is also a person that knows how to control their emotions. Is a person who knows how to control their emotions, specifically the emotion of anger. What does he say here? Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity.

Give no opportunity to the devil. Be angry and do not sin. And so this implies that the emotion of anger can be experienced in an unsinful way. And our minds perhaps are rushing over to this understanding of righteous indignation. Right?

Jesus displayed righteous indignation in Mark three five. He was angry at the Pharisees because of their all a bunch of stuff, their disbelief and all these things. And righteous indignation is something that we can feel, but this is how we know what is righteous indignation. Righteous indignation is usually a zeal that you feel that is targeted towards the sins of other people and sins against God. It's it's really not about you when you feel this anger.

It's really not about what people have done to you. And it's really not even about people. It's about the sin in their lives that's causing them to do something. And so this righteous indignation, it's not righteous if you're experiencing it for selfish reasons. So if somebody has not met a standard to what you think a friend should be or how a person should behave and it's going beyond what is is written, and you're feeling angry about it, it's probably not righteous indignation.

But even with this righteous indignation, which another way of understanding how it's righteous is because it's mingled usually with grief. Righteous ignitions mingled with grief and brokenness. Because it's this pain that you feel. It's this anger that says, I know who you're called to be as a believer, but you're giving yourself over to something that is destroying your life and tarnishing the testimony that you represent. It's mingled with brokenness because you see the world that's living in gross sin, and you realize that there's a hope for them.

And you realize that there's salvation for them, and you realize that there's true life for them. And so Jesus, yes, went into the temple, flipped temp and flipped tables, but he also looked at Jerusalem and wept. And wept. Even in Mark three, he looks at them with anger, but he was also grieved. And so it's this blend.

It's this mingling. But even with righteous indignation, we can fall into sin. We have to be careful that it could so consume somebody that they begin to react with it through judgment, through cruelty, condemnation, sharp criticism that destroys rather than builds up. And so there are many people that are in the name of righteous indignation tearing people apart, whether believers or non believers, because they are filled, Zeal for your houses consume me. Do you weep as much as you preach with that tone of voice?

But Paul doesn't seem to be giving off the idea of righteous indignation here. Paul just says, be angry and don't sin. And so there is an anger that you and I can feel as a result of an injustice done to us or done to other people that we love. It's an emotion that just comes to us. It's something that just rushes into us.

And and Paul's talking, I believe, about that kind of an anger. And he's not concerned as much about feeling it, as much as he is about it fueling you. So he says, be angry, be angry, and do not sin. And we can stop there and say, yeah, I do that all the time. I get angry all the time, and and I don't let it make me do something.

I still feel the anger though, but I don't let it let me speak to somebody in an ill manner or to act in a violent way. But the command didn't finish. It didn't say be angry and do not sin. He says something else. He says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

That's the full command. And so it's two part. Sure, you can feel it and not sin in the moment with it, but he's saying don't let that feeling linger too long because in due time, it will make you do something. James one twenty tells us that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So that anger, label it how you want, will not, in the end, produce the righteousness of God.

And so the command is two part. Don't do something with that anger in the moment. Don't sin. Don't sin in anger, but don't keep that anger either. That's a command, not a suggestion.

Because it produces something in the end. It produces frustration, it produces agitation, it produces fractured relationship, it will produce eventually bitterness and hatred. Just give it the right time. All it needs is time. All it needs you is to go bed with to bed with that anger, and you lay there and you toss and turn and meditate about what she said or what he said, or how can he be a Christian and tell me that?

How can he be a Christian and do that? And you just let it simmer, you throw in the right ingredients, and there it comes. Out comes of that oven, hatred, bitterness, action, words, gossip, whatever it is, it's an ugly thing. So he says, don't do this. Don't let it simmer.

Don't let it linger. Why? Mainly because of verse 27. Because if you do, you've given something for the devil to work with in your life. And give no opportunity, give no opportunity to the devil.

So when you let anger stay, what you're really saying is, whether you know it or not, Satan, wide open door for you to work in me. Maybe you were this type of child, maybe you've used this before, but children over time develop the ability to discern their parents as much as their parents are able to discern their children over the years. Children can discern their parents. And one of the ways they can discern their parents is, you know, if I really wanna get something from my mom or dad, I know what to do. I just wait till they get into the right mood, and then I'll ask what I wanna ask.

Right? Maybe you've done that before. So you've asked for something knowing that they had the money, and you can't get it, so what do you do? You go, I'm just gonna wait till you get into the right mood. You said, No, that's fine.

And so, you wait. You just wait. And one day, your mom barges in the door, and she's singing, and she's laughing, and she's talking about how great of a day she had, and in a moment, you go, this is the day. This is the day. And you wait till she sits down, and you and she's just having a ball, whatever, she's talking about all these things, and you say, you know, mom, remember that thing I mentioned before?

And you present your request, and sometimes it works, no hesitation. Sure, honey. Go for it. And all you needed to do was wait for the right mood for your move. The devil does the same thing.

What the devil does, he just waits for you to get into that right mood before he comes and makes his strongest suggestions through temptation. And anger is one of the ways where you position yourself for Satan's voice to be more convincing for you to advance his agenda into the body of Christ. I want you to think of that next time you get angry for any reason, that you have just set yourself up, and if you're not careful enough, you will set yourself up for Satan's voice and temptations to become all the more convincing. Your guard is down when you're angry. Your guard is down, and the longer you let it stay, the more exposure you're giving to him.

Is it not true that when you're angry, all these things come to your mind? Not even sin against a person, sin in general. Sometimes we can be so consumed with anger that we wanna do something to try to quiet that anger down, so we sin. We try to go for some pleasure to try to damper that down that thing down. All these things are available, and the enemy has been watching human behavior for so long, and when he sees you in rage, and he sees you tossing and turning because of your anger, it's like perfumed him.

He can smell it on somebody. All he does is come and says, you know, you can do this. You know, you can do that. You know, you don't deserve that. Look at all the good that you've done to that person, and look how they treated you in return.

And it fuels you, and it fuels you, and it fuels you until you take action. Do not be angry. That Rather, do not sin in your anger. That anger So this command is more than just not sinning in anger. It's about me in my anger knowing how to deal with it righteously.

The new self, putting on the new self, is not necessarily not feeling angry at times, but it's about when I come to that place where I sense that emotion in me, I know how to deal with it outside of the supposed relief that comes from venting with explosive rage, or for letting it chew up my thoughts to a point where it literally rots me from the inside out. There's a righteous way of dealing with it. So what is the righteous way? What is the new self of of being angry but not sinning? How do I deal with it then?

There's two ways you can deal with it. I'm sure there's many more, but there's two ways this morning. And there's two types of people that you go to. The person who made you angry, and to God himself. So the way that we deal with anger, the way we don't let it linger in our hearts, go back to verse 25.

Speak the truth to one another. Don't lie about the way you feel. Now, here's a word of caution. This is no permission for somebody who gets unrighteously angry to go up to people and to express how they made them angry because people do this too. Because if you are angry for anything other than a genuine injustice, and even that, we have to be so careful because we believers know we're gonna be persecuted, we believers know people are gonna sin against us, that still does not give us the right to be angry.

But if that emotion is there for some injustice, for a sin that has been caused against us, Go to that person and tell them. But don't be a person because of your anger, and your lack of self control, and your lack of security, go to people say, you made me angry, you made me angry, and you just you just try to justify it. You're actually in sin. You're in sin if that's the person that you You made me angry. Why?

Because you didn't call me. Was I supposed to call you? No. But you're my friend. You're in sin.

You're selfish. That's not how a believer thinks. And so, this is no license for somebody to say, oh, yeah. So I can go up to people and tell them that the way I feel. Hold on.

You might be in sin. But if somebody has sinned against you, what do you do? Speak the truth to them. Go to them. And what?

Say say what? Explode at them? Vomit those foul language things because you have the right to to vent out or you No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. Speak the truth in love.

The same book tells us that. And you approach them, and you do and guess what happens? That anger drains. You flush that anger out in that act. I remember when I first got saved.

I mean, fresh. Very fresh. And just got involved in a church community and everything, and to my surprise, Christians can sin. To my surprise, Christians could actually make mistakes. And somebody had said something to me out of passing.

It was so sharp. It was so personal. It was it was very, very unkind on so many levels that for the rest of the day, it was just a dart in my heart. It was, and I'll be honest. This is just fresh to say, for so many reasons.

And one of the reasons was I could not believe that somebody at this level of their faith could say something like this. And I can feel that anger growing inside of me. I could you can feel it. You can feel that cancer spreading in you. And all these thoughts, I mean, things are going on throughout the day, but all these thoughts, how can that person say that?

I can't believe that. And then I just have to make a choice. I just really have to make a choice in that moment later on in the day, Knowing that this is going to get dangerous real quick, not really knowing this verse perhaps, but just knowing that this feeling towards this person is not right. Even if he did something wrong, I should not hold on to these emotions. And so there I am with my phone, tossing my thoughts back and forth, pacing back and forth, wondering if I should just call the person and tell them what they did and how it made me upset.

And all these different reasons why. Oh, maybe all these different but you know what? I needed freedom more than anything. And so I picked up that phone. I called that individual, in love, asked them how they were doing, and said, this is what you said.

I don't know if you know what you said, but it made me feel this way because of this this this and this and this and this. That person was on the other line. I was I did not know what to expect, but in that moment, that person said, I am so sorry. Forgive me, and and expressed his sorrow about it, and asked if we can pray. We prayed on the phone, hung up the phone.

Just even going over this verse and meditating on this, I remember one distinct feeling after we finished that conversation, I feel like I could breathe again. I just feel like fresh breath came into me and I felt like this weightiness lifted off, And I knew in that moment, okay, now Satan has nothing to work with in my relationship with this person. He has nothing to work with. He can't cause bitterness in me anymore. He can't cause hatred in me.

Why? Because this person asked for forgiveness. This and you know what? It it brought our relationship closer. You would be amazed what obedience to God's word does.

We come up with all these ways of justifying why, why, why. That doesn't seem practical. It doesn't seem really right. If you just obey, you would be amazed of what it can do. You know what?

Sometimes there can be injustices done, sometimes there can be things said, and maybe that person doesn't want to repent of it. Maybe that person does not want to say, you know, forgive me. So there's another person that we can go to, and that's God himself. That's God himself. If you are familiar with the book of Psalms, you have perhaps stumbled upon certain types of Psalms that have, with every right, caused you to question, why is this psalmist saying this?

And one of those Psalms is Psalms one thirty nine. We all know this Psalm. And it's a beautiful song that displays the intimacy that God shows with humanity. Is it not? I know when you get up and I know when you go to bed.

I know your thoughts before you even say something. I'm there. I've intricately woven you in your mother's womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. All these things, these gems concerning the character and the holiness and the love that comes from God towards us creatures.

And as you're reading it and getting lost in it, delighting in it, meditating on it, if you're familiar with the psalm, you've probably experienced a sense of halt in your thought process when you come to verse 19. What does he say? Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Oh, men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? We're talking about the beauty and the majesty of God, and how intimate he is, and all of a sudden the psalmist comes and says, kill your enemies. Remove these men of blood from me.

These are what we call imprecatory Psalms, and perhaps you found more than one of them, where you see the psalmist asking God to judge, asking God to destroy, asking God to take vengeance on his behalf. That scripture, that's in the book of prayers and hymns that we esteem. And I remember reading this, and specifically this psalm, and looking at that verse, and wondering, how does that relate to me as a Christian? What do I do with that? What do I do with that?

How does that relate with pray for your enemies, and bless those who curse you, and love those who hate you? How do I relate dash the teeth of the wicked, and praying for your enemies. Much debate around it. And the simple answer is, well, that's the Old Testament, we're in the New Testament. I think it's deeper than that.

And I believe there's one reason amongst many of why and how we can relate to these kind of Psalms. That it is an invitation. It is an invitation from God to translate potential violent acts to violent prayers. It is the license for us to come and to open our hearts before God and to call upon God with genuine emotion for injustice, instead of taking that act upon yourself and doing something that you would regret whether in word or in deed. These Psalms are God calling us to say, you can be honest with me.

You can be honest with me in the rawest form. Now notice, if you study the imprecatory Psalms, if you look into these Psalms, you will never see the Psalm as saying, I'm going to destroy my enemies. I'm going to dash the teeth of the wicked. I'm gonna take their infants and throw them against rocks. You never see the psalmist saying, I'm gonna do that.

Empower me to do it. He always says, God, take care of it. Lord, you do it. You take vengeance. You act.

You do this. So what does that mean for you and me? It means that you have every right to come before God and to let those things out to him. He can handle it. He can handle it, and he invites you to do it.

And say, Lord, this was done. Take care of it. Lord, this is how I feel. Bring it on. God, do it.

Do it. Come in righteousness. Come in judgment. And what it does is, it protects us. It protects us from doing anything on our own strength and doing anything according to our own will.

And if you really want to experience in some way an intimacy with God, it is when you are able to know how to express the truth of what's in your heart before Him. David was a man after God's own heart. Right? David was the same man that prayed those kind of prayers and was real with God, and you have the right to do that too. So we know that even intimacy with God, He does want us to be real with our emotions, but in His presence before Him, He can handle it.

And there's a freeing aspect in there as well. The knowing that you've placed it before God. Why? Because ultimately, it's an act of faith. For you to sense these things and to come before God and to say, do something about it is ultimately laid on the foundation of an act of faith.

You're trusting me with these things, you're trusting me with your emotions, you're trusting me with the problems in your life, and I appreciate that. People who speak the truth, people who know how to manage their emotions, specifically anger, that's what it means to put on the new self. So if you're a person that explodes in anger, if you're quick to react, if you are harsh with your parents, if you are harsh with your siblings, if you're harsh with people in the body of Christ, you're not putting on the new self. You still have old garments on. And what this command is calling you to do is take it to that person in truth and love or take it to God in honesty.

Don't let it linger. When it comes, you fight against it or else it will fuel you to do something that you'll regret later on. People who speak the truth, people who know how to manage those emotions, but people who also know how to get to work. Doesn't this sound very spiritual? We're gonna get to that in a moment.

This is spiritual. People who know how to get to work. What is the next verse? Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone. Part of the restoration process of you and I being created in the likeness of God is in some way going back to what we were before the fall.

And you and I, through our first parents, as humans, were doing something before the fall, and it's called work. Work is not a result of the fall. Work is a pre fall, perfect idea of what God has intended for us as people, to have something to do with our hands, to get busy. It is not God's will for your life to be a couch potato Christian. Not for a moment.

In fact, when you come into Christ, if you are a thief, and in different parts of the scripture There is different parts in the New Testament where it says, if a person doesn't work, don't let him eat. So in here, we see it's a thief, but it's also laziness in general. If you are a lazy person before Christ, when you come into Christ, there is a new motivation and a new direction in your life where you're no longer lazy anymore. So if that was your pre Christ life, you should be able to say in your testimony, you know, I was a lazy person before I came to Christ, but then I got a job. What?

Yes. Let the thief no longer steal. Let those who are idle not eat. Have you ever heard a testimony like that at a baptism service? You know, before I came to Christ, I was a lazy person.

But then when I came, he filled me with his Holy Spirit, and he gave me a fresh motivation to be who he called me to be. I get to work now. That'd be an interesting testimony, would it not? No. But we don't hear those things.

You know why? Because we divorce those things from Christianity and being a spiritual person. We don't think that's spiritual. We think, what's spiritual? Prayer, and fasting, and preaching, and you don't have a job, when you're an adult, like, you're supposed to be working and living for yourself and supposed to be saving up money for your future.

No, no, no, no. But now we we get, we're a little humbled here because Paul has this in mind by the Holy Spirit. Let the thief no longer steal. Don't take something that doesn't belong to you. We spent all of Friday talking about what it means that you shall not steal.

But it's not just putting off that. It's not just putting off that. It's putting on something else. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor. Let him labor.

That's not just even work. You look at the original word, it is exhaustive work. Bone tired labor. Callous developing work. Let him go to that level as a believer in Christ.

There is no room for laziness. What does it look like? Number one, it looks like honest work. If you're working a job that involves deception and stealing and manipulation, time to give in your resignation. That's the obvious thing.

But it's work. Honest, laborious, continuous, persistent, daily work. Remember when Jesus said to Peter, let down your nets and get a catch? Peter says in Luke five five, Lord, we've toiled all night and caught nothing. That word toil is the same word here.

We've toiled all night and caught nothing. If you notice something about Jesus, and we said this before, if you notice something about God throughout the entire bible, really, he seems to really be attracted to people even before he calls them that are found working. You'll find that. Elisha was plowing the field. Peter was washing the nets.

Moses was tending the sheep. God recruit in his recruitment process, I believe wholeheartedly that he finds people that are doing something. He does not call lazy people, because if you're lazy in your job, you'll be lazy in his kingdom. If you're lazy in a physical vineyard, you're gonna be lazy in the spiritual vineyard. So he finds people, he recruits people, but more importantly, even if you were somebody that wasn't, he's so gracious enough he still calls you.

But he calls you to be a person who labors. And you might object and say, well, God created me for rest. He created you way more to work than to rest. Six to one actually. Six days of work, one day of rest.

Not six days of rest and one day of work. Work, work, work. Paul says something and he demonstrates this more clearly than anybody because he preaches, but he practices, and it's so convicting when you come to a verse like first Thessalonians two and nine. For you remember, he's talking to the Thessalonians believers. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil, we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

So he's saying, we preach to you, but not only did we preach, we, in first Thessalonians, worked for our own bread, worked for our own living, so that we would not be a burden. When you go to second Thessalonians, he says, we did this. Though we had the right for you to give us what we what we need as laborers in the gospel, we did this so that we can be an example to you. We did this so that we can be an example to you. And so Paul knew how to labor physically and spiritually.

Paul knew how to win bread and knew how to win souls, and not use one or the other to compromise the other activity. You did not find Paul, I'm sure of it, on a day, unless obviously the the rest that we need for our bodies, twiddling his thumbs and binging on shows or whatever at the expense of doing something for the production of self, concerning work and financial benefit, or for the kingdom. You did not find him twiddling his thumbs. I'm sure of that. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul doing that?

You can't. You can't read the Apostle Paul and say, Yeah, he was probably a really chill guy. He said, no, I get to work. And I really wanna speak to the men. I really wanna speak to the men this morning on this specific topic.

No matter what, guys, no matter what, especially in light of biblical manhood, you and I are called to be exhausted in some sense. You and I are to be busy in both realms. Work, provision, and also spiritual. He did not compromise. He says, we worked while we preached.

We worked while we preached. And so we are to be disciplined, and we are to get our hands dirty, and we are to be all the more attentive to needs whether in our own lives or in the church life itself. The church life itself. That there should not be a moment of hesitation when there is anything that needs to be done in here, especially physical labor. Anything that requires physical labor.

We need to be a breed of leaders, men, because you are all called to be leaders in some capacity, to get things done and to be those who do it well. Ladies, same thing, Proverbs 31, the hands is most mentioned, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. One preacher said it this way, there is nothing more dangerous than a board ban. There's nothing more dangerous than a board man. When a person is bored, when a person does not actively engage in work, even just physical work, like dig a hole, an act of work, they set themselves up for so many other things to come and replace that time and that energy, and most of the time it's sin.

I believe it was Luther who said, somebody asked him, do you sin? And he goes, I don't have time to sin. I don't have time to I'm so busy. Busy in God's kingdom, busy in general. I'm keeping myself busy, my energy, my attention is on something.

And when sin comes, I don't even have time to even entertain the thought because I'm already giving myself to something else. See, there are spiritual implications when it comes to physical realities. Don't steal anymore but labor, and if there's any place where the rubber meets the road concerning this new life, where it really gets real here now, The purpose of why we ought to work. You would think we work so that we can provide for ourselves, that's in another text. To provide for your family, that's in another text.

She says right here, that the reason why I want you to get busy at work is so that what? That you have something to share. So you have something to share with anyone in need. The thief stole for himself, the believer works for other people. It's completely outside of us, is it not?

I want you to labor physically for that check on a biweekly basis, so that at the end of it, you actually have something to give to somebody else. The gospel. Christianity. So what does that look like for men and women? What does it look like?

It looks like this. It looks like, specifically for a man, it looks like you working a job, and you being faithful in that job, and you waking up early, whatever your hours request, and you being faithful to your church service, so you're laboring in the spiritual, you're laboring physically, you getting home tired, but you finding the motivation because you're a man. You've been called to be a man, you've been called to be a leader, you've been called not to be lazy, not to necessarily be entertained, but to work. You come to prayer, you pray with fervency. You go home tired.

You go to sleep. You wake up for work. You do the same thing. You read your word. You meet with God.

You come. If you're a husband, you attend to the needs of your wife. You attend to the needs of your children. You meet with God, go to bed, repeat, and then when you get your check, when you get your check on a weekly or biweekly basis, you get that envelope, you come home, you come and meet with God at night before you go to bed to repeat the same thing, you lay that check on your desk, you lay your hand on that check, and you say, father, this is your money. And whatever you wanna do with every penny of this check belongs to you.

Thank you for this job, thank you for this opportunity, if anything in this check can be used to advance your kingdom, if there's anybody in need, they're in a situation where they can't find a job, whatever it may be, show me and I'm willing to give it all away if need be. You turn off the light, you go to bed, and you repeat. That's the new self. That's the new self. Also, the the telling truth part was obvious, and the anger thing, okay, I get it, but welcome to this, selflessness.

Always there for the needs of others. Always willing to give what you have for the sake and the benefit of another. And I'll be thinking again, this is very practical. Very practical. Just scroll a couple verses down, you'll realize that this has greater implication than we think.

Verse 29 talks about not corrupting talk coming out of your mouth, we'll leave that for next week. But look at verse 30, and we're gonna talk about this in greater detail next week as well, but I just want us to leave here with this last thought. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. You think that's a random thought? It's not.

The sin of grieving the Holy Spirit is surrounded by these negative commands and positive commands of do not and do. So the same Holy Spirit that boldens you and gives you the power to preach, the same Holy Spirit that energizes your prayer life, the same Holy Spirit that does so many supernatural things and animates you in so many ways, is the same Holy Spirit that really takes these things seriously. And so prayer, fasting, evangelizing, strategizing, all those things are so important and they're part of the walk. But you know what the Holy Spirit is saying? You know, when you speak truth, when you're clean with your integrity and your speech, when you know how to control your anger, when you are working actively and you're ready to give, that means a lot to me.

That means a lot. That actually pleases me. And so as much as this is something for one another so that we would have harmony in the body of Christ and that we would experience Christ likeness from and to one another, it all the more has a great, great, great, great influence on how we experience the person of the Holy Spirit. There are many ways we can grieve the Holy Spirit, but that verse in verse 30 is sandwiched by all these practical ideas. And that's why maybe you can testify to a moment where you said something, according to verse 29, something corrupt, a dirty joke, something that was hard on somebody.

You know, we kind of take rudeness and mask it with sarcasm. Right? And it can really hurt somebody. And you've probably said something, and you know, right there, the Holy Spirit convicts you, says, you should not have said that. Can you testify to that?

And you're convicted. Why? Because that means a lot to him, because that's not how Christ talks. And in that moment, as much as you are concerned about that person, you can testify to this. Perhaps, as quick as possible, you find a place to go so you can ask for forgiveness.

Whether it's a bathroom stall or behind the church building, you find a place to get alone and you pace back and forth, and you say, God, I shouldn't have said that. I'm so sorry, Lord. I should not have said it the way I said it. God, forgive me. Lord, take now your Holy Spirit from me.

Stay here, Lord. I need you. I need you. I I care about your presence more than anything. I I'm so sorry, Lord.

And you stay there until you feel the release, and you find that person and you apologize. These things mean a lot to him as a person. He's a person that lives inside of you, and these things, he is elevated to what it means to be a spiritual Christian. Speaking truth, knowing how to manage your emotions, being a person that's active with your hands, being a person that sees need and goes for it without being having to be asked twice. Somebody that is a person who labors for themselves, yes, but also for the need of others.

And the Holy Spirit in that whole time says, I'm pleased. I'm pleased. There are many ways in this chapter, and I'm not going to go into them today, we're going to continue next week. But it's amazing how sanctification can get so minute in our lives. And I want us to just conclude in prayer as we say, Lord, as I put on the new self, show me what part, what what garment am I missing, or what garment is soiled.

And Lord, help me not just remove it, but to put on what I'm supposed to put on. Father, we we acknowledge this morning that you are Lord of our lives. And we thank you that these commands are given, not because you want us to just live in a certain way for the sake of it, but because it reflects you and has specific consequences to how we live with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And Lord, if there's anybody in here, as we examine ourselves, Lord, we can fall into the temptation of saying, I'm so happy that person heard that point, and we fail to examine our own hearts. But, Lord, we look at ourselves and we say, is there untruth in my lips?

Do I give an appearance of spirituality for the sake of a selfish agenda? Do I use the name of God to get into or get out of situations when it's not you? Do I have a lack of self control of anger in my heart? Have I attempted to label it righteous indignation when it is not righteous at all? Have I given opportunity for the devil to work in me?

Lord, we pray for the spirit of self control to manage these things. And to realize that though you were righteous in your anger, when it came to you being crucified, you did not even open your mouth. Help us imitate that, Lord. Help us know how to manage it and to drain it from our hearts when it comes. And Lord, if there's any laziness which is so prevalent in our culture, especially among men who wanna be pampered and don't wanna work and are not committed consistently, Lord, may you, out of this place, redeem unto yourself a breed of people who know how to work, yes, just as much in prayer and everything else, but also for the sake of giving something to another in need.

Whether that's in our personal lives, Lord, or corporately, that when there is a need, we get to work. Simply because we have adopted this attitude of if you need me, I'm there. Put me to work. And help us really believe as practical as this teaching was, Lord. As practical as these verses are, they have direct relationship with how we experience the Holy Spirit.

And that these things may not mean a lot to us, or they may not really stir us, but they stir the Holy Spirit. He's pleased or grieved by the lack of action or the action towards these things. Help us really believe that. So, Lord, we lay all our lives, every aspect of our lives on the altar, and we say, consume it, God. Consume it.

So if it's my attitude, if it's my mindset, if it's the way I talk, Lord, I crucify it. And I say, live in me. Speak through me. Work through me, God. Let it all be done for your glory.

And may I really trust again at the Holy Spirit. I will experience him in a different way when I obey these things. In Jesus' name, we pray.