Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Ephesians 417.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that she 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 through being past feeling, have given themselves over under 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 she put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that she put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak 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 need it, that no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
But that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the ears, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption, but all bitterness, and wroth, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking. He put away from you with all malice, and be a kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
The second chapter here's a description of the Gentiles condition too, isn't there?
Verse 11.
Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, that at that time he were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
00:05:21
That's a pretty sad description of anyone, isn't it? But the next verse 13 says, But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. What a change the blood of Christ brought in the lives of the Gentiles.
As we've had a lot of admonitions the doctrine brought before us now in the 17th 1St, we're getting back to the walk and.
Our walk should be according to the doctrine that we hold. Scripture says that as a man believeth in his heart, so is he. And you find that when people lower the truth of God and their religion also their practice, their walk is very much lowered as well.
Now, if we have the truth of God and all its fullness, how it becomes us to walk, not this other. As we walk formally, as you're bringing out there in that second chapter, there should be a corresponding walk according to the truth that has been made known to us.
Captain was mentioned in verse one of chapter four. We haven't mentioned in verse 17 as you're mentioning.
And then in.
Chapter 5, verse two walk in love and in verse eight of chapter 5 at the end walk as children of light.
So Christianity is something to be lived out on the practical level.
It's not something we just talk about. That's a danger, isn't it, To just talk and not live it out?
One more Bob verse 15 walk starts respectfully. Also good.
But we're first of all brought into the dignity of what we possess.
So we have the truth brought before us as to who we belong to, into what the blessing we've been brought into in Christ. Now in view of that walk according to the position that we've been brought into.
But they used to be gentiles.
And.
But they weren't looked at any longer as Gentiles.
Jew and Gentile and the Church of God, you know but.
Anyone that is converted from?
The Gentiles.
You know, there's always the danger of still being influenced by the ways and how to do things before conversion.
And you know you find that.
In different parts of the world.
There are those who were practicing Pagan customs.
You know the danger is.
Still.
Practice some of these things even after conversion. You know, this is unfortunately what we came to realize.
With.
Brethren in Africa.
You know that they still to some extent at times.
Go along with the.
Charms, putting charms under children, even buried charms by their huts to protect them against the spirits. Well, I'm happy that Tim Ruga wrote that pamphlet on it and hopefully that will be a help to some of our brethren there and.
But what about us in the West?
What does Christmas have to do with the birth of the Savior?
If you know anything about history, you know that.
00:10:01
When Constantine made the Christian religion the religion of his empire, thousands joined the Christian churches but continued to practice their Pagan customs. And then the church fathers decided to bring in the birth of Christ, and they literally said it is better to get drunk in honor to the birth of Christ than in honor to a hidden God.
You know, this is history. Even the world knows that in the history books. And but how many questions how among us, there are those that practice this to some extent. Maybe we won't have a Christmas tree, but I think I've seen that happen. We were visiting one time around that time. We're invited to a home here. They had a big Christmas tree in their house.
You know, that is amongst the gathered things. And in some areas it's worse than in other areas, you know, Canada, eastern Canada perhaps. But I'm thankful that we have a scripture here that admonishes us that we shouldn't walk the way the Gentiles walk. You know, we're delivered from this.
Hopefully we all will come to see that.
It's a dishonor. It's a masterpiece of the devil to associate the most blessed event that ever occurred in the history of this world, the incarnation of the Son of God, with Pagan customs. And the Lord Jesus wasn't born on the 25th of December.
That was a Pagan holiday.
Why do we know that he wasn't born on the 25th of December?
Shepherds were in the field up to this day. Shepherds are not in the field in the so-called Holy Land at that time of the year. So it must have been in the summer or later on in the spring or when the weather was such that they could stay in the field during the night. But.
We have to be faithful and allow our consciences to be touched. We should turn away from anything that is connected with paganism.
There is danger when the mind is at work, isn't there?
Significant and Leviticus chapter 13 when it speaks about the leprosy reaching the head that that individual was to be pronounced utterly unclean, and we think of the apostle Paul.
Their Athens.
Perhaps now the city at this time.
Represented the pinnacle of man's achievements and man's minds. So we see that the city in Acts Chapter 17 was given almost fully over to idolatry.
And then we see the philosophers there, the Epicureans and the Stoics, and what was their desire to fear some new things? And we're thankful that the apostle Paul could use this occasion to bring the word of God before them. And we just trust that there might be some blessings from that word that was given on that occasion.
It's a black picture when you consider what man is naturally having the understanding darkened.
00:15:01
You can't reason with a person whose understanding is darkened.
All you can do is let the light shine and hope that the light will penetrate the darkness. Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness or the margin says the hardness of their hearts.
So that they do not believe because they will not believe. It's the hardness of the heart. Man's will, naturally speaking is set against God. The Lord Jesus had to say you will not come to me that you might have life another place. He says how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hand gathereth her chickens under her wings and.
Ye would not.
Naturally speaking, the human will is against God, and that brings in darkness.
You read that verse last night in 2nd Corinthians 4 where it says the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
I have often marveled, and I used to live in Chicago.
A brother I used to live with there was going to medical school at the time, and he told me that there's the highest percent of atheists in the School of Medicine and the University of Chicago isn't that amazing, studying the marvel, the complexity of the human body and how it works.
And yet it is those people that were the highest percentage of atheists. It's because when a person sets their mind against God, there is a darkening that takes over. That's very serious. And that's what's happening in our country. As people turn away from God, there's a darkening. The Lord help us to live in the light, to walk in the light, to walk as children of light.
And verse 19 continues who being past feeling.
No feelings given themselves unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedy puts it unsatisfied lust.
Never satisfied in their lust, their unclean lusts.
Thank God, brethren, I think we can see that our place is not there.
Our places elsewhere, there's 20 exactly.
So if the believer.
It is expected.
That the life is different.
This describes the unbeliever, not the believer.
You know, and we are not in darkness. We brought from darkness into light first. John, you know, is a beautiful epistle that brings out light and love, do you know? And so how wonderful we have the light of the revelation of God, and we have ourselves been brought into the light. And so we better remember what we or who we are.
And what the grace of God has made us to be and act consistently.
When we were over to Nigeria, we went to several leper colonies.
And we asked the leper, how did you first discover they had leprosy? I had no, no feeling in my finger.
And gradually it spread.
This first hero would remind you something like that verse 19 who being passed feeling.
They they have a seared conscience, they don't feel things anymore. And oftentimes, brethren, it may start with something small, like a so-called little white lie.
That was very easy to say that, you know it was untrue. But then we progressed to greater things and pretty soon we are really into trouble. But if we would judge that first misstep, you know, we would keep ourselves out of great transgression as we had the other day. But here evidently these folks are are past feeling they have.
00:20:11
A seared conscience, don't they? They can't feel anymore the effects of sit in their lives like the leopard.
It's hard to imagine when you read the.
Early chapters of Proverbs.
Which at times in my life I've had that habit of reading a chapter a day in Proverbs.
Hard to imagine young men when it speaks with a violent man or the corrupting woman. It's hard to imagine people just dedicated to such mischief. And yet if you pick up a newspaper or listen to the news, it's still going on today. But this is the heart of man. The heart of man hasn't changed. And the solemn thing is that.
The soul sins and it just it can't get enough of sin, and Scripture says we're hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Like the leper who can't feel. And So what does the Sinner do for himself? He doesn't say, oh, I'm going to stop. I'm going to search for something else. He turns up the volume. He does more of the same. And so the the petty thief becomes an armed robber and the armed robber goes on to commit murder. And it just goes on and on, whether it's in the violent sphere or in the sphere of corruption and, and and vice and sin.
And of course we know that it doesn't satisfy.
And this is one of the basic, basic lessons of all of life is that the way of man is not in himself and he can't find that which he needs in himself. He has to find something outside of himself which is in Christ and God has it for him in Christ.
So I remember reading a book when I was a young man, how I think it was CS Lewis. He said, every man is born with this aching hole, this void, and he keeps trying to stuff things into it to try and satisfy himself. But God has ordained that the only thing that can satisfy the human heart with respect to its need to be loved, to be understood, and to have truth is Christ. And so even as little children, you know, you're on, it's a hot day and it's real hot and you're thirsty. And he said, oh, I'd love to have you say to a little child, it's hot and sweaty. He says, what would you say? What would you like to have the most? So cold ice cream. Well, give the child some cold vanilla ice cream.
And what happened in about 5 minutes? You just stand there and wait. I'm thirsty. I'm so thirsty.
Oh, what would you like now? Cold water. So give them cold water and drinks the cold water. How do you feel now? Oh, I feel terrible. And that's the way the world is. It's the things that man thinks he wants won't satisfy him. And so this is a basic lesson, You know that by the grace of God, for some of you have learned it or can learn it when you're six or seven or eight or nine, or learn it when you're older, like some of us had to. Some learn it when they're very old.
It's a profound lesson to learn, though. I love that verse in the Psalms that says at the end of the Psalm, I can't remember which one, it says all my springs are in thee. What a beautiful verse that is. So many have tried so many things, whether it's business or pleasure or this or that. And and it's as if the soul gets to the end of all those things and says, you know, all my springs are indeed. So in the next verse, verse or two is really what we have.
You have not so learned Christ. This is not the conduct that you learn by observing Him, and this is not what you would learn from His lips.
It doesn't even have to be the wicked things, does it? Because Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, he discovered that even the good things that he did planted gardens, he made irrigation and he and indulged in everything that he could to make it nice. And he said it was all vanity and vexation of spirit. It just didn't satisfy.
And I've really been thinking about that a bit, you know that.
If God had not used a man that had the wealth and the ability that Solomon had, we might still think maybe I can find some satisfaction in this world. But he chose a man that he endowed with great wisdom and authority. No one could stop him from doing what he wanted. And he says one of these verses here that he didn't refrain himself from anything that his heart desired, and it was all vanity and vexation of spirit. So you go to the New Testament and Philippians 4 and you find the apostle Paul in prison.
00:25:07
He's saying rejoice in the Lord again. I say rejoice in prison.
So in our chapter, it's having put off. I think it's supposed to be the correct way, isn't it? Having put off the old man and having put on the Newman. In other words, don't work at it. It's done because you believed the old man. That's Romans 6 instead.
Now the Newman that's in Romans eight, Well, he's happy. He's doing the right things.
And happy with it.
Yes. It's not really an exhortation there. It's not you walking up to me and say, Bruce, you need to put off the old man. It's you walking up to me and saying, Bruce, this isn't very consistent after all, you've put off the old man. It's reminding me what's true of me as a believer. I didn't understand it when I was first saved, didn't understand it for quite a while. But it was true of me when I got saved, that I am looked upon as one who has put off the old man and I put on the new. I understand.
That the meaning, the way it is put here is something that has taken place and is a continued state. You know, and.
So the old man has been judged, dealt with judicially in the cross, but the flesh is still in US. And, you know, that's very important to recognize, and it never improves. It's as bad in a believer as in an unbeliever. And the devil would like to use the flesh in the believer sometimes to do worse things.
Then an unbeliever, why that brings this honor upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
So recognizing this makes us aware that we need to stay close to the Lord Jesus and keep short accounts. You know when there is a thought coming into your mind that is defiling.
Touch it, you know, and it doesn't change with age either.
Jimmy Smith visited us.
He stayed at our house for five weeks after his wife had surgery in Rochester and had to go back there five weeks later. He didn't want to go all the way back to California. So I was at that time about 45 years old. And I said to him, I said, Brother Smith, I support by the time 1 gets to be your age.
One doesn't have as much of a problem as us younger men have. Oh, he said. Heinz. Don't say that. There is no fool like an old fool.
That was Jimmy Smith's comment. No fool like an old fool. The flesh does not improve and doesn't change whether we are 30 years old or whether we are 70 years old. The flesh is the same, but the old man has been judged, but the flesh is still there. And so we better remember that that how do we succeed in keeping the flesh down?
It's not just enough turning away from things.
You have to turn away from things, but the positive thing is feet on debt, which strengthens the Newman.
Feed the new man. You see, that's the positive side to the truth. Yes, we have to turn away from things, but if you only turn away, you're empty.
There's pleasure of seeing Four Seasons, Scripture says. But.
To turn to the Lord's things and feed the Newman, that's the secret. And every day. And hopefully, as we have pointed out, that the young people learn to do that early, not wait till they're 1520 years old. You know, if you're saved, you have a new nature, you're standing in a new position before God. Feed that nature.
And that nature will get strong. But starve the old, you know that's the secret. Starve the old and feed the new.
If there is any change in the flesh, Brother Heinz, I think you would say it gets worse, doesn't it? Yes, age.
But that's the reason why what you're saying about feeding the new is we have verses 20 and 21. So beautiful brethren, what is our food? Christ is our food. If so be that ye have heard Him and have been taught by Him.
00:30:18
As the truth is in Jesus, isn't it beautiful to turn from ourselves, turn to someone in whom there is complete perfection?
And to be able to say, as we look up into the glory.
My life is there. My life is Christ.
No fallacy there, no unbalance to be more occupied with Him is what transforms us. We could go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. What we.
Have, and I think it's so important, brethren, we need to have sometimes the negative things pointed out to us. But what's going to transform you and me is not mere negatives.
But it is what we are occupied with.
Notice verse 18, Second Corinthians 318. But we all, not just certain ones, but we all.
With open or unveiled face, beholding, as in the glass, the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
So the Spirit of God occupies us with Christ.
The measure that we are occupied with Him in all His glory. It hasn't a transforming effect on us, but we do need to be reminded that we have put off that old order of things. That's the position we are set in as believers in the Lord Jesus. There's a tendency to go in that direction. Remind yourself that was.
Something I used to belong to, I no longer belong to. That is seen in Scripture as having been put off and then in verse 23, be renewed in the spirit of your minds. I think it's so important to be careful what we allow our minds to be occupied with. There's an awful lot in Scripture about our thinking. What do you allow your minds to be occupied with?
It's going to have an effect on you. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You are what you think about. Don't let your minds just go helter skelter in any direction. Control your thinking. Bring it back to thinking positive thoughts about the Lord Jesus. It's important.
That's why it says as the truth is in Jesus, not Christ, which would.
Before us, our position before God in Christ, but Jesus brings before us.
A right practical walk in our lives as we have the Lord Jesus setting an example in his life below.
Having put.
Please tell Mister Darby renders it and having put on the Newman, that's a nice.
Help to see the rendering in the Derby translation.
I have mentioned that before, and for the young people it might be helpful to repeat that we had a Bible study with Catholic people and they were devout Catholics trying to make it acceptable.
We look for a Catholic Bible and there are some good Catholic translations.
And while we were looking for the Bible in a Christian bookstore, they had a brief description about every translation available.
At that time, so I was interested to find out what they had to say about the Darby translation. Here is what they said. And mind you, that was not one of the so-called brethren that was a scholar or scholars who knew the original. They said it is the most accurate critical rendering available. Let's be thankful that we have that rendering. My wife always has it, you know, and so I can when I want to know how it is a more accurately rendered I look.
00:35:20
At the Bible that she has on her lap, you know, and at home when we have the Scripture reading in the morning and in the evening, we always read J and translation, you know, And if you don't have a translation like that, get one and you will find how helpful it is. And it gives you a clearer understanding of some passages that are not clearly expressed in the King James. Not that we want to replace the King James.
Darby did not have that in mind with the translation when he translated the Bible, but he wanted to give a translation that for those who didn't know the original, they had a more accurate rendering and could read it and compare it. And that's what we can do. And if you don't have a translation like that, if you're interested in accuracy, get one.
This is not on the subject, but as much as you say get one. There was a young man looking at Darby's translation over there and $60.00 he says, well, I'd like to have that if I can afford that. I forget what young man that was. Please see me afterwards.
Are they all that expensive? Aren't there some less expensive copies?
Here.
There are much more reasonable copies, yeah.
In German, the Alba Powder translation is the Darby translation in German, you know, and they wouldn't use the Luther translation because that is not nearly as good as the King James, you know. And the brethren always have used Darby translation, and he had helped translating that into German. He couldn't do it by himself, but he translated it into French.
By himself, he knew French as well as English.
And so we can be thankful to have a more accurate translation available for us.
I wonder if the these verses here 22, three and four when it mentions about the putting off and the putting on and even had brought before us about the Darby translation having put off, is it really the thought here of positionally that that is the position that we're brought into?
And therefore, in view of that, we are given in the rest of the chapter and going on into the 5th chapter, there's ministry there in view of that of how we are to to conduct ourselves. And so then it gets down to very practical things as we move on in the chapter. For example, the 26th verse, Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your rod.
Why does it say be angry and sin not? Well, is it not because that we have the old nature, and when our passions are, when we are, when we are?
There is the there is anger that can be for the Lords glory, but there's a danger for acting in the flesh and seeing that I already have the flesh in me having put off positionally. But there it is.
It's still there in my body. I am to guard against it as I walk through this world. And then it goes on to mention things about about stealing.
Well, I think even young children know about that. Mothers and fathers know about it, about how easy it is for a young child to take something that isn't theirs. And so and and and so when we get older as well, that can happen. And let him that stole steal no more. And so it's in view of the fact that we have the old nature, but God has given us the new nature.
00:40:08
And because of being brought into the position that we're brought into in Christ, that we are to walk according to the position we've been brought into.
I think it is as you say, Brother Dave, our physician, although verse 23 is perhaps the activity of the Spirit of God to conform us to it, as we have in Titus chapter 3 and verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy saved us by the washing of regeneration. That's our position. And renewing of the Holy Ghost is the present activity of the Spirit of God to conform us.
To that position so.
We've put off the old, we've put on the new, but we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and that's the activity of the Spirit of God. But.
I would say that the angry and sin not letting out the sun go down upon your wrath is a direct illusion to Joshua praying that the sun wouldn't go down until they had completely routed their enemies and were never in a position in this life of letting the sun go down.
You might say on our wrath against sin God's never got God is never going to be in that position until sin is completely out of this world and neither is it good for us to allow the sun go down upon our wrath. Joshua wasn't going to and didn't want to leave off that battle until the enemy had been completely routed out. But before we pass off at the end of verse 24 created.
And righteousness and true holiness. And we've learned the truth as it is in Jesus. He is the truth, and He's the perfect display of the truth as we look at His pathway here on this earth. And that's how we learn the truth. We see it perfectly displayed in Him. And the result of the truth learned is righteousness and holiness, because that ought to be translated to righteousness and holiness of the truth.
That which the truth produces in our life, it's righteousness before God and towards men. And so we have the relationships here in our life towards others and its holiness, The true abhorrence in our soul of everything that is not according to the nature of God. And that's what comes out in these verses. Righteousness and holiness of the truth, The effect of the truth applied and the believers life and the Spirit of God.
The power of that new life, the power of that new physician, we've been brought into making it good, working it out, conforming us to the image of Christ, who is the truth and whom we've learned the truth.
The question in connection with his putting on and putting off.
And friendship uses a verb that you use only with clothing.
And my question is, this is the Spirit of God addressing?
Who we are putting on or putting off or what we are putting on and putting on and it's mainly if I'm putting off the old man, is it the old man that I'm putting off or am I putting off the clothes of the old man put on the Newman? Am I putting something on the Newman or am I putting on the? So I have two natures and I wonder if our understanding of it couldn't include the fact that we are unclosing.
The old man, so it says. Then in the next verse, putting off lying, there's a piece of clothes that belongs to the old man, just as the outward expression of what we are by nature and it puts up in our life. But we have a new man now living in us as Christ, and he's manifested what we have in righteousness and the holiness of the truth. But things that are manifest in our life belong to one or the other. One needs to be put off in all the expression that it would manifest.
In its activity and the other one needs to be put on practically and being manifest in our lives.
This might be one of those things that Stevens workmates would would accuse us of splitting hairs about when he was up there in the open meeting because people may think it's splitting hairs to speak about the difference between the old man and what Heinz brought out a few minutes ago with respect to what Scripture calls the flesh. And I think it's not. I think it's important because I think it's a practical help. At least I find it practically helpful.
00:45:04
There's three places in the New Testament that I know of where it speaks of the old man.
Another is in Colossians 3 and then in Romans 6.
And if you turn to Romans 6 for a moment, you'll see there and again the Darby translation is the help there in verse 6.
Romans 6 and six knowing this that.
Old man is, or I think J&D has it has been crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed. Then henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. As you say, the the figure in Ephesians 4 and I think also in Colossians 3 is of putting off a garment and putting on a new one. But there's a finality about this process that that God has under applied to us in grace.
And so in Romans 6, you see that the figure of death is brought in. So it's not merely a practical way that I may function on Wednesday versus Thursday, but it's really something that is true of every believer, based upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross that is applied to me now and grace. And so that just as he was crucified and was raised from the dead, I now have the privilege. And if I'm in my right mind, I look upon myself.
All that I used to be as a child of Adam, I had the privilege of saying, I'm I'm dead, that that old Bruce Conrad is dead. It's buried. And I can apply these verses to myself. My old man is crucified with him. And what's the practical effect? That the body of sin might be destroyed or rendered powerless, that henceforth we should not serve sin. You know, we can get, we can get, we can lose confidence and get discouraged in ourselves as human beings.
Through the process of not being able to accomplish success or victory in a moral sense in our lives, I try to lose weight, but I can't. I always end up eating and gain weight back. Or the workmaid who says I try to quit tobacco, but I try to not use this word and I keep and, and this pattern repeats in a life. But the believer has a whole whole. He has the panoply of God and he has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
And he has the he is in a position now that he can take advantage of the fact that he is no longer under sins power.
Every child in here that's understood the Gospel knows that they're free now from the penalty of sin, that the Lord Jesus bore the penalty of their sins on Calvary's cross.
That they will never come into judgment if they've understood the gospel. I think they understand that. But how many of us as believers, in a practical sense, day by day understand?
That we are also free today from the power of sin.
And I remember Norman Berry used to visit where I lived frequently. He used to take this up and it made a big impression upon us.
And he used to look around. I probably told this before. He told it a lot more times than I did, so I shouldn't apologize. And he would look around the room and sometimes he would look at me and he'd say, why do I sin? I need wait with that long pause, you know, And everybody would fidget. And then he'd say, because I want to, because I choose to. And his point was, it's not like an unbeliever who's really captive. He's responsible, but he's captive to sin. He's in sins, James. But because of the death of Christ, you and I are now free from the power of sin.
When the Lord comes will be free from the presence of sin. That will be the final deliverance, huh. But now even it's a beautiful it's a wonderful practical truth. So this what does this do? It doesn't put me to sleep. It increases my sense of responsibility and it opens up in my mind whether I'm a young person or an old, you know, you know, I don't have to I don't have to keep falling into this bad habit. This can be overcome. The Lord can help me and by looking to the Lord and the little thing and gaining the victory over it, independence on the Lord. It's what does this do, this brings.
This is experience that brings confidence and then we look to the future issues and we have hope and, and this is practical growth in a Christian. So I myself have enjoyed this teaching of the old man because as Gordon used to tell us many, many times, the blood of Christ puts my sins away, the death of Christ put me away. You often remember hearing Gordon saying that. And that's, that's the truth of part of the truth of the gospel, that our old man is crucified with him. And the practical effect of that is that we're freed from the power of sin. It goes on in Romans 6.
Verse 14 sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not under the law, but under grace. And so that that's a fact of every believer in this, every believer on the earth. This is true of all of us. But what happens when I fail? What's really happening in some literature even or pamphlets that we that amongst us we use brethren have gotten into the habit of using the expression old man or old nature's interchangeably.
00:50:21
And I suppose if they were really being careful and just using scriptural language, they would use the word, the flesh.
Because in Galatians 5, we read that the flesh warth against the Spirit, the spirit against the flesh, so that you might not do the things that you would. Well, that's the language of Scripture, and that's the warfare that goes on inside. A believer is the flesh as as Brother Heinz was bringing it out. I'm responsible now to not allow the flesh to act. And I have power now because I have one who is strong in me, living in me, leading me, empowering me, that will help me so that I don't have to allow the flesh to act.
So many are in Romans 7, many experimentally are enrollment 7. What is Roman 7 all about and has the exercises of a man that has light.
And wants to please God, but he doesn't have the Spirit of God dwelling in him. He feels helpless. He's helpless, you know, although he desires and delights in the law of God, but he can't do it.
The nature gives us the delight and the possibility to enjoy the things of God, but not the power to do it. And that's what we have in Romans 8. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
It's not a set of rules, it's a fixed principle. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me feed. The spirit is the power, you know, and but it's also very important. Maybe I'd be permitted to use the picture of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
When they were sheltered by the blood on the door, they were sheltered from judgment. They were judgment free, but they were still slaves.
But the Red Sea is a picture of the death of Christ and speaks of our being delivered from the power of sin.
Pharaoh and his host dead by the shore. We are no longer slaves of Satan. We are delivered. But then we still have to Jordan.
What do we find in the Jordan?
Also a picture of the death of Christ. The 12 Stones were put in the middle of Jordan and they are there to this day, the scripture says. But on the other side, 12 Stones were put up at Gilgal. That speaks of myself having been put out of God's side. I don't exist before him anymore as a Sinner. The death of Christ has put an end to me.
And he sees me now in Christ. I'm a new creature. I'm in him. And that's how God sees us. And we have to learn to look at ourselves the way God sees us and then let this tremendous truth have its practical effects in our lives. We're a new creature. We're under resurrection side. That's what those 12 Stones on the other side speak of. So how wonderful. Let me repeat.
The blood on the door shelters me from judgment.
The Red Sea delivers me from the power of sin and Satan. That's what it is a picture of. And then the Jordan delivers me from myself. You know, I no longer exist before God as the Sinner. You know when the Himrata says I'm only a Sinner saved by grace, that is not quite correct. We enjoy that him. I'll enjoy singing it. But in the sight of God we are no longer sinners. And the Scripture refers to the Saints in Korean as Saints.
There was a lot of things wrong there, but in the sight of God, in their standing before him, they were Saints. That's how God sees us, and we better remember what the grace of God has made us to be and how he looks at us. Someone has said that the Red Sea is the death of Christ for us. Jordan is our death with Christ. It's interesting that to look carefully, it was.
Joshua who put those 12 Stones in Jordan. It wasn't the children of Israel. They took the stones out of the midst of Jordan and put them on the other side, but it was Joshua who put them in the middle of Jordan. So the victory really has been won already. It was won at Calvary. And that's what we have to learn. Like was read in Romans 6. Our old man is crucified with him. When was that?
00:55:30
That was when the Lord Jesus was crucified. That was taken care of before God. Now it's a matter of our thinking that way and I like it's been a help to me. Verse 11 of Romans 6. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. In other words, reckoning is thinking that way. You're dead.
Think that way now.
So it's a matter of putting into practical effect what we really are before God. It's not a matter of struggling. Remember, as a young person, before I really understood this, how I struggled with those things, and I realized the battle is already over. It's simply for me to realize it and to think that way. I'd like to share my own.
Personal experience in connection with the question that brother Barry.
Raises an answer that it gives Why do we sin? Because we want to. And in connection with what? Our brother Bob just rocked war in that verse. Yes, my flesh wants to sin. That happens inside my head. I have a physical response that wants to sin.
But I can honestly say in my own head to myself, that is not me is dead. And the other thing that I found useful for myself is, if you look at this portion that we're looking up, contrasting what was on the old man and what the new man has in terms of works. One of the things I found useful is to remember that Satan always packages sin as a beautiful package and that when you open it, it's disgusting.
The pleasure of sin.
Is gone with the action. And so for myself personally, remembering those two things, that when temptation does come and I do respond to, remember if that was crucified with Christ dead, put it back in the place of death and then turn to Christ.
Recognized what was offered is disgusting and choose thou which is good. Switch this some different thought.
And that way you get deliverance.
And you can move on to what is for the glory of Christ. This does not put us in a vacuum either, does it? Because.
It says in each of these instances where it gives a practical explanation. 25 wherefore put away lying, but then it gives you something to do. You're not just sitting there. I can't lie, but you're to speak truth. Let every man speak every man truth with his neighbor for your members one of another, and you can go down to 28. Let him that stole steal no more. That's as far as the law went.
And it didn't give you anything positive, but here it says, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it. And in Romans 6 it speaks of the.
Using your members in a new way and the members maybe it was your hand it was stealing. Now your hand works to give, so it's turned around using the member another way. In 29 you have let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers. So again, it takes away the the wicked side and gives you the good side.
The new side, so it one way you can see it in relation to the law. It goes way beyond with the law.
All the law did was forbid the bad and that's a man under law doesn't have the deliverance.
But we have the deliverance and so not only can we stop doing the bad, but we're not in a vacuum. We have something good to do.
01:00:00
And that's the Newman acting, isn't it? If he gets chapter 12, that's connected with obedience. There be not conformed to this world. That another translation. I don't remember which one and probably should be mentioned anyway, but I read it somewhere. Don't let the world press you into its mold. There's a pressure that needs to be resisted in that direction, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Well, as Christians, we perhaps tend to think things are a little restrictive sometimes, but we know we need to obey. And that's the the goodwill of God. But just imagine me being able to acknowledge that that is really God's will. That's huge. Someone who doesn't know the Lord as their savior in the old nature doesn't have the, the ability spiritually to acknowledge that the perfect will of God. Well, it's not so bad after all, And I should say the acceptable will of God. You know, it's a feeling. Well, this isn't so bad after all, but.
What we can say it's the perfect will of God.
We've actually developed a taste for doing what God has desired us to do from the very beginning. And then in that sense, perhaps the the effort isn't there anymore. But we need to start by doing that which we know to be right. And we gradually, and I wouldn't profess to be at the point where I can say it's the perfect will of God in my life, but every now and then we can get a taste of that. And the joy that that brings gives us the encouragement to continue.
Passive here to be transformed. You know we had that verse from Bob the 2nd Corinthians 318.
And we could see the more you gaze and the more you transform.
He angry and Sinner.
Our brother already indicated there are times when it is expected for us to be angry.
But we have to be careful that the flesh does not get the best of us when Moses, for instance, got angry.
I don't blame him for getting angry with God's people. I don't think the Lord himself would have blamed him for that. But what happened?
He called them rebels and he smote the rock instead of speaking to the rock. That's why he was not permitted to enter into the land. So there are times when, if we are indifferent, So what we might say when we hear or see some awful thing taking place.
That's not what the Christian is expected to show and to react in that way. But we better be careful that.
This anger doesn't become a fleshly anger, carnal anger. You know, Moses was justified of being angry, but.
He called them rebels and he smote the rock instead of speaking to it. So that's a warning for us.
We have to be very careful and it certainly is not a good thing to be occupied with evil.
Sometimes we cannot avoid it.
But it is a defiling thing.
Even when India sample brethren have to take up some sin that has been committed, you know it's a defiling thing and.
We all have to get into the presence of the Lord and get cleansed. You know, isn't that what we learned from the Old Testament? You know, if you came in touch with the leper, you were defiled.
You know, so in other words, it shows there is a danger in.
Getting overly occupied with evil. Sometimes we have to deal with it in the assembly, but be careful that the enemy doesn't use it to defile us and to stir up the flesh, and that we respond with the flesh and try to deal with the flesh in the flesh. You know, in a fleshly way, Moses.
Was when he came down from the mount and the children of Israel had made the golden calf. He was righteously angry with them, but he just spent 40 days in the presence of the Lord and I have often thought if we're going to be righteously angry for the Lord. We better have spent the 40 days in the presence of the Lord 1St and you notice in this chapter here that that it does have that verse 26 be angry and sin not.
01:05:24
And go down to verse 31 and it says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. So there is an occasion given when there is righteous anger, but then the guard is put up by God because he knows the passions that we have inside of us and how that we can react in an angry way that is in the flesh. And I always think of this verse here.
Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
In connection with our brother Armstead Barry, he told on more than one occasion a story about this, and I don't remember all the details, perhaps someone else does, but he told about some man that did, that did something that was very much against the Lord terrible. And I believe it was he himself or somebody that spoke to him about what he did and was angry with him because of what he did in the Lord's name or something along that line.
The Lord took that man's life the next day. I think it was lost, He was drowned, something I've forgotten to gain the details, but he always reminded us of that in connection with righteous anger. That was for the Lord, and the Lord's judgment came in. And I like that. But I find in my own life, and I tell you, brethren, particularly for myself more than anyone here, that anger is something that we have to be.
On guard with.
We can even be angry with our brethren, and it's an awful thing. And let's be on guard about that verse there at the end, about 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.
In Mark's gospel, twice you have the Lord Jesus angry and it's helpful and just point them out in Mark chapter 3.
And one day he's in the synagogue, and there's a man with a weathered hand, and he says, stand forth verse four. He said unto them, Is it lawful to good do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil to save life or to kill?
But they held their peace, and when he had looked around about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. Notice, brethren, he was not angry for something they did against him.
He was angry for something that they were seeking to impede the blessing going out to this poor man.
There was righteous anger. The other one is in the 10th chapter of Mark, and it's not real clear in the King James Version, but it's when they brought the children to Jesus in verse 13. They brought young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased.
The Darby translation reads He was indignant.
So there are times when it is right to be angry, but we do need, like Dave says to.
Be careful.
Not to sin, not to give place to fleshliness in us. What Heinz brought out about Moses getting angry, it cost him because he didn't control his anger and he couldn't go into the land of Canaan because of that time he lost his cool. Let's be careful brethren about our anger.
God knows that we all have moments when we feel indignant. That I found so often that I've gotten angry because I've only heard a part of the story. And I've been very I trust, I've learned in some measure not to give way to angry feelings when I've only heard part of the story.
It says in the 7th Psalm God is angry with the wicked every day, but also says in the second Psalm you know kiss the sun unless he be angry.
01:10:06
He perished in the way. That's all in the gospel. Peter says be sober, be vigilant for your adversary. The devil is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom it may devour if we ever let down our vigilance. And I really think that's what that verse is taking up.
Vigilance against sin. We're going to give place to the devil. We're going to give him a place if we ever let down our guard. Neil Womos brought before us a number of times and I think it's so lovely. Two things that happened in the Lords life. At the beginning of his ministry and at the end he made a scourge of small cords and cleansed the temple. He did not change from the beginning to the end, he was the same.
All the way through as to his thoughts about sin. And if we change, brethren, we will give place to the devil and we need to be careful. You know brother said to me the other day, if I need to take a screw out, I get a screwdriver out-of-the-box. If I need to pull a nail out, I get a claw hammer. And there's certain verses that take up certain things and address our souls with them. And there is as we've had to put away all anger and wrath. Let's use that screwdriver for the screw. But when it comes to being angry and sin not.
Let's use that tool for what it's meant to be be angry is an exhortation to be angry, and it has its place in the Christian's life and it's the right tool for that exhortation. The other tool in the verse is down below has its own place for its own exhortation in our lives. We need to reach for the right tool for the right application. Otherwise, you know, the boys take up a tool sometimes out of my toolbox and I say, why did you use this screwdriver to dig in the dirt?
You're ruined it.
Let's use the right tool from God's, if I can put it that way, toolbox.
Letting the sun go down on our wrath would not be giving occasion to the devil. If I have a situation where I should have gotten angry and I haven't, and I go to bed with my irritation, I'm going to wake up with roots of bitterness in my soul. And we know what that can do.
Derek Klein is nearly up, but we have instances in the Word of God where there was misguided wrath and anger. And not too long ago in Mount Tabor, we were looking at Brother Paul Hadley brought before us an incident in the life of David where.
There was misguided anger and we also see that in the life of Joab.
In the 18th chapter of Second Samuel.
And the earlier part of the chapter David admonishes the people to deal gently with Absalom, and I think David knew full well what absolute correspond. But later on in that chapter it says, Joab said unto the man that told him, And behold, thou sawest them, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground?
And I would have given the 10 shekels of silver and a girdle. You know, I've had missed the Lords mind in that. And he was intent on smiting. That was misguided anger and wrath, wasn't it? So we have to make sure as has been brought before us, what we were are angry about. Is it anger that's agitated by the flash or is it something?
We should be on guard about concerning.
The Lord honor and glory and just in connection with that admonition to deal gently and I know that.
Our ministry this afternoon has certainly told us about faithfulness, and we certainly do have to be faithful, but what a nice balance we do have in the Word of God and Psalm chapter 18, and it's repeated again in Second Samuel chapter 22.
Just look at a verse in Psalm 18.
Verse 35.
Get the connection? Let's read from verse 34. He teaches my hands to war, so that a bowl of steel is broken by mine arm. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation.
01:15:08
And thy right hand hath Holden me, and thy gentleness have made me great, or it is rendered in the margin. With thy meekness thou hast multiplied me.
So we we need balance.
In our Christian lives, don't we faithfulness where faithfulness is needed and gentleness where gentleness is needed as well?
Why do we always get warmed up at the end of meeting #24 in the back of the book?
Nothing but Christ, don't we tread?
Nothing but Christ.
As.
Long.