Ephesians 4:25-32

And it's great to be back again with brothers and sisters of the Lord. We are in the book of Galatians.

No, we're not. We're in the book of Ephesians. Just to see if they're awake. They're awake.

Awake. Are you? Yes, I am.

It's called oversaturation. It's just been studying so hard. My wife and I go, not early in the morning, we get up at 6 .30.

I know many of you get up long before that. But we get up at 6 .30 and by quarter to seven we're in the car heading over to the

Y. And the grass was white this morning. Yeah. That was so cool.

We went through the entire month of January. That might be it. It flurried one day.

Very, very light. They didn't stick. But this was kind of fun to see. What we are in Ephesians.

Coming out of last week. And I think your title last week was a renewed mind.

Renewed mind. So we have gone through the first three chapters. We've understood what it means to be transformed.

And now we're doing practical applications. Last week, renewed mind. What is it that should change your thought patterns?

And this week is part two of last week. And this is, okay, so now what about your life?

How does your life look? How should your life look different? So that's where we are this morning.

In my version of the ESV, what I printed out, verse 25 starts with the word therefore.

So we're clearly looking at what are the implications of what we just read and how is that now going to play out.

You can go back into verse one of chapter four where I urge you to walk in a manner worthy.

So we've gone back through this. We've seen now the changed mind. And how does this play out?

What does this look like? Do you want to open us this morning in prayer? Father, how privileged we are to come into your presence, to open your word, and to hear your voice.

And so Lord, we pray that you would speak to us, that we would be open to hear what you have to say, and that you would correct us and change us, renew us in our lifestyle.

Lord, sanctify us by your truth. Your word is truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Peter. Tell me what we know about Peter.

If somebody wanted you to give you, wanted to give them, give me an overview of Peter. He was a fisherman.

Thank you. Starts out as a fisherman. I don't know how successful he was.

He didn't have necessarily a fleet of boats. He wasn't like Forrest Gump. But he was a fisherman.

Historically, they said the fish he caught was tilapia. And tilapia is a favorite fish these days.

I did not know. Would he have been in the Sea of Galilee? I guess that's where he would have been.

I did not know that tilapia was indigenous to those waters. What else do we know about Peter?

He was a disciple. But he also denied Christ three times. Okay. So he had the opportunity.

He was a disciple, but he actually had another title because Jesus spent the entire night in prayer.

And then, following that night of prayer, chose the twelve, who we call apostles.

But even with that, he would fall short. He would fall short.

What else do we know about Peter? He was not the first pope. Amen. He was married.

He was married. And he was married. Yes, he was. He was probably recorded as the most human of all the disciples.

Of all his faults, I have to put his belief in his faith in Christ. Even though he had many faults.

He was an example for all of us here of what it is to be an image -bearer for Christ and still be fallen in nature.

That's so beautifully said. He is a poster child. You can finish what you were going to say.

No, I want to hear you first. Before the Holy Spirit, he would seem to go from faith to flesh, from faith to flesh, from faith to flesh.

And my meaning is when he told Jesus, he would stand with him and fight with him.

And then, all of a sudden, he would draw his sword and cut the serpent's ears off.

So that's kind of... From faith to flesh. Although all men deny you, I will never deny you. Absolutely.

And then, what happened? Because now he is going from faith to faith. So there's this thing that happened in Peter's life.

I wonder how much of it was when Jesus comes out of the tomb that Sunday morning and says, tell my disciples and Peter how much that really changed him.

How much of it was standing on the Mount of Olives and the angel says the same,

Jesus, after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, how much of that was...

But there was a transition in Peter's life to be sure. The impetuous Peter, the faith to flesh

Peter becomes this amazing, amazing individual stand. When he also went before the

Pharisees, they called him in and told him to stop doing what he was preaching and he did not.

See, he went from faith to power. He spoke the truth before them and as soon as he left the

Pharisees, he went out on the street and started speaking again of Christ again.

He was also referred to as the Rock. Yes, he and Jesus referred to him as the

Rock. Which is interesting following his denial of Jesus that he could be so mean.

This little passage here, I entitled the Renewed Lifestyle. If last week it was the

Renewed Mind, this is now the Renewed Lifestyle. And my one thing to take as we go through this passage, when

God comes into your life, your mindset changes. Things have passed away, behold all things have become new.

Your lifestyle must also change and reflect what you have become. There are, we talked about last night, okay, one of the things we talked about last night is the concept of a white lie.

You know? How many of us have never told a white lie? Don't raise your hands. But Scripture is really clear.

Satan is the father of only those big lies that matter. That's not what it says.

Our lifestyle needs to reflect what has happened with the change in our mind.

That's why that word therefore shows up at the beginning of verse 25. A quick recap of what we learned last week, and I will try to teach what you taught with a certain amount of veracity.

Verses 17 and 18 we're told no longer walk as the Gentiles. That's the lifestyle, that's the mannerisms that we exhibit, that's what people can see when they perceive us.

That's actually where we gravitate toward. Are we gravitating towards the truth, the

Holy Spirit guiding us, or are we allowing the flesh and the world to push us one way or the other?

We're no longer darkened, we're no longer alienated, no longer hard hearts.

This is what we should be. So then verse 20 says that we have learned a way in Christ.

We're not having to hear what's the right way to do it type of a stuff.

I'm reading J .I. Packer's Knowing God. It's 50 years since that book was written, and it is so appropriate even to today.

It's not knowing about God, it's actually knowing God. We learn our way in Christ by learning

God, not by learning necessarily about Him. 22 then says take off the old self.

And 23 says allow your mind to be renewed, the spirit of your mind to be renewed.

And 24 we put on a new self in the image of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

This is our approach, this is our mindset. Ephesians 2 is a summary of all of that, what we just talked about.

The beginning, what we were, and then but God, and His grace and His mercy then culminates in verses 8 and 9, by grace

I say through faith, and then 10 out through the rest of the chapter we become a new man, what we look like as a new man, and at the end of it we're actually built into a temple for the

Lord, a foundation, apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself the chief cornerstone.

This transformation is available to all who bow the knee, but it cannot be imitated.

We were talking very briefly, I want to have some more discussion, Hebrews 4 Hebrews 6 verses 4 to 6.

A very difficult passage because it could sound like lost salvation for the believer but it does not.

It talks about that individual who perhaps is a good church person who maybe even takes the

Lord's table and maybe doesn't know that they shouldn't be taking the Lord's table. That's the sad part about it because nobody recognizes, nobody challenges have you ever really accepted the

Lord? Okay. Genesis 1 27 says that we are made in the image and likeness of God.

There are attributes of God that are communicable that we can be part of in a lesser degree of what

God is. There are aspects of God, His attributes that are not communicable. Omnipotence, omnipresence.

There are things about Him that we cannot imitate. But there are things that we are made in His image and likeness of God.

But the narrative of Scripture goes on to the first fall Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and Romans 8 34 brings us to the reality of who we are.

It says that as a sinner, all mankind is a slave to sin.

That is a indictment that says you do not have a choice of how you're going to behave because the

Master tells you what you get to do. The Master puts limits on where you can go.

Slave to sin. 2 Corinthians 5 17 -18.

Stan, I'm going to ask if you would pull that one out. Because with all of this going on we know that Christ came.

It was ordained even before the foundation of the world that God would send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I was reading a little article this morning about the difference between propitiation and expiation.

What's the difference? Propitiation is wrath, satisfaction. So God word.

Expiation is your sin taken off of you. So the removal of your guilt. So satisfying wrath, removal of guilt.

And we receive propitiation because our sin is still who we are, but it's covered and cleansed by the blood of the

Lamb. So when God looks at us, Satan is saying, this person, just keep...

And Jesus sitting at the right hand says, I got that one. I was on the cross. And that penalty for that sin has been propitiated.

The wrath has been paid in full. So we know that this is the reality and the offer that is made.

And once that occurrence takes place, once the individual receives the grace, responds in faith, and becomes a child of God, things change.

Give me verses 17 and 18. Chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5.

Chapter 5. Yeah. Now 17 is one that probably most people already know, but I'm adding an 18.

Okay, 17. We start out with the famous word, therefore. Therefore. Go for it, yes.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us a ministry of reconciliation.

I need... 1 Corinthians 5 .17 is a verse that many believers in evangelicalism have memorized, but you've got to add an 18 into it.

Because this is all from God. This is not something that the church can help you get through.

This isn't something that your righteous acts create. It's all from God. So now we get into this section where the benefits of this transition have occurred, and the reality of the renewed mind is established.

So now we're going to get into this. Therefore, what do we do with all this? Why don't you read for me 25 -32.

Therefore, having put away 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 no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God and Christ forgave you.

Okay, therefore, and he uses the concept of a false communication as a starting point, but he's going to expand it way beyond that as we go into it.

In verse 25 it says, therefore put away falsehood. And I think it, in the context of what's in here, it's not only falsehood, it's false lifestyle.

It's the concept, I can do what I want. Put that away.

And for the believer, I think Paul says, well, what then, should we sin that grace may abound to all the more?

No. No, put it away. We need to put this away. Now, I'm going to use this phrase because he talks about falsehood.

Falsehood, what is falsehood? Lying. And in Scripture there's a ton of exhortations about what happens when we let our tongue to go loose.

In one place it says, how can you bless God and curse man? This can't be.

This is not natural. James 3 talks about the tongue, how small it is.

The butter is so small yet it steers huge ships. I remember as a new believer seeing some of this stuff.

I reported to my first ship. It was a frigate.

It was about 365 feet long. It was in dry dock. And I remember looking down in dry dock this massive, massive warship and the rudder was smaller than this table.

Wow. That's all that it takes to steer the ship, the tongue.

Such a small, small thing. But the tongue boasts. It sets a fire. The tongue defiles the whole body.

What we allow our tongue to do is so destructive. John, I'm going to ask if you get

Matthew 12 verses 36 and 37 and Matthew 15.

Rick Thompson, if you would get that. While we're doing that, 1 Peter 5 .8, Sandy. And over there,

Rick, if you would I'll speak to the last one. Do you have Matthew 12 ready?

Not yet. Okay. By your words you will be justified.

By your words you will be condemned. Now we do know that at the end, the great white throne judgment, believers don't sit before God being judged for condemnation.

We are already having gone through the demis seat, we are already accepted because our names are written in the book of life.

But let's not minimize the reality of words and how destructive words are.

And how much consequence they actually have. Matthew 15. Do you have that?

And he called the people to him and said to them, hear and understand it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person but what comes out of the mouth.

This defiles a person. How we choose to communicate and to allow our communication to emanate amongst believers, to emanate probably more so when you know you're not around a fellow believer.

Nobody heard. It's what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man.

And John in this section starts us to get rid of all of these surrenderings to temptations to say things that you want not to say.

I mean it could be something as profane or it could be something as inappropriate conversations or discussions, bad jokes, dirty jokes.

Could be gossip. Could be all these kinds of things just get rid of them. And then he goes on in verse 27 this is one of the key, this is one of the lynchpins of this passage.

Give me verse 27 again. And give no opportunity to the devil. What does it mean to give opportunity to the devil?

To allow him to influence what you say. Okay. Not only say this is going to be more into everything about you.

My version says not to give the devil a foothold. There you go. Not to give him a foothold.

My heart breaks when I read here about a man of God who is perhaps a pastor who has accepted false things.

And if this is truly a man of God. They didn't start there. They accepted that first little cornflake.

And then they wanted more and then they wanted more. Don't give him the opportunity.

First Peter 5 .8 Be of sober spirit be on the alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a warring mind seeking someone to devour.

You have a renewed mind and are you aware enough about the reality of what's around you to know that your adversary the devil is he is actively on the prowl.

He is actively on the prowl seeking who he might destroy. There's a show that we've been watching it's pretty good.

It's called Murdoch Mysteries. You've seen it? Yes. It's kind of fun.

It's up in Canada, Toronto in the 1800s. One of the episodes is there's a circus in town and the lion tamer would before the tiger

I guess, before they went in center of the ring she would go in and just spend a little bit of time bonding with the tiger only somebody had put the collar that was around the tiger and shortened it so when the food went in the tiger couldn't reach the food.

The tiger hadn't eaten in three days. Try to bet it. Guess what that tiger did to that lion tamer?

That is Satan. His appetite is never satisfied.

It's not like okay I got three of them today I'm good to go. No. His appetite is never satisfied.

Matthew 6 .13 says deliver us from temptation. It's that temptation.

It's Satan prowling. Don't even give in to him a little bit. Stay away from him.

So now we get into this renewed life and he's got several exhortations for us and the first one is give me verse 25 again.

Therefore having put away falsehood let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another.

Speak the truth. What makes lies so attractive?

Proverbs 12 John told him to ask you to get that 12 and 19 out. What makes a lie so attractive that even a believer would go down that path?

You should know what the truth is. Okay. A good lie is one that you can make people believe but what makes that attractive?

Because it goes according to what you want. It's what you want to believe.

It's appealing. It makes you look good. It appeals. Maybe hiding something you don't want somebody to know or promoting something that they shouldn't.

Whatever. John 8 is a discussion about Jesus and how through him the

Father is going to communicate truth and know the truth because the truth sets you free.

It's the reality that falsehood is not going to set you free but truth will.

Give me Proverbs 12. You got that John? Yes. Truthful lips endure forever but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Accepting the opportunity to tell a lie to promote something it's not going to last.

It will be found out. It will be found out but isn't it wonderful when somebody...

I'm sorry? I said we're still waiting for that with the government but she said don't hold your breath.

Do you want to take that one? No, you got it. How old do you have?

Just today's news we can deal with. And it doesn't have to be the government.

It can be in any situation where a lie is used to a lie is used to promote these things.

It does not last. A lie will be it will be found out. It may taste good but when it gets into the stomach it doesn't taste good anymore.

Has anybody ever gone down that path and tried to go to sleep at night? It's like Satan got you and the

Holy Spirit is just banging you on the helmet and says did you really have to do that? What's the only thing you can do in that situation?

First John says if you say you have never sinned you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you but if you have sinned confess your sin and he is faithful and just to forgive you your sin.

What you got to do is turn it back to God. Go back to truth. The second thing he's got here, give me verse 26.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

Is anger in and of itself condemned? No. Not righteous anger.

What do you mean by righteous anger? The anger at sin. When Jesus condemns the

Pharisees. John 2 verses 13 to 17

Jesus righteous anger he definitely exhibits righteous anger.

How do we know when our anger is righteous or not? According to the scriptures.

In accord with God's word. When you're defending the scriptures defending

Christ that's righteous anger and you might get upset about it when someone's trying to put it down and under not accepting that Christ is truly the son of God.

I'm going to make a statement and it will be interesting to hear everybody's reaction to it.

I can be angry in defense of God and be sinning. Proverbs or Psalms 4 .4

Ivan if you would get that one out please. It's motivation.

It's motivation and it's beginning and it's what you do with it once you recognize you've got it that is going to make anger righteous or a sin.

Go ahead what do you got? It says be angry do not sin. Ponder in your own heart on your bed and be silent.

If you in being angry pondering it in your heart to me that is turning it in front of the throne of God.

And if you in your bed are going to stew over the situation that made you angry and not confess it that's a sin.

If you are willing to allow anger to so overcome you and refuse to confess it to God that is a sin.

My brother is a great guy. I love him dearly. He's an atheist. And there can be times where he will speak out in ways that are accusatory of faith.

And I can defend the faith. That should be a good thing. But if I do it for the wrong motivation or if I do it and allow the emotions of dissatisfaction to overwhelm me that's not a good thing.

Being angry being righteous turning that back to God and allowing God now to take control of the situation.

I love the Psalms. Every week we look at one of the Psalms when

David is on the Lamb Jonathan's after him and he's hiding in a cave and he just turns it over to God.

He just turns it over to God. He hasn't done anything wrong but he does not want to be angry he just turns it over to God.

This says don't let the sun go down on your anger. I think that says don't let it get to the point where you're just willing to make that acceptable behavior in your life without confessing it to God.

Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Now with David when he had to fight

Goliath wasn't that anger good for a purpose? He needed to have anger in order to go and say how dare you defy

Absolutely. And he spent that anger righteously. He spent that anger.

There is righteous anger and don't be afraid of righteous anger. Don't be afraid of it but don't let it consume you is the point.

Now he's got three quick things in a row here. Give me verse 28 is the first one.

This is going to be necessary transitions and it's going to be transitions focusing on yourself to focusing on being led by the spirit and looking to the better of one another.

That is a manifestation of a changed life. Give me verse 28 please. 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.

No dishonest game but honest work and and I love the way that phrase ends so that so that what?

What does it say? He may have something to share with anyone in need. Dishonest game is all about making my life, giving to me because I deserve it.

Whatever reason, rationale you might have, it's dishonest game. And he says don't go down that path.

I want you to do honest work. Not just for the work's sake, although that's a good thing because what did

God give as a commandment to Adam and Eve right from the very beginning when they were in the garden?

Work the land. Work the land. Do you know the Garden of Eden wasn't an all -inclusive resort?

An all -inclusive resort. They worked but they worked for the right purpose.

Here it says eliminate from your perspective I get,

I get, I get, and it can be in a lot of ways. I referee a whole lot of sports and a significant number of the guys

I work with love to get paid under the table. Why? There's nothing wrong with getting paid for working a game.

There's nothing wrong with that but they want more, they want more, they want more. It says here work honestly so that you can give to others those in need.

You have a concern for others. You see the transition from myself to somebody. Now give me verse 29.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

Okay do you see this again? On one side it's the corrupting mouths and it's basically language that either elevates yourself, language that denigrates somebody else, language that is vulgar and whatever else.

We've all been in situations where somebody chooses to elevate themselves.

We were brand new at this church. It was

March of 2000. We came here in 1999 in August and our first election meeting there was an individual that thought so highly of himself that while we were trying to decide who the new elder was, he said

I want it to be me. He self nominated himself as elder. That's not good.

Did anybody second that that's a question? No. Remember that one?

He was not brought on board. Corrupt speech can look in many, many, many ways but look at what he says as the opposite is only what is good for building up.

That it may give grace to see the focus again of when I'm going to communicate my heart's desire my lifestyle change should be that I can elevate others.

John? He does that to the thief in verse 28.

He doesn't call the thief a bum or a bad name or anything. He says

I'm going to steal a sandwich. I'm going to steal it for me. I'm not going to steal one for me. I want the rich. But if I work and I make enough money

I can buy a sandwich for me and buy a sandwich for the rich. So he's even building up the thief. That's what he's doing here.

He's changing the lifestyle from inward focus, self satisfaction, self gratification without being condemned to looking at the betterment of other people.

Now give me verses 31 and 32. And do not let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander

Okay, so if we haven't covered enough in those two examples, he's just here's the whole enchilada.

Be put away from you. Along with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

So now he's just basically saying I talked about a couple of malice like, oh by the way, all kinds of malice. Just be tenderhearted to one another.

The focus of our behavior, of the transition of a lifestyle eliminates the need to gratify myself and to do all kinds of things and just puts the focus,

I want to minister, I want to be a blessing to other people. And should that be all people or just believers?

Put that out there. What do you guys think? Everybody? It is.

It's everybody. The world needs to see. We are a you're the salt of the earth okay, you are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Okay, if that part of that passage is there you are a light in the world and if you're out there the world cannot hide you.

That light is there. A city on a, cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bull, so I'm not supposed to light my lamp and hide it.

Okay, the world can't hide it, I shouldn't hide it. And it says in the same way you let your light shine before men so that they can see your good works and praise your

Father in heaven. That's the world can see your works. Praise your

Father who is in heaven. We are told to be kind to one another for the building of, she said these three are always going from you to others from you to others, from you to the others.

Now give me verse 30 if you would. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What does it mean to grieve the

Holy Spirit? To tell a lie. It's mentioned above there, one of theirs is a sin.

Grieve the sadness of the Holy Spirit. Who is capable of grieving the

Holy Spirit? We are.

We as believers. Yes. This is not a verse that applies to the non -believer.

Non -believers are dead in their trespasses and sins. The non -believer does not have the

Holy Spirit dwelling within them. A God is a just God.

God is a righteous God. God is a judge. And for those who have not been washed by the blood of the

Lamb, their sins have one and only one outcome, and that is eternal condemnation.

John? Yeah. You know, when you grieve the Holy Spirit, we as believers, when you do something that is sinful,

I know it happens to me. As soon as it happens, the Spirit is in me, lets me know immediately that I have done wrong.

And I need to go back and ask for forgiveness, either to the person or back to God Almighty Himself and say, forgive me,

I have done wrong. That's what we need to do. And that is the power of the

Holy Spirit. If we read that entire verse, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for redemption.

It's on the basis of that that I say this grieving, this is an exhortation of lifestyle change for the believer.

Now, the non -believer can try to imitate our lifestyle change. Yes, they do. We get into that in Hebrews chapter 6.

Right? But for you, my brothers and sisters, those who have bowed the knee, there is an exhortation for these things that He's thrown in here, the lifestyle change, when you violate the lifestyle you're supposed to have, that's grieving the

Holy Spirit. And to your point, you get this urge within you that says, it's wrong.

Now, that urge is not condemning you, it's addressing your actions.

And it's desire is to take that action and put it back into the proper perspective, confess it,

He is faithful and just to forgive you. It is restorative. That's what it is. The reality that believers

I think still need to remember is there is no aspect of your life, there's nowhere you're going to go, even if you are all by yourself, and even if you're with just a bunch of non -believers, there is nowhere that your actions are not perceived by God.

There's nowhere you can hide from your presence. Psalm 139. There is nowhere I can hide from your presence.

I can't go on vacation and think that God won't see me because I'm not in church.

Yeah, John? When we grieve the Holy Spirit, do you think we disappoint the Holy Spirit or do we sadden the

Holy Spirit? Well, I can read from Romans 8 26

His life by the Spirit helped us in our weaknesses for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the

Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words meaning he is the intercessor between us and God.

So yes, there's grieving there. Absolutely there is. Me? Yeah.

You grieve the Holy Spirit when, it's like suppose you just whatever, were just not very nice to someone.

You just were pushy or you just said something that, you know, you shouldn't have or I gotta hurry up and you were like, you know, a little bit angry towards that individual because you were in a hurry or something and you go do something else and the

Holy Spirit, it's that quick that you, it's like, wow I did come across kind of harsh and I immediately call the person back and you say, listen,

I apologize for how I spoke to you on the phone that's, you know, I did not mean to, you know, cause you whatever you want to say, but it's that it's that repentance, it's that that immediate, it's like immediate but you, it should be immediate it can be immediate and it's that so you grieve the

Holy Spirit when you ignore it. When you ignore it. Absolutely, when you ignore it. Carol, you're gonna get from me

John 16 13 As a believer the blessing is that the

Holy Spirit is within us and that blessing manifests itself in many, many ways.

He will teach you in all things. He will guide you. He will give you the words that you should say even when you don't. But He will convict you of your sin.

Not to condemn you of your sin but to convict you of your sin with the purpose that you should do something about it.

Restoration. Do you have that? When the Spirit of Truth comes He will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on His own, but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future.

I wanna expand that to say not only is He going to tell us the words of Scripture, what it says so that we can know

God better, but He will be truthful because all

Scripture is given by the inspiration of God who is prompting for doctrine, for correction, for reproof. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

This is the Holy Spirit at work in you. Nobody really...

No, He is truth and truth is truth. Truth is not relevant and truth is not only partial.

He will guide you in truth. It says that as a believer we receive the

Holy Spirit. It says don't grieve Him. Galatians 5 .16 and then adding on to 17.

Barb, if you would read that for us please. And Romans 12 Candy, I'm going to ask if you would get

Romans 12 .1 and 2. Our life needs... Our lifestyle needs to be transformed which says that the vestiges of what we were before need to be taken captive.

We are no longer a slave to sin. We are not captive to sin.

Take it captive and deal with it. Go ahead. Galatians 5 .16 and 17.

So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Now before you go on, the reality is the desires of the sinful nature still exist.

Are you going to satisfy them? Or are you going to say no to them? Go ahead.

Start again and read the whole thing. So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit. And the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.

This is grieving the Spirit. It's allowing... They are in conflict with each other so that you do not know what you want.

They are in conflict with each other. This is grieving the Spirit. Not walking in Him but walking according to the lusts of the flesh.

That's what grieves the Holy Spirit. Do you have Romans 12? I feel to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual way of worship.

Do not be conformed to this world but be true by testing you that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable.

The reality is even as a believer we have the flesh and the flesh is going to want to conform to the world.

Don't go there. Don't go there is the message. My takeaway having been transformed as a new creation we are no longer slaves to sin.

You cannot say the devil made me do it. He can't make you do it.

We are not slaves to sin. Therefore we are able by the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the newness of life.

I think that's the message in this section. Do you want to close us in prayer? Yes. So Heavenly Father we thank you that you have given us your spirit as a deposit, a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of all those who are your possession.

Thank you that you've sealed us and you will never leave us nor forsake us. Now Lord help us to walk in a way that does not grieve the

Holy Spirit but pleases the spirit. Continue to work in us give us that new life that renewed mind and therefore a renewed lifestyle that flows out of this new thinking.

So Lord we need you and we pray that your spirit would work in us powerfully like Peter was transformed by the coming of the spirit of Pentecost we pray now that you would transform us and continue to change us from glory to glory one degree of glory to another

Lord as we're being renewed in the image of Christ. So we pray these things through Christ our