Virtues of the New Life in Christ - part 2

I think many of you know that song. It's an old hymn, "Keep Me Near the Cross." It was written by Fanny Crosby. You know those old Fanny Crosby hymns are so rich, sometimes we can forget about the old hymns or the Keith Brings cycles in those old hymns. And that's one of them that's a blessing for me. I hope it is for you. But if you would take your Bible, turn back to Ephesians chapter four. Like I said, in our scripture reading, we're gonna be in verses 25 to 32. We're gonna finish up those verses. Really, we're gonna finish up verses 17 to 32 'cause it all goes together.

But I do want you to put your finger in a particular place or at the end of the message. Second Corinthians chapter five. We're gonna look at one verse there. That is verse 17. Now last week we started dividing these verses, verses 25 to 32. And last week we did see how verses 25 to 32 are really connected to verses 17 to 24. It's really a continuation of what Paul is teaching here. Now we saw back in verses 17 to 24 that Paul was showing these Ephesian Christians who they were in their former lives. He was reminding them of who they were before they came to Christ. Paul explained that they were worthless in their minds and in their thinking.

Therefore they were permanently blind in their understanding of God, godliness, and all things pertaining to God. They were alienated. They were separated from God and the life of God. And they were really truly living in darkness. And as a result, their hearts were hardened. Their hearts were even petrified to a point where they could not respond to moral and spiritual stimulation. And then Paul reminded them of how they lived. Because of these things, they gave themselves up to and over to all sorts of lust and lustfulness. They were truly greedy, not necessarily for money, but they were greedy for all types of impurity.

And then also in verses 17 to 24, we saw that Paul was showing them who they were in their new life. He was reminding them who they were after they had come to faith in Christ. Paul explained that they had come to faith in Christ. They had been born again. They had savingly believed in Christ. They had learned of Christ. They had learned about Christ and they had been taught by Christ. Simply he was reminding them there in verse 20 and 21, that they had come to faith in Christ. And he explained to them that as a result of their conversion, their old life had been put off and this new life had been put on.

Simply they had become new creations in Christ. The old had passed away, the new had come. And this was all by work of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God in their life. So in verses 17 to 24, Paul was reminding them who they once were, the fact that they were positionally in Adam, but he was showing them and reminding them of who they were after conversion, that they were positionally in Christ. Now get this, this wasn't just a lesson. This wasn't just a friendly reminder. This teaching did have some teeth in it. It had some bite. In the authority of the Lord, Paul commanded them to no longer live as the pagans.

He did that at the beginning, verse 17. And it is definitely safe to say that some of these Ephesian Christians in the church had allowed vestiges of their old life to linger into their new life. And no doubt some were being tempted to allow these things back into their lives. Paul wouldn't have given them this command if they didn't need the command. Now I did mention this two weeks ago, but there is a big lesson here for us. We need to see, we can be tempted to go back to certain things from our past life. We all have a past life. Your past life might be different than my past life. Vestiges of our old life can linger on into our new life.

Now right here, I really want you to listen to your pastor. We've had some who have recently come to faith in Christ and you know who you are. If you've just come to faith in Christ, your past life is right behind you. It was really yesterday or a few months ago. And look, this command needs to be heeded. We must no longer live as the pagans. You must no longer live as you once lived. And listen, we witness to the pagans. We witness to our old friends. We witness to those who we once lived with in our past life. We don't live like them. So this command that had bite in it for them, it needs to have a little bite in it for us as well.

Now last week we saw starting in verse 25 that Paul moved into addressing more specifically what their new life should look like. If you're like me, I want someone to show me, not just tell me. And he addressed certain things from their old life that needed to be put out of their new lives. And he addressed certain things that need to be put on or put in to their new life. And these things were and are compatible or fitting for the new life in Christ. Now remember the language that we use, specifically two words, vice and virtue, vice and virtue. Paul was addressing certain vices that should have been put out of their lives.

And he was addressing certain virtues that should have been a part of their lives that needed to be cultivated and brought into their lives. Now remember how I tried to use our imagination last week by putting these things into a context that we could relate to, they didn't relate to these things, I know that. Sounds like Paul had been reading some of their social media posts. Sounds like Paul had been listening to some of their disagreements in their homes.

Sounds like Paul had been listening to some of their conversations, you know, as they were in the workplace or maybe when they were with their friends playing golf or fishing or hunting with their friends. Sounds like Paul had maybe been attending some of their difficult business meetings, church business meetings. Sounds like Paul had been a part of or a flaw on the wall in some of those difficult committee meetings in the life of the church.

It sounds like Paul had been overhearing some of those private conversations, you know, between certain people in the life of the church in the corner or in the parking lot when most of the people were gone, those secret conversations. But now let's pick up where we left off. Remember, last week we took these things, started taking these things one by one. We covered the first three, so we're gonna pick up with number four. And just like last week, I'm gonna read the scriptures as we progress along in the message. So number four, Paul calls them from unwholesome talk to wholesome talk.

We need to see that Paul calls them from unwholesome talk to wholesome talk. Let's go back to verse 29 and verse 30. He says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, "but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, "that it may give grace to those who hear." Now here Paul gives them another specific expectation for life in Christ, and that was to put away some unwholesome talk. Now notice the English standard says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth." Now the New American standard, it says, "Let no unwholesome talk proceed from your mouth." That's where I got that language, unwholesome and wholesome.

Now we need to see what Paul was aiming at with this corrupting or unwholesome talk. This word unwholesome actually means rotten. That's why the English standard uses the word corrupt, or corrupting. It speaks to something that is rotten, something that is corrupt. In the New Testament, this word is used to speak of rotten fruit and rotten trees in Matthew chapter seven. It is used to speak of rotten or bad fish in Matthew chapter 13 verse 48. But you know this brings me to a question. Have any of you ever dealt with a decomposing body? Maybe not necessarily a human body. But have any of you ever dealt with a decomposing rotting body?

I remember that my grandfather would catch fish. He was a fisherman, he loved to fish. But he would catch fish and he would bury them in his garden, he was a big gardener. And he would bury those fish in his garden for fertilizer, natural fertilizer. And that fish worked really well. He could grow some rather large tomatoes. But you know if you were to dig around in that garden, you'd dig up rotten fish, putrefying fish. Many of you know that I like to deer hunt some. Deer season is right around the corner. You know in all my years of deer hunting, I've dealt with a few dead deer. You know if you kill that deer, you need to process that deer.

We call it skinning them out, you know. But that involves a lot. But you know if you have deer hunted very long, you've dealt with a dead deer, maybe a dead deer that's been dead for a while. And you know that dead deer is rotting. It's putrefying. It's dead. And you know if you deal with that dead deer, or those dead fish are a decomposing body of any kind, it can turn your stomach, isn't that right? But get this. In the verses that Paul is giving us, this is the only time that this word is used to speak of anything but something that is in the condition of physical rotting or decomposition.

And we need to see that Paul was using this language for a reason. He was saying that unwholesome talk, corrupt talk, should not come out of the mouth of those who are in Christ. He was saying that unwholesome or corrupt speech, it's not acceptable. It's rotten, it's putrefying. It's just like a dead animal. That's the way God sees it. Now teenagers, think with me here. I want you to see that when you talk back to your parents, not only are you in violation of the fifth commandment of honoring your mother and father, God sees it as rotten, it's corrupt. It's rotten, it stinks.

And you need to see that when you talk back to your parents, even just with your attitude, it's rotten, it's corruption, it's putrefying. God doesn't like it. Still talking to you teenagers. When you're playing sports, you know, some of you are into sports. I think sports are a good thing, whether it's soccer or tennis or football or cross country or track. You know, if you're there in that competition and you use profanity, well, that's corrupt speech. It's rotten. You might say, "Pastor, no, that's a part of competition." No, that's a part of corruption. It's rotten, it stinks, and you need to see it that way.

Sir, I don't know why I'm not addressing just men. Women can do this too, any of us. If you tell off-color jokes, if you tell jokes about women or jokes with some kind of a sexual meaning or even racial jokes, you know, those things are rotten. That's corruption. It's putrefying. That's the way God sees it. You know, if you gossip about someone, and you know, sometimes you think that, or we can think that gossip, it's okay if it's true. But you know, gossip, it's rotten. It's corruption. God doesn't like it. I mean, it turns his stomach. It's putrefying. Now I'm speaking to all of us again, teenagers, men, women, all who are listening.

Gossip, off-color jokes, dirty jokes, profanity. Even those slightly profane words, I call those secondhand cuss words, anything that is not clean, anything that is not appropriate to be used before God, it is rotten. And you know, tonight in our small group study, we're gonna learn that God is everywhere. And if you're at the church house, or at your house on the football field, if it's profane or even slightly profane, it's rotten. So here, Paul was calling them, these Ephesians, to put away this vice from their past life, this vice of unwholesome, rotten speech, which was a part of their past life.

It was to be put off because that was not compatible for the new life in Christ. But then, Paul was calling them to put on a virtue. And this virtue can be seen and described as wholesome speech. And with this command, Paul was calling them to certain specific types of speech that were compatible with the new life in Christ. And specifically, there are three in verse 29. First, he calls them to edifying speech. Look at verse 29. Let note, corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up. And here, Paul was calling them to speech that was good for building up one another.

The New American uses this word edification, or speech that was good for edification. So here, Paul was calling them to constructive speech, helpful speech, encouraging speech, uplifting speech, edifying speech, speech that would build others up. And then second, he calls them to appropriate speech. Go back to verse 29. Let note, corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion. Here, Paul was calling them not to silence. Paul was calling them not to be overly serious, but he was calling them to say the right thing at the right time.

He was calling them to speak in a way that was fitting for the circumstance so as to be beneficial for all. The New American says, according to the need of the moment. So here, Paul was calling them to say the right thing at the right time. And the measuring stick for me would be this. Was it beneficial for all in the particular circumstance? And then third, he calls them to gracious speech. Again, back at verse 29. Let note, corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion, and that it may give grace to those who hear. And here, Paul was not calling them to avoid harsh speech.

He was not calling them to avoid difficult speech or even corrective speech or rebuking speech. But he was calling them to always make sure that all of their speech was spoken in grace, even legitimate correction and rebuke. So here, Paul was calling them to make sure that all of their speech, all of their speech was covered over with grace or infused with grace, even and especially those difficult things like words of correction and rebuke. So look at this virtue that Paul was calling them to put on. This virtue of wholesome speech, and it has many beautiful sides to me like a diamond.

And he's calling them to put on this diamond of wholesome speech. On one side, it was speech that was good for building up one another. On the other side, it was speech fitting for the moment or the circumstance at hand. And then on the other side, it was any and all speech. It was to be infused with and covered with grace. And here, we need to ask God to show us if these virtues are truly in our lives and a part of our speech. Do we have edifying speech as we relate to one another? Do we build each other's up with our speech? We know the context here. We're members of one body. This is the church.

So I want us to ask ourselves, do we have edifying speech, speech that builds up one another's brothers and sisters in Christ? Now, let me show you something. As you get plugged into the life of small groups here, and you should, and as you get to know other brothers and sisters in the faith, as you should, and then as you grow closer to one or two, two or three there, as you should, you'll get closer and closer, and you should see what? Edifying speech, building up one another, being helpful, even when you have to speak about those difficult things. We can also make applications somewhere else. What about in your home and in your family?

Are you edifying in your speech, sir, with your wife? Do you build up your wife with your speech? Ma'am, do you build up your husband with your speech? Do you edify your husband in front of your children? What about how you relate to your son and your daughter? Do you edify them and do you build them up? You know, I'll never forget a family that I grew up with, lived across the street from me for years. I remember vividly as a kid, watching that man that I looked up to, he would edify and build up one of his sons, but you know he had one son that just couldn't measure up. He was always putting him down, putting him down.

And do you do this in your home? And you need to evaluate, sir, you need to evaluate, ma'am. You need to ask yourself, are you edifying? Do you build up one another? And if you don't, there's no excuse for you as a Christian. And are we gracious as we talk with one another? Do we use gracious words in a gracious tone, in a gracious demeanor? You know, some people think that a spiritual gift is being a bulldog or being a bulldozer or just being a chainsaw, always rough and tough and only attack and impatient. That's not what this verse says.

When we relate to one another in the life of the church and in any place in life and in our home, we should have grace. Now here I wanna move to the motivations that should drive all of this and obedience here. And there are two I want us to look at. First, the motivation from back in verse 25, what does the text say? That they were members one with another. They were one body, they were one church. So Paul was calling them to put on this virtue of wholesome speech as they related to one another in the church and that applies to us. And I've already made some application there. But second, this motivation in verse 30. Look at verse 30.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And Paul says here, do not grieve the spirit. And to grasp what Paul was saying here, we have to understand a few things about the spirit. This is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God the text says. First and foremost, we need to see that the Holy Spirit is not a thing. The Holy Spirit is not an influence. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling. You know, he's not like the force off Star Wars. The Holy Spirit is a person, capital P. The Holy Spirit has personhood, capital P. The Holy Spirit is God.

Some of you need to pick up our church statement of faith. It's on our church website and their physical copies laying around here. And then the second section, we have a section there on the Godhead and there on the bottom side of that paragraph, we deal with the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And you need to study those verses there to have your understanding opened up about who the Holy Spirit is. And you know, everyone today is talking about pronouns and pronoun usage today. You know, all of that stuff is just demonic garbage, just hot demonic garbage. And it's meant to steal, kill and destroy.

The devil is all about stealing and killing and destroying people. But you know, the truth of the matter is this, you know, I'm a man. I'm a man, I'm a he and I'm a him. And to say anything else is to be make believe at best and to be demonic at worst. Well, what am I trying to show you? We gotta understand who the Holy Spirit is. And he's God, he's a person, capital P. Well, the Holy Spirit is a person and he is called a him in John chapter 14 and chapter 15 and chapter 16. He is the comforter and the helper in John 14 and 15. He has intelligence as described in 1 Corinthians 12, 11. He has feelings, he has a will.

He works, he searches, he speaks, he testifies, he teaches. Oh, in John chapter 14 and 16, we see that he convicts the world and the lost of sin, righteousness and judgment. In John three, we see that he regenerates, he intercedes for God's people, he guides, he glorifies Christ. And what Paul was saying here was this, this was and is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God who was living in them and with them. And what was he saying? When they used unwholesome rotten speech, he was grieved. He was grieved. This word spoke of sorrow. It meant to be distressed. It means to be made sad. It means to be offended. Yes, the Holy Spirit has feeling.

And here in the original, it is in the present tense, which means that Paul was actually saying, stop grieving the Holy Spirit and make it a habit that you do not grieve the Holy Spirit with what? Your little white lies? No, with your rotten speech. And sir, ma'am, teenager, oh, with your off-color speech, it grieves God. Might say, well, pastor, you know, that's just culture. No, it grieves God. We hear gossip, it grieves God. And you know, if you listen to that stuff and embrace it, it grieves God. And remember the context, it's in and among the believers. It's in the church.

So Paul was calling them to put off the vice of rotten speech, and it grieved the Holy Spirit of God in them and among them. And he called them to put on the virtue of wholesome speech, speech that builds up one another, speech that is fit for the occasion at hand, speech that was infused with grace, even in difficult circumstances. And look, all of this was in the church. They were members of that church. They were members of that one body, one with another. And you know, I know we're not perfect. I know we're not perfect, but you know, I do not think we have that problem here. Now we once did. Oh, this was rampant. In our recent history.

And some of you were here for those days. And you know, some of you have come from churches like this. You've watched it, you've witnessed it, even in the lives of leaders. But for some of you, if this virtue of nothing but wholesome speech was brought into your home life, it would revolutionize your home life. You need to see that. For some of you here, if this virtue, these virtues of wholesome speech, that diamond there with those multiple sides, if it was brought into your home life, into your marriage, how you relate to your children and how they relate to you, it would revolutionize your home life.

And then number five, Paul calls them from general vices to general virtues. We see this in verses 31 to 32. He calls them from a list of general vices to a list of general virtues. Now here, Paul continues to give them expectations of the new life in Christ. And here he gives them a list. These are general, sinful qualities or vices that should be put off. Let's look at verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Now Paul lists, a list here, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander along with malice. The English standard, the New American used the same words.

And we need to see what Paul was saying here. First, this word bitterness. Now in their day, this word was used often. And it was used of things that were bitter to the taste. Even foods that were so bitter that they were inedible. You couldn't eat them. But this isn't about food here. This is about speech. And this speaks of a simmering resentment. This speaks of an attitude that is full of resentment. It speaks to holding onto a grudge.

One writer said, "It basically is the opposite of sweetness and kindness." And just like food that is bitter, the person with this quality possesses an attitude, a mind and a heart that simmers in resentment and holding a grudge. They are bitter. They are bitter. And it comes out in what? Their attitude, their speech and their behavior. And then second, this wrath and anger. We're putting them together. Wrath and anger. One scholar noted that there were two Greek words for anger are wrath in that day and Paul used them both. I thought about it. Maybe it seems like he's trying to cover it all. Or maybe they were just that bad.

But this word wrath spoke of what was boiling up and boiling over. This word wrath spoke of something that was swelling up. And this word wrath, it was a boiling up and a boiling over of rage. And this word anger, it was a smoldering. It was a swelling up in anger. And this word wrath and anger, it came out. How? In their attitude, in their speech and in their behavior. And then third, this word clamor or clamoring. This is nothing more than crying out and shouting. Now in the New Testament, it could have been used for something good like crying out in prayer or crying out in grief.

But here it spoke of crying out in this outburst of wrath, outburst of anger. And this seems to point to what? The bitterness and the anger. The bitterness and the wrath and the anger that was within them. And then fourth is malice. This is a general word. It speaks of all sorts of bad. It was used for all sorts of evil. Now I love how John MacArthur applies this list of general sinful vices. Bitterness, anger, wrath, clamoring, shouting and malice. He says, and I'm quoting, these particular sins involve conflict between person and person, between believer and unbeliever, and worse still, between believer and believer.

These are the sins that break fellowship and destroy relationships that weaken the church and mar it's testimony before the world. And when an unbeliever sees Christians acting just like the rest of society, the church is blemished in the unbelievers eyes and he is confirmed still further in resisting the claims of the gospel. Now I'm not asking for a show of hands, but have any of us seen that? Now I wanna borrow that quote and I wanna apply that to another area of life, the family. Now listen close. These particular sins, what sins? Bitterness, wrath, anger, this clamoring, this shouting, this malice.

These particular sins involve conflict between person and person. And worse still, between a husband and a wife, wife and husband, between parents and children. And these are the sins that break the Christian fellowship in the home. They break the peace and the harmony in the home. And when they are left unrepented, it destroys the harmony, the peace of family relationships. And these sins weaken the strength of the family. They mar the testimony of others and you cannot hide it, it comes out eventually. And when an unbeliever sees these sins in a Christian family, he sees them acting just like everyone else in society.

That Christian family's witness is blemished, it's ruined, and the unbeliever is confirmed still further in resisting the claims of the gospel in their life. And look church, we can never allow this in the church. We can't think about things like this. You know, if we have a grievous sin in the church, adultery in the church, you know, we're gonna deal with that properly. Well, we must deal with these things as well. We cannot have that, but look, we cannot have that in the home. Should never be allowed. So here Paul was calling them to put away these vices. They were a part of their past life.

He was telling them that all the resentment and bitterness of the heart and attitude, it must be put out of the life. He was telling them that all of the boiling up, boiling over wrath and anger, it must be put out of their life. He was telling them that all the shawty and the outbursts of bitterness and wrath and anger, it must go out. But then he calls them to put on other godly virtues that were compatible with a new life. Look at verse 32. Be kind to one another. Tender hearted, compassionate, forgiving one another. How is God in Christ forgave you? Now here Paul lists three new virtues. This could be seen as a diamond as well.

One side, kindness. The other side, tender heartedness. And then the other side, forgiveness. First this kindness. Here Paul calls on these Ephesian Christians to simply be kind to one another. This is simple and everyday kind behavior. This speaks of unselfishness and seeking the good of others. This speaks of being helpful with others. Even if it costs. Then second, tender heartedness. Here Paul calls on these Ephesian Christians to simply be tender hearted. This speaks of being compassionate and even being affectionate. Yes, affectionate. It speaks of being sympathetic towards others. Even to the point of sacrifice.

And then third, forgiveness. Here Paul calls on these Christians to simply forgive as they have been forgiven. This speaks of a willingness to overlook personal offense, even serious grievances. This speaks of forgiving others as Christ has forgiven them. One writer said that this forgiveness and forgiving others is grounded in God's forgiveness. And here we must evaluate our lives. We must evaluate our behavior as we relate to brothers and sisters in the church. Do we have kindness? Do we possess kindness? An unselfish kindness seeking the good of our brothers and our sisters, even if it costs.

And you know folks, the longer we live together in the life of the church, that's when you'll be tested. Oh, it's easy to join the church with great emotion and excitement and exhibit this kindness for a while. But after we get to know each other, after we see each other, after we get on each other's nerves a little, after we start seeing each other's strengths and weaknesses, and are we tenderhearted? Are we compassionate? Are we even affectionate towards one another?

Again, this is easy to put on when we first come into the life of the church, but three years on down the road, five years from now, when we really see a brother or a sister struggling, or when they hurt us or they hurt you, can we be tenderhearted and compassionate and even affectionate towards one another? Do we speak and relate to one another with and in forgiveness? With and in forgiveness. Listen folks, we must always relate to each other in forgiveness, the way Christ relates to us in forgiveness. It's sad to say, we want Christ to do all the forgiving for us, but many times Christians do not want to do all the forgiving with others.

So we see that Paul was calling them to put away these vices of resentment and bitterness, this boiling up of wrath and anger, even outbursts, and he was calling them to put on these new virtues, these new virtues that were and are compatible with the new life, kindness towards one another, tenderheartedness, compassion, even affection towards one another, forgiveness for one another as God has forgiven us. So notice, in two messages, we've seen that Paul was addressing these vices from their old life, it should have been put off, and he was addressing certain virtues that were compatible with the new life that should have been put on.

Put off lying, put off any untruthfulness, put on truthfulness where? In every area of life, but he starts off in verse 25, "In the body," put off anger, put on righteous anger, put off sinful anger, but put on righteous anger. Oh, but don't let the sun go down on that righteous anger because it can fester up in pride and self-righteousness, then it can turn into bitterness and resentment and all sorts of wicked behavior. Put off stealing and put on hard work, why? So as to provide for yourself, and also so as to provide for the needs of others, those who are in need, and put off corrupt, rotten speech, and put on wholesome speech, why?

Because we are, and they are members, one of another, the church, and so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God among us, and then put off bitterness, wrathful anger, even outbursts of all of these things, and put on kindness towards one another, tender heartedness, compassion, even affection, even forgiving one another, how? Just like God in Christ has forgiven us. Now as we close out these verses, verses 17 to 24, verses 25 to 32, there are a couple of things I want us to see. We need to take note of. As born-again Christians, we need to see, and be reminded of the fact that we are truly new creations. We have been made new.

The old has been put off, and the new has come. Now here's where I want us to turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter five, verse 17, and you'll see that I've just been plagiarizing Paul all along with that language. Notice what Paul says. And I want you to keep your copy of God's word turned there. Therefore, if anyone, well, who's the anyone? Anyone. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. And yes, we must see that the vices from our past life must be put out of our current lives, vestiges from the old self cannot linger. These vestiges can creep back in.

And so, listen, Grace Life Church, we must put these things away, and you might need the help of your spouse. You might need the help of a brother or a sister. You need to be able to repent here, and you need to be able to attain victory. We have a new life in Christ. But we must also see something else that's key to this teaching. These virtues are evidence that you indeed possess the new life. Born-again Christians are new creations. And as new creations, these virtues are tangible evidence that you indeed possess the new life. Look, these things should encourage us. What does the text say? The old is gone, the new has come.

But there's something else. Some of you need to see. Second Corinthians 5.17 says that true Christians have been made new and the old is gone. Isn't that right? And if you have supposedly been a Christian for years and your life is the old estate, you need to examine to see if you have truly been born again. Some of you, with the Holy Spirit's help, you need to see that the old has stayed and the old has in fact gotten worse since you have supposedly come to faith in Christ. You don't possess any of these virtues when you supposedly came to faith in Christ, the old stayed and eventually the old self just got worse and worse and worse.

And if that's you, you need Christ. You need to seek Christ. You need to be converted and born again and come to a place where the old has gone and the new has come. Now as I wrap up these verses, what are we seeing? I did say this last week, we've been looking at vices and virtues. I could have titled the sermon with the negative vices, but I chose to title it with the positive. Virtues of the new life in Christ. Virtues of the new life in Christ. Let's pray.

And as always, we wanna commit these things to the Lord, not just to leave them behind as we dismiss, but no, to take these things with us so that this work will be going on in our own lives, even today, and in the days and weeks and years to come. So let's pray.