Is Our Confidence in Christ? (Part 2)

I was thinking this afternoon, our message of course this morning spoke of our confidence and our expectation and it being in the Lord Jesus.

! A song came to mind. You all know it well.! My hope is built on the Lord. Nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. That's a great song and speaks well of what we looked at this morning.

I had a dear pastor friend who's now with the Lord. I heard that old country preacher told us one time he had him for a revival and we were singing that song.

And when he got up to preach, he mentioned the fact that his, I believe it was his granddaughter, picked up that song when she was little. But you know how, not just kids, but sometimes we adultery or maybe in our later teen years or whatever, you hear a song and you think you know what the words are saying.

Well, his granddaughter would sing the song this way. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All mommy's ground is stinking sand. All mama's ground is stinking sand.

But when you consider the reality of what the song is saying, that was right. Amen? Yeah. Mama's sand may be good, but it's stinking sand. Yeah. It doesn't hold the weight of the rock Christ Jesus.

Well, let's continue on this evening. He said we would and develop this a little bit farther in looking at our confidence and expectation being in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, again, looking at the resurrection of Lazarus and Jesus, in essence, outwardly proving and showing that he indeed is resurrection and life.

I think showing to Mary exactly what he was meaning when he told her that, that I am the resurrection and the life. And the reality is that then with him being who he is, Christ Jesus, having the power of resurrection, the power of life, if you will, we can fully trust him, depend upon him.

And so, thus, our confidence needs to be placed to him, as well as the expectations that we have throughout our life.

Now, this morning, as we close, we mentioned the fact that the life of Abram is a great picture of this specifically. So, turn with me to Genesis chapter 12.

We'll start there and look at some things and kind of develop this as we go along. We're well aware of who Abram is, and he is the one through whom God developed the nation of Israel and created a covenant with him.

And so, we see the beginning process of all of that here in Genesis chapter 12, one of my favorite passages within the scriptures.

Begin in verse 1 with me. It says, Now, tremendous, tremendous promise that God gives to Abram.

Abram here. That he's going to do some specific things through him. Most importantly, though it does not specifically spell it out, we know what he's saying here.

When he says, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It will be through your lineage that I will bring the Redeemer. The Christ, if you will.

The Redeemer. The one that will free from sins. All right? Now, that's the great promise that God had given to him. But there's a process that had to take place here for all of that to become a reality.

Notice verse 1 again of chapter 12. The writer says, The Lord had said. Past tense. Past tense.

At some particular point in time in the past, God had spoken to Abram and told him that. Now, back up to chapter 11, if you will.

The last few verses of chapter 11. Starting verse 31. And Terah. That's Abram's father. Terah took Abram his son.

And Lot the son of Haran, his son's son. And Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from Ur the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan.

And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. And the days of terror were 205 years. And Terah died in Haran.

And realize Haran is not in Canaan. All right? Just outside. God at some specific point in time, or some particular point in time, had said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, away from your kindred, your family, and go to a place that I will show you.

Now, when time came for Abram to leave Ur the Chaldees, Mesopotamia, what happened in verse 31 and 32 of chapter 11?

Terah went with him, his dad. Now, I think it's interesting here. The way it's stated is, Terah took Abraham, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and then took them to Haran.

It's Terah that led that. It's Terah that directed that journey, if you will. Now, Acts chapter 7, if you want to turn there for just a moment, speaks of that.

Here's a point in time where Stephen, the deacon, is brought before the council in Jerusalem because of his preaching of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

He's before the council to answer questions of the accusations made against him. They had persuaded some men to bring false witness against him. And so now, if you will, is the trial.

All right? And so Stephen begins to speak in verse 2 of chapter 7. He said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Sharon or Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee.

Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Sharon or Haran, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into the land wherein you now dwell.

Now, they come out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and they come to Haran, and that's where they stay. It wasn't until Terah died that Abram was able to go in to Canaan, that place of promise that God had begun to give to him in the first part of chapter 12, at whatever point it was in the past where he spoke to him.

Terah, if you will, was a hindrance to Abram being able to possess the blessings and promises of God that God had made to him.

Because it was not till he died that he was able to go into Canaan, which in reality is pictured as that place, that place of God for him, that place of blessing, that place of the fulfillment of the promises given to Abram.

A hindrance that he was. I don't know, and it doesn't say, where Abram was with all of this. Whether his dad said, son, now you can't go by yourself.

I'm going to escort you part of the way anyway. Or what happened. You know, realize with me. Abram was of Ur of the Chaldeans.

There's a background given in Scripture about the household of Terah and the people of his generation, and they were ungodly people.

So, Abraham, if he was going to completely, perfectly obey God, should have just picked up from Ur of the Chaldeans, taken his wife with him, and come. But he didn't do that.

So there's the picture of the hindrance that is in the life of Abram that's keeping him from possessing the promises of God.

It's not until Abram gets a real look and begins to understand what the character and nature of the call of God is upon his life.

Now, don't point an accusing finger, per se, at Abram. He's a Gentile. All right? At this point, there had...

You know, when God first called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, whenever that was, according to Genesis 12, 1, he was an unbeliever. He was from the household of unbelievers. But all of a sudden, for whatever reason of God's choosing, he speaks to Abram and says to Abram, here's what I'm going to do, and here's what I want you to do in response to what I'm going to do.

Now, it's interesting that God gives some promise here. Gives him a little bit of an idea of what he's going to do, and in essence, in this part, he said, I'm just going to move you from where you're at to a land that I'm going to show you.

Didn't even tell him where that was yet. All right? But I'm going to do something in your life. So he, I like to call it partial obedience.

Somebody got on to me one time, said there's no such thing as partial obedience. It's either obedience or disobedience. But I think if we look at it close, there's partial obedience here.

All right? Now, so Abram picks up, or Terah takes his son to Haran, and I don't know how long it was before Terah dies, but he eventually dies.

And then Abram is able to go in and possess, or go into the land of Canaan, that place of promise that God had given him. All right?

But notice something with me here. This is a place where a journey begins, and in just a moment, we're going to kind of put that together with our own lives, because it's a great picture for us.

How many of you have ever sensed a hindrance in your life that's kept you, you think, from really fulfilling whatever God's will for you is, or fulfilling, from possessing whatever the true blessings of God for you are?

Now, I'm not talking about salvation. That's a given. All right? How many of you? Ever since the hindrance at some point, some time? All right, some of you. Now, just like Abram, something has got to die when it comes to the hindrances in our life, and we'll look at that in just a moment.

But I want you to notice something here with me. Let's move on a little bit in chapter 12. Look at verse number 4. Now, Terah has died.

All right? Verse 4, So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him.

And Abram was 70 and 5 years old, and he departed when he departed out of Haran. He's older than I am now before this happens. Now, do you see a problem here?

What's the problem? Yeah? He took Lot with him, didn't he? Yeah. Took Lot with him. Now, what happens in the process of Lot going with him?

Now, God's allowed him to go into Canaan. All right? But he's got Lot with him. It's not long, you know, before things begin to happen.

A famine comes into the land. You know, God makes more promises in the covenant that he's made with him. Promise concerning the land now that he is about to possess.

That that land, Abram himself will not possess that land, but his seed will. All right? Now, it's not long before famine comes into the land.

And what happens at the beginning of the famine? He's going to have to go someplace to get some relief. When he goes into that place, he tells Sarai, his wife, dear, I love you, and you know that.

Now, this is my paraphrase. All right? But, the people of the land here are pretty ruthless. And when they see how beautiful you are, they're going to do what's necessary to have you.

They'll put me to death if they find out you're my wife just so they can have you. So here's what you do. If they ask you who I am, just tell them I'm your brother.

Okay? Don't tell them you're my wife, I'm your husband. Just tell them that I'm your brother and everything will be okay. God will work it all out. Don't you love that? Yeah. Yeah. And so you know how the story went there.

All right? So problems already begin here. And I really believe it's because of the incomplete obedience of Abram there when it comes to Lot. Now, in verse 5 of chapter 13, recognize with me that the time came when there was a strife between the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abram.

So Abram, in the wisdom God gives him and says to Lot, Lot, listen, we've got some problems here. And the only way we're going to settle this problem between us is that you go one way and I go the other so our herdsmen will be separated.

So here's what we do. Lot, you choose of your own. You choose which direction you want to go and I'll go in the opposite direction.

All right? Lot chooses the richest, most fertile land that there was, the plains of Sodom. That's where he decides to go.

Now let me ask you this. Why, if God had given the promise to Abram, why did Abram give that choice to Lot instead of making the choice himself?

Why did he? Okay, any other idea? I really think here, in spite of the fact of there being incomplete obedience, there has been some obedience.

He's left his kindred, he's left his country and he's just traveling into Canaan waiting for God to show him where to go. He's beginning to learn here.

He's on that beginning aspect of this procedure or this path that he's now about to take. It's a learning process.

But he's beginning to learn already at this point. I don't remember what the time element is here, but there's a time element. But he gives Lot that choice, you choose, because he recognizes that this is the place, this is the land that God has said to him, I will give to your seed.

In essence, it's going to be your land. Trusting God to work out all the details. He lets Lot choose, Lot is not part of that, Lot is not part of that covenant promise.

Lot, you just go whichever direction you go, I'll go the other direction, and under his breath thinking probably, and I'm just going to trust God to work out the difficulties. And God does.

God does. So he learns there. And that's the same principle you and I have got to learn. Aren't you glad that God does not give us all the full picture of everything right at the get-go?

Boy, I am. I am. It would have been scary for me as a young man to see some of the things that God eventually had in store for me.

Yeah. But God just gives us enough to let us be obedient. And in that obedience, then we receive blessings from God to recognize and realize and know that we're fulfilling the will of God and that pleases Him.

All right? So that's the beginning of the journey. Now remember what happens here. Later on, the king of Sodom, Caledomer, goes to war with some other kings and Lot is captured.

Abram gets word, more problems here now. He's got to stop the journey and go and rescue Lot. Lot. More hindrance here from completely fulfilling what God wants.

Now, so he gathers his servants and he goes, Abraham, who is not realistically a man of war, goes and fights with the kings, defeats them, rescues Lot, brings back some of the spoils of the land, and is successful.

Now, notice something. I just love to watch the way God works. I really do. In biblical characters' lives and in people's lives and our lives, it's a fun experience just to watch him work.

Notice what happens. After Abram had gone to rescue Lot and was successful, over in chapter 14.

Now, verse number 16, after he's gone, he said, he's brought back all of the goods and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods and the women also and the people.

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Shaddal-er-ama. And the kings that were with him in the valley of Sheba, which is in the king's dale.

Verse 18, And Melchizedek, king of Salem. Strange character. Know nothing about him.

A Gentile. But he's described as the priest of the Most High God. He brought with him bread and wine.

And he was the priest of the Most High God. In the Hebrew, El Elyon, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

The characteristic there is that he possesses all of it in heaven and on earth. That's his possession. Now, notice what he does. Verse 19, He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

Now, we don't have any indication at this point that Abram had ever considered God as being El Elyon, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

But when Melchizedek comes to bless him, he brings out that characteristic. Blessed be Abram, servant of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand, and he gave him tithes of all. Abram gave Melchizedek tithes of all.

Now, I think one of the things that happens here is this, and I think it's the most focal point here. Melchizedek speaks of God as El Elyon for Abram's benefit.

He wants Abram to realize something. God does. Abram, you went on impulse to rescue Lot, and you were successful.

But you were successful because I am El Elyon. I am the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, as if to say, I am the one that brought you through that Nile and made you successful, and I want you to understand that.

You did not do that on your own. You weren't successful under your own ability. You were successful because I am who I am.

All right? Now, so he gave Melchizedek tithes of everything that he had brought back. The king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.

And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. See there, Abram's using the term. That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich.

Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me. Aner, eshkol, mamri, let them take their portion.

Great noble thing. Amen? Now, notice verse 1 of chapter 15. After all this transpires, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision.

Now, I want you to notice something, first of all. Notice how many times throughout this you have the word Lord, capital case letters. Anytime you see the word Lord in capital case letters, it's always the Hebrew word Yahweh or Jehovah.

The characteristic of Jehovah is that he is the self-existent God, always has been, always will be, but also there's another aspect to that name, it is that he is also the one that reveals himself.

It's Jehovah, the self-existent one who reveals himself or makes known, makes himself known to man. That's what Abram is beginning to see here, and that's the exciting part of the journey here.

Everything God has done to this point in Abram's life is to show or to give Abram some sense of the reality of who God is.

No, he doesn't do it all at one big bang. Stages, steps, all throughout the experience of Abram with God until he dies. It's a great study, great study to look and see of the various names that we see revealed of God through his experience, through Abram's experience with him.

All right? Now, notice what the self-existent God that reveals himself to man says to Abram in verse one of chapter 15.

He appears to Abram in a vision saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

Yeah. That's who I am. I am your shield, your protection, your protector, if you will, and I'm your exceeding great reward.

Remember what David said in the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In essence, I have need of nothing else.

I'll not go without any need. Same type of thing here. Abram, I am your exceeding reward. What greater thing can you get?

You know, he had said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the most high God, Jehovah, that I would not take anything that would be able to make you say, I made Abram rich.

Just the stuff that we've eaten, and the portion to these that deserve it. It's all I want. And so God says to Abram, Abram, you see the development in Abram's heart here.

Abram, I am your exceeding great reward. Remember over in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, I believe it's where it says, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us therefore lay aside the weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and what?

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. That idea, that term, looking unto Jesus, is the idea of having tunnel vision.

How many of you watch the Olympics? Any at all? Track and field? What was his name? Usain Bolt. Lightning Bolt, you know, yeah, yeah.

I'm surprised, I'm surprised, you know, they always tell runners, if you're running a race, you don't look around and you don't look back.

Of course, he's an exception. You know, nobody's going to catch him, so he can have all the fun he wants to. But the idea here, looking unto Jesus is the idea of looking and of having tunnel vision.

Not looking at the fans cheering you on, not looking at the competitors that are tracing after you, but your eye is straight on the finish line, and spiritually speaking, the finish line is the person of Christ Jesus.

Keeping focus on him, because he's all we need. He's our confidence, he's our expectation, he's our supply, he's our provider, that's all we need.

That's what he tells Abram, I'm the possessor of heaven and earth, I'm the most high God, I'm all you need. Yeah. Now, realize what happens next.

Next thing that happens, Abram's beginning to get it here. He realizes that God has given promise, promise, he realizes that for that promise to be fulfilled, some things are going to have to take place.

All right? He said, I'm giving you a land that your seed will possess. So he's going to have to have a seed to possess that land. So he says in the next verse, the next section of that chapter, he said, Abram said, Lord God, what will thou give me, seeing I go childless, and this steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus?

Adonai, Lord, Jehovah, Master, Jehovah, you've made promise to me, and for that promise to come to pass, I'm going to have to have some seed, some children, and I have none.

What should I do? My wife is barren. Eleazar, my servant, is the only one in the house. I'm old. Oh, man, if there's any time we think in our lives, in our hearts, I'm too old to do some things for God, just think about Abram.

Amen? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's one thing to be that old and to be able to provide a child through your wife, but you ever think about what it was like to raise that kid at that age?

Amen? But he did it, and he did it well. Now, so what will you do? And God makes him promise, you'll have a son, he'll be the one that will be the possessor or the continuance of the covenant that will bring all of this to pass.

Now, again, there's the journey, but remember that journey could not start until Terah died. Within our lives, something has got to die.

Look over in Galatians chapter 4, no, chapter 6, I'm sorry. Galatians chapter 6. Look at verse 14.

See what the Apostle Paul says here. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, now note, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

In Galatians 2.20, remember, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, yet I live, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I am crucified with Christ. What do you suppose, as far as our lives as we are now, in this body of flesh, being saved, or having been saved, continuing to be saved, you know the process, possessing the Spirit of God dwelling within us, what do you suppose we could say is the greatest hindrance to our really possessing, if you will, the promises and blessings and work of God within our lives?

Ourself, yes, itself. That's the biggest problem. Is there anybody here that's never had a problem with self? self? How many have a real problem with it from time to time?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boy, there's just something about what we are in the natural man that just gives us problems from time to time.

Now, let me ask you this question. Why does it give us such a problem? such a problem? Why does it give us problem? obedience is part of it, but there's something that comes before obedience.

Go to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. You know, in verse 20 of the previous chapter, he says, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

So people were asking the question, all right, if more sin creates more grace, should we continue sinning? And that's what he picks up with in chapter 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The answer, of course, is God forbid. All right? Now, what's the basis of that answer?

God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

if we're dead to it, how come it's still going on? You recognize with me, somebody said something about obedience a moment ago.

You realize the reason for disobedience? It's sin. Now, it doesn't have to be something major, it just could be the sin of laziness, it could be the sin of omission, it could be the sin of ignorance, whatever, but for us not to knowingly fulfill the will of God, sin is the result.

Now, he says here, how can we continue willfully in sin if we're dead to it? Now, he says, know you not, in verse three, that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.

Now, he's talking here not of water baptism, but that work of the Spirit of God placing us, if you will, into Christ at the moment of salvation. Baptismo here, the idea of being placed in a new union or environment, environment, and the idea here is that it's the Spirit of God that places us in that new union and environment, which is being in Christ, being in union with him, and his life in us, all right?

So he's saying, when that happened, we were baptized into his death, all right? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in the newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Yeah, yeah.

Knowing this, that our old man, what we were in the old Adam, is crucified with him, everything we were in the old Adam, he nailed to his cross when he died.

That the body of sin, King James says, might be destroyed. The idea is that it might be annulled, so it's not active within our lives.

that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more.

Death hath no more dominion over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Okay?

So he'll never have to die again. We know that. Likewise, though, he says, look at the next verse, likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reckon, place to your account the reality that you are yourself dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God.

All right? So he says, as a result of that, let not then sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

How many of you from your younger days remember the old movie The Night of the Living Dead? You remember that spook movie?

Zombies, you know, coming out of the grave and just walking around just, you know, expressionless, but scary.

I always think of that when I look at this passage. Because in reality, what Paul is showing us here means, if we're dead with Christ, which we are, and we're alive unto him because of our resurrection, which frees us from the idea of sin, if we yield to God, then if we're having willful sin in our lives, we're like walking spiritual zombies.

Amen? Yeah. So, the next time you catch yourself with some kind of sin in your life, think of that. Go look at yourself in the mirror.

Alright? I don't care how good looking you are outwardly physically, but I want you to see the zombie that's there. Amen? Yeah, the spiritual zombie, because it's really contrary to what we are inwardly, when Christ died for us.

Over in 2 Corinthians, you remember the passage, chapter 5, verse 14, remember what he says here. For the love of Christ constraineth us.

In other words, that word constraineth shuts us up to one line and purpose. Because we thus judge, and notice this, that if one died for all, then we're all dead.

Now, he's not saying here, like he said in the book of Ephesians, you know, we were dead in the sphere of trespasses and sins.

No, that's not what he's saying here. When Christ died, whose sin did he nail to the cross with him?

Everybody's. sinned. That doesn't happen the moment we get saved because Jesus was crucified a long time ago. When he died on the cross, he took the sin of the entire world with him, making salvation potential for us.

If one died for all, then all were dead. Now, look at verse 15, and that he died and since he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

He's died for all, all have been crucified with him, but the question, but the matter is, there are some that have not appropriated that death of their lives, and have received to themselves the benefits of him having done that, so they're still lost.

But those who have trusted him recognize and realize, boy, that when we said to him, Lord, save me, it's not just a matter that he has washed my sins away, it's not just a matter of saying, Lord, take me to heaven when I die.

It's in essence saying to him, Lord, realize you died for me, you took my sin, nailed it to your cross, and now I want to live for you.

I want you to be the focal point of my life and my living. So what happens as a result? Verse 16, Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away, behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, who has given us ministry of reconciliation.

What he's saying is this, before I got saved, Paul says, everything I viewed, I viewed from the spectrum of humanity.

Fleshly eyes, which all of it is controlled by the nature of sin. He said, I even saw Christ that way.

He saw him in his earthly ministry before Paul got saved. But he said, now, since I have come to Christ, since I have recognized that I died with him, and I live unto him, my eyesight has changed.

I look through spiritual eyes now. And so, as a result, I see people from a spiritual standpoint. I view everything else from that spiritual standpoint, and it gives everything a completely different perspective.

Yeah. Yeah. But for all of that to happen, self has got to die. I don't know about you, but I discovered a long time ago, I can't kill him.

Amen? But I'm glad I don't have to, because Christ already has. He's already nailed it to his cross. That's why Paul, quickly over in the book of Ephesians, in chapter four, in verse 17, following, he says, this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk or order your behavior, not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, you know, the aimless, resultless, futile mind, having their understanding darkened or blinded, being alienated from the life of God through ignorance, the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness or the hardness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation or behavior the old man, put it off, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God, in other words, after what God is in himself, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Then he goes through the list of things we're to do away with, lying, stealing, all those things, because we're in Christ. Amen?

And our life is to be patterned after his. In the book of Romans, the writer says, the thing that God has attempted to do is to mold us into the image of his dear son, to become more and more like Christ.

So that takes a yieldness, a definite purposeful yieldedness to the spirit of God in our lives, and do that daily.

Don't have to die daily, because you're already dead to sin. But the whole problem I think we have when it comes to the matter of sin, is that sin interrupts our life, enters into our life, because we have failed to yield to the spirit of God.

Yield to the spirit of God, sin will not be a part of your life. It's that simple. Sounds simplistic, doesn't it?

Sounds too simple, but that's what it is. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. But the life I live in the flesh, I live by the power of the Son of God, who gave himself for me.

Yeah. Yeah. And as we do that, we're on that journey, the process of getting to know God more and more and more, as he works not only in our life to mold us and shape us, but in using us we get to see the things that he's doing and he does and what a joy that is, as I said this morning, to see him work.

Yeah. Yeah. What a journey God's got us on. Yeah. So don't get caught up in overly burdened in the troubles of the world and the mess we're in.

Yeah. Whether it be economically, materially, politically, don't get caught up and all of that stuff. I'm not saying don't be aware of it, but I'm saying get caught up in your life in Christ.

Because that's what you are. Paul in the book of Colossians talks about that. He said, when Christ, who is our life, shall come.

He's our life. Yeah. So, enjoy the journey. Amen. That he's got us on. Thank you.