Following Paul's Walk

All right, we're going to begin reading today with verse 12 of chapter 3 of Philippians. The title of today's lesson is Following Paul's Walk. Now that I have already attained or am already perfected, I press on that I may lay hold of trust for which Christ Jesus has also held hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are at heart, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal evenness to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Today's verse is beginning at 17. Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

For many walk of whom I have laid you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenships in heaven, for which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Great passage. And we'll do 20 and 21 next week, is what we plan. All right, so let's do a brief review of last week, and I was very succinct in that review. And let's take a look at it in two bullet points.

The first is, like an Olympiad, Paul is pressing on to experience all that the Lord Jesus Christ above has laid out for him. Keep in mind, if you interpret the verse carefully and dissect it, the Lord has laid this out for him. It's not that he's kind of deciding what's going to happen and, oh yeah, Lord, thank you. He's identifying the fact that the Lord has laid this out for him. Paul is called to a very special ministry, and that's all of God.

All right, second point. And again, summarily and succinctly, and to the mature and even those who are less mature in mind, Paul encourages all to walk as heavenly citizens. Again, that's a paraphrase, but if all this is set forth by him from above, he's calling all brethren to in fact walk as heavenly citizens.

And boy, that really relates to our Wednesday study, doesn't it? The dispensational truth of the fact that we are heavenly citizens. And we'll conclude this next week when we're looking at our citizenship, which is in heaven. Boy, what a tremendous part of Scripture. All right. So, first verse for today.

Brethren, be followers together, Greek term semetides, which is followers together. Those two words are dressed in one Greek word. Brethren, be followers together of me. This is interlinear Greek, by the way, which I think is more accurate. that walk so as ye have us as an example, okay?

All right, let's open that verse up. And Paul being kind of cocky here, what do you think? Look at me, I'm kind of a great walker, doing what I'm doing. Well, if you're following Christ, you can say that. Well, we'll come back to this, Roger, but is he following Christ? Barney's kind of nodding yes, he's following Christ. Are we walking in Christ's footsteps? Is that what we're doing here? Come on, come on, come on. We're not walking in his footsteps. We got a new life in Christ Jesus, do we not? Yes. So let's drill down there a little bit.

Darby says this, Paul might indeed boast, if need be, in that which belong to the flesh, As to all Jewish privileges, he possessed them in the highest degree. He'd outstripped everyone in holy zeal against innovators. One thing alone had changed it all. He had seen the glorified Christ. And then he had, according to the flesh, was Fensforth lost to him. So we've read about that already in Philippians, have we not? He had all the attributes of the Jewish hierarchy.

And ultimately that was dumb, so to consider, in terms of seeing the glorified Christ in the new life that he has in him. So I'm going to answer this question. No, he's not cocky. This life of Paul's is of God's grace. And this is the new life that he has in the new creation he has for Christ Jesus.

Let's look at a couple of verses. One that comes to mind always for me is be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Now you could say imitators as a follower, I like it as a new life. Aren't we new creations in Christ Jesus? We're not following him, walking in his footsteps. Paul has been reborn as a new creation in Christ Jesus. It's not I that lives the Christian life, but Christ that lives in me. And if we look at, we looked at this before, a great verse in this epistle, For me to live is Christ, not to follow him and to die is gain. Either way you win there, right? Either way you win.

So I think, you know, when we go back to the previous verse, brethren be followers together of me. So he's saying follow me because I'm the earthly example of what this new life looks like. And God has laid out beforehand this task of my walk. be a demonstration to Heidi and to Roy and to Margaret in terms of what the Christian life really looks like.

Some thoughts from everyone else, please. One of the things too, that if you notice there it says... So let's speak up a little bit more up here, please. Oh, well, the mic is on here maybe. The verse ends with us also. So it's not just him. Right, that's a good point. And furthermore, it's Being aware that Christ is in us, right? And living. Every one of us in this room. Well, it's perfect, Ben. I don't know if you looked at the handout, but the next point was this.

Notice also that Paul states that this example is not only about himself, but us. Good point. And perhaps that relates to Timothy and Epaphroditus, but who knows? It could have related to 20 or 50 or 100 believers in the Philippian church. Us, all of us. So I don't want to push this too hard, but I will say once more, we're not followers and walking in his footsteps, even though that's exactly the way this is translated.

He says, be imitators of me as I reflect what the Lord's doing in my life, which is laid out for him in heavenly places. Say mine. Yes, go ahead. Say mine. have the same mind that I have, my thoughts. Those are the verses that preceded last week. This mind.

He wants all to have this mind. Those, by the way, who are mature, but also those who are thinking otherwise, who may not be so mature. He wants all the people he's addressing in Philippi to have this mind, which is in Christ Jesus, which is also in him. So when Paul says follow the way I walk, that's because he spent the first half of that chapter telling us what he was and what he now is.

I think that would be my next part here. I don't think you're looking at my handout, but anyway, very good point, Bob. So, here's why I said, moreover, Paul in verses 3 through 14 of this chapter has already described in detail what the uplift in Christian life looks like. Really, why don't you, Bob, come on up here. Did you send out that on?

He did. I didn't see it. I'm teasing you, and I'm not feeling paranoid about this. For sure. It's great. You guys are, I mean, no, it's good. But it's neat to see the body thinking alike. Yeah, it's us, Roy. It's not just Paul. It's more than he. And also Bob's point is good. The Christian life is exemplified in the verses we've been teaching over the last month. One of the things, too, that strikes me here is that Paul is speaking from a spirit of himself that is alive to God. He's in fellowship with the Father. And if he wasn't, this would have been boasting. This would have been condemned. It would have been out of the flesh. And there's that big contrast that I think we come to learn, don't we, in our growth? That we can discern, am I thinking God's thoughts or my own? My own and Adam's, let's say.

And I don't think we can think of a better scriptural example of what the life of us as believers today should look like other than to study Paul. I mean, we have other examples, Peter and John and so on and so forth, but Paul is the backbone of the church and the Christian life, if you will.

So, the limitators of him in the human flesh that Paul recognized Should I continue in sin that grace should abound? Heavens no. So, he has the sin nature. He knows it's still there. Romans 7 we've been through time and time again. But yet, he is the man who God has given to represent what our human existence is all about.

And Colossians 3 too. Also, set your mind on things above. Keep looking at things above, not things of the earth. There's a lot of passages in the New Testament where Paul says, be followers of us. Especially in 1 Thessalonians. Over and over again, he says, be imitators. The same word is used all through. But let's avoid ourselves being overly medieval evangelicals and thinking we follow in Christ's footsteps. We have a new life in Christ Jesus. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. So this is a life for me to live as Christ and die as Cain. Okay, good. All right, let's see what Weiss has to say.

He said, the word mark here is a translated word which means to fix the attention upon with a desire for or an interest in. It means really to observe intently. So let's go back and look at the verse. So it says, mark them that walk. So as you have us as an example, going back to us again. Mark. Pay close attention to what these people are showing you in their walk.

Intensely look at one another. And Roger reminds me of our study in James. I mean, James, a lot of the works that relate to our faith are those that are seen by one another, are they not? So when we look at one another, we want to be uplifted by their walk by faith so that we can be encouraged in that. And I think that's adding a lot here to what we said. So I think looking at one another intensely.

Not to necessarily look at their shortcomings, but look at how they glorify God in their walk. Yes, right. Next hour, we've got Helen here telling us about the ministry where they are, where they're living. In Thailand? Yeah, and that ministry and their lives would be us, part of us in the body, right? Okay. That's another example. Good. I'm ready to look forward to that.

And by the way, this observation of one another, or Paul, or Timothy, or Epaphroditus, is a pattern of behavior that also invokes glory to our Heavenly Father. Think about our walk. What is the purpose of our walk? It's simply reduced to the fact that God is glorified in our walk. That's the end of our human existence in the Lord Jesus Christ as we walk in Him. Let God be glorified. All right.

Philippians 4.9 says, the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the God of peace will be with you. So again, peace being a human example of what we with a sin nature, saved by grace, in our walk and reflect. To God be the glory. And that's what Hal always said. You may be the only Bible anyone ever reads. It's so true. It is so true.

Remember, we don't walk under law of things we should do and shouldn't do. We walk under grace, and that grace is basically the law of Christ. Everything is wrapped up in Him. You know, Bob, I think sometimes believers don't realize, especially beginner believers, they don't realize that God did not just save us to get us to heaven.

He saved us to live for Him. Well, you know, the three birth tenses of being saved. I was saved July 14, 1978. I will be saved when I'm absent from the body, present with the Lord, but it's this middle saved, being saved, that's the tough part. And honestly, that's what led us to Holly Hills, ultimately, to see what that new life looks like, the identification we have in Christ Jesus. And that gives me, personally, I think it gives you joy and you're uplifted and encouraged by our holy system. All right.

Philippians 3.18, moving right along here. For many walk, of whom I've told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Well, it appears that he's mentioned this before. I have told you often How would you describe often, once? I mean, there's no answer to that. Probably more than once.

I don't think so, right? So, who are these enemies of the cross of Christ and how are they distinguished by their walk? Some thoughts. They're believers. Well, okay. That's one. I was going to talk about the Judaizers. Okay. Could be Judaizers. What's another term for people whose walk has gone astray? We're going to get to this in the next slide. If you know Baptism, it's backsliding. Have you ever heard of antinomianism? I'm sorry, go ahead. Against the law. Okay, let's look at Wiest and Macaulay both in terms of drilling down here a little bit.

All right, Wiest says, the individuals spoken of in these verses are not Judaizers, but profess Christian Greeks of Epicurean tendencies. The Epicureans represented a Greek school of philosophy which taught that the satisfaction of the physical appetites was the highest aim of man. They had allowed their Christian liberty to degenerate into license. They did not understand God's grace and thus thought lightly of continuing in sin. They were engrossed only in self-indulgence and a swing away from legalism would land such a person into anti-Gnomianism, namely lawlessness.

So I think some of us may have known people like this who've been saved and have gone astray and basically, you know, they live in a cloud of lust and self-satisfaction in every way possible. Don't you think that we also can live that way? Don't you think we as believers can live that way? Well, I was going to leave that for a more lengthy discussion later, but we can bring that up now.

You know, the fact that I like sports, is that wrong? I mean, in other words, we could put a law into how we should be thinking and believing when the faith we like is part of the earthly system. I don't think that's wrong. I guess if I put so much devotion into it, then it becomes, you know, my Christianity becomes displaced by that. But I can go to a baseball game and cheer as a believer.

I mean, in other words, we don't want to be overly legalistic in terms of enjoying things of the world. I think those things are amoral. They're not immoral. Yeah. There's a balance. Okay. Moderation in all things? That's a lovely compliment. I mean, he has a good experience to enjoy and we need food, you know, and there's, we need sleep. I mean, we, you know, we need time to fellowship with other people and stuff like that.

And, you know, as long as you're not, as you're, you know, careful that you're, you're keeping up with the things that are important and you're not, you know, spending too much time or too much resources or too much, you know, on the stuff that's not important. And who's the guide of that? Who limits you there? Is it not the Holy Spirit? I think it's between you and the Holy Spirit.

Everybody's kind of different. But, you know, what's described here by Weiss is antinomianism is lawlessness. There's no moral, you know, barometer to measure anything by. Bob, one of the things as believers though, that we can twist our liberty into license. And therefore we would be imitating, in essence, these kind of people, though we are not that kind of people.

God has to correct us, right? God has to give us the right thinking. His thoughts. It reminds me of the words of our Lord and Savior during this earthly walk. is, when I set you free, you will be free indeed. How do you interpret that? I mean, if we take that out of the gospel account, I think it's an attitude.

Liberty to do right. Liberty to live a life without sin. In fact, that's what identification truth is all about. Positionally, we're made righteousness in Him. And so that position that we have in His righteousness, which is translated to each of us individually, that's the walk that's expected. And ultimately, when we fall short, we confess, fellowship, and get back in order.

These people have basically no laws. There's no moral thermometer at all in terms of the life they're living. Now, are they saved, Bob? According to Weiss, they are professed Christian Greeks in Epicurean tendencies. But this letter was written to believers. But are we calling a believer who falls... Are we saying they're not saved? I mean, some people would interpret that. Bob, I see that there's three types of believers in the New Testament. There's carnal, there's infants, and then there's mature. Like in 1 John, right? Describing young men and elderly. For those of us who need a bottle of milk instead of meat.

All right, let's continue here. So the idea here is that antinomianism is the absence of law. I mean, that's what it basically means. And keep in mind, what law do we live under? We don't live under the law of the Old Testament. We live under the law of Christ. And the law of Christ is difficult to define other than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that he is and everything we are in him.

All right, let's look and see what Macaulay has to say here. Macaulay says, To be an enemy of the cross or Christ means to live in a way that contradicts what the cross or Christ stands for. For the Judaizers, enmity to the cross was expressed by refusal to believe in its total adequacy. For the unrestrained, enmity towards the cross was expressed by refusing to respond to its demands for holiness. I'm not sure I like the term demands.

I think it's a life of holiness that the better state of it demands. Demand to be holy? That sounds like I'm under law, but the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is a life we live freely without sin, right back to what Christ himself had predicted. Could I maybe share a verse that Paul gave us in Galatians? It's just before the list of the old sin nature and the list of the new nature we have, Christ's nature. It says, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Isn't that something? Yeah, that's wonderful. You know, Paul is referring to the church in Ephesus. In chapter 4, he lists all these things that are going wrong in the church. And in verse 22 in chapter 4, you know what he concludes? The reason for all these things going wrong, we're talking about all kinds of exemplary sin in our lives and lack of belief. He said, so you have not so learned Christ. That's the explanation for why things have gone astray. And so they're thinking what's wrong.

All right, good. Let's continue. And Paul is even weeping, isn't he? Anybody think what else he weeps? Well, let's take a look. Through his passion, doesn't it? I mean, we're really passionate about something. When Mike Thorell called me the other day about David, I cried. I mean, I just immediately broke out into tears. Because David's a guy I interacted with fairly irregularly, but like quarterly, we'd have a nice hour-long conversation about his illness and kind of what I was going through and everything. And it was often when I'm walking with the dogs and talking to Dave, it was a great fellowship time with him. But, you know, but my passion for my knowledge of Dave Devery related to my bawling when I found out that he had died. So, anyway, we'll leave that as a personal experience.

So, second corrective is 2-4. For out of which affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. So, this is in second corrective. So, remember, The second letter to the church at Corinth was a far different kind of letter than the first one. The first one was more get your act together kind of being kind of majority there in terms of that sort of thing. The second one, the second letter to the Corinthians is really one of the warmest sections of scripture. And here he's weeping because there's abundant love for them and his attempt to further them in the truth of the gospel.

Do you think that these individuals were, if you're back to the point you brought up earlier, were these individuals in the church and if so, why and how and why weren't they disciplined? Thoughts about that. These enemies of the cross, how can they exist? Do we have enemies of the cross at Holly Hills? I don't know that we do, but if they did exist here, where's church discipline? Why didn't it occur here?

Thoughts? No thoughts. Paul didn't bring it up. I don't know. He didn't address it. Paul has really not addressed church discipline much in his opinion. No, except for the Corinthian letter. But don't you think he would have addressed it here if he were actually in the church there? So he saved this for our Sunday school lesson. today to discuss. He is going to address it in chapter four with these two ladies. That's true. Somebody's jumping ahead here. He's thinking what you're thinking. It makes you turn a little bit to Hebrews, which we're studying now on Tuesdays.

How much worse punishment do you suppose will be thought worthy who has, to those who have trampled the Son of God underfoot, come to the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace. Now, that doesn't address whether they're believers or not, it just indicates that there's some consequences of being an enemy to the cross. I'm kind of translating what we're looking at today to outcomes.

It says, who hinders destruction? So, there is consequences. Okay, let's go ahead to destruction. Alright, verse 19, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. Alright, we'll come back to that earthly thing soon. What end is destruction? What is it? What kind of destruction are we talking about here? We've got a variety of opinions.

I remember the word, the Greek word is loss of well-being. It's not annihilation. Destruction sounds pretty strong. I think the actual original word is loss of well-being. That's what I remember. I spent quite a bit of time on this. That doesn't mean I have the answer. I'm not sure I do. Let's look at the scroll. It says, in particular, destruction which consists of a loss of eternal life. eternal misery and perdition. Okay, that's what Strong said. That's pretty strong. That's why he changed his name. But not according to Macaulay. Here's what Macaulay said. Macaulay says the word destruction does not mean annihilation.

It refers to the loss of well-being. That's the extinction of the being. Now, let's go on. However, most translations and commentaries are consistent with perdition. In other words, an ultimate destruction. Second Thessalonians 2-3, let no one deceive you by any means, for unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, which is the son of perdition. So, that verse kind of, you've noticed perfectly here, but the idea of people that fall away. Not sure what follows. But the idea here, and I'm going to show you what Constance says.

The context does not specify whether these people were Christians or not. But auto and animism versus temporism was common among both groups in Paul's day. as it is today. Consequently, we should probably understand destruction in general sense. The same Greek word occurs in 128 where it probably refers to unbelievers and eternal history.

I'll let you make up your own mind. I think the softer interpretation would be that they fall away and ultimately it's not Wasn't our study in Thessalonians a few months ago, the falling away was synonymous with the rapture? Yeah, we had that, yeah. Unless the rapture comes first. Boyd, want to comment on that? One of the things that is going on here is Paul is addressing us about men and women like us. who were in there thinking, not thinking correctly. We've got to keep that in mind.

And what is the end in God's perspective? How does he handle that? If they become ones who become enemies, like is described here, enemies of trusting in Christ versus trusting in yourself, turn in that direction. Was that not Ananias and Tessarion? Did they not die under the hand of the Lord? And is it not true that God will leave us to our own ways if we reject him? We become his enemy. But if we become an enemy so much that it's going to affect the body, does he not take us out of the way physically? So you think he's doing that still today? Yes. Enemies are the cost of very strong progress, huh? Yeah.

But have we not in our own lifetime experienced people whom we love walk away from the Lord and become enemies of Christ? Have they not in their lifestyle given us examples of that versus the examples of Paul or missionaries and folks who have trusted Christ? There's a contrast here. There's a discernment between the two. But if at one time they did accept the Lord, are they still believers? Yeah. So are we talking about eternal rewards in heaven? Those that... As Bob has said, the carnal Christian, we learn all about in 1 Corinthians 3, don't we? Wood, hay, and stubble is one way to state that. But he would be saved by a fire.

And you know, Mike always says this, but you know, basically how well we knew the Lord Jesus Christ will reflect our heavenly position with him one day. I'm not sure how scriptural that is, but I kind of like it. Those people who fell away were enemies of the cross are going to be with him, but their relationship in heaven may be a little bit more distant. I mean, I'm not going to die for that statement, but Mike often kind of...

I was reading Merriman on the judgment seat of Christ, and Merriman states that at least in the millennium, some of us believers will have more light than other believers. I'm not sure what he meant by that, but he definitely said that there will be differences in the way we live our lives as it affects the future.

We won't all be equal. We need to be very careful of that. It is God who works in us. Absolutely. And it is his works that will be rewarded, not ours. Right. That's good. I tried to put that earlier, but all our works are for the glory of God, really not to ourselves. Okay, let's keep moving here. We need to get done here.

Whose god is their belly? Boy, that speaks volumes. Belly is best translated as gullet by the Greeks, and that implies a part of the body that is given up to the pleasures of the palate, such as gluttony, but every other, you know, pleasure of the palate. Reese says, Paul acquainted with the Greek classics, writings of the Greeks, who knew their own literature speaks of these as having their belly as their god. He probably was thinking of Cyclops and Euripides, who says, my thoughts which I sacrifice to no one but myself, and not to the gods, but to my belly, your greatest of the gods. For to eat and drink each day, and to give oneself no trouble, this is the God of wise men.

Well, couldn't appetite be appetite for expensive things and other things that are higher up that you're striving for? It doesn't necessarily have to be food. We're not just talking about chocolate here. You're not just talking about chocolate, are you?

Yeah, right. Well, we can talk after class about what some of these things might be. All right, let's continue. That's convicting. I like chocolate. But you can have an appetite for great cars, great houses, great lots of things. Let's not get too legal here. By the way, the new Corvette I saw, it's like $220,000. I thought you had one from Church Drive. Let's return to Scripture, please.

Okay, in Romans 16, 18, it says, Those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple boy. That's really appropriate here, isn't it? And whose glory is no shame. So is this their addiction to lust that leads to shame? Or what are your thoughts there? Why, how, when does shame arise? What's the source? What's the source? Let's discuss what the source is. What's the source of shame?

Do you think a believer who's an enemy of the cross really is shamed here, now? No, no, no. But their glory is in what they are boasting about, which is really shameful. You're saying the outcome is what shames them. No, no, no, no, no. They take what is good and they make it evil and they take what is evil and they make what is good.

Don't we have that today? Well, how does that move into shame? Is it the shame from the believer's perspective? Is that right? Yes, right. But if we adopt that, if we have that thinking, that's the way we are. Again, back to shame. How is shame manifested here? How about today? Do we have examples of it today?

Well, give me one. Homosexuality? Well, that's a lifestyle, right? Right. Isn't that what we're talking about? Are people that are homosexual shamed? Not in their own eyes. Their shame here is a lifestyle that they're glorying in and they want you to believe what they believe. Okay. They believe it so strongly that they put down what is good. and substitute what is evil and say believe evil. Okay, but they determine what's glorious to themselves, but to us it's shameful, right? From God's perspective, it's shameful. Right.

All right, and so there is a verse that addresses this a little bit, Ephesians 5, 12 and 13. For it's shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. And that really makes us think very carefully. As the light gets brighter, the shame gets greater.

Does it not? In terms of human behavior. We set their mind on earthly things. In contrast to what whom we as believers should direct our minds towards. It's not to one. It's to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is Christianity anyway? We don't want to make that a law, though.

No, no. And I think that comes back to your comment earlier today, Roy, is that earthly things. I mean, we've all had earthly jobs. Many of us earthly jobs, working on a world system. But our life as believers is carried into every element we enter into.

I mean, Margaret, I like to dance. Is that wrong? I mean, the Baptist church would say it is. But we love to dance. I don't see anything wrong with that. My being a believer makes me enjoy dancing with Margaret. I think that's a gift. Aren't you? I think dancing is a gift because there's so many people that are not coordinated enough.

Don't take Gloria into dancing. That is also a shame. We'll talk afterwards. Bob, I think personally, dancing is hazardous to my health. I thought about worse than that exactly. Do you want to speak? Anyway, let's end with a couple of verses. It's good to end with scripture, isn't it?

2 Peter 2.18, for when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness and the ones who are escaping from those who live in error. So it's kind of an excuse to actually lead people astray.

And Romans 8.5 says, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, But those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. What I'm trying to point out here is there are many things in our day-to-day existence that are amoral. They're not right or wrong from God's perspective, but they're things that are part of the human existence. I use sports and dancing as just, you know, kind of a general example. I don't die for those things, but we enjoy them. But is that wrong? Again, we can be overly legal in applying these kinds of things to our own lives. You have to answer that yourself. Let the spirit lead. It's what your choices are and where you put your time.

Anyway, I think dancing or going to a baseball game is not being an enemy of Christ. I just don't see it. But no matter what we do, even the earthly things that we do, we do to the glory of God. You know, I taught my children, Clark I'm sure remembers this, it's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, and what you do is evidence of who you are. Let me repeat that. It's not what you do, it's who you are. And then what you do is evidence of who you are.

So, we have a new life in Christ Jesus. May that reflect God's glory. Jim? Paul speaks to that in Ephesians 4, 19 when he says, having become callous They have given themselves up to licentiousness, morally unrestrained, greedy to practice every kind of impurities. That's not who we are. That's who the world is. And jump back to verse 22. I said it earlier. Read it.

This is not how you learned of Christ, if indeed you heard about him. You've learned concerning your former way of life to put off your old man, which is being corrupted by his deceitful lust. We've already learned that. And it's already been put off, too, if you look at the event series. It's not going to be put off, it has been put off. It has been put off, and the new man has been put on.

And you are being renditioned in the spirit of Jesus. Day in and day out. Wayne, would you close us in prayer, please? Father, we just thank you so much for the truth in the Word, that we can apply it in our lives and know that you are in control of all things. Thank you for this class in Jesus' name. Amen.