Don't Grieve the Holy Spirit November 17, 2013 Ephesians 4:30-32 Matt Rawlings

Transcription

1 1 Don't Grieve the Holy Spirit November 17, 2013 Ephesians 4:30-32 Matt Rawlings "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:30-32 Imagine that instead of being born into the family that you were, in modern times, you were born into a family of wicked people sometime in the dark ages. You had been born into a long line of thieves and murderers, liars, swindlers and deceivers. You had descended from people who only did what was wrong and they were habitual sinners in fact, they taught generation after generation how to sin and practice evil. And your wicked family was not only evil but they were impoverished and they raised you to get whatever you could by whatever means and you were a wanted villain. And all around the kingdom in which you lived, there were posters out for your arrest. But then, imagine that someone came and told you that you didn t need to live like this because you in fact really had been stolen from your rightful family and you were a son of the King of all. All you needed to do to be free from the threat of being thrown in the dungeon to rot was to go and confess to the king and ask to be received as his child and the king would have compassion on you, because he is a good and kind king. So you do and not only does the King forgive you, but he makes you his child and cleans you up and puts new clothes on you. Then he comes to you and says now now that you have a new life, now that you know who you were really meant to be, now that you don t have to live like a thief any longer, now that there are no warrants out for your arrest, here is how you are to live as a child of the king. Here is the thing this really is our story. You see, this is what Paul has been telling us all through Ephesians so far. We really were born into sin and we really were wicked and we belonged to wicked mankind. But the King came and made us His own and forgave us and rescued us and gave us a new name, a new identity. And the King says, now that you have been made new and forgiven, now that you have been cleaned up by the king and given righteous clothes, now that you have a new life and know who you were meant to be, here is how you are to live as a child of the king. And in these verses, Paul is continuing to explain what it looks like to live as this new person, with this new identity, with this new calling and in these verses he explains that We can either grieve the Holy Spirit or be like God in how we treat each other. That s the main idea of the verses that we are meant to get. Main Idea: We can either grieve the Holy Spirit or be like God in how we treat each other. And the first thing Paul explains, like a knight of the king explaining the impact of our behavior on the king, he says And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,. At the very beginning of this verse, he is telling his readers something surprising he tells them that it is possible for them to grieve the Holy Spirit of God through how they treat each other. Paul begins this new sentence in the larger section about what it looks like to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling, where he has been spelling out what it means to put off the old nature and put on the new nature that has been created after the likeness of God. Paul is entreating his readers to not bring sorrow, distress, grief to the Holy Spirit of God. 1

2 1. We can grieve the Holy Spirit through how we treat one another 2 The Holy Spirit is the One who makes believers alive and enables them to respond to God and be saved. In Ephesians Paul has told us that, The Holy Spirit is the one who builds us together into a dwelling place for God. The Holy Spirit is the One who gives gifts to the body to equip and enable the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the One who grants us unity in the Body. The Holy Spirit is the One who indwells believers and strengthens us with His power to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. The Holy Spirit lives inside of and is at work in each and every person who has placed their faith in Christ Jesus. He will one day raise us up from the dead and cause us to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And now, Paul says something dramatic. He says do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. It is possible for us, to conduct ourselves in such a way that we bring grief to the Holy Spirit of God the very Holy Spirit of the Most High God. And in the context of this chapter in Ephesians and these verses, Paul is saying that the way that we grieve the Holy Spirit is when we have attitudes and behave and speak in a way that causes the disunity of the body and tears down what the Holy Spirit is building. Harmful speech destroys relationships in the body of Christ and grieve the Holy Spirit. Anything that does harm to the unity or the purity of the church is against the very nature of the Holy Spirit and grieves Him. Have you ever been grieved by the words someone else has spoken to you? Imagine if you lived with that person and they continually grieved you with their words to you or about you it would be more than difficult it would be miserable. And the Holy Spirit lives inside of us He dwells with us constantly and it is possible for us to speak in a way that causes Him grief. The Holy Spirit delights when Christ is displayed and the church is built up by our lives but He is grieved when we engage in unwholesome corrupt speech and attitudes and actions towards others. In the verses earlier in this same paragraph, we see that the kinds of things that grieve the Holy Spirit include falsehood, being angry with each other, stealing from one another, letting corrupting talk come out of your mouths talk that tears down instead of building up. And in these verses, Paul says that bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor (yelling at each other), slander and malice all are things that grieve the Holy Spirit. Let that sink in for a moment. if we are engaged in any of these kinds of attitudes and actions and speaking, we not only are sinning, we grieve the Holy Spirit of God the One who has saved us. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is the One, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. He has stamped His own character and marked us as His own people. He has given us the Spirit as a guarantee that He will make us His own finally on the day of redemption. The day of redemption is the final day of either salvation for those in Christ or judgment for those who do not believe. It is the day when our bodies will be completely redeemed. It is the day when we will be completely free from sinning and free from failing and free from imperfections. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as a promise that God will enable us to endure faithful to the end and that God will bring us safely to the day of redemption. And this reminder that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God is to be an incentive to holy living and speaking. So, then Paul says, these are some of the grievous things that we must put away and in verse 32 he says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. What is the point we are meant to get? 2

3 2. We must put away sinful attitudes, actions and speech that grieve the Holy Spirit 3 Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor (which is shouting at each other), and slander all have to do with the old man. And we are told to put off or in this verse put away from us these things that belong to the old man. We are not only to take them off, like we take off clothes, we are to put them out of our sight put them far away from us, remove them from our lives. Paul s list seems to build on itself, starting with an inner, resentful attitude of bitterness, then moving on to wrath or indignant outbursts, to a burning rage to shouting at each other and then slandering each other. And Paul uses the word all in this sentence twice he is saying that we are to remove all - every form of anger and in addition, all malice, which is the intention or desire to do evil to someone else and it includes any ill will, spitefulness or animosity towards someone. Even though in prior verses, there is some allowance for a godly, righteous anger, it is rare. Righteous anger is a result of accurately perceiving true evil as a violation to God s moral law. It focuses on God and His will, not me and my will. Righteous anger is always self-controlled, it is never vengeful, never loses its temper. If we are more focused on the negative impact of someone else s actions on us, than we are that what they have done clearly is against God s laws, we are likely engaging in sinful anger. And in these verses, Paul clarifies things there is absolutely no room for human wrath human anger and all of the sins that are associated with it. We can see a very good illustration of bitterness and anger and wrath and probably even shouting in the self-righteous older brother, from the parable of the two brothers what is often referred to as the prodigal son story. The older brother had become bitter because he felt like he was owed something he didn t get. He felt like he was treated unfairly. He felt like he didn t get what he deserved, even though he had everything he needed all along. His bitterness colored his perception of reality and he didn t see what he had. His bitterness and anger ruined his enjoyment. His bitterness and anger ruined his relationships. So what is bitterness? It is anger and disappointment at being treated unfairly; it is resentment and antagonism or hostility towards someone else. It includes cynicism or a sharp, cutting attitude towards someone else. Bitterness is when you feel anger or resentment to someone else often for who they are or what they ve done. For a while a few years ago, there was a string of postal workers who were so bitter towards their bosses and co-workers because the management and work environment was so bad and at times seemed unfair, that they returned after being fired and either harmed or killed them. Bitterness is sometimes dramatic and drastic and leads to lawsuits or death threats but at other times it is silent and taints all of our thoughts about someone or even an organization. Bitterness can be like a filter on our thinking that conditions all of our thoughts about someone else, or a group of people or a church body so that we evaluate the person or church unfairly and we become blinded by our bitterness. It seeps into how we evaluate someone. It poisons our thinking and we become judgmental and not only can we assess ourselves favorably when we are bitter, we can grow to blame others for our problems or lack of progress or our failure to get what we want. But lest you think you are immune to this, remember that Paul is writing to Christians in a church and region of churches that he likely helped to start. This is not an uncommon problem to the church this is a common temptation to any church and any church member. It will tear down the church and cause untold devastation and destruction to a church body if let to linger. 3

4 4 So we need to ask ourselves, where are we possibly bitter? There are so many areas where we can be tempted to become bitter. When a teacher has a class favorite and treats them nicer than they treat us, bitterness can creep in and we can resent not only the teacher but the classmate as well. In a marriage, we can hold onto perceived wrongs or offences or even just small areas of weakness or inattention and become bitter and resentful. We can start to become bitter because they always do this or they never do that You always leave your underwear on the floor and you never pick up after yourself! Or even more subtly at times is a bitterness that creeps into marriage when one spouse is constantly disappointed with something the other spouse does or doesn t do. Maybe the husband never seems to be able to get a good job or hold down a job and the wife is bitter, resentful and angry because of the feelings of financial stress or the challenges it makes for them. Maybe you thought you would be recognized for something and someone else was instead of you and you become bitter. Maybe someone got a job or a position or promotion and you didn t and you are bitter. Maybe someone doesn t seem to recognize the talent or gifting that you have or they don t recognize it the way that you want and you are bitter. Maybe someone else is able to have babies and you can t, and you ve become bitter against God and even those other people who have babies and you get angry when they talk about their kids. Maybe someone didn t love you the way you loved them and you re bitter against them now. Perhaps you ve been offended by someone maybe they did or said something you didn t like or maybe they didn t talk to you or respond the way you thought they should and now you are bitter. Bitterness can be found towards a teacher, boss, co-worker. Bitterness towards someone else getting something you thought you deserved. Bitterness towards someone who offended you and you nurse that offense until it eats you up inside and it is all you think about when you think of that person. Bitterness towards a church, a pastor, or another leader in your life because of their sin or maybe just because of their failings or weaknesses. You can have bitterness towards a sibling, bitterness towards a parent, or bitterness towards a child who doesn t return your affections or who always seems to be messing up or falling short of your expectations. We can have bitterness because we don t feel like we were treated fairly - or bitterness because we feel like we were evaluated or treated unfairly. Bitterness can creep in because of offense or jealousy or a sense of injustice towards ourselves. It is the harboring of unforgiveness and it is often subtle. You can say or even think to yourself that you have forgiven a person you just don t ever want that to happen or you just don t ever want to do that again or there is no way you will ever allow this or that thing to happen. Bitterness judges the motives of others. Bitterness re-writes history. Bitterness leaves a bad taste in your mouth, bad thoughts in your mind and bad feelings in your heart. It leads to depression, anger, wrath, slander and all kinds of evil. It is a destructive, evil root that tears up what is laid down. Have you ever walked down an old city sidewalk and seen the concrete broken up or pushed up by the roots of a tree? Or maybe seen the foundation of a house cracked where a tree root had grown underneath? Bitterness is like the roots of a powerful oak tree that slowly tear up a sidewalk or a foundation. You may not see it but if it is left to grow and not severed, it will bring destruction and by the time you recognize it, often, the damage is done. Bitterness destroys marriages, families, businesses and churches. It is a slow but sure and strong destroyer. It is an instrument of the devil and it is evil. Did you hear that I said bitterness is evil. It is evil because it says something wrong about God and His Sovereignty and His providence and His goodness bitterness says that we know best. 4

5 5 Bitterness says that we didn t get what we deserved or that God isn t really sovereign. Bitterness sometimes says that God doesn t want what is best for us or He doesn t know what is best for us or He can t really do what is best. Bitterness often flows from a lack of trust in God. Bitterness often comes from evaluating other people as obstacles to overcome or as barriers to us getting what we want, instead of people who have been divinely placed there by God for our good and for us to minister God s grace to. Bitterness is judgmental, it is accusatory, it is angry, it displeases God and it grieves His Holy Spirit. Paul uses some other words for different aspects of anger as well. He says we are to put away all wrath or rage and anger. Any form of indignant outburst and any festering or seething anger. Those strong feelings of antagonism or dislike for another person. We are also to put away all shouting at each other in a quarrel. The word clamor speaks of a loud, lack of restraint in our speech. I used to say that I grew up in a loud family and I would justify raising my voice passionately loud in an argument as ok it s just the way I was raised. I have some German background so I would just say that is the German side of me. We are passionate and get loud when we argue! Nein! I ve heard other people say, I m just Italian, that s the way I am or I m Irish, or I m Scottish, or I m Russian or Spanish, or whatever, so I m just loud. No, we are human and we all sin, so we can yell at each other when we argue and that is sinful and we are to put it away from us, even if it is a deeply entrenched sin in our culture or upbringing, we are called by God through His Word to put it away from us. We can also use the excuse that our anger or bitterness or resentment or wrath or shouting or negative words about someone else are justified, because they did or said something that made us angry. But the Biblical truth is that no one else can make us angry. No one else can cause us to be angry. The cause of our anger lies within us and is normally because we are proud or selfish or want control or want something else that we didn t get or because someone else makes us look bad. When we don t get our own way in our marriage or friendships or family or work or in the church, we can respond with sinful anger. Some internalize their anger and claim they are not angry but their anger is seen in sarcastic comments about another person or belittling. Others seethe with resentment inside and it isn t seen but it eats the person up and dominates their thinking and they are always ready to go off at the slightest offense. Others externalize their anger and lash out with harsh words or leave angrily. The word that the ESV translates as slander is broader than that. The word means any kind of speaking out against others to defame them or any type of vilifying someone else by lies or just gossip. This sin is often masked, especially in our southern church culture, and it is called speaking out of concern for someone else. "I m really concerned that Sally isn t doing well" and that is sinful speech because it alters someone else s perception of someone else negatively. We can fall into slander this when we cast aspersions on someone else s character or behavior with our words and this kind of talk tears others down instead of building them up. But, let s be clear here, God is saying through Paul that any form of bitterness, wrath, anger, shouting at someone else and slandering or speaking ill of someone else, as well as being malicious in our thoughts or words or actions these are all things that belong to the old man and we are called to put them away from us. Don t give yourself a hall pass. These things aren t minor, although they are common. But these things don t belong to the new person we have been made to be. These things are not to be taken lightly and 5

6 we can t just act as if it is ok to be bitter. It's not ok to resent someone else and be angry with them in our hearts or words or deeds. It s not ok to shout at other people whether that be our spouse, our kids, our friends, our co-workers, our classmates or our boss. It isn t ok to harbor malice and desire bad things to happen to others. It s not ok to be mean. All of these things are serious and all of these things grieve the Holy Spirit of God. 6 So, how do we put them away? First, we must recognize our sins and then acknowledge that we are angry or bitter or that we yell or that we are resentful or malicious in our hearts. Then, we must confess our sins and receive God s forgiveness and cleansing. Then if we are wise, we will begin to identify the root by asking ourselves what we were wanting that we didn t get. Maybe ask yourself who s glory were you really wanting. Ask yourself if you believe that this person or situation is really under the sovereign hand of God. Ask yourself if you are really trusting and believing that God in His infinite wisdom and love and goodness is using this to conform you more into the likeness of Christ. And then, pray that God would reveal what was motivating your bitterness or anger and pray that He would enable you through His Holy Spirit to put these sins away from you as you seek to replace unbiblical desires with godly desires for His glory. Then, Paul tells us how to replace the sinful attitudes actions and words with putting on kindness, being tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Paul uses the familiar pattern in these verses of putting off and then putting on, followed by the motivation for both. In verse 32 he says, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you". These things belong to the new self that we are to put on. And these are the things that we must put on if we are to do what Paul earlier said in verse 24. and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness Ephesians 4:24 3. We must put on kindness and forgiveness like God has forgiven us You can flip the verse around to see this a little more clearly - as God in Christ forgave you like God has forgiven us, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. God s kindness was seen to Adam and Eve as God provided clothes to cover their nakedness and didn t kill them but provided for them.. God s kindness was seen throughout Israel s history as He was patient with them whenever they sinned "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7 The place where we ultimately see God s kindness is in sending His Son to come and die for sinful mankind, in the place of sinful man, to take the wrath and punishment that we all deserve, so that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ and repents of their sins can be reconciled to God and forgiven completely. God s kindness leads us to repentance. And God is always kind to His children, even when we don t understand the circumstances we face or the challenges we go through, His disposition towards His children is always kind. We have experienced kindness from God and that is the basis for the command for us to be kind to one another. We aren t to treat each other as we deserve, we are to be merciful, patient and kind. 6

7 7 Kindness doesn t come naturally though because we are selfish by nature. But kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and for all those who have placed their trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit can and will enable us to be kind and produce the fruit of kindness. Kindness isn t an option for those who it comes easier to no, it is a command to be kind to one another. Kindness is seen in our attitude, in our disposition towards others, in the way we think of others in our hearts. And it is carried out in our actions and our words. So, relying on God s grace and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, we are to actively look for ways to be kind to one another not to impress each other but out of worship to God for how He has been kind to us. The only way we can be kind like this though, without it being totally fake is if we are aware of how God has been kind to us and then we see our kindness as an extension of showing God s kindness to others, so that they too may be changed and encouraged by God through us. Not only are we called to be kind though, Paul gets to the core of who we are and how we think about other people. No longer are we to be bitter we are to be tenderhearted or compassionate. When Jesus looked on the crows and saw how they didn t understand, He was filled with compassion towards them because they were like lost sheep with no shepherd. We are to look at one another with tenderness, with compassion in our hearts. Sure people will sin against us and offend us but they don t need our anger they need our compassion. How did God change us? Did He change us with threats and meanness, with punishment and terror? No, God changes us with His mercy, with His compassion, He melts our hearts with His great, unearned love. And God invites us to show His compassion to others. But like we can t be kind on our own, we can t be tenderhearted on our own. We need to see that God was compassionate to us when we didn t deserve it, when we were like the dumb crowds who didn t understand. We were all once like sheep that had gone astray and we couldn t find our own way, we didn t know where to eat the bread of life and we couldn t find the river of life to drink from it on our own. But Jesus had compassion on us and has become our Great Shepherd. He leads us beside still waters. He has given us the bread of life to eat in offering His own self to us. He has caused us to be filled with living waters when we were dead from thirst. So, Jesus calls us to forgive one another instead of holding grudges. He calls us to forgive instead of being bitter or resentful. He calls us to forgive others even when they have offended us or hurt us or sinned against us. We are called to extend undeserved kindness and compassion and forgiveness to one another in these verses and Paul makes sure we are rightly motivated for doing this too. We aren t kind and compassionate or forgiving to earn any favor before God or to accumulate divine brownie points or to earn our own forgiveness. No, the ultimate motivation for not treating others as they deserve and instead being kind and tenderhearted and forgiving is that God in Christ has forgiven us! Paul says do these things be kind and tenderhearted and forgive, "One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." And Jesus answering said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "Say it, Teacher." "A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the 7

8 8 debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." Luke 7:36-47 Those who have been forgiven much are able to love and forgive much. The scripture says we are to forgive, as God in Christ forgave you. This is the reason for the putting off and putting on. It is the motivation and the basis for our kindness and being tender-hearted and forgiving. God has been kind to us. He has been tenderhearted to us when we were hard hearted to Him. And from this stems our hope to actually obey. And we can t lose sight of just two extremely important words in this short passage. Paul says we are to put on kindness and forgiveness as God or like God, IN CHRIST forgave you. And I want to end focusing on these two words In Christ 4. We can treat each other like God treats us, because we are in Christ We are not who we once were. We are now a new creation IN CHRIST. You are now a rightful child of the King because you are In Christ. God, the King of all now sees you as In Christ. You belong to Christ, you are one with Christ. You are a new creation. You now have the righteousness of Christ. And God, because we are in Christ, has forgiven us. And what does it mean to be in Christ to be found in Him not having a righteousness that is our own? It means that our very identity has been changed and we can now treat each other as God treats us we can now obey these commands to put off and put on precisely because we are in Christ, forgiven. It means that He has not treated us as our sins deserve, even though we were completely guilty. God didn t make us earn forgiveness, He forgave us and we didn t merit any forgiveness. God didn t begrudgingly or half-heartedly forgive us He freely and completely forgives all those who repent and come to Him for forgiveness. God doesn t forgive and keep bringing things up either it says that the Lord forgives our sins and chooses to forget them when He deals with us He removes our sins from us and He consciously does not remember our sins when He relates to us. God then forgives us so completely that He treats us as if we have never sinned. He treats us with His favor and grace and lavished His love on us, as if we had earned His love, and He credits all of His own Son s righteousness to us. This is not only how we are to forgive. When we are called to forgive, it is the motivation for forgiveness as well. Because God has forgiven us, how can we hold a grudge or be bitter or angry against someone else. We deserved every bit of wrath that God could give us for all eternity, because we were born into sin and then we have sinned against God in our thoughts and words and deeds. There is no sin anyone can ever commit against us or any offense anyone can ever carry out that is greater than the sin and offenses we have committed against God. And yet, God in Christ forgave you. This is the freedom to acknowledge that we are sinners because our sins are forgiven. This is how we apply the gospel we can say yes, I am a bitter person, yes I am an angry person, yes, I am guilty of wrath and yelling and speaking badly about other people and I am not afraid to admit it and confess these things, because I am no longer guilty 8

9 You see, if we believe that God counts our sins against us still, we will feel like we need to protect ourselves and not acknowledge our guilt or at least minimize it. But if we understand that our sin is forgiven, we can acknowledge our sin with no fear of judgment because our sins have already been judged. 9 We can also apply the gospel to plow up our hard hearts and put on tenderheartedness towards others by acknowledging that we are sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness and that we still make mistakes and sin. And as we remind ourselves of this gospel truth daily, it will drive a dagger into our heart of self-righteousness and enable us to put away bitterness and anger. We need to affirm every day what John Newton once said, I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior! We need to remind ourselves of the forgiveness of our own sins because as many have said, the only sin that can be successfully be fought against is forgiven sin. But we can fight against sin because it has no power over us anymore and we cannot be punished for our sin anymore. So now, we can be assured that God is for us and not against us. And we can also be sure that God is with us because He has given us His Holy Spirit to enable us to put off the old man and be made into the image of Christ day by day. God is our heavenly Father now, who is for us and this gratitude produces the right desire to walk in a manner that is pleasing to Him. I like the way that Jerry Bridges in his book, Respectable Sins put it when he said, This twofold effect of encouragement and gratitude together produce in us a desire to deal with our sin. Make no mistake: Dealing with our sin is not an option. We are commanded to put sin to death. It is our duty to do so. But duty without desire soon produces drudgery. And it is the truth of the gospel, reaffirmed in our hearts daily, that puts desire into our duty. It is the gospel that stoked the fire of our motivation to deal with our respectable and subtle sins. It is the gospel that motivates us to seek to be in our daily experience what we are in our standing before God. Jerry Bridges So, let us daily acknowledge those sins where He has brought conviction and acknowledge that we haven t even come close to loving Him with all our heat mind and soul or our neighbor as ourselves, but He has forgiven us in Christ. And then let us remember our hope in God He has given us all that we need for life and godliness. He has blessed us in Christ, our solid Rock with every spiritual blessing. Let us daily hope in Christ the Solid Rock. As Edward Mote once wrote in his hymn The Solid Rock, My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness Sovereign Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Web site. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 9