Matthew 9:9-18

[0:00] You recall from last week that we were in Matthew chapter 9 and we did the first eight verses. One of the things that came out of last week was that the Jews had a process for investigating messianic claims.

[0:17] And the process involved that the first thing they would do if there was a contender for the role of Messiah is they would observe and say nothing.

[0:29] They wouldn't ask questions. They wouldn't interrogate. They would just watch to see whether this was a credible attempt at proclaiming oneself at Messiah.

[0:40] And most of the time, of course, it never got any further than that because after a few observations, they think this is just nothing. It's not worth worrying about. And they wouldn't waste their time investigating further a claim that was obviously off the mark.

[0:56] And they had very, very clear marks as to what Messiah would do when he came. And the end of chapter 8 left us in a position where they had clearly embarked on this first part of the investigative process.

[1:10] They'd watched him doing some things, including claiming to forgive sins. And we noticed that in those first eight verses, not only did he do a miraculous healing, which was one of the hallmarks of Messiah, but he forgave sins.

[1:28] And he firmly put himself in the place of God by claiming that he could forgive sins. Because the Jews said he's blaspheming. Only God can forgive sins. And his response was, and if you remember that Kalvihoma strategy that the Jews were familiar with, the light versus heavy, he said, well, which is the easiest thing for me to do? Which is more difficult?

[1:53] To say to this man, get up and walk, or to say your sins are forgiven. But so that you can know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, get up and walk. And he raised up this paralytic man, and he walked.

[2:08] And so he's put his stamp down in front of the authorities. He said, this is Messiah. I am Messiah. I am divinity in human form. I'm God on legs.

[2:20] And having stated that, of course, he would have then sparked the second part of this investigative process that the Jewish authorities went through, which was the interrogation phase, where they would start to ask questions of him and of his disciples, as to effectively, in theory anyway, simply probing to see whether he truly was Messiah.

[2:47] But of course, this Jewish hierarchy was corrupt. And so they weren't only interested in finding out whether he was Messiah, they were interested in trying to tear him down.

[3:01] So we're still in chapter 9, and we're going to go from verse 9 through, well, I'm hoping to get through to the end of verse 17, but if I don't make it, we'll just pick it up next week.

[3:17] Because there's so much meat in this short passage that I might well run out of time. Jesus has already created mayhem.

[3:30] He's demonstrated that he's God. And this puts all the religious leaders in a real quandary, because they know from what he's done that he is a real contender.

[3:43] And they have to investigate further, but you can investigate simply wanting to find the truth, or you can investigate looking for an excuse to tear down. And they were doing very much the latter.

[3:56] We see a lot of that in our politics today, unfortunately. So, let's begin to read from verse 9.

[4:09] As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax collector's booth, and he said to him, follow me. So he got up and followed him.

[4:20] Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and his people. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why is your teacher eating with tax collectors and sinners?

[4:37] But when Jesus heard this, he said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means.

[4:48] I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, I'm going to deal with that bit first. So Jesus is on his way.

[5:03] Immediately after all the chaos he's created in the previous eight verses, he's making his way and he sees, he goes past the tax collector's booth and he sees a man called Matthew.

[5:18] And he says, follow me. And Matthew does. No questions. He just locks up his tax booth and he goes. He doesn't pause. He doesn't seem to stop and think about it.

[5:29] He just does it. So the first question I had was, why would anybody do that? This guy goes walking past. Now, he's obviously, Matthew by this time would have heard of Jesus' reputation.

[5:39] But why would that immediately make him do what he did and go, yes, I'll come and follow you? There could be many reasons for this, but you must understand that Matthew's position, Matthew being a tax collector, he was a Jewish man working for the Roman government, taking money and not just taking what was due, but extorting extra money from his own countrymen.

[6:07] He had the status of a pig. I mean, he was not somebody that other Jews would have favoured. And it's a really curious thing to think that one of the first few people that Jesus called was a man whose society would have immediately spat upon.

[6:25] They would not have wanted anything to do with him because he was the traitor of traitors. He not only worked for the Roman government, but the way the tax collection system worked was, you would buy from the Roman government a franchise and you had to return a certain amount of tax to the Roman government.

[6:45] And that figure was fixed. But the tax collector was entitled to bump up the cost of whatever taxes he took in order to pay himself a wage. And there are other descriptions of these events in Luke's Gospel and Mark's Gospel.

[7:07] And in those, what we read is that Matthew then put on a feast. You'll find him in Mark chapter 2. I think it's Mark 2.

[7:21] And he heard the rustling of pages as everybody turned to Mark 2. Mark 2 verse 14.

[7:38] As he passed by, he saw Levi. Now, Levi was the other name for Matthew. It seems that Levi was his original name. In Hebrew, we pronounce Levi.

[7:49] We all, being so British, we say Levi. And he was... Levi may have been an indication that he was from the tribe of Levi.

[8:01] But it might not. It might just be the name that mummy favoured. But his name was changed to Matthew. And there's probably some indication that this is a similar thing to what happened to Jacob when his name was changed to Israel.

[8:19] That God gave him a new name. That Jesus might have renamed him. And we don't know that. But it's... But that word Matthew, Matatyahu, means gift from God.

[8:31] So, he had his name changed from Levi to gift from God. And considering his... The base that he started from, where he was effectively the same status as a pig, and he's now called gift from God, that is a massive transition, isn't it?

[8:49] And it's an indication of what God can do when he gets hold of the heart of a man and changes his heart and turns what is effectively a pig into a man of righteousness.

[9:04] Not to worry. So, as long as it's not God calling, because I hear he has our number. So, this man has made a mint.

[9:19] And the reason I say that, if we look at Luke's gospel, and I think it's Luke 5. Luke 5.27.

[9:38] And after that, he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth and said to him, follow me. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at table with them.

[9:57] Notice the writing of Matthew doesn't big up what Matthew did. It plays it down. It shows Matthew's humility.

[10:08] The other writers say, who not only followed Jesus, but he gave a massive feast at his house. Now, number one, he had a big house, and number two, he could afford to put on a feast for many, many people.

[10:19] So, he was at least relatively well off. And if he was a typical tax collector, he'd have been very well off. Now, this means that he, when he said he would follow Jesus and he shut up the tax booth and left, that job would then have been barred to him.

[10:39] He couldn't have come back to that job. So, he was walking away from an absolute mint of money. And, as long as you stayed in favour with the Roman government, something that would go on for the whole of your life, you'd be rolling in it, to use a common phrase.

[10:58] And he gave that up to follow Jesus. But, the first thing he did was he threw this banquet in his own house for Jesus and invited all the other pigs. You know, all the other tax gatherers, loads of sinners, piled them all in the room and they had a banquet.

[11:15] And, it's important for us to know because certainly before we were saved, by the grace of God that will have changed things, but up to that point we were also pigs.

[11:30] There was nothing in us that deserved to sit down with Jesus. But, Jesus was perfectly content to sit with these people who were the dregs of society upon which other members of society would probably spit.

[11:47] But, he raised Matthew up and made him a gift from God. And, he put him on a higher seat, if you like. And, he gave to him righteousness.

[11:59] And, one of the principles of the Gospel is that when you put yourself in the hands of Christ, he imparts or imputes righteousness to you. You don't deserve it, but he changes you and you become different.

[12:17] And, that difference is, in the Bible it's always written in the present continuous tense. it happens at a point in time but it continues to happen from that time onwards.

[12:28] And so, we are changed from glory into glory as we walk with him. And, when I first got saved I was just relieved to have got rid of a lot of things that ensnared me in life.

[12:41] I was a thief. If it wasn't screwed down and I wanted it I would have it. I had other I don't know whether they were addictions or preferences like pornography and stuff like that.

[12:55] He dealt with those. But, over the rest of my, I think it's about 40 years now I've been a Christian other things have been dealt with and so I find myself now I get really annoyed with myself for things that back then I wouldn't have even worried about.

[13:14] Like, if I speak unkindly to my wife it bothers me and I don't want to be that kind of man. Do you see what I mean? There's something in me that wants to be righteous even though I'm not managing to achieve it all the time.

[13:29] But his destiny for me is to be righteous. Now, what he's done with Matthew he's taken us taking him from the position of being aligned with the pigs and he's now a gift from God and the first thing he does is fill the house with more pigs more people who the society writes off.

[13:56] And so the religious Jews who are very very particular who they spend time with said why are you spending time eating with tax collectors and sinners?

[14:08] and his answer was really interesting. If I could just retranslate his answer let's go back to Matthew for a moment. Matthew 9 it's not the healthy who need a physician verse 12 but those who are sick.

[14:38] What he's really saying is I haven't come for you lot you all think you're righteous enough you don't think you need me this lot who you think of as on an equivalent level as pigs this lot know they need me and there's a certain thing that we have to come to to get saved it's not that we have to do things better or be better or be something we're not we have to come to the point where we realise we need him I can't do this without you Lord I can't change myself I can make little adjustments last week I did this this week I choose not to those sorts of adjustments but what I can't do is change my own character I am what I am born in sin what he has promised to do is to take me to the point and I've said this phrase a lot where this corruption puts on incorruption and this mortality puts on immortality at some point

[15:42] I will not be a sinner anymore but I'm granted that status as a non-sinner now even though I still sin God has imputed his righteousness to me when God looks upon me he sees that Jesus has paid for my sins they're done and dusted so although I still live and still sin I'm not blamed for that sin now and at some point that sin will be so much dealt with that it won't even enter my head to sin I will be fully righteous just as he is righteous and you can read that in 1st corinthians 13 he will change us so that we are no longer sinful so he says it's not the ones who are well that need a physician it's the ones who are sick this lot are sick and they know it that's why I'm with them so that I can heal them one day you might realise you're sick and then

[16:45] I'll come and spend time with you and then he says this and this is really curious but go and learn what this means I desire compassion and not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners so you need to find the book of Hosea which is where this quotation comes from chapter 6 now quite often when Jesus refers to a scripture he'll refer to a key verse but what he's directing people who hear that to is the whole passage so verse 6 says for I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings and he's saying that he are there other versions has somebody got an old

[17:59] King James or an ESV yeah what does it say 6 no sorry Hosea chapter 6 verse 6 oh chapter 6 verse 6 sorry for I desire mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings so my version says loyalty yours says compassion compassion steadfast love and steadfast love the overtone of this in the Greek is what I desire is for you to be merciful and compassionate to one another not to make sacrifices to me now this whole chapter and I'll let you read it in your own time or I'm going to run out of time but this whole chapter is aimed at Jews who were engaging in religious observance doing all the right sacrifices doing the mandatory fast once a year on the day of atonement which is a thing we'll come back to doing that mandatory fast attending all the feasts observing the sabbath day if you sin go and make a sin offering to the priest all of those things they're carrying out with meticulous care whilst having no heart towards

[19:23] God whatsoever so it was a so Jesus in Matthew is referring them back to a passage of scripture in Hosea that says and it's particularly critical of the priests and the priests are the ones who were examining him at this time particularly critical of the priests saying you lot you inter-religious observance you've got no real heart for God at all you've got no real compassion you've got no real love you've got no your study of the word of God is tainted because it's all aimed back at benefiting you it's not you're not interpreting it rightly and one of the things they did in their religious observance yet with no heart for God was they and we covered this in a previous chapter in Matthew they fasted on there was only one mandatory fast don't forget day of atonement the the only time that they would fast is if or should have fasted is if they particularly were crying out to God to get hold of something and they would increase their concentration in prayer by fasting so it wasn't supposed to be a showy thing it was supposed to be a personal thing where you go into your private house or in your prayer closet as the

[20:47] Bible calls it and you do something that is between you and God alone what they were doing was they were putting in place fasts that were not required by God and doing it really publicly you know because I fast on Mondays and Thursdays which was a typical Pharisee thing to do twice a week they would have a day of fasting but they make large of it they let everybody know what they were doing and what God was saying to them by referring them to Hosea chapter 6 was I don't want your sacrifices I want your heart that's what he was saying to them so he quite graciously in the circumstances he refers them to the book of Hosea and says go and learn go and read your Bible so one of Linda's favorite encouragement when you when you're struggling to make use of something she'll say go read your

[21:54] Bible bless her and the thing is she practices what she preaches which is even more encouraging so so he finishes up with this last phrase he says go back and read your Bible go and read Hosea 6 particularly verse 6 and he finishes that short passage with I did not come to call the righteous but sinners and he's saying to this lot you're the sinners when you go back and read Hosea 6 you'll realize that you're interreligious observance you have no heart for God I'm calling sinners are you going to get in the queue are you going to allow me to call you forward are you going to admit or confess to the fact that you're sinners that you've lost your heart for God well the other thing he does when he says that the only one who can call sinners is God so he is claiming to be

[23:04] God people say oh Jesus never claimed to be God he did loads of times not usually by saying hey folks I'm God what he did was he put himself in a place that only God would be and only God is in a place where he calls sinners he's the only one that has the authority to claim sinners so if he was lying then it's blasphemy because he's putting himself in the place of God or if it's true then he needs to be worshipped and thanked for his forgiveness so let's move on to the next bit I'm just going to now notice that what we're now getting into is the scribes and the

[24:04] Pharisees who are present and in a previous chapter we read that they've come from all over this isn't just the local religious man these are scribes and Pharisees from all over who've come to check him out and they've done the observation phase and now they're about to start the interrogation phase so verse 14 then the disciples of John came to him asking why do we and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast now in the other gospels it says that the disciples of John and the Pharisees asked him this so he's being bombarded with so the disciples of John this would be John the Baptist they had received a baptism in water a baptism of repentance but they'd not been for want of a better way of putting it baptized into Christ and so they were still carrying out their religious observances and so their question was probably and I say this because the scripture's not clear on it probably godly men who were still carrying out their religious observances with sincerity but most of them most of the religious observances are actually obsolete they have served no purpose anymore for those people who have been saved but then you've got the scribes and the

[25:30] Pharisees who were carrying it out because they're the instigators of it they've taught the local community this is what you should be doing so they've got to do it themselves and they feel that they've got to justify it themselves so these are the ones who are asking him questions why do we fast and your disciples don't fast now we get into something that I find fascinating and I'm hoping you may already know it in which case just bear with me but he then says this Jesus said to them the attendance of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them can they but the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast so what is this about the bridegroom Jesus is saying you can't expect this lot to fast because the bridegroom me

[26:31] Jesus is with them now there's an obvious straightforward analogy there that if you're approaching the wedding and the bridegroom is there you don't fast you feast you have fun you spend time enjoying the presence of the bridegroom and what Jesus is saying they've got the bridegroom with them so of course they're not going to fast and we kind of understand that on that level but let's look at a different level the Jewish marriage arrangement spoke of the coming Messiah and today we as the church look upon Jesus as the bride of Christ and as we unravel what happened in a Jewish wedding situation we will unravel where we are right now which is this in a Jewish wedding feast it started with the betrothal and so there would be the first coming of the groom now the groom in order to qualify as the groom had to pay the bride price and he would deliver a sum of money or gifts of some kind it might be animals it could be all sorts of things but the bride price was agreed beforehand this is what it's going to cost you to marry this woman and the bride price would be delivered to the father

[28:09] Jesus paid the bride price for us and the bride price was whatever it took to forgive all of us our sins and whatever kept us separate from the father so there's this parallel right Jesus paid the bride price and that allows us to be the bride he can marry us because he's paid then what would happen was they would have the betrothal ceremony and the betrothal ceremony was equivalent legally to marriage once you were betrothed you were expected to be faithful and you were expected to wait while the bridegroom went away and built a dwelling in the father's house for the bride in himself usually an extension on the house sometimes a dwelling within the house sometimes a separate dwelling in the same grounds as the house but the whole thing was he was going back so he'd done his first coming paid the bride price and then gone away and he went away for the purpose of preparing a place for them to inhabit when the marriage ceremony would take place usually about a year later it was an indeterminate time but it was usually about a year and when he came back they would go through the marriage ceremony which would involve the finalising of the wedding and it would involve the consummation of the marriage turn with me to John 14

[29:54] John 14 he's just finished speaking to Peter who says I'll fight to the death for you and he said no you won't you're going to deny me three times and then verse one of chapter 14 don't let your heart be troubled believe in God believe also in me in my father's house are many dwelling places right these are dwelling places for the bride in the father's house just as we've just talked about in my father's house are many dwelling places if it were not so I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you this is why he's the bridegroom he's come for the first time he pays the bride price at his crucifixion he then is raised and goes to the father's house and prepares a place for us his bride if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself for where I am there you may be also if you make yourself part of the bride of

[31:30] Christ simply by confessing Christ as your saviour and lord and you trust him as the bridegroom your destiny is to go and live in the dwelling place he's prepared for you in the father's house that's remarkable that's absolutely remarkable so by putting himself up as the bridegroom he is telling every Jew in the place and Matthew's gospel is written to Jews don't forget I'm the bridegroom what's going to happen in their minds when he says that the bridegroom so this is your first coming or second coming well it must be your first coming because we've never seen you before and what he's saying is I'm going to pay the bride price I'm going to go and prepare a dwelling place in the father's house for all believers and I'm going to come again now where are we in this great scheme of things where we are in that gap between the first and the second coming of the bridegroom doesn't that doesn't it do something in here but let's read on in Matthew let's go back to

[33:01] Matthew's gospel chapter 9 how am I doing for time oh loads of time I'm not used to having all this time he then goes on to say even more confusing stuff he says but no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear results and he says nor do people put new wine into old wine skins otherwise the wine skins burst and the wine pours out and the wine skin is ruined or the wine skins are ruined but they put new wine into fresh wine skins and both are preserved so what are we to make of this and whatever we make of it what on earth has it got to do with fasting because the question he's answering is why they're not fasting well the fasting of the

[34:20] Jews was a religious observance regardless of where their heart was with God it was something mechanical the majority of fasts that were conducted were not sincere they were done as a religious ritual that I would submit to you is the old garment or the old wine skin it's kind of crusty it doesn't work there's nothing fruitful in it it doesn't give you life it doesn't build you up it is just a ritual we go through I am sad to say that before I was saved and since I've been into many churches where what they go through is a ritual that doesn't bring life that doesn't cause you to go any further with God because it doesn't cause you to understand the heart of God and understand what it is he's trying to deliver to you because once you understand that you won't want anything else it's one of the reasons why fellowship is so important because we can build one another up into this if we're in fellowship one of the reasons

[35:26] I was so delighted about yesterday is it it had nothing to do with prayer and worship but it built us together and it allows us God has invested something in every one of you every single one of you that I can't get to if I don't get to know you and the fellowship that he wants us to have is to build one another up in Christ it's it's yes we can seek God on our own we can do that but we won't get anywhere near as far anywhere near as fast as when we do it together and when you don't come to church whoever you are apart from robbing yourself of the opportunity to be built up by fellowship you rob me of the opportunity of getting to know you so your absence is detrimental to my growth it's an important thing to understand that church is not just somewhere we go on Sundays it's actually vital for our spiritual life and so he says you wouldn't put a patch of fresh cloth on an old garment because the old garment has already shrunk as much as it's going to shrink and you put the new patch on sorry let me get the analogy right no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment so when the first time you wash that garment the patch is going to shrink and it's going to tear away from the original garment that's got no give left in it the religious life of the

[37:07] Jew had no give left in it you do this you fast on Mondays and Thursdays you attend all the feasts you pay your tithes and you do I'm not going to go through a great list but you've got all sorts of religious demands on you that come from mankind desperately trying to please God whereas the new garment and the new wineskin comes from God trying to draw man to him and those two are diametrically opposed you try and put a patch on the old garment it just leads to frustration and what happens is your old religious ways get destroyed because of the new patch but you never enter into the newness of what you could have if you put on the new robes of righteousness or if you have a wineskin that is old and crusty and you put new wine in it it will carry on fermenting and it will burst the old wineskin and so you finish up with no wineskin and no wine now the old jewish religious observance ways were the old wineskin and if you put the new wine of the spirit into the old wineskin it doesn't work you finish up with neither and what he was saying to these

[38:40] Jews was you can't take your fasting rituals and impose them on the new covenant the new covenant that is described it was promised in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31 where he would be writing his laws on our hearts therefore we become the wineskin and we get filled with the new wine but those who were sticking in the old way remaining crusty old wineskins can't take that in without it bursting them so healthy spiritual life comes first from putting yourself in God's hands to become the new wineskin and once he has said yes which scripture implies he always does to those who say Lord I want in Lord I want to trust you I want to put my faith in you for my eternal security to all those who do that he says yes he won't cast anyone aside he won't cast anybody out who sincerely says I want in to the kingdom of God until you do that you're bound to be an old crusty wineskin and you really struggle to make sense of it all you've got all this new wine coming out and you think I've never tasted anything like this before and it there's a conflict it and the day you say and I just remember the day that I that I finally gave in to

[40:18] God and said I'm all yours so many things just became clear you know my heart was unlocked and it wasn't because of anything I did other than say yes you know I didn't generate that of my own strength in fact I came to it because of my own lack of strength and there was nowhere else to go and so once you have done that you are a new wineskin or another way to describe it to stick with the analogy in Matthew you have put on the new robes of righteousness I finish with this because I think that point's been aptly made what does one have to do then after you've put yourself in God's hands and you accept the fact that despite everything you've ever been or done you couldn't do this for yourself and

[41:23] God has done it for you you are now wearing new robes of righteousness or you are the new wineskin if we look at Ephesians chapter 4 now there are several verses and you may have noticed I've not followed my notes at all although I kind of have but mostly accidentally Ephesians chapter 4 and we're going to start reading at verse 17 this is the apostle Paul's instructions to believers this is not to the unsaved this is to people who are believers they are Christians God has already done a work with them but the Ephesians church was a right den of iniquity in many many ways they'd done an awful lot of things to throw off the old pagan religions they had book burning in the streets of all the old pagan books and they melted down all the idols and used the metal for something else so there was a major turning in

[42:36] Ephesus away from pagan stuff but they've got bad habits to get rid of just like we all have and so in that environment the apostle Paul says this so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind you've got to think differently don't walk in the futility of your mind most of us had minds that were trained by the world to think in particular ways and we got saved and we thought why did I ever think that well the thing is to keep the pressure up and to keep thinking in a godly way it carries on don't walk like the Gentiles do in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness so he's described my life before I got saved certainly and some of the battles I had after I got saved and I guess you'd have to say still do because that's an ongoing thing it will change permanently when I meet him and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness but you did not learn Christ in this way if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as the truth is in

[44:17] Jesus that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self chuck away the old wineskin get rid of the old garment don't try and patch it with the new stuff but there's an act of will here and it's not that by exercising that will you achieve salvation it's by exercising that will you walk better in your salvation salvation is granted when you put on the new robes when you become the new wineskin but there's an act of will involved to do things differently there's a I heard a talk from a preacher who was in another country and he was he'd been fellowshipping with a church leader who always used to apart from I mean he was dreadfully you could say he was old school in that he used to he was a married man with children but he used to regularly go with the prostitute and he got saved and he was undoubtedly born again but he carried on going with the prostitute and this preacher said to him how can you do that at what point do you change that habit it didn't mean he wasn't saved because he went with the prostitute it just means that he'd chosen to carry on in his old sin we've got to choose not to carry on in our old sin wherever we can sometimes we're not even aware of our old sin until God bubbles it to the surface but stuff that's obvious stuff that I mean if I went out and stole things now there would be no excuse for me I would deserve a lightning bolt from heaven because I know better now and he says here you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self it's a bit like donning those robes of righteousness or putting on a fresh jacket of something do you see what I mean there needs to be an act of will I'm going to put on the new self now please don't confuse this with salvation by works it's not that it is given to us and the encouragement to put on the new self is given to us so that we will enjoy the salvation we've got all the more and you will find that if you spend time in fellowship if you are in sin and they're not it will scream at you all the time because even if they say nothing to you and they don't even know what your besetting sin is you will see examples around you of the opposite all the time and it will draw you away from your old sins which is much harder if you're on your own put on the new self you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth the new self has been created in the image of God the new self wants to be righteous

[47:47] I have to say before I was saved I really wasn't bothered about being righteous it didn't cross my mind that I could be I didn't know of a state of righteousness that was there for me to latch on to and then I got saved and suddenly I'm plagued with the fact that I want to do things that are not righteous I didn't used to even think that they were unrighteous but if I put on the new self I become driven to be righteous which makes you a better dad which makes you a better husband which makes you a better friend I've said enough father the scriptures are wonderful and they give us so much personal application thank you that we've been able to learn from what Matthew has written thank you for that man who so carefully picked what he would report on to drive us to greater heights in our faith Lord teach us how to put on the new self and Lord let us not be afraid in a loving way to encourage one another to put on the new self father I'm really exercised at the moment of how much damage the church has done in the past by being brutal in the way they've tried to administer your gospel

[49:08] Lord let us let us be kind and gentle and loving to one another in the way we correct each other and let us have a heart to restore one another to the great heights to which you have called us and to the strength of friendships which you have called us in Jesus name Amen Amen