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[0:00] Now, Phil Copeland is going to be preaching to us this evening. We're continuing our series on what it really means to worship God and to be a part of that crew, the crew of the lifeboat here.

[0:13] Not on the couch, but part of the crew serving the Lord Jesus among us here. Phil's preaching this evening, and we're going to read in two places in the New Testament. First of all, in Ephesians chapter 4, and then in Colossians chapter 3.

[0:27] I think we're mainly going to be in Colossians, but we're going to read Ephesians 4 at verse 17, just verse 17 to 24, that little paragraph. And if you put your finger in Colossians chapter 3, we will then flick over and we'll be reading there straight afterwards.

[0:45] So beginning then, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. Now, says the Apostle Paul, This I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

[1:05] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to their hardness of heart. They become callous, giving themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

[1:26] But that's not the way you learned of Christ. Assuming that you have heard him and were taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.

[1:37] To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

[1:48] And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Now turn over to Colossians chapter 3, where you'll see that Paul is speaking in very similar terms.

[2:03] We're going to read verses 1 to 17, that first section of chapter 3. Again, he's on the subject of putting off the old and putting on the new.

[2:15] If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

[2:29] For you have died. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

[2:44] Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

[2:56] On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And in these you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away.

[3:07] Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you've put off the old self with its practices.

[3:19] And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there's not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free.

[3:32] But Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.

[3:49] Bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.

[4:01] And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body.

[4:17] And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

[4:31] Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

[4:45] Amen. And may God bless to us. This is his word. Well, please do have your Bibles open to the passage that we read in Colossians 3.

[5:01] And I promise we'll get to it eventually. Well, over the past few weeks, we've been looking at what it means to worship at the Tron.

[5:21] And tonight, the key aspect of worship, which we're going to be focusing on, is obedience to Jesus Christ. That is that we, as a church and as individuals, are called to live under Jesus' rule.

[5:35] And we're called to be a people who are always seeking to grow more and more in holiness and in Christ's likeness. Not in our own strength, but always looking to the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us for the help that we need.

[5:51] To transform us. To change us. And that is also really the entire goal of all of the obedience ministries that happen in the Tron Church. We want to see disciples of all generations, young and old, growing in obedience to our Savior and King.

[6:07] Growing in holiness and being transformed more and more into his likeness. Going deeper in the word and going deeper in prayer together. Again, in the power of his Spirit.

[6:20] And with the rest of our time this evening, I really want to unpack that in three points. And it is my prayer that later on tonight, as you head home from Kelvin Grove or as you switch off the live stream back at home if you're watching.

[6:36] Then I pray that you will feel all the more encouraged and motivated to live for our risen King and to obey him. Here's the first point of the time.

[6:47] And it's so important that we have this as our foundation if we are to grow. Here's the first point. Those who are in Christ have already been made holy.

[6:59] Those who are in Christ have already been made holy. Let me just say, what I'm about to unpack here, this truth that I'm about to unpack is known as definitive sanctification. Or positional sanctification.

[7:12] Remember, sanctification or to be sanctified really means just to be made holy. To be set apart for God. And all of us Christians have been sanctified definitively already.

[7:27] Because we've been brought into union with Christ. And you'll know this. You'll know that at one time, we were spiritually dead and hostile enemies with God.

[7:38] We were in Adam and we shared in Adam's guilt and in Adam's transgression. We were also held in bondage to the power of sin. Sin was like a jailmaster who held us imprisoned and exercised dominion and power over us.

[7:54] And it sat on the throne of our hearts. Not only that, but at one time we were also held in the kingdom of darkness. In Satan's family. As Paul says, we were sons of disobedience.

[8:07] Headed for eternal destruction. And there was nothing that we could do about it. At all. We were completely incapable of saving ourselves.

[8:19] But God, being rich in mercy, he reached out to us in his grace. When we didn't deserve it. He reached out to us in love. And he transferred us over. Out of that utter darkness that we were in.

[8:31] And transferred us over into the kingdom of his son. Or to be more specific, when we were dead in our transgressions. The sovereign spirit of Christ came and he stormed the citadel of our sinful hearts.

[8:45] And brought us to faith in Christ. And at that moment, that very moment. All of us were engrafted into Jesus' body. If you're a Christian here tonight.

[8:57] If you're watching at home and if you're a Christian. Then that is arguably, probably the number one main way that you should always think of yourself. I am a Christian. That means I am someone who by grace alone has been brought into union with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

[9:14] I am in Christ. And he is in me. As one theologian puts it. We are wired into Jesus. We are branches. He is the vine. We are members of his body.

[9:26] He is the head. And because we are in him, we have been sanctified definitively. Now the doctrine of union with Christ is so common in the New Testament that you may well have missed it.

[9:39] Over 200 times in Paul's letters and more than two dozen times in the writing of the Apostle John. We see expressions like in Christ, in the Lord, in him, in the beloved.

[9:53] It's no little thing. In fact, the whole of our salvation can be summed up with reference to this reality. Union with Christ is not a single specific blessing that we receive as part of our salvation.

[10:06] Rather, it is the best way to refer to all of our salvation. All of the blessings that we receive from the Father. We receive them in Christ. No aspect of our salvation can be excluded from our union with him.

[10:20] Now listen to this quote from John Calvin, the great reformer. He's put it like this. As long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from him, all that Jesus suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us.

[10:42] But as soon as you become engrafted into Christ through faith, you are made a son of God, you are an heir of heaven, a partaker of righteousness, a possessor of life.

[10:54] And you obtain not the opportunity to gain merit, but all the merits of Christ. For they are communicated to you.

[11:08] And friends, again, if you were to go through the New Testament with a highlighter pen and highlight all of these references, you'll see that there are 32 references to the times when Paul speaks to believers participating with Christ in some aspect of redemption.

[11:24] Two are mentioned in the Colossians 3 passage. Just run your eye over verse 1, for example. Paul says that the Colossian Christians are those who have been raised with Christ.

[11:36] In verse 1. Look a bit further down in verse 3. He mentions the fact that in Christ they have died with Christ. And this is true of us today.

[11:46] It's mind-blowing. As those who've been engrafted into Christ, what happened to Jesus some 2,000 years ago is reckoned to have happened to us. We participate in his redemptive work.

[12:00] And if you don't believe me, then later on when you go home tonight, you should read Romans 6. I nearly suggested that we have Romans 6 read tonight, but we would have been reading a lot of Bible. But in Romans 6, the Apostle Paul says this.

[12:13] This is objectively, definitely, irreversibly true of all Christians. He says, You were baptized into Christ Jesus. You were crucified with Christ Jesus.

[12:26] You died with him. You were buried with him. And you were raised with him. Now friends, the glorious implication of all of this is that you, if you're a Christian, have died to the dominion of sin.

[12:42] In Christ, we are no longer under the reign of that tyrant. And again, if you don't believe me, just listen to what Paul says in Romans 6 verse 11.

[12:53] He says this. You, the church, must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. It was true of Christians back then. And it's true of Christians today.

[13:05] And listen to this point from Kevin DeYoung. This is from his excellent book called The Whole in Our Holiness. And if you've not read it, I thoroughly recommend this book. He says this union with Christ is fundamentally, fundamentally changes our relationship to sin.

[13:22] Our old self has been crucified and sin has no more dominion over us. This doesn't mean that a part of us called the old nature has been replaced with a different substance called the new nature.

[13:35] Paul's not talking about parts. He's talking about position. What Paul calls the old self is what we wear in Adam. Death, sin, punishment, transgression, that is all part of team Adam.

[13:52] But we have died to that team. The contract was revoked and we now wear the in Christ jersey. Union with Christ is like being placed on the top rugby union team through no talent of your own.

[14:06] Though you didn't earn your way onto the team. But now you wear that jersey. It's a gift of grace. And so you want to play like you are a real top rugby player.

[14:18] And he goes on to say that this is objectively true about all believers. No matter how you feel, this is true. We belong to Christ's team. We belong to Christ's kingdom. We belong to Christ's world of righteousness that is to come.

[14:31] In effect, God says to us, because you've believed in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, I have joined you to him. When he died, you died.

[14:42] When he rose, you rose. He's in heaven, so you're in heaven now. He is holy, so you are holy. Your position right now, objectively and factually, is a holy, beloved child of God.

[14:58] Dead to sin. Alive to righteousness. Seated in my holy heaven. Let me just stop there, friends, and say this to you.

[15:10] Do you believe this to be true about yourself? Is this how you consider yourself to be? Do you believe that you have died to sin and that you're alive to God?

[15:23] Paul says, you must. It's not optional. This is how you have to consider yourself as a Christian. I have been already sanctified definitively.

[15:37] Now, we must believe this. Why must we believe this to be true? Well, because knowing this and believing this will deeply motivate us and help us as we seek to live out the Christian life and as we seek to turn away from sin and temptation in our everyday lives, to instead grow in personal holiness and righteousness.

[15:59] And that brings me to my second point. The first point again. Those who are in Christ have already been made holy. The second point. Those who are in Christ are being made holy.

[16:14] You see, the Bible says that whilst we've already been sanctified positionally, we also need to be sanctified progressively. That is, day by day, bit by bit, little by little, we need the spirit of the Lord Jesus to be graciously transforming us inside.

[16:33] Making us more and more into Christ's likeness. It's given us the power that we need to say no to sin and to say yes to behavior that pleases God. Listen to how the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it.

[16:48] Sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man, in the whole of our being, after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.

[17:02] But please let me just say, don't get any false conclusions from my first point tonight. Please don't think that because in Christ we've died to sin, we no longer experience struggle with sin or that sin will never show up in our lives.

[17:18] That is just not the case. In Romans 6, Paul does not teach perfectionism. You know, the idea that we will be without sin in this age. Read on in Romans 6 and you'll hear Paul say these words.

[17:30] He says, Don't let sin reign therefore in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

[17:50] So Paul acknowledges sin's still going to be an ongoing thing in our lives that we're to struggle with. Yes, we have died to it. Well and truly we've died to it.

[18:01] It's been dethroned in our hearts, but it still remains present in us like an unwanted squatter. And it will constantly seek to direct us away from doing God's will.

[18:13] That is, it will constantly direct us or try to direct us, tempt us away from following the Lord's paths of righteousness to instead going down paths that lead to death and disaster.

[18:25] And sin will carry on this assault on us throughout the rest of our lives. But friends, we need not despair because the one who lives in us is far more powerful.

[18:38] Just listen to how the Westminster Confession of Faith puts it. You're going to hear a lot from the Westminster Confession of Faith tonight, which is a good thing and you should be happy about that. But let me read it to you. It says this, This sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life, there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war.

[19:06] The flesh fighting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Friends, this is what the normal Christian life is like. War.

[19:17] Warfare. Internally. Inside us, there's a conflict rumbling on and raging on. The flesh, which is shorthand for a remnant of corruption that remains in us, shorthand for, we'd be calling it sin.

[19:30] Ongoing sin fights against the spirit of Christ in us, and the spirit of Christ in us fights against sin in us. Those of you who were there a few weeks ago to hear Terry will remember that Terry quoted Willie, and I remember hearing Willie say this when he said it originally, all those years ago.

[19:48] I can't remember it word for word, but it's such a great quote, and it's really clung with me for many years. And it was, I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something like this. Christians aren't those who've been saved from the fight with sin.

[20:03] Rather, we have been saved for the daily fight with sin. So if like me, you are someone who currently is struggling with all sorts of sin, then actually, I think you should take some strange comfort from that, because it is a sign that you are a real believer.

[20:27] If there's no struggle with sin in your life, I don't think that's actually, spiritually speaking, a healthy sign. If the spirit of Christ is in us, our inner lives will be marked by conflict.

[20:40] We will find that from time to time, we will do things that we know we shouldn't do, things we don't want to do, but we end up doing them. That was the Apostle Paul's experience in Romans 7.

[20:53] Well, what will the ultimate outcome of this war be? Well, again, listen to the confession of faith. It says, In other words, this is a fight that we will win.

[21:25] We've already died to sin's power, and we have the spirit of Christ in our corner. And again, this is an illustration from Kevin DeYoung's book. He describes the believer being in the corner of a boxing ring, and he sat on the stool with a towel round about him, and in our corner is the spirit of Christ, rubbing our shoulders, holding the bucket so we can spit into, and putting his arm round us, saying, before the next round with sin, you're going to knock him out, kid.

[21:52] Sin may get a few good jabs in. In fact, according to the confession of faith, there may be times in which sin gives us a severe beating and a pounding. It might even knock us to our knees.

[22:03] But, if you are in Christ, sin will never knock you out completely. It will never have the ultimate victory. And just look at what Paul says in Colossians 3 verse 4.

[22:15] He says, When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. In other words, when Jesus Christ returns, the church, all those who have been united to him by faith through the spirit, will appear glorious and on the winning side.

[22:34] Currently, what we are in Christ is somewhat hidden. Why is it hidden? Well, it's hidden because he is hidden. Verse 3 says, He is on the throne in heaven. But when he returns on that day that's coming, when he raises his people in power, on that day, we will be saved from sin's presence once and for all.

[22:57] Our sanctification will be fully consummated. We will be glorified on that day to forever live with our Lord and his presence. Just think about it. You will never ever again be able to sin.

[23:10] It will be an impossibility on that day. We will finally, in other words, be able to love God the way that we should. And we will finally be able to love each other in the way that we really should.

[23:26] Again, another way of saying that is that at last we will be truly human. At last we will be our true selves. At last, we will perfectly image God as we were made to.

[23:38] And it's all because of the gracious, sanctifying work that our Lord Jesus does in us through his Spirit. Well, now we come to our final point tonight.

[23:52] Let me recap the two points. First point. Those who are in Christ have already been made holy. Secondly, those who are in Christ are also being made holy. And point three is this.

[24:05] Those who are in Christ have a great responsibility. We have a great responsibility. I've already touched on this point a number of times, but it's a fact that progressive sanctification, all sanctification, is primarily a work carried out in us by the Spirit of Christ.

[24:23] And therefore, sanctification is 100% a gift of God's grace from start to finish. However, we are all called to play an active part in our ongoing sanctification.

[24:37] When I used to be a Cornhill student, I used to love going in and getting lectures from all the lecturers. I had no favorites, but I used to love listening to Bob File, as many of us have done over the years.

[24:50] And Bob had many gems that he'd bring out. And one of his gems that he used to say to us was this, holiness is a gift and we must use it. Holiness is a gift and we must use it.

[25:03] And it's true. Yes, it is God who works in us. He has begun a good work in us and he will bring it to completion, says Paul in Philippians 1. But at the same time in Philippians 2, Paul says that we must also continue to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

[25:22] You see, some Christians in the past and some Christians today sometimes encounter this. They say, sanctification is all really just about thinking about your justification lots.

[25:34] Thinking about the fact that God has declared you righteous in Christ. That's all you need to do. The rest, you can simply sit back, let go, and let God. Well, I'm afraid that is a very unhelpful idea.

[25:49] Because we have an active, an important part to play in our progressive sanctification. Now, there are many passages we could turn to to find out things that we are to do in this active part.

[26:01] But let me just pull out three things from Colossians chapter 3. Three things that Paul says we should do in order to play our part in our sanctification.

[26:12] Firstly, run your eye over verse 2, please. Paul says we are to set our minds on things that are above and not on earthly things.

[26:24] Set your mind on things that are above and not on earthly things. Now, does this mean that things temporal are to have none of our attention? Well, no, I don't think it can mean that.

[26:36] Paul can't be saying that given the context. Taken like this, Paul would be advising us, the church, to have nothing to do with everyday life at all. And as the chapter goes on, Paul, in fact, speaks about how the church is to conduct itself in everyday life.

[26:52] At home, at work, on earth. Now, when Paul uses the word earthly here, he seems to use it to describe things which are sinful.

[27:04] Now, where am I getting that from? Verse 5 is the answer. Verse 5, Paul speaks about earthly things that are found within us that are sinful things, things which we are called to mortify and to put to death.

[27:17] And we'll think a bit more about that in a minute. And so, what Paul is saying here in verse 2 is that we who've died with Christ and we who've been raised with Christ, we are to pursue holy thinking.

[27:31] With the help of the Spirit of Christ, we're to develop godly minds that aren't set upon sinful things, but set upon things above. And I take it that means primarily focusing our minds on the one who is above, the ascended Lord Jesus, who also happens to be the ultimate example of what a perfect human life of holiness looks like.

[27:56] And the more I've been thinking about this week, I've been trying to think, well, what does that look like practically? And I take it it means to set your mind on the things that are above, to set your mind on Christ means to set your mind on the Bible.

[28:10] and the Word of God, to let the Word of God dwell richly in your mind, to think about it, meditate upon it, and to let it shape and master the way that you think.

[28:25] If we set our minds upon it, we will come to learn more about our Savior, about our identity, about who we are as those who are now in Him. And we will also learn about His commandments, which aren't legal things there to spoil our fun, but they're actually there for us to follow because they show us how to live a holy life that's pleasing to Him.

[28:49] John Stott once said this, Godly living, progressive sanctification, begins in the mind. Godly living begins in the mind. When we read Mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Scriptures together.

[29:03] Remember, that's what, back in the summer we looked at Ephesians chapter 4. The sermon's still online if you want to go back and look at it, but we looked at Ephesians 4 and we saw that going deeper in the Word, setting our mind on things above, is a corporate activity.

[29:18] It's something we do as individuals, but primarily we do it as a church together. We do it here. And that is why it is crucial that we, as a church, never neglect or give up gathering together like this.

[29:33] For this is primarily the place where we have our minds renewed. The Sunday gathering is the place for those who want to be sanctified. But of course, another place we can go deeper in the Word and prayer together is in our smaller church gatherings, what we call growth groups.

[29:53] There are many that meet throughout the week and there are some growth groups that are just for women, some for men, some mixed, some for those who are retired, some for workers, some for people of all ages.

[30:04] We meet again and again throughout the week in many different small groups as a church to have our minds renewed by the Bible. If you're not in one, if you want to know more about that, drop me an email or come and see me.

[30:16] I'd love to tell you more about it. So that's the first thing Paul tells us to do. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on earthly things.

[30:27] Secondly, he says, we are to put to death what is earthly in us. Let me read to you. I'm going to read a couple of verses here.

[30:38] Let me read from verse 5 onwards. This is what Paul says. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

[30:51] On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked. You used to walk when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.

[31:04] Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. On these verses, Dick Lucas says, the ethical teaching of the apostles is never out of date.

[31:19] The ethical teaching of the apostles is never out of date. Paul wrote those words to the church back in the first century, and he could have written them yesterday. Licentiousness and greed were marks of human society in Paul's day, and as we look at the society that we live in today, as the power of Christian truth declines, so they resume their ancient sway in our society.

[31:42] But of course, friends, these things actually remain in us, don't they? Don't they? Of course they do. And Paul says that we are to mortify them.

[31:57] That is, we're to put them to death. And the things that he lists are really, these are things that belong to what we once were when we were in Adam. When we were in team Adam, this is what we once were.

[32:09] But we're not in that team anymore. By grace, we've died to that team, and we've been transferred over to the in Christ team. And so now, we really can start to wage war and mortify these things.

[32:23] And indeed, we must. Paul doesn't say, do you know what guys, it might be a good idea if you think about doing this maybe someday at some point. He says, put them to death.

[32:36] Categorically. It says the same thing in Romans 8 verse 13. You can read it later on. Although, our translation tames down what Paul says a little bit in Romans 8 verse 13.

[32:46] Because if you translate that literally, Romans 8 verse 13 says this, if you murder sin, if you club it to death and batter it to death, then you will live.

[33:00] Paul's not mentioning his words here, is he? It is serious, serious business. Let me be bold here and ask you this question, and I'll ask this question of myself as well.

[33:15] When did you last repent of something? When did you last ask the Lord to help you put to death something that is earthly and new by the power of his spirit?

[33:30] When was the last time you prayed, Lord, help me with this? Was it hours ago? Days ago? Weeks ago?

[33:42] Months ago? Years ago? Well, if you're a Christian and you have died with Christ to sin, it no longer reigns in you, so don't let it reign over you anymore.

[33:58] Instead, put to death what is earthly within you with Christ's help. Third thing Paul says we're to do in this passage goes hand in hand with mortification.

[34:10] Technically, it's called vivification, I don't have a mouthful, I've practiced that word. But this is what we're to do. Thirdly, in normal language, we are to be what we already are.

[34:22] Be what we already are in Christ. That's what Paul is talking about from verse 12 to 17. He says to the Colossians, you're in Christ so you've already put on the new man.

[34:33] Already you've done it. Now be what you are in him. And just look at how beautiful the sanctified life is. Let me read verse 12 to 17 to you and just notice how beautiful this list is.

[34:47] Put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

[34:58] And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

[35:21] Be thankful. Friends, to be holy does not mean that you're to turn into a religious weirdo, okay? Neither does it mean that you become a fierce theological know-it-all who's constantly hounding other people in the church because they fail to live up to your perfect lofty standards.

[35:40] No, holy people are those who grow in goodness and loveliness. In other words, holy people are those who start to mirror the beautiful and lovely character of the Lord.

[35:56] And to link this back in with what Paul spoke about last week when we focused on the witness aspect of our worship, when the church of Jesus Christ lives out this new identity, when we listen to what Paul says, when he says, be what you are, when we are what we are, when we walk in a manner worthy of our calling, when we display these beautiful Christ-like traits in the way that we interact with each other and those outside of the church, we stick out and we are a powerful witness to the lost around us of what the gospel and what Jesus has done in us and what therefore he can do in them so that they might be drawn to Jesus and they might come and become worshippers with us.

[36:44] So friends, let's be praying that the Lord will not only help us as we seek to put to death earthly things in us, because boy, do we need his help, we do need his help, but let's also ask him to help us be who we are, as those who have been and those who are being made holy in Christ.

[37:06] For when we do so, we will be truly human, we will glorify our God, and we will show off to the lost of Glasgow how beautiful he is. And we'll show off his beauty to those beyond Glasgow too.

[37:25] Amen. May God bless us. Let's be quiet for a moment, and we'll take some time to respond to the word of God in our own hearts, and then I'll pray for us. Well, our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we praise you that by your grace you have engrafted us by faith into your Son through the Spirit.

[38:01] Father, we are so unworthy of such goodness and love. We praise you that in him we have died to sin, and we are now alive to you.

[38:18] And we praise you that in him, day by day, little by little, bit by bit, you are at work in us by your blessed Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

[38:30] He is transforming us, making us more and more into the people that you would have us be. And we pray that you would give us the help that we need to play our part, the great responsibility you've given us to put to death the earthly things that are still in us.

[38:50] Help us, for we confess we are so weak and frail. on our own, we cannot do any of this. We need you. So often we feel that sin has the upper hand.

[39:05] And we pray that you will give us the strength that we need instead to live out our new identity as those who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that a great day is coming when our sanctification will be fully consummated and we will be with him in glory.

[39:23] When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him. So help us in the meantime, Heavenly Father, to have the strength that we need to purify ourselves as he is pure.

[39:39]  And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.