In his sermon 'Without Spot or Wrinkle,' Scott Brown focuses on the theme of sanctification as outlined in Ephesians 5:25-27. He emphasizes that Christ's love for the church involves a process of sanctification, cleansing the church to present it without blemish. Brown explains that sanctification involves three elements: the forgiveness of sin, the breaking of sin's power, and the cleansing from sin's pollution. He warns against the dangers of syncretism, where worldly influences dilute Christian beliefs, and criticizes excessive reliance on entertainment, which he sees as detracting from true spiritual growth. Brown urges believers to engage in the process of sanctification through the Word of God, advocating for a life set apart for holiness and cautioning against the influence of worldly prophets and entertainment. He provides practical advice on 'putting off' worldly behaviors and 'putting on' godly virtues, highlighting the importance of discernment and careful living to maintain spiritual purity.

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5 and find verse 25. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, holy, sweeter than honey word of God, Ephesians 5 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water with by the word that he might present her to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for speaking to us about how you love your church, what you are doing to your church and with your church and how you are doing it, explaining to us how we might be holy.

Thank you Lord for such a kind declaration, revelation to us for what you're about. I pray, Lord, that you would use these words of yours to present us to yourself, a glorious church. Amen. Please be seated. So as we are continuing this series on the church I'm picking up where we left off last Sunday in Ephesians 5 speaking of what what is a glorious church and here continuing this whole discussion about that what is he doing he's setting her apart He's making a holy church without spot or wrinkle.

That's what God is about in his church. One of my favorite things about two, three, and four-year-old children is that they all have a favorite song. It's holy, holy, holy. Have you noticed that? Almost every two, three, four-year-old child that I know, particularly in this church, their favorite song is holy, holy, holy.

If that's your favorite song, then this sermon is really about your favorite song. It's about what does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to be sanctified? And how does it happen? And of course, how is it happening in your life?

And of course, that's a question I've been asking myself. How does it happen in the use of my time or the occupations of my life. And sanctification is something that happens by the word of God. And this passage focuses on what that means. So as you can see, there's an outline in front of you, and I have four, three things that I want to deal with.

First, what is this doctrine of sanctification? And then secondly, how does this fit in with the whole theme of the Bible and then thirdly the activity of sanctification and the Bible speaks of that activity as really do's and don'ts You put off certain things and you put on certain things. So that's the trajectory of this message here. And so of course in this passage of scripture, we find this this gigantically important doctrine of the Bible, sanctification. And there are elements, I would just like to suggest there are three elements that that include this doctrine, but the third is the focus of what the Apostle is speaking of here in Ephesians 5.

The first is the forgiveness of sin is accomplished. That's the beginning. And then second, the power of sin is broken. Those are the doors that open the way to the kind of sanctification that the apostle is talking about here. And this is the third element of sanctification, and that is the pollution from sin is cleansed.

This is the kind of sanctification that the apostle is talking about in Ephesians chapter five. This is all part of this discussion that we've had a number of times. The church is a holy nation. It's set apart. Here, this nation, this nation called the church, is set apart without spot or wrinkle.

That's the trajectory of the church. It's a direction of your life toward holiness, setting aside your old ways and toward the Lord, not toward conformity to this world, always being aware of the dangers of conformity to this world and also the blessings of transformation, that's Romans chapter 12. J.C. Ryle talks about sanctification in his book, Holiness, I highly recommend the book. Here's what he says, in justification our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one thing needful.

But in sanctification, our own works are of vast importance and God bids us fight and watch and pray and strive and take pains and labor for your sanctification. I'm here to urge us as a church to labor, to work hard in the work of sanctification. He says justification is a finished and complete work and a man is perfectly justified the moment he believes but sanctification is an ongoing work of the Spirit of God. So all this means that the church, the true church has a narrow focus. Godliness, throwing off sin, pursuing holiness.

And all of you children who are singing holy, holy, holy with all your hearts. We did it in our house last night. Just remember what it means. God wants to do something so wonderful in your life. That's what it means that God is holy.

God is holy and you can be in him and participate in his holiness. It's such a remarkable thing. Now, if you have members in your church who are drinking in the worldliness of the world, it will have an effect on the whole body because each member does supply something to the body that's just a reality. Now if we look at our phones and our computers and the ways we spend our time. You would think that we actually believe that sanctification is by entertainment because we spend an enormous amount of time in things like this.

But sanctification isn't by entertainment. But you would think it was. I was reading an old book that I read many years ago. It's Neil Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. It's dated, but he really talks about the history of communication and amusement.

But he makes a really interesting comment in that book. He says that George Orwell feared that the truth would be hidden from the human race, and we would be destroyed by fear. And he says, but something else actually happened. We've been driven to passivity, drowned in a sea of irrelevant entertainment captive to a culture of silliness and egotism He says he says that Orwell projected that it would be it would be hate That would ruin us but But Postman says now in a technological culture, it's what we love that would ruin us because what we loved was silly and irrelevant. Because sanctification is not by entertainment.

But we often live like that. It's always staring into our phones, looking for the next funny thing, as if sanctification were dependent on entertainment. But what does it mean that the church is being sanctified? Well, there are two words here, sanctify and cleanse in our text. To sanctify is to set apart from the world, to be holy, holy, holy, like God.

God is like no other, And the believer progressively becomes like no other as well, becomes less and less like the world and more and more about God. It means consecrated. To be holy is to have a consecrated life, to be set apart and to narrow the field of the focus of your life to holy things. And this is why in the temple there's a picture of this where the utensils were holy they were set apart they could be used for no other purpose and and God created human beings that they would be used for no over no other purpose that our lives are for no other purpose except for holy things We set our lives aside to be holy in everything that we do. And the Bible even talks about holiness down to your pots and pans, holiness to the bridles of your horses.

I mean, holiness, everything is holiness to the Lord. That's the call of the Christian. That we would touch no unholy thing and do nothing for unholy purposes. That's the calling of the Christian. That's what's loaded in this word, sanctify, to set apart.

And then to cleanse, this is, what happens is this has to do with moral purity and Sanctified and cleansed in other words the church Is always in a wash cycle, we're always being cleansed We're we're being we get dirty and then we're cleansed. And by the, but how? And it's very clear here how this happens. By the washing of water by the word. It's the word of God that cleanses.

That's why Jesus said, and you can track this idea all over the Bible in John 17, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. It's the word of God that sanctifies and that's why the first thing you should do when you get up in the morning is to dedicate your mind to the mind of God open up your Bible and say Lord teach me your way Show me what wondrous things you have for me in your law. Change my mind, move my feet, transform my emotions by your word. That's sanctification.

Our emotions need to be sanctified, our motives need to be sanctified, our deeds need to be sanctified, and our thoughts that drive them need to be sanctified. And that happens by the word of God. We need the word of God to continually come and wash us because we're always drifting off. That's why the apostle Paul told the elders of the church of Ephesus when he met with them, recorded in Acts 20. He told them what they should focus on.

He said, I commend you to God and the word of his grace. And that's the sanctifying tool. That's why the Apostle Paul told the Colossian Church, he said, let the word of Christ dwell richly. Seek the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. That's how we are washed.

We are Changed by the word of God and we know we're gathered here together Everything we've done here so far is all about the word of God. We've been singing the word of God, we've been reciting the word of God. We had men pray, and the words of God actually emerged from their prayers. All of those things are designed to transform us, to sanctify us. We are kind of in A sanctification meeting.

It's an intensive sanctification meeting. But it is easy just to let it go over your heads and not get it. There was a 19th century theologian who was fond of telling the story that Christians should be doers of the Word of God not just hears from James 1 22 and he he told the parable of the waddling ducks I don't know if you've heard the parable of the waddling ducks. But one Sunday morning in the land of ducks, the ducks waddled into church, and they found their pews, and their preacher who was a duck waddled into the pulpit and he preached a spellbinding sermon and he ended it telling the ducks what a great gift God gave them that they could fly And the ducks just erupted in shouts of amen. Praise God for all the gifts that God has given the ducks.

And then they waddled home. They didn't really get the message. And that happens to us. But God's brought us together in kind of a sanctifying intensive called the worship of God, as we're here today. Because the people in the church Are called to be doers of the word not just hearers of the word and that makes them an that makes the church an alien nation within the nations of the world.

We're citizens of a different nation and as a result we always look different because we're being sanctified by the word of God. We're not being sanctified by the world. Entertainment doesn't sanctify the church, and nor should it. And the truth is that we live in the midst of a remarkable array of very alluring discipleship tools, very powerful sanctifying forces around us, which are memes and clips and music videos and politics and art and sports these these these are sort of the tools these are the discipleship tools of the world and they're always pressing in upon us one way or another and that's why if you if we would look at our phones and our computers, we would wonder, we would wonder if we really believe that sanctification is by entertainment. And frankly, the greatest danger to the church is becoming like the nations, becoming like everybody else who's also being sanctified by this entertainment world.

It's called syncretism. Well children, there is this word sanctification. That's a word I'd really like you to know. But another word is syncretism. Syncretism, this is a very important word because it's the greatest danger to the church.

And Syncretism is fitting in. It's, syncretism is incorporating the schools of thought of the world. It's appreciating and internalizing secular culture. And the word syncretism comes from a Greek word, syncretismos, and it's two words. Sin or sin, S-Y-N, means together or with.

So it's with kret, which means cretin, with the cretins. It's aligning with the spirit of the age, basically. The apostle Paul said that all Cretans were liars, and so it is true. But the people in Crete were fitting in with the religion of the Cretans. That was that syncretism.

And Syncretism is combining lifestyles, the lifestyles of the worldly. It's similar to pluralism where you have peaceful coexistence with all ideologies and philosophies. It's blended Christianity. It's mingled moralities. That's what syncretism is.

And it really is the greatest danger of the church. And that's why the apostle says that Jesus Christ is sanctifying and cleansing his church. That she might be without spot or wrinkle. And this happens by the Word of God, by the power of the Word of God. There's nothing more powerful in the world than the Word of God.

And it transforms, it delivers, and it blesses. You know I read, I read last week Gallup poll just released the results of one of their studies and here's what they say, a record low, 20% of Americans say the Bible is the literal word of God. 20% of Americans think that the Bible is the literal word of God. But the Word of God is the tool of the sanctification of the people of God. The world does not believe that this Word is the Word of God, but it is the most powerfully holifying force in the world.

And so that's what we do when we come together to worship God. And God has designed this time that it would be for the removal of the spots and the wrinkles that we all have. And it's interesting that the way that the apostle talks about this is that you start out with spots and wrinkles and then they're removed over time. And I think one thing that means is that this process of sanctification reverses the pollutions that are already in the soul. It's really the reverse of nature isn't it?

When a baby is born, their their skin is just without blemish. But then over time we gain blemishes. But in the kingdom of God it's the opposite. In the kingdom of God we start out with blemishes And then God removes the blemishes and makes our skin like babies at the very end. But that's spiritual skin that he's talking about.

But the body of Christ, as it as she grows, she has fewer spots and wrinkles because the Lord is cleansing them by the washing of water by the word. So your blemishes disappear by degrees. You're not what you used to be. This is one of the delights of being in a church. You can see how that works.

I can see it. I can see it all over this room. People change over time when they love the Lord and they start thinking like the Lord thinks and it's such a wonderful thing. But Christian ducks don't just say amen, praise the Lord, and waddle home. Christian ducks, they start flying.

They're being sanctified, They're being cleansed by the washing of water by the Word. Now, so with that as sort of a foundation, I want to talk about really this, how this looks in the Bible and the theme of the Bible. And I wanna just give you a few illustrations from the New Testament about what this looks like. There, and sanctification, or at least the work of God in the life of a person is displayed in two ways. And what you find when you when you read the Bible, particularly the Gospels, and I'm going to start out with the Gospel of John, you see that that over and over again, You see that there are two alternatives that are always being presented.

And all of them show the beauty of the power of the gospel and how good Jesus Christ is to his children. All of the illustrations seem to say that. Like in John chapter one, you can have death and darkness, or you can have light and life. You can have condemnation and falsehood, or you can have grace and truth. Those are the two alternatives.

That is the picture of God's design for his people. In John chapter two at the wedding of Cana, you can either have wine that gets worse and worse, or you can have the wine that gets better and better. In John chapter three, in the story of Nicodemus, you can stay where you are, or you can come to the light and be born again to eternal life. In John chapter four, when the woman at the well, you can just go on searching to fill your heart with one husband after another, one jag after another, or you can receive living water that will satisfy you forever. In John chapter five, you have a lame man.

You can remain lame or you can get up and walk like those ducks you can fly. In John chapter 6 you can be afraid of the storms or you can have Jesus in the boat with you and he'll take you fast wherever he wants. In John chapter 10 you can have two kinds of shepherds. There's the good shepherd who gives life and abundantly and there's the thief who comes to kill and steal and destroy. You see, this is the whole picture of the Bible.

This is the picture of sanctification and what it means to be saved. With Lazarus, you can die stinking, dead in a grave, or you can be miraculously resurrected by the word of Jesus Christ In John chapter 15, you can be a branch cut off or a branch bearing fruit Take your choice In Matthew 6 24 Jesus said you'll have one One of two masters, and you can only have one. In the parable of the soils, you can either have barren soil, rocky soil, or fruitful soil. In the parable of the 10 virgins, you can have oil, or you can have nothing. That's why in Acts chapter 14, verse 15, we read these words, you should turn from these useless things to the living God.

God is so good. This is the work of sanctification. This is what God is doing. He's providing an alternative world to the worldliness of the world. And the call to sanctification and throwing off the world all dovetails to this this wonderful message.

That's why the Apostle Paul was pained. It pained him to see slow sanctification in the church. He said that he was in pain until Christ was formed in them in Galatians 4 19. You know, Jesus said, you can have a heavy burden or you can have my burden. My burden is light.

And you can have rest for your souls. Well, that's the contrast. The sanctified life is the life of blessing. The worldly life is the life of degradation and silliness. And it's so important that we just realize that his ways are always pleasant ways.

So, back to Ephesians five, Christ washes his church. Isaiah in Isaiah chapter two says that the people are filled with eastern ways. They're filled with eastern ways. But Christ comes to wash us of the Eastern ways. The problem with us is that we often go back to the Eastern ways through the entertainments of this world, and we get polluted by them.

We don't think they're polluting us because they're making us laugh, but they're filling us with Eastern ways. Laughter is not the supreme good, by the way. God does fill his children with laughter, but not by Eastern ways. But this washing is what Christianity is all about. And our design as human beings is that we're affected by everything.

Everything we see, everything we hear, everything we do. And today with our phones and our computers and our Spotify accounts and our YouTube accounts, we're affected like never before in ways that people haven't been affected before. And we're designed by God with sensory perceptions. And our senses are very competent. They always do what they were designed to do.

Our senses are designed to affect our souls. That's why you hear people talking about the eye gate and the ear gate. Those are gates. And you can either let anything flow into those gates or you can be discriminating about what you let flow into those gates. But our sensory perceptions are competent because God made them that way.

You can't beat the system. They work, they always work. And it's just so easy to become saturated with foolish and silly and light things rather than transforming things. But sanctification is not through entertainment. It's by the Word of God.

Leonard Ravenhill said it this way, entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord, the less entertainment you need when you can say, oh Lord, thou Christ are all I want. Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. So the theme of the Bible is that God sanctifies his people. He gives them living bread, he gives them living water, he takes away their burdens, he does such good things, And then he continues on to sanctify them to relieve them of their burdens by the Word now I want to turn to the activity of sanctification and This is connecting to the language that we find in Ephesians 4, 20, and Colossians 3, 8.

It's the language of putting off and putting on. This is one of the key elements of sanctification that you are putting off and you are putting on. And God instructs us that these are the two levels that we engage in in sanctification. I'm just, you can call them the do's and the don'ts of the true Christian. There are lots of do's and there are actually lots of don'ts in the Bible, but all of them are connected with spots and wrinkles.

All of them are connected with sanctification. So Ephesians 420 speaks of this. He says this, he's making a contrast. I'm breaking into a logical argument, but he says, But you have not so learned Christ and he's talking about the world about worldliness If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off Concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. We're back to holy, holy, holy.

So I'll begin here with the don'ts. I'm gonna give you seven don'ts and seven dos. Seven put offs and seven put ons. I've derived this from a list of maybe 100, it's possible. I didn't count.

But let's talk about the don'ts, because the language talks about what we ought to put off, what we ought to stop doing, and I'm gonna give you seven don'ts. They all have to do with sanctification. First, don't be a friend of the world. James 4.4, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Don't be a friend of the world. Number two, don't continue to be conformed by your old lusts, which you did in ignorance. Don't be conformed by your old lusts, which you did in ignorance. We develop patterns, we do things because we've always done them, we've thought things because we've always thought them, we say things because we've always said them, and they're wrong often. In 1st Peter 1 14, as obedient children not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy.

Third, don't walk in the ways of the unbelievers in this world. Don't walk in the ways of the unbelievers in this world. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24 speaks about renouncing the ways of the Gentiles and putting off. He says that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. This has to do with walking in the way of the unbelievers of this world.

We are born into this world and we walk like the people that are walking around us, and it's a danger to us. And Christians are called to not walk in the ways of the world. Fourth, don't listen to the worldly prophets. They make you worthless. Don't listen to the worldly prophets, they make you worthless.

Prophets are people who have a message. I'm just talking, I'm talking about people who have a message. Not talking about people who are foretelling the future necessarily. This terminology that's in Jeremiah 23 that I'm quoting has to do with the messaging of particular people. In one way, all our prophets all speak some kind of truth.

Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, Jeremiah 23, 16. They make you worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord. They speak out of their own hearts. This is the chief value of mankind today.

Speak out of your heart, and it's the most dangerous thing that you can do and secondly it's the most dangerous thing you can do to listen to them don't listen to the worldly prophets who make you worthless fifth do not let foolishness or fornication be named among you, Ephesians 5, 1 through 7. This passage gives us specific categories of worldliness to stay away from. And when you think about watching movies, when you think about listening to music or whatever, think about these things. Let it not be named among you as is fitting for saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather of giving thanks." He says, let nobody deceive you with empty words. He's talking about people who say, it's not really such a bad thing.

Don't let these empty prophets deceive you that it doesn't matter. It matters. Don't let the empty headed prophets teach you that it doesn't matter who you listen to or what you read or what you look at. He says, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them.

Number six, don't set unclean things before your eyes. Don't set any unclean things before your eyes. Psalm 101, verses three and four. David said, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away.

It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will not know wickedness. Set no unclean thing before our eyes. In this entertainment world, Compromises are made over and over again and people deceive themselves that there's no effect upon them to see unclean things.

There is an effect. That's why David said, I will set no unclean thing before my eyes. And then he says, I hate the work of those who fall away. I want you in this church to hate the work of those who fall away. Learn to hate their works.

If you don't, They'll have hooks in you. I hate the works of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will not know wickedness.

Number seven. Don't be restricted by your own affections. Don't be restricted by your own affections. Don't be restricted by your own affections. This is a tremendous principle because it's our affections that restrict us, that hurt us the most.

It's the things that we, it's the unprofitable and silly and irrelevant things that we love that that affect us the most, negatively. And in 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 17, the Apostle Paul declares this in no uncertain terms that our affections are the greatest drivers of our lives. That's why he says, Oh Corinthians, We have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. I think the apostle Paul understood the vulnerability he had in saying things like this.

You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. You might just ask, you know, what affections do you have that are restricting you, that are holding you back? All of us have them. And he's talking about, he's talking about syncretism. He's talking about mixing holy things with unholy things, and he says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

And he's not just talking about marriage, he's talking about everything in life. He says, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And you have to ask yourself, when you're listening to lawless people, what does it mean? And do you like it? What communion has light with darkness?

And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? And then he says, for you are the temple of God." And so he says, therefore come out from among them and be separate. Be holy, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. So seven don'ts, seven don'ts. Now, It's quite a controversial subject and a difficult one in some ways. But I know you've had discussions with yourself and with people about the sources that you use for education and the sources of the entertainment. As it turns out, you have very creative people, brilliant people who are worldly, and they are able to write and create things that are actually beautiful, but who are they?

And the question is, does the character and the worldview matter in the authors of the books and the creators of the entertainment? Does it matter? Should we accept the idea that it doesn't matter, the source, as long as something good can be learned? Is that a right, is that a biblical proposition? And I wanna say that the Bible makes it very clear that it does matter and you need to think about it carefully.

It's actually, it's secular man generally who says that it doesn't matter. But does the Bible say that? And I want to tell you just a few things that the Bible does say. I don't know if this will help in discerning it. In Proverbs 15, eight, God says that he hates the sacrifices of the wicked.

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. In Proverbs 15, nine, it's not just the sacrifices, but it's the ways of the wicked that God hates. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he, the Lord, loves him who follows righteousness. In Proverbs 15, 26, God hates the thoughts of the wicked. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant.

In Proverbs 6 verse 18, We learn that God hates feet that run toward evil. 16, 8, 6, 18. A heart that deceives wicked plans, feet that run, are swift to run to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren, these the Lord hates. God also says that he hates the workers of iniquity in Proverbs 5.5, the boastful shall not stand in your sight, you hate all workers of inequity. So, I mean, here in just these few Proverbs, the Lord hates the sacrifices, the ways, the thoughts, the feet, and the workers of inequity.

And I think, you know, the question that I want to just encourage you to grapple with is, does character matter in the lives of those that you read and those that you listen to? Does their character matter? Now, this was a great discussion back when Bill Clinton was president, does character matter? Bill Clinton was accused of adultery. And at that time, You know politicians and journalists that were saying, character doesn't matter.

The only thing that matters is ability. And I remember reading somebody said, it mattered to Hillary. But character does matter. It was interesting too, there was another Gallup poll that got released just recently that was saying that during the Clinton administration, 86% of Republicans thought that character was really important, that a president should provide moral leadership. In 2018, the number went down to 63%.

It's dropping. Fewer and fewer people think character matters. But I just want to submit that the character of the communicator matters. And you have to ask, do you want to be under their influence? Do you want to be under the influence of the influencers?

The YouTube influencers, the TikTok, the Instagram influencers. That's why they call them influencers, by the way, because they are. You can't say, well, that doesn't affect me. No, no, no, no. They are, they are influencers.

And, And like I said before, nobody can beat the system. But these influencers are, in many, many cases, and you just have to discern this, they're driven by hypocrisy and vanity and idleness and atheism, they present a world that does not have God in it. That's one of the great objections I have with the films of this world. There's no God there. Even the most compelling, emotionally drawing films, they just make you cry, but there's no God.

How about that? Eseminacy, breaking of the commandments of God, unrepentance, pretenses, these are what the influencers traffic in. And by the way, actors are that way. Actors are actually faking. You're being drawn in by fakers.

They're faking. In fact, the Greek word hypocrite, huppakreton, is the word that's used for actor. Because actors are faking. And how influenced do you want to be by actors, by hypocrites, hu-pa-cree-ton? Well, We know that character does matter.

It matters for church elders. There's a whole list of character qualifications. We know that it matters for civil magistrates in Deuteronomy 17 and number 17. There are only certain kinds of civil magistrates that we should be putting forward. These are men of integrity, men, not women, of integrity.

Only men, only and always men of integrity in the Bible. Just in the Bible. Jesus said that a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. You just, you can't beat the system. You become like your teachers in some way or another, maybe not exactly.

Now you may reject the message of those teachers, that's a good thing. But in Matthew chapter seven, verse 15 and 16, it says that their fruit matters. You will know them by their fruits. The false teachers, you will know them by their fruits. Their character matters.

Their manner of life matters. Their moral doctrine matters. In Revelation two, when we were in Revelation 2, 14, we read of those who held the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Their doctrine matters and John is in Revelation saying, reject the doctrine of Balaam and reject the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And that's why in 1 John 4 we're told to test the spirits.

And that's why in 2 Corinthians 11, 13 through 15, that our adversaries, the adversaries of our souls, come as angels of light. They're just so compelling, they're so remarkable. The Apostle Paul warned the Colossian Church of the bondage and captivity that you might experience by the popular philosophies. He says, beware lest anyone cheat you, cheat you through empty philosophy, empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him." In other words, he's all you need.

You're complete. He's all you need. You don't need other influencers. And that's why in Ephesians 5-11, we're told to have no fellowship with the works of darkness. Now, the teachers in the church are qualified by character, and that should matter to all of us because the student does become like like the teacher and so you know the teachers in fiction and fantasy and romance and thrillers and horror and murder mysteries and magical realism and dystopian genres of literature.

Those are all genres of literature. You have teachers and you should ask, do I want to be under their influence? Hey, the most famous Philosopher in the Western tradition is Plato. He was a homosexual so was Socrates. Is that do you want to be under his influence?

Really? You want them to be reading these people the Western tradition says you should oh, no, you can't be mature you can't really understand the world until you understand Plato. I'm just gonna say you can't understand a corrupt world until you understand Plato. So I just want us to see the dangers of dancing to the beats of the world, to be moved by the songs of the world, to have our hearts and our minds moved by the fiction makers who have an agenda. Because they all do.

Don't think that they don't have an agenda. We all know that they have an agenda. Everybody has an agenda. So, let's move to the dos, to the positives. The dos, seven dos.

First of all, be careful what you present your body to, your eyes, your ears, your heart, your mind. We are always presenting our bodies to something, always. It's unceasing. When you stare in your phone, you are presenting your body to that phone. When you listen to something, when you read, you're presenting your body to that thing.

That's why the apostle Paul says in Romans 12, two, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Presenting your body, you're presenting the only instrument you have for the glory of God. And the apostle, he really amps up the seriousness of this in Romans six, 16 through 22. He says, do you not know that whom you present yourselves, slaves to obey, you are that one slaves whom you obey? Who you present your body to is who you're a slave to.

So the first is be careful what you present your body to. Silliness, untruth, fantastical, weirdness. Is that what you want to present your body to? Violence? You want to present your body to violence?

Second, exercise your senses to discern good and evil. Exercise your senses. In other words, it's important to learn to shape our senses. Hebrews 512 speaks about our senses being exercised to discern good and evil. Because whatever we do, whatever we hear, whatever we watch, we are exercising.

We are exercising our senses. Now the writer of Hebrews states this as a heartbreaking reality. He says in verse 12 in Hebrews 5, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, You need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. What he's saying is that you can keep yourself mature like a baby if you exercise your senses on the wrong things.

You are always exercising your senses, always. And the tragic reality is that he's saying that those people, they should have been teachers by now, but they're just babies, because they exercise their senses. He's talking about the immaturity of a church because they've exercised their senses on the wrong things. And so the only thing they can handle now is milk. They're immature.

They've been stupidified by the world because they did wrong exercises. Everybody knows that it kind of matters what kind of exercises you do. Something will happen if you do certain exercises, but your soul is the same way your senses are the same way There are exercises of the soul the Puritans talked about that. They actually talked about spiritual exercises You can find that word all over their literature So exercise your senses to discern good and evil. Here's the third positive.

Be careful with your life, be careful. This whole matter of being careful is all over the Bible. Moses commanded the children of Israel to set their whole life on God's ways. In Deuteronomy 533, they're getting ready to go into a pagan land. Moses is saying this in the last month of his life.

And he's telling them, you're gonna see things you've never seen before in Canaan. These people are sacrificing their babies. There is this horrific immorality there. And he's warning them and he says, therefore you shall be careful. You shall be careful to do as the Lord God as your God has commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left you shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

Be careful. Moses over and over again in Deuteronomy is saying, be careful, be careful, be careful. The word appears over and over again in that book. Be careful. Don't just subject yourself to whatever.

Don't just accept everything coming over the transom of the back of your boat. It'll sink you if you do. Fourth, direct your heart into the love of God. Direct your heart into the love of God. 2 Thessalonians 3, 3 through 5.

"'But the Lord is faithful who will establish you "'and guard you from the evil one. "'And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you Both that you do and will do the things we commanded you then he says this now May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. This is a work of God that God would direct your heart. It's a work of the Spirit. Maybe the Lord will do a work of the Spirit in us and maybe in a more powerful, a new way to direct our hearts into the love of Christ.

Not the influencers of this world, because sanctification is not by entertainment. Number five, the fifth positive, separate yourself from the filth of the nations. You know in Ezra chapter 6 We read this narrative of the people they they came back and Into the into the land and they separated themselves from the filth of the nations That's the language and you separated yourself. They separated themselves from the filth of the nations to the of the land in order to seek the God of Israel and then it says that they started celebrating the feasts and they were joyful and the sound of their joy was so loud number six immerse yourself in what is truly lovely immerse yourself in what is truly lovely. Immerse yourself in what is truly lovely.

Philippians 4, 8, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Immerse yourself in what is truly lovely. Seventh, abandon lawful but unprofitable things. Abandon the lawful but unprofitable things. Some lawful things are not profitable.

You're gonna have to figure out what they are. We have to ask, well it might be lawful but is it profitable? It's an exercise but what is it getting me? So the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 6 12 says all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under any but under the power of any that's really to say lay aside anything that hinders even if it's if it's not unlawful if not sin some things there's some things that are not sin they're really not good they're not helpful I don't know what they are for you, but we all have them in one way or another.

That's why the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12 2 said, lay aside every weight that hinders. The sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run the race with endurance that is set before us, looking at to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. There's so much more that I could say both positively and negatively the Bible speaks about so many, so many categories. So what about the influencers? How does sanctification happen?

What happens by the Word of God? And God wants to change his ducklings. And so when they hear the Word of God, they change. They don't just waddle back to their duck houses and keep doing their duck business. They do the business of God.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. All this to say, God is making a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, any such thing. And he does it by the word of God. And he does it to give you living water.

And he does it to give you living bread. He does it to take the burden off your back. He does it to give you living bread. He does it to take the burden off your back. He does it to give you better wine every day until the day you die.

He does it to sanctify and cleanse you by the washing of water by the word. Would you pray with me? Father, I pray that you would make us even more people of the Word, and not of this world, that we would be very discerning, that we would sharpen our senses by holy things that you would come and make us a people who are set apart for your own purposes for your own glory so that we might know those blessings that you have for us. Amen.