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2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1 -Holiness- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-03-16
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Second Corinthians six eleven through chapter seven verse one. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged. You're not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto, my children, be also enlarged. Be not an equally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial, or what part has he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said. I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Father, thank you once again for your holy spirit. Thank you for your love for us. And, Lord, we just commit this time into your hands and ask that you'd be our teacher. We pray that you pour out your holy spirit afresh, that we'd be refreshed and just overflowing with your love. Help us to, walk in wisdom in these last days, Lord. Help us to walk, with integrity and, in the power. Again, the power of your Holy Spirit. We need your power, Lord. We need to walk in the light of your word and not be deceived, not be distracted, not be, shipwrecked in our faith, Lord. So we pray that you'd help us to grow today, To grow in the grace and knowledge of you. Be our teacher, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Paul is now addressing the church of Corinth as a father would address, wayward children. And so he's heartbroken that the church is being seduced, that the false prophets are turning their heads. They're being distracted by the false prophets. Paul spent eighteen months, planting this church there, and now they're turning on him. And, when he gets to chapter 11, he's gonna say, I'm I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. You know? And I've espoused you to one husband, even to Christ, you know, but I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve, you know, so you would be seduced, that you'd be beguiled or tricked by these false prophets who might present a you know, move away from the simplicity that's in Christ and be presenting a different Jesus or a different gospel or coming at you with a different spirit. And so he's saying, you know, in chapter 11, we'll see, you know, don't let that happen. Well, here's part of the symptoms of what's going on. They're walking the fence. They're in love with the world. So they're it's a very licentious, you know, worldly city that of Corinth that they're living in. And so they got one foot in the world, one foot in the kingdom of God, and they they need to see that the Lord's desire is to make them holy, and there needs to be a means of separation. They need to separate themselves from the world. When I first became a Christian, I lived in a party house, and I had a lot of good friends. And a lot of them I hadn't seen for forty years, and and because I I separated from I moved out of there, and I I rented another house, and it was a Christian house with 12 Christian guys living in it. And I found it very difficult to go back to my old friends and hang out with them because the tendency was I'd be pulled down. And so what did light have in common with darkness? It was very difficult to to, you know, visit and hang out and be closely tied to them like I was before. I tried to go to one of the parties and all, and that was disastrous, and so I never went again. And I thought I told myself, can go there and I can just witness, you know. And I can have one beer, you know, I can have two beers. And pretty soon, was, you know, on the verge of really making some doing some stupid things. And so that that that was an alarm bell going off in my head like, no. That's not what I want you to do. You know, pray for your friends and and share the gospel with them, but to be unequally yoked with them, no, I don't want that. You need to separate yourself and surround yourself with like minded believers. And and so we're in the world but not of the world. And so we don't isolate in a communal living or, you know, where we stay away from all the worldlings. We can't do that. We're in the world, but not of the world. We don't wanna be a worldlinger like the world. And the tragedy in the day in which we're living, the same tragedy here, is that to be popular and to be like, the church thinks it needs to bring the world into the church, that the church needs to be as much like the world as possible, and they use the word relevant. We want to be relevant with the culture. And so, I'm not saying that we all need to walk around like we're the Amish or whatever, but, you don't need to bring the ideology. You don't need to bring the values of the world into the church. And, that's, you know, that's selling Jesus out. You're adulterating Jesus in that, hey. I'm gonna use Jesus, and I'm gonna try and slip him in the back door. You know? I'm gonna go to the bars, and I'm gonna drink with people and try and share the gospel. And and, like, you know, Spurgeon smoked the cigars, and Whitfield drank the, you know, the rum, and and, Martin Luther and Zwingli and these other guys, they love their beers and stuff. And so we're gonna incorporate. We're gonna be the emergent church. We're gonna incorporate the reformation, and we're gonna go win the loss. You know? And what happens there? We wind up compromising. We wind up getting DUIs. We wind up making fools of ourselves because people in the world are wiser than we are, and, they would just appreciate a Christian being a Christian. That's what they'd really appreciate. They'd appreciate someone that's distinctly different than the world, And, they don't want you being relevant. They want you being different. They're they're reaching a place where they're, that sensing that place of emptiness in their life that nothing's fulfilling, and you're presenting Jesus Christ. You know? His kingdom's not of this world. You know? And so we as Christians, we do well to heed what Paul's saying here, that of holiness. Just concentrate on drawing close to Jesus and being holy. Allow your life to, you know, be a light that shines in a dark place. So God our father has called us to be holy. Number one, our father's plea. He's pleading with the church of Corinth. O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged, so our mouth is wide open. You know, we love you. The more we love you, the less you love in return. You're breaking your father's heart. And you that have raised children or those of you who remember when you were estranged from your parents at some point, you know, they're just heartbroken. Nobody can break a parent's heart like their own children. Their own the ones that they brought forth out of the womb and did everything they could for them, and they reach teenagers or even early twenties, and all of a sudden, there's this venom coming out of them, and they're spewing all this hate, all this built up animosity that you ruined their life, and you this, and you that, and all that. And it just it devastates. You know? Even when they get in their thirties and forties, if you're not careful, they still come back with that sort of a, you know, kind of a caustic kind of an attitude and all. And so it's, we as parents, our hearts are open. We love them no matter what, and it it it can be so incredibly difficult when you love someone so much and and you see the devil destroying them, and you try to intercede for them and intervene and speak into their life, and and they just come forth blasting you that you're the result. You're you're the you're you're the cause. You're the one that caused all this. And so God pleads with his children, turn ye turn ye from evil ways for why will you die, oh house of Israel? Israel just wouldn't hear the prophets. They wouldn't hear Jeremiah. They wouldn't hear Ezekiel. They wouldn't hear Isaiah. They wouldn't hear God pleading with them. Turn ye, turn ye, repent. You know, repent of your sins, Israel. Why would you die? Why would you, you know, suffer? And Jesus in Matthew twenty three thirty seven, he's crying out to Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you know, how often I would have gathered you together as a mother hen does gather a brood under wings, but you would not. As a matter of exercising your will, you've rejected me. You've refused my care of you. And, and Jesus is weeping over the city and and prophesying that not one stone is gonna remain upon another. I can see a day when Titus surrounds this city, puts a siege upon it, and millions of people are gonna die within this this region and this city when he comes and destroys Jerusalem. And all because why? Because you knew not the visitation. You knew not the time that you were living in, the time of your visitation that the messiah is here. You've officially rejected the messiah. You cry start out going, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna. Save now. But four days later, it's crucify him. Crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And it's the cry of a heartbroken father, a heartbroken savior as he looks over the city, seeing the destruction that's coming. And then in verse 12, you're not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. So those of you with King James Bibles, what does that mean? You don't know, do you? It's King James. Right? Alright. That's ain't that funny? How do we don't talk that way anymore. You're straightened in your own bowels. Wow. What's that mean? You're withholding your love. You're withholding your love. They looked at the bowels, the the stomach area as a place of the the emotion. And and so the King James is trying to pick up on that. So you're withholding your love. You're breaking your father's heart. He's loved you with an everlasting love. Everlasting love. His love is never gonna end. God's never gonna get tired of you. He's never gonna say, well, I'm done with this experiment. You know, you have kids. We have kids. We have things in our life where we dive in, and we're so excited. Maybe maybe you are a diver. You get your certification. You're really into diving. Diving's the most cool thing, you know. And then you reach a point where, I don't wanna dive anymore. What's the next thing? I'm gonna ride motorcycle. A rider, you know. And you go into these different phases in your life, different things you do, and you think in terms of God's gonna get tired with this experiment that is earth and human beings and all that. No. He's never gonna get tired of you. He took on the form of a man. He's the babe of Bethlehem. He's he's identifying with you. And in, Ephesians two verse seven, he says in the ages, plural, to come. Looking at time, we're in the church age, then the the worldings are gonna have the tribulation age or period, and then we're gonna have the millennial age, one thousand year rule and reign, And then we have the eternal state, Revelation twenty one and twenty two. Well, in that eternal age, the ages, plural, to come, is God gonna get tired of you? No. In the ages to come, he's gonna continue to pour out his kindness upon you and I. He's gonna continue to reveal his love that he has towards us. I mean, what if he went out there and built some other places, you know? What if there's some things for us to see in our new glorified bodies sent to grow in the grace and knowledge of him and and and the wonderment of him. He is God of creation and God of redemption that's redeemed us, you know, from our sins. And so if a new Jerusalem and a new heaven and earth isn't enough, there may be a lot more out there. You know, I always joke that there's probably a planet that's the surfing planet, and those that like to surf get to go there, you know. And fishing planet, you know, you just break it up. What do you like to do? Oh, I got this planet over here for you. All your different interests, you know. And, I mean, if we enjoy it now, you know, heaven is better. It's not less. So the exhilaration, the excitement, the love, the the camaraderie, the oneness, the joy, the blessing of no more tears, no more sorrow. I've loved you with an ever lasting love. My love hasn't ended, but you've quit loving me. You've left your first love, church of Ephesus. Why would you leave your first love? I counsel you to go back and do your first works, which is what? Turn from your sins and believe in me again. Trust in me. Put me first in your life. And so he's looking out the window for the prodigal. He's waiting for the phone to ring. He's waiting for your call. He's loved you with an everlasting love. So why the indifference? Why the cold shoulder? Where is your love? Why the indifference? Why are you lukewarm, church of Laodicea? Why are you insipid and powerless and, you know, just walking the fence in the middle? Where's the indifference? You know? Jesus said, we've danced, you know, we played dancing music and you won't dance. We played dirge music and you won't mourn. You know? A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. There's no sign gonna be given up, but the sign of the prophet Jonah is Jonah was three days and three nights in the heart of the in the belly of the fish, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish and all. And so you can discern the weather, but you don't discern the times, you know, you're living in. You're just totally, completely in the blank, unaware of the prophetic times that we're living in. And and again, only 2% of the church today teaches prophecy, which is 27% of the Bible. Why would the church wanna be asleep at the cusp, at the very edge, at the very moment, the epoch, the time, the age, the end of the church age, which ends with the rapture, and the second coming of Christ to set up his kingdom upon earth? Why would you wanna be oblivious? It must be you're in love with something else. What is that something else? Could it be the world? You're in love with the world, and you're saying, Jesus, don't come back yet. Don't come back yet. I I got I got worldly plans. I got a golden age planned. I got a guy in office that's gonna change the world and make everything right. You know, if you could just wait a little bit longer, you know, maybe I could climb the ladder a little bit higher and enjoy the things of the world a little bit longer. So we misconstrue and think that prophecy is doom and gloom instead of the pieces of the puzzle coming together for the return of Jesus. You know? I mean, how could we miss out on that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior if we're so madly in love with him, we can't take our eyes off of him. You get your eyes off him, you get your eyes on things of the world. And, and he's saying, hey, church of Laodicea, you kicked me out of the church. You kicked me out of my own church. I'm on the outside of the church knocking. I'm saying, let me back in. I'm willing to have fellowship, but you've kicked me out. Why? Because you think you're rich, that your stock market, your pension, all your stuff's never gonna go anywhere except up. You think you're rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. That's a that's a scary place to be, a falsehood. Because as in a moment, that can change. Right? We've heard of stock market crashes. Right? Could they happen on our watch? Oh, no. No. So Jesus said, you know, your true condition, spiritual condition, is your naked, poor, blind, and miserable. That's who you are. These things, the world that you're in love with, you remind me of Lot. You think Lot was was content with being in Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you think he loved being there? It says his soul was vexed day by day, and he was a mover and shaker. He was in a place of government, and and they were the sin of Sodom in Ezekiel 16 was pride, fullness of bread, idleness, and they cared not for the poor and needy. How'd they get proud? Because they didn't have to work every day. They were prosperous. And that's why Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. It was a field because he he started out being a shepherd with Abraham. Right? His uncle Abraham. But the herdsmen are fighting, and so Abraham gave him the choice, the first choice. You go the direction you want. He chose the best for himself. And Abraham, being a a man of God, you know, the only real estate he ever bought was the cave at McPhilah to bury his beloved, you know, Sarah in. That's it. He was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. He's a pilgrim and a sojourner just passing through. And so he's a shepherd, and he's a powerful man of faith, the father of our faith. But Lot, his nephew, what happened to Lot? He's a worldling. Remember Lot. Remember Lot's wife. The last days are to be like Noah, as in the days of Noah, eating and drinking, you know, marrying and giving in marriage, business as usual in the last days. Business as usual today. It's also gonna be like Sodom and Gomorrah, a time of great moral depravity and wickedness and such. And and so Lot, he winds up in the city. He winds up in love with the things of the world. Abraham and Sarah, they had a they had a point in time where they almost got sucked in. God allowed a famine to happen, and in that time of famine, what did they do? Rather than relying upon God, they went back to Egypt, was this type of the world. So he wasn't perfect, but Hebrews 11 edits all that out. And I'm glad that Lot, Peter reminds me, and righteous Lot. Oh, boy. Righteous Lot. Father of the year. But Abraham and Sarah, they came out of Egypt with Hagar, and they tried to help God out by going into Hagar to bring forth the seed of promise. They brought forth Ishmael. God didn't speak to Abraham and Sarah for thirteen years. That was a lapse of faith. Edited out of the book of Hebrews 11. Right? He's a man of faith by faith by faith by faith. But Lot, back to Lot, he's there in the city gate. He's one of the movers and shakers. And then, God Jesus goes and visits the home of Abraham and Sarah with two angels, and, they let him know that by this time next year, Sarah's gonna, you know, be pregnant and all, and have a baby and all that. And then the Lord begins to let Abraham know the condition of of of Sodom and Gomorrah and sends two angels down there to see it firsthand. And and before all that happens, you know, Abraham's an intercessor, and he's interceding on behalf of Lot and the people there, his nephew, his nephew's wife, and he's got four daughters. Two of them are married, and two are virgins. They they haven't been married yet. And and if there's 50 righteous, if there's 45 righteous, if there's forty, thirty, all the way down to 10, if there's 10 righteous, would you not, you know, judge Sodom and Gomorrah? Yeah. If there's 10 righteous, I won't judge. And you know the story. The angels come into the city, and these men, these Sodomites, that's where the word comes from, these Sodomites, they they want their way with these men. They've had their way with every other man in the city. There's new men to defile. Imagine living in a place like that. And Lot being the father of the years, says, no. Take my two virgin daughters instead. And they don't want his virgin daughters. They don't want them. They want the man. And the angels tell Lot, hey, get your act together. We're going, and we gotta leave. We're gonna flee this city and grabs and Lot's lingering, and his wife's lingering, and the daughters and such. And so they wind up getting out of the city. They're heading toward the mountains, and, his wife looks back. She turns into a pillar of salt. Jesus said, remember Lot's wife, what's that mean? How do we interpret that? Was she in love with Sodom and Gomorrah? Was she looking back? No man having put his hand on the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God? That keeps looking back to the world? Are you looking back at the world, or are you looking up for Jesus, for his kingdom, for his coming? And so you know the story goes further. Lot winds up with his daughters in a cave, and they misconstrue. They think they're the last ones on the planet. So they get daddy drunk, and then they go into daddy, or he goes into them somehow. I don't know how it worked, but they both got pregnant. So you got the Moabites, the Ammonites coming forth from this illicit, crazy, incestuous relationship. And Peter says, and righteous Lot. That means there's hope for me. Because it's by grace through faith. It's Lot's faith in Jesus that made him righteous. Not those sinful acts. Those sinful acts were paid for at the Cross Of Calvary where God poured out his wrath upon him. And righteous Lot. I'd have never known that Lot made it had Peter not given me a commentary by the power of the Holy Spirit. There's hope for you too. God loves you with an everlasting love. And to demonstrate his his mercy and his grace, he actually brought forth the Messiah, his son, through that incestuous relationship, through Ruth the Moabites. Ruth and Boaz became a thing, and they brought forth Obed, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot forth, you know, David. And David, Jesus is the root and the offspring of David. What what an amazing God we have. That where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And it's all about him, isn't it? It's all about his glory. It's all about his righteousness, not our filthy rags that we try to throw out there to cover our nakedness. And so his love, it's all because of his love, for God so loved you. And so remember from where you are fallen, old church, return to me. Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. So he knows we're vulnerable, we're hurt, we're scarred. He knows the the the lostness, how lost we can become, how far away from him we can we can drift, and he's just calling us back home. He's calling us home to holiness. God our father has called us to be holy, our father's plea. Secondly, our father's prohibition. Verse 14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Why? Because you'll get hurt. Do you think you're the exception? Do you think you can go on dating.com and and just pick anyone there? And don't you don't you vet? Don't you ask the first question, are you a Christian? Don't you qualify? Are you a Christian? Yeah. I'm a Christian. What kind of Christian are you? Well, I'm a Trumper Christian. Well, I'm a Harris Christian. Really? Well, I'm a Baptist. Well, I'm a Calvary guy. I'm a well, what what do you mean you're a Christian? Well, I was I was born in a Christian home. I'm a Catholic. I got Christian. I got dunked. I got sprinkled. Are you born again? What's it mean to be born again? You got a vet. Because he says straight here, you're not to be an equally yoked with an unbeliever. So the demons say there's one God, they do well, and they tremble. So you believe in God, but you believe in Jesus. What do you mean by believe? How would you define your faith? And if he or she says, well, I believe that Jesus is the virgin born son of God, and that he went to the cross perfect, and that he was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the father, and he's coming again. And whosoever comes calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever believes in his heart that he's crucified, buried, and raised from the dead, he shall be saved. Alright. We can have one date. We're not having sex the first night because that's the test. If you're really a Christian, you're not gonna be asking to have sex, are you, outside of marriage? There's another test there. You don't try to Christianize people. You're unequally yoked with an unbeliever. You're gonna spend generations in turmoil. You're gonna be hurt. So God's trying to save you from the hurt. He's saying, why don't you trust me to change them first? Let them prove that they're worthy of your hand, worthy of marriage with you. Make them prove it by being celibate, by being godly, by being honorable, by being holy. Prove it. How long did Jacob have to work for the hand of Rachel? Seven years. That's a good dowry. Prove it. Have them work seven years to get your daughter's hand. And then do the switcheroo and make them work another seven years to get Leah. And then make them work another six years to get the cattle and the other stuff they're gonna leave with your grandkids. Right? Twenty years. That's like like Laban, he's smart. He's a smart guy. Had to prove it. And Jacob, his response was, it seemed as a moment for the love with which he had for Rachel. It wasn't a burden. It was a blessing. Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Why? Because you get hurt. For whom the lord loves, he corrects, even as a father, the son, in whom he delights. This word yoked, it speaks of close intimate association. It's forbidden of in Deuteronomy twenty two ten, it's forbidden that you would be yoked. Don't be yoked with unbelievers or an ox with a donkey. It was inappropriate. One's big, one's small. They don't line up. They don't mesh together. That would be inappropriate to do that. And so he's gonna go on to speak concerning the separation that it'd be inappropriate to yoke a child of light and a child of darkness. It'd be inappropriate to try and mix these two things, so you need to stay away in that way. So for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? How can two walk together except they be agreed? How can two be business partners? A Christian businessman or woman with a, you know, unbelieving man or woman. A little eleven eleven is a whole lump. So and what communion has light with darkness. So these mixed marriages, there is no communion. There's no oneness. There's no deep intimacy and all. And, so if you've made the mistake of, marrying an unbeliever as a Christian, it's a mistake. It's a huge mistake. And so what do we do? Well, in first Corinthians seven, if they wanna leave, you let them leave. But and you're free to remarry. It's abandonment. So you start as two unbelievers. One of you gets saved, and the other one's not saved. If they are angry or whatever fighting against the fact that you're in love with Jesus now, you're in love with another man, then you let them go. If they wanna go. But if they wanna stay, let them let them stay and just love them into the kingdom as best you can. But as a Christian woman, a Christian man, raised in a Christian home, you don't want to test God. You don't wanna test him by saying you're the exception, and I'm I think we're in love. And I think because we're in love that it must be God's will. You might be looking to forty years of hell. That person might become the most belligerent alcoholic you ever met, And you think it's funny at this point. So don't don't put God to the test. Let God test him. Let God test her. May identify ahead of time. Don't run on emotions. You're all children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. So you're different. Be distinctly different. Jesus said you're the light of the world. Jesus said you're not to take that light and hide it under a bushel, but let it shine. Let it shine bright. Don't be, intimidated or afraid of the world. Don't try to win the world by becoming darker. Don't allow darkness into your life or home or or even the church to try and assimilate and bring together the, you know, the world. So churches will make a huge mistake, taking the word of God and treating so called seekers like their kindergartners or a nursery school, not teaching the word of God. And so the word of God is is to be used to edify, to build up, to strengthen, not to water down the word of God and water down the gospel so that the unbelievers like me, so that I got more nickels and noses and a bigger church and all, in hopes that we can get them all saved someday. No. That's an insipid, powerless, social construct. That's not a church. That's the apostasy in the last days. Instead, challenge the person at the door and let them know, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's their choice. Don't hide the cross, the offense of the cross. Don't water down the word. Just take the word and go through the word, bring them through the word of God, and let the word of God do the convicting and the converting. Don't dishonor God by by taking his church and making it filled with a bunch of whiny little babies who only want cotton candy, sugar, things like that. You know? Grow up. Paul talked to the church at Corinthians this way in first Corinthians three. He said that they were babes in Christ, that they were carnal, they were fleshly Christians, that he could only give them milk, not meat. They weren't ready to for the meat. They didn't want the meat. They're just babes. And he defined it as, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. I'm of Cephas. I'm all divided. We're divided everywhere. Is Christ divided? No. You're being immature. Quit having your little clicks, your little groups and stuff. Grow up. Time to grow up. So you're better than that. Don't settle for anything less than God's best. Verse 15. What concord has Christ with Belial? Belial is the devil. So you wanna merge, you wanna be an equally oak. Well, how can light be with darkness? How can righteousness be with unrighteousness? How can Christ be with the devil? How can they work together? The devil. The devil is the author of confusion, the author of chaos. Look how divided the world is becoming today. I mean, I'm hearing stories, and one of the guys here that told me this story, is it okay to speak on it? If I hear it, it's okay to be in the sermon. Right? It wasn't in confidence, was Well, we'll find out. I better hold back. But anyway, divided divided over politics, divided over Republican Democrat. Right? One person's a Trumper, and they put a sign out front, and man, it's Trump, Trump, Trump. And the next door neighbor is a Biden Harris, and they've been loving friends. They've been loving like family. And now they're at odds. Now they're angry. Now they can't even speak to each other. Why we just did the pledge of allegiance. We're we're not supposed to be divided. Right? We're a constitution republic. Right? United, we stand. Divided, we fall. Why would you not see that more importantly, you're both Americans? You're both family members. And let's take it a little closer. We've seen many people divide over Trump in the church. The church can be divided. You're better than that. You're Christians, and you're not allowing yourself to be divided over these things. You're being played. You're being played. Don't don't let it happen. We're to love one another, and we're to agree with the as the scripture is consistent. Now I would divide over heresy. I would separate on regard to false doctrine, and I'd have to stand against that. But, whether I'm white or black or long hair, short hair, or rich or poor, or Republican or Democrat, or all these different means that people divide over, it's just idiocy. You're being played. And I'm looking at the polarization of America right now. It's just insane how polarizing things are. You know? We're being divided. And Jesus said, you know, a kingdom divided against itself can't stand. It it's headed toward desolation. And and a city or a home that's divided against itself can't stand. So Jesus is going in Matthew 12, and he's healing a a person that was dumb and blind, demon possessed, and brought that demon out, and the person could speak and see. And the Pharisees, as the people are all excited, the Pharisees said, he did this through the power of Beelzebub. Well, it says here, what communion is light with darkness? It says, and what concord has Christ with Belial? How can Satan cast out Satan, Jesus would say. If Satan's kingdom's divided, he's taken down his own kingdom. That doesn't make sense, you guys. How how is it that this guy's demon possessed and Beelzebub was the one that gave Jesus the power to cast out that demon? It's illogical. It's irrational, you know, Jesus is saying. Satan's kingdom couldn't stand. He wouldn't be able to. Any kingdom that's divided like that, is met for desolation. In any city or home, is your home divided? Is your family divided over Jesus Christ? Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace but a sword. A man's enemies would be those of his own household. There are times where your home is divided, believer against unbeliever. Family members, there may not all be saved. They might be the very ones that are gonna turn you in someday. People closest to you. And so Jesus was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. If if he's rejected by all of us, you know, in the age in which we're living, we we should be aware of a swing toward rejecting Jesus, rejecting his word, his word not being allowed in the schools and in the culture and in the in the public square. But but, the Book of Mormon or Islam and all these other things allowed into the public square. But somehow Christianity, somehow Jesus is something to divide over for the world. They know it. They don't they don't wanna peacefully coexist with us. We're at war. There's a war raging. A spiritual dynamic, a spiritual war. So what concord has Christ with Belial? That word concord means harmony, symphony. God wants your life to be like a beautiful harmonious music. And so not this chaos that the devil's bringing upon the planet right now. God's allowing chaos. God's allowing the present order. In America, it's called the constitutional republic to provide order, to allow the lawless one, the antichrist is the lawless one that's emerging, the beast systems emerging. And the governments of the planet are moving more and more away from the rule of law, especially in America, the constitutional republic, the the highest power in our land is the constitution. We're we're, when you're a government employee, you're to be chained to the constitution. You're fighting against enemies, foreign and domestic. If they violate, you're a military person, they violate the constitution, you obey the constitution. That's the way it's supposed to be. But we're watching the circumventing, and all the judges, and different things going on. The corruption is so great. They're exposing the corruption. Doge is exposing the fraud and the corruption. The whole system's being exposed, and people are being threatened with losing their jobs. 25% of the shipyard could possibly lose their job. 50% of the navy might be reduced. America is coming down so that the global system can emerge. When, Vicky did the podcast, one of the things that astounded me is the club of Rome previously had America with Canada and with Mexico. So the club of Rome has the world divided into 10 regions already. And in these 10 regions, these 10 toes of Daniel two, the bible prophesies the world be divided in 10 regions. There'd be a king over each region. So we're gonna go back to the reemergence or the rebirth of the Roman empire, which was imperial. So you picture America's empire over the planet with all the military bases, that's gonna come down, and then there's going to be a leader that emerges called the Antichrist in place of Jesus Christ, the world's Messiah, that Europeans are looking for right now. They're looking for because there's an absence of leadership. So as you see the demise of the dollar, the demise of the confidence that people have in the present economic system, and ability of man to govern himself and military and such, it's gonna leave a void, a vacuum, a huge vacuum that needs to be filled, and that vacuum would be filled with a different form of government, which many project to be a technocratic form of government with kings, over them. So in Daniel two, it's described as 10 toes. In Daniel seven, ten horns. Horns speak of power. And then in Revelation thirteen and seventeen, a clear understanding, a clear clearly telling you that these these toes, these horns, these crowns are kings, 10 kings. And these 10 kings will eventually give their sovereignty over to the antichrist. He fights with three of them, he becomes the eighth. But what's interesting, this club of Rome that Vicky posted, it's astounding to me. It now has Greenland. I never saw that before. And the Trumpster wants Greenland. He wants Greenland in there. I mean, the Bible prophetically is happening. And these Revelation seventeen seventeen says that God's gonna put it in the hearts of these leaders to do according to his will. So it looks like the devil's fighting in trying to get his beast system ready and all that, but it's really God allowing these guys to set the stage. These ideas come into their minds, and God says, alright. That one, I'll let go through. You can have Greenland, you know. You get the Panama Canal. I don't even know why the Panama Canal needs to be yet. But it's so astounding to me to be living and watching, you know, this, beast system, the birth pangs, you know, emerging and all. But what needs to take place for that to happen is chaos. You gotta crash the stock market. You gotta reduce the military. You gotta reduce the dollar. You gotta weaken America. Maybe not get rid of America completely, but enough chaos because it's crisis reaction solution. The devil is the author of confusion. The devil's the one that's going to create this chaos. And then the great reset comes out. The solution is a digital currency. The fulfillment of Revelation 13. A one world government, Revelation 13. A one world religious system. And so we're watching it happen, and we're watching this kingdom. Jesus said, my kingdom's not of this world. Well, his kingdom's coming. But the devil's kingdom that he offered to Jesus, have you bowed on and worship me, it's starting to emerge. It's being held back by the restraint of the holy spirit working through the church, if you're aware. Holding it, slowing it. And if the rapture takes place soon, boy, it'll happen quick. It'll accelerate. But the birth pangs are accelerating because of the apostasy, the church's lack of salt and light. We're watching the beast system emerge more and more, get more latitude, more traction because the church presently is so weakened. We don't speak or know or even understand what's happening. We're buying into lies for the most part. And so a house divided against itself cannot stand. Remember who's your daddy? John chapter eight verse 44. Jesus told the religious leaders, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. That's pretty clear language. Did Jesus miss anything? Did he hold anything out? Was he unloving to these religious leaders? Can he talk that way? Can he talk so direct to these people? Maybe their feelings were hurt. The kindergarten church is all about feelings. They can't think. Can't think. Can't rationalize. Can't reason. It's feelings. That's why I say get the hanky. Get the hanky out. Blow your nose. He says, what part has he that believes with an infidel? So again, dating an unbeliever is dangerous. Being yoked, getting too close. And so I would say that, you know, when you're at work, you're in the world but not of the world, it's an evangelistic effort. You're gonna try and share the gospel with people at the store wherever you're at, but you wouldn't yoke up so tight that you had to compromise to keep the relationship going. That you'd have to compromise your beliefs. That you'd have to tone it down, be quiet, you know, not say anything. At work, certainly, you might need to tone it down, keep it down to keep your job to a certain degree, but with free speech, when it's your time, you should be able to speak and shout from the rooftops. And so we we're influencers. We influence people in that evangelistic effort to be salt and light, which means you make them thirsty. They want they're thirsty. They want what you got, and you don't even need to say anything. They sense that you are different. Not relevant, different in a good way, especially when they're going through a divorce, especially when they're going through a great sickness, especially when God has their attention and they're searching. They start to search. They start to search for a way of meaning and purpose and where did I go wrong? How can I make it right? You know? Did I build on sand? They may not even know that concept. And you explain the building on the sand, and your life of being built on Jesus Christ. The storm, same storms they're going through, their marriage, everything went through. The same job loss, same job loss you have, but your life, your marriage, your wife, your husband is built upon Jesus. And Jesus is there with you to make it through that trial. Whereas their life's exposed as being built on sand, unstable because they can't get through the pressure, the melting down, the dose pressure, they can't get through it, and they start melting down. And you're like, oh, I don't like this at all, but God has a plan. I'm walking by faith day by day, and this life's an adventure. And I've been through a lot already, but God's on the throne. He's got another job for me, and that's what I tried to exhort you during COVID. All they had to do is say, you take this jab or you're gonna lose your job. And I'm saying, how big is your God? Don't you think he has another job for you? You think he's gonna let you die? Well, I'm gonna lose my mortgage. I'm loo well, you're gonna lose your life. You're get myocarditis. You're you're gonna die from this shot. And how many thousands and hundreds of thousands have died already? And the and the turbo cancers and the heart problems associated with it. And now I read this week that doctor Sherry Tenpin is saying that in, Europe, they're allowing the doctors, to suffer the consequences of pushing the jab. So Pfizer's got immunity. Fauci's got immunity. Bill Gates got immunity. But now they're opening the door for those doctors? That don't seem right. They should be going after all of them. But an admission, at least, a public admission that these shots hurt people. So it comes down to faith. So I was exhorting you, don't be threatened. Don't give in to the devil. Have faith that God will take care of you. And that's a man or woman of faith that built their life on Jesus Christ. Their life isn't built on the world and the things of the world. And then we have test after test after test. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? So you're gonna bring idols into the temple of God? And in apostasy, many of the kings of Egypt, kings of Israel did just that. Ahayas, king Ahayas brought idols into the temple. For you are the temple of the living God. You are. You and I are. We are the temple of the living God. In the plural and in the singular. In the plural, the church is the temple of the living God. He's living and dwelling within us. In the singular, you are the temple of the holy spirit. God is dwelling within you. The work of the holy spirit is with, in, and upon the prepositions. With, he comes to convict you of sin. Then you're converted. To be born again means the holy spirit comes in you. Adam and Eve, the day we eat of it, you shall surely die. They died spiritually. Then they died physically. We're body and soul. But then when we're born again, we're body, soul, and spirit. The holy spirit dwells within each of us. And so you're gonna defile that temple with idols, with idolatry. You're gonna defile it with with filth of the world. You're gonna bring the world into that temple, into the mind, the will, the heart of who you are. The filthy television, the filthy media, the filthy engagements and things we do? You're gonna you're gonna say, hey. I'm a Christian, but I'm gonna make a place for the devil to live here too? Do you wanna share your bed with somebody else? God wants intimacy with you. He wants exclusivity. He wants you to make him your first love. No compromise. None of you would wanna share the marital bed with, you know, with somebody else. That's crazy. That's not who you are. You're better than that. He says, will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Can your father be at home with you, in you, or defiled? Sometimes we hear a story of the guy saying, hey, I'm a Christian, and Jesus comes over to your house for dinner, and and he comes into your house, and everything's fine. Everything's swept, garnished food. Everything's kinda good, but he smells something. There's something here. There's something here in this temple. There's something in this home that that's unsettling me. And he says, you know what? I think there's a door that shut up there upstairs or downstairs the man room, man cave, or however you wanna do it. And there's a stench coming from it. Let me go up there and see what's going on and clean that room for you. Oh, no. No. No. I'm a Christian, but there's this one part of me that I still wanna hold on to. I I I just don't wanna let go of it. It it it when I'm triggered, when I'm under a lot of pressure, that's what I rely upon. That's what I go back to. And Jesus is like, if you want me to stay here, we're gonna have to get rid of that. Now the battle goes on. There's a fight going on. Are you gonna surrender and let Jesus transform and change you, or are you gonna fight with him and try to bring the world, as much of the world, you know, into that relationship? Pornography, fornication, alcohol, marijuana, drugs, sorcery, wickedness, evil cannot peacefully coexist in that relationship with Jesus. When it comes into your life, you confess that you've sinned. And he's faithful and just to forgive you of that sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And that Christian's bar of soap is for the whole time you're in this body because we all fall. But to hide something, to cover over something, to hide it in some room or some compartment of your being, the Lord's saying, you're gonna keep stumbling. You're gonna keep being defeated. You're gonna keep falling in that area of your life until you give it over to me. You can't do it. You're not strong enough. Let me take it from you. Let me, as the great physician, take my scalpel and cut it out of your life. Let me give you something better. The next time you fall, the next time you're agitated, the next time that trigger goes off, rely upon me. Learn to open the book, learn to read, learn to worship, learn to sit before my feet and to pray and develop new habits. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ because it's coming in through your thought life. These things are coming in through your thought life. And the devil knows your weaknesses, and he's gonna keep bringing that stuff around till you take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, till you reject it at the very beginning, at the eye gate, the ear gate, hearing it. You sow a thought, you're gonna reap an action. You sow an action, you're gonna reap a habit. You sow a habit, you're gonna reap a character. You sow a character, you're gonna reap a destiny. You want intimate, sweet fellowship with Jesus? Then let him be at home in your heart. Let him make those decisions of what's permissible and what's not because all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient, which means profitable. So as you evaluate things, you say, is this gonna bring me closer to Jesus? Is it neutral, or is it gonna take me further away from Jesus? And many of us wanna live on the fence in the gray area of the neutrality. So you're not growing, you're not getting stronger, but you're content to be in the world and be a worlding Christian. So all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient, and I won't be brought under the power of any. Does it have the potential to bring you under its power? To bring you into bondage? Or would it bring your wife or your husband or your daughter or son under bondage? So why would you invite these things into your house that have a potential to bite back? Why not remove them? And don't have one foot in Egypt. Enter into all that God has for us. Live the life of the spirit. Pursue pursue the things of the spirit. But you're liberated. You can have all the wine you want, all the booze you want, all the no. You can't go there. You just don't want it anymore. You lost the appetite. You see the cause and effect. You evaluate the plus and the minus. And it's like, no, I I don't wanna live in the neutral. I don't want that in the gray area of my life. I wanna move on, and I don't want my kids falling. They may not have the intensity. They might not have the the perseverance in their character, to avoid these things. They may be sucked into the peer group and start out at partying like we did and and delve into it, and and then you see them later destroyed in their forties and fifties by it. It all started out as fun. But you have experience. You know that you know that you know. So I live on the fence. Can your father be at home with you? Or is he defiled as you're defiled? You bring defilement into the relationship. There shall no strange god be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange god. These little idols that we that we delve into. These idols that we bring into the church and into our lives. Now if one of you guys or one of you gals goes and cheats on your spouse, what if you bring home a sexually transmitted disease? What if you bring herpes home to your relationship? Do you wanna take that risk? Do you wanna be found out in that way? You really wanna ruin your marriage and your relationship with your wife all because you've idolized a certain shape, a certain something in the pornography that you're pouring yourself into, inflaming your passions? Instead, Jesus says, come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Life's tough. It's not easy. And these people were carrying the burden of the law, the pharisees who were putting them under the law, performance relationship. And Jesus says, not come on to a new 12 step that I have or a new program that I'm implementing the church. Hey. We got a new program. No. He says, come on to me. Who shall separate you from the love of God? Right? There's nobody that can because Jesus has us in the palm of his hand. So come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, carrying this burden of guilt, this burden of trying to keep the law, this burden of success and failure, the roller coaster ride. And he says, I'll give you rest. You need rest. People are so anxious. They're so filled with anxiety and fear and and breaking down, melting down presently. It's getting crazy to watch. So many different politicians screaming out about war and armaments and NATO and Ukraine and Russia and Gaza and Syria, the Christians being killed in Syria and Israel and and, Iran and everything. It's it's war. Jesus said wars and rumors of war. Where's it where's it gonna go? Will there be peace? Will they broker a peace deal? Take my yoke upon you, Jesus says, and learn of me. Churches should be a place of getting to know Jesus. The study of his word to get to know him with the help of the Holy Spirit. Learn of me, he says. Not of psychology, not of YouTube pseudoscience and stuff. Learn of me. Get to know Jesus. That's why you get up in the morning and take your bath, your shower, and put your clothes on. You come here to hear from Jesus, to get to know him better. And you're crying your prayers, Lord, speak to me. Speak to my heart. Give me ears to hear. Give me a heart to apply that which I'm learning today. And others would say, too much bible. Too much bible. I can't track. Can't trace. Can't can't that's not my fault. You're a child. Grow up. Endure sound doctrine. It'll get better. It'll get easier, but think. Read your bible before you come here. That'll help. Read your bible through the week. That'll help a lot. You'll have a working knowledge of the scripture. You'll be able to anticipate what I'm gonna say next because you know the scriptures. I can't follow them. Well, get the tape. Watch the tape. He says, learn to me for a meek and lowly in heart. So he's not so big, so high up that you and I don't have access to him. He's the carpenter of Nazareth. He's the babe of Bethlehem. I'm lowly in heart, and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy. Jesus is the greatest carpenter in the city of Nazareth. When they'd come to his father's shop, Jesus would take and fashion from wood a yoke that would not chafe your neck, that would go around your neck just with a perfect collar, a perfect purpose, a perfect everything. When you yoke up to him, when you come in in connection with him, he's got a plan and a purpose for your life that's not gonna chafe. And my burden is light. So yoke up with Jesus. His yoke is easy, which means kind. It fits. It won't chafe your neck. Speaks of communion with him, the oneness, worship, fellowship with him and our father. Holiness. That's where God's bringing us. God our father has called us to be holy. Our father's plea, our father's prohibition, and thirdly, our father's promise. Verse 17. Wherefore, come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. Separation means devoted to God for a special purpose, separate from sin and unto God. So you wanna separate from the sin, separate from the world. You wouldn't wanna be a Christian going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and try and fit in. You'd say, no. That's not a place I should be. Unless God sent you there on a mission with tracks and tapes and the gospel and whatever else you might think that you can reach people who are perishing. And that may be the very place that he sends you, but not to blend in, not to enjoy, not to be a a part of the debauchery. You're to be devoted to God for a per special purpose. What is your purpose? Why has God made you? He's gifted all of us, given all of us gifts, separate from sin and unto God. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. So don't be defiled by the world. Love God. Love what God loves and hate what God hates. It's okay to hate. It's okay to hate evil. You love the sinner, but hate the sin. You love your enemies, but you hate their ideology. You hate the wickedness and the evil and the and the and the things that transpires from it. Don't be in love with the world. He says, first John two fifteen, love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life is not of the father, but of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abides forever. Are you doing the will of God? Be like Abraham and not like Lot. Verse 18. And we'll be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Jesus wants you to be a part of the, as the father of the fatherless. He's the father of the fatherless. Are you a fatherless orphan? He wants to be your dad. He wants to be your your father. Your heavenly father wants to adopt you into his family. In Hosea fourteen three, it says, we will never again say, our gods, little g gods, to what our own hands have made. For in you, the fatherless find compassion. So they're replacing the relationship with the true and living God, and they're bringing in idols. Idols that eyes they had, but they couldn't see. Ears they have, but they couldn't hear. Mouse they have, but they couldn't speak. They're taking in demeaning, dishonoring God in Romans one, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever. So they're falling down to to beasts and animals and images of animals and that of creation rather than worshiping the true living God, the creator. He says, chapter seven verse one, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So God promises us his eternal kingdom, his home, his family for those who believe in him. Perfecting holiness means to carry to perfection. The word perfect means full development, grown into maturity of godliness. Not staying in that place of worldliness of the kindergarten or the nursery kind of mentality that the churches have today. There's a desire to grow. And I believe the difference is appetite. I believe the difference in the churches today is simply appetite. What are you hungry for? If you're hungry for the things of the world, I got nothing for you. And it's it's logical. It's reasonable that you go somewhere else where they're going to feed you or give you that which you're desiring. You have itchy ears, and you want doctrines of demons. You want psychology. You want self help. You want, you know, what the world is is selling. And they're Christianizing the world, making it sound like that's Christianity. It's not Christianity. It's not the word of God. God didn't need the help of Freud and Roy and all these guys. He doesn't need the help of the philosophers of the world. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness found in his word. He said, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. That's the job of the pastor. If he's a wolf, he doesn't care. If he's a wolf, he's gonna fleece you, and he's gonna give you what you want, which is cotton candy, and you're not gonna grow. You're gonna be in a rested state of development, a babe, and may not even be in Christ because we identify Christians as those who have an appetite, an appetite for the word of God. I've never seen Wayne and Brittany try to convince their babies to have an appetite for milk. It's innate. It's in them. They have an appetite, a desire for milk. A new believer has an appetite for the word of God. You can't keep them out of here. A new believer has a voracious appetite to be taught God's word. And they're willing to enter in at an entry level of kindergarten or nursery, and that's appropriate. But to be a 40 year old babe and have no affinity and no appetite to learn and to grow reflects upon you. And I don't think there's anyone in here like that. You wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't keep coming back to be beat up like I'm beating you right now. But I'm not speaking to you. I'm I'm really speaking to the culture, the idiocy of churches that don't teach God's word. It's it's dishonoring to God. It's apostasy. It's a falling away from the truth. It's a rebellion against the truth, and it's prophesied of the Lord that this would be the characteristic. It'd be man centered. God promises he his eternal kingdom, his home, his family for those who believe in him. And so we want you to grow up. We want you to mature. The word edify means to build you up. We don't wanna tear you down. We wanna build you up to be edified. So in Ephesians four, he gives pastors, teachers for the edifying of the church, to build the church up. And so the blessing I I had the greatest pastor in the history of the world and pastor Chuck, and I got saved at a concert, and they didn't have to call me and say, hey. There's church tomorrow at ten. Hey. Hey. You hey. You missed. They never had to call me. If I did miss, they didn't call, but they they just assumed that if I'm hungry, I'd show up. And pastor Chuck was the most consistent bible teacher you ever saw. Several times a week and other pastors, assistant pastor, total smorgasbord of bible. Bible. Bible. Bible. And he used to tell us when we first left the school of ministry, the more the bible you teach or excuse me. He used to say, if you teach it, they will come. Like Kevin Costner with a field of dreams. So if you teach the bible to people in this community, they will develop an affinity and appetite for the word of God. There's certain people in the community that aren't being fulfilled in the churches they're attending because they're Rick Warren churches, purpose driven churches, that don't teach prophecy, that don't teach doctrine, that have watered down the word of God. It's no longer doctrine, it's deeds. The people have misconstrued that it's both. And so they're gonna go around feeding the homeless, providing water, give them blankets, and remove all the the graffiti and give backpacks to kids in the public school. And we're gonna work with the kids in the public school and the teachers in the public school to be missional. And twenty years in that experiment, the people are still as dumb as when they started. They don't know the word of God. So they bring in counselors to deal with the sickness of the soul, to deal with depression, discouragement, and all the other things coming because these sheep, baby sheep, are so malnourished. It's cruel. But they make them feel good by exhorting them to write checks, nickels and noses. Small groups, but the small groups are arranged to make sure that each and every person in there is writing a check or hooked up with the digital dollar. Entertainment, smoke and mirrors and music and forty five minutes of of music that's like a concert and stuff, and I love that sort of thing. I got saved there, but not Sunday morning. Sunday morning, the emphasis is worship, prayer, the word of God, doctrine, and evangelism. And so we we see the detriment of the church today because they haven't been matured. They haven't been perfected in holiness. And we see the the outlife of that, the tremendous amount of divorces, the tremendous amount of dishonoring God with adultery and fornication and alcohol and drugs and pharmakia and the pot smoking and all of it is because it's worldly. Lacks holiness. It lacks really the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord's a beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord's beginning of knowledge. They don't fear God because they don't know God in many cases. They don't want to know God. So it really comes down to love. Whom do you love supremely? Yourself, someone else, or Jesus? If you love your heavenly father supremely, if he's the master passion of your life, then you won't want to break his heart. You return to your first love. You'll say to Potiphar's wife, how could I do this great evil against God? I'm not gonna do this. I I love Jesus too much. I love my father too much to dishonor him with this illicit relationship with you, this so called affair. So when you return, he will continue to work of perfecting holiness in you when you come back to him. When we come back to him, he's he's ready. He's ready to pick up where we left off. Sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord your God in Leviticus 20 verse seven. In first Peter one fifteen, Peter says, but just as he who has called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. We are called unto holiness. And I agree, we're not there yet. But there's a transformation and change that's taking place. From the very moment that you became a Christian, God has been transforming you, a real transformation, not a transhuman, a real transformation. A metamorphosis is taking place. God is changing you from glory to glory in the image of Christ. And ultimately, it's finished at the rapture when you see Jesus face to face, then you're gonna know even as you are known. He says, behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And he that has this hope in him, what hope? The hope of Jesus, the hope of the rapture, The hope of Jesus coming and get me out of this filthy body. Amen. The hope of finishing this work that he's begun. I'm tired of being a failure. I'm tired of being a loser. I'm tired of being a failed human being. I want to win. I want to reach the mark. I want this thing to be finished. I yearn for that day to put off this old man, put off this fleshly nature that's warring with the spirit all the time. I don't win all the time. I win very very little, really. But Jesus is my victory. He's my triumph. He's my righteousness. So I have to walk by faith now. And I walk by faith, and I'm looking, I'm yearning for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. And he that has this hope in him, what hope? Of being holy, of seeing Jesus, of being with Jesus, whom I love, of wanting his father's house to come, of wanting his father's kingdom to come. He that has his hope in him purifies himself. So that means I don't wanna live like a heathen. That hope I have causes me to wanna live a holier life, Not a not a watching and saying, well, he's gonna delay his coming. I can go back into the world for a while, and then I can switch it back to holiness later. You know? I can use Jesus to have a better marriage. I can just adulterate him and live in the world and live with him and have my fire insurance and all. No. You're worldly. You're like Lot. Don't be like Lot. Be more like Abraham. False, failures, fainted at times. But God edits it all out because in the in the whole sphere of things, it all comes down to faith. He had faith when he needed it. He had faith when it mattered most. And when it matters most, you're gonna honor God because you want to please him. You're in love with him. And he that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. The hope of the rapture when our father sends his son for us. Your father's promise to make you holy. Revelation twenty two eleven, he that is holy, let him be holy still. Would you all stand with me, please? You all know the our father prayer? We're gonna say it now. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Would you please be seated? Father, we thank you that your kingdom's coming, that you're sovereign, you're ruling and reigning. And Lord, we pray evermore that you would draw the lost. We love watching you draw the lost, draw those who are perishing, to invite them in, to invite them in your home, to invite them in the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. Lord, the only reason we're still breathing is that we might fulfill that great commission to go and make disciples. That's our purpose. Our purpose to be edified, to be built up, to be strengthened. And in that healthy relationship with you, Lord, we're able to reproduce. We're able to share, to communicate your love for people that are perishing. So, father, we pray evermore that you would strengthen us, that you'd move and work by the power of your holy spirit, that we'd fall more and more in love with you, and we'd have a distaste. We'd have a, no appetite for the things of the world. But in contrast, Lord, we would crave the things of the spirit, the life of the spirit. That we would want to pray. We love to pray. We love to worship. We love to study your word. We love to share the glorious good news, to evangelize, to minister, to weep with those that weep, and to intercede, Lord, to serve you. That's our heart's desire. So equip and strengthen us. Make us more effective in these last days, Lord. Let us stand apart from the world. God, make us holy. Make us holy. Thank you, Lord, that we enjoy the holiness of your son, that we have a positional righteousness that he's given us as a free gift. And the outworking, Lord, of this work of sanctification of separating us and making us holy, we're being changed from glory to glory in the image of your son. And, Lord, we do yearn in the future tense that the salvation, this this deliverance this deliverance, Lord, would be from their very presence of sin. No more sin, made holy, complete, this work that you've begun in us. And while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if there's anybody here this morning and you're sensing by the power of the Holy Spirit, means of conviction, the Holy Spirit's come alongside you to convict. He's not condemning you. He's not showing you the pit of hell. He's convicting. He's reminding you of the cross of Calvary that Jesus died upon that cross for you. For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He doesn't want you to be condemned. He that doesn't believe is condemned already. So he's given you an opportunity to believe. He sent his son that you wouldn't perish, and the the salvation is by grace through faith. You exercise your faith by believing. The Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas said, believe. Are you believing this morning? Just lift your hand up. If you're exercising your faith that God's given you, to say yes to Jesus Christ, you're turning from your sins, turning from the world and the flesh and the devil. You're turning unto God, and you're crying out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Anyone here this morning? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you once again for the assurance of salvation that, Lord, if we were to die today, we know that we'd spend all eternity with you, that there's now, therefore, no condemnation. Those are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Thank you for your saving love that saves us and keeps us, Lord, and completes that work you've begun. God, make us holy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
