Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and
reading for our text verse 1, the last verse of our reading. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse
1. 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. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse
1. When the Apostle had written
his first letter to the Corinthians, he spoke to them concerning what
God had done for them in changing them from being a people that
were walking in most ungodly ways We read in chapter 6 of
his first epistle this word in verse 11, and such were some
of you. But ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God. Well, he's just given a list
of those that were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate,
abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards,
revilers, extortioners, and he says that such shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. He's speaking of those that were
openly, freely, walking and practicing in those sins and in those wickednesses. But he says of them, though they
were like that, a change has happened, that they have been
washed, they have been sanctified. Now we must be clear in this
that the work of God in regeneration is God's work. to change the
heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill. Salvation is of God. When the
Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary, he there bore the sins of his
people right from Abel's day. Adam's day right through to the
last one that shall live are the people of God. If your sins
and my sins are put away, they were put away at Calvary. And our names, our persons were
set apart for a holy use in eternity when chosen in Christ before
the world began. In that way, we were sanctified
before even coming into this world, set apart in that way. But what the Apostle is speaking
of here is that when a soul is born again of the Spirit, when
the Holy Spirit quickens and saves and makes known by bringing
one to believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation,
that joined with that, together with that, is a sanctifying or
a holiness, a change of life, a change of mind, a change of
thought and practice, a regenerating, a new nature given from above,
and that it is vital that we insist upon that joining together,
that it is inconsistent where there is a ungodly and vile and
unclean walk and conduct that is inconsistent with the saving
grace of God. And yet we know that when the
Lord converts a sinner, when he gives a new nature, The flesh
itself remains fallen, it remains corrupt. This is what the Apostle
in Romans 7, he says that the good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I would not, that I do. A wretched man that I am. And he makes a distinction. He says, with the flesh, I serve
the law of sin, but with the mind, the law of Christ. He says, who shall deliver me
from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. And it is that Lord has given
him a mind that loves holiness, a mind that He is the instruction,
the exhortations, the warnings of the Lord, a mind that loves
the things that the Lord loves and hates what He hates. And
so the Corinthians here, the apostle in his first epistle,
he says that already in being called, in being quickened, in
being changed, they were already sanctified. They were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were accounted holy. They were accounted without blame
before God. and by the Spirit of our God. But he then writes to them and
he exhorts them in this way of holiness. And we are taught here
that It is not a, you might say, an automatic thing that one is
brought to desire the things of God and walk in the ways of
the Lord. It is by the Lord's grace, it
is by his blessing, but it is not something that the Lord does
and then that soul is sinless or always inclined to that which
is good. We know that through Satan's
temptation, through the deceitfulness of our hearts, through the pull
of the world, through the love of sin in our old nature, our
flesh, that many have fallen, many do fall, and hence the exhortations
and warnings in the Word of God. And so the Apostle Paul here
writes to the Corinthians and he includes himself in the words
of our text. He says, having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, remember he's speaking a very loving way
to them, not in a condemning way, but speaking of them as
dearly beloved. He said, let us, not let you,
but let us, he includes himself, cleanse ourselves, from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
Well, it is quite above the power of poor man to actually cleanse
his own flesh from sin and from corruption. And the work in the
heart of man is God's work we think of in Ezekiel, where the
Lord promises to give a new heart, a softened heart, a new spirit,
and to cleanse from all our uncleanness. So we may ask, well, what is
the apostle exhorting in a very practical way? the Corinthians
in this chapter and we must say that here he is making it very
clear of what the Corinthians should be aiming at and seeking
after in the way of holiness and that their lives should be
regulated. The things that they do as they
have yielded their members servants to uncleanness, now they yield
them to cleanness and to righteousness. And so he is pointing them to
a way of life that is not just in the flesh outwardly, but also
in the spirit as well, and perfecting holiness. in the fear of God,
that through the fear of God we might walk in a way that is
holy and upright, remembering that there is no man that sinneth
not, and if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So there is a way set before
the Corinthians here, and I want to look with the Lord's help
at three points. Firstly, the aim of a child of
God, the aim of a child of God should be to not sin, to not
sin. And secondly, the incentive to
holiness. In our text, he says, having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved. And the promises he's
referring to are in the previous chapter, but we think of many
of the promises in the word of God, but I would just confine
it to the immediate context this evening. And then thirdly, in
a practical way, what is the apostle exhorting to, and how
may this profit us this evening? Firstly then, the aim of A Child
of God. I feel it is very important for
us to be clear in our own minds, to often, often rehearse it to
ourselves. and often stir each other up,
reminding of this, that the aim of a child of God is to not sin. John, when he writes in his general
epistles, in verse one of chapter two, the first general epistle
of John, he says, my little children, These things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. That is the aim. That is why
he is writing, why he is setting these things before them. And
he gives the gospel encouragement, lest any that fall in sin should
be without hope. He says, if any man sin, We have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
He is the propitiation, that is the wrath-ending sacrifice
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. That is every nation, kindred,
and tongue of the people of God. So we must be very clear that
The Lord Jesus Christ came not to just pardon sin, not to bring
a people to heaven, but to sanctify a people, cleanse a people, make
a people to be a prepared bride for himself. And we think of
how this is set forth in Ephesians. In Ephesians, when he writes
to them in chapter one, he says, according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, why? That we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. That is why he chose
us in Christ to a holy calling. It is a holy calling. In chapter 5, we have again the
work that Christ is doing with his church, his bride. The illustration
is of a husband and his wife, but he says in verse 25 of chapter
5, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it. with the washing of water by
the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. And this is the work of God as
he quickens a soul, as he opens their eyes, he opens their ears
to instruction, to teaching, So he sanctifies it with the
washing of water by the Word, the Word of God, as it is preached,
as it is read. It is to this end that it should
be to our sanctification to deal with and to counter the actions
of our fallen flesh, our base nature, our besetting sins. It is by that way that the Lord
saves his people from their sins. And we should be very clear that
the Lord has called us and called us to holiness and uprightness. We think of the epistles of Peter,
and many times he speaks of holiness in those epistles, In his first
epistle, chapter one, he speaks of the holiness there. He says,
but, he said, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but
as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner
of conversation, that is, all manner of life, not just of speaking,
but it is of living, because it is written, Be ye holy, for
I am holy. And then he joins in the next
verse what we have in our text, perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord. If ye call on the Father, who
without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." And then he says,
because it is that ye are redeemed, not with corruptible things,
but with the precious blood of Christ. And so he exhorts, and
not only in this passage, but right through his epistles to
holiness and uprightness. And I feel we must constantly
remind each other in this way that our God is a holy God. He has called us to holiness.
He's called us to hate sin and to love godliness and uprightness. that is contrary to our fallen
nature and contrary to the way of this world and the men and
women of it and those things that are practised and done by
those round about us. The Lord has made a difference
with his children. And so in this first point, I
want to include myself as the apostle, includes himself, that
our aim should be, day by day, that we might not sin, that we
might not walk in evil ways, but that we might be holy, that
we might be godly, that we might be walking in the fear of the
Lord, that the Lord sees us, knows us, and that we are his
children, and we shall stand before that we are redeemed, we are
bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are his. The apostle here then, in our
second point, gives incentives to holiness in the promises that
he has given, and specifically the promises that are mentioned
in the close of the previous chapter in the context of what
he has been speaking of as separation unto himself. And he has given
this promise that those that do so separate that he will receive
us and I will receive you. Wherefore come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, Touch not the unclean
thing, that is, not walk in sinful and evil and vile and contrary
ways to the Lord, and I will receive you." It is a most blessed
promise to be received by the Lord. We think of the illustration
of Queen Esther coming before the King Ahasuerus, who was her
husband, And yet the law said that if she entered without being
called, then he didn't hold out the golden scepter, then she
would be slain. And as she came with that great
need of appearing for her people, the great point was, would she
be received? Would she gain a hearing ear? Would the king receive her or
should she be slain? and she was received. It is a
blessed thing with the gospel, the Lord receiveth sinners. It was said in a derogatory way
against him, this man receiveth sinners and eateth and drinketh
with them. But here it is said in a encouraging
way, an encouraging promise, as those that separate for godliness,
for uprightness, those who crucify the flesh, those who are walking
after holiness, the Lord says, I will receive you. Many will
separate us from their company. Many will not desire to have
us. The apostle, he says, I am crucified,
crucified unto the world and the world unto me. In other words,
the world does not want me, but I do not want the world. I am
dead unto the world. But this beautiful promise to
be received by the Lord, received as we come before Him in prayer,
received as we worship Him, received when we ascend up on high. The Lord to receive us is a most
blessed thing, that He should not reject us. What a solemn
thing that Bunyan, he portrays the ignorance that came right
to the very gate of heaven, and then found he was not received,
not walking in the way that the Lord had prescribed. And may
we, as it were, seal our calling, make our calling and election
sure, in walking in this path and under this blessing, I will
receive you. The other aspect of the promise
is here, and will be a Father unto you. The most beautiful
things are written in the Word of God concerning the Lord as
our Father. Your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of these things before ye ask him, if ye being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him? God's children are not orphans. They have a Father, a heavenly
Father, your Father that is in heaven. I ascend, said our Lord,
unto your Father and my Father. Your God and my God is a beautiful,
spirit, to have a spirit of adoption, to be able to cry, Abba Father,
Father, Father, to lay claim not just as a father as that
he is our father in an earthly way, we see in Luke tracing right
down Adam and to God as our father, but our father in a spiritual
way in adoption. And so that's then reinforced
here in promise And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord Almighty. Adopted into his living family,
treated as a son, as a daughter, and in connection with the message
that is here of holiness, of walk, and of conduct, and thinking
of sons and of daughters, Remember what is set before us in Hebrews
and chapter 12. And he says that, My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he, whom the
Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits? and live. And listen to this,
verse 10. For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit,
why? That we might be partakers of
his holiness. And he goes on that this chastening,
no chastening is joyous but grievous, but afterwards it yieldeth a
peaceable fruit of righteousness. to them that are exercised thereby. The very promises here, coming
under those promises, the Lord says, part of these promises,
if you are my son, my daughter, I'm your father, I won't reject
you, but I'll chasten you, I'll correct you. When you sin, when
you walk in wrong ways, the hymn writer says, the lash is steeped,
he on thee lays. yet softened in his blood." Really
bound up with this promise of sons and daughters is this way
of keeping his dear people in a way of holiness, in the way
that he'd have them to go so they'd be kept and brought safely
home at last. But we are not to walk in a way
that all the time is bringing upon us the chastening hand of
God. And so we have the exhortation
in our text. 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. Well, how in practice are we
to respond to this verse? I want to try and keep very closely
to these scriptures in this third point. As those that know the need of
the power of God and the blessing of God in the quickening and
in the keeping of our souls, we should be much in prayer,
much in prayer. Whatever is set before us in
the word of God, if that is to be blessed to us, May we really
pray over such verses as this and pray that the Lord would
bless us with his blessing and his help and that he would deliver
us from the power and dominion of sin. The Apostle Paul gives
us ways that he himself walked and we would apply this to what
he is exhorting to them here. When he wrote to the Corinthians
the first time, in his first epistle, chapter nine, he says
before them one of those things that he did He was striving for
a crown. In verse chapter nine, at the
end of that chapter, he is running that he might obtain a prize. And he says this, I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth
the air. In other words, he was to have
an aim. He would have something that
he was actually going to do and to put into practice. And he says this, but, I keep
under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any
means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
cast away. Now what does that tell us? It
tells us this, our body, Our flesh does not want to be in
subjection. It is a rebel. It will rise up. It will seek to go after the
flesh, the lust of the flesh, the desires of the mind. It is
corrupt. It is base. And it seeks to rise
up all the time as a corrupt flart, the plague of one's heart. Solomon, when he made that beautiful
prayer, he said, If every one that shall know the plague of
his own heart, if he pray to all this temple, then hear thou
in heaven thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive. But the apostle says, I don't
just let my old flesh do whatever it likes. I don't Just when it
wants to do this and when it wants to go after that, when
it wants to think this, it wants to indulge this, I don't just
let it have its own way. You know, if there was a parent
with a child and that child all the time was rebellious and wanting
to have its own way and do this or do that, what would we think
of a parent that said, We're not going to restrain it. We're
not going to correct it. We just let it do whatever it
wants to do and just hope, hope that it doesn't want to do anything
too bad. But we're not going to put any
reins on it or restraint on it or anything like that. What kind
of an upbringing would that be? And so the apostle here with
his own body, he says this is the path that we are to walk,
being conscious, being mindful, that the flesh is corrupt, that
it is fallen, that it is base, and that if we've been given
a new nature, a mind, a mind that the Lord has so sanctified
to desire that which is good and right, that we are to seek
then to keep under our body The second thing I bring before you
is that which the Apostle writes into the Romans in chapter 6. Now chapter 6 is dealing with
one of the excuses, one of the ways that the old nature will
try to wriggle out and have its own way and make even grace to
be a snare What shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? He says, God forbid. And yet
you know our old nature and our deceitful and wicked heart will
try and do that. You will say, well, how didn't
the Lord say that he'd forgive sin not seven times, but 70 times
seven? and as if we'd abused the grace
of God, can get away with just lapsing on this, or sinning in
that, or going in some way, because there's always forgiveness, there's
always a safety net, there's always something to plead, there's
always the precious blood of Christ. You know, if we're walking
in that way, we're despising the precious blood of Christ,
we're not realising that those sins, they crucified him, It
was through them that he groaned in Gethsemane and upon the tree
at Calvary. And so the apostle, he gives
the arguments through that chapter, Romans 6, may we often read it,
pray over it, and he says here, Likewise, in verse 11, likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it
in the lusts thereof. There are the lusts again, wanting
to be obeyed, wanting to be followed, wanting to be walked in. He says
don't obey it. Don't let it reign. It's there. And John, he says in his epistles,
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth
is not in us. It is there, but don't let it
reign. Don't let it have its own way.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should
obey it in the lust thereof. And then he says this, neither
yield ye your members. That is our hands, our feet,
our eyes, our ears, and our lesser members. Don't yield them as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin. Don't use them for sinful things
and sinful ways, to look at sinful things, to listen to sinful things,
to do sinful things and wrong things. But yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God." He says in another
place, as you have yielded your members, servants to uncleanness,
now yield them as servants to righteousness. And we think of
all the things the Apostle Paul had done in his unregeneracy,
hailing men and women to prison and keeping the clothes of those
that stoned Stephen, and afterwards yet he used his feet, his hands,
his mouth, his eyes, he used all to the honour and glory of
God. Then in Romans 8, he gives us
another direction. He says that we are to mortify
through the Spirit the deeds of the body. In verse 13, for
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. And in this verse, He is
speaking, he's not saying don't spend your whole life fighting
against your sinful flesh, but as it were, turn away from that
and let your mind be fully on the things of God. Fill your
mind, your attention with that and by, in a positive way, walking
in ways of godliness, uprightness, then there'll be no room for
sin and for evil. We think of if you had a bottle,
a jar, and if you were to fill it, fill it with stones, you
sow that, that jar is now full of stones, nothing more can be
put in it. But then if you got sand and
you poured that in, it would then all settle between the stones
and you could fill and put even more things in it. But if you
started off and you filled that with sand, then there'd be no
room for the stones, no room for anything else. And it's a
blessed thing. where, as the apostle says to
Timothy, that we are to meditate upon these things, give thyself
wholly to them, that there be no room, no time, no meditation,
no opportunity for the flesh to take hold. An idle soul, how
much is set forth in the word of God of the sins of idleness. and those of the widows that
were told not to be taken into the fold that were young. Yes,
they be idle and go from house to house and that there be an
occasion of sin. We are to be active in the service
of the Lord and active in our worship and in those things that
we mortify The flesh, it says, I want to do this. And you say,
no, we're not doing this, we're doing that. The flesh says, I
want to go and indulge that. I'm going to go to that place.
There's a nice something that's tempting me and a person I want
to see there. But you say, no, to see that
person is wrong. There's a wrong motive there. You're not going to that place.
You're going somewhere else. You're going the opposite way.
And that's mortifying the deeds of the body. Now if we, and I
know I've used this illustration before, have two children and
one wants to do one thing and one wants to do another, and
the parent decides which to do, then the one that doesn't get
their way is mortified. The other brother's got his way.
They're going to do what he wants to do. And the other one doesn't
like it, kicks and screams at maybe for a while. The soul's
very unhappy that they're having to do what they didn't want to
do and they're not doing what they wanted to do. They're mortified. We are not just to mortify the
deeds of the body, It is if ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body by walking in a spiritual way. That is where
the deeds of the body are mortified. Another way that is set before
us is that in James where we are told that when the devil
comes in, that we are to resist him. We're given beautiful promises
also. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard
against him. But James, he says, submit yourselves
therefore unto God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will
draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. And he's setting forth in a path
of resisting the devil and resisting that uncleanness and evil way. We mentioned before the path
of confession of sins, a beautiful, it was like the first chapter
in the first epistle of John, is so clear regarding sin, the
blood. If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so is the path of confession
of sin is to be kept up regularly, praying before the Lord, the
sins, not before man, but before, yes, if we have sinned against
man specifically, confess your sins one to another, your transgressions,
acknowledge it before one another. I was wrong, but not before man
as a confessor, it is before God. and God alone. And so I would then come back
to the word of the text where we have the context of a separating
from company that is an evil company. The Apostle has been very clear
with them not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. This specifically, of course,
applies to marriage. A close union like that should
never be with an unbeliever, but in church fellowship and
any other very close arrangement that brings us together to walk
together with an unbeliever. You think of Ahab and Jehoshaphat,
and Jehoshaphat constantly, I suppose he had in view, well, Judah and
Israel, they were brethren. They're all part of the 12 tribes.
And he says that thy horses are as my horses, but they weren't. His people were not as his people.
They were walking in ways of sinfulness, and it was very soon
evident that they have had no time for the servants of the
Lord at all. And so we should really, if we
are to walk in the way of cleansing ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God, it will make a real difference as to who we spend time with,
who we are joined with, who is influencing us, Being let go,
they went unto their own company. And it's a blessed thing when
the Lord works in the heart and he gives them that desire, thy
people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. A real desire for the people
of God, the company of the people of God, for a godly talk and
conversation. and the fellowship of those together. Again, we have one John speaking
of truly the fellowship is with the Father and with the Son and
with one another, and it's a blessed thing to have that. Well, I thought
I'd just mention just a few examples in the Word of God of how the
saints of old have dealt with things If you think of Job, he
says, I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should
I think upon a maid? And so he's joining the both
here, the filthiness of the flesh and spirit. And he's saying,
now my members, my eyes, I'll make an agreement with them.
You are not to look at things that afterwards I'm going to
think on and meditate upon that which is evil. I'm going to watch,
as Bunyan would put it, eye gate. And we could apply that to ear
gate as well, where there's an entrance in that then it fuels
the corruption within. We think of how dear Joseph dealt
with the situation where his mistress laid hold on him and
sought to try and force him and how that his way was to flee.
His way was to leave his garment, and though he was falsely accused,
he had to run away from the situation to get him out. That is how Joseph
dealt with it, and we realise that again and again we have
the word, the Lord was with Joseph. And so it's a good example with
us in a practical way of cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit affecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. When one has sinned, we think
of David and Psalm 51, his sorrow, his grief against thee, the only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. I want to just
mention just a few warnings. Maybe be really aware of habit
forming Those that are so used to walking in a way of sin, it
then becomes harder and harder to break that habit. It's no
longer becoming just a temptation. It is something that we've learned
to do and walked in. We should be very aware of where
that starts to become the way. There's many times in the Word
of God, in fact there's five times we read, harden not your
hearts. And in Hebrews, especially we
have this, and the quoting from the Old Testament scriptures,
that we be warned lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. And sin doesn't, register so
much with us, we become, as it were, just so used to it and
so strengthened against it that we don't register when we really
should. Our conscience is not tender,
we are not walking in the fear of the Lord. We are allowing
more and more things, what we hear and what we see and what
we do, and we are far removed from the tenderness and from
the separation that we may have had when the Lord first began
with us. We read in Proverbs of the wicked
that even their own sins correct them. And certainly the path
of sin is a corrector, a rod in itself. Those that walk in
ways of sin will find those very sins will return upon them, that
which they've sown then returns back upon them again. And so may we be delivered from
those ways of sin, walking in ways of the flesh and evilness
and heed the warning of the Apostle here is a loving warning to dearly
beloved brethren, based upon the promises that God has given
to us. And he says, having therefore
these promises, and especially in this context of separating
from the idolatrous worship, the lust, the evil, the company
of unbelievers and the unrighteous, and he says, Having these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all, not just
some, all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. When we are called, we are called
to a constant battle between the old nature and the new, that
we should not give the flesh any quarter any rest but that
we be called under the banner of our Captain and of our Lord
and to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal
life and have a daily evidence that we are called with a holy
calling and that the Lord does use his word to sanctify us and
to separate us and we are challenged by it and we are worn by it,
and it does search us out, and it does make us feel uncomfortable
at times, but that it is for our profit and that the Lord
is mercifully teaching us and showing us the way that he'd
have us to go. And when we have those blessed
times of sweet communion, fellowship, and love of God shed abroad in
our hearts, then we don't want those ways of sin and ways of
evil. May we truly know the blessing
of the Lord and the blessing of being called out and called
unto the Lord and that one day we shall be with him where there
shall be no more sin and no more flesh, no more mortal body but
an incorruptible body and to be with him and see him as he
is. and that shall be a most blessed
day. No conflict there, no wrestling
there, no opposition from the flesh and sin there, but all
shall be holy, pure, completely holy, and we shall be there forever
and ever. So may the Lord bless this word
to us. It's a practical word, but it's
a practical word that you and I need and have many. many blessings
attached to it. May the Lord add his blessings.