Well, this has been a sweet and wonderful
experience for me. I was talking with Brother Bill
yesterday about the fact that when we hear the Gospel, we are
privileged to sit under the preaching of the Gospel for that brief,
glorious few minutes. Because of our carnal nature,
it doesn't last much more than that when we get outside the
walls of this house and get back into the world again. For those
glorious few minutes, we forget all our troubles, don't we? They
just seem to go away. I had a dear friend who was a
drunk. The Lord saved him. doing well. But I asked him one time, I said,
why do you, I said, I said, I don't want to seem presumptuous, ask
stupid questions. I said, but why do you get drunk? I mean, why do you? Of course,
I knew why I got drunk in the days I got drunk, but he did
it on a continual basis. He said, for that few moments,
I forget all my trouble. Spurgeon said the gospel, is
a heavenly cordial that inebriates the soul. And when we hear it,
we forget all our troubles. Thank you, brother. Well, Jim
has preached the whole Bible. So I'm going to preach from the
pronunciation guide. No. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Verse 1 says, Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord. Now if we had some kind of meter
here, we could measure visceral responses to the Word of God.
I expect right now the meter is kind of jiggling. He said,
where in the world is he going with this? In a Sovereign Grace Conference,
a fellow is going to get up and preach about perfecting holiness
in the fear of the Lord. Several times over the years,
after preaching the Gospel in different places, and sometime
in my own pulpit, I've been confronted with this passage by someone
who is uncomfortable with the concept of pure grace. The fact is one cannot preach
grace without on occasion being charged with antinomianism or
scandalized as preaching a doctrine that opens the floodgates of
sin. that says we should sin that
grace might abound and accused of all sorts of things like that.
And I'm always amazed that a person can think this one verse is the
standard for all others when just the opposite is true. This
is a passage about the grace of God, about the grace of God. Many years ago I was in a meeting
in which a preacher, he was a little scoundrel, he acted real sweet
and he said he was a grace preacher. And he invited myself and I think
Donnie Bell and maybe Don Fortner, maybe Todd Nyberg, I know they
were all at the meeting and I know Donnie and I preached. But he
had a plan that we didn't know about before he invited us to
preach the gospel. He was going to split the church.
He had already decided and accepted a pastor in a Presbyterian church
because he had become rather legal and he wanted to bring
preachers who would preach the gospel of grace and he also brought
a preacher from one of Al Martin's disciples to preach the doctrine
of legalism. And he figured after it was all
finished the church would divide and those who were of the legalistic
ilk would follow him and those who weren't would stay back. And so I went and preached knowing
none of this was going on, but I did feel a little weird when
that fellow got up and started preaching legalism. This preacher talked about the
righteousness necessary to be saved, this one from New Jersey. He said salvation is like walking
a tightrope. And then he said, there's that
pole that you hold when you walk a tightrope for balance. On one
end of the pole is the righteousness of Christ. And he said, if your righteousness
ain't on the other end of the pole to balance it out, you're not going to be saved.
Now this man supposedly believed grace, but his words revealed
that he did not. His implication was that if our
personal righteousness was not equal to that of Christ, that
we would be out of balance. We would fall off the pole of
salvation, or the wire of salvation, and we would suffer loss. Now,
after he had finished his gospel according to the Cirque du Soleil,
he ended his tirade with a challenge to anyone who would presume to
disagree with him by double de-daring anyone to preach the message
from 2 Corinthians 7-1. Having, therefore, the promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
As he said that, Shelby Fortin was sitting behind me. By that
time, my neck was red, my ears were red, I was beginning to
glow, I was so angry. I wanted to rip the fellow off
the stage and really pwn him right in front of everybody.
And Shelby said to Saul that I was all red and angry, and
she reached over and said, would you like some gum? And I said,
do you have a gun? That man firmly believed that
this verse of scripture supported his carny, hawker, sideshow definition
of true, balanced righteousness before God. He could not account
for the fact that the unbeliever is decidedly, precisely, unmitigatedly,
unbalanced. We're unbalanced. And we cannot
even abide two things. concerning salvation. With the
believer, it's one way, one truth, one life. All of it's singular. All of it's unconfounding. We're
not confused because you can't be confused about one thing.
You have to have two things for confusion. If you just got one
thing, you either believe or you don't. You bow and surrender
or you fight. But if it's just one thing, you're
never confused. We're decidedly unbalanced. All
our righteousness is Christ alone. All of it. Every bit of it. Now his error, as well as all
the errors of legalism, is to divorce the spiritual admonition,
such as this, from Christ and lay it at the door of what men
like to call today, and when I hear the phrase, I just sort
of just tremble because I know where they're going. They like
to lay at the door of human responsibility. human capability, and human merit. And since all the Word of God
is about the Lord Jesus Christ, from Genesis to Revelation, then
this passage is likewise about the Lord Jesus Christ. And every
admonition that addresses the life of faith is not centered
in faith, but in Christ. Not centered in faith, but centered
in Christ. We are admonished to forgive How? As Christ has forgiven us. We
admonish to love one another. How? As Christ has loved us. We admonish to give because God
has given us Christ and all things in Him are given to us. We admonish to pray without ceasing.
Why? Because Christ ever lives to make intercession for us.
None of these things are isolated and in a vacuum by themselves. They all have to do with the
knowledge of, understanding and appreciation and union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now the translators here in this
chapter began a new chapter with this verse. And some assert that
they did so in connection with the verse that follows in verse
2. defrauded no man. And they connected
with that passage, with that verse. And certainly these are
gospel imperatives. There's no doubt about that,
that every believer is to follow. We are to owe no man anything
but to love one another. For in loving our neighbor, we
fulfill the law according to Romans chapter 13. And when we're
talking about character and conduct, it's important They do matter,
but they just don't count in the matter of salvation. They
do matter, but they don't count. They don't count. The first two
words of verse 7 connected to the previous verses that have
been spoken in chapter 6, rather than that which follows. These
words address the promises declared in the few verses in the latter
part of verse 6 and verses 17 and 18. These are some promises
that God gives. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, that's the dead thing, and I will receive you, and I
will be your father, I will be a father unto you, and you shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Almighty. Having therefore
these promises, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness, in the fear of the Lord. Now whatever the meaning
of the remainder of verse 1 is, it is inextricably bonded to
and based on and centered in the fact that those who are spoken
to have something. They have something. So this
has nothing to do with gaining anything or progressing somewhere.
They already have something. They possess and therefore believe
the aforementioned promises. Having these promises, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, they are not looking to gain or to progress
in any way, shape, or form concerning the promises. They have the promises. God has given them the promises. And the word promise is throughout
Scripture linked to Christ. and the believer's faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, all the promises of God are yea and are amen in
Jesus Christ. We are called the children of
promise or heirs according to promise. And that's why we're
called Abraham's seed, those who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It follows then that the remaining words of admonition
are not accomplished in the flesh. They're not accomplished in the
flesh, but rather in the spirit and done so in a particular and
singular way which really governs the life of every believer by
believing on and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
it's done. Verse 1 in chapter 7 is actually
the last word of warning and promise that is contained in
chapter 6 in verses 14 through 18. Let's read it together again. Go back a little bit to verse
14 of chapter 6. be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial, or Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, and 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, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
things. Our text has to do with and must
be viewed in light of this context, lest we find ourselves sucked
into the vapid, airless vacuum of legalism. Cleansing, because
it talks about that in verse 7, cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. Cleansing, nowhere in
scripture can be attributed to the power, the ability, or the
will of man. It just isn't. The very words
of the passage declare that we are to cleanse ourselves from
filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We are not admonished to go to
the flesh to cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of it. That would be oxymoronic. Cleansing
is not a thing that we can do at all. Job said, if I wash myself
with snow water, and make myself never so white, and my garments
all clean. God will throw me in the ditch
and make them all dirty again, and my own righteousness shall
abhor me. Shall abhor me. Cleansing is
God's work. In Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse
25, let us read it for you. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? It's the
work of the Lord. The work of the Lord. Everywhere
in Scripture that the children of God seek cleansing, they do
so at the door of mercy. The fact that their cry is cleanse
me and I shall be clean declares that they know that cleansing
is not something that is possible in their own power and ability. Cleansing was accomplished on
Calvary's tree. A final and wondrous cleansing
that actually wiped away all our sin and every record of us
having ever sinned so that we stand before God as clean every
whit because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cleansing
is spiritual. It's spiritual. The flesh is
neither quickened nor renewed and cannot be made anything other
than it is. Legalism would have the flesh
improve. That's why all religions but
one are wrong. It's just that simple. For one
religion says that the flesh can never be improved. That Adam
can never be made better. That Adam will always stay the
same. The groaning of the spirit of
the child of God is to be finally released from the influence and
death of the flesh. That's why Paul cried in Romans
chapter 7 and verse 25, Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ. Now what I'm saying is to apply
to the flesh for perfection or holiness is a kind of sick, a
kind of mental illness, a kind of necrophilia is what it is. It is absurd as going to the
graveyard to gain life. This admonition has to do with
the spiritual, with the spiritual things. There is only one way
that our members which are upon the earth can be mortified. That
mortification is certainly not within the purview or the arena
of our own ability or our members which are upon the earth. You
see, if it's upon the earth, it's not going to do us any good. In Colossians chapter 3 it uses
those terms. Set your affection on things
above and not on things of the earth. Mortify therefore the
deeds of the flesh which are upon the earth. How do you do
that? Go to things upon the earth?
No, that's not going to work. Whatever here is below cannot
be any help whatsoever. One does not apply to the disease,
or embrace the disease, or revisit the disease, or become reinfected
in order to cure the disease. That's just stupid, isn't it?
That's just dumb. We are cleansed one way. Looking
to Jesus Christ. Looking to Jesus Christ. He is
our life, and our life is hid with God in Him. He's not our
flesh, which is death. It's our life. This seems almost
mystical and ethereal, but it's done in a most singular way.
The old hymn said it. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of earth shall go strangely dim. Go strangely
dim. in the sight of His glory and
His grace. With affection on things above,
the deeds of the flesh are mortified. The natural consequence of looking
above, looking to Christ, is that the things of the earth
are not attended to. That simple. If you're looking
at Him, you can't look at the other thing. Marvin Stoniker's daddy used
to run a fish restaurant down in Louisiana. One time a couple had brought
their child to the fish restaurant and they were getting ready to
leave and the little kid was in a high chair and he had a
corncob and he was gnawing on it. And the mama tried to get
the corncob and that kid started screaming and really loud in
the restaurant. She tried to get the corncob
again, you know, and she was one of those mountain parrots
who wouldn't whack them upside the head and grab the corncob, you know,
or jerk them out of the chair and carry them outside and wail
them a few times. You know, she wasn't one of those.
But she didn't know what to do. The father and the mother were
standing there looking at this kid holding this corncob. Every
time they'd reach for it, the child would just scream. And Gerald
Steinecker, Marvin's dad, sat there and watched it for a few
minutes. He reached behind the bar and picked up a Hershey bar. Went and unwrapped it and looked
at that kid. Put that Hershey bar in front of him. That kid
dropped that corncob and took that Hershey bar. Got his eyes
on something else. Something else. And his mom and
dad were able to pick him up and take him home. And he wasn't
crying anymore. How do we mortify the deeds of
the flesh? By applying for the flesh? That's
what religion says. That's what religion says. You're
drinking, you're having a drink, but you've got to stop that drinking.
You can't go here and you can't go there and you can't go there.
You've got a problem, you've got to deal with the problem.
Don't deal with the problem. Look to Christ. The problem relies
on your attention to continue to exist. It does. Looking at Christ. Oh, it won't
go away. It'll pop up its ugly head every
time you wake up in the morning just about. But when you look
to Christ, that thing is starved for affection. Because your affection
is elsewhere. Your affection is elsewhere.
Religion's ever about making the old man better and applying
to the flesh to do so. And it will never grasp that
mortification of our members on the earth is accomplished
with a look above. A look above. Promise suggests hope. And we
do not hope in our flesh or anything that we can see, for if you can
see it, you can't hope in it, Paul says in Romans 8.24. This however, or that however
mysterious and wonderful And unlikely it seems, the only way
that the flesh is subdued is by not giving it attention. By taking hold of the Hershey
bar and letting go of the corn cob. It is subdued by being starved
for affection. And it is starved for affection
because the believer has invested his affection in things above
and not on things of this earth. Holiness, a word that's bandied
about a great deal in religion, likewise is never attributed
to the power and the will of the flesh. Holiness is the work
of God when it concerns us, and our holiness is the Lord Jesus
Christ. God has made him to be unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All our righteousness,
as our brothers just said, is as filthy rags. And that word,
because we are so puritanical, we can't say things like this,
but minstreless rags. Why did he call them that? Because a woman, when she was
having her menses, was put outside the camp. She was considered
cursed. Everything she sat on was considered
cursed. She could not come back into
the camp without an atonement being made for her. Our righteousnesses
need to be atoned for. We can't come into their camp
until they are atoned for. Christ is our holiness. And what
does that mean? That's a state of being. You
are holy. God said, be ye holy because
I'm holy and because He's holy, I'm holy. And it's a state of
being. You are as holy as you're ever
going to be. Right now, this moment as a believer in Jesus
Christ, you're as holy as you're ever going to be. Christ is our
perfection. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead in a body and ye are complete in Him. Complete in Him. We were talking
about this this morning at Bill's house, the word teleo, or perfect,
how it's used in Scripture. Holiness is perfection to some
degree. The Word of God says when the
Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross, He fulfilled and accomplished
and finished salvation. All three words are the same
word. In fact, when He said it is finished, it's not three words,
it's one word, teleo, it's perfect. Our Lord, as He hung in agonies
and blood, state men would consider his weakest. His blood poured
out of him. He was bruised and wounded. To
reveal how men feel about him, when God allowed us to touch
him, we beat the Lord out of him and hung him on the tree.
Now he had to allow us to do that because all he had to say
was, Ego I am a widow for all the boy backers. But he said,
take me, but these have to go free, that the Scripture might
be fulfilled, that all He's given me I've lost nothing. But when
He hung there in agonies and blood, that was a throne He was
on. We call it a cross. It was the
throne. He was the sovereign Lord. He
was giving breath to those that cursed Him, strength of muscles
to those that drove the nails in His hand. He was controlling
every mite of dust that flies across the sunbeam in this universe. At the very moment, He hung in
agonies and blood. And when He said, It is finished,
He said with a loud voice, Perfect! Perfect. He hath perfected, same
word, forever, them that are sanctified. Holy. It says here, do this in the
fear of the Lord. Fearing the Lord is the work
of the Lord. The Lord said, I'll put my fear in their heart and
they shall not depart from Me. In Jeremiah chapter 32. Fear
of God. What is that? Is that some slavish
thing where you hide around the corner waiting for the other
shoe to drop? I know folks like that. They think, well, something
good happened today. Oh, what's coming next? Oh, what's waiting to come? God's
not standing around the corner like some Don Corleone going
to thump you on the head if you do something wrong. If you do
something wrong, you know what you get from God
Almighty because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
perfect, absolute substitution? A smile from God's face. He looks at you in your worst
condition and says, Oh, that's my boy. That's my girl. God not mad at you. This is the
glorious gospel of the blessed God, the happy God, the contented
God, the satisfied God. Because Christ satisfied Him. He's not mad at you. I know you
get all guilty and I do too when we mess up. We think, oh my soul. Sometimes I look in the mirror,
you know, and I look at it and I say, my soul. I hope these
people don't figure out what a fraud I am. You ever thought
that? I'm thinking all the time. And
you know what God says when I'm thinking those stupid things?
That's my boy. I love him. I accept all his
works. He's righteous and holy and good. That's what he says. When we're
talking about fear of God, we're talking about reverence for his
holy name, his perfection, Fear of God has to do with worship,
love and honor and appreciation. Worship. What a thing. Worship. We've worshipped this week. I
have and I know you have too. I've heard you talk about it.
Worshipping God. You ever heard somebody say,
well I didn't get anything out of the worship service? You ever heard
anybody say that? You ain't supposed to get nothing
out of it. Worship is giving God the glory.
Worship is about giving honor and praise and thanksgiving unto
God. And if you do that, you'll get
plenty out of it. I know that those who hold that
our text is a treatise on progressive sanctification play fast and
loose with the fear card as if it refers to punishment or loss,
but it doesn't. They themselves openly avowed
that they never attained to perfection, so they live in a constant state
of slavish fear of the wrath of God falling on them. They're
miserable people, that's why they walk around with a scowl
on their face and you can't laugh. Wadey Mew says, you can't laugh
with me, you can't cry with me. And that's the truth. No sense
of humor. Why are they so angry? Because
they watch you as free people getting to do what you want to
do. And they can't do it, though they want to do it, and they're
just ticked off. I know I was there. You remember. You remember
how we were. We'd get married to them people
that was free. Why? Because they was doing things
we wanted to do, but we couldn't because God would kill us if
we did. They're unhappy. They walk around
saying they're free men, but they still got chains on. They
still got their handcuffs on. They still got their shackles.
They're still bent over. They got the bonds around their
neck. They said, this is what you want.
I don't want that. I've been in jail. It was not
a happy experience. I made a little money. I had
a pack of cigarettes. I sold them about 50 cents apiece. But
it was a sad experience and I was scared because somebody had the
key and I couldn't get out unless he let me out. And here's what
they say, we believe in God, saved us by His grace, fully
and completely Christ paid our sin debt. Excuse me while I put
back on my shackles. How stupid and ridiculous and
harmful and blasphemous that is. The believer operates from an
entirely different place. He has promises. He has them. What he does, he does not to
gain anything or because he's afraid of loss. He does in reference
of what has been accomplished for him by God Almighty. Perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord, then plainly is believing the promises God gave
by faith. Now having said that, say, well
finally he's getting to the message. Yeah, but it's only a paragraph
long. Having said that, let's look
back at our text again. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The admonition is to cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The
word filthiness is an interesting little word. It means an action
by which anything is tainted, stained, or defiled. Or doing something that stains
you. defiles you. And we know from the mouth of
our dear Savior that defilement does not come from without, but
from within on a personal level. This is not a contradiction of
the words of our Lord. The defilement of the filthiness
comes from a root word that means to pollute or stain. And that
word is not foreign to Scripture. Not foreign to Scripture. The
thing that is stained A thing is stained by coming in contact
with something of a polluting nature, something nasty, something
icky if you want to. This nasty filthiness that is
spoken of here has to do with contact or proximity or association
and assimilation with something vile and unclean. Touch not the unclean thing. Clearly this field is filth and
this is in opposition to the promises in Christ and in opposition
to Christ also. The believer is not stained by
association with sinners like himself. We're not. They don't pick up nothing. Our
Lord associated with sinners. He associated, did not assimilate,
but He associated. He didn't get stained from them.
Because He's light. And light is pure. Light is pure. Light can come in. Well, look
what light's doing to us right now. You know who I am. You know
what you are. If we were to tell people what we are, they probably
wouldn't want to be around us at all. But look what light's
doing. There's old Gary Sheppard. Old ex-carpet man. Thrown out
of a church for preaching the truth. Gary will tell you what's
in his heart. Partially he won't tell it all because he don't
even know it all. But what's that light doing? It's coming down.
There it is. And lay it on Gary and wrap it
itself around Gary. Embracing him in his foulness. This person is embracing him.
Surrounding him. And not picking up one thing
from him. And that light when it's cut off will be gone. When it's cut on it will do the
same thing again. That's what light's doing. That's what Christ is
doing. He comes into contact with the worst, the vilest people
and embraces them, embraces the dumb. Shines His light upon it and
departs picking up no stain. But we get stained though, and
that's what this is talking about. This is talking about being stained,
being stained. The nasty filthiness that is
spoken of here has to do with contact or proximity to a dead
thing. The believer is not stained by
association with sinners. We're commanded to associate
with sinners, to preach the gospel to every creature. Our Lord sets
that example, being the friend of publican and sinners. The
believer is however stained and often polluted and gets his feet
dirty in association with what? False. legalistic religion. The epistles of Galatians and
Colossians are written in warning against that very thing. We have
examples of that stain in the action of Peter and James and
Barnabas at Antioch, don't we? They got stained. They got stained. Peter left the association of
poor old wretched Gentile pagans that were saved by grace, had
no contact with the law, had nothing to do with the law, never
even heard of the law. Because the law wasn't given to the Gentiles,
it was given to the children of Israel at Sinai. But then
these guys from Jerusalem come down and said, we know, we know
you believe in grace, you preach grace, Peter, we know that. But
you know what kind of people they are? These people worship
idols. They eat the wrong kind of food.
They eat pig. They eat pork. Y'all gonna eat
pork today. I've seen it cooking. It's some
serious pork. Peter, is that pork chops I smell
on your bread? You can't do that. You see, these
people have not been circumcised. They can't stand before God because
they're unclean and undone. I know you preached to them that
God's grace was sufficient, that Christ's death put away their
sin, and they're righteous and holy before God, but you know,
that's almost enough! All we have now is to get them
under a series of rules and regulations whereby we can control their
life, Peter. You just can't let these crazy
people go free! So Peter said, you know, I think he might be on to something.
And he left those people saved by grace. Him and James and Barnabas
stood up and they went over and sat at that table with those
Judeans. And when they were sitting there,
they were stained. Paul said, you despise the grace
of God. You do damage to the message
of the gospel. You were stained. You were stained. We are to cleanse ourselves from
that which would pollute us or spot our garment. This cleansing
has to do with the flesh and the spirit. But not in the sense
of the old man and the new man. It's really talking about the
body and the mind. Proximity and our thoughts. Our
thoughts. It's quite simply, since it has
to do with filthy contact, our physical presence and our mind.
Many years ago, and I'll be quick, many years ago, I was at a church
where our pastor decided he wanted to join up with this Armenian
outfit that was having some kind of big push across America. You
remember, I can't remember what it was called. You were there,
I think. Maybe it's already gone up to Central. I can't remember.
Jim and I have known each other for 41 years. We've been best
friends. for 41 years. That's a remarkable thing. I
thank God for it. He's been like a pastor to me
in so many ways. But the preacher decided he wanted
to join up with that, and so when they, I think it was that
big thing called, I Found It. You remember that? I found him,
or I found, you remember that? Big push. Well, he's handed out
the literature, and I read the letter, and this is a solid grace
church. And I read the literature, and I said, well, that ain't
right. That can't be right. So I said, if he's going to do
that, I can't be a part of this no more. But I'm not going to
cause any trouble, you know. I'm not going to stand up at the
monthly meeting where people show how really wretched they
are, you know. I'm not going to do that. I went
to his office, and I said, Pastor, I said, if you're going to do
this, I can't go along with it. And I said, I'm not going to
cause any trouble. I'm just going to disappear. I said, and if
people ask me, I'll tell them, I'll lie to them and tell them,
you know, I just had to go. I said, I'm not, I can't be a
part of this. And he said, no, don't leave, Tim. He said, stay. He said, we'll put this before
the business meeting. We put this before the business
meeting, and I'll give you 10 minutes to defend your position. I said, that's going to cause
problems. The whole thing is divisive.
It's going to cause a division in the church. I said, I'd rather
not do it. I've got friends here. I just
want to go on. No, I want you to do it. We'll do what the church says
to do. And so I finally agreed to it. And I gave my 10 minutes.
And the church unanimously voted the whole thing down not to do
it. And the preacher got up after that. Now, he's the one that
instituted the whole thing. And he said, the blood of those
people lost be on your head. He pointed to me. He thought men could cleanse
themselves. He had joined up and got polluted
with a whole mess of stuff. Got his garment stained. We are to cleanse ourselves from
filthiness of our bodies and our minds by keeping ourselves
from that which would stain us. Remember these words. Come out
from among them and be ye separate. One of the meanings of holiness
is separate. God is separate. This word perfecting means to
finish or to bring to an end. And the word holiness finds its
primary meaning in the word separate. Perfecting holiness is finishing
the matter of separation. Being done with it, get it over
with. Get it over with. To find what
this means, we need to apply only to the text. Come out and
be separate from what? Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord Christ with
Belial? Or what agreement with the temple
of God and idols? That is what we are to separate from. All
false teaching and religion. We are not to join hands with
those who oppose Christ and His gospel. We are not to bring the
things that they espouse as necessary for holiness before the people
of God. Their religion is a polluting
stain and we are to neither saddle up to nor entertain it in our
minds. We are not to be yoked fellows with them. Fellowship,
have communion, be in concord with, agree with. We don't separate
from them by paying attention to them either. Paul would not give them an hour
of his time. That's what he said. Wouldn't
give them an hour. We separate from them by being
separated to something else. Remember what I said. The mortification of the Jesus
of the flesh are not done here, down here below. They are done
by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Romans chapter
1 and I will close you and you all can go eat some pig. Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. There you go. That's perfecting
holiness in the fear of the Lord. By being separated unto the gospel,
you're separated from everything else that ain't the gospel. You're cleansed from that filthiness
of the spirit and the flesh. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, finishing the separation,
perfecting holiness in the fear, love, honor, reverence, and worship
of God. And how do we do that? Well,
what He did this morning, what he did last night and what he
does every time he gets in the pulpit leads us in worshiping
the one true living God. Thank you very much. God bless
you.