in 1 Peter chapter 2, in reading
there in verse 9. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness and into his marvelous light, which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God. which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly
lust, which war against the soul. Having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify
God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake. whether it be to the king as
supreme, or unto governors as unto them which are sent by him
for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that
do well. For so is the will of God that
with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men. As free and not using your liberty
for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God, honor
all men, love the brotherhood, Fear God, honor the King. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also
to the fraud. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults,
ye take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even here unto were ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Now he lays the charge upon the
sons of God in light of the great blessing that they've been given
as the sons of God. Because he reminds us what we
were. He says here that which in time
past were not a people. Now of course we've always been
people, haven't we? But of course, what he's referenced
to there is we were not the people of God in a sense in which it
was obviously could be seen. It was not known to us. See,
men aren't born into the world knowing that they belong to the
Lord. It's only in time as God is pleased to show them, to bring
them, to the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ as Paul said happened to him. Paul, of course
he was born as a Jew and as a Jew he thought he was one of the
people of God. He never even gave it a minute's
thought because he believed the Jews were the chosen people of
God in the natural sense. But he came to understand that
he was not. a child of God by the fact that
he was born of the Jewish race. But he was a child of God by
grace, which is the only way any man ever comes into the kingdom
of God. He does not come into the kingdom
of God by anything he has done, by anything he has thought, by
any faith he might have expressed. There is no entrance given to
any man into the kingdom of God by any other means than through
the grace of Almighty God. That's just the way that it occurs.
And a man cannot influence that. He cannot prevent it. But God,
who's rich in mercy, with the great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, Christ died for us. And
so that's the same people of whom he's speaking about here.
And he says, in time past, you were not a people. You had no
claim on the things of God. David, when he was there with
the Kish among the Philistines, he had no claim upon the blessing
of God, did he? I mean, he was doing everything
he could to go contrary to the way of God. And yet God is rich
in mercy. He had mercy on David and he
brought him out. Now, those that would seek to
make the journey of a man in the grace of God to be something
he causes to come to pass, they would look at David and kind
of turn their eyes away because they can't explain such a thing.
is that because David, throughout his life, regularly disobeyed
the Lord, mightily. I mean, David, in some ways,
of course, being the writer of the Psalms, is one whom we can
look up to, surely as a man blessed of God. But David as a man, as
a father, you know, as all these things, there's nothing to be
commended in the life of David. as far as an example is concerned,
except insofar as those things where God subdued him and brought
him to repentance. And that's the only example that
we can really give to anyone is that which God has wrought
in us. Because anything that is of ourselves, will not be
worth anything. I mean, it's not gonna help anybody
in any way. But what God has done through
his people is a glorious thing. And that's what Peter's speaking
about here, as he exhorts the people of God to walk in a fashion
that is becoming of a child of God. Because in time past, we
had no claim on the things of God. We weren't born into the
world with anything that we could do to gain his favor. But he
said, ye are a chosen generation. Royal priesthood. A holy nation. A peculiar people. And this is
the reason. that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Why does God save men? Now there
are those that would tell you God saves men to keep them from
going to hell. And if they'll let him, he'll
keep them out. But if they don't, they're just gonna go and fight
everything he's done. Now that's not what the scripture
says. Oh, the Lord has called us out of darkness to his marvelous
light. He made us a holy nation. We didn't sign up for it. He made us a holy nation. He
made us a peculiar people. What's a peculiar people? That's
a people set apart. How are they set apart? They're
set apart in grace, in the mercy of God. We've been made a people. What a glorious thing. And so
then he goes on. He says, you had not obtained
mercy. The way you were walking and
the way that it should have been, there's nothing you could have
done that would have ever earned the favor of God. He should have
just killed you. See, when you come to the place
where you understand that God should have just killed you when
you drew your first breath, then it would have been right. And
it would have been good if he had. But he did. In mercy. In mercy. He had not obtained mercy. You
didn't do anything worthy of mercy, but now you have obtained
mercy. And we've talked about it many
times. You know, mercy is mercy. You can't deserve mercy. You
know, a lot of people say, well, the Lord looks on those, you
know, that believe and He shows mercy to them because they believe.
Well, that wouldn't be mercy. That'd be something they earned.
No, God shows mercy to those that don't believe. And in His
mercy, He causes them to believe. He brings them to faith. He works
in them, both willing to do of His good pleasure because He
is a God of great mercy. And it's demonstrated every day,
and he says, Peter says here, ye have obtained mercy now, dearly
beloved, in light of that. Think on those things. Think
about where you came from and what you deserve, but what you
have now received. And he says, I beseech you, I
beg of you, I plead with you, I exhort you, I admonish you,
I call upon you. as strangers and pilgrims, because
that's what we are. See, we're going through this
world. This world's not our home. There's nothing here that brings
us lasting pleasure and joy and delight, because it all passes
away. One day we think something's
gonna just make us happy, and then the next day we find out
that those things have been taken away from us. And such is the
case. You see, we look around, we see
people, you know, that's got a bunch of money. And we just
think, man, if I could just get me that money, I'd be happy.
But they're in the same boat that you are. It don't make a
difference how much money you've got. Now, yeah, you can buy things
in this world, but those things won't do you any good. See, the
things that last and the things that are beneficial are not those
things that are temporal, but those things that are eternal.
And a man can't purchase the grace of God. He can't purchase
the mercy of God. He can't gain it by whatever
he might possess. But he says, dearly beloved,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in the world. You're
not of this world. So he says, abstain from fleshly
lusts, which war against the soul. What are fleshly lusts?
They're the wickedness of the mind and heart. the things that
we naturally embrace. You wanna know what the fleshly
lusts are? Just live your life and you'll
discover it day by day. Now as the spirit of God works
in us, he reveals these things to us in more clear fashion and
how deep and the depth of those things are within us. See, a
lot of men think they're gonna get better. No, you're not gonna
ever get better, you're gonna get worse. Because as the Spirit
of God works in you and reveals to you what you are by nature,
he shows you how corrupt you really are. And that's the mercy
of God. Because see, a lot of people
just go through life thinking they're just fine, God's just
happy with them. I mean, they're doing all this
stuff and God's so pleased with everything they're doing. and
they're blind. They do not understand that it's
not the deeds of the flesh that please God, but it is that which
he has wrought in his people that he's pleased with. Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers, pilgrims abstain from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul. They war against your own body,
your own mind, your own very being. See, we don't have a soul,
we are a soul. The Lord made man from the dust
of the earth and he breathed into him and man became a living
soul. That's what we are. We're a living
soul, we have a body. But we're a living soul because
God in his divine purpose made us so. And so it is, he said
these things war against your very being. They're not helping
you. Having your conversation honest
among the Gentiles. Now he's gonna describe what
these, what it is to abstain from fleshly lust. Having your
conversation honest among the Gentiles. Now of course he's
speaking primarily to Jewish believers. and he is speaking
to them as they walk in this world, which was mostly populated
by Gentiles who were outside of that, but they were outside
of the faith as well. And so we can understand this
also from the fact that we, he is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
who's not circumcised in the flesh, but circumcised in the
heart. So we are, as the children of God, those who are Jews. And we walk in the world of Gentiles. The Gentiles are those who are
outside of the camp. They weren't allowed into the
temple, weren't allowed into the presence to worship with
God's people. They couldn't come there. And
so he says, have your conversation, that is your way of life, honest
among the Gentiles. That's becoming under the sons
of God. When men look at us, when the world deals with us
in business or in our life in general, I mean, we're to be
a people who are honest, straightforward. We're not, you know, winking
is a book of Proverbs. I forget what one of the Proverbs
mentions about that man that winks with his eye. You know,
he's got his fingers crossed behind his back. He's telling
you one thing and doing something else. That's not who we are. He said, God's called you out
of that. He says, you can't be walking in such a fashion as
that. And he exhorts God's people not to. Have your conversation
honest, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers. And
men will often, they may not speak against us as evildoers
in the sense that they would accuse us of immorality, but
they speak against us as evildoers because they hate the things
that we stand for. And he says, if men speak of
you as evildoers, that they may behold your works, which they
shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. That is
the day when God comes to judge the world. That they may know
that indeed you are the children of God. Now the world has no
love specifically for the people of God, never has. As we see
throughout the Old Testament, as the Lord used the nation of
Israel as an illustration of His people that He had chosen
from the beginning, the world hated them. And you know, in
the flesh, that's still true. I mean, it's an amazing thing. There is somehow an innate dislike
in the world of those people who are blood, actually people
who are Jewish. I mean, they're spoken evil of. And the Lord would still use
this illustration. Not to show that these people
who were born of Abraham's race are indeed his chosen people,
but that he would use them as an illustration as to how the
hatred of the world is against those who would walk with Christ. That they may by your good works,
which they shall see, glorify God and say, you know,
you're right, oh Lord, in all of your ways. Submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be
to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are
sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise
of them that do well. Now in this I believe that Peter
sets forth the purpose of government. Now, the governments of men often
become more powerful than they ought to be. That's why the Lord
cautioned the Israelites against having a king. They wanted a
king like all the other nations. And Lord said, no, you better
not want this because what's gonna happen is the king is gonna
get power and then he's going to abuse that power. And such
is the case of earthly governments. They always go too far. They
always try to do more than they should, because the purpose of
government is expressed right here. The Lord sent the governors
into the world for the punishment of evildoers. Now, we need laws. Why do we
need laws? Now God's people, according to
what Scripture says, we don't really need a law because we
have the law which is in Christ Jesus that we love our Lord,
our God, with all of our heart, and our neighbors, ourself. But
you know what the problem with the law is? Men can't keep it. They won't keep it. And so it's
necessary because of the corrupt nature of men that there be governments. You don't, the old song old John
Lennon wrote, imagine that there was no governments, no countries,
no all these things. Imagine that, well just imagine
that. Imagine tomorrow if there was
no control set forth by a government over people. It'd be chaos. We couldn't live like that, why? Because of the depravity of the
human heart. And that's what these do-gooders
and people in governments and stuff, when they get this stuff
in their mind, they get to thinking that people are just going to
be good. No, they're not going to be good. They're going to
be evil. And that's what the purpose of
government is, is to corral the evil. But it's not to punish
those that do good. It's not to set them aside and
raise those that do evil to some positions. And so we're to be,
submit ourselves to the ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Now every man in his conscience
must abide by that as the Lord directs him to do. Now, I don't
believe that every ordinance, and I don't think that's what
it means here, that every ordinance that men come up with, that men,
I mean, if they pass a law that says, as they tried to, if they
say, you can't go assemble on the Lord's Day or whenever you
do, it's gonna be against the law for you to do that. Now should
we submit ourselves to that ordinance? No, because our allegiance is
not unto that foolish ordinance such as that because a man can't
pass an ordinance that's against the ordinance of God. and be
right. So we don't blindly look at this
as though it just means that anything the government says
is correct. But it does mean that we submit
ourselves to the government. And if the government comes and
they bring some soldiers down here, if they say, don't meet,
and we come down here and meet, then we're not going to get out
a gun and shoot them, we're going to submit ourselves to them because
they're the law of the land and they're going to do that. Now
do I think that's just and good? No. I think it's evil and they
have overstepped their bounds, but God's people are not called
upon to fight against the government. You know, it's a matter of conscience,
again, insofar, and I know that in times past, even this very
country has risen up in rebellion against the government that they
had, and that is just part of the overall fabric, you know,
of the world, as the Lord has directed and established it.
There'll be wars and rumors of wars to the time of the end.
Is there such a thing as a just war? Well, perhaps. But I don't know that it's ever
justified for a man out of anger to kill somebody. These are dilemmas. So we have
to, again, it comes back to the matter of a man's conscience.
I mean, can we take up arms for a political purpose? Every man has to answer that
in his own mind. But the overlying purpose is
we do submit ourselves to the governments that God has ordained
for the punishment of evildoers. And as long as they are doing
that, I see no reason why we would ever seek to overturn them. For so is the will of God that
with well-doing he may put silence to the ignorance of foolish men.
Don't give men any ammunition to speak against you, is basically
what he says. Don't be known as a firebrand,
somebody trying to stir up trouble at every turn. That's not our
calling. We are to stand for those things
that we know to be true. And not to be caught up with
the crowd. Now, you know, we had a war in
this country one time that's called the Civil War. Kind of
an oxymoron, isn't it? I mean, a civil war, a war's
not civil, is it? I mean, you know, it's kind of
a contradiction in terms, but it was a war that was among factions
in this country. You know, not to litigate or
argue which side was right and which side was wrong. I believe
they were both wrong. You know, there's no, you can't
say, well, God was on our side. No. You know, for a man to take
up a weapon of war and kill his brother, I can't see how you
could say that the Lord was pleased with that. No, I don't think
so. And so, With well-doing, we put to silence,
you know, the evildoers. We don't join in with them and
become like them. My point was I was gonna say
that in many cases, men were stirred up to pursue this war
that occurred in this nation because people had this side
or that side, and then they just kept going, and just like any
argument, it just got out of hand. And that's what happens. We need to avoid that. You know,
we're not called upon to do that. That's not our place. We're not
called to stir men up to go take up a rifle and shoot somebody.
We're called to declare the glory of God in Jesus Christ. That's
our calling. For so is the will of God that
with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish
men, as free men, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. Now we are free in the Lord.
There's no law that binds us. We've been set free. The law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the
law of sin and death. But Paul said, though I be free,
he says, I'm not going to use my liberty for my own satisfaction. And Peter's saying the same thing
here. He said, it's free not using your liberty for a cloak
of maliciousness. Don't excuse your sin. Don't
go out here and say, well, I'm free in Christ. I can just do
anything. You know, I hear men say, well,
you know, we're free, we can partake of any substance that
there is in the world without condemnation. And I say, you're
absolutely correct. There's no substance that is
made in the world that can bring you into condemnation before
Almighty God. But Paul said, I'm gonna do the
wise thing. And he said, there are things
that I'm going to abstain from for the benefit of others. And so it is that he says free,
not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. Don't excuse
your sin. Don't say I'm free to do this,
therefore I'm going to do it. He said whether you eat or you
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And
if whatever you do is you're not doing it as unto the glory
of God, then you better not be doing it. It's not gonna be a
benefit to you. So that's what guides our thought
process. It's not this is wrong and this
is right. Now there are things that are
wrong and right, but I'm saying our consideration of the things
that have to do with the freedom of God's people in Christ. Or
is this unto the glory of God? If it's not, then we walk away
from it. If it is, then for the glory
of God, we eat and we drink and we do whatsoever we do. Not using
your freedom for a cloak that is a covering of sin. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God,
honor the king. Now we're to honor all men. What's that mean? It means have
respect unto all men. You got no reason to ever disrespect
others, even if they disagree with you. Now that's a tough
one, isn't it? When somebody doesn't hold your
political view. And the old flesh says, all right,
sorry, no good. But is that how we're supposed
to think? No, we're to honor old men. Now that doesn't mean
we embrace what they say. It doesn't mean we like what
they say. But we're not gonna disrespect them. I mean, it's
just like when somebody's president that you don't like. And this gets us all, does it
not? And we find ourselves, you know, being critical and saying
unkind things, but that's not what we're called to do. He said
honor all men, especially, he says, the king. Now we don't have a king, per
se, but we do have, it just means whoever's the leader, we're to
honor them. We're to have respect to them.
Because you know why? Because God put them there. Remember
David, he had the opportunity to kill Saul and he'd have been
right if he did kill Saul because Saul was out to kill him. But he didn't. Why didn't he?
Because he said, I will not touch the Lord's anointing. Now these
are tough things, you know, and when we live in a country where
we elect our leaders and whatnot, that doesn't give us free reign
to hate somebody because they're on the different side. Now I may speak evil of what
they do. I may say what my thought is
about what they do, but we're not to disrespect them. Now let's,
may the Lord help us. Fear God. Well he says, honor
all men, love the brotherhood. Now this is specific. Because
if we don't love the brethren, the scripture says, it's because
the truth is not in us. Because if we love God, we will
love the brethren. That's what he said to do. Now
again, all the brethren may not always agree with everything
we say. But if they love Christ, if they
seek to follow Christ, if they seek to honor and exalt Christ
with all that's within them, then they are our brethren. Now
I don't know why the Lord doesn't teach everybody the same thing.
in detail. I don't know, that's not my business. But I do know that men can be
in relative ignorance and still have a love for Jesus Christ.
I know that's true. Now some people say it isn't
true, but I believe it is true. Because I know that in my own
life, there was a time when I walked in great ignorance of the truth
of God. But yet my love for Christ never
changed. It was the same and it was my
love for Christ that caused me to seek out the truth of God
and the Lord was pleased in his mercy and kindness to show me
those things. And of course I know that the
Lord guided and directed all these things. The Lord has every
one of his people right where he wants them to be. Exactly
in the spot that he would have them to be. And in his own time,
he'll bring them to the place where he wants to be. David was
no less the child of God when he was consorting with Achish
than he was when he was writing the Psalms. It's the same one,
same man. So the Lord brings men by a way
that they knew not, but he brings his people always to the place
he'd have them to be. And may we all love the brotherhood. Fear God. have reference before Almighty
God. Now this is something that is
sadly missing today in our society. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. There's little thought, if any
thought given to the glory of God in society. Sadly, most mainstream
churches reflect that society. And there's little fear of God,
reverence for God, in most places where men gather supposedly to
worship the Lord today. They don't fear God. They are
entertained. They're satisfied with what they
have. God's people must fear God. It's the work of the Spirit that
causes us. As He shows us who God is, He
causes us to fear Him, to respect Him, to honor Him, to fall in
abject worship before Him. We have throughout the Scripture
the example of men who were brought into the presence of God, and
in every case, they always were speechless. They fell down before
Him. They couldn't do anything. And
you hear about all these people that had conversations with God
and they did all these things and went up to heaven and came
back. I don't know of but one record
we have in the scripture. that tells us about anybody that
went to the heaven and came back and he said he saw things that
he couldn't even utter. He said it's unlawful. He said
it's beyond the realm of the comprehension of men. He couldn't
even speak of it. Fear God. Honor the King. Servants, be subject to your
master's with all fear, with all respect, not only to the
good and gentle, but also to the fraud. You know, it's easy to be respectful
of a boss that is kind and good, takes our comfort and health
and wealth into account. I mean, anybody can love somebody
like that, can't they? And we ought to. But he said,
but on the other hand, if they're not like that, if the only thing
they're interested in is their own benefit, doesn't change anything. Because we're not serving him,
we're serving God. See, if we look at those whom
we serve as though we're serving God according to the dictates
of his word, Then these things, we serve, we subject to our masters
with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it when you be buffeted for your faults,
if ye shall take it patiently? What if the boss comes in and
chews you out, cause you did something wrong? Well, you deserved it, didn't
you? So why are you going to get mad
about it? But he said, what if he comes in and chews you out
for doing something wrong and you didn't do it? What did he say to do? He said,
take it patiently. Now see, there's where the rub
comes in. Anybody can take lavish praise
and say, yeah, buddy. And anybody can understand how
that if they do something wrong, they need to be corrected. But
what they can't do by nature, it's impossible for a man to
praise God in the midst of suffering a wrong Only by the grace of
God can that be done. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently,
but if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently?
This is acceptable unto God. For even here unto were ye called,
because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye
should follow his steps. as a sheep before shears was
numb, so openeth not his mouth. And he ever set forth the glory
of his deity as a man, when he spoke no ill to those
that did him wrong. That's not in our makeup. That's not the way we think.
I mean, it's just beyond, when the Lord said, you know, if a
man smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the left also. That's
the thing that has caused me great consternation through time,
why? Because it's just not, that's
not the way men think. It's just not in us, it's just
not our makeup. But you see, he showed us what
the kingdom of God was about. In that example that he gave,
when he said to his father, Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Oh, that's a glorious thing.
For even here unto where ye called, that ye should follow his steps,
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, he reviled not again. but committed himself
to him that judges righteously. Now when we're those, when we
suffer, when we suffer wrong in a righteous fashion, we do
so because of the glory of him who gave us the example. See,
everything that Christ did is the example for us. And if you
ever get to thinking that you are doing the right thing, compare
it to that which Christ did. And then you'll see how far from
that you come. He gave us an example. Who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. that we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
he will. See, there's the reason. We've
been healed, we've been made free, we've been cleansed by
the blood of Christ. And if anybody in the world ought
to walk in as the Lord did, it's those of us who have known what
he did. and how he acted and how he reacted. For ye were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned to the shepherd-bishop of your souls. How does the sheep find the shepherd? You know, I've read that sheep
are some of the dumbest creatures on earth. They don't have any
real instincts or ability to avoid danger. They just kind
of blindly go on about what they're doing. And if they didn't have
a shepherd, they'd be destroyed. Because they don't have any defense. They've got no way to defend
themselves. I mean, if a wolf or something
like that comes, into a flock of sheep, they're not going to
fight him off. They can't do it. They don't
have it. They don't know it. They can't.
That's why they need a shepherd. And that's why the shepherd came.
You see, the shepherd came to his flock. And he says here,
ye were as sheep going astray. We were lost. You remember the
parable that the Lord gave of the ninety and nine. He said,
though a man has ninety and nine sheep in the fold safely, yet
he'll go out into the mountain to find the one that is lost. How'd they get lost? It's just
the nature of sheep. See, they wander off and they
get in places where they ought not to be and they fall prey
to predators and those that would destroy them. But the Lord in
mercy is the shepherd of our souls. And he goes out and he
finds his lost sheep. And he said, my sheep, hear my
voice. I know them. and they follow
me. What he said, he's the bishop
of our soul. He said, yeah, they follow me.
See, you don't have to beat sheep to get them to follow the shepherd. When they hear the shepherd's
voice, they follow him. May the Lord give us a mind and
heart to follow Christ. Of course, that's what He called
us to. I mean, He made us sheep. We didn't make ourselves sheep. You didn't make yourself a man.
You didn't do anything. The Lord made you what you are. And He calls His sheep unto Himself. And if a man can't make himself
into a man, he surely and truly cannot make himself into a child
of God. I mean, how foolish is that? And yet, the airwaves are full
of people telling folks they can make themselves the people
of God. You can't make yourself the people
of God. By the grace of God, you manifest that you are one
of God's people. Because he works in you, both
are willing to do of his good pleasure, and he gives you a
desire to follow him. And the greatest lament of the people
of God is that we do not follow him more closely. The greatest
lament of the children of God is that we know the truth and
we find ourselves warring against it. As Paul said, the good that
I would, I do not, and that which I would not, that I do. And that
causes me great grief. Why? Because we're the sheep. And the sheep hear the shepherd's
voice. They hear the shepherd calling. And it's a delightful
thing. See, the goats, they hear the
shepherd callin' and they gonna go the other way. But the sheep
follow him. May the Lord help us.