into 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
2 Corinthians chapter 7. The title of my message is Perfecting
Holiness in the Fear of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 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. Now, in this text of scripture,
the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, appeals to
our noblest motives the noblest motives of every believer's heart.
He exhorts us to live before God and men in righteousness,
godliness, and holiness. He stirs up our hearts to the
perfecting of holiness. Now I pray that God the Holy
Spirit will graciously do that for us today, that he will indeed
stir our hearts with this ambition, with this desire, with this goal,
the perfecting of holiness in the fear of God. This message
is addressed to you, my brothers and sisters, you who are born
of God. Particularly, I'm talking to
you. You who are redeemed by the blood of Christ, having been
chosen by God's grace, you've been called by his spirit, and
now you're accepted before him, accepted in Jesus Christ, accepted
forever as righteous, redeemed, justified, forgiven before God
in Christ the Lord. I call on you that you may give
yourself to the business. And I call on my own heart and
soul that I may give myself to the business. perfecting holiness
in the fear of God right now and from this day forward. Now
the basis of my appeal is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ
which we've experienced. You see, God's people are not
mercenaries. God's people are not hired soldiers
or hired servants, and they are not slaves in bondage under the
law. Therefore, I do not motivate
you with threats of punishment or promises of reward. I'm not
going to try to be a hireman to hire men and women to serve
God. That's not my purpose. That's not my business. I'm here
as God's messenger. to challenge our hearts, to motivate
our souls, to inspire our spirits to the perfecting of holiness
for one reason, because we've experienced God's grace. We've been redeemed by the blood
of Christ. We've been made to be partakers
of Jesus Christ the Lord. You and I who believe on the
Son of God are the sons and daughters of God Almighty. Therefore we
ought to devote ourselves to him. Now I'm not suggesting that
we can add anything to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ or seek
to contribute anything to the work of God the Holy Spirit or
in any way improve our standing before God. I know better than
that and I hope you do. Christ is all, and we are complete
in Christ alone. He is our only wisdom, our only
righteousness, our only sanctification, our only redemption before God.
That is to say, we have everything in Christ that God requires or
God gives to men, and we dare not look anywhere else for any
of those things. Christ alone is our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption because he is our wisdom and
stood for us in the wisdom of God from everlasting. I'm not
forgetting for a moment the corruption of our nature. the weakness of
our flesh, and the influence of the old man Adam upon our
lives in this world. I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing, and the same thing is true of
you. If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If any man says, I have not sin,
that man's a liar, and he makes God a liar. I know that every
believer is a person with two distinct diametrically opposing
natures. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are
contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things
you would. I'm fully aware of that. The believer The believer
is a person who has been born of God and therefore has a nature
that which is born of God, which is holy, and that which is holy
cannot see. And yet there is within every
child of God by nature that carnal flesh that is constantly, constantly
just one corrupt mass of iniquity, so that you constantly are at
war with yourself. Constantly struggling in your
heart between flesh and spirit, between righteousness and truth,
and between sin and corruption and evil. So that the believer
is not engaged in this thing that men somehow have pictured
in their minds of a constant struggle between good and evil.
That's not it at all. The believer has a constant warfare
in his soul between himself by nature and his new nature given
him by God. Between righteousness and iniquity. Between spirit and flesh. between
God and the devil all taking place in our hearts. I know that
the flesh will never serve or be in agreement with the spirit.
That's not going to happen. I never expect my flesh to finally
give up and say, okay, the spirit wins. I'm going to live for God.
I'm no longer going to be resisting good. I'm no longer going to
be resisting righteousness. I'm no longer going to be promoting
darkness and corruption and evil. The flesh will never surrender
or be in agreement with or serve the spirit. And yet the spirit
will never surrender to the flesh. And so this warfare is going
to go on. Forever. Forever. A lot of things trouble me at
times. I carry a lot of burdens at times. That's part of the
territory of being a gospel preacher, pastor. But nothing troubles
me. Nothing burdens me so constantly,
so heavily, so weightily as my flesh. Nothing. The sin that's
in me, the evil that I am. Not the evil that I was, the
evil I am. And that's the way it's going
to be until I've drawn my last breath. That's just plain teaching
of Holy Scripture and the experience of every believer. And yet I
know this, you and I have a responsibility to live in this world in the
presence of God's enemies and ours, in such righteousness,
godliness, and holiness of character, that men and women around us,
by beholding our good works, will be compelled to glorify
our Father which is in heaven. Hold your hands here in 2 Corinthians
and turn to Matthew chapter 5. Listen to what our Lord says.
Matthew chapter 5. I hear men sometimes say character
and conduct doesn't matter. I beg your pardon. Character
and conduct matters a great deal. Character and conduct is not
going to give you a different standing before God, but character
and conduct is that by which we identify to the world ourselves
as God's children and thus glorify our Father before them. Look
in Matthew 5 verse 16. The Lord Jesus Christ says, let
your light so shine before men. And he wasn't talking about standing
around in some kind of a silly Christmas parade or some kind
of a silly religious service holding a blooming candle like
a little kindergarten child. He's not talking about a pretense
or a show. He's talking about behavior.
You children of the light, walk in the light and let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father, which is in heaven. My character and conduct in this
world cannot and will not in any way alter, for better or
for worse, my relationship with God. It neither improves nor
diminishes my standing before the Lord. But my character and
conduct in this world does reflect my relationship with God. And
the same thing is true of you. The way you behave reflects who
you are, shows who you are. It's a display of who you are.
This is what Lindsay is dealing with in Romans 6 in her Bible
studies. Romans 6 is declaring to men and women that we who
believe God are no longer the servants of sin, but the servants
of righteousness. All who are born of God are therefore
responsible to glorify God in every aspect of their lives.
As we live in this world, not only are they responsible to
do so, but every believer willingly seeks to do so. If Rex Bartley
is a child of God and his wife Debbie is a child of God, they
willingly seek the glory of God. We want his will. We want his
glory. We prefer that to everything. When you get right down to where
the rubber hits the road, you get right down to the heart's
desire and ambition of a child of God, it is exactly as our
Lord taught us to pray. We pray, Father, sanctify yourself,
glorify your name, increase your kingdom, your will be done. That's
what we want. That's it. Now, this is what
I'm saying. The believer, is that person
who with his heart willingly does that by which he seeks to
glorify Christ in all things. You remember the text Ron read
to us for his text on Tuesday evening, Brother Rumberg, preaching
to us on Thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians
3, 17, Whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks to God and the
Father by you. Whatever you do, do it for Christ.
Whatever you do, do it for Christ. Whatever you do, do it for the
glory of God. Now, hold your Bibles open here
in 2 Corinthians 7, and I want to show you four things in this
text of Scripture. First, the Apostle Paul uses
the promises God has given to inspire our hearts to obedience,
having therefore these promises. Paul is addressing believers,
children of God. He takes the Corinthians at their
word. They did not act much like believers, but they professed
to be believers. And therefore Paul spoke to them
as believers, men and women who were not under the law and not
motivated by the law, but rather men and women who were under
grace and motivated by grace. And he presumes, he presumes
that if they are believers, they will gladly obey God when they're
reminded of his goodness to them. That's a reasonable presumption,
isn't it? If Bobby Estes is a child of God, I just presume you will
gladly obey him when you know his will. I just presume you'll
gladly do that which you know is right for you to do for the
glory of God. I just presume that if I'm a
child of God, as I am reminded and taught by his spirit and
by his grace what his will is, I will gladly surrender to his
will. Well, what are these promises
to which Paul's referring here? They're the promises given in
chapter six, verses 16, 17, and 18. They're promises that are
given to all who believe the gospel, to all who obey the word
of God, to all who have come out of the world and identified
themselves with Jesus Christ in an open profession of faith
and believe his baptism. These promises are given to you. Now, this is what Paul says.
If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, these things are yours.
These promises God gives to you. Now, if you trust Christ right
now, if you believe on the Son of God, if you now, if you right
now, by determining Look to Christ and renounce all your former
works, religion, all your former idolatry and renounce your former
life and your former self and your former way of life and iniquity
and turn to God in faith, looking to Christ alone as your Lord,
your Redeemer, your Savior. Then I'm telling you these promises
God makes to you. They're yours right now. First,
the Lord God gives promise of His abiding presence with you.
Look at verse 16. Now back up to verse 14 if you
will. Chapter 6 verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. Now what Paul's talking about
here principally is a religious affiliation. He's talking about
forming an association with, or joining in with, those who
do not know our God, who are worshippers of idols, who do
not follow the truth of God, but rather follow the lie of
Satan. He's saying don't be unequally yoked together with them. And
he's talking about a willing, voluntary yoke. Don't put yourself
in a position where you yoke together with them. Whether it's
talking about marriage, or you're aligning yourself with them and
deliberately going into business with them, whatever it is, don't
yoke yourself with an unbeliever. It won't work. It won't work.
Why? Because you're pulling in opposite
directions. You're walking in opposite ways.
One's walking toward the light, the other's walking toward darkness.
One's walking toward God, the other's walking toward hell.
The one's serving self and flesh and the devil and the world,
the other's serving Christ and God and righteousness, walking
by his spirit. And you can't possibly get along.
You can't possibly get along. Say, well, we'll compromise.
Yep, you will. And the one who'll compromise
will be you. Always it'll be you. The unbeliever got no reason
to compromise. He got no reason to. He got nothing
to compromise. The compromise is always gonna
be one-sided. And if you're not careful, if you're not careful,
you're gonna hurt, hurt, hurt yourself, everybody around you,
and maybe hurt folks forever. Don't be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. Read on. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? How you gonna get along? What
communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the kingdom
of God with idols? What agreement is there? Folks
ask me all the time. Well, they don't anymore, used
to. Sometimes I go different places, folks still ask, you
know, are you in the Preacher's Association around there? Are
you in the Ministerial Association? No. How come? Because we don't have anything
in common. Just ask them, they'll tell you in a hurry. We don't
have anything in common. We don't know the same gods.
We don't worship the same gods. We don't walk in the same light.
We're not pursuing the same goals. What agreement is there between
the temple of God and idols? Well, we need to get along with
idols. We need to find common ground. Ain't none. There's not any where
we can get together and work together for good social purposes.
That's not what they're doing. That's not it. Their social programs
are an agenda to hell by which they hope through their own works
to win God's favor and attain God's righteousness and God's
acceptance. Read on. For you, You're the temple of the living
God. You're the temple of the living
God. As God said, I will dwell in
them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be
my people. In the Old Testament, there was
a temple and God said, I dwell not in temples made with But
this temple was built as a picture and symbol of that great, glorious
temple which God would build in this gospel day called His
church. A spiritual temple. And God,
whom the heavens cannot contain, God, who is infinite and glorious,
maker of all things, promised in the covenant of grace. You
can read it in Jeremiah 31, verse 33. I will come and dwell in
you. I'll be your God. You shall be
my sons and daughters. I'll dwell in you. I will take
up permanent residence in you. You're the temple of God. Your
body, soul, and spirit is the place of God's permanent abode. The Lord Jesus said, I'll not
leave you comfortless. I'll come to you. I and my Father,
we will come to you. I'll pray the Father and he'll
send the Spirit into you. Jesus answered and said unto
them, if any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. What a word! Christ in you. Did you get that? Christianity. Salvation, knowing God, is not
a religious profession. It's not a religious experience. It's not saying a prayer or believing
a creed. It's the Son of God coming and
taking up his abode in you forever. God dwells in you who believe. He dwells in you as the giver
of life. the preserver of life, the redeemer
of life, the teacher of truth. He dwells in you as the seal
of the covenant, as the seal of salvation. He dwells in you
as the spirit of illumination. He dwells in you as your savior,
your father, and your redeemer. God dwells in you. And then he
promises in verse 16, his manifest communion with you. Having these
promises, God says, I will walk in there. That means as Merle Hart walks
through this world, as you walk through this world, wherever
you walk, wherever you walk, if you're God's, if you believe
Christ, you're his. And if you're his, he walks with
you. when you know it and when you
don't, when you're aware of it and when you're not. John Gill
said, this denotes the communion. God is pleased to afford his
church and people and the gracious presence of his with them while
they are sojourners here and passing on to the heavenly glory. So that wherever the believer
goes, wherever the believer stands, wherever the believer walks,
the name of that place is Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. That's
a good place to be. That's a good place to be. If
you walk to work in the morning, you get your car, you proceed
to your job and you spend your time in the factory or in the
in the farm or on the farm or out in the fields and you've
gone to your work, the Lord's there. You go through the trials
of the day, through the rivers, through the
furnace, the Lord's there. You go through the valley of
the shadow of death. The Lord is there. You go into the wilderness
of temptation. The Lord is there. You come to
the house of worship. The Lord's there. When you lay
down on your bed at night, go sound asleep. The Lord is there. And then he promises his covenant
faithfulness. Look at verse 16 again. I will
be their God and they shall be my people. Do you have these promises? I believe on the son of God. I believe on the son of God. Do you believe him? Do you believe
him? That's what he said. You're my
son. You're my daughter. That's what
he said. You're mine. I will be a father to you. You're
the people of my eternal love, the people of my redemptive purpose,
the people of my saving grace, the people of my unfailing faithfulness. Now look at verse 17. He gives another promise. If Don Fortner, with all his with all his corruption,
with all his defilement, believes on Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh,
listen to that. If you believe on Jesus Christ
the Lord, God says, I will receive thee. Oh, what wondrous good
news. I will receive I'll receive you. We are accepted in the beloved
and God receives every sinner who comes to him by faith in
Christ. Because he has forever received
Christ. He's forever received our substitute.
And if he's received Christ, then he receives us in Christ.
If he's received us in Christ, he's received us as he received
Christ. to the same degree that he received
Christ. At the same time, he received
Christ. And he received us in Christ before the war began.
For the scripture says, we are accepted in the beloved. And
it's told us something that happened before the foundations of the
world were laid. He received us in eternity. And he receives
us now. Like the prodigal son coming
home. And the father arises. and runs to him, falls on his
neck, kisses him, and receives him. And so the Lord God receives
sinners who come to him. He receives us now as well. After all these days of unfaithfulness,
after all our ingratitude, After all our indifference, after all
our callousness, after all our taking for granted His goodness
and grace. And we do. We do. Norman and I were talking, James
Lee the other day, you know, we take, we just take everything
for granted. Everything. Everything. There's
no exceptions. We all do. And even as believers,
We take for granted the good grace of our God. We take for
granted the privileges He gives us. And after all that, He still
receives us. I will receive you. I will receive
you. And He receives us forever. Soon,
He'll receive us up into glory. And then He gives this promise
as well. He says, if Oscar Bailey believes faith, just get right down to that.
Truly trust my son, that I give him on the basis of that faith,
the assurance of adoption. I'll be a father to him. Look
at verse 18. I'll be a father unto you, and you shall be my
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. God himself is our father. We look, lift our eyes to heaven
and say our father, my father. A father A father is a heapsight more
than a man who sires children. Any dog can do that. A father takes care of his children. Always. A father provides for
his children through all their childhood and even makes provision
for their future. A father prepares an inheritance
for his children. A father disciplines his children.
He's always there, always there, always there. And I'm going to
tell you something. And I hope you young people,
you children will listen well. There are very few human beings
walking topside of God's earth who have any idea what a father
is. They're very few. They're just
very few. If God's and his providence has
given you one, oh, how thankful you ought to be. But listen to
me. God Almighty is our father. is our father. And we're the sons and daughters
of God. God who is both able and willing
to do all that he has in his love, purpose, and in his faithfulness
promised he would do. Having such promises as these, we ought to be inspired to do
anything. for the honor of God. We ought
to be willing to give ourselves an unreserved, absolute love
to our great God and Redeemer. Wouldn't you agree with that?
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies of living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
unto the Lord. So nothing makes any sense. It's
just, it's just your reasonable service. Just your reasonable
service. I've observed Lindsey and Diane
raising Michelle. She's a grown young lady now.
Well, sort of grown. They're still taking care of
you. I mean, she's not quite grown yet. And it's just reasonable. It's
just reasonable to expect that she speak honorably of them and
live honorably for them. She wears their name. That's
just reasonable. It's totally unreasonable to
expect anything less than that from you. It's totally unreasonable. Now listen to me. It's totally
unreasonable for you and I not to surrender ourselves in the
entirety of our beings constantly to God our Savior. Now then,
secondly, Because we have such a great, good, and gracious God,
Paul exhorts us to a cleansing, a cleansing that we must perform.
Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Now
you know, of course, I hope you know, that you cannot in any
your own sins. That's God's work alone. What
can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. But I'm telling you, nothing
else can wash away your sin. Paul is not talking about our
justification. We're justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. He's
not talking about our sanctification. We are fully sanctified by the
application of Christ's work to our hearts and regeneration.
Paul is here talking about the exercise of godliness, the purity
of our lives in our daily conduct. He's talking about many women
who being the heirs of such great promises as this, from such a
great God as our God, he's telling us that we ought to live in this
world for the honor of our God. Turn to Titus chapter 2. Titus
chapter 2, verse 10. Not purloining, laudering
about, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior in all things. In your hope, In your place of business, doesn't
matter whether you're the boss or the employee, adorn the doctrine
of God in everything. for the grace of God that brings
salvation. That is, if you've experienced
grace, if you really have, if the grace of God has saved you,
if it really has, the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men and teaches us, it educates us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously
and godly in this present world. He's not saying we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly when we get together and go once
a year to some religious retreat and there everybody acts pious
and spiritual, you know, and it's, oh, it just feels so good
to be good. That's not what it's all about.
I'm talking about when we used to have youth camps, not the
ones we ran, the ones I attended when I was a kid, you know, and
the folks go to youth camp and get pumped up and primed and
just have religion 24 hours a day all the time. And it just it
felt good to be good. Nobody did anything mean. Well,
not much. You know, it just it's just good
because you you have that environment of goodness, your goodness. It didn't last long, but while
you're there, it's pretty good. But Paul says the grace of God
teaches you to live soberly, righteously, and godly where
you are, right here, right now, in this present evil world, living
on the tiptoe of faith, looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. Now here Paul says, let us cleanse
ourselves. Not you cleanse yourselves, but
let us cleanse ourselves. In all things he takes the lead.
God give me the grace to do that. We must cleanse ourselves, not
one another. I had the responsibility as your
pastor of directing you, reproving you, correcting you, comforting
you, all of those things, but I can't cleanse you. It's not my business to try to
find your spots of uncleanness, and therefore it's not my business
to cleanse you. But it is my business to cleanse myself, and
your business to cleanse yourself. It's not my business to watch
out for you and make sure you don't step in a mud pile. It's
my business to watch out for me and your business to watch
out for you and make sure you don't step in a mud pile. Now,
it is our business to pick one another up when we do. It is
our business to help one another when we fall, but it's not our
business to cleanse one another. It's our business to cleanse
ourselves. We must cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, the body and mind. Now, I realize that certainly
applies to inordinate sins of the flesh, the body. To my knowledge, at least, in
this congregation, among you who believe, there's not any
problem, any great problem at all. With any member of this
congregation being involved in theft, drunkenness, murder, blasphemy,
fornication, or adultery. Now, just in case there's some
idiot sitting out there who thinks, well, those things are all right.
You know, on television, Hollywood does this. It's got to be all
right. The president does it. It's got to be all right. Congress
does it. It's got to be all right. That's evil. It's ungodly. It's vile behavior. I don't care
who does it or if everybody does it. It's all wrong. But to my
knowledge, there's not a problem with those things here. These
evils, are, however, things with which
we have to deal. Filthiness of spirit and of mind. And they're no less evil. And
no less evil. Gossip is not one bit less wicked
than adultery. Slander is not one bit more vile
than fornication. and fornication, no more viles
and slander. Covetousness is just as wicked
as theft. It's exactly right. These inward
evils are things that nobody sees, really sees, except us
and God. Therefore, we have a tendency
to just kind of let them We need to ask God to make us sensitive
to the evils of our own hearts and to graciously keep us from
the evil that's in us. Envy and covetousness, malice
and wrath, gossip and slander, strife and division, worry and
unbelief, a hard, critical, judgmental, unforgiving spirit. and obviously
of all false religion. There is in this cleansing, if
you will notice, something specific here about the matter of coming
out of Babylon, about the matter of having nothing to do with
false religion. Look back in verse 17. Wherefore come out from among
them And be you separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you. He's saying, you come out of
the religion of this world. You come out from Babylon. You
come out from all forms of works, free will, idolatrous religion,
and cleanse yourselves in doing so. Well, pastor, how can we
cleanse ourselves? We cannot eradicate sin from
our nature. or even make our flesh less sinful.
We're going to have to live with sin as long as we live in this
world. But we can and must cleanse ourselves, not by some legal
work, but by faith. You remember in the council at
Jerusalem, they spoke of the Gentile believers who have purified
their hearts by faith. Peter says, seeing you have purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit of unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart, fervently. What we must do is continually
flee to that fountain opened for sin and wash ourselves. Buddy, what we've got to do is
constantly come to Christ with our sin and plunge into the fountain. Just plunge into the fountain. I'm not a fanatic about washing
my hands and things, but sitting back here in the office or even
out in public, just every now and then I just get a stickiness,
you know. I didn't touch it, everything. And it was just a, just feel
dirty. And every time I get a chance
and I feel dirty, I get up and go back there to the sink and
get some soap and wash my hands. Feels so good. Just feels so
good. After being out in the yard working,
nothing's better than get inside, take some soap and lather up
and just get clean. And there's nothing better for
my polluted soul than to plunge into the fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Nothing better. We must bathe
in the laver of God's word if we would be clean. Our Lord said,
now are you clean through my word. and we must put off the old man,
that is say no to the flesh and put on the new man, say yes to
Christ. Turn to Ephesians 4 for a minute. Ephesians 4, I want you to look
at this. When Paul says put off the flesh,
put off the old man, put on the spirit, put on Christ, put on
the new man, he's not talking about some kind of charismatic
experience. He's not talking about some kind
of a emotional frenzy. He's talking about the most practical
thing in the world. Most practical thing in the world.
Look at verse 21. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 21. If so be that you have heard
of him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus,
that you put off concerning the former conversation, the former
manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lust. That's the way men live by nature,
in corruption according to deceitful lust. And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. Just exactly the
opposite. Wherefore, wherefore? Now, put
away, put away your natural manner of life. Say no to the flesh. Put away lying. Speak every man
truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another.
Be angry in sin not. I'm a man of sin and flesh, and
I'm going to do things that upset you. Well, don't let it bother
you too much. You do things that upset me too.
Be angry in sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Don't harbor bitter. Either way,
it's your soul like a catcher. Neither give place to the devil.
Let him the stone steal no more. Don't take what doesn't belong
to you, but rather let him labor working with his hands, the thing
which is good. Give your hands to industrious
labor, any honest work in a noble interest for this purpose that
he may have to give to him that needeth. I'll come back to that and work
on it another time. He doesn't say labor so that you can hoard
up and store up and keep and get more, get more, get more.
He says, let a man labor with his hands so that he may have
that with which he can give to those who are in need, so that
he may be a bountiful man. A lazy sluggard cannot be bountiful. A lazy sluggard cannot give.
A lazy sluggard can't support anything. Can't support himself,
much less anything else, any other cause or any other people.
But the believing man labors for the glory of God and uses
what God puts in his hands for the bountiful cause of his kingdom,
bountifully, for the needs of his people, bountifully. Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Now, In this
context, he's not talking about cussing and swearing and that
kind of stuff, though that's stupid. That's just stupid. Men use foul language because
they don't have enough sense to express themselves otherwise.
They use foul language because they lack the ability to speak
with any kind of intelligence. They use foul language because
they're foul inside. But that's not what he's talking
about here. He's talking about something far more serious here. He says, speak
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace to the hearers. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you're sealed into the day of redemption. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And that's what he's
talking about when he's talking about put away evil speaking,
corrupt communication. Children of God, don't speak
evil of one another. Don't do it. Don't engage in
that silly, petty, hellish, devilish business of speaking evil of
your brethren. Don't do that. But be kind unto
one another. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Don't give place to sin. Just
don't do it. Now thirdly, here's the goal
we seek. Having therefore these promises
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and of the mind, or the flesh and the spirit,
perfecting holiness. Now obviously when Paul speaks
here, of perfecting holiness. He is not talking about perfecting
God's works of justification and sanctification. God's work
doesn't need man's polluted hand to put the finishing touches
on it. God's work is finished. He's talking about our lives
in this world. He's telling us that the believer
is to be carrying on a course of righteousness and holiness
to the end. To this end of his life, he is
to persevere as he does in faith, so also in righteousness and
holiness. As he is to go on believing Christ,
so he is to go on living soberly, righteously, and godly. And we
know that the perfection of holiness in this life is an impossibility.
It's not the slightest, slightest possibility. that Bob Pontzer
is going to live for a split second in the perfection of holiness
on this earth. That's just not going to happen,
because he is sin, and I'm not either, and you're not either,
because we are sin. We can't do anything without
sin, but that's the goal we must seek. The perfection of holiness is
neither more nor less than conformity to the character and conduct
of the Son of God. That's what it is. And we must blame ourselves for
falling short of the goal. Don't excuse yourself. You see,
my sin, my unbelief, my corruption, the evil that's in me is my own
doing and yours as well. We choose the evil. We delight
in the evil. We walk in the evil. That's what
we want by nature. That's our flesh. And it's absolutely
inexcusable. It's inexcusable. And we must
never find any consolation saying, well, that's the way everybody
is. We find no consolation saying, well, that's just the way we
are. But rather, that's the way we
are. But blessed be God, it shall
not always be that way. Soon, we who believe shall have
the perfection of holiness. When we see Him, we'll be like
Him, just like Him, just like Him. We've been predestined and elected
holiness. Christ redeemed us to make us
holy. We have been born unto holiness
and soon we shall enter into it. Now one last thing. Here's the motive by which we're
driven. 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. The fear of God here is not the
dreadful fear of unbelief, but the reverential fear of faith
and love. The fear of God is the root of
faith, worship, and obedience. The fear of God works through
love. Need I say more? Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such
were some of you, but you're washed. You're sanctified, you're
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. 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. Whether therefore you eat or
drink, Or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, do it for the
glory of God. That's my message. May God graciously
apply it to our hearts for Christ's sake. Benji, you come lead us
in the hymn, please.