Well, Chris, what you said right
back at you. It's always a delight to be among
the brethren. I always feel like, and I guess
I'll feel like this till I die, which is getting closer than
it was. I'm the one who feels like I don't belong among these
men who preach the gospel. I feel like I ought to be just
sitting there listening, thankful for an opportunity. I hope the
Lord will give me something to say tonight. Turn in your Bibles,
please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. I'm going to take my text
tonight in the first verse of 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 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. Several times over the years
after preaching the gospel in different places, I've been confronted
with this passage of scripture by someone who is uncomfortable
with the concept of pure and sovereign grace, as if this passage
wasn't about pure and sovereign grace. One cannot preach grace
without on occasion being charged with antinomianism. I'm always
amazed that a person can think this verse This one verse is
the standard for all others when just the opposite is true. Many
years ago, I was in a meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, before
Moose took the pastorate there. And I can look back on it now
with some humor. At the time, it wasn't a humorous
occasion. In that meeting, a preacher,
so-called, compared the life of a Christian to walking on
a tightrope. And this ersatz theologian said
that a tightrope walker needs a long pole for balance. So this preacher said that the
balance pole was righteousness. And he went on further to say
that on one end of the pole was the righteousness of Jesus Christ
and on the other end was our personal righteousness. His well
thought out equation was that if our personal righteousness
was not equal to that of Christ, that we would be out of balance
and fall off the wire and suffer loss. At about the time he got
to this place in his message, I was sitting in a pew and behind
me was Don and Shelby and beside me was Donnie Bell and I think
Todd Nybert was there too. And I was about to blow a gasket.
My neck was turning red. I really wanted to go up there
and beat that guy up real bad. I was livid, as was Don and the
rest of the men who sat there. And Shelby, sweet Shelby, worried
about my impending stroke, reached over and touched me on
the shoulder and says, you want some gum? And I didn't hear her
right, and I turned and I said, you have a gun? That fellow's glad she didn't
have a gun that night. 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 de-double-daring
his words anyone to preach a message from 2nd Corinthians 7-1. Because he believed 2nd Corinthians
7-1 supported what he had just said. 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. He firmly believed that this
verse proved his carny hawker sideshow definition of true righteousness
before God. He could not account for the
fact that the believer is decidedly unbalanced. Decidedly unbalanced. And cannot abide to of anything
which you need to strike a balance. There is one way, one truth,
one God, one Father, one faith, one baptism, one Lord overall,
one life, and that is Jesus Christ. That is the singular and simplistic
beauty of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be confused
about one thing. Can you? You might not believe
it. You might not like it. You might
not want to swallow it. But you are not confused about
one thing. And this is what God says concerning
the salvation of all His elect. Christ alone. Adam gained two
things in the garden. Well, he had one thing to start
with and everything was fine when he had one thing. God looked
at his creation and said, it's good. It's very good. Everything
was good. Adam had it good. Had a beautiful
wife. Had everything at his hands.
Was the master of his domain. He was a happy fellow. Then he
sinned against God and he got the second thing. When he awoke
out of his horrible session of disobedience, along with good,
he had evil. And now he was balanced. He had
a balanced life in ministry. And if you've got two things,
that's what you've got too. You've got one thing good and
one thing evil. The man who preached that night,
his error was, as all errors of legalism, was to divorce a
spiritual admonition, such as this text is, from Christ, and
lay it at the door of the great bastion, I said bastion, the
great bastion of human responsibility, capability, and merit. Since all the Word of God is
about Christ, then this passage is about Christ. We don't have
to ask that question, that's just a fact. Every admonition
in this book that addresses faith is not centered in faith. It's
centered in Christ. We are commanded to forgive each
other. How? As Christ has forgiven us. We are commanded to love one
another. How? As Christ has loved us. We are commanded to give because
God has given us Christ and all things with Him. We are commanded
to pray without ceasing because our Lord ever liveth to make
intercession for us. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now I will agree that there is
a weakness in the translator's placement of this verse by putting
it as a new paragraph and a new chapter. Perhaps they did so
to connect it with the verse that follows in verse 2 when
Paul said, receive us. We have wronged no man, we have
corrupted no man, and have defrauded no man. So maybe that's why when
they read this about perfecting holiness, they said, well, maybe
that's what it means. But the Bible, remember this,
is a light to God's people, but it is a snare to those who don't
know Him. It's spoken in a way that men
will wrongly interpret it naturally. and can only rightly see it spiritually. This Bible is a trap for those
who don't know Christ. It's a trap for religionists.
There's so much in this book that natural religion can read
wrong rightly. And they often do. They often
do. These Words that Paul said, he
wronged no man, that he corrupted no man, that he defrauded no
man. These are gospel imperatives. We are told to owe man not anything
but to love one another. And love worketh no ill to his
neighbor. That's the clear definition of
Scripture concerning these gospel imperatives of defrauding no
one and corrupting no one. Character and conduct do matter. They just don't count. They do
matter, they just don't count. They matter because they are
a revelation of an understanding of how our Lord treated us. However, the first two words
of verse 7 connected with the previous verses, not with what
follows. These words address the promises
declared in the last few verses of chapter 6. Whatever the meaning
of the remainder of verse 1 is, is inextricably bonded and based
on and centered in the fact that those who are spoken of have
something. Those who are spoken to have
something. They're not looking to get something. They're not looking to gain something. They already have something. They have the promises of God. having therefore these promises. These promises. And they possess
and therefore believe the aforementioned promises. And that's in the right
order. They have, they possess, and
they believe. That's why you believe the promises
is because you have the promises. They are not looking to gain
or to progress in any way, shape, or form concerning the promises.
They already have them. Having, therefore, these promises. They have something. They're
possessors of something. Now the Word of God always connects
promise to Jesus Christ and the salvation that He accomplished
on Calvary's tree. All the promises of God, all
of them, no matter what they are from Genesis to Revelation,
all the promises of God are yea and they are amen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are called in Galatians heirs
of the promise or heirs of promise. It follows then that the remaining
words of admonition here are not accomplished in the flesh
but rather in the spirit through believing the promise of God. That's how these things are accomplished.
Whatever this is talking about, the basis for them, the basis
for perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, the manner
in which it is accomplished is the fact that we have the promises. We have the promises. Our text
has to do with and must be viewed in light of the context in which
it's written, lest we find ourselves sucked into that airless vacuum
of ligamentism on a tight wire with a pole without a net, because
that's where you're going to end up. Look at chapter 6 and
verse 14. What are the promises spoken
of? What does this relate to? What
does perfecting holiness mean? Verse 14 says, Be 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 what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? Now our Lord has made some clear
and absolute distinctions. You can read this over in the
Old Testament over and over and over again, especially during
the time when our Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and began
to lead them toward the Promised Land. Over and over again, He
says, when you get there, you don't mix with any religion. You don't worship any strange
God. But then in Deuteronomy 31, He
says, here's what you're going to do when you get into the Promised
Land. You're going to mix with every
religion there Every one of them. And then He gave that great chapter
32 of Deuteronomy as a song of remembrance for His people. That
when they finally do realize by His grace that they are worshiping
idols, to recall all the things that He did for them in chapter
32. Our Lord forbids, absolutely, unequivocally, forbids mixing
grace with works. He forbids mixing grace with
free will. He forbids mixing grace with
law. There is never any time ever
where the believer goes to the law for anything. He's been freed
from the law. Freed from the law. What agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? Ye are the temple of the living
God. As God said, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them,
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. First
promise. Wherefore, come out from among them, be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will
receive you. Promise. I will be your father. Ye shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Promise. Therefore, these promises,
all these promises, we perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. We have these promises. Cleansing, the filthiness of
the spirit and the flesh is spoken of in the first verse of chapter
7. But cleansing can never be attributed
and never is attributed to the power of the will of the flesh. Nowhere in Scripture. The very
words of the passage declares that we are to cleanse ourselves
from the filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. We are not admonished
to go to the flesh to cleanse ourselves from the filthiness
of it. That would be oxymoronic, wouldn't it? Cleanse yourself
from the flesh by going to the flesh to cleanse yourself from
the flesh. That's stupid, isn't it? Doesn't
make any sense at all. Cleansing is not a thing that
we can do at all. Job said, I wash my hands with
snow water. That's pretty clean water. Make
them never so white and God will plunge me into a ditch and make
my own clothes, my own righteousness abhor me. Can anyone bring a
clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Not one. Cleansing is
God's work from beginning to end. When we confess our sins,
He's just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's God's Word. Everywhere
in Scripture that the children of God seek cleansing, they do
so at the door of mercy. They seek cleansing at the fountain
filled with blood. The fact that their cry is, cleanse
me, Lord, and I will be cleansed. I will be clean declares that
they know that cleansing is not something that is possible in
their own power and ability. Cleansing was accomplished, has
been accomplished. That's why God is just to forgive
you. Forgiveness is not really, it's
about you. How does God forgive our sins?
He forgives them because you don't see them. We're the ones
who see our sins. We're the ones who ask for forgiveness.
We confess our sins and He forgives us because He's what? Just. How can He be just to forgive
us our sins? Because He's already forgiven
us our sins in Jesus Christ by His blood. That's where sins
were cleansed on the tree that our Lord hung on Calvary. That's
where they were all taken care of. Paul declared that fact throughout
Corinthians that we were cleansed by the blood. Cleansing is spiritual. I read of a preacher one time,
I was reading in some magazine, and this preacher said he always,
before he went to study, he liked to go take a shower and clean
up real good. Because he just wanted to be
clean when he studied the Bible. And a man's a fool, but he's
a clean fool. Cleansing is spiritual. The flesh
is neither quickened nor renewed. Ever. Ever. And it cannot be. And it can't be anything other
than what it is. My grandmother used to say, be
what you is and not what you ain't, because if you ain't what
you is, you is what you ain't. It is what it is. And the flesh
is always flesh. Never get better, never get nicer,
never get nicer. You can put a bow on that pig
if you want to, but it's still going to be a pig. It's still
going to be a pig. Flesh is flesh and always will
be. Flesh is carnal. It is carnality. It is sensual. It is always earthly
minded. Always bound to this realm of
the universe. And it's always contrary to the
Spirit. Always. The groaning of the Spirit
of the child of God is to be finally released from the influence
and death of the flesh. Paul said, Who shall deliver
me? from this body of death. What was he talking about? In
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. To apply to the flesh for perfection
of holiness is a kind of sick, perverse necrophilia. It's as absurd as going to the
graveyard to find life. That's what you're doing. This
admonition spoken of here in our text has to do with spiritual
life. Spiritual life. There's only
one way that our members which are upon the face of the earth
can be mortified. Only one way. This mortification
is certainly not within the purview of our members. How do you mortify
the deeds of the flesh? Go to the flesh? Do something? How do you mortify the deeds
of the flesh? You do them by looking at Jesus
Christ. You certainly don't look upon
the things of the earth. In the context which Paul wrote
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to mortify the deeds
of the flesh, it follows fast on the heels of him beginning
that chapter by saying, set your affection on things above and
not on things upon the earth. So it has nothing to do with
the flesh. Where are you? Where are you? Physically, where are
you? You're on the earth. Can't look
there then, because that's a thing that is upon the earth. One does
not apply to the disease, embrace the disease, revisit the disease,
or become reinfected in order to cure the disease. That's just
stupid, isn't it? Now, this may seem almost mystical,
maybe even ethereal, but the cleansing of the flesh is done
in a singular manner. We used to sing an old hymn that
says, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face,
and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the
sight of His glory and grace." This, in a nutshell, is the answer.
The believer looks to Christ. He looks for the appearing of
Christ. The believer will be looking for Him because the believer
has set his affection on Him and not on things on the earth. And with affection on things
above, the natural consequence is that the things on the earth
are not attended to. Right? That make sense? If you're
looking yonder, you're not looking here. If you're looking up, you're
not looking down. Does that make sense? Oh, I thought
it was really something, you know, theologically. No. If you're
looking at Christ, you're not looking at yourself. And if you're
looking at yourself, you're not looking at Christ. You cannot
serve two masters. You cannot serve God and man.
And you're going to hate the one and love the other. So the way
to mortify the deeds of the flesh is to not look at the flesh.
It's to look at Christ. And the flesh will be starved
for attention. That's right. That's how it's
done. That's how it's done. With affection on things above.
Things of earth are not attended to. This principle is the principle
spiritual life. I know we use terms like that
and when people say it you think of some glassy eyed, smiley face,
walking around always happy. That's baloney. That's grade
A Oscar Mayer baloney. That's what that is. The members
on the earth are mortified by looking to Christ. And you know
that by experience. Our problem is we take our eyes
off Christ. But you know when you see Like
last night. I can tell you last night, those
fellas poured a mighty fine heavenly cordial last night. And I drank
deep. Got drunk as a skunk on the front
pew. For a while, for a couple of hours, I had no troubles. I had no worries. I was as happy
as a hog in mud. Why? I saw Christ. Everything's
fine when you see Him. I didn't worry about the flesh.
I wasn't trying to be holy. I wasn't trying to be spiritual.
I'm looking to Christ. That's the answer. Too simple? Yeah. Too simple. Religion. Ever about making the old man
better and applying to the flesh to do so will never be able to
grasp that mortification of our members on the earth is accomplished
with a look. A look. Promise. Having these
promises. Promises suggest hope, doesn't
it? We do not hope in our flesh or
in anything we can see, for a hope that is seen is not a hope. Isn't
that right? Not a hope. We look on things
that are not seen, it says. How do you do that? Look into
Christ. That's how you do it. See things
that you can't see. What you see is going to pass away. You
know what controls this world? Things you can't see. How does
gravity work? Real well. You can't see it.
God is invisible. He's the invisible God. Christ
is the image of the invisible God. As mysterious and wonderful
and as unlikely as it seems, the only way that the flesh is
subdued is with a look at Christ. It is starved for affection because
the believer has invested his affection on things above and
not on things of the earth. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, is the only way that we deal with
the sin that so easily besets us. It's the only way it's done.
Holiness. Why, you know, I probably ought
to lower my voice when I say that. I probably ought to get
plum articulate and sound like an educated man. Holiness. Sounds better that way, doesn't
it? That's the way people talk. Holiness. Holiness. You know,
holiness is never attributed to the power of the will of the
flesh. Holiness is the work of God, too. Holiness is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ. What holiness
have we but Christ? All our righteousness, according
to Scripture, is as filthy rags. We do all fate as a leaf. Our
righteousness needs to be atoned for. Our righteousness needs
the blood of Christ to wash it. Our righteousness needs to be
put away. Needs to be put away altogether. Christ is our holiness. God has made Him to be unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, holiness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ is my holiness. He's my
holiness. Holiness is a state of being.
So we can know this when it's talking about our sanctification
in Christ. This word holiness don't have
anything to do with that in the sense that it is perfected. It's a different holiness we're
talking about here, isn't it? Because in Christ we're holy.
We're holy. How holy are we? Holy as we can
be. That's how holy we can be. Never in scripture is a superlative
placed on the word holy, except twice. Superlative, E-S-T, E-R,
added to the end of a word. Once, speaking about the most
holy place, it's called the holiest of all. The other time is holier,
when men said, we are holier than thou. God said, that's smoke
in my nose, burns my eyes. Men talk that way. You're as
holy as you're ever going to be. What about into heaven? You'll
still be that holy. What about when we lay off this
flesh? You won't be holier. You'll just be as holy as Yah.
Because your holiness is not your own. Your holiness is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has perfected us by His
offering. By His singular offering He has
perfected forever them that are holy. Them that are sanctified.
Them that are separated unto Almighty God. Fearing God. It says perfect holiness in the
fear of the Lord. Fearing God is the work of God
also. It is said of men by nature that they do not fear God. They
don't love God. They don't worship God. They
don't care about God. They don't want anything to do
with God. If you fear God, it's because God has put His fear
in your heart. He said, I will give them one
mind and one heart and they shall fear Me. That means to love Him
and reference Him and worship Him. Fear of God for the believer
is reverence for His holiness and His perfection. Fear of God
has to do with worshiping God. Worship Him. Loving God, honoring
God. And I know that those who hold
that our text is a treatise on progressive sanctification, use
the fear card as if this refers to punishment or loss. They themselves,
however, openly avow that they will never attain to perfection,
so they live in a constant slavish fear of the wrath of God falling
on them. That's why they're so, blame,
miserable. You never get a smile on their
face. I was down in Louisiana preaching
one time, and I was taken to this museum that had, I believe
it was Frederick Remington's statues that he had made. That
guy that did all those horses and things like that. And he
had made a statue of a Puritan. I never forget that. And this
guy had on them buckle shoes, you know, and on a black coat,
and a black suit, and a black shirt, and a black hat. He had
a Bible tucked right there, and he was walking in a gate. His
robes were flowing behind him. I looked at that guy, scared
the crap out of me. Scared me to death. No kidding.
I thought, how did people live that way? How do people live
that way? Angry, fearful, all the time
worried that God's going to walk up and thump them on the head.
And so mad at you because you don't live like that. It's jealousy,
folks. They can't stand the thought
of somebody being free. They fear liberty as much as
we fear bondage. Can't stand it. The believer
operates from an entirely different position. You see, the believer
has promises. Promises from Almighty God. The believer has his God dwelling
in him by his Spirit. Living in him. And the believer
does what he does not to gain anything. He does what he does
not out of fear of loss or censure. but in reverence of what has
been accomplished for and in him by God Almighty. Perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord then plainly has to do with believing the promises
of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Now having said that, let's look
at our text. He says, that's the introduction, yeah, but my
message ain't very long. Let's look at our text again. The admonition,
it says this, having therefore the promises Dearly beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This admonition
is to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. Filthiness of
the flesh and of the spirit. And this word filthiness is an
interesting word. It means an action by which anything
is defiled. An action by which anything is
defiled, or doing something that defiles you. Now we know from
the mouth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that defilement
does not come from without, but from within. Isn't that right?
You can't take anything, your body is going to defile you.
Might make you sick, might kill you, it won't defile you. What
defiles you comes from your heart. There's where murderers are.
Thieves. Wicked looks. Vileness. Uncleanness. Corruption. All that's in your
heart. Desperately wicked play. But this passage is not a contradiction
of God's words. God don't have any contradiction
in His words. This defilement, this filthiness, comes from a
root word that means to pollute or stain. A thing is stained
by coming in contact with something of a polluting nature or a staining
nature. Something nasty. This nasty filthiness
that is spoken of here has to do with contact or proximity
or association with something and something that gets on you. We'd say it like this, lay down
with dogs, wake up with fleas. Such language is not foreign
to the gospel. Our Lord said of the Pharisees,
leave them alone. You mess with them, they'll ruin
you. That's what he said. Get around them, they'll ruin
you. Paul said that to the Galatians. Don't mess with those Judaizers.
They'll taint you. They'll mess you up. He didn't
say you'd lose salvation. He said, but they'll ruin you.
They'll ruin you. The believer is not to be stained
by association with sinners like himself. That's the only kind
of people we meet. They don't stain us being associated
with sinners. Our Lord was associated with
sinners. In fact, the only kind of people He ever associated
with was with sinners. We are commanded to preach the
gospel to every creature, and our Lord set the example for
associations, being the friend of sinners and publicans. The
believer is, however, stained and often polluted. He gets his
feet dirty in association with false, legalistic, idolatrous
religion. The epistles of Galatians and
Colossians were written in warning against that very thing, and
we have examples of that stain in the actions of Peter, James
and Barnabas and Anion. They got stained. They got nasty. What'd they do? They changed
churches and a church, changed tables at a church social. These
Gentiles who had received the gospel and been stupid enough
to believe that they were saved without even ever knowing about
the law. These were Gentiles. They didn't have a Jewish law.
They were saved with no knowledge that a law was. And yet here
come Judaizers in and said, fellas, y'all going to have to go back
to the law. And they kind of separated at the church table.
And the really holy guy said, over here. And these old pagan
Gentiles said, no, over here. And the Judaizers started talking
to Peter James and John Barnabas and said, you know, y'all not
associated with them kind of people. You know, they say they
believe the gospel. They say they've been saved by
grace. He said, but you know, you got to keep the law. You
just can't throw that stuff away. You can't do away with it altogether.
Christ did. He put it away. What does the
law do? What it's always done. Convict
you. Tell you what your sentence is.
Set the date. You're going to the gas chamber.
Why? Because you're a sinner. The law didn't come. The law
wasn't what started. It was the transgression that
came and then the law came to define it as transgression. The
law came after the transgression. That's how the law serves. It
came because of the transgression. Where there is no law, there
is no imputation of sin. That's clear in Scripture. Sin
is imputed where the law is. And that's what the law will
always do. It was never intended to make a man righteous or give
him life. Or make him feel good about himself.
Or to be hung on the courtrooms of America. That's not what it's
designed to be done. The law says this. You're on
death row. You've got the cap. They shaved
your head. They put that metal cap on your head. Put the sponge
underneath and they strapped you down. They're getting ready
to throw the switch. You're going to be electrocuted
and die. And the law comes up to you and says, let me tell
you why this is happening to you. And it reads your sentence. It
reads your crimes. And says you're justly condemned.
Now you die. That's what the law always says.
Always says. You want to deal with that? Go
ahead. Go ahead and deal with it if you want to. I ain't messing
with you. I ain't messing with you. The law is not for the righteous
man. It's not. Not for the righteous
man. Cleansing ourselves from what? Nasty, polluting, corrupting,
false religion. We are to cleanse ourselves from
that which pollute us which would spot our garment, and this cleansing
has to do with the flesh and the spirit. That's what it says,
cleanse the flesh and the spirit. Now this does not refer to the
old man and the new man, or the spirit and the flesh that are
always contrary to one another, or the war that goes on in our
members to bring every consideration into the obedience of Jesus Christ.
This is quite simply, since it has to do with filthy contact,
our body and our mind. We are to cleanse ourselves from
the filthiness of our bodies and our minds by keeping ourselves
from that which would stain us. We are to present our bodies
a living sacrifice, our members as instruments of righteousness,
and mind not the things of the flesh, and look not on the things
of this earth. Paul declares this is the perfecting
of holiness in the fear of the Lord. This word perfecting means
to finish. Finish it. Put an end to it.
Be done with it. Bring it to an end. And the word
holiness finds its primary meaning in separation, which our Lord
said, actually, when He says, come out of them and be what?
Separate. Separate. So that night, if I
had had this message, I'd have been able to tell that fellow,
I can't have anything more to do with you, you and your pole,
and your balance. You're a stain. You're nasty. You're corrupting. We are not
to join hands with those who oppose Christ and His gospel.
I'm not saying be an unkind. You know me better than that.
We was all raised to be kind. And we ought to be kind to folks.
We don't hold hands with those that oppose Christ and His gospel.
We are not to mind the things that they espouse as necessary
for holiness before God. The truth of the matter is that
in order to perfect holiness, we must reject the holiness that
they espouse. Their religion is a polluting
stain that we ought to neither saddle up to or entertain in
our minds. We are not to be yoke fellows
with them, fellowship with them, have communion with them, be
in concord or agree with them. We don't separate from them by
paying attention to them. Paul wouldn't give them an hour
of his time, you see. We separate from them by being
separated to something else. That's how we separate from them.
Don't try to separate yourself. Don't try to separate yourself.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Paul says we
are separated unto the gospel. Holiness, what is perfecting
holiness? Put an end to this mixture. Put an end to association and
giving credence and holding hands with and fellowshipping with
and being in concord with or agreement with anything, anything
that adds anything to the salvation that God wrought other than Jesus
Christ. other than Jesus Christ. I believe
that's what Paul was teaching here when he said, having these
promises, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of the Lord. Well, okay then. Well, amen. My pastor Jack Shanks
in Texas said so many times there at the church that there's just
one rule in this church. If it glorifies man, it's error. It's wrong. And if it glorifies
God, it's the truth. That's the rule. I'd say that
was the truth right there, wouldn't you? That's honoring to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for that. Five
minutes. Come back in five minutes when
you hear the music. And when I say come back, what
I mean by that is come back and sit down and be quiet. Five minutes. Thank you.