of the Baptist Church says that although we acknowledge that the Bible is alone our sole rule of faith and practice, we acknowledge that the 1689 London Confession of Faith has established so many wonderful truths that we hold dear. And so as we have come to the end of this study, we decided to go through that document and pick out certain subjects that are so important to our faith and to our understanding that aren't directly covered in the Articles of Faith of our church. And so, really enjoyed the last three that we've done. Justification, and then Adoption, and now, today, we'll take up the great doctrine of Sanctification. And I don't know if you're this way, but oftentimes when I would be a person listening to preaching and someone said that they were going to talk about sanctification, I kind of got deflated in my spirit. I was like, okay, here comes the hammer, you know. don't do this, you know, you're doing this wrong, that it was going to be a sermon, you know, where I was just going to have to see again, you know, how bad a person that I was and how far away I was from what God wanted me to be. That's a terrible attitude about sanctification. It's the wrong attitude about sanctification, but you can tell that I had a fleshly spirit. about it because sanctification is something that we should embrace with as much zeal, as much readiness as adoption or justification. It is a wonderful, beautiful truth that every one of God's children should just rejoice in. And that's the way I want it to be today for all of us. I'm not talking about legalistic rule-keeping or Phariseeism. You know, the people in Christ's day that thought that they were doing that the best of anybody. Do you remember them? the Pharisees, right? Jesus had his strongest rebuke. His harshest words of criticism were for people who thought that they were more righteous than other people. They were more sanctified. They were more set apart because they thought that they were keeping the rules better than everyone else. Now, Jesus never condemned them for trying to keep the rules. God's law is perfect. It's just it's holy and in Christ Jesus Kept the law and it amazing that he kept the law that the Bible says to a jot and to a tittle he didn't let one thing fall to the ground, but what he condemned them for was the their pharisaical attitude to think that in their keeping of those rules, that that in any way made them better than anyone else or made them more righteous with God. And he said, you're blind and you don't even know it. You're like people that are naked and don't even realize that they need to be clothed. He said, you're blind guides. He said, you're hypocrites. You're whited sepulchers. These are painted graves full of dead men's bones. So that is not what we want to think of when we think about sanctification, this legalistic rule-keeping or Phariseeism. But instead, what we want to think about is a joyful, yes, a joyful conformity to God, to Christ and to their laws and commands. That's what sanctification is about. It's about a joyful conformity to God first and to Christ and also to the laws and commands of God. I want to start off with a quote by Charles Bridges. He's a minister that I know, Brother Jeff, Brother Andy, highly respect. We've read and been blessed by many of his works. And this is a, you know, there's sometimes you can, you find some quotes that are just really are fit for you. And so every Bible that I ever get, I write this quote down in the front of it. And I always, always tried to read it often. This is what Charles Bridges said. Let me be taught. that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul. Let me be taught that the first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul. Say, Brother Nathan, why? Why does that quote mean so much to you? You know, because it's this way. By human nature, we want to be everybody else's sanctifier. You know, we come to a certain point where we think that we've arrived, we do pretty good, and we'll cry out at a thousand sins of others, but we won't slay one sin of our own or in our own heart. And so it just reminds me that my business isn't first the sanctification of others to make sure all of you are right and that all of you are doing right, but the first great business of my life is the sanctification of my own soul. And so that's why we're beginning in Matthew chapter 7. I don't want you to think about anyone else today in your life that needs sanctification. I want you to take this personally. I want you to say, Lord, make this sermon directly to me. To my heart, Lord. Help me to love this truth. and embrace your desire for me to be holy today, not my husband, not my wife, not my wavered son or daughter, not the wicked people that we see in the world around us. It's not bad at all to desire for them to be sanctified, but for today, for this moment, With God, with our Heavenly Father, with our Holy Father, I want it to come home to me. and to each of you personally. So we see here that Jesus brings forth this type of teaching. Matthew 7 beginning in verse 1. Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And listen to this. And why beholdest thou the mote, this is like a little bitty speck, that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou seek clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye." And so I think Jesus really speaks to the heart of what sanctification is to be about in our lives is like Mr. Bridges said, it's the sanctification of my own soul. When we're talking about sanctification, we have to deal with the concept that we call the iceberg of self. Anybody know what the iceberg of self is? See, in Iceberg, you'll remember this, any of you that watched the movie Titanic or read the book Titanic, you know that they said about the Titanic, it was said before the voyage across the Atlantic. Not even what, God could sink this ship, man. You know, I would have said, who wants to buy my ticket? after I heard somebody say that, right? I mean, you're just doomed from the start, right? So, but icebergs are very dangerous because, as you know, the largest part of the iceberg is underneath the water and is hidden. And, of course, the people in the Titanic, they were going through that and they were going through these icebergs and, you know, it was the bottom part of the iceberg that tore into the ship and so many perished, tragically. Well, when we're talking about sanctification, we're talking about our own sin, we're talking about the iceberg itself. What happens when, after you are regenerated and converted You know, you have a view of yourself and of your sin like an iceberg. There's just a little bit of sin on top that, you know, needs to just be melted away and taken care of. But as the sun of righteousness, the way, what happens with the iceberg, as the top of the iceberg melts, the ice, the big part of the iceberg lifts to the top. And that's what happens with us in our life after we're born again and after we're saved, you know, we begin to realize what a terrible sinner we actually are and how much that we need the Lord and how much we need to grow in grace. You know, if regeneration is birth, sanctification is growth. We would think it very strange if somebody in here, like we see Zach and Lydia and their children, you know, a few times out of the year. Well, it would be very strange to us if y'all's children were the exact same size every time we saw you. You know, I remember growing up, you know, people who hadn't seen me in a while, they said, my, how you've grown. I was like, well, why are you surprised? You know, I'm supposed to grow, aren't I? But if there is no growth in your life as a Christian, Let me put it this way. There was a very sinful woman that God had mercy on and brought her out of a life of great sin. And she began to follow the Lord. And she gave her witness and her testimony. She said, I view myself now as a greater sinner than I did even before that I was born again. But she said, but this is the difference. Then I was a sinner running towards sin, but now I'm a sinner running away from sin. Can I get a hallelujah for that? Oh, and this is God's great work of sanctification, and may it be the great business of our souls. May we get the most out of others' eyes only after You've gotten the beans out of the ice when we have seen the iceberg of self melted before the glory and power of God's grace. I think probably the greatest chapter in the Bible on sanctification is Romans chapter 6. And I want you to turn there, and this is kind of lengthy, it's 23 verses, but I want you to read it together with me. you to ask the Holy Spirit, Lord, use these words that were inspired to really speak into my soul and into my life and help me to have a greater desire for holiness and for purity. And there's two aspects that are going on in sanctification. I'm going to define sanctification I'm going to go ahead and define sanctification, because it's kind of a big word. What sanctification is, this is just a kiss example, keep it simple, stupid, right? Sanctification is the process of God making us holy. So when our brother Nathan is talking about sanctification, that's what I'm talking about. It is the process of God conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him making us holy and set apart. And so in that great work of sanctification, there's two things that are going on that is amazing. There's life and death going on. all the time. And we call those things theologically mortification and vivification. That's what's going on constantly in the life of the believer in this great holy war of the flesh and the spirit. We are being mortified to the old man and then we are being made to live in Christ in the new man. Mortification and then vivification. And when sanctification becomes so much more of a joy in our life is when there's more vivification than there is mortification having to go on in our lives. And I believe that that does take place. in everyone who is serious about being more like Christ and loving God more. God's going to help you towards that. That's His enabling promise. That's what sanctification really is. It's not about God saying, you're not the way that you're supposed to be and this is the way that I need you to be. That's not what sanctification is about. Sanctification, and I'm so glad that I'm preaching about it on Father's Day because this is the way that God, in justification, He deals with us as a judge. But in sanctification, He deals with us as a loving father. And in sanctification, God acknowledges and He realizes and He knows that we are not what we need to be. But what sanctification is, is his enabling promise that I have and I'm going to give you complete victory over sin. Can I get a hallelujah? That's why you should be so happy about sanctification because it's not just a promise of God that one day you're going to be completely righteous in heaven, but it's enabling. a promise even now that God says, I am preparing you, I am developing you, I am renovating you in a relational way so that you can see the Lord for without holiness, what? No man shall see the Lord. So, we need sanctification and we should praise God for it. So, look at these things of mortification and vivification as we go through this because, you know, in adoption, we have no part except we receive it by faith. But in sanctification, especially in personal sanctification, or renovating sanctification and progressive sanctification, we bring ourselves into cooperation with God only by His enabling grace. So let's look at this. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul answers that very quickly. It was kind of a rhetorical question. He said, God forbid or no. We should not. Because he says, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? This is why we take such a strong stance here about the work of faith and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer because we don't believe that someone who has been born again and regenerated by the Spirit of God can live habitually in sin without repentance toward God. We just don't believe that the Holy Spirit will allow that to be the continual trademark of the life of a child of God. He said, because you're dead to sin, how could you live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Jesus, we're baptized into His, what? Death. There's your death, your mortification. Okay? Therefore, we were buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of what? Life. There's your vivification. In sanctification you have mortification going on, dying to self, the melting of the iceberg of self, but also the bringing forth of the new man of the life in Christ of Christ in you, the hope of glory, as the Scripture says. Hallelujah. So, we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing that our old man, here it is again, is crucified, mortified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Here it is. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Hallelujah. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead doth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once. But in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." That's what we're talking about, about that sweet woman. She said, I realize I'm a greater sinner than I ever was before I was born again, but see the difference. She said, I once was running toward sin, but now I'm running away from sin and toward God. Twelve, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Here is the cooperation with God, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are allowed from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. I love this. See, this is God's enabling promise that you do have victory over sin and that you will have the ultimate victory over sin in your life. That's what sanctification is. For sin shall not have dominion over you. I say hallelujah to that because sometimes it doesn't feel that way, does it? but ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your member servants to uncleanness and to iniquity and to iniquity, even so now yield your member servants to righteousness unto righteousness. They were running toward sin, now they're running away from sin. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, that's what sanctification is all about. Being made free from sin, it's penalty, it's power, and then one day what? Even it's presence, right? Being made free from sin, listen, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Sanctification is God's enabling promise to His children that they do and will have victory over sin. If we define it theologically, this is the Westminster Confession. I think it's so good on sanctification. Listen to what they said. It is the work of God's free grace whereby we are conformed to Christ's image and are enabled to die more and more to sin, mortification, and live unto righteousness, vivification. Great definition. So when we think about sanctification, theologically and in our minds, and as it relates into our life, first we must understand, as we were taught Wednesday night, that sanctification is positional. It is a position that we have in our relation, or we could say this way instead of positional, we could say relational. Our relational sanctification. That those that are in Jesus Christ, those that are the elect of God, all those for whom Christ died have been justified, have been called, have been sanctified, and will be glorified. They have a position of holiness with God in their relationship with God in salvation. And who can lay anything, what? To the charge of God's elect. Hallelujah! So, I tell you today, I rejoice to tell you today, that you are sanctified. That's why you are called holy, His holy ones. That's why you are called His saints, His hagyos, His holy ones. You have been taken like the instruments in the temple and the tabernacle of brass and gold and silver, and you have been washed and you have been set apart unto the glory of God, to His usefulness, to His service. And that is your relational position in sanctification with God. Go with me to 1 Corinthians just so that we can reaffirm that truth with the Word of God in our minds. Because I love for a preacher to tell it to me. I really do. But when I really love it is when I see it directly in the Word of God. Can I get an amen? Yes. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we have both the doctrine of sanctification and justification. This is our positional or relational sanctification. Verse 11, And such were some of you. Ouch! Right? And such were some of you. Now listen, that list of those before, I'm not even going to read it. You can glance at it if you want to. There's a pretty wretched sinning going on in the verse before. I'm not even going to read it. We're not even going to talk about it in this company. It's about as bad as it can get. And do you see that the Apostle Paul acknowledges that's what some of you were before God's work of grace in your life. Who can say, hallelujah, that I'm not what I want to be, but I'm not what I once was either. Do you know why that is? It's because of sanctification. It's because God's enabling promise to you that you have victory over sin in your life and you will have ultimate victory over it in the world of glory. I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful for that. And such were some of you, but ye are washed. Not you will be washed. And even of these terrible, terrible sins? Hallelujah, yes. Even of Mary or Manassas' name. Even of Nathan's penny sins. I'm sanctified before Jesus Christ because of His balmy blood. And so are you all that have faith in Christ. You are clean everywhere. Oh, hallelujah. but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. So, sanctification is positional or relational, but sanctification is also practical. It's also practical. It's a renovating work of God's grace in your life and in mine. its personal sanctification. Go with me to John 17. And we read in Christ's intercessory prayer. And I just love something that Elder Zach Gess said about this recently. You know, In Christ's intercessory prayer here in John 17, you know, He knew that the disciples were going to betray Him. He knew Peter was going to deny Him. And He knows all of yours and mine sins and errors. He's died for all of them. But when He prayed for the church, He didn't say one bad thing about her. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that so beautiful, the heart of the sanctifying? You know that He that sanctifies, and they that are sanctified, we learned Wednesday night that they're what? that they're one. Jesus said to say something bad about her, I'd have to say something bad about myself. Two, there's nothing bad to say about Jesus. But listen to what he says talking about his relation with them in their life as they're being in the world but not of the world and all those things. John 17 and let's look at verse 17. He says, sanctify them. He said, well, wait a minute, brother. I thought you said they were already sanctified. Well, they are positionally and relationally. But we all know there's a lot of work that needs to be done on us from being dead in trespasses and in sin to be completely conformed to the image of His dear Son. There's a lot that needs to be done. And you know that God has chosen not to just zap us in sanctification, but He has chosen to bear with us through life in a process whereby He melts down that iceberg of self and He brings up the life of Christ and the image, His own image, like the person that draws the dross off of the gold, right? The gold has all the impurities and they melt it down, and the artificer, he draws the dross of, and he knows it's pure gold when he can see his reflection in the gold. That's what is being done. in sanctification. And Jesus says, I want you to sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And then verse 19. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. And beloved, I believe and we believe here that sanctification is progressive. If you are exactly as you have always been as a child of God, then I would say you've probably never been born again. Because just like we said with these children, if we didn't see growth in them, we would know that something was genetically wrong. We would know there was something terribly wrong in their natural biology because it is the natural biology for a child to grow into adulthood. And so it is with us as children of God, we're to grow in the grace and the knowledge of God our Savior. And so sanctification should also be progressive. In my life, that doesn't mean you don't have setbacks. That doesn't mean sometimes it doesn't even look that way in your life. When you look at Peter, when he's denying the Lord, that don't look like progressive sanctification to me, but Jesus knew what was going on in his life, and he said, I've prayed for you. Satan's going to try to sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you, and when thou art converted, you're going to strengthen the brethren. God knew he was going to use it to melt some of that iceberg itself off of Peter and make him more like his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. chapter 3. I'm so glad that the Apostle Paul wrote this in Philippians chapter 3, because you know, we kind of think sometimes that, well, Brother Nathan, you know, really being holy and really, you know, surrendering all of yourself to God, that's just for super-Christians. You know, that's not, you know, that's just not for your everyday church member, you know, regular mom, dad of the church. That's for preachers or, or that's for, you know, missionaries. They're the ones that are really sanctified. No. Do you know, this is, this is the same for every child of God, uh, to, you can be sanctified to whatever degree that you want to love and have Christ and be more like Christ. It's the same for all of us. But the Apostle Paul, you know, he's such a hero to all of us. How he was converted and then what he was willing to suffer for and God used him to write so much of the Bible, you know, we would just put him on another plane. But you hear how he describes his own self and his own life and the progressive nature of what his desire is in following Christ. Beginning in verse 13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. Wow! Wow! But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Here's the progressive nature. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, that's what you need to pray for today. Lord, set me on fire for that. To realize I'm not where I used to be and I'm not where I'm going to be, but Lord help me to continue to press forward for what you've called me to be. So, God deals with us in sanctification as a father. As a father who is holy, number one, as our father who is holy, he will also see to the holiness of his children. without which we would never see the Lord. And that is why Brother Drew mentioned in his prayer, God lovingly corrects us and chastens us through our life. When we get caught up in the sin, when we get caught in a bad attitude, a bad error, God doesn't whip us as hard as he can. Can I get a hallelujah? Thank you for His merciful. And sometimes He said, let me just guide you with mine eye. So I don't have to, you know, get the bit and the bridle, but the Bible also says that He'll scourge. He'll even scourge us if that's what it takes, but He only does it out of love, out of care. It's part of His promise to us as our Father and in sanctification. God, our Father who is holy, will also see to the holiness of His children. And we've already mentioned that in 1 Peter chapter 1, 15 and 16, but we need, sometimes we look at this verse and we think that it's impossible. You know, because we know how holy that God is. God has never in any way, you know, in Him is light and in Him is what? He is light. God is light and in Him is what? No darkness at all. There's no other being, no angel, no man, even redeemed man that will ever be as holy as God is. That's part of what makes Him God. If anybody else was as holy as God, there would be two Gods, there wouldn't be one God, and you know, the whole thing would be shot. That's part of the reason why when He created all things, everything that He created was less than Him. Do you understand that? God could not create Himself or He would have been an adulterer. So anything that He created is subject to vanity, is subject to to fallenness, but God knew this, and he prepared and planned. for all of it, but only He is holy as God is holy. But that's not what I believe that He is asking of us or expects of us as a Father. But listen to the wording here, 1 Peter 1, and I don't want to water this down in any way, but this is what He's asking us to do. 1 Peter 1 verse 13 beginning, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. This takes effort. This takes great strength. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I I am holy. The good news about sanctification and God's call to you to be holy is that the Father does expect God-dependent effort but that He graciously gives to us what He commands from us. Isn't that wonderful? That's what the Father does. Here in this call for us to be holy, He expects us to exert God-dependent effort but he graciously gives to us what he commands from us. Sanctification is the enabling promise of God that you are free from sin and that one day you will be from sin. Every one of us in here are dealing with sin. Can I get an amen? I want you to know right now that I and you have victory over sin. Sin cannot have dominion over us. It only does when we let it. That's our fault. That's not God's fault. God has given us the victory. God has given us the greater seed that is in you, that is in the world. God tempteth no man, neither is He tempted. He gives you a way of escape. The only person that you and I can blame for our sin or for our defeat by sin is ourselves. We can't say, well, God, you didn't give me the victory of it. God did give you the victory. He has given you the victory. The question is, are you willing to obey him? And are you willing to fight for that victory? Remember the land of Canaan? God said, I've given you Canaan land. Every step that you step will be yours. But he didn't zap all the enemies out, did he, Brother Andy? What did they have to do? They had to go and fight. They had to go fight, and holiness is something, beloved, that's worth fighting for. And the Father who has called you to it is going to enable you to do it. Everywhere that they went and had faith in God in the land of Canaan, God gave them victory over their enemies. And so He does in our life as well. What God expects He graciously gives. How amazing is that? Let's look at a few more verses as we begin to close. Romans chapter 7. We don't want to be at war, but we are at war. There's a great struggle within us, our old man. You know, He wants to sit on the throne of our hearts. He wants to rule. He wants us to fulfill the lust of our flesh. And it's a daily battle. Okay, who am I going to serve? Choose you this day whom you're going to serve. Yes, Romans 7. Let's look at just the end of the Apostle Paul's struggle here as he reminds us that we are at war, but that we also have the victory in the war. Romans 7 beginning in verse 21, I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Do you find that as well? I start off the day, you know, I read my scriptures, I spend time in prayer, I read my daily devotion, I spend time with God, and then I come to the end of the day and I look back and it was a battle all the It was a battle all the way through. And I know the next day it's going to be that way too, except one day we'll be even free from the presence of sin. And Paul says, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. This is the Apostle Paul saying this, O wretched man, not that I was, That's not what it says, is it? Oh, wretched man, that I what? That I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There's your victory. Victory in Jesus. Philippians chapter two, as well, is a great verse for us to consider and just look at very briefly as we come to the end of the message today. Philippians chapter 2, here's where we see that God-dependent effort, but also that God-enabling grace to accomplish what He's called us to in regards to sanctification and to holiness. Paul says this, and this is the way he phrased it, and this is a great balance of it. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, here's the God-dependent effort, the part of personal sanctification that God's not going to zap in you, but that he expects from you because of what he has done in you and for you. Work out! Your own salvation with what? with fear and trembling, but He's not leaving you on your own on it. He says, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Why does the Father want us to be sanctified? Why does He say, come ye out from among them and be separate? Why does He tell us to abstain from all these sinful things? Well, the reason that everything was sanctified in the Old Testament was that it may be useful in the Kingdom of God. Now, I'm going to say something that's going to be harsh. I saw Regina just tense up. Are you being used in the Kingdom of God? There's only one reason. why you would not be being used or used more in the kingdom of God. And that is because you are not sanctified the way that you should be. That's hard. That is very hard to hear. But it is the truth. For that is the purpose of sanctification, is for usefulness to the kingdom of God. And we'll close with a couple of verses here. Let me drive that home with the Word of God, that statement that we just made. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 2. where the Apostle Paul says this in a very, very, very direct way. What we just said to you about if you're not being used in the Kingdom of God, there's only one reason to say, well, God doesn't have any need of me? No. God doesn't want to use me? No. God does have need of you. The Kingdom does have need of you. God will use you, but He won't use an unsanctified vessel. He won't. He cannot. But here we are challenged, verse 21 of 2 Timothy chapter 2. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet proper for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. So there is the great key to more usefulness in the kingdom. Get to work in the great work of sanctification in your life. And we will close with the Old Testament book of Isaiah. This is beautiful. You know, Jesus said broad is the gate that leads to destruction, right? People want to tell you, well, you can be a child of God and live any old way that you want to. Brother Jeff says there's a Greek word for that called hogwash. That's so true. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many be that go thereby. But narrow is the way that leads to life eternal. and few there be that find it. Listen to this prophecy in Isaiah 35 as we close. And I want you to think about everything that we've talked about today in your life and your heart. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the ecstasy of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the ecstasy of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water, and the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And here's sanctification. And a highway shall be there and away, and it shall be called the way of holiness. May the Lord bless you and keep you and sanctify you. This is our parade.