But this time, let's turn in our copies of God's Word to the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 3. And we'll simply be reading verse 16. And the context here is that Adam and Eve have just eaten of the forbidden fruit and fallen to the temptation of the devil, that serpent of old, God has already confronted the serpent with judgment and with a revelation in verse 15 of the plan of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head. But now the Lord proceeds to confront the woman. She gets the name Eve subsequently in the chapter, but we can call her Eve. God confronts her here in verse 16. To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Amen. Well, let's read also from 1 Timothy chapter 2. verses 8-15, as the Apostle Paul, under inspiration, draws upon the verse that we just read in its context and applies it to the New Testament church established in Ephesus, the pastor of which was Timothy. Paul's writing to Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, 8-15. Once again, this is God's holy word. I desire, therefore, that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting, in like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. May the Lord bless His Word to us this morning. Amen. Seeking God's help and blessing this morning, let's turn back to the first passage that we read initially. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 16, where we find the Lord our God confronting Adam and Eve and specifically here confronting Eve as we work our way, really resuming our extended series on Genesis chapter 3, we find the Lord confronting the woman who later will be named Eve. He confronts Eve here. And he confronts her in a gender-specific way. We've seen that he confronts the serpent, but now he's about to confront both the woman and the man for this sin of which they both were partakers. And he confronts her with a gender-specific curse upon her gender-specific calling. To the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Now, at a future time, we'll consider the second half of that verse that's part of that gender-specific curse upon her gender-specific calling. But I want us to just continue focusing on this curse upon childbearing. Because as we said, this is just one of many aspects of the fall in relation to women. We see a curse upon Adam, gender-specific in many ways, speaking of his calling in the home and in the family, and God bringing a curse on it. And these curses are really representing the full-orbed curse upon the entire creation as it's brought to bear, especially on men and upon women. And so, it's not to say that the only thing Eve's going to experience in a fallen world as a consequence of her sin is pain and childbearing. That's not the only thing, but it's really a representative curse that points us to all the many challenges and difficulties that women face in this world. In the world five minutes after the fall, in the world today, in the world a hundred years from now, in the world of 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in the world today. Men and women face common challenges, common hindrances, common aspects of a fallen world and of this curse. Yes, that's true, but the Bible highlights some gender-specific ones here. And again, we're picking up midway. Because, as many of you know, we've been looking at 1 Timothy chapter 2 and the way the Apostle Paul brings a gender-specific victory or solution or cure, a way for women to overcome the particular challenges that they face, the particular hindrances in a fallen world that they face as a result of sin. And we don't have time to really rehash everything that we saw earlier from 1 Timothy 2. I know it's been a number of weeks. But let's just focus on v. 15. Despite how sin has changed things, despite the distinct roles of men and women and the challenges they face, nevertheless, Paul says v. 15, nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing. Now at that point, he's thinking of Eve in particular as representing women in general. And so he transitions from the individual or singular she, meaning Eve, to, as C.S. Lewis would say, the daughters of Eve, the women who sadly inherit these hindrances and these curses in the future. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they, that's not talking about the children, although in English you hear childbearing and then you see they and you think, but in Greek it doesn't read that way. It's not a reference to the children. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing, that is Eve, if they, that is all the women taken in Eve in a sense here, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. So as we said, there are uniquenesses to women in their calling and in their hindrances and challenges in a fallen world, but here Paul takes the truth of the gospel and applies it to women in a way to empower them. As we saw, the Proverbs 31 woman is a virtuous woman, and that word virtuous means powerful. We think of the word virtuous, we think of ethically pure and something like that, but really the word virtuous means virtue, strength, power, the powerful victorious woman who's victorious over these difficulties that we've already discussed. And how is she victorious? She's victorious by faith, we looked at that already. By continuing in faith, really continuing in all the things that Eve didn't continue in when she fell away through the temptation of Satan. But women today can have victory by continuing in faith, believing God's Word, knowing the truth of Scripture, cultivating, as Paul alludes to in 1 Timothy 2, the art of learning, of absorbing, of silently taking in the truth of God's Word and mastering it and knowing it and becoming powerful and overcoming the world, not just these hindrances, the world, John says, overcoming the world by faith. And that faith, as Paul elsewhere says, works by love. We looked at that previously. How our belief in God and His Word empowers women, empowers every Christian, but thinking here specifically of the ladies, empowers them to be filled with love. Love for God. And as Titus 2 says, the older women should be discipling and instructing the younger women in loving their husbands and loving their children. So love for God, out of which flows love for others. Faith. Love. You see, the sad part is our culture is so afraid, so tiptoeing around, walking on eggshells, so afraid to speak of anything gender specific. that it's depriving, and the church today is depriving women of the strength and the power that God Almighty has given them in this verse. Faith, love, what could be more glorious than that? Faith, love, but that faith and that love makes a change, causes a change to take place in this victorious, powerful, godly woman. Because it's not just continuing in faith and love, but when they continue in faith and love, they continue, they persevere in holiness. Holiness. What's holiness? It means to be different. It means that you're not just run-of-the-mill conforming to the pattern of this world which is devoid of faith and therefore devoid of true love. Nothing's more common than to hear lyrics played on the radio. We were out preaching the gospel in the open air yesterday and there were some folks that didn't want us to be there and they were playing their radio to try and or I guess their phone or whatever they're playing music and I recognize quite a few of the lyrics from earlier in my life but the point is these lyrics again and again are making reference to love but you see our culture doesn't understand love. It understands lust, it understands selfishness. Look at the world today and tell me it's a world of love. It's not. It's not. The world is devoid of faith and it's devoid of love. And there's nothing more sorrowful and disappointing than for anyone, but especially a woman, to be drawn in and to be conformed to the pattern of this world. The irony is the world says, be different, and everybody tries to be different. And then you're actually just being different, just like everybody else is trying to be different. And so you're actually more conformed to the pattern of this world and less different than if you had conformed to the pattern of Scripture, which very few people are doing. If you want to be different, be a Christian. The broad road leads to destruction, and there are many on it. There's a lane for every type of diversity and difference in this world on the road to destruction, but you're on the same highway. But the gate that leads to life, there are few on it. You want to be different? Believe on Christ. Continue in faith. Continue in true biblical love. Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. These things make a person different. Holiness means set apart. It's important to recognize that whenever we think about holiness, we have to understand that God is holy. It's not just about you. It's about God. When ladies are called to be holy, and to have the victory by their holiness. It's not just holiness in themselves. Fundamentally, the Christian faith teaches that God is holy. Take some time this afternoon, if you've never read it before, read Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6. I'm so tempted to dive in, but let's just keep it very general. That's a famous passage where the angels around God's throne in heaven are covering their faces, covering their feet, worshipping in reverence and godly fear, and they cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. I don't know if, you know, R.C. Sproul says it, so it must be true, but I don't think that there are any other attributes where the Bible just repeats them three times like that. Merciful, merciful, merciful. Well, that's true. But here the Bible is emphatic and these seraphim are emphatic. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts and the whole earth is filled with his glory. God is set apart. Even the sinless angels find God to be infinitely distant from them by nature, infinitely apart from them, infinitely different from them, and superior in every way to them. And they've never sinned. They've never had a sinful thought. They're before the throne, and they're speaking to one another. They're not gossiping. They've never sinned with their lips. They've never sinned. Ever. So they don't come into the presence of God and say, well, God is so holy because I'm a sinner. No, no. They are recognizing that God is transcendent and entirely above and superior to all creation. He's set apart from all creation unto Himself. And you say, well, that's kind of lonely, but if you read Isaiah 6, God's set-apartness is not lonely, because when He needs to call a prophet, He says, who will go for us? Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Holy, holy, holy. It's not an accident that it's a three-fold holiness. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is three persons. God is set apart from creation unto a holy fellowship of love in Himself. And when He calls a prophet, He doesn't say, I'm lonely. He says, who will go for us? We're doing just fine here in the Holy Trinity. But, who will go for us? God is set apart from creation. He's also set apart from sin. That's where Isaiah comes into the picture. A holy prophet of God. known for His godly writings and sermons throughout the book of Isaiah. You would say, well, if anyone has pure and holy lips, pure and holy speech, it's Isaiah. But when he sees the glory and the holiness and the set-apartness of the King on His throne, when he sees that foreshadowing of the glory of Christ, Isaiah recognizes that compared to this righteous King, He is a man of unclean lips. Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." What's that telling us? God is set apart from all sin. He's pure, He's spotless, there's no unrighteousness in God. Those are the two senses in which we need to understand the fact that God is holy. And salvation, my friends, flows from God's holiness. God's holiness characterizes every one of His other attributes. His justice is holy justice. His mercy is holy mercy. Everything about God is holy and set apart. Set apart from creation and set apart from sin. And in Isaiah 55, when He says, come to the waters and receive salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to come, when He does that, He emphasizes, Isaiah emphasizes, that His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. As the heavens are high above the earth, so are the Lord's thoughts and ways high above our thoughts and ways." In the very next verse, He speaks of forgiveness and pardon. God's mercy transcends anything you could possibly receive or enjoy in this world. There is no love like the love of Jesus, because it's holy. Well, God is holy, but there's a motivation here for women especially this morning. Again, just focusing, pinpointing our application. There's a motivation here. There's a logic that goes from God's holiness to your holiness. You see, because of the fact that God is holy, you are called to be holy. You can read that in 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. Because God is holy, you ought to be holy. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. That's what Peter quotes from the book of Leviticus. And the fact is that if you look at Ephesians 1, verse 4, you immediately see how important this exhortation is. Holiness is not peripheral. Holiness is not just something on the outskirts of the Christian religion. Holiness is the purpose of salvation. When you know someone who you desire to be saved, and you're praying for them, and you're witnessing to them, Like Paul in the epistles of the Romans, his heart's desire and his prayer to God is for their salvation. Understand, what are you really desiring for them? You are desiring their salvation, yes, but if you're thinking biblically, you are desiring that they would be holy. That's the reason that God saves people. Why outside the tabernacle in the Old Testament, why was there an altar of sacrifice where they had to kill an animal sacrifice and shed the blood and consume it on the altar, and then a bronze basin? Why did the priest have to pass through both of these things and have this atonement for his sin and then this cleansing of himself before he entered the tabernacle? It was to make him holy. And it's a picture of salvation. Ephesians 1 verse 4 tells us, listen to this, listen to how important holiness is. It says, He chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. The purpose of salvation, whether you're a Christian or not, if you're not, at least you can know what Christianity is all about. Salvation is that you are set apart from the world unto a holy communion and fellowship and relationship with Almighty God. That's why He chose to save. That's why He accomplished redemption. That's why I'm preaching the Gospel right now. To lure you out of the world to come to Jesus Christ in holy fellowship. To be blameless, spotless, forgiven and sanctified and made perfectly holy in a loving relationship with God. James 1.27 says, true religion is helping out widows and orphans, yes, but to be unspotted from the world. That's part of it. To be unspotted from the world. You could take that in a negative way. Who are you calling spotted? Well, think of it this way. If you spilled on your shirt, wouldn't you want it to be washed off? Wouldn't you want it to be cleansed? Wouldn't you want to get it brand spanking new right out from the dry cleaner or whatever? Okay, that's true religion. It's powerful. And it produces holiness. It does it in a number of ways. It moves from God's holiness to ours first through attraction. The Bible speaks of the beauty of holiness. The beauty of holiness. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we see how beautiful God's holiness is, His moral holiness being set apart from sin, and we as children of our Heavenly Father, we want to be like Him as followers and disciples of Jesus. We want to be like Him as temples of the Holy Spirit. We want to be like Him We want to be holy because God is holy. And we're attracted to that. Psalm 97 says, we give thanks at the remembrance of your holy name. The true Christian looks at God's holiness and is not intimidated. Why are you going to be intimidated? Jesus died for your sins. You're clothed in His righteousness. And now you can look at God's holiness and revel in it. And bask in it. And even greater than that, you get to become it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, you'll never be transcendent and set apart over creation, okay? But moral holiness, set apart from sin, you've come to the right place because that's what Jesus does, that's what salvation produces. We desire it, but it's interesting, this is a mutual attraction. Psalm 45, 10, and 11, we sang it, says that the king looks at his bride, the church, who has turned away from her father's house, turned away from this world in which she was conceived and born in sin. She's turned away from the world and has devoted herself to the king. And it says he finds that to be attractive and beautiful, and he delights in that. And so it's a wonderful relationship we have with Christ where we are attracted to His holiness and He is attracted to our holiness which He produces in us. And in Song of Solomon, Christ speaks of His church and of every believer as His dove, His undefiled one, His blameless one. And He's washing her with water by the Word. Ephesians 5. Attraction. Imitation. Very similar. Imitation. Ephesians 5.1, dear children, imitate. Imitate your Father. Imitate God as dear children. Be imitators of God as dear children. You say, how am I going to be an imitator of God? I've never seen God. Well, you're right. John 1.18 says, no one has seen God at any time. But the Son of God who is in the bosom of the Father has revealed Him. And you can see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in His holiness in the face of Jesus Christ. You say, well, I've never seen Him either. Well, open your Bible. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Psalms. and His letters to the churches in the book of Revelation, and you will see, and many other, every book of the Bible really, but start with those and you will see what holiness is. Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. What is holiness? Look to Jesus. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Imitate Him. Thirdly, indwelling. Indwelling. If you're a believer, you are a holy temple. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. In other words, you are holy. In the Old Testament, the temple was consecrated. It was holy. You couldn't even go in there half the time. The priest could only go in once a year into the Holy of Holies. It was so set apart that You couldn't just walk up into it. You couldn't just set up shop inside the temple. You couldn't just take the two tablets of the covenant on which were written the Ten Commandments and use them as coasters on your coffee table. These things were holy. You couldn't use the Ark of the Covenant as a TV stand or the ephod as a mop head or something like that. And you say that's ridiculous, but you see the point. It's unthinkable. Why? Because those things were holy. But you, dear believer, are more holy than that. Because God is in you. Wherever God is, it's holy. God was in a burning bush. The dirt around the bush was holy. That's how holy God is. We're dust and ashes. But in Christ, we are holy ground. So the fact is, you are to be holy because you are holy. because Jesus Christ has shed His blood for you and redeemed you and has come to live inside of you. Now, if you're not in Christ, that's not going to make any sense to you. But if you are a believer, if it doesn't make sense, we'll circle back around. But here's the fact of the matter, and that is, you must be holy because you already are holy. You've been bought with a price. You're God's temple. You are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Be holy because you are holy. Well, we've said that God is holy. We've said that because God is holy, you are to be holy. And in addition to that, your holiness is to be complete. 2 Corinthians 7.1, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Or as our translation says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. But that word perfect means complete, mature. Our holiness is to touch every aspect of our lives. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. She is a new creation in every aspect of her life. Not perfectly by degrees, but in principle it touches everything and it must be comprehensive. If you're a Christian, you're not just a Christian on Sunday morning. If you're a Christian, the fact is Colossians 317 tells you that everything you do in word and deed must be done in the name of Jesus Christ. Is that the case? You're not just a temple of the Holy Spirit on Sunday, you're a temple of the Holy Spirit 24-7. So are you holy? Are you seeking to purge yourself and flee from the world's pattern and remain unspotted from worldly influence and worldly practice in thought, word and deed 24-7? If you're a Christian, you're going to be seeking to do that and where you fail, you're going to repent of that and hate that and say, oh, I got a stain on my shirt, I need to wash this off. Well, let's think of some areas, and I'm going to go very briefly here on a number of areas. My goal here is not to overwhelm you. It is simply to say, listen and jot down the ones that make the most sense or most relevance for your life, and then go revisit them before the Lord in prayer this afternoon. But first, holy thoughts. As a man or as a woman thinks in her heart, so is she. What are you thinking about? throughout the day. What do you think about? What is the subject of your contemplation? Are you thinking about the Lord? Are you thinking about God? What He's called you to do? What He's done for you? What He's made you? What He's making you? Psalm 119 verse 11, Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. There, the heart is referring to the mind. The inner person, the thoughts of the heart. Are you hiding God's Word? Not just memorization, that's important, but are you taking hold of God's Word in your heart so that when you face the day, you're ready to face the day and to avoid sin and worldliness? Verse 15, I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Holy thoughts. Psalm 1 talks about the blessed man. It could just as easily be the blessed woman applying it to every Christian. What does it say of that blessed woman? She meditates on the Law of God day and night. And because of that, she doesn't mess with the counsel of the ungodly, she doesn't stand in the path of sinners, and so on. She is separate from the world and its influences because of her gravitational attraction to the Law, to the Word of God. She sets her mind on things above where Christ is seated. Because she died and her life is hid with Christ in God. She is not overwhelmed or obsessed with things on this world. Why does she have godly, holy thoughts? Because she is taking in the Scriptures non-stop. Her intake of Scripture produces holy thoughts. Secondly, holy desires. Psalm 97, verse 10, you who love the Lord hate evil. If you take in holy thoughts and God dominates your mind, what's going to happen? That knowledge in your mind is going to impact your desires. You're going to know what's good and why it's good. And why it's so attractive. You're going to know what's evil and why it's so evil. And why it's so dangerous. And why it's so disgusting. And you're going to hate evil. And you're going to cling to that which is good. And you're going to look at the vanity of this temporary world that we live in for a split second before we're six feet in the ground, and you're going to say, this is meaningless. Vanity of vanities. Yes, I'm going to be faithful to the Lord and these things, but this is nothing compared to the eternal weight of glory. Whom have I in heaven but You, Lord, and what on earth do I desire besides You? You're going to hunger, you're going to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. You're going to be in your Bible again. You say, I don't want to read my Bible. Well, the less you desire to read your Bible, the more you need to read your Bible. Because how are you going to get holy desires without holy thoughts? And how are you going to get holy thoughts without the Holy Word of God? Get into that Bible. Holy thoughts, holy desires, holy time. How are you going to get into the Bible and in prayer if there's not a time in which you do that? We can think of daily times of private worship. We can think of the weekly Sabbath rest. And hopefully for us, that word weekly has two E's and not one. This is God's appointed time for us. You say, but I've been busy. I've been busy. Maybe there's a unique struggle for women in that respect in our culture. Expected to do so much with so little amount of time. I've been busy. But here's the thing. Giving time to God is like giving money to God. It's proportional. You see the tithe in the Old Testament. You see similar principles in the New Testament. It's proportional. So if somebody says, well, I can't give to the Lord because I have all these expenses this month. Well, it's a proportion. It's a percentage that you give. And you give the firstfruits. The same thing with your time. It's been a busy week. Yes, but the time that you had, a percentage, a portion of that should be given to God as the firstfruits, not leaving God the scraps gleaning the fields at the end of the harvest. So we must prioritize, and if God calls us to do it, I mean, are we thinking that He's calling us to do it and it's impossible? He doesn't do that. He doesn't put on the believer a greater burden than we can bear. So we give the proportion. Job 23.12 says that God's Word is more important to Job than his daily food. If we have time to eat, we have time to read the Word of God and pray. In addition, holy order. When do we first see the Holy Spirit in the Bible? Right in the first few verses of Genesis. Right at the beginning of the Bible. And He's hovering over the waters, giving life. The earth is formless and void. It's formless, it lacks order. It's void, it lacks fullness. The Holy Spirit hovers, gives life. And how does He give life and strength? How? He gives order and fullness. to that which is formless and void. If you're going to have fullness, you need order. The Holy Spirit hovers over the waters. He separates the day from the night, the waters on the earth from the waters in the atmosphere. He separates the sea from the dry land. He separates. He divides. He orders the creation. And when He comes into the life of a believer, He brings order. He brings distinctions. He brings a schedule. He brings things different for different people, but some level of routine and order You know, God created the day and the night, we sleep at night, we're awake during the day. Things like this, holy order that put us in a position to have holy thoughts, holy desires, holy time. In addition, holy obedience. Jesus said, not my will but your will be done. We cannot, we must not think that holiness is a frame of mind only. Holiness is not just a thought, not just a desire, not just a well-ordered schedule. Holiness means hearing the Word of God and doing it. Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. So as you're taking the time to read the Word of God, Jesus says, you know these things, but blessed are you if you do these things. John 14.21, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. That's holiness. Enjoying the love and the affection of the Father and the Son through the Spirit's work of producing obedience in your life. More could be said. But if God confronts you with His Word, obey it. Obey it. Holy adornment, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Peter 3, they talk about women of God adorning themselves, not to draw attention to themselves outwardly, not to try and gain attention for themselves because of the type of apparel they're wearing to look good, to show off their wealth, to show off their body, something like that. But rather, they are to be emblems of God's holiness, adorned with good works. Not like the Pharisees showing it off, but the point is, Adorning the gospel with Christ-like holiness. A quiet and peaceable spirit. A loving, gracious, unselfish attitude. We could go on. Willingness to unselfishly serve other people. to not complain or argue, but to be a source of goodness. And a word spoken in due season is health to the bones. The godly woman is a blessing to all around her, and they know her for that, and it is an adornment to her and to the Gospel. Also, holy relationships. Holy relationships. 1 Timothy 5, 1 and 2, he says to Timothy, Treat the older men as your father, the older women as your mother, the younger women as your sisters. Why? Because He's not married to them. That's why. Ladies, if you're unmarried and you're looking for a godly man, look for a godly man who is going to show his godliness by not urging you into an unholy relationship, unholy interactions, where you're not married, you haven't walked down the aisle, and yet, you're engaging in some things that brothers and sisters and so on and so forth, at least as far as I know, are not engaging in. Holy relationships. Also, holy example. Titus 2 says the older women should be reverent, sober-minded, not addicted to strong drinks, so on and so forth. They should set an example of holiness for the younger women. Now ladies, if nobody's doing that, I'm not saying nobody's doing that, but if nobody's doing that, if there are no mature, godly, holy women in the church, how are they going to help the younger women? The whole thing falls apart. So we need ladies in the church rising to the challenge by the grace of God, cultivating holiness so that they can share that with others. Lastly, holy joy. Order brings fullness. Holiness brings happiness. The further you are from sin in the world, the closer you are to Jesus. And my friends, he's never disappointed anyone who's ever come to him. and spent time lingering with Him in the Word and in prayer, and hating the world. Psalm 45, does the bride look unhappy? Just read that over. Sing it over. Meditate on the beauty and the fullness of the Bride of Christ. Holy joy. Well, just one comment in conclusion to encourage you. Your holiness is guaranteed if you're a believer. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I urge you, talk to me after the service, you need to find the areas of your habitual sin and confess them and come down and bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ and He will receive you and cleanse you and consecrate you. But dear believer, your continuance in holiness is guaranteed. Ephesians 1.4, He chose you and predestined you from before the foundation of the world. And you're not going to get anywhere in the Christian life thinking to be holy to earn His favor. No, no. 2 Corinthians 7, I already quoted it. He says, beloved, since we have these promises. we bring holiness to completion in the fear of God. Since we have the promises, since we are His beloved, since we are His bride, and He is washing us with water by the Word, since He will complete the good work He's begun, since we know that we'll continue in holiness. Ladies, understand your bridegroom will never leave you nor forsake you, He will continue. And therefore, you will continue in holiness. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would take Your Word and apply it to Your people. We ask that He would produce holy obedience and holy joy and all of these things that we've talked about from Your Word And that if there are those who are warned by that verse that without holiness no one will see the Lord, we pray that You would enable them to enter through that narrow gate. That they may enter this life of holiness. That they might be different, set apart unto You. In Jesus' name, Amen.