in your Bibles, please, to 1 Peter 1. Verse 13, hear now the inerrant, infallible, and inspired Word of God. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, 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 lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear for as much as you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his most holy words. So I have for you a quotation today from, excuse me, a quotation from the Reverend Stephen Charnock. God is absolutely holy. There is none holy as the Lord, 1 Samuel 2.2. It is the peculiar glory of his nature. As there is none good but God, so none holy but God. No creature can be essentially holy because mutable. Holiness is the substance of God, but a quality, an accident in the creature. God is infinitely holy, creatures finitely holy. He is holy from himself, creatures are holy by derivation from him. He is not only holy, but holiness. Holiness in the highest degree, is his sole prerogative. As the highest heaven is called the heaven of heavens because it embraces in its circle all the heavens and contains the magnitude of them and hath a greater vastness above all that it encloses, so God is the holy of holies. He contains the holiness of all creatures put together and infinitely more. the Reverend Stephen Charnock. So for the last three weeks, we have been involved in the most inadequate endeavor of relaying the holiness of God, that which is, as we have just heard, infinite, not just his holy person, but that he is holiness itself. And so for these last three weeks, we've endeavored to bring that across scripturally. Now we're going to move on to the next phrase. Remember what Peter said here, but as he which hath called you as holy, that was the endeavor of our first three weeks here. Now, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. That will be the next endeavor that we undertake. I have three or four sermons planned for that. Today I would like to speak to you about the imperative and indicative of holiness in the scripture. The imperative, that is, that we're commanded to be holy, and the indicative that we are said to be holy. Not just a command, but a statement of fact. And the difference between those two and what they mean. And I think brings some very close comfort to you because of that. In the week following, I would like to return to the Old Testament and take a look at a part of the quote-unquote holiness code of Leviticus chapters 18 and 19, especially focusing on 19. And one might ask why, after having opened up the New Testament, do we go back to the Old Testament? As I was telling one of you this morning, you know in our scripture readings, we read Syriodim through the Bible. We include the Psalms with our New Testament reading. in the cadence. And we have the Old Testament reading standing alone without the Psalms. It takes us seven and a half years or so, seven and three-quarter years to read through the Old Testament in that way, and about two and three-quarter years to read through the New Testament, including the Psalms. And so if we turn away from the Old Testament in our study, we turn away fully from three-quarters of the Bible. And we also turn away from the Bible of the first century, And we turn away from those some hundreds of quotations of the Old Testament in the New, and the use of that foundation by the apostles themselves to continue the religion of the one true God. So we turn back then to Leviticus chapters 18 and 19, especially 19 in our study, to show what holiness looked like in the Old Testament so that we may bring that up into the New Testament from that foundation and then see where the tree grows out of that root in the New Testament. And then the third week, I would like to bring you a sermon circling back to one particular passage that we looked at last week, thinking about the Apostle Peter in that first meeting with Christ, where he fell down at his feet and said, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. And I'd like to take that passage and unpack it some for us in our study of holiness. So this week then, the imperative and the indicative of holiness. The imperative we have looked at already in our passage, in our text here, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy or you shall be holy in all manner of conversation. And sometimes, you know, this is the, this is that fineness of 17th century English that we don't often possess in latter ages where there is a difference between will and shall. We use them almost synonymously in our day, don't we? But the word shall in older English carried with it more of an imperative and the word will carries with it or carried with it more of a future indicative, right? You will be holy. In other words, someday you'll be holy we say in our day you shall be holy and sometimes we just consider that as a future rather than the imperative that it ought to be considered so Peter says it this way be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy some translations modern translations might have that you shall be holy we need to understand that when we hear that word shall that that's harkening back to an older age when that is indeed an imperative. It is a requirement of the people of God. God commands us to be holy. This is nothing new as we saw earlier in our study. Peter is simply quoting from Leviticus 19 2 and 20 verse 7. Notice Leviticus 19 2 is why we're going to focus on Leviticus 19 because Peter's quoting from that passage and then Moses in Leviticus chapter 19 will go on in the rest of that chapter to describe what holiness looked like for the people of God of that age. Peter's going to describe it as we work through this passage as to how it obtains for people in our age. So the imperative of holiness is indeed very important. It is a command to the people of God. Although holiness is downplayed and grace is played up, I'm going to put it to you, my dear brothers and sisters, that holiness is a part of the grace of God, not opposed to the grace of God. Holiness is one of God's graces that come to us. Our love for and obedience unto his commands, our own moral advancement, remember what we said holiness was in God, it was that ultimate an absolute moral perfection that exists in him alone and as we learn to take on his image more and more and are as the Apostle will say it in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 we are perfecting holiness in the fear of God that is we are becoming more and more like him as we learn more and more to fear him to honor him to reverence him that this is a part of God's mercy and grace. Just think with me, just spin with me for a moment about, let's say that you only had, and I know you don't, but let's say that you only had your own self-interest in mind. It would behoove you to obey God and His commandments if all you had in mind was self-interest. Because the Lord often attaches blessings to obedience and curses to disobedience. Often he uses those blessings and cursings to positively encourage on the one hand and negatively to discourage on the other. And while those things are not like a, you know, a turning the crank, we always give leave for the providence and decree of God as he is working in the world to do what he will, right? That's what tripped Asaph up in Psalm 73. He forgot about that, that God sometimes causes the wicked to flourish for his own purposes. We don't know why. Just think of it this way for a moment. If temporal or monetary or earthly blessing were a sign of God's favor, then some of the most wicked people of the world, being the most rich in the world, would be the most blessed by God of the world. And we know how silly a proposition that is. So let's not forget that, that often the Lord, for his own purposes, holds those just strokes of his justice far off in abeyance, because he's working something, he's doing something that we don't quite understand, but can have complete confidence that it is holy, just, and good, and perfect in all of his ways. So even for our own self-interest then, obedience would be better than its counterpart. But as the people of God, as those who are commanded to be holy, there's something else that accrues to us because as we read earlier in Jeremiah chapter 31 and intimated from Hebrews chapter 8, there is the law of God that has been written graciously upon the heart of everyone who is called on the name of Christ. And so holiness, not only does it become or befit the house of God, as the psalmist says, but it becomes or befits the people of God as well. This is the imperative of holiness. My dear brothers, my dear sisters, you are commanded to be holy. This is God's revealed will for you. The apostle Paul will say it this way, 1 Thessalonians 5, 11, this is the will of God for you, even your holiness. I know it's translated as sanctification, but that is functionally the same thing. It is God's will for you to be holy. I can say without equivocation that it may not be God's will for you to be rich, beautiful, handsome, have a long life, have a rewarding career, be respected in the world, I can't say any of that for you, but I can without doubt say that it is God's will for you to be holy. And that's why He has commanded it unto you. This is what we call His revealed will. And should we desire to pray in the will of God, we should pray for holiness. We should pray for sanctification. in praying for sanctification, and in working in that way, putting feet to those prayers, we do not desire only to be obedient in the outward man, but we recognize that the Lord desires truth in the inward parts. So this is the command. It means that we are to be holy. Now next week, as we unfold from Leviticus 18 and 19, we're going to look at what that means. But one of the things that it means, my dear brothers and sisters, that you must take with you even today, because I don't want to leave you without, you know, some hook to hang this on, that is that you must live lives that are separated unto the Lord. Separated unto the Lord. That is the most blessed life that can be lived. And I will show you that in a few moments. The second thing that I want you to remember then is not just the imperative, but the indicative of holiness as well. Now this is really interesting because there is, how do I say it without confusing us all? There is a kind of equivocation in the word holiness. When we are commanded to be holy, This is holiness in its fullness. When it is said that we are holy, this is holiness considered in not quite its fullness, but a particular aspect of holiness that we must acknowledge. When it says that we are holy, this means that we are separated unto God and separated from evil. Formally, we belong to the Lord. We are a people of His own possession. We belong to Him. And remember what we said earlier about God's holiness, because He is holy, everything that associates to Him must be holy. The holy mountain, the holy place, His holy law, His holy word, right? The holy, the high priest, the mediator who approaches Him, not only in its type, but in its anti-type, Jesus Christ, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And because we are God's people and we belong to Him, not only ought we to be holy in its farthest sense that we can envision, but we are holy. We are already Today, when we profess the name of Jesus Christ, we are said to belong to Him, to be His, and because we are His then, we are holy. Like Jerusalem was holy, like the vessels of the temple are holy, and we'll use those as a particular illustration in a moment. And so this indicative of holiness is also true of God's people. And we must then think of ourselves in this way. This must change how we think of ourselves. We must not only make it our duty to be holy as we step by step move forward, but we must understand this as a statement of being for us. We are holy and we must change our thinking about who we are because we are associated to God Himself. We are His. Let's look at a few passages of scripture to remember that fact. We'll start back in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. And we see in this passage that not only are we holy, but we are holy by virtue of God's choosing us out, of God placing his name upon us. Now formally, my dear brothers and sisters, this takes place outwardly, visibly in our baptism, which points, again, away from itself as a sign to the thing that is signified. And yet there is a formal holiness that we all enjoy, having been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and having had the name of God placed upon our foreheads, and ourselves giving up our names to God. But this is by God's choosing that we are a holy people. In Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 1, Ye are the children of the Lord your God. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. And the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. In 1421, ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself. Thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto an alien, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk. In Deuteronomy chapter 26, verse 18. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments, and to make thee high above all nations, which he hath made in praise and in name and in honor, and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken. And in verse 28, verse nine, sorry, chapter 28, verse nine, The Lord shall establish thee and holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his ways. Turn with me over to the Psalter, to Psalm 50. Notice what it says, we get in verse one. The mighty God, even the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty hath God shined. Our God shall come and shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, and the heaven shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Salaam." You say, well, Pastor, it doesn't say that we're a holy people there. Well, it most certainly does when it says, gather my saints. Literally, we could translate that as gather my holy ones unto me, which have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, in that we come to the Lord and we worship him and we offer unto him. We are his holy people. Now we turn to the New Testament, just in case we're tempted to think that this is not a New Testament doctrine as well. It most certainly is. 1 Corinthians 3. Verse 17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, Which temple ye are, all of you considered together, the visible church, the dwelling place of God, just like the temple of old was considered holy because God was there, so is the church considered holy because God is there. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse nine, who have saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then also in first Peter chapter two, where Peter will quote directly from the Old Testament with those same kinds of phrases. We'll begin our reading in verse 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto they were appointed, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Notice that holy nation, that peculiar people, that people for God's own So, there are several of these passages that are very, very important to us as the people of God. This indicative then, you are a holy people, this gives rise to the imperative, doesn't it? Think about that with me for a moment. This is who we are because we are associated to God and because we are holy, therefore we must be holy. We must pick up that mantle of holiness that belongs to everything that touches that which is associated with God, such that we take on more and more the holiness that belongs to us as the people of God. As He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. So it is to be called by His name, Isaiah 43, 7, to be known as His people, Romans 9, 25 and 26, to be united to him in the likeness of his death and resurrection, Romans 6, 1 through 7, that is the likeness of Christ, to have put on Christ, Galatians 3, 27, and Romans 13, 14. It means also to understand that we are not our own, but we've been bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 6, 20 and 7, 23. It is also to have forsworn all allegiance to the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is who we are. When we become those quote-unquote covenanters, when we enter into covenant with God by our public profession of faith and we come into the visible church and come into the covenant in that way, visibly, I know, we also look for the invisible reality of that and we don't want to downplay that, but we must remember that the visible people of God are holy. They have come into covenant with God. Now what I want you to understand about this is that we have foresworn all allegiances to all others and what a blessed thing that is. We come into this world as slaves, bondservants to Satan. We come into this world as beholden to the world and its baubles and governed by the flesh. Right? And we see that in Hebrews 2, 14, and 15, the devil. We see that in Galatians 6, 14 with regard to the world. And in Galatians 5, 24, we see those who have, those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. And so the world, the flesh, and the devil are no longer, or they no longer exercise what we would call the rights of ownership, the rights of bondage, the rights of mastery. We have given all of that up and belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And in that sense, we are holy. Now that is perhaps the best place that you could be. You know why? Because God takes care of what belongs to Him. Think about that with me for a moment. God takes care. of that which belongs to him. You talk to someone in the world about living a holy life. You're kidding, right? Live a holy life? Who would want to do that? You're going to spoil all my fun. You're going to take away all my pleasures and recreations. Of course, those are all carnal pleasures under which men labor in bondage. And what does it mean to belong to those things? It means then to imitate them and finally to be disposed of by them. What does it mean to belong to the Lord? It means to imitate Him and to be disposed of by Him. And I will tell you clearly that He takes care of what belongs to Him. He takes care of that. Let me show you what I mean by that. Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. I'm going to use a redemptive historical analysis or an example of something that is true in redemptive history that is brought into the New Testament in the same way. It's not an illicit comparison. It is a comparison that the apostle will make himself. But I want to show it to you because this principle that God takes care of his own is one of the greatest motivations to be holy. Listen to what we read here in 2 Chronicles 36. We'll begin our reading in say, verse five. Well, I hope I'm in the right place here. Yes. Jehoiakim was 20 and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in fetters and carried him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried out of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah and Jehoiakim, his son, reigned in his stead." Turn with me also to Daniel chapter one. Verse one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into the hand with part of the vessels into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels to the treasure house of his God. What we've seen in these first two passages is we've seen not only the first wave, eight years separated the first wave of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion into Jerusalem but that he took as it is recorded here in Daniel a part of the vessels of the house of God and then in 2nd Chronicles 36 verse 7 we heard that he took the rest of them he got what was left and he brought them all into the house of his God in the land of Shinar and there they sat for a very long time Now let's take a look at another passage. We're going to continue on following these vessels. In Daniel chapter 5, verses 1 through 5, Belshazzar the king made a great feast to thousands of his lords and drank wine before the thousands. Belshazzar, whilst he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and brass, iron and wood and stone. Now turn with me to verse 18. Daniel has come in after the hand has written on the wall, right? In verse 18, Thou, O King, the Most High, gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor. And for the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he slew, and whom he would, he kept alive, and whom he would, set up, and whom he would, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beast, and his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hath not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all of this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, thou and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, that have drunk wine in them. And thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and in whose and whose are all thy ways thou has not glorified then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written and this is the writing that was written many many tech L who for sin this is the interpretation of the thing many God has numbered by kingdom and finished it tech L our weight in the balances and found wanting Paris thy kingdom is divided and given to the meads and Persians. And we can stop right there. One more scripture and then we'll make the application of all this reading that we're doing in Ezra chapter 1 and verse 5. And we could read some other passages for this last point but we'll refrain for the sake of time. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 Now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him. And let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, and beside the freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites with all them whose spirit God had raised up to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts and with precious things beside all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king, brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods. Even those did Cyrus, king of Persia, bring forth by the hand of Mithridat, the treasurer, and numbered them unto Shezbazar, the prince of Judah, and this is the number of them. 30 charges of gold, 1,000 charges of silver, 9 and 20 knives, 30 basins of gold, silver basins of a second sort, 410, and other vessels, 1,000. All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Shezbazar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem." You probably know where we're going with this. You need not fear to be a holy people dedicated to the Lord your God. Because the Lord knows how to take care of his stuff. In the days of Jehoiakim, when he was three years in his kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar came, invaded Jerusalem, entered into the temple and took some vessels and carried them away far away to Babylon and carried away Daniel and some others that were the cream of the crop and some artisans and some skilled labor and took them all away to Babylon. Eight years later Nebuchadnezzar returned and finished the job. and brought down the temple of God, and took all of the vessels, and packed them up, and put them in the house of His God. Some years later, sixty-something years later, Daniel still being there in Babylon, Belshazzar has a party one night, one of his, probably a last hurrah, knowing perhaps that the Persians were at the gates, thinking that he had the support of his God's calls to his counselors and they go into the temple of his God and bring forth the vessels that belong to the true and living God. And they bring them out and they drink wine out of them and they have their drunken party at the expense of the vessels of God. And while they are thus drinking and making merry, at that very moment, the hand appears to write on the wall. And then, according to the word of the prophet Jeremiah, some years later, Cyrus is raised up, a servant of God, whose name, by the way, in the Persian language means the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah, He is raised up as a type of Christ to nourish and build the temple of God, right? What did Jesus say? Upon this rock, I will build my church. And what did Cyrus make sure to do? To bring those vessels out of where they had been kept in storage and kept, I might say, with a very particular record and writing, 5,400 of them to be packed up and to be taken and used in the temple that was to be rebuilt at Jerusalem. My dear brothers and sisters, do you see that God takes care of those who belong to Him? That you may be taken captive, you may go through great affliction, you may be taken far, far away from the place you think is your home and that which is proper. And you may be made to serve in some of the most obscure and perhaps profane ways in that place of your captivity. But when you are put to the worst, the Lord will raise up with a handwriting, even in that day. And then, although He may not deliver you at that time and in that moment, He will pack you up again and get you ready for the time when He will bring you home. Because to belong to Christ is something that cannot be exaggerated for its blessedness. Because God knows how to take care of those who belong to Him. And He doesn't leave us to languish in the dust of death and in the bondage of captivity. but he raises us up. He accounts for us with a very particular accounting one by one to the count of 5,400 vessels because he knows his sheep by name. To be a holy people and to be required because we are a holy people unto that holiness is not a difficult thing. It is the most blessed thing in the world because God never loses anything that belongs to him. Oh, it may appear to us that God has forgotten, as we sang already today and as we read. Has God forgotten? Are His mercies clean, gone? No, I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember His saving strength. I will remember that not one that belongs to Him will be lost. That what it means to be a holy people is far beyond a few behavioral things that we must learn to improve on in this life. It means to be united to the living God and never lost, no matter how far away we're carried. Now turn with me to 2 Timothy, chapter 2, and we'll show the redemptive historical connection that the Apostle Paul makes. Verse 15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane, notice profane is the opposite of holy, profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Thinking of ourselves as vessels is not unbiblical. It's rather biblical. Perhaps the Apostle Paul has in mind those vessels of the house of God that were taken far away, thought to have been forgotten, but never were. What is the context here? The context is a context of apostasy. These two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus, they've taught that the resurrection is past already. They've gone down the road of apostasy, of non-saving truth, that if anybody believes them and follows them in that, they will be lost eternally. The Apostle Paul rises up and asks this rhetorical question, what happens in a case like that? And how does he answer it? Listen to what he says. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, this guarantee. Number one, the Lord knows them that are his. You hear that? Not one of his vessels will be lost. Not one. And second, let those that name the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. This is a seal. This is a guarantee. This is God's authentication of who we are as His, that we depart from iniquity. Notice the iniquitous doctrine and the iniquitous practice. What is the iniquitous doctrine of denying the resurrection? But there's no judgment coming. It doesn't matter how you live. That's iniquitous doctrine. We must depart from that. That's the sign that the Lord knows those who are His. There's an invisible and a visible seal. The Lord knows those that are His and let those that name the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Do not be, Paul will go on to say, like those vessels of dishonor. Rather, purge yourselves from these, that is, from that dishonorable use, and be like those vessels in the house that are set apart unto honorable use. You shall be holy because you are holy. And there's one more passage that I want to cover before we close. And it's actually along the same lines of what the Apostle Paul says to us here in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Turn with me to Malachi chapter 3. And we'll begin our reading in verse 13. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy, yea, they that work wickedness are set up, Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Do you hear the same echoes of the Apostle Paul talking about the doctrine of Hymenaeus and Philetus here? It really is the same kind of thing. I mean, it's not exactly the same, but it's of the same species. Notice, they say in the days of Malachi, what's the purpose that we have behaved ourselves in a holy way? That we've kept his commandments and ordinances. What's the purpose? What's the use of that? And now, We call the proud happy. We say those who are proud, they're the ones really that are to be imitated. They're the ones that are the most blessed in the world. They that work wickedness are set up. Set up, that is esteemed, they are given position. And then third, they that tempt God are even delivered. What are the people of God to do in such a case as that? Is it vain to serve God? Is it vain to obey Him? Is there no reward? Has God forgotten? What happens to those vessels of honor? Listen to what he says. Verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord, in contrast to those in verse 15, spake often one to another, and the Lord heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that fear the Lord, and that thought on his name, and listen to what he says, and they shall be mine. They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Oh dear brothers and sisters, You have nothing to fear from the indicative and the imperative of holiness. Rather, you have everything to gain from it. You, you, brothers and sisters, outwardly, notoriously, in the visible church, you are the holy people of God. Therefore, you shall be holy. And this is the most blessed estate the face of the earth, because God never forgets who belongs to Him. And He never lets them languish in the dust of death without His saving presence. No, this is the best condition in the world. Let's stand and call upon the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, words fail as we come to express our gratitude that not only are we vessels, not only honorable vessels, not only vessels of gold and silver, but also thy jewels. Father, we confess we deserve not such titles, such names, such descriptions, that this is by grace that we stand before thee as thine own. And we thank thee for those assurances that we've seen that thy vessels remain thy vessels. And no matter where they are taken, and no matter where they are scattered throughout the world, and no matter what afflictions befall them, and no matter how they are used, by their oppressors, that it is indeed at the very height of that oppression that thou does rise up faithfully with thy word for them. Lord, we pray that rather than fearing and grudging to become holy more and more, that we would see the high privilege thy mercy has brought to us in calling us a holy people and in commanding us to be holy. And we pray these things in Christ Jesus' name. Amen.