Our first reading from God's Word will be from Ephesians, chapter 2. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, when in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prints of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved, and through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them, Wherefore, remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of petition between us, having abolished in his flesh the entity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." So far the reading of God's word. What can I do for you? after you've rescued me like this, wouldn't that be the natural question that someone's asked? If you have just been saved from drowning, or saved out of a wreck that's going to kill you if you stay in that time, isn't it the first question that you're going to ask? What can I do to show you that I am so thankful? So if that is a question on a natural level, it is probably very clear to us that if you are saved that you are going to ask the same question. If you are really saved, then you are going to live with this question. If you do not live with this question, what can I do for God to show my thankfulness? Then you need to ask yourself another question. If you don't ask that question, then am I really saved? In the scripture you read about this incident where ten lepers came to Jesus. And you know the history. Nine of them. I mean all ten of them were healed. Nine of them never came back. One of them comes back to Jesus and he was a stranger. Literally, I think it's someone from another race, it says, and obviously the scripture identifies him as a Samaritan. But the point is that all ten experienced something. All ten were healed. All ten had an incredible experience. Only one of them came back. And as she's come back to Jesus to give thanks, then Jesus says, Arise, go thy way, your faith has made you whole. Your faith has really saved you. And the evidence of that is that you're at my feet here, giving thanks and glory to God And undoubtedly, he walked the rest of his life showing to God his devotion in thanksgiving. So, as we begin tonight, this whole subject of sanctification, then let us be clear in our mind, this is not about duty. I must do this. Holiness is not a duty thing. It is, I want to do this. What have I want to do for God to show Him that He actually has done this to me? See, that's the whole spirit in which the section in our catechism on sanctification is rooted in. This amazing feeling of God has saved me. What shall I do to show my thankfulness to Him? And dear congregation, let's take it into heart, if that question doesn't live within us, then be careful. You may have experienced joy, you may have experienced peace, you may experience rest, you may experience comfort, and all these spiritual things, but if the question is not burning, what shall I render to the Lord? Then you may be one of the nine lepers and nothing more. Then the salvation is not complete. Because the salvation complete turns a person into a holiness seeker, into a devoted man or woman to the God who saved them. And that was missing in the nine. They experienced Jesus' power, Jesus' healing, they experienced something really, but their life is not focused on Him. Now they may have all kinds of excuses, but the point we need to take from them is what Jesus says, your faith, number 10, has made you whole, the others, they weren't. And so what I'm trying to say here is, Salvation, truly being saved, is proved by the works, the fruits of a careful and a holy walk. It's a simple principle. What proves your toaster to be a good toaster? When a toast bread. What proves someone to be truly saved? It's when he is seeking to live increasingly Holy. Got to be, because that is ultimately the final purpose for why God saves a person. To make him holy. To make him look like the Son, Adam and Eve, look like Adam and Eve were once, perfect, look like the Lord Jesus. That's his ultimate purpose. And so, what is holy living? The scripture defines it as thankful living. Christ did not leave his people to the personal definition of what holiness is, we're not filling us in by ourselves, but the scripture tells us very clearly what God expects in holy living, or rather say it this way, what God says is the best way to show us our thankfulness and devotion to him. He doesn't leave it to you and me to decide. He will, in the scripture, tell us what exactly He desires the best. And isn't that what you want to do when you love someone? You want to do what pleases Him. If you really love the Lord, you want to do what pleases Him. I read this beautiful definition of holiness by John Brown, a 17th century Puritan, I believe. He says holiness is not something mystical, something airy. Holiness is not just a great zeal, enthusiastic zeal. Holiness is not just some self-imposed unbiblical austerity program, can't do this, can't do that, cutting out this, cutting out that. He says, this is what holiness is, and I like that definition. He says, holiness consists in thinking like God thinks, and living like God, or willing what God wills. Holiness is thinking what God thinks, and willing what God wills. That's holiness. And you know what's so beautiful about that definition? That that is going to translate in the greatest amount of happiness that you can ever have in this life. Because we're all happiness seekers. Everyone wants to be happy. But if it's divorced from being holy, you'll never be happy. What makes God so? May I use the word happy? Do you ever think about God as being a joyful God? What do you think is the main characteristic of God? Is He a God of joy or a God of sadness? Is He glad in being God? Those are questions we cannot really answer because they are very beyond us. But God is ultimately a God who Paul calls the blessed God. And the word blessed God is like he is a God fully satisfied in who he is. And that is because God is holy. Holiness is the main attribute of God that lays as a shine on all the others. You know, you see it in the scripture, it is holy love, it is holy wisdom, it is holy justice, it is holy patience. Holiness is the attribute of all attributes. It's His beauty. And here we are together tonight, and we're all looking for happiness. I can go beyond every pew here, and everyone wants to be happy. And this one says, I'm going to be happy when this happens, and I'm going to be happy when I have that, and when I'm happy I have this accomplished, or I have reached that. And we're all wrong if it is not what John Brown said. Happiness is if you begin to think like God thinks, and if you begin to want what God wants, then happy. Let's look at Lordsay 32 this evening, make a beginning on it at least. 86 and 87. Since then, see how it links this very question of thankfulness to the deliverance, since then we are delivered, now we're talking about believers, from our misery. And to reiterate why that was, merely of grace. through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works? The answer is several. First, because Christ has redeemed and delivered us by his blood, but he also renews us by his Holy Spirit after his own image. divorced the one from the other. That so, second reason, we may testify by the whole of our conduct our gratitude to God for his blessings. Third reason, and that he may be praised by us also, that he may be praised by us. Next reason, also that everyone may be assured in himself of his faith by the fruits thereof. And lastly, that by our godly compensation others may be gained to Christ. Cannot they then be saved who, continuing in their wicked and ungrateful lives, are not converted to God? Absolutely no. By no means. But the Holy Scriptures declares that no unchaste person An idolater, an adulterer, a thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robberer, or any such like, who lives in that, it's his lifestyle, it's his heart is in that, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. So, in this Sunday and next week Sunday, we'll take a look at this Lord's Day and the teachings of the Bible on this, on holy living. Tonight is the first two thoughts, it's the fruit of Christ's salvation. Secondly, it's living the real life. Thirdly, it's the pathway to assurance, holiness. And lastly, it's the strongest weapon for evangelism, to gain others for Christ. So the holy living, we're going to look at that tonight. And the first thought that this beautiful Lord's Day brings instantly to the foreground, and you notice the answer begins with what? It begins with Christ. Holiness is as much the work of Christ as anything else, because Christ. That's what the very root is of this whole section in the catechism dealing with thankfulness. So let's refresh ourselves by this word, Christ, about what is the gospel. And I do this repeatedly with you, because we need to keep our minds clear on what the gospel is. What is the gospel? The gospel is God acting to save sinners. If there was no such an action from God, and no such initiation from God, and no such work of God, there would be no salvation. That's why I read Ephesians 2 tonight with you. I mean, these people that Paul writes to were totally dead. Paul himself has to say, I was at one point dead, living in the lust of the flesh. But God came in your life, in my life, with his rich grace. That's the gospel, friends. Gospel is not about you performing to reach God. That's the law. Gospel is God descending to do work among us in order to save. It's such a hope-giving message. See, Paul wrote to the Ephesians at one time, you were without hope in the world. You are all religious people. You are all living in some kind of dream. But you had no hope. Because it was all based on you. He says, here comes God from heaven, and there's the hope. There's hope for a sinner. There's hope for you and me. Because God is gracious, and He works out salvation. That's the gospel. God's rescue plan. If it's all the bills are His. If it's all the supplies are His. If it's all the work is His. If you look at chapter 2, verse 10, Paul says, We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk therein. Isn't that a beautiful verse? I read somewhere once a word explanation on the word workmanship. In the Greek it's quite a rich word. And the man, that Greek scholar, he says, you cannot compare it to embroidery. We are the embroidery of Jesus Christ. Now you run into these massive beautiful embroideries, thread by thread by thread. Black and blue and yellow and green. And it becomes this beautiful display. And he says, that's God's work. To pull the threads through your life. hear one and dare one. And let's be patient with one another. These young Christians may have only a few stitches of Jesus' work at this point. Be patient. They're not finished. Don't think that when God converts a person that all their sin issues are done with. It's just starting. But His workmanship continues throughout their lives. Slowly He stitches them up till finally They are entirely renewed in the image of God again. That's God's work. That's nothing that we do about, that's His work. That's the beauty of this whole holiness chapter. It begins with Christ, it is worked through Christ, it's finished by Christ. And so again, salvation, the life of holiness that we're going to look at today, is the crowning work, friend. It is the ultimate goal why Jesus came to this earth. Not to make us comfortable? Of course, comfort is part of it. That's how the whole catechism starts. What is your only comfort in life and death? Well, that I belong unto the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice how it ends. That He assures me and makes me willing and ready henceforth by His Holy Spirit, in their account, to live unto Him. That's the purpose why God saves people. They will live for Him. And that's the ultimate work for Jesus Christ to do. Part one is coming to this earth to die on the cross. That's part one, as it were, to walk in obedience, to take away the guilt. But part two is to make these men, women, children, boys and girls holy in the sight of God. So let's be reminding ourselves, holiness is not the fruit of our doing. Holiness grows out of being united by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was missing in the nine lepers. They had no relationship really with the Lord Jesus. But the tent, he did. And his life is a life of devotion. So therefore, in question 87 is quickly answered, cannot someone be saved who lives unconverted? No, he cannot. Yes, a saved person can fall. A saved person can slide back. He can fall terrible. He can become a murderer, David. An adulterer. He can become a denier and a curser of God, Peter. He can fall deeply, but he doesn't stay there. He will not continue in a lifestyle that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures. And so question 87 is clear. No, you cannot be claiming to be saved while in your life you continue to embrace an area that is clear sinful in the Word of God. It's impossible for the sun not to shine. It's impossible for one who is born again not to pursue holiness. So let's learn to drink from this truth as the catechism here just begins to lay this out. Christ is the one, not only redeeming and delivering by his blood, but also renewing by his Holy Spirit after his image. Can I just remind God's children here, drink of these two benefits of the covenant. Justification by faith. sanctification by Christ as well. It's not our fruit. The three scriptures I quoted on your outline this morning, this evening, speak for themselves. All our springs are in Thee. That means every godly sigh, and every godly thought, and every upright desire, and every real prayer, and everything in Thee. God doesn't expect it from you. He knows there is from us no fruit forever. So He turns us over and over to Himself. In Hosea 14 verse 8, in from me is thy fruit found. Take hold of that promise as you struggle with your sinfulness. Take hold of the promise. When you struggle with characteristics in your life you can overcome. Take that very word back to God and say, Lord, from Thee is this my fruit found. I cannot create this fruit. I cannot overcome this tendency. I cannot get rid of this habit. I cannot change my thinking. But here Thou hast said, Thou renews by Thy Holy Spirit. Make not half use of Christ, only for justification, but also for sanctification. He is a priest and a king and a prophet in both areas. And sure, God knows our weaknesses and God knows our inabilities and He is patient and pities as a father pitieth his children. So therefore bring daily daily your needs in holy living to the Lord. The second thought this evening brings it a little closer to us. Holy living is actually living the real life. You know, the other day, or not the other day, it's been some years now, I was accused of never having lived I still remember the gentleman sitting next to me in the airplane. He says, you have never lived. And the reason he said it to me, because I'd never been drunk. He says, you have never lived. And I laughed him in his face. I said, you are the greatest fool I've ever heard. Because I can tell you now, I have lived far more than you've ever lived. And I'm going to make that point tonight. That holy living is real living. And if you don't live like that, you've never lived. Indeed, you've never lived. Jesus said that himself. It's not even my word. And I want God's children to begin to say that to the world. They think they're having a party. They got nothing. They got nothing! but water, whereas the living church has the wine, the real wine. Let us indeed testify to the world that holy living is real living. So let's refresh ourselves, what is holy living then? It's not about living according to all kinds of rules and traditions. That's so often how a holy living is characterized, isn't it? You have to live like this. You can't do that. Can't go there. Can't have fun. All kinds of things are being thrown at people when we talk about holiness. But that's not what it is. Too many think that holy living is to keep the rules of don't touch and don't go here and don't go there. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Matthew 23. He says, Thou blind Pharisee, and you hypocrite. You are like whited supacors. On the outside you appear beautiful, but within you are full of dead men's bones. And I'm going to say the same today, a little differently. To all the world out there, they're like whited supacors. They're having their parties, they're having their fun, they're having their pleasures, but only a whited supacor inside is a terrible empty ache. dead man's bones, no hope except for the next moment or the moment they're in, but they don't know what's next. That's what the world is all about. It's like a rite of supper if you have no relationship to Jesus. And Holy Living Friends is not making ourselves live like rites, beautiful, traditional lifestyles. What holiness is? It's to be and to live like God Himself, as I said earlier in the introduction. Holiness is to think like God thinks and to will what God thinks. You know what holiness is? Let's look at Adam and Eve in paradise. That's holiness. And how they lived there in that beautiful paradise with the Creator that came to commune with them. You think they missed anything? They were really living holiness as they lived in love with one another and with their Creator. They had real freedom, true freedom, as they lived there in that paradise condition. That was not slavery, was it? That's what Satan made it sound like. It was liberty, as they moved. In paradise, in the boundaries of God's holiness, they were the most happy couple that has ever walked on this earth. Do you agree with me? There has never been a happier couple than Adam and Eve when they walked in paradise. They walked in perfect liberty. in the pursuit of holiness. Now, our fall in paradise has reduced us to the most miserable slavery, and that includes all of us in our own fallen state. You know the story. Satan said to Eve, shake off God and you're going to have liberty. Take my advice, Eve. If you're going to go this path, you're going to be like God. You're going to be like God. Hear this? Just the opposite of what I just said, that holiness is like God. It's to think like God and to want like God. And Satan says, if you go my path, you don't go by these small rules of God and you'll find liberty. And they bid, both of them, and what they find, instantly, Their lives are dominated by fierce fear and an unquenchable thirst for security and joy. Instantly. Instead of finding the liberty, they find themselves slaves. Completely. And sometimes we still meet people like that. They've shaken off all the limits of religion. They say they're free. They have shaken it all off, all these baggage of the past and all these constrictions and rules, and now they do what they like. They live, appear relaxed and satisfied and joyful. They are just so liberated. But they are not. That is according to Jesus' word. sin is the servant of sin. Or if I translate it a little bit differently, he who is devoted to a lifestyle of sin is the slave of sin. They're not free. They're far from being free. You're being driven by your own depravity, sinfulness of heart, sinful desires. You're a slave to yourself, and to your greed, and to your jealousy, or your materialism, or your pleasure, or whatever it may be. Congregation, let's turn to John 10 for a moment, verse 10. And let's listen really carefully to what Jesus says there. Because you may be living a very nice life, You may be living a very church life. You may be going and coming to church and live like an outward Christian, very beautiful. But now let's read what Jesus says in John 10, verse 10. The last part. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I could translate it that they can have more than normal. or they can have more than what they normally have in life. I have come to give people a depth of life that they've never had before and they cannot have it without me. Now turn back in John and go to John 4 with me. Because you find in a similar statement that he makes, John 4 When Jesus comes to the well of Samaria, he finds this woman there, and he knows who she is, and he begins to speak to her. So if you go to verse 10, Jesus said unto her, If thou, woman, knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, that is talking and speaking to you, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given thee Living water. In other words, you can have water and you can have living water. There is something different between those two, isn't there? There is water in this world and there is living water. There is life in this world and there is a more abundant life. Now, I do not argue at all that the world has a life. They have a life. fun, exciting, full of their joy, pleasures, goals, successes. They have a life, but they don't have an abundant life. I'm convinced that the world drinks water, and it's not necessarily sinful to drink water. There are all kinds of nice things in this life we drink of. Friends, health, Work, relaxation, nice music, marriage, whatever good things in life. Let's just only think about the good things. There's lots of water. Jesus says, people drink water. There's many things in life that are okay. There are pleasures in life that are okay. There's work in life, there's friendship. To be accepted is wonderful. To be loved is great. That's like water. To have companionship and friends is extremely important. Nothing wrong with that. But it's water. It's not living water. Feel the difference? There's a beautiful message I was listening to from Peter Masters. You can yourself find it somewhere on the net. We'll explain this brilliantly. Water versus living water. There is obviously all kinds of bad things that people drink because most people are not dissatisfied with water. They want to spike it. They spike it with sugar and caffeine. They spike it with idolatry. They spike it with sinful living. They spike it with all kinds of other things that are to excite them. They're not dissatisfied with the normal. They want to have something more in life. That most of us here, hopefully, are finding enough in water, and yet it's not enough. Why is it not enough? This is what Jesus says in verse 14, let's go there, of John 4. He says, Woman, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Because it doesn't satisfy. Your one party doesn't satisfy, you have to have another party. Your one totally legitimate joy doesn't fill, you need another one. I'm not talking about sinful things here. Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but that water shall give him that shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Notice this abundant life and this living water begins to live within. What is Jesus talking about? With this living water that begins to become a well that obviously satisfies the person from the inside. That's the difference between being a true Christian and to be a named Christian. I'll leave the world out for a moment. A true Christian has an inner source of life. Whereas the name fishing, he has to find his life still in the waters of this world. He drinks and drinks and drinks and never satisfies. Friends, as I was thinking about this and this whole subject of holiness tonight, I want to go back to the catechism now. This abundant life and this living water, that is now holiness and holy living. When Jesus begins to reign and to rule in your heart, you are freed from the bondage and the slavery of sin. I claim here tonight that unholy living is the most miserable life possible on this world. I came back from Palmerston this morning, or this afternoon, I was talking to one of the young ladies in church. She said she came home tonight at 4 o'clock. She didn't look like she was a part of YouTube Maine. Looks like a brilliant young woman. She said, 4 o'clock? It's kind of late, isn't it? Or early. I said, yeah, but I was on the square yesterday in Palmerston. We're driving around with a little van, with coffee and water and juice and tea. There's another van right behind that, that's the van that picks up all the drunks from the square, and we bring them to their houses. Girls, mostly, and also guys, stone drunk, laying in the street, vomiting, don't know where they're going. We give them a drink. We give them also a little message, and we bring them home. says this morning wasn't so late, I got home at 4 o'clock instead of 6 o'clock. Those poor kids, they're trying to drink water, not even water in this case, but they don't have any living water, they have no relationship with God, and this is what the world is now having, it's the most miserable life to live in a holy life. There is so much joy in living holy. out of the hand and the Spirit of God, devoted, freed from the bondage of lust and self and greed and covetousness. That is life. And I claim again that the unsaved have never lived. It is those who know the grace and the power of the redeeming, delivering blood and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. They are living as they have been fed by the living water of Jesus Christ. And I'm sure that as we think here together tonight, children of God, you would share it with me, this living water, this experience of God's love, God's acceptance, God's holiness, God's nearness. That's real life. That's real life. That's not illusion. May I again say it? No, let's sing first, and then we'll say it. Psalter 280, verse 1 and 2. Oh my soul, bless thou Jehovah all within me. Bless his name. Psalter 280, we'll sing verse 1 and 2. Oh, how she loves us! Oh, with him he has been made! And she knows I am for him not. For him else he's too afraid. He who reigns on high in splendor, He who has lived and died and reigns, He who lives beyond destruction, ♪ Let it draw my mind to faith ♪ ♪ Even then the mercy comes to me ♪ ♪ Setting my heart on holy ground again ♪ Thou that art the life of people, Thou that doest things good and bad, Thou that givest the Lord his blessings, ♪ You will live for me at last ♪ ♪ Make this moment many pasts ♪ That's the thankfulness, isn't it? That song, Oh my soul, bless thou Jehovah. He knows what we sing together. Something that the world and the worldling never will have. He heals us of all our sicknesses. He forgives all our sins. That's justification. He heals us of all our sicknesses is sanctification. That's not just a flu. That's spiritual sickness. That's a sickness, it's a slavery. And then, notice, so that like the tireless eagle, thou with youth renewed art blessed. The believer, strangely, said perhaps, is going to get younger and younger. The closer He comes as God renews him with the spiritual strength and the sanctification, may not feel like it, but the closer they come. Finally, when they may come to heaven, they are completely renewed in the youthfulness of what? Of what was in paradise. Of that beautiful, perfect holiness living in great liberty and joy. Come, I invite all the redeemed who have been touched by the redeeming work of Christ to speak up and to share as our catechism begins. Since we are delivered from our misery of grace through Christ without any merit of ours, let us speak about this deliverance Holiness is being delivered. Look back at your pre-saved life. Let's listen to what Paul says when he writes in Romans 7 verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, the motions, the powers, the presence of sins which were by the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Look back, people of God, this evening at your pre- Conversion life. What were the fruits of all the successes? More thirst. What was the fruit of all the increase of your possessions? More greed. What is the fruit of all the works that were in the flesh? Paul says death. Now what does death mean? Separation. From God and you. Only made the bridge deeper. It didn't bring life. It separates friends. It separates people. But it separates God and you. This has absolutely no benefit in it. And all those who are saved, who look back at that and say, yes, The Apostle in Ephesians 2 reminds the believers, he says, don't forget, therefore remember that you being in the time past Gentiles in the flesh, don't forget. When you were walking in the course of the world, when you were living and addicted to the things of here and now and self, don't forget. And the fruit of that was death. There's absolutely nothing to it. And consider now what is the fruit of being spiritually minded. Romans 8 verse 6 tells us, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. My dear unconverted listener tonight, you've never lived With all the joy and all the excitement and all the accomplishments and all what you may have seen and accomplished and done in this world, you've never lived. For the ultimate price of all what the world does is not life and peace with God. It's death. It's separation. Deeper, farther, and more. But to be spiritually minded, to be delivered by Christ, to be redeemed from the guilt, to be renewed by the Holy Spirit is communion with God. That is so sweet. Communion with God is heaven on earth. That's life and peace. That peace in your conscience, even though you can remember all the sins and all the bad things, but to have that blood of Christ sprinkled over all that past. My dear listener, that is such a peace. Though you must acknowledge that every sin lives within you still, you know there is peace with God through Jesus Christ when we have learned to rest our hope on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's life. That's life and peace. To have a Jesus here who cares for you and stands beyond the gate of death waiting for you. That's life. The worldling doesn't have that. They have their joys out here, hoping that tonight they don't have to die. Because if you would have to die tonight, no, no, we don't want to think about that. You have no life and peace. It's always a sour note in the end. But we don't want to think about that. Life and peace. That is, have rest in your heart, knowing that I come short of everything in myself. As John Bunyan would say, I have my righteousness already in heaven, waiting for me in Jesus Christ. That's life and peace, isn't it? And you know, now you can enjoy really what is in this life. Now the joys that are legitimate are going to be far more tasteful. I think I enjoy my marriage more than any worldling who may have a good marriage. I know I enjoy my health more than any worldling who may have a better health than me, because there's in my heart life and peace, and the world doesn't have that. I may enjoy nature better, and I can enjoy it better than the worldling ever can, because he's a slave and I'm a free man. That's my father's garden. It's not your father's. You see, you're missing out. You don't have real life. If you don't have a relationship with Christ, and if you pursue any things of this world, you don't have life and peace. You have that and nothing else. And therefore the Savior says unto that woman as he sits there, thirsty as ever, on that well, Oh my dear woman, if you only knew who's talking to you, would ask him, give me this water. For if you get the water I give, you will never thirst again. You'll have a living fountain of a relationship with me that will ever be more and more. Real life. is to have the servant heart to God and to your neighbor. Real life, friends, is not to live for this man. It's to live for the man who died on the cross and now is on the throne, and to serve him and all those he owns. And who does he own? Converted and unconverted. Real life is not to serve yourself, It is to serve your neighbor, whoever he is, as you love yourself. That's real life. That's the joy of living that the world has never tasted. That's holiness living. Holiness is not about keeping rules and not doing this and not doing that. Holiness is I may do all the things that please Christ and my neighbor. And I am free to do it, enabling by the grace of God, of course. For no child of God is going to be ever perfect, far from it, just beginning, even if they are the most advanced in holiness. Now, if you miss all this, inner life and the deliverance of guilt and the controlling power of sin, I've said it enough, you have never lived for real. But then before I let you go, I may lay a little invitation in your hand this evening. It's the word of the Savior. He says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Hear that? Jesus is speaking here to a woman who has probably been a harlot for many years. She's been five times married, or four, whatever it was. She's tried to drink, hasn't she? And she is so thirsty still. She's a sinful woman. But he says, woman, whosoever, you included, Don't look at your sins and your past and who you are and what you've done. Whosoever, no matter what sinner you are, you can be a sinner with your head, you can be a sinner with your mouth and with your life choices and your foul deeds, but whosoever drinketh of this water that I shall give him, to drink is to receive. To drink, right? We all know drinking. as to receive the message that Jesus gave in His Word. He came to save sinners, to give abundant life, to forgive sin of those that come to Him, to renew their lives of those who have completely messed up everything from the deepness of the fall to the continuation of our journey. Whosoever I shall give, you don't have to earn it, you don't have to qualify yourself by works, no, no. Whosoever I shall give shall never thirst. I don't want you to go home thinking it's not for me tonight. I cannot give it to you, but I can invite you tonight again to real living. Our real living is to come to Jesus. Amen. Thou hast said it so clearly, real living is indeed if we may come and drink of Thee. We trust that Thou will bring this word where it needs to be brought. We trust, Lord, that Thou will bring the waters of this gospel message also to bring the healing and the life that Thou wants to bring. And we pray indeed, O God, that also this holy living may begin to become an attraction in our life. It is what Thou teachest all Thy people, that to live holy, that is happy. To live in godliness, that is joy. And we pray, Lord, that this evening may have been Thy means to open our eyes for that, Turn us away from the total foolish pursuit of all that which brings death and nothing else. O, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that Thou takest on this word, but also bless Thy children with a better understanding of the joy of living for Thee. Enable Thou every one of us who may have experienced the power of thy grace daily to see the renewing power of thy Spirit. Lord bless us as we go out of this place to be a blessing to others. And so guide us in this week that we begin, in all our journeys and all our work, especially for Job and his daughter Linda as they travel overseas. We pray for those others perhaps that are traveling in this country or elsewhere. We pray that Thou would bless us in our work. Thou keep us and strengthen us wherever we have our position in life. We ask Thee to graciously forgive everything that was wrong also in this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.