All right, good morning. Ephesians chapter number two this morning. Ephesians chapter number two. Brother Randy, where'd I stop last week? Uh-oh. See, I'm testing you now. I know. I just want to know if you know. There you go, all right, very good. Actually, I taught the next point Sunday night, last Sunday night. We talked about servants in the scripture. And the next point I'm gonna cover briefly this morning because of that is being made a servant of the Lord. Ephesians chapter two, we'll begin here, however, this morning. Ephesians chapter two, verse number one, speaking to the believers at Ephesus, and again, addressing all of us in that sense, and you, who hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince 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, and the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, you need to underline this, the children of wrath." even as others. That's the condition you and I were in before we came to Christ. And the world will go out of its way today to make everybody believe that you're okay, you're fine, and this is just something you need to do. You need to go to church, you need to be a little more religious, you need to be kind. Have your dogs and cats spayed and neutered. Don't cut down any trees. It varies from time to time. But the truth of the matter is, before you and I came to Christ, we were in desperate straits situation. And we were by children, by nature, the children of wrath. The Bible said, he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth upon him, present tense. So when you and I run into someone who is unsaved, very often we can be deceived by the devil in the sense or into the false thought that, well, you know, he's a good guy, she's a good lady, she's kind, she's nice, she has her own thoughts and her own beliefs, and that may all be true. But this is God's opinion, not mine. And it's God's opinion, not only of somebody that you know, it's God's opinion of me before I came to Christ. I was by nature a child of wrath. The Bible talks about in Romans that vessel fitted under wrath. In other words, created to be destroyed, something that was fitted. And that's where you and I were. We were just in that position. Now, God didn't make us that way. We became that way by sin, by nature. He said, by nature, you were the children of wrath. So when we get saved, it requires some tremendous change. and we've been covering and looking at some of those. Let's look at the next verse that kind of brings us to a nice end here. But God who is rich and mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So the idea is of being quickened. And that word means to be made alive, sensitive, functioning. And before we trusted Christ as our Savior, we were dead. We went through the motions, we did what was the world's idea, and followed the rules of the world, and of sin, and of greed, and of uncleanness, and of lust. But after we got saved, the truth of the matter is, your testimony in Christ, if you think about it this morning, you didn't really know what life was all about until you came to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I've had people get angry and they say, well, you know, you, you think, you know, I know I don't, but I do know this, that when I passed from death unto life, when I trusted Christ as my savior, I discovered some truth about life that I never knew. as an unsaved person, some joy in life that I never knew could exist on the other side. And so that's the grace of God toward you and I who were by nature the children of wrath, under the wrath of a holy God. Now, as far as the idea of being made servants of the Most High, again, I taught on that last Sunday night for a little while, what the scripture had to say about being a servant of the Lord. And while the idea of being a servant to anybody would be repulsive to most of us, the idea of being a servant to Jesus Christ is not bad at all. And truth of the matter is, if I can be a servant of Jesus Christ, I will go further, accomplish more, be happier, and achieve things that are more desirable than I ever could on my own. And the idea of being made a servant of the Most High God when we trusted Christ. Romans chapter 1, verse number 9. Romans chapter 1 verse number 9 for God is my witness Whom I serve With my spirit in the gospel of his son that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers He said I serve with my spirit the idea of serving the Lord really the begins from within The idea begins from the within. And whether you will consent to being a servant as Paul does here, serving with your spirit, you still are his servant. It's not a matter of, well, I don't want to be a servant. Just in the same light, I don't want to be a son. We mentioned the fact that when we trust Christ, we became a son of God. And you may say, well, I don't want to be a son. Well, too late. You put your trust in Christ, you're in. Somebody said, well, I don't want to be in, too bad. You say, well, and that's a good denial there. You can't get out. It's a one-time deal. And it could be that you're not going to be a very good son. I mean, the prodigal father had two sons. One son stayed home, the other left, but they both were his sons. And you and I may not be good servants. We may be terrible servants, but we are servants. and will be judged in that capacity as a child of God at some point. But Paul mentions serving God with my spirit. And the idea of service comes to the point of really just condescension. Lord, I admit, I am what I, that's what I need to be. I will serve you. No one is a servant until they consent to it with their mind. If you ever read any military history, it's a good thing to read some of the stories of the Bataan Death March and read what some of those soldiers went through. Wainwright was MacArthur's commander in the Philippines. And after MacArthur was ordered out of the Philippines, they fell. And Wainwright was a commander of the American forces there. And they were the ones that were compelled to go on what was called the Bataan Death March. And I think there's none of them still left alive. I didn't, if I'm not mistaken, I read just within the last six months or so, the last survivor of the Bataan Death March passed away. and walked that long distance there in the heat with no food, no water. Randomly, some were called out and shot as an example to the others. If someone stumbled, they were shot or dragged by the guards. Just a brutal situation. So much so, that when the surrender came of the Japanese, MacArthur insisted that it be held off in time, I think 24 or 48 hours. He would not allow them to surrender. They were fearful we were gonna drop another atomic bomb, and so they wanted to get the job done. But MacArthur wouldn't allow it until Wainwright was brought. And if you ever look at the picture of MacArthur signing the end of World War II, behind him, there's a row of officers. And you will have no problem whatsoever mistaking who Wainwright is. He is emaciated. He looks like a skeleton in uniform. And he was the one who had been in command, had survived the Bataan Death March. And MacArthur said, we're not going to let you surrender until I have him here. You're going to surrender with him watching. And that idea there is of service above and beyond. But the idea of that whole thing was, you know what, you can take us, you can make us march, you can make us prisoners, you can put us behind barbed wire, but we will not consent. We will not consent. And someone said, I read somewhere not long ago, that it is within the code of conduct for a soldier sometimes to surrender, never to submit. never to submit. You may surrender, but you are not to submit in the sense that you give yourself over to your enemy and you are always there to cause problems and that's your job. Someone said, well, if you do that, you'll get killed. That's the whole idea of war. That's kind of the bottom line to becoming a soldier. And although today it's kind of remiss from that, we've become career oriented. I want my college education or whatever it might be. And that's good that you get that. But first and foremost, when you sign on the bottom line, you're saying, I'm ready to die. That's what it's about. 2 Timothy 1, verse 3, the apostle Paul again says, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. Again, notice he said, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure, or with pure conscience. Only you know how good a servant of the Lord you are. Only you and you alone. The ideas of other people may be misspent, may be misplaced. You and I sometimes, we have that facade part of our Christianity, that part that everybody sees, and they observe us in church, and we're holding the hymn book, and we're smiling and singing. But you know as well as I do, that's not the guy that exists seven days a week. And so in that context, only you know really where you stand with the Lord as far as your service is concerned. The words of Paul in 2 Timothy before he was executed, I fought a good fight, finished my course, kept the faith. Those are tremendous and phenomenal testimony. You say, why? Well, number one, he's writing that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's not just Paul boasting. That's the Spirit of God saying, Paul, write this down. I want this to be kept for those who will come in later generations. I want folks in 2011 to read this. And so the Holy Spirit said, write, I fought a good fight, I finished my course, I've kept the faith. But secondly, Paul had to realize that it was so. And the idea this morning is, you know, we can profess to be, we can pretend to be, we can portray ourselves in a number of situations, but you and God know where you are. You and God know where you are. And you know whether it's pretense or whether you serve God with a pure conscience. The idea of a pure conscience is a tremendous thought. I'm not maintaining that we'd be perfect, that's an impossibility. But our motives need to be pure when we serve the Lord. God knows exactly how much self is on the throne of our life and how much pleasure is on the throne of our life and how much he is honored and allowed to have the throne of our life. God doesn't force himself on anybody. We serve by choice the Lord. 1 Peter 2, verse 15, for so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Watch this, as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. You understand when I become a servant of God, I really become free. I become free. Do you ever watch, maybe you haven't, if you're old enough, you probably can see in this generational swing as you watch, every generation conforms itself to its generation. The idea of existence is 99% conformity. How many of you were raised in the 60s? Is that data's too much? Okay. You remember, you know, Levi's and all that kind of stuff. We had to have the t-shirts, you know, on the Levi's and that's the way it worked. And if you didn't have that, you weren't cool. Okay. And, you know, we fell right in lockstep with that. And, you know, you remember if you went to school, and maybe you were one of the spazzes, but if you weren't, then you knew who the spazzes were. And the spazzes simply were guys that wore, you know, dress or casual pants. And if you wore dockers in my day, you'd get docked. You know, I mean, that just wasn't cool at all. We had to conform, or at least we thought we did. We thought we did, and we can set back all we want, and we can talk about teenagers today, and you know what they're doing? They're doing exactly what you did. The problem is that that conformity changes. And over the years, listen, they didn't wanna conform to our standards, nor did they wanna conform to the standards that went before. Each generation, the vortex swirls, but it's going down. And now you've got suicide pacts and murder pacts and drug, all that stuff is part of conforming. And the truth of the matter is, if we don't teach our young people, and by the way, we have to teach them by example, that conformity is not the way to success in life, then that's what we're gonna reap. I talked to somebody this week and they were, you know, somewhat justifying some things that I had indicated from the scripture, I believe are just dead wrong. And they said, well, you know, yeah, but I want you to know, I don't think there's anything. And I said, you know what, it's probably not gonna hurt you. I said, but, and I knew from where the background of the fellow that I was talking to, I said, you know, you've come from here and you now say, well, this is all right. So that gives you that much of a departure. Now let's take your grandkids who are going to go from where you are. I said, in essence, what you've done is it may be not your grandkids, but certainly your great-grandchildren are going to live a lifestyle that is appalling by your own standards. If you wanna say, well, you know, I'm okay with God and I'm all right with God and God's not gonna, okay, but what about your great-grandchildren? Because you have set a precedent that says, you know what, I can conform to a level of comfort. I can conform to a level of comfort with my world and in my world. And I don't think we need to be sticking the muds. I don't think we're sticks in the mud, I guess. You can get in the muds. But I don't think you have to be a fuddy-duddy. I don't think you have to be a weirdo. But you know something? Just getting old, we become weirdos. And I just at some point putting an earring in your ear and a chain around your neck and a pair of Levi's and tennis shoes on, you still look like an old guy. You don't elicit cool anymore, people feel sorry for you. Nothing any worse than a woman trying to look like she's 15 and she has passed out a long time ago. You say, well, you know, I want to be attractive. Let me help you with that. Okay, just be nice. You know, at some point trying to keep up and conformity becomes an impossibility. And yet look at how much of our life is devoted trying to conform to the ideas of this world when in reality the scripture doesn't say we're to be conformed to this world or to break our conformity. We're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Success in the Christian life is not somehow beating the body or allowing it to do what it is taking the mindset. It's changing the mindset. The struggle in the ministry for 30 years has not been necessarily to get Christians to paint their body the way God wanted it to be painted. The struggle has been to get Christians to think like God wanted them to think. Paul said they compare themselves among themselves. They're not wise. That's 98% of the Christians I know. That's how they make a determination at how they're going to live their life. They look around and they see how everybody else is doing things. Well, you know, I just don't think, you know, I think that's your problem. You don't think like God wants you to think. The reason you can't beat the conformity issue is because you can't get to the transformity issue. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God helped me to think the way you want me to think ought to be our prayer. I want to submit and I want to be a servant from my spirit, from within, with a pure conscience. I don't want this all to be facade. And by the way, you can find Christians who walk the walk and talk the talk and they're painted exactly the way everybody thinks a Christian ought to be. But on the inside, they're like the Pharisees. They're full of dead men's bones. They're like sepulchers. It's one thing. I want to be from the inside, Paul said, with my spirit, with a pure conscience. I'm serving the Lord. Ephesians chapter six, verse number six. And the reference in Ephesians to those who were in physical servitude, part of the Roman empire, they were servants. They had been commandeered or placed in servitude by the Roman armies. And as a result of that, they were not free men and women in that sense. They did what Rome told them to do. And Paul addresses them as believers, but still those that are under the dominion or the yoke of bondage to an extent. And he says this in verse number six, not with eye service. In other words, if you have to serve a master in Ephesians, you don't do it with eye service. And there's what I just said. We are painted the right paint. We want everybody to look at us and think we are what perhaps we may not be. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, watch it, doing the will of God, what? From the heart, from the heart. It has to come back down to that place that says, you know what, Lord, I may not like this, I may not want it, may not desire it, it may be repulsive to me in some light, but I want my heart to be right. And so I'm gonna do what I need to do from the heart. Verse number seven says, with goodwill doing service. With goodwill, where's the will? It's within. with goodwill, doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. There's that physical servitude. Paul said, listen, you know, it doesn't matter to me whether you're in chains or whether you're not in chains. The truth of the matter is we are all servants of Jesus Christ and we need to let that flow from within. instead of just playing the game from without. I'll tell you what the telltale usually is. If you and I are guilty of just, you know, playing on the outside, eventually the Lord's gonna put something down there to go diametrically in opposition to what you wanna do. And then your real true self is revealed. And I spoke yesterday morning, my secretary's back there. I flew in from Atlanta on Friday and I knew I had an appointment on Saturday to speak in a missions prayer breakfast over in Clyde, Ohio. And so Friday night I sat down and she always prints out all my info and I, there sure enough was the Times. I was supposed to have been over there at I think eight or nine o'clock yesterday morning. And I looked at the direction she printed out for me and she had directions on there to Bourbonville, Illinois. Four and a half hours away. And I told my wife, I'd just gotten off an airplane, driven home, sat down in my La-Z-Boy for the first time in a week, and I said, I need to leave. And she said, what? I said, I'm supposed to be in Illinois in the morning. I didn't know that. Well, she did a good job. She just printed out the wrong directions. But I went over there. I was impertinent. Didn't even say that. But she was back there. I needed to get even with her. It was either that or yell at her. So now she did a fine job. But when I got over there, I spoke yesterday morning about missionaries. And one of the things that has mulled over in my mind for the last few weeks is over in Acts chapter 16, where we have what we call the vision of the Macedonian man said, come over into Macedonia and help us. And we read that and we read sometimes very quickly and we just, you know, everybody's just kind of throwing tulips out of their bag as they walk down the path of life and everything's wonderful and happy. And it wasn't that way at all. Because Luke says over there, as he wrote the book of Acts, he said, when we were forbidden to preach the gospel in Asia. And, you know, when you forbid something, I think I mentioned it here the other night, Sunday night, when you forbid somebody, that's not the beginning of the discussion. That's the end of a discussion that probably has one with a little contention in it. I mean, if I read that right, the Holy Spirit finally said to the Apostle Paul, I forbid it. So can I tell you, I believe the apostle Paul wanted with all of his heart to go into Asia and preach the gospel. And I think his motives were pure. I think he wanted people to get saved. I think he wanted to build a church. I think he wanted to see people that had not gotten the gospel receive the gospel. I think every motive that he had was pure. And the Holy Ghost said, uh-uh, nothing do it. I'm not going to allow it. There was a controversy there. You say, what are you saying? You want to find out whether you're real or not? Let God cross your path. Let God cross your path. And you'd be amazed to see how many Christians say, well, you know, I'm going to do what I want to do because my heart is pure. Preacher, you have to listen to your own heart. No, you better listen to the Spirit of God. But watch the Apostle Paul. He said, when we were forbidden to preach the Word of God in Asia, then they saw the Macedonian man, and Luke said this in the next verse, and immediately, immediately we endeavored. To do what? To do what God wanted to do. So as obstinate as I think the Apostle Paul probably was in this calling, I think he wanted to go to Asia. I think that was his determination. I think he argued with the Holy Spirit. I think he did. And the Holy Spirit of God said, nothing doing. That's not what I want done. You're to do what I want you to do. And Paul said, OK. And then immediately, he went the direction God wanted him to go. That's what's real in the heart. It doesn't mean we always like doing what God wants us to do. It doesn't always mean we're clearly in agreement with what God's direction might be. It just means this, Lord, did you ever argue with God? Lord, you obviously have no idea what's going on in Asia. Let me tell you what's going on in Asia. There are people that need to get saved. You need to understand. And the Lord finally said, listen, I forbid it. He said, okay, I'll go what you want and I'll do what you want to do. There's that servant from the heart. And that's what we were made, at least servants by title, servants of God when we trusted Him as our Savior. But whether we've done it from the heart or not is sometimes questionable. Colossians chapter three, verse number 24 says, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ. We are His servants. What an example the Lord Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, not my will, thine. Wow. In the controversy between God in the flesh and God the Father, there was a controversy in that moment. And perhaps if for no other reason than to show us what it meant to be a good servant, He became obedient unto death as a servant. There's not a human being alive that doesn't want to remain so. And yet Christ said, not my will thine be done. And from the heart, that idea of being made servants of the Lord. So this morning we are a servant of Christ. We are servants of the Lord. That happened the moment we were saved. You say, well, that doesn't seem right. Listen, you were servants of the world and the flesh and the devil. You know how many people went to the bar Friday night and woke up somewhere Saturday morning and it took them an hour before they realized where they were? And you know what they said? I'm never going to do that again. But they said that last week and the week before. You know what an addiction is? It's the flesh trying to stop what it knows is wrong but it's powerless to do so. You were servants before you got saved of everything vile and wretched in this world. You couldn't get free. You couldn't get free. Our addictions in that sense make us predictable. Make us predictable. You say, in what sense? I mean, you know, you say, well, you know, I've been free for three days. Yeah, okay, well, it's five, isn't it? Where you usually hit your face on the ground. You say, I haven't been, I haven't done this thing. I'm free, I've been two weeks. Yeah, but two weeks was the time before, you know, give it another day or two. We are addicts, if we're not careful, simply because we're slaves, servants to this world. That's why they show this stuff on TV. That's why they say, but wait, you can have a double order. You say, why? Because you're addicted. You're addicted. You've got a closet somewhere in your house. Closet, nothing. You've probably got a room. Maybe the garage is full of stuff you got because you knew you needed it. You had to have it because you could never be happy when you knew that first time you saw it, you had to have it. And then they gave you such a good deal, you got two of them. And they're sitting somewhere in storage, taking up space, and that's the end of that. You've far beyond that, moved on to other things now. Before you got saved, you were a servant. You were a servant of this world. You were a servant to self. You were a servant to sin. And now having been saved, we've been made servants of the Lord. And that needs to be something I cultivate and cause to come from the heart. The battle is not here. The battle is here. We sing all to Jesus. I surrender. That's the key, is from the heart, that transformation. Now, let me go on to the next one this morning, over in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. and verse number 30. First Corinthians chapter one, verse number 30. The Bible says, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. So the him here, the antecedent is God. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I wanna focus on one of those words at this point. point, and that is the word sanctification. The moment you trust Christ as your Savior, you are sanctified. Now, this is a difficult term because a lot of religious philosophies look at this word in a different light. I think it is the Nazarene Brethren, I'm not sure where they are now, but for years their stand was that at some point after we are saved we reach a state of our Christian walk called sanctification. If you examine that teaching, what the teaching boils down to is this, at some point as a Christian God removes or takes away or it ceases to function and What I'm talking about ceasing to function is the sin nature the will to sin and The idea is that at some point in my walk with the Lord I no longer have the will to sin and therefore I am Sanctified and in essence I've become sinlessly perfect That's the teaching If you ever know some of those fine folks and they sometimes are Christians better than any I've known But I have never met one yet who I could say was sinlessly perfect There's kind of a side part of my ministry and and you probably would never know this to see me or hear me preach But I like to tick people off And I mean, that's kind of part of my approach to the ministry is to reveal to people at certain times that they're not what they think they are. And particularly when they think they're, you know, better than everybody else or holier than thou, you know, and really I enjoy going after people who are sinlessly perfect. Because if I was born with a gift, and some people doubt that that could be possible, my gift is really to upset people. I can do it. I can do it. And over the years, I've had occasion to deal with some of those people who obviously were sinlessly perfect, because they told you that from the time they started talking to you. And I have batten 1,000. If they were sinlessly perfect when they met me, they fell off the wagon after just a little discussion from me. You say, well, how do you know? Because the Bible said, be angry and sin not. I've had them angry and cussing. Well, I hate to inform you. I've got a lot of power. They should make me Pope or something because I evidently wield the power of eternal life. Because if you were saved and sinlessly perfect, I just took it away from you. What are you saying preacher? I'm saying this, there's no way, shape or form you and I are going to be sinlessly perfect. It's not gonna happen. And if you think that you've reached that place, I have the acid test. Go outside, open your car door, put your thumb right in that little crack, you know, where they measure it with the quarters, you know, to show they're close to home. Put your thumb right in there up to about the joint. and then slam it as hard as you can, and you will see that you are not sinlessly perfect. Because there will be a flood of thoughts and epithets that go through your mind, and perhaps even spill out of your mouth. You will hate me for even suggesting such a thing, and you will see very quickly that as high as you have climbed the ladder, you're not where you think you are. And so when I talk about sanctification, I am not talking about that magic, mystical moment where all at once, I never have a will to sin again. It ain't gonna happen. It ain't gonna happen. Did you notice the day after you got saved, nothing had happened to this thing right here? If you had any feeling, and I hesitate to even give credence to feelings, but the day you got saved, if you had any feelings at all, they were feelings within. I've had people tell me, boy, I just felt really clean inside. And I agree with that. But the feelings were inside, not external, because this rascal right here is the same rascal we were born with. Paul talked about being sold under sin. There it is. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's what he said about the flesh. He said, I know. that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. So when you look at me and you see this thing right here, can I tell you what you see? You see nothing good at all. You say, yeah, but you've done good things. Yeah, but if I've done good things, it's because I got a victory over this thing right here. You say, well, I don't agree with that. Well, then you're better than Paul. God should use you to write the next part of the Bible. Because Paul, the greatest Christian that ever lived, it's a pretty plain statement. I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's what we deal with. You say, well, you know, I'm not like some people. You have different temptations. Okay, just because you don't fall off the wagon and go on a binge of alcohol, doesn't mean that you're better than somebody else. You've got your temptation to. And the truth of the matter is, when we talk about the idea of being sanctified, now, by pure definition, it is a theological term. Okay, we don't talk about sanctified cars. We don't talk about, you know, the term sanctified, sanctification is a theological term. And it has a theological meaning and simply put it means this, set apart unto holiness. Set apart unto holiness. In the Old Testament there were vessels in the tabernacle in the temple and the Bible says they were sanctified Set apart to holiness. What does that mean? They were used by the priests in the conduct of the tabernacle and the temple for holy purposes They were not to touch anything unclean. They were not to be used for any unclean purpose They were set apart forever to be used in a sanctified manner for God and God alone And so the term sanctified means set apart unto holiness. Well, if that's the definition, how in the world do you and I fit that definition? Well, write down three words this morning, and we'll get through these hopefully in the next four or five minutes, 10 minutes. Write down the word positional, positional, P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N-A-L, positional. Then, underneath that, write the word, ultimate. Ultimate, U-L-T-I-M-A-T-E. I'm good at spelling, aren't I? Especially if I haven't written it down. Unless I write them down wrong. And then we're in a lot of trouble. And then underneath that, write down the word, progressional. Progressional. You say, what is that? You're looking at the three phases of sanctification. Positional, ultimate, and progressional. First of all, positional. What does it mean when we talk about positional sanctification? Here's what it means. The moment you trusted Christ as your savior, God set you apart and declared you holy. By divine decree, God declared you holy. 1 Corinthians 1.30, we just read. Of him, notice, he's made unto us. He is made unto us. Therefore, he is this in my life. He was the reason this exists in my life. Not because I somehow was made better, but he became this for me. What is it? He mentions here wisdom, righteousness, underline it, and sanctification. He is my sanctification. We won't go into it this morning because we've got a long way to go before we're finished with this discussion. But the moment I got saved, the Bible said, and ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Listen, I'm double dipped in holiness. I'm in Christ and Christ is in God. You wanna find how sinful I am? You gotta get through their holiness before you can look at mine. Ye are dead. I used to love those double-dipped peanuts. Amen, chocolate, double-dipped. Isn't that good? Wow, that's terrible. See, my mind's just gone right there. Oh, wretched man that I am. Brussels sprouts never have that effect on me. But double-dipped peanuts, oh. You know, when God saved me, He did not somehow change me and give me a halo. But I'll tell you what He did. He took me and hid me in Christ. So if you want to accuse me of being a sinner, you're going to have to fight your way through Jesus Christ first. You're going to have to first prove He's a sinner. And then He hid us, me and Christ, in God, double-dipped. I heard a preacher say one time that he was in Christ and he was hid in God and he had the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. And he said, if the devil wanted to take me to hell, he'd first have to whip God the Father, and then he'd have to whip God the Son, and then he'd have to whip the Holy Spirit. He said, I believe after that I can whip him myself. Now that's down home, but you understand what I'm talking about. The truth of the matter is my holiness, my sanctification is not something that I became, but something that was given to me positionally in Christ. I'm not sanctified because I somehow became magically, wonderfully, absolutely perfect. I am not perfect, but I'm wrapped up in perfection. I'm hidden in that which is perfect. So positionally in Christ, I have been sanctified. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 10. By the which will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. My sanctification then, biblically, is through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not mine, it's His. It was given to me because of Him. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23 says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. W-H-O-L-L-Y, completely. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The next verse says, faithful is he which calleth you who also shall do it. The reason I am set apart unto holiness and declared to be holy is because positionally I am in Christ. Hebrews chapter 13 verse number 12 says, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. my sanctification again is because of the blood of Jesus Christ because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ because I am in him Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 says husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church watch it and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word my sanctification is in Christ Jesus that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish notice that holy sanctified so positionally the moment I trusted Christ as my Savior that's why I can't lose my salvation Somebody said, well, you know, you think you can't lose your salvation. You just think you're really good. No, I don't think I'm good at all. Here's how bad I am. I think that if I could lose my salvation, I would already have lost it. Okay. I would think that if I could lose my salvation, then that would put my eternal destiny in your hands. Because even though I talked about my ability to tick people off, you probably have that ability too. and therefore you would have control over my eternal security. Wouldn't you think it would be terrible that you trusted Christ as your savior and because some idiot driver pulled out in front of you at a stoplight and you exploded just before you hit them broadside and went out into eternity? That that person caused you to lose your salvation. Oh, you say, well, I don't think it works that way. I know you don't think it works that way, because that's convenient, but that's the way the theology works. I'm thankful that when I trusted Christ, I was declared righteous, and that righteousness now rests upon Him, not on me. He declared me righteous and holy. Then this ultimate, 1 John chapter number three, and I'll not read all these verses this morning, because we'll cover them as we move through, but 1 John chapter three says, beloved, I better not quote it, I better go read it. Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when we shall see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, verse number two. Now are we the sons of God, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, future, ultimately. I am not ultimately what I will be. I am in Christ. I am declared sanctified and holy because of the position I have in Christ Jesus. Ultimately, watch this, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but it's gonna be good. It's gonna be, this is what we do know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. Is there any possibility Christ would lose his holiness? We shall be like him. Can you imagine waking up in heaven for the first time and taking that deep breath of sinless air and knowing something's different perhaps, but you know, did you ever wake up and you're not really aware of exactly where you are? And then you look around and you realize, wow, I'm in heaven. And realizing for the first time, you can never do wrong again. You are like Christ. absolutely perfect without sin and forever holy. Ultimately, that's where we're headed. That's why we're kind of hungry to go to heaven. That's why every time you slip and fall, slam your thumb in the car door, whatever it might be, and deal with that anger and that vile, wretched thing that is in that flesh, you long somewhere just to be in heaven. That's why when a Christian has a bad day, they're just saying, boy, wouldn't it be wonderful if Jesus would come. Why? Because ultimately, that's where we want to be. So positionally in Christ, He's declared me holy. I can't be tried with a crime. You can't be tried twice for the same crime. I was tried on the crime of being a sinner. Already been there. And I was found innocent. You say, how were you found innocent? I had a good lawyer. Just between me and you, I was guilty. They should have thrown the book at me. But I had good Lord. And you can't be tried twice for the same crime. So I beat the rap. But one of these days, He's going to make me what I should be. I'm going to be like my Savior. I'm going to be like Christ. Ultimately, that's the destination of you and I this morning. Struggling through the world, falling and faltering, making a mistake, doing stupid things. Isn't that the course of our Christian life? I find, you know, at night when I sit down and look over my day, I have far more to repent and apologize to God for than I do to brag about. One day it won't be like that anymore. One day I may fall before the throne and say, Lord, listen, I need to, no, I really don't. I don't need to apologize for anything. Lord, I did it all right today. It's all, can you imagine waking up and thinking any thought you want to think and it'll be a right thought? Doing anything you want to do and it'll be a right deed because at that point you will have achieved that ultimate place in Christ. Now let me spend a minute with the one in between. That one's called progressional. What do you suppose that means? That's in between the two extremes. When I trusted Christ as my Savior, I was declared and set apart unto holiness I was sanctified positionally in Christ. One day I'm gonna wake up in heaven and ultimately I will be where God has intended to put me for all these years. But between here and there is the nasty now and now. And that's where the struggle comes in. And in that struggle is the sense that I need desperately to attempt to be what God wants me to be. I won't be always successful. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. And verse number, well, let's begin here in verse number 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of, what? so it's that transformation of your mind it's a thinking it starts here thinking again gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ there's that ultimate one at the revelation of Jesus Christ I'm going to be given a glorified body perfect And he says right here, I need to gird up my mind and be sober and hope to the end for what's gonna happen to me ultimately. So we're talking about the now and now. 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." God's will for me today is to live holy. I may not make that. I've said a lot of times, I heard somebody preach it when I was a boy, and I've preached it ever since, and so he's probably dead by now, so it's mine. I say this, you can't be sinless. but you could sin less. You can't be sinless today. At some point, the devil, listen, he is a master. He walks about seeking whom he may devour. He is our better when it comes to this war we fight. We're no match. You say, well, I heard about a Christian boy. They just fell in. Boy, they just, the devil got them. And may I remind you, the same devil that got them is on your trail. and you pose no more threat to them, to the devil than they did. And I'm probably not gonna bat 1,000 today. As a matter of fact, I have never batted 1,000 in my life. But you know what? I got tripped up some places yesterday that by the grace of God, I'm gonna try not to get tripped up today. I made some allowances. I put some tolerances in my life yesterday, and by the grace of God, I'm not gonna allow the same things. I'm not gonna tolerate those things in my life today. You say, what are you saying? I'm gonna try to sin less today than I did yesterday. You say, well, you think you're perfect. No, no, you missed the whole point. I said that because I don't think I'm perfect, because it is a struggle, because I cannot be what ultimately one day I will be, but I'm gonna try to do my best to, as the scripture says, walk worthy. You understand what a tremendous thought it is that I call myself a Christian? You understand what you say when you call yourself a Christian? The word in German is Christi, Christi. and it means a little Christ. Wow. So I am gonna boldly proclaim that I am a little Christ. I mean, you understand there probably is some responsibility that goes with that. And if I'm gonna call myself or identify myself as a little Christ, I'm not saying I can be what he is. That's why ultimately he's gonna have to fix it. Romans 8, by the way, if you read it, tells you about God changing this body. He's gonna fix it. But shouldn't I try my best to walk worthy? When we talk about our identification with our country as Americans, We know that having said that we ought to be patriotic Americans. We understand that Christians ought to be patriotic people or Americans ought to be patriotic people. More importantly, if I'm going to wave the flag and the red, white, and blue, if I'm going to enjoy all of the benefits that come to me as an American, I need to walk worthy of that. Somebody said, you know, well, Americans are arrogant. Duh. You say, well, you know, I mean, that's kind of arrogant. Well, maybe it is, but okay, what should I do? Trade places, move to the third world, sleep in the street? I'm thankful to be an American, and I'm sorry, I'm proud. That doesn't mean I somehow condone not helping somebody else. That doesn't mean I say, well, just let them starve, or as Marie Antoinette said, let them eat cake. I think we ought to be a help. But the idea somehow that I can't help the world until I realize how guilty I am for being an American. Having plundered the resources of the world. Having somehow caused oppression to exist around the world. Do you know that 95% of all of the monies earned in the world this year Just like last year, the year before, the year before, the year before, the year before, the year before, and we could go back to the late 1800s. 95% of the wealth created in this world last year was created as a direct result of this country. And we're not even the wealthiest country in the world. You know, there are 10 or 11 countries that are richer than America and 95% of the wealth in those countries last year was created as traceable to this country. So you say, well, you know, Americans, they have all the money. Nobody else in the world would have 95% of what they've got if it were not for this country. Now that's, yeah, we can argue that all you want to, but I'm saying this, what's wrong with being proud of that? You say, well, there are poor starving people. There are 95% less starving people than there would have been had it not been for this country. I think maybe it's time for some of the other countries that like to bash our country to step up to the line. Next time there's a disaster around the world, look and see who gives first and look and see who gives most. Help yourself. Matter of fact, check that out historically. Take a peek and see how the conquerors who have taken over and plundered the wealth of the world, see what we do. Look at what we are. This country gives away more in a year in aid to other countries than the combined gross domestic product of about 23 or 24 of the moderately wealthy countries in the world. Now, you say, what are you saying? It has nothing to do with the Bible. It has to do with this. If I am gonna be in America, I'm gonna be proud to be in America, but there's some responsibility there. You say, well, what are your responsibilities? To see to it that America continues and continues to be the help and maybe expands in its ability to help. Maybe stretches out and is a little more helpful, but not to sit at home and feel guilty for the blessings that I have. Now, I'm a Christian too. And if anything is more important than my American heritage, it is my Christian heritage. I am a believer in Jesus Christ. And I think there absolutely needs to be, on my part, some desire to walk worthy of what I've been given as a Christian. He sanctified me the moment I got saved Ultimately one day he will make me absolutely pure and perfect and holy. And in between there, I'm his representative. And when people see me, they see Jesus Christ. I am a Christian. and ought to walk worthy. That's that progressional sanctification. You can't sin less, or be sin less, but you can sin less today. All right, let's take a break.