And if you'd open up your Bibles now to Paul's first epistle to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter one. Hear now the inspired word of the Lord. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sothenes, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, Call to be saints with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Jesus Christ, call to be saints. Many pastors shy away from preaching through 1 and 2 Corinthians. One of the reasons for that is those two epistles are probably two of the most convicting and corrective epistles found in the Bible. Paul did not pull any punches with the church at Corinth. And in fact, spent quite a great deal of time correcting them over many different things. And this epistle does even stand out from Paul's other epistles because when Paul would write a letter to a church, he would usually first start off with a very strong presentation of doctrine, theology, Christology. how we are justified and sanctified by Christ, who we are in Christ, and how Christ is working in us and through us. Solid doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. And then Paul would usually follow up with a transitional verse where he would say, now hey brothers, hey sisters, now hearing all that we've heard about God and what he's done for us through his son, Jesus Christ, therefore now, my brethren, This is how you should then live. And then he would continue on with application of how we apply all these great doctrines of God and his Son, Jesus Christ, and how we should live our lives out in accordance to that. But as we study through 1 Corinthians, it's doctrine correction, doctrine correction, doctrine correction. He intersperses both the doctrine and the application and the correction throughout this letter. And again, why? because the church at Corinth had so much to be corrected of. As we say today, they had issues. And if you were to see a common thread throughout all their issues, of all the things going on in their church and their ministry that needed correcting, the common thread through all that, the common problem, was their pride. They were impressed who they were, what they were doing. They were impressed with their intellect. They were impressed with their lifestyle. They were impressed even how they worshipped God and how they thought God should be worshipped. Pride, spiritual pride. And this is why we see the Apostle Paul reminding this church that they are the church of God, which is of Corinth, and to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Hey, people at Corinth, stop taking so much pride in yourself. Stop thinking this is about who you are and what you're thinking and what you're doing. No, you're God's church. And you've been saved and sanctified by Jesus Christ and his work. You are here at Corinth worshiping and serving God because who God is and what he's done for you through his son Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ who's doing a work in you. It's Jesus Christ who is sanctifying you. This isn't you and what you're doing. This isn't about who you are and what you say, think, and do. No, you're here at Corinth worshiping God because of who God is and how he has made his power and presence and glory known to you in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and the work that Jesus Christ is doing in your life by his Holy Spirit, applying his word to your hearts and lives. So let's get that straight right here from the get-go, Corinth. Life is not about you, so stop being so prideful. Remember, you're only here because of Christ and what Christ has done in your life. How Christ has called you out from this sinful dying world to worship and serve God. How Christ has been convicting and cleansing you of sin so that you will be holy and so that you will be able to worship and serve God. Because of how Christ is converting you from this world and its desires and its pleasures and converting you to Him and to glorify Him and to worship and serve Him. Again, distinguishing this epistle from Paul's other epistles. Many of his other letters he was saying, hey listen everyone, I'm an apostle called out by Jesus Christ and this is what Christ has done in my life. He's called me into the ministry, I'm his apostle. This is what Christ is doing in me and through me. And then he would go on saying, and so dear saints, Let's get into the theology. Let's get into the application. And the only reference to the church's sanctification would be, hey, you're saints. No. Church at Corinth, he's much more pointed. And he makes it very clear, I am writing to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, who are called to be saints. In this epistle, he is emphasizing the doctrine of sanctification to remind them who they are in Christ and what work Christ is doing in their lives, because they needed to be reminded more than the churches at Galatia, or the churches in Ephesus, or the churches in Colossae or Philippi, or in Thessalonica. Thessaloniki. My Greek-American brethren, did I get that right? Thessaloniki, right? Yeah. This church needed reminded that they were saints, and they were saints because of the work of Christ in their lives, and not because of who they were. Now is the Orthodox Presbyterian Church a faithful church, worshiping and serving God? Does this church need as much correction as the church at Corinth did? Well, I don't think so. I've always said to guys, you guys always remind me at the Church of Philadelphia, when Christ was sending out his epistles to the early first century churches, and he wrote to the Church of Philadelphia, he said, you guys are small, but you're faithful. You're not like that church at Ephesus. You're not like that church at Laodicea. No, you guys are being faithful. What does he say to them? Remain faithful. So we all need to be reminded from God's word. When Christ spoke to those other churches and sent his letters to those other churches in the first century, telling them to get their acts straight, at the end of each of those epistles, he said what? Those of you who have ears to hear, listen. We all need to still listen, even to what God is saying to unfaithful churches, and especially faithful churches, so that they remain faithful. So yes, some pastors may wanna shy away from teaching through 1 and 2 Corinthians, but all of God's word is profitable. And all of God's word needs to be heard. We need to know the whole counsel of God. And we need to learn from Christians who've gone on before us, from Christians who are around us today, we need to take to heart the work of God that he's doing in the lives of others. And we need to examine how faithful they are being to Christ so that we will remain faithful to Christ. So that we will always be reminded that it is Christ who's working in us and through us. When we hear of Christian leaders falling and falling into sin and disqualifying themselves from leadership, that should humble all of us. We shouldn't be quick to condemn. Yes, we have to lovingly correct those who've fallen, but we should lovingly correct them out of humility, remembering that it's therefore but the grace of God go I, and that I need Christ to remain faithful. If this Christian leader can fall from grace, how much more susceptible am I to fall from grace? Oh, how I need Christ to be doing a work in me and through me. Oh, how I need Christ and his grace and his power at work in my life. I need Christ! Because I'm no better than any other Christian. And I would argue and contend I'm probably more prone to fall away from Christ than anyone sitting here today. I need Christ. I need Christ to sanctify me. I need Christ to do that work in me. I need Christ to call me out. I need Christ to convict me and cleanse me of my sin. I need Christ to convert me from this world and convert me to him. I need Christ. I better never take any pride in myself. I better be totally dependent on Christ and who he is and his sanctifying work and that's why Paul is emphasizing this so much to the church at Corinth and he's emphasizing it to us today. Oh that we would take it to heart. Let's look at these aspects of Christ and his sanctifying work. Let's look at him calling us out. Let's look at him convicting us and cleansing us of sin. Let's look at him converting us from this world. The primary step in sanctification and at the heart of our sanctification is that God calls us out. He calls us out from the world. I want you to be separate and apart from the world. I want you to be holy as I am holy. And I want you to come out of the world and worship and serve me so that the world will see me and see me at work in your lives. God calls himself out a people to worship him and serve him, to glorify his name amongst the nations. God foreknew you. He predestined you. He called you. He justified you in the Lord Jesus Christ to worship and serve him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a called out people set apart from the rest of the world to worship him and serve him. That's what God did with Israel. He called out Abraham. He called out Abraham from worshiping idols. amongst the Babylonians or the Chaldeans, to come out of there and to leave that life behind and to follow Him, to go out with Him in the wilderness and to worship Him. God called Moses out of Egypt and called them out into the wilderness to worship God. God called His people out from their worldly environment, their worldly circumstances, to come out and worship Him and to be a testimony to the other nations. for people to see the holiness of God and to see the work of God in their lives. That's all the work of God. That's all His grace. That's all His goodness, His love. That's all because of who He is and what He's done, not because of what we've said or thought or done. It's not how we run the race. Paul tells us in Romans, it's not how we run the race that Christ saves us. No, it's all of His mercy. It's all of His good pleasure and will. He called you out into salvation. Paul also tells us, hey, if it was up to us, no, we would never be seeking God. We would never go after God. There are none who is righteous. There's none who seek him. We're perfectly happy being cursing, murderous, hateful, spiteful people, indulging our own selfish wants and desires and destroying our own lives. We are perfectly happy. No, it took God to call us out. and call us to him and to the salvation found in his son Jesus Christ to convict us and cleanse us of our sin and to convert us from this world. It took God to call us out. And that's how good he is. That's how gracious he is. That's how loving he is. You think there's something in you? You think you're special? God made that very clear to Israel. Hey, Israel, I called you out not because of who you are. You aren't the strongest of nations. You're the weakest. In fact, one of the most powerful reminders that God gave to Israel was through the prophet Ezekiel. And he said, hey, remember, Israel, you were taking such pride in all your self-worship and idolatry and thinking so much of yourselves and going around saying, oh, we're God's people. He reminded them. He said, this is who you are, Judah and Israel. You're like two abandoned baby girls left out in the wilderness, who nobody loved, who was left to die. And that was a very telling metaphor at that time. See, we're all today as a church, we're all concerned about abortion and ending the life of a child in a womb. No, they didn't necessarily have that medical technology back then. If a baby was born and it wasn't healthy and didn't appear to have any viability of life, they just put it out in the wilderness, they exposed it to the elements to die. That's how they killed their babies back then. And particularly, if you were a female baby. Because women were second class citizens. Women were there at the will of men and to serve men. Women were men's property. They were there just to bear children for the men and take care of the men. So there was really no use for you. If you were an unhealthy baby and you were a girl, hey, no questions there. You're being left out to the wilderness to die. You're of no use to us. That was the pagan thinking of the day. And that's what God is using to teach Israel and say, this is who you were. There's no value in you. You were hated and scorned by your parents, by this world. But I loved you. And I called you out. And I made you viable. and I strengthened you and enabled you to worship me and serve me. I gave you life. Otherwise, you'd be dead. So Israel, don't get all prideful and arrogant here. You only live, breathe, and exist because I so loved you, I so called you out, and I called you out to have life and to worship me and to serve me. and to no life in me. So when we consider God calling us out to worship him and serve him, there should be not one iota of pride in us in any way, shape, or form. It is all of God's grace, all of God's goodness, and all for God's glory. And it's Christ. It's Christ who convicts us and cleanses us of sin. That's his work. Again, there are none who are righteous. There are none who seek him. He called us to his salvation. By his Holy Spirit applying his word to our lives, he showed us how sinful we are. He showed us how self-deceived we are. He showed us how self-destructive we are. He showed us how we were so dead in our sin and we had no life in us. and he showed us his love, his forgiveness, his saving power. He convicted us of our sins and cleanses us of our sin. There was no greater act of wickedness, no greater act of evil, no greater act of hatred than when the people of Jerusalem put the Lord Jesus Christ on a cross. cried out crucify and blasphemed him, telling him to come off that cross. Oh Jesus if you're really God why don't you come off the cross and save yourself? They let him die on that cross. They wrongly convicted him of they wrongly crucified him, all out of their hatred for God and his son Jesus Christ. There's been no other greater act of atrocity or abomination or wickedness than what the people of Jerusalem did to the Lord Jesus Christ. But when they heard the gospel, when the Holy Spirit so empowered Peter, and empowered Peter to cry out, hey, people of Jerusalem, look what you did. You hated God. You hated his son, Jesus Christ. You crucified him. The one who came into this world to love you and forgive you and to give you salvation and strength, you hated him and you murdered him. And by the grace of God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit applying the Word of God to those people in Jerusalem, by the Lord Jesus Christ convicting them and cleansing them of their sins, they repented! And they said, God, what do we have to do? Peter, what do we have to do? They knew the shame of their sin, their wicked horrible sin to kill Christ. And Christ convicted them of their sins, and cleansed them of their sins, and called them to repentance, and they cried out in repentance, what must we do? And Peter said, call upon the name of Jesus. Repent. Again, that's the work of God. That's the work of Christ, to convict you and cleanse you of sin. And thank God he does that. Okay, there should be no pride. There should be no pride. No, look at me. Look at me. My stink doesn't stink. Oh, thank God I'm not like that tax collector. Thank God I'm not a racist. Thank God I don't abort my children. Thank God I'm not sexually immoral. Thank God I'm fully confident that I'm a man and I like girls. Thank God I'm not like those other people. There's no room for pride. There's no room for saying, I'm proud of the fact that I'm not as proud as they are. There's no room for that. You're a sinner who hated God and hated his son, Jesus Christ. If you were in Jerusalem at that day, you would have been yelling out, crucify him, crucify him, just like everybody else. The reason why Christ went to that cross and stayed on that cross is because of all the sins you've committed in your life and because of all the sins you're probably gonna commit going forward. You put him on that cross. But the only reason you're ashamed of that, the only reason why you hate that about yourself is because Christ so convicted you of your sin and Christ is so cleansing you of your sin. That's his work. So don't take any pride in your personal holiness, in your personal righteousness. Yesterday, the Lord God convicted me and cleansed me of my relationship with my wife. We're trying to counsel and minister to this young woman. We're going back and forth saying, what's the best approach here? She started to tell me her idea and I stopped her. Wait a minute, no, that's not gonna work. And she said, well, if you would let me finish. Every wife here is smiling, saying, yeah, you should've been listening, Dave, if you only would listen. And I said, oh, please forgive me. I actually realized, it was one of those moments where it's like when you see the car keys in the ignition and you're locking the door and it's too late to do anything. The same thing, when I was saying that to Jill, oh, wait a minute, listen, that's not gonna work. As the words are coming out of my mouth, I'm saying, this is something incredibly stupid to say. But that's the Holy Spirit applying God's word to my life and convicting me and cleansing me of sin, because I'm disobeying God. I'm not loving my wife the way I should love my wife. I'm supposed to submit to her out of fear of God. I'm supposed to love her as Christ so loves the church. God has given her to me to be my helpmate, and here I'm rejecting her help. That's all wicked sin, people. That's all hating God. That's all hating his commandments. God has commanded me to be a loving husband. God has commanded me to show Jesus Christ to my wife. God has commanded me to love her as Christ so loved the church. I didn't do any of those things. But he convicted me and cleansed me of my sin, brought me to repentance, where I had to cry out and say, God, please forgive me. Jesus, please forgive me. Please forgive me for blaspheming your name. And I eventually got around to ask Jill to forgive me too. But this is it. This is our sanctification. This is the work Christ is doing in us to convict us and cleanse us of sin and to bring us to repentance. That's his work. And thank God he does that because if he doesn't, I just keep going on and being a terrible husband to Jill and a terrible minister to you. It's the sanctifying work of Christ, and thank God for that. And no, there's no pride in me and my righteousness. And that Christ, in his grace and his mercy and his love, and in his sanctifying work in our lives, there is Christ converting us from this world and the desires of this world. So on one of your brothers this morning, we were just saying, isn't it amazing how God changes the desires of our heart? Isn't it amazing how God changes our wills around to be conformed to his will? And how he does that through our day-to-day experiences, how his Holy Spirit applies his word to our life situations, and we see, yeah, this isn't good, I need to turn away from it. This is what the father did with the prodigal son. Oh, you think you know better than me? You want to live life on your own? See how that works out for you. He lived life. He pursued after the things of this world and ended up in a pigsty. And he realized it's better to be a slave in his father's house and where he was at that moment. He had a real hatred for his worldly pursuits and realized it was his father who loved him. And in repentance, went back to his father and asked his father to forgive him and said, Dad, I'm just coming back. Please, just make me a slave. I'll feed your pigs. I'll clean your toilets. I'm your slave. I don't deserve any better, but I just know it's better for me to be here than to be back in the world I was in. And that's God's. That's Christ's sanctifying work in your life. He's converting you and turning you away from this world. He's having you see this world has nothing to offer in of itself. That eternal life is to know God and to know his son, Jesus Christ, and to know their work in your life, knowing their love in your life. Oh yeah, the world may gratify, but it never, never, never satisfies. It only shows you how dead you are inside. how you destroy your life by your own self-deceived pursuits, thinking you can make yourself happy, exercising your own will over the will of God, thinking you know better than God what's best for your life. Oh yeah, I know God's where it tells me to worship him and worship him alone. But I also need money in the bank. And it's that money that pays my mortgage. It's that money that pays my taxes. It's that money that gives me that car, that house. It's that money that does this and does that for me. Oh yeah, God, I know what you say. I know you're in heaven. You're a lot more powerful than me. But God, I know better than you. I know what I really need and I know what I have to do for myself better than you do. You don't understand how the world works, God. I do. So I'm gonna do what I wanna do in this world. And I'm gonna be who I'm gonna be in this world. And again, God in his grace and his mercy and his love, he says, yeah, see how that works out for you. And he puts you in a pigsty. Again, he convicts you and cleanses you of your insolence, of your idolatry. and points out that life is only found in Him and how He works and leads in your life and how He blesses in your life. Eternal life is to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ. And how are we to respond to all this? When we consider that Christ is sanctifying us by convicting us of sin, by converting us from this world, That out of his love, he's calling us out of this world. How are we to respond to that? There's only one way. There's only one way to respond to God and what he's doing in our lives. And that's to be totally humble. Totally humble. Totally humble. Totally, totally, totally humble, humble, humble before God. To know that He is God and you're not. To know that you are totally dependent on His work and His will in your life, not your work and your will. You have to be totally humble before God. humble in your attitude, and humble in your ability. You need to recognize you're a terrible, wretched sinner. You need to believe the truth that if it was up to you, no, I would not see God in any way, shape, or form. The only reason why I can worship and serve God is because God called me out. Because God is convicting me and cleansing me of sin. Because God is converting me. If it was left up to me, I'd be divorced and paying alimony to jail. If it was up to me, I'd be either doing 25 to life in jail right now, or I'd be dead. Because I'm a terrible, wretched sinner, who in and of myself hates God, hates His word. That's how evil I am. We always want to think that evil is something malevolent and monstrous. Oh, only Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, those are evil guys. I have nothing on Dave Korsen. Because I've hated God as much as they did. I've rejected God and his word as much as they did. I've hated and wanted to kill people as much as they did. Again, Paul makes that very clear. There are none who are righteous. There's nothing but cursing and hatred on your tongue. There's nothing but a swiftness and a desire to go out and kill people. The only reason why none of us, or not all of us, are polysexual serial killers is only because God is restraining the evil in this world. See, it's not a question that God is allowing evil. Don't say that in front of me. You want to see me lose my temper? Don't come up to me and say, why does God allow evil? No. God is restraining the evil in this world. And he's restraining the evil in this world so that he may save some of us. He may sanctify some of us. I have to admit that about myself. I have to be totally humble. The attitude of my heart is to hate God. And it's only because he loved me that I have life. I have to acknowledge that. Yes, I have to hate myself. I have to be self-loathing. I have to hate my sin. I have to hate the fact that I'm a sinner. No, we live in a world today where, oh no, love yourself, forgive yourself. I'm here to tell you, you can't love yourself, you can't forgive yourself until you first hate yourself and realize it's only God who loves you. And it's only when you know the love of God that you can love yourself. And it's only when you know the love of God that you can forgive yourself. It's only when you know and understand who God is and all that he's done for you through his son, Jesus Christ, that you can love yourself. And until you've done honestly and humbly and looked at yourself and hated yourself and fully appreciated who God is and all that he's done for you through your son, Jesus Christ, you will never love or forgive yourself. Because you're always going to be reminded, I'm a terrible, wretched sinner, and I've destroyed my life. You need to have an attitude of total humility before God, and that you need God to love you. And you have to be humble in your ability. You have to know. You are not capable to pay for your sins. Now I commend you, hey, I gotta stop doing that, I gotta stop doing, I'm gonna try doing that. Well, I'm glad you know that, that's a good point. I'm glad if you're recognizing, hey, this is bad when I do this, it's bad when I lie, cheat, and steal, so I'm gonna stop lying, cheating, and stealing. I know it's not worth getting mad and angry at people, I just gotta move on. I'm glad if you're recognizing your bad behavior, but don't think for a moment that you can modify your bad behavior on yourself or that you can ever make up for it. See people, once you sin, you sin. Once you destroy your life, you destroyed your life. Once Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they brought death upon themselves, and they brought death on the entire human race. They were totally incapable of saving themselves. They needed God to stop them. They needed God to intervene in their lives. They needed the love and work of God in their lives. You can't pay for your sin. because you can't pay for your life. Once you're dead, you're dead. Once you're broke, you're broke. You don't have the means to save yourself. This is why people go to hell for all eternity. It's not God being really mean to them. Oh, I hate you guys so much, I'm sending you to hell forever. No, the reason why you're in hell forever is because that's who you are. You can never pay back for your sin. So you're always under God's eternal condemnation. You've destroyed your life. You can't do anything now with your life to pay for your sin. You're already dead in your sin. You've already destroyed your life. And anything you say, think, or do beyond that is meaningless, in of yourself. You're totally incapable of paying for your sin. But again, That's why Christ came into this world. Because what you couldn't do, he did. He perfectly obeyed the law for you. He perfectly loved the Lord God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He perfectly loved and forgave humanity. He perfectly knew the will of God and carried out the will of God. He did that in your place. And so that he could then satisfy the law for you and pay for your sin and endure all of God's wrath for your sin. As being the living God. He was able to pay for your sin on that cross and enduring that wrath of God to satisfy it and to pay the debt, a debt you could never pay. You gotta be humble about that. Sometimes you have to declare bankruptcy and ask someone to pay your bills. That's what we have to do before God. God, I'm totally spiritually bankrupt. I can never pay this debt. Will your son Jesus please pay that for me? Because I can't do it. I can't get out of this hole. I have to declare total bankruptcy. Like we go to a court and say the court to put off our creditors. We're asking Christ to put off God's wrath, because he satisfied the debt. Now stop and think about that. If you don't have the capacity or the ability to pay for your sin, how much more so don't you have the ability to overcome your sin? Like I said, we may have good intentions, We may even have a desire and a will to stop sinning. But don't we fall right back into it in our own strength? This has been one of the problems of modern day evangelical preaching. Yeah, we've been real good about telling people, hey, Jesus saved you from the penalty of sin, but we haven't done as good a job of teaching people it's Jesus who saves you from the power of sin in your life, and you're not able to overcome sin in your own power. You need Christ. There's been way too much moralism preached from our pulpits, and not enough of the gospel. Oh, Christians, stop doing this. Oh, world, stop doing this. Don't be having abortions. Don't be a racist. Don't be sexually immoral. Stop doing those things. What are you thinking? What are you doing? Stop doing, just stop it. You can't stop it without Christ. You need Christ to overcome the sin in your life. You need Christ not only to save you from the penalty of sin, you need Christ to save you from the power of sin. You need to cry out to him in repentance, in humility. Jesus, I'm totally helpless here. I keep snapping at my wife, Jill. I keep flipping the bird of people who cut me off on the LIE. I get bitter and angry and frustrated when things don't go my way because things should go my way. God, that's who I am. And even though I know you're God, and even though I know you saved me through your Son, Jesus Christ, God, those feelings are just there. And life happens, and I go along with life rather than turning to you. Lord Jesus, I need you to give me the power to overcome sin in my life. I need you to save me, to continue to save me. That's what Peter and Paul were talking about when they said, work out your salvation by the power of Christ. You need the power of Christ to give you the power over sin. Christ is continuing to save you. Your salvation didn't end at the cross. Your salvation was only beginning. Christ is now saving you from that power and sin by convicting you and cleansing you of sin, by converting you from the things of this world. But you need to be totally humble before him and acknowledge that and say, I can't do it on my own. I couldn't fix a leaky sink in my bathroom this past week, I had to call a repairman. I had to be humble. I had to put my manhood and my pride aside and say, I can't fix this sink. Well, if you're a real man, you would be able to. I mean, that's our attitude. No, I had to be totally humble, say, no, I'm a complete idiot who's gonna flood the house. Bring in someone who knows what they're doing. In all honesty, that's how we have to be about our sin. We're totally incompetent to overcome sin. We need Christ to give us the power and the ability to overcome sin. We need to be humble in our attitude, in our ability, our incapacity to not be able to pay for our sin or overcome our sin. We need Christ. And Christ is doing that ongoing work in our lives. And this is why we pray, God, bring that good work to a conclusion. Make me like your son, Jesus. Give me that victory over sin. Give me that victory over myself. Give me a love for you so I can truly love others. And yes, even truly love myself so I can live out of your mercy. Do we understand the significance of sanctification, that it's just as? if not more so, an important doctrine than justification. Because the reason why God justified you in Christ, by Christ obeying the law for you, and Christ satisfying the law for you, being made just by him and by his atoning work, is so that you could be called out, so that you could be convicted and cleansed of sin, so that you could be converted from this world, so that you could come out of this world and worship God and know God forever and become more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ, every day. The reason why you were justified was so that you could be sanctified. That's why Paul says this to the church at Corinth, to the church which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Jesus Christ. Know who you are in Christ. Know the work that Christ is doing in you and through you to glorify his name and worship him and worship him alone. Repent of your sin and ask him to save you from the power and penalty of sin and to make you holy as he is holy, to sanctify you. This is too important a doctrine to neglect and to ignore in our pulpits. This is what the Christian faith is about. Because at the heart of our sin is our pride, our arrogance, us making ourselves God and living for ourselves rather than living for Him. And that's what separated us from God. That's what brought us under condemnation. That's what destroyed our lives. the only hope for our lives is for Christ to justify us and sanctify us and to restore us back to God and to the life he wants us to have in his Son Jesus Christ with him working in us and through us to glorify his name. Understand your sanctification and understand it that you need it. to live your life, because you can only live your life in Christ and the work that he's doing in you and through you. Amen? Amen, let's pray.