Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Let's pray together before you're seated. Father, thank you this morning for the songs of Zion. Father, we look forward to the day when we cross that narrow sea. And Father, when we see you, but Lord, it would be awesome. We would just be excited to say that we were part of that terminal generation, that we would be able to go up in the rapture. Father, that's what we desire today. Father, we would say with John, the revelator, Father, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. We don't know what you have in mind, but we know, Father, that you have it all figured out. There's nothing for us to fear because as our Father, you take care of us. And we pray, Father, that whatever our lot, whether it be through the valleys or through the heights, Father, we pray that we would be a people of the book, a people who represent you well in a dark time. And I thank you for each one that's come out today. Father, they have taken the step to be the kind of people that bring forth a testimony. And when we go from this place in a little while, may we go with the glory of God upon our brow. May we go, Father, knowing that you are in control, that the world can go haywire but that you father sit upon the throne and you know exactly what's going on as we Congregate here today all around us father. The world is up in an upheaval There's a there's a fear that has permeated the fabric and Lord we thank you for it because people in this world have gone for a long time just soothing themselves with their entertainments and their monies and father with their with their eating out and all the things that we do for entertainment and distraction. But Father, it's all been put on hold. You've pushed the pause button in our world. And people are beginning to look down and realize that this world is temporary, that it's volatile. And I just pray that each one of us would be the people that we need to be as testimonies for the world as they look upon our lives. And we'll give you the praise for it in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated well, I just want to say to you this morning that This day we're living in is quite unique in in every way in every way And as we think about that fact today, I want you to go with me to the book of Titus the book of Titus Titus is a pastoral epistle. Paul was writing to one of his proteges, and his protege's name was Titus. And Titus was doing some kind of shoring up of churches. He was a guy who was left at some of the churches to put things in order. And part of the disorder that was taking place in his day and in front of him where he was ministering was the people of God at that time were not looking at their duty very well. They weren't looking to the need to do good works. And I think the funny thing for me is that it's interesting that people in our day think it's good works that are going to get you to heaven. And yet here you have a congregation of people, or a number of congregations perhaps, who think, no, you know, we can stand down and not do, you know, anything. Now he didn't call them lost, he called them misinformed. Okay, there's a difference, isn't there? We have to get to the place where we realize grace is full and free, and Jesus saves us by His grace, through His mercy, and that it's all of Jesus. And sometimes that means that people in the believing realm might kind of bump up against what they think is the limit and find it's not. What they will find, however, is that it doesn't serve them. Paul said to the Corinthians, who were also a messed up church, he said, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. You ever hear that? Yeah, you don't want to be brought under the power of any. Okay, that's what happens, you get in bondage. You know, the world wants to put people in bondage. He says again, all things are lawful for me. All things? He didn't say all things except, did he? He said, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things, what he's saying is some things that I might choose to do that I ought not do, they don't expedite my joy. They don't help my joy at all. They mess me up. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not profitable. He says it to a church that was messed up a couple of times. And I just want you to know that if you felt like your knees have buckled in your Christian life, welcome to the club. Because this world in which we live is fraught with dangers. We sang about, the mighty fortress is our God, but there's a prince of darkness, Grim. And he will try to put you back on your heels, and he will try to destroy your testimony. Isn't that true? We find that, don't we? And sometimes we do lose our testimony in front of somebody. Man, that's hard. That's called what? Humiliation. I've had that in my life. Have you? I think you have. If you've been walking with the Lord at any time, you know that there have been times when you went home and you felt like, man, I was a terrible testimony. But you have to crucify the flesh sometimes, you have to get back on track. What I'm saying to you today is, is that you and I need to keep ourselves focused. We need to stay on track, because if you're not on track, when things like what has been going on happen, We lose our focus. We lose our anchor. We lose our hope. And I don't want you to lose your hope today. So when I direct your attention to Titus, I want you to know it's got a real circumstance that we can identify with. Maybe there have been moments in this whole crisis that you've been a little bit pushed back on your heels. You've wondered about this and you've wondered about that. And as a result of that, I wanted to take us back to hope. Do you think this is going to be something that leaves its mark on society? I do. Don't you? I think it's going to leave its mark. And I think people are going to remember that wherever the devil has pushed the ball down to, he may get a penalty and back 15 yards, but he's still got the goal of getting that thing done that he wants to get done. And when I mentioned to you HR 6666, and they want to trace everything, and they want to make sure they're cataloging, when you go into a restaurant, You have to put your name and address in phone numbers and stuff in a register in Washington State. This is crazy. But it is what the devil wants. He wants you under his thumb. And what you and I need to recognize is that though all these things are happening, And though there's a push for a 100% participation today in a virus or a vaccine, virus, virus vaccine, you and I are not to worry about what comes next. Jesus told us, sufficient unto this day is the evil thereof. Don't take thoughts. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. So when I suggest to you, in verse 11, that this is where we need to land, I think you'll see why. The Bible says, "...for the grace of God, that it bringeth salvation, has appeared to all men." Now if you don't have it underlined, underline the words, all men. Not just Christians. Everybody knows. Everybody knows. The Bible says the same thing over in Romans, doesn't it? It says that they are without excuse because God has shown the invisible things of His deity to all men. He will bring people to account on a knowledge that they personally have. You may remember as a child being aware of God's reality in some way. You may remember the day that some preacher preached or some booklet fell into your hand and you read it and somehow your face blanched as a little child or as an adult. I saw a man's face blanched this week when I was talking to him. I asked him, I said, I'd been witnessing to him for three weeks. And I finally asked him because, you know, I've been telling him all this stuff and say, this is the stuff that the Bible talks about in one world government. They're talking about cryptocurrency. They're talking about the digital dollar. They're talking about taking your money away. And they put a bat on the back of your newest quarter. They've got bats on the back of the newest quarter. The territory of Samoa, Samoa territory, they have a bat, a fruit bat. It's on the back of Quarters now look for your 2020 quarters, and that's the most what we might say ironic and unbelievable And wouldn't be able to be put in a novel kind of reality. They're saying this virus came from a bat and They put bats on our quarters as if to make our money odious to us. So no, I don't want you to think anything other than the truth. And the truth is this, the salvation, the grace of God which brings salvation has appeared to all men. And the Bible says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Did you hear what he just said? We're looking for the appearing of that great God and our Savior. Meaning, Jesus is God. He doesn't mince any words here. Our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. You and I have a lot of things to look forward to. You know what the world's looking at now? Perhaps for the first time, many of them are looking at death. You know, when we were little, we were told, look both ways when you cross the street. You know, you come between two cars, you kind of peek. What are you looking for? You're looking for death. You know, death's out there. He's out there. Maybe many of you heard about that guy who was down in Florida who went out in the beaches and he had his Reaper outfit on. I heard he was a lawyer. He was telling those people they shouldn't be out on the beaches. Isn't that interesting? He's walking around with a sickle and he's got his... and they interviewed him. They actually gave him the microphone, which I understand is not something you ever do. You don't ever give a microphone to somebody. That could go sideways in a hurry. But people are looking for death. And that's what the devil wants. He wants people petrified. He wants people terrorized. And that's where we are today in the world. But if you're a child of God, you don't have to worry about death. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that lives and believes in me shall never die. You say, well, wait a minute, I know a whole host of them. He said they won't die. Why? Because the moment that they close their eyes in this world, to be absent from the body, present with the Lord, not even a hitch. You know you're more out of it under anesthesia than you will be when the day comes God calls you home. Isn't that good to know? I always, I just went through that thing. By the way, did you see how the Lord managed me? I got my stent stuff done in January before anything broke loose. He kept me here for y'all, okay? I could have been in heaven. You never know. My wife's saying, what about me? No, she says she'd like to be there too. He kept me here for you. Yeah. See, that's the thing. And it's like we just see the Lord's hand in the minutia of our lives because that's who he is. I hope you're seeing that. Look back at verse 11, it says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. When you consider that, you may remember, if you will, it's kind of hard, you know, when you're out in the sun and in the light, you know, it's hard to remember how dark darkness can be. We've all perhaps been in one of those caverns in the Virginias or something like that, where they have those caverns, they tell you to turn all your lights out, and it's super, super dark. But when you're living in the broad daylight, you know, like in some of the most sunny places in the world, deserts and stuff like that where the sky is clear, or when you're driving down the road and the sun's right in your face, you kind of have a hard time remembering how bad darkness could be, right? And what I'm trying to say is that in the Old Testament, things were pretty dark. Things were pretty dark. Those guys were walking by faith more than you and I are. That's right, because what's happening is we have the cross in our rear view. We know what grace looks like. We saw it at Calvary. What the Old Testament believers had was they had a lot of judgment. If they stepped out of line as a group, man, the hammer fell. Plagues came out in their midst. They were carried off to Babylon, but they didn't dissipate. They didn't, you know, kind of get incorporated into the world, because God kept them as an entity unto themselves. It's a miracle of its own right. From 70 AD to 1948, they weren't even a nation, but they're still a people. And what I'm trying to show you is that those people in the Old Testament, as much as we like to rag on them and say, well, how could they say, where's God? They just saw the Red Sea part of it. They just saw the water from the rock. How could they say that? Listen, they had no cross. All they had was their flesh. All they had was their moment. All they had was the heat of the wilderness. And it was hard for them. Now think about it, a million and a half people. A million and a half people coming out of Egyptian bondage, wandering through the wilderness, and what did they do? Well, they had wives and they had children. And when the children began to whine and cry, because their bellies were kind of empty, and their mouths were kind of dry, and the kids didn't understand that feeling. And then the wives went to the husbands and said, what are you going to do about this? It begins to get, well we're going to go talk to Moses right now. What we're going to do, we're going to go talk to Moses. And what I'm saying is, is that it was something a lot different than what you and I have. All they had was the next meal. All they had was God's promise, which was kind of ethereal. They didn't even know what that would look like. To get in there and take cities they didn't build. Eat from vineyards or take from vineyards that they didn't plant. They didn't understand. And even when they got to Kadesh Barnea and they saw the great grapes and they saw the land and the fertility of it all, they also saw the giants. And all they could think again about was what? It was their flesh. It was their skin. It was their bodies and their lives. We can't beat them. We will die if we go in there. But we're not living there today, beloved. Where are we living? We're living in the full light of the dawn day, and we're seeing God all over the place. We not only have Jesus in the rear view, we also have Jesus in our foreground as well. We also have the promise that He who will come shall come, and He will not tarry. We also have the promise that when it becomes close to His time of coming, it's going to look like, well, it's going to look like, it's kind of going to look like this. are worried for your information the military which I was talking to Toby about this morning a little bit the military had all our guys take a vaccine when they were overseas I think it was Afghanistan one of those and it had four strains of the flu and one of them was H1N1 those guys already had been given coronavirus and when this came around it was troubling because it could make them more vulnerable because this wasn't the same variety but it was one that opened them up And you don't realize what the world's doing in which we're living, but they're really trying to thin the population down. That is a stated goal among those who are trying to promote certain things that are in our world today. And I want you to know that when the Bible says that the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, that we live in a day where we have God's grace. We don't have to fear death. We know Jesus died. But we know He rose from the dead, okay? And that's just awesome, because because He lives, you will live also, if you're His child. If you're His child. If you've been born again. If you've not been born again, I would just say to you, be afraid. You need to be afraid. The Bible says, however, don't fear Him who can destroy the body, but fear Him who can cast both body and soul into hell. Both body and soul into hell. Well, so as we go along in this, I want you to see a couple of other passages. You know, look over in chapter 3 on the same book, just over the page probably, verses 4 and 5. It says, But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared toward men. So there's another thing that's appearing in the broad light of day. He says, Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Think about that for a moment. What he's saying is, we used to be rascals. That's what he says in the first couple of verses. When you come down to verse 4, he says, but after that... After that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. Do you think He means something other than we just saw in verse 11 of chapter 2? Probably not. This is probably a fuller explanation of the grace of God. What is the grace of God? It's the kindness and love of God that He shows to you and me. People have all kinds of definitions for the word grace. And what you need to realize is the best definition is the one the Bible gives. Okay? We can come up with an unmerited favor, that's fine, that's fine, I can go with that. But what he's telling me here is, the grace of God shows us what God looks like. Think about it for a moment. He says, the grace of God has appeared, he reiterates it by calling it the loving or the kindness and love of God has appeared. Kindness and love. You know, in the Old Testament, when they were living under that feel like there was a frown from God, the one that many people believe is all what God is today, they think God's mean, He's a cosmic killjoy, He doesn't want your best and your most happy, you know, experience to be with Him and joy and love and peace and all that. They don't understand that. Because the devil tries to quickly slide in there the idea that somehow God's mean so that they won't come to him. But the Bible says grace has appeared, we see it at Calvary. It says kindness and love, we see it at Calvary. God is very, very patient with you and me. He has every reason to wipe us out in a moment. Sometimes there's moments in your life where you know you might have just stepped over the line a little too far or one too many times and you're thinking where's the hammer gonna fall and you got up the next day feeling like you're gonna get swatted somehow and there was a song in your heart and you begin to feel a little bit warm to your father Because it's like the time I was gonna run away from home when I was a little boy. I was gonna run away from home. I went in, I told my dad, I'm running away from home. And I went into my room. And all I had was a picture of the little rascals with that little stick and that little bag on his stick. I didn't know what to put in the bag. We got people who know what to put in the go bag. I didn't know what to put in my go bag. And my dad came in and he looked around the corner. He looked around the corner. And he kind of smiled at me. Because he knew. He knew that I wouldn't be able to go. Do you know what God knows? He knows you. You haven't surprised Him or shocked Him one time. Do you believe that? Do you think He's all-knowing? Have you ever disappointed God? No. You can't disappoint somebody who knows He's coming. He's provided for that. He's provided in Calvary the atonement for your sin. And what He knows is that even if you keep trying to bump the line, you're just going to get miserable and more miserable. I'm telling you guys, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. And God wants us to get our minds around what will change us. What will change us? The grace of God. the kindness of God and the love of God. When you see what He's done for you, it will begin to move you to care about other people. You know, when you see people totally blown away, sometimes you just want to give them a hug. You just want to bring them in close and say, you know, hey, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. There was this man who was on a battlefield. And as he was on that battlefield, his buddies were being pushed back by the enemy. And he went down. He was wounded. He was wounded badly. And as his buddies kept going, they didn't realize that they left their buddy up in some kind of a little area that was a lower area. And yet he was there and they knew he wasn't going to make it if he was left to his own devices. And so they begged the captain, can we go back and get him? He said, I can't order you to do that, and I'd advise you not to because it's terrible out there, but I won't order you to stand down. And three of these guys fought their way back up to their friend after many, many minutes. It's probably about an hour later. And as they got back to their friend, they jumped down into that little gully that they were in, that he was in, and he had tears running down his face. You know why? He said, I knew you'd come for me. I knew you'd come for me. Jesus always comes for his own. I've spent three or four weeks with a guy who was brought up with five preachers in his background, singing songs of Zion in a quartet that they do in their family get-togethers, and his face just went blanch when I asked him, do you know you're going to heaven? He said, no, I don't think so. Not me. I've done too many bad things. Now the fact is, is he might be going to heaven. As a little boy in some backyard club or in BBS, because he was in church all the time, he might have prayed. He's 55 years old now. Do you think it's possible he's saved and he just doesn't know it? Did you know the Bible says that's possible? It says if you don't add to your faith virtue, behaving well, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, self-control and so forth. If you don't do that, you will become shortsighted, under blindness, forgetting that you were washed from your sins. And some people are on the outside thinking, I could never go back. You remember the prodigal? When did he go back? He went back when he got hungry. My buddy is getting hungry. He was talking to me, matching me point for point. And I gave him a number of pieces of information. He kept the track on how to be saved. And what I'm saying to you is, is that Jesus will always come back for you. And you need to know that. And the grace has appeared. And He knows when you've pushed the envelope. He knows when you've stumbled. And He knows how bad that's going to make you feel. You're going to sit down that night and you're going to feel bad about yourself. You're going to feel bad about the people you love and you've let down. You're going to feel bad about your relationship with God. Because you've stumbled. but the grace of God, the love of God, the kindness of God. He's telling this preacher, Titus, tell these people. Tell them how to behave. Tell them what they need to know. And rebuke them if you have to. Bring them to the bar and say, that's wrong. But it's not wrong because you'll be lost if you do it. It's wrong because others will be lost if you do it. It's wrong because it will affect the people around you and it will dishonor your king, the one who when you see him, You will crumble because you won't know how many opportunities you've missed until you see them. And you're going to be zooming right back to, man, I could have said something. Man, I could have done more. The grace of God, the kindness of God, the love of God, it has appeared. And it has appeared to all men. I want you to know who God is. It wasn't completely in shadows. It wasn't completely in the dark. in the Old Testament, though it was pretty dark. You read that Old Testament, even David's crying out, God, take not your Holy Spirit from me, don't cast me away. David! Because he had thought he had pushed too far. This is who God is. When Moses said, show me your glory, he says, I can't show you my face, nobody can see that and live. What did he say? He said, but I will let my goodness pass before you. His goodness! He put him in the cleft of the rock, and the Bible says in Exodus 34, verses 5 to 7, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there. Right there, that's been enough for me. I'm good! I'm good! God's right next to me, this is cool! But it says, he stood with Him there, and he proclaimed the name of the Lord. And what did he proclaim? It says, and the Lord passed by before him, and he proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sins, and that will by no means clear the guilty. You say, well, there it is. That's the hard part. The only people who are not forgiven are people who refuse to be forgiven. He's made it available. So even that is a mercy. He says, I will by no means clear the guilty. I will even visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. I will do that because I want them to know that I am loving, kind, forgiving. I'm tender in heart. I know what you're going through, but you need what? Sometimes what we need is a big SWAT. America has been given a SWAT. And I want you to know today that with them waking up just a little bit, just a little bit, you have to ask yourself, what's it going to take? Because it's just a little bit. It's not a lot bit, it's a little bit. When we talk about, if my people which are called by my name, you know, we need to be praying the right kind of prayers when we pray. You say, is there a right kind? Well, any prayer is acceptable to God. He just wants you to pray. But once you get going and you stay there for a little bit and you drill past the blessed guide and direct kind of stuff, Please, dear God, bless God and direct everybody, bless everybody, bless mom, bless daddy. No, no, no, wait a minute, stop, stop, stop. He already knows that one. He knows that prayer, he's filed it. Now, let's get somewhere. Where are we going to go, God? Save my brother, save my sister, save my mom, save my dad, save my neighbor. Help me to have the boldness to share a gospel tract with somebody in my day-to-day. Help me to be light for your glory. Because people will die without the knowledge of Christ. Now listen, as a church, we're not worried about our souls at this time. If we know that we know we're saved and we know Jesus, Bible says born again, can't be born again and again and again. So if you lost it, you're done. You get born again. Born again means you're His child. Once you're His child, guess what happens? Then He begins to breathe life upon you and says, now I want you to get up and walk. And healthy children eventually walk. We've got some brand new babies, brand new models in our church this morning that have come and they're They're here, and there's going to be a moment when they're going to start lifting up on their haunches, and eventually they're going to try to hold up on the table, and they're going to bump their head, and you're going to laugh at them because you're mean. No, you're going to laugh because you're happy that they're trying. You're not going to yell at them, and you're not laughing to mock, you're laughing because it's so cute. Do you know what God wants? He wants His church to get up and walk! That's what He wants. And what we want to do is stay in our lethargy. We want to stay in our fatigue and in our indifference. He says, who I am is the one who will forgive every iniquity, every transgression. I'm the God who's gracious and merciful. That's who He was. And it was stated, but the people behaved so badly, He had to spend so much time on judgment, that that's the press release that came down to the New Testament era. But when Jesus came, He healed them all. When Jesus came, He touched those lepers. When Jesus came, He told the woman taken in adultery, go away, and said, no more. Because I do not condemn you either. You see, you and I have seen the grace of God. The Bible says, back in chapter 2, it says, verse 11, it says, that it hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live We should live. And that word live is very interesting. The word live literally has the idea of to enjoy real life. You know, Jesus said, I am come that you might have life. And that you might have it more abundantly. It says, and you He hath quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. So, lost people are literally dead in trespasses and sins. And when we were in that condition, Jesus saved us and now we're quickened, we're made alive. And now we can enjoy real life. And the Bible says here that we should live. God wants you to live, beloved. He wants you to go out there and live that adventure, that dangerous life of just loving people and caring about people and touching the leper and not worrying about your stuff because He will take care of your stuff. He is the Good Shepherd. He is your Father. He will embrace you. He will encourage your heart. All of the fears that we have in our heart is something that is very, what I would call, natural. And not natural in a good way. I mean, there's fight or flight and there's times to be really careful. But there's times when we need to be fearless because of our faith. And that doesn't mean you go running into a, you know, maybe say a Corona ward, you know, without a mask and go touch everybody and say, God, you can't touch me. I'm Gus. No, no. But what you have to do is just be wise, circumspect, and caring, and more about others than yourself. And you think, I'm going to take precautions where I need to. If you know somebody's had the disease, and you're thinking you're worried about that, I get it. I would be a little bit too. I get the hitch in my heart. Because it's natural to take care of yourself. But if it's between me telling them about Jesus and not telling them about Jesus, I might have to just say, well, Lord, you got me, I'm going to share Jesus with him, but that's the extreme. All I'm saying is don't be fearful, be careful, be wise, circumspect, and do what you need to do. Not only, listen, not only for yourself, but also for them, because sometimes their scruples are freaked out, you know, especially if they're lost. You know, people were saying on the radio that a lot of people were coming to Christ during this time. Well, that sounds good, but my experience is that it's harder to have a sit-down conversation with somebody. If they're getting it through the radio and somebody's leading them in a prayer, yeah, I get that. That'd be nice. I hope that's working a lot, and I'm sure it is. But it's not like that one-to-one people talking to person you'd have before. It's hard to look at somebody across the table in a private room and six feet apart or whatever and not feel like this is kind of awkward, because it's not normal for anybody. And so I just suggest to you, you and I just need to be wise and listen to what God says and not worry about today. Let Him worry about us and be careful as we go because today's evil is today's evil. The Bible says we're supposed to live though and that means don't stop living. Don't stop living. And the Bible says it's teaching us that denying ungodliness. The word denying is a word that literally means to flow, and it means to flow in speech. So it's not just, you know, saying no to it in our own lives. It means we're saying it out loud. This word is actually a very intense word in one real sense. It's used of Peter's denial of Jesus. I never knew him. I don't know what you're talking about. And he denied, he denied, he denied. It was out loud. It was spoken. And so I suggest to you when it says that the grace of God teaches us to say out loud that's wrong, that'll help you. In other words, if you don't say something's wrong, then sometimes what happens is you don't address it as if it's wrong in your own life. He's talking to people who've not been, you know, stepping up and living a life that is, you know, becoming that which is a Christian, in keeping with that which is Christian. And so he says that we're to be denying. It teaches us to deny ungodly lust. You may remember this in 2 Corinthians 4. You can put it in your margin here. Verse 1 says, Therefore seeing we have received this ministry, As we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. But by manifestation, living, by manifestation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience. You see how powerful that is? That passage directly coincides with this one. You commend yourself to other people's conscience when you live fearlessly, and when you live circumspectly. Because even when you think about the idea of living, and you think about the idea of denying the fear, but denying ungodly lust, and denying the manipulation of scripture, you know, which is what he said in Corinthians. The Bible says, let your moderation be known unto all men, in Philippians chapter 4. And what that means is your sweet reasonableness. Do you have a reason for how you live? Do you have a reason? Can you give an explanation of how you're living to somebody else? I don't participate in certain things. You maybe have heard on WAFR, the one preacher who comes on here, he says, I just won't participate in your gay marriage, your gay wedding. Because I believe that's... And he went on, he says, that's an abomination. And I can't participate. And when you say it, you don't say it mean. What you say is you say it in a sweet reasonable way. A sweetly reasonable way. That's what moderation means. Let your moderation. It doesn't mean, oh, I drink a little. That's not moderation. That's new. That's this day and age moderation. Everything's moderation. Hey, your sweet reasonable says, I'm not going to do that because it might stumble somebody. I'm not going to do that because I think you would think less of me if I did. You know, it's an amazing thing. You have a ministry. You're supposed to be shining forth the light of Christ. We're to show forth His praises to the world. And the Bible says here that we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Do you realize you cannot really commend yourself to somebody else's conscience if you're not behaving better than they are? You can't wash a dirty hand with a dirty hand. So, if we're compromised, then that impedes our ministry. And the Bible says that we're supposed to let our moderation be known unto all men. Now, you know, of course, that it does say that in this verse here as well, that we should live in this present world. The word here is not cosmos, it's aeon, or ion, which is the idea of age, in this present age. Now the suggestion, because it's leading into verse 13, is that there's another age. This is an age, and there's going to be another one. We could talk about dispensations. The time they were in the garden, that was the age of innocence. And then after that they fell, and it was the age of conscience, and that didn't go too well. You got murder, you got multiple marriages, you got all kinds of stuff going on, and finally it got so wicked that the sons of God were intermarrying with the daughters of men, and it was out of control. God said, I'm going to have to turn the plate over and wipe it clean. That was the age of conscience and it didn't work too well. After that, human government and on and on and on. What we're in now, right now, is the age of grace. Aren't you glad you're in the age of grace? You know, we could have been born anywhere. You could have been born in the days of back there when they had the Old Testament darkness in Israel and you could have been maybe one of the surrounding nations. So they weren't getting it going on and you didn't have a chance. All you had was what you had and it was not much. And so hell was populated. So every now and then God smacked the people. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? I think that's a pretty good smack. I mean, we're talking fire from heaven. That gets people's attention. And the Bible tells us in the New Testament that God did that to give them an example of how he feels about this behavior and to show them vividly what will happen to those who are involved in it. Fire and brimstone. Weeping, gnashing of teeth. I'm sorry, I'm just going to tell you my sweet reasonableness. I'm not God. I'm just going to tell you. I believe God is God and I think he's got something there. And I'm going to go with him. And so it doesn't matter what the world says. So when he says that we're supposed to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world or this present age, we recognize this age is going to pass away. You deny ungodly lusts. Worldly lusts. Now the worldly lusts is an interesting thing. It's lusts that are part of the world. That's what it's saying. God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten son. But this is the word worldly lust means it's the lusts that are of the world. You know the Bible says there is a corruption that is in the world through lust. Most things can be traced back. You can be lusting for money, lusting for fleshly appetites to be fulfilled. You could be lusting for any number of things. Lusting for, you know, praise and approbation, status, you know, anything. But that'll make you compromise. That's what the root of the idea of lust is. It'll make you compromise. It'll make you throw caution to the wind. And you will sell out. And you've only got one life. You can sell out for the flesh or you can sell out for the Savior. If you sell out for the Savior, you will live and your life will be counted blessed in God and used of God in the bringing of other people. The Bible says that there's another age coming. When you think about that, I want you to recognize where this word is used elsewhere. Matthew 12, the Bible says, whoever speaketh the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come." So this age is pretty serious. You've got to take care of this, you know, making sure. And when it says blaspheming the Holy Spirit and speaking against the Holy Spirit, what he's saying is, it's like cutting the rope off you're hanging by. Okay, the Holy Spirit's convicting you. The Holy Spirit's... knocking on your door, the Holy Spirit is telling you that there's a virus out there, and there's people worried because they're worried about death, and you're kind of worried about death too. You're not ready to die, you're not ready to go see the Savior. And that's a good heads up, because God loves you enough. You know, God loves America enough to give us a heads up. And so you've got this concern, and if you keep saying, it's nothing, it'll go away, it's not a judgment of God. It is a judgment of God. You know what God's judgment is? They need a little flipping over of the table so they can wake up. That's God's judgment. It doesn't mean He's angry at you, necessarily. It just means that the world is a mess. The baby's blood is polluting the ground across the world. You know, last year alone, there was like 60 to 70 million babies aborted in one year across the world. This whole world is getting inundated with this nonsense. You've got homosexual marriage, and you've got all this stuff that's going on, and they're adopting children, and you've got transgenders teaching your children in libraries, they're having gay marches in the streets. We are talking about people celebrating the odious. So God just said, I'm going to put a pause on it. And people who are selling out to sports, selling out to entertainment, selling out to the nonsense, they can't meet anymore. They can't go do their stuff. They're having withdrawals right now. And while they're doing it, they're sitting back thinking, I need to think about who I am. What is going on? I don't even know how to do this. You may have heard about Pelosi. Oh, I don't know what I'd do without my ice cream. Really. I just want to tell, we get one download from Washington D.C. each month. One. Just one. They're watching me. OK? I'm worried. Making me nervous. But I hope it's Pelosi. And if it isn't Pelosi, send her a note. There's no ice cream in hell. OK? There's none. All right? There's just not. And so people who love and make lies, love and make lies, Bible says they're going to be outside of heaven. So I'm on good ground here. The woman loves and makes love. And we got to stop this nonsense before we enter into the eternity if we're part of that. Bible says in Matthew 13, 39, the enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of this age. And it says, and the reapers are the angels. He's explaining a parable. It says, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire. Again, hell. It says, so shall it be at the end of the age. There is another age coming. That's my point. It says that we're not supposed to be giving in to worldly lusts and ungodliness, but we're supposed to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Do you know what? You can pretty much take anything if you know there's an end point to the work. I saw a couple kids getting rocks out of the yard. They had these big old five-gallon buckets, and the bucket was about half the size of the kids. Their parents probably said, go clean the rocks up, and they're putting them in there. And this one kid's just lugging that baby along. I remember doing work like that, and maybe you do too as a kid. And it was hard work. Sometimes it was a little more than you could do. You had to take some rocks out so you could move that thing. And what I'm saying is, is that if you know there's an end in sight, for instance, you guys go do that, and we'll take you to McDonald's after we're done. We'll get you guys some ice cream. Oh, I can do this! Sign me up! Listen! That's what God does to you now. You bear the heat of the day now, and eventually you get the presence of God. And the Bible says in the presence of God, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures, pleasures, pleasures, not one, pleasures, forevermore. Do you realize? We have a great prospect. And the world has a terrible prospect. And so when He tells us we're supposed to understand that how we're living matters to this present world, He says we're supposed to live denying those things, but looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Clearly, deity. Clearly, Jesus is God. We're looking for the appearance of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's who He is. He's the great God. The Bible tells us that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. And He localized Himself. He localized Himself and He came in the form of a man, in the form of a servant, and He died the death of the cross. And for you and for me, we have Hope! We have a blessed hope, an enviable hope, a hope that transcends everything earthly, everything mundane, everything ordinary, and it glistens and glitters for eternity. The Bible says that with they had no hope and the Bible says I don't want you to be in first Thessalonians 4 Worried about a lot of people who've gone ahead and died and you know falling asleep in the Lord He says we don't sorrow even as others who have no hope for we if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's our hope we're looking for. We're hastening on to this great day, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You have a great and a marvelous hope. And when you think about hope, don't forget that the Bible teaches so much about hope. The Bible says that with this hope, it's a glorious hope. And the idea of glory, the Bible tells us that we beheld Jesus' glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He shone with it. It was all over him. Everything he did. The Bible says he went up into a mountain. He was transfigured. And the Bible says about our hope that when he comes, it's going to be a glorious appearing. A glorious appearing. Just like on that mountain. The Bible says in first Thessalonians two and verse eight, it says, and then shall that wicked one be revealed when when his blessed hope when he comes, when he comes back to earth, not when he comes in the clouds for us, but when he comes with us, OK, he brings us back with it. It says, then shall the wicked one wicked one be revealed while we're gone, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, listen, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, the brightness of his coming. He's glorious. For the Son of Man shall come in glory, in the glory of His Father with His angels. Then shall He reward every man according to his works." Don't you want some things to be rewarded for? I do. I do. The Bible says further, it says, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. That's called the kingdom of heaven. It's going to be on earth. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The Bible says in Hebrews 9, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him, he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. You know, full salvation has not been fully realized even in the believer yet. We groan in this body. We wait for the full redemption of the purchased possession. When he's paid for it, it's all paid for. But the fact is, is he's not picked it up yet. I hope he picks me up in the rapture. Don't y'all think that'd be good? Go in the raptures, do this. Bible says that he once was offered to bear the sins of many. He took the punishment for your sin. He took it. You deserved it, rascal you are. Yeah, we're all sinners. We deserve it. And I can say it and smile. I mean, what's that all about? Oh, we're rascals. We're sinners. Why can I smile? Because Jesus paid it all. He paid for me. He paid for you. That's what makes sense of salvation. People who go out there and they try to meditate their way to peace. You can't do it. I'll tell you what, you clear your mind, you might get some demons along the way. That's what they want you to do in certain sectors. Clear your mind is what they mean by meditation. They're looking for spirit guides. But when we meditate, we meditate upon the word of God. And so what we understand is when we get quiet, we know and can smile about our sin having been forgiven. Not that we are sinners, but that it's been completely forgiven and we can rest. The Bible says, strive ye to enter into his rest, because that's the person who ceased from his own works is the one who's entered into his rest, just like God ceased from his Hebrews tells us. I could go on about this hope, but I wanted you to know Jesus was given to suffer for your sin. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. To die the death of the cross was to die a thousand deaths. That's what Roman writers said about that death. That means of death. They were like experts in cruelty. A person would be put on that cross with pieces of metal shoved into his feet and his hands, and he would be hung there just by the tendons and the flesh and the sinew. And when he would breathe, he couldn't because he would be pulling down. And they tell us that what happened was, is that you have the lungs being depressed. In order to get a breath, you had to writhe up like a serpent on a pole. Take a big, deep breath and fall back down and let the air kind of push its way out. It was like a writhing serpent. And that's why we see the connection the Bible says is there in John chapter three. The Bible says in John chapter three to Nicodemus, Jesus was talking. He says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And he was lifted up as Moses lifted the serpent up. All you had to do was what? Look and live, just look and live, look to Jesus, look and live. There's a song, but the truth is in the scriptures. They look to the serpent in the wilderness when they were being bitten by fiery serpents. And nobody ever explained that till Jesus came along with Nicodemus in chapter three. And he says, even so, the son of man must be lifted up. And when he lifted him, when God was lifted, his son up there, letting him be crucified, what happened? People could look and live, they could understand the gospel, they could understand how quickly that the plague of sin in their lives could be evaded. The Bible says in verse 14, it says, "...who gave Himself..." He's the Savior, Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior. "...He gave Himself that He might redeem us." There's your payment. He paid for your sin by giving Himself, and He redeemed you. When you trust Him as your Savior, you've been paid for. You've been paid for. And when you've been paid for, you have that hope of the glory of God. But look what it says in verse 14. It says that He might redeem us from all iniquity. And that's huge. Because that's the problem. We are iniquitous. The word has the idea of lawlessness. It's on a more on a Mia like Deuteronomy and astronomy. It's the law of the stars Let's put it in that vernacular law of the stars. It's no law lawlessness. That's what we have going on in our world That's the corruption that's in the world to us. That's what you're subjected. They say live any way you like and it'll be fine No, it won't be fine. They can't make it fine. It doesn't work It never works and when you get down to brass tacks, it creates havoc. It creates death. It creates destruction it creates unrest. There right now are people who are on high echelons of our world who think this world ought to only be 500 million people or something like that. Anyway, that's the stones in Georgia. These people are aiming at that. There's seven billion. That's a lot of killing to do. And there's people who want to do that. They want to thin the herd. They want to take people out and they want to do it in certain terrible ways. That's what comes of anomia. That's what comes of lawlessness. The Bible says that he might redeem us from lawlessness. Now, lawlessness is what you live in your day to day life when you don't take God at his word and say, I'm going to appropriate this. He says, if you want to know what the positive side is, he says he would redeem us from iniquity and purify himself a peculiar people, a people literally over and above other people, meaning that they're not better than, but that they are his peculiar treasure. And He wants to tower them up, is the idea. He wants to tower them up so that they can be strong and show people how they can be saved too. God has a plan in your life. He wants to conform you, if you're His child, to the image of Jesus. And so He sees us as peculiar people. Look at this, zealous for good works. You ever been zealous? Football game, you know, you get all emotional and crazy and scream and you're high-fiving and chest bumping each other and knocking over the pop and the potato chips. It's a good day. My team won. What about good works? What about them? Ever been zealous? Go out and do something crazy for Jesus. That's what he's looking for. That's what he's looking for. The Bible says these things, Titus, speak and exhort and look and rebuke with all authority and let no man despise thee. The word despise means dismiss. Don't let anyone dismiss what you're doing. Don't let anybody dismiss what you're saying. Because the reality is, God in His greatness and His power and His love and His mercy has shown you grace. He's shown it. He's put it on the canvas of the cross. He's shown His love. He's shown His kindness. And He waits for you. If you've not been saved, you need to be. Because this is crazy out there, and it's crazy by design. It's God's judgment, and His judgment is never overdone. You say, I don't know. It is not for you to know. It's for you to believe. Because the Bible tells us that even David, when he was in his times, he said, your hand was heavy upon me. You know what God could have done? He could have smashed him, couldn't he? He could have flattened it. And He could have flattened you. And He could have flattened me. Time and time again. But He doesn't. He disciplines just enough. He sees whether you're listening. He sees whether your ear is leaning in. And the Holy Spirit tries to take that and blanch your face as you begin to realize you're just a kid in an older body now. You're just a kid in an older body. And He still wants you to come. And He's still calling you. And He paid for your sin, as it says right here, that He gave Himself, verse 14, that He might redeem us. He gave Himself that He might redeem us. He won't redeem you against your will. He won't save you against your will. You don't want to be saved. You'll say, I'm OK with that. I'll weep over it. He wept going into Jerusalem over Jerusalem. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus because of what death does and he will weep in his own core. The Bible says that those who are cast into the lake of fire will be tormented in the presence of the angels forever and ever and have no rest day or night. There is a sobriety to this thing. It's important. I hope that I've communicated to you today that we have great hope in Christ. We don't need to fear anything in the here and now because this is a blip. It's a speed bump in the in the in the realm of eternity. And whatever happens down here happens. Jesus is on the throne and he's coming again. And you and I have a great prospect in him. I hope that your prospect is one that you're reveling in today. Would you bow with me for a moment? If you're in your cars as well, just bow your head right now quietly in the moments as we sit here and consider the things we've heard. It may be very possible that some of you here today have never truly come across the line and trusted Jesus with your heart and with your mind. You've not come to the place where you put your faith in Jesus. And right now you need to do that. If you are not sure you're saved, but you want to be, I want to tell you a verse. It's in Romans 10, verse 13. The Bible says, "...whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." We just established who He is. He's God, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's God. You're calling on Jesus. You're calling on this Lord. "...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord." Jesus is Lord. The Bible says, "...if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus." So you call upon the name of the Lord. He says, "...whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." You understand now what he did because of this message. He gave himself to redeem us. He paid for our sins that he might have us as his own and to deliver us from iniquity, lawlessness. You're not going to go on in lawlessness. If you trust Jesus, you're going to say, man, I'm sick of that. That's going to hurt me. I've seen what he's done to other people. I don't want that to happen to me. Maybe today you need to trust him as your savior. Get that thing settled. If so, I'd like to lead you in a quick prayer. If you mean business with God right now, in your heart of hearts, just say the words out loud in your heart, not out loud in your mouth, but out loud in your heart before the Lord. If you want to be saved today, pray a prayer like this. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. And I know I deserve judgment for my sin. But I now know that Jesus died to take the judgment that I deserve. So I ask you today, Jesus. I ask you to forgive my sin. to forgive my sin, to give me eternal life that you bought and paid for when you died on the cross. Take me as your child. Bring me into eternal life. Make me to come alive out of my sin. Help me to be a child of God today. You've said in your word, if I'll call, you'll save. So I'm calling right now. Lord Jesus, save me. And I trust that you will because you promised it. So thank you, Lord, today for saving me as I've called upon you. Help me not to be ashamed of my faith. Help me to make it public to people I know. And help me to live for you. And I thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. I just want you to know, it's all about your personal relationship with God. Nobody can save you but Jesus. Nobody can keep you from being saved but you. It's up to you. If you prayed that prayer, you need to tell somebody. If you want to call me sometime and say, Pastor, I want you to know I prayed. Asked Jesus to save me that morning. I'll rejoice with you.