you would to Deuteronomy chapter 7 this evening. Deuteronomy chapter 7. And again, we're dealing with the subject of sanctification throughout our studies and lessons here this week, weekend, and week beginning. And just a reminder, the word sanctification means to be set apart and devoted unto God. And as we said Wednesday evening, if we just take it to mean set apart, we miss half of the definition. Because when God saves an individual, He sanctifies them, He has set them apart and devoted them unto Him. and we use the term, and I understand it's a human term, but I think it is appropriate. We call that positional sanctification. That's our position. We have been set apart and devoted unto the Lord. And then we find that scripture speaks of another sanctification that is in conjunction with this, and I believe that it follows it immediately, and we term that progressive sanctification, where God, after He saves an individual, He continually sets them apart and devotes and consecrates them unto the Lord. And then one day, we will, and I read this, I think, I don't know how to pronounce the fellow's name, I think it was Chaffer or Shaffer, in his, basically a systematic study of Bible doctrine, he called it ultimate sanctification, where we shall be fully and realized, where we've been set apart and devoted unto God, when we go and be with Him forever. And so we, in any sense of the word, sanctification means to be set apart and consecrated unto the Lord. Anytime it's used, that's what it means. And we want to read here in chapter 7 of Deuteronomy, beginning at verse 1. And I have a note. I use a Schofield study Bible. I don't agree with Schofield on everything, but he's got some good notes on a lot of things. And one of the notes that is before this chapter is the command to be separate. And I said, that's true, isn't it? God has commanded you and I to be separate. and not separate for separate sake, as we learned last night, but because He's holy, therefore His people are to be holy. Because when God saves a person, what is the design behind salvation but to make us like the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't that the end of salvation is to make us like unto Christ? And so if He is holy, then we're going to have to be holy, aren't we? And that starts with, when He saves us, He sets us apart. So let's read here, beginning at verse 1 of Deuteronomy chapter 7. It says, When the Lord thy God, and again there's that name, Jehovah, isn't it? And so, When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations, before thee the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him, and keep His commandments to a thousand generations, and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that hateth him. He will repay him to his face. I shall therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command thee this day to do them. And I want to stop our reading there. And I want to note this evening further exhortations to sanctification. further exhortations to sanctification. You remember, we said last night when Paul wrote under the saints of God at Rome in Romans 12 and verse 1 and he said, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God. The word beseech means to call to one side that we might exhort or to encourage in a matter. And, you know, and we gave the illustration about sometimes I'll take my kids and I'll say, come here and I'll put my arm around them and I'll speak into their ears to encourage them to do what I want them to do. And really, it ought to be what the Lord wants them to do. But that's what you do is you bring them in and it's a show of affection and a show of love is what beseeching is when you draw one into you. And Paul said that he beseeched them and he beseeched them by the mercies of God. He exhorted them based on what God had done when he pitied and had compassion upon them. Well, we want to note some more here concerning that. The Scriptures teach not only of a positional sanctification, but also of a progressive sanctification. And I believe that God's people And when it comes to progressive sanctification, we have a part that God has charged us with in that. Now we know that the Scripture says, and this is true, and let's look back if you would, in Exodus chapter 31, Exodus chapter 31 and verse 13. And again, the Scripture bears out and it teaches, and we read this Wednesday evening, and this is again, this is one of the compound names of the Lord, and it says in verse 13 of Exodus 31, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. You see, it's God who sanctifies us, but God uses means to sanctify us, and He charges us that we might submit to the sanctification that He's doing. And this is what we find that God is speaking of here. Let's look at a couple of other passages. Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20, and we ought not to be surprised that the book of Leviticus deals with sanctification. The whole tribe was set apart and consecrated under the service of the Lord, and within them you had the priest, and you had the high priest, and the offices that God had given to them. He had set apart all of Israel, but we find in a greater and in a more specific sense, He set apart the tribe of Levi for the office of the Levites, and then the office of the priest, and we have the high priest as well. And in chapter 20, and in verse 7, He says here, Sanctify yourselves therefore. Now, is He contradicting what He has already said in Exodus? No. He is telling those of us who are saved by God's grace and that have been set apart that we are also to sanctify ourselves, we are to yield unto His work as the sanctifier. Just as Paul wrote to the saints of God at Rome in Romans 6 and said, yield yourselves as instruments of righteousness. You see, the Bible reminds us and it teaches us that we are co-laborers with God. And as God is sanctifying us, we're not to be working against Him. But rather, we are to be submitting unto Him. And unto what His Word says. In verse 8 of Leviticus chapter 20, and we'll read verse 7 again. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy. Well, they were holy. And now He says, I want you to act like what I've made you. And he continues on and says, for I am the Lord your God, and we dealt with that last evening. And he goes on into verse 8 and he says, and ye shall keep my statutes and do them, I am the Lord which sanctifies you. How does God sanctify His people? With statutes and the keeping of them. We submit to His Word. That's how He sanctifies us in the progressive sanctification. From the day you were saved, God has been sanctifying, setting you apart, and devoting you, and consecrating you by the teaching and preaching of His Word, by the commands which are in the Word of God. He's been doing that. And as we grow in the Lord, our lives ought to manifest that sanctification more today than they did the first day we were saved. Because we grow. We grow. Look over, if you would, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 4. 2 Thessalonians chapter 4. Again, further exhortations. for sanctification. Again, this is not just an Old Testament teaching. It's a New Testament teaching. And why is that? Because it's the same God over both Testaments. And He doesn't change. And in 2 Thessalonians, I wrote down its chapter, its 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 in verse 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, I apologize. And let's note if you would, in verse 1 of 1 Thessalonians 4, where he says, furthermore then, we beseech you. So here it is again, Paul is calling them to the side, he's putting his arm around them, and he's going to exhort them, he says, Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. See, my one-year-old can't do things that my eight-year-old can do. And a newborn babe in Christ isn't doing the same things that a mature adult in Christ is going to do. They're going to have to grow. And part of growth is that they're sanctified over and over and over again by Christ. And that's the progressive. Remember, our positional sanctification never changes. But the progressive does. And we find here that he spoke to this and he says, I want you to pay attention to this, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God. I can tell you this, that on the third Sunday of May 1999, a week after the Lord saved me, that I submitted and the church there scripturally baptized me, and then the fourth Sunday in May 1999, you see, it ought to progress more and more and more. And now here we are, seventeen and a half years later, or eighteen years later it is now, and my walk ought to be even more in line and in agreement with what Christ says. And God, as the Scriptures bear out, He says you ought to walk and to please God. That's what sanctification is. It is about pleasing the Lord. That's what it is. And as a child of God, that's our desire is to please Him who hath called us and separated us. It's about pleasing Him, not about pleasing our lusts, our desires of the flesh. We'll get to that momentarily. But notice verse 2. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. And a lot of folks say, well, I'm not under the law. And yet Paul said, you know what commandments I gave you. And the word commandments, whether under grace or under the law, it's the same thing. These are directives from God. Meant to be followed and they're also for our own good. God never gave a commandment that wasn't for our good. He goes on into verse 3 and he says, For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. This is God's will. Even your setting apart and devotion unto the Lord Jesus. That is the will of God. And then he gives us an example that you should abstain from fornication. So we have here, here is the will of God, sanctification, and here's one way you are sanctified, you abstain from fornication. Both physical as well as spiritual. And so we have here again in this verse, and then in verse 4, he says that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. You see, with so many folks, there is a very little difference between them and a lost person. And the Bible tells us in this verse, every one of us should know how to possess our vessel, which is our body, our being. We should know how to possess that in sanctification and honor. In 1999, I hadn't played football in years. And I came back and worked out all summer long. And I got my jersey and it had my name on the back of it. And it was, to me, a very honorable thing. Here I am. I'm starting varsity. I haven't played since I was a freshman. And there were things that people did. But to me, there was some honor and integrity about this uniform. It represented my family because it had my name on it. It was a representation of the school. And then when I graduated from the police academy and I had my badge and my uniform, I mean, I ironed it and pressed every military crease in it and polished all the brass and all the metal because it was an honorable thing. And there were things that you didn't do to dishonor the uniform or any of that which was there. I heard Howie Long, he quoted, and I understand it's from Abraham Lincoln, but he said you get three names in this life. The one you inherit, your last name, the one your parents give you, your first name, and the one you make for yourself. And Paul says here that every one of us should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. He said we should know that. And I tell you, God has given His people His church and has fulfilled the church with an office called a pastor to preach and teach the word so that we would know. Because didn't He say in the Great Commission about the church that we are to teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you? That's the work of the church, not just the ministry or the pastor, but the whole church is engaged in that. And then he is given the office of the bishop and he raises up men qualified and leads the church and leads that man to fulfill that office and he declares and he leads and he under-shepherds the church so that they might know how to possess their vessels in sanctification and honor. There's too many church members who are guilty of dereliction of duty and being unfit for duty. Because they're not possessing their vessels in sanctification and honor. Now let's look over, if you would, back to our text. And we find here in these first verses very similar things. In verses 1-5, I'd like you to notice that God has commanded sanctification. It's commanded. It is that which God has declared for you and I to do. Here is Israel of old. And again, this is Deuteronomy. This is, as I've heard it referred to, this is the second law, not replacing the first, but a reiteration of it, if you would. And here's Moses being led of the Lord, and he's telling the people before they go into the land of Canaan, again, unto this next generation, because every generation has to be re-commanded, if you would. And they have to be told again and again and again and again. And he tells them here, when you go in the land, this is what you need to do. Let's notice again here in these first five verses. I'd like you to notice verse 1, And hath cast out, that is, when the Lord thy God hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou, And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, and thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Now let me stop there for a moment. When Joshua and the people of God went into the land of Canaan, it was not vacant. Now the Bible tells us that God said in verse 1 that He would bring him into the land and it says and hath cast out cast out many nations before thee Verse 2, When the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee. So what we find is that God was going to go before them and deliver them and cast them out before them. But when they went into the land, they weren't gone, they were there, weren't they? You know, sometimes I think we expect to just show up and all of our sins and all of the things that trouble us are going to be gone and God's dealt with them. But you see, God told Israel, you've got some work to do. You have some things that you must do. He says, now I've gone before you. I'm going to bring you into the land. I've already promised you to possess it. He says, you know I can do it because I'm the Lord thy God. The word God there is Elohim, which means covenant keeping one, means the strong one. And so he speaks of his ability, he speaks of his covenant-keeping abilities, and he says, I'm going to cast these out before you, and he tells them here in verse 2, Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. You see, God told Israel of old that I'm going to go before you, and I'm going to defeat them, and you're going to come behind me in my power and in my might and by faith and you're going to do what I tell you to do, which is to smite and destroy and show no mercy. You see, God forbid any union of any kind with him, any confederacy, any league. You remember there when Joshua made a league with the Gibeonites. It was a problem for Israel. You remember all the things that were done as well when Saul didn't do as God commanded him and he left Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive. It costed him the kingdom, if you would. All the problems that Samson had was because he would not live a life separated and dedicated unto the Lord by faith. This has been what ails God's people down through our lives is that we do not believe what God says and follow His leadership in this sanctification. We need to realize and understand here that these things of which God spoke of here are indicative, representative, symbolic of the things that ail you and I today. One writer, he stated this, we must consider these things listed here in type or in spirituality of our own lives as the enemies of God and His people today. That these seven nations, greater and mightier than Israel, are nothing more than vain thoughts, worldly cares, lustful afflictions, unbelief of the heart, rebellion of the mind, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And just as God said unto Israel of old that these nations are greater and mightier than thou, so too are the things of the old man and of this world and of Satan greater and mightier than we are. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee. And because the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them. Thou shalt utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Look if you would over to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And notice how the Apostle Paul, being led of the Holy Spirit of God, puts it in this fashion. And again, I can tell you that even now, 18 years after God saved me, that we still struggle with the same things that we struggled with 18 years ago. Because the old man is not fully eradicated out. in sanctification. He's not put away and we have perfection without sin in the life that you and I now live. Notice in Colossians 3 what Paul charges the saints of God at Colossae to do. Those who are sanctified by God. And this again, this is that daily battle, hourly, minutely battle that we have going on. That war that Paul spoke of in Romans 7, this is it. He said, mortify. And my father told me years ago, he says, that means put to death. Like a mortician. It deals with death. Wasn't that what the Lord told Israel in Deuteronomy 7? I want you to smite them. I want you to utterly destroy them. I want you to show no mercy unto them. Paul says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now think about that for a moment. Covetousness is idolatry. That's setting up idols. He goes on and he says in verse 6, For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them? But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lying out one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. That is the work of sanctification that God is doing upon you now. Putting off the old man with his deeds. The word mortify again means to put to death. And this is a battle, isn't it? I don't know if any of you... I worked out with my wrestling team in high school. After I graduated, I went back to get some hand-to-hand, you know, combat, so to speak, abilities. And then we had, in law enforcement, we had defensive tactics. And, you know, about 10 weeks into a 17-week course, you were, everybody was sick of everybody. And when we got to get out on the mats and start to beating on each other, boy, it was a fight for your life. I'll tell you something, it's exhausting. In wrestling, every period was three minutes. That's the longest three minutes of your life. When you are trying to wrestle and to make someone do something else, and you're trying not to have them do something to you, it is exhausting. And this here is spiritual. This is a tremendous battle between the old man and the new man. And yet the Bible says that God has already gone before and delivered him. We face a delivered foe. And as much as we like to complain about things in Washington, D.C., or when I was in Kansas, in Topeka, and now that we're in Florida, in Tallahassee, and in Michigan, what was going on in Lansing, I want to tell you something. The greatest enemy you face is the one you see in the mirror. That's it. And the Bible tells us that He has been delivered. God has gone before us. Do you remember when Israel, God told them, I want you to go and spy out the land? And two of them came back and said, God can do it. Let's go get it. And ten of them said, no. And then after that, after God pronounced His judgment upon him, some of them said, okay, let's go. And when they went, they went in the power of their own might. And they didn't fare well, did they? And that's our problem, is that we try to mortify the flesh, the old man, the members which are upon this earth, such as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, and all the things listed here and many more, which can be summarized as the flesh. We try to do it in our own power and in our own mind, and it'll never work. You see, these things will never be done apart from prayer and apart from the Scriptures and calling upon the Lord. And that is the same thing. And people say, well, there's got to be some secret formula. First of all, it's not secret. And second of all, that's what it is. It's the power of God. When Israel finally did go in and begin to take up living space and to take up the land, how did they do it? Well, they did it by faith in the Lord. I mean, I don't see the U.S. military marching around any community seven times. And I don't see them smashing pitchers and blowing trumpets. Such as was done. But that's how God delivered him, wasn't it? And we don't see people going out today, and remember David, how that he said, just as that lion, God delivered him into my hands, he's going to deliver this Philistine giant, and Saul said, we'll take my armor, and he said, it's no good to me. I haven't proven it. But you know what David had proved? He'd proved the Lord. And he had proved that God was faithful. and he went out and he took a stone and he put it in the sling and he slew the giant, didn't he? By faith. Well, that's how we're going to slay these giants of our flesh, by faith. You see, God's already delivered them into our hands. We just have to go and fight them. And I don't know what your particular struggle is this evening. But God does, and He has delivered it into your hands. And all you have to do is war and fight against it. And again, you're going to have to take the time to do it. You're going to have to pick up that TV remote and push off. And you're going to have to shut the computer off. And put your cell phone down. And you may have to go over into your closet. Or you may have to open up your Bible and not just read, but maybe get out a pen and paper and start writing some things down and spend some time in devotion and prayer and study of Scriptures unto God and asking God to deal with things in my life, in your life, and things that we don't even know about that He's going to bring to the surface for you and I to deal with. And I'll tell you how He's going to bring them to light through the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God. We've been going through James, Sunday night in Plant City. And I tell you, God's brought a lot of things that I didn't know were there up. We've been in chapter 4 for a while, and chapter 4 deals with envious, jealousies. And I tell you what, I have jealousies I didn't even know were there. And that's the work of the Spirit of God that through the preaching brings it to the surface. I didn't have to mention anything specific. Brother Thomas didn't have to mention anything specific. Your Sunday School teacher doesn't have to mention anything specific. Brother Duke, any minister doesn't have to mention specifics. That's the Holy Spirit's job. He'll bring it up in your life. But I assure you, whatever He brings up, He has brought it up for you to smite, for you to utterly destroy, not to make a covenant with it, or to show it mercy, because He has brought it up to deliver it into your hand. And there's some pretty sad, terrible things He's going to bring up. And we ain't going to have to go to the Lord and seek forgiveness for it. We can be rest assured that we are forgiven and He does cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Scriptures tell us. If you would, in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 5. I marvel here, it seems as if you and I, just like Israel of old, we want to deal lightly with sinful things. I think my father said some years ago, we want to mortify the new man and put on the old man. Moses records the words here, if you would, Deuteronomy 7. And he says, even after this, he said, I want you to smite them, to utterly destroy them, make no covenant with them, nor show them mercy. And then in verse 3 he says, neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Well, if we utterly destroyed him, who would we marry, right? Do you know what marriage is? It's a union, isn't it? It's where two become one. And he says, Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. And this principle teaching is still biblical for God's people today. And he says in verse 4, why? Why can't we marry him? You know what the thought of today is? Well, let's marry him and then we'll lead him to the Lord. That's not Bible. He says, For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. Then he says in verse 5, he reiterates it. But thus shall ye deal with them. I want you to notice God doesn't say, but thus I will deal with them. He says, you deal with them this way. God already dealt with them. He delivered them up for us. And he has delivered up those things of the flesh unto you and I. He says, you deal with it now. And as Brother Thomas mentioned, any command God has given us, He supplies the strength and the ability to fulfill that command. He said, But thus shall ye deal with them, ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. I want you to notice here that in verse 5, everything in verse 5 deals with worship. You see, in the previous verses, He was dealing with those people. But in verse 5, He deals with the worship of it. I want you to understand this. Anything that we refuse to get rid of, that God tells us to get rid of, it becomes an idol. It is that, as that hymn says, nothing between me and my Savior. This is between us and our Savior. And He says, this is how you're to deal with it. burn it down, destroy it, break it down, cut it down. All of these things are teachings and dealings that deal with destruction. Destruction of it. We are not to reserve anything, not one teeny tiny corner in our life, our soul, our heart, our minds, for any of these things. It is to be completely eradicated, is the command of God. Folks are going to say, well, we're never going to be able to do that in this life. But God commanded us to. We are to strive for it. Though we may never realize it, we are to faithfully strive for it. We look here and then he continues on into verse 6. Here he gives reasons, and I believe he gives a three-fold reason here. Verse 6, Number 1, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Number 2, The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. Number 3, The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. A threefold reason that the Lord gives us to live our lives, sanctified, set apart, consecrated, dedicated unto Him under the commandments of the Lord. Now some will say, well the Bible says that I'm free in Jesus Christ. Now I want you to understand what that means. When Jesus said in John chapter 8 and verse 36, the Son of Man will make you free indeed, He didn't mean free to do whatever you want. What He made us free to do is to serve God, to worship Him. You remember I said Wednesday night we're either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. That's all there is. And so we've been freed from sin so that we may now serve Christ because the Scriptures teach us the principle that no man can serve two masters. And because no man can serve two masters, Christ freed us from this one to serve Him. We ought not to use our liberty, as Peter said, as a cloak for maliciousness. We ought not to think that because we're free, we're not under the servitude of Christ. Some folks will say, well, I'm not under the law. Well, you're under grace, which means you're under something. And it's grace. I'd like you to turn over here to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. You know, if you compare scripture with scripture, the law, which comes from God, grace, which comes from the same God, teach pretty much the same things, don't they? When it comes to our lives. Titus 2 and in verse 11, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 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, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people or a people for his possession, zealous of good works. And then Paul said this, These things speak and exhort, there's that word again, and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee. You see, God's grace teaches us to live our life sanctified under the Lord Jesus Christ. God's grace teaches us that the commands of God, as we read here on Israel, they were commanded to live a holy, separated, dedicated life. And grace teaches us to do the same thing. And folks say, well, I'm not under law. No, you're under grace. And I'll tell you, grace is a far greater teacher. It is. We look here and we find in Deuteronomy 7 and in verse 6, 7, and 8, we find that the Lord was teaching them grace. All about grace, wasn't He? These are the three-fold reason that they were supposed to submit in this fashion and live, set apart under the Lord, to deal with this. Now again, I want you to understand this. We live in a world today where we have socially acceptable sins and non-socially acceptable sins. And I will tell you this, that the ones that are not socially acceptable are decided not based on Scripture, but based on the temperature of the world today, which changes from day to day. I mean, pretty much right now, Unless you're a pedophile or you commit suicide, you're okay. And that's iffy on those. Depends on what day of the week it is. But pretty much everything other than that, according to the standard of the world, is okay. Not that big of a deal. But that's not what the Scriptures teach. The Scriptures teach something entirely different. The Bible says, Be ye holy for I am holy. It says that twice. Old Testament, Leviticus 11.44, New Testament, 1 Peter, chapter 1 and verse 16, I believe it is. But he gives a three-fold reason why they were supposed to do this. He says four. Four. This is why I want you to drive out all of these things. And again, we're not talking about these things. We're talking about stuff on the inside. You know where a lot of stuff comes from, a lot of sins come from? As Christ said, it's not what goes in, it's what comes out because it manifests what's in the heart. And what we find is, is that there's some things in here that we need to put to death. They've already been delivered unto us, now we have to overcome them. Because there's a three-fold salvation. We've been saved from the penalty of sin, now we're being saved from the power of sin, and one day we'll be saved from the presence of sin. And right now God, through sanctification, is delivering us from the power of it. To overcome it. That's all by faith in the power of God. He says here in verse 6, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. He says you are separated, you are dedicated unto me. And then he says in this next verse, or in verse 6, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. I realize this is not a popular biblical thing, that is God choosing some and not choosing others. But it is Bible. And you know in election we can't pat ourselves on the back and say, oh, He chose me. Because Scripture declares unto us that the election was done before we were even born, having done neither good nor bad. And then Scripture declares unto us in Romans 11, verse 5, that election was according to grace, not merit, but grace, which is the favor of God. And so God essentially says here, the Lord and I, God, have chosen thee to be a special people. And so, why did you choose us, Lord? Because I chose you. Because it was my decision. Not because you earned it, not because you were better than anybody else, but listen, because I chose you, you're to live this life. You see, when we preach election, and we don't put a practical application to it, we fail our people. We fail God's people. Because the teaching, the proper teaching of the doctrine, which I know is redundant, but the proper teaching of election has practical applications to it. And here we find that God says, because I have chosen you, and chosen you out of grace, you are to live unto me as I say. And then he goes into this 7th verse and the 8th verse and he says, I set my love upon you, and I didn't do it, and I didn't choose you because you were more in number, because you weren't, you were the fewest, but because I loved you. He says, I loved you because I loved you. As the Bible says in Hosea 4, I think it's 14.14 or 4.14, I wrote it down one way, but he says that God loves us freely, and that word freely means without cause in the object of love. You see, the cause is Himself who is love. Look, if you would, over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and we'll draw to a close with this thought. See, sanctification deals with you and I mortifying, dealing with sin. Not with brother or sister so-and-so's sin, but with our own sin. You see, sanctification is a personal thing. Just like God said, You do it. That's what that word ye means. It's an old English word for you, not for someone else. And then 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, Paul writes this. But we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Now notice, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. So Paul says, we're bound to give thanks unto God. Because He had chosen you. Unto salvation. And then he goes on into verse 14 because he's not done. And he says, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the attaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren. And again, the word therefore means based on everything that I've said before. stand fast. We don't stand fast, do we? I mean honestly, if military stood fast like you and I stand fast in our war against and mortifying, they'd be run over. He says, I want you to stand fast. And standing fast doesn't just mean standing for these doctrinal truths. It's dealing with those doctrines being applied in our own lives. Because if teaching isn't applied in life, it's meaningless. Absolutely meaningless. You know, there are things that can be done in the world of academia and done on paper that cannot be done in the real world. We just spent two mornings at the Rocket and Space Center there in Huntsville. You know how many rockets they blew up before they got it right? You know how many times on paper it looked good, and they built it, and then it didn't work? You see, doctrine not applied will blow up, won't it? But when sound doctrine, having been taught, is taken and applied in our lives, it will do wonderful and glorious things under the name of Jesus Christ. Paul said to stand fast and hold the traditions which have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Paul wrote this unto the church of the Lord God at Thessalonica. Look back in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. You know, Paul makes a mention of some things here. And he talks and writes unto them in chapter 1 and he says, Paul knew of their salvation. Well, I'll tell you something else. It's hard to tell today about some folks, isn't it? I mean, it's hard to tell. And we don't judge. This one individual told me, he says, I'm not judging, I'm fruit inspecting. But it's hard to tell with a lot of people. I mean, really, we'd have to conclude that they're not saved. If you think about it, there's very little difference between a lot of people and nominal Christians, name only Christians. Some folks say, well, I go to church. Well, guess what? So do they. That doesn't make you saved. It's just one piece of the puzzle that manifests that we're saved. Paul says here into the church at Thessalonica, notice chapter 1, and if you would, verse 2, How did he know that? I mean, I can't see that your name is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. So how did Paul know that they had been saved and had been chosen before the world was and then saved by God's grace? Well, verse 6, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, now notice, and how ye ye, turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Do you see how they manifested that they had been set apart, that they had been chosen, and that God had loved them, and that they were holy? They turned to God from idols. to serve the living and true God. You know how Israel was going to manifest that they were God's people? By turning to God and not following the idols of the land that they were going into, but destroying them. You know what are idols today? Our own flesh is an idol. I mean, we don't worship Baal and Ashtoth and Moloch and all these others. We worship ourselves. That is the number one idol today of God's people, is self. We do what we want. And I pray that these things, these exhortations to sanctification, that we'll deal honestly, sincerely, and we'll take a good hard look at ourselves through prayer and scripture and ask God to search us. And the things of that old man, maybe there's things you know that are there, and I know there's things that are there that you and I don't know. God says, destroy them. Destroy them. You know why we destroy them? So we'll be more like Him. Christ didn't have any idols, did He? No, He said, this world hath nothing in Me. And the world needs to have nothing in us. So I pray that the Lord would. That he would exhort you and I. Under further sanctification in our own lives. And again, I'm not saying it's going to be easy. But I think our biggest problem is we don't even try. We don't even try. He has already delivered him. We just need to fight the fight. In the power of his mind. pastor.