And we need to, you know, it's as Christians, we're called to be sanctified. We're not to be a part of the world. We're not to give in to what the world wants us to do. We're to be called a, we're to be a unique people, a unique and different people full of good works and zealous. Amen. And, um, So, and one of the things that I wanted to share with you before I get to Leviticus is something from 2nd Corinthians 3. You don't have to turn there, but something I want to share with you here. 2nd Corinthians 3 verses 2-3. This is what the Apostle Paul says. He says, Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Now here's why I bring that up. Because when it comes to sanctification, how you live matters. It does. How we are here. in church, we ought to be out there in this world. And your life and how you conduct yourself privately and publicly does matter. Your lives may be the only exposure to God and Jesus that this lost and dying world would ever have in their life. Some of them may not even step foot in this church. And something that's really fascinating to me is when you look at the qualifications of a pastor and deacon, you realize those are actually more than just qualifications. Those qualifications are who Christ is. They're characteristics of who Christ is, who God is. And so when we take a look at it and at that perspective, really all of us should live our lives in such a way that it glorifies Christ and points to Christ. This is why sanctification is very important. This is why we need to live in such a way that honors and glorifies God. And this is only made possible by the power of the Holy Ghost. So with that said, Leviticus chapter 20, verse 7 to 8. It says, Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God, and ye shall keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord which sanctify you. 1 Peter 1, verses 15-16, But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. So let's talk about that for a second. Peter is saying, and be holy in what? All manner of conversation. So that means what you say, what you do, your actions, you know, they say, you know, your actions speak louder than words. And it's true. You know, something I've come to realize is that People, the lost and dying world, they want to see Christians that are true, that are genuine. They don't want to see hypocrisy out of them. Because when they do, when they see one person act hypocritically, they're going to label every single Christian hypocritically, and it's not right. Because what they do is they take one person's actions and they lump a whole group of them together. So, what we want to do is when we witness to people, let your actions speak louder than your words. Don't preach at them. Put love on them. Show them the grace of God. Be gentle, be meek. Buy them lunch. I'm not saying compromise, but buy them lunch. Sit down, converse, befriend them. Who is Jesus? Jesus was a friend of sinners. And every sinner that Jesus came in contact with, He welcomed them. He welcomed them, He loved on them, He prayed on them. But you realize that those people that came to Jesus, they left change. They weren't the same. You know, you got that one guy that was possessed by legion. You know, when he got those devils cast out of him, Sorry, my watch went crazy. Anyways, but what did he want to do? He wanted to follow Jesus. But Jesus said, go back to your family and tell them the good things that the Lord has done. So with that, we see that he had a desire to be with Jesus, but Jesus said, no, I want you to go and tell. He became an evangelist. And so how we conduct ourselves, how we live our lives is important. God is holy. We are called to be holy. This does not mean sinless perfection. This means that we're to be sanctified, set apart. The thing about sanctification is that sanctification, let's Let's be simple about this. Sanctification is being set apart away from the world onto God. But if you are going to set yourself away from the world onto nothing, that's not sanctification. Because that second part, because sanctification, you need to set yourself apart away from something onto something. To set yourself upon away from something and onto nothing, you're basically still in one area and it's not going to do anyone good. This is why when we get born again, this is why God calls us, this is why God sets us apart, because we are no longer of the world. And if we're no longer of the world, why should we act like the world? Amen? It's very imperative. I mean, you take away sanctification from Bible Christianity, it's no longer Bible Christianity. See, a lot of people in this world would like to think, well, if I could say a prayer, Then I'll get saved. And then if I get saved, then I can live however I want to. But that's not the case. You can't just just see people with that mentality of, well, I'll just get saved and live however I want to. They have this mentality of, oh, I got I got my get out of hell free card. So I'll just go in and stuff like that and just whatever. Where's the fruit in that? See, if we're truly in Christ, we will bear fruit. But it's the Holy Ghost that will produce that fruit in your lives. And so, we can't get this mentality of, well, we could just do whatever we want and just be on our merry way. Because most likely, those who say that, oh, well, if I could just say a prayer, get saved, and don't have to go to hell. Well, I can just live however I want to. You know, truly, you kind of question whether or not they really were saved in the first place. Because, you know, it's just, you can't live however you want to. God does things by the book, and we also ought to do it by the book. Now, we can't do it perfectly, but there's one who did. Jesus Christ. It's only by the Holy Ghost that we can be able to do things by the book. Because we can't. Because Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. So we need the Lord. Amen? We need Him. John 15, 19, it says, So right there, you see Sanctification, the Lord sanctifying you. Why? Because he's called you out of the world. And because Christ has called you out of the world, the world is going to hate you. The world's going to hate you because you stand for truth. But you know what? Jesus has a promise. Fear not, I've overcome the world. And he promises us that he will be with us even unto the end. Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you, he'll never forsake you, but he will always be with you. The Holy Ghost will comfort us. Aren't you glad that we serve a God who we can have a relationship with, but we serve a God that loves and cares for us, even the smallest detail of your life. The Bible talks about how God numbered the very hairs on your head. If God went through all that to number the hairs on your head, how much more does He care about the small things in your life? He cares about the small and big things. Because that's who God is. God is a God of love. Matthew 121 it says and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins You know people who want to say well if I just say a prayer and then I'll live however I want to That actually goes against what this scripture says Jesus Christ did not go through agony. He did not die on that cross so you can sin more He went through that to save you from your sin. I So, people who have this mindset that they can live however they want to, they're ignorant of the Word of God. They don't know the Word of God. Now, does that mean that we should take it and thump them over the head and say all sorts of things about them? No. We just got to lovingly point them in the direction what Jesus said. Do it with meekness, gentleness, love, compassion. I know a lot of people that they'll go out and they'll street preach and it's good and all, but the problem is you get pastors and even people that are evangelists, they'll get contentious with people. That's not how we ought to be. We're not to be contentious. We're not to be brawlers. And actually, if you look in the qualifications of a bishop and a deacon, it actually outlines one who is not soon angry. Not to be a brawler. Christ is not a brawler. God is not a brawler. God is meek. He's gentle. And so I think we need to be mindful, even as Christians, when witnessing to somebody, we ought to take ourselves out of the equation and put others before ourselves. You know, it's like joy. Jesus, other, yourself. If you want true joy, put Christ first, then others, and then yourself last. As John the Baptist said, he said, I must decrease so he increases. Well, how do we decrease? We decrease by humbling ourselves. We're praying and repenting of our sins. Having Christ preeminent in our lives. If we want true joy, Christ must be preeminent in our lives. Now, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. It says, For you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You see, as one who is born again, we are not of our own. We've been bought by a price. What's that price? Christ dying on that cross. What did Jesus say? He said, it is finished. If it is finished, it is finished. And so we have to understand that Christ paid that price in full. And how and why could He do that? Because He is that perfect, spotless Lamb. Christ was at all points tempted as we are, but without sin. And that's the key thing. Jesus didn't have any sin. Because of that, he didn't just qualify as a high priest, but he also qualified as being that perfect lamb, spotless, without blemish. It's by his blood, his shed blood that he shed, that we're able to be cleansed, that we're able to be justified, sanctified, and eventually glorified when we go home. And as 1 Corinthians 7, 23 again, it says, ye are bought with a price, but be not ye the servants of men. We are bought with a price, we are not our own. In James 1, verse 21, it says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. I just absolutely love how meek our God is. Now what is meekness? Meekness is setting aside your rights for the benefit of someone else. Moses was the most meek man on earth, other than Christ. In the Old Testament, Moses was the most meek man. And we can learn a lot from Moses. Though he did commit murder and hid the Egyptian in the sand, but he did it, you know, for the sake of his brothers and, you know, his own brothers in Israel. And you know what? He may have been a murderer, but God used him in a mighty way. He led his people out of Egypt. But however, because of one sin, he couldn't enter into the promised land. God said, you won't enter in, but I'll show you it. And that's what he did. God took Moses up on Mount Nebo. God said to Moses, see all this land, all this land Israel will inherit. Then you see Joshua takes over and leads them in and divides out the inheritance. Joshua was only one of two people that came back with a good report saying we could take the land. It was Joshua and Caleb. So James 5 19-20, it says, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. Ephesians 2 10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. So you see that we're not just bought with a price, but we are His workmanship. And we're not just His workmanship, but God has ordained good works that we should walk into them. See, we are saved by grace through faith. We're not saved by works. We do good works because we are saved, but not to get saved. And you see that He has created good works for us to walk in them. It means that God already knows what you're going to do. Let's see, what was it? I think it was Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah, He said, before I formed thee in thy mother's womb, I've ordained you a prophet. So you see that before even Jeremiah was even born, God said, you're going to be a prophet. I'm ordaining you to be a prophet. And I think that's awesome that God knows he knows our future. He knows what we will do. And everything that we face in life, the trials and tribulations, we go through those things because God is preparing us for what he wants us to do. And so therefore we see that we are his workmanship. We are the potter, or no, we are the clay, he's the potter. He will shape and form us in the way that pleases him. Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16 to 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reprieve, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfectly thoroughly furnished onto all good works. All scripture. is given by inspiration of God. You know, if you want to know how we have, if you want to know if, how we have, if you want to know, you know, if we have the infallible inspired Word of God, it's this, is that holy men of God speak as they were moved. Which means God chose people, He chose His apostles and prophets, said, I want you to say this and I want you to write it down. By that, we know that God is the author. Man didn't author it, God did. He told His people what to write and they wrote it down. Therefore, if God authored it, He has a plan to preserve it. Amen? If God wouldn't be God, if He just said things to a whole bunch of people and didn't have a plan to preserve it, of course God's going to preserve His Word. He's going to keep it. You know, Like what the scripture says, thy word is settled in heaven. That means God's word is not up for debate. It's not up for question. What God says, he says it and means it and that settles it. And I think it's just amazing how God works in that way. Titus 2 14 it says who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar zealous a Peculiar people zealous of good works. So again, we when God sanctifies us he calls us to be a peculiar people a different people we're to as they say is stick out like sore thumbs when it comes to the world and But it doesn't stop there. It says zealous of good works. There's nothing wrong with having zeal. It's good to have zeal for good works. It really is. As believers, we ought to live holy lives and be separate from the world and sin. Just because we're saved doesn't mean we should live like the devil. Bible Christianity is not about living in sin. It's about being born again and sanctified. Bible Christianity is not about what you do for God. It's about what God has done for you in that he gave his only begotten son. He came, he was whipped and tortured, nailed on that cross, and he paid that price in full. And through what he did, we can have eternal life. Amen. Hebrews 11, 24 to 25, it says, By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And we ought to be that way too. It would be better for us to go through affliction and persecution than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. The thing that sin will only bring a person is death. It is not God's will for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. But when there's repentance, there's got to be a change. And when there's repentance and change, there's sanctification. And sanctification is not a one-time deal. It's a daily thing. Jesus said that we must humble ourselves. We must take up our cross and follow him. Jesus said if we're not willing to humble ourselves and take up our cross and follow him, we're not worthy to be his disciples. But we had to deny ourselves and put Christ first, for Christ should be preeminent in all of our lives. John 17, 15 to 19, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out to the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Pilate asked the question, what is truth? It's actually a very simple answer to that. That's Jesus Christ. Christ is the Word of God. And He's not just the Word of God, but He's the living Word of God. And it is by His truth and by His Word that we are sanctified, set apart. A lot of people don't realize that. You know, we're one election away from having communism in this nation. Sanctification is not a popular thing to talk about. Nobody wants to touch on it. Well, hardly anybody wants to touch on it. There are people who do, and those who do, they get weird looks from people because they don't want to hear it. But you know what? That's okay. We ought to preach the truth when it's unpopular. We have to preach the truth and tell the truth even when everyone else wants to bow down to the world. I want you to consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar said that when you hear the music, y'all bow down and worship the golden image which I've set up. And only three didn't. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they told the king, as a king, King we cannot it we cannot be careful to answer thee in this matter But if our God doesn't save us from that fiery furnace, we're not bound down to that thing And the question I want to ask you is this Will you be one of those that will take a stand for the truth to take a stand for Christ It may not it will be very rocky and people will be hated Jesus said the world will hate you Why? Because you're not of the world. You're of Him. But just know that it hates you because it hated Christ first. And if it hated Christ, they're going to hate you too. But Christ will always be with you. You see, there's always going to be a price to pay when standing for the truth. But you know what? All the sufferings in this world, cannot be compared to the glory which is to come. We may wonder, is it really worth going through it? I stand here to tell you, yes, it is worth it. Whatever trials and tribulations you may be going through and the stuff that's coming down that pipeline, it will be worth it to go through all that. It is through much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of heaven. The apostles went through it. we're not any different. Jesus said, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted him, they'll persecute us. But will we stand in that day? God knows. 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You may not have had a very bright past. You may have had a pretty gloomy past. But you know what? If you're born again today, the good news is you're out of that. God called you out of that. He sanctified you, washed you, justified you. Justification is God taking a sinner saving them and having that sinner be no more guilty of sin. And how is that possible? It's only possible because of the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the cross. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. That there was a necessity of Christ's blood being shed that we may be clean. And you know that it is not just for our sins. It's not for our present sins, but even our future sins. For it was 2,000 years ago that Christ shed his blood and died on that cross. But even today, his blood still has power. And I'll tell you what, those devils hate that blood. They hate it so much when they see, they want to run and scream. They can't stand it. They can't stand the word of God. They can't stand the blood of Christ. And there's power, great power, in his blood. 2 Timothy 2, verses 20 to 22. It says, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. You see, when we purge and put away sins, we can then be prepared by the master for the master's use, a vessel of honor. What we see is follow righteousness, faith, charity, and peace. Charity is love. Christ is the prince of peace. To follow righteousness, Christ is our righteousness. God says you have no righteousness. Your righteousness are as filthy rags in his sight. The only righteousness that God will accept is that righteousness of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Because Christ is the fulfillment of the law. He is the fulfillment of everything that God wanted us to follow but couldn't. Christ did. It's through Him that we are made righteous. So, let's see here. I do have a couple of sections of verses here. I don't actually want to get into that. But what I actually want to do, I want to go to Jonah. Jonah chapter 1. It's going to be the book of Jonah. I've got to find it here. Oh. Sometimes jonah is kind of hard to find it's kind of in the minor prophets So just bear with me, uh, so jonah We're actually going to do jonah chapter one Because I think there's a lot there that we need to look at and we're not going to spend all the time But I just want to take a quick look at it and i'll say this kind of in closing Okay, so jonah chapter one. It says now the word of the lord came on to jonah the son of amitai Saying arise go to nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paired the fair thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. I'm going to stop right there for a second. But we see that God had specifically said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh, and I want you to preach to them the preaching I told you to preach. And we know that Jonah went the other way. Literally, he was being a little rebellious. See, this is kind of how your life matters. Because part of living a life that glorifies Christ, we ought to obey Him. As we sung tonight, trust and obey. For there is no other way but to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. You see, Jonah knew how wicked the Ninevites were. And you kind of saw too in that, that he didn't want to do it. He knew God was a gracious God. He didn't want to go. He knew how wicked they were. He was kind of hoping that they would just perish from off the earth. But you realize in the last chapter, God asked Jonah a question. He says, Doest thou well to be angry? He said, Yeah, I do very well to be angry. And God had to explain to Jonah that there were many people in Nineveh that didn't know from their left and right hand. And you realize that when Jonah preached the message that God wanted him to, a whole revival broke out in Nineveh. I'm telling you what, this is what America needs. America needs a revival. But how are we going to get that? Well, 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 7.14. is gonna tell us how we're gonna get that. It says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The key of revival is not voting the right people in, though that's a good thing to do. But the key of revival is for God's people to repent. God's talking to His people. He's not talking to the lost and dying world. He's talking to His people. That if we humble ourselves and seek Him and pray and repent of our sin, He will hear from heaven and will forgive our sin and heal our land. Our nation is in dire trouble. Like I said, we're one election away from having communism in our nation. It's heartbreaking to see where we've been going in our nation. And the truth of the matter is, I think that if we had more teaching on sanctification and God's righteousness and holiness, we might actually be a little better off. But the fact of the matter is not many people are willing to preach the truth. As the Bible says, is that God would send a famine in the last days. Not a famine of bread, but hearing of the word of God. I think that's twofold. Number one, people don't want to hear the word of God. Number two, you really can't find a whole lot of people that want to preach the truth anymore. They just want itching ears to go after mega church people that have money. And then they buy into all the nonsense they preach and then they give them Thousands of dollars expecting a return and God's not going to return that. It's a prosperity gospel that these people preach and that's what they want to hear. Now I always say is be careful what you ask for because God will give it to you. I'll say this, consider Israel. Consider the days when Samuel was the one who anointed the kings. The people told Samuel, and I think, if I remember correctly, it is 1 Samuel 8, I believe. Either 1 Samuel 8 or not, I think it's 1 Samuel 8. That the people... He told Samuel that your sons are not following after you. And they begged Samuel for a king. They did. They grieved Samuel. Samuel didn't want to get grieved him. Went to God in prayer. God said, Samuel, give the people what they want. They haven't rejected you, but they rejected me. And what was going on during that time, people were doing that which was right in their own eyes, not God's. Because they were doing that which was right in their own eyes, they were rebellious to God. They rejected him, but they wanted a king. God gave it to him. Samuel, tell them what man or king they're going to get. You read through what God told Samuel. They wouldn't have any property. All that would be handed over to the king. They couldn't defend themselves. And actually, if you see, Saul and his son Jonathan were the only ones holding weapons in his military. But Israel was left defenseless. Correlate to what's going on now. Got politicians that want to take your guns away. They want to leave you defenseless. That's why I say, be careful what you ask for, because God will give it to you. And when God gives you what you want, you may not like it. And so I just want to encourage you. I just want to wrap up by saying this. I want to encourage each and every one of you today. that strive to enter in the narrow gate. I want to encourage you to be a light in this world. Stand on truth. Endure hardness like a good soldier, because I promise you, when you take a stand for truth, when you take a stand for God, hard times are coming. But I want to encourage each and every one of you to endure that hardness like a good soldier in Christ. Amen. Because in the end, when you take a stand for the truth, when you take a stand for God, it will be worth it in the end. Amen. Let's all stand together.