The direction that I want to take would really have to do with really how all those things came about. How it was that Abraham could be called the father of the faithful and how it was that Rahab is written down and remembered and her life took the change that it did. And really, before I get into the specifics of what I want to talk about, I just want to just make sure that what I'm saying is clear in the whole package of what we're talking about in salvation because I think it's really helpful and it really helps to clarify what we're talking about. Again, if we talk about God's work and His people or salvation that's given by God through His grace as a package deal. It all comes together because it's all given by God and it's all by grace. And so whenever you are a recipient of His grace, of His salvation, there are certain things that come along with that. Now, the last time we talked about sanctification of the Spirit, or maybe it was a time before, but we looked at the first part of Romans 8. And if you weren't here for that, I think it's right around verses 1 through 14, I think. And the theme of really what we put there was just because you don't doesn't mean you can't. And the whole idea is this. At one time, before you were born of the Spirit of God, while you were still under the dominating influence of the flesh, or the dominating influence of your depravity, you could not please God. It was impossible for you to please God. You didn't want to please God. And there was no way you could want to please God. But then, as Paul continues on with his teaching there, he says, but now you are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is life, and the Spirit brings life. And then as he would continue on, he would talk about what the Spirit does in the believer's life. And really just to hold, I say a hold, when we scan the New Testament, we see that the Spirit brings forth fruit in the believer's life, that the Spirit gives the believer the want to, follow God, that the Spirit opens blind eyes, that the Spirit convicts cold hearts. As a matter of fact, the Spirit replaces a stony heart with a heart of flesh that can be pierced by the Word of God. And so all those things come through the Spirit. And so that is a must. That is a necessity for anything to take place that Brother Isaac talked about this morning or anything to take place as far as sanctification goes. But then there is And for you, this is not going to be a surprise because this is kind of my soapbox. And one of these days I'm going to move on to something else. But there is something that we do to pursue sanctification. It's a it's it's a joint effort. And the only reason we put any effort into it is because God gives us the effort to put in. But nevertheless, it's there. It's there. And so when we think about that, I want to think about Abraham, the story of Abraham, and really the things that Brother Isaac talked about this morning that were amazing. Because really, whenever we look at Genesis, with a lot of these guys, when we look at their story, we're getting little bitty snapshots of what happened. And so there are these big things and these details that went into that, and these huge sacrifices that are all packed into the words, Abraham left Ur. I mean, that's what we get. Abraham left Ur. Well, what does that tell us? That just tells us that Abraham left. It doesn't tell us everything that he sacrificed. It doesn't tell us all the ridicule that was there. It doesn't tell us all the heartache that was with him as he left. It doesn't tell us. And as I say that, I mean, the things that he was leaving. It doesn't tell us about all the confusion that was going on in Abraham's mind. It doesn't tell us about his family and what they were thinking about during all that. It doesn't tell us about any of that. It just says that Abraham left earth. Or whenever you think about when God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the only thing we really hear after God calls him to do that was that Abraham got up early and he saddled his donkey and they left. That's what we hear. We don't hear about all the heartache. Now, when we get back over, we do hear a few details and some of the things that Abraham Faith in God allowed him to embrace during all that time. But if you don't think that was the longest night of his life, we're crazy. But you know what detail we get? Abraham got up early and he saddled his donkey. In other words, Abraham knew exactly what he was going to do before he did it. He knew exactly what he was going to do before he did it. Abraham left Ur. because God called him to. You know, it would be interesting and it would maybe even, you know, helpful to some extent to get all the details of what all went into that. And I don't want to read too much into it, but for no other reason, I think maybe those details are left out to let us know that while there are some complicating factors and a lot of choices, the choice is not all that complicated. While there's some complicating factors in all that, the choice is not all that complicated. Because when you get down to it, you're either going to serve God and obey God, or you're not. Or you're not. And so once someone has the Spirit of God living in them, has the ability, has the influence of the Spirit in their life is not under the domination of sin. In other words, they do not have to be mastered by sin. Well, then the way that you put the message to work that Brother Isaac preached this morning is that you obey. Is it easy? No, I'm not up here saying it's easy. I'm not saying come on now. It's just simple. You ought to just get up and obey. That's not what I'm saying. But when you boil it all down, you obey. You obey. It's simple to say. And the only reason I'm saying that is because a lot of times we try to make it a little more complicated than that. If we just had a little bit more of this, or if we just had a little bit more of that, or if we were in the first century church, things may have been a little different back then. Or if circumstances here were a little different, or there were a little different, or if this influenced here. But see, that's not it. Because remember, it all gets boiled down. And when I say this, I don't want to come across harsh. I don't want to come across as over simplistic. But let me tell you what else I don't want to come across as. I don't want to come across as vague. I don't want to come across as preaching a sermon, but really saying nothing at all. I don't want to come across as trying to tell you what God's done for you and you get finished and you can't make heads or tails out of what in the world has been said. What does God call us to do in order to change? Well, we've gone over this passage that I'm going to read several months ago, and maybe it's familiar to you, and I hope it is, because in my mind, or at least to me, as far as Jesus's teachings on obedience, on our relationship to him, This is one of the most powerful illustrations that he gives. And it's in Luke chapter 17. It's in Luke chapter 17. I use this a lot. Well, it's just because it's great. It's plain. There's nothing confusing about what he's saying here. Jesus and Luke 17. I'm just going to start in verse one, it says, then said he and his disciples. It is impossible, but that offenses will come, but woe unto him through who they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, then that he should offend one of these little ones. And then here's the teaching, really, I want to get. Take heed to yourselves, if your brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. Now, I want to say this. Jesus is teaching here a really, really difficult teaching if we were to really, you know, take it and try to apply it instead of just read over it. I mean, forgiveness is a really hard thing if someone has done one bad thing toward you. It's pretty difficult if someone's done several bad things. But you can imagine if someone had seven times in a day had done the same thing to you again, again, again, again, and again, and all you get is their words saying, I repent. How difficult it would be to act toward them in a way that's loving and in a way that does not reflect what they had done toward you. And so the disciples hear this and they look at Jesus and they say, Lord, give us more faith. Increase our faith. In other words, This is beyond where we are. Have you ever felt that way? This is beyond where I am now spiritually. This is beyond where we are as well as a congregation. We might think that or this is beyond where we are just as individuals. I need a little more. Lord, increase our faith. Supernaturally, give me. More strength, more understanding, more maturity, which maturity we do need that. But give me more of what I don't have. I'm unable to do this. And I want to tell you this, when God gives you, and I want to say it this way, when God gives you the package deal of salvation, you can do all things through Christ. You can do all things through Christ. I want to tell you that when I say that, I don't say that as a little catchphrase that means you can overcome your bitterness. And maybe a few other things, but that's just about it. Or I don't say that to mean in some invisible realm out there that nobody else will ever see that we call the spiritual realm where there's some private thing going on between you and God that will never affect anything else. You can do all things and you're a victor in the realm where nobody sees. That's not what I'm talking about. You know, a lot of times we think about the whole spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, spiritual relationship with God as some invisible something out there that's just personable between us and God. And there's really no measuring rod for it. And there's really no visible effects for that. And don't judge so-and-so here, so-and-so there, because it's their spiritual walk with the Lord or whatever. Maybe I'm overstating it, but I don't think I am. We usually think, really as a society and really us, Me, we usually think about the spiritual realm, about the Kingdom of God, as just some invisible thing where you just really can't see anything that's going on and, you know, we'll trust that everybody's doing okay because in their heart, they're good folks. I want to tell you, that's just not it. That's not what Jesus taught. That's not what the Apostle Paul taught. That's not what Peter taught. That's not what anybody in the Bible ever taught. Because the teaching of the New Testament is this, that whenever the Spirit does a work in your heart, and your heart is turned from stone to flesh, and God gives you the will, the want to, to follow Him, then your physical body gets up and follows Him. Your spiritual maturity is displayed, as Brother Isaac talked about, through your outward works and the things that you do. And so that when you love somebody, it's real sacrifice when you love them. You're really put out when you love them. It's not always something where you're skipping along whistling because you're so proud of your own spiritual growth here, your spiritual growth there. And sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's a spiritual anything. Sometimes you're just so aggravated you can't see straight. But love really can be seen. Really is patient. Really does endure. Really does put up with a bunch of stuff you wish you weren't putting up with. really does reach out to folks and you want to know something else about it. If you're born again and you have the package deal of salvation, you have the capacity to do that. Do you know what you need to do? You need to obey. You need to obey. Sounds too simplistic, doesn't it? But that's why really it's so difficult to do, because I say you need to obey again. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's something that you again wake up wanting to do. I'm not saying that it's something that you just can't wait to get to. But what really where I'm coming from is where Jesus comes from here as he responds to the disciples as they look at him after he's told him to forgive somebody seven times in a day and they say, Lord, increase our faith. And then here's his response. This is verse six. Jesus said, and the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto the sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it would obey you. But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet. and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten and drunken, and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he think that servant, because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do." Now, sometimes we read through here and miss what Jesus is saying here. In verse six, when he starts and he says in response to their plea for more faith, he says, if you had faith as grain of a mustard seed, you might say to the sycamine tree, be plucked up and he would be plucked up and it would obey. In other words, you're saying it's not it's not a shortage of faith that you have, that's not it. It's not the fact that you don't have enough faith. He said, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, little bitty, tiny mustard seed. In other words, I've given you what you need. That's not it. It's not the faith. You don't need extra, extra power. You don't need an extra measure of some spiritual dose that you don't already have. He says that's not it. But then he goes to the picture of a slave. King James Version says a servant, but what he's talking about is a slave. who has absolutely no say so in what goes on. And he says, which one of you having a slave, a slave who is in complete subjection to his master, a slave who does not get up every day and say, well, I think I'll do this and I think I'll do that. But a slave that gets up every day and says, I know I'm going to have to do this and I know I'm going to have to do that. I know I'm going to have to do that because that's exactly what my master requires me to do. That kind of slave. Which one of you having a slave when he's gone out and he's tended the cattle, and he's plowed the fields, and he's worked all day in the heat, and he's worn out, and he's tired, and he's hungry. And when he comes back in, which one of you are going to say, go sit down and feed yourself and take care of yourself? Go take yourself a shower, get cleaned up. Let me fix you a meal. You just go relax. Well, really, in the parable, Jesus' response there is that that would be unthinkable. But when the servant's been out plowing, and when he's been out working, and when he's dead tired, and he's beat down, and he comes in, he says, this is what you're going to say. You go into the kitchen, and you fix my favorite meal, and you set the table, and you get your clean clothes on, and you serve me that meal. Now think about what he's saying here. A guy that's worked out in the heater, a guy that's worked outside all day long, and he's got to smell that food as it's being cooked, and he's got to see it as it's being prepared on the platter there and on the plate, and he's got to watch it as he goes out and his master eats it in front of him. This is the picture Christ is painting here, and it's not one where the servant's more than likely jolly to do it all. He's probably wishing he had some of that. After I'm finished, the master says, you'll take the dishes and you'll clean them up and you'll clean the table and get everything the way it's supposed to be. And then you go eat. Jesus tells that whole story to make this point. It's not that the disciples needed more faith, they needed more faithfulness. That's what they needed. In other words, they needed to be able to live beyond their feelings. They needed to be able to live beyond what they wanted at the time. And they needed to be able to live in such a way that what their master commanded them to do, they did. And I'm going to tell you, we're the same way. It's not that we need more faith. We need more faithfulness. We need to be willing to be more uncomfortable in our own selves if that's what God requires of us. And I'm going to tell you, he does. We need to be willing to be stretched. We need to be willing to be outside of our own comfort zone. Because whenever Christ gets finished with this parable, and at the end of the parable, really what we have is a slave that has just worked himself to death all day, salivates over a meal that he prepares for his master, serves it to him, cleans it up, and then he gets to eat after all that. And then he says, so it's the same with you. When you've done all these things, so likewise, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say this, we are unprofitable servants. We have only done that which was our duty to do." Now, at first glance, that seems kind of harsh. That seems kind of, I don't know, not too encouraging to us. But you need to think about the word picture and the parable really that Christ is saying here, that he's showing us here. We have a couple of people in it. Number one, we have a slave. And number two, we have a master. A slave and a master. Right before he makes his application there in verse 10, he comes up to verse 9 and he says, at the end of all this thing, after the servant's done all this, Does the master think that servant because he did the things that were commanded of him? No way. No way. Again, that's not harsh. It's not mean, it's not mean spirited. But he just says, no, he doesn't do that. Why doesn't he do it? Because he's expected to do that. Whenever I go to school and I teach and I get finished with the day, You would think it was ridiculous if I told you I ran to the principal's office and waited for him to say thank you for working and doing such a great job before I left school. Wouldn't it be ridiculous? What about on payday after I got my paycheck and I snatched it up and I ran to the principal and the vice principal and I just kind of sat there waiting for him to tell me what a great job I had done? Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Some of you guys that are bosses, what would you think? You know, it never crossed my mind when I was working for Brother Reggie, whenever we had something to do and he had me do something, it never crossed my mind after I got finished doing that to go wait at his heels for him to say, thank you, Louis. No, my thank you came on Friday when I got a paycheck. That was expected. And that's the exact same picture. I mean, it's not exact same as me working for Brother Reggie, but it's a it's a slave master deal. That's the picture he's painting here. Do you want to know how to become more godly? Do you want to know how to pursue sanctification? Then you see things the way God sees things. And the way God sees things, and this language is all throughout the New Testament, God sees things as if He has redeemed you from your sins. And the picture is you were a slave, just like the slave right here. You were a slave to sin. And He has bought you out of that. And now you have become a slave to righteousness. What does that mean? That means whether you like it or not, God is your master and you obey righteousness. That's what it means. Now, does it mean that cut and dry? Does that mean we take any old person off the street and say, OK, now you come in and you obey this? Absolutely not. What it means is when a person is born again and when a person is regenerated by the Spirit of God, then you can take that person in and you can disciple them and you can teach them and they've been equipped through the Spirit of God and the package deal of salvation to become a slave to righteousness. That's exactly what that means. Does it happen overnight? No. Is it easy? No. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it expected? Absolutely. Let me say that again. Are we expected to change? Absolutely. Absolutely. In no general hocus pocus fuzzy ways, in specific ways, we are expected to change. Peter, and I've gone over to 2 Peter, and maybe in the next couple of weeks we'll bring some messages out of there, not to run away from what we're at, but to add on, because he talks a whole lot in 2 Peter about this whole idea of sanctification, and he gets real specific right there in 2 Peter chapter 1, as he talks about adding to your faith. moral character or virtue into that knowledge, into that self-control, into that, I think it's brotherly kindness, into that charity. If you have these things, you shall never fall. Peter's real specific about outward things, outward works that you can really see that the Spirit does in an inward way in every child of God. And you know what he says about them? You pursue those diligently. You pursue those diligently. It's the whole idea we talked about several weeks ago about training to be godly. You're doing it on purpose. You're pursuing it. And if the Spirit's in you, if the Spirit of God is in you, you have what you need to obey God. You have what you need to obey God. And so it's through diligence and it's through a commandment-centered or oriented, I guess, way of living and not some feeling deal that we pursue sanctification. Now, does it take the Spirit to do that? Yes, it does. It does. But I'll tell you one way you can become stagnant your entire life, and that's if you try to figure out the Spirit's formula for working in you, and when is the appropriate time for you to jump on and try to do something, because the Spirit's doing this, and how are you going to respond to that? You'll never do anything. You'll never do anything. If you're trying to figure out, OK, I've got this here, and this here, and this here, and this here. I'm not saying we don't need the Spirit. I'm saying we do need the Spirit. But I'm also saying this. We don't have a little detector inside of us that's saying, OK, Now it's time for me to start loving somebody, or okay, now it's time for me to repent of this sin. That's not it. When your sins are brought to light, that's the time that it's time to repent. When you figure out that you're not treating someone in a loving, kind way, that's the time that it's time to start treating that person in a loving and a kind way. And I say all this because the Bible is plain. It's plain. And God encourages us, and God gives us what we need. Not so that we're some downtrodden, beaten slave that walks around with our head down because we hadn't done any more than we're supposed to do. That's not it. But it's way better than that. Because if we go up a little further in 2 Peter 1, we find out that all these things, all these things that he's talking about, is part of us becoming partakers of the divine nature. Part of you becoming just like Jesus Christ. through obedience, through the Spirit, through sanctification that's worked in you and that you take part in. Let's pray.