Okay the night we'll talk about cleansing again because Saturday I preached Isaiah the first chapter about though your sins be as scarlet and They should be whiter than snow And he was talking about purification but along with that purification He says be clean. Let me read that very that for me for you It was in Isaiah the 16th chapter I Mean first chapter 16 verse wash you make you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes Cease to do evil. So we were looking at wash Wash me wash you make you clean put away the evil from doing your From your evil doings from before your eyes cease to do evil So that was something that they had to do because the people, just as the people are today, were in a terrible condition. They were backslidden, they were going to church, they were going through the motions or whatever, but they were full of blood, they were hypocritical, they wasn't what God had meant for them to be. That has so many different aspects to it for us today, for us today if we want to make an application of that when he says, wash and be cleansed. He's also talking about the cleansing of the spiritual temple when he says, wash and be cleansed. So we know that our bodies, our bodies is the temple of the living God. And in Psalm 51 and 10, David says, creating me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. So inside his body, see he knew that the sin he had did with Bathsheba wasn't just a physical thing, it was a spiritual aspect to something was in him. He knew he needed a new heart. We have to have, our heart has to be made new. It's a heart and spirit are put together so that we understand David was asking this of the Lord that flesh was weak through the law. So if we look at that in aspect of Jesus Christ coming and birthing us into his body, the only way this cleansing can take place is through the Holy Spirit, is by the Holy Spirit. We got communion coming up this weekend. I wanted to talk to y'all about that a little bit later on. But what does it mean when it says examine yourself, examine yourselves? 2nd Corinthians, the 6th chapter, 16th through the 7th verse, I mean 16th verse through the first verse of the 7th chapter, he says, Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? Paul exhorts these same Corinthians, he says, And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all Filthiness of the flesh and spirit let us That us and is in a state where he's talking to us, but it's the spirit doing it through us The spirit in us doing it Helping us to get this accomplished because it has to be cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and and of the spirit because there is a spirit in man, there's a human spirit in man that lusted to envy and that fighted against the spirit of God. It's the spirit of this world, the spirit of this age, something that was formed that we have to purge. And the spirit helps us through the word to purge this from us. It says, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfected holiness in the fear of God. Because we are God's children, we are special, but nothing of our own selves makes us special. It is only that God dwelling in us by His Spirit that separates us from others, and that's what makes us different. Jesus says in John the 14th chapter and the 23rd verse, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. In other words, not just knowing his word, but become a doer of that word. And my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now this should make us think what kind of home we're providing for the sovereign God and Lord of glory. Is it a home that's set up and watch all kinds of things, put everything before it? Is it a home where that's gonna be subjected to lying and thievery and all kinds of things because if he's living in us, that makes him partake of everything that we do. Since our temple is, our body is the temple of the living God, if we greed the spirit, the things that we do, and if Christ is in us, he's actually seeing and living and doing the same things that we're doing. So that ought to make us cognizant of what type home is. Just like your children, you know, a lot of parents don't want to fight in front of their children. A lot of parents, watch what they're saying or doing in front of the children because it wouldn't be example. So we have to practice the presence of God, that God is with us all the time. And he's not gonna dwell in an unclean temple. Just like he left Jerusalem and he leaves God's people, he will not dwell, so that's gonna cause us not to have the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Our desire to give God nothing to judge as unworthy of his presence should run all through our physical thoughts to our most secret thoughts, because he sees the thoughts and intents of the heart. So if the spirit dwelling in you, we subject him to conniving, thievery, anything that's in our mind or whatever, because those are being processed through our spirit man and his spirit trying to communicate with our spirit. So clearly everyone falls short. But this is why Paul exhorts us to cleanse ourselves, continually maturing in the holiness and the fear of God. So we are to scrub deeply out of deep reverence for him who dwells in us that we should, it grieves us. Like I said the other day, I said something I shouldn't have said. If you do sing, I was telling you about, I said something to my granddaughter, I shouldn't have said, I should have thought about it. It makes you more conscious or aware of what you're doing and the things you do if you're sensitive to God. And some shows, I get right in the middle of the show and I can't finish watching the television. I can't watch this because it's subjected the spirit in me to other foolishness, to other discord with God. Certain conversations I couldn't be a part of, certain things I have to tell people and just be direct with it, of the hope that lies within me, and if I allow this, if I tolerate this, and it causes me to be on a stricter path, because I have to purge the old man of communicating and going along that which is evil. We have to be, if we grow in the grace and knowledge of God, we have to be as Job. It says, Job and Sean evil. In other words, he stood up against evil. We have to stand up against what's not right. We can't be unequally yoked with the infidelity of the things of the people of this world. And whether it be a business association, whether it be just anything, we have to start thinking with the mind of Christ. And how does that make the body of Christ look? That's why he punished David so harshly because he says, David, you've caused my name to be blasphemy among the Gentiles. In other words, he didn't abstain from appearances of evil, because if you're doing something that reflects upon this church, if you're saying something on your job, in any part of your life, that reflects back to the people of God. What the Word is doing, it is washing and cleansing us, is trying to restore our virginity. And that means that We have to be pure. We have to be not idolatrous people. That's why I say spiritual adultery and fornication. We have to look at these things from a spiritual aspect. I know a lot of the Jehovah's Witnesses and things in Revelations 14 and four where they say the 144,000 are called virgins. Some people seriously think that this was people that didn't have sexual intercourse or whatever when it says virgins, but the scripture doesn't back that up when it says that. It doesn't back that up. If we was to put line upon line and word upon word, we could use a verse like 2 Corinthians 11 and two, which applies a better answer for us. I think it's a better answer there. The Corinthians was a sexually active and perverted culture as any in history, just like this culture is. just like this nation is. So how do we look at that spiritual aspect to someone that's born again, that's born a new, created a new creature? Paul says that his goal was to present them as a what? A chaste virgin under Christ. A chaste virgin under Christ. So the euphemism here applied as being a chaste version, so he wasn't talking about sexually, physical sexuality. Ephesians 5, 24, 26 shows the people of the church that defy by sin becoming what? Unspotted. He says, unspotted without a wrinkle, holy and without blemish. The word is able to wash you and put you into that pure state as one that has never sinned because The justification put in purification puts you in a state of holiness, a state of purity, a state that's what the white rose is a symbol of, is purity. So that's why we have to watch what religion and churches and things because spiritual fornication or adultery, that's what he's talking about. Not dabbling in different religions or different doctrines or teachings or whatever. Ezekiel similarly shows the same thing, Israel as a type. In Ezekiel 16 and 9, he shows Christ cleaning up the bride. It says, cleanse sinners that they was to be sprinkled, and it was to sprinkle clean water upon them. That was in Ezekiel 16 and 9, and cleanse them. I said the cleansing power is through the Holy Ghost, by the Holy Ghost, the cleansing power of God's Holy Spirit. John 6, 63, it is the spirit that quicken. Flush profited nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Well, let's read that in the living version. It says, the spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. It makes you alive. The word makes you alive. So John is telling us how we become clean and what makes us life. We become clean as we apply God's word. And we come to life as the application of this word in us starts to energize us. We're being regenerated. We're a new man. We're being a new creature in Christ Jesus That's why it says continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is God's Spirit which has made us alive and birthed from our spiritual deadness and sin. Because Paul said, we were what? Dead in sins and trespasses. Whereas the Word of God, the Spirit had quickened us and made us alive. God the Father opens a person's mind by his spirit, giving the newly called individual insights into an understanding of his word and awareness and appreciation of God and his purpose. The importance of Jesus Christ and a sense of guilt regarding sin to a degree had never seen before because it convicts us of our sins. That's why it starts to show us, that's why I say a lot of times circumstances are downward passing our lives, is when we see God and we realize just how much of a worm we are, how much dirty, how much, how sinful we are, just who we are. Once God convicts us and he starts to show and understand us as his word walks us through that, as we start applying his word to our lives. God's Holy Spirit cleanses us from the effects of a dreadful past. So though I was seeing this be as scarlet, as crimson, you remember I was telling you about how bad, how stainful? Crimson is a stain that won't come out. Have you ever seen a stain that had been washed in and it had set? But Jesus Christ's word, the word of God, washes you and purges you from all sin. He didn't say from some sin, but from all sin. So this presenting you a chaste virgin is putting you back into a state where you can be reconciled to God. And that's why Peter says in 1 Peter says, be ye holy as I am holy. We're striving for a cleansing and a washing by his blood in the water does that his purpose is his purpose the importance of Jesus Christ to us each day grows we start to see more it was growing the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ Paul writes of the unconverted in Ephesians 4 18 this is the person that's unconverted he says having their understanding darken being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. That ignorance and blindness begins to be lifted by means of the new birth. I keep telling you where you start to see through a glass darkly. You start to see more clearly. You become aware each day, you become more and more aware of you applying God's word. This process of understanding and growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ is an ever increasing, it's an ever faith increasing process because we go from trial to trial. We go from strength to strength. In other words, we're continually overcoming in Jesus Christ. The new birth through God's miraculous infusion of his Holy Spirit is not by the waters of baptism, it's by baptism of the Spirit. You're baptized into the body of Christ. The water is just symbolic of an outward burial and rising, you're buried with Christ. It's an outward identification with the body of Christ. that you'll bear it with him, so you should rise up to walk in the newness of life. This new creation follows the same pattern as in Genesis 1, 2 through 3. It says the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Then God says, let there be light, and there was light. When the new creation, the spiritual creation, the sinner is perceived by God as dead and in spiritual darkness. It's like the earth was in darkness and void and didn't have life when God spoke and said, let there be life. When God's spirit infuses us and the word becomes a light, a lamp unto our path, it leads us into eternal life. And that's why without that spirit, you're alienated and you're in darkness without God. Then God sends forth His Spirit to draw the sinner to Christ and into spiritual life and into the light, making the sinner His child. It is God, by means of His Holy Spirit, who produces this new birth. That's why you have to be born again, but it's a process that God initiates. God has to do it. This is something that Jesus does. If you look in John 1 and 4, 644, and 8 and 12, you'll find some scriptures relating unto that. But we have to be aware because there's a flood upon us. I think the flood, you remember they said about the house, the man that built this house up on a rock, and it was a solid foundations, and the wind blew, and the rain came, and the storms came, but since it was founded up on a rock, it didn't move. Well, in Revelations, we hear of a different flood, Revelations 12, in 15. It shows that, it says that, let's see, I think I got that into another, I had some talking points that I put to the side, I think on this one here. I wanted to single it out because this flood we're talking about here, and just like the flood in the last days, I mean, he says this wasn't going to be a fire, water, but it was going to be fire this time. And the serpent, Revelations 12, 15 through 17, and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let's read that in the living, it says, And the serpent hurled water like a river out of its mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the water. rivers which the dragon had hurled out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went off to wage war with the rest of her seed, those who keep and obey the commandments of God and that is the testimony of Jesus Christ. So who is fighting in this war? It looks like the true children of God really have a fight to fight against the devil and his angels. Against this dragon that spewed out this flooding water because These wasn't so overcome. And we see in the latter days that the churches has apostatized. The flood has caused the churches to apostatize because just like the water is the word of God, strengthening and it's the spirit of God in his people, in his children that strengthen him, the devil also counterfeits everything God does. So there's a flood of ungodly doctrine. There's this false doctrine, false preaching. And you'll see through the internet, television, and just in the public in general, everybody has a church. Everybody has a doctrine. Everybody's teaching and preaching the word of God. And you have so much, but these carried the church off. They says the woman, in other words, these people are in the churches. that has apostatized because they have moved away. This doctrine, this false doctrine, has washed him away. The deceit of Satan's ministers that were transforming the angels of light who have spoken great swelling words. And I told you about it was the evangelical community that had emplaced and ensconced the government that we have now. The government that's running this United States of America, it's by the flood of false religion. Most of the evangelicals that's behind this government, it's all wrong. It's not the same Jesus. That's why when Satan comes back, he's gonna fight against those that keep the commandments of God. Notice that the ones that were carried away are the ones that this flood carried away. Wasn't the one that keeps the commandments of God. who obey the commandments of God had the testimony of Jesus Christ. He has to go back to fight against these because those in the church, those in the churches of Revelation, those are the ones Jesus Christ said he was gonna fight against. He's allowing that strong delusion to come in where they believe lies instead of truth. So the flood of water, the doctrine that's coming out of the false prophet's mouth, that's what's coming out of the beast's mouth, that's what's coming out of the dragon's mouth is deceiving the people, but it's religious doctrine. Remember I told you, doctrine is the problem. It's the teachings that's the problem. So we see here this flood that comes out. In John 7, chapter 38 through 39, we see where water clearly represents God's Holy Spirit. With its representation of God's Holy Spirit, this flood that the dragon releases has to be demonic, has to be those that Paul promised that there'll be members of your own body that rise up speaking great swelling words to draw away the many. that the poison of asthma are under their tongue. In other words, the deadly deluge of false doctrines is the church's problem here. Then it's a doctrine that doesn't wash and cleanse them, but they'll be thinking by their works and what they're doing that they have been following Jesus, but they have been deceived, but it's not possible that the very like would be deceived. As we continue on, this usage in turn has a connective connection to another usage important to this, what we're talking about in Revelation and understanding. Paul writes that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. So we have one water that would wash and cleanse and purify the saints, but then it's one water that would wash them away. that because they're not built upon a solid foundation. Remember I told you last week, watch how you build if you build with wood stubble and hay. This purges away the ones that are not in Christ. Just like he came and purged Jerusalem. You remember he promised, I told you, he promised the people of Jerusalem that he was gonna purge. They was gonna be left desolate. It wasn't gonna be but a 10th remaining, a remnant remaining. So the doctrine, the teaching, this is meant to purge the church. In other words, cleanse all, it's just like he cleansed the temple of the money changers. This is to get the wrong ones out of the church, out of the true church, to gather them in bigger barns to be burned. But the Wheaties go gather in a different place. Jesus said, it is the spirit which gives life and the flesh profited nothing, as I said. Words, like water, have an awesome power to do good or bad. The power of life and death is in the power to talk. It can set the whole course of nature. That's why we have to be careful what we speak or what we say. They can give life, like Jesus' words, they can devastate and destroy like a flood of water when it's out of control. They had something in California the other day where the rain, I mean the fire, was burning up parts of Northern California, different towns or whatever. But the rain was coming to help. The rain was going to quell the fire. But the rain also caused a problem because it caused avalanches and floods and devastation. So in other words, it can help, but it also can hurt. So you got waters that carry power of life and death, but you have waters that Pictures like this flood coming from the serpent's mouth, the very place on the body where words emanate. This flood may someday materialize and come out as a different thing, but we have to watch what's going on and that Satan is going to try to influence us by the word of God also. But it's a correct misuse of the word of God that he's going to be doing. Jesus said to the people in John 6 and 12 that he was the light of the world. Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I'm the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. He is life. So as I talk about spiritual cleansing here, I want to talk about spiritual cleansing from spiritual fields. Jesus John 3 and 5 Jesus answered to them I say unto you except the man be born of the water and the spirit he cannot He cannot enter into the kingdom of God We'll read that after the New Living Version and it says I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being of the water and of the Spirit. No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of the water and of the Spirit. We need to consider that Jesus also uses water in a figurative sense here in John 3 and 5. It was in a figurative sense. That's not a literal water. If we look at John 4, we're not going to turn there. John 4 and 13 through 4 gives us a bit of a clue as to what he's talking about. Jesus says to the woman at the well, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Natural water, literal water. coming out of the well. He says, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. This water that Jesus speaks of in no way can be literal then, huh? It was literal water. She was talking about it by drinking, but then the water he was talking about had a spiritual aspect to it. It had a spiritual aspect to it. On the last day of the feast, we see where he said these things. Let's go here to explain a little bit more. John 7, 37 through 39, let's expand this definition a little bit more. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, Let him come unto me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit. So we see that a lot of times when he's speaking about things, it's kind of a simile, a metaphorical, but it's not always literal. So he says, he spoke concerning the spirit whose those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus hadn't been glorified yet. But he stood and said that this water, what he was talking about, was spiritual in nature. So the water from the flood that we were talking about, that Satan is talking about, that overcomes the people, It's also spiritual in nature, but it's the wrong spirit. Jesus' spirit gives us life, but then, as Peter said about Paul, some people rest the scriptures to their own destruction. So they have a misunderstanding of scripture that is not a proper interpretation of it. It's not given to where it produces life, it produces death, like the Pharisees. They knew what the Word of God said, but they didn't understand it or couldn't interpret the Word of God. The application of the understanding of the Word wasn't there. He says, search the Scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life. See, but the life is in the Spirit that giveth us life, that makes the Word alive to you, to where the words that Jesus speak, they become spirit, they become life in you. It's a life-giving spirit that quickens us and makes us alive. I told you about Peter, when he says, be ye holy because I'm holy. Listen at first Peter. 122 23 he says since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of the brothers how did purification come by obeying the truth through the spirit So you have to have the spirit to be able to obey and to be able to walk and to be able to be purged from this, to be able to be pure. In other words, to be able to be holy. He says, since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of God. So by this washing, by obeying the truth, is what wash you or cleanse you because the truth is what sets you free from bondage. It cleanses you, it washes you, it gives you a liberty in Christ. That's how you become pure, by taking heed. How shall a young man, I think Psalms 119 and 91 and 19 says, how shall a young man purges or cleanses ways by taking heed to the word of God. So, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God. Remember this word of God is what washes you, it produces the life, it produces the love, that's how you're born again, is through the word, which lives and abides forever. The imagery of God's word, yeah, I was looking for was Psalms 119, I might have said nine, I mean 91 or something, but it's Psalms 119 and nine. It kind of puts the idea of a cleaning, cleansing power, like OxiClean or something. You know if you're washing clothes or something, you want to put a cleansing agent in there, a whitening agent. Remember I told you about the liquid bluing or something? It's liking the water because water cleanses, but it's not. That's why they use the imagery of water, you know, for washing. For many years, everybody washed their clothes in water. Water washes away everything. Like I said, the rain, the flood washed away some things that was good things or whatever. It says, how can a young man cleanse his ways? How can a young man cleanse his ways? Anybody? By taking heed according to God's word. By taking heed according to God's word. Jesus adds in John 15 and three says, you already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Why? That's what he said. That's why he says you're already clean. So he that is clean need not to wash, save his feet, because you're continually getting them dirty by washing through, walking through the fields of the earth, just contact with other people. You know, that you have to be cleansed of your daily dirt. That's why we ask Him and pray to Him daily of whatever. Because after working all day before you'll run, jump into bed, you probably gonna wanna take a shower. Paul says in Ephesians 25, 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the Word. So we see the synonymous use of the word water and the word washing here, and all of it is talking about the Word. That's the cleansing and the active ingredient, but it's by and through the Spirit. So we see the unity here, the unity of the Spirit, of the Word, of the Son of God, of God Himself. It is God's Holy Spirit that is the instrument of both the cleansing and the birth of the divine nature in us. So, it's both. As I told you, you had a trifold effect. Water intensifies and magnifies spirit by means of figurative ways God's Holy Spirit is shown working in us as a means of God's light and life-giving word. a spiritual power of cleansing. And that's what I tell you. It's used analogous, a different way sometimes. But we have to watch ourselves and how we're using it and what it's actually saying to us. What it's just actually saying, how we're using the word. And that's where studying comes in. Remember I said we must study to show ourselves approved Rightly dividing the Word of God. Rightly dividing the Word of God. One other way I wanted to talk about water, and I briefly mentioned Ezekiel to you, and I didn't want to get my notes out of order, but I think I've come across it here, about the water in Ezekiel 36, 25 through 37. I said water is talked about as making you clean also in Ezekiel. It says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. So I don't think he's talking about just sprinkling water as the Catholic Church or some people sprinkle babies or whatever. I think he's talking about the water in a way of not just at one time dousing or whatever but You know, when they sprinkle the blood on the altars or whatever, he's talking about a total coverage of it. But it says that water, sprinkling that water, you remember it says, come unto me, all ye that hunger, thirst, and hunger, and drink, and I'll be rivers. Well, here he's using that same analogy of water, cleansing them, but there was to be living waters coming from your belly. Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Here the water has a cleansing effect, and it says, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. You remember I told you idolatry had to go. You couldn't have any idols above you, but you also had to be clean from your spiritual filth as well as physical filth. That's why we have the analogy throughout the Old Testament of the priest having the continually washed. You have that symbol of water being used as he told John the Baptist. Suffer it to be so he said that I'd need have need to be baptized, you know Jesus say for a righteous to say suffer it to be so so He says I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you I would take out of you that stole old stony heart out of the flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I Will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments to do them. Now what's happening here? You remember the sprinkling of the water? And I told you sometime that's analogous of a cleansing agent, that Holy Spirit, that through the law it was weak through the flesh that we couldn't do right. The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know the heart? And I told you there's a spirit in man. That spirit that we strive against, because that's the human nature, that spirit in us, when you do good, evil is right there. It's always tempting you to a humanistic response. It's tempting you or pulling you, but that's why it says it will give you a new heart and a new spirit. and that's what give it life, the spirit give it life, but the word that is placed in you, those laws are written on your heart, and that's what empowers us to do the will of God, to do the word of God by having faith in believe it, he who believeth in me. We have to believe it now. We have to have that faith that it's Christ in us, and that we are born of that spirit. I will cause you, who's doing it? The Spirit's causing you to walk in the statues and you will keep my judgments and do them. So it's actually us literally doing it and physically doing it, but it's the Spirit that is empowering us to do. Whereas they couldn't do that in the Old Testament times or whatever because the Spirit didn't work in that fashion. Remember I said, Jesus hadn't been yet crucified. But see now, since his crucifixion, that spirit, he had to go away. But the spirit's gonna guide us and lead us in all truth. So if we the temple of God and we have the spirit of God abiding in us, God the Father and God the Son said they was gonna come in and sup with us. How do we get stronger? We start to cleanse our ways by taking heed to the word of God, doing it. And by doing that, we get greater light. We grow stronger and stronger in more confidence from faith to faith, from trial to trial. We're growing in the grace and knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ. So John is telling us how do we become clean. We become clean as we apply God's word to our life. And you remember Isaiah says, wash you, make yourselves clean. Sentence wash yourself. So how we could do this by doing the Word of God applying it actually to our lives We have to be doers not just hearers of it. It gets in us and begins to clarify and purify our thinking And we will go over that in a few months or another couple of weeks it purifies our thinking because in this same chapter says well, they'll come down let us reason and Because my thoughts ain't like your thoughts. See, we have to start thinking right thoughts. We have to be able to bring every thought into the captivity and obedience of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what the helmet of salvation is. We have to stop imagining vain or bad things. Stop thinking wrong. See, that's the problem is our thought life, our thinking is not right. And sometimes, that's why I say it's watching television and participating with the wrong people or the wrong association or place the wrong thoughts and ideas in your life and in your mind. That's why in the days of Noah, he says man's thoughts was continually evil. So you can't be wrong for what you're thinking. That's why Jesus said, he who looketh after a woman, the lust after that committed sin already, because that's where the idea starts to germinate from. That's what we have to purge ourselves. That's where the purging starts to come from. That's why that lust that's within us, he said, James said, that's where wars and things come from. It's within you, it's in your members. This is something we have to purge and purify out of it, and only the word of God As we cleanse it, we have to put new furniture back in or more demons gonna come in that's worse than the ones we had. As we're cleaning up the house and Jesus coming to dwell, we have to put his word in there, germinate it with prayer and doing the word of God. But it does not become real cleansing until it begins to be used. We have to use, we have to be a doer of God's word. Then it begins to clean up our bad habits and our thinking process. The thinking process changes according to our action and our behavior. So it says, let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. We have to have his mind, the mind of God, by the transforming of the renewing of our mind, we got to start thinking differently. We got a new processor here, we have to process our thoughts, because there are ways that seem right to us that was death and destruction, and they were right to us, but that we have to start thinking God's thoughts after Him. Because His thoughts are the right thoughts. Our thoughts are nothing like His thoughts, and our ways are not like His ways. If we keep doing the same things all the time, nothing changes. We are resisting. Walking denotes living. If we live as he lived, then we become cleansed. And this is what holiness is. If we do do that, then we will produce fruit. It is impossible not to. Because what a man soweth, he shall reap. And Jesus went around doing what? Good. Jesus went around helping. Jesus didn't went around doing the will of the Father. That's what you say he came here to do, was the will of the Father. I just read to you, 1 Peter, a while ago, cleansing through the word, 1 Peter 22 and 25, saying, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love. Notice the implication for one's mental health in this passage now. Today, health experts exploit or emphasize eating organic foods or things grown without harsh chemicals. You know, they're riding on the organic wagon now, and that stuff is higher than anything else or whatever. Non-organically grown foods are known to be deficient in nutrients and may also contaminate the body. We've seen this with what it was on the latest, the... Romaine lettuce they say contains some, because a lot of these chemicals and things, but it was some deadly thing. A lot of times these farmers use certain toxins to kill the insects or whatever. And that's why a lot of people say, well, you need to use, eat organic food and cows that's on organic, you know, naturally grazed cows or raised eggs and all this. But anyhow, Modern health practitioners also emphasize the cleansing the body internally through certain regimens. My son rules goals through that. A lot of the young people love those fads of liquid diet. They purging themselves. They using this. But the world does that because it's a money making thing. I think the big thing now to a lot of them is the keto diet or something. I think a lot of people are saying something about the keto diet or something. Well, Peter is saying a similar thing here in spiritual and a moral and ethical content. Because you remember, I tell you, the world's gonna mimic everything God mimics. I mean, God has. The devil's gonna counterfeit it. That's the spirit of the world, because you know, a lot of people fast and lose weight, and I got into it with my doctor about weight and everything, because What it does is it's coming from a self-centered perspective. That's what God looks at. What's the intent and the motive? So Peter looks at this from spiritual and moral and ethical content. He says God's word, God's pure word can purify the mind, freeing it from the corruption of our pre-conversion experiences. This will happen though only if we consistently daily eat it and use it as we would eat and use good foods and feeding and caring for our physical body. So it's no way I can sit there, these movies, one of the things I was watching, one of the, I think it's The Rookie or something, and he was going with this young lady on the rebound from his marriage or whatever. But this was a, communication that God doesn't recognize. She shouldn't have been sleeping with him anyhow. See, because if they're not married, movies that portray not abstinence from sex, but sex with any number of partners or before marriage or whatever, that's the wrong ideology. So we see that most of the new movies and most of the things on television now, you really can't cheer or be with anybody else because ultimately they ain't sin. Their intentions in everything was sin. Because 1 John 1, 7 says, but if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His son cleanses us from all sin. Let's do that in Amplified. But if we really walk in the light that is, live each and every day in conformity with the precepts of God, in other words, being not partaker of another man's sin, we can't listen and follow the future of this world. No preacher, no priest, no child of God could sit down, listening at the cursing and the reverie of the night life or the things that's going on, the music, the things of this world, and then folly after God. The evil association we unequally yoked. Love not the world or the things of the world. So that's what kind of make us come out from among them. We're going to be more selective in what we watch. We're gonna start being like Job says, he put a set no evil thing before his eyes. He made an agreement that he wouldn't look up on a woman to lust after. Maybe David should have had that agreement. The stronger we get, because God wants us to be overcomers. But see, that's when your relatives or people will say, well now look, you being too extreme, you being trying to be too extreme. Well, we have to be extreme with sin. Sin will overcome us before we know it. Let's say if you play with a puppy, it'll lick your face. Sin is not to be played with. Joseph didn't entertain part of his wife for one minute. He ran away. Flee. It says flee fornication. Flee you for lust. Because you can't take bosom in your fire and not be burned. You can't tease and play around on the job and play with sin without getting burned. We should have shown evil, we should have shown sin. He says, we walk in the light as He lives, and every day in conformity with the precepts of God, as He Himself is in the light, we have true, unbroken fellowship, one with another. He with us, and we with Him, and the blood of His Son cleanses us from all sin by erasing the stain of sin, that crimson, that blood stain, that though it be a scarlet sin, That blood is able to erase those stains, keeping us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations. That chaste virgin, without a spot, without a wrinkle. We could be brides dressed in white arraignment. White is a symbol, a symbolic of purity. I think I was watching something the other day, I heard on the, somebody, it was the sixth, I don't know how many times they had been married or whatever, and they said, well, what color the bride should wear? The light is the truth, God's word is truth. We have to walk in the light as he's in the life to cleanse us from this filth. He lives, if He's living in us, remember the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. The body is the temple of Jesus Christ. The body is the temple of God. Our body is not our body. So He's dwelling in there with us. If He is in us, and we in Him, we are in union with Him, so we can't do what we want to do. We can't say what we want to say. It's going to be a bad thing on Jesus Christ. It's going to make it look bad. It says, David just calls my name and to be blasphemous. John is telling us how we must become clean. We become clean as we apply his word. I think I went over that part. OK. We're almost at the end of this lesson. Sister Eric should have been here at night when we finished our night on time. As I said, we were. I think that may be the last thing I have for y'all tonight. The Bible frequently mentions the word of God in conjunction with birth and life. Psalms 119 and 50 reads, this is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has given me life. Paul adds in 1 Corinthians 4.15, for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. The gospel is composed of words, and we are instructed in James 1 and 8. Of his own will, he brought forth us by the word of truth. So that word, speaking the word, is what brings us to life. It brings us to consciousness. It washes us and cleanses us of our sin. It's all in the Word. That's why we have to abide in the Word. And that Word is able to make us and strengthen us and give us life. It waters the stump. In other words, you remember the tree that was chopped down? Well, we were dead in sins and trespasses, but by getting the nourishment of the water, as I was telling my wife the other day, look like she's coming back much stronger now. I think her physical health, her mental health, her spiritual health is coming much stronger. Now, what she didn't like, though, was six weeks she had to stay in the hospital. It was giving her antibiotics. It wasn't comfortable, and she couldn't eat what she wanted to eat, and she had to stay hooked up to IV all that time. But the suffering came first. After the suffering, then came the rewards and the benefits from it. So the churging of God's suffering is like, we've had trials and tribulations, but the antibody, the Word of God, it's what's making us stronger. It's what's purging us. That six weeks of drowning her body in that antibody was supposed to purge any bacteria any germ, anything that could affect her well-being, anything that could cause her to be sore again, anything. Bathing that within six weeks, the effects of that constantly, it was constantly in there. They didn't stop. When one IV thing ran out, they'd place another one in there. We would read God's Word every day. We'd have to read it every day. We can't skip and miss days and things even though we do. And that's why it says, if any man sin, he has an advocate with a father or whatever. So I know it's gonna be days you may not do it, but we should strive because as we pray, what are we praying for? Our daily bread. That's the necessary bread. Man shall live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And that's what we need, that water that comes out of the mouth of God. So with that, we go in this cleansing by water tonight, and we'll pick up from here on next.