We've entitled the day's lesson, Awaken from Spiritual Bondage. Awaken from Spiritual Bondage. The 52nd chapter and the 31st says, Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come in unto you. The living reading of that version That was the amplified, the living version reads, wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, and clothe yourselves with strength from God. Put on your beautiful clothes, O Zion, holy city, for sinners, those who turn from God, will no longer enter your gates. Well, that's a good thing. The church looked forward to that time when we have permanent members coming in. In other words, people that are coming in has a repenting mind. They're really putting on Christ. It's no longer the uncircumcised. The churches for years and years have been getting those in, and this goes all the way back to the time of Israel, the children of Israel. People that were included in the people of God, but really were not God followers. They defied God, they rejected God, they rebelled against God. We're looking for people at the church today, people that are hungered and thirsted for righteousness. Coming up on that highway to holiness, those that are presenting their bodies as living sacrifices under God. You read that reading coming from Daniel yesterday, that ninth chapter. And I tell you that word was oblations. And that's what we're looking for at this time, oblations. An oblation is an offering of yourselves. our lives and labors in union with Christ for the purpose of God. Our Christian oblation is based in Christ's one offering of himself for our salvation. The ones that I really wanted to hear, that hopefully everybody hears that or listens to that. But yesterday, I wanted everybody to focus on that word. I say a lot of times when we're reading the opening scripture, how God brings it into unison, bring things all into unison. And that was something, and I said, let me focus up on that. I brought up, I kind of fine tuned that point about that oblation. As Paul said, he was pouring himself out as a drink offering. Some of this comes from Peter. We'll find these Old Testament quotes in the New Testament, as if the Leviticus, the 19th chapter, the second through the fifth verse, where it says, be ye holy. It says, speak unto all the congregation. This is God talking to Moses through Aaron's convicted speech. He says, speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Ye shall fear every man, his mother and his father, and keep my sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Turn ye not into idols, nor make to yourselves molding gods. I am the Lord your God, and if you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, you shall offer it at your own will. It's free will offerings. I have that up on that door. Tithes and free will offerings freely you give to God. These things are volitive. In other words, you give unto God and a lot of us give out of the abundance in which God has given unto us. He loves a cheerful giver. And it's your body that we're really presenting unto him as a holy. That's our reasonable sacrifice unto God. Here in the book of Exodus, the sixth chapter, the fifth through the eighth verse, it says, And I also have heard the groanings of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have faithfully remembered my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord your God, and I will bring you out from the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage. I will redeem and rescue you without stretch of vigorous powerful law and with great acts of judgments against Egypt. Then I will take you for my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who redeemed you and brought you out of from under the burdens of the Egyptians. God promises to bring the children of Israel out of their bondage. And we understand this also applies to us in this day and time, because what was written unto them was written for our admonition. Those was our examples and samples, admonitions unto us into this latter day, into which this falls upon. To Jew and Gentile, these promises were made. And that's to God's people to freely eat. He sees our bondage. I talked about that yesterday, that we had been drinking of the cup, but he voluntarily takes our cup from our hand that we had been handed in life, and he drinks of that cup. But then he offers us his cup of salvation. He said, now you must drink the cup. Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. And that's why we will take of the Lord's Supper as a memorial unto him. In us, he is getting to the root of the problem. The roots of the problem. You remember John the Baptist said, that ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree that bring it forth that good fruit is honkeying down at the root. Now we know that the Old Testament was weak through the flush. It was weak through the flesh and we're no different from the Israelites. And that's why Peter in the book of Acts when he said, why would you put them under the bondage of the law in which we wasn't able to keep? Why would you try to put them under that old law? But now we are under grace and truth, which was brought by Jesus Christ. Human nature has not changed. Nor has Satan of the world changed, none of that changes. And God had condemned the world, he had condemned all that was in the world, and the Satan and all of those things. So the solution has to be a change of mind by the pure word of God, a change of mind. You remember he didn't give them a heart to follow after him, but he gives us a heart, a new heart, a circumcised heart. A heart inclined to follow God, a heart that has his laws written upon it. In other words, a new consciousness, a new awareness. As I say, let that same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. We're being transformed by the renewing of our mind, a different thought system. Where some had their conscience seared as with a hot iron, we ourselves have a heart toward God. It's a mind toward God. We learned from John 8. chapter in the 32nd verse, that the truth shall make us free. And so the pure word of God, he said, he had given them his word. And through the sprinkling of that word, through the washing of water, through the regeneration, that's how we become a new creation in Christ Jesus. We're born again. And he given us of his spirit. Man, he had done a work in us. We find in the book of John 8 chapter in the 44 through the 41st verse 44 through the 45th verse that Satan was a murderer and a liar from the beginning and that just as Cain was of his father the devil because he was a murderer from the beginning and a liar. He even told the people during his day Jesus says you of your father the devil. There are two seeds in the earth. Those are those characteristics and likenesses and attitudes and minds and dispositions of the world. Now, Satan was the one who tempted Adam and Eve and we can understand then that our bondage is directly tied into the lies and deceits for Satan go about and he deceived the whole world. The whole world lies in deception unless we are born again. And I'll tell you, by eating up that fruit, it not just was a direct obedience, it did something to them psychologically, mentally, intellectually. It changed the radical change that came about, brought about that we now, to become children of God, we must needs be born again. We have to be born again. Now, this sin nature, this thinking, this thought, he says, my thoughts are not like your thoughts, your ways are not like my ways. This what we have to be broken free from, that's what has us in bondage. Paul said in the book of Romans, I can see another law within my members. Bringing me into bondage into death. So this was something Paul seen this thing working in him when he was filled with the Spirit of God. He seen another thing within his nature that old man, that old carnal man. When you attempt to do good, evil is right there with you. God never lies. His word is always true. We can rely on it. And if we use it, it keeps us free and protects us from falling back into the world once again, not getting entangled into the things of the world. I walk circumspectively myself. Some things aren't bad, and it says laying aside every weight and sin that besets you from running this race. So some things that are not sinful, I end up not doing any hunt, not that it's a sin, but that it may be a weight that entangles me back into this world in which I've escaped from, bondage from. So it's a little bit different for each individual. There's individualness in salvation. We're not all fighting the same type battle or with the same circumstances. All of it, the precept is about the same. But the statutes and judgments and the way of this battle varies along the way. We have to come out of our own personal spiritual bondage, regardless of our location, because that is the real problem, the bondage of sin, and it's not geographical. I tell you, it's not a geographical coming out of Babylon when he calls us out of the world. It's a spiritual bondage. is what has us bound spiritually. Now, we physically remain where we are, but something else has to be added, something else, and that is the spirit of God. Within us, he had birthed us again. He had given us his spirit to lead and guide us into all truth. That's what the spirit does. Life takes its value from its goals and purposes. Life takes its values from its goals and purposes. So most people's purpose in life is merely physical. They have different goals. If they could complete this, they could call that a success. They have been prosperous in life, and they have different measures set. So that the things that they pursue in life and the means whereby that they pursue these things and that they use to accomplish their goals are what are bringing everyone into bondage, because we have to follow after the truth, and the truth is what sets us free. But our own selfish ambition and ways is what bounds us and brings us into the bondage of death. For there's a way that seemeth right to a man, and the end thereof is death and destruction. Without being radically changed into the view of Jesus Christ, a man's ways is right in his own eyesight. The goals are carnal, and the ways of reaching them also are carnal. And we know that the carnal man cannot please God, and the fleshly or carnal man cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And it has worldly works and worldly pursuits and the works of the flesh are involved there. So we have to be radically changed to pursue a spiritual agenda. A spiritual agenda like the second Adam, Jesus Christ. He was made a quicken in spirit. He makes us a quicken in spirit. We are rebirthed because all of us are walking after the course of this world. And I told you what the course, the pathway was a manner of living in this cosmos, this present world, this eons, this way of life that we are in. It's not circular. It's linear and there is an end to it. But Jesus Christ is infinite and there's no end to Jesus Christ. We will have eternal life, everlasting life in him, but this life does come to an end. And Christianity, its great goal causes a person to set the very highest of standards. That's what Christianity does because we want our ways to please the Lord. We want to be pleasing unto God. That says David was a man out of God's own heart. So the objective of the goal is the kingdom of God. That's why we pray, thy kingdom come, that thy will be done. That's the standard of perfection. That's the standard and measure that's taught in his word. No goal has a higher standard than that of the kingdom of God. He says, of men born in years among women, there were none greater than John the Baptist. Now, it takes a pure word to keep one strengthened to accomplish this goal. So when it says awaken, awaken, and put on your strength, O Zion. And I tell you, in the living verse, it says, wake up, be aware. Jerusalem clothe yourself with strength from God in other words put on Christ Put him on we hear Ron DeSantis in the culture fighting against wokeness in the culture no one wants you to be woke and That's what happens. It's quickening of making a life once you start to begin to be woke. I The flesh is weak. When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he asked them to pray with him. He said, can you pray with me? And they couldn't pray with him one hour. He says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And that's what society, that's what most religions and things do. It closes the eyes, it's a covering, and they call us occult because of our preaching and teaching, but really, the Christianities and the religions of the world, occults, they cover over the truth, whereas we uncover the truth. It's the difference between cult and occult. We uncover the truth. We're led by the truth. It's the truth that sets us free. But the world and religion and everything seeks to keep you bound to it. Religious culture today bonds you to it, bonds you to a preacher, bonds you to a church, bonds you to these other things. Whereas we need to enjoy the liberty that's in Christ Jesus, that's why he died, to set us free. For freedom, And we need this freedom from bondage. Now, Hebrews 4 and 2 says, for unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Now, this is the word preaching to the the Hebrew church, that the gospel was preached unto Israel, the children of Israel, just like it was preached unto us. The gospel has that ability. That's why we preach the word of God. The anointing breaks the yoke in a spiritual preaching sets the people free. So faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by hearing the word of God, and you can only hear it through a preacher. How can they preach unless they be sent? Right? Moses was sent to the people of Israel. Now, they heard the words of God. Listen to Exodus, the fourth chapter, because it says, to them, the word profited them not, because it wasn't mixed with faith in them. And it says, Exodus 4, 29-31, And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed that when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked up on their affliction, then they bowed their heads in worship. So just like Moses and Aaron did signs and wonders, Jesus came doing signs and wonders and preaching repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And here he is, God saw their affliction, he heard their prayers, he heard their crying and sighing in bondage in Egypt. And he come down and says, I've heard you, and I'm gonna set you free by my powerful law. And if they would believe God, they would be set free. But they're like many a Christian today. It's not mixed with faith. All they had to do was believe God. God heard them. They didn't ask God. God volunteered. It's just like Jesus Christ took of our cup. This is something he would, he did willingly. He didn't require, he laid down his life willingly for us. He was our sin substitute. He did this willingly. Now, This clarifies that they heard the gospel as it applied to them as good news that they were going to be set free from bondage of making brick and straw in Egypt, that the Pharaoh was causing the toil and heavy labor, and that they were ruling over them. Well, that was good news. told all of the elders, just like we go back and tell the elders, Jesus came and told the apostles, and he said, those that believe on you, on me through their words. So that's why we go about preaching the gospel, and whoever hear it and believe it shall be saved. But there's what's mixed with faith. They would be freed from slavery and be taken to the land of their forefather Abraham, which would be given unto them. They was going to be taken to the promised land. God was going to free them. When they heard this, all they had to do at this time was to give their mental assent that they believed, and they just would start walking and leave and go away from Egypt, cross over the Red Sea. You remember in Corinthians, it says they were all baptized under Moses, all baptized through the sea. By going through the sea, that was their baptism. How much overcoming had they done? None. They didn't do anything. God did it all, just like now. God does it all. That's why he came down here and he did all that was required of him. And when he had done it all, he said, it is finished. So there's no work required for us to obtain salvation. It is finished. All we have to do is just like Israel, walk there without murmuring and complaining. Murmuring and complaining brings us into bondage, just like it kept them into bondage. And God got so filled up with it, he says, all of their carcasses is gonna drop in the wilderness for not believing that I can do what I say I was gonna do, and for murmuring and complaining. God had already set it in his mind that he would save them, and all they had to do at that point was agree, just like us. All we have to do is accept him by faith. that this has happened, this is something that was done, that's what we're looking at, the promises of God. So it's a spiritual, not a physical bondage that we're in, even though they were in bondage during their time, and they tell you, we were never in bondage to anybody, we were born free, but they were under Roman oppression at the time when they were telling Jesus that. Now what they heard was good news, it was fantastic news. Until Farah turned up the heat and their joy of hearing the good news turned to affliction and persecution. And that's why when preaching the gospel, I tell people, you will have persecution. And he said that in his preaching and teaching, and the apostle said it. In this life, you'll have persecutions. But see, we just like them. When a little persecution or suffering or affliction come, we go to memory and complain. Oh, I'm tired of this old man. I don't want to eat this same thing. Well, it says be content with such that you have. This is bread from heaven, but you got tired of it and you want meat. You want quail. You want all these things to eat. You went a little bit further and you're remembering the leeks and the cucumbers and the melons and the garlic and everything. All this was physical stuff that your body, the pleasures of your body, all of this. But you don't remember that you was also in slavery and in bondage then? Well, it's the same with us in the world. That's what keeps us in the world, the attractions and the things of the world. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. That's what holds us, engenders to bondage in this world. So I say it's a spiritual bondage. Bondage is bondage. It's the same bondage now as it was then. We must break free of those things. Don't let it have power and authority over you. That's why it says those that had escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, You will be in far more worse shape if you allow yourself to get entangled in that again. Now this was part of God's purpose too, because what they were experiencing, the combination of believing and then receiving a test was beginning to show a difference between Israel and Egypt. And that's why I say trial and testing shall come. Drinking of the cup, It's a test. It's a trial. We have to partake of, if we will be partakers of his blessings, we have to be partakers of his suffering because that's drinking the cup. When you drink the cup, that means you partake of everything that's included in which that person that has the cup has. So that's why I say we can't be partakers and drink the cup of demons or we'll be partakers in the plague. He says come out of her unless you partake in her plagues. So we can't follow the world and associate with the world as we do, for we'll be partakers of the world plagues. He said, if you come unto me and be ye separated, I'll put none of those plagues upon you that I put on the Egyptians. None of those sicknesses and diseases will fall upon you if you would obey me and follow after me. Now, a kind of sanctification or setting apart was taking place. And that's why he gave them dietary provisions. There were dietary provisions. It set them apart from the people in which they were around. We don't have those dietary reflux separations today because we know that we're not commended to God by the foods that we eat. food doesn't commend us to God, food or drink. That's why a lot of people get tied up in it when you go to going against wine and alcoholic beverages and everything. Don't preach the scriptures if you don't understand the scriptures. In other words, preach it and say, well, you don't understand, but that's what the words say, but you may not understand. Don't try to explain things you don't understand. We have to seek knowledge and understanding from God. We pray to him for wisdom to lead his people. But that's what happens. We get entangled in wrong teaching when we try cultural norms, when we do cultural norms and follow after popular thinking. In this part of the process, it was more difficult for the Israelites than it was for the Egyptians. And in the Israelites' estimation, it was greater than they could bear. Like Cain said, his punishment was greater than he could bear. Sometime, what it is, your flesh has got accustomed to the things of the world, not that you have to fast away from those things. You suffer from spiritual withdrawal, because you then got accustomed to certain things and that's why we shouldn't get accustomed to certain things. That's why I told you some things may not be sin, but it's a weight and we know it says laying aside every weight and sin. Gluttony is a sin. Eating is not a sin. But through partying and riotous living and carousing, we could get entangled into a sin. to where it borders and it becomes sin. So that's why sometimes they say everything done in moderation. This difference intensifies throughout the plagues and we'll see that it's gonna be a great trial and tribulation that comes up on the earth. It's gonna be a time of great trial and tribulations. Now, this is an exhortation to awaken morally and spiritually, I told you, not such a physical because sleeping is not a sin. Natural sleep is not a sin, but slowfulness is a sin. In other words, sleeping when you shouldn't be sleeping. You know, when he asked them to pray for him one hour, and instead of them being able to stand up that hour, they naturally fell asleep, which is not a sin, but it calls for spiritual fortitude. That's why they couldn't cast out the demon infested inside the man's son that they brought to him, because it says this one comes about, goes out only by prayer and fasting. So it requires a greater sacrifice on the behalf of the follower of Christ. That's why I say we're not all the same. Some may not confess. Some may not can stand up and do endurance and do other things. So like I said, it's gifted to each in the follower pattern. So God know what you're able to do, what talents he have given each and every one of us. Isaiah 26 and 19 says, thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thine dew is the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead. When reading that and studying that in the book of Isaiah, we don't look at it that that's talking about the resurrection. That's talking about a quickening of God's people. You remember Jesus when he was going to, they said, let me go back and bury my father. And he says, let the dead bury the dead. Well, you know, the world is dead. We're all dead. We're dead in trespasses and sin. So this wasn't literally a death, but this was a figurative way of preaching. This was figurative. Let's read it in the Amplified and then in the Living Version. Amplified says, your dead will live, their bodies will rise, you who lie in the dust awake and shout for joy, for your due is a due of celestial light, heavenly supernatural, and earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead. They amplify. We're homing a little bit closer because Job says, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I should see him for myself. Now, all throughout the Old Testament, they didn't understand what Christ was talking about was a new birth. This came into play when it came up to Nicodemus when Jesus said, you must be born again. He said, how can a man be born again? Should he enter into his mother's womb and be born again? But no, it wasn't gonna play out that way. It couldn't play out that way. It was that, It says, yet we have this assurance. Those who belong to God shall live again. their bodies shall rise again, those who dwell in the dust shall awake and sing for joy, for God's light of the world will fall upon them. But Job knew this, and this is pointing, like I said, some parables of some of the prophecies are dual in nature, but I don't see this one as being dual, but I do see it as saying that he would bring life back to Israel after captivity. He would bring them back as a people in their wholeness, not that he would give up his spirit to them in a resurrection type way. But here in the New Testament, that's why I was saying it was written for us in this latter date, that in the New Testament, we see that this is a quickening and a making alive, that we were spiritually dead. and that his spirit enters us and wakes up. Paul said he was dead once when the law entered in, but the trespass, that's when it was imputed to us. But then God quickened us, he justified us, put us in right standing with God. When Christ died, he quickened us, made us alive, he imputed his righteousness to us, and now we have eternal life. And we're brought back to life. He had quickened us and made us alive in Him. So that's one of the readings of that. That verse, 51st verse in the 17th chapter in the Amplified Version. I read that earlier, it says, wake yourselves up, wake yourselves up, stand up, O Jerusalem, you have drunk at the hand of the Lord of the cup of His wrath. You have drunk the cup of the staggering intoxication and drunken the dregs. Stand up, wake up. So we see that he's talking about a spiritual arousal. It's like I told you about this saying, the woke generation, the secular using woke. In other words, you come to a consciousness, awareness of what's going on. We have been on a stupor, a spiritual slumber, but now he's breathed life into us, he's quickened us, he's given us awareness of these things. Romans 13, chapter 11, verse is, and that knowing the time, that now is high time to wake out of sleep, for now a salvation is nearer than when we first believed. So we see a resurrection in the church, as it said in Daniel, that dead bodies shall live again. Those that believe in their God, they will shine brighter and brighter. The church is coming back to life. It's the same thing that he was preaching to Ezekiel. He said, Ezekiel, can these dead bones live again? And Ezekiel said, Lord, you know. He said, Ezekiel, speak to the bones. Cause the bones to come together again. And then that's when God called the wind, and after the bones and the flesh, he put flesh and sinews up on the bone, and then he called to the winds of the earth, and the spirit entered into those bones, and those bones lived again. It was symbolic of the house of Israel coming back to life. Those that was cast away into captivity, into bondage, and come back to life. That's the church in the New Testament that he's calling back from Babylon. That's the one that no sinners, no uncircumcised, no unclean is gonna be in the church at that time. This is the highway to heaven. This is the highway of holiness, that no fool or liar, nothing's gonna enter into this, but that that worships and prays God. This is a renewed people. This is a spiritual vitality of God's people. First Corinthians 15 and 34 says, Awake to righteousness, awake to righteousness. And said not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. There's a lot of people out there in churches or in place that know not God. They know not God. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. They're denying the spirit. In the Amplified Version, that 15th chapter in the 34th verse reads, be sober-minded. In other words, be sensible. Wake up from your spiritual stupor as you ought, and stop sinning. For some of you have no knowledge of God. You are disgracefully ignorant of him, and ignorant of his truths, And I say this to Yoshe, you should be studying the scriptures that's able to make you wise on the salvation. In them, they have life, they give it to you life. In the scriptures, he says, I speak this, the words that I speak, they are living, they are life, they give us life. They give us of his life. And as we preach the word, it's the power of God under salvation. I told you we're drinking of the cup of his salvation. My cup, run it over. He's gonna give me an everlasting life. I'm gonna be able to communicate that to others. I'm gonna be able to sing and declare the praises of God to the mountaintops as I so let my light shine that men would see my light and give God the glory. The living version says, get some sense and quit sinning. He's not willing that any of us should be ignorant. You need to go and study the word. Forsake not to assemble together yourself. Gather around and learn of me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Know what the word says. I say this to your shame. I say that some of you are not even Christians at all and never really have known God. Ephesians 5, 14 says, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepers, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. As the New Testament say, He shall dawn upon you. You know how, when the darkness is there and then the dawn, the light starts to break it. When you get up at 4, 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and you see the light coming over the horizon, Man, this is a new day. And it's gonna get brighter and brighter. About 430 at five o'clock, you looked out there was a little bit dark at 6, 630. It's as bright as like a daylight out there. Well, what if you that got up at the breaking of dawn at the crack of dawn, you'd have seen the light rising up. We're not partakers of another man's sin. Romans 1.32 said, Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So I don't even want to associate with you for doing evil or the evil you're doing. I don't want to even hear about it. I'm not fit to sit here and watch this on television. I'm not about to get involved in your wickedness. He says, as a brother, be a fornicator or an adulater. I have nothing to do with it or associate with it. It says, although they know God's righteous decree and his judgment, that those who do such things deserve death, yet they not only do them, but they even enthusiastically approve and tolerate others who practice these things. You knowing they're wrong and you tolerating and putting up with somebody that do these kind of things. Don't do as the wicked. Proverbs 4, fourth chapter of Proverbs, the 14th through the 17th verse says, don't do as the wicked. Avoid their haunts, turn away, go somewhere else. For evil men can't sleep until they've done their evil deed for the day. They can't rest unless they cause someone to stumble and fall. They eat and drink wickedness and violence. Back during the Vietnam War, popular saying was, what if they threw a war and nobody came? It illustrates that we condone and lend support to activities that we attend. That's why I don't just go to anybody's church or anybody's gathering and getting together, because I'm giving power to that. So you go into this church that believe in this and believe, well, people see you going there and they think it's all right. That's because your presence is giving power to that. Don't participate in that, don't go to every church. Well, my wife go here, she say if I come with her today, she not gonna bother me and this is gonna be all right. Now have peace with your spouse. Well, my husband go over here. And to make him think I'm going along with him on this, I'm gonna go to church with him or whatever, and then I won't be able to get him to do this and do that. You'll be surprised how many people compromise and tolerate on the religion. I'm not going into that house of worship. My relatives and different ones attend different houses of worship, and I tell them, well, that's your church or whatever, but I don't go into their churches. Well, I'm just going to the Easter services. You're giving power to that. You're giving power to that Christmas service. That's what you're giving power to help establish that. You're giving power to the beast. If everyone obeyed God by refusing to keep pagan holidays, one of Satan's ploys to obscure God's plan for mankind would be thwarted. The Bible is very clear that we should avoid or flee or turn away from the ways of this world and beware of their entry into the church. That's because they've brought the Super Bowl and all of these other sporting events and things into the church. All of these pagan horses, these Trojan horses are in the church now. 2 Timothy 3, 1-5 says, You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it's going to be very difficult to be a Christian. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be proud and boastful, sneering at God, disobedient to parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad. They will be hardened and never give in to others. They will be constant liars and troublemakers, and will think nothing of immorality. They will be rough and cruel and sneer at those who try to be good. They will betray their friends. They will be hot headed, puffed up with pride and prefer good times to worshiping God. They will go to church, yes, but they won't really believe anything they hear. Don't be taken in by people like this. And that's what I was telling you about the guy with the FBI the other day. He called himself a practicing Muslim. But he wasn't doing the things that Muslim doing and he was finding excuses as to why he couldn't do it. And this other guy said, well, I can't do that. His conviction, this guy's conscience was seared that he couldn't do anything. And a lot of us have had our conscience cauterized or seared. That's what happened to Pharaoh. His conscience was seared and he kept hardening his heart to where then God started to harden his heart. We have to watch our consciousness and awareness when God makes us aware of things. In the book of Genesis, we see this started with Cain. In the book of Genesis, the 4th chapter and the 7th verse, it says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And the Amplified, it reads, if you do well, believing in me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to me, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, but ignore my instruction, sin crouches at your door. Its desire is for you and to overpower you, but you must master it. So there's awareness, he's making Cain aware that sin's right there crouching. And he tells us in the New Testament, Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We have to be aware of the schemes of the devices of Satan. So as I tell people, it wasn't in the offering that Cain was offering. It was his attitude and his dispositions. Not long after this, he had made up in his mind to lure his brother out in the field to where he killed him. But if he had evaluated, self-evaluated himself, he would have seen that this anger, this misunderstoodness of him, this bitterness toward his brother was the sin that was lying at the door. That's why I say Jesus died for us to overcome sin. We have to overcome sin. That's what he's looking for, overcomers. He says, shall we continue in sin that grace shall abound? God forbid. We must disavow sin, we must shun evil. In all its form, sin is marked as mankind's enemy. In all its forms, it must be defeated to God's satisfaction for him to accept us. If not, our relationship with God will not be continued for eternity. Because no sin is going to enter into heaven, into the kingdom of God. So he we're working the preaching and teaching is to present us as chaste virgins under God Without a spot or wrinkle we must be washed by the word The word has to cleanse us no sins going in. That's why it says thine will be done on earth as it is in heaven so those that are on earth are there will be destroyed the evildoers, the wicked, and gods will pass judgment. That's why it says, fret not thyself because of the evildoer, for they shall soon be... Because sin is the ever-present reality of life, it is essential that we have sufficient knowledge to recognize it before its fiery dots strike us down. Remember it says the fiery dots of Satan. Satan comes out of nowhere. Anger, bad temper, lustfulness, just an obscure look at somebody that passed by as David went out on his patio and looked. And that was what's so named by Sheba, sunbathing. In a moment's time, a life he had lived dedicated to God, but just for a few moments of pleasure. fiery dots. Satan tries you and tries you. Those fiery dots try to get you to curse and use foul language and all of these. Well, a good fountain shouldn't spew forth these things. It has to be purged out of you. God's working to purge these things out of you, but the world continues to place these things back into you. There are portals that it enter in through the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, And the lust of the eyes, those are the three entry points. This requires consistent, and you remember I say we have to be circumspective. We have to be ever so careful because sin may come through that relative. It may come through a spouse, a child, a parent. Sin's coming in, sins could try you. This requires consistent, thoughtful study of God's word and an effort to build awareness of its presence, enabling us to beat it to the punch. We have to beat sin to the punch. We have to practice the presence of God. Overcoming sin is a formidable task. It is indeed a formidable task, but it's not a hopeless one. And if we look at Christ, he's the object of our faith. We imitate him, we want to be like him. And that is sinless. One reason why it's not hopeless when rightly thought through is quite encouraging. Jesus teaches this in Luke 12 48. He says, but he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with a few stripes. So that's why we should be made aware of sin and we should know what sin is. We shouldn't commit presumptuous sin. We should commit sins of omission of commission but we should thoroughly know the word of God, his instruction. That's why I said, study to show yourself approved, a workman that need not be ashamed rightly divided the word of truth. So that's why he went to the elders, because the kings and the leaders was required to make a copy of God's book and to know the law thoroughly, because his righteousness, his commandments, his righteousness, And we don't want to be unrighteous. It says, but from him, much will be required. For everyone to whom much is given from him, much will be required. And to whom much has been committed under him, they will ask them more. So that's why it says many of us shouldn't be teachers or preachers, because we will be held to a higher standard. A politician should be held to a higher standard than his people he represent. The king or the leader, the preacher, should be held to a highly representative position if he's in a position of authority. And like I said, that's why I said many of us shouldn't desire to be teachers, because we're gonna be accountable for that we teach. That's why he asked Nicodemus, he said, you're a ruler of the Pharisees and you didn't know this? However, we are also encouraged to understand that we are all judged individually, and this is what I was talking to you about earlier. God judges everyone against the same standard, yet he judges individually according to our natural talents. Gifts, dedication, faithfulness, discipline, time sacrificed, and energies exerted to overcome what God knows we are capable of. So he may require more of one than he do of another, and how much time and effort do we put into that? So if a man that's working all day may not study the word as much as it read and know as much as a preacher or teacher or someone, that's all for work that are handicapped and don't work every day or whatever but have more free time. That's why that person should serve as an elder or teacher or leader or prayer or whatever because he have more free time on his hands. We stand alone, as it were, not measured against any other person. You remember what Peter says? We have to give ourselves to the word of God so we will form the offices of deacons so they could take the time to feed the women and attend to the table. So deacons are the preacher's hands and feet. They do things because the preachers, Peter and him, say they must give themselves to the word of God. But whereas Paul was a Pharisee, we see that he wrote some 13 or 14 epistles of the New Testament because he knew the law. He had studied the law. That's what he had went to school in. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul was upward in the law, so he did more. That's why he said he labored harder than them all. He was the chiefest of the apostles. Though the ultimate standard is the holy, righteous character of the Father and the Son, we're neither measured against their performance nor any other human's performance. We're not competing with one another. And so I say, somebody can't get you a blessing. You can't get what God has for somebody else. That's the world that's in competition. And God doesn't do as the world. His rulers are not set as those that rule over others in the world. That's not how God's kingdom is set up. Now, though not measured against the performance of the Father and the Son, we are nonetheless urged to strive to be at one with them. Remember, the unity of them, they are at one. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they're in complete and total agreement with each other. Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The Father had sent him. They were in totally, what he said was what the Father had said by that authority. It is to this oneness that God wants to bring us, not merely intellectually, but also in attitude and conduct. So until we come into the fullness of the unity of the spirit and the unity of the faith, we have to follow this preaching and teaching and practice these things. The church is Catholic. It's universal. But the church, all of these components, has to function as one well-oiled machine. It's the same wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world. So those different doctrines and instructions are going to be cast out of the body of Christ. Those are not true teachers. Those are false teachers and precepts. So they will have to drink of that cup. And all of those that's participating in drinking of those false cups, in all who given power to those things. The Godhead, they don't sin and imitating this sinliness becomes our greatest challenge in life. That's why he says, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. So we're made trying to be made in the image and likeness of God. Amos 9 and 10 says, all sinners among my people will die by the sword. Those who say defiantly, disaster will not overtake us. So there are many people in the church, just like Jerusalem said, and the people thought wasn't anything gonna happen to the temple and God wasn't gonna destroy his people. And that's why in the book of Revelations you hear him saying he's gonna come and fight against the church. So those false prophets, the false teachers and the people in the church, Satan ministers has been transforming the ministers of life. But God will destroy those false leaders and he's gonna cause them to be burned. He says gather the tares over here and let's bundle them up and burn them together so the blind leading the blind, they all shall perish. So all these beggar churches and things, people that's following all this false doctrine, they all shall die by the sword, by God's punishment, by God's judgment, because you giving power to that, you causing this distortion to be multiplied throughout the earth. That's why we have to be careful who we follow. We have to examine, be sure. We can't blame anyone else for our shortcomings, but you sure should be able to spot theirs. Galatians 3, 12 through 14 says, but the law does not rest on or require faith. It has nothing to do with faith. But instead, the law says, he who practices them, that is, the things prescribed in the law, shall live by them instead of faith. But Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us. He drunk of that cup. He took that punishment and that curse of the law, all those handwritten ordinances contained in that law, for it was written, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. In other words, someone that was crucified and hung on a cross was condemned to death. In order that Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might also come to the Gentiles, so that we would all receive the realization of the promise of the Holy Spirit. So, like I said, the law couldn't do these things And that's why the law, Jesus Christ, he came and fulfilled the law, but he drunk our cup, he took our punishment. Now we don't have to partake of that cup. He's given us a cup of salvation, one through faith by which we follow him and continue in his word and follow him through faith. I'm telling you that a little bit and Living Bible. How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says that a man is saved by obeying every law of God without one slip. But Christ has brought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoings upon himself. Now God can bless the Gentiles too with this same blessing he promised Abraham, all of us as Christians can have the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. So the promise is to all that what he was speaking of way back in the Old Testament that Christ was going to be a light unto the Gentiles. Even though the law can't guide a person in the right way to live, even though it describes the character of God, it also condemns and brings one guilty before God through an awareness of sin. That's why the law was given, because of transgressions to make us aware that we were transgressing God. So the law was given to point out our weaknesses, our frailty, that we couldn't keep the law. So now we see that we're unworthy. We can't do this. We're depending on Jesus Christ who did this in our stead. He did it in our place. So we're trusting and following him because he died for us and he kept the law. So that's why he's the way and the truth and the life. And if you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't have anything. So I have one more thing to do in that, in saying in that, but I don't wanna go over time, so we'll do that come Wednesday night. Heavenly Father, as I come.