Now, the part of the chapter I'd like to focus on is beginning in verse number 1.
Now, the chapter later on deals with the fact that, of course, the Corinthians had had just
awful, horrible sin taking place in their church.
In 1 Corinthians 5, we read about it, about the fornication that was just commonly reported
that it was among them, and they had finally gotten that stuff out of their church and
cleaned house on that.
But what I really want to focus on is just verse 1.
In verse 1, the Bible reads,
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
What I want to preach about this morning is that subject, perfecting holiness.
Now, first of all, let's get a definition of holiness.
A lot of times the words that we use the most often and the words that we hear over and
over again are the words that we least understand because we take for granted their definition.
Let me give you a couple of different definitions from the Bible, not from a dictionary, but
letting the Bible define itself.
Now, there's a couple different ways to define words in the Bible.
One of them is to sometimes look at the opposites.
God puts things with their opposite, and that sometimes helps us to understand what they
mean.
So, first of all, I want to point out that the opposite of holiness is filth, and the
Bible makes that clear in a lot of places.
Right there in verse 1, you see that God tells us, having therefore these promises
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and
in the process, he's saying we are perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
You don't have to turn there, but in Revelation 22, 11, the Bible reads, he that is unjust,
let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.
So we have unjust and then filthy, and then listen to the next words.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy
still.
You see, the opposite of being unjust is being righteous, because righteous and just are
used interchangeably in the Bible, and the opposite of being filthy is to be holy.
In 2 Chronicles 29, 5, you don't have to turn there, but it says, and said unto them, hear
me ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your
fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
And so we see over and over again these two words used as opposite, and we need to understand
that if we're going to be holy, we need to get rid of the filth, we need to cleanse out
the filthiness.
What am I talking about?
Go to Colossians chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3, this is one of the definitions of holiness, I'm going to give you another
definition as we go forward here, but look at Colossians chapter 3 in the New Testament
there, verse number 8 the Bible reads, but now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, and look at the last thing that we need to put off here, filthy communication
out of your mouth.
Now what does that mean, filthy communication out of your mouth?
Well 2 Peter 2 says, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the
wicked.
We know who Lot was in the Old Testament, when he was vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked, what was that filthy conversation about?
What were those wicked people doing?
They were sodomites, they were homos, they were queers, and he said that we need to put
off any kind of filthy communication out of our mouth, and he says that just Lot, that
righteous man, was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and it says that that righteous
man vexed his righteous soul daily in seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds.
Hey, part of holiness is getting rid of the filthy communication, that's one example,
sodomy, but not only that, in Revelation 17 4, you don't have to turn there, but it says,
and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication.
And so when God tells us not to have filthy communication in our mouth, you know what
we're not supposed to be talking about, you know what we're not supposed to be hearing
about, you know what we're not supposed to be communicating about, fornication, sodomy,
and other types of filth of the flesh.
Translation, turn off your television and throw it out the window, because honestly,
this is a lot of what goes on on the television.
Now, when I was a child, when I was a teenager, it was Seinfeld, you know, and now I guess
it's comeback because it's all over billboards, all over Phoenix, and Friends, and this is
what they talk about, smut, filth, the bedroom, fornication, sodomy, but now there's a whole
new slew of shows, thank God I haven't seen any of them, I don't watch them, but people
tell me about them, they say, hey, you need to get a little more up to date in your preaching,
you know, you're preaching about stuff from 20 years ago, you were preaching about stuff
from 15 years ago, and they told me about a show that's now called Big Bang Theory,
you know, and this is, now first of all, why any Christian would watch this show is beyond
me, just the name should tell you that it's not a god, and I guess the theme song talks
about 14 billion years ago and all that stuff, I don't want my children, I don't want myself
or my wife or anybody being brainwashed with the world's garbage through music, teaching
me that the world's 14 billion years old, the world is 6,245 some odd years old, it
is not billions of years old, that's a lie, the Bible's clear about the age of the earth,
it tells us the generations all the way from Adam unto the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and
we got Christians today watching this stuff on TV, and the name is not the worst part,
from what I've been told, the whole show is just talking about smut, talking about filth,
talking about ungodliness, one of the characters just acts and looks and talks like a sodomite,
and if it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, let me tell you something, it's probably
a duck. How I Met Your Mother is what somebody told me I need to preach against, just a show
glorifying fornication on every single episode, just all about hitting the sack after the
date, Two and a Half Men, another filthy show that's on television, Modern Family, all about
sodomites and weirdos and every kind of family that's not a traditional family, that's not
a mother and father and children, everything else glorifies you, you say, well I just watch
it just to see how weird it is, no, you need to get that filthy communication out of your
mouth, out of your mind, out of yours, and literally this is how people justify watching
it, I've heard Christians justify it and say, well I'm just watching it just to see how
bad it is, hey I'm preaching against it, I don't have to watch it to preach against it,
I'll take their word for it, because honestly the stuff that was on TV 15 or 20 years ago
was so bad and I doubt it's getting better, and that's what somebody said to me, they
said well, they said well to compare it to Seinfeld and Friends, that was 10 or 15 years
ago, you can imagine it's gotten worse, and we know it's gotten worse, and so I don't
need to go on these shows and watch them and say, oh I'm just trying to learn about it,
you know I want to be able to preach against it more effectively, and Christians will say
I just like to laugh at it, hey fools make a mock at Santa, it's nothing to laugh about,
it's disgusting, we shouldn't even be filling our minds with it, and so we need to cleanse
ourselves as the Bible says, of all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit perfecting
holiness in the fear of God, and holiness is the opposite of what's on these shows that
I'm mentioning to you, you say what does holiness mean, well it's everything that's not on those
shows that I just explained to you, that's a good definition of holiness for you, and
you need to stay away from this stuff and not get sucked in, oh it's funny, I just laugh
at them, it's silly, it's not funny, we need to just clean ourselves up with it, go if
you would to Exodus chapter 13, let me give you another definition of holiness, so first
of all we saw that holiness, and again these aren't coming from a dictionary, this is coming
from the Bible, I like for the Bible to kind of be its own dictionary, because the Bible
tells us what things mean, according to the Bible holiness is the absence of filth, and
we define filth biblically, we define it as sodomy, fornication, or talking about those
things, and watching those things, and seeing and hearing those evil deeds, as Lot did,
and that was called filthy conversation, and God said that's exactly what we need to get
out of our mouth, and not talk about it, and so I don't think it's a joking matter, I don't
think it's funny, I don't think that churches should have plays and skits where people dress
up like women, men dress up like women and it's a joke and it's funny, it's not funny,
it's an abomination, the Bible says a man shall not put on a woman's garment, for all
that do so are abominations of the Lord their God, unless they're just kidding, unless it's
just for fun, unless it's Halloween, unless it's a play at church, no, we need to perfect
holiness and the fear of God, and cleanse ourselves from the filth of the flesh and
the spirit. Here's another definition for holiness, Exodus 13 verse 2, and this is really
a great illustration of how God defines words for us in the Bible, look at verse 2 carefully
in Exodus 13, sanctify, I want you to pay close attention to that word, maybe underline
it, sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whosoever openeth the womb, okay notice the word womb,
among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine, okay, now look at
verse 12 and let's compare the two, he basically says the same thing again in verse 12 using
different words, and part of the way that we can define words in the Bible is to see
where God said the same thing two different ways, and we can put them side by side and
see what words mean, this is a great way to define words, that's a great reason why there's
four gospels, you know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we can compare them and learn what
stuff means, we can look at stuff in the Old Testament, compare it with the New Testament,
the Bible says we need to compare spiritual things with spiritual, that's how we're going
to learn the word of God, and he says in verse 12, that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord,
all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the
males shall be the Lord, so we see here that pretty much the same statement is made but
sanctified, which is a word that some people might not understand, is replaced with set
apart, and then we see that the word matrix, which is probably a word that people will
not understand if we use the word matrix, they think it's a movie or something, but
the word womb is a word that people do understand, and the word matrix comes from our word mother,
it comes from the Latin mater, like an alma mater, mater, matrix, you can see where it
comes from, and so the matrix is the womb, so you see all these hard words, well God
defines it right there, if you just read a little bit you can see hey matrix is womb,
sanctify means to set apart, well you can do a little comparing also and learn what
sanctify means, sanctify in the Bible means made holy, because for example we can look
at in the Old Testament, the place that in the Old Testament is called the holy place,
remember the tabernacle, there was the holy place and the most holy place in the Old Testament,
but when you get into the New Testament, God no longer calls it the holy place and
the most holy place, he calls it the sanctuary, and then he calls the most holy place the
holiest of all, you probably heard the term holy of holies, that's not a biblical term,
but it's talking about the most holy place or the holiest of all, and so we can get a
clue that sanctuary means holy place, we can look up all the verses that use the word sanctify,
and see that sanctify means made holy, and made holy or sanctified means set apart, because
we can see that compared right there in Exodus 13 2 and 13 12, go back where we started in
2 Corinthians 7, so we see another definition of holiness, not only is it the absence of
filth, the absence of corruption, the absence of that which is sinful and wicked and ungodly,
it also means set apart, what does set apart mean, well set apart means that there's a
difference between that which is set apart and that which is not set apart, for example
if I have, let's say I have several suits in my closet, let's say I have 7 suits, and
I said to my wife, honey would you please set apart for me the suits that are clean
from the suits that are not, that way I won't put on a suit that's dirty and wear a dirty
suit, will you set apart those which are clean and ready to be worn, and anything that's
dirty or needs mending or is not ready to be worn doesn't fit right, put that aside,
see there's a difference between clean and unclean, that's what holy means, something
that's set apart, something that's different, now if two things are identical, one of them
can't be holy and one of them unholy, no there's a difference between that which is holy and
that which is not holy, there's a difference between that which is clean and that which
is not clean, and the bible says in 2nd Corinthians 6, remember we started out in 2nd Corinthians
7, what is 2nd Corinthians 7, what's the first word of that sentence? Having, sorry, sorry,
having therefore, sorry about that, trying to throw you off there, but having therefore,
now whenever you see the word therefore, therefore is connecting us to something that was already
said, because therefore means because of this, so we have to ask ourselves the question,
because of what? What's the therefore, therefore, okay, so we look at it and say okay, well
what are we talking about, having therefore these promises, what promises? We got to go
back a little bit, a few verses to see what the promises are and what the therefore is
referring to, go back to verse 14 of 2nd Corinthians 6, we're just going up a few verses on the
page, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? He's saying what do righteousness and unrighteousness have in
common? Nothing. He says what communion hath light with darkness? Light and darkness cannot
occupy the same space, even scientifically, because light is by definition the opposite
of darkness, darkness is the absence of light. He says what concord hath Christ with Belial,
which is referring to Satan, usually throughout the Bible, like Baal, Beelzebub, Belial, Belial,
those are all coming from the same word, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
You say well what's an infidel? See these, the Bible is hard to understand. Well it's
the opposite of a believer, it's an unbeliever, the Bible is clear. And what agreement hath
the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, of course the Bible
teaches our bodies the temple, as God has said I will dwell in them, talking about the
indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall
be my people, wherefore, meaning because of this, come out from among them and be ye separate.
Does that sound like set apart? Separate? Separate from me the suits I'm going to be
wearing, from the ones I'm not going to be wearing. Separate unto me that which openeth
the womb, or openeth the majors. Set apart, made holy, he says come out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean things. Does that remind you
of that definition about filthiness? And I will receive you, here's the promise, and
I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty. Hey, having therefore these promises, let's cleanse ourselves of the filthiness
of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The Bible is telling us
that if we're going to be holy people, we're going to perfect holiness in our life, we
need to be separated from that which is unknowly. There needs to be a distinction and a difference
between the believer and the unbeliever. There should be a difference. Now, some people preach
a false doctrine that says there always will be a difference. Right? I mean, if you're
saved, you're going to live right. No, if that were true, God wouldn't have to keep
telling us, live right, live right, live right, give that sin out of your life. God's constantly
telling believers, repent of this sin, repent of that sin, stop doing this, stop doing that,
clean up your life, live right, do what's right. If it were automatic, he wouldn't constantly
have to be telling us that. It's not automatic. Jesus said, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow me. Every single day, as
Paul said, I die daily. Every day we have to repent. Every day we have to be turning
from wrong things in our life. Every day we have to get up in the morning and die to self,
die to the flesh, walk in the Spirit, put on the new man, put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. This isn't a one-time thing.
This is a daily thing. It's a battle every day. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit
and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one against the other so that
you cannot do the things that you would. There's a constant battle going on inside of us between
the flesh and the Spirit. It's not a thing where, if you're saved, you're going to live
right. If you're saved, you're going to want to do what's right. I know a lot of unsaved
people who want to do what's right, but that's not going to get them to heaven. I know a
lot of unsaved people who turn from their sins. People will tell you, yeah, to be saved
you have to repent of your sins. I know a lot of unsaved people who turn from their
sins. It's called a 12-step program. They might quit drinking. People will say, that's
the evidence that they're saved. No, unsaved people do that all day long, and then there
are saved people who continue in sin. It's true. Look at Lot. Lot's living in Sodom,
hanging around with a bunch of Sodomites. That wasn't right. Look at all the people
in the Bible who did wrong and sinned. Hey, let him that thinketh, he standeth, take heed
lest he fall. Just because you're saved, you're not immune to sin. You're not immune to these
television programs I mentioned. You're not immune to falling away. There have been some
people who were in this church, who were on fire for God. They're out knocking doors.
They're winning souls, dramatically changing their life, doing everything right, but by
and by, they fell away. Why? Because it's hard to live the Christian life. Because it's
a struggle. Because it's a battle. Because the devil walking about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. You're not automatically going to do what's right. You're not automatically
going to live for God. You must make the effort and the plan and say, I will cleanse
myself of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God. It's not going to come automatically. You've got to purge yourself of these things
constantly. Being saved is just a one time believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved in thy house. Being saved is just that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have eternal life. But once you're saved, that's just the beginning. And from
that time forward, and here's what's funny. I only got saved once. Anybody who's saved
only got saved once, right? But how many times do you have to live for God? How many times
do you have to tell God that you're sorry for the stuff that you did? How many times
do you learn something new from the Bible? How many times do you have to resist temptation?
Thousands, right? So why is it that churches just keep preaching about being saved over
and over again? You only get saved once and you spend your whole life trying to live the
Christian life. You've got a whole book here telling you how to do it, telling you what
to do, telling you what not to do, telling you how to do it, and they just want to keep
saying over and over again. You know, Jesus died on the cross. Jesus died on the cross.
Hey, I'm all for preaching that message. Why don't we go out this afternoon and go preach
the door-to-door to unsaved people instead of telling saved people over and over again
what they already know? I'm going to tell you to perfect holiness and the fear of God.
That's what you need to hear because chances are you're probably already saved. Now, there
may be somebody here today who's not saved, who's not a believer, who does not believe
among the Lord Jesus Christ, who does not know for sure they're going to heaven, and
hey, we need to talk to them and get with them and show them the gospel, but I'm preaching
to the saved. You heard the expression, I'm preaching to the choir. Hey, we don't have
choirs. Everybody's in the choir. I now pronounce you a choir member because we all sing. I
mean, we all open the book. We all sing, right? This is the faithful word Baptist choir right
here, and I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm preaching to you that we need to understand
that if we're going to live the life that we ought to live that's pleasing to God, if
He's going to be a Father unto us, and you say, well, wait a minute. I thought we're
already, you know, once we're saved, we're God's children. That's true, but here's the
thing. When you got saved, according to the Bible, your spirit is saved. Your spirit,
your soul is born again, but your flesh isn't because the Bible says that we do groan, and
I don't want to go into this too deeply theologically because it's not within the scope of the sermon.
Read Romans 8. According to Romans 8, we are waiting for the spirit of adoption to wit
the redemption of our body. So, according to the Bible, when we got saved, because the
Bible says, but as many as received Him, to them gave you power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name. The Bible says in 1 John 3, 1, behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it does not yet appear where we shall be, but we know that when we shall see Him,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and every man that hath this hope
in him purifies himself, even as he is pure, and he goes on to explain a few verses down
that the new man, the saved man, the one that's born of God, cannot sin. He's perfect. He's
created in righteousness and true holiness, but you see, our flesh is not saved. You see,
our flesh might have certain defects, right? You know, for example, you know, I don't want
to mention any defects or anything, but you know, I've been people, but for example, you know,
you might have physical ailments. Let me put it that way. Nobody has a perfect body, right?
Everybody has different ailments, different problems, maybe health problems, or maybe
a defect or something like that. Well, here's the thing. When you got saved, did God just
fix all that? I mean, when you got saved, did your body change? Was there any change to your
body whatsoever? So you can't physically look at somebody and say, oh, he's glowing. There is no
physical change. There's a spiritual change, right? But wait a minute. At the first resurrection,
what people commonly call the rapture, the first resurrection, when we're caught up together with
them in the clouds, the dead in Christ shall rise first. The we which are alive and remain shall be
caught together with them in the clouds. Wait a minute. There's going to be a physical change
there. The Bible says we should not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And so the blind man,
who's a believer in Jesus Christ, at that first resurrection, the blind will be able to see.
That physical defect will just correct you. You know, maybe you have a... Now,
let me talk about my physical defect. My middle finger of my right hand is messed up.
And until a year ago, I could not make a fist with my right hand. Like, I could make a fist right
now, but for a couple of years almost, I couldn't even make a fist with my right hand. It was
impossible for me to make a fist. Now, I'm making a fist right now with my right hand, but when I
open my hand, there's a little bit of a click that takes place here, and it kind of hurts a little
bit when I open my hand. And so I have to deal with that. Now, it's gotten a lot better, but it's
taking years, and I'm hoping that eventually my hand will be back to normal. I don't know if it's
ever going to be normal. But my middle finger of my right hand is very weak, and it pops throughout
the day, and it hurts and everything like that. People have problems like that, and, you know,
it's from an injury. And the thing is, over the course of your life, you rack up all these
injuries. That's why people that are older, they have more problems, because they've wrecked that
car so many times. You know, you keep taking it to the body shop, it's just not the same, okay?
So when you get to heaven, you know, when you're basically translated or changed in a moment in a
twinkling of an eye, all that stuff's going to be corrected. So you got, you know, joint pains,
everything, done, fixed. You're blind, you're deaf, you've got a speech impediment, you've got a messed
up finger that doesn't work right. Whatever the case may be, that stuff's all going to be fixed.
Isn't that great? So your body is going to be perfect. Your body is going to be changed into a
brand new perfect body. But not only that, and by the way, when you got saved, your spirit was
totally regenerated. Basically what's going to happen at the rapture for your body, that's what
happened to you spiritually the moment you got saved, because your spirit was dead in trespasses
and sin. The moment you believed on Jesus Christ, your spirit was quickened, and you created a brand
new creature. That's why the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. That doesn't mean that your life is, if that was
talking about your life, that would mean your life is perfect, because he said all things have become
new. But that's the new man, that's the new creature. God created in you, you know, the new
Steven Anderson, or the new insert your name here. That's what he created in you when you got saved,
but he didn't change the flesh. So there's an imbalance going on, because you have the flesh
that's unsaved, the flesh that's the same old flesh that you had before you, and that includes
your brain, your physical flesh brain, your fleshly mind, and the Bible calls it the carnal mind.
Well, you also have the spirit now. So now it's a daily responsibility to walk in the spirit and not
walk in the flesh, but you have both dwelling inside of you. You got the new man, and I'm not
talking about the Holy Spirit, yes he's dwelling inside of you as well, but you also have your
spirit, the new spirit, the new man, the inward man, and then you also have the flesh that's not
sin. So when it comes to are you a son of God, are you a child of God, spiritually yes, but the flesh
no. So when you're living in the flesh, when you're walking in the flesh, God is not being a father
unto you. When you're walking in the spirit, he is a father unto you, okay. Now of course we know that
we can never be, we can never lose our salvation, you know the spirit is sealed under the day of
redemption, but this body will die. Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die, but he's talking about the spirit, he's talking about the new man, and that's why when my
body dies, I won't be dead, and I'll be glad when the old Steven Anderson is finally dead and gone
and buried, because right, you know, I live with that guy every day, and it's, and I have to fight
with him. No, I'm not schizophrenic, but I just have two personalities, okay. I'm not schizophrenic,
but I have multiple personalities, because I've got the new man and the old, and really every
saved person is schizophrenic. Think about it, because you've got two personalities, you've got
two natures, you have two different people that are trying to take over here, the old Steven
Anderson, the flesh Steven Anderson, and the brand new creature, spiritual Steven Anderson,
that does no wrong. The flesh wants to do everything that's wrong, he loves everything,
he wants to watch these shows, he wants to watch Big Bang Theory, he wants to watch everything
that's wrong, he wants to listen to all the wrong music, he wants to spend his time in all the wrong
ways, he wants to be lazy and selfish and pleased, the flesh, the spiritual Steven Anderson wants to
read the Bible, wants to sing the hymns, wants to be in church, it's just who is in the driver's
seat today, and God says, hey I want to be a father to you, I want to have the relationship
with you as a father has with his son, that bond of a parent with a child, but he says you're going
to have to be holy in order for us to have that relationship, because the Bible says God is light
and in him is no darkness at all, and if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in
darkness we lie and do not the truth, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have
fellowship one with another, us and him, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus
Christ his son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. You see, the difference is whether we have that
fellowship with God, so you kind of have two choices, do you want to have fellowship with
unbelievers, do you want to have fellowship with Belial, do you want to have fellowship with idols,
Do you want to have fellowship with unrighteousness, or do you want to have fellowship with God?
Because you can't have both.
God's not going to sit down with you and watch two and a half men.
He's not going to sit down with you and watch how I may run.
He's like, see ya.
Now, we know the Holy Spirit indwells you.
That's why it says you're grieving the Holy Spirit when you live in sin.
But you're not going to have a close fellowship with God when you're living an ungodly and filthy life.
Be like an Abraham who was called the friend of God.
Be like Moses where God said, I'll speak to him face to face.
He's my friend. He's my servant.
Be like John, the apostle who was the disciple whom Jesus loved, who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper.
Hey, eleven of the twelve, they were all saved.
But which one was leaning on Jesus?
Which one sat right next to Jesus?
Which three were the ones that he took everywhere he went when the rest of the disciples didn't necessarily go along?
Which one was the one who had the closest fellowship with him?
The answer's clear.
The one who was doing the most right.
The one who was the holiest.
He was the one that could be the closest with the Savior while he was on this earth.
Because of the fact that God has more fellowship with us when we're walking in the light.
When we go into the darkness, you know, he doesn't want to go there.
And so it's really important that we realize that, and think about this.
Think about your physical children, or my physical children.
Am I going to have a better relationship with them when they're rebelling against me, disobeying everything I'm telling them to do,
doing everything that's against God, or when they're obedient, following God's word, doing the right things.
Yeah, yeah, and I remember when I was growing up, and I lived with my parents.
Now I am the parent, but when I was living with my parents,
you know, there were times when I had a better relationship with my parents than others.
And I thank God I had a good relationship with my parents, pretty much the whole way through.
But there were times when the relationship would suffer.
It's when I was going the wrong way, when I'm going the wrong way.
You know, when you start doing right, you're going to have that better relationship with your parents,
because they want you to do right, and they're trying to get you to go the right direction, and so forth.
And so holiness is what's going to bring us closer to God.
Not just, you know, listening to some Christian song is going to make us feel close to God, or going out in nature.
You know, okay, great, but what's really going to get you close to God is when you start walking in the light.
He doesn't have any darkness at all. You want to have fellowship with Him.
And so what does it mean to have fellowship? You know, to have something in common, to have that bond.
And you know, we ought not have everything in common with worldly people.
He said, let's read it again, because this is such a critical passage.
2 Corinthians 6.14, memorize it, learn it.
What God's saying to you there is, something's wrong when you have everything in common with your unsaved friends,
and you get along great with them, and everything's in common.
All the same interests, the exact same lifestyle, the exact same values.
That is not God's will. There's to be a difference between the saved and the unsaved. Set apart, holy, different.
Now, do you like to adapt, man? So do I.
And then you see young ladies dating unsaved men, or young men dating unsaved ladies.
How can you even have that much in common with these unsaved people?
You should, man, the Bible should be flowing out of your mouth. You should be talking about soul wedding, talking about the Bible.
Talking about the hymns, talking about how when you get married, you know, you want to live a godly life,
and till death do us part, and have children, and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
And how can you, I mean, what are you talking about on these dates that you're going on with unsaved people?
What are you talking about? Worldliness, ungodliness?
Because if you were talking about the Bible all day long, they'd be like, see ya, if they're not saved,
because it's going to go right over their head, because the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God,
and he said, neither can he know them, their foolishness unto him, because they're spiritually deserved.
And so if you're talking all this spiritual stuff to some unsaved person, it's going to go right over their head,
or they're going to get saved, you know, if you keep preaching to them.
Great. But if they're not saved, and you're going on dates with them, and this is your boyfriend and your girlfriend,
hey, that just tells me that you're pretty unspiritual.
For you to even be able to have that much fellowship with unsaved unbelievers.
It just shows that your lifestyle is just like theirs, you have so much in common.
You know, you're totally compatible with them.
Well that just tells me you're not walking in the Spirit, you're walking in the flesh.
Because I'm sure your flesh is compatible with unsaved people.
I mean, if I'm walking in the flesh, I'm going to get along with all kinds of unsaved people.
We have everything in common.
But when I'm walking in the Spirit, and they just want to talk to me about Hollywood,
and rock and roll, and hip hop, and movies, and TV, and all the worldliness,
you know, we're going to have trouble finding common ground.
And the more ungodly this world becomes, the farther that gap becomes.
It gets harder and harder to relate to these people sometimes,
because they're just so off the deep end, spiritually, that it gets harder to relate to them.
I mean, it's hard.
And I'm all for being nice to them, being friendly to them, trying to reach them,
trying to preach to them, but that shouldn't be who you're thinking about marrying.
It shouldn't be who you're thinking about, or even having as a best friend.
Oh, this is my best, best friend.
We talk about everything except the Bible, except Jesus, except church.
What kind of a friendship is that?
It can't go that deep, my friend, if it's only on the external of the flesh, of the old man.
And so, God's telling us that we need to be different than the world.
There ought to be a difference.
It shouldn't just be identical to what the world is.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12, end of the New Testament there.
Hebrews chapter 12.
You know, when people come to me, I'm not one that, I don't like doing marriage counseling,
but I always just tell people, you know, whenever I hear about other people's problems,
I'm just glad they're not my problems.
Look, I got my own problems, you know.
I'm not staying in my marriage, I'm just staying in my life.
I mean, everybody's got their own problems.
I don't want everybody coming with me to their problems all day.
It's going to wear me out.
That's what they told Moses.
They said, Moses, you're going to get worn out with everybody bringing you all their problems all day.
You need to get 70 guys and have them do it.
Delegate that, buddy.
And so I just, I don't like it.
I don't like giving people advice too, because sometimes when people come to me for advice,
they want me to tell them to do something so that they can do it, and then when it doesn't work out,
they can say like, well, I did what he told me to do and it didn't work out.
Pastor Anderson didn't blame me.
So I don't want to take the blame.
And here's the other reason I don't like to give counseling advice.
Everybody wants to tell you all their dirty laundry.
I don't want to hear about your sins and your, I'm not a priest in a booth.
I don't want to hear every bad thing you've ever done and every bad thing you're,
I want to look at you at church and just think, these are great people.
I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear.
We'll burst my bubble.
I don't want to hear every bad thing.
I don't want to hear what's wrong.
And sometimes after all, I'll preach a really hard sermon and people will come in.
And I've been watching that show or people will watch it.
It's okay, I don't even know about it.
And here's the other reason why.
Because I believe in a one-size-fits-all Christianity, like the Bible works for everybody.
So if I get up and preach what the Bible says about marriage, apply it.
But you don't know my situation.
Well, you know what, it's the same for everybody though.
Oh, but let me tell you what she did.
It doesn't matter.
Let me tell you what happened.
No, I don't want to know what happened because it's the same.
It's not going to be like, oh, that's what happened?
Oh, okay, well then that verse about husbands loving your wives and not being bitter against them,
that no longer applies.
You can be bitter about that.
Or, oh, is that what your husband's like?
Oh, forget that part about husbands being obedient to your wife.
Or, I mean, definitely.
I'm all messed up this morning.
You know, the part about wives being obedient to your husbands?
Well, forget that part because, I mean, you can't obey him.
It'd be so tough.
And that's what people will do.
They've all got their own situation where all of a sudden God's word doesn't apply.
God's commands can't apply because that was before this technology or that was before people did this and that.
No, it applies to everybody.
And so people come to me for marriage advice, I just tell them, I say, hey, I don't need to know your situation.
Let me just give you some tips on marriages from the Bible.
And, in fact, instead of me standing here and telling them to you, why don't you just come to church?
Like, why do I have to sit here and tell you something that I preach three times a week?
Why don't you, instead of me wasting my time talking to one person,
why don't we just get everybody together at the same time and I'll tell it to everybody?
In fact, it's called church.
It was invented a long time ago.
It happens three times a week.
This is your counseling session.
Here's your counseling.
Come to church. Listen to preaching.
And if people put into practice the sermon I'm preaching right now, it would even solve a lot of marriage problems.
Because people watching a bunch of filth on TV all day is what makes them go out and commit adultery
and look at a bunch of women and think all these thoughts and everything.
A lot of that's just worldliness.
And that can solve problems.
I mean, every single service you come to, it'll probably solve some of the problems.
So just keep coming, keep learning the Bible.
And, by the way, you should be reading the Bible a lot more than you hear from me.
Read it every day.
And as you read it and as you hear it, you can fix these problems.
You can straighten these things out.
And I don't have any idea what that had to do with my sermon, why I got on that marriage thing.
Oh, yeah. But here's the thing.
When people do have marriage problems, usually it can be fixed pretty easily.
It's not rocket science.
The Bible gave some clear guidelines.
But here's a marriage problem that sometimes is tough to fix.
When one person's just totally not saved.
And, I mean, obviously there's only, you know, they're saved and not saved, you know.
I don't know what it means to be totally not saved.
I guess I'll put it this way. They're for sure not saved.
Some people, you're wondering if they're saved.
When one person is for sure not saved and one person's saved, hopefully it can work out.
And it can work out sometimes.
And many people have made it work and stayed married and done.
And God tells us, hey, stay married.
But, you know, sometimes that can be a real big problem.
Because at least when both people are saved, you know, you can reason with them from the Scripture.
And the Holy Spirit's there and you just have to get them to, you know, walk in the Spirit.
But wait a minute.
When one person is saved and one person's not saved, you've got a long life ahead of you.
And so young people, you better listen up and think about this.
Be careful.
Don't even mess with that marrying an unsafe person or dating unsafe.
Or people that you think are probably saved.
I mean, they go to an Episcopalian church.
They say they're a Christian.
I mean, you know, they go to some, you know, the United Methodists or whatever.
They say they're a Christian.
They say it's all Jesus.
But wait a minute.
You've got to make sure that the person that you're thinking about marrying is really saved.
Because otherwise you're going to have big, big problems later on down the road.
You've got to make sure you're equally yoked together.
Let me hurry up and finish here.
I've got to cut out.
Maybe I'll do some of this tonight.
I've got a whole other part here.
Hebrews 12 is where I had you turn.
Verse 5.
The Bible reads,
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as of the children.
My son despiseth not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Okay.
Chastening is talking about punishment, chastisement, discipline.
He said, don't despise it, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Don't get upset or get discouraged because God tells you you're wrong and rebukes you.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chastened it.
And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Now, a scourge is a whip.
Basically, it's like spanking them with the belt,
which is something that people have done in America for hundreds and hundreds of years.
But all of a sudden now it's...
Child abuse.
Child abuse. Thank you.
To spank with the belt and whatever.
That's why I wear a belt.
What am I going to do, carry around a spanking stick with me everywhere I go?
No.
The right kind of trees don't grow here to give us spanking.
So I use the belt sometimes to spank.
You say, oh man, however you say that, you're going to get arrested.
Hey, you know what?
I'm going to say that from the housetops because the Bible said it.
And any preacher who's afraid to say that, he needs to get out of the pulpit.
And let somebody get in the pulpit who's got the boldness to preach God's word.
Spanking your children is biblical.
It's not even just allowed, it's commanded.
It's mandated.
And the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
And he said, but if you be...
I'm sorry, verse 7, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he when the father chasteneth not?
And that's the way I ask these people who don't spank.
What son is that when the father chasteneth not?
The one he doesn't love?
Because the Bible says, he that spareth his rod, he hateth his son.
But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
But what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers.
You say, well, I was paid by chocolate, they just never need it.
What planet are you living on?
Every child needs to be disciplined.
A child that's left to himself will bring his mother shame.
He says, if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, everybody needs to be corrected from time to time.
Then are you bastards and not son.
And this is like the bastard generation of the United States today, growing up without discipline, without spanking.
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, talking about our natural physical father.
Which corrected us. Man, I hope so.
You probably wouldn't even be in church if your father didn't correct you.
And it says, and we gave them reverence, we gave them respect.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live?
And in verse 10, God's going to explain to us why he disciplines us.
Why does he chasten us? Why does God spank us as believers?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
Talking about our physical parents.
Because it's not very pleasurable to have a kid that is doing everything disobedient and walking all over the walls and trashing the place and disobeying.
He says, for they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure.
But he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.
So the Bible says the purpose for us being punished by God and chastened is that we might be partakers of his holiness.
So what does it sound like God's going to chasten you for?
Being unholy? When you walk in unholiness?
When you walk in filth? When you're not set apart? When you're just like the world?
That's what God's disciplining you because he's trying to make you holy.
He's trying to get you to realize you need to be different.
You need to be a cut above the world.
You need to not have fellowship with the ungodly and unbelievers and filth of this world.
And if you don't get it, I'm going to punish you until you get it. Until you understand it.
The Bible says they verily for a few days, talking about the few days of our childhood, chastened us after their own pleasure.
You see, even unsaved people discipline their kids.
It's not only saved Christians that spank their kids.
There are unsaved people who spank them. Why? For their own pleasure.
Not because they enjoy spanking. That's not what that's saying.
It's saying because you're going to have nothing but misery out of a child that's not disciplined.
But children that are disciplined, that are good children, that are righteous children, they're a pleasure.
It's a pleasure having children. And they'll say, oh man, you have all these children. What a nightmare.
No. Having six children is a blessing. And it's a pleasure.
And I enjoy my children. I enjoy each one of them. I enjoy spending time with them.
You know, honestly, if it were just me and my wife, you'd think I'm going to go to Legoland.
But here's the thing. Legoland is a pretty cool place.
But part of the fun of Legoland, and by the way, this message has been brought to you in part by Legoland.
Anyway, when you go to Legoland, the fun thing is that you're taking your children with you.
And you watch them enjoy it. You watch their face light up.
And you show them things. And you get to take them on things. It's a new experience for them.
You know, maybe you take them skiing for the first time. Or you take them swimming in a river for the first time.
Or you take them to all these places that, to you, you've done it. It just wouldn't be as fun.
And people are like, oh, you need to get a babysitter. We like taking our children everywhere we go.
Because it's fun. I mean, it's enjoyable to take them and experience it with them and introduce them to new things.
And so we want to be around our children. They're a blessing to them.
But if my child was a screaming, crying brat, if my child were just one of these, eh.
And that's what a lot of children are like. A mean face, a frown on the face, eh.
And children who are spoiled and get everything they want and don't get spanked, it doesn't make them happy. It makes them mad.
The children that get spanked, the children that are full of boundary, no.
They're the ones who turn out right. And they're the ones who are fun to be around.
You know what I mean? It's fun to be around. I love kids. But wait a minute, I don't love all kids.
Kids that are doing right are a pleasure. Kids that are a little brat, get them away, get them out of my sight.
And the thing is, you want to know why? Here's just a little aside that I'm going to throw in.
You know why a lot of kids are so frowny and so mad all the time? And they're always in a bad mood?
It's because their parents discipline them by frowning at them and yelling at them and being grouchy with them.
So that's how they learn to be, because that's how it is with them all day.
Because children who don't spank, what else can they do but growl and grunt and snort at them?
You know what I mean? But if you're spanking, and if you're spanking properly, and it's actually a deterrent,
because it's actually a spanking that works, then you don't have to do all the growling and grunting and yelling.
You just spank them and then you can be friends and move on. And then life goes on and you can smile and be happy.
But people who don't spank, I mean, they have to do something to kick their kid from just eating ice cream for breakfast
and playing ball in the middle of the freeway all day. They must do something.
And so they yell at it and whatever and frown at it and, you know,
I'm mad at you. They're telling like a three-year-old, I'm mad at you today.
My wife told me that in Germany they were teaching parents to withhold love as a form of punishment.
And even telling kids, like, I don't love you. I don't love you at all. I don't even want you around.
And there was some kind of a, you know, this is a way to teach them how to act right or something.
I don't know. Am I telling this right? Yeah, she's not even...
Liebesenseug? Yeah, everybody knows what that means, right?
It means like withholding love as a form of punishment. I don't want to withhold any love from my children,
but I do want to spank them and discipline them for their own good.
Hey, for my pleasure and for their profit, it's a win-win.
I'm not saying that, you know, oh, I enjoy spanking.
And you know these people say, oh, you just enjoy spanking.
You ungodly filthy pervert. Who invited you to church? Get out of here.
We're talking to God's people who have a brain in their head.
Come in here and say that kind of garbage.
Spanking is biblical. Spare the rod, spoil the child, or as the Bible says,
spare the rod, you hate your son. You don't like it, take it up with God.
It's biblical. It's right. I'll stand on it.
And anybody who has something against that to say, well, say it somewhere else or drop dead,
because I'm not going to sit here and promote the government's lies that tell you,
oh, you're abusive. Our government's abusive.
You know, this is what it is. They don't want us to spank our kids,
because they want our kids to grow up, and when they're like 18,
the government will spank them with a taser and a baton.
Seriously.
If you don't spank your kids, they're going to get spanked by the police.
You know what I mean? And I've been spanked by the police, and I was spanked as a kid,
so I got the worst of both worlds.
They're not against hitting somebody. They hit people all the time.
As soon as you don't do what they tell you to do, as soon as you don't pay your taxes,
as soon as you do whatever, don't let them search you and pat you down,
and whatever they do, then they're going to spank you.
But we can't spank our children? It doesn't even make any sense.
And here's the difference. We don't injure our children.
When I spank my children, there's no injury. It's just pain. It's just punishment.
It's just a painful behind, a burning behind. It's not injury.
When they spank you, you're going to get injured.
So I don't want my kids to grow up and be horrible criminals and go through all that.
I don't want them to grow up and do right. It's abusive not to spank your kids.
And all God's people said, Amen.
But anyway, I've got a lot more on holiness.
I wanted to touch on the beauty of holiness, a term that's over and over again.
Women feel that to be beautiful is to dress like the world, right?
To put on the Hollywood type garb. The Bible says holiness is what's beautiful.
Young ladies, you want to be beautiful? Dress holy. Dress godly.
That's what's beautiful in the eyes of God and in the eyes of godly young men.
Worldly men, they're looking for a girl that looks like the world.
Godly young men are looking for a woman that has the beauty of holiness.
But anyway, all I have to say is God commands us to be holy.
He wants us perfecting holiness. That means perfecting, that's a process.
Nobody's totally holy. I'm not going to stand up here and say, Hey, I'm holy. I've arrived.
No, I'm perfecting holiness on a continual basis.
You ought to be perfecting holiness. Perfecting. It's ongoing. It's not done.
It's every day a process. That means that we should be a little more holy this year than we were last year.
We should be a little more holy in 2012 than we were in 2011.
We should be a little more holy on Monday than we were on Sunday.
Nobody's perfect. Nobody's totally righteous.
But we need to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God. It's a process.
Salvation's not a process. It's a moment of twinkling of an eye.
Believe on Christ. Be safe. Born again.
But perfecting holiness takes a lifetime.
And it'll only be fully perfected when we get to heaven.
Let's bow our heads and pray.
Dear God, thank you so much for your word. Please just help us to take it to heart.
Help us to be a holy people. Help our church to be holy in your eyes.
Not identical to the world, but set apart. Not filthy, but clean and godly.
Help us. None of us is perfect. We need your grace, your God, to help us to live correctly.
And so I pray that you'd help us all to perfect holiness in your fear.
In Jesus' name we pray.