Mystery of the Church, No. 51

Colossians 1:25-29

COL-236

This morning we direct your attention to "The Mystery of the Church, segment number 51, in Colossians 1:25-29.

The highest achievement that anyone may attain in life is to become a spiritually mature Christian. So easy to say, so hard to achieve, and the realization that having once become spiritually mature, you can fall back to spiritual immaturity. You can retrogress, you can revert back down to the childishness of an incompetent in the spiritual life. A week does not go by without someone coming to me and saying, well, Mrs. So-and-so Mr. So-and-so you know where they are now. You know what they're up to now. You know what's happening in their lives. And again, I'm reminded that the Apostle Paul, the word of God with good reason says let him let think if he standeth take heed lest fall.

This morning we direct your attention to the Mystery of the Church segment number 51, Colossians 1:25-29. The highest achievement that anyone may attain in life is to become a spiritually mature Christian. So easy to say, so hard to achieve, and the realization that having once become spiritually mature, you can fall back to spiritual immaturity. You can retrogress, you can revert back down to the childishness of an incompetent in the spiritual life. A week does not go by without someone coming to me and saying, well, Mrs. So-and-so Mr. So-and-so you know where they are now. You know what they're up to now. You know what's happening in their lives. And again, I'm reminded that the Apostle Paul, the word of God with good reason says let him let think if he standeth take heed lest fall.

And what a tragedy that Christians do not understand, whatever else in life they have or do, becoming separated unto the life with God to which they've been called separated into the will and purpose of God, separated, detached out of the world system and its efforts, its objectives, its desires. That's what life is all about for the Christian. And if you do not do that, you'll fall. And you'll go to heaven as the Bible makes very clear. But you'll go through there through the fire of God's judgment and that judgment will say, you lived an unholy life and now you must bear the consequences of the lack of an enriched eternity. The world's unsaved rich and famous and the carnal Christian consider the goal of spiritual maturity as the objective of one's life nonsense. To them, the ultimate achievement in life is money, fame, and self-indulgence. That to them is a good life and that's what's promoted by the world. You cannot view television, you cannot read publications, move through society without finding yourself bombarded with these objectives. Accumulating money. Don't let hell or high water stand in your way of accumulating money and the justifications and rationalizations for that without limit

And you are constantly bombarded with seeking to be somebody. To be fame. I had a very close man in the ministry one time, a good friend who we were talking about something, and he was a promoter, and he would do the things that would keep him in certain important positions of awareness. And I said, well, that really is not my style. That doesn't sit well with me. I like to just be anonymous. Out there doing the job, but low key. And Oh, he said, that's terrible John's terrible and he was indignant. And he was a good student of the word, but to him there was importance of fame. And of course if you have fame in the ministry, then you are invited to share your gems of wisdom and you are invited to move into the elitist circles of people who are the in-house crowd with the world. I should say the in-house crowd with the world you can almost be sure is the outhouse crowd with God. I've never seen that principle of life fail. The in-house crowd with the world is the outhouse crowd with God.

What we are constantly being told is to self-indulge ourselves. Self-indulgence. I like to see these clerks sometimes these ladies who sometimes they're at counters of one kind or another in the bank. They have rings on every finger. And I try to look over to see if they're wearing sandals to see if they've got them on their toes too. Now wearing a ring is a very heavy thing just to have one is a burden in life. But the world says no, indulge yourself, get as many as you can and after a while hang one on your nose too. This the world says that's where it's at. This is real living.

Now the highest level of spiritual maturity for the Christian is what we refer to as the Super Grace level and we get that word from James 4:6 says, "But he God our Father gives a greater Grace, and the Greek for greater meizón (mide'-zone), M E I Z O N, is Super abounding Grace. Therefore he says God is opposed to the proud, but he gives Grace to the humble. The proud and arrogant Christian is the one who is not careful, and he will fall. Now all of a sudden somebody will come and say, can you believe what this person has done drifting off like Demas into the world system and the world's lifestyle. And we grieve, we're offended, and we're embarrassed for the Lord Jesus. God is opposed to that proud Christian, but He gives Grace to the humble, the one who is willing to walk the life of holiness and to live his life, not for money, not for fame, not for self-indulgence, but just to be God's man and God's woman. And when you get to a level of spiritual maturity here at Super Grace, then that's the prime of life for the believer.

This spiritual status results in the life of holy living. You're not at Super Grace if you're not a holy person. And it results in great divine good service in the process of fulfilling that particular plan of service that God has designed for you, which is referred to in a book of Ephesians 2:10, "For we Christians are the Lord's workmanship created in Christ Jesus and our Salvation for good works", divine good works produced by the Holy Spirit, "which God particularly prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." That life that God says, this is why I need you in my service. This is the mission for you. Now the mature Christian living a life of holy separation from satan's worlds lifestyle comes under the maximum blessings of God in time and great rewards in eternity. And then is fulfilled. the Old Testament picture that we have in Psalm 23:5 where the psalmist says for the one who has stepped aside to a life with God, "Thou does prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou has anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows." Now that folks is worth living for. My cup overflows and not only overflows in this life with everything you need and everything of joy and blessing to you, but it also overflows at the Judgment Seat of Christ and eternity with the rewards of heaven. My cup overflows.

The divine challenge is summed up in II Corinthians 7:1 where God says, "Therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." And that word perfecting means bringing it to maturity. Now you and I have freedom of volition. Each of us is now in a situation at this very moment where we are exercising volition.

The reason we are not carrying on a dialogue here as we do for example in Sunday School to some degree and a lot in Training Union, we're not talking back and forth. We are here to be fed the word of God in a monologue of instruction from the pastor-teacher in the pulpit for the word that God has prepared for you. And you are sitting there with your volition in full control. You are sitting there paying attention or you're sitting there being distracted by your mind. Here comes a fly that's very interesting that fly. I've never seen a fly like that before and pretty soon there's where your mind is, and your ears have clogged up. You're sitting here. I wish she'd changed her hairdo; just wish she'd quit getting those permanence. Terrible. Wonder why she keeps it so long. Looks like my dog. Well, pretty soon ears are clogged because you're off somewhere else. Really makes me mad with that guy charged me for that thing yesterday. I wonder how I can get back at him. pretty soon. Your ears are clogged.

The devil was always here to get you distracted because he knows you have volition. You can choose; you can do and don't ever excuse yourself for one moment in thinking that freedom of volition is not going to be held responsible before God and what you do with it. It enables you to choose how far you want to progress in spiritual maturity. The good life of God. Every one of us chooses how far we're going to go. And the problem of attending Berean Church I can tell you is that you come up against this wall pretty regularly. The challenge of the good life with God. And finally some people cannot stand it and they cut out almost inevitably they cut out for that simple reason. They find their volition being constricted in the good life with God and they don't want that. They want to have freedom for the good life of the world. Freedom for the good life of the sin nature. Freedom for the good life of the world's system of Satan and Satan himself. And like Christian in Pilgrams Progress as the appeals of the world are made he finally puts his hands on his ears, and he runs away to get out of hearing range. That's how some Christians do with the challenge to do it God's way. To live the holy life, they put their hands on their ears, and they flee because they feel so oppressed, because they've got a life. They're not interested in God's life. They've already got a life. Now the more mature a believer becomes, the less he is oriented to self-ambitions and to the evil world system of satan and its values. Paul in the book of Philippians has some magnificent passages on this principle. The more spiritually mature a believer becomes, the less taste he has for the world. The less he is oriented to his own self-indulgence. The less he is oriented to fulfilling self-ambitions. The less attractive the world is for him.

How many people stood outside even before dawn of this Church waiting to be sure that they were able to get in? A lot of them did for Star Wars. They could not put themselves out far enough for Star Wars. And the Star Wars now that they have carried to, I'm told by those who've seen it to an ultimate level of the new age religion. They even had the suggestion of a virgin birth of one of the characters is more blasphemous probably now than the previous Star Wars. And people could not wait to get into something of Hollywood's world system could not wait to get there. No one's breaking the doors down here. The Apostle Paul says those who have grown spiritually, those who are oriented to the character of God where holiness is the name of the game, they're the people who will be pressing forward in the service of God and away from the world. Philippians 3:7-8 Paul says, "But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." Now that's very serious talk there.

Whatever things were gained to me, that car, that money, that account, that possession, that whatever those material things, I consider those loss. In view they're okay and I like them and they're useful. But they're nothing compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. So if I have to exchange knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and be absent from the instruction of the word of God because I want to get something out here in the world, it's a bad exchange. Paul says, I don't do it because I consider what is out there garbage. Rubbish is not the finest of it. Fame, fortune, whatever it is, it's not anything it compared to knowing Christ that I may gain Christ. What does he mean? He means that I as a human being in my humanity can live the godly life that Jesus did in his humanity and that is possible.

Drop down to Philippians 3:12-14, "Not that I have already obtained it", this status of separation or have already become perfect mature, "but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ." God brought me into the world for objective and I want to get hold of that, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to that, what lies ahead." I failed. I confess, I forget it, I move on, I fail. I get disoriented. The world traps me. I confess I get reoriented, and I move on. I never fail to see my objective holiness in Christ. "I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, to be like Him in His resurrection power." Drop down to Philippians 3:17, "Brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us for many walk", speaking of Christians, "of whom I often told you, and I'll tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ." A Christian becomes an enemy of the cross of Christ? Philippians 3:19, "Whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite", their lust, "and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."

Now that is what your volition can choose. You can choose to destroy yourself spiritually. You can choose to give your life to sensual appetites, and you can choose to be arrogant in your shame. All these are unholy, those are shameful things for you not to do. If you do all these things that are unholy, are shameful things. They're the things you should not do. And yet how often Christians will do the things that God forbids or that wisdom of those who know doctrine and have given you the implications of the follow through on that in your life. They're proud of the fact that they reject the word. They should be ashamed of themselves but they're not. Why? Because their minds are set on earthly things. This is all, they're just getting up. They're moving around this earth.

They're not getting up like I like to say what Jack Smith our man in Kentucky said, Jack gets up. He says, every morning I get up and the first thing I do in prayer, I say, Lord God, Sir, what are your orders for me this day? Now Jack is Ex marine sergeant, that's a very natural way for him to act. Sir, what are your orders for me this day? Wait a minute. I've got all these plans. I've got all these business deals. I've got all these shopping things; I've got all this expansion of what I'm doing in this realm and in that realm. Why do I need to ask God what He wants me to do to say ,I already have a life. Well do you. Now, the more mature a believer becomes, the closer he walks with God. He is then the friend of God and he is a person after God's own heart. Those are the relationships of holiness. And if you cannot say with integrity before Him, I walk with God, you're not a holy person. If you cannot say I'm the friend of God, I stand up for him in the world you're not a holy person. You cannot say that God looks down and says like He did of His Son, this is my Son. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He's talking about Jesus the man. And if we are an unholy people, then he cannot say that about us, but he should be able to. That's what we're talking about.

Christians often deceive themselves about the characteristics of holiness which are listed in the Bible. But the mature Christian is very clearly spelled out. People often deceive themselves as to what is Christ like and thus what is holy. They base their opinions of holiness on their personal desires or the ambitions of their own sin nature. They're doing things that are against the will of God. They're violating the purpose of God. They're saying, I'm doing this because this and this and this, and they have justifiable reasons in their own mind for doing this and they think that they're acting in a godly holy way. The sin nature bears false witness all the time because it's motivated by satan who is a liar. Holiness is based upon the objective guidelines of doctrine which we've been looking at. Not on the subjective basis of how you feel about something. Your emotions, unless they're governed on the principles of doctrine and led by the Holy Spirit will lead you astray.

So what I'm saying, if something is stated in the Bible as a way of holy maturity, we cannot blow it off, cannot ignore it. You cannot say, well, I'm just not going to deal with that part. You cannot make yourself an exception to the rule of God. And you cannot get mad at the pastor-teacher as some people have here for bringing these things to your attention. You have your own volition; you do what you want. But I must tell you what the word of God says because that's what the principle is that Paul is establishing here in the book of Colossians about the Church age believer who has a magnificent capacity for holiness that no other saints in any other age had. And if you don't want that, go ahead, and pretend that you can blow it off. Go ahead and pretend that you're an exception to the rule and go ahead and get mad at the pastor-teacher. Put your hands on your ears. Go fleeing from the sound of these things. Then we'll get our report about you of your degeneracy as satan finally brings you down.

Here are four more additional holy ways of God, biblical qualities. What is characteristic of the Holy Christian? One, he imitates the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:1-2, "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ loved you. He gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Walk in love the Greek word agapé (ag-ah'-pay), A G A P E, for love. And then he explains that word you see because that is the word of sacrifice for someone. That is a word lacking any mental bitterness, but rather goodwill. Christ loved you. What's the definition? He gave himself up for you an offering a sacrifice to God and he made himself a fragrant aroma. How nice to say, to have our Father say, you smell good to me, you smell good. Like some lady who goes down Kmart's got a big sale, gets a perfume counter, and buys that wonderful thing called midnight in Moab and puts it on, comes home and her husband says, boy, you smell nice, and she is so pleased. How nice for God to say you smell good to me. Because so many Christians stink. They're not an odor, a pleasant odor in the nostrils of God. Why not? Because they're not Christ-like. If they would imitate the Lord Jesus Christ and that's the bottom line imitation of him. Thomas Aquinas wrote Imitations of Christ Classic in Church writings. A simple principle, what should guide my life? Well, would Jesus do this? Would he try this subterfuge? Would he put on this front? Would he do this hypocrisy? Would he say this thing? Would he go to see this? Would he associate in this enterprise? I'm telling you folks, somebody's going to pull up to your door with a truck someday and start hauling the stuff off. It's all up there or it's nowhere.

Point number two, the holy way of God that Christian leaves vengeance with God. The old socket to him principle cannot be practiced by Christians. As much as you'd like to, as much as the person deserves it. You can't socket to him. I Thessalonians 5:14-15, "And we urge you brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak. Be patient with all men. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men."

Yes, there are some people that deserve to have its sock to them, especially often the Christian circles. But we can't do that. If we are going to imitate Jesus Christ and if we're going to leave vengeance to God, then what we must do is be a word of warning, a word of caution, and we don't pay back. No tit for tat. And what we do rather is seek how we can get this person's head screwed on straight so that they may come to the good things that God has for them. They may shove you away, they may refuse you, they may reject you, but that's between them and God. We do not take the whip in our own hand. If you do, you'll find that you've gotten between yourself and God's whip. Do not take the action to get even.

And in Romans 12:17-21, this principle again is enunciated for us, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him and if he is thirsty, give him a drink and in so doing, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good." We are frail, sinful creatures. We do not know how to socket to people and maintain justice in the process, but God does. There's no more terrible thing that you can do for a human being who is out of line with the word of God or in a condition of having mistreated you. Then for you to go to the Father quietly and say, Father, this is what is wrong. This is what this person has done, and I hand this individual over to you for your discipline. Your vengeance will be fair, and I don't want to get between this person and the discipline he deserves so that I find myself bearing part of the discipline. A holy Christian just does not try to take vengeance on people. And when they abuse you, when they mock you, when they ridicule you, what do you do? How did Jesus demonstrate holiness? He stood there. He listened to this insanity and inanity of the religious leaders. He listened to the political leaders, and he answered with dignity. His holiness was maintained. His integrity was never fractured, and he left people to the vengeance of God. Even on the cross, what did He say? He looked down and He saw these fools all around them, all disoriented, doing everything they shouldn't do, completely blinded and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And what He was saying is, Father, carry me through now we're on our way. The moment has arrived. The terrible burden of the sin of the world is on me. I'm carrying it. Bring me to the end a successful conclusion of this enterprise so that you can have a basis to forgive them. Father, forgive them. These people do not know what they do, but I have to provide the basis of that forgiveness. Make it possible that you can forgive them.

Number three, the holy way of God is to be grateful to God, gratitude to God. I Thessalonians 5:18, "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." In everything, give thanks? Think of all those things in life where you have been stung, where you have been mistreated, where you have been taken advantage of. And in everything you say, God, I thank you. This has come into my life. I learned from this. I have a realization of your presence and in this I give you thanks. And sometimes it is very, very painful what has happened. I give you thanks for that.

Ephesians 5:20, "Always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God, even our Father," Always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God even our Father. Somebody came up recently to me after service and said, I just want to ask you about praying when you're in a public restaurant before we eat, whether that's all right to do? Because this is a proper thing to do that we should receive all things with thanksgiving and it is a proper Christian custom to thank God even as Jesus did when he gave the fish and the loaves, he thanked God before they ate. And that is a proper thing to do. Only the pigs mussel up to the trough without thanking God for the food first. And this person wanted know that was all right to do because people are going to see what you're doing and so on. I said, of course it is. I said, I would not stand up over at Pappasito's though and say folks in the tables around here, Would you get quiet please. We're going to pray over here. And then for you to stand up and then pray and make a big scene of it. You just call on somebody that's got a voice that'll carry, and they do not shout so you can hear them at the other end of the restaurant just at that table and you thank God. I mean, how intimidated can we get as Christians that we don't want to express our gratitude to God for the food we're about to eat. But that's the way it is in this world system. What does the holy Christian do? He thanks God. And he learns how to walk because he has a capacity of holiness to take even the terrible things that by the sovereign will of God are brought into our lives.

And a fourth one to conclude our holy ways of God, of which there are still many others that we haven't gotten to in scripture, but you'll pick them up. The holy Christian does not depend on his human reason for divine truth, for God's will. But on scripture and the Holy Spirit illumination of that scripture, I Corinthians 1:21, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom", human reason contaminated by the sin nature, "did not come to know God". You'll never come to know God on the basis of human reasoning. That's why you have all those crazy religions out there. They're the result of people trying to approach God on the basis of human reason. "God was well pleased. On the other hand, through the foolishness of the message, preached to say those who believe."

Isaiah 55:8-9 God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways. My ways declares the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." We don't think the way God thinks. We cannot think the way God thinks. We do not have His omniscience. We do not have His perspective. We have to get it from Him. Talking to a man recently at a social event, we got to speaking about prophetic matters and he took issue that you could know about these things in scripture, these prophetic things of the future. And I said, well, you can if you take the Bible literally and the words mean just like they do in your morning newspaper. You don't take the newspaper and read what's going on somewhere and then ponder what do these words mean? What is a hidden meaning under these words? No, you take them just like literal. That's what it says. That's what it means. That's how the Bible is. God always speaks to us in intelligible language. He never speaks in gibberish. And he said, well, there has to be symbolic. I say, yes, there are symbols in the Bible, but the symbols always have a literal meaning. Sometimes it's obvious. Jesus says, I'm the door. Yep. He's not a slab with a doorknob and hinges. We know that its self-evident it. It's an analogy, but I said other times like in the book of the Revelation, there are a lot of symbols and either God the Holy Spirit explains the meaning of the symbol right then or it has occurred elsewhere in the Bible. So we know how that symbol is used. We know what it means.

Oh, he says, well, there's a problem with me. You see I started a Catholic and then he named a whole series of religions he's been through and ended up at the Baptist. And what he was saying was he just wasn't open that if the Bible says that you can understand it and that's so. Well, now I knew this man probably was not saved and I knew that this man was certainly if you were saved very out of touch with the knowledge of the word of God and any principle of holiness. Gifted, talented, able person but very confident that if he couldn't click it with his mind, it wasn't there. Confident that he himself by his reason could determine these things and he could not simply accept the simple principle that God has given us a book which is without mistake, and he has protected its original writings so that it has come down to us without mistake and that that's the only way we ever learned anything about him.

Now where all this leads to in the Christian life is of course the holiness will lead to our condition, our report card at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And one of the things that are particularly given in recognition of outstanding service and achievement are in the Bible called crowns. This Tuesday at Berean Christian Academy classes one by one will have announced for them the students who have achieved, who completed the year with honors and those who have completed it with highest honors with grade average achievement points and character qualities. We got a lot of smart kids that make high grades, but their character, they're dogs. And therefore when they add the character traits, these high achievers with the mind come down. But finally, there's the balance and we are happy to recognize those who are achievers with honors and highest honors.

The world system of education gets more and more away from that because it makes the low achievers feel uncomfortable. And everybody must be equal in our mad society today. Well, the Bible has a recognition for your holiness. We will start it, get into it because this is something we need to know about and be very much aware of. It's in II Timothy 4:7-8 the Apostle Paul is talking about one of the four crowns, the medals of honor in heaven that God will give to certain believers. This is in addition to your regular rewards for service and this is the crown of righteousness. Paul says II Timothy 4:7-8, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I've kept the faith in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing."

A crown of righteousness in the future is laid up for me, which the Lord the righteous judge is going to give me. He will award to me. Award means earning. You get something awarded when you earn it. That's why Salvation is not an award because it's a gift. It's something you get for not doing anything but believing God and accepting a gift of Salvation from him. So this crown of righteousness is something that God, the righteous judge, evaluates us in a certain way so that He awards this particular crown to us. And then he says, and not only to me, I don't want you to think that this is because I'm the Apostle Paul and because of the status I have and my knowledge of the word of God and the service that I performed. and remember this is the book of II Timothy book. This is goodbye Charlie time for the Apostle Paul. After this, there are no more books. He's going to be executed very shortly by Niro.

So he says he'll award to me on that day. That is the day of the rapture, the Judgment Seat of Christ. But he says, it's not to me only, but to everybody who's looking forward to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Raptor and to going up to be with him in heaven and to stand before him so that our works, our life may be judged. And at that point in time, one of the things that will be examined was the life of holiness. How much a life of spirituality, how much a life of carnality. The years have clicked off. The longer you live, the more the contrast can be, the greater it becomes. If you're high on carnality and low on holiness, the bigger the contrast will be the longer you live. But it's going to be evaluated. The crown of honor, this crown of honor, the crown of righteousness is to recognize a Church age believer who maintained a Superior level of experiential sanctification in his lifetime. Sanctification means holiness. Setting aside your life to God from the world. Experiential means in your experience. This is the evaluation of the time spent, the time you logged in the category of spirituality over against the time you logged in the category of carnality. This is to honor a life of exceptional and consistent holiness. A life lived for a maximum of time in temporal fellowship with God the Father,

The status of godliness of the spiritual Christian in the inner circle of being filled with the Spirit. This is what the crown of righteousness is for. How much time you as a Christian spent in here filled with the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit, a spiritual Christian, functioning upon the will of God, the purpose of God, the life of God, and detached from the world. Or how much time you spent in here as a Christian humping along in the world system, doing the things of the world, doing exactly the same objectives of the world, money and fame and indulgence. Money and fame and indulgence. Instead, you're here in the inner circle and if you have money, you are achieving divine good works by the carloads. If you have fame, you are impacting upon society in an important measurable way for the principles of godliness. If you have any indulgence, what you do is indulge your opportunity to serve the Lord rather than yourself. But this is the status of spirituality. This is the status of holiness.

This is where I John 1:9 is working in your life, "If we confess", admit our sins, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That verse, which most Christians never here. Most Christians will go in Church Sunday after Sunday, and nobody ever tells them. Now that you've obeyed John 3:16 and been saved, oh, be careful that you do not live out here in the Salvation circle under the control of the old sin nature, but in the inner circle here, controlled by God the Holy Spirit. This is the loser realm. This is the winner realm. This is the holy realm. This is the unholy realm, and everybody has a volition. You choose one or the other. The holiness which characterizes the spiritually mature Christian of an exceptional nature is what God recognizes at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And he is awarded for that the crown of righteousness.

Now, II Timothy 4:8-9 is fraught with enormous information about this principle of holiness in your life, of the walk of the Godly. It spells it out with astonishing specificity, very clear, very exact, and the ultimate result is very magnificent. And when you bring in a few scriptures to clarify this even further, you finally step back and say, there is nothing in life that is more important to me than to have my objective upon that heavenly medal of honor the crown of righteousness. Next time we will go in detail about that objective.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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