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Listen to 7 1 Peter 1 Continued CYoung 5 28 2024 by Bible Call A Daily Call In Bible Study MP3 song. 7 1 Peter 1 Continued CYoung 5 28 2024 song from Bible Call A Daily Call In Bible Study is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 41:45. This high-quality MP3 track has 517.108 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 30 May 2024. Stream and download 7 1 Peter 1 Continued CYoung 5 28 2024 by Bible Call A Daily Call In Bible Study for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
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The main idea of this information is that as Christians, we are called to live a holy life and not conform to the ways of the world. Peter encourages believers to gird up the loins of their mind, be sober, and have hope in the grace of Jesus Christ. Living a holy life requires removing anything that hinders us and having self-control over our thoughts and actions. Our hope is anchored in the eternal inheritance in heaven, and it sustains us in times of trial. our glory be to God for giving us the inspired Word of God and never not leaving man without a way to follow Him. So as we continue tonight in 1 Peter chapter 1, we pick up at verse 13, and what we have in view here tonight is the living hope that causes us to live a holy life as Christians. Alright, and could I first read 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 13 through 16. Okay. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance, but as He who call you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. Alright, thank you brother. So tonight, that's the word of exhortation for us all, is to live a holy life, alright. Living holy and living according to the way that the world forms itself is not a good mix. It don't mix. It's not acceptable to God. You can't be worldly and holy and be acceptable to God, no, because God is holy, okay. So what Peter tells his recipients here in verse 13, he tells them three things, alright. I want y'all to pay attention to what he told them. He told them to gird up the loins of your mind and be holy, alright. But he also told them to be sober and to hope to the end. This is the word of exhortation that he gave them, alright. And if we remember the first beginning of chapter 1, we see that Peter having praised God for the salvation, that is to be revealed at the second coming of Christ, as we see in verses 3-5, but also, and in view of the persecution that was coming, that Peter spoke about in verse 6, Peter goes on now in verse 13 to exhort them to gird up the loins of your mind. So what Peter's telling them is gird up the loins of your mind in order and in a manner for coming this high privilege and glorious destiny that awaits the Christian, this eternal inheritance, this living hope that is made up for Christians. It requires you to live a holy life. Now let's understand what it means to gird up. What did Peter mean by that? First off, it's a figure of speech based off the mode of dress that was common at that time. Okay? Now, let's think back to the mode of dress that was common at that time, where one would gather close to the bottom this long flowing robe by means of a belt or a girdle. Now, I want y'all to understand that by doing this, the garment would not hinder if he desired to run or engage in a special activity. So what Peter does is he urges these Christians to gird up their minds of all improper thoughts and prepare for action. So to serve Christ regardless of what the future may hold, we as Christians, we must be determined to keep a defining focus on our purpose in life and not facilitate between what? The world and the kingdom of God. But if we don't gird up our minds, then we'll find ourselves fashioning ourselves after the world. This is what Peter is encouraging them not to do in such a time as this, under such persecution, with such eternal hope laid up for you in heaven. You need to gird up the lawns of your mind so you can engage in this special activity, in this special lifestyle, this holy conduct that is required of you as a Christian. It requires that you gird up the lawns of your mind so that you won't facilitate between the world and the kingdom of God. Well, some may think about, well, I'm not in the world, I'm not hanging with James Langham, I'm not standing on the corner selling drugs, but don't you know that certain thoughts that we partake of is considered to be the world as well? The certain way we deal with situations, it can be the world as well. The way that we love, if it's not the love of God that He demonstrates us to have, then we ain't in the world, even as Christians. So we got to come out of the world in every form or fashion, but first it's going to take that we gird up the lawns of our mind, all right? We got to remove anything that will hinder us, you know, as we engage in this holy living. Let's read James chapter 1, verse 8. John, James 1, verse 8 from the ESV, he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. All right, so a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So God said that if you're double-minded, then He can't put no trust in you as a steward. You're not a good steward. Let's think about what is a steward. A steward is someone who have been entrusted with something that do not belong to them, all right? So if you are a double-minded man, then no one would entrust anything to your stewardship because you are not trustworthy. You don't have a single fixed vision on your purpose. You haven't girded up the lawns of your mind. You got things in your way that would hinder you from taking full responsibility of the stewardship. You cannot be counted on to give the servants bread at due time. You will not be found watching at the master's return because you will be affiliated between the world and the kingdom of God, all right? And let's notice, Peter also told them to be sober. Now, let's understand that this conveys the need to have self-control of one's thoughts and actions. So sometimes we can be holy, and we can be church-going, and we can be Bible-callish all week, but as soon as somebody press that button, then we right back in the world. You don't know who you're messing with. You don't know. You don't know me like that. I'm going to tell you a piece of my mind in a minute if you just keep on. She got one more time to say something about me like I don't know, and I'm going to let her know a piece of my mind. Now, I ain't going to put my hands on her, but I'm going to tell her about herself. See, we in the world. We ain't gathered up everything that's going to hinder us. So Peter tells them that you need to have self-control, all right? So if the mind is distracted with worldly things, what this does to your lively hope. You say to a child, what's this got to do with the lively hope of a Christian? Because if your mind is occupied with the things of the world, then hope grows dim, and one falls prey more easily to the temptations of the devil. Because when you're thinking about the eternal inheritance, the devil's going to trick us. He's going to trap us. We're going to fall prey. The scripture tells us that the devil is the adversary of Christ, and he goes about in the figurative sense as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So if your mind is resilient between the kingdom of God and the world, the devil is going to devour you. You're going to lose control, and you might not just tell them about themselves. That might not be all that you do. You may even go a little further. You may lose control if you ain't girded up the lungs of your mind and you are not sober. But Peter also tells them to hope to the end. So he say hope until you can't pay your bills, hope until somebody in your family dies, hope until somebody hits your child, hope until your husband divorces you, hope until the folks at the church talk about you. Now you don't want to be a Christian no more. Thank you for using Global Telling. John, you said, hopefully you still got, you're open to James chapter 1. Would you read James 1 beginning at verse 2 and read through 12? Yeah. John, it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds where you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let the steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If all of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. To what verse, Mike? 11. Okay. Let the lowly brother boast in his exhortation, rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit. And one more, verse 12. Verse 12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast for the trial. For when he stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to all them who love him. Amen. Amen. So as we see a crown of righteousness laid up for Christians, and we understand that as Christians we have this eternal inheritance that's laid up. So that's why only the Christians on this earth have lively hope. This living hope that's not perishable. It's not deteriorating. It don't fade away. If you abide faithful in God, then you will receive this eternal inheritance. So Peter tells his reception that they need to gird up their minds. They need to be sober. But Peter also told them hope to the end. And when he tells them the hope to the end, this fuses together both the desire for heaven and the certain expectation to be received at the second coming of Christ. All right? So this kind of living hope that Peter talks about in verse 3, this type of living hope that Peter talks about after verse 3 is unwavering and serves as the anchor of the soul, sustaining and strengthening them in times of trial. Let's read Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19. Amen. So this living hope of the Christian is anchored down in heaven. This is what our hope rests on, the eternal inheritance in heaven. All right? So this ain't the hope of the world where you hope, well, it might not happen. Or I know it's not going to fall through. Well, something just ain't going to be right. No, this is living hope. This hope is not determined by your action. Because whether you gird up the lungs of your mind, be sober and hope to the end or not, the ones who do, they still are going to receive this living hope. Amen. Then in verse 14, we see that Peter stated in 1 Peter chapter 1, he stated, as obedient children, not fastening yourselves according to the form of lust and your ignorance. All right? So let's understand this, that one becomes a child of God through obedience. And as children of obedience, the attitude of total submission to God will continue. So Peter tells his receptors that by fasting their minds on the goals set before them, they would not waver or turn back to the world of the form of lust and their ignorance. And this goes for Christians today as well. If we would apply the principles of this epistle to our lives, we would not waver or turn back to the world in our form of lust, of our ignorance, before we had full knowledge of God's rights, the things that we did and the way that we lived. These things would not fashion us or represent who we are. Amen. So prior to their obedience to the gospel, they had lived in selfishness and sinful desires. This is what they did. So let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 24. Lisa. Okay, let me get that. 17 through 24. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as Gentiles also walk, in the fruity of their mind. Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of their ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they have become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, sensuality for the practice of every kind of iniquity within greediness, but you did not learn Christ in this way. Okay, verse 24. Oh, I'm sorry. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus. That's 21. As you put out, go all the way to 24. Oh, okay. That in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupt in accordance with the lust of deceit. You be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. All right. Of the truth. Amen. Thank you. So we see here that Paul in this epistle, he tells these Christians about being followers of God and he speaks a lot about the body of Christ and walking in love, which is walking in the light. And to walk in the light consists of, for the Christian, is doing what they did at baptism for the rest of their life. You have to, the biggest fight of the Christian, as far as my knowledge goes and experience since the short time I've been a Christian, I think the biggest fight has been against myself, not even faith, but against myself. Denying self has been the biggest battle. Okay. Amen. So what the Christian has to do is, in order to become a child of obedience and live as a child of obedience, you have to deny yourself. You have to take up your cross daily and follow God. And sometimes you have to make sacrifices. You have to walk off on people that you truly then got attached to, that you truly love. You have to excommunicate yourself from places, things. It just goes on and on for the Christian. Amen. But you have to do this if you want to receive this eternal inheritance. If you want to be obedient, this is a part of girding up your mind. This is a part of having self-control, which means to be sober. This is part of you having to hope to the end. Okay? And this also is a part of you not wavering, or turning back to the world of your former lust in the way that you conducted yourself before you became knowledgeable of God's righteousness. So prior to these Christians' obedience to the gospel, they had lived in selfish and sinful desires, and they was being ignorant of the righteousness of God. Their moral conduct was controlled by fleshly lust. But now in Christ, they walk by a higher standard. And what is that standard, Charles, that you talk about? The holiness of God. This is that standard that they walk by. This is the standard for all Christians to walk by. And then if we look at 1 Peter 1, verse 15, Peter stated that, But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conduct. So the root idea of holiness is that of separation from a habitual sin, an all-worldly defilement. I didn't say some. I didn't say the ones you want to turn away from. I said all habitual, practical sins, an all-worldly defilement. So if I become a Christian, I look up and realize, oh, this relationship ain't scriptural. This means that I got to turn away from it. Why? Because it's defiling me. It's spotting my garments. My garments ain't white. It's spotted with sin. Amen. I got to repeat. Why? Because this is not holy. It separates me from God. It separates me from my eternal inheritance. But when I hold on to it, oh, now I'm wavering back and forth. I'm vacillating between the world and the kingdom of God. I'm not living up to my calling. What calling is that? The calling of the gospel. This is not the pattern of teaching that I have obeyed, because the pattern of teaching that we obey in the gospel is that you got to put off your form of conduct of sin and put on the new man, which is created after the righteousness of God. For he who hath called you is holy. So, therefore, you got to be holy. And what? All manner of conduct. So, you talking about the little choking and gossiping that I do with my friend girls and with the guys at work? That's sin? Yes, it is. When I talk about people, that's sin. Yes, it is. When I backbite and be a tail barrel, that's sin. Yes, it is. When I go and gamble at the casino, that's sin. Yes, it is. Oh, because I have one little drink, and I don't do it often. I just do it when I get mad. I do it when I get frustrated. When me and my husband had a bad fight, girl, I go have me a drink. And God don't see nothing wrong with that, because he know my heart. But listen, it's sin. Amen. And we are called by God through the gospel, and we understand that the gospel requires us to live a holy life. Let's read 2 Thessalonians 2.14. Did she get it? Okay, it says, He calls you to salvation. When we told you the good news, now you can share it with the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So where unto he calls you by all gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? Okay, so we see that God calls all men and women by the gospel. He don't talk down from heaven and say, hey, sister, son, so come here. I got a calling on your life. Hey, child, turn away from yourself. I got a calling. No, he calls all men and women by the gospel. That's why it's important as Christians that we walk in the light. That's why it's important as Christians that we share the gospel with others. Because what about on resurrection day when somebody, I mean, on judgment day, what if some lost soul say, you never mentioned him to me? So we want to make sure that we mention Christ to each and everybody we have children. And this calling of God that Christians have received is unto sanctification that we should abstain from fornication. So you're telling me that sex before marriage is sin? Yes, it is. Amen. But I was with this person before I even became a Christian. It's still sin. You was living in that sin when you was ignorant of God's righteousness. But now he commands you, abstain from that because you know better now as a Christian. But it still was wrong before you knew better, all right? But not only fornication, but all uncleanness, all right, that defiles a Christian. Let's read 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 3 and 7. 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 and 7. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. And verse 7, for God did not call us to uncleanness but to holiness. Amen. Amen. And verse 4 stated that every one of you, this is talking to Christians, should know, what we should know as Christians, how to possess his vessel, talking about the body of the Christian, all physical bodies that we should know how to possess our vessel in what? In sanctification and honor. Well, what is sanctification, Charles? This means that we should be set apart for holy living. We should be set apart for God. So you're telling me that what I do with my body, if it's not godly, then I'm not living up to my sanctification? I'm not being set apart from the world? That's exactly what I'm telling you. If you can look at what you do and what the people of the world do, and it's the same, then you got a problem. If you look at the music that they enjoy, and that's the music in your car, then you got a problem. If you look at the places that you like to go, and that is the places that they go to hang out and have a good time, then you got a problem. When you do a get-together at your house in the way that the world facilitates and have get-togethers, if this is the things that you got to have to have a good time, then you ain't living up to your sanctification. You got a problem. If it ain't no party, if it ain't no liquor there, and it ain't no women half naked, then you got a problem. If ain't nobody cussing and fussing, y'all didn't have a good time, then you got a problem. You know what that problem is? It's not that you ain't been baptized or that you ain't obeyed the gospel. It's that you never came out of the world. You never fully broke with the old man of sin. Is it that you haven't been forgiven or passed in? No, it's not. It's that you need to repent and praise the God that the wickedness and the evil intent of your heart will be forgiving you, and you need to abstain from all fleshly love. And this is what Peter tells them, that as a Christian, you will suffer in this world. As a Christian, at the present age that they was in, I understand that you're under persecution, even just as a Jew, but also the fall of Jerusalem is coming, as the Lord has predicted. So it's finna get even bad. And you need to gird up the lungs of your mind, and you need to be sober, and you need to hope to the end, and you need to be holy, because this is your calling. All right? So I just broke down that the word sanctification, this refers to who? Dude, this refers to little boobies and little so-and-so over there with their pants half down, and killing and shooting folks every night, and selling drugs, and lying, stealing, and killing, and they haven't obeyed the gospel at all. They ain't sanctified. You know who's sanctified? Those who are in the kingdom of Christ. I didn't say the people who religion, and just because they go to so-and-so church every week, and they can sing gospel songs, more gospel songs than you, and they can quote more Bible scriptures than Charles off the back of their head, and they got a photograph of a member of the scriptures. No, that don't make them sanctified. You have one minute remaining. Those who are sanctified are the ones who are referred to as saints, which means they have obeyed the calling of the gospel, so they have been set apart from the world. What's set apart from what, Charles? To live holy for God, as God is holy. So the word sanctification does not refer to some mysterious change performed in the spirit by incomprehensible operation of the Holy Spirit. Instead, people, sanctification is a setting apart from sin until what? Godly behavior. It's simple. Either you in or you out. Either you in the world or you out of the world. Amen. You can't be both. No. So we'll break down verse 16, and we'll have about... Thank you for using Global Teleink. Ed, would you start where you picked off at 1 Thessalonians 4, 8, and read through 12? Okay. Start at 8, right? Okay. Yeah. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has given us his Holy Spirit. But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the words of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means perceive those who are asleep. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Amen. Amen. So over in 1 Peter 1, we see that Peter's been breaking down to them that in fear of the living hope that they need to live a holy life. And the word of exhortation for tonight is, what Charles is saying on his phone is, we too are Christians, a part of this same body as these Christians who Peter was right to. Now, we may not be under the same exact circumstances that they was under, but we as Christians, we too have to strive to enter this heavenly kingdom. And Jesus said everybody would desire to be saved, but they ain't going to strive. Because he knows the struggle and the fight to get in the kingdom of God. He said the kingdom had been preached, even all the way up to John, and men pressing to it. Now, what Jesus means by when he say that everybody pressing into it, everybody breaking their neck to try to be saved? No. It's going to be a strive and a struggle. You're going to have to press. You're going to have to gird up your mind. You're going to have to be sober. You're going to have to hope to the end. You're going to have to leave so-and-so alone. You're going to have to stop the former ignorance that you lived in. And some of these things you've been doing since you was a child, and now you're 40 and you just obeyed the gospel, do you know how deeply embedded this behavior is in your thinking? Amen. It's second nature, some of it. And everybody ain't going to be willing to put the fight up to press and strive and walk that narrow road that leads to eternal life. They ain't going to be willing to live holy and to abstain from, watch this word right here, all ungodly conduct. I ain't saying use it like a buffet where I'm going to do this but I ain't going to do that. Well, I like this teaching in the Bible, but I don't think this one refers to Christians. No, you can't use it like a buffet. Jesus give you all, all good doctrine. Okay? So Peter requires his receptors to live holy. But let's understand that as Christians, our frame of reference to live acceptably in the world of sin is what, Charles? It's our holy God. You hear kids say, I'm going to be like such and such. I want to be like such and such. I want to be just like my daddy. Or you hear a beautiful young girl say, I'm going to be like my mama. And you tell them, oh, that's so sweet, that's nice. You know, you tell her, oh, no, you're going to be better than me. But you know what you tell her from now on, no, you're going to be like Jesus. You're going to be like Christ. That's what you're going to be like. You're going to be an imitator of God. Well, what that mean, mama? You're going to live holy. You're going to be taught to gird up your mind and be sober, which means, girl, you're going to have self-control. Amen. Son, you're going to hope to the end. I ain't say stop hoping when that woman leave you. No, you keep your hope in God. Right. When I die, this is what I'm leaving you in my will, hope. But this ain't any type of hope. This is living hope, son. It don't deteriorate. Well, why I got to be like this? Because God is holy, and he called all of us to live holy lives. Well, by what? By the gospel. Well, what is the gospel? The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What am I, mama? African-American, Caucasian, Mexican? You a saint. You sanctified. You a Christian. When somebody asks who you belong to, don't tell them you belong to me. You belong to Christ. You a Christian. You a follower of God. That's what you is. And we live holy lives because God is our greatest example. And so in this world, even though we're oppressing and walking in a sinful world, I want y'all to think about something before we close. The Israelites, they was led out of Eden by Moses, and God was with them. Christians today, we've been led out of sin by Christ to give us the way, the truth, and the life. Okay. He has brought deliverance from sin. Joseph delivered the whole world back then from a famine and even saved the children of God. Okay. Now, Christians, just like the Israelites, we're walking through the wilderness of sin. Now, I ain't talking about the same ground that they trod on. No, I'm speaking in a figurative sense. They walked through the wilderness of Sinai on the way, well, to the promised land. And they had in their mind, when we get here, we're going to have rest from our labor. Ain't going to be no more fighting. We ain't going to have to worry about crime, about going back to Egypt. So Christians today, listen, we're pressing and we're fighting and we're walking through the wilderness of sin on the way to the promised land where that eternal inheritance is stored up. When Caleb and them came back, they say the land is plentiful. It's flows with milk and honey. Well, I want y'all to know that we got the same witness, Jesus, and he done told us that he went and prepared a place for Christians. And in his father's house, his men of Manson, and we heard about the street of gold, and we heard about the pearls that make up the wall of that great city. Well, those pearls represent Christians, but it don't represent Christians who never fully broke with their past. Those are not the Christians that were facilitating between the kingdom of God and the world. Now, so, Charles, what are you saying? What type of Christians was they? They was those who girded up the lungs of their mind. They was sober, and they hoped until the end. And they loved not their own lives, even unto death. All right? And they understood that their greatest example to live holy was God. Okay? So, we see this written in the Bible. Be ye holy if I am holy. Several scriptures states this to me. And we just don't read one sentence. Let's read Leviticus chapter 11, verses 44 and 45. Okay. Chapter 4, was it? 44 and 45? Yes. Leviticus chapter 11, verses 44 and 45. Oh, 11. Leviticus 11, 14. One. Two. Three. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping things that creep on the earth. For I am the Lord who bring you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. So, let's apply this application to each of our lives tonight. We need to be holy and live holy lives. We need to consecrate ourselves to our God. We need to think in our mind and to figure this holy ground I'm standing on. We need to always be on holy ground. All right. We need to be holy. Okay. So, we see that I've talked a lot about Israel and what they did. And I want y'all to know that even as the Israelites were God's chosen people and were to be separate from the idolatrous nations around them, so also Christians are the chosen people of God and must maintain separation from the worldly life of sin. Who Christians are, and I want y'all to hear me well, who Christians are and strive to be is defined by who and what God is. We see sometimes where a person see our children and say, girl, you ever spit on your mama. A boy your daddy shows spits you out. But that's what we need to be when it comes to God. We need to live just like God spit us out, like we ever spit up because we need to be holy. All right. God is the antithesis of sin and evil. Let's read Habakkuk 113. And we got one more scripture before we close out. John. Okay. Habakkuk 114. Thirteen. Thirteen. You who are of pure eyes tend to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Why do you, idol, look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallow up the man more righteous than he? So what you're saying, basically, John, is that God is completely separated from the profane and his followers walk as imitators of God? Well, let's look at Ephesians 5, 1 for our last scripture. Because I see a lot of people, they'll wear these bracelets and stuff on their arm. And then they'll say, W-W-J-D. And I say, what that mean? What would Jesus do? And then I would say, no, you need to think before you act if you're a Christian and say, what did Jesus do? And I need to do the same thing. I need to be an imitator of God. Did the Bible say that we can be imitators of God? Well, let's look at Ephesians 5, 1 for our last scripture for tonight. Mary. Okay. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Well, how do I be an imitator of God? Well, Jesus said, if you've seen me, then you've seen the Father. So I can go read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and I can see the hatred that Jesus had for hypocrites. I can see the love that Jesus had for those who loved him as well as for those who did not. I can see the compassion that he showed on the sick and the blind and the crippled and those who was hurting and weighed down and oppressed. And what I can do, I can go do the same thing because every day I get that opportunity to imitate Jesus. Well, how's that? Because every day I see people every day. So be ye holy as God is holy. And there may be someone on this call tonight that you may say, well, I'm already holy. I've already been baptized. But one thing about your salvation is that there's one thing that when you die, you cannot change what you've done, what you thought was right. I was too smart for my own good. Well, I took so many college courses, and I got a degree in theology. I can tell you where the Catholic church started and where the first Pentecostal church started. But listen, that don't get us into heaven. Can't no college get you into the kingdom of God. You get into the kingdom by rightfully dividing the words of truth. And if you cannot say tonight that you can pick up your Bible and say, tonight, I'm going to teach a lesson on how to become a Christian. And I'm going to tell Charles to sit down, and I'm going to teach a full lesson on what Jesus taught about salvation and the pattern that is shown in the Bible. And I can say within my heart that I have done the same thing. If we can't do that, then there's one thing we need to learn. Jesus said the first thing to do is to be poor in spirit. You've got to be willing to learn to become like little children and be converted. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Charles. Thanks for the lesson. Thank you. You've got any comments or questions? Charles, I love your preaching. You just love it. And Hebrews 2.13 says, Without holiness, nowhere shall you be delivered. Amen. And that's why we should be Christians that don't mind saying what's true. Tell people what they need to hear. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you haven't obeyed the gospel, and you need some assistance, and you need further study, then contact one of us. Contact me, and if you want to talk to somebody else, we'll get you in contact with them. We'll help you understand and to obey.
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