This sermon emphasizes the importance of praising God and trusting in Him, highlighting the transformation and blessings that come from putting our trust in the Lord. It also addresses the need for unity among Christians, focusing on loving one another as Christ loved us. The sermon delves into the dangers of pride and greed, urging listeners to align their motives with pleasing the Lord and repenting from strongholds in their lives to find true peace and enter into the divine nature of the Lord.

Praise God. Praise the Lord. Bell Hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise God. Praise God. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a lot better than getting rocked and threw off. You know, this takes some getting used to. I don't know, it'd be a lot easier to throw a fifth now than it would to teach. I really, I really appreciate it. I've never been treated as nice as I have here, and that takes some adjustment. It'll take me a little while to get over it. And, but I, but I'm really enjoying it, and I really thank you. Okay, let me just start with a word. Let's start with her testimony. He lifted us up out of the pit of destruction. Out of the mire he lay, and he put her feet upon a rock, making her footsteps firm, and he put a new song in her mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many are seeing fear and trust in the Lord, and blessed is a man whose trust is the Lord, and has not turned to the proud, nor lapsed into falsehood. Many, O Lord, my God, are the wonders that thou hast done. Thy thoughts are toward us. There is none to compare to thee. Our ears, thou hast opened up. And then we said, Behold, Lord, we come to thee in the scroll of the book it is written of us. We delight to do thy will, O my God, because thy law is written within our heart, because we've been born again into a living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, my dad. Our inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. We're kept by the power of God through faith and true salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Although we've never seen you, Lord, we love you. And although we don't see you right now, we bless you, we praise you, and we trust you. We rejoice with a joy unspeakable, full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our soul, because we've been redeemed. I've said before you can tell a whole lot about a crowd when you start with a word. You know that? We've been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, who without blemish, without spot, we've been born again, not a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible seed, by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Jesus Christ is our cornerstone. He's a living stone, rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious. We're lively stones that make up a spiritual house, that offer up spiritual sacrifice, except for God and Jesus Christ. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. We're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy priesthood. We're peculiar folks. To show forth praises unto him who delivered us out of darkness into the kingdom, a head's-blooded son in whom we have redemption, and a forgiveness of all our sins, who his own self has taken over weakness, sickness, disease, infirmity, curse, and sin. And by the stripes of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are healed in Jesus' name. Do you receive that? Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God forevermore. Father, in the name of Jesus, we bless you. We thank you, Lord, that you dwell in the midst of your praises. We thank you, Lord, that you'll never forsake us and never leave us. Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word's forever settled in heaven. Your word is the final authority. You watch over your word to perform it. Your word is life to us and health to all our whole flesh. And Lord, we, Jesus, we just come to glorify you. We didn't come to boast in one thing except you and your grace and mercy, Lord Jesus. We have nothing to boast in except the cross and the grace, and we're getting in on what you're up to, Lord. We bless you, Lord. We glorify you, Lord. And Lord Jesus, I just pray, I ask you, Lord, for just a special anointing and enlightening of your word tonight as this word performs its work in us. And Lord, I just pray, God, a godly repentance. I pray, God, that this word will be a mirror to our hearts, that everything that's contrary to your word will be exposed, and repentance would come. I pray, God, that hearts would be purified. I pray, God, healing and deliverance would be manifest over this congregation. I pray, God, that you'll confirm this word. And I thank you, Lord, you do confirm the word. And Lord Jesus, I thank you that you disarmed the rulers and authorities and you made a public display of them, having made triumph over them. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I separate and expose in the name of Jesus all the works of darkness, all religious traditions, all religious spirits. And this place is separated, sealed by the blood, and bound. Every stronghold is sealed by the blood and bound in the name of Jesus. I renounce and seal by the blood every work of the spirit of haughty doubt, unbelief, error, confusion, all the works of destruction, tiredness, fatigue, exhaustion in the name of Jesus. Mind-wandering, mind-binding, distracting spirits right now, but I take authority over all the religious spirits over this city. In the name of Jesus, you are sealed by the blood and bound. I break your authority. I bring you under our authority in the name of Jesus. And all that walk on you are sealed by the blood and bound in the name of Jesus. You're removed from this building. You're removed from each person right here in the name of Jesus. We hold the word in the blood as a hedge. And now I want you to just agree with me. Do you have any unforgiveness in your heart? I tell you what, it's no use trying to hear the word when you have unforgiveness in your heart. All right, now let's just get free. I'm going to tell you what. God's going to do something here. Now, I want you to just close your eyes. Now, I want you to just think of someone that you haven't been right, that you've been speaking against, that you've been criticizing, fault-finding. I'm telling you what, I don't care if you're in the front pew or wherever you are. When you judge, you're judged. When you're condemned, you're condemned. When you have unforgiveness, you have a problem with the powers of darkness. You have strongholds. You don't have peace, and you can't help but understand you're tormented. Now, let's just repent of these things. We're going to bind up. Word curses come on us when we speak them on others. A curse doesn't light without a cause, and it lights with a cause when we condemn and curse others. Now, let's just be free from this right now. Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me. And I now renounce all unforgiveness. And every word of criticism, fault-finding, gossip, slander, anger, every word that I've ever spoken against anyone else, I cast these words to the ground. I release all men right now in the name of Jesus. They're free in the name of Jesus. And Lord Jesus, I receive your forgiveness, grace, the Word. I lift up my hands to Jesus, and I receive the blood. The blood cleanse me from every word, curse, and spell that's broken over you right now. All worry and anxiety is removed right now in the name of Jesus. All the works of fear and intimidation and dread are removed now in the name of Jesus. Tiredness and fatigue is removed right now in the name of Jesus. All guilt and condemnation is released. You have the mind of Christ in Jesus' name. You're strengthened in all power by the mind of the Lord in Jesus' name. And in the name of Jesus, all religious deception right now, compromise, complacency, oppression, heaviness, burden, and gloom is released right now. And in Jesus' name, I speak blessings, peace, grace, love, healing, deliverance over this man. And glory be to God forevermore. Hug three people around the neck before you sit down. Hug somebody around the neck before you sit down. Hug them around the neck before you sit down. Praise God. You want to hear some nice stories or get in the Word? Turn to John 15, please. Folks, we're going to be dealing with several things these days. Now, I'll just begin by saying this. The Word will change your life if you'll stay with us this week. Many of you all over this building have never known the freedom that you'll have this week. And I'm saying because the Word, not the man, came to town. That's not what I'm talking about. The ministry, we're all part of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one has a whole loaf, but we come here for foundation. That's what we're going to be building on. That's what we're going to be talking about. And this foundation is plenty, plenty wrong and many, many lies today. That's the reason we've been taught to hang in there and keep a stiff upper lip and let the rough end drag. Amen? And so we want to take the Word of God, and we're going to use a lot of the Word of God, and we're going to deal with some religious traditions in light of the Word. And then we're going to deal with how you can get a stronghold sitting in, well, within stained glass, sitting in a church building, how you can... See, we're programmed, you know, to say something got on our shoulders, and it doesn't mess up the theology, you know what I mean? And also, what we're going to be talking about, the main thing this week we're going to be talking about is the overcoming. And what is a walk of peace? What is a divine nature? And I want to tell you now before we start, what God calls love and what most of the church calls love is not the same. And so for this reason, a lot of people are in bondage, and there's been a war going on and the church hasn't showed up for it. So while I'm going to be talking about the power of the dark to some and going to be exposing how they block love, and by blocking love how they're able to build strongholds and torment and destruction and bring sickness and disease and how they do these things, we're going to be finding out what the divine nature and what the real love and how it's perfected in us, right? And we want to make one rule. I want you to remember this. I'll remind you of it every night probably, but let's just go ahead and begin it tonight. When we read something in the Word of God, we're not going to act like it's not there. Amen? Now, the Pharisees, Jesus came to lead the Pharisees out of some religious traditions. Of course, they had a little spiritual pride and they had a structure built and they were already smarter than God, see? Right? And when Jesus came along with the Word of God, they couldn't be led out of spiritual darkness. See, when you get smarter than God, you can't be led anywhere. It's called pride. And so when Jesus spoke the Word of God, they loved their structure. What he said wouldn't fit in their structure, and therefore they had tunnel vision. They used the Bible too, kind of like today. And they couldn't be led out of any spiritual darkness because the words he spoke wouldn't fit in their structure and they could only be led. In other words, when they saw the Bible, they could only see in the Bible what fit in their structure. Does that sound familiar to you? Do you think any of that happens today? Huh? Tunnel vision. So, see, I'm of opinion. You know, the last several years, we've learned a lot of things that didn't fit in the traditions. Isn't that right? Now, the problem is to do, since they did since Reformation, when Luther first got some light, you know, they gathered around it after Luther died and they called it it. They're still gathered around it. Right? Some others get it. And so every time someone gets some light, they gather around it. Next thing you know, a lot of times you've got your headquarters, and then this one gets more light, and you've got another headquarters over here. And then, next thing you know, everybody's comparing himself among himself and measuring himself by himself. Your Bible says there's only one Jesus, there's only one gospel, there's not 400 different righteousnesses, there's only one, and there's only one church you might as well adjust, and they love one another. Now, the Word of God has perfected love in you, and the Word of God cannot perfect love in you when something else has captured your heart. Now, what I'm trying to say to you, that there's a lot more light we haven't got yet. We haven't got it all, and if you'll receive the Word, the Word of freedom that many of you thought you'd only experience, that you've never experienced before in your life, and the main thing that we're going to be sharing about is the God kind of love this week. Now, see, we talk about love. People in the world, while they hate their neighbor, they say they love their neighbor. But see, what God calls, as we're affirming, when He used the word love, it's totally different than what we've been taught in the usual traditions, what love really is. Now, let me just show you. Let me explain. But first, in John 15, verse 12. Now, Jesus says, this is my commandment, that you love one another. Now, how did He say for us to love one another? Just as I've loved you. Now, I want you to see something right there. Jesus intends the body of Christ to love one another with the same love He loved us. Does that sound like a divine nature? Now, folks, that's a big verse right there. Now, is that in your Bible to analyze or is it in there to do? It's in there to do. All right. Now, the Lord wouldn't tell us to do it if we couldn't do it. Is that right? All right. Now, if you're tied to a doctrine that does not conform you to godliness or some kind of teaching conform you to godliness and it has your heart, can you be led into a place to love someone else to the same love that the Lord has loved you? It's impossible. You know why? It's called idolatry. Anything that you love... See, anytime that you won't come to ever jot and tittle in the Bible right there, you have an idol. An idol is anything that you love more than you do the Word of God. Amen? And this is what we're going to deal with. Are you willing for the Word of God to tear down anything in your life that's contrary to God this week? Now, I want you to decide right now because, see, if you get offended over some part of the Word of God, you know, that's the way Jesus becomes a stumbling stone or a rock with a fence. We don't like that part of the Bible. Right? Now, I'm not trying to be smart or cute because I don't have one thing to stand up here and point to except Jesus and the Word of God. I don't have anything else I'm building except the body of Christ, my part. You hear what I'm saying? So don't try to read any motives in anything I'm saying because the only thing I want you to do is when you're faced with the Word of God and it's contrary to something you believed and you see the Word in context, you see the Word in balance, you have to choose Jesus before you do anything else. Amen? So when you do, when you choose that with your will, you'll sit here and every night and every hour... How many has ever been to a meeting before that we've shared the Word? Hold up your hand right here. All right. Now, I want you to know that the Word of God began tearing down strongholds. They'll tear down strongholds. You'll get more peace, more peace, more peace, more peace, and then Thursday we'll say, Right? And... But this is what happens when the Word of God, when you see the Word and there's something in your heart or life that's contrary to the Word of God, when you come to the Word, see, it's not just a religious exercise. You come here to be, your mind renewed and your heart made pure. And if it is a religious exercise, if Jesus doesn't have all your heart, that's all it is, just a religious exercise. You go do your quiet time, and go out and walk and talk like the devil. So anyway, when you see the Word of God and you see the Spirit of God shows you something contrary in your life, you have to make a choice with your will right then. And as you sit there and you come to these things and you see these things and this is what God watches. He watches your heart. And when you make a conscious, you consciously choose with your will against these things and you always, you come to the light. You come to the light. You come to the light. You endure. You persevere. You endure to the end. You overcome. You love Jesus more than you do any sin, the world, the things in the world, anything else. Therefore, He can lead you in all truth. Amen? That's how you get your heart cleansed. That's how your heart gets purified and that's how all sin in your life, strongholds attach themselves to them. Front row, back row, or platform. Now, we like to use controversial questions and then we go out and hang in there or something like that. I want to show you in your Word right here this week, front row, back row, back here, right here, anywhere that when you break God's laws and rebellion, see, we've had deliverance ministries springing up all over the place. And in these deliverance ministries all over, see, we've dealt with everything but how are they getting there? How does a stronghold get there? We're going to see how a stronghold gets there. We're going to see why you don't walk in peace. We're going to see why you don't overcome. And there's more to it than saying, greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world every six months. Right? And we're going to see how they happen there. Then we'll, and let me just go ahead and tell you first, our religious traditions and things we're still learning now have prevented us. As for instance, our ancestors who wrote most of the doctrines we have that do not conform you to godliness did not understand the powers of darkness. They did not expose, or even understand the powers of darkness. So therefore, they were left out of our religious traditions and now when any of that part of the Bible is dealt with you're supposed to be offended because headquarters doesn't deal with that. See what I mean? And so this is what we get and see the next thing, you get, let me just tell you, headquarters is in heaven and the Lord is wanting to show us a lot of things. You follow me? Okay. Now, in John 15 verse 12, once again, this is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. The same love that Jesus loved us, now that is the body of Christ right there and you're real familiar with 1 John. Teaching about this love, verse 13. Greater love has no one than this. Now I want you to mark this. That one lay down his life for his friends. Now, we're going to see something about how we lay down our life but first, I want you to see that this is what turn Ephesians 4. This is what the pastor, evangelist, teacher, prophet, apostle, this love is what the true prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors perfect in the body of Christ. Now, in Ephesians 4 verse 11, I want you to see it. And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Now I want to ask you one more time before we start. Did Jesus say that you and I were to love one another just as he's loved us? Are we supposed to be perfected in love, have our mind renewed, and have a pure heart and love one another as Jesus has loved us? Does that sound like a divine nature? There's no other book that exists that tells you how to do this except here. The world doesn't know that kind of love. Absolutely not. All right, now let's see what these evangelists, pastors, and teachers do. Verse 12. For the equipment of the saints, for the work of the service, to building up the body of Christ until, we keep building and building and building until, until, until, until, until, we all, all, all, all, all attain to the unity of the faith. Now was it Acts where they had one heart and one mind? You know why? Jesus stood in the very center. He had all their hearts. And if he doesn't have all your hearts, you won't stay. I'll tell you that for sure. Until they attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, and a mature man is a pure, has a pure heart and he has a divine nature and he has, and this is how this body of Christ is built up to the measure of the stature of the same measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Now that's how you're perfected in love. Is the Word supposed to cleanse your heart? What is it supposed to cleanse you from your heart? What is it supposed to cleanse from your heart? All rebellion and everything is contrary. It doesn't look like the Lord, the Word of God. But the Word of God, listen to me folks. It's religion. I want to tell you something. It's pure the religion to think that the Word of God is going to do anything in your heart if the Lord doesn't have all your heart. And that's the thing I want to show you tonight. Jesus came to fulfill the law. But I want to tell you something. He fulfills the law in you. And this is what I want to show you. And it's because we haven't been, many have not been fulfilling the law. That's how the powers of darkness have been getting their ground. Because they haven't been led by the Spirit of God. They make their commitment to men. They make their commitment to theology. They make their commitment to a structure. I'm telling you that you don't make your commitment to nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ and everything else comes second. Do you understand? Follow me? And that way and that way only is the only way that this Word of God will ever change your heart. It will ever renew your mind. He has to have all your heart and all your mind. Now let's just look at that verse in Matthew 5. I know you're familiar with it but I want you to see it because this is where we're going to pivot to share a lot of things here. Matthew 5. Folks, we hear this thing about blessings and curses. Can I tell you something? The blessings and curses are here today. I won't totally be able to get into them tonight but you'll see what's blessed and what receives a curse. You're going to see it and you're going to understand it. Wouldn't that be good to know that? Can I tell you another thing? You may not be able to understand the power of the darkness. You may not be able to the power of the darkness. You may not be able to understand the power of You may not be able to the power of the darkness. Oh, that, you know, that's real cute, but what I'd like to know, what is holiness? We're going to see what holiness is. I'll tell you what holiness is. It's walking with the divine nature of God. It's walking that verse we saw in John 15. That's what holiness is. It's not that little thing that hangs down right there out of the middle. That's not holy. Amen? Now, usually when anything, hear anything mentioned about the law, see, folks, we think about the law, we think about rituals. That was, you know, in the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. When people broke the law in the Old Covenant, now I want you to listen very clearly, because, see, we've had something real, real, real, real complicated made out of the law. It's kind of like if you're going to know anything about the last days, if you're going to learn anything about the last days, you've got to go find a Far Eastern expert before you can find out what God said about the last days, right? I want to tell you something, the law, it's a, here, I want to encourage you, it's a simplicity and a purity of devotion to Christ. It's not a complicated thing to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It's complicated when you start bowing to academics and intellect and all these other things, and you have to go to a man who has a word chain in the pulpit before you can hear from God. That's what's complicated, because he makes it so complicated. You sit back there with the little Jesus, and he's got the big one, right? So if you want to hear from God, and you know what that does? You're cursed. You're absolutely cursed because you come into the bondage of a man. Man becomes your source instead of Jesus becoming your source, and you have a curse. Can I tell you what? If that's where you've been walking and living, you are loaded with the powers of darkness. But I want to tell you something good news, you can get free, because all you have to do, and don't go, we're not going to, see, I don't want you to receive anything from me that you don't see in the word of God, in balance and context. If you're the only one here, and everybody seems to be seeing something of you, don't you receive nothing that the Lord doesn't show to you, but be sure that you don't have one of these little old strongholds when something, when you're reading something clearly in the word of God right there, you know what strongholds do? They contradict it. They tell you it's not there, although you're reading it right there. Let me give you an example. When you're reading the Bible, and you come to a place right there, and you say, well, doggies, we don't do that. And then all of a sudden, something here will say, well, if that were so, Dr. Taylor would know that. Dr. Taylor is not Lord. See but the power of the dynasties. You got a flaming missile right there and made you skip over the Lord, the Lord can't lead you anywhere. Dr. Taylor is your Lord, amen? So this is what I'm trying to tell you. Don't make anything intellectual, God, I'm going to tell you this is a whosoever will Bible right there. Don't make, it's a simplicity and a purity of devotion to Christ, and I'm going to tell you what? That Jesus used untrained men. I'm going to tell you what? When he has all your heart, he'll make you look smart. He'll show you. He said he'd lead you into all truth, and that's all grace. And we get in on it, right? Okay. So these rituals have passed away when Jesus came to fulfill the law. When they broke the law then, they had to sacrifice to make, and then the sacrifices were looking forward to the cross, and then the sacrifices, looking forward to the cross of Jesus, they were no longer breaking the law anymore, and so they were forgiven and they were released. Now today, when we break the law today, you know what happens? We come before the sacrifice. Who is the sacrifice? Jesus Christ, and he has taken ever since. And he sits on the throne of grace, and then when we confess it, we confess it, it is put on the blood, and then we're no longer breaking the law, right? That's what you come when you come to repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's some things I want to share with you about that, and I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the Word because I know what the Word's going to do with you. Amen? So let's turn, we'll read this verse, and then we're going to turn and see what the law is. Verse 17, do not think, Jesus said, do not think that I came to abolish the law. Jesus did not come to do away with the law of God. The rituals are done away with, Jesus replaced that, but the law of God has not been done away are the prophets. But Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish, but I came to fulfill. Amen? Okay, now, if Jesus didn't abolish the law, and he did come to fulfill the law, I don't know what the law is really saying, and so you turn to Matthew 22 real quickly, and we'll see what the law is really saying. Now, we are in the New Testament now, aren't we? Right? Okay, now verse 36, teacher, now this is important because you know this is not supposed to be in the New Testament the way some people talk and think. Teacher, which is a great commandment in the law, and he said to him, now I want you to mark this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. I want you to mark that. Now, that's very, very, very important. I mentioned that a while ago when you come to the word. You love the Lord with all your heart. Now, when you mark, I want you to look at me right here. When you love the Lord with all your heart, you don't love wood and stone more than you do the Lord. You don't love family more than you do the Lord. You don't love the world, the things of the world more than the Lord. You don't love pride more than the Lord. You don't love greed more than the Lord. You don't love selfishness more than the Lord. You don't love anything more than the Lord. He has all your heart. Now, if there's anything that you don't love the Lord with all your heart, don't you make something like that way off because if you love anything more than you do the Lord, you're not making Him the Lord. You are really loving something else more than you are the Lord. See, everything comes second to the Lord, and see, this is a mistake that most people make. When they come to the Lord, they don't come with their whole heart and then they wonder why they live defeated lives. Religion's not activity. Being religious is being active, you know. I'm telling you, faithful as He had called you, and He'll bring it to pass, but He cannot bring it to pass unless you first come to Him with all your heart. Now, let me give you an example. Many of you have come before God in this manner and say, God, I don't know what's in my heart. I don't know what's wrong, but I know I love you more than I do anything else in this world, and I know I want to please you more than anything else in this world, and you pray and cry out to God right there, and you stand up and you've got peace all over you. Is that right? How many has ever done that and had peace all over you? All right, now, you know why? God took you at your word. You know why He had peace? He told the powers of darkness, shut up. He put a hedge around you. You know why? You were coming to Him with the whole heart, but that didn't end it. There was a walk after you got there. So many of you that walked after that, that got this peace, you got involved in teachings and doctrines that did not conform you to godliness, and the next thing, you began drifting and drifting and drifting. Your first love's over there, and then you're over here somewhere, and you say, well, what happened? See, it's overcoming, and this is something that I want to show you in the Word. I'll show you how you can have that peace back. He sits on the throne of grace, and I want to show you this week how you walk in it and you stay in it. Is that good news? But I want to tell you something. You'll never know about the peace and a total overcoming in life until you deal with the part of the Bible that deals with judgment. A lot of folks don't like that, do they? They don't like repentance and judgment, do they? Let me just give you an example. I want to show you how the power of the darkness works, so you'll follow me right here. I'm going to deal with the part of the Bible that righteousness and holiness, see, righteousness of what's right in God's eyes. There's not a Catholic righteousness and a Lutheran righteousness, and there's over 400 teaching and denominations in this world, there's only one righteousness of what's right in God's eyes. Is that right? All right, now, have you got pride on there? I don't turn it on, just put it on and just have it ready. Let's just say a man came to the Lord Jesus Christ and in the world where they love pride and greed. Do they love pride and greed in the world? What is... Do you know that pride and greed is a very nature and character of Satan? Huh? Do you know that's what you repent from when you come to Jesus? If you don't talk to me, hold up your hand. Is that right? That's right. You repent from that. Okay. Now, you repent from pride and greed. Why? Everybody in the world are taught to get to the top. The world is programmed by the powers of darkness who are making puppets out of the whole world. I'll show you how. They're making puppets out of the whole world and they programmed them to build a name for yourself, live for yourself, self-centeredness, self-love, and selfishness. Get to the top, success, control, beauty. Get all you can and get all you can get, right? Build a big nest around you while hurting people are just all over the place. Just live for you. You make you look good, right? All right. Then a man comes and he doesn't really get to Jesus. He gets a form of godliness. He never does really have to repent from these things because a form of godliness tells him it's all right to continue walking and practicing these things. Well, he goes through a form of coming to Jesus, and he still practices these things in life. Now, if you run into something you don't like here, you wait until the word of God here because I'm going to tell you about these things. Then we'll show them to you in the word of God. Don't do any of this stuff now because pride and greed is not good because if you're living with it, you're in torment and deception, too. So, what a man does when he loves the pride and greed, he gets a form of godliness and he comes into a religious church. Well, we call it the religious world, the church world. And he picks up the Bible right here, and you know what? In his deceived heart. Why don't you just turn it on, please, Walter? Now, a root. Is a root supposed to be Jesus? Is a root in our heart supposed to be Jesus? What is a root? The root is the motives of your heart, right? Now, if I love pride, I want to ask you something. Will I go and associate, would I try to find the people that can fulfill pride in my life? Is that the way the world is? Of course, they wouldn't do that in the church world. You know they wouldn't do that. There wouldn't be no politics or anything like that in there. But, now, if I love greed, if my heart loved greed, would I go to be of the ones that could help me fulfill greed because that's the root, my motives, my motives and everything pleasing me. I feel good in here when I fulfill greed. I fulfill, when I fulfill pride to build a reputation and make a name for yourself. And you know what pride and greed does? Pride and greed exploits people. It uses them. It defrauds you. Now, if you speak peace to him while you set ambush for him, that's what Jeremiah 9 calls it. That's deception. Now, here's the man right here, pride. Here's the root. Raise it up a little bit, show it to him. He won't believe me. There you are. Root pride, right? I ain't ducking back down, Walter. Okay, now, can you hear? See, I can just shut it off whenever I get ready. Can you hear pride come out of someone's mouth? Did Matthew 7 say that we'd know false teachers by their spiritual gifts? Do we know them because they're seniority? Do we know them? How are we supposed to know a false teacher? They're what? Uh-oh, fruit comes out your mouth, right? See, what's in your heart comes out your mouth, right? All right, this man loves pride right there. When you hear pride coming out of a person's mouth, it'll only show you just a few of the things you're really hearing, okay? All right, here they are. Right here, he's wanting to make a name for himself. Pride looks down on others. Pride is selfish. Pride is unloving. Pride is seeking self-glory. Pride is superiority. Pride wants to control. Pride is rude. Pride loves ego and self-love. Pride loves selfish ambition. I want to ask you something. Is that the world? You see, this man's heart never did change. He has never repented. What if he's very intellectual? What if he's real, real smart? You know, I want to ask you something. In the world, does a strong lord eat over the weak? I can't hear you. They lord it over the weak. Well, how about that? See, does that child like the nature and character of Satan? The strong lord it over the weak. Instead of wanting to be served, they want to be served. Is that right? Why don't we just look at it right here? He's got self-interest. He's always right. Self-justification, boasting, bragging, nickels, noses, numbers, whatever. Now, a man that never repented from pride, what do you think would happen when he gets ahold of the Bible? What do you think about a man that loved pride? Throw up that greed just a minute. He never did repent. I'll tell you what. Let's just throw up the nature of Satan right up there, buddy. This is what you come into the world with. When you came into the world, you loved the nature and character of Satan. You loved this cursed nature. Everyone in the world walks in the image and likeness of Satan. All the world does. This is why they're all under the custody of the law. They're all sealed under sin because without Jesus Christ there's no hope. There's nothing, no way, because God has a law and it stands today right now. And the only way that that law can be fulfilled is through Jesus Christ. There's no other way. And I'm going to tell you, you come to Him with all your heart, just like we was looking at there in Matthew 20. All right, now, in this cursed nature, when you come into this world, you're just sweet and nice as we just see each other in the physical right there, but you're full of the devil. You walk in the image and character and likeness of Satan. And then you come to a... Well, let me just show you what that character is like right now. Here it is right here. Here is your heart right here. Put it up just a little bit. There's the inner man. That's not your pumper. That's a real you that lives in this carton here, okay? All right, this inner man loves this cursed nature of Satan. Amen? It loves the cursed nature of Satan. All right, these are the kind of things... You see these arrows going right here? Here it goes right at your mouth. You know what comes out of your mouth is fruit. What's in your heart comes out of your mouth. The treasure that's in your heart comes out of your mouth. Now, to know, you can know the world. I might add something. You can know the world in church too. But this is what comes out of the mouth, the jealousy, envy, anger, worry. There is pride, unforgiveness, stealing, hatred, criticism. All of these are the approval of man. All of these are the attributes and the character and nature of Satan. You'll know them by their what? You know what's got somebody's heart by their fruit. Now, for the benefit of some people that sometimes show up and they don't really understand these things, I'm going to ask you to hold up your hand. How many of you know there's a demon of greed? Hold up your hand. How many knows there's a demon of pride? How many knows there's a demon of hatred? How many knows there's a demon of jealousy? How many knows that there's a demon for everything? The powers of darkness have a spirit behind every fruit and work of Satan and the work of the flesh. How many know that? Okay. Now, for some of you that's been programmed, leave that part of the Bible alone. That actually exists. Now, if the character and the nature see, in other words, the nature of the flesh and the nature of Satan are identically the same, that's the reason the judgment of hell is on the old earth and everybody that walks in it today. Amen? Now, the powers of darkness are controlling the whole world and these spirits are manifesting the life of Satan through people in the world. In other words, when somebody offends you or does anything against you, you know, and there are always some of these thoughts, boy, you've been so good to him and Billy, you've been, you've done this and this and this for Billy and Billy hadn't... That's a spirit of unforgiveness. And then anger. These are the thoughts that exalt themselves against loving your neighbors yourself. These are the thoughts a Christian takes captive. These are the seeds and flaming missiles he never lets get down in his heart. But this is a world, and the world thinks everything that goes on in their mind belongs to them. And so, here greed comes, it turns right there. And see, because the heart loves this curse... Now, when I point to the flesh, I'm not...we're beautifully made as far as the body. I'm pointing to the nature of Satan that we're born in. And see, he loves this. He welcomes thoughts of anger. He welcomes thoughts of hate. He welcomes thoughts of unforgiveness. He welcomes thoughts of criticism. He welcomes thoughts of fault-finding. He welcomes thoughts of condemnation and judgment. He welcomes them because he loves the very nature of Satan. He loves the powers of darkness and the nature of Satan. Do you see that? So you receive these thoughts. And I mentioned there's a war going on and the church hasn't showed up, particularly if it's involved in the form of darkness. And that's how Babylon, the church of the last days, becomes a dwelling place of demons. And this is what I want to show. To a certain extent, this is what we're coming out of. Many have come out of some things and traditions and everything. They've still got some gods under their saddles. And they need to be free from them. They need to understand these things in context in the Word of God. All right, so this comes... So what is in your heart comes out your mouth. That's called fruit. Is that right? What's the evidence there? It's a selfishness, self-love, self-centered nature of Satan. Now I want you to put pride back up there. This is... By the way, is that the things you repent from when you come to see Jesus, when you come to meet Jesus, Lord, your new master? I can't hear you. Right. In other words, when I come to Jesus, Jesus came to a people that's sitting in darkness. They were in a shadow of death. Can I tell you when those things are in your life that you're in torment? Now, I don't know how much you've seen you already is. I don't care about the 35 Europeans, how much you help God out or anything else. When these things are in your life, you've got a problem with the powers of darkness. Okay? Now, here is the world. Under the judgment of the curse Galatians 3.13, the law brings a judgment of curse. The law brings a judgment of wrath, Romans 4.15. The law brings as a ministry of death, 2 Corinthians 3.7. The law is a ministry of condemnation, 2 Corinthians 3.9. May I tell you who cares out there? Do you have any idea who cares out the curse and the wrath and condemnation and death? Can I go ahead and tell you? The powers of darkness. Do you know why? When you're not walking in covenant and obedience to the Lord, He doesn't put a hedge around you to protect you. You know how you're going to know you've got that hedge and protection around you when you walk in peace. Now, when you're not walking in peace, you have broken God's law, which I'm going to show you here in a minute. You have done, any of these things, either criticism, unforgiveness, or something that you have done. And all of a sudden, you don't have peace, but the powers of darkness are tearing you to pieces. And if you've ever been in this kind of peace and the first time you ever break God's law, you'll think all hell has dropped upon you. And a lot of people don't know what to do with it once they've come to Him and everything. They don't know that they've got to repent and find out what it is. And then, you come before the Lord. See, I'm not talking about save law, save law, save law, save. This is the way you're chastised. This is the way you're taught to walk in love. This is the way you're taught, because I'm going to tell you, when you walk in peace, and when you're walking in overcoming, you get your prayers answered, and God, you just walk through open doors. Amen? It's open doors. But, if you have this, if you've lost your peace, and you don't deal with it, the powers of darkness are going to find other ways to get more change and more bondage on you. While you do like the world, you hang in there and keep a stiff upper lip while you're coming apart inside. Now, but, let's say you've lost this peace and you hadn't had this peace. And when you walk in peace, you'll know when you lose it. It's not a false peace. That false peace is to say, I have peace all the while walking in the severance of my heart. That is a false peace. But now you go before the Lord and you say, Lord, I don't know what I've done, but I know I've done something to break your law because I, see, Jesus is trying to fulfill, when you obey the Spirit of God, you're going to be fulfilling God's law. You follow me? Now you say, well, I just don't like the way that sounds. Well, why don't you just wait until I get through the word of God because this is good news. You'll find out what's tearing you up. Okay? All right? Well, I said, well, I haven't been taught that way. Wait until we get through. Okay? This is good news. If it doesn't, see, can I tell you something? If you don't know this, you'll not know how the powers of darkness operate. You'll not know. All right? Now, so you go and you say, Lord Jesus, I thank you, Lord, that at Calvary that a provision was made for this sins that the powers of darkness are able to attach themselves and work death in me. And I thank you, Lord, that you sit on the throne of grace. And Lord Jesus, I ask you, what was the sin that I committed? What did I do wrong to lose this peace, Lord? Because I know one thing, Lord, I love you more than greed. Lord, I love you more than pride. Lord, I love you more than anger. Lord, I love you more than unforgiveness. Lord, I love you more than resentment. Lord, I love you more than criticism. Lord, I love you more than fault-finding. Lord, I love you more than anything, sin or the flesh. I love you more than repentance. Lord, I love you more than the things in the world. I love you more than my family. Now, Lord, I'm ready to repent. I'll turn from it in my heart. You show me what it is. And you know what happened? Maybe not right then. The Lord might just wait a little bit so you'll remember this time. He might wait a little while. And then, all of a sudden, at the right time, He's going to show it to you. And then, when He shows it to you and you start to repent, if you're driving, pull off the side of the road. Because when you repent, you're fixing to get in high praise because hell's going to leave and heaven's coming down on you. Amen? Praise God. Now, folks, let me just quickly show you why some of these things we haven't known and we haven't been taught them before. Why and how we've been blinded to them by our tradition and these other things. While all the time, you see, God's not going to show us one thing today that's not in context and the balance of this Word. Amen? The Spirit and the Word agree. It'll be here. Amen? Now, the Lord, I'll tell you what I'd like to be able to get into if we have time. I see us in Matthew 25. The whole bunch has been asleep. The whole bunch. The wise in heart, that's the ones that'll come to the Lord with all their heart are going to see the light and they're going to hear the trumpet. That's what God is doing right. The foolish in heart, we know in Matthew 7, the foolish is a man that hears the Word of God. Turn it off a minute. The foolish is a man who hears the Word of God, 24th Matthew 7, 24, 27. He hears the Word of God, but he doesn't act on it. You know why he doesn't act on it? Because he's got a foundation of sand. See? Look at me. When you got a false security, you can put your Bible away. I'm going to show you how you get a false security. And then what you do, you are programmed when you have a false security, resist the Word, until your heart becomes so hardened that then you come to a place that no longer the Word can work in you. Can I tell you something? That's a sin unto death. You can never be perfected in love. And that's what I want to show you in 2 Peter 2 this week. Now I want to show you why it's going to be a great falling away in the last days. Can I tell you what a falling away is? A falling away is when people start calling something church, it's not church. They start calling people Christians who are not Christians. Amen? Now that's the falling away. Now how many churches are there supposed to be? One heart and one mind. Is the book of Acts a pretty good pattern? Were they one heart and one mind? Who were they gathered around? Jesus. All right, now. Now let's just see this man. Let's see this man who came in with pride and he never did repent. I mean, agreed. Now you got pride there? Put greed on there. We looked at pride once and then we'll look at greed right here. He still loves greed too. Okay? Greed. Pull it up there and then you see root greed. What is root supposed to be? Jesus. That means if the root is Jesus, all my motives when I get around anyone, I'll first want to please the Lord, Brother Bob. If I'm around you, my motives is not how I can fulfill greed or pride in my life. My motive is how I can please everything. All my thoughts I do is into the Lord. All my thoughts I do in the Lord. In every relationship I have, it's all the Lord because I want to please the Lord more than I do anything else. He has all my heart. Root means motives. Do you follow me? Amen? And so if I want to... Let me give you an example of it. In a relationship, let's just say you hurt me or do something against me. See, if all my motives are to please the Lord first and then you second, I'm never rejected in a beloved. I never can suffer rejection. You know how you get rejection? When you seek approval of man. See, approval of man is a root that builds a fortress. Greed is a root that builds a fortress in you. Pride is a root that the powers of darkness build a fortress in. That's how the world is destroyed and that's how the world and the church is destroyed. The root, the only root is supposed to be Jesus Christ. And this is something I want to show you in the Word of God. Amen? All right, now. Here's a man that loves greed. See, when he loves greed, he hasn't really repented from greed. Greed is just a symptom of a whole bunch of things in his life. Like covetousness, he's going to be a lover of money, material lust, he's going to be selfish, he's going to be jealous, stingy, pride, envy, there's going to be deceit, there's going to be flattery, possessive, and just a few things. Put back pride right there, brother. Now, I want to ask you something. Here is pride right here. Here is a man that loves to make a name for himself. He really looks down at others. See, when pride's there, there's selfishness there, there's self-glory there, there's control there, there's selfish ambition there, there's boasting there. Do you know, listen to me. Do you know that pride seeks the approval of man instead of the approval of God? He can teach all kinds of things all over this Bible, but you know in his heart who he really wants to please? He wants to prove the approval of man. You know why? The approval of man is what fulfills pride in him. Let me see that. Hold up your hand. Nobody's mad, are you? Now, if I strike a nerve, you're supposed to repent. I want you to remember something. You've got to love me if you're going to heaven, alright? Okay. Okay. Now, do we repent from that when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that right? We say, the light shining in darkness, we come to gospel. Lord, I find that I'm on the bondage and death, the curse of the law and everything. Lord Jesus, I make you Lord. I repent from the ways of Satan. I renounce the ways of the flesh. And now, Jesus, I make you Lord. I love you with all my heart. My motives are now to please you with my heart and now I'm led to the Spirit of God and He perfects me in love. Amen? Okay. Now, what about a man who loves selfish ambition He's come out. Do you seek to get to the top when you're in the world? What do you think a man will do when he comes into the religious? Well, if he hadn't repented from it. Are you seeing what I mean? Now, let me tell you what he did. Look at me, very clearly. Is there a thing called righteousness and holiness? Is there a thing overcoming? How can you overcome with sins of the flesh in your life? Tell me. How can you ever be righteous? First Peter 1.14 through 2.16 says, As obedient children, you no longer conform to the form of lust of the flesh which was yours in your ignorance or when you walked in darkness. But now, like the Holy One, you're going to be holy in all your behavior. You shall be holy for I am holy because you're going to take on the divine nature of God. See, how can you ever be free from the powers of darkness when you're going backwards instead of forwards? See, that's the bondage you're left from. What is the word that God's supposed to clean your heart from? The sins of the flesh. All of these things are obeying. All of these things are the very opposite. Can I tell you what these things are right here? The Lord says to come to Him with love of the Lord with all your heart. Is that right? I want to show you the next thing down there. Look down there. We're going to see what the whole law says. You love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Now we look and we're in Matthew 22, verse 38. This is a great and foremost commandment. Now we're seeing what the law says. The first thing, you love the Lord with all your heart, verse 39. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as what? You're going to love your neighbor as yourself? Hey, you mean God really expects us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourself? What did we read Jesus said in John 15? This I command you, that you love one another just as I've loved you. What did we see? The pastor, teacher, apostle, prophet, evangelist, supposed to perfect and bring you to unity of the faith of the same stature. And I'm going to go back over there in Ephesians 4 and I'll show you right after this how you lay down your life. You have to lay down your life. You know how you lay down your life? You give up all these things because you love Jesus. You give up all the works of the flesh, all the sins of the flesh, all pride. You give up all greed because you love Jesus more than he or you. If you don't love Jesus more than you do this, you're in religion. Can I tell you something else? You're being destroyed. Front pew, back pew, Sunday school superintendent, choir, head deacon, you've been destroyed. And that's what I want to show you. Let's say, well, I just don't like that part. See, that's the problem that we've never been able to walk in victory is because we never did want to hear anything about the judgment of God. We just want to get blessed. You can't get blessed until you find out what kills you. Amen? There's no holiness. You're not going to understand holiness and righteousness until you find out what judgment is. Amen? Okay. Now, so the second is like it. You're going to love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend what? One more time. On these two commandments depend what? The whole law. Now, I haven't got a lot of time this week, so let me just go ahead and tell you. Until you come to the Lord first to love Him with all your heart, you're still holding on to some of these other things. The Word of God is not going to work in you. You've got a form of godliness, and you walked into religion Listen to me, folks. When someone's your Lord, you do what they say. Before you come to Jesus, you're controlled by the powers of darkness because you love a cursed nature. I've already explained that. When you come to Jesus, when you come to the Lord, you love Him with all your heart. And then, folks, when you come to Him, there's some things down in that heart. They're down in there. And that's how the Word of God and the Spirit of God is going to cleanse you. But if you love greed more than you do the Lord, you love pride more than you do the Lord, you love selfishness, you love the world, you love these other things, the Word can't work in you, folks. And that's the reason the church is not the unity of the faith, one heart and one mind because they're not gathered around Jesus. They're gathered around men, religion, theology, traditions, and doctrines. If anyone advocates, teaches, or preaches a doctrine in 1 Timothy 6, 3 through 5, that does not conform you to Godliness, that they are without understanding, they are deprived of the truth, they have a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes of words without which envy arises, envy, a strife, and abusive language. Well, he believes in sinless perfection. He believes that Christians can have demons. We're programmed like this. Boy, when you're hearing these things, he believes that Christians have demons. We're no longer under curse. Once saved, always saved. Controversial question. And see, you know what you do? You reject truth without examining it. When you hear any of these things, boy, let's kill him, push him off a cliff. We learn to hate people we don't even know. And then we reject truth. That's the Pharisees. You're controlled by men. What's to keep you from, why do you have to be scared if anybody leaves you in a word? Who's your source, Jesus or some man? Right? So the whole law depends on two things. You're going to love the Lord with all your heart and then you're going to love your neighbor as yourself. Is that the law? Now, Jesus said, I come to fulfill the law. Is that right? It kind of like, sounds like Jesus formed in you. Right? Jesus formed in you and that's exactly why when you come to Him with all your heart, when you come, now listen, when you come to the Word of God and you read it, the Spirit of God, as we're going this week, and you're not going to retire this week, are you? As you read through the Word right there, the Spirit of God shows you when you come to any part of the Bible right there. See, the Bible is a mirror and the Spirit of God takes this Word and shows you your heart. This Word right here is what shows you how to love your neighbor as yourself. To love one another as Jesus has loved you. There's no other book that can show you that. This come out of heaven to show you something that's foreign to this world that hates one another, exploits one another, uses one another, defrauds one another. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so, since you made Jesus Lord, out of heaven comes the Word. This Word washes your heart. How does the Word wash your heart? Because when you see anything in the Word of God, it's contrary to your heart. You repent because, Jesus, I love you more than making a name for myself. I love you more than selfish ambition. I love you more than greed. Let me tell you about greed. Let me show you something, an example in the world. See what program, boy? Get that sale. Get that sale from that man. You can be dealing with somebody, maybe a piece of real estate. You can lie. You can deceive. You can withhold facts. You can intimidate him. You can deceive in every way not to give a man a fax and then sell him a house. Get the deal. Close the deal. Boy, I feel good. You know why? Fulfilling greed. But what about your neighbor? See what you proved. You defrauded your neighbor. What you proved, that you love greed more than you did your neighbor. Are you hearing what I'm saying? See, that's the world. These you repent from. Greed don't come into the church of Jesus Christ. It's not even named among the saints. Ephesians 5, verse 3. It's not even named among the saints. Now, what if you were somebody that loved pride and greed and you wanted to... See, everybody's got a religious drive. You want to go help God out. Now, can I tell you something, folks? People that's got these in your life, you are being torn all to pieces by the powers that are. You are in torment. You don't have no peace. It's a lie if you even think... You've got a false peace if you think you've got one. You haven't got a peace. The door is wide open on you. And a man comes along and he loves pride and greed. He said, Well, let's just... So he reads the Bible through the eyes. He loves pride and greed and he pulls out of it. He starts a doctrine. A doctrine that does not conform you to godliness. And he has a lot of the academics and so forth like that. And then you come in and you become a part of the structure. And he leads you and he becomes your king. See, pride wants to be king and lord. Is that correct? Shake your head. Pride wants to be king and lord over god's heritage. That's exactly how the powers of darkness use people that love pride and greed. They become lord. And so let me tell you what pride and greed will do. He'll never deal with a part of the Bible that comes against your flesh. You know why he won't? I don't know. You know, usually I get in a word and I say a whole lot of the word. I just felt tonight I'm going to explain a few things because you got a whole bunch of the word that we use. And I just won't I don't want to explain. You know why? Because when a man loves pride and greed the powers of darkness when he starts to come against you the powers of darkness will shoot him. You're going to lose a big tiger. You're going to lose numbers. You're going to see because these are the things that fulfill pride in his life. When he deals with so he pulls the things out of the Bible that's going to make him look good and because in his deceived heart he thinks he's bringing them people along and they'll never get you cannot get righteousness and holiness until you deal with the flesh and if you don't deal with the flesh you can never get rid of the powers of darkness. Do you see that? Now see that's how doctrines get started. And then the people that come along after this that love pride and greed that started the doctrine they get to go to a school and get to be lords over God's heritage. They get to be king little king, big king. And they get to be lords over God's heritage and you never you get to talk about this little thing that hangs down being holy. And you get to go cast demons out of everything and you know and it's been going on to find out it's full the church is full of them. But we still you know as long as we don't mess up our theology let's just be talking about one getting on her shoulder you know. Let's talk about blessings when the Chang Gang comes marching in. Okay. Now I got my talking done here for a little bit. I want you to turn back to Matthew 19. Put that flesh thing up there if you will. Flesh nature right there. Now do you think the law would have anything to do with eternal life if someone was going to come up to you and ask you well how can I have eternal life? Let's just see a few answers like Jesus did. Let's see there in verse 16. And behold one came to him Jesus and said teacher what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? We are talking about eternal life. And Jesus said to him why are you asking me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life or eternal life what does it say? I can't hear you. Keep the commandments. Well I wonder which ones wouldn't you? I wonder which commandments you keep? Well let's just see right here. Next verse. And he said to him which ones? And Jesus said you shall not commit murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear a false witness honor your father and mother and you shall what? Love your neighbor as yourself. Let me ask you something. If you love your neighbor as yourself are you going to steal from him? If you love your neighbor as yourself are you going to commit adultery? Or if you love your neighbor as yourself are you going to bear a false witness against him? See the whole thing is that Jesus Christ perfects a God kind of love in you. You love your neighbor as Jesus loved you and you have fulfilled the commandments and you fulfilled the law. This is what I want to show you here tonight. Now if you're not doing it I want you to know and I want you to be able to see this week and you say well I just don't well just see it in a word. I want to show you that when you break God's law that you have a problem Have you ever noticed that when you sin you lose your peace? When you sin you break God's law. All the works of the flesh are an act against your neighbor. See this? Criticism, rejection, retaliation, revenge, anger, stealing, all of these things come against your neighbor. Now what do you think the spirit of unforgiveness wants to do? He wants to come and minister you right here. In 2 Corinthians 10 3 through 5 are we supposed to take every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus? I can't hear you. Why? You don't let that get down in your heart because if it gets down in your heart then it's going to come out of your mouth and you broke God's law and then you got a stronghold. They come to tempt you and entice you to break God's law. If you're led by the spirit of God you're going to be fulfilling God's law. Right? Now if you stumble and you make a mistake and you do speak against your brother then you've lost peace. The hedges come down and the Lord's letting you be chastised. If you are a child of God you're going to go to the throne of grace and you're going to repent and be set free from it. Amen? If you're not a child of God and you got a form of God then you're going to be destroyed because more chains and fortunes are going to come on you until you're destroyed. How many of you see what I'm talking about? Hold up your hand. Glory be. Is this good news? Okay, good. Alright, now. So you're going to love your neighbor as yourself and he's going to keep the commandments. So, are we really expected to be doers of the law? Well, first I could say were we really expected to love our neighbors as ourselves? We've already seen it. Jesus said that you'll love one another just as I've loved you. Absolutely. The commandments of Jesus and the commandments of God's law are the same. This is what Jesus has come to fulfill in you. If you've got a form of God and you say Jesus did it, I don't have to do it. That's a form of godliness. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, folks, listen. This is not to condemn anyone because a lot of us the word will do the condemning. The law will do the condemning but here's the thing about it. When you hear these things and see these things, why don't you just think about you and deal with your own heart right there and you see what I'm saying? See, the problem, the enemy always wants to get us thinking about what's wrong over here and what's wrong over there and what's wrong here. There's something wrong with a whole bunch of us. Can I go ahead and tell you? Now, the question is, let me say that again so spiritual pride won't get loose in here. Don't walk out here and think you've got the whole loaf or know anything or going to go around and you're going to judge and you're going to get a spiritual pride. You got out of one ditch and jumped into another. Amen? Because every time you're judging and condemning others and everything, you're getting loaded up more than ever besides you're not being a good steward of God. See, the whole thing about it, folks, that we're waking up from a nightmare. Now, there's been some things and we've learned some things but I want you to remember something. We've learned enough just to know that we don't know what we ought to know. Now, Jesus is the one we gather around. Folks, how many knows that just a short time back the Spirit of God was just moving in a real special way into many, many circles and everything and all of a sudden it's just not like it used to be because some people just kind of gathered around and some folks gathered around and started calling things it, right? Is that right? Is that right? This is never dealt with. You never settle down. You never settle down around anything except the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that right? So you settle around the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, are we expected to be a doer of the law? Romans 2.13 says, For it is not the hearers of the law who are going to be justified, be just before God, but it's going to be the doers of the law that's going to be justified. Now, I'll tell you what, you'll be a doer of the law if you're led by the Spirit of God and this is what I wanted to show you here tonight. Do you mind just standing up right there so you can kind of stretch? Take your Bible with you. Amen? We don't miss nothing, do we? Now, the law, isn't that good? You can hold up your hand or something. Praise the Lord while you got them up. You ought to. Praise Jesus. Praise God. All right. Okay. Now, listen, folks. I told you I was going to use the whole law of the Word. I just want to, I mean, I've been needing, when you first start out, you have to explain the things. Only the Word of God is going to change your life. It's not me standing up here talking. You understand what I mean? See, I realize that. And I want you to know where we're headed for it because if I explain these things to it first and then we come to it, all I have to do is just run or something and you know what I'm talking about. I don't have to do it all over again, right? But what's going to happen, that the Word of God is going to expose these things and strongholds in your life. And as you repent from them, folks, I'm going to tell you something. You're going to enter into peace. Now, now, now. You say, well, I just don't, I just don't believe that, you know, these things. I'm going to tell you the Church of Jesus Christ loves one another as Christ has loved you. If you love one another as Christ has loved you, you don't have any problems. So you're excused. But if the rest of you don't love your neighbor as Jesus has loved you, you need some help. Amen? Praise God. So that's where we're all headed. That's the divine nature of the Lord. See? So Romans, so now let's remember, now what does the law bring? Galatians 3.13, the law brings a curse. Who's it bring against? Lawbreakers. Right? The law also is a ministry of wrath. It brings wrath. What is the wrath of God? Romans 4.15. The law is a ministry of death. 2 Corinthians 3.7, the law is a ministry of condemnation. 2 Corinthians 3.9. Now these things are all carried out by the powers of darkness when the Lord removes His hedge. There they come, the wrath, the curse, the condemnation, and death. Did a thief come to kill, steal, and destroy? Folks, can I tell you something? You know, we prayed for people, prayed for them to be healed, and they walk out in the street, and they're not healed. They're right back where they were. Folks, do you know that the approval of man builds a stronghold that causes him to destroy and commit suicide? Anybody that commits suicide, it started because they seek an approval of man. And some of these things... See, the powers of darkness take these roots and they build fortresses, and off of these fortresses start to lack off of bitterness and off of worry and guilt, and things come diseases and everything. And even the people in the world identify diseases with the sins of the flesh. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, folks, things are going to be quite different. The Lord's going to clean up the wise, the people that have a wise heart. It's going to come to the Word of God with a whole heart. He's going to clean them up. Will you sit back down, please? He's going to clean up our hearts because what does it say in James 5, 14, and 15? You'll know it with all, and a prayer will restore the one who's sick. I can't hear you. And it's a prayer. What kind of man availeth much? See, we'll go this week, and we're going to see how James, how the powers of darkness lead you to be double-minded so your prayers won't be answered. Amen? Because in James 4, your motives are wrong when you pray, and your motives are wrong See, God doesn't cooperate with you and answer your prayers while your heart is seeking pride. He's not going to help you fulfill selfish ambition. He's not going to help you fulfill greed. He's not going to help you fulfill ception. And then we'll see how you get all your prayers answered. Amen? See, when your motives get right in your heart, then God will trust you, and, boy, He wants to pour out heaven on you. And see, this is good news. Right? So, who are the lawbreakers? Well, the lawbreakers, obviously, are all these who love the flesh nature and act on it, because anyone... If you love hatred, are you loving your neighbor? Hatred is... See, the powers of darkness, the thoughts and things they put in their mind is against God, or to have idols are things that we care for more than we do the Lord. Now, that's what they put in their mind. And they get these things in their heart, and we act on them. See, look here. You stop... Our weapons are mighty in God. We stop the fire of flaming missiles right here. Above all, you put up a shield of faith, and you stop the flaming missile up here before it gets down in your heart, because you're purifying. You're possessing the land. Amen? Hebrews 3 and 4 didn't give this option. You don't come short of it. You possess the land. You get these Canaanite nations over here, because every one of these sins right here has a stronghold tied to it. Do you see it? And as the Word begins washing you, because you love Jesus more than you do rebellion, you love Jesus more than you do revenge, you love Jesus more than you do murder, and the Word of God begins cleaning your heart, you have more peace, and the Lord keeps a hedge around you, and you have more love. It's manifested until the Lord gets you to where you become just exactly like Jesus, and He pours it out of heaven. You're so full up, you have to go run people down to pass it out. Amen? Amen? Now, you have to stay there. If that's not good news to you, you're full of the devil. Now, who is it are lawbreakers? Now, let's just see it first before we go any further. Romans 8, please. I can tell somebody's full of the devil. Now, let me just share one other thing to you folks. After you get to Romans 8, now, this is pretty good. When you get there, why don't you look at me. When I'm dealing with someone who can torment, you know, problems and everything, do we see people like that? You know, I sit there and talk to them. And I get them to start telling me what's wrong. And then I hear about this. I'll hear jealousy come out of their mouth. I'll hear worry come out. I'll hear rebellion. Then I'll hear criticism. I'll hear unforgiveness towards someone. And a lot of times I just write it down or remember it. You know what? I hear it come out of their mouth. You know what that's called? Discernment. Discernment. Now, I know when I hear these things come out of their mouth that all of these things break God's law. That's the reason they've got problems. Let me say it over here. That's the reason they've got problems. It's coming out of their mouth from their heart. You hear what I'm saying? Now, what I do, what I do when I sit there, I write these things down, and then I start explaining to them. Here's your problem. You have unforgiveness toward your father. You're not honoring your mother and father. You have this. You have jealousy, and you've gotten into self-pity, and the reason you've gotten into self-pity is depression. See, anytime you ever got self-pity on you, and bitterness, you've got depression. Suicide follows depression. And see, I see these things, and I hear them come out of their mouth, which is discernment, and I say now, sweetie, you can be free of this thing. Thank God there's a place for you to put your sin because of what Jesus did. It carried because of the cross and because of the blood. He sits on the throne of grace. Now, right now, if you'll repent, if you'll repent, then Jesus Christ will put these things on the blood, and then you're no longer breaking God's law. You all hear me? And so I get them to repent, and I'll just reach over there, and they'll repent, and I usually just take them by the hand right there, and I say, release them in Jesus' name, and I call out where they want to go. And sometimes, you know, and pastors, pastors get in terrible, terrible, terrible bondage because pastors, you know, when you're trying to lead a congregation after flesh, you know, and they're all the time cursing you, and the powers of darkness are using you, it's an impossible thing to do anyway. But then the pastor gets so, the powers of darkness will bring such attack against the pastor and his family until the pastor will be angry, and he'll speak in his mouth a curse against some part of the congregation. Then all the word curses that's in that congregation, all of them come on that pastor. I get these pastors sometimes, we get them lined up there, and get them just, see, we're learning some things together. We're learning together. There's nobody that knows everything. We're going to learn from one another. There's no one, I'm going to tell you what headquarters is heaven, isn't it? And see, we're going to learn these things. And I get pastors up there and just, sometimes just get them just to think about it, and they repent, it's like you took a Hammond organ knife off their back. Just to top their head, all this stuff and all these words come on and destroy. Diseases come that way. Speak diseases on your pastor and things like that, because that's the way flesh does. All flesh knows to do is hate and condemn. That's the nature of Satan. Amen? So, you possess the land. I'm going to tell you there's fiery trials you go through, there's a test you go through, but when you love the Lord with all your heart, the word of God is going to remove all of these sins of the flesh, and then you're going to have a pure heart. The goal of this instruction is love from a pure heart. And when you have all the sin and all the selfish flesh removed, what do you think you're going to do? You're going to love your neighbors yourself. That's exactly what your Bible tells you to do. This is exactly what Jesus said he came to do. I've never done it this way. I always show them in the word of God, and then I go show them. Some reason I had to tell you first here. All right, now let's see who breaks the law. The ones that break the law is in verse 7, because if your mind, what your heart loves your mind is set on, right? If your mind is set on the flesh or things of the flesh, you are hostile toward God and you do not what? You do not subject yourself to the word of God, do you? That's exactly right. Now, what about these things right here when we come to follow Jesus? Jesus said, if anyone wishes to come after me, that's Romans 8, Mark 8, 34-37. Now listen to me. If anyone wishes to come after me, Jesus says, let him deny himself. You know how you deny yourself? Look at me, folks. You lay down your life. You know what all these sins of the flesh is? Flesh are selfish ambition, I, me, mine, self-love, selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-worship. You lay down your life when you choose the love of the Lord with all your heart, and you let the spirit of God and the word of God remove all this from your life. That's how you die. Jesus said, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him first, number one, deny himself. And then you're going to take up your cross. How do you take up your cross? When the spirit of God shows you that rebellion's there, you say, Lord Jesus, I love you more than I do rebellion. You'll suffer in the flesh, but you give up rebellion, and you cease from sin, 1 Peter 4, 1 and 2. Lord Jesus, you showed me this anger here. Lord, I love you more than I do anger. And so you suffer in the flesh, but you cease from sin, 1 Peter 4, 1 and 2. You no longer live for the lust of men, but for the will of God. And so that's how you take up your cross, and you die to self. Amen? But, folks, I want to tell you something. Don't make something real complicated out of it like a form of godliness in a religious tradition. That's where the glory is. That's where you get your prayers answered. That's where heaven is poured out on you. That's where you walk through open doors. That's where you lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. That's where you anoint with oil, and they will be restored. It's a prayer of righteous people whose selfish motives are removed from the heart. All the glory goes to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Amen? Praise God. That's possessing the Lamb. Amen? So we possess the Lamb. Now, let's go to 1 John 2. 1 John 2. And I just remembered, I didn't finish that verse. Jesus says, now listen to me, if any man wishes to come after me, let him first deny himself, and then take up his cross, then follow me, because whoever wishes to save his fleshly life, steal of it, is going to lose it. The powers of darkness will destroy you. Are you seeing it? But whoever loses his life, gives up selfish ambition for my sake and the gospel, love the Lord with all your heart, choose the nature of God instead of the nature of the devil, is going to save it. Folks, can I tell you something? Let me tell you what I'm sharing with you, right now. I want you to listen to me. I'm talking to you about the church of Jesus Christ, that when you pick it, see it's no longer, we no longer sit around and count each other. I mean all of our conversation, it's not about some man, all of our conversation in the telephone rings, and what has God done now? It's waking up with a sense of awe, because all of our conversation, we haven't got time. We don't walk and talk like the world. We don't involve ourselves. I'm telling you what, when you're in a conversation, and you'll have the peace of God in Jordan, and you let someone say something about somebody, the spirit of God leaves, and the spirit of the devil moves in, that's why your house is full of tension and hell right now. You see what I mean? All our conversation is going to change, and all that we'll be talking about is what Jesus did, because Jesus is doing it all, and we get in on it, and everything that we'll be talking about, it's not about anybody, but it's excitement. It's all. Have you had short periods of time in your life when you did that? And in some way, the powers of darkness just bring hell in there for a little while, and you just lose it. But I'm telling you, when we know these things right here, we'll know what brings peace, not only you, but in your house, and you don't have to wait until some man comes to town. Amen? Amen. That's good. Okay. Now, 1 John 2, I want you to just turn back to John. I want you to read that again. Now, God's law said, John 15, God's law said that we've got to love our neighbors as ourselves. Is that right? I can't hear you. Yes, sir. All right. Now, I want you to read it again, and we've already made a rule. When we see something, we're not going to act like it's not in the Bible, right? Okay. John 15, verse 12. Jesus said, This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I've loved you. Is that love? Love your neighbors as yourself. That's all Jesus came here to do. He did not come to be served. He served all the time. That's where the glory is. Listen, folks. When we walk in that frame of mind, our mind stays on what we can do of their neighbor. We're looking, because when you get so full of the love and heaven in you, you're looking for people to give it out on. Now, the opposite of that is living a selfish nature of Satan where you keep your mind on yourself, and then you're looking for ways to exploit, deceive, lie, and you live, or you just live a hell of a life. That's what it is right there. Like hell. Amen? So, all right then, verse 13. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Now, let me ask you something. Have we seen that we lay down our life right here? Look at me. If we lay down our life right here, we lay down all selfish ambition, all the works of the flesh, then we can love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us. Amen? Do you see that? Did Jesus say for us to do it? Tell me how you can love your neighbor as Jesus loved you if you want to hold on to revenge, if you want to hold on to anger, if you want to hold on to stubbornness, if you want to hold on to irritability, murder, and all these things. It's impossible. So you stay in torment. See, folks, we haven't seen God come like we're fixing to see God come. Now, I'll tell you something. This word is going to separate. People's hearts are already too hardened. I mean, they've gone through one of these stained glass windows right here if they could have heard some of these things I already said. They have been programmed. It breaks my heart. I mean, brother, it breaks my heart. Their hearts have been hard. I've got them on the family. They think I'm a nut when I read the Bible or something. But they have been so hardened. See, it's easier for a man to get off a bar stool and come hear the gospel today and really get on it, and it is for us. We have to unlearn some things. Do you understand what I mean? So what you need to do is when you see something, the word of God, and it's in balance and context, you come to that word because you don't have to have but a remnant of spirit to know that something bad has been wrong. And there are some things, some of us are better off than others that we can always look back and see somebody not worse, but there's a different place for ever last one of us to go that we hadn't got there. Don't you let some place show up around this part of the country or in California or anywhere else that says they're it. You hadn't seen it yet until they loved the Lord with all their heart and their neighbor as theirself. That's it. Then you can join up with that. Amen? That's Jesus. Only Jesus can perfect that in you. Now, did Jesus say that was a commandment? I command you to love the Lord with all your heart. I mean to love your neighbors as I've loved you. All right, now watch right here. In 1 John 2, let's look at verse 3. And by this, we'll know that we've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ if we keep his commandments. Obey him. The one that says, I've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and doesn't keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, whoever keeps the word, the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, in this man, in him, the God kind of love or the love of God or the divine nature has truly been perfected. By this, we know that we're in Christ. That's what in Christ or in him means. The one who says he abides or continues in Jesus ought to walk in the very same manner as the Lord Jesus Christ walks unless you've got yourself another gospel and another Jesus. You'll walk in the same way. 1 John 3, verse 16. Here's the God kind of love, verse 16. We know the God kind of love. Now this is what God calls love, not what some other place calls love. We know this God kind of love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for who? The brethren. How do you lay down your lives? Look at it right up here. You lay down jealousy. You lay down pride. You lay down unforgiveness. You lay down criticism. You lay down fault-finding, judgment, condemnation. You lay down everything but loving and helping your neighbor, and you'll be blessed in everything you put your hands to. That's the way you have a hedge around you. The Lord will let you know if you ever mess up. He'll remove his hedge in there. About 1,400 will jump right in the middle of you, and you'll run. I'm telling you, when you walk in this piece a little while, brother, nobody's going to have to tell you to go back there when you know. The problem is we've repented of this thing, but we've never known how to walk in it because of our old rotten religious traditions. We've not known how to maintain it and keep it. We've not known. Now, we've learned a lot of things, and we're going to have to learn some of the things we've learned too. If you see something in the Word that comes against something you learned, you get a good test there where Jesus is your Lord or you're still something else that's got your heart, right? All right, now, verse 14. Does the law bring death? I can't hear you. The law... Thank you, brother. I'm glad you're up here. The law brings death. It brings lawbreakers. Is that right? Okay, now, what is the death? They move the hedge and the powers of darkness are back. They come to kill, steal, and destroy. Now, look here, verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love is continuing to walk in death. What are you going to do with the Word? You're walking in it. Look at me. You get your heart attached to some traditions and carnal tradition that was written by men who still love pride and greed and want to be... They took part of the Bible as they see it, and they got to be kings and lords over God's heritage. They write the doctrine just like the Pharisee did. You ever read Matthew 23? They love the chief seats. He said, you clean the outside of the cup, the inside of the cup full of dead men's bones and self-indulgence. You're not going to heaven yourself. You block heaven from those you're trying to enter in. You son of hell, you son of the devil, how you escape the sentence of hell. It's all the chapter of flesh, this right here. Folks, I want to tell you, this sure is good news. I want to tell you something, it is. And I want to tell you something, brother. God's doing a move today. And I want you to tell you something, it's not gathered around no folks. That's the reason you're going to know it's God. Ain't nobody canning it up and getting mileage out of it. You hear what I'm saying? You hear what I'm saying? I'm going to tell you Jesus Christ demands to be the center of his church. And the church of Jesus Christ knows how wise the heart is going to come. You ever see a bunch of little slivers of steel right there and you put a magnet in the middle to come together that thing? That's the body of Christ. That's the wise words of what they're doing today. I told you he was waking up from a nightmare when the verse started, didn't I? All right, now. All right, we... So are we to walk as Jesus walked back up to 1 Peter 2? Are we... Did we just see that we walk in the same way he walked? All right, 1 Peter 2. Back up about four or five pages, we're left. 1 Peter 2. Now I'm going to tell you something, folks. If you think we haven't used much of the word, I'm going to tell you the word is what changed your life. I'm going to tell you what we're taking off tomorrow and every day we'll use more. It'll be Scripture on top of Scripture. I mean, it's the word. If this meeting doesn't drive you to Jesus and drive you to the word of God, it's not the spirit of God. Now verse 21. 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For you have been called for this purpose. What is this purpose? We walk as Jesus walked. Now, right? Jesus Christ also suffered for you, leaving you for you, an example for you to follow in his steps. Are we to walk as he walked? Well, let's say, well, you know, you're not overcoming if you're suffering. You're not overcoming if you're in greed, if you're in unforgiveness, if you're in rebellion, rejection or something. You're not being led by the spirit of God. Now, what does it say we're going to follow in his steps? Just, you can look over there just a little ways in 1 Peter 4, 1, 2. I mentioned it a while ago. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, we walk as he walked, you're going to arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who suffers in the flesh has what? Look at how you suffer in the flesh and say, Jesus, I love you more than I do greed. Jesus, I love you more than I do criticism. Jesus, I love you more than judging others. Jesus, I love you more than gossip. See, when you speak a word against folks, when you get in any kind of situation and you have peace, you let some conversation come and speak something against somebody in that conversation and see what happens to the atmosphere. Watch how nice your day is. Let Julie call you up on the phone and load you up the next morning, first thing in the morning, see what kind of day you have. See, you don't walk and talk like that world. That's the reason the world hates you. When you won't participate in their gossip, when you won't participate in hate, when you won't participate in greed, when you won't participate in fault finding and unforgiveness, they'll hate you. So will the world and the church. They'll hate you, but they'll never know until they come to the word of God that the devil's all over them and destroy them. This is how they get to change, strongholds, sickness, disease, and torment by building porches in. That's it. Therefore, whoever suffered in the flesh ceased from sin, verse 2, 1 Peter 4, verse 2, so as to live the rest of our time in the flesh. We live no longer. I want you to circle no longer. We live no longer for the lust of men. We don't live for the lust of flesh anymore, but we live for what? The will of God is a pure heart and sanctification, being sanctified to a pure heart now, which we'll deal with that there. Now, we're back over there. We had a walk in Jesus. Walk now. Why don't you look in verse 22? We're back over there in 1 Peter 2, verse 22. Now, Jesus, we see in verse 21, that Jesus left an example for you to follow in His steps. Well, let's read verse 21. For you've been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. Look at me, folks. Now, I want you to get this picture. I've taught this until I started using this screen. When I started using this, people started seeing. Deceit wasn't found in His mouth, which all of this is deceit right here, because God had all of His heart. Amen? Okay? Now, and while being reviled, are you ever reviled? Do you think you're going to be reviled when you walk with the Lord? And while being reviled, He did not revile in return. When somebody criticizes you, come out, you better keep your mouth shut, because, honey, they're going to get somewhere more than on your shoulder. And they'll lay chain on top of chain, bondage on bondage until you're destroyed. While suffering, did He suffer when people reviled Him? Of course. He uttered no threats, but He kept entrusting Himself to the one who judges righteously because He loved God. He stood there and suffered when He could prove that He was right, when He could prove the other person's wrong, when He could go make a fool out of them in the flesh right there. He wanted to please God. His motives are God. If motive wasn't approval or pride or reputation to look good, His motive, He wanted to look good in God's eyes, and so He only speaks love. Now, you have a need. That's where mercy and grace comes in. Mercy and grace have to come out of heaven. You have to choose with your heart to do it before this love is manifested in you, before you can overcome unforgiveness, these kind of things, which I'm going to show you later on in the Word here how these are done. All right, now, in chapter 3, verse 8, verse 8, chapter 3, verse 8, To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, humble in spirit. Now, watch this. Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you have been called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Amen? For let him who means to love life and see what kind of days? Buddy, I want to tell you. Look at me. You can see good days or you can see bad days. We go back to what does James 3 say? The tongue is full of poison. With the tongue, you want to bless God, and then with this same tongue, you want to curse men with unforgiveness. Resentment, criticism, jealousy, grumbling, scoffing, and all these things. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, things are not supposed to be this way. This kind of wisdom doesn't come from heaven, but it's the way the world, it's worldly, the way the world walks and talks. It's of the flesh, which you see right here on the screen, and it's a demonic plainly that's right behind it right here. He says, You adulterous, you whore, you harlot. Whoever wants to be a friend of the world, walk and talk like the world, makes himself an enemy of God. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. And then it's a prayer of a righteous man, a velvet monk. Hallelujah. Verse 10, chapter 3, For let him who means to see love, life, and see good days, or you can see bad ones, but if you want to see good ones, you're going to refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. Let him turn away from evil and do good. He's going to seek peace. There's a hedge, and he's going to pursue it. Back up there to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 14. As obedient children, if you're obedient, Jesus is the spirit of God's control in your life. You're not conformed to the former lust, the former lust, the former lust, the flesh, which was yours in your ignorance. Listen at me, folks. Look at me up here. A lot of people want to hang if you build a doctrine around 1 Corinthians 3. Well, those babes in Christ had jealousy and strife. See, you don't go to 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul wrote the second letter, and he said, I'm coming back to you the third time, and I'm afraid that these things are still going to be there, and I'll come back. And when they're there, jealousy and strife, he says, then I'm afraid I'm going to find you not what I want you to be, and when I find you not what I want, then you're going to find me not to be what you want because I'm going to tell you the truth because I want God's approval more than you, and I won't change the word to please you right there. Amen. All right, now listen to me. Folks, we all start out with strife and jealousy. We start out with a lot more than that, but we overcome it if we're controlled by the Spirit of God. If you come to sins of the flesh that you love, you practice it. This is reading your Bible in Galatians 5, 19 through 21, Ephesians 5, and this reading, it says you don't practice sin. You know why you don't practice sin? You don't practice sin because when you practice something after the Lord showed you to deal with it, you prove that you're loving that sin more than you do God, and then you're controlled by sin instead of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God can't control your life, and folks, and that's the reason, that's the reason we've been having to manipulate and do a lot of things, act like God's there when he's not in 25 miles of it. Do you understand what I mean? He just doesn't cooperate with the devil and people that love the devil. And oh, I'll tell you what. You know, as I began seeing, the Lord showed me some of these things, I just, I see pastors that just really love the Lord where they're caught in situations like that where, you know, we haven't kind of broke through on this thing. Can you imagine loving the Lord and having, you know, a bunch of devils that no wonder people have, pastors have spent all their time visiting hospitals. First Peter 4, verse 1, verse 14. As obedient children, we're not conformed to the former lust which was yours in your ignorance. Now, we're not in ignorance anymore, are we? I can't hear you. We're not in ignorance, no longer in darkness now, but like the Holy One who called you, you're going to be holy, and how much of your behavior are you going to be holy? I can't hear you. Are you being holy if you're critical? Are you being holy if you're stealing? Are you being holy if it's jealousy, worry, fear? Are you being holy if it's grumbling, scoffing, slander? And that's just a few of them. Are you doing any? Hey, folks, now say, well, how am I ever going to overcome all of these things right here? Now, I want to tell you some things so you won't go out of here and quit eating pork and a few things like that. Listen, folks, the fire comes. The fire will come. Whatever's wrong with you, I tell you what, I had one of the most rejected, broken lives of probably just about anybody in here. What do you think I've suffered most as since I've been a Christian? Rejection. And you know where it's driven me? I kept standing. And I kept standing and stepping. And you know right now, I'm telling you what, I could say it up here, but now it's down in my heart, I'm wanting to please the Lord more than I am folks. I'm wanting God to pay me more. But I had to get, I mean, I had to get hit. And I get up and bang, here it comes again. I get up and had to, see, I tell you how you put the seeds, death, the deeds of the flesh. Let the Lord do it. Now, he'll come. You'll have this pressure to come on you. It will come, brother. That's what the parable of the Word's about. The heart's a different kind of heart. It's only one of them makes it. The others are hardened and the worries of the world and all these other things. But when the pressure comes, then you stand in it. You stand right there. And then you don't have anything. If you have that much reputation, you're going to have to prove, you'll have to prove something and you're going to revile against your brother. And when you do, the powers of darkness will put more chains on you until you're destroyed. They'll build more fortresses on you. But if you'll stand right here, 1 Peter 5, 8 through 10, it's talking about resisting the devil. It's talking about the brethren because they have faith. Brethren have faith. It wasn't talking to the pool room. So after you've suffered a while, this pressure, you prove you love the Lord with all your heart. And he said, I'm going to strengthen you. I'm going to confirm you. And then I'm going to establish you in the covenant. But you don't want to go through. You know why you have to go through the valley? Because you've got to find out it's all God. It never was you. It never was you. You put the deeds of the death, the deeds of the flesh. By always standing, the pressures will come. This is why 1 James 2. Now we're going to share these things this week. Now I'm just telling you a little bit right now so I don't want you to leave here and speculate something about it. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. Right? Count it joy. Is that kind of supernatural? When a trial comes, because it says you're really lacking in nothing. And it goes on to say this is how you're perfected. And this is how you become complete. You become complete because the man's motives, when the pressure comes on him, I'm going to sit right here and I'm going to look good to nobody but God. Because I choose love and the nature of God. I won't hit back because I'm sitting in so much grace right here. I am sitting in so much grace. I want that man to have what God has given me. You know what John 15 says? I've chosen you that you go bear much fruit. Boy, I want to get in that John 15. I will show you how you get in the fire, how you get destroyed. I've chosen you that you go bear much fruit and that your fruit of love remain. And then whatever you ask in my name, anything you ask in my name, everything you ask in my name, the Father's going to do it. You know why? You don't want the Father to help you build yourself a reputation like Satan. You don't want the Father to help you be jealous and worry. You want to be like God and God pours the closet on the folks, it's his children. Amen? Now, one last thing. Let me just say this before I forget it. What do you think someone would do when they encounter dealing with the flesh or dying of the flesh if there's some strongholds they don't want to give up there? Well, you know, I like that part of the world. Well, I've got this little lust situation going over there. You know what I've been doing. You know I just don't believe things will be like that and everything. But after all, you know, we read it right here. But you know what you need to do. Go find you another devil that loves this stuff right here too, see. If he's part of some doctrine that doesn't conform you to godliness, go over and find him because we want to be just alike. And go over and say, well, you know, he said such and such and such and such and such. And he said, boy, that's false teaching. See, you get to here and then go get about four votes on it and then go back to your little sexual affair, go back to the world, go back to your selfishness, go back and do it. But you'll die in it. You can justify it, but you'll be destroyed in it. Now you just... I tell you, when you read something in the Word of God, just go find some devils to vote on it and they'll always help you out of it. Amen? Now, so, but like the Holy One who called you, you're going to be holy yourselves in all your... all, all, all, all, all your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Glory be to God forevermore. That sound like a divine nature? Well, then you no longer conform to your former lust which is yours and your ignorance. Your responsibility level just gone up tonight, hadn't it? Huh? Well, amen. Now, back in Ephesians 4. I want you to stand up just a minute. We're going to just stay here a few. I want you to stand back up a minute. Okay? All right, now, Ephesians 4. I want you to see this now. Verse 11. Now, we're going to read that again. And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists. Are you listening? Some as pastors. And He gave some as teachers. And they were over the equipping of the saints. And they were doing the work of the service. This is what the... You know what this is as a craftsman, evangelist, teacher, pastor. They're building up the body of Christ instead of lording it over God's heritage. Look at me. Instead of lording it over God's heritage, they get in under you. They're not kings and lords over God's heritage fulfilling selfish ambition and pride and a name and a reputation. Until we all attend to the unity of faith. You can't attain to the unity of faith until this is removed out of your lives. And when people in love, we don't walk around and condemn. We know what the battle is. We know that everybody's coming to Jesus with a whole heart. And so we come to one another and I said, Brother Paul, did it say something to you and you see this in my life? Now, Him, He knows I'm... I come to deal... I'll tell you about a speck. I have a lot more discernment about you than I do about myself. I've got some blind spot, but when I hear it come out of my mouth, I want to hear about it, I want to know about it, I want to repent, and I want to overcome it because I can discern a lot better about you than you and me and we're helping one another. We're overcoming and we're purifying their hearts and we're becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ and that's when He puts a hedge around the place. That's when peace comes in and that hedge around the place is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you ever start compromising sin on the inside, that hedge will go and hell, demons, and so forth, they also come back in. That's right. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, we're going to be what kind of man? A mature man is when you remove all this stuff from your heart. You're going to be... And to the measure... Hebrews 5 tells us a mature man is someone who senses, sharpens, discerns good and evil. In other words, when you're walking totally in love, listen to me, folks. When you're walking in love, don't make this complicated. Don't try to get in the flesh doing this. When you're walking in love, I want you to read Philippians 4. You know when something that's not love comes up there. Don't make it real complicated. You say, well, where'd that come from? You get... But see, when you're walking like the devil and double-minded, the double-minded man receives nothing from God. Don't try to clean it up until you decide you love the Lord with all your heart. It's not going to work. Amen? You love the Lord with all your heart, and then it's going to be working. When you love the Lord more than anything else, He makes you stronger than anything. The devil's going to come and get you. There's nothing. You always triumph in Jesus' name. You're more than a conqueror. You take dominion. You rule and reign in Jesus' name. God is your heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is Lord, and you're a product of His love. You have love. You have joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance, and faith. That's what happens when you're led by the Spirit of God, not because you quote Scripture. Amen? You want to sit back down? Now, now, until we all attain, verse 13, to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to the measure, material man, to the measure, the stature, to the same measure, the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. That's what the craftsmen, evangelists, teachers, pastors build you up. As a result, as a result, we're no longer going to be churling, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every word of doctrine, the doctrines that do not conform you to godliness, men who become lords and fulfill pride, greed, and reputation. You remember up there where we saw pride? Look right there by the trickery of men and craftiness and deceitful scheming. They don't even know they're false teachers. They don't know they're false prophets. Does it say in the last days that because of the false prophets, lawlessness, which is practicing sins, is going to increase and then people's love is going to wax cold? Why is your love going to wax cold? Because when everybody's got this in your life right here, all this selfishness and self-sin, you come together and like a sack full of cats or something, bite and devour each other, go to business meetings and get killed or something because when you've got a man who is fulfilling selfish ambition, you know what he's going to teach you to do? He's going to teach you to honor men. And then when you're honoring men, he gets honored and he gets to become an idol in your heart. Right? And then how'd Jesus get honored and all that when you're honoring flesh? Are you following what I'm saying? That's how pride and greed fulfill selfish ambition. So you're teaching to honor men. But see, man who loves pride and greed thinks he's helping God out. Everything he does God's way, he gets more pride, he gets more full of pride because of all the things he helps God out. He thinks, God, you come on down here and cooperate with me. You see what I'm trying to do for you? Do you see it? Huh? That's pride. He's smarter than God. So it's a trickery of men. Now how the powers of darkness, I want you to remember that. How the powers of darkness use them, once he, see, did Jesus get tempted in Luke 4? The boastful pride of life to jump off the temple? You jump down in the courtyard and everybody can see you and then everybody will follow after your ministry? Hmm? Because if he can ever get you in the boastful pride of life, then you have selfish ambition or reputation you have to fulfill. And you know what you need then? You need nickels, noses, and numbers.